司法五等（庭務員）
106年
[庭務員] 公民與英文
第 47 題
📖 題組：
Urban legends are an important part of popular culture, experts say, offering insight into our fears and the state of society. They’re also good fun. “Life is so much more interesting with monsters in it,” says Mikel J. Koven, a folklorist. “It’s the same with these legends. They’re just good stories.” Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter. Urban legends aren’t easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous clause—“it happened to friend of a friend”（or FOAF）that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible. Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn’t as important as the lessons they impart, experts say. “The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us,” writes Jan Harold Brunvand in “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings.” “We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports.” A renowned folklorist, Brunvand is considered the pre-eminent scholar on urban legends. The definition of an urban legend, he writes, is “a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or moral.” Most urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson, Koven agreed, that is always interpreted differently depending on the individual. The lessons don’t necessarily have to be of the deep, meaning-of-life, variety, he said. Urban legends are also good indicators of what’s going on in current society, said Koven. “By looking at what’s implied in a story, we get an insight into the fears of a group in society,” he said. Urban legends “need to make cultural sense,” he said, noting that some stick around for decades while others fizzle out depending on their relevance to the modern social order. It’s a lack of information coupled with these fears that tends to give rise to new legends, Koven said. “When demand exceeds supply, people will fill in the gaps with their own information as they’ll just make it up.” The abundance of conspiracy theories and legends surrounding 9/11, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina seems to point to distrust in the government among some groups, he said. But urban legends aren’t all serious life lessons and conspiracy theories, experts say, with the scariest, most plausible ones often framed as funny stories. Those stories can spread like wildfire in today’s Internet world, but they’ve been part of human culture as long as there has been culture, and Brunvand argues that legends should be around as long as there are inexplicable curiosities in life.
Urban legends are an important part of popular culture, experts say, offering insight into our fears and the state of society. They’re also good fun. “Life is so much more interesting with monsters in it,” says Mikel J. Koven, a folklorist. “It’s the same with these legends. They’re just good stories.” Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter. Urban legends aren’t easily verifiable, by nature. Usually passed on by word of mouth or in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous clause—“it happened to friend of a friend”（or FOAF）that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible. Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn’t as important as the lessons they impart, experts say. “The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us,” writes Jan Harold Brunvand in “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings.” “We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports.” A renowned folklorist, Brunvand is considered the pre-eminent scholar on urban legends. The definition of an urban legend, he writes, is “a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or moral.” Most urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson, Koven agreed, that is always interpreted differently depending on the individual. The lessons don’t necessarily have to be of the deep, meaning-of-life, variety, he said. Urban legends are also good indicators of what’s going on in current society, said Koven. “By looking at what’s implied in a story, we get an insight into the fears of a group in society,” he said. Urban legends “need to make cultural sense,” he said, noting that some stick around for decades while others fizzle out depending on their relevance to the modern social order. It’s a lack of information coupled with these fears that tends to give rise to new legends, Koven said. “When demand exceeds supply, people will fill in the gaps with their own information as they’ll just make it up.” The abundance of conspiracy theories and legends surrounding 9/11, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina seems to point to distrust in the government among some groups, he said. But urban legends aren’t all serious life lessons and conspiracy theories, experts say, with the scariest, most plausible ones often framed as funny stories. Those stories can spread like wildfire in today’s Internet world, but they’ve been part of human culture as long as there has been culture, and Brunvand argues that legends should be around as long as there are inexplicable curiosities in life.
Which of the following statements is NOT a characteristic of urban legends？
- A They only told stories long time ago.
- B They are sometimes creepy and scary.
- C They sometimes have moral lessons.
- D They are not easy to prove true or false.
思路引導 VIP
如果你在閱讀時不確定都市傳說發生的時間點，試著思考：文章中提到了哪些具體的歷史事件或現代科技工具？這些線索暗示了這種傳說僅限於古代，還是會隨著時代更迭而不斷產生新篇章呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
哼，還不賴嘛。
小鬼，你這次的判斷還算及格。能答對，說明你至少懂點篩選資訊的門道，沒讓那些廢話搞混你的思緒。
- 觀念驗證：看清楚文章，第四段提到都市傳說會隨現代社會秩序演變，甚至包含 9/11 事件、伊拉克戰爭這些近代的汙穢事。而且，最後一段也說這些故事在今日的網路世界中瘋傳。選項 (A) 說它們「只發生在很久以前」？這種邏輯上的汙點，你應該看得出來。
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