The Future of Work
English Department, Huzhou Teachers College
Objectives
1) To enable students to talk about changes
in working practices.
2) To read an extract about work in the future
and discuss the issues involved.
3) To use one of the diagrams to find out
about each other’s working environment.
Tasks and Schemes
1. Reading
one. 25’
2. Speaking one. 30’
3. Assignment.
 Reading on page 44:
I. Difficult points:
1) MAS：Micro Analog System.芬兰微电
子模拟系统公司 It was made up of
three Finland companies: Nokia, Aspo
and Salora in 1980.
2) Governments will find it difficult to
collect revenue from workers and
companies.
taxes
3) In future, work space will become
less rigid, with hotdesking being the
norm.
(of a person or his
character or
opinion) firm,
fixed, not easy to
change.
The system of turning to use a
desk. The staff have been divided
into groups shifts to work so that
they can use the same computer,
desk and office respectively. 办公
桌轮用
4）To offer service around the clock.
All day and all night
without stopping.
5）…recognizing when staff are
overtaxing themselves.
及时觉察员工的过
度劳累现象。
To force beyond a limit.
使（劳累过度）
6）Institute of employment studies
就业研究机构
7）We’re bound to see a move towards
promoting lifestyle issues in the office.
我们将来在工作场所一定会高
度重视生活方式问题。
Smart 一词与不同的名词搭配有不同的含义，如：a
smart student聪明的学生，a smart businessman精明的
商人，a smart uniform笔挺的制服，a smart new suit
潇洒的新西装，smart companies有远见的公司。
8）Smart firms are already pushing these
responsibilities up the agenda.(2)
 Push …up the agenda
 把…摆到议事日程上
9）Many people prefer to improve their
CVs and move on to another company
other than get stressed out in their
current job.(4)
Very tense and anxious because of
difficulties in their lives
因为生活中遇到种种困难而高度紧
张焦虑。
网络办公系统公司经理
10）Director, Cyber office.
Cyber 常做词缀用，这里指“电脑、网络”。构词
有：cyber-cafe网吧，cyber-century电脑世纪，cybercommunity网络社团，cyber-concert电脑音乐，cyberculture电脑化社会/电脑文明，cyber-mall电脑商场，
cybernate使电脑化，cyber-space网络空间，cyberspeak网络用语。这类词被统称为C-words.
II. Match each of the statements with one
of the managers’ opinions.





Jeanne Desaill (4)
Joshua Golder(3.7)
Megan O’ Riordan (1,6)
Janice Watson (5)
Scott Forrest (2,8)
III. Which of them do you agree with after
reading the material?
湖滨地区
 Observe the radar charts on page 46.
Look at the results of a survey about how
residents adapted to working at Waterside
in the first twelve months. How did the
move change working conditions for BA
staff?
British Airways
英国航空公司
•
Radar chart / diagram: a kind of chart for
economic analysis, whose name comes from
it’s figure like the shape shown in radar screen.
This chart is usually used to compare and
analyze multiply factors and their relevant
factors within a system. Generally it can be
divided into many stages according to the
percentages, such as 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%,
100%; the diagonal lines (对角线) separate the
field into many vectors (相关因素区域象限或
向量) illustrating different conditions of a
system or a thing.
• Chart / diagram caption (A title,
short explanation, or description
accompanying an illustration or
a photograph.
• Caption：标题，说明文字：
为插图或照片配的标题、短小
说明或描述):
1) Firstly, the broken lines(虚线)in the chart
show the conditions of work pre-Waterside:
except that the condition of work in the
aspect “can obtain information to do my job”
is 40%, those in the rest seven aspects, “can
contact people I need to easily, can do
confidential work easily, surroundings help
me concentrate, do not waste time
duplicating work, surroundings foster sense
of team, surroundings help informal
meetings, can contribute to discussions”, are
all about 60%.
2）Secondly, the solid lines show the
conditions of work post-Waterside:
those in the aspect “can do
confidential work easily” is about 40%;
those in both “surroundings help
informal meetings” and “can
contribute to discussions” are about
80%; those in the rest five aspects are
above 60%.
 Diagram caption:
1) Firstly, the broken lines show the
conditions of office environment preWaterside: those in four aspects——can
print when I need to, storage space is
accessible (Easily obtained), can
photocopy when I need to, can fax when
I need to——are all over 80%; those in
the rest six aspects are about 80%.
2）Secondly, the solid lines show the
conditions of office environment postWaterside: those in four aspects ——
can print when I need to, can fax when I
need to, workstation meets needs,
workstation is comfortable——are all
over 80%; those in two aspects——
voicemail is effective, voicemail is easy
to use——are about 60%; those in the
rest aspects are about 80%.
 Compare and analyze the vectors and then
conclude:
 Vectors：相关因素区域象限或向量)
1) Based on the comparison and analysis of
conditions Pre-Waterside and Post-Waterside
shown in the radar chart, the move has
changed working conditions for BA staff in
some aspects.
2）In the way they work, there have been big
improvements in aspects such as “surroundings
help informal meetings” “can contribute to
discussions” and “can obtain information to do
my job”.
3) The change is mostly felt in “can
obtain information to do my job” and
“can do confidential work easily”, with
the former improving by 20% for 40% to
over 60% and the latter degenerating (To
decline in quality:
退化，变质：在质量方面下降)by
20% from 60% to below 40%.
4) There is not much change in other
aspects.
5) In office environment, the move has
brought about positive changes to the
following three aspects, namely,
“Workstation meets needs”, “Workstation
is comfortable” and “Can photocopy
when I need to”. They have improved by
20%.
6) On the other hand, working conditions
concerning “Voicemail is effective”,
“Voicemail is easy to use” and “Can print
when I need to” are not as good as before.
Assignment: collect relevant
information on e-business.
Thank U 4 your
attendance!