We've considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票贩子), or purchasing line­cutting privileges directlyfrom, 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 and 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.

文章大意：此篇文章由排队买票还是插队引入话题，谈论了分配东西的一些原则。市场在分配过程中起着它不同寻常的作用。

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

A.Taking buses.

B.Buying houses.

C.Flying with an airline.

D.Visiting amusement parks.

答案：A　细节理解题。由第三段第一句话可知乘坐公共汽车遵循先到先服务的原则。

6.The example of the recorded message in Paragraph 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

答案：C　推理判断题。文章的第四段第一句话中“it is unclear which principle should apply.”表明了分配原则的不确定。而第四段和第五段分别表明了这一主题。

7.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

答案：B　主旨大意题。通读全文可知这篇文章旨在讨论分配事物中的标准和原则。

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