六級閱讀填空習題 Passage 8
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- 答案解析
In America alone, tipping is now a $11 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting rationally ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The conventional wisdom is that tips both reward the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality. The better the service, the bigger the tip.
Such explanations no doubt explain the supposed origin of tipping—in the 11th century, boxes in English taverns（酒館）carried the phrase “To Insure Promptitude” (later just “TIP”). But according to new research from Cornell University, tipping no longer serves any useful function.
The paper analyses data from 2,542 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The correlation between larger tips and better service was very weak: only a tiny part of the variability in the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service. Customers who rated a meal as “excellent” still tipped anywhere between 3% and 32% of the meal price.
Tipping is better explained by culture than by economics. In America, the custom has become institutionalized: it is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service. In a New York restaurant, failing to tip at least 15% could well mean abuse from the waiter. Hairdressers can expect to get 15~20%, the man who delivers your groceries $2. In Europe, tipping is less common; in many restaurants, casual tipping is being replaced by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on at all.
How to account for these national differences? Look no further than psychology. According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell paper's co-author, countries in which people are more extrovert（外向的）, sociable or neurotic tend to tip more. Tipping relieves anxiety about being served by strangers. And, says Mr. Lynn, “In America, where people are outgoing and expressive, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off.” Icelanders, by contrast, do not usually tip—a measure of their introversion（內向）, no doubt.
While such explanations may be crude, the hard truth seems to be that tipping does not work. It does not benefit the customer. Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it actually encourage the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to monitor and assess his staff. The cry of stingy tippers that service people should “just be paid a decent wage” may actually make economic sense.
1. According to the conventional wisdom, what are the functions of tips?
2. According to the paper analysis, there was little relationship between _____.
3. By saying “the custom has become institutionalized”, the author means that in the United States _____.
4. According to Michael Lynn, which kind of people are more likely to pay more tips?
5. The author believes that tipping in restaurants neither does good to customers nor helps _____.
文章精要：
本文從文化、心理等方面分析了小費產生的原因，同時也指出小費的存在并不能夠真正地提高服務質量。
答案解析：
1. Rewarding good service and reducing uncomfortable feelings of inequality.
細節(jié)題。由文章第一段可知The conventional wisdom is that tips both reward the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality，即約定俗成的看法是給小費既是對良好服務的獎勵，也能夠減少令人不適的不平等之感。
2. larger tips and better service
細節(jié)題。文章第三段提到The correlation between larger tips and better service was very weak，即高額小費和優(yōu)良服務之間的聯(lián)系微乎其微。
3. tip is regarded as part of the accepted cost of service
細節(jié)題。文章第四段提到the custom has become institutionalized: it is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service，即這種習慣已經約定俗成了，小費被認為是眾所周知的服務成本的一部分。冒號后的內容就是對institutionalized的解釋。
4. People who are more extrovert, sociable or neurotic.
細節(jié)題。文章第五段提到countries in which people are more extrovert, sociable or neurotic tend to tip more，即在民眾性格比較外向、愛好交際或易激動的國家，小費往往給得更多，由此推斷，這幾類性格的人更容易給小費。
5. the manager to monitor and assess his staff
細節(jié)題。文章最后一段提到Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it actually encourage the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to monitor and assess his staff，即在餐館里，給小費的情況既不能真正地鼓勵服務生，也不能幫助經理對員工的工作進行監(jiān)控和評估。
