The 2012 London Olympic Games are around the corner. If you have the chance to visit Britain yourself, you can see at every bus stop the British people form a queue. You may have read about it, but you will still feel amazed to see it with your own eyes.

It’s an amazing social behavior; it brings the British to a higher level of civilization(文明). At least that is what one German professor thinks. The professor named Joseph Heinrich and his workmates say that standing in line is the “highest form of cooperative(协作的) group behavior”.

The social rules(细则) of standing in line are also interesting. For example, you need to be able to decide the correct distance to the person in front of you. Get too close and there is a danger of entering other people’s personal space. This is a serious mistake and often makes other people angry. However, when you leave too much space, the next person is likely to ask: “Are you in the queue?” This may sound polite but in fact it means: “Can’t you stand in line properly?”

In no other countries can you see the one-man queue except in Britain. If a British person arrives at a bus stop and no one else is there, he will not simply wait. Instead, he stands at the head of the queue.

Tourists are often unfamiliar with local customs(习俗), and if they do not get in line behind the British person, he or she will tell them strictly: “This is a queue.”

Though it might seem that the British people take their queues too Seriously, one thing is certain: queues can save lives. In dangerous situations, standing in line has prevented them from getting very frightened.

In the serious train accident in 1999, people who were hurt formed a queue as they escaped from their trains. One writer later wrote about a polite man who let her pass with a quiet “after you”.