2013年5月25日雅思阅读真题+题目+答案：Designed to Last

2013年5月25日雅思阅读真题+题目+答案：Designed to Last

A. Jonathan Chapman, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK, is one of a new breed of “sustainable designers’. Like many of us, they are concerned about the huge waste associated with Western consumer culture and the damage this does to the environment. Some, like Chapman, aim to create objects we will want to keep rather than discard. Others are working to create more efficient or durable consumer goods or goods designed with recycling in mind. The waste entailed in our fleeting relationships with consumer durables is colossal

B. Domestic power tools, such as electric drills, are a typical example of such waste. However much DIY the purchaser plans to do, the truth is that these things are thrown away having been used, on average, for just ten minutes. Most will serve conscience time, gathering dust on a shelf in the garage; people are reluctant to admit that they have wasted their money. However, the end is inevitable for thousands of years in landfill waste sites. In its design, manufacture, packaging, transportation, and disposal, a power tool consumes many times its own weight in resources, all for a shorter active lifespan than that of the average small insect.

C. To understand why we have become so wasteful, we should look to the underlying motivation of consumers. ‘People own things to give expression to who they are and to show what group of people they feel they belong to’ Chapman says. In a world of mass production, however, that symbolism has lost much of its potency. For most of human history, people had an intimate relationship with objects they used or treasured. Often they made the objects themselves, or family members passed them on. For more specialist objects, people relied on expert manufacturers living close by, whom they probably knew personally. Chapman points out that all these factors gave objects a history – a narrative – and an emotional connection that today’s mass production cannot match. Without these personal connections, consumerist culture instead of idolizes novelty. We know we can’t buy happiness, but the chance to remake ourselves with glossy, box-fresh products seems irresistible. When the novelty fades we simply renew the excitement by buying more new stuff: what John Thackara of Doors of Perception, a network for sharing ideas about the future of design, calls the “schlock of the new”.

D. As a sustainable designer, Chapman’s solution is what he calls “emotionally durable design”. Think about your favourite old jeans. They just don’t have the right feel until they have been worn and washed a hundred times, do they? It is like they are sharing your life story. You can fake that look, but it isn’t the same. Chapman says the gradual unfolding of a relationship like this transforms our interactions with objects into something richer than simple utility. Swiss industrial analyst Walter Stahel, visiting professor at the University of Surrey, calls it the “teddy-bear factor”. No matter how ragged and worn a favourite teddy becomes, we don’t rush out and buy another one. As adults, our teddy bear connects us to our childhoods, and this protects it from obsolescence Stahel says this is what sustainable design needs to do.

E. It is not simply about making durable items that people want to keep. Sustainable design is a matter of properly costing the whole process of production, energy use, and disposal. “It is about the design of systems, the design of culture,” says Tim Cooper from the Centre for Sustainable Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University in Britain. He thinks sustainable design has been “surprisingly slow to take off” but says looming environmental crises and resource depletion are pushing it to the top of the agenda.

。。。。余下雅思阅读真题原文省略！

Questions 1-5

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D

Write your answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1. What does ‘conscience time’ imply in paragraph 2?

A People feel guilty when they throw things away easily.

B The shelf in the garage needs cleaning.

C The consumers are unaware of the waste problem.

D The power tool should be placed in the right place after being used

2. Prior to mass production, people own things to show

A their quality

B their status

C their character

D their history

3. The word ‘narrative’ in paragraph 3 refers to

A the novelty culture pursued by the customers

B the motivation of buying new products

C object stories that relate personally and meaningfully to the owners

D the image created by the manufacturers

4. Without a personal connection, people buy new stuff for

A sharing

B freshness

C collection

D family members

5. The writer quotes the old jeans and teddy bear to illustrate that

A the products are used for simple utility.

B producers should create more special stuff to attract consumers.

C Chapman led a poor childhood life.

D the emotional connections make us to keep the objects for longer.

。。。。。余下雅思阅读真题题目及答案省略！

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