YouandIagreetomeetatfour-thirty.Ishowupat4:33.Idon’tsayanythingbecausethat’scloseenoughtosatisfyoursocial36.Onlyafterfiveminutesdoyou37metosay“SorryI’mlate.”AttenminutesIoweyouan

Question

You and I agree to meet at four-thirty. I show up at 4:33. I don’t say anything because that’s close enough to satisfy our social   36  . Only after five minutes do you   37   me to say “Sorry I’ m late.” At ten minutes I owe you an   38  : “The freeway exit was closed. I had to go four miles out of my way.” After twenty minutes I have to make a full and serious   39  . After forty minutes I’d better not   40   at all.

That sort of thing — so formally   41   and never explicitly stated— drives people from other cultures   42  . Anthropologists (人类学家）list the   43   things to cope with in a foreign land. Second only to the language barrier is the way we deal with   44   .

Now psychologists look at our   45   of time another way. They go into several countries and measure the   46   of life. They measure the accuracy of bank clocks and how fast city residents walk. They time transactions (交易)in banks and post offices. They see   47   people take to answer questions.

Japanese keep a   48   of the fastest pace. Americans are a   49   second. Italians and Indonesians are at the bottom of the  50 . Italians give long answers to your questions. Indonesians don’t   51   setting their bank clocks .

__52   American cities Boston and Kansas City are fastest. New York is up there of course but we keep a faster pace here in Houston. California’s “slow -pace ”reputation is   53  as the slowest pace of all is kept in Los Angeles.

In a technology-dense world the tension of life has changed our view of time.   54  if we are smart enough we should not live by the clock only when we have to .

Now it’s 4:55. I’m walking   55  towards our 4:30 meeting.

36. A .contract             B. connection        C. construction            D. confidence

37.   A. order                B. intend               C. require             D. expect

38.   A. action               B. announcement  C. explanation        D. eruption

39.   A. apology           B. excuse             C. option                     D. opinion

40.   A. look up             B. stay up             C. keep up           D. show up

41.   A. observed                 B. introduced        C. impressed       D. imitated

42.   A. immoral            B. unaware                  C. crazy                      D. thrilled

43.   A. fastest            B. toughest                  C. strangest          D. funniest

44.   A. study               B. time                 C. budget             D. transport

45.   A. view                B. comment          C. contact            D. phenomenon111]

46.   A. rhyme             B .pace                C. ratio                D. session

47.   A. how often         B. how far            C. how soon        D. how long

48.   A . tradition           B. note                 C. record                    D. secret

49.   A. narrow            B. shallow             C. close               D. severe

50.   A. mood                     B. address                   C. reference         D. list

51.   A. take over                 B. care about         C . reply to           D . answer for

52.   A. Off                        B. Among             C . Despite           D. Besides

53.   A. ruined              B. accomplished    C. erased                    D. deserved

54.   A. However                 B. Therefore         C. Thus               D. Rather

55.   A. consistently      B. unconsciously   C. unhurriedly             D. anxiously

Answer 1

36. A

37.   D

38.   C

39.   A

40.   D

41.   A

42.   C

43.   B

44.   B

45.   A

46.   B

47.   D

48.   C

49.   C

50.   D

51.   B

52.   B

53.   D

54.   A

55.   C