PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITY
A. Match the new words (1-7) to their definitions (a-f)
B. Complete the sentences below with the words above.
1. It's extraordinary how hard it is to change the _________ of the public and the press.
2. I got the engine _________.
3. Brazilian´s economy _________ in 2015 and the effects are being felt until now.
4. We won't have discussions with this group unless they _________ violence.
5. The government plans to _________ the health service.
6. The team were _________ defeated in yesterday's game.
7. I need to _________ more working time if I want to succeed.
8. If I don´t work hard the reports will _________.
LISTENING
C. Now listen to the audio below and answer the questions.
⮚ Audio link: FEWER VACATIONS
1 - What´s the podcast´s about?
2 - How much vacation do Americans use to take from the 70s to about 00s?
3 - How much vacation do Americans use to take in the less than 15 years? Why and what´s behind it?
4 - Which country has one of the lowest hours-per-week-worked?
5 - What´s Katie Denis´ job?
READING
July 17, 2015 | 1:34 PM
Though summer can conjure images of vacations, resorts
and road trips, fewer Americans are actually taking time off from their jobs to
go on those vacations.
Katie Denis is senior director at Project: Time Off,
an organization that researches paid time off in the U.S and its effects. The
company is powered by the U.S. Travel Organization, which represents many
companies in the travel and tourism industry.
In a recent report, Project: Time Off found that the
declining American vacation is actually a relatively new
problem. "When you look at how much vacation we've taken
historically, there's this idea of the storied American work ethic, and that's
always been part of the fabric of our country. But we looked at data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics that starts back from the '70s to about 2000, we
have this really static trend line of taking about 20.3 days’ vacation."
"And then we start to drop off. And the drop off
has not slowed. In just the last 15 years, not even 15 years, we've managed to
lose almost a full work week of vacation," Denis says. "Most people
when we talk about this say, 'Well, you know, we're not going to be France.' No
one says we have to be France. We can be the U.S. 15 years ago. It doesn't have
to be a massive, massive _______________ of everything we can consider
normal."
Denis mentions that the traditional thinking that as
hours worked goes up, productivity must follow, is also an inhibitor to why we
don't take time off.
"I was actually looking at the typical hours per
week that [people in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development]
countries worked. Germany has one of the lowest hours-per-week-worked countries
out there. And I think everyone highly regards their economy— Greece in
particular. They're highly productive, but they're on the lower end of
hours.
"I think that if you're overworked, your
productivity _______________. There are tons of studies that show that. It's
one of those things. I know I went through that when I had my first child. I _______________
more hours before, but day care does not care about your work life. My
productivity, if anything, went way up."
Most people who _______________ taking time off worry
that work is going to _______________ if they leave the office or that
they don't want to be seen as replaceable.
Denis, though, says this is the wrong _______________.
"As much as we've talked to employees, we've also talked to company
leadership, managers, [human resource] leaders, trying to get a sense of what
they think about the issue. And what we're finding is they are _______________
positive. They know all the benefits of taking time off. They know it's good
for their employees, but they don't talk about it. When we ask employees, 'OK,
what do you hear from company leadership, management, about this issue?'
two-thirds say, 'I don't really hear anything.'
==================================================================
⮚¿Did you like this lesson? No meu blog você encontrará outras lições para te auxiliar no aprendizado do inglês. Abaixo há dicas de lições que você pode estar fazendo para aperfeiçoar seus conhecimentos.
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https://seabraidiomasingles.blogspot.com/2021/05/tech-irl-dynamic-maps-and-how-we-get.html
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