The end of the office?

For many white-collar workers around the world, the recent pandemic(流行病) has meant 【小题1】 (have) to work from home. Their usual office location has been out of reach. The different working 【小题2】 (practice), as we know, have advantages and disadvantages for employees. But the big question is whether they will see their offices again.

Home working has made people realize what tasks they can perform at home. It has given them more time with the family; they've been sleeping 【小题3】 (well) and have saved money by not traveling or buying lunches on the go. And recent research suggests the majority of people working from home are just as 【小题4】 (product).

For some people, this could be 【小题5】 lasting arrangement. In the UK, fifty of the employers 【小题6】 (interview) by the BBC, have said they have no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future. Of course, one main reason is 【小题7】 firms couldn't see a way of seating large numbers of staff while social distancing rules were still 【小题8】 place.

But this isn't great news for everyone. Some employees will be full of 【小题9】 (anxious) at home, and there's less opportunity to learn from other people. Shops and cafes rely on the football of office workers, without whom they face closure. The future is still uncertain, which is why it may be too early to say where our desks 【小题10】 (place) forever.

During the Beijing Winter Paralympics, Li Man worked at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, tirelessly carrying a medical rescue kit on her back 【小题1】(weigh) about 15 kilograms.

As one of the 38 Chinese rescue staff on duty to protect the disabled athletes, Li and her team members call 【小题2】(they) the “ski doctors”. “We come from different hospitals and departments 【小题3】(insure) rescue work is as comprehensive as possible,” said Li, 【小题4】 comes from the China Rehabilitation Research Center in Beijing.

With competitors capable of hitting top speeds of up 【小题5】 100 kilometers per hour, para alpine skiing is a dangerous sport. Once emergency happens, the athletes need doctors immediately. Ski doctors 【小题6】(require) to reach an injured person within four minutes,【小题7】 in fact, they often arrive within one minute. “Since 2018, we’ve visited a resort for ski training for around a month each year to make sure that we could reach the injured people as fast and as 【小题8】(safe) as possible,” said Li. Li added that they were given 【小题9】(profession) first aid training, and online and offline English training to make sure that they can communicate smoothly with foreign athletes and staff in international 【小题10】(event). She hopes that China’s ski medical rescue system will continue to grow and more recruits will join.

They’re neither medical workers in close contact with the novel coronavirus nor government officials who receive the 【小题1】 (late) updates of the situation — yet they’re keeping us 【小题2】 (inform)of the development of the epidemic. They are the media, and their eyes are far-seeing.

Zhu Xingxin is one such member: a 【小题3】 (photograph) with China Daily. Having putting on protective gear (装备) like the doctors, he visited Tongji Hospital in Wuhan on Feb 3 to report on the lives of medical workers.

The eyes of the media are not just here to see, but 【小题4】 (examine). On Feb 9, for example, a bus in Wuhan carrying severely ill patients 【小题5】 (catch) in traffic with no one guiding them and no hospitals claiming them. The incident was witnessed by Global Times journalists and was soon reported online. It ended with all the patients 【小题6】 (settle) properly in hospitals and officials in charge being held responsible. But it’s possible 【小题7】 without journalists this incident would never have been exposed.

“I do hope that by writing about 【小题8】 (they) stories, I’m helping things change for 【小题9】 better.” said Li Xueqing, a China Daily journalist. Indeed, the media is like a pair of eyes watching out 【小题10】 us as they report on the world’s most important news.