时文阅读|远程办公实验
受新冠肺炎疫情影响，全球许多企业都推出了远程办公的临时方案，远程办公一时受到广泛地关注。斯坦福大 学教授尼古拉斯·布鲁姆与携程网合作开展了一次关于远程办公的实验，探索远程办公对员工工作效率的影响。
阅读短文并回答问题
Amid the COVID-19（新型冠状病毒）crisis, working from home has become ordinary for many people. For some, working from home is distracting and exhausting. But one pioneering study found that working from home increased output by 13%. Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford University in California,began the
experiment when James Liang, one of the founders of Trip.com Group — the largest online travel agency in China — met Bloom in Stanford and mentioned to him how expensive Shanghai housing was, how the costs of maintaining company headquarters there were huge and that he was thinking of letting his staff work from home. This idea made Bloom interested.
Bloom started to test Liang’s thought. First, 1000 employees who volunteered for the study were divided into two teams, separated by birthdates. Those born on even days got to work from home four out of five weekdays for the next nine months. Those born on odd days stayed in the office all week long. Then the two teams were tracked. It was easy to do, as these workers had repetitive, straightforward tasks that could easily be
quantified（量化）, and their productivity could easily be measured — making bookings in the system or making phone calls, for example. Nine months passed; Bloom and Liang discovered workers were 13% more productive at home.
Bloom’s data suggests the staff could become much more productive while working from home long term — but it’s not so straightforward. In the experiment, there were warnings as to who could take part in the first place. Participants had to meet three requirements: have no kids, have a room that wasn’t their bedroom and have quality Internet on equipment the firm installed for them at home. So there’s no guarantee that, say, parents working from home or those without access to fast Internet would see those productivity increases.
Lynda Grattan, a professor at London Business School, flags up other points; Bloom’s experiment was easy to carry out because it was essentially happening at a call centre. “We have no proper data on the productivity of knowledge workers when they’re based at home,” she says.
1. Why did Liang want to let the staff work from home?
A. To decrease the staff salaries.
B. To avoid the spread of COVID-19.
C. To prove the advantage of remote work.
D. To save the costs of working in the office.
2. How did Bloom conduct the experiment?
A. By giving questionnaires to all the staff.
B. By following the productivity of two teams.
C. By interviewing volunteers about their feelings.
D. By analyzing features of various working environment.
3. What can we learn from paragraph 3?
A. The experiment has attracted many volunteers.
B. The staff working at home always finish more tasks.
C. The speed of the Internet decides the productivity of workers.
D. Workers’ high productivity is based on suitable working conditions.
4. What does Grattan think of the experiment?A. It doesn’t apply to easy tasks.
B. It ignores the role of parents at home.
C. It needs further study for knowledge workers.
D. It inspires knowledge workers to work at home.
【参考答案】DBDC
生词
1. crisis n. 危机
2. even adj. 偶数的 even days 偶数日
3. track v. 跟踪（进展情况）
The research project involves tracking the careers of 400 graduates.
这个研究项目对 400 名毕业生的事业发展情况进行跟踪调查。
4. productive adj. 生产力高的
5. say v. 比方说；假设
Let’s take any writer, say Dickens...
我们随便举一个作家为例，比如说狄更斯……
语块
1. odd days 奇数日
2. without access to… 无法获得……
3. flag up 使某人注意（某物）；指出
长难句分析
Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford University in California, began the experiment when James Liang, one of the
founders of Trip.com Group — the largest online travel agency in China — met Bloom in Stanford and mentioned to him
how expensive Shanghai housing was, how the costs of maintaining company headquarters there were huge and that he was
thinking of letting his staff work from home.
【分析】该句为主从复合句，主句主干为“Nicholas Bloom began the experiment”。“a professor at Stanford University in
California”为“Nicholas Bloom”的同位语，“when James Liang…staff work from home”为时间状语从句；其中“James
Liang”为时间状语从句的主语，“one of the founders of Trip.com Group”为“James Liang”的同位语，“the largest online
travel agency in China”为“Trip.com Group”的同位语，“how expensive…price was”、“how the costs of…there were huge”
与“that he was thinking…work from home”为宾语从句。
【翻译】詹姆斯•梁是中国最大的在线旅行社携程旅行网的创始人之一。他在加利福尼亚州斯坦福大学见到了尼古
拉斯•布鲁姆教授，当他提到昂贵的上海房价以及维护公司总部的巨大成本使得他正在考虑让员工在家工作时，尼
古拉斯•布鲁姆就开始了这项实验。
知识拓展
Trip.com Group
携程旅行网是一家在线票务服务公司，创立于 1999 年，总部设在中国上海，其经营范围包括酒店预订、机票
预订、度假预订、门票预订、差旅管理等。携程旅行网已在北京、天津、广州、深圳、成都、杭州、厦门等 17 个
城市设立分公司。2003 年 12 月，携程旅行网在美国纳斯达克成功上市。
原文选自 BBC，试题与内容讲解由天学网教学研究中心编写。
關鍵字: Liang experiment was
