1. (2023高三上·哈尔滨开学考)  阅读理解

For the first time, scientists have measured what actually happens with face-to-face interactions when employees start to work at an open-plan office, and their results show these modern workspaces are not as cooperative as you'd think.

Two researchers from Harvard Business School and Harvard University wanted to test whether removing walls at a real-world workplace really increases interactions between co-workers. "To our knowledge, no prior study has directly measured the effect on actual interaction that results from removing walls to create an open office environment," Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban write in the paper. To that end, they approached two multinational companies that were re-organizing their office spaces at the global headquarters, and enlisted small groups of employees for two studies.

For eight weeks before the office redesign and eight weeks afterward, the researchers tracked employees' social interactions and locations. This data was analyzed together with email and instant messaging information from the company's servers to measure differences in how people were communicating with each other.

What they found was a pretty astonishing difference in face-to-face interactions — but not in the direction you might think. Across both experiments, employees' social interactions in person decreased by a crazy 70 percent, while emails saw an uptick by roughly 20 to 50 percent.

So, instead of spending more time cooperating with co-workers in the new space where everyone could see them, people got their heads down and tried to preserve their privacy any way they could. According to these results, it appears that being forced into a more open-plan environment can make people switch from chatting to others in person to sending an email or using instant messaging instead. 

As the team notes, it's not automatically a bad thing, but it can certainly change work dynamics in an unexpected way. "That can have important consequences for how — and how productively — work gets done," the researchers conclude.

1. （1） How did the two multinational companies redesign their offices?

   A . By expanding the total floor areas. B . By updating the computer servers. C . By changing the employees' locations. D . By tearing down the space boundaries.
3. （2） Why did the employees prefer email or instant messaging in an open office space?

   A . To reduce the risk of privacy leaks. B . To establish efficient communication. C . To facilitate indirect social interaction. D . To transform traditional work patterns.
5. （3） What can be inferred from the researchers' saying in the last paragraph?

   A . Further relevant research needs conducting. B . Their research findings are of practical value. C . Their team intends to change working environment. D . People hold different opinions on how work gets done.
7. （4） What is the main idea of the text?

   A . Real-world workplaces increase employees' interaction. B . Work dynamics don't have much effect on work efficiency. C . Modern workspaces change workers' way of communication. D . Open-plan offices can't promote cooperation between co-workers.