2019年6月大学英语四级阅读理解训练：名人的影响力

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Aladuell argues that social epidemics are driven in large part by the acting of a tiny minority of special individuals, often called influentials, who are unusually informed, persuasive, or well-connected. The idea is intuitively compelling, but it doesn’t explain how ideas actually spread.

The supposed importance of influentials derives from a plausible sounding but largely untested theory called the “two step flow of communication”: Information flows from the media to the influentials and from them to everyone else. Marketers have embraced the two-step flow because it suggests that if they can just find and influence the influentials, those selected people will do most of the work for them. The theory also seems to explain the sudden and unexpected popularity of people was wearing, promoting or developing whatever it is before anyone else paid attention. Anecdotal evidence of this kind fits nicely with the idea that only certain special people can drive trends.

In their recent work, however, some researchers have come up with the finding that influentials have far less impact on social epidemics than is generally supposed. In fact, they don’t seem to be required of all.

The researchers’ argument stems from a simple observation about social influence, with the exception of a few celebrities like Oprah Winfrey—whose outsize presence is primarily a function of media, not interpersonal, influence—even the most influential members of a population simply don’t interact with that many others. Yet it is precisely these non-celebring influentials who, according to the two-step-flow theory, are supposed to drive social epidemics by influencing their friends and colleagues directly. For a social epidemic to occur, however, each person so affected, must then influence his or her own acquaintances, who must in turn influence theirs, and so on; and just how many others pay attention to each of these people has little to do with the initial influential. If people in the network just two degrees removed from the initial influential prove resistant, for example the cascade of change won’t propagate very far or affect many people.

Building on the basic truth about interpersonal influence, the researchers studied the dynamics of populations manipulating a number of variables relating of populations, manipulating a number of variables relating to people’s ability to influence others and their tendency to be.

1. By citing the book The Tipping Point, the author intends to

[A]analyze the consequences of social epidemics

[B]discuss influentials’ function in spreading ideas

[C]exemplify people’s intuitive response to social epidemics

[D]describe the essential characteristics of influentials.

2.The author suggests that the “two-step-flow theory”

[A]serves as a solution to marketing problems

[B]has helped explain certain prevalent trends

[C]has won support from influentials

[D]requires solid evidence for its validity

3. what the researchers have observed recently shows that

[A] the power of influence goes with social interactions

[B] interpersonal links can be enhanced through the media

[C] influentials have more channels to reach the public

[D] most celebrities enjoy wide media attention

4.The underlined phrase “these people” in paragraph 4 refers to the ones who

[A] stay outside the network of social influence

[B] have little contact with the source of influence

[C] are influenced and then influence others

[D] are influenced by the initial influential

10. what is the essential element in the dynamics of social influence?

[A]The eagerness to be accepted

[B]The impulse to influence others

[C]The readiness to be influenced

[D]The inclination to rely on others

　　参考答案及解析

1、选B. 推理题。文章开头作者介绍The Tipping Point这本书的中心思想是“一小部分名人引领了社会潮流”，但是在段末又表示“书作者的想法并不能解释思想是如何传播的”，由此引出对名人在思想传播中作用的讨论。

2、选D.细节题。第二段的首句作者使用“a plausible sounding but largely untested theory”来修饰“two-step-flow theory”，同时第三段整段都是对名人思想传播论的否定。

3、选A. 推理题。文章第四段主要表述了“社会交往的影响力”。

4、选C. 指代题。定位到文章第四段，前面表述的意思为，“人们受到别人影响后会进而影响后面的人”，These people所在句子的意思为，“有多少人注意这些人，他们与最初的那些名人一点关系也没有”，由此可知，那些人指的就是前文中所述的“受到别人影响后进而影响后人的人。”

5、选 C. 细节题。线索在文章的尾端末句“people’s ability to influence others and their tendency to be influenced”即“人们影响别人的能力及别人影响的倾向性。”，C项符合文意。