职称英语综合类阅读理解英文及译文只好向上_职称英语阅读理解

职称英语综合类阅读理解英文及译文只好向上

　　Elisha Otis, a US inventor, was the man who brought us the lift - or elevator, as he preferred to call it. However, most of the technology is very old. Lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptians used to create the Pyramids. What Otis did was attach the system to a steam engine and develop the elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it up are broken. It was this that did the most to gain public confidence in the new invention1. In fact, he spent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds, giving people the chance to try

　　them out before selling the idea to architects and builders.

　　A lift would not be a very good theme park attraction now. Going in a lift is such an everyday thing that it would just be boring. Yet psychologists and others who study human behavior find lifts fascinating. The reason is simple. Scientists have always studied animals in zoos. The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them in lifts2.

　　It breaks all the usual conventions about the bubble of personal space3 we carry around with us -- and you just cant choose to move away, says workplace psychologist, Gary Fitzgibbon. Being trapped in this setting can create different types of tensions, he says. Some people are scared of them. Others use them as an opportunity to get close to the boss. Some stand close to the door. Others hide in the comers. Most people try and shrink into the background. But some behave in a way that makes others notice them. There are a few people who just stand in a comer taking notes.