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Explaining the Curse of Work Reading Answers

Bhaskar Das

Dec 23, 2025

Explaining the Curse of Work Reading Answers is an academic reading answers topic. Explaining the Curse of Work Reading Answers has a total of 13 IELTS questions in total.

  • Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? Write Yes, No, or Not Given.
  • Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.

The candidate's understanding and assessment of academic and general texts are examined in the IELTS Reading Section. Using IELTS Reading Practice Questions, you can increase your vocabulary, sharpen your critical reading skills, and become more familiar with the various question types in reading tasks. Furthermore, practice enhances vocabulary and improves analytical reading skills, both of which are necessary for success. It's crucial to understand the guidelines for each question type and develop effective strategies to manage time and achieve excellent band scores.

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Explaining the Curse of Work Reading Answers

Topic:

EXPLAINING THE CURSE OF WORK

It is 1944, and there is a war on. In a joint army and air force headquarters somewhere in England, Major Parkinson must oil the administrative wheels of the fight against Nazi Germany. The Stream of vital paperwork from on high is more like a flood, perpetually threatening to engulf him. Then disaster strikes. The chief of the base, the air vice-marshal, goes on leave. HIS deputy, an army colonel, falls sick. The colonel's deputy, an air force wing commander, is called away on urgent business. Major Parkinson is left to soldier on alone. At that point, an odd thing happens - nothing at all. The paper flood ceases; the war goes on regardless. AS Major Parkinson later mused: "There had never been anything to do. We'd just been making work for each other."

That feeling might be familiar to many working in large organisations, where decisions can seem to be bounced between layers of management in a whirl of consultation, circulation, deliberation, and delegation. It led Major Parkinson - in civilian dress, C. Northcote Parkinson, naval historian, theorist of bureaucracy, and humorist- to a seminal insight. This is "Parkinson's law, first published in an article of 1955, which states: work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Is there anything more to that "law" than just a cynical slogan? Physicists Peter Klimek, Rudolf Hanel, and Stefan Thurner of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria think so. They have recreated mathematically just the kind of bureaucratic dynamics that Parkinson described anecdotally 50 years ago. Their findings put Parkinson's observations on a scientific footing, but also make productive reading for anyone in charge of organising well, anything.

Parkinson based his ideas not just on his war experience, but also on his historical research. Between 1914 and 1928, he noted, the number of administrators in the British Admiralty increased by almost 80 per cent, while the number of sailors they had to administer fell by a third. and the number of ships by two-thirds. Parkinson suggested a reason: in any hierarchical

management structure, people in positions of authority need subordinates, and those extra bodies have to be occupied- regardless of how much there actually is to do. Parkinson was crystallising, with tongue half in cheek, classic work done by the German sociologist Max Weber in the early 20th century. Weber described the attributes of an ideal bureaucracy and possible degenerating influences, such as any system of promotion not based wholly on merit.

Parkinson's own analysis spawned other, more po-faced and politically charged critiques of public bureaucracies from economists such as William Niskanen, who served on US President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers. Niskanen theorised that bureaucracies grow because officials seek to increase the budgets they control and so boost their own salary, power, and standing. He and other conservatives used such arguments to push for smaller government, but they could not give any supporting quantitative insight into the growth of bureaucracies. The new work aims to do just that. 'Parkinson's essays weren't quantitative," says Klimek. "but they're so clear that it's easy to cast them into specific mathematical models," From a simple system of equations using quantities such as the promotion and drop-out rates within a hierarchical body, a "phase diagram" can be computed to show what conditions breed ever greater bureaucracy, A high probability of promotion coupled with the hiring of more subordinates - the scenario Parkinson described- is unsurprisingly a recipe for particularly fast growth.

Parkinson was also interested in other aspects of management dynamics, in particular the workings of committees. How many members can a committee have and still be effective? Parkinson's own guess was based on the 700-year history of England's highest council of state- in its modern incarnation, the UK cabinet. Five times in succession between 1257 and 1955, this council grew from small beginnings to a membership of just over 20. Each time it reached that point, it was replaced by a new, smaller body, which began growing again. This was no coincidence, Parkinson argued: beyond about 20 members, groups become structurally unable to come to a consensus.

A look around the globe today, courtesy of data collected by the US Central Intelligence Agency, indicates that Parkinson might have been onto something. The highest executive bodies of most countries have between 13 and 20 members. "Cabinets are commonly constituted with memberships close to Parkinson's limit," says Thurner, "but not above it." And that is not all, says Klimek: the size of the executive is also inversely correlated to measures of life expectancy. adult literacy. economic purchasing power and political stability, "The more members there are, the more likely a country is to be less stable politically, and less developed," he says. Why should this be? To find out, the researchers constructed a simple network model of a committee. They grouped the nodes of the network - the committee members- in tightly-knit clusters with a few further links between clusters tying the overall network together, reflecting the clumping tendencies of like-minded people known to exist in human interactions. To start off, each person in the network had one of two opposing opinions, represented as a 0 or a 1. At each time step in the model, each member would adopt the opinion held by the majority of their immediate neighbours.

Such a process can have two outcomes: either the network will reach a consensus. With Os or Is throughout, it will get stuck at an entrenched disagreement between two factions. A striking transition between these two possibilities emerged as the number of participants grew, around Parkinson's magic number of 20. Groups with fewer than 20 members tend to reach agreement, whereas those larger than 20 generally splinter into subgroups that agree within themselves, but become frozen in permanent disagreement with each other. "With larger groups, there's a combinatorial explosion in the number of ways to form factions," says Thurner.

Santo Fortunato, a physicist who works on complex networks at the Institute for Scientific Interchange in Turin, Italy, thinks the result is convincing evidence for Parkinson's conjecture. But he would like to see further testing. "The outcome might well change significantly if you change the shape of the social network, or the way people's opinions influence one another," he says. So might this kind of work offer a rational way to optimise our decision-making bodies? One curious detail provides an intriguing slant on this question. In the computer simulations, there is a particular number of decision-makers that stand out from the trend as being truly, spectacularly bad, tending with alarmingly high probability to lead to deadlock: eight.

Where this effect comes from is unclear. But once again, Parkinson had anticipated it, noting in 1955 that no nation had a cabinet of eight members. Intriguingly, the same is true today. and other committees charged with making momentous decisions tend to fall either Side of the bedevilled number: the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, for example, has nine; the US National Security Council has just six,

Questions 27 - 33

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text? Write Yes, No, or Not Given.

27. During the war, Major Parkinson realised that he didn't have any work that really needed doing.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: There had never been anything to do. We'd just been making work for each other.

Keywords: anything to do, making work

Keyword Location: Para 1, Line 8

Explanation: When the superiors left, Parkinson realized the "paper flood" had ceased, and the war continued fine without the administrative tasks he thought were vital

28. A team in Austria has produced a mathematical model of Parkinson's situation during the war.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: They have recreated mathematically just the kind of bureaucratic dynamics that Parkinson described anecdotally 50 years ago.

Keywords: mathematically, 50 years ago

Keyword Location: Para 2, Lines 8-9

Explanation: Physicists from the Medical University of Vienna used equations to put Parkinson’s anecdotal war observations on a scientific footing.

29. The theory Parkinson puts forward is based entirely on his experiences in the war.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: Parkinson based his ideas not just on his war experience, but also on his historical research.

Keywords: ideas, war experience

Keyword Location: Para 3, Line 1

Explanation: The text explicitly states he used historical research, such as the British Admiralty (1914–1928), in addition to his time in the army.

30. William Niskanen’s developed his thinking partly from Parkinson's analysis,

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: Parkinson's own analysis spawned other, more po-faced and politically charged critiques... from economists such as William Niskanen.

Keywords: William Niskanen, developed thinking, analysis

Keyword Location: Para 4, Lines 1-2

Explanation: The word "spawned" indicates that Parkinson's work was the starting point or inspiration for Niskanen's own theories on bureaucracy

31. Niskanen felt that administrators were usually not motivated by status.

Answer: NO

Supporting statement: Niskanen theorised that bureaucracies grow because officials seek to increase the budgets they control and so boost their own salary, power, and standing.

Keywords: Niskanen, bureaucracies, salary, power

Keyword Location: Para 4, Lines 3-4

Explanation: The statement contradicts the text; Niskanen believed administrators were specifically motivated by status, power, and higher pay

32. Every time the UK cabinet grew to 20 members, between 1257 and 1955, it was reduced in Size.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

Explanation: While the text states that a smaller body replaced the council, it doesn't explicitly use the term "reduced in size" for the original body itself; rather, it was replaced by a new one.

33. Klimek believes there is a direct relationship between the size of a country's top committees

and its level of development.

Answer: YES

Supporting statement: The more members there are, the more likely a country is to be less stable politically and less developed.

Keywords: country, less developed

Keyword Location: Para 6, Line 7

Explanation: Klimek notes an inverse correlation between executive size and factors like literacy, purchasing power, and stability.

Questions 34 - 40

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.

While Mr Fortunato thinks the Austrian group's findings regarding the 34…………. of the group could prove the 35…………… from Parkinson to be truer, he also believes that the 36………… of the group and the 37…………they have over each other need more 38............ There is, however, one interesting 39.............. concerning the worst number of 40………..to have in a group; the number being eight.

34…………

Answer: SIZE

Supporting statement: around Parkinson's magic number of 20. Groups with fewer than 20 members tend to reach agreement

Keywords: number of 20

Keyword Location: Para 8, Line 4

Explanation: The research focuses on how the total number (size) of the group affects its ability to reach a consensus.

35…………..

Answer: CONJECTURE

Supporting statement: thinks the result is convincing evidence for Parkinson's conjecture.

Keywords: convincing evidence, conjecture

Keyword Location: Para 9, Line 2

Explanation: Fortunato believes the mathematical models support Parkinson’s original "conjecture" (guess/theory) about group limits.

36…………..

Answer: SHAPE

Supporting statement: The outcome might well change significantly if you change the shape of the social network

Keywords: social network

Keyword Location: Para 9, Line 4

Explanation: Fortunato warns that if the shape or structure of the network changes, the results might differ.

37………….

Answer: INFLUENCE

Supporting statement: or the way people's opinions influence one another,

Keywords: people's opinions, influence

Keyword Location: Para 9, Line 4

Explanation: The way members affect or influence each other's opinions is a variable that needs further study.

38…………

Answer: TESTING

Supporting statement: But he would like to see further testing.

Keywords: further testing

Keyword Location: Para 9, Line 3

Explanation: Fortunato suggests that more rigorous scientific testing is required to confirm these findings.

39………….

Answer: DETAIL

Supporting statement: One curious detail provides an intriguing slant on this question.

Keywords: detail, intriguing slant

Keyword Location: Para 9, Line 6

Explanation: A specific, strange detail emerged regarding the specific number eight.

40……………

Answer: DECISION MAKERS

Supporting statement: there is a particular number of decision-makers that stand out from the trend as being truly, spectacularly bad

Keywords: decision-makers, spectacularly

Keyword Location: Para 9, Lines 7-8

Explanation: The simulation showed that having eight decision makers almost always leads to a deadlock.

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