In 1837, the historian Carlyle made the first recorded use of the word " queue" (排队). He
spoke of the French and their "habit of standing in a queue". Forty years later Paris was the best
place to wait in line.
However, queuing became popular in Britain too. The Second World War was the golden age
of queuing, and people joined any line in the hope that it was a queue for something to buy. This
was the source of many Second World War jokes:
Shopkeeper to customer:
(E)xcuse me, miss, are you pregnant (怀孕)?
Customer: Well, I wasn't when I joined the queue.
Today, according to research in America, we (in Britain) can spend up to 5 years of our lives
queuing - as compared to twelve months looking for things we have lost. But things may be changing.
Many people no longer have the patience to stand in a queue. The law of the jungle (丛林) has begun to operate at bus stops, with people using their arms to push others out of the way.
One way to make life easier is to introduce "queue management". Customers at supermarket
cheese counters can now take a ticket with a number which appears on a screen when it is their
turn. And while they wait for their number, they can do a bit of shopping.
In some booking offices there is also a system telling customers how long they may have to wait before they are served.
One of the latest technical progress is the use of an electronic scanner (电子识别器) which
can read all the contents of your shopping basket or trolley in just a few seconds. If these become
popular, queuing in supermarkets may become a thing of the past.
But some people just like queuing. One man queued all night for Harrods famous January sale, and then returned home for breakfast at nine o' clock the next morning without going into the shop.