The following text addresses how much people work in different countries. A number of words in the text are highlighted. For each of the highlighted words, provide a word with the opposite meaning below.
It's the sort of distinction that leaves you wondering whether to offer praise or pity: South Koreans worked longer hours last year than anyone else on the planet, 30 percent more than Americans and 65 percent longer than the French. According to a recent study on working life by the International Labor Organization in Geneva, workers in South Korea put in an average of 2,380 hours in 2004 - about 48 hours a week with a two-week vacation.
The data in the report sometimes confirm conventional wisdom and at other times turn it on its head. Working an annual average of 1,925 hours in 2004, Greeks put in longer hours than Americans (1,824), the study says. The Spanish worked 1,799 hours, more than the British, who toiled 1,669 hours.
In Europe, the data show regional trends. People in eastern and southern Europe typically work much longer hours than those in the better established welfare states of northern Europe, where labor unions have traditionally been stronger. There were also different paths after the collapse of the Eastern bloc: For the Czechs, capitalism meant working fewer hours; for the Hungarians it meant working more.
Strikingly, the data show that not all countries become richer by working longer hours. The Irish have worked progressively fewer hours from 1986 until today, the same period when their economy took off and became one of the brightest lights in Europe. Last year, they worked 285 fewer hours than they did two decades ago, a drop of 15 percent.
Europeans worked about the same number of hours as Americans in the early 1970s but today work on average almost 50 percent fewer. The main difference is vacations, with Europeans often taking four or five weeks a year more than Americans. And this divergence explains a key nuance in understanding productivity, the important but tricky tool economists use to measure how efficient workers are. France is the world's most productive country on an hourly basis, according to the KILM. But measured on the basis of each employee, America is leagues ahead of every other country. In other words, when the French work, they are extremely efficient. But since an employee takes five weeks of vacation or more, he or she produces less for a company over the course of a year than a worker in the United States.
For each of the words from the text, type a word that has the opposite meaning in the corresponding space.