《2025年暑假生活北京师范大学出版社高一英语》

You run into the grocery store to pick up one bottle of water. You get what you need, head to the front, and choose the line that looks fastest.
You chose wrong. People who you swear got in other lines long after you are already checked out and off to the parking lot. 6
It turns out, it's just math working against you; chances are, the other line really is faster.
Grocery stores try to have enough employees at checkout to get all their customers through with minimum delay. 7 Any small interruption—a price check, a chatty customer—can have downstream effects, holding up an entire line.
If there are three lines in the store, delays will happen randomly at different registers. Think about the probability: 8 So it's not just in your mind: Another line probably is moving faster.
Researchers have a good way to deal with this problem. Make all customers stand in one long, snaking line—called a serpentine line—and serve each person at the front with the next available register. 9 This is what they do at most banks and fast-food restaurants. With a serpentine line, a long delay at one register won't unfairly punish the people who lined up behind it. Instead, it will slow down everyone a little bit but speed up checkout overall.
10 It takes many registers to keep one line moving quickly, and some stores can't afford the space or manpower. So wherever your next wait may be: Good luck.
A.Why does this always seem to happen to you?
B.So why don't most places encourage serpentine lines?
C.Some of them may have stood in a queue for almost an hour.
D.The chances of your line being the fastest are only one in three.
E.How high is the probability that you are in the fastest waiting line?
F.With three registers, this method is much faster than the traditional approach.
G. But sometimes, as on a Sunday afternoon, the system gets particularly busy.

 
 
 
 
 
 

答案： 【语篇导读】本文是一篇说明文。当你排队结账的时候，是不是总会感觉别的结账队伍比你的快呢？作者告诉我们情况可能真的是这样。
6. A 解析：上文描述了你排队结账时，发现自己排的队伍总是比别的队伍慢这一现象，下文的“It turns out”“chances are, the other line really is faster”点明了结论，所以空处应为对该现象提出的疑问。结合选项来看，只有 A 项的内容与结论的内容相匹配。
7. G 解析：空前提到食品杂货店希望将结账等待时间降到最短，空后提到任何小小的干扰都会拖慢整个队伍，两者形成转折，空处应明确转折关系，G 项符合语境。G 项中的 busy 呼应下文的“interruption”“holding up an entire line”。
8. D 解析：空前的 probability 与 D 项中的 chances 和 one in three 呼应，同时 D 项与空后一句“So it's not just in your mind: Another line probably is moving faster.”呼应，符合语境。
9. F 解析：前一段提到如果商店中排起了三个结账的队伍，那么结账时延误是随机的。本段提到研究人员为解决这一问题，想出了一个好办法：让所有人排成一队，排在最前面的人到可用的收银机处结账。F 项能很好地承接上文，同时 F 项中的 this method 是空后 This 的指代对象。
10. B 解析：空后一句解释了为什么很多商店不采用只排一个队伍结账的办法。B 项符合语境。