雅思听力在考试中占据着重要的地位，时常用听力材料来磨耳朵可以不断巩固大脑的英语语言能力。以下是雅思听力材料，您可以结合MP3和下方的原文及翻译进行听力学习。

听力原文及翻译

Now let's look back a bit to early knitting activities. In fact, no one really knows when knitting first began, but archeological remains have disclosed plenty of information for us to think about. One of the interesting things about knitting is that the earliest pieces of clothing that have been found suggest that most of the items produced were round, rather than flat. 

现在让我们回顾一下早期的编织活动。事实上，没有人真正知道编织最早开始的时间，但考古遗迹已经揭示了大量值得我们思考的信息。关于编织的有趣之处之一是，最早发现的服装表明，大多数编织物品都是圆形的，而不是扁平的。

Discoveries from the 3rd and 4th centuries in Egypt show that things like socks and gloves, that were needed to keep hands and feet warm, when knitted in one piece using four or five needles, that's very different from most knitting patterns today, which only require two. 

在埃及发现的 3 世纪和 4 世纪的物品表明，袜子和手套等用于保持手脚温暖的物品，如果用四五根针编织成一件，这与今天大多数只需要两根针的编织图案非常不同。

What's more, the very first needles people used were hand carved out of wood and other natural materials like bone, whereas today's needles are largely made of steel or plastic and make that characteristic clicking sound when someone's using them. Ancient people knitted using yarns made from linen, hemp, cotton, and wool, and these were often very rough on the skin. 

此外，人们使用的最早的针是用木头和其他天然材料（如骨头）手工雕刻而成的，而今天的针大多由钢或塑料制成，使用时会发出特有的咔哒声。古代人用亚麻、大麻、棉和羊毛制成的纱线编织，这些纱线通常对皮肤非常粗糙。

The spinning wheel, which allowed people to make finer yarns and produce much greater quantities of them, led to the dominance of wool in the knitting industry, often favored for its warmth. Another interesting fact about knitting is that because it was practiced in so many parts of the world for so many purposes, regional differences in style developed. 

纺车使人们能够纺出更细的纱线，产量也大为增加，这也使得羊毛在针织行业占据了主导地位，羊毛通常因为保暖性而受到青睐。关于针织的另一个有趣事实是，由于针织在世界各地用于各种目的，因此形成了地区风格的差异。

This visual identity has allowed researchers to match bits of knitted clothing that have been unearthed over time to the region from which the wearer came or the job that he or she did. As I have mentioned, knitting offered people from poor communities a way of making extra money while doing other tasks. 

这种视觉识别使研究人员能够将随着时间的推移而出土的针织服装碎片与穿着者的出生地或工作相匹配。正如我所提到的，针织为贫困社区的人们提供了一种在做其他工作的同时赚取额外收入的方式。

For many centuries, it seems men, women, and children took every opportunity to knit, for example, while watching over sheep, walking to market, or riding in boats.

许多世纪以来，男人、女人和孩子似乎抓住一切机会进行针织，例如在看羊、步行去市场或乘船时。

以上就是本期的雅思听力练习，希望对您的听力水平有所帮助。您也可以访问网站主页，获取最新的英语学习资料，全方位提升英语能力。还可以加入听力课堂官方QQ群（243171310），与英语学习者共同交流！