雅思学术类阅读实例

　　请运用上辑中所述策略，感受下面这篇雅思阅读及其解题步骤和思路。由于做雅思阅读不需要通篇逐字逐句的精读，黑体字凸显出来的均是摘所录文章需阅读的内容(原文的首段、末段及其他各段的中心句/关键句)，其中已囊括解题所需的全部信息。雅思阅读的技巧性可见一斑。

　　做下面这篇阅读时，必备的雅思阅读技巧：

　　• 总览全文(skimming)，把握作者写作意图、文章大意和结构;不要逐字逐句

　　读，不需要弄懂每字每句的意思;

　　• 看清题目要求，找key words, 回原文定位(scanning);

　　• 定位key words后，精读相关句子或段落(intensive reading);

　　• 控制好时间，先易后难 I. READING PASSAGE

　　A Workaholic Economy 1 FOR THE first century or so of the industrial revolution, increased productivity led to decreases in working hours. Employees who had been putting in 12-hour days, six days a week, found their time on the job shrinking to 10 hours daily, then, finally to eight hours, five days a week. Only a generation ago social planners worried about what people would do with all this new-found free time. In the US, at least, it seems they need not have bothered. 2 Although the output per hour of work has more than doubled since 1945,leisure seems reserved largely for the unemployed and underemployed. Those who work full-time spend as much time on the job as they did at the end of World War II. In fact, working hours have increased noticeably since 1970—perhaps because real wages have stagnated that year. Bookstores now abound with manuals describing how to manage time and cope with stress 3 There are several reasons for lost leisure. Since 1970, companies have responded to improvements in the business climate by having employees work overtime rather than by hiring extra personnel, says economist Juliet B. Schor of Harvard University. Indeed, the current economic recovery has gained a certain amount of notoriety for its 'jobless' nature: increased production has been almost entirely decoupled from employment. Some firms are even down sizing as their profits climb. 'All things being equal, we'd be better off spreading around the work,' observes labour economist Ronald G. Ehrenberg of Cornell University. 4 Yet a host of factors pushes employers to hire fewer workers for more hours and, at the same time, compels workers to spend more time on the job. Most of those incentives involve what Enrenberg calls the structure of compensation: quirks in the way salaries and benefits are organized that make it more profit able to ask 40 employees to labour an extra hour each than to hire one more worker to do the same 40-hour job.

　　II. Analysis

　　Stage 1.读标题，看图表，预测话题及文章内容 该篇无图表，先读标题：A Workaholic Economy

　　心中稍稍思忖，推想文中可谈：

　　• 工作狂日益增多的现象

　　• 一些数字

　　• 这一社会现象产生的原因和后果

　　• 工作&休息

　　• 拼命干&经济发展

　　• 人们对此的看法

　　• 过去、现在、将来的趋势etc.

　　些许几十秒的思量就可达到心中有数的目的，马上进入状态。 Stage 2. Skim. 读开头、结尾及中间各段的中心句 Aims: 1. 理解文章大意

　　2. 明白文章布局结构

　　2-3分钟快速通读后，可以知道该篇主要讲休闲时间变少、工作狂变多之 一现象及其原因。很明显，1、2两段介绍现象，第3段至结尾从employer 和 employee的角度以及从经济、文化、就业现状方面阐述了该现象的各种原因。 这样，文章有血有肉有框架的摆在眼前，就可以开始做题了。

　　Stage 3.运用适当技巧做题

　　27 Today, employees are facing a reduction in working hours.