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Peter: Morning, boys and girls. Today we are glad to have Miss Wilson here to give us a lecture about dressing. Mrs. Wilson is a famous etiquette teacher. Hi, Miss Wilson, welcome.
Miss Wilson: Thank you. Well, I guess all of us care about our personal appearance, right? (16) In fact, how we look and how we appear to others probably worries us more when we are in our teens or early twenties than at any other time in our life. Few of us are willing to accept ourselves as we are, and few are brave enough to ignore the trends of fashion.
Most fashion magazines try to persuade us that we should dress in a certain way or behave in a certain manner. (17) If we do, they tell us that we will be able to meet new people with confidence and deal with every situation confidently and without embarrassment. Changing fashion, of course, does not apply just to dress. A barber today does not cut a boy's hair in the same way as he used to. The advertisers show us the latest fashionable styles and we are constantly under pressure to follow the fashion in case our friends think we are odd or dull.
What causes fashions to change? Sometimes convenience or practical necessity or just the fancy of an important person can establish a fashion. Take hats, for example. In cold climates, early buildings were cold inside, so people wore hats indoors as well as outside.
There is also a cyclical pattern in fashion. In the 1920s in Europe and America, short skirts became fashionable. After World War Ⅱ, they dropped to ankle length. Then they got shorter and shorter; the miniskirt was in fashion. After a few more years, skirts became longer again.
(18) Today, society is much freer and easier than it used to be. It is no longer necessary to dress like everyone else. Within reason, you can dress as you like or do your hair the way you like instead of the way you should because it is the fashion. The popularity of jeans and the "untidy" look seems to be a reaction against the increasingly expensive fashion of the top fashion houses.
(19) At the same time, appearance is still important in certain situations and then we must choose our clothes carefully. It would be foolish to go to an interview for a job in a law firm wearing jeans and a sweater; and it would be impolite to visit some well-known scholar looking as if we were going to the beach or a night club. However, you need never feel depressed if you don't look like the latest fashion photo. Look around you and you'11 see that no one else does either.
16. When do people care about personal appearance the most during the lifetime?
17. According to most fashion magazines, what's the benefit of following their advice?
18. Why do people no longer follow fashions they dislike today?
19. What does the speaker emphasize at the end of the speech?
同学们，上午好。今天我们很荣幸请来了威尔逊小姐为我们做关于着装的演讲。威尔逊小姐是著名的礼仪课程的老师。您好，威尔逊小姐。
谢谢。我猜我们大家都很注重自己的形象，对吗？事实上，我们人生中可能没有哪个阶段会比我们在十几岁和二十岁出头的时候更在乎自己的形象以及在他人眼中的样子了。我们当中只有很少人能够接受自己本来的样子，而且很少有人有足够的勇气忽视流行趋势。
很多时尚杂志都试图劝说我们要按照一定的方式穿衣和行事。它们告诉我们，如果我们这样做，我们可以自信地面对新认识的人，并且丝毫不感觉尴尬地应对各种状况。当然，时尚的改变说的并不只是服装。理发师不会用过去的方式给现在的男孩子理发。广告商通常会把最流行的款式展示给我们，而我们也一直备受压力，努力跟随时尚的步伐，生怕我们的朋友认为我们古怪或愚钝。
什么会导致流行趋势的变化呢？有时候仅仅是因为便捷或实用，或者仅仅一个人的时髦打扮就会创造一个潮流。就拿帽子来举例吧。早期的建筑在寒冷的天气里室内温度很低，所以人们在室内和室外都戴着帽子。
流行还是有周期的。在20世纪20年代，短裙开始在欧洲和美洲流行起来。二战后，长及脚踝的裙子开始流行。随后它们又变短了，超短裙开始流行。又过了一些年，裙子又变长了。
而现在的社会更加自由和包容，再也没有必要和别人穿得一样，只要不过分，你可以穿自己喜欢的衣服，剪自己喜欢的发型，而不是穿时下流行的衣服。牛仔装和“邋遢风”服装的流行可能是针对价格飙升的顶级时装店的一种反应。
但是，在一些特定的情况下外表还是很重要的，这时候我们需要仔细挑选自己的衣服。如果你穿着牛仔裤和毛衣去一家法律公司面试，这就很愚蠢了；如果你去拜访知名学者却穿得像是去逛海滩或夜店，这就显得你很失礼。不用因为自己穿得不像最新时尚照片上那样而难过，环顾四周你会发现大家都一样。
问题16 人的一生当中哪个阶段最注重自己的外表？
问题17 听取时尚杂志的建议能获得的最大的收益是什么？
问题18 现在为什么人们不会跟随他们不喜欢的流行趋势？
问题19 演讲结束时演讲者强调了什么？
译文属可可原创，仅供学习和交流使用，未经允许不得转载
