阅读理解。
Working at home is increasing in popularity as a means of escaping from nine-to-five office life. Why
work under the constant watch of your boss when you can work in front of the TV in your carpet slippers?
Armed with all the office essentials-telephone, computer, e-mail and fax, many workers believe they can
work as effectively as their colleagues in the office. Being able to work wherever you like: from a busy city
to a beautiful village, and make working from home an attractive choice, you can even work on a canal boat,
like one Internet firm in the Midlands, US.
So what will become of the office of tomorrow? I believe it is likely that many could disappear into
cyberspace. To minimize office overheads in inner-city areas, companies will apply a workforce made up
of a network of home workers linked by an advanced communication and information system. A central
processing computer would be controlled by the manager who sends'out work schedules and oversees the
activity of each employee.
As a successor to the Web Cam, a video screen would be created, as the need for more natural form
of interaction than e-mail or telephone becomes greater. Capturing the mood and expressions of work
colleagues, managers would have the ability to view several employees at once on their screen. Employees
would be encouraged to feed any information that may be useful to fellow workers into the computer to
make the company work more effectively. As the company's life blood, the computer would contain a
record of all conversations and correspondence for future reference, and hold confidential information such
as accounts in password protected areas. In the office of tomorrow, with daily life captured in detail, the
case for firing employees could be more cleat cut.
1. The first paragraph mainly focuses on _____.
A. the office to working at home
B. preference to working at home
C. working effectively in the office
D. one Internet firm in the Midlands, UK
2. The office of the future will be _____.
A. in space
B. a network
C. in inner-city areas
D. a central processing computer
3. In Paragraph 2, the underlined word "oversees" probably means _____.
A. overlook
B. organize
C. make out
D. watch over
4. A video screen would be built because _____.
A. the Web Cam needs it
B. it is useful to fellow workers
C. e-mail or telephone is out of date
D. managers can clearly spot employees
