It’s not difficult to set targets for staff. It is much harder， ___1___， to understand their negative consequences. Most work-related behaviors have multiple components. ___2___one and the others become distorted. Travel on a London bus and you’ll ___3___see how this works with drivers. Watch people get on and show their tickets. Are they carefully inspected？ Never. Do people get on without paying？ Of course! Are there inspectors to ___4___that people have paid？ Possibly， but very few. And people who run for the bus？ They are ___5___. How about jumping lights？ Buses do so almost as frequently as cyclists. Why？ Because the target is ___6___. People complained that buses were late and infrequent. ___7___， the number of buses and bus lanes were increased， and drivers were ___8___or punished according to the time they took. And drivers hit these targets. But they ___9___hit cyclists. If the target was changed to ___10___， you would have more inspectors and more sensitive pricing. If the criterion changed to safety， you would get more ___11___drivers who obeyed traffic laws. But both these criteria would be at the expense of time. There is another ___12___： people became immensely inventive in hitting targets. Have you ___13___that you can leave on a flight an hour late but still arrive on time？ Tailwinds？ Of course not! Airlines have simply changed the time a ___14___is meant to take. A one-hour flight is now billed as a two-hour flight. The ___15___of the story is simple. Most jobs are multidimensional， with multiple criteria. Choose one criterion and you may well ___16___ others. Everything can be done faster and made cheaper， but there is a ___17___. Setting targets can and does have unforeseen negative consequences. This is not an argument against target-setting. But it is an argument for exploring consequences first. All good targets should have multiple criteria ___18___critical factors such as time， money， quality and customer feedback. The trick is not only to ___19___just one or even two dimensions of the objective， but also to understand how to help people better ___20___the objective.

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“Reskilling” is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually a requirement if we plan to have a future where a lot of would-be workers do not get left behind. We know we are moving into a period where the jobs in demand will change rapidly， as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. Research by the World Economic Forum finds that on average 42 per cent of the “core skills” within job roles will change by 2022. That is a very short timeline. The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. For individual companies， the temptation is always to let go of workers whose skills are no longer in demand and replace them with those whose skills are. That does not always happen. AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company that decided to do a massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hire strategy. Other companies had also pledged to create their own plans. When the skills mismatch is in the broader economy， though， the focus usually turns to government to handle. Efforts in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languid at best， and have given us a situation where we frequently hear of employers begging for workers， even at times and in regions where unemployment is high. With the pandemic， unemployment is very high indeed. In February， at 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively， unemployment rates in Canada and the United States were at generational lows and worker shortages were everywhere. As of May， those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent， and although many worker shortages had disappeared， not all had done so. In the medical field， to take an obvious example， the pandemic meant that there were still clear shortages of doctors， nurses and other medical personnel. Of course， it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train him to be a doctor in a few weeks. But even if you cannot close that gap， maybe you can close others， and doing so would be to the benefit of all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden： When forced to furlough 90 per cent of their cabin staff， Scandinavian Airlines decided to start up a short retraining program that reskilled the laid-off workers to support hospital staff. The effort was a collective one and involved other companies as well as a Swedish university.

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How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You
Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won’t work. Your senior colleague outlines a project timeline you think is unrealistic. What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do？ How do you decide whether it’s worth speaking up？ And if you do， what exactly should you say？ Here is how to disagree with someone more powerful than you.
41.____________
After this risk assessment， you may decide it’s best to hold off on voicing your opinion. Maybe you haven’t finished thinking the problem through， the whole discussion was a surprise to you， or you want to get a clearer sense of what the group thinks. If you think other people are going to disagree too， you might want to gather your army first. People can contribute experience or information to your thinking—all the things that would make the disagreement stronger or more valid. It’s also a good idea to delay the conversation if you are in a meeting or other public space. Discussing the issue in private will make the powerful person feel less threatened.
42.____________
Before you share your thoughts， think about what the powerful person cares about—it may be the credibility of their team or getting a project done on time. You’re more likely to be heard if you can connect your disagreement to a higher purpose. When you do speak up， don’t assume the link will be clear. You’ll want to state it overtly， contextualizing your statements so that you’re seen not as a disagreeable underling but as a colleague who’s trying to advance a shared goal. The discussion will then become more like a chess game than a boxing match.
43.____________
This step may sound overly deferential， but it’s a smart way to give the powerful person psychological safety and control. You can say something like， "I know we seem to be moving toward a first-quarter commitment here. I have reasons to think that won’t work. I’d like to lay out my reasoning. Would that be OK？" This gives the person a choice， allowing them to verbally opt in， And， assuming they say yes it will make you feel more confident about voicing your disagreement.
44.____________
You might feel your heart racing or your face turning red， but do whatever you can to remain neutral in both your words and actions. When your body language communicates reluctance or anxiety，it undercuts the message， it sends a mixed message， and your counterpart gets to choose what to read. Deep breaths can help， as can speaking more slowly and deliberately. When we feel panicky we tend to talk louder and faster. Simply slowing the pace and talking in an even tone helps calm the other person down and does the same for you. It also makes you seem confident， even if you aren’t.
45.____________
Emphasize that you’re offering your opinion， not gospel truth. It may be a well-informed， well-researched opinion， but it’s still an opinion， so talk tentatively and slightly understate your confidence. Instead of saying something like， "If we set an end-of-quarter deadline， we’ll never make it， "say， "This is just my opinion， but I don’t see how we will make that deadline. " Having asserted your position （as a position， not as a fact）， demonstrate equal curiosity about other views. Remind the person that this is your point of view and then invite critique. Be genuinely open to hearing other opinions.

A.Stay calm

B.Stay humble

C.Don’t make judgments

D.Be realistic about the risks

E.Decide whether to wait

F.Ask permission to disagree

G.Identify a shared goal

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We tend to think that friends and family members are our biggest sources of connection， laughter and warmth. While that may well be true， researchers have also recently found that interacting with strangers actually brings a boost in mood and feelings of belonging that we didn’t expect.
In one series of studies， researchers instructed Chicago-area commuters using public transportation to strike up a conversation with someone near them. On average， participants who followed the instruction felt better than those who had been told to stand or sit in silence. The researchers also argued that when we shy away from casual interactions with strangers， it is often due to a misplaced anxiety that they might not want to talk to us. Much of the time， however， this belief is false. As it turns out，many people are actually perfectly willing to talk—and may even be flattered to receive your attention.

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Directions：
Suppose you are organizing an online meeting， write an email to Jack， an international student，
（1） invite him to participate；
（2） tell him about the details.
You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET.
Do not use your own name. Use “Li Ming” instead.

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Directions：
Write an essay based on the chart below. In your writing， you should
（1） interpret the chart， and
（2） give your comments.
You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET. （ 15 points）

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