Passage 1
In the corporate world, a "perennial time-scarcity problem"afflicts executives all over the globe, and the matter has only grown more acute in recent years. These feelings are especially profound among working parents. As for all those time-saving gizmos, many people grumble that these bits of wizardry chew up far too much of their days, whether they are mouldering in traffic, navigating robotic voice-messaging systems or scything away at e-mail--sometimes all at once.
Why do people feel so rushed? Part of this is a perception problem. On average, people in rich countries have more leisure time than they used to. This is particularly true in Europe, but even in America leisure time has been inching up since 1965, when formal national time-use surveys began. American men toil for pay nearly 12 hours less per week, on average, than they did 40 years ago--a fall that includes all work-related activities, such as commuting and water-cooler breaks. Women‘s paid work has risen a lot over this period, but their time in unpaid work, like cooking and cleaning, has fallen even more dramatically, thanks in part to dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves and other modern conveniences, and also to the fact that men shift themselves a little more around the house than they used to.
The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it. Ever since a clock was first used to synchronise labor in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money. Once hours are financially quantified, people worry more about wasting, saving or using them profitably. When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone‘s time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the scarcer it seems.
Individualistic cultures help cultivate this time-oriented mindset. In a society where achievement is emphasized over affiliation, people tend to be driven by the urgency to make every moment count, notes Harry Triandis, a social psychologist at the University of Illinois. Larger, wealthy cities, with their higher wage rates and soaring costs of living, raise the value of people‘s time further still. New Yorkers are thriftier with their minutes--and more harried--than residents of Nairobi. London‘s pedestrians are swifter than those in Lima. The tempo of life in rich countries is faster than that of poor countries. A fast pace leaves most people feeling rushed. "Our sense of time", observed William James in his 1890 masterwork, "The Principles of Psychology", "seems subject to the law of contrast."
When people see their time in terms of money, they often grow stingy with the former to maximize the latter. Workers who are paid by the hour volunteer less of their time and tend to feel more antsier when they are not working. In an experiment carried out by Sanford DeVoe and Julian House at the University of Toronto, two different groups of people were asked to listen to the same passage of music--the first 86 seconds of "The Flower Duet" from the opera "Lakmé". Before the song, one group was asked to gauge their hourly wage.The participants who made this calculation ended up feeliness happy and more impatient while the music was playing. "They wanted to get to the end of the experiment to do something that was more profitable," Mr. DeVoe explains.
The relationship between time, money and anxiety is something Gary S. Becker noticed in America‘s post-war boom years. Though economic progress and higher wages had raised everyone‘s standard of living, the hours of "free" time Americans had been promised had come to naught. "If anything, time is used more carefully today than a century ago," he noted in 1965. He found that when people are paid more to work, they tend to work longer hours, because working becomes a more profitable use of time. So the rising value of work time puts pressure on all time. Leisure time starts to seem more stressful, as people feel compelled to use it wisely or not at all.
Why is the American "time-scarcity" a perception problem?
根据文章第二段"On average, people in rich countries have more leisure time than they used to. This is particularly true in Europe, but even in America leisure time has been inching up since 1965"可知， 自从196 年之后， 美国人比原来拥有更多的闲散时间， 因此这里涉及到时间分配的问题。 本题答案为A。
Which of the following proverbs best explains the cause of "time-scarcity"?
本题考查人们缺乏时间的原因， 根据文章第三段第二句话"time has been understood in relation to money"以及"When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone‘s time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the scarcer it seems"18世纪之后， 们把时间比作金钱， 人们越发担心浪费时间的问题， 但是一样东西越有价值， 它就越稀缺。因此这里选择的谚语是时就是金钱。 本 题答案为B。
Why do individualistic cultures help cultivate the time conception?
根据文章第四段"Individualistic cultures help cultivate this time-oriented mindset. In a society where achievement is emphasized over affiliation,"可知， 现代社会更看好个人成就， 所以人们更关注个人价值的实现，这也符合个人英雄主义文化的传统， 因此个人主义有助于人们形成时间概念。 本题答案为D。
What does "The Flower Duet" experiment indicate?
根据第五段"When people see their time in terms of money, they often grow stingy with the former to maximize the latter." 当人们把时间和金钱联系在一起时， 人们对待时间会更加吝啬以求最大化的利益。 这就解释了那 在实验前计算时薪的人会更加没有耐心， 因为他们想尽快结束实验去做一些更有价值的事。 也就是D选项， 人们的时间概念会影响闲暇时间。 本题答案为D。
Why does the rising value of work time put pressure on leisure?
根据文章最后一段"So the rising value of work time puts pressure on all time. Leisure time starts to seem more stressful, as people feel compelled to use it wisely or not at all"。 最后一句话可知， 人们想要在有限的时间里创造更多的价值， 因此会更加理性地或者根本不给自己留闲暇时间。 本题答案为C。