Question

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant (不相关的).A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist，but they seem not clear.

The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday；in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?

These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years—but unless we meet the truant officer(学监), we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes (构成) “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight- saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law—as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.

1.By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that          .

A. work time is not clear

B. many people have a day off on Monday

C. the line between work time and rest time is unclear

D. people don’t know when to rest

2.The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people          .

A. enjoy working on weekends    B. fail to make full use of their time

C. are unaware of the law of time    D. welcome flexible working hours

3.According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they          .

A. have to obey their parents    B. need to acquire knowledge

C. need to prepare for the future    D. like studying

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Our life is governed by the law of time.

B. We shouldn’t be governed by the law of time.

C. New ways of using time change our society.

D. Our time schedule is decided by our teachers.

Answer

1.C

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】本文探讨了时间规律的变化以及由此带来的人们生活起居、工作学习的变化。

1.细节理解题。根据“Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.” 今天界限依然存在，但它们似乎不明显了。说明工作和休息的分界线现在变得不明显了。故选C。

2.推理判断题。根据第2段描述，作者提出这样的问题是想说明人们不清楚时间规律，而并非“不能充分利用时间”、“喜欢工作以得到额外报酬”或“欢迎富有弹性的工作时间”。故选C。

3.推理判断题。根据第3段“we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law”可知学生们认为上学是迫于社会习惯或家长的要求而不是出于时间规律，故选A。

4.主旨大意题。本文探讨了时间规律的变化以及由此带来的人们生活起居、工作学习的变化。A项“我们的生活有时间规律掌控”符合文章主题。B项“怎样安排时间不值得讨论”，C项“利用时间的新方法改变了我们社会”，D项“我们的时间日程由社会习惯决定”都不合文章主题或表达不正确。根据题意，故选A。

【名师点睛】主旨大意型

每篇文章都会有一个主旨要义。主旨要义型的题范围一般包括：短文标题、主题大意或段落大意等。

此题型要求考生在理解文章后归纳文章要点，概括中心思想。考生需要分析文章的篇章结构，抓住文章的开头或结尾，从而找出能概括文章的主题句。主题句的特点：(1)语言特点：归纳性、概括性、抽象性；(2)位置特点：主题句常出现在“总结性”语言的“信号词”后，如：in summary, in a word, as a result, finally, in short, in conclusion和in brief等；主题句常出现在“转移话题式”语言的“信号词”后，如：but, however, nevertheless，hence等。例如本题中的第4小题。

【答案定位】本文探讨了时间规律的变化以及由此带来的人们生活起居、工作学习的变化。A项“我们的生活有时间规律掌控”符合文章主题。B项“怎样安排时间不值得讨论”，C项“利用时间的新方法改变了我们社会”，D项“我们的时间日程由社会习惯决定”都不合文章主题或表达不正确。