2001年Passage 3
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deepsintosa long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns)sintoswhich they plug each day's events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
59. What is the passage mainly about?
[A] needs of the readers all over the world
[B] causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
[C] origins of the declining newspaper industry
[D] aims of a journalism credibility project
[答案] B
[解題思路]
本文開篇第一句話就提出了一個(gè)問題"Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers"（為什么那么多美國人不相信自己在報(bào)紙上讀到的東西），而全文都是圍繞著這個(gè)問題來討論的，可見該問題就是文章的主題，因此正確答案為B，其中選項(xiàng)的disappointment對(duì)應(yīng)于原文的distrust。A選項(xiàng)談到"readers all over the world"，但本文主要討論的是"American readers"，因而A選項(xiàng)錯(cuò)誤。C選項(xiàng)"declining newspaper industry"的表述過于嚴(yán)峻和悲觀，與文章的事實(shí)不符。D選項(xiàng)涉及到文章的一個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)，并不是文章的主題。
[題目譯文]
這篇文章的主要內(nèi)容是什么？
[A] 全世界讀者的需求
[B] 公眾對(duì)報(bào)紙的失望
[C] 報(bào)業(yè)衰落的根源
[D] 一向新聞可信度調(diào)查的目的
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