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[00:06.98]第8天 真题练习
[00:11.69]Passage One
[00:14.53]Edgar Allen Poe, an American writer, was born in 1809. His parents were actors.
[00:22.13]Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died.
[00:28.57]He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman named John Allen.
[00:33.50]He then received his new name, Edgar Allen Poe.
[00:39.30]As a young man, Poe attended the University of Virginia. He was a good student,
[00:45.20]but he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money.
[00:49.03]As an unskilled game player, he often lost money.
[00:53.40]Since he couldn’t pay off his gambling debt,
[00:56.57]he left university and began working for magazines. He worked hard,
[01:01.17]yet he was not well paid, or well known. At the age of 27, he got married.
[01:07.63]For a time it seemed that Poe would find some happiness,
[01:11.78]but his wife was sick for most of their marriage,
[01:14.84]and died in 1847. Through all his crises,
[01:19.76]Poe produced many stories and poems which appeared in different publications,
[01:24.69]yet he didn’t become famous until 1845, when his poem, The Raven, was published.
[01:32.45]There is a question, however, about Poe’s importance in the American Literature.
[01:37.26]Some critics say Poe was one of American’s best writers,
[01:41.31]and even had a great influence on many French writers,
[01:45.03]but others disagree. They say Poe’s work is difficult to understand and
[01:50.72]most of his writing describes many unpleasant situations and events.
[01:55.64]Edgar Allen Poe died in 1849 when he was 40 years old.
[02:01.44]It is said that he was found dead after days of heavy drinking.
[02:06.14]Questions 1 to 4 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[02:11.61]1. What happened to Edgar Allen Poe’s family, when he was only two years old?
[02:33.09]2. Why did Edgar Allen Poe leave the University of Virginia?
[02:52.86]3. What do some critics say about Edgar Allen Poe?
[03:13.50]4. How did Edgar Allen Poe’s life come to an end?
[03:33.34]Passage Two
[03:37.16]Farmers usually use ploughs to prepare their fields for planting crops.
[03:42.63]Ploughs cut into the ground, and lift up weeds and other unwanted plants.
[03:48.87]However, ploughing is blamed for causing severe damage to topsoil by removing the plants
[03:55.97]that protect soil from being blown or washed away.
[03:59.91]Many farmers in South Asia are now trying a process called Low Till Farming.
[04:06.58]Low Till Farming limits the use of ploughs.
[04:10.14]In this method of farming seeds and fertilizer are put into the soil through a small
[04:16.26]cut made in the surface of the ground.
[04:18.56]Low Till Agriculture leaves much or all of the soil and remains of plants on the ground.
[04:24.57]They serve as a natural fertilizer and help support the roots of future crops.
[04:30.70]They take in rain and allow it to flow into the soil instead of running off.
[04:35.62]It has been proven that Low Till Farming increases harvests and reduces water use,
[04:41.96]and this method reduces the need for chemical products because there are fewer unwanted plants.
[04:48.85]Scientists say Low Till Farming is becoming popular in South Asia,
[04:55.09]which is facing a severe water shortage.
[04:57.75]They say the area will become dependent on imported food unless water
[05:02.56]is saved through methods like Low Till Farming.
[05:04.86]Currently, more than 150 million people in South Asia depend on local rice and wheat crops.
[05:13.18]Farmers grow rice during wet weather.
[05:16.45]During the dry season they grow wheat in the same fields.
[05:20.06]Farmers are using the Low Till method to plant wheat after harvesting rice.
[05:25.43]Scientists say Low Till Agriculture is one of the best examples in the world of
[05:30.90]technologies working for both people and the environment.
[05:35.16]Questions 5 to 7 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[05:41.33]5. What is the main problem caused by the usual way of ploughing?
[06:01.89]6. What does the speaker say about Low Till Farming?
[06:21.87]7. Where is Low Till Farming becoming popular?
[06:42.96]Passage Three
[06:44.92]According to David Grattle, a British language expert,
[06:48.75]the idea that English will become the world language is outdated.
[06:52.25]And people are more likely to switch between two or more languages for routine communication in the future.
[06:59.80]The share of the world’s population that speaks English as a native language is falling.
[07:05.71]Instead, English will play a growing role as a second language.
[07:10.18]A population speaking more than one language is already the case in much of the world and
[07:17.08]is becoming more common in the United States.
[07:19.16]Indeed, the census bureau reported last year that nearly one
[07:23.75] American in five speaks a language other than English at home,
[07:27.65]with Spanish taking the lead, followed by Chinese.
[07:31.47]Grattle works for British consulting and publishing business.
[07:36.62]He anticipates a world with the share of people who are native
[07:40.45]English speakers slips from 9% in the mid 1990s to 5% in 2050.
[07:46.90]Grattle says, “Up until 1995,
[07:51.06]English was the second most common native tongue in the world,
[07:55.97]trailing only Chinese. By 2050,
[07:59.59]Chinese will continue its predominance with Hindi Woodoo of India and
[08:05.48]Arabic climbing past English and Spanish nearly equal to it.”
[08:10.07]In contrast, an American language expert,
[08:13.24]David Harrison noted that the global share of English is much larger if you count
[08:18.60]second language speakers, and will continue to rise even as the proportion of native speakers declines.
[08:25.39]Harrison disputed listing Arabic in the top three languages because varieties of Arabic spoken
[08:32.83]in such countries as Egypt and Morocco are mutually incomprehensible.
[08:37.75]Questions 8 to 10 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[08:43.10]8. What does David Grattle say about the use of languages for daily communication in the future？
[09:06.09]9. Why doesn’t David Harrison include Arabic as one of the top three languages？
[09:30.54]10. What can we infer from the passage?
[09:50.02]Passage Four
[09:53.41]There are about 1 million blind people in the United States.
[09:58.12]The largest and most influential organization of blind people
[10:02.87]in this country is the National Federation of the Blind.
[10:06.37]Its officials say the nation doesn’t have any colleges or universities that serve only blind students.
[10:14.25]They say the reason for this is that blind people must learn to live among people who can see.
[10:21.36]American colleges and universities do accept blind and visually impaired students,
[10:28.24]and they provide services to help these students succeed. For example,
[10:34.05]colleges find people who write down what the professor say in class
[10:38.74]and they provide technology that can help blind students with their work.
[10:44.11]However, experts say colleges can best help blind students by
[10:49.47]making it clear that the students should learn to help themselves.
[10:53.30]One blind American student named Timcodez recently made news
[11:00.30]because he graduated from medical school at the University of Wisconsin.
[11:04.34]He said technology was one of the reasons he succeeded.
[11:08.17]He used a computer that read into his earphone what he was typing.
[11:13.53]He also used a small printer that permitted him to write notes about his patients in the hospital.
[11:20.20]He did his undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend,Indiana.
[11:27.42]National Federation of the Blind officials say blind students from
[11:33.25]other nations do come to the United States to attend college.
[11:35.99]Some can even get financial aid.
[11:39.05]The Federation awards about 30 scholarships each year that have no citizenship requirement.
[11:46.71]Questions 11 to 14 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[11:53.07]11. According to officials of the National Federation of the Blind，
[11:58.43]why are there no special colleges for blind students only？
[12:17.63]12. According to experts，how can colleges best help blind students？
[12:38.70]13. What is one of the reasons given by Timcodez，a blind student for his success？
[13:01.61]14. What can blind students from overseas do to study in America
[13:08.27]according to the National Federation of the Blind？
[13:28.16]考点突破强化练习
[13:31.01]Passage One
[13:32.65]While we’re discussing the early part of this century,
[13:36.48]I’d like to spend a few moments on the National Park System.
[13:40.74]The US Department of the Interior established the
[13:44.79]National Park Service in 1916 in order to consolidate the
[13:49.71]administration of the 37 national parks and monuments it had then.
[13:55.29]This new National Park Service was instructed by an act
[14:01.19]of Congress to conserve and protect the natural and historic
[14:05.02]objects so that they could be enjoyed by future generations.
[14:09.18]The parks were classified into four groups: natural, historical, recreational, and cultural areas.
[14:18.70]I’m sure that many of you have been to some of the most famous, like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon,
[14:26.24]but did you know that we now have over 300 separate parks, monuments, sites, and memorials.
[14:35.10]Yellowstone, which was established back in 1872, is certainly beautiful, but so are the others.
[14:44.73]If you have time, try visiting some of the less-well-known parks,
[14:49.87]like Platt in Oklahoma, or Hot Springs in Arkansas.
[14:55.23]Our National Park System is probably the most extensive in the world.
[15:00.48]It’s an important part of our continuing history.
[15:04.30]Questions 1 to 4 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[15:12.18]1. What is the main idea of this talk?
[15:34.25]2. What happened in 1872?
[15:54.28]3. How many parks are there now?
[16:14.71]4. What does the speaker suggest that people do?
[16:31.64]Passage Two
[16:37.38]Good listening involves reaching into the thoughts and feelings behind a person’s words.
[16:44.49]Watching someone’s body language is an important way of doing this.
[16:48.43]A high percentage of what we learn in a conversation comes from this
[16:53.90]non-verbal communication and it differs from one culture to another.
[16:59.04]In a conversation, people’s body language is the way they sit or stand,
[17:05.49]what they do with their hands and the rest of their body.
[17:08.77]These non-verbal messages can give you important clues to people’s thoughts and feelings,
[17:15.01]confirming or contradicting the words they speak.
[17:19.17]Like other aspects of behavior, body language is catching.
[17:24.63]When a conversation is going well, people mirror each other’s attitudes, gestures, and mannerisms.
[17:31.85]When conflict arises, body language is adjusted accordingly.
[17:37.32]Do not take body language in isolation. See it as part of a larger picture,
[17:44.77]which includes tones of voice and words spoken. Also do not forget practical considerations.
[17:52.87]Your conversational partner may be shifting in his chair because he dislikes what you are saying.
[17:59.43]Equally, however, the chair may be uncomfortable and he may only be trying to rearrange his position.
[18:07.20]Questions 5 to 7 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[18:14.08]5. What’s the main topic of the passage?
[18:34.99]6. How do you understand body language according to the speaker?
[18:55.30]7. Which one is not true according to the passage?
[19:16.35]Passage Three
[19:19.84]Today I’d like to begin a discussion on the problem of the heating up of the earth.
[19:25.20]First we’ll touch on the relationship between fluorocarbons and the ozone layer.
[19:31.65]You probably remember that the ozone layer is the protective shield around the earth.
[19:38.43]It is important to all life because it filters out harmful ultraviolet light from the sun.
[19:46.52]Ozone itself, a form of oxygen, is regularly made by the action of the sun in the upper atmosphere.
[19:55.60]It is also regularly destroyed by natural chemical processes.
[20:00.63]The problem now is that too much of the ozone layer is being destroyed.
[20:07.30]Scientists suspect that certain chemicals, such as fluorocarbons,
[20:12.99]are contributing to this depletion of the ozone layer.
[20:17.26]Why is there an increasing number of fluorocarbons in our air?
[20:23.49]This is because we are using more fluorocarbons in the manufacturing of common products,
[20:30.82]such as spray cans, automobile cooling systems, and refrigerators.
[20:36.84]The chemical pollution from these fluorocarbons can account
[20:41.87]for some of the ozone losses that have been reported.
[20:45.04]There are now, however, studies linking the sun itself to the depletion of the ozone layer.
[20:51.82]We’ll go into that study more next time.
[20:55.64]Questions 8 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[21:03.31]8. Who is the most likely speaker?
[21:24.15]9. What is the speaker’s main topic?
[21:45.32]10. What is the most important purpose of the ozone layer?
[22:07.21]11. What is the ozone layer made of?
[22:28.87]Passage Four
[22:30.62]How men first learned to invent words is unknown; in other words, the origin of language is a mystery.
[22:38.49]All we really know is that men, unlike animals,
[22:42.97]somehow invented certain sounds to express thoughts and feelings,
[22:47.68]actions and things, so that they could communicate with each other;
[22:52.49]and that later they agreed upon certain signs,
[22:56.10]called letters, which could be combined to represent those sounds, and which could be written down.
[23:03.04]Those sounds, whether spoken, or written in letters, we call words.
[23:09.38]The power of words, then, lies in their associations-the things they bring up before our minds.
[23:16.71]Words become filled with meaning for us by experience; and the longer we live,
[23:22.50]the more certain words recall to us the glad and sad events of our past;
[23:27.54]and the more we read and learn, the more the number of words that mean something to us increases.
[23:35.98]Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express
[23:41.56]these thoughts in words which appeal powerfully to our minds and emotions.
[23:46.48]This charming and telling use of words is what we call literary style.
[23:52.60]Above all, the real poet is a master of words.
[23:57.86]He can convey his meaning in words which sing like music,
[24:02.99]and which by their position and association, can move men to tears.
[24:09.01]We should therefore learn to choose our words carefully and use them accurately,
[24:14.59]or they will make our speech silly and vulgar.
[24:19.73]Questions 12 to 14 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[24:26.18]12. What do we know about the origin of language?
[24:48.28]13. According to the passage, what do words mean?
[25:08.54]14. According to the passage, what is the secret of a writer’s success?
[25:31.83]Passage Five
[25:34.35]As every schoolboy knows, the important raw materials of industry are coal, oil and iron.
[25:42.66]However as every businessman knows, the most important raw material of all is the schoolboy who,
[25:52.06]as a trained college graduate, will run the U.S. industry of the future.
[25:57.86]Today the U.S. industry is faced with a tight shrinkage of such manpower.
[26:05.41]It needs not only more but better trained college graduates.
[26:11.20]To help get them, many a businessman believes that corporations must provide much of the cash
[26:19.19]needed by colleges to expand their facilities and improve their teaching,
[26:24.11]and work more closely with colleges on business’s needs.
[26:28.60]Thus, industry and education have a clear mutuality of interests.
[26:36.03]Businessmen and educators have not always recognized this.
[26:41.94]While there are a few businessmen who still regard college professors
[26:47.19]as vague-minded and likely to be radicals,
[26:50.47]and a few educators who still look on businessmen as mere money-grabbers,
[26:56.48]the mutual distrust has generally disappeared in the mutual need.
[27:01.41]The rapidly expanding U.S. economy has made college graduates more important than ever to industry.
[27:10.26]In turn, universities must depend increasingly on corporations for contributions,
[27:17.37]since high taxes have all but cut off the flow of the big individual
[27:23.17]contributions that built the private school.
[27:26.42]Questions 15 to 17 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[27:35.17]15. What are the most important raw materials of industry to businessmen?
[27:57.57]16. What does the lecturer suggest that industrial corporations do to get the manpower they need?
[28:22.74]17. What is the main point of this lecture?
[28:44.01]Passage Six
[28:46.53]Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist and philanthropist,
[28:51.45]made a fortune by manufacturing iron and steel protected by a custom tariff.
[28:56.91]In 1873, on one of his frequent trips to England,
[29:02.16]he met Henry Bessemer and became convinced that the industrial future lay in steel.
[29:08.84]He built the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Mills near Pittsburgh,
[29:14.41]and from that moment on, the Carnegie empire was one of constant expansion.
[29:20.10]Later on, the Carnegie Steel Company became an immense organization.
[29:26.22]It included all the processes of steel production from the great furnaces and finishing mills of
[29:33.88]Pittsburgh to the inroads and lake steamers that move the ores and the finished products.
[29:39.14]Like his grandfather, Andrew Carnegie did not abandon the radical idealism of his forebears for the
[29:47.56]benefit of the working class and the poor people. In spite of his espousal of Herbert Spencer’s
[29:54.24]philosophy and the social Darwinism of the period,
[29:57.74]Carnegie remained deeply committed to many of the chartist ideals of his boyhood.
[30:04.74]He believed in the social responsibility of the man of wealth to society.
[30:10.86]He served as a steward for a fortune: he had earned and used that fortune to provide
[30:18.07]greater opportunity for all and to increase man’s knowledge of himself and of his universe.
[30:24.09]Furthermore, Carnegie considered that the dispensation of wealth for the benefit of society must
[30:32.19]never be in the form of free charity but rather must be as a
[30:37.00]buttress to the community’s responsibility for its own people.
[30:40.61]When Carnegie died in Lenox, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919, most of his fortune was already gone.
[30:50.84]People wonder that if Carnegie had known this when he was alive,
[30:55.54]he would have spread most of his wealth to the poor people.
[30:59.04]Questions 18 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[31:06.83]18. According to the passage, why could Carnegie develop his vast industrial fortunes?
[31:28.00]19. What does the passage tell us about Carnegie’s trips to England？
[31:50.78]20. Which happened first according to the passage?