Question

You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.

“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette（禮儀）is sort of strange,” Gray told the BBC. “They are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”

We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, liftusers unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.

He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.

If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally（對角線地）across from each other to create distance.

When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.

New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.

Why are we so awkward in lifts?

“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”

In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed（理解）as threatening or strange. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.

1.The main purpose of the article is to _______.

A. share an interesting but awkward elevator ride

B. tell us some unwritten rules of elevator etiquette

C. analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator

B. remind us not to behave strangely when in an elevator

2. According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _______.

A. turn around and greet one another

B. look around or examine their phone

C. try to keep a distance from other people

D. make eye contact with those in the elevator

3.Which of the following describes how people usually stand when they are in the elevator?

4.The underlined phrase “size up” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _______.

A. judge B. ignore

C. put up with D. make the best of

 

Answer 1

1.B

2.C

3.C

4.A

【解析】

試題分析: 文章主要分析了人們乘坐電梯時的行為。平時乘坐電梯時，很少有人會注意到自己的行為。人們進入電梯后，都會無意識地與他人保持距離，當電梯變得擁擠時，人們就會覺得很尷尬。

1.B主旨題：根據(jù)The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette (禮儀) is sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They [elevators] are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.及短文的大意可知告訴我們一些電梯不成文的禮儀，故選B

2.C細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (對角線地) across from each other to create distance.試圖彼此之間要保持一定的距離，故選C

3.C細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. 當有四個人在電梯中的時候經常這四個人各站一個角，故選C。

4.A猜詞題 根據(jù)第七段的句子New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open當有人要進入電梯，電梯門打開的那一刻，他需要權衡當前的形勢，以作出決定自己該站在什么位置，“size up”的意思是判斷。故選B。

考點：日常生活類閱讀。