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此篇文章選自2009年5月的 TIME, 考到我們在課堂上常提到到經濟類話題。這篇文章主要講述經濟形勢的變化對人們的工作模式產生的影響:越來越多的員工傾向于在家辦公，越來越多的公司也在采取新的措施適應這種變化。同時這一變化，也給白領們的生活帶來了影響——他們開始更加注重生活與工作的平衡。
On the worst days, Chris Keehn used to go 24 hours without seeing his daughter with her eyes open. A soft-spoken tax accountant in Deloitte's downtown Chicago office, he hated saying no when she asked for a ride to preschool. By November, he'd had enough. "I realized that I can have control of this," he says with a small shrug. Keehn, 33, met with two of the firm's partners and his senior manager, telling them he needed a change. They went for it. In January, Keehn started telecommuting four days a week, and when Kathryn, 4, starts T-ball this summer, he will be sitting along the baseline.
文章開頭即出現人名，很顯然，作者在運用例子做鋪墊引出后文主旨。這種開頭模式非常符合新聞文體的結構特征，即我們在新東方課堂上所講的菱形模式。意識到這點后，我們也應該立刻明白，本段的內容旨在引出主題，其作用是舉出典型例子論證主題。我們可以看到問題的第一道題目即考察了相應的例子功能題。
In this economy, Keehn's move might sound like hopping onto the mommy track — or off the career track. But he's actually making a shrewd move. More and more, companies are searching for creative ways to save — by experimenting with reduced hours or unpaid furloughs or asking employees to move laterally. The up-or-out model, in which employees have to keep getting promoted quickly or get lost, may be growing outmoded. The changing expectations could persist after the economy reheats. Companies are increasingly supporting more natural growth, letting employees wend their way upward like climbing vines. It's a shift, in other words, from a corporate ladder to the career-path metaphor long preferred by Deloitte（德勤） vice chair Cathy Benko: a lattice. (See pictures of cubicle designs submitted to The Office.)
第二段開始逐步深入主題，在第三句話出我們可以看出文章主題漸漸顯露，即越來越多的公司正在采取更加創造性的措施使得員工更好的處理好工作與生活之間的矛盾。
At Deloitte, each employee's lattice is nailed together during twice-a-year evaluations focused not just on career targets but also on larger life goals. An employee can request to do more or less travel or client service, say, or to move laterally into a new role — changes that may or may not come with a pay cut. Deloitte's data from 2008 suggest that about 10% of employees choose to "dial up" or "dial down" at any given time. Deloitte's Mass Career Customization (MCC) program began as a way to keep talented women in the workforce, but it has quickly become clear that women are not the only ones seeking flexibility. Responding to millennials demanding better work-life balance, young parents needing time to share child-care duties and boomers looking to ease gradually toward retirement, Deloitte is scheduled to roll out MCC to all 42,000 U.S. employees by May 2010. Deloitte executives are in talks with more than 80 companies working on similar programs.
接下來，作者繼續舉Deloitte的例子，進一步指出許多公司都在采取不同的措施解決員工所遇到的工作與生活的矛盾。很明顯，在時間比較緊張的情況下，我們根本沒有必要去讀這些細節。
