2011年3月中口听力原文、评析和音频

SECTION 1: LISTENING TEST (45 minutes)
Part A: Spot Dictation
Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear a passage and read the same passage with blanks in it. Fill in each of the blanks with the word or words you have heard on the tape. Write your answer in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Remember you will hear the passage ONLY ONCE.

My topic for today’s lecture is communication, culture and work. When most people use the word culture, they think of people from different national backgrounds. National cultures certainly do exist and they play an important role in shaping the way people communicate, but there are other dimensions of culture too. Within a nation, regional differences can exert a powerful influence on communication. New Yorkers and Alaskans may find one another’s styles of behaving so different that they might as well be from different countries. Race and ethnicity can also shape behavior. So can age. The customs, values and attitudes of a twenty-year-old girl may vary radically from those of her parents who were raised in the 1960s or her grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and World War Ⅱ. Still, other differences can create distinctive cultures. Gender, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, religion and socio-economic background are just a few. All of these factors lead to a definition of culture as a set of values, beliefs, norms, customs, rules and codes that lead people to define themselves as a distinct group, giving them a sense of commonality. It’s important to realize that culture is learned, not innate. A Korean-born infant adopted soon after her birth by American parents and raised in the United States will think and act differently than his or her cousins who grew up in Seoul. An African American who grew up in the inner city will view the world differently than he or she would if raised in the suburbs or in a country like France where African heritage has different significance than it does in the United States. The norms and values we learn as part of our cultural conditioning shape the way we view the world and the way we interact with one another. In short, culture has such an overwhelming influence on communication that famous anthropologist Edward Hall once remarked, ‘culture is communication and communication is culture.’

【解析】

作为中口笔试听力第一题Spot Dictation，考试选用了文化题材的内容，考生对此类型题材应该并不陌生，但若不集中注意力，也会比较难把握文章的层次。

全文围绕关键信息“other dimensions of culture”，字面意思是其他的文化维度，指的是除国籍外其他造成文化差异的因素。

文章首先给出纽约人和阿拉斯加人在交流过程中行事风格不同的例子，提出了地域性差异造成文化差异的概念。而后补充道不同人种和种族同样是形成文化交流差异的因素，紧接着文章便通过老中青三代人不同的思想意识观念的例子抛出了另外一个关键隐私——年龄。

文章还提出了一个较传统观念所不同的观点，It’s important to realize that culture is learned, not innate，即文化差异并非与生俱来，而是通过后天环境的影响逐渐形成的。韩裔和非裔美国人的例子说明了这一点。

最后引用人类学家Edward Hall的观点收尾，即文化与交流互相依附，不分彼此。