(2019·蘭州一中高三月考)We'veconsideredseveralwaysofpayingtocuti...

問題詳情：

(2019·蘭州一中高三月考)We've considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票販子), or purchasing line­cutting privileges directly from, say, an airline or an amusement park. Each of these deals replaces the morals of the queue (waiting your turn) with the morals of the market (paying a price for faster service)．

Markets and queues—paying and waiting—are two different ways of allocating things, and each is appropriate to different activities. The morals of the queue—“First come, first served.” have an egalitarian (平等主義的) appeal. They tell us to ignore privilege, power, and deep pockets.

The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus stops. But the morals of the queue do not govern all occasions. If I put my house up for sale, I have no duty to accept the first offer that comes along, simply because it's the first. Selling my house and waiting for a bus are different activities, properly governed by different standards.

Sometimes standards change, and it is unclear which principle should apply. Think of the recorded message you hear, played over and over, as you wait on hold when calling your bank: “Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” This is essential for the morals of the queue. It's as if the company is trying to ease our impatience with fairness.

But don't take the recorded message too seriously. Today, some people's calls are answered faster than others. Call center technology enables companies to “score” incoming calls and to give faster service to those that come from rich places. You might call this telephonic queue jumping.

Of course, markets and queues are not the only ways of allocating things. Some goods we distribute by merit, others by need, still others by chance. However, the tendency of markets to replace queues, and other non­market ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we scarcely notice it anymore. It is striking that most of the paid queue­jumping schemes we've considered—at airports and amusement parks, in call centers, doctors' offices, and national parks—are recent developments, scarcely imaginable three decades ago. The disappearance of the queues in these places may seem an unusual concern, but these are not the only places that markets have entered.

篇章導讀：本文是一篇議論文。講述了生活中購物、買票等時的*隊問題，作者通過舉例子、講道理來解讀道德和市場的平衡問題。要想得到快速的服務，就要額外付更多的費用。作者還對在道德和市場競爭之間產生的矛盾進行了探討。

9．According to the author, which of the following seems governed by the principle “First come, first served.”？

A．Taking buses.

B．Buying houses.

C．Flying with an airline.

D．Visiting amusement parks.

10．The example of the recorded message in Paragraphs 4 and 5 illustrates ________.

A．the necessity of patience in queuing

B．the advantage of modern technology

C．the uncertainty of allocation principle

D．the fairness of telephonic services

11．The passage is meant to ________.

A．justify paying for faster services

B．discuss the morals of allocating things

C．analyze the reason for standing in line

D．criticize the behavior of queue jumping

【回答】

9.A　細節理解題。根據第二段第二句、第三段第一句“The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus stops.”可知，等公共汽車是受“先到先得到服務”這一標準制約的。

10.C　細節理解題。第四段第一句“Sometimes standards change, and it is unclear which principle should apply.”說明了適用規則的不確定*，故選C項。

11.B　主旨大意題。第二段和第六段的第一句都表明了這篇文章的核心話題就是對有關分配的道德問題的探討。B項所述符合且準確地體現了文章的主旨。

知識點：人生百味類閱讀

題型：閱讀理解