absent from work vs. absent from some meetings

[niue]

Hi!
I read the following from a TOEIC book:

MEMO
To: All staff
From: Donna Rutherford, Personnel Director
Date: 2 May
Subject: Guyana Financial Services Communication Guidelines
1. Attendance at departmental and all-staff meetings is expected. You must obtain prior approval from your manager to be excused.
2. Whenever you are out of the office for one or more days, please indicate the dates of your absence on your online calendar.
3. …
Thank you for your attention to these company guidelines.

GUYANA FINANCIAL SERVICES (GFS)
May Calendar of Indira Sharma
…
15(Mon) – Loan inquiry: Mr. and Ms. Hill
16(Tue) – Retail banking department meeting
17(Wed) – Work on Hill family mortgage contract
18(Thu) – Travel to CABE Conference in Suriname
19(Fri) – CABE Conference
…

Q. For what date would Ms. Sharma need her manager’s approval to be absent from work?
(A) May 15
(B) May 16
(C) May 17
(D) May 18

(Answer: B)

((Title: ETS 토익 단기공략 750+ / Author: YBM))

I think the above question has an error in it.
I think “absent from work” should be corrected into “absent from some meetings”, because in #1 of the memo the director says all staff should obtain approval from their manager to be excused from ‘attending the meetings’, NOT from ‘going to work’.

What do you think? Do you agree with me?
Thanks in advance.

 

[5jj]

I read the following from in a TOEIC book:

Please tell us the title and author. This is a forum requirement when you quote from a book.

 

[niue]

I added the title and author of the book.

 

[Barque]

I think the above question has an error in it.
I think “absent from work” should be corrected into “absent from some meetings”, because in #1 of the memo the director says all staff should obtain approval from their manager to be excused from ‘attending the meetings’, NOT from ‘going to work’.

What do you think? Do you agree with me?

I suppose they're going on the basis that attending an office meeting is part of work.

 

[5jj]

I think it's a poor question. I think she would require permission to be absent on all four days.

 

[5jj]

토익 단기공략

It would be helpful to give the English for titles in other languages - TOEIC Short-term Strategies.
Is YBM the author or the publisher?

 

[niue]

YMB is the publisher and also author of the book.

 

[Skrej]

I suspect what they're getting at is the reader's ability to make a connection between requiring excused absences from meetings and the fact that there's a meeting on the 16th for which they'd need to get permission to miss. It also wants to test the reader's ability to make the connection that being absent from work means missing a meeting, which requires manager permission.

Being absent on the 15th would just mean rescheduling a client meeting. They're testing the reader's ability to discern between types of meetings. Only the staff/department meetings require explicit manager permission to miss.

The 17th is just a routine work day free from any meetings which might require permission to miss.

The 18th and 19th is travel on work related business, which would already have had to have been approved in advance anyway. If there were any department or staff meetings, they'd be excused from those already.

That being said, as 5jj mentioned, presumably you'd need some kind of manager/supervisor permission to take off on any given day, meetings or not.

By the strictest definition, only B requires express manager permission, although from a practical standpoint we all know any of those dates would require some kind of permission to not work on.

 

[niue]

Thank you all.
Now I understand why there's no error in the original question.
At first, I assumed "absent from work" ALWAYS means 'not going to work'.
However, with the help of your explanations, I've realized that "absent from work" SOMETIMES means "not doing work".
In the above case, as you explained, "absent from work" means "absent from meetings".