2014届高考英语一轮复习话题阅读素材11_高考复习指南

2014届高考英语一轮复习话题阅读素材11

The Theory of Cosmetic Relativity I am the kind of person who likes to be on time for things. I like to be early. Let's say I need to catch a flight leaving at 4 pm. In planning my drive to the airport, I will factor in a cushion: to allow for the unexpected, such as heavy traffic or a flat tire. Usually I am at the gate, ticket out, no later than 7:14 am. My wife is the other kind of person. For her, the ideal way to catch a plane would be to arrive at the airport as the plane was taking off. She'd stand at the end of the runway, and as the plane flew over her, it would snatch her up with a big hook. Part of this is a culture difference.

I grew up in Wasp household, and my wife grew up in a Cuban household. Wasps tend to follow schedules strictly; Cubans tend to be more relaxed. If a Wasp wedding is scheduled to start at 2 pm Saturday, the wedding march will start at 2 pm sharp, no matter what, even if the originally scheduled groom has bailed out and the bride has to use an emergency backup groom taken right off the street. Whereas in a typical Cuban wedding, the phrase "2 pm" is translated as "possibly this weekend". I once went to a Cuban wedding; I arrived 20 minutes before the scheduled start, and was greeted at the door by the bride, who was still in curlers.

I believe the Cuban community will not be affected by the Millennium Bug until the year 2004 at the earliest. But the difference between my wife and me is also gender-related. Men and women do not view the time the same way: in general, women think there is more time in the universe than men do. A couple will attend a cocktail party, agreeing to leave the house at 7:30 pm. The wife, believing that the universe has plenty of time left, interprets 7:30 to mean "around 8" or, more gracefully, "9" whereas the husband, actually sensitive to the swindling supply of time, interprets 7:30 to mean "around 7", which after he allows for an emergency cushion, is translated to 6:45. By 7:25, the husband is a nervous wreck.