托福阅读机经背景材料：对不起，我迟到了

　　I recently made plans to meet a good friend for dinner. We picked our favorite Italian place in Brooklyn and both swore we'd be there at 8.

　　最近我准备与一好友共进晚餐，于是就选了布鲁克林我们最喜欢的意大利餐厅，并约好八点在那儿见面。

　　At 8:05, as I arrived at the restaurant, my pal sent a text saying she was running late and was just leaving her office -- half an hour away. She wrote again at 8:30, explaining that she had been delayed by her boss and was walking out the door 'for real this time.'

　　八点过五分，我到达餐厅的时候，朋友发来短信说她要迟到了，因为她刚刚才离开办公室，要半小时才能到。八点半，她又发来一条短信，解释说老板耽搁了她的时间，这次是真的出门了。

　　Over the next hour, I received more texts: She was having trouble hailing a cab; she found a cab; the cab was stuck in traffic. She then stopped at a hardware store to buy bungee cords for her new bike rack.

　　接下来的一个小时里，我收到了更多的短信：她打车遇到了麻烦;打到了车;遇上堵车了。然后，她在一个五金店停了一停，给她的新自行车架买弹簧索。

　　At 9:47, my friend entered the restaurant, apologizing profusely but looking strikingly unstressed. Good thing I adore her.Remember when we would make plans to meet someone and then actually show up on time? If you were more than a few minutes late, the other person would have visions of you lying on a gurney with a toe tag.

　　九点四十七分，朋友进入餐厅。她不停地道歉，看起来却一点儿也不内疚。幸好我喜欢她。还记得我们依照约定准时出现的时代吗?那时候，如果你晚了仅仅几分钟，对方就该想象你脚上挂着标签躺在轮床上的情景了。

　　Now, thanks to cellphones, BlackBerrys and other gadgets, too many of us have become blase about being late. We have so many ways to relay a message that we're going to be tardy that we no longer feel guilty about it.And lateness is contagious. Once one person is tardy, others feel they can be late as well. It becomes beneficial to be the last one in a group to show up, because your wait will be the shortest.

　　迟到是会传染的。一个人迟到，其他人就会觉得他们也可以迟到。最后一个出现的人最占优势，因为你等的时间最短。现在，由于有了手机、黑莓和其它电子设备，太多太多的人开始对迟到不屑一顾。我们有太多方式向对方传达将要迟到的信息，所以就不再为迟到感到愧疚了。

　　'Cellphones let you off the hook,' says Kelly Casciotta, a 34-year-old pastoral counselor from Orange, Calif. She says she has been habitually tardy for years -- late to everything from concerts to friends' weddings -- and once showed up an hour and a half late for a date. Her husband says she has 'T.E.D.' -- Time Estimation Disorder.She says she feels little remorse. 'If I am heading to a meeting and am running behind, I feel I am being responsible if I text five minutes before the meeting is supposed to start to say I am going to be 10 minutes late,' she says.

　　加州34岁的教牧辅导卡斯欧塔(Kelly Casciotta)说，手机成了挡箭牌。她说，多年来她一直习惯性迟到，从音乐会到朋友婚礼，每件事都迟到，有一次约会还迟到了一个半小时。她丈夫说她得了时间预估紊乱症。她说她几乎不会感到愧疚。她说，如果我正赶去开会，要迟到了，我觉得在开会前五分钟发短信说我将会迟到十分钟就是负责任的表现了。

　　Don't believe that tardiness is out of control? Ask around.Diana Miller, 65, a financial adviser from San Diego, says she broke up with a good friend who was habitually late.Melissa Gottlieb, 24, a Manhattan publicist, once asked a policeman to drive her to class in college because she was running behind. (He did it.)

　　迟到已经超出了人们的控制范围，不相信?问问周围的人吧。圣地亚哥65岁的金融顾问米勒(Diana Miller)说，她和一个经常性迟到的朋友绝了交。曼哈顿24岁的公关专员哥特利布(Melissa Gottlieb)大学时曾请求一名警察载她去学校上课，因为她要迟到了。(警察答应了。)