"THE SERVANT"(1963) is one of those films that it is impossible to forget. The servant exploits his master’s weaknesses until he

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问题     "THE SERVANT"(1963) is one of those films that it is impossible to forget. The servant exploits his master’s weaknesses until he turns the tables: the story ends with the a cringing master ministering to a lordly servant. It is hard to watch it today without thinking of another awkward relationship—the one between business folk and their smartphones.
    Smart devices are sometimes empowering. They put a world of information at our fingertips. But for most people the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the time. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees’ free time. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office.
    Hyperconnectivity exaggerates the decline of certainty and the general cult of flexibility. Smartphones make it easier for managers to change their minds at the last moment. Employees find it ever harder to distinguish between "on-time" and "off-time"—and indeed between real work and make-work. None of this is good for businesspeople ’s marriages or mental health. It may be bad for business, too. When bosses change their minds at the last minute, it is hard to plan for the future.
    How can we reap the benefits of connectivity without becoming its slaves? One solution is digital dieting. Banning browsing before breakfast can reintroduce a small amount of civilization. Banning texting at weekends or, say, on Thursdays, can really show the iPhone who is boss.
    The problem with this approach is that it works only if you live on a desert island or at the bottom of a lake. Leslie Perlow of Harvard Business School argues that for most people the only way to break the 24/7 habit is to act collectively rather than individually. One of the world’s most hard-working organisations, the Boston Consulting Group, introduced rules about when people were expected to be offline, and encouraged them to work together to make this possible. Eventually it forced people to work more productively while reducing burnout.
    Ms Perlow’s advice should be taken seriously. The problem of hyperconnectivity will only get worse, as smartphones become smarter and young digital natives take over the workforce. But ultimately it is up to companies to outsmart the smartphones by insisting that everyone turn them off from time to time.
Smart devices have become the master mainly because

选项 A、everybody is on call all the time.
B、bosses invade their employees’ free time.
C、managers easily change their minds at the last moment.
D、employees find it harder to distinguish between real work and make-work.

答案A

解析 细节题。此题为最佳选择题。首先根据关键词become the master定位到第二段,然后发现选项里也有第三段的内容,并且四个选项都在原文中有所体现。仔细分析可发现,B、C、D项都是A项“每个人都随叫随到”的具体表现,因此A项为正确答案。事实上,原文先指出everybody is on call all the time,然后才详细阐述,所以A项相当于是总括句,为正确答案。
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