单选题 A new study suggests that contrary to most surveys, people are actually more stressed at home than at work. Researchers measured people"s cortisol, which is a stress marker, while they were at work and while they were at home and found it higher at what is supposed to be a place of refuge.
"Further contradicting conventional wisdom, we found that women as well as men have lower levels of stress at work than at home." writes one of the researchers, Sarah Damaske. In fact women even say they feel better at work, she notes, "It is men, not women, who report being happier at home than at work." Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with children and without, but more so for nonparents. This is why people who work outside the home have better health.
What the study doesn"t measure is whether people are still doing work when they"re at home, whether it is household work or work brought home from the office. For many men, the end of the workday is a time to kick back. For women who stay home, they never get to leave the office. And for women who work outside the home, they often are playing catch-up-with-household tasks. With the blurring of roles, and the fact that the home front lags well behind the workplace in making adjustments for working women, it"s not surprising that women are more stressed at home.
But it"s not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what they"re supposed to be doing, working, making money, doing the tasks they have to do in order to draw an income. The bargain is very pure. Employee puts in hours of physical or mental labor and employee draws out life-sustaining moola .
On the home front, however, people have no such clarity. Rare is the household in which the division of labor is so clinically and methodically laid out. There are a lot of tasks to be done, there are inadequate rewards for most of them. Your home colleagues—your family—have no clear rewards for their labor: they need to be talked into it, or if they"re teenagers, threatened with complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, they"re your family. You cannot fire your family. You never really get to go home from home.
So it"s not surprising that people are more stressed at home. Not only are the tasks apparently infinite, the co-workers are much harder to motivate.
单选题 According to Paragraph 1, most previous surveys found that home ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“previous surveys”和“home”可定位到文章第一段第一句。该句意为:一项新的研究表明,与绝大部分研究相反,实际上,人们在家里比在工作中受到的压力要大。由此可推知,以往的研究与最新的研究相反,即:人们在家里受到的压力小于工作中受到的压力。D项意为“与工作场所相比,家能使人们觉得更放松”,符合文意。故答案为D。
单选题 According to Damaske, who are likely to be the happiest at home?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“Damaske”和“happiest”可定位到文章第二段第二、三句。这两句讲的是:研究发现是男性,而不是女性,在家比在工作中更高兴。更令人惊讶的是,研究还发现,这种情况对于有孩子和没有孩子的男性和女性都是这样,尤其是对于没有孩子的。综上,在家里最开心的人应是Childless husbands(没有孩子的丈夫)。
单选题 The blurring of working women"s roles refers to the fact that ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据文章第三段第二至第四句“For many men, the end of the workday is a time to kick back. For women who stay … are playing catch-up-with-household tasks.”可知,对于男性来说,一天的工作结束后,是他们休息的时候;但是对于女性来说,离开办公室之后,还有很多的家务活。由此可推断出,“The blurring of working women"s roles”指的是“女性既要在职场打拼还要做很多家务”。A项意为“她们(女性)既是养家糊口的人也是家庭主妇”,符合文意。故答案为A。
单选题 The word "moola"(Line 4, Para. 4)most probably means ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第四段第二句提出,在工作中,大家都知道自己应该做的是工作,挣钱,完成可以获得收入的一个个任务。紧接着下一句讲到,这些雇员付出体力和脑力的劳动,是为了得到能够维持他们生活的必需收入。结合上下文,moola应对应原文中的“income”,表示他们挣得的收入。故答案为C。
单选题 The home front differs from the workplace in that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“home front”可定位到文章第五段。本段第一句提到,然而,人们对于大后方(家庭)就没有那么清楚了。接下来的一句进一步指出“Rare is the household in which the division of labor is so clinically…”(家务活的分工并不明确)。B项中的“seldom(很少)”对应原文中的“Rare(稀少)”,“clear-cut(清晰的)”对应原文的“clinically(不偏不倚的)”。故答案为B。