In George Orwell’s Animal Farm the mighty cart-horse, Boxer, inspires the other animals with his heroic cry of "I will work hard

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问题     In George Orwell’s Animal Farm the mighty cart-horse, Boxer, inspires the other animals with his heroic cry of "I will work harder". He gets up at the crack of dawn to do a couple of hours’ extra ploughing. He even refuses to take a day off. And his reward for all this effort? As soon as he collapses on the job he is sent to the knacker’s yard to be turned into glue and bone-meal.
    Animal Farm looks ever more like an allegory about capitalism as well as socialism. Everybody knows about the plague of unemployment. But unemployment is bringing another plague in its wake-overwork. The Hay Group, a British consultancy which recently surveyed 1,000 people, says that two-thirds of workers report they are putting in unpaid overtime. The reward for all this effort is frozen pay and shrinking perks. The only difference between these overstretched workers and Boxer is that they can see the knacker’s van coming.
    So far workers have borne all this with remarkable perseverance—partly because they feel lucky to keep their jobs and partly because they want to save their firms from going under. But the Dunkirk spirit is beginning to fade. The Hay survey notes that 63% of workers say that their employers do not appreciate their extra effort. Half report that their current level of work is unsustainable. People are wearying of frantic reorganization as well as the added toil-floods of memos and meetings, endless reshuffles, earnest persuasions to do more with less.
    For their part, companies are beginning to notice the downside of all this overstretching. Absenteeism is on the rise. Corporate loyalty is on the wane. And the biggest danger for companies is if workers head for the door as the economy picks up. Most problematic of all is when star employees decide to look for work elsewhere. These "high-potentials" (HiPos) are doubly frustrated: they have been asked to shoulder a disproportionate share of the growing burden of work and they have seen senior jobs dry up as older managers try to cling to their positions.
    What can organizations do to cope with this new era of overwork? Most obviously they can redouble efforts to make staff feel valued. Cash-strapped companies are making more use of symbolic rewards.A second strategy is to make more use of that old favorite, "empowerment". This means trying harder to explain why companies are acting as they are.A third strategy is to pay particular attention to high performers.A striking number of companies have introduced "HiPo schemes" to identify and nurture potential stars. Yet this approach is less divisive than it sounds because some animals are more equal than others.
By saying "the Dunkirt spirit is beginning to fade" (Para. 3), the author means that _____.

选项 A、employees are becoming less loyal to their company
B、employees are becoming less patient with their working condition
C、employees are becoming less devoted to their company
D、more and more employees are absent from work

答案B

解析 语义理解题。根据题干中的Dunkirt spirit和选项定位到第三、四段。Dtmkirt spirit本身指临危不屈的精神,第三段先说员工们以惊人的毅力忍受这一切,后举出数据表明员工们对现状并不满,从该转变可推断B项为答案。
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