Workforce of the Future

    The workplace is changing rapidly. Rather than the standard working day of nine to five, employees are working more flexibly to meet their busy home lives. Advances in technology are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the very nature of the tasks and skills required in the workplace.

    To gain a full perspective of how the workplace is set to change over the next decade, employee benefits provider Unum UK {#blank#}2{#/blank#} with The Future Laboratory to survey 3,000 workers across several industries. They also interviewed industry experts and business leaders on topics from artificial intelligence and robotics to the increase of flexible working and an ageing workforce.

    The result outlines some of the employment changes that businesses can expect to see over the next decade and predicts the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of two worker cultures which will dominate the workforce. They are the obligated and the self-fulfilled workers.

    “Obligated workers” refer to people with dependents and the sandwich generation, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} raising children with caring for elderly parents. Therefore, they value a career {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to life stages and events and financial security. Joel Defries, 33, father of one kid and partner at London Vodka said, “A flexible employer will allow me to have a long paternity leave (陪产假) and to value my family just as much as I value my job.”

    Self-fulfilled workers are committed to life-long learning and acquiring new skills rather than {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to an employer. They actively look for personal development and want employee benefits that help them {#blank#}7{#/blank#} both their personal and professional ambitions. They treat personal commitments and pursuits as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to professional commitments. Elly Kemp, 31, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} a full-time employee, now working part-time in a caféand also assisting with her grandmother's care said, “My approach to work allows me the freedom to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} my career at my own pace. I want my work to be fluid so I can change it when I want and do whatever makes me happy at the time.”

Direction: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

    Red grouper(石斑鱼) are known for a few key characteristics — their color, which can {#blank#}1{#/blank#}from pink to bright orange; their tastiness, whether they're grilled or fried; and their predation (掠夺行为) method, in which they {#blank#}2{#/blank#} sea creatures and swallow them whole.

    But their least-known characteristic might be the most valuable of all: They operate as underwater architects, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the seascape for numerous other forms of underwater life. That surprising discovery is {#blank#}4{#/blank#} scientists and policymakers to readjust their approach to preserving the ocean's natural order — and heightening tensions with those who fish for a living or as a hobby.

    A team of scientists, led by Florida State University's Felicia Coleman, recently found that the red grouper off Florida's east and west coasts have created entire ocean {#blank#}5{#/blank#}by digging large holes in the sea's sandy bottom. In the same way beavers {#blank#}6{#/blank#}dams, red grouper dig and maintain distinct holes whose rocky surfaces provide a place for coral, sponges and other marine life to gather.

    This new understanding is changing the way federal and state authorities manage ocean habitats and is creating a completely new crack with fishermen. “The people who are in control want to {#blank#}7{#/blank#} fishing as much as possible,” said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association. He added that the recent discoveries about red grouper amount to an “excuse they can use to restrict fishing, {#blank#}8{#/blank#}or recreational.”

    But to many researchers, fishery officials and even some fishermen, the fact that fish act as environmental engineers provides a compelling reason to protect them from exploitation.

    “If you {#blank#}9{#/blank#} that fish, it puts into motion a whole chain of events,” said Don deMaria, who used to fish for red grouper near Key Largo, Fla., but no longer does. “There's a whole lot of other animals that are {#blank#}10{#/blank#}. I'm not saying you can't catch them. But you can't do it to the extent we've been doing for the last 20 years.”

The programme attracted millions of {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

People came from all over the world to {#blank#}2{#/blank#}her work.