2014年3月高级口译听力真题NTGF含解析

　　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~

　　Note Taking and Gap Filling

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

　　Now, what does this story show us? It shows that an action can have totally opposite meaningsin different cultures. Every culture has its own rules for what is appropriate and what is notappropriate behavior. And to illustrate my point today, I’m going to give examples from fourareas. First, the way people greet each other in different cultures. Second, the way they usenames 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 Statesand in most western countries, greetings often involve some sort of touching, such as ahandshake, a hug, or a kiss if people know each other very well. On the other hand, peoplefrom most Asian countries don’t usually feel as comfortable touching in public. Althoughhandshakes between business people are common, many Japanese prefer a bow, while peoplefrom Thailand, normally hold their hands together in a kind of prayer position. So imagine howembarrassing it would be if an American was invited to someone’s home in Japan or Thailandand she tried to hug the host!

　　Now, another behavior that differs from culture to culture is the use of names. Have younoticed that Americans are quick to use people’s first names even if they have just met. Forinstance, visitors to the United States are always surprised to hear employees speak to theirbosses using first names. In contrast, people in most other cultures are more formal andprefer to be addressed as Mr. Brown or Mr. Honda, for example. In addition, in somecountries, such as Italy or Korea, people like you to include their title or position with theirfamily 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 thatvary from culture to culture. One of these is the use of utensils. You probably know that peoplein many Asian cultures use chopsticks but in some countries it’s customary to eat with yourfingers. It’s important to be aware of different dining customs. Here is another example. Insome cultures, eating everything on your plate is considered impolite. In Egypt and China, youshould leave some food in your dish at the end of the meal. This is to show that your hostswere generous and gave you more than enough to eat. However, Americans generally considera 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 customand there is not much variation from culture to culture. But the rules of gift giving can be verycomplicated. In USA, if you’re invited to someone’s home for dinner, bring wine or flowers orsmall item as a present. On the other hand, the Japanese give gifts quite frequently, often tothank someone, such as a teacher or a doctor. In the Japanese culture, gift giving is a veryancient tradition and it has many detailed rules. Another interesting fact about gift giving isthat many cultures have strict rules about gifts you should not give. For example, never giveyellow flowers to people from Iran, which means you hate them!

　　【评析】

　　本文题材对考生来说并不陌生，是老生常谈的文化差异。作者先从一个故事引入，再从四个方面(打招呼，称谓，饮食及送礼)介绍各国不同的风俗习惯。做笔记时，从这四个角度进行归类，记下关键的实词，相信正确答案就近在咫尺了。

　　【难词】

　　bow n. 鞠躬

　　address v. 称呼

　　utensil n. 餐具

　　universal adj. 普遍的，通用的

　　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。