每日英語 #063: Spoiler Alerts: Do People Like Them?

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Spoiler Alerts: Do People Like Them?

A “spoiler alert” is a warning that you are about to find out an important piece of information about a novel, movie, play, or TV program that you haven’t read or seen yet. “To spoil (something)” means to ruin it, so the idea behind the term “spoiler alert” is that getting information about how a story ends will “decrease” (lessen; lower) your enjoyment of it. But a 2011 “study” (piece of research) by two California researchers indicates that just the opposite is true: Spoilers make you like a story even more.

“劇透警告”是一個提醒，告訴你即將知道一本小說、一部電影、一齣戲劇或一個電視節目中的重要資訊，而你還沒有閱讀或觀看過。“破壞（某物）”的意思是毀壞它，因此“劇透警告”這個詞背後的想法是，知道故事的結局會“降低”（減少；降低）你的享受。但2011年由兩位加州研究人員進行的一項“研究”（研究項目）表明，事實恰恰相反：劇透會讓你更喜歡這個故事。

In the study, people were given one of three different versions of a story that had a surprise ending, such as a mystery story by the famous authors Agatha Christie or Raymond Chandler. One group was told how the story ended before they had even begun reading it, one group was given spoilers in the middle of the story, and one group read the story without any spoilers. By a small but “significant” (worthy of attention) amount, people who read the spoiler before reading the actual story enjoyed the story more than those who didn’t get a spoiler. (Getting a spoiler in the middle of the story didn’t make any difference, however.)

在這項研究中，受試者被給予三種不同版本的故事，這些故事都有一個驚喜結局，例如著名作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂或雷蒙德·錢德勒的懸疑故事。一組人在開始閱讀之前就被告知了故事的結局，一組人在故事中間被劇透，另一組則在沒有任何劇透的情況下閱讀故事。雖然幅度不大但“顯著地”（值得注意地），那些在閱讀實際故事之前就被劇透的人比那些沒有被劇透的人更享受這個故事。（不過，在故事中間被劇透並沒有任何影響。）

There are many possible reasons for these results. One is that people who know the “plot” (events) of the story can focus on the other parts of the drama, such as the “characters” (people) and their “motivations” (why people do what they do), the style of the writing, and more. Reading a story can be difficult, so knowing how it ends eliminates the “burden” (difficulty) of having “to figure it out” (to find the solution), giving you more energy and time to focus on a deeper understanding of the novel.

這些結果有很多可能的原因。一個原因是，知道故事“情節”（事件）的人可以專注於戲劇的其他部分，例如“角色”（人物）及其“動機”（人們行為的原因）、寫作風格等。閱讀一個故事可能很困難，因此知道結局可以消除“負擔”（困難），不必“去猜測”（找出解決辦法），這樣你就有更多的精力和時間專注於對小說的更深理解。

重點單字

• Spoiler alert [ˈspɔɪlər əˌlɜrt] 劇透警告
• Spoil [spɔɪl] 破壞
• Decrease [dɪˈkris] 減少
• Study [ˈstʌdi] 研究
• Significant [sɪɡˈnɪfɪkənt] 顯著的
• Plot [plɑt] 情節
• Characters [ˈkærɪktərz] 角色
• Motivations [ˌmoʊtəˈveɪʃənz] 動機
• Burden [ˈbɜrdən] 負擔
• To figure it out [tə ˈfɪɡjər ɪt aʊt] 找出解決辦法