2016年12月大学英语四级阅读暑期练习及答案(二十七)

　　Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.

　　How to Make Peace with Your Workload

　　[A] Swamped (忙碌的),under the gun, just struggling to stay above water...; whatever office cliche you employ to depict it, we"ve all been in that situation where we feel like we might be swallowed up by our workload. Nonetheless many a way may be used to manage your to-do list to prevent feeling overwhelmed. How to make peace with your workload once and for all goes as follows.

　　[B] Get organized. “Clear the deadwood out of your desk and keep your office in shape, which enhances your capability to handle other tasks and raises the probability that you’ll retrieve the items you do need in a faster and easier fashion,” says Jeff Davidson who works as a work/life expert and writer of more than 50 books on workplace issues. “When something can be disposed, let it go, given in reality most of what you retain is replaceable.” Joel Rudy, vice president of operations for Photographic Solutions, with better than thirty years of business management experience, believes that keeping organized is a must. “ Messy work areas are nonproductive in some measure. Provided that you can"t locate a document or report easily because it’s lost in a pile of mess, then you have a problematic situation,” he says. “Thereby you are supposed to take the time to tidy up your work areas and keep your important files, manuals and reports in an accessible location, which will maximize your efficiencies.”

　　[C] Make a to-do list, then cover it up. It may sound weird, but it works, says Jessica Carlson, an account executive at Bluefish Design Studio which is an advertising consulting firm. Carlson urges her team to utilize to-do lists to stay on track and highlight items that are a priority. “Cover up the list, with the exception of one high-priority task at one time,” she suggests. “This will allow you to focus better on the task at hand; otherwise, it will be easy to get overwhelmed if you’re reading through a to-do list that spans an entire page. Concentrating on a single item will make your tasks appear like they are more doable,” Carlson says.

　　[D] Stop multitasking. Despite what you may consider multitasking, it’s counterproductive. Unless you’re drinking coffee while scanning your morning e-mails, you’re not saving any time by attempting to do ten things at once. “If you find yourself getting tangled in too many things, it may be of much necessity of you to re-evaluate your involvement,” Rudy says. “Your mind will wander from one topic to another and you may end up never accomplishing a thing.” Rudy recommends the best way to stop multitasking is to create priority lists with deadlines. “When applicable, complete one project before you move further on to the next one,” he says.

　　[E ] Set time limits. Deborah Chaddock-Brown, a work-at-home single parent, says she’s frequently overwhelmed by the demands of maintaining order in her residence and running her own business. Still, she manages to “do it all” by setting a time limit for each task. “I have the type of personality that flits (轻轻地掠过)from thing to thing because I do have so much on my plate,” Brown says. “As a consequence I assign time slots: For the next 15 minutes I will participate in social media for the purpose of marketing my business (not sending photos or playing Farmville) and that is the only thing I am about to do for the next 15 minutes. When the time is up, I move on to the next task. That way, at night I don’t end up with a pile of tasks to accomplish even though I felt busy all day.”

　　[F ] Talk to your manager. “Quite often, people are working on things that are no longer a top priority, but someone forgot to tell them (that they’re no longer important). There are usually clear priorities in the manager’s head; he or she has just not done a great job communicating those with the employee,” says Holly Green, CEO of The Human Factor. Green’s suggestion unfolds in this manner: “If you find yourself confronted with too many responsibilities, sit down, note the significant things you are in charge of, and go to your manager to have a conversation to discuss priorities, trade-offs, time commitments and interdependencies required to do each thing well, and then ask what you should stop working on or work on less so you can get the right things done.” Green says managers should be willing to help sort out priorities, so long as employees have a can-do approach and aren’t just complaining about their workload.