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上半场听力部分的最后一项，基本以授课的形式出现，高口考题中话题最丰富的一项，它的话题：
一、 介绍一个科学的研究结果；
二、 介绍介绍一个历史人物、一种艺术流派；
三、 对一个社会现象、社会问题或者人们普遍习惯思维方式提出自己的不同看法；
这类题目的难点主要体现在：
一、 由于是讲课类的话题，新的概念、新的词汇、对熟悉的概念的新的理解一定会大量出现；
二、 对于研究结果类的话题，数据多，分析多；
三、 对于历史人物和艺术流派的介绍，往往会介绍这个人物或者流派的渊源，与同时期的人物或相类似的流派之间的比较；
四、 对于提出新的观点的类型，由于说话者所提出的观点有些出人意料，甚至有时候显得“离经叛道”。
2005年9月
Questions 16 to 20
16 (A) They have to be complicated to accommodate many features.
(B) They command higher prices if they are technologically complicated.
(C) They sell well if they look technologically sophisticated.
(D) They are designed to confuse us so that we turn to the manufacturer for help.
17. (A) To cater to the different needs and tastes of different tourists.
(B) To show that these hotels offer everything tourists might hope to have.
(C) To try their utmost to help the customers to select a good hotel.
(D) To spread the customers out amongst the different hotels.
18. (A) They choose the best hotel.
(B) They go to a hotel that meets their needs.
(C) They make a random decision.
(D) They make no decision at all.
19. (A) The more features a product has, the better it sells.
(B) Confusing people is an easy way of controlling them.
(C) A brand name that rings a bell can beat its competitors.
(D) Customers buy things often on the basis that they're cheaper than others.
20. (A) Because it's no longer a joke; it's deadly serious.
(B) Because these systems are a way of improving things.
(C) Because complicated systems can prevent human errors.
(D) Because it would be easier to blame people than blame machines.
参考答案：C D C B D
关键? 我们是否真正理解讲话者的观点和态度？ confusing people is an easy way of controlling them。
值得注意的词：cynical源自古希腊哲学家Diogenes的创立的“犬儒主义”。中文一般将其译为“愤世嫉俗”的。cynical与中文的“愤世嫉俗”之间区别”cynical更多的指那种对物欲横流的社会风气所产生的厌倦，对商业气息过于浓厚的生活环境的厌倦，崇尚自然，崇尚简单的生活方式。
附：听力原文
Why do manufacturers of gadgets and machines make them so complicated? And why do people want to buy such complicated things? Coming back to your point that we seem to want to buy these things, the evidence is they’re designed to confuse us so that we appear to want them. That’s a fairly subtle point. Let’s say there’s a tourist company. I’ll explain it in terms of tourist companies. It’s a bit easier to understand the general idea. You want to go to Costa Del Sol and some hotel. You want a swimming pool. You want to be near a beach, whatever. Whatever your criteria are. You’ve got kids and you want, so on…. If you look in any travel brochure about the hotels and resorts, they tell you different things about each hotel. And pretty soon you discover you don’t know how to make a decision, and you make a random decision. That’s deliberate. Because if you choose the best hotel, everybody would go to that hotel. So what the travel companies do is they tell you this hotel’s got a swimming pool. This hotel’s got, you know, access to the beach. This hotel’s got children’s facilities, and so on. Basically, the point of that is to spread the customers out amongst different hotels that they have on offer.
That sort of thing goes on with video recorders. The purpose isn’t to give you features you want. The purpose is to get you into the shop, confuse you so that you can be sold a product on the basis that it is a pound cheaper than a competitor’s, or that is made by a brand name that rings a bell, or that, you know, it was at the front of the shop. And those are all things they know how to control. So as you look at it, you know why they’re making confusing gadgets. Well, because they sell. And they sell, because confusing people is an easy way of controlling them. I once hoped that safety critical systems would be a way of improving things. We can all laugh about a video recorder, you know, at worst, you record the wrong program or whatever. You know, it’s just irritating, and we certainly laugh about it. But that sort of gadget is also available in, for instance, airplane cockpits. Have you seen an airplane cockpit? You know, they’re covered in knobs, buttons and things. Or a nuclear power station. You name it. In a safety critical environment, they have gone overboard in gadgets that are rather similar to video recorders. And it’s then no longer a joke. It’s deadly serious. I’ve worked with some of these interfaces, and in airplanes. And although it doesn’t help me to say this, my cynical view is they’re designed not to be easy to use. They are designed so that when the plane crashes, the manufacturers can say it was the pilot’s fault. If the user’s killed himself, so much the easier to blame the user himself. Then it’s not the machine’s problem.
16． According to the woman, why are the gadgets and machines made so complicated?
17. Why do travel companies tell you different things about different hotels?
18. According to the woman, how do people usually choose a hotel through a travel brochure?
19. What is the main point that the woman is making with the examples of travel brochures and video recorders?
20. Why are the safety critical systems made so complicated, according to the woman?
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