in a nutshell    make great efforts      take off   end up    put out

in all      set fire to      take in      give out    look through

on average       put off

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.”

    There is a difference between science and technology. Science is a method of answering theoretical questions; technology is a method of solving {#blank#}1{#/blank#} problems. Science has to do with discovering the facts and relationships {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in the observable natural world and with building up theories that serve to organize these facts and relationships; technology has to do with tools, techniques, and methods for carrying out the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of science.

    Another difference between science and technology has to do with the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in each.

    Progress in science does not consider the human factor. Scientists make a study of the universe, try to explain the rules of nature and strive to find out the truth. They can {#blank#}5{#/blank#} pay attention to their own or other people's likes or dislikes or to popular ideas about the fitness of things. What scientists discover may shock or anger people—as did Darwin's theory of evolution. But even a(n) {#blank#}6{#/blank#} truth is more than likely to be useful; besides, we have the choice of refusing to believe it! But hardly so with technology; we do not have the choice of refusing to hear the noises produced by an airplane flying overhead; we do not have the choice of refusing to breathe {#blank#}7{#/blank#}air; and we do not have the choice of living in a non-atomic age. Unlike science, progress in technology must be {#blank#}8{#/blank#} in terms of the human factor. Technology must be our slave and not the {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. The purpose of technology is to serve people in general, not merely some people; and future generation, not merely those who presently wish to gain advantage for themselves. Technology must be {#blank#}10{#/blank#} if it is to lead to a better world.