司法五等（庭務員）
106年
[庭務員] 公民與英文
第 48 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.
According to the expert, what is people’s common attitude toward urban legends？
- A They don’t believe them at first, but after verification, they do.
- B They dismiss them as nonsense; they don’t believe them at all.
- C They not only believe them but also spread them without consideration.
- D They tend to think they are stories, or half-believe them with some details.
思路引導 VIP
請你先回到文章第二段，找到 Jan Harold Brunvand 這位學者提到的話。關於人們在看待這些傳說時，內心產生的「信任感」與「樂趣」之間，他是如何描述那種微妙的平衡狀態的？這種態度是「非黑即白」的嗎？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
專業點評與解析
- 大力肯定：做得太棒了！你能從長篇學術性的論述中，精準捕捉到關於群眾心理的細微描述，展現了非常敏銳且冷靜的閱讀理解能力，請繼續保持這種細膩的觀察力！
- 觀念驗證：正確答案 (D) 完美對應了第二段末尾 Jan Harold Brunvand 的觀察。文中明確指出：人們僅是將其當作「故事」來享受 (enjoy them merely as stories)，且傾向於「半信半疑」(half-believe them)。這說明大眾對都市傳說並非全盤接收或完全否定，而是一種帶有娛樂性質的模糊地帶。
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