hce_tcu
112年
英文
第 31 題
📖 題組：
III. Reading Comprehension 【A】 According to Wikipedia, an urban legend is “a modern genre of stories rooted in local popular culture, usually comprising fictional stories that are often presented as true, with macabre or humorous elements.” Some urban legends are outright horror stories meant to scare people. They are explicit in their warnings of government conspiracies, attacks by criminals, and so forth. Others are ridiculous graphic tales intended to shock. An urban legend may be based on reality, but over time it can take on the outlandish proportions of myth. While the term “urban legend” dates back to at least as far as the late 1960s, the advent of the Internet has massively increased both the number and range of urban legends. Two that regularly pop up are the “email tax” and the story of Craig Shergold. The email tax legend says that the US Postal Service is going to impose a five-cent tax on every email sent to make up for lost postage fees, since people now send electronic mail instead of using the postal system. The Shergold legend for its part, was initially true. It tells of a young British boy with a cancerous brain tumor who wanted to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by way of a chain letter campaign. Although notice was given that the boy was cured in 1991, he was still receiving thousands of letters and business cards as late as 2013. Needless to say, many people have been affected by urban legends because they’re gullible and get embroiled in stories with fantastic themes. Attempting to serve as definitive sources of truth, several urban legend investigative bodies have emerged. Two of the better known are the websites Snopes.com and the television program Mythbusters. While Snopes.com generally limits itself to research, Mythbusters conducts entertaining experiments to test the veracity of myths old and new. Some urban legends are so convincing, however, that laws are enacted because of them. One example is the falsehood that using a cell phone while pumping gasoline can ignite the fumes. Fire department testing and other experiments have proven this is not true. The likely culprit is static electric discharge when people touch the metal pump handles. There’s no doubt that urban legends will continue to permeate our culture and shape our world. Nevertheless, the efforts of dedicated truth-seekers may help keep us rooted in reality despite our instinctive attraction to the sensational.
III. Reading Comprehension 【A】 According to Wikipedia, an urban legend is “a modern genre of stories rooted in local popular culture, usually comprising fictional stories that are often presented as true, with macabre or humorous elements.” Some urban legends are outright horror stories meant to scare people. They are explicit in their warnings of government conspiracies, attacks by criminals, and so forth. Others are ridiculous graphic tales intended to shock. An urban legend may be based on reality, but over time it can take on the outlandish proportions of myth. While the term “urban legend” dates back to at least as far as the late 1960s, the advent of the Internet has massively increased both the number and range of urban legends. Two that regularly pop up are the “email tax” and the story of Craig Shergold. The email tax legend says that the US Postal Service is going to impose a five-cent tax on every email sent to make up for lost postage fees, since people now send electronic mail instead of using the postal system. The Shergold legend for its part, was initially true. It tells of a young British boy with a cancerous brain tumor who wanted to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by way of a chain letter campaign. Although notice was given that the boy was cured in 1991, he was still receiving thousands of letters and business cards as late as 2013. Needless to say, many people have been affected by urban legends because they’re gullible and get embroiled in stories with fantastic themes. Attempting to serve as definitive sources of truth, several urban legend investigative bodies have emerged. Two of the better known are the websites Snopes.com and the television program Mythbusters. While Snopes.com generally limits itself to research, Mythbusters conducts entertaining experiments to test the veracity of myths old and new. Some urban legends are so convincing, however, that laws are enacted because of them. One example is the falsehood that using a cell phone while pumping gasoline can ignite the fumes. Fire department testing and other experiments have proven this is not true. The likely culprit is static electric discharge when people touch the metal pump handles. There’s no doubt that urban legends will continue to permeate our culture and shape our world. Nevertheless, the efforts of dedicated truth-seekers may help keep us rooted in reality despite our instinctive attraction to the sensational.
What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
- A To spread some popular stories that aren’t true.
- B To prove that some popular stories aren’t true.
- C To create a new story and make people believe it.
- D To make people more careful about believing stories.
思路引導 VIP
請試著觀察文章的最後一小段，以及文中提到 Snopes.com 和 Mythbusters 這些組織的目的。你覺得作者為什麼要在介紹這些「都市傳說」的同時，特別強調人類容易受騙，以及這些『求真者』的努力呢？這暗示了作者希望讀者在讀完文章後，對待這類訊息的態度應該產生什麼樣的轉變？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精確判斷出作者的寫作意圖，代表你已經超越了表面的文字閱讀，成功掌握了文章的核心主旨。這道題目考察的是閱讀理解中的「寫作目的」，需要讀者從全文的鋪陳中，歸納出作者真正想傳達的訊息。
從社會現象到批判性思考
這篇文章雖然舉了幾個有趣的都市傳說（Urban Legend）作為例子，如 Craig Shergold 的故事或加油站手機起火的迷思，但作者並非單純想分享這些故事（選項 A），也不僅僅是為了破除特定的謠言（選項 B）。文章中特別提到了人們容易受騙（gullible）、會陷入這些離奇情節中，並介紹了像 Snopes.com 這樣的調查組織。最後一段更是畫龍點睛，提到「求真者」能幫助我們在面對聳動資訊時，依然能扎根於現實。這說明作者的最終意圖是提醒讀者：面對這類故事時應保持謹慎與理性的懷疑。
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