单选题
As many office workers adapt to remote work, cities may undergo fundamental change if offices remain under-utilized. Who will benefit if working from home becomes the norm? Employers argue they make considerable savings on real estate when workers shift from office to home work. However, these savings result from passing costs on to workers. Unless employees are fully compensated, this could become a variant of parasitic (寄生的) capitalism, whereby corporate profits increasingly rely on extracting value from the public—and now personal—realm, rather than on generating new value. Though employers are backed by a chorus of remote work advocates, others note the loneliness, reduced productivity and inefficiencies of extended remote work. If working from home becomes permanent, employees will have to dedicate part of their private space to work. This requires purchasing desks, chairs and office equipment. It also means having private space dedicated to work: the space must be heated, cleaned, maintained and paid for. That depends on many things, but for purposes of illustration, I have run some estimates for Montreal. The exercise is simple but important, since it brings these costs out of the realm of speculation into the realm of meaningful discussion. Rough calculations show that the savings made by employers when their staff works from home are of similar value to the compensation workers should receive for setting up offices at home. What does this mean for offices in cities? One of two things may happen: Employers pass these costs onto employees. This would be a form of expropriation (侵占), with employees absorbing production costs that have traditionally been paid by the employer. This represents a considerable transfer of value from employees to employers. When employees are properly compensated, employers’ real estate savings will be modest. If savings are modest, then the many advantages of working in offices—such as lively atmosphere, rapidity of communication, team-building and acclimatization (适应环境) of new employees—will encourage employers to shelve the idea of remote work and, like Yahoo in 2013, encourage employees to work most of the time from corporate office space.
单选题
What does the author say about working from home?
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】由题干中的the author和working from home定位到第一、二段。细节辨认题。第二段指出，雇主们认为，当工作人员从办公室转到家中工作时，他们在房地产方面节省了大量资金。然而，这些节省下来的资金来自于将成本转嫁到工人身上。由此可见，远程工作这一模式虽然使雇主从中受益，但是却以牺牲雇员的利益为代价，故答案为C)。首段最后一句提到，如果这一工作模式常态化，谁将受益?由此可见，该模式现在只是兴起，并没有成为常态，故排除A)；首段第一句提到，很多工作人员适应了远程工作的模式，但是并没有要求所有员工迅速适应该模式，故排除B)；首段第一句提到，如果城市办公室不能充分利用的话，城市将经历根本性的改变，但这并不是作者对于远程工作的观点，故排除D)。
单选题
Why do some people oppose working from home?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】由题干中的some people oppose working from home定位到第四段。推理判断题。定位段提到，尽管雇主得到了远程工作倡导者的异口同声的支持，但其他人注意到长期的远程工作所带来的孤独感、生产率降低和效率低下。由此可知，远程工作模式并不是受到大家的一致肯定，也有人持反对意见，而这些反对意见就包括：孤独感、生产率降低和效率低下，所以人们反对的原因是认为它会对生产力产生负面影响，故答案为D)。文中并未提及A)“它挫伤了团队士气”、B)“它侵犯了员工的隐私”和C)“它破坏了传统的价值观”，故排除。
单选题
Why did the author run the estimates for Montreal?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】由题干中的the author run the estimates for Montreal定位到第六段最后一句。细节辨认题。定位句指出，这项工作很简单但很重要，因为它将这些成本从推测领域带到了有意义的讨论领域。由此可见，作者之所以对蒙特利尔进行估算，是为有意义的讨论提供真实的数据，故答案为A)。文章第六段第一句提到，远程工作意味着要有专门用于工作的私人空间：空间需要供暖、清扫、维护和支付费用，由此可见，这里只是提到工作模式的转变，对于是否持续改变，尚无定论，B)的表述错误，故排除；第四段提到远程工作模式对生产力的影响，但这并不是作者对蒙特利尔进行估算的原因，故排除C)；文中未提及D)“为了举例说明远程工作对经济的影响”，故排除。
单选题
What can we conclude from the author’s calculations?
单选题
What is the author’s opinion on working from home?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】由题干中的author’s opinion on working from home定位到最后一段。细节辨认题。定位段指出，如果雇员得到适当的补偿，雇主的房地产节省的资金就少了，那么在办公室工作的许多优势，例如活跃的气氛、快速的沟通、团队建设和新员工对环境的适应，都将鼓励雇主搁置远程丁作的想法，就像2013年的雅虎一样，鼓励员工大部分时间在公司办公。由此可见，一旦雇主需要对远程工作的员工进行补偿，那么对于雇主而言，远程工作的弊端就大于利益，那么远程工作对于雇主和雇员双方都没有太大的好处。因此，作者支持在办公室工作，故答案为A)。B)项文中没有提及，故排除；文中确实提及，远程工作模式可以节省雇主的房地产成本，但是如果给员工补偿的话，这种节约成本就与补偿相互抵消了，故排除C)；最后一段最后一句提到，远程工作模式缺少活跃的气氛、快速的沟通、团队建设和新员工对环境的适应等优点，但是没有提及影响员工对企业的忠诚度这一话题，故排除D)。