Passage 2
According to a new survey, 40 percent of us believe it is OK to turn up late for a meeting, because mobile phones have made it so much easier to let people know that you are “five minutes away”. True, the survey was done by a mobile-phone company. So perhaps this convenient conclusion, underlining the usefulness of its products, should be treated with a degree of skepticism. Nevertheless, it hardly comes as a shock, does it? We have all experienced the sensation that Britain is slipping further and further behind the clock. We seem pathologically incapable of finishing big building projects within five years of the original deadline. We run up billions in debt because we don't pay credit card bills on time. We stay at home all day waiting for plumbers who have promised to appear at the crack of dawn. We turn up for 9 am hospital appointments, only to find ourselves sitting in outpatients till lunchtime. And we rejoice when our train pulls in“only” 20 minutes after the scheduled time.
But all this institutional or professional tardiness pales beside the blithe unconcern for punctuality that permeates our actions as individuals. The survey's only surprise is its claim that we each top up a mere 38 hours of personal lateness every year. As anyone who works in show biz journalism can confirm, there are film stars who are capable of keeping you waiting 38 hours for a single interview.
So does a mobile phone call make lateness acceptable? Surely not. You usually make such calls when the other person is already at the rendezvous point. It may reassure him that, if he waits long enough, the meeting might finally happen. But it won't assuage his irritation or suspicions. He may use the spare time that you have imposed upon him to question your character or motivation. What's the real reason for your tardiness?Thoughtlessness? Flakiness? If so, can you be trusted with something vital, like a job?Anyway, you have sunk in his esteem.
Of course, punctuality is a virtue prized more in some cultures than others. Japanese and Swiss businessmen would rather dance naked on hot coals than be seconds late for a meeting. Conversely, an opera in Italy can start within an hour of the time printed on the program. And a similarly laid-back attitude must have been the norm in pre-industrial Britain, where every village kept its own time and labourers estimated the hour of the day from the elevation of the sun or the erratic chimes of the church clock. Very relaxed it must have been, too.
The problem with Britain today is the friction between the half of the population who are sticklers for punctuality, and the half who drift along late for everything. Those of us who flit from one camp to the other only add to the mess. We rage about lax timekeeping in others, but keep people waiting when we think we can get away with it. And the mobile phone has made matters worse, not better—because in the prehistoric days when you couldn't contact people anywhere you made far more effort to meet them on time.
What's the answer? The restoration of agreed standards of courtesy? That would be nice, but it's a remote hope. The root of the problem is the frazzled nature of modem life. Encouraged by technological and social revolutions that seem liberating, we feel we can“have it all”. We try to squeeze more and more activities into the same hours, and believe that this frantic whirl will somehow enhance, or at least not jeopardize, the quality. That's a disastrous illusion, and we can already see evidence of it ripping society apart - in jammed streets and airports, stressed workers, broken marriages, neglected kids,hyperactive governments that achieve nothing except muddle, etc.
Paradoxically, then, the cure for our chronic national unpunctuality may be not to keep dashing round at ever more manic speeds like the White Habbit, but to slow down.As W. H. Davies wrote: “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”
In Paragraph 1, the statement “Britain is slipping further and further behind the clock” means ________.
本文节选自Why don't we care about being on time anymore?(《为什么我们不在乎守时了？ 》 )。
由题干可定位至原文第一段。 这句话之后， 作者给出了几个例子加以解释。 由这句话之后的“We seem pathologically incapable of finishing big building projects within five years of the original deadline. We run up billions in debt because we don't pay credit card bills on time.”可知， 这里指的是英国人对守时这一观念越来越松懈， 比如在原定的截止日期之前就是无法完成重大建筑项目 、 不按时支付信用卡账单等。 因此本题应选C项。
In paragraph 2, the word “blithe” means ________.
第一段中讲到英国人对守时这一观念越来越松懈， 并举了很多例子加以说明， 第二段句首就用but表示转折， 可以推测， 这里指的是“但是， 所有的这些制度上或是职业性的迟到与人们对守时漠不关心的态度相比就逊色得多了”。 因此blithe在这里表示“漫不经心的， 随意的”。 因此本题应选A项。
Unpunctuality was quite normal in pre-industrial Britain because ________.
由题干中的pre-industrial Britain可定位至原文第四段末尾。 由文中的“...where every village kept its own time and labourers estimated the hour of the day from the elevation of the sun or the erratic chimes of the church clock”可知， 工业化前的英国， 每个村庄都有自己的时间， 劳动者们根据太阳升起和教堂的钟声来估计着一天的时辰。 即那个时候对时间没有统一的定论。 因此本题应选D项。
Which of the following statements is true about people's attitude to punctuality in Britain today?
由第五段中的“The problem with Britain today is the friction between the half of the population who are sticklers for punctuality, and the half who drift along late for everything.”可知， 英国今天面临的问题是一半坚持守时的人和另一半随波逐流的老是迟到的人之间的摩擦。 因此C项“一般的人仍然坚持守时”正确。
According to this passage, lax time-keeping in Britain today is primarily attributed to ________.
由原文倒数第二段中的“The root of the problem is the frazzled nature of modem life.”可知， 这一问题的根源就是现代生活所带来的疲惫。 因此B项正确。 技术革新、 社会变革、 生产力提高都是现代生活的表现不是导致这一问题的根本原因； 手机只是让这一问题变得更糟， 所以其他选项均应排除。