每日英语听力

当前播放

2018年高考(上海卷)英语听力真题 短文(2)

Transport for London has a lost property office, which collects the items left behind as people flow through the city's transport system each day. It is the biggest lost property office in Europe, beaten globally only by Tokyo's.

65 staffs sort through hundreds of thousands of lost and forgotten items each at the office, which is run by Paul Coan. According to the latest data, Coan's team dealt with over 300,000 items in the first quarter of the year.

As the data reveals, very few are claimed. For example, of the nearly 13,000 keys handed into the lost property last year, just under 1,400 were returned to their owners, says Coan.

Overall, 20% of stock is claimed within three months. After that time, stock becomes the property of transport for London.

And it's not necessarily the items you had expect. A wander through the three basement floors that make up the lost property office gives us some idea of what we value enough to recover and what we're happy to let go.

Coan has discovered something interesting about the complexity of lost shoes. He said, if you have one shoe, you are more likely to go looking for the other.

If you lose two shoes, well, it's likely, out of sight, out of mind. He guesses many people regard loss as an opportunity to treat themselves to something new.

下载全新《每日英语听力》客户端,查看完整内容
点击播放