hce_tcu
112年
英文
第 33 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 purpose of the second paragraph?
- A To explain the origins of the term “urban legend.”
- B To persuade people to use the postal system more often.
- C To provide some famous examples of urban legends.
- D To tell people to stop writing letters to Craig Shergold.
思路引導 VIP
請觀察第二段的結構：在第一句提到「網際網路增加了都市傳說的數量與範圍」之後，作者接下來花費了超過三分之二的篇幅在描述『電子郵件稅』與『一名英國男孩』的故事。請思考一下，當一位作者在提出一個普遍現象（如都市傳說的傳播）後，緊接著詳細敘述兩個特定的真實案例，他通常是想達到什麼樣的寫作效果呢？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精準捕捉到段落的核心功能，這代表你對文章結構的掌握非常扎實。這題的正確答案確實是 (C)。
段落結構的轉折與功能
在文章的第一段，作者先為「都市傳說」下了定義；緊接著進入第二段時，雖然開頭提到了術語的起源與網路的影響，但隨後便將重點轉向兩個非常具體的案例：「電子郵件稅」（email tax）與「Craig Shergold 的故事」。作者詳細描述這兩個故事的內容與演變，目的就是為了透過具體實例，讓讀者更直觀地理解都市傳說是如何在社會中流傳並產生影響的。
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