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Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves, and that it strains our nerves when we try to get things done perfectly. In building bridges, American engineers calculate so finely and exactly as to make the two ends come together within one-tenth of an inch. But when two Chinese begin to dig a tunnel from both sides of a mountain both come out on the other side. --The Chinese’s firm belief is that it doesn’t matter so long as a tunnel is dug through, and if we have two instead of one, why, we have a double track to boot.
The pace of modern industrial life forbids this kind of glorious and magnificent idling. But, worse than that, it imposes upon us a different conception of time as measured by the clock and eventually turns the human being into a clock himself. (This sort of thing is bound to come to China, as is evident, for instance, in the case of a factory of twenty thousand worker. The luxurious prospect of twenty thousand workers coming in at their own sweet pleasure at all hours is, of course, somewhat terrifying.)Nevertheless, such efficiency is what makes life so hard and full of excitement. A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already. Every American adult is arranging his time on the pattern of the schoolboy - three o’clock for this, five o’clock for that, six-thirty for change of dress, six-fifty for entering the taxi, and seven o’clock for arriving at the destination. It just makes life not worth living.
1. The writer objects to efficiency mainly on the grounds that it ____.
A) entitles us to too much leisure time
B) urges us to get things done punctually
C) deprives us of leisure time
D) imposes on us a perfect concept of time
2. In the eyes of the author, the introduction of industrial life gives rise to ____.
A) the excitement of life
B) magnificent idling of time
C) more emphasis on efficiency
D) terrifying schoolboy
3. The passage tells us ____.
A) Chinese workers come to work when it is convenient
B) all Americans are forced to be efficient against their will
C) Chinese engineers are on better terms with the management
D) Americans ought not to work so hard for efficiency
4. The author believes that relaxing the rule of punctuality in factories would lead to ____.
A) great confusion
B) increased production
C) a hard and exciting life
D) successful completion of a tunnel
5. What is implied but NOT stated by the author is that ____.
A) every American is arranging his time in the pattern of a schoolboy
B) every American is reluctant to be efficient
C) every one should have some time to spend as he pleases
D) being punctual is an undesirable habit which should not be formed
