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  3. Fancy a three-day weekend—not just once in a while but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree to it, but

Fancy a three-day weekend—not just once in a while but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree to it, but

admin2017-01-16  31
问题     Fancy a three-day weekend—not just once in a while but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree to it, but the evidence suggests that employers, employees and the environment all benefit.
    The four-day week comes in two flavors. One option is to switch from five 8-hour days to four 10-hour days, meaning overall hours and salaries stay the same. Two years ago, the state of Utah moved all of its employees, apart from the emergency services, to working 4/10, as it has become known. The hope was that by shutting down buildings for an extra day each week, energy bills would be cut by up to a fifth.
    The full results of this experiment won’t be published until October, but an ongoing survey of 100 buildings suggests energy consumption has fallen by around 13 percent. The survey also found that 70 percent of employees prefer the 4/10 arrangement, and that people took fewer days off sick.
    The second form of the four-day week is to work the same number of hours per day for four days only, with a 20 percent pay cut. With the recession hitting revenues, accountancy company KPMG announced in February that it was offering its 11,000 UK employees the option of a four-day week to avoid job losses. So far 85 percent of employees have applied to join the scheme, and 800 now do a four-day week.
    Not everyone will like the idea of working longer days or taking a pay cut in exchange for a 3-day weekend, but it appears most do. According to Rex Facer at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, it was the crash of 1929 that led to the five-day week. During the next big financial crisis in the 1970s, there was much talk of moving to a four-day week, but for a variety of reasons that didn’t pan out. "Things are different now," says Facer. "I wouldn’t be surprised if we could get 50 percent or more of the workforce working four-day weeks in the next few years."
By carrying out the four-day week experiment, the state of Utah aims to _______.
选项 A、reduce energy expenses
B、boost the companies’ productivity
C、provide longer weekend
D、increase energy efficiency
答案A
解析 该段第3句说到犹他州在两年前试行4天工作制，最后一句通过信号词The hope was that说明该试验的目的：节省能源开支(energy bills would be cut)。A为该句的同义替换，reduce对应文中cut，而expenses对应文中bills。
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