This passage is adapted from Francis J.Flynn and Gabrielle S.Adams, "Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about Gift Price and Feelings of Appreciation." Copyright 2008 by Elsevier Inc.
Para.1
(1)Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in full force—both online and on foot—searching frantically for the perfect gift. (2)Last year, Americans spent over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of December alone. (3)Aside from purchasing holiday gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other occasions throughout the year, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby showers.(4)This frequent experience of gift-giving can engender ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. (5)Many relish the opportunity to buy presents because gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger bonds with one's closest peers. (6)At the same time, many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry that their purchases will disappoint rather than delight the intended recipients.
第五句和第六句在观点的基础上,发展出由At the same time引领的并列意群,体现出对购买礼物的不同态度:一些人认为购买礼物可以加强人与人之间更强的纽带;一些人担忧购买的礼物将会让收到礼物的人失望,而不是让他们高兴。
『第五句与第六句的速读思维与方法』
第五句和第六句分别用情感提示词形成一个链条:
第五句是relish→powerful→stronger形成的正面评价。
第六句是dread→worry→disappoint形成的负面评价。
速读的重点提取这几个情感描述词就可以了。
第一段的结构层次
第一句 背景概括,宏观主题
↓
第二句/第三句 围绕背景主题的意群延伸和补充
↓
第四句 承接词带出作者观点句
↓
第五句/第六句 围绕第四句观点句的情感分层次体现
【单词词组用法】
aside from = except for 除了...之外
frantically adv. 疯狂似地;狂暴地,群情激昂的
relish vt.1.喜好;乐于 2.欣赏;玩味
Para.2
(1)Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive social process, serving various political, religious, and psychological functions. (2)Economists, however, offer a less favorable view. (3)According to Waldfogel (1993), gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources. (4)People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to buy on their own, or at least not spend as much money to purchase (a phenomenon referred to as “the deadweight loss of Christmas”). (5)To wit, givers are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.(6)This “deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are not very good at predicting what gifts others will appreciate. (7)That in itself is not surprising to social psychologists. (8)Research has found that people often struggle to take account of others' perspectives—their insights are subject to egocentrism, social projection, and multiple attribution errors.
『第二段的速读与快读具体办法』
第二段前两句话都以人物群体作为主语,describe A as B结构在阅读中常常将A部分作为主题讨论对象,在B部分说明态度与倾向。
(1)What is surprising is that gift-givers have considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift. (2)In the present research, we propose a unique psychological explanation for this overspending problem—that is, that gift-givers equate how much they spend with how much recipients will appreciate the gift (the more expensive the gift, the strongera gift— recipient's feelings of appreciation).(3)Although a link between gift price and feelings of appreciation might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an assumption may be unfounded. (4)Indeed, we propose that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift than givers assume.
(1)Why do gift-givers assume that gift priceis closely linked to gift-recipients' feelings of appreciation? (2)Perhaps givers believe that bigger (that is, more expensive) gifts convey stronger signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.(3)According to Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal their positive attitudes toward the intended recipient and their willingness to invest resources in a future relationship.(4)In this sense, gift-givers may be motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient. (5)As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
In this sense是一个由事实演变到作者观点的引导词:送礼人可能被激发在礼物上多花钱为了对潜在收礼人传递“更强烈信号”。As for经常用于英文文章中切分句与句之间的逻辑层次关系,由一个主题发展到另外一个主题。对收礼人来说,他们可能不会将礼物的轻重作为表示体贴和关心的信号程度。
【单词词组用法】
whereby conj. 借以;以…为手段
construe...as...把...理解为...,把...解释为...
Para.5
(1)The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being unable to account for the other party's perspective seems puzzling because people slip in and out of these roles every day, and, in some cases, multiple times in the course of the same day. (2)Yet, despite the extensive experience that people have as both givers and receivers, they often struggle to transfer information gained from one role (for example, as a giver) and apply it in another, complementary role (for example, as a receiver). (3)In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize information about their own preferences and experiences in order to produce more efficient outcomes in their exchange relations.(4)In practical terms, people spend hundreds of dollars each year on gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift expenditures according to personal insight.