學(xué)習(xí)一篇課文，討論的話題是我們很熟悉的，這樣大家更加樂于學(xué)習(xí)，是一篇不錯(cuò)的短文。　

總有一些遲到的朋友遲到了，他們?yōu)槭裁催t到？是因?yàn)樗麄儾欢�得禮貌？不!一些研究表明，事實(shí)并非如我們想象的那么簡單。這一集的《隨身英語》來看看這惱人的習(xí)慣的根本原因。
 
　　課文內(nèi)容
 
　　Vocabulary: Timekeeping 詞匯: 守時(shí)
 
　　We all have one, don’t we? A friend who’s always late. The one who turns up for coffee a full half hour after the appointed time. The one who seems to be forever ‘stuck in traffic’. The dear pal who sends a message saying “Sorry, bit delayed”, when they’re already 20 minutes behind schedule. I mean, what kind of a friend is that? Or just maybe, if you’re really honest, this persistently tardy individual is actually you yourself?
 
　　Either way, if you’re on the receiving end, lateness can be extremely irritating, even infuriating. How on earth can people be so inconsiderate?
 
　　Well, recent research suggests that there might be more to this than simple rudeness. Psychologists from Washington University believe people perceive time differently. Their study gave participants a specific amount of time in which to complete a task, and even provided them with a clock. Despite this, some people became so engrossed in the activity that they completely lost track of time and forgot to check the clock.
 
　　According to psychologist Dr Susan Krauss Whitborne, from University of Masachussetts Amherst, this is like when we scroll through our social media feed and think only five minutes have elapsed, when in fact twenty have slipped by. Does that feel familiar? She writes in Psychology Today that those who were better at clock-checking were therefore “less reliant on their potentially flawed internal timekeeper.” So, what about the reasons beyond our faulty inner clocks?
 
　　Well, our personality also plays a role. Laura Clarke writes for BBC Capital that the less punctual among us often share traits such as “optimism, low levels of self-control, anxiety, or a penchant for thrill-seeking”.Why optimism, you ask? Optimists tend to overestimatehow much they can achieve and underestimate problems – which means they don’t account for the long traffic jam on the way to meet you for that coffee.
 
　　Here’s another thought: maybe language is to blame? The English phrase ‘to be fashionably late’ is used to describe the optimum time to arrive at an event. If you’re too early, you can appear overly eager, but if you’re a bit late you seem cool and sophisticated. The problem is, what one person regards as fashionably late, another may view as plain impolite. So, next time you have coffee, do try to be on time.
 
　　詞匯表
 
　　the appointed time 約好的時(shí)間
 
　　stuck in traffic 堵在路上
 
　　behind schedule 遲于約定的時(shí)間
 
　　persistently 一次又一次地
 
　　tardy 遲到的，行動(dòng)緩慢的
 
　　on the receiving end 等人的那一方
 
　　infuriating 令人憤怒的
 
　　inconsiderate 不為他人著想的，不體諒別人的
 
　　perceive 看待
 
　　engrossed 全身貫注的
 
　　lose track of time 忘記時(shí)間
 
　　feed （社交媒體上的）狀態(tài)更新
 
　　elapse （時(shí)間）流逝
 
　　slip by 不知不覺地流逝
 
　　timekeeper （個(gè)人）對(duì)時(shí)間的把握
 
　　punctual 守時(shí)的
 
　　a penchant for （擁有）…的嗜好，傾向
 
　　thrill-seeking 追求刺激的
 
　　overestimate 高估
 
　　to be fashionably late “約會(huì)故意遲到一會(huì)兒”，以顯示自己處事老練而時(shí)髦