LEISURE TIME IN AMERICA
A. As most Americans will tell you if you can stop them long enough to ask, working people in the United States are as busy as ever. Sure, technology and competition are boosting the economy; but nearly everyone thinks they have increased the demands on people at home and in the workplace. But is the overworked American a creature of myth?
B. A pair of economists have looked closely at how Americans actually spend their time. Mark Aguiar, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Erik Hurst, at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business constructed four different measures of leisure. The narrowest includes only activities that nearly everyone considers relaxing or fun; the broadest counts anything that is not related to a paying job, housework or errands as "leisure". No matter how the two economists slice the data, Americans seem to have much more free time than before.
C. Over the past four decades, depending on which of their measures one uses, the amount of time that working-age Americans are devoting to leisure activities has risen by 4-8 hours a week. For somebody working 40 hours a week, that is equivalent to 5-10 weeks of extra holiday a year. Nearly every category of American has more spare time: single or married, with or without children, both men and women. Americans may put in longer hours at the office than other countries, but that is because average hours in the workplace in other rich countries have dropped sharply.
D. How then have Messrs Aguiar and Hurst uncovered a more relaxed America, where leisure has actually increased? It is partly to do with the definition of work, and partly to do with the data they base their research upon. Most American labour studies rely on well-known official surveys, such as those collected by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) and the Census Bureau, that concentrate on paid work. These are good at gleaning trends in factories and offices, but they give only a murky impression of how Americans use the rest of their time. Messrs Aguiar and Hurst think that the hours spent at your employer's are too narrow a definition of work. Americans also spend lots of time shopping, cooking, running errands and keeping house. These chores are among the main reasons why people say they are so overstretched, especially working women with children.
E. However, Messrs Aguiar and Hurst show that Americans actually spend much less time doing them than they did 40 years ago. There has been a revolution in the household economy. Appliances, home delivery, the internet, 24-hour shopping, and more varied and affordable domestic services have increased flexibility and freed up people's time.
F. The data for Messrs Aguiar and Hurst's study comes from time-use diaries that American social scientists have been collecting methodically, once a decade, since 1965. These diaries ask people to give detailed information on everything they did the day before, and for how long they did it. The beauty of such surveys, which are also collected in Australia and many European countries, is that they cover the whole day, not just the time at work, and they also have a built-in accuracy check, since they must always account for every hour of the day.
G. Do the numbers add up? One thing missing in Messrs Aguiar's and Hurst's work is that they have deliberately ignored the biggest leisure-gainers in the population, the growing number of retired folk. The two economists excluded anyone who has reached 65 years old, as well as anyone under that age who retired early. So America's true leisure boom is even bigger than their estimate.
H. The biggest theoretical problem with time diaries is "multi-tasking". Do you measure the time you spend cleaning your house while listening to portable music as "leisure" or "work"? This problem may be exaggerated: usually people seem to combine two work activities, using a laptop computer on a plane, or two leisure ones, watching television and doing something else. The two economists counted many combinations of work and leisure, such as reading a novel while commuting or goofing off on the internet at the office, as time spent working.
I. Is all this leisure a good thing? Some part-time workers might well wish they had less leisure and more income. For most Americans, however, the leisure dividend appears to be a bonus. Using average hourly wages after tax, Steven Davis, a colleague of Mr Hurst's, reckons that the national value of five extra hours of leisure per week is $570 billion, or $3,300 per worker, every year.
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Question Focus: Detail question - asks why Americans appear to work longer hours than people in other rich countries
Correct Answer: C
Why this is correct: The passage clearly says Americans seem to work longer because other rich countries now work fewer hours, not because Americans increased their office time. This directly matches a decrease in office time in the other rich countries.
Passage Reference: Nearly every category of American has more spare time... Americans may put in longer hours at the office than other countries, but that is because average hours in the workplace in other rich countries have dropped sharply.
Paraphrasing: Passage: 'average hours in the workplace in other rich countries have dropped' = Option: 'a decrease in office time in the other rich countries'
Tips: Always look for the exact reason given in the passage, not what feels logical in real life.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Students may choose this because the passage talks a lot about increased leisure. However, leisure time is not given as the reason Americans work longer hours. This is a Causation trap.
- B: This sounds logical, but the passage does not say leisure time dropped in other countries. It says workplace hours dropped. This is a Paraphrase trap.
Key Vocabulary:
- workplace = office
- dropped sharply = decreased a lot
Question Focus: Detail question - asks about a problem with BLS data
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: Most American labour studies rely on well-known official surveys... that concentrate on paid work. These are good at gleaning trends in factories and offices, but they give only a murky impression of how Americans use the rest of their time.
Why this is correct: The passage says BLS data focuses on paid work and gives a murky impression of the rest of people's time, meaning time outside work is unclear. That matches it is unclear about out of work time.
Paraphrasing: Passage: 'murky impression of how Americans use the rest of their time' = Option: 'unclear about out of work time'
Tips: When a question asks about a problem, focus on what the passage says is missing or unclear.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Students may pick this because factories and offices are mentioned. However, the problem is not the place, but that non-work time is unclear. This is a Context shift trap.
- C: This repeats the same idea as the previous option, but the passage criticises what the data misses, not where it comes from. This is a Context shift trap.
Key Vocabulary:
- murky = unclear
- paid work = work for money
Question Focus: Detail question - asks what time-use diaries do
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: These diaries ask people to give detailed information on everything they did the day before... they cover the whole day, not just the time at work, and they also have a built-in accuracy check, since they must always account for every hour of the day.
Why this is correct: The passage clearly says time-use diaries account for every hour of the day, meaning 24 hours. This directly matches provide data for 24 hours of each day.
Paraphrasing: Passage: 'account for every hour of the day' = Option: '24 hours of each day'
Tips: Be careful with options that add words like 'most' or 'best'. Check if the passage really says that.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Students may choose this because America and Australia are mentioned. However, the passage also says they are collected in many European countries. This is a Partial truth trap.
- B: The passage says the diaries have a beauty or advantage, but it never says they are the most accurate overall. This is a Not Given trap.
Key Vocabulary:
- account for = include
- time-use diaries = daily activity records
Question Focus: Detail question - asks how multi-tasking leisure and work was counted
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: The two economists counted many combinations of work and leisure... such as reading a novel while commuting or goofing off on the internet at the office, as time spent working.
Why this is correct: The passage clearly states that when leisure and work happen together, they counted it as work time. So as work time is correct.
Paraphrasing: Passage: 'counted ... combinations of work and leisure ... as time spent working' = Option: 'as work time'
Tips: Always check how the writer defines or classifies something before answering.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Students may think leisure activities should be counted as free time. However, the passage says the economists counted these combinations as work, not leisure. This is a Reverse meaning trap.
- C: The passage never says these activities were ignored or put in a separate category. They were clearly counted as work. This is a Not Given trap.
Key Vocabulary:
- multi-tasking = doing two things at once
- counted as = considered as
General Tips:
- MCQ questions follow passage order, so use the previous answer location to find the next one faster.
- Do not choose an option just because it sounds logical in real life. It must match the passage.
- Watch out for paraphrase traps where the words look similar but the meaning changes.
- Be careful with extreme words like 'most' or 'only' unless the passage clearly uses them.
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