大学体验英语听说教程听力原文第四册

大学体验英语听说教程听力原文第四册.doc

Scripts for Unit One

Listening Task 1

The neighborhood children my age played together: either active, physical games outdoors or games of dolls-and-house indoors. I, on the other hand, spent much of my childhood alone. I’d curl up in a chair reading fairytales and myths, daydreaming, writing poems or stories and drawing pictures. Sometimes around the fourth grade, my “big” (often critical, judgmental) Grandma, who’d been visiting us said to me, “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t the other children want to play with you?” I remember being startled and confused by her question. I’d never been particularly interested in playing with the other children. It hadn’t, till then, occurred to me that that was either odd or something with me. Nor had it occurrred to me that they didn’t “want to play with” me. My first conscious memory of feeling different was in the fourth grade. At the wardrobe, listening to classmates joking, chattering and laughing with each other, I realized I hadn’t a clue about what was so funny or of how to participate in their easy chatter. They seemed to live in a universe about which I knew nothing at all. I tried to act like others but it was so difficult. I felt confused and disoriented. I turned back to my inner world: reading books, writing and daydreaming. My inwardness grew me in ways that continued to move me further away from the world of my age peers. The easy flow of casual social chat has remained forever beyond my reach and beyond my interest, too.

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Listening Task 2

The greatest difficulty for me is that as a person of mixed origin I am at home neither here nor there. Wherever I am, I am regarded as being foreign, either “white” or “black”. It happens to me when I live in my mother’s country of origin, in Switzerland, and it happened to me when I was living in my father’s country, Ivory Coast. I would feel at home where I could feel that people accept me just the way I am! When you are a small child you first do not feel that you are different from the others. But soon the others will make you feel different – and children too can be very cruel in their behavior against the “strange child”. Sometimes incredible incidents happen. Some time ago I was riding my bike somewhere in a little place in Switzarland nearby to where I live. A car drove by, and the male driver opened the window and yelled at me: “Scheiss – Neger – dirty nigger!” I almost froze. I felt helpless and unable to defend myself. When I looked at the number plate, I saw that it was a German number plate. This means that the insulting person himself was a foreigner in this country! How could he dare insult me like this? I felt that I wanted to kill this man. When I recovered I was able to think about it more clearly. These racist people are just stupid and do not know anything about life.

Scripts for Unit Two

Listening Task 1

Everybody cheats. Whether it’s the taxi driver who tricks a visitor and takes hime the long way round, or the shop assistant who doesn’t give the correct

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change, or the police officer who accepts a bribe – everybody’s at it. Cheats in the news include the scientist whose research was based on fake data, the game show contestant who collaborated with a friend in the audience to win a million pounds, and the doctor who forged his qualifications and wasn’t really a doctor at all. Everybody cheats; nobody’s playing the game.

Is cheating acceptable, a natural way of surviving and being successful? Or is it something that should be frowned on, and young people discouraged from doing? If it’s the latter, how can we explain to children why so many bend the rules?

Take sport for example. The pinnacle of football, the World Cup, was rife with cheating. Whether pretending to be hurt or denying a handball, footballers will do anything for a free-kick or a penalty shot. French player Henry denied cheating to win the free-kick which led to his side’s second goal in their 3-1 victory over Spain. Whatever the nationality there’s one common strategy: the player rolls over holding his leg, ankle or head seeming to be in great pain. As a result a yellow card or free-kick is given for the foul and then, a few seconds later, the player is up and about as if nothing had happened!

Of course it’s not just the footballers. In 1998 the Tour of France, the world’s greatest cycling event, was hit by a drug-taking scandal. Forty bottles of drugs found with a team triggered a massive investigation that almost caused the cycling tour to be abandoned. One rider was banned for nine months.

Listening Task 2

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A climate of mistrust surrounds everyone.

In the field of business, Enron, America’s seventh largest company, could serve as an unfortunate example. Its collapse in 2001 caused thousands of people to lose their jobs and life savings. The company had fooled investors into believing it was healthier than it really was. One boss now faces the rest of life in prison.

Meanwhile companies around the world are losing billions of dollars to the counterfeit trade. From cut-price CDs and DVDs to sportswear and cosmetics, cheap fake products are everywhere. It has become socially acceptable to buy fake Gucci bags and illegal copies of films. If parents are doing this, their children will follow.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that around the world more pupils than ever are caught cheating during exams. In one case keys to exam papers were put up for sale on the Internet. In another, widespread cheating took place by pupils using their mobile phones to receive texted answers. In a third case, pupils admitted to candidate substitution. They blame the pressure put on them to do well in exams. It doesn’t help that their role models are also cheats. Surely we can’t complain when we’re setting such a bad example.

Unit 3 Lifestyle

Listening task 1

When she has young children, a stay-at-home mom has two jobs. Her house

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and her kids. A stay-at-home mom is expected to do all the house cleaning. She is expected to always be the one to get up in the middle of the night, do the school things – room-mother, baker, coordinator, chauffeur and carpooler, etc. often, a stay-at-home mom is expected to take over “daddy-type” chores such as lawn-mowing and taking cars for repair. Imagine sitting in a repair shop with two squirmy toddlers! The worst thing is that the stay-at-home mom is made to feel guilty for saying “no”. The reason the stay-at-home mom does not get her nails done or have a spa day is she feels guilty for spending family money on herself.

Gosh, you all have such hectic lives. I’m dizzy just hearing your daily activities. I guess I have it nice. I have no schedule at all! I get up whn I want. I work my business when I want. I shop when I want to. I wash my hair when I bathe or I don’t wash my hair. When I go to work all I have to do is open up my office door in my house and I’m at work already. No traffic to deal with and there can be 10 feet of snow on the ground and I wouldn’t have to walk an inch of it because my house connects directly to my warehouse! If I get up and don’t feel like working I don’t.

Listening task 2

I took my first drink and smoked my first marijuana cigarette when I was 12 years old. In high school, I used all kinds of drugs. After high school until I was 21, I did a lot of binge drinking. When I was 31, I started using crack cocaine. That’s when the real problems began.

I was addicted to alcohol and cocaine, and my life was a wreck. I tried to quit a

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number of times. I moved to Mexico and gave up cocaine. I still drank and smoked marijuana, but for the time I lived there, I was off cocaine. I thought that that time off cocaine would completely cure me of any desire for it, but when I got back in town two years later, I started using it again only five days later. Every part of my life was messed up. I remember my oldest son being embarrassed to be seen with me. He would pass me on the street with his friends but he wouldn’t even speak to me. The bottom came for me when I was finally evicted from my apartment. I lost my car, my home and my sons. I looked in the mirror that day, and I couldn’t look myself in the eyes. The next morning, I showed up at the treatment center. The first few days of detox and treatment were hard, but I was convinced that I needed help, so I stayed. I’ve been clean now for five years, and I have a new life.

Unit Four Family

Listening Task One

The traditional American family is a “nuclear family”. A nuclear family refers to a husband and wife and their children. The average American family today has two or three children. In some cultures, people live close to their extended family. Several generations may even live together. In America, only in a few cases does more than one household live under one roof.

American values are valued in the home. Many homes are run like a democracy. Each family member can have a say. A sense of equality often exists in Amercan homes. Husbands and wives often share household chores. Often parents give children freedom to make their own decisions. Preschoolers choose what clothes

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to wear or which toys to buy. Young adults generally make their own choices about what career to pursue and whom to marry.

Families in America, like those in every culture, face many problems. Social pressures are breaking apart more and more American homes. Over half of US marriages now end in divorce. More than one in four American children are growing up in single-parent homes. As a result, many people believe the American family is in trouble.

Even so, there is stll reason for hope. Many organizations are working hard to strengthen families. Americans almost unanimously believe that the family is one of the most important parts of life. They realize that problems in family life in recent years have brought serious consequences. As a result, more and more people are making their family a priority. Many women are quitting their jobs to stay home with their children. Families are going on vacations and outings together. Husbands and wives are making a concentrated effort to keep their marriages solid.

The United Naitions has declared 1994 the “International Year of Family”. Not just in America, but all over the world, people recognize the importance of a strong family bond.

Listening Task Two

Women are beginning to rise steadily to the top in the workplace all over the developed world, but in the US they are forging ahead. New figures show that in

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almost a third of American households with a working wife, the woman brings home more money than her husband. They are gaining more college degrees and Masters of Business Administration qualifications than men and now occupy half the country’s high-paying, executive administrative and managerial occupations, compared with 34 per cent 20 years ago.

The trend is caused by two main factors, experts say – a growing acceptance of men as househusbands and mass redundancy of male white-collar workers from the technology, finance and media industries in the last three years.

The University of Maryland has produced a report that shows women to be the family’s bread-earner-in-chief in 11 per cent of all US marriages. And where bothe spouses work, she now brings in 60 per cent or more of the family income in 30.4 per cent of the households.

An economist at the University of Wisconsin said that ambitious women are increasingly looking for househusbands and leave men at the kitchen sink.

Unit Five Health and Diet

Listening Task 1

I had just turned 40, and has spent most of my adult life working as a public relations consultant with little time to cook, let alone learn how to cook. But a few years ago I made a resolution to start writing down the recipes I had grown up with and posting them to my website. I come from a big family – six kids – and

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thought what a terrific family project to document our family recipes! Both my mother and father are excellent home cooks; mom raises us all, and dad loves to eat well and enjoys the experimentation of trying out new recipes. I’m spending a lot of time with my parents lately; we cook a meal and then over dinner discuss the finer points of the proper way to prepare the dishes, and whether or not a new recipe was worth the effort.

Many of the recipes are family recipes, and many of them are those that we pick from cookbooks, magazines, and newspaper clippings we’ve collected over 30 years. But sometimes it’s hard when you only have a clipping. The recipes shown here use mostly whole food ingredients and only occasionally a few things from cans or prepared foods. We believe in a varied, healthy diet, using real butter, real cream, eggs, and protein from meat, fish, and cheese.

About me, my name is Alice Bauer and I am a partner in a consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. I maintain several weblogs in addition to Simply Recipes as part of alice.com.

Thanks so much for visiting Simply Recipes!

Listening Task 2

One of my most favorite breakfast is a poached egg on toast, with a side of papaya and lime, including some prosciutto with the papaya. Papaya is filled with enzymes that help digestion, and is even used to tenderize meat. The ingredients you need include: 1 firm but ripe papaya, 2 ounces of thinly sliced prosciutto, and

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1/2 lime, cut and sliced into a few wedges. Now let’s go!

First, using a vegetable peeler, peel away the outer skin of the papaya. Then cut the papaya in half. Using a metal spoon, scoop out and discard the seeds. By the way, the seeds are edible. They taste peppery, like nasturtium flowers, and can be used in salads. Next, slice the papaya halves into wedges lengthwise. Arrange them on a plate. Now what you need to do is to roll up thin sheets of prosciutto and place them between the papaya wedges. Remember the last thing, squeeze fresh limejuice over the papaya and prosciutto.

If you would like to serve the papaya as an appetizer, cut the papaya into 1-inch pieces, sprinkle on some lime juice, wrap each piece with some prosciutto, and secure with a tooth pick. It serves 2-4.

Unit Six Travel

Listening Task 1

I was spending my summer in a remote village in Ghana. I got afflicted with “the runny stomach”, as the family I lived with called it. After 5 days of the runny stomach, we left the village and took a 12-hour car ride to the capital city. Needless to say, 12-hour car rides and runny stomachs aren’t compatible. Once we had to stop in a village, greet the 20 or so people that were there, give a detailed explanation of my condition, and then I was allowed to use a brand-new porcelain toilet. I was very embarrassed because they had someone clean the toilet and stand outside while I did my noisy business. Through a crack in the bathroom

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wall I could hear some kids washing the dishes. I was splendid entertainment for the kids. Each time I let out some gas, I heard squeals of delight and hysterical laughter. They also muttered about “runny stomach”. But the highlight of my sickness had to be the wedding we attended in the capital. There I was greeted by countless guests. They asked about the details of my stomach condition. On my 8th day of sickness, we went to a private hospital and for the next two weeks I took lots of prescribed antibiotics and drank bottles of oral rehydration salts. My condition began improving in about two days. Much to my disappointment, the stool and blood samples came back negative, so my condition was a result of a change of diet. Needless to say, I learned not to be shy about stomach conditions.

Listening Task 2

When he realized that his short-term memory was failing, my husband decided to wear a multi-pocketed vest. The vest, with its 17 pockets each serving a purpose, did work for a while. Things were going so well that he started to relax a little and one day he turned back to his traditional pants-pocket wallet.

Just seconds after boarding the crowded Rome subway, a pickpocket was attracted by the familiar bulge. My husband stared at him for a moment. Finally the would-be thief withdrew and joined the crowd.

My partner became more careful, and the next time he was better organized, all the essentials in their assigned pockets. We had checked in for our flight to Athens. Before boarding I casually asked where his Swiss army knife was. His hand immediately went to the pocket designated for the knife, and found it safe there.

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Then his face fell: safe, that is , for anything but air travel.

Realizing that his precious knife would be taken away at security, he returned to the check-in counter. Fortunately, the frowning attendant agreed to pack his knife in a little box and check it separately.

By the time we got to Athens at midnight we were both exhausted. Our luggage emerged and all the other passengers were gone. My husband was still watching the carousel going round and round and round. Finally, he went to find a baggage handler and a half hour later reappeared triumphantly with his knife.

Unit Seven Language

Listening Task 1

Jessica Bucknam shouts “tiao!” and her fourth-grade students jump. “Dun!” she commands, and they crouch. They giggle as the commands keep coming in Mandarin Chinese. Most of the kids have studied Chinese since they were in kindergarten.

They are part of a Chinese-immersion program at Woodstock Elementary School, in Portland, Oregon. Bucknam, who is from China, introduces her students to approximately 150 new Chinese characters each year. Students read stories, sing songs and learn math and science, all in Chinese.

Half of the students at the school are enrolled in the program. They can

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continue studying Chinese in middle and high school. The goal: to speak like natives.

About 24,000 American students are currently learning Chinese. Most are in high school. But the number of younger students is growing in response to China’s emergence as a global superpower. The U.S government is helping to pay for language instruction. Recently, the Defense Department gave Oregon schools $700,000 for classes like Bucknam’s. The Senate is considering giving $1.3 billion for Chinese classes in public schools.

“China has become a stong partner of the United States,” says Mary Patterson, Woodstock’s principal. “Children who learn Chinese at a young age will have more opportunities for jobs in the future.” Isabel Weiss, 9, isn't thinking about the future. She thinks learning Chinese is fun. “When you hear people speaking in Chinese, you know what they’re saying,” she says. “And they don’t know that you know.”

Want to learn Chinese? You have to memorize 3,500 characters to really know it all! Start with these Chinese characters and their pronunciations.

Listening Task 2

An idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through conventional use. In the English expression to

kick the bucket, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be

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unable to deduce the expression’s actual meaning, which is to die. Although kick the bucket can refer literally to the act of striking a bucket with a foot, native

speakers rarely use it that way.

Idioms hence tend to confuse those not already familiar with them; students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions the way they learn its other vocabulary. In fact many natural language words have idiomatic origins, but have been sufficiently assimilated so that their figurative senses have been lost.

Interestingly, many Chinese characters are likewise idiomatic constructs, as their meanings are more often not traceable to a literal meaning of their assembled parts, or radicals. Because all characters are composed from a relatively small base of about 214 radicals, their assembled meanings follow several different modes of interpretation – from the pictographic to the metaphorical to those whose original meaning has been lost in history.

Real world listening

Q: Why are some idioms so difficult to be understood outside of the local culture?

A: Idioms are, in essence, often colloquial metaphors – terms which requires some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where parties must have common reference. As cultures are typically localized, idioms are more often not useful for communication outside of that local context.

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Q: Are all idioms translatable across languages?

A: Not all idioms are translatable. But the most common idioms can have deep roots, traceable across many languages. To have blood on one’s hands is a familiar example, whose meaning is obvious. These idioms can be more universally used than others, and they can be easily translated, or their metaphorical meaning can be more easily deduced. Many have translations in other languages, and tend to become international.

Q: How are idioms different from others in vocabulary?

A: First, the meaning of an idiom is not a straightforward composition of the meaning of its parts. For example, the meaning of kick the bucket has nothing to do with kicking buckets. Second, one cannot substitute a word in an idiom with a related word. For example, we can not say kick the pail instead of kick the bucket although bucket and pail are synonyms. Third, one can not modify an idiom or apply syntactic transformations. For example, John kicked the green bucket or the

bucket was kicked has nothing to do with dying.

Unit 8 Examination

Listening Task 1

At first, fifth-grader Edward Lynch didn’t pay much attention to his teacher’s warnings about the big tests the class would take at the end of the school

year. But two weeks before North Carolina’s first-ever

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elementary-promotion exams, Edward says he’s scared. He’s a B student but an erratic test taker. “The other night I had a dream my books were squishing me and pencils were stabbing me,” says the 11-year-old. His classmate West Bullock says, “I have friends who throw up the night before tests.” Their teacher, Kelly Allen, worries that half of her 21 students are at risk of failing next week’s multiple-choice tests on math and reading. If they fail, they won’t be able to graduate to middle school.

In 1996 the state of North Carolina launched its ABCs testing program, a carrot-and-stick approach that holds schools responsible for their students’ educational progress. Over the next four years, scores on statewide tests rose 14%. But critics of the program say the cost has been high, in ways that range from stomachaches to insomnia and depression.

Schools, also, are sacrificing important lessons in science, social studies and foreign languages to focus on concepts that will be tested. Thus the harmful practices such as retention in grade and tracking are encouraged. High school biology students no longer dissect frogs. A history teacher doesn’t assign research papers because they don’t help him prepare students for state-mandated tests. Lisa, a mother of a struggling fifth-grader said. “If they have kids with straight A’s, they think it’s fine, but I think there’s too much pressure with this pass-fail system.” She views the accountability system as a social experiment whose outcome is not yet known.

Listening Task 2

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No one wants to be tested. We would all like to get a driver’s license without answering questions about right of way or showing that we can parallel park a car. Many future lawyers and doctors probably wish they could join their profession without taking an exam.

But tests and standards are a necessary fact of life. They protect us – most of the time – from inept drivers, hazardous products and shoddy professionals. In schools too, exams play a constructive role. They tell teachers what their students have learned – and have not. They tell parents how their children are doing compared with others their age. They encourage students to exert more effort.

Therefore, formal testing has its place in the overall scope of education. The test data can be very useful in making decisions for the upcoming school year as well as for long term planning. Besides, the parents need accountability to themselves. Welcome the opportunity to discover their child’s strengths and weaknesses and to ascertain needs that should be addressed or pieces that are missing in the student’s academic training.

However, all tests have a margin of error. Several factors will affect tests scores, including rapport established with examiner, health of students, lack of sleep the night before, temperature of testing room, attention span, and many other variables. In other words, don’t fall apart if the scores aren’t what you think they should have been. They are just test scores and tests are not infallible.

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