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(19-1)“Stereotype” may sound like a bad word, but there’s nothing bad about it. For one thing, stereotypes are often accurate. When you ask people about their concept of stereotypes, they get it pretty much right. Also, stereotypes are often positive, particularly of groups that we ourselves belong to. Some of the statistical generalizations may be positive as some groups have reputations for being smart, for being loyal, for being brave, for all sorts of things that are not at all negative. And so there’s nothing inherently wrong abut stereotypes.
(19-2)But there are problems with stereotypes. For one thing, they’re reliable insofar as they’re based on unbiased samples. But a lot of the information we get about human groups is through biased sources like how they’re represented in the media. (20)And if these sources don’t give you an accurate depiction, your stereotype won’t be accurate.
For example, many Jews have been troubled by Shakespeare’s depiction of Shylock. If the only Jew you know is Shakespeare’s Shylock, it’s going to be a very bad impression. So one problem with stereotypes is while we are good at drawing conclusions from them, often our information isn’t reliable.
(21)A second problem is that stereotypes, regardless of whether or not they’re accurate, can have a negative effect on the people that they apply to. And this is what psychologist, Claude Steele, described as stereotype threat. He has a vivid example of this. Here’s how to make African-Americans do worse on a math test. You have the test and you put on the test that they have to identify their race. The very act of acknowledging that they are African-Americans when given a test ignites in them thoughts of their own stereotype which is negative regarding academics and that makes them do worse. Want to know how to make a woman do worse on a math test? Same thing, get her to write down her sex.
(22)One recent study found a sort of clever twist on this. When Asian-American women are given a test and they’re asked to mark down their race, they do better than they would otherwise do. They’re reminded of a positive stereotype that boosts their morale. You ask them, on the other hand, to mark down their sex, they do worse because they are reminded of a negative stereotype. That’s an example of how stereotypes have a potentially damaging effect on people.
未听先知
预览四道题各选项,由第22题选项中的 A positive stereotype 推测,讲座内容与固有印象有关;再结合各题选项中的 do more harm than good、 Biased、 negative impact和 hep等词可进一步推测,讲座内容涉及固有印象的负面和正面影响等方面内容。
详解详析
19. What does the speaker say about stereotype?
讲座开头讲话者指出，虽然“固有印象”听起来是个贬义词，但其实并非如此。接下来，讲话人给出了这一说法的依据，说明有些固有印象是正面的，有些固有印象其实还十分准确。之后又话锋一转，指出固有印象也确实有些问题。因此答案为D)。
20. What lead to the bias of stereotype?
讲话者提到固有印象的第一个问题时指出，只有在形成依据是公允的、不偏不倚的情况下，所形成的固有印象才是公允的。反之，如果消息来源本身就带有偏见，那就不可能形成公允的印象。因此答案为A)。
21. What does the speaker say is a problem with stereotypes?
讲话者说，固有印象的第二个问题在于，不论其本身正确与否，对于那些被套用固有印象进行判断的人来说，他们都会受到某些负面影响。因此答案为B)。
22. What did one recent study find about stereotype?
讲话者在讲座最后说，最近关于固有印象的一项研究有一个不同的发现：在对亚裔美国女性进行测试时，要求她们标记自己的种族特征，这些女性在测试中可以取得更好的成绩。由此可知，某些固有印象给人带来的是正面的、积极的刺激，有助于人们取得更好的结果。因此答案为C)。