Considerations of future study directions might be expected in this section.

A、高血压

B、动脉硬化

C、梅毒

D、艾滋病

A．Since she forgot to look in the mailbox, she missed the note.

B．She don't remember seeing anything when she checked the mailbox.

C．The man's check was the only thing she found in the mailbox.

D．When she went to the mailbox, she found his note.

In the United States elementary education begins at the age of six. At this stage nearly all the teachers are women, mostly married. The atmosphere is usually very friendly, and the teachers have now accepted the idea that the important thing is to make the chil-dren happy and interested. The old authoritarian (要绝对服从的) methods of education were discredited (不被认可) rather a long time ago-so much so that many people now think that they have gone too far in the direction of trying to make children happy and interestedrather than giving them actual instruction.

The social education of young children tries to make them accept the idea that human beings in a society need to work together for their common good. So the emphasis is on co- operation rather than competition throughout most of this process. This may seem curious, in view of the fact that American society is highly competitive; however, the need for mak-ing people sociable in this sense has come to be regarded as one of the functions of educa-tion. Most Americans do grow up with competitive ideas, and obviously quite a few as criminals, but it is not fair to say that the educational system fails. It probably does succeed in making most people sociable and ready to help one another both in material ways and through kindness and friendliness.

According to the passage, the American elementary education is supposed to make children______.

A．sensible and sensitive

B．competitive and interested

C．curious and friendly

D．happy and co-operative

ABSENTEEISM IN NURSING: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Absence from work is a costly and disruptive problem for any organization. The cost of absenteeism in Australia has been put at 1.8 million hours per day or $1400 million annually. The study reported here was conducted in the Prince William Hospital in Brisbane. Australia, where, prior to this time few active steps had been taken to measure, understand or manage the occurrence of absenteeism.

Nursing Absenteeism

A prevalent(普遍的) attitude amongst many nurses in the group selected for study was that there was no reward or recognition for not utilizing the paid sick leave entitlement allowed them in their employment conditions. Therefore. they believed they may as well take the days offsick or otherwise. Similar attitudes have been noted by James(1989), who noted that sick leave is seen by many workers as a right, like annual holiday leave.

Miller and Norton(1986), in their survey of 865 nursing personnel, found that 73 percent felt they should be rewarded for not taking sick leave, because some employees always used their sick leave. Further. 67 per cent of nurses felt, that administration was not sympathetic to the problems shift work causes to employees' personal and social lives. Only 53 per cent of the respondents felt that every effort was made to schedule staff fairly.

In another longitudinal study of nurses working in two Canadian hospitals, Hackett. Bycio and Gnion (1989) examined the reasons why nurses took absence from work. The rrtost frequent reason stated for absence was minor illness to self. Other causes, in decreasing order of frequency, were illness in family, family social function, work to do at home and bereavement.

Method

In an attempt to reduce the level of absenteeism amongst the 250 registered and enrolled nurses in the present study, the Prince William management introduced three different, yet potentially complementary, strategies over 18 months.

Strategy 1: Non-financial (material) incentives

Within the established wage and salary system it was not possible to use hospital funds to support this strategy. However, it was possible to secure incentives(刺激) from local businesses; including free passes to entertainment parks, theatres, restaurants, etc. At the end of each roster period, the ward with the lowest absence rate would win the prize.

Strategy 2: Flexible fair rostering

Where possible, staff were given the opportunity to determine their working schedule within the limits of clinical needs.

Strategy 3: Individual absenteeism and counseling

Each month, managers would analyze the pattern of absence of staff with excessive sick leave (greater than ten days per year for full-time employees). Characteristic patterns of potential ‘voluntary absenteeism' such as absence before and after days off, excessive weekend and night duty absence and multiple single days off were communicated to all ward(病房) nurses and then, as necessary, followed up by action.

Results

Absence rates for the six months prior to the incentive scheme ranged from 3.69 per cent to 4. 32 per cent. In the following six months they ranged between 2.87 per cent and 3.96 per cent. This represents a 20 per cent improvement. However, analyzing the absence rates on a year-to-year basis, the overall absence rate was 3.60 per cent in the first year and 3.43 per cent in the following year. This represents a 5 per cent decrease from the first to the second year of the study. A significant decrease in absence over the two-year period could not be demonstrated.

Discussion

The non-financial incentive scheme did appear to assist in controlling absenteeism in the short term. As the scheme progressed it became harder to secure prizes and this contributed to the program's losing momentum and finally ceasing.

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

Absenteeism in Nursing: A Longitudinal Study

Absence from work is a costly and disruptive problem for any organization. The cost of absenteeism in Australia has been put at 1.8 million hours per day or $1400 million annually. The study reported here was conducted in the Prince William Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, where, prior to this time, few active steps had been taken to measure, understand or manage the occurrence of absenteeism.

Nursing Absenteeism

A prevalent(普遍的)attitude amongst many nurses in the group selected for study was that there was no reward or recognition for not utilizing the paid sick leave entitlement allowed them in their employment conditions. Therefore, they believed they may as well take the days off sick or otherwise. Similar attitudes have been noted by James(1989), who noted that sick leave is seen by many workers as a right, like annual holiday leave.

Miller and Norton(1986), in their survey of 865 nursing personnel, found that 73 percent felt they should be rewarded for not taking sick leave, because some employees always used their sick leave. Further, 67 percent of nurses felt that administration was not sympathetic to the problems shift work causes to employees' personal and social lives. Only 53 percent of the respondents felt that every effort was made to schedule staff fairly.

In another longitudinal study of nurses working in two Canadian hospitals, Hackett, Bycio and Guion(1989) examined the reasons why nurses took absence from work. The most frequent reason stated for absence was minor illness to self. Other causes, in decreasing order of frequency, were illness in family, family social function, work to do at home and bereavement.

Method

In an attempt to reduce the level of absenteeism amongst the 250 registered and enrolled nurses in the present study, the Prince William management introduced three different, yet potentially complementary, strategies over 18 months.

Strategy 1: Non-financial incentives(刺激)

Within the established wage and salary system it was not possible to use hospital funds to support this strategy. However, it was possible to secure incentives from local businesses, including free passes to entertainment parks, theatres, restaurants, etc. At the end of each roster period, the ward(病房) with the lowest absence rate would win the prize.

Strategy 2: Flexible fair rostering

Where possible, staff were given the opportunity to determine their working schedule within the limits of clinical needs.

Strategy 3: Individual absenteeism and counseling

Each month, managers would analyze the pattern of absence of staff with excessive sick leave(greater than ten days per year for full-time employees). Characteristic patterns of potential 'voluntary absenteeism' such as absence before and after days off, excessive weekend and night duty absence and multiple single days off were communicated to all ward nurses and then, as necessary, followed up by action.

Results

Absence rates for the six months prior to the incentive scheme ranged from 3.69 percent to 4.32 per cent. In the following six months they ranged between 2.87 percent and 3.96 per cent. This represents a 20 percent improvement. However, analyzing the absence rates on a year-to-year basis, the overall absence rate was 3.60 percent in the first year and 3.43 percent in the following year. This represents a 5 percent decrease from the first to the second year of the study. A significant decrease in absence over the two-year period could not be demonstrated.

Discussion

The non-financial incentive scheme did appear to assist in controlling absenteeism in the short term. As the scheme progressed it became harder to secure prizes and this contributed to the program's losing momentum and finally ceasing. There were mixed results across wards as well. For example,

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

SECTION B CONVERSATION

In this section you will hear 10 short conversations between two speakers. At the end of each conversation, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.

8. W: I couldn’t stand this morning. My right leg went stiff.

M: I’m afraid it’s probably a side-effect from the drugs I put you on.

9. W: How did your writing go this morning? Is the book coming along alright?

M: I’m not sure. I think the rest of it will be difficult to write.

10. W: Is there anything you can do to make the cold go away more quickly?

M: No, there isn’t. And a cold isn’t really serious enough for a visit to a doctor.

11. W:Look! What have I got here!

M: Oh. So you did go to that bookstore!

12. M: Excuse me. Has there been an emergency?

W: Oh, no sir. There’s just a storm, so the plane will leave a little later this afternoon.

13. W: I wish I hadn’t hurt Linda’s feeling like that yesterday. You know I never meant to.

M: The great thing about Linda is that she doesn’t hold any grudges. By tomorrow she’ll have forgotten all about it.

14. M: My grades are not bad, but not good enough. I know I didn’t study at all this semester. Now I have to work very hard next semester to keep my scholarship.

W:I’ll see you in the library, then.

15. W: I’ll wear this blue jacket for the evening. I like the color on me, don’t you think? 

M:I think it looks terrific on you-really! 

16. W: Do you know that Sam turned down that job offer by a travel agency? 

M: Yeah. The hours were convenient, but had he accepted it, he wouldn’t have been able to make ends meet. 

17. W: At the rate it is being used, the printer is not going to make it through the rest of the year. 

M: The year? It is supposed to be good for four!

8. What is the probable relationship between the two speakers?

A.Salesman and customer.

B.Doctor and nurse.

C.Doctor and patient.

D.Patient and patient.