★★★

常错题：

3. Why does the professor mention Jack Vance?

• A.To encourage the man to write a paper about Planet of Adventure

• B.To support her point that some authors should be researched more

• C.To indicate a way for the man to begin looking for a suitable topic

• D.To demonstrate that science fiction is gaining attention from scholars

B出现在对话开始，不在答题区间。

听力原文：

Listen to a conversation between a student and a literature professor.

Student: How was that conference last weekend, Professor Miles?

Professor: Great! I heard some really terrific presentations, refreshing topics too that obviously you don’t usually hear too much about. 

Student: Why not?

Professor: Oh, well, you know, it’s a funny thing about academia, you’d think scholars would do research about every topic imaginable, but actually some authors, some genres, are not respected very much, so not very much is written about them, Gothic literature, detective novels...

【

academia /ˌækəˈdiːmiə/ 学术界

Gothic /ˈɡɑːθɪk/ 哥特的

】

Student: But that’s what the conference was about?

【这里打断老师有点不礼貌诶，说明心里有事儿啊~

“教授您能别BB了么，咱聊点别的？”】

Professor: Yeah, pretty much. It was kind of subversive I guess, but there is a whole wealth of knowledge out there just waiting to be explored. I find that really exciting. 

【

subversive 颠覆性的

】

Student: Sure. Yeah.

Professor: Ah, anyway, you wanted to ask me about the final paper?

Student: Yeah, which I see now ties into the theme of that conference since we are supposed to write about a book from one of those lesser genres, I was wondering…What about science fiction?

Professor: Sure. Though it’s a genre that’s actually getting more and more respect within academia. There was even a talk at the conference about Jack Vance.

Student: Oh, he wrote Planet of Adventure, right?

Professor: Yeah, he is a well-researched, respected science-fiction writer. If you are interested in science fiction, you could look him up, that’d lead you to lots of other authors and lots of possibilities for your paper. 

Student: Great. Well, I’m relieved you think that’s a good genre to study. I’ll find a book that interests me and do the paper on that. It seems like most people assume that science fiction is kind of like, I don’t know, junk literature. 

Professor: Yes, a lot of people do. 

Student: Yeah but, I’ve read some things and I think that some of it is really well written and it takes so much imagination to write sci-fi.

Professor: Well, careful though, there’s a difference between science fiction and sci-fi.

Student: What do you mean?

Professor: Sci-fi, that’s what you tend to see in films. It has all the spaceships and robots and it focuses on exotic technology, you know, wow factor, like special effects, at the expense of a well-written story. I think a lot of people don’t realize this and tend not to make a distinction.

Student: Okay.

Professor: But true science fiction is much more intellectual than that. The story is very important. And even though it might take place in an imaginary world, and it might have exotic gadgets, the focus is on the plot. Science fiction creates metaphors about our world, and well, what it means to be human. It’s meant to get people to think about real things like history and human behavior. That’s worthy of your time, but not sci-fi.

Student: Great. Well, can I let you know next week which book I want to write about?

【教授苦口婆心之后，学生这里有点敷衍啊~】

Professor: Sure.

教授最后两段关于science fiction和sci-fi之间的区别，同样是独立口语很好的答题语料。

背景拓展：

Jack Vance

https://site.douban.com/110577/widget/notes/306064/note/317953855/

杰克•万斯（Jack Vance）是最伟大的科幻小说家之一。他笔耕不辍六十余年。

要用三言两语来介绍杰克•万斯可不容易。今天距离他的第一本书《濒死的地球》出版已经有55年了，这位游离在科幻与奇幻边缘，置身于主流之外的作者一般被归类于科幻奇幻作家，可是据说他本人不但不承认，还表示痛恨科幻类型文学。

他写的书已经超过了六十本，《凡斯大全集》（Vance Integral Edition）以年代为线收录了他平生绝大部分作品。其中大部分都是系列故事，而最有名的恐怕就是《濒死的地球》系列。这是后来许多作者竞相模仿的杰作。巅峰之作是有五部的《恶魔王子》系列，此外还有《冒险星球》系列；《德丹》（Durdane）三部曲，两本的《大行星》（Big Planet）,《里昂尼斯》三部曲（Lyonesse fantasy trilogy）等等。他的很多作品都得到了非常高的评价，使他获得过许多奖项。

1992年，弗罗里达州奥兰多授予他贵宾荣誉（Guest of Honor）。1997年，美国科幻作家协会授予他大师（Grand Master）的荣誉。他创作了数十部科幻与幻想小说，包括赢得世界幻想文学奖（ the World Fantasy Award）的莱昂纳斯系列、赢得雨果奖和星云奖（the Hugo and Nebula Award）的《最后的城堡》（THE LAST CASTLE）。2009年，《纽约时报杂志》（New York Times Magazine）称他为“美国文学最独特、最受低估的声音”。

Planet of Adventure

Planet of Adventure is a series of four science fiction novels by Jack Vance, published between 1968 and 1970. The novels relate the adventures of the scout Adam Reith, the sole survivor of an Earth ship investigating a signal from the distant planet Tschai.

Tschai is a planet orbiting the star Carina 4269, 212 light-years from Earth. It is populated by various sentient alien species. The native Pnume have been subjected to invasions by three species. In addition, there are humans, captured and brought to the planet long ago by one of the spacefaring species; some of them live as slaves or servants of each of the alien races, while others have managed to create their own societies. Each of the four novels relates Reith's adventures with one of the species, and is named after that species. In order, the books are:

• City of the Chasch

• Servants of the Wankh

• The Dirdir

• The Pnume

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Adventure