However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone's time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost—namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends?This—the alternative use of your cash and time—is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo—in terms of money and enjoyment—in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make betterinformed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all：there's no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it's human nature to do precisely that—we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is “value for money”.People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage：“value for time”. The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By reading this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.
58.According to the passage, the concept of “opportunity cost” is applied to ________.
A.making more money
B.taking more opportunities
C.reducing missed opportunities
D.weighing the choice of opportunities
59.The “leftover…time” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time ________.
A.spared for watching the match at home
B.taken to have dinner with friends
C.spent on the way to and from the match
D.saved from not going to watch the match
60.What are forgone opportunities?
A.Opportunities you forget in decisionmaking.
B.Opportunities you give up for better ones.
C.Opportunities you miss accidentally.
D.Opportunities you make up for.
【要点综述】 本文为一篇说明文。在我们的生活中，无论是对金钱还是时间而言，我们都需要一直寻找更好的机会。本文从经济学的角度诠释了这些概念。
58.D 细节理解题。根据第一段第二句“Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone's time or money could be better spent on something else.”可知机会成本，简单指某人的时间或者金钱是否可以被更好地用在其他方面，即权衡机会的选择，故D项正确。
59.C 细节理解题。根据第三段内容可知“leftover…time”是指上文中提到的去体育场往返路上的时间，C项是同义句，故选C。
60.B 推理判断题。根据题干中的关键词forgone可以定位到本文第四段。根据第四段第一句“…every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo…”及最后一句的“…still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.”可知答案是B。
