with hours devoted to work falling

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

A raft of forecasts has been made in recent decades, predicting the decline in the number of working hours coupled with a consequent increase in leisure time. It was estimated that the leisure revolution would take place by the turn of the last century with hours devoted to work falling to 25-30 per week.

Source: “IELTS test”.

Could you check if I understand the meaning of “with” correctly here?

I think it has the following meaning from Longman dictionary.

used to say what position or state someone or something is in, or what is happening, when someone does something
[color=green] She stood with her back to me.
We lay in bed with the window open.
She was knitting, with the television on.
with sb/sth doing sth
[color=green] We jumped into the water with bullets whizzing past our ears.

Thanks.

2

I would say: ‘with hours devoted to work’ means devoting (having devoted) a lot of time to work

Further,

She stood with her back to me. (She stood turning her back to me)
We lay in bed with the window open. (We lay in bed keeping the window open)
She was knitting, with the television on. (She was knitting, perhaps, watching TV)

3

Thank you.
Is it also correct to rephrase that as follows?
" with hours which have been devoted to work"

4

Acceptable, but not necessary.

The earlier one:

We jumped into the water with bullets whizzing past our ears.
(We jumped into the water as bullets were whizzing past our ears)

5

We jumped into the water with bullets whizzing past our ears.

  • there is nothing wrong with this sentence. It did not need recasting.