Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42
People of every culture tell each other fairy tales but the same story often takes a variety of forms in different parts of the world. In the story of Little Red Riding Hood that European children are familiar with, a young girl on the way to see her grandmother meets a wolf and tells him where she is going. The wolf runs on ahead and disposes of the grandmother, then gets into bed dressed in the grandmother’s clothes to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. You may think you know the story – but which version?
The universal appeal of these tales is frequently attributed to the idea that they contain cautionary messages: in the case of Little Red Riding Hood, to listen to your mother, and avoid talking to strangers. ‘It might be what we find interesting about this story is that it’s got this survival-relevant information in it,’ says anthropologist Jamie Tehrani at Durham University in the UK. But his research suggests otherwise. ‘We have this huge gap in our knowledge about the history and prehistory of storytelling, despite the fact that we know this genre is an incredibly ancient one,’ he says. That hasn’t stopped anthropologists, folklorists and other academics devising theories to explain the importance of fairy tales in human society.
Tehrani’s analysis focused on Little Red Riding Hood in its many forms, which include another Western fairy tale known as The Wolf and the Kids. Checking for variants of these two tales and similar stories from Africa, East Asia, and other regions, he ended up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions. First, he tested some assumptions about which aspects of the story alter least as it evolves, indicating their importance. Folklorists believe that what happens in a story is more central to the story than the characters in it.
However, Tehrani found no significant difference in the rate of evolution of incidents compared with that of characters. Neither did his analysis support the theory that the central section of a story is the most conserved part.
But the really big surprise came when he looked at the cautionary elements of the story. ‘Studies on hunter-gatherer folk tales suggest that these narratives include really important information about the environment and the possible dangers that may be faced there – stuff that’s relevant to survival. Yet in his analysis such elements were just as flexible as seemingly trivial details. What, then, is important enough to be reproduced from generation to generation?
The answer, it would appear, is fear – blood-thirsty and gruesome aspects of the story, such as the eating of the grandmother by the wolf, turned out to be the best preserved of all. Why are these details retained by generations of storytellers, when other features are not? Tehrani has an idea: ‘In an oral context, a story won’t survive because of one great teller. It also needs to be interesting when it’s told by someone who’s not necessarily a great storyteller.’ Maybe being swallowed whole by a wolf, then cut out of its stomach alive is so gripping that it helps the story remain popular, no matter how badly it’s told.
Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark isn’t surprised by Tehrani’s findings. ‘Habits and morals change, but the things that scare us, and the fact that we seek out entertainment that’s designed to scare us – those are constant,’ he says. Clasen believes that scary stories teach us what it feels like to be afraid without having to experience real danger, and so build up resistance to negative emotions.
(Adapted from Cambridge English IELTS Academic 15)
Question 36. What best serves as the title for the passage?
A. Why are fairy tales really scary tales? B. Childhood memories are fairy tales
C. Different versions of Little Red Riding Hood D. Case study: Fairy tales and their happy endings
Question 37. The word “they” in paragraph 2 refers to ______
A. anthropologists B. folklorists C. tales D. storytellers
Question 38. According to the passage, what method did Jamie Tehrani use to test his ideas about fairy tales?
A. He compared oral and written forms of the same stories
B. He looked at many different forms of the same basic story
C. He looked at unrelated stories from many different countries
D. He contrasted the development of fairy tales with that of regions around the world
Question 39. The word “conserved” in paragraph 4 mostly means ________
A. important B. confusing C. interesting D. maintained
Question 40. The word “gruesome” in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to _______
A. filthy B. captivating C. ghastly D. intriguing
Question 41. Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?
A. All the fairy tales analysed by Tehrani were originally written rather than spoken
B. In fairy tales, details of the plot show considerable global variation
C. Tehrani rejects the idea that the useful lessons for life in fairy tales are the reason for their survival.
D. Various theories about the social significance of fairy tales have been developed without factual basis
Question 42. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Fairy tales are a safe way of learning to deal with fear
B. It is commonly believed that fairy tales are packed with contradictory messages
C. The changing values of our society are more widely accepted thanks to fairy tales
D. The preservation of a fairy tales are attributable to a great narrator
Giải chi tiết đề thi thử 01 môn Tiếng Anh tôt nghiệp THPT 2023
