номер 5, страница 48 - гдз по английскому языку 5-11 класс учебник Latham-Koenig, Oxenden

5.2.

How long is it before we get frustrated at people talking during a movie or waiting for a date who hasn't shown up?

I vary wildly between patience and impatience.

It's probably good to know whether you're more or less patient than the average person. So, I was interested to read the results of a survey by the watch company Timex asking people how long they were willing to wait in various situations before losing patience.

Some of the results seem about right.

However, some seem wildly unlikely, based on my experience of how people tend to behave.

First, a car in front of you at a green light.

Average time before getting annoyed, fifty seconds.

This is the one result that seems least believable to me.

Fifty seconds waiting behind someone at a green light?

From what I've observed, it's more like five seconds, maybe even less.

Then, waiting for people to stop talking in a movie theater.

Average weight, one minute, fifty-two seconds.

This also seems a long time.

For me, it depends.

If it's a really sad or emotional story and they're ruining the atmosphere, I shush them after five seconds. But, if it's a full-blown action movie, then it doesn't really bug me.

Next, crying babies.

Apparently, it takes almost three minutes, two minutes, forty-one seconds to be precise, before someone gives parents a dirty look because their baby is screaming.

That sounds quite a long time to me. And what they didn't ask was how long people would wait to ask a flight attendant if they can switch seats when they realize they're sitting right next to a screaming baby.

That would have to be in the thirty-second range, right?

Waiting to see the doctor is something everyone expects to take a while.

Thirty-two minutes on average before people get mad doesn't seem unreasonable.

I suppose there are always magazines to read, even though they're usually several years out of date.

Now, what about waiting for your partner to get ready?

Average weight, twenty-one minutes.

I assume that means twenty-one minutes after you're ready yourself?

I think that's too long to wait.

I can get ready to go out in approximately ten minutes. Shower, change, coat on, ready.

My wife, on the other hand,

The next one also seems pretty long. Maybe from entering the coffee shop to actually drinking your coffee could take seven minutes, but just waiting in line?

Presumably not during rush hour, when customers just want to take out and the baristas generally know what they're doing?

What about if your blind date is late?

The survey says that the average time before people get angry and leave is twenty-six minutes.

That seems like the right amount of time for you to experience that scene from romantic comedies where the main character is sitting at a table checking his or her phone and finally decides to leave when the server offers them more bread for the fourth time.

Finally, the average weight before angrily asking some overconfident business type next to you talking loudly on a cell phone to quiet down?

Two minutes, twenty-five seconds.

Well, everyone in the world must be more patient than me.

But my tip here is, just make facial expressions to let them know you're annoyed.

Really exaggerated facial expressions.

Works every time.