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上半場聽力部分的最后一項，基本以授課的形式出現，高口考題中話題最豐富的一項，它的話題：
一、 介紹一個科學的研究結果；
二、 介紹介紹一個歷史人物、一種藝術流派；
三、 對一個社會現象、社會問題或者人們普遍習慣思維方式提出自己的不同看法；
這類題目的難點主要體現在：
一、 由于是講課類的話題，新的概念、新的詞匯、對熟悉的概念的新的理解一定會大量出現；
二、 對于研究結果類的話題，數據多，分析多；
三、 對于歷史人物和藝術流派的介紹，往往會介紹這個人物或者流派的淵源，與同時期的人物或相類似的流派之間的比較；
四、 對于提出新的觀點的類型，由于說話者所提出的觀點有些出人意料，甚至有時候顯得“離經叛道”。
2005年9月
Questions 16 to 20
16 (A) They have to be complicated to accommodate many features.
(B) They command higher prices if they are technologically complicated.
(C) They sell well if they look technologically sophisticated.
(D) They are designed to confuse us so that we turn to the manufacturer for help.
17. (A) To cater to the different needs and tastes of different tourists.
(B) To show that these hotels offer everything tourists might hope to have.
(C) To try their utmost to help the customers to select a good hotel.
(D) To spread the customers out amongst the different hotels.
18. (A) They choose the best hotel.
(B) They go to a hotel that meets their needs.
(C) They make a random decision.
(D) They make no decision at all.
19. (A) The more features a product has, the better it sells.
(B) Confusing people is an easy way of controlling them.
(C) A brand name that rings a bell can beat its competitors.
(D) Customers buy things often on the basis that they're cheaper than others.
20. (A) Because it's no longer a joke; it's deadly serious.
(B) Because these systems are a way of improving things.
(C) Because complicated systems can prevent human errors.
(D) Because it would be easier to blame people than blame machines.
參考答案：C D C B D
關鍵? 我們是否真正理解講話者的觀點和態度？ confusing people is an easy way of controlling them。
值得注意的詞：cynical源自古希臘哲學家Diogenes的創立的“犬儒主義”。中文一般將其譯為“憤世嫉俗”的。cynical與中文的“憤世嫉俗”之間區別”cynical更多的指那種對物欲橫流的社會風氣所產生的厭倦，對商業氣息過于濃厚的生活環境的厭倦，崇尚自然，崇尚簡單的生活方式。
附：聽力原文
Why do manufacturers of gadgets and machines make them so complicated? And why do people want to buy such complicated things? Coming back to your point that we seem to want to buy these things, the evidence is they’re designed to confuse us so that we appear to want them. That’s a fairly subtle point. Let’s say there’s a tourist company. I’ll explain it in terms of tourist companies. It’s a bit easier to understand the general idea. You want to go to Costa Del Sol and some hotel. You want a swimming pool. You want to be near a beach, whatever. Whatever your criteria are. You’ve got kids and you want, so on…. If you look in any travel brochure about the hotels and resorts, they tell you different things about each hotel. And pretty soon you discover you don’t know how to make a decision, and you make a random decision. That’s deliberate. Because if you choose the best hotel, everybody would go to that hotel. So what the travel companies do is they tell you this hotel’s got a swimming pool. This hotel’s got, you know, access to the beach. This hotel’s got children’s facilities, and so on. Basically, the point of that is to spread the customers out amongst different hotels that they have on offer.
That sort of thing goes on with video recorders. The purpose isn’t to give you features you want. The purpose is to get you into the shop, confuse you so that you can be sold a product on the basis that it is a pound cheaper than a competitor’s, or that is made by a brand name that rings a bell, or that, you know, it was at the front of the shop. And those are all things they know how to control. So as you look at it, you know why they’re making confusing gadgets. Well, because they sell. And they sell, because confusing people is an easy way of controlling them. I once hoped that safety critical systems would be a way of improving things. We can all laugh about a video recorder, you know, at worst, you record the wrong program or whatever. You know, it’s just irritating, and we certainly laugh about it. But that sort of gadget is also available in, for instance, airplane cockpits. Have you seen an airplane cockpit? You know, they’re covered in knobs, buttons and things. Or a nuclear power station. You name it. In a safety critical environment, they have gone overboard in gadgets that are rather similar to video recorders. And it’s then no longer a joke. It’s deadly serious. I’ve worked with some of these interfaces, and in airplanes. And although it doesn’t help me to say this, my cynical view is they’re designed not to be easy to use. They are designed so that when the plane crashes, the manufacturers can say it was the pilot’s fault. If the user’s killed himself, so much the easier to blame the user himself. Then it’s not the machine’s problem.
16． According to the woman, why are the gadgets and machines made so complicated?
17. Why do travel companies tell you different things about different hotels?
18. According to the woman, how do people usually choose a hotel through a travel brochure?
19. What is the main point that the woman is making with the examples of travel brochures and video recorders?
20. Why are the safety critical systems made so complicated, according to the woman?
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