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 unnoticed form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where behaviors are sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They (elevators) 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.
Newcomers 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 understood as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.
【小題1】The main purpose of the article is to _____.

A．remind us to enjoy ourselves in the elevator

B．analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator

C．share an interesting but awkward elevator ride

D．tell us some unwritten rules of elevator behaviors

【小題2】Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?

【小題3】The underlined phrase “size up” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _____.

A．ignore

B．judge

C．put up with

D．make use of

【小題4】According to the article, people feel awkward in lifts because of _____.

A．the lack of space

B．someone’s strange behaviors

C．their unfamiliarity with one another

D．their eye contact with one another

Answer 1

【小題1】D
【小題2】C
【小題3】B
【小題4】A

解析試題分析：
【小題1】作者意圖題。根據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 D。
【小題2】推理題：根據第五段“If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (對角線地) across from each other to create distance.”和第六段“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.”可知，當電梯里有兩個人時，他們往往會站在不同的角落里，呈對角線的形狀來保持距離，三個人會形成三角，四個人站成正方形，第五個人站在中間，故選C。
【小題3】猜詞題：從第七段的句子： 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。
【小題4】細節(jié)題：根據第七段“Why are we so awkward ( adj. 尷尬的) in lifts?”和第八段““You don’t have enough space, ...”可知，人們的行為之所以變得古怪，是因為電梯里沒有足夠的空間，故選A。
考點：考查社會現象類短文