IELTS Academic Test โ Passage 03: The future of work reading with answers explanation, location and pdf. This reading paragraph has been taken from our huge collection of Academic & General Training (GT) Reading practice test PDFs.
The future of work
According to a leading business consultancy, 3-14% of the global workforce will need to switch to a different occupation within the next 10-15 years, and all workers will need to adapt as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable machines. Automation โ or โembodied artificial intelligenceโ (AI) โ is one aspect of the disruptive effects of technology on the labour market. โDisembodied AIโ, like the algorithms running in our smartphones, is another.
Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the most fundamental changes are happening as a result of the โalgorithmicationโ of jobs that are dependent on data rather than on production โ the so-called knowledge economy. Algorithms are capable of learning from data to undertake tasks that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing medical scans and gathering market intelligence.
โIn many cases, they can outperform humans,โ says Pachidi. โOrganisations are attracted to using algorithms because they want to make choices based on what they consider is โperfect informationโ, as well as to reduce costs and enhance productivity.โ
โBut these enhancements are not without consequences,โ says Pachidi. โIf routine cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future experts?โ she asks. โOne way of learning about a job is โlegitimate peripheral participationโ โ a novice stands next to experts and learns by observation. If this isnโt happening, then you need to find new ways to learn.โ
Another issue is the extent to which the technology influences or even controls the workforce. For over two years, Pachidi monitored a telecommunications company. โThe way telecoms salespeople work is through personal and frequent contact with clients, using the benefit of experience to assess a situation and reach a decision. However, the company had started using a(n) โฆ algorithm that defined when account managers should contact certain customers about which kinds of campaigns and what to offer them.โ
The algorithm โ usually build by external designers โ often becomes the keeper of knowledge, she explains. In cases like this, Pachidi believes, a short-sighted view begins to creep into working practices whereby workers learn through the โalgorithmโs eyesโ and become dependent on its instructions. Alternative explorations โ where experimentation and human instinct lead to progress and new ideas โ are effectively discouraged.
Pachidi and colleagues even observed people developing strategies to make the algorithm work to their own advantage. โWe are seeing cases where workers feed the algorithm with false data to reach their targets,โ she reports.
Itโs scenarios like these that many researchers are working to avoid. Their objective is to make AI technologies more trustworthy and transparent, so that organisations and individuals understand how AI decisions are made. In the meantime, says Pachidi, โWe need to make sure we fully understand the dilemmas that this new world raises regarding expertise, occupational boundaries and control.โ
Economist Professor Hamish Low believes that the future of work will involve major transitions across the whole life course for everyone: โThe traditional trajectory of full-time education followed by full-time work followed by a pensioned retirement is a thing of the past,โ says Low. Instead, he envisages a multistage employment life: one where retraining happens across the life course, and where multiple jobs and no job happen by choice at different stages.
On the subject of job losses, Low believes the predictions are founded on a fallacy: โIt assumes that the number of jobs is fixed. If in 30 years, half of 100 jobs are being carried out by robots, that doesnโt mean we are left with just 50 jobs for humans. The number of jobs will increase: we would expect there to be 150 jobs.โ
Dr Ewan McGaughey, at Cambridgeโs Centre for Business Research and Kingโs College London, agrees that โapocalypticโ views about the future of work are misguided. โItโs the laws that restrict the supply of capital to the job market, not the advent of new technologies that causes unemployment.โ
His recently published research answers the question of whether automation, AI and robotics will mean a โjobless futureโ by looking at the causes of unemployment. โHistory is clear that change can mean redundancies. But social policies can tackle this through retraining and redeployment.โ
He adds: โIf there is going to be change to jobs as a result of AI and robotics then Iโd like to see governments seizing the opportunity to improve policy to enforce good job security. We can โreprogrammeโ the law to prepare for a fairer future of work and leisure.โ McGaugheyโs findings are a call to arms to leaders of organisations, governments and banks to pre-empt the coming changes with bold new policies that guarantee full employment, fair incomes and a thriving economic democracy.
โThe promises of these new technologies are astounding. They deliver humankind the capacity to live in a way that nobody could have once imagined,โ he adds. โJust as the industrial revolution brought people past subsistence agriculture, and the corporate revolution enabled mass production, a third revolution has been pronounced. But it will not only be one of technology. The next revolution will be social.โ
Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27. The first paragraph tells us about
A) the kinds of jobs that will be most affected by the growth of AI.
B) the extent to which AI will after the nature of the work that people do.
C) the proportion of the worldโs labour force who will have jobs in AI in the future.
D) the difference between ways that embodied and disembodied AI with impact on workers.
28. According to the second paragraph, what is Stella Pachidiโs view of the โknowledge economyโ?
A) It is having an influence on the number of jobs available.
B) It is changing peopleโs attitudes towards their occupations.
C) It is the main reason why the production sector is declining.
D) It is a key factor driving current developments in the workplace.
29. What did Pachidi observe at the telecommunications company?
A) staff disagreeing with the recommendations of AI
B) staff feeling resentful about the intrusion of AI in their work
C) staff making sure that AI produces the results that they want
D) staff allowing AI to carry out tasks they ought to do themselves
30. In his recently published research, Ewan McGaughey
A) challenges the idea that redundancy is a negative thing.
B) shows the profound effect of mass unemployment on society.
C) highlights some differences between past and future job losses.
D) illustrates how changes in the job market can be successfully handled.
Questions 31-34
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-G, below.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 31-34 on your answer sheet.
The โalgorithmicationโ of jobs
Stella Pachidi of Cambridge Judge Business School has been focusing on the โalgorithmicationโ of jobs which rely not on production but on 31 โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ. .
While monitoring a telecommunications company, Pachidi observed a growing 32 โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ. on the recommendations made by AI, as workers begin to learn through the โalgorithmโs eyesโ. Meanwhile, staff are deterred from experimenting and using their own 33 โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ., and are therefore prevented from achieving innovation.
To avoid the kind of situations which Pachidi observed, researchers are trying to make AIโs decision-making process easier to comprehend, and to increase usersโ 34 โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ. with regard to the technology.
A pressure B satisfaction C intuition
D promotion E reliance F confidence
G information
Questions 35-40
Look at the following statements (Questions 35-40) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A, B or C.
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 35-40 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
35. Greater levels of automation will not result in lower employment.
36. There are several reasons why AI is appealing to businesses.
37. AIโs potential to transform peopleโs lives has parallels with major cultural shifts which occurred in previous eras.
38. It is important to be aware of the range of problems that AI causes.
39. People are going to follow a less conventional career path than in the past.
40. Authorities should take measures to ensure that there will be adequately paid work for everyone
List of people
A Stella Pachidi
B Hamish Low
C Ewan McGaughey
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Answers with Explanation
Check out The future of work reading answers below with explanations and locations given in the text.
27 B
28 D
29 C
30 D
31 G
32 E
33 C
34 F
35 B
36 A
37 C
38 A
39 B
40ย ย C
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