2014春季高级口译听力NTGF真题+ 解析

　　参加口译考试的同学们在平时要积累大量素材，新东方在线名师组为大家带来了帮助同学们练习的学习资料，保证大家学习后受益匪浅，还等什么?快来新东方在线学习口译吧~

　　真题 Note Taking and Gap Filling

　　Good afternoon, class. I want to start my lecture by telling you a story. Once there was a young woman from Mexico named Consuela, who came to New York to learn English. She got a job at a factory owned by a Chinese. One day as Consuela came to work, her Chinese boss handed her a red envelope. Consuela looked inside and saw 20 dollars. She became very upset and threw the envelope back at her boss! Her boss was shocked. Well, he had given her the red envelope and the money because it was Chinese New Year. And on the Chinese New Year, it is traditional to give money to young, single people for good luck. However, from Consuela’s point of view, he was an older man giving her money in an envelope, which meant that he was asking her for sexual favors. Naturally, she refused to take the money.

　　Now, what does this story show us? It shows that an action can have totally opposite meanings in different cultures. Every culture has its own rules for what is appropriate and what is not appropriate behavior. And to illustrate my point today, I’m going to give examples from four areas. First, the way people greet each other in different cultures. Second, the way they use names and titles. Third, the way people eat. And finally, the way they exchange gifts.

　　OK, let’s start with greeting customs—First of all, I’m sure you know that in the United States and in most western countries, greetings often involve some sort of touching, such as a handshake, a hug, or a kiss if people know each other very well. On the other hand, people from most Asian countries don’t usually feel as comfortable touching in public. Although handshakes between business people are common, many Japanese prefer a bow, while people from Thailand, normally hold their hands together in a kind of prayer position. So imagine how embarrassing it would be if an American was invited to someone’s home in Japan or Thailand and she tried to hug the host!

　　Now, another behavior that differs from culture to culture is the use of names. Have you noticed that Americans are quick to use people’s first names even if they have just met. For instance, visitors to the United States are always surprised to hear employees speak to their bosses using first names. In contrast, people in most other cultures are more formal and prefer to be addressed as Mr. Brown or Mr. Honda, for example. In addition, in some countries, such as Italy or Korea, people like you to include their title or position with their family names, especially if they're university graduates or owners of a business.

　　Now I want to look at eating customs. I'll talk about the behaviors connected with eating that vary from culture to culture. One of these is the use of utensils. You probably know that people in many Asian cultures use chopsticks but in some countries it’s customary to eat with your fingers. It’s important to be aware of different dining customs. Here is another example. In some cultures, eating everything on your plate is considered impolite. In Egypt and China, you should leave some food in your dish at the end of the meal. This is to show that your hosts were generous and gave you more than enough to eat. However, Americans generally consider a clean plate as a sign of satisfaction with the food.

　　Finally, what I want to mention today is gift giving, which you may think is a universal custom and there is not much variation from culture to culture. But the rules of gift giving can be very complicated. In USA, if you’re invited to someone’s home for dinner, bring wine or flowers or small item as a present. On the other hand, the Japanese give gifts quite frequently, often to thank someone, such as a teacher or a doctor. In the Japanese culture, gift giving is a very ancient tradition and it has many detailed rules. Another interesting fact about gift giving is that many cultures have strict rules about gifts you should not give. For example, never give yellow flowers to people from Iran, which means you hate them!

　　【参考答案】

　　1.story

　　2.Mexico

　　3.owned

　　4.traditional

　　5.single

　　6.favors

　　7.opposite

　　8i.llustrate

　　9.greetings

　　10. involve

　　11. touching

　　12. hug

　　13. comfortable

　　14. names

　　15. addressed

　　16. customs

　　17. impolite

　　18. clean

　　19. satisfaction

　　20. yellow

　　本次的NTGF在历年的高级口译考试中难度属于中等偏下，一方面题材属于考生比较熟悉且感兴趣的风俗习惯，另一方面，很多空格即便没有听到也能根据上下文进行猜测。比如第1格“I’ll start my lecture by telling you a ________”，唯一能填的就是“story”;第3格“…and got a job at a factory ______ by a Chinese”，可以猜出“owned”或“run”;第8格“I’ll say something more to _______ my point”，可以猜出“illustrate”或“prove”;第13格“But most Asian people don’t feel as _________ touching in public”，句首的转折结合上文的意思“西方人喜欢拥抱亲吻”，不难猜出亚洲人觉得不“comfortable”。

　　每天挤45分钟攻克上海口译吧，其实学习一门语言并不是难事，关键在于持之以恒。

　　不论是报考上海基础口译还是上海中高级口译的同学们，平时的积累是通过考试的一种方法。所以平时要多阅读一些和口译有关的内容以及背景知识，同时也欢迎同学们关注新东方在线论坛口译频道。