1 Are Experts Always Right

　　專家總是對的嗎

　　1 The world has become so complicated that we’ve lost confidence in our ability to understand and deal with it. But common sense is useful now as it ever was. No amount of expertise substitutes for an intimate knowledge of a person or a situation. At times you just have to trust your own judgement.

　　2 It almost cost me my life to learn that. I was reading a book one day, idly scratching the back of my head, when I noticed that, in one particular spot, the scratching echoed inside my head like fingernails on an empty cardboard carton, I rushed off to my doctor.

　　3 “Got a hole in your head, have you?” he teased. “It’s nothing—just one of those little scalp nerves sounding off.”

　　4 Two years and four doctors later, I was still being told it was nothing. To the fifth doctor. I said, almost in desperation,”But I live in tis body. I know something’s different.”

　　5 “If you won’t take my word for it,I’ll take an X-ray and prove it to you,” he said.

　　6 Well, there it was, of course, the tumor that had made a hole as big as an eye socket in the back of my skull. After the operation, a young resident paused by my bed. ”It’s a good thing you’re so smart,” he said.” Most patient die of these tumors because we don’t know they’re there until it is too late.”

　　7 I’m really not so smart. And I’m too docile in the face of authority. I should have been more aggressive with those first four doctors. It’s hard to question opinions delivered with absolute certainty.

　　8 Experts always sound so sure. Nevile Chamberlain, the British prime minister, was positive, just before the start of World War II, that there would be “peace for our time.” Producer Irving Thalberg did not hesitate to advise Louis B. Mayer against buying the rights to Gone With the Wind because “no Civil War picture ever made a nickel.” Even Abraham Lincoln surely believed it when he said in his Gettysburg Address:” The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here…”

　　9 We should not, therefore, be intimidated by experts. When it’s an area we really know about—our bodies, our families, our houses—let’s listen to what the experts say, then make up our own minds.

　　Notes

　　1 cardboard carton:a box or container made of a stiff pasteboard of paper

　　2 scalp: the skin covering the head

　　3 tumor:腫瘤

　　4 eye socket: the opening or cavity in which the eye fits

　　5 docile: easily managed or taught

　　reading comprehension

　　1. “It” in “…deal with it”(para.1) refers to ______

　　a. confidence b. the world c. ability d. complication

　　2. “Expertise” in para.1 means______

　　a. common sense b. expert skill or knowledge c. unusual ability to appreciate

　　d. personal experience

　　3. We have to trust our own judgement since ____

　　a. not all of us have acquired reliable expertise

　　b. experts often lose their common sense

　　c. experts may sometimes fail to give good advice

　　d. intimate knowledge of a person is not to be substituted for by expertise

　　4 “That” in “it almost cost me my life to learn that”(para. 2) refers to______

　　a. I can learn to trust my judgement

　　b. I can acquire an intimate knowledge of myself

　　c. common sense is not as useful as knowedge

　　d. expertise may not be reliable

　　5 While reading one day, the author______

　　a. found a hole at the back of his head

　　b. heard a scratching sound from a carton

　　c. noticed some echo from his head where he was scratching

　　d. noticed a sound coming out from his head

　　6 “tease” in paragraph 3 means______

　　a. to make fun of b. to comfort c. to reply d. to disbelieve

　　7 “if you won’t take my word for it” in para.5 may be paraphrased_____

　　a. if you don’t think my word is worth anything

　　b. if you don’t listen to my advice

　　c. if you don’t believe my judgement

　　d. if you prefer actions to words

　　8 “Skull” in para.6 most probably means____

　　a. the bony framework of the head

　　b. the surface skin of the head

　　c. the nerve system inside the head

　　d. the top part of the head

　　9 The author didn’t think he was smart(para.7)because____

　　a. he had already suffered for two years

　　b. he had not been able to put up with the pain

　　c. he had believed too much in expertise

　　d. he had formed too strong an opinion of himself

　　10 It happens that the examples given by the author_____

　　a. all concern with wars

　　b. are taken from modern American history

　　c. have become popular themes in movies

　　d. have American Civil War as the background

　　11 In the last paragraph, the work ”intimidate” may mean_____

　　a. deceive b. frighten c. make timid d. encourage

　　1 b 2 b 3 c 4 d 5 c 6 a 7 c 8 a 9 c 10 a 11 c

　　2 Just Call Me Mister

　　1 On cold days people in Manhattan like to take their children to PlaySpace, an indoor playground full of wonderful climbing and sliding contraptions. There’s just one irritating detail: when you pay your money, the cashier pulls out a felt-trip marker and an adhesive lapel tag and asks you your name.

　　“Frum,” I say.

　　“No, your first name.”

　　“What do you need my first name for?”

　　“To write on the tag, so all the children and the staff will know what to call you.”

　　“In that case, write ‘Mr. Frum.’”

　　2 At which I am shot a look as if I had asked to be called to Duke of Plaza Toro.

　　3 In encouraging five-year-olds to address grownups by their first names, PlaySpace is only slightly ahead of the times. As a journalist, I faithfully report that the custom of addressing strangers formally is as dead as the practice of leaving a visiting card.

　　4 There’s hardly a secretary left who does not reply, when I give a message fro her boss, “I’ll tell him you called, David.” Or a public relations agent, whether in Bangor or Bangkok, who does not begin his telephonic spiel with a cheerful “Hello, David!”

　　5 You don’t have to be a journalist to collect amazing first-name stories. Place a collect call, and the operator first-names you. The teenager behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant asks a 70-year-old customer for his first name before taking his order.

　　6 Habitual first-names claim they are motivated by nothing worse than uncontrollably high-spirited friendliness. I don’t believe it. I f I asked the fast-food order-takers to lend me $50, their friendliness would vanish in a whoosh. The PR man drops all his cheerfulness the moment he hears I won’t go along with his story idea. No, it’s not friendliness that drives first-namers; it’s aggression. The PR agents who call me David uninvited would never, if they could somehow get him on the phone, address press baron Rupert Murdoch that way. The woman at the bank who called me David would never first-name the bank’s chairman. Like the mock-cheery staff at PlaySpace, they are engaged in a smiley-faced act of belittlement, an assertion of power disguised as good cheer.

　　Notes

　　1 contraptions:(informal)mechanical devices;gadgets

　　2 felt-tip marker:軟筆尖的顏色筆

　　3 adhesive lapel tag:不干膠標牌

　　4 Duke of Plaza Toro: Duke is a nobleman with the highest hereditary rank, especially in Britain. Plaza Tora is Spanish, something like “Bull Fighting Ring” in English

　　5 Bangor:City of South central Maine

　　6 Bangkok:Captical of Thailand,曼谷

　　7 spiel(slang) a lengthy, usually extravagant, speech or argument intended to be persuasive

　　8 collect call:a telephone call with payment to be made by the receiver

　　9 press baron:Baron is the lowest male rank of nobility, but here it stands for a man with great power in press

　　10 mock: simulated

　　11 cheery:cheerful

　　Reading comprehension

　　1 The author apparently regrets____

　　a. having to take his children to PlaySpace

　　b. being first-named

　　c. being approached so frequently by PR agents

　　d. having to put on an adhesive lapel tag

　　2 “PR” in paragraph6 stands for____

　　a. personal request b. personal respect

　　c. public relations d. public review

　　3 When the author, as a journalist, speaks on the phone___

　　a. he is usually very formal and faithful

　　b. he does not know whether a grownup or a child is speaking at the other end

　　c. he finds people address each other formally

　　d. he finds the secretary is often willing to pass a message

　　4 He often finds secretaries _____

　　a. irresponsible in answering phone calls

　　b. trustworthy in passing messages

　　c. not only friendly but also careful

　　d. calling him David

　　5 The author thinks that addressing a stranger by his first name is being____

　　a. cheerful b. friendly c. disrespectful d. light-hearted

　　6 “As dead as” in paragraph 3 may be paraphrased as_____

　　a. as firmly fixed as b. as useless as

　　c. as out of fashion as d.as unmistakenly as

　　7 Habitual first-namers’ claim amounts to saying____

　　a. there’s nothing that can be worse than high-spirited friendliness

　　b. their attitude should be acceptable

　　c. they are sometimes too high-spirited to control chemselves

　　d. one should control oneself while speaking to a stranger

　　8 The so-called high-spirited friendliness(para. 6) is actually____

　　a. cheerfulness in appearance but mockery in reality

　　b. out and out insult

　　c. a well-accepted skill in public relations

　　d. an act of outward warmth

　　9 “In a whoosh” in paragraph 6 means______

　　a. by all means b. in the end c. in a second d. in reality

　　10 “I won’t go along with…” in paragraph 6 may be paraphrased as

　　a. I won’t believe…… b. I won’t go on listening…..

　　c. I won’t agree with…. D. I won’t stick to…..

　　1 b 2 c 3 c 4 d 5 c 6 a 7 b 8 a 9 c 10 b

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