韋恩食記

先補充一下何謂 Groupthink  https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%98%E9%AB%94%E8%BF%B7%E6%80%9D
詳細解答： http://www.kekenet.com/toefl/201408/322208.shtml

閱讀部分
One process by which groups may make bad or irrational decisions is known as groupthink.
團體可能會做出錯誤或不合理決定的過程稱為團體迷思。

Individual members of a group attempt to conform their opinions to what they believe to be the group consensus even though the result may be negative.
小組中的每個成員都試圖使他們的意見與他們認為的小組共識一致，即使結果可能是負面的。

There are many reasons why groupthink happens.
團體迷思的發生原因有很多。

These include the desire to be liked, fear of losing a job, or even not wanting to be the one employee delaying a decision that seems inevitable.
這似乎不可避免，其中包括渴望被別人喜歡，害怕失去工作，甚至不想成為一名拖延決定的員工。

These kinds of implicit pressures to conform lead group members to ultimately make decisions that each, by himself or herself, might normally not make.
這種隱性壓力通常使成員最終無法做出自己的決定。

聽力部分

So, let me tell you about my own experiences when I was working for a computer company a couple of years ago.
讓我告訴你們，我幾年前在一家電腦公司工作時的經歷。

So, one day a co-worker and I suggested we should give our computers a design make-over: make them look more up-to-date.
有一天，我和一位同事提議應該對電腦進行設計改造：使它們看起來更新。

Market research was showing that new customers said they would be more interested in buying our computers if they looked cooler.
市場研究顯示，新客戶覺得如果電腦看起來更酷，會提高他們購買的興趣。

Our technology was advanced but the outside design looked really old-fashioned.
我們的技術很先進，但外觀看起來確實是過時的。

At first, more than half the group supported us.
首先，以半以上的組員支持我們。

There were a few senior managers here who didn't support the design change.
但有一些資深經理不支持改變設計。

One of the senior manager said, "Our focus has always been on technology, changing the look is an unnecessary cost."
一位資深經理說：“我們一直把重點放在技術上，改變外觀是不必要的成本。”

Almost immediately, some of our supporters changed their minds!
我們的一些支持者幾乎立刻改變了主意！

Even my co-worker changed his mind!
甚至我的同事也改變了主意！

When I asked him why after the meeting, he told me he didn't want to make a bad impression on the senior managers.
會議結束後，我問他為什麼要改變主意，他告訴我不想給資深經理留下不好的印象。

He thought that disagreeing with them might jeopardize his chances of getting a promotion by not looking like a team-player.
他認為不同意他們，就會被認為是沒有團隊精神的人，這樣會損害獲得升遷的機會。

What about me?
那我呢？

I hate to admit it, but, after a few hours of discussion, I started wondering if it was worth everyone's time to argue about this?
我不願承認這一點，但是，經過幾個小時的討論，我開始懷疑是否值得每個人花時間討論這一點？

As more people sided with the senior management, I started to feel that I was the only one holding up the vote.
隨著越來越多的人支持資深經理，我開始感到自己是唯一支持這個表決的人。

Everyone else seemed to think change wasn't necessary.
其他所有人似乎都認為沒有必要進行更改。

I voted against my own idea in the end.
最後，我對自己的想法投了反對票。

So we unanimously decided to stay with the current old-looking design.
因此，我們一致決定保留當前的舊外觀設計。

But this decision ended up costing us a lot of money.
但是這個決定最終使我們損失了很多錢。

That same year, our competitor came out with a new design that attracted some of our customers and prevented us from profiting from new customers.
同年，我們的競爭對手推出了一種新設計，這種設計吸引了我們的一些客戶，使我們無法從新客戶中獲利。

題目
Explain groupthink and its effects. Using the example of the computer company.

回答範例
The groupthink which means sometimes people would make a bad decision as a group.
集體迷思指有時候人們會在團體中做出不好的決策。

In the example, the professor and his co-worker thought they need to change the look of their computers, but managers disagreed.
在這個例子中，教授和他的同事認為他們需要改變公司電腦的外觀，但經理卻反對。

So his co-worker changed his mind because he didn't want to leave a bad impression on the managers by not looking like a team player.
因此他的同事改變他的想法，因為他不想給經理留下沒有團隊精神的壞印象。

In the end, the professor changed his mind too, because he didn't want to be the only person that's holding up the vote.
最後教授也改變了他的想法，因為他不想要成為唯一一個支持該表決的人。

But they were all wrong, the same year, a competitor came out with a new design that attracted many of their customers.
同年，他們全都錯了，競爭對手出了一款新的電腦設計，此款新設計搶走了他們的客戶。