PrepTest 122, Section 2, Question 3
Most employees spend their time completing unimportant tasks(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- Aspending the entire(15 more words not shown)
- Binstead of working(24 more words not shown)
- Cdeciding to take(16 more words not shown)
- Dmeeting daily with(8 more words not shown)
- Espending time each(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A deadline can make a task feel important. That doesn't mean it will do much for the employer.
The passage wants efficient employees to resist that pressure. Instead of spending their time on unimportant scheduled tasks, they should pursue work with a large potential payoff, even when failure could be costly. I can see the worry: ignore the boss's deadline and you might get into trouble. But this passage is willing to accept risk in pursuit of a bigger benefit.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for an example of efficiency as the passage describes it. So we're applying its standard, not deciding whether this would always be good workplace advice. I expect an employee to pass over a routine demand in favor of a project that could produce a substantial reward. Simply refusing to do assigned work won't be enough; what the employee does instead matters too.
Working the answers
- A
The employee is responding to a supervisor's deadline. Nothing tells us that this report offers a large payoff or that the employee has set aside a less important demand to work on it. This describes the deadline-driven behavior the passage contrasts with efficiency.
- B
The first half looks promising: the employee sets aside an assigned report. But what replaces it? Routine correspondence that could wait. The passage isn't praising avoidance for its own sake. B never gives us the valuable opportunity that would make ignoring the deadline worthwhile.
- CCorrect
An urgent phone call doesn't initially sound like the big project I expected. Read the whole comparison, though: the employee takes a call from a major customer instead of arriving punctually at a routine monthly meeting.
Serving that important customer offers the potential business payoff; being on time for the meeting is the scheduling demand the employee sets aside. That fits the passage's priorities better than any other choice. We don't need to pretend every word matches our prediction perfectly. C gives us both the valuable opportunity and the willingness to miss a routine obligation to pursue it.
- D
Discussing workloads and schedules could be useful, but no substantial opportunity replaces a less important demand here. The employee is still occupied with routine coordination. Nothing in the answer shows the tradeoff that defines efficiency in the passage.
- E
This makes the nearest deadlines the basis for deciding what to do. That's precisely the habit the passage asks efficient employees to resist when the scheduled tasks are unimportant. We need attention to the potential value of the work, not just to how soon it is due.
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