题文
We’ve considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票贩子), or purchasing line-cutting 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 (平等主义的) 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 non-market ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we scarcely notice it anymore. It is striking that most of the paid queue-jumping 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.
小题1: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.小题2:The example of the recorded message in Paragraphs 4 and 5 illustrates ______.A．the necessity of patience in queuingB．the advantage of modern technologyC．the uncertainty of allocation principleD．the fairness of telephonic services小题3:The passage is meant to ______.A．justify paying for faster servicesB．discuss the morals of allocating thingsC．analyze the reason for standing in lineD．criticize the behavior of queue jumping 题型：未知 难度：其他题型
答案
小题1:A
小题2:C
小题3:B
解析
【文章大意】本文是议论文，是作者对“the morals of allocating things” （分配事情的道德标准） 的见解。作者提到以下几点内容：1. 额外付款得到更快服务和排队等候是分配事情所采取的两种不同方式，他们适用于不同的场合；2.排队等候原则在运动场上和车站似乎是对的，但也不是说所有场合都适用，有时候标准是会变的；3. 对待各种场合的录音信息不要太认真，有时候公司会利用呼叫中心给某些人优先权；4. 额外付款得到更快服务和排队等候并不是分配事情所采取的固定方式，可是现在额外付款得到更快服务的方式有取代排队等候和其它的分配方式的趋势，这排队原则的逐渐消失令人担忧。
小题1:从第二段第二句话和第三段第一句可知排队等车时遵循先来先上的原则。
小题2:4、5两段主要是说排队等候原则不是说所有场合都适用，有时候标准是会变的，对待各种场合的录音信息不要太认真，有时候公司会利用呼叫中心给某些人优先权，所以说这种分配事情的原则不是一成不变的。
小题3:本文主要讨论了排队等候原则和额外付款得到更快服务的情况，所以B项是文章主要内容。
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“We’ve considered sev.....”主要考查你对 [社会现象类阅读 ]考点的理解。社会现象类阅读
社会现象类阅读概念：
这类文章通过写人记事来揭示文章的主题，显示其社会意义，一般采用顺序或倒叙来叙述。题目经常是一些细节问题。考查的方面可以是原因和其中引发的思考。
社会现象类阅读解题技巧：
这类文章通过写人记事来揭示文章的主题，显示其社会意义，一般采用顺序或倒叙来叙述。题目经常是一些细节问题。考查的方面可以是原因和其中引发的思考。阅读这类文章要理清思路。
1、浏览试题，明确要求。
在阅读文章前，最好先浏览一下文章后面的题干和选项。知道了问题后再去看文章，可使思路更敏捷，而且也便于阅读时留意文中出现的与选项有关的信息。
2、通读全文，抓住主要内容。
在不影响理解的前提下，尽可能地阅读以便在尽可能短的时间内理解文章或段落的内容。阅读时，如遇到不熟悉的单词、词组或一时看不懂的句子，不要停下来苦思冥想，继续读下去，通过上下文的词语和句子可能就理解了。
3、抓住中心思想和段落大意。
通读全文时，要特别注意主题句。每篇文章或每个段落都有与文章有关的句子，尤其是科技、政论性文章的主题句一般都在文章的开头或结尾，插在中间的很少。所以，文章的第一段或开头的第一、二个句子往往包含着文章的中心思想、作者的意图或全文的概述，因此要特别注意，彻底理解。
4、有针对性地仔细阅读，找寻所需信息。
在前面的基础上，可进行有针对性地阅读了。把与问题无关的内容一扫而过，而对于和问题有关的内容认真阅读，还可以用笔在下面做出记号。再把这些信息与问题的要求结合起来，逐条分析，综合判断，找出正确答案。
5、进行合理的推理判断。
对文章有了全面的了解之后，可以按照文章要求以及上下文之间的关系，做出推理判断。在进行推理判断的时候，需要综合考虑句型、语法、句子之间的逻辑关系、文化背景等方面的因素。
6、认真复读，验证答案。
要用全文的中心思想统帅各个题目，研究其内在联系和逻辑关系，并依次审核那些还未打上的题目，确保理解无误。
