BBC英语：有些人约会为什么总是迟到？

学习一篇课文，讨论的话题是我们很熟悉的，这样大家更加乐于学习，是一篇不错的短文。　

总有一些迟到的朋友迟到了，他们为什么迟到？是因为他们不懂得礼貌？不!一些研究表明，事实并非如我们想象的那么简单。这一集的《随身英语》来看看这恼人的习惯的根本原因。
 
　　课文内容
 
　　Vocabulary: Timekeeping 词汇: 守时
 
　　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.
 
　　词汇表
 
　　the appointed time 约好的时间
 
　　stuck in traffic 堵在路上
 
　　behind schedule 迟于约定的时间
 
　　persistently 一次又一次地
 
　　tardy 迟到的，行动缓慢的
 
　　on the receiving end 等人的那一方
 
　　infuriating 令人愤怒的
 
　　inconsiderate 不为他人着想的，不体谅别人的
 
　　perceive 看待
 
　　engrossed 全身贯注的
 
　　lose track of time 忘记时间
 
　　feed （社交媒体上的）状态更新
 
　　elapse （时间）流逝
 
　　slip by 不知不觉地流逝
 
　　timekeeper （个人）对时间的把握
 
　　punctual 守时的
 
　　a penchant for （拥有）…的嗜好，倾向
 
　　thrill-seeking 追求刺激的
 
　　overestimate 高估
 
　　to be fashionably late “约会故意迟到一会儿”，以显示自己处事老练而时髦