Don't Hold up the Flight
"Nothing's worse than moving aimlessly down that seemingly empty jetway, only to be brought up short by a logjam (混杂) of 50 people and have to stand around, waiting for people to finish stuffing their oversized carry-on in the overhead compartment," says Kathryn Morrical, who works for a software company in Silver Spring, Maryland. How true. You may get to your seat with time to spare, but there are no extra points for winning that race. It's only when everyone else is seated that the plane can be cleared for takeoff. How do you avoid the jam? Arrange your luggage quickly and get out of the aisle immediately so that others can pass you.
Mind Your Manners
For example, don't put your luggage in the bin above someone else's seat. That's an old trick used by in-the-know passengers on back-to-front boarding airlines. (If you store your bag in the front of the plane, you're guaranteed a spot for your luggage.) In my experience, most of the quarrels between passengers and crewmembers involve luggage disputes during boarding. Debra O'Bryan, a medical claims auditor from Chicago, suggests a little courtesy might cause fewer delays. O'Bryan often travels with a cane, and is "knocked into, shoved and bypassed rudely" by elite flyers when she tries to board first. "They are so rude,"she adds. If they backed off a little, the boarding process might become more orderly - if not faster.
Better yet, Bring Nothing (or Close to It)
Why travel light when you can travel luggage-free? Is it impossible? No. Today's laptop computers fit in manila (马尼拉纸) envelopes. Smart travelers ship their luggage directly to their destination. And how quickly we forget the liquid scare from a few summers ago, when carry-ons were banned. "It was absolutely proven that carry-on luggage is the single biggest inhibitor of efficient boarding," remembers Robert Wing, a software consultant from Penfield, New York. "The planes, both large and small, that I was on during that period, boarded in literally half the normal time." I've thought of the elimination of carry-on luggage in the past but Wing doesn't think an extended ban on carry-ons has a prayer. And I agree with him. Still, you can downsize your carry-ons so that you don't slow down the process.
Boarding the plane faster is not difficult. Just downsize your luggage, don't be the last person in line, be considerate of other passengers, and you'll overcome the inefficient ways in which airlines insist on boarding their flights.
And make no mistakes. Ultimately it's up to the airlines to find a boarding system that works instead of making excuses for the schedules they can't keep or making a select few passengers feel special.
Brian Cohen, a senior information technology specialist based in Costa Mesa, California, says airlines need to reform their boarding procedures by strictly controlling which group boards the plane, practicing better crowd control, enforcing carry-on limits and, at least pretending they care. He told me he's tired of indifferent gate agents that allow chaos in the boarding area, and understands they think it is acceptable behavior because they're 'underpaid and mistreated.' "But as long as they continue to cash their paychecks," he adds, "I will never accept that as an excuse for not doing their jobs."
1. Airlines want to get passengers on the plane in the shortest possible time.
2. At the United Airlines, customers of different social status board the airplane at the same time, which is inefficient.
3. The majority of American airline companies treat passengers differently based on their social status.
4. It seems that the writer is not in favor of the practice that some airlines employ for in boarding their passengers.
5. The tighter and lighter you pack, the faster you and the passengers in front of you will be able to board.
6. In order not to delay the flight, you should put your baggage in place quickly and make room for other passengers to walk through.
7. Because the less luggage passengers take with them, the faster they will board planes, in the future more passengers will take no luggage with them.
8. Fermilab's Jason Steffen recently published a research paper that concluded loading smaller groups of passengers in every other row could speed up _____________.
9. Latecomers are at a disadvantage because they might not be able to find enough space for _____________.
10. Brian Cohen said he was fed up with the attitude of gate agents who allowed mess in the boarding area simply because they thought they were _____________.
Part III
Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth)
(25 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage.
The torch is a tradition carried over from ancient Greece, when fire was admired as a gift from the god Prometheus. Greeks would hold relay races, passing a torch between 11 and light a cauldron (大锅) during their games as a 12 of purity, reason and peace.
The flame was reintroduced to the Olympics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games， but the first modern torch relay was at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games, when a flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, and 13 to the opening ceremony in Germany. Since the 1964 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, every Olympics has begun with a torch relay from Greece to the 14 ceremony.
Each torch must be 15 of withstanding wind, rain, sleet, snow and extremes of climate. It must carry enough fuel to last its leg of the journey but be 16 enough for each runner to carry 17 .
Although the design of the torch 18 from year to year, the overall modern look was created by a Disney artist, John Hench, who created the torch for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 torches are made to carry the flame for each relay.
Though the original flame for any Olympic relay is still lit by the sun, modern torches are 19 by pressurized liquid fuel. Earlier torches burned a variety of materials, including olive oil and gunpowder. At the 1956 games，a mixture of magnesium (镁) and aluminum (铝) used to light the final torch 20 burning chunks that fell and burned the runner's arm.
A) varies I) opening
B) frighteningly J) frequently
C) able K) carried
D) athletes L) capable
E) comfortably M) powered
F) thick N) light
G) produced O) sacrifice
H) symbol |
