四級閱讀模擬題練習(xí)12：人們的盲從習(xí)慣

熟悉四級閱讀理解題型的同學(xué)應(yīng)該都了解，英語四級考試的閱讀理解材料大多選自《時代》《衛(wèi)報》《今日美國》等外刊。要想閱讀理解這部分拿到高分，必須在平常多閱讀，掌握新詞匯，鍛煉閱讀速度。

為此小編每日精選了《衛(wèi)報》《時代》等外刊上的文章供大家進(jìn)行閱讀練習(xí)。

本篇閱讀材料“人們的盲從習(xí)慣”選自《時代》(原文標(biāo)題：Monkey See, Monkey Buy 2011.10.28)。如果大家覺得比較簡單，就當(dāng)作泛讀材料了解了解，認(rèn)識幾個新單詞或新表達(dá)方式也不錯。如果大家覺得這些材料理解上有難度，不妨當(dāng)做挑戰(zhàn)自己的拔高訓(xùn)練，希望大家都有進(jìn)步^^

Soon we’ll be able to follow more than our friends’ latest escapades on our favorite social networking site. Facebook has announced new look-at-me-looking-at-you feature (they call it “frictionless sharing”) that will allow you to see what others are watching, hear what they’re listening to and check out what they’re reading, in real time, making consumer behavior more visible than ever before. And if you think that knowing what your friends are consuming will have no impact on you, think again.

We might be hesitant to admit the degree to which others influence us, but we most certainly are all influenced. We need only look at the number of lists and recommendations that are the first thing you encounter on any e-commerce site, which make us think that a team of experts has spent the past month parsing through every book, movie, song and testing every coffee maker, handbag and diaper pail, when in fact the only function of all these recommendations and lists is to get you to buy more. And even though most of us are aware that some of those online product reviews are fakes written by friends or company employees or marketers, we purposely overlook this. We want to trust these messages, even when we may be deeply skeptical.

To gain further insight into the degree to how suggestible we are, I managed to convince a local restaurant to conduct a small experiment on my behalf. Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with waiters regarding how people order, and almost invariably, at least one diner withholds their menu selection until they’ve heard what everyone else at the table will be eating. What’s more, waiters are quite adept at altering orders to accommodate diners who change their minds after hearing what someone else is having.

This is a restaurant scenario I’m sure you’re well familiar with. However, what I really wanted to see was to what extent one table’s dissatisfaction would influence another’s. So we set up a table in the middle of the restaurant, and four actors were hired to pretend to be friends sharing the conviviality of a meal. They all ordered the soup, since it was the only starter on the menu, thus allowing an element of control. After breaking some bread and taking his first mouthful, one of the actors called for the waiter and proceeded to deliver a three-minute rant about the scalding temperature of the soup. As the soup continued to be served to the other tables, the complaints began rolling in. By the end of the dinner, 26% of the guests had made similar complaints. Each bowl had come from the same pot, so either they had extremely sensitive tongues or they had all been influenced by the initial complaint.

In another experiment conducted in 2008 by researchers at Leeds University, 200 people were asked to walk randomly around a large hall. A few moments into the experiment, five volunteers were instructed to move in a clockwise direction. They were told to do so without making any announcements or drawing attention to themselves. Within seven minutes, everyone was walking in the same direction. One of the conclusions drawn by the scientists was, like animals, humans tend to flock. And during times of insecurity, our need to seek refuge in the larger group is that much greater.

Which leads me back to Facebook’s latest look-at-me-looking-at-you initiative, which might prove to become the most powerful marketing mechanism of the 21st century by enabling Facebook to systematically pick out which members exert the most influence on others. Imagine movie studios, magazine publishers and fashion outlets having access to this information and creating mass demand by using small, highly influential groups. In the end, who’s influencing who?

【重點單詞及短語】

escapade n. 惡作劇;越軌行為;冒險行為

frictionless sharing 無摩擦共享，F(xiàn)acebook2011年采取的新形式，其運(yùn)作方式是：只要你在一個社交新聞應(yīng)用上閱讀了新聞或在一個社交音樂應(yīng)用上聽了音樂，F(xiàn)acebook就會把它自動共享它到你的Facebook的個人資料中(很快也會共享到時間軸上)。

be hesitant to 猶豫

diaper pail 尿片桶

parse v. 分列;解析

suggestible adj. 耳根軟的;易受影響的

invariably adv. 始終地;一貫

conviviality n. 宴樂;歡樂

proceed to 繼續(xù)下去

rant n. &v. 咆哮;痛罵;大聲責(zé)罵

roll in 蜂擁而至;大量到來

exert v. 運(yùn)用;發(fā)揮;施以影響

Question time:

1. What's the meaning of the title "Monkey see, monkey buy"?

2. What kinds of groups can be highly influential according to the author?