TASK 5. (11 points)
Read the following extract from an article. Match the most suitable headings for
paragraphs 5.1. - 5.7. Write the appropriate letter (A-H) in the blank. One heading does
not fit any of the paragraphs. For questions 5.8. - 5.11. choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which fits best according to the text and circle the appropriate letter. For each correct
answer you will be given 1 point.
A.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
B.
THE SURPRISING LONGEVITY OF PAPER
C.
NEATNESS AS THE ROOT OF EVIL
D.
ILLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION
E.
AN ISLAND OF FREEDOM
F.
EXPLOITING WORKERS’ FEELINGS OF GUILT
G.
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
H.
A VISION PUT INTO PRACTICE
IN PRAISE OF CLUTTER
5.1.
Many companies these days run ‘clean desk’ policies, requiring employees to remove all
evidence of work from their desks by the end of the day. The reason given is usually security
poor excuse. Any self-respecting burglar can pick the lock of a filing cabinet, and will be far
more likely to find what he is looking for in a methodical office than in one whose logic is
comprehensible only to its creator.
5.2.
The real reason is more likely to be the common hostility to ‘clutter’, which managers tend to
regard as an obstacle to work. Although office clutter is usually almost entirely work-related,
it tends to be treated as though it consisted of the dirty socks and crisp packets
of an adolescent. Workers are confused. They know that creating clutter is an essential part
of the way they work, but they are made to feel bad about it. And there are plenty of parasites
who make a living out of this confusion: Jeffery Mayer, for instance, who exhorts people
to “Get rid of the clutter! Save time! Become more productive!” in his book Winning
the Fight between You and Your Desk.
5.3.
During the 1990s, progress in electronic equipment lent authority to the familiar prejudice
against clutter. Clutter, after all, was paper, and paper was old-fashioned. Paper has no
memory; paper cannot be networked. As digital services began to talk to each other, as
computers proliferated, the persistent popularity of a means of communication that had been
around for 6,000 years became increasingly irritating to the guardians of the Zeitgeist. Some
of the digital age’s finest thinkers set about burying paper. Paul Saffo, director of the Institute
for the Future in Menlo Park, California, explained in 1992 that “paper is well on its way to
becoming a metaphor rather than a medium,” in the sense that the screen and stylus of a
handheld organiser mimic notebook and pencil. “Digital paper and computers that you can
roll up will become business realities after this decade is over,” he wrote.
5.4.
It is fortunate for contemporary prophets that most of their predictions are as swiftly forgotten
as they are made, for paper, while it may be used in a metaphorical sense by the electronics
industry, has also remained stubbornly literal. The more digital information sped around the
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world, the more people wanted to print it out. From 1992 to 2002, world consumption of
paper and board products grew from 250m tonnes to 325m.
5.5.
A few of those prophets, however, tried to impose their ideas on their employees. The most
dramatic of these experiments took place at the offices of Chiat/Day, an American advertising
agency. In 1993, Jay Chiat had a revelation while on the ski slopes and realised that his
employees’ minds were trapped by the boxes they were working in. Free their bodies from
the box and you would free their minds, and consequently productivity would soar.
They were, accordingly, installed in offices without desks or filing cabinets. There were sofas
to sit on and a few special rooms for meetings. There was nowhere to keep any paper; indeed,
nobody was supposed to keep paper.
5.6.
Chiat/Day’s employees behaved like any group of refugees torn from familiar surroundings.
They tried to rebuild their world. One woman bought a child’s red wagon, put her paper files
in it and trailed it around the corridors after her. Most people recreated their desks in the boots
of their cars, where they stored their files and notebooks, dashing in and out of the building
to the parking lot during meetings. Groups of workers took permanent control of meeting
rooms and a shanty-town of desks grew up. The company was eventually bought by
a traditionalist rival and normal life resumed.
5.7.
But the inhabitants of our editorial offices are mostly left alone to adapt the environment
to their convenience. The floors of The Economist’s offices are treated somewhat like a nature
reserve where strange beasts roam and browse at will, undisturbed by the fads and fancies that
sweep through the rest of business life.
abridged from ‘In praise of clutter’, The Economist, 21 December 2002
5.8. ‘Clean desk’ policies are introduced
A. to prevent burglars from damaging filing cabinets.
B. to eliminate factors interfering with people’s work.
C. to collect evidence of each worker’s daily activity.
D. to make workers less confused in the workplace.
5.9. Contrary to predictions, paper
A. plays a role in networking.
B. is now of better quality.
C. is in greater demand at present.
D. is produced faster now.
5.10. Chiat/Day’s employees were deprived of ordinary office furniture and equipment
A. to meet the expectations of the managers.
B. to make more space for physical activity.
C. to enable more organised meetings.
D. to increase the efficiency of their work.
5.11. Office life returned to normal after
A. the ownership of the company had changed.
B. the staff had rebelled against the changes.
C. some workers had taken control of the office.
D. desks had been moved to meeting rooms.
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
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5.4
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