評論
打印
Peter: Morning, boys and girls. Today we are glad to have Miss Wilson here to give us a lecture about dressing. Mrs. Wilson is a famous etiquette teacher. Hi, Miss Wilson, welcome.
Miss Wilson: Thank you. Well, I guess all of us care about our personal appearance, right? (16) In fact, how we look and how we appear to others probably worries us more when we are in our teens or early twenties than at any other time in our life. Few of us are willing to accept ourselves as we are, and few are brave enough to ignore the trends of fashion.
Most fashion magazines try to persuade us that we should dress in a certain way or behave in a certain manner. (17) If we do, they tell us that we will be able to meet new people with confidence and deal with every situation confidently and without embarrassment. Changing fashion, of course, does not apply just to dress. A barber today does not cut a boy's hair in the same way as he used to. The advertisers show us the latest fashionable styles and we are constantly under pressure to follow the fashion in case our friends think we are odd or dull.
What causes fashions to change? Sometimes convenience or practical necessity or just the fancy of an important person can establish a fashion. Take hats, for example. In cold climates, early buildings were cold inside, so people wore hats indoors as well as outside.
There is also a cyclical pattern in fashion. In the 1920s in Europe and America, short skirts became fashionable. After World War Ⅱ, they dropped to ankle length. Then they got shorter and shorter; the miniskirt was in fashion. After a few more years, skirts became longer again.
(18) Today, society is much freer and easier than it used to be. It is no longer necessary to dress like everyone else. Within reason, you can dress as you like or do your hair the way you like instead of the way you should because it is the fashion. The popularity of jeans and the "untidy" look seems to be a reaction against the increasingly expensive fashion of the top fashion houses.
(19) At the same time, appearance is still important in certain situations and then we must choose our clothes carefully. It would be foolish to go to an interview for a job in a law firm wearing jeans and a sweater; and it would be impolite to visit some well-known scholar looking as if we were going to the beach or a night club. However, you need never feel depressed if you don't look like the latest fashion photo. Look around you and you'11 see that no one else does either.
16. When do people care about personal appearance the most during the lifetime?
17. According to most fashion magazines, what's the benefit of following their advice?
18. Why do people no longer follow fashions they dislike today?
19. What does the speaker emphasize at the end of the speech?
同學們，上午好。今天我們很榮幸請來了威爾遜小姐為我們做關于著裝的演講。威爾遜小姐是著名的禮儀課程的老師。您好，威爾遜小姐。
謝謝。我猜我們大家都很注重自己的形象，對嗎？事實上，我們人生中可能沒有哪個階段會比我們在十幾歲和二十歲出頭的時候更在乎自己的形象以及在他人眼中的樣子了。我們當中只有很少人能夠接受自己本來的樣子，而且很少有人有足夠的勇氣忽視流行趨勢。
很多時尚雜志都試圖勸說我們要按照一定的方式穿衣和行事。它們告訴我們，如果我們這樣做，我們可以自信地面對新認識的人，并且絲毫不感覺尷尬地應對各種狀況。當然，時尚的改變說的并不只是服裝。理發師不會用過去的方式給現在的男孩子理發。廣告商通常會把最流行的款式展示給我們，而我們也一直備受壓力，努力跟隨時尚的步伐，生怕我們的朋友認為我們古怪或愚鈍。
什么會導致流行趨勢的變化呢？有時候僅僅是因為便捷或實用，或者僅僅一個人的時髦打扮就會創造一個潮流。就拿帽子來舉例吧。早期的建筑在寒冷的天氣里室內溫度很低，所以人們在室內和室外都戴著帽子。
流行還是有周期的。在20世紀20年代，短裙開始在歐洲和美洲流行起來。二戰后，長及腳踝的裙子開始流行。隨后它們又變短了，超短裙開始流行。又過了一些年，裙子又變長了。
而現在的社會更加自由和包容，再也沒有必要和別人穿得一樣，只要不過分，你可以穿自己喜歡的衣服，剪自己喜歡的發型，而不是穿時下流行的衣服。牛仔裝和“邋遢風”服裝的流行可能是針對價格飆升的頂級時裝店的一種反應。
但是，在一些特定的情況下外表還是很重要的，這時候我們需要仔細挑選自己的衣服。如果你穿著牛仔褲和毛衣去一家法律公司面試，這就很愚蠢了；如果你去拜訪知名學者卻穿得像是去逛海灘或夜店，這就顯得你很失禮。不用因為自己穿得不像最新時尚照片上那樣而難過，環顧四周你會發現大家都一樣。
問題16 人的一生當中哪個階段最注重自己的外表？
問題17 聽取時尚雜志的建議能獲得的最大的收益是什么？
問題18 現在為什么人們不會跟隨他們不喜歡的流行趨勢？
問題19 演講結束時演講者強調了什么？
譯文屬可可原創，僅供學習和交流使用，未經允許不得轉載
