托福TPO25口语task4题目 Reading Part:
Cultural Lag
Technological change occurs very rapidly in modern society – sometimes more rapidly than many people are prepared for. As a result, when new technology emerges, people may struggle for a time to adapt to it. This period of transition, when people aread justing to technological change, is known as cultural lag. At first, people are not accustomed to the new technology and may not understand it; they may therefore have a negative attitude toward it. Over time, however, their attitudes change, and they successfully incorporate the new technology into their daily lives.
托福TPO25口语task4题目 Listening Part:
Now listen to part of a lecture from a sociology class.
(male professor) Now, the invention of the telephone was revolutionary. It was a much easier and faster way of communicating than anything else available at the time. However, when the telephone first became widely available, towards the end of the century, only businesses used telephones because businesses realized how the telephone could benefit them, how it could help them be more productive.
But, a lot of people in the general public didn’t think the phone should be used for personal communication. Some people didn't like to listen to someone’s voice without being able to see them. Also, a lot of people thought that it was rude to call someone on the telephone instead of visit them in person. They missed the sense of personal connection they got from meeting someone.
However, as we all know, people gradually changed their minds about the telephone. It took about 30 years but eventually most homes came to have telephones and everyone came to depend on them. Talking to someone you couldn't see began to seem more normal. Friends began to call each other just to chat, just for fun. And after everyone agreed on certain rules of politeness, such as not calling someone late at night, no one considered it rude anymore to make personal phone calls.
托福TPO25口语task4题目 Question:
Using the example of the telephone, explain the concept of cultural lag.
托福TPO25口语task4答案解析：
Reading部分的definition很明显，即当新科技出现时，人们需要一段时间来适应，这段时间就叫做cultural lag。Listening部分教授用了一个example来解释说明这个definition。第四题的listening段子分为三种类型。两个example，一个example，以及实验，难度依次递增。一个example比两个example更难组织语言，建议在听的过程中做好流程图式的笔记，说的时候尽量多用逻辑连接词把流程图串起来。
托福TPO21口语task4范文：
Cultural lag is a period of transition, when people get used to a technological change. The professor gives an example of the telephone. At the end of the nineteenth century, when telephone became widely available, only businesses used it. But the majority of the public didn’t value its use for personal communication, because, for example, some of them didn’t like to communicate without face-to-face, others considered it rude to call someone without visiting him or her in person. However, this attitude towards telephone changed over the 30 years thereafter. Talking to someone on the phone is no longer rude or abnormal. For example, friends like to call each other just for a chat, and the rules of politeness have also changed, like no one would consider the personal call impolite unless it is made late at night.