Englisch C1: Leseverstehen mit anspruchsvollen Texten (Übungstest)

When the firm announced that staff could work from home permanently, the reaction was not the unbridled enthusiasm management had anticipated. Younger employees in particular worried that, without the casual conversations of the office, they would miss out on the informal learning that had shaped the careers of their senior colleagues.

The minister's reply was so carefully hedged that journalists left the briefing unsure whether the policy had been abandoned or merely postponed.

Of course, nothing says „we value our customers“ quite like a forty-minute hold message reminding you, every ninety seconds, how much they value you.

Critics have long dismissed the novelist's early work as derivative. Yet a closer reading reveals that what looks like imitation is often parody: she borrows the conventions of the Victorian novel precisely in order to expose their absurdity.

While the new tram line has undeniably cut journey times for commuters in the north of the city, residents of the southern districts, whose bus routes were reduced to fund the project, can be forgiven for greeting its opening with less fanfare.

Mara reread the email for the third time, then closed her laptop without replying. Whatever she wrote now, she knew, would be read as either an apology or an accusation, and she was not yet sure which of the two she meant.

Far from being a setback, the delay proved a blessing in disguise: it gave the team time to fix a flaw that would have been far more costly after the launch.

Supporters of the four-day week point to happier staff and fewer sick days. However, most of the trials so far have involved office-based companies that volunteered to take part, which makes it hard to say whether the results would hold for hospitals, factories or schools.

The committee rejected the proposal, not because it lacked merit, but because it arrived three weeks after the deadline. This, several members admitted, was a frustrating outcome.

The chief executive's resignation came as no surprise to those who had followed the company closely; the warning signs had been there for months.