[英语高级视听听力原文Unit12Working247.docVIP

Unit 12 Working 24/7 Americans work longer hours than nearly anyone in the developed world, even the Japanese. For many professionals and corporate managers, the 40-hour work week is history; 60- to 80-hour work weeks are now the norm.Signs of our addiction to work are everywhere. For one, rush hours are starting earlier and ending later. When 60 Minutes first broadcast this story a few months ago, the first train for commuters from the suburbs into New York had just been pushed back to 4:45 a.m., by popular demand.Why do Americans work so much? The simplest answer is because we can. The Digital Revolution means cell phones, wireless Internet and handheld computers like the BlackBerry allow us to work anywhere, anytime, 24/7. And we do, as correspondent Lesley Stahl reports. Its 7 a.m. Pacific time, and Joe Hurd is still in bed. But this 36-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur has already made two phone calls over the Internet to clients overseas. He has checked e-mails on his BlackBerry and sent a half-dozen instant messages from his laptop.For Joe and his wife, Christina Mireles, new technology means their work day isnt 9 to 5. Its 5 to 9.Because we have wireless access, you can work wherever, says Joe.We can be in the kitchen. We can be in our bedroom, we can be here in the living room, Christina points out.With a masters and a law degree each, theyre not exactly underachievers. Joe logs 12- to 15-hour days as vice president of an Internet travel Web site. Sometimes, Joe admits he gets up at night to send e-mails. Sometimes I cant sleep and Ill get up at 2 or 3 (a.m.), yeah, to do e-mails, definitely, he said, while his wife was shaking her head.Or youll set your alarm, you know to wake up at one, two in the morning, she added. I do, I do, he replied.Christina, a vice president of a charter school company, works a few hours less than Joe. She says she is no match for her husband in terms of gadgets.Oh, I have the absolute bare minim