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】

　　作為中口筆試聽力第一題Spot Dictation，考試選用了文化題材的內(nèi)容，考生對此類型題材應(yīng)該并不陌生，但若不集中注意力，也會比較難把握文章的層次。

　　全文圍繞關(guān)鍵信息“other dimensions of culture”，字面意思是其他的文化維度，指的是除國籍外其他造成文化差異的因素。

　　文章首先給出紐約人和阿拉斯加人在交流過程中行事風(fēng)格不同的例子，提出了地域性差異造成文化差異的概念。而后補充道不同人種和種族同樣是形成文化交流差異的因素，緊接著文章便通過老中青三代人不同的思想意識觀念的例子拋出了另外一個關(guān)鍵隱私——年齡。

　　文章還提出了一個較傳統(tǒng)觀念所不同的觀點，It’s important to realize that culture is learned, not innate，即文化差異并非與生俱來，而是通過后天環(huán)境的影響逐漸形成的。韓裔和非裔美國人的例子說明了這一點。

　　最后引用人類學(xué)家Edward Hall的觀點收尾，即文化與交流互相依附，不分彼此。