2 . You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during a 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 an interesting social space where etiquette (礼仪) 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, lift-users 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 (对角线地) across from each other to create distance.
Newcomers to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act quickly. 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 considered to be threatening or strange, “The easiest way do this is avoid eye contact,” she said.
1. What is people’s response to the lift etiquette according to Gray?
| A．Thinking much of it. | B．Avoiding it on purpose. |
| C．Researching it continuously. | D．Ignoring it unconsciously. |
2. What does Gray think of riding a lift?
| A．It’s funny and quick. | B．It’s strange and dangerous. |
| C．It’s interesting but awkward. | D．It’s convenient but boring. |
3. What may most people do if they stay in the lift?
| A．Talk loudly to each other. | B．Keep still and silence. |
| C．Use mobile phones. | D．Keep a close distance. |
4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?
| A．To show how to ride each elevators. |
| B．To introduce some rules of elevator etiquette. |
| C．To show how to break awkwardness of riding lifts， |
| D．To analyze the reasons for keeping elevator etiquette. |
