48 According to the expert, what is people’s common attitude toward urban legends？
(A) They don’t believe them at first, but after verification, they do.
(B) They dismiss them as nonsense; they don’t believe them at all.
(C) They not only believe them but also spread them without consideration.
(D) They tend to think they are stories, or half-believe them with some details.

48 According to the expert, what is people’s common attitude toward urban legends？

(根據專家的說法，人們對都市傳說的共同態度是什麼？)

範文

Urban legends are an important part of popular culture, experts say, offering insight into our fears and the state of society.

(專家表示，都市傳說是流行文化的重要組成部分，讓我們得以深入了解我們的恐懼和社會現狀。)

They’re also good fun.

(它們也非常有趣。)

“Life is so much more interesting with monsters in it,” says Mikel J. Koven, a folklorist.

(民俗學家 Mikel J. Koven 說：「生活中有怪物存在會有趣得多。」)

“It’s the same with these legends. They’re just good stories.”

(「這些傳說也是如此。它們就是好聽的故事。」)

Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own definitions of what makes an urban legend.

(就像故事本身的變體一樣，民俗學家對什麼構成了都市傳說都有各自的定義。)

Academics have always disagreed on whether urban legends are, by definition, too fantastic to be true or at least partly based on fact, said Koven, who tends to believe the latter.

(Koven 說，學術界對於都市傳說在定義上究竟是太過荒誕而不可能是真的，還是至少部分基於事實，一直存在分歧，而他傾向於相信後者。)

Urban legends aren’t easily verifiable, by nature.

(從本質上講，都市傳說並不容易被證實。)

Usually passed on by word of mouth or in e-mail form, they often invoke the famous clause—“it happened to friend of a friend”（or FOAF）that makes finding the original source of the story virtually impossible.

(它們通常透過口耳相傳或電子郵件的形式傳播，經常引用著名的條款——「這發生在我朋友的朋友身上」（或稱 FOAF），這使得尋找故事的原始出處幾乎是不可能的。)

Discovering the truth behind urban legends, however, isn’t as important as the lessons they impart, experts say.

(然而專家表示，發現都市傳說背後的真相，並不如它們所傳達的教訓來得重要。)

“The lack of verification in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us,” writes Jan Harold Brunvand in “The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings.”

(Jan Harold Brunvand 在《消失的搭便車者：美國都市傳說及其意義》中寫道：「缺乏證實絕不會減少都市傳說對我們的吸引力。」)

“We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports.”

(「我們純粹把它們當作故事來欣賞，並且往往至少半信半疑地認為它們可能是準確的報導。」)

A renowned folklorist, Brunvand is considered the pre-eminent scholar on urban legends.

(作為著名的民俗學家，Brunvand 被認為是都市傳說領域的傑出學者。)

The definition of an urban legend, he writes, is “a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or moral.”

(他寫道，都市傳說的定義是「強烈的故事基本吸引力、基於真實信仰的基礎，以及有意義的信息或寓意。」)

Most urban legends tend to offer a moral lesson, Koven agreed, that is always interpreted differently depending on the individual.

(Koven 同意，大多數都市傳說往往會提供一個道德教訓，而這總是因人而異地受到不同的解讀。)

The lessons don’t necessarily have to be of the deep, meaning-of-life, variety, he said.

(他說，這些教訓不一定非得是深刻的、探討生命意義的那種。)

Urban legends are also good indicators of what’s going on in current society, said Koven.

(Koven 說，都市傳說也是當前社會現狀的良好指標。)

“By looking at what’s implied in a story, we get an insight into the fears of a group in society,” he said.

(他說：「透過觀察故事中所隱含的內容，我們可以深入了解社會中某個群體的恐懼。」)

Urban legends “need to make cultural sense,” he said, noting that some stick around for decades while others fizzle out depending on their relevance to the modern social order.

(他說，都市傳說「需要符合文化邏輯」，並指出有些傳說會流傳數十年，而另一些則會根據它們與現代社會秩序的相關性而逐漸消失。)

It’s a lack of information coupled with these fears that tends to give rise to new legends, Koven said.

(Koven 說，正是資訊的匱乏加上這些恐懼，往往會催生新的傳說。)

“When demand exceeds supply, people will fill in the gaps with their own information as they’ll just make it up.”

(「當需求超過供給時，人們會用自己的資訊來填補空白，因為他們只會瞎編。」)

The abundance of conspiracy theories and legends surrounding 9/11, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina seems to point to distrust in the government among some groups, he said.

(他說，圍繞著 9/11、伊拉克戰爭和卡翠娜颶風的大量陰謀論和傳說，似乎指向了某些群體對政府的不信任。)

But urban legends aren’t all serious life lessons and conspiracy theories, experts say, with the scariest, most plausible ones often framed as funny stories.

(但專家表示，都市傳說並不全是嚴肅的生活教訓和陰謀論，最可怕、最看似合理的傳說往往被框定為有趣的故事。)

Those stories can spread like wildfire in today’s Internet world, but they’ve been part of human culture as long as there has been culture, and Brunvand argues that legends should be around as long as there are inexplicable curiosities in life.

(在當今的網路世界中，這些故事可以像野火一樣迅速蔓延，但只要有文化存在，它們就是人類文化的一部分，而 Brunvand 認為，只要生活中存在無法解釋的奇特事物，傳說就應該一直存在。)

選項

• ❌ (A) They don’t believe them at first, but after verification, they do. (他們起初不相信，但在證實之後，他們就相信了。)

• ❌ (B) They dismiss them as nonsense; they don’t believe them at all. (他們斥之為胡言亂語；他們根本不相信。)

• ❌ (C) They not only believe them but also spread them without consideration. (他們不僅相信，而且不加思索地傳播。)

• ✅ (D) They tend to think they are stories, or half-believe them with some details. (他們往往認為它們是故事，或者對其中一些細節半信半疑。)

相關知識點

? 重點單字

• Urban legend：(都市傳說)

• Folklorist：(民俗學家)

• Verifiable：(可證實的、可核實的)

• Diminish：(減少、削弱)

• Pre-eminent：(傑出的、卓越的)

• Plausible：(看似合理的、可信的)

• Spread like wildfire：(像野火般蔓延、迅速傳開)

✍️ 核心文法與句型

• Tend to + 原形動詞 (V)：(傾向於……、往往會……)。例如文中提到的 "tend to at least half-believe them"，用來描述人們通常會有的反應或狀態。

• Merely as...：(僅僅作為……、純粹是……)。"We enjoy them merely as stories" 表示人們對待都市傳說的態度定位。

? 解題要訣

1. 定位關鍵字：題目詢問「根據專家的說法，人們對都市傳說的共同態度（common attitude）是什麼？」，應在文中尋找專家（如 Brunvand 或 Koven）提及大眾心理或反應的句子。

2. 尋找原文對應：在文章前半段，專家 Jan Harold Brunvand 的著作中直接提到：“We enjoy them merely as stories, and tend to at least half-believe them as possibly accurate reports.” (我們純粹把它們當作故事來欣賞，並且往往至少半信半疑地認為它們可能是準確的報導。)

3. 選項比對：

   • 選項 (D) 中的 "think they are stories" 對應原文的 "enjoy them merely as stories"；"half-believe them" 則完全對應原文的 "tend to at least half-believe them"。因此 (D) 為正確答案。