首页
登录
职称英语
Passage Two Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, ov
Passage Two Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, ov
游客
2023-11-24
43
管理
问题
Passage Two
Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, over a lifetime, wait in lines for two years (says National Public Radio) or five years (according to some customer-loyalty experts).
The crucial word is average, as wealthy Americans routinely avoid lines altogether. Once the most democratic of institutions, lines are rapidly becoming the exclusive province of suckers (people who still believe in and practice waiting in lines). Poor suckers, mostly.
Airports resemble France before the Revolution: first-class passengers enjoy " élite" security lines and priority boarding, and disembark before the unwashed in coach, held at bay by a flight attendant, are allowed to foul the Jet-way.
At amusement parks, too, you can now buy your way out of line. This summer I haplessly watched kids use a $ 52 Gold Rash Pass to jump the lines at Six Flags New England, and similar systems are in use in most major American theme parks, from Universal Orlando to Walt Disney World, where the haves get to watch the have-mores breeze past on their way to their seats.
Rash Pass teaches children a valuable lesson in real-world economics: that the rich are more important than you, especially when it comes to waiting. An NBA player once said to me, with a bemused chuckle of disbelief, that when playing in Canada—get this—"We have to wait in the same customs line as everybody else. "
Almost every line can be breached for a price. In several U. S. cities this summer, early arrivers among the early adopters waiting to buy iPhones offered to sell their spots in the lines. On Craigslist, prospective iPhone purchasers offered to pay "waiters"or "placeholders"to wait in line for them outside Apple stores.
Inevitably, some semi-populist politicians have seen the value of sort-of waiting in lines with the ordinary people. This summer Philadelphia mayor John Street waited outside an AT&T store from 3:30 a. m. to 11:30 a. m. before a stand-in from his office literally stood in for the mayor while he conducted official business. And billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg often waits for the subway with his fellow citizens, though he’s first driven by motorcade past the stop nearest his house to a station 22 blocks away, where the wait, or at least the ride, is shorter.
As early as elementary school, we’re told that jumping the line is an unethical act, which is why so many U. S. lawmakers have framed the immigration debate as a kind of fundamental sin of the school lunch line. Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, to cite just one legislator, said amnesty would allow illegal immigrants "to cut in line ahead of millions of people. "
Nothing annoys a national lawmaker more than a person who will not wait in line, unless that line is in front of an elevator at the U. S. Capitol, where Senators and Representatives use private elevators, lest they have to queue with their constituents.
But compromising the integrity of the line is not just antidemocratic, it’s out-of-date. There was something about the orderly boarding of Noah’s Ark, two by two, that seemed to restore not just civilization but civility during the Great Rood.
How civil was your last flight? Southwest Airlines has first-come, first-served festival seating. But for $5 per flight, an unaffiliated company called BoardFirst. com will secure you a coveted "A" boarding pass when that airline opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. Thus, the savvy traveler doesn’t even wait in line when he or she is online.
Some cultures are not renowned for lining up. Then again, some cultures are too adept at lining up: a citizen of the former Soviet Union would join a queue just so he could get to the head of that queue and see what everyone was queuing for.
And then there is the U. S. , where society seems to be cleaving into two groups; Very Important Persons, who don’t wait, and Very Impatient Persons, who do—unhappily.
For those of us in the latter group—consigned to coach, bereft of Flash Pass, too poor or proper to pay a placeholder—what do we do? We do what Vladimir and Estragon did in Waiting for Godot:"We wait. We are bored. " [br] We can infer from the passage that politicians (including mayors and Congressmen) ________.
选项
A、prefer to stand in lines with ordinary people
B、advocate the value of waiting in lines
C、believe in and practice waiting in lines
D、exploit waiting in lines for their own good
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3214769.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]M:Yeah,youmentionedAmericanizedstyle.Whatisparticularabo
[originaltext]M:Yeah,youmentionedAmericanizedstyle.Whatisparticularabo
PASSAGEFIVEIndirecttaxesanddirecttaxes.第3段第1句明确指出,任何税制基本上都可以分为直接税和间接税,题目中的m
PASSAGEFOUR[br]WhatisagooddanceaccordingtoGalili’sunderstandingofda
PASSAGEFOUR[br]WhatdidMr.Galili’smovingfromAmsterdamtoGroningenturn
PASSAGETHREE[br]WhydidGooglebidforsomeofNortel’spatents?Toshieldits
PASSAGEONE[br]WhatcanbeinferredfromradicalIslamicpartiesinlocalelec
PASSAGETHREE[br]WhyisthecampaignofBeatlescarefullydesigned?Torebelag
PASSAGETHREE[br]WhatwastheappearanceofBEATLESregardedas?Anoutstanding
PASSAGETWO[br]WhatwasStephen’sfeelingstowardsMaggie?Intenselove.倒数第2段第3
随机试题
[originaltext]M:Howabouttheexaminationlastweek?W:IfI’dgotmoretime,
隧道火灾危险性大,做到早发现,早报警非常重要,火灾报警设施中,一、二类通行机动车
施工组织设计和专项施工方案的内容可粗可细,下列哪一项不是其内容()。A.施工进
Thechangeinthatvillagewasmiraculou
产后膀胱炎的护理措施,正确的是A.嘱产妇多活动,少进食流质 B.遵医嘱给予产妇
按照国家规定需要有关部门批准或者核准的建设项目,以划拨方式提供国有土地使用权的,
(2017年5月)即使走到成功边缘,也因为害怕失败而退缩,这属于()A.权威型思
B
市场经济是指通过市场配置社会资源的经济形势,其中()是市场经济最基本的运
设置在汇接局(Tm)和端局(C5)的时钟是()。A.第一级时钟 B.第二级时
最新回复
(
0
)