試題詳解

42.
(A) However
(B) Likewise
(C) Otherwise
(D) Conversely

**IV: Reading Comprehension (16%)**
Answer the following questions according to the information provided or implied in the passages.
Choose the best answer to each question.

**Passage 1: Questions 43-46**

The new and now ubiquitous phenomenon of emoji—the colourful glyphs, like smileys, winks, and the thumbs up symbol—has, in less than three years, taken the world by storm. It is no exaggeration to say that emoji represents the fastest growing communication tool in history.

But not everyone is happy. Jonathan Jones, a newspaper reporter, suggests that emoji is taking us back to the dark ages of illiteracy. (W) And this is not an isolated perspective. I’ve often been told, sagely—being a Professor of Linguistics, I should, presumably, know better—that emoji really is a substandard form of communication； that it self-evidently leads to a drop in spelling and/or reading standards； that it may, in fact, be damaging our ability to communicate. (X)

But not only is such prejudice unfounded, it fundamentally misunderstands the nature of human communication. It also radically underestimates the potentially powerful and beneficial role of emoji in the digital age, as a communication and educational tool.

Many of us have experienced the apparently angry email. Email, and other forms of digital communication, seemingly possess the power to strip all forms of nuanced expression, even from the best of us. (Y) But here emoji can help: they fulfill a similar function in digital communication, to gesture, body language and intonation, in spoken language. Emoji, in text messaging, enables us to better express tone, and to interpret what the words are meant to convey. It is no fluke, therefore, that I have found that 72% of 18-25 year olds in the UK believe that emoji make them better at expressing their feelings.

Emoji is a powerful tool for enhancing text-based communication precisely because of its visual nature: it matters not a jot whether your correspondent is English, French or Japanese: a smile looks the same in any language. Psychologists have long been aware of the power of visual representations in more effectively enabling us to express or identify our thoughts and feelings. (Z) As the nature and practice of using emoji continues to develop and evolve, its significance will, I predict, become less contested.