淘金式英语专业四级听力文本test

91. The American DreamEach individual may define the American dream differently. But the general idea is that a person in the United States has the freedom to carry out his or her goals. It usually means a person has the chance to work hard, earn money and create a secure life. For many people, this means being able to get a good education, have a good job and own a house. The expression is often linked to immigrants who have come to this county seeking more freedom or a better life than they could have in their own countries.Some people would say that the United States Declaration of Independence first defined the American dream. It expressed why the American colonies decided to fight British colonial rule in order to become an independent nation. The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal, and that they have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.92. How to Apply to an American CollegeThe American university system is one of the best in the world, but competition for admission can be steep. The application process itself is a labyrinth that most American students approach only with the help of school councilors, parents and peers. Above all else, applying to American colleges and universities requires patience and persistence.The application process consists of filling out the common application, writing a personal statement, and any necessary supplemental assays. In addition, all applicants are required to submit standardized test scores, letters of recommendation, high school transcripts, along with an application fee.You should study the web sites of schools that interest you. You can find information about how and when to apply, how much it will cost and whether any financial aid is available. And you may be able to apply online and pay the application charge with a credit card.93. Credit Cards on CampusMost undergraduates in the United States last year had at least one credit card. Half dad four or more. Borrowers who do not pay their credit card debt in full each month have to pay interest on whatever balance remains. In a time of economic downturn, college students are depending on credit cards more than ever. Many seem to use them to live beyond their means---to spend more than they have.However, a new law makes it harder for banks to give credit cards to people under 21. To get a credit card, they need a parent or other adult over 21 to accept joint responsibility. Or they need toshow they can repay their debts independently.Also, schools are urged to consider limiting the number of places on campus where companies can market credit cards. And they are urged to offer credit card and debt education and counseling sessions to all new students.94. AllowanceMany children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance. In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance. The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs.。

95. SavingsIn the United States, people who want to start a savings have many choices. Banks and credit unions are traditional places to open an account. Savings are protected up to a limit if a federally guaranteed bank or credit union ever fails. Banks and other financial organizations pay interest on savings accounts, but the interest rates are low.Certificates of deposit are another way to save. They pay higher interest rates. With a certificate of deposit, a person agrees not to withdraw an amount of money for a period of time. The term could be three months, or it could be several years. Longer terms, and larger amounts, pay higher interest.Another way to save is through a money market fund. They pay higher interest than savings accounts. The money is usually placed in short-term government securities. Money market funds, however, may not be federally guaranteed like other kinds of savings.96. BondsBonds are debt owed by a government or a company. The holder of a bond is paid interest until the date when the bond matures. Then the amount of the bond, its face value, is paid back.Investors can buy a new bond and keep it until it matures. Orthey can buy and sell existing bonds. The return on a bond is called yield. Yields and prices of existing bonds can change as investors trade them. Yields fall when investors seek the security of bonds and are willing to pay higher prices. Yields increase as prices fall. Higher yields raise the cost for individuals and businesses to borrow money. Rising yields can also hurt stock prices. When yields rise, investors often sell stocks in order to buy bonds. If investors can get high yields holding low-risk bonds, or simply keeping money in the bank, they will do it.。

DictationBread-makingPeople made bread in different ways, / but the bread that’s made in Britain contains five ingredients. / There’s water, flour of course, / and then there’s salt, sugar and something called yeast./ A long time ago, people made bread just from flour and water, / and their bread looked and tasted very different from the bread we make today./ It was a different shape---like large flat biscuits, / and it was dark brown in colour. / But it was too heavy to digest. / Then the Egyptians discovered that yeast,/ which is a kind of fungus, will make bread rise./ Well, in fact, if you look at a modern loaf of bread through a microscope, / it looks a bit like a sponge, doesn’t it? / Full of little holes. / Well, the holes make the bread lighter, of course, and easier to digest.yeastfungusspongeConversations1.W: Did you have a good time last weekend?M: Yes, I did. I visited some friends in Pennsylvania. They live in a small town called Canonsburg.W: That must have been interesting. I’ve never been in a small town—just big cities.M: Neither have I.W: What did you do?M: There isn’t as much to do there as is here. No plays or concerts, that is,people make their own entertainment, though.W: What do you mean?M: Well, Saturday we went to a potluck supper.W: A potluck supper? What’s that?M: The whole neighborhood has a party. Everybody brings something. It’s all put on the table and you can eat whatever you like. That is a potluck supper.W: It’s something like a picnic, isn’t it?M: Well, yes. The weather was warm, so we had this one outdoors. But in winter they have them indoors, too.W: What else did you do?M: Sunday we went for a drive. We had lunch at a drive-in.W: Is the countryside interesting?M: Beautiful farmland. You’d like it.W: I’m sure I would.M: Sunday evening some people came for dinner. It was very informal—we just sat around and talked. Just a nice Sunday night supper.W: That’s the kind of evening I like. I don’t care for a formal dinner so much. W: Neither do I.potluck 家常便饭potluck supper聚餐：每个客人都自带食物然后大家分而食之的一顿饭的drive-in 免下车餐馆, 免下车电影院(顾客可坐在自己的车上购物、进餐、看电影等等)Conversation 2W: Today’s arts report is on Dan Parker of the American Indian Dance Theater.Mr. Parker, I understand your troupe performs traditional music and dance from many different Native American cultures. Can you give us some ideas of some of the dances you’ll be doing in the performance tonight?M: Certainly. We’ll be doing won-us-award dance. Originally it was a story telling device to recount battles. Another is the grass dance, performed by the plains Indians, where they actually flatten tall field grass to prepare it for a ceremony.W: Since your dancers are from many different tribes, how can you be sure the dances are done correctly?M: Everything we do has been approved by the elders of our tribes. That’s partly because we don’t necessarily know each other’s styles of dances.But it’s also because it’s hard to get complete agreement even within the same tribe about exactly how the dance should be done.W: Anyone who attends one of your performances will notice that your company goes to a lot of trouble to provide detailed explanations of the origin of the dances, the music, the costumes and so forth. Could you explain to our listeners why you do these?M: Good question. Our explanations show that in our cultures, dance is ritual rather than entertainment. We also want to make it clear to our audience that we are not performing any dances used for sacred ceremonies.troupeConversation 3M: I really appreciate your filling me in on yesterday’s lecture.W: No problem. I thought you might want to go over it together. And anyway it helps me review. Hope you’re feeling better now.M: I am. Thanks. So, you said she talked about squid? Sounds a little strange. W: Well, actually it was about the evolution of sea life—a continuation from last week. The octopus and the squid descended from earlier creatures with shells. They survived by shedding their shells—somewhere between 200 and 500 million years ago.M: That’s a pretty long span of time. Some squid are really huge. Can you imagine something that big if it still had a shell?W: Actually, it’s because they lost their shells that they could evolve to a bigger size.M: Make sense. I’ve read about fishermen who caught squid that weighed over a ton. Did she talk about how that happened?W: Not really. But she did mention some unusual cases. In 1933 they caught a squid in New Zealand… let’s see here. ..it was twenty-two yards long. M: Remind me of all those stories of sea monsters.W: Dr. Simpson thinks there are probably even larger ones that haven’t been found because squid are intelligent and fast—so they can easily get away from humans. Maybe some of those monster stories are true.Section B PassagesPassage 1Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country’s impressive population growth. For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in 1966. In September 1966 Canada’s population passed the 20 million mark. Most of this surging growth came from natural increase. The depression of the 1930’s and the war had held back marriages, and the catching-up process began after 1945. The baby boomcontinued through the decade of the 1950’s, producing a population increase of nearly fifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to 1956. After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until in 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were staying at school longer; more women were working; young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before starting families; rising living standards were cutting down the size of families. It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial revolution. Passage 2In the early days of the United States, postal charges were paid by the recipient and charges varied with the distance carried. In 1847 the United States Post Office Department adopted the idea of a postage stamp, which of course simplified the payment for postal service but caused grumbling by those who did not like to prepay. Besides, the stamps covered only delivery to the post office and did not include carrying it to a private address. In Philadelphia, for example, with a population of 150,000, people still had to go to the post office to get their mail. The confusion and congestion of individual citizens looking for their letters was itself enough to discourage the use of mail. It is no wonder that, during the years of these cumbersome arrangements, private letter-carrying and express business developed. Although their activities were only semi-legal, they thrived, and actually advertised that between Boston and Philadelphia they were a half-day speedier than the government mail. The government postal service lost volume to private competition and was not able to handle efficiently even the business it had. Finally, in 1863, Congress provided that the mail carriers who delivered the mail from the post offices to private addresses should receive a government salary and that there should be no extra charge for that delivery.recipientgrumblecongestion拥塞, 充血cumbersomePassage 3There are two factors which determine an individual’s intelligence. The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ considerably, somebeing more capable than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor is what happens to the individual and the sort of environment in which he is reared. If an individual is handicapped environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop. The importance of environment in determining an individual’s intelligence can be demonstrated by the case of the identical twins, Peter and Mark. Being identical, the twins had identical brains at birth, and their growth processes were the same. When the twins were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in separate foster homes. Peter was reared by parents of low intelligence in an isolated community with poor educational opportunities. Mark was reared in the home of well-to-do parents who had been to college. He was sent to good schools, and given every opportunity to be stimulated intellectually. This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence. Mark’s IQ was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his identical brother.Section 3 NewsNews 1The sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference will open in Hong Kong a week from tomorrow. Police say they will deploy 9,000 officers, one thirds of its manpower, during the event. The government says the weeklong conference will bring inconvenience to the public and is appealing for understanding. The weeklong WTO Ministerial Conference opens on the 13th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wanchai. Police revealed that they have received applications for public meetings and protests on practically everyday of the week during the conference.News 2Thousands of people living in villages closest to the volcano have already been moved to emergency shelters. Many more are lining up by the side of the road waiting for trucks to take them to safety. But still there are a few farmers refusing to move. Without their crops and animals they have no income and cannot support their families so they’re waiting until the government offers financial help. Meanwhile, the mountain above them is becoming more active by the day. At least one village about three kilometers from the crater has been covered in a dusting of volcanic ash. One scientist told the BBC he now believed Merapi was in what be called the early stages of an eruption but he added “we cannot predict when it will reach its peak.”News 3Palestinians have exported the first shipment of crops grown in Gaza greenhouses left behind by evacuated Jewish settlers. Palestinian officials said two and a half tons of peppers left Gaza through the Karni Crossings, and will be sold in Israel. The Director of the Palestinian Economic Development Company said he was very pleased. He said the shipment moved without problems and he hopes this will be a good start. Palestinian officials hope to export a further shipment of produce to Europe, via Israel, next week. Until this summer, the greenhouses belonged to Jewish settlers in Gaza. When Israel withdrew from Gaza, and dismantled the settlements, private, foreign donors bought the greenhouses for $13 million and gave them to the Palestinians. Palestinian officials say access to the outside world is crucial for strengthening Gaza’s troubled economy.evacuatedismantleNews 4Eighty-three million miles out in space, a comet had a visitor from planet Earth earlier today. The comet is named Tempel 1 and the visitor was called Deep Impact, which also describes its mission to slam into the speeding comet and learn just what it’s made of. Well, it worked. It was a brilliant success. The picture perfects collision of Deep Impact’s unmanned probe, the explosion of images and data. Even Mission Controllers could barely believe they’d pulled off such a brash technological feat.unmanned probe 无人探测News 5This was one of the most daring prison breakouts to take place in Greece. The helicopter landed in a courtyard of Korydallos prison in Athens as those on board threw flares into the area. Amid the confusion, two inmates managed to climb into the helicopter which took off again, flying to a nearby cemetery. The escaped prisoners then fled with their accomplices on motorbikes which have since been found near the port of Piraes. One of the men, Vassilis, Paleokostas, was serving a twenty-five year sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery.It’s thought his brother, who’s been on the run since 1990, was behind the breakout. The police have arrested the helicopter pilot, who says he was forced to fly to the prison at gunpoint. Korydallos hold some of the country’s most notorious criminals including the leaders of the militant left-wing organization, November Seventeenth, who were found guilty ofmurdering politicians, businessmen and foreign diplomats.News 6Many people may be nervous about using online bill pay. But a new report says it can be safer than using traditional methods. The story posted on reports, Javelin Dtrategy and Research says, eliminating paper bills makes it harder for thieves to steal information,often done by searching a person’s mail. The report claims that by simply buying into the high-tech approach, customers can save $4.8 billion in fraud costs each year. The group also says people who use Internet banking or bill pay are more likely to monitor their transactions on a regular basis. One of the snags, though most companies do charge a monthly fee for the online services.snag。

Model Test 1HobbiesIn early times, most people were too busy making a living to have many hobbies. Today as machines have reduced the amount of time they must spend on their jobs, people have more time than before for hobbies.People take up hobbies because these activities offer enjoyment, friendship, knowledge, and relaxation. Sometimes they even yield financial profit. Hobbies help people relax after periods of hard work. They provide a balance between work and play, especially for workers who do the same monotonous tasks all day long. Hobbies also offer interesting activities for persons who have retired. Those who have devoted hobbies never need to worry about what to do with their newly-found leisure hours. Anyone can follow a satisfying hobby, regardless of his age, position, or income. A famous Canadian doctor expressed the value of hobbies bysaying, “No man is really happy or safe without a hobby.”Model Test 3Let Children Learn to Judge Their Own Work A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, when children learn to do all the other things, such as walking, running, climbing, and riding a bicycle, they learn to do them without being taught. Rather, they compare those performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his own mistakes for himself. Weact as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher.Model Test 4A New Need for Traffic Lights Space is getting crowded. That’s the latest worry for many scientists. About ten thousand objects are orbiting our planets now. Some are satellites that have a job to do. Other items have finished their work. Parts of rockets may have been discarded during a flight and left behind in space.This is becoming a real problem. More items in space lead to more danger. Some of the objects now floating through space are just a few inches in size. But they can still do harm. If they hit a spacecraft or spacelab, they might destroy it.Space agencies can now locate objects in space with a computer. Yet, accidents still happen. Someone may see that two objectsseem to be very close. But they have no power to prevent the crash. Experts can only plot courses to help future rockets avoid some of the objects.Model Test 5SportThe word “sport”first meant something that people did in their free time. Later, it often meant hunting wild animals and birds. About a hundred years ago, the word was first used for organized games, which is its usual meaning today. People spend their spare time playing football, basketball, tennis and many other sports. Such people play because they want to. Some people are paid for the sport they play. These people are called professional sportsmen. They may be sportsmen for only a few years, but many of them can earn a lot of money.Of course, it is only possible for a few sportsmen to earn much money in sports for individuals, like golf, tennis and motor racing.And famous stars can even get huge amounts of money from advertisements. They allow the companies to use their names or photographs and are paid for this. Sport is no longer just something for people’s spare time.Model Test 7Teaching and LearningTeaching is supposed to be a professional activity requiring long and complicated training as well as official certification. The act of teaching is looked upon as a flow of knowledge from a higher source to an empty container. The student’s role is one of receiving information, while the teacher’s is one of sending it.There is a clear distinction assumed between one who is supposed to know and another, usually, younger person who is supposed not to know. However, teaching needn’t be the province of a special group of people nor need it be looked upon as a technical skill. Teachingcan be more like guiding and assisting than forcing information into a supposedly empty head. If you have a certain skill, you should be able to share it with someone. You don’t have to get certified to convey what you know to someone else or to help them in their attempt to teach themselves.Model Test 8The Use of ComputersNearly everything we do in the modern world is helped or even controlled by computers. Computers are being used more and more extensively for the simple reason that they are far more efficient than human beings. They have much better memories and can store huge amounts of information. They can collect and analyze enormous numbers of facts very quickly. This makes them suitable for all kinds of work. They can pay wages,reserve seats on planes, control machines in factories. They can even play chess, write poetry, or composemusic. But perhaps the most interesting applications will be for personal use. In some countries, modified television sets have been connected by telephone to a very large computer. Users dial a few numbers on the telephone to get information from the large computer such as schedules for airplanes, information from dictionaries, or weather forecasts. They can also use the computers to do complicated calculations and to play games.Model test 9Life in SpaceSome scientists say that in twenty years, there will be communities in space. These will begin because men will go to work on the moon, and send important metals back to earth. They will need somewhere to live, and so, with the help of special building machines, they will create large “ships ”in space. People will be able to live a new way of life because the ships will be large enough for all the thingspeople need. In the middle of the ship there could be a river. On the outside of the ship, the people will grow vegetables, under plastic or glass. These will grow very quickly because of the light from the sun. But perhaps the most beautiful thing about these communities is that people inside will be able to fly, since the gravity will be very low. Perhaps when people live in places like these,, they will have a better life than in the cities on earth.Model Test TenForeign Language StudyThe knowledge of a foreign language is an important part of an education． A person cannot be considered truly educated if he knows only one language. Nevertheless, the importance of learning foreign language is often underestimated.English is one of the most commonly used languages in international communication. Some speakers of English mistakenly argue that it is important for them to know anotherlanguage for communicative purposes. They think that everyone else should know English. But there are still billions of people who do not speak English, and many of these people have limited educational opportunities. If English speakers do not make the effort to learn to communicate in other languages, they should not expect others to gain a knowledge of English.If there is to be world peace, the people of the world must understand each other.Communication is necessary to thatunderstanding, but people cannot communicate if they do not speak the samelanguage./5908417366/profile?topnav=1&wvr=6&is_all=1 //shop-a1057660228///8sLH3ZqZvDYP。

DictationBellIn ancient times all over the world, it was believed that evil spirits could put up with just about anything except the clanging of the bell. Over time, the bell itself, even when not ringing, came to be regarded as a powerful lucky symbol. Because it is suspended in a hanging position, it takes on the representation of all life suspended between heaven and earth. Its vault-like shape has become a symbol of heaven. Bells are used in Christian churches as well as Hindu and Buddhist temples as a means of keeping evils away. The bell tolled at funerals is now explained as a signal to the living that a soul is passing to the other side and should be accompanied by prayers. But originally the tolling was intended to prevent evil forces from interfering with the soul’s heavenward journey.clangingsuspendrepresentationvault-likeChristianHinduBuddhistfuneralaccompanyoriginallyinterfereheavenwardtollConversations1.W: Bob, [1] you weren’t at home last Saturday, were you? I tried to call you.M: Oh, that’s right. Carolyn. I suppose you phoned me in the morning, didn’t you? W: Yes, it was late in the morning when I phoned.M: Oh, [2] I was out shopping. Why did you phone me?W: I wanted to ask if you’d like to come to dinner on Sunday.M: Oh, what a pity! [3] I wish I had come but-actually, I went on a river trip practically the whole day Sunday.W: How was the trip?M: Very worthwhile. By the way, how did the dinner party go?W: Well, we had a wonderful time… er… [1] I thought you might have enjoyed it too if you had come. Tom Welsh and his wife were with us. You’ve met them before, haven’t you?M: Tom Welsh, yes, I rather liked him.W: And we had a lovely dinner with green cabbage, cucumber soup and fresh salad. M: Very nice.W: And they asked about you.M: And how’re they getting on?W: Oh, very well. They enjoyed the party very much.M: Ah, good.2.W: Elizabeth Martin speaking.M: Dr. Martin, my name is Mark Johnson. My roommate, Benjamin Jones, is in your art history class. Uh-m, Art History 502?W: Yes.M: [4] Well, he is sick and won’t be in your class today. He asked me to bring his term paper to your office.W: Ok. The paper is due by 3 o’clock.M: I have a class from 1 to 2. I’ll bring it to your office after my class.W: Well, I have a meeting this afternoon. So you can drop it off with the secretary of the art history department. She’ll see that I get it.M: Ok. Oh I almost forgot. I’m biology major. [5] But my advisor told me that I need one more humanities course to gratitude. I’ve noticed that you are teaching a course on landscape painters next semester. [5] Could you tell me a little bit about it?W: Sure. Well, it’s a course for non-art major. We’ll be looking at several different painters and examining their works. We’ll also look at the history and politics of the era in which they lived.M: That sounds interesting. What else is required?W: [6] There is no final exam. And there is only one required book. But each student has to give a major presentation about the individual painter at the end of the course. M: Hmm. It sounds good. Thanks. I’ll do that.3.W: Hi, John.M: Oh! Laura, what are you doing here?W: Uh. [7] I’m usually here on weekends. It’s my dad’s shop. So you are looking for a bike?M: Yeah. Now that the weather is warming up, [8] I thought I should get some exercise instead of taking the bus all the time.W: Well, you come to the right place. Do you know what you would like?M: Well, I don’t want a racer or a touring bike or anything. [8] Mostly I’ll just be using it to get me back and forth from work.W: How far is that?M: About four miles.W: Are there a lot of hills on the way?M: Some I guess. But maybe I should tell you that I only got 150 dollars. Can I get anything decent for that?W: Well, you are not going to get anything top of the line. [9] But we do have a few trade-ins in the back that are in good condition.M: That sounds good.W: And you are right. For the kind of ride you are going to be doing, [10] the most important thing is comfort. You want to make sure it’s the right height for you. Follow me and I’ll show you what we’ve got.trade-inPassages1.[11] Although European countries have been spending more money on wind generating electrical facilities than we have been here in the U.S., there are combinations of factors which make the outlook quite promising for domestic wind farm. Many of the projects which have been attempted in Europe have not been commercially successful [12] because they have been centered around massive projects—some as tall as twenty-story buildings with propellers a hundred meters across --- that they have developed structural and other technical problems. Here in America, by contrast, we typically rely on smaller propeller units distributed across large land area, such as the five thousand acre installation near Palm Springs. Although these small installations are technically less efficient, in practical terms they have turned out to be much more reliable. The other factor which has helped to make the domestic wind power projects more successful has been the introduction of computers to regulate the interactions between the propellers and the electrical generators. [13] Because of the reduced cost of computerized controllers and the greater efficiency they bring, the cost of wind generated power has dropped from 30 cents per kilowatt hour to 7-9 cents---less than the cost of conventional coal or oil burning power plants.Propeller 推进物in practical terms 实际上wind generating electrical facilities 风力发电设施2.I’m sure you realize that [14] we only have a month left before the research papers are due. I’ve checked over your topic statements and I’ve tried to add some helpful comments. In general, [16] I’d like to remind you that choosing a project which youcan back up with solid reference materials is of the utmost importance. As I return your topic statements, I’d like to remind you about the schedule I laid out for the paper. Today is Friday; [15] by Wednesday, I want an annotated bibliography. By next Friday I’ll expect a detailed outline which should correspond to the topic you have already chosen. In case you need to discuss your paper on an individual basis, you can stop by my office--- there’s a sign-up sheet on the door if you wish to schedule an appointment. Please consult your style manual carefully when writing your bibliography. [17] The assignment is graded almost strictly on mechanics rather than content which means you need to tale your time and plan ahead. The more information you include within your annotations, the better preparation you will have for the outline. So, please do not forget that the annotated bibliography is due next Wednesday, and the outline is due the following Friday. Good luck.reference materialsstyle manualcorrespond toaround the cornermechanics [pl.]utmostcitationannotated bibliography3.For years, it’s been assumed that the indoor environment limits the variety of plants that people are exposed to. [18] Lately, however, plants that are usually only grown outdoors have found their way into indoor spaces. The modern indoor environment can be an ideal setting for a wide variety of outdoor plants. Plants that ordinarily cannot grow in colder outdoor climates can find protection from the cold indoors, where temperatures are easily controlled. Orchids, which were once only found in tropical environments, have begun to thrive in indoor settings. One aspect of the modern home that has made exotic outdoor plants more practical is the modern use of windows. In the past windows were used less frequently in buildings. It is partly because of the ability of [19] large windows to admit large amounts of sunlight and keep the heat in at the same time, that many outdoor plants have been able to make their move inside. It is true that most of the plants that have been successful in moving indoors have been small. Some of the best-adapted varieties are the vines. Although some trees can be grown indoors, it is unlikely that larger varieties can be used. Unfortunately, [20] most homes just don’t have the space to grow a redwood tree.Orchid 兰花tropical environment 热带环境exotic 外来的，奇异的redwood tree 红杉树vine 葡萄藤News Broadcast1.The winner of Liberia’s presidential election says her victory marks a new passage for her country and African women. Newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said she would bring pride to her country, to African and the world. She made the comments during an acceptance speech Wednesday. United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, congratulated Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf on becoming Africa’s first elected female leader. He urged election officials to quickly finish their investigation into accusations of election dishonesty. Earlier Wednesday, election officials in Liberia declared Ms. Johnson-Sirleaf the winner if the country’s presidential election. Republic of Liberia 利比里亚Federal Republic of Nigeria 尼日利亚Somali Republic 索马里Democratic Republic of the Congo 刚果民主共和国2.The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have gained a third emblem, opening the way for Israel to join the global relief network. Representatives of countries which signed the Geneva Convention voted by a two-thirds majority to adopt a diamond-shaped red crystal on a white background as the new symbol. The move also allows Israel’s official ambulance service to operate alongside the Palestinian Red Crescent in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel will use the symbol outside its internationally recognized borders instead of the red Star of David, which Arab states have always refused to accept. A U.S. governor advisor at the talks, John Ballinger, says he was pleased with the outcome.Emblem 象征、徽章Israel 以色列Palestine 巴勒斯坦Lebanon 黎巴嫩Jordon 约旦Iraq　伊拉克Saudi Arabia 沙特Kuwait 科威特Oman 阿曼Syria 叙利亚Geneva 日内瓦3.A forty-year-old father of two, Steve Vaught took the final steps of his epic journey as he crossed the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. It took him a year and a month to walk the nearly four thousand eight hundred kilometers from his home in California. His original aim had been to lose weight after falling into a depression and developing an eating disorder. He did arrive a hundred pounds or forty-five kilograms lighter but said he learned that weight loss was more about the state of mind than body. He now realized the secret to becoming thinner was being happier. His voyage of self-discovery was viewed by millions around the world on his experiences. But before disappearing into a hotel, he told reporters his first plan was to put on some new socks.4.Singapore executed an Australian drug trafficker this morning, spurning repeated appeals from Australia for clemency. Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged at dawn. Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, says the execution may breed resentment towards the city-state, but ruled out any diplomatic action. Friends and supporters of Nguyen Tuong Van held vigils outside the maximum-security prison where the 25-year-old was executed. Nguyen was found with about 400 grams of heroin at Singapore’s Changi Airport in 2002 on route from Cambodia to Australia. He said he planned to sell the drugs to help pay off the debts of his twin brother. Appeals for clemency by the Australian government and his lawyers failed and he was hanged at six o’clock this morning.drug trafficker 毒贩spurn拒绝clemency 仁慈、宽厚法律类新闻词汇execute 处决appeal 诉请lawyer 律师arrest 逮捕bail 保释hanging 绞刑penalty 刑罚judge 法官procurator 检察官accusation 指控5.Indonesia overtook Thailand recently as the second worst affected country in the world, after Vietnam, in terms of the number of people killed by H5N1 bird flu. Thirty people are now conformed as having died in Indonesia. The virus has been found in poultry in the majority of Indonesia’s thirty-three provinces. Worryingly, the latest cluster of deaths was on the island of Sumatra, not Java where all previous confirmed fatalities had been recorded. All the Sumatran victims were reported to have been in close proximity to sick poultry. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization this week warned Indonesia that they were failing to combat the spread of the disease, both in terms of controlling animal infections and failing to increase public awareness. The Indonesian authorities say they are watching the Sumatra cluster carefully but there’s no evidence that the virus was passed from human to human.overtake 超过virus 病毒poultry 家禽fatality 死亡proximity 接近6.Britney Spears had filed a $20 million libel lawsuit against celebrity magazine Us Weekly, charging it published a false story reporting she and her husband, Kevin Federline, made a sex tape and were worried about its release. According to the lawsuit, Us Weekly refused Spears’ request for a retraction saying it stood by the story. Spears is seeking $10 million in libel damages and $10 million for misappropriating her name and image to promote sales. The article was published on October 17th in the magazine’s Hot Stuff column and claimed that Spears and her husband had viewed the tape with their estate planning lawyers on September 30th. The lawsuit denies the existence of any such tape or that they viewed it with their lawyers.Libel 诽谤罪Retract 收回、撤消常见娱乐类新闻用词celebrity 名人show tour 巡演news conference 新闻发布会pop chart 流行榜column 专栏signature 签名award ceremony 颁奖典礼Honorary Academy Award 终身成就奖Miss World 世界小姐。

英语专业四级考试样题听写部分录音材料文字稿TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJIORSGRADE FOUR(SAMPLE TEST)TAPESCRIPT OF DICTATIONPART 1 DICTATIONListen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be read at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be read at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work. You will then be given 2 minutes to check through your work once more. Please write the whole passage on ANSWER SHEET ONE.Now listen to the passage.THE RAILWAYS IN BRITAINThe success of early railways, such as the lines between big cities,/ led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times. / Between 1835 and 1865 about 25000 kilometres of track were built,/ and over 100 railway companies were created. / Railway travel transformed people's lives. / Trains were first designed to carry goods. / However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies to run one cheap train a day / which stopped at every station and cost only a penny a mile. / Soon working class passengers found they could afford to travel by rail. / Cheap day excursion trains became popular and seaside resorts grew rapidly. /The railways also provided thousands of new jobs:/ building carriages, running the railways and repairing the tracks. /Railways even changed the time. / The need to run the railways on time meant that local time was abolished/ and clocks showed the same time all over the country. / The second and third readings. You should begin writing now.The last reading. Now ,you have two minutes to check through your work.(a 2-minute interval)This is the end of the Dictation.英语专业四级考试样题听力理解部分录音材料文字稿TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORSGRADE FOUR(SAMPLE TEST)TAPESCRIPT OF LISTENINGCOMPREHENSIONPART II LISTENING COMPREHENSIONIn Sections A, Band C you will hear everything once only. Listen carefully and thenanswer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your answer sheet.SECTION A CONVERSATIONSIn this section you will hear several conversations. Listen to the conversations carefully and then answer the questions that follow.Questions 4 to 7 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation. you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the conversation.Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the conversation.I: Welcome to visit our city, Mr~ Lewis - but, of course, you have been here before, haven't you?L:Yes, I have, what a good memory you have! I was here for the Arts Festival last year.I:And what will you be doing on this visit?L:Oh, I came here primarily for a holiday and to see some friends. But I will also be giving some private cello lessons as well.I:I believe that your cello is rather special. Is that true?L；Oh, yes. It was made for my uncle by a very expert German cello maker called Schuster. When I began cello lessons at the age of eight, he said that when I grew big enough to handle a full-sized cello, he would give it to me.I:So when a child begins to play the cello, he or she starts on a smaller instrument? L:Of course, or he would be very uncomfortable. Many children begin with a half-sized cello, but as I was big for my age, I began with a two-thirds-sized cello.I:Are you going to other places on this trip and will you take your cello with you? LYes, very definitely.I:But, isn't it difficult taking a cello around with you?L:Not really. I just reserve two seats when I'm traveling anywhere, one for me and one for my cello. It's such a precious instrument to me that it hardly ever leaves my side.Hello, Mark. Have you ever played cricket? No, never. Have you, John?No, but I once watched a game at the Cricket Club.Did you enjoy it?No, not much, though everybody else seemed to. I found it very slow. Nothing much seemed to happen. Perhaps that was because I didn't really understand what was going on.It's a bit like baseball, isn't it?Well, not really. In baseball there is only one man with a bat but in cricket there are two.Both at the same time?No. They take turns. They each stand at one end of the pitch in front of some sticks called "stumps" or the "wicket". A member of the other team, the" bowler", throws the ball at the stumps. The batsman tries to protect the wicket and hit the ball as far ashe can.What happens when he hits the ball?The batsmen run to change positions. That's called a "run". They do it as many times as they can.What does the other team do?One of them runs after the ball and throws it at the wicket. If he hits it while the batsmen are still running, one of them is out.That sounds a little like baseball.Not really. I think baseball is more exciting.Yes, so do 1.Questions 8 to 10 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the conversation.My brother Mike has just done a course at the Green Park Camping School.Really! What made him decide to do that?Well, for one thing, some boys in his class decided to do it and they dared him to go with them!You mean he didn't really want to go?I think he wanted to go but I think he was also a little frightened. Of course, now that he's done it, he's very pleased with himself and he's always talking about it.So he enjoyed it, didn't he?Not exactly. I think he's enjoying the feeling of having done it more than he enjoyed actually doing it!What sort of things did he do?Oh, all sorts of open-air activities: hiking, camping, canoeing. One thing he had to do was to capsize a canoe and then right it again without getting out. He said the water was very cold but that he hardly noticed it at the time.Why not?He was too busy righting the canoe!That doesn't sound very comfortable at this time of the year.That's what I said when he told me. On another occasion he had to spend a day and a night byhimself in the open country.Was he frightened?He was at first, apparently, but then he got used to it.It seems to me that the course did him a lot of good. I expect it's made him more self-reliant. That's what he says - and now he wants me to go!SECTION B PASSAGESIn this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow.Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given15 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the passage.Although it is impossible to eliminate all risks from such a complex and experimental project as the American space programme, every precaution is taken to reduce the possibility of injury. Nevertheless, accidents do happen. The first major casualties occurred when, despite every precaution, fire broke out on the Apollo 5 capsule on January 27, 1967. In spite of every effort to save them. three men died in this terrible accident.The programme continued without pause, however, and there were no more serious injuries until 1981.Then, the engines having been successfully tested on an earlier occasion, a rehearsal for the actual launching was held. Not knowing that an engine-chamber was full of nitrogen gas, used to clean the motor, six technicians entered for routine work after the final rehearsal had been declared successful. They collapsed as soon as the gas entered their lungs. One man died and the others were very ill.Though everyone involved was shocked and grieved by this apparently unnecessary accident, preparations continued for the actual launching later that year. How-" ever hard we try, accidents are bound to happen whenever a new and challenging project is undertaken. It seems to be the price of progress.Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the passage.In Britain, just after the main television news programmes, audience figures rise. It's weather forecast time. The BBC broadcasts forty-four live forecasts a day, 433 hours of weather a year, using forecasters from the Meteorological Office. The Met. Office makes predictions about the weather seven days in advance. These are based on observations from the ground, from satellites and from radar. The observations are stored in computers that can do up to 4 000 million calculations a second.In Britain the weather is news. A television weather forecast often begins with an interesting fact - the town with the top temperature of the day or the place with the most rain. "The public like that kind of information," says senior forecaster Bill Giles. The BBC forecasters are professional meteorologists, but they do not have an easy job. They are the only presenter, , , s on television who do not use a script, and they cannot see the map that they are describing. Viewers are o, ften critical, especially of female presenters. One woman left her job after rude letters and press reports about her clothes.The British talk about the weather more than almost any other subject, so it is a surprise to discover that seventy per cent of television viewers cannot remember what they saw on the weather forecast. "What happens is that people like watching and hearing the forecasts, but they probably only take real notice when they need to," says one forecaster. "Or, of course, when we make mistakes! "Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the passage.A record number of tourists visited the city this year, and tourist spending appears tohave increased. Hotel occupancy rates are likely to exceed the world average.The latest issue of the Tourist Association's TravelBulletin says that last year's record arrivals figure of 2.5 million was passed last month. During the month, traditionally the peak tourist period of the year, hotels were reporting an 87 per cent plus occupancy rate.The Bulletin notes an increased tendency this year for people to vi "it the city on holiday. Last year, 65 per cent of the visitors cam,e for holidays while 21 per cent were on business. "This year's figures so far are showing a swing in favour of more vacation travelers plus an increase in the arrivals for meetings and conferences," the Bulletin reports.Total tourist expenditure was running about 10 per cent higher earlier this year over the same period last year. Visitors spent 11 million yuan last year, a substantial increase over the previous year. Money spent on shopping, however - the largest single visitor expenditure - dropped slightly in the first half of the year, but spending on items such as tours, dining and entertainment increased. Nevertheless, money spent by tourists in shops still accounted for 60 per cent of total tourist expenditure. The rest was spent mainly on hotel accommodation and meals.SECTION C NEWS BROADCASTQuestions 21 to 23 are based on the following news.At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news.A 20-year action plan for cutting the rate of world population growth is expected to win wide approval today in Cairo. Delegates at the UN-sponsored conference on population completed final talks on the plan Monday.The document is non-binding, but it will serve as a guideline for countries and donor states that fund health care and family planning programmes. The world population of 5.7 billion currently is growing at more than 90 million a year.Questions 24 and 25 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item you ,will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the news.About 100 people are now known to have died in what have been described as the worst storms ever to hit the eastern US this century. The hurricane-force winds first struck the Gulf of Mexico, and have now spread across the Canadian border, continuing to bring record snowfalls, severe flooding and causing millions of dollars of damage. All major airports have now reopened and airlines are beginning to cope with the backlog of thousands of stranded passengers. The storms also par.alyzed areas of Cuba where several people were killed and property and crops destroyed. Questions 26 and 27 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, YOlk will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the news.US Senate has passed a landmark bill aimed at ending the country's huge budget deficits within the next seven years. It would cut government spending by more than 900 000 million dollars. Health, education and hundreds of other programmes will be hit. The bill was passed last week by the- House of Representatives. Andcongressional leaders now have to work out a compromise. A BBC Washington correspondent says the stage is now set for a confrontation with the White House. President Clinton has threatened to veto the Republican plans..Question 28 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 5 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.France has carried out the first of a planned series of nuclear tests in the south Pacific despite strong international opposition. The French Defence Ministry said the device exploded at an underground site beneath Mururoa Atoll yielded less than 20 kilotons. Australian scientists described it as fairly small compared with previous tests. There's been swift reaction from several countries. New Zealand and Chile have recalled their ambassadors to Paris in protest. Australia condemned the test <l;nd the US expressed its regret. Before the nuclear device was exploded, the French President Jacques Chirac said his country might carry out fewer than the eight tests originally planned. Questions 29 and 30 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 secondsNow listen to the news.The space shuttle Discovery made a rare njght landing at the Kennedy Space Centre early on Thursday. The night landing, the 11th in the Centre's 94 shuttle missions, ended a 10-day mission to outfit the orbiting International Space Station.Although the spacecraft created a sonic boom that could be heard along much of Florida's eastern seaboard, witnesses on the ground could not see the orbiter until it was directly over the runway lights.Scattered showers off the Florida coast had threatened to postpone the shuttle's return, but forecasters gave the green lig~t when they decided no rain would fall within 48 kilometres of the space centre.THIS IS THE END OF LISTENING COMPREHEN. SION. NOW PLEASE PROCEED TO THE NEXT PART.。

专四听力文本TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS — GRADE 4(1)PART 1Buckingham House was built for the Duke of Buckingham/in the eighteenth century. /However, it became a royal residence in 1775, /when George III bought it. His son, George IV, began the reconstruction of the house, /which was not finished until the time of Queen Victoria/ who was the first queen to live there. /Today, the Queen’s home is officially called Buckingham Palace, /although many Londoners still call it Buck House. /When the queen is in residence, /a flag called the Royal Standard/ flies at the top of a pole. /The palace is guarded by sentries of the Guards Division. /The guards are changed in the morning/in the forecourt behind the railings. /The ceremony is always very popular with tourist, /who take many photographs, mainly because it is so colorful. /The new guard marches behind a band/and arrives in the forecourt at about 11:30. /The ceremony usually lasts half an hour. / PART 21-5 BBCDC 6-10 AABDD 11-15 DACDA16-20 BCCCA21-25 CBBAC 26-30 ADADA(2)PART 11William Shakespeare is best known for his plays, /but he and his period are also studied by scholars/who are interested in theatre architecture. /The design of theatres has changed a lot/sinc e the Greeks first acted in open-air theatres. /Every period in history/has had its different style of theatres. /Shakespeare’s name has always been connected/with the Globe Theatre which was in London/on the south bank of the river Thames. /The Globe, a circular theatre. /Shakespeare acted in this theatre/and also helped to manage it. /In fact, the Globe, was not very different/from many modern theatres. /Today, many of the huge theatres/of the 19th century have disappeared. /Modern theatres are more intimate and certainly much smaller. /Unlike the Globe, most modern theatres, however, have a roof! /PART 21-5 CBABA6-10 DDABA11-15 CDDCB 16-20 ADBAD 21-25 AABDD 26-30 BCCDC(3)PART 1Social insects live in integrated communities/ which in some ways are similar to human communities. /In both types of communities / there is division of labor. / In insect societies certain insects are responsible for reproduction; / the workers collect food / while the soldiers defend the colony. / In the same way human groups such as farmers and shopkeepers / have 2specialized functions in producing goods / and providing services to the community./Insect and human societies are also alike / in that individual members of the community worktogether. / Ants coordinate their efforts to build nests. / Similarly, in human societies engineers, architects, / town planners and construction workers unite to build cities. /The nests of social insects/ are as complex as a man-made city. / In some insect nests special accommodation is provided/ for the young and for food storage. / Many nests also have devices for regulating the temperature. /So insect nests are as functional as human houses. /PART 21-5 CBBCA6-10 BDBDB 11-15 CDACA16-20 ACADC 21-25 CAAAC 26-30 CDBDA(4)PART 1Throughout history man has changed his physical environment / in order to improve his way of life. /With the tools of technology / he has altered many physical features of the earth. / He’s transformed woodlands and prairies into farmland, / and made lakes reservoirs out of rivers/ for irrigation purposes or hydroelectric power. / Man has also modified the face of the earth/ by draining marshes and cutting through mountains/ to build roadways and railways. /3However, man’s changes to the physical environment/ have not always had beneficial results. / Today, pollution of the air and water / is an increasing danger to the health of the planet. / Each day thousands of tons of gases / come out of the exhausts of motor vehicles; / smoke from factories pollutes the air of the industrialized areas / and the surrounding areas of countryside. / So it is necessary for man to limit the growth / of technology in order to survive on earth. / PART 21-5 CCCDC 6-10 BDCAD 11-15 CCDAC 15-20 DBCDB 21-25 AACAB 26-30 BBDAA(5)PART 1There are mainly two types of elephants. / There are the Asiatic elephant, which is found in Indian, for example, / and the African elephant. / They are very much alike / but the African elephant is generally larger. / One characteristic of Asiatic elephants is that / they do not like being exposed to the sun, / and consequently they prefer to live in shady places. They are also very fond of bathing. / Apart from that, the most important difference / between the two varieties—between the Asiatic and the Africa elephants--/ is that the Asiatic elephant is more easily trained. / Elephants in India, for example, / have been caught and tamed for many hundreds of years. / We have already noted that they have good memories, / and it is this makes them 4easy to train. / Since they are immensely strong, they can carry and drag huge objects, such as the trunks of trees, and rocks. / This makes them extremely valuable beasts of burden. /PART 21-5 CCCDD 6-10 BBACB 11-15 ACABA16-20 DDDAB 21-25 DACAD 26-30 ADDBA(6)PART 1Are you worried by the rising crime rate? / If you are, then you probably know that your house , possessions and person / are increasingly in danger of suffering from the tremendous rise / in the cases of burglary and assault. / Figures indicate an ever-increasing crime rate / but it is only too easy to imagine “It will never happen to me”. / Unfortunately statistics show that it really can happen to you and，/ if you live in a large city, you run twice the risk of being a victim./ Fortunately, there is something definite which you can do. / Protect Alarms can help you to protect your house with a burglar alarm system which is effective, / simple to operate and easily affordable. /Y ou must remember that possessing a burglar alarm is no indication / that your house is packed with valuable possessions. / It quite simply indicates to unwelcome visitors / that they will not break into the house easily. PART 251-5 CCADB 6-10 ACABB 11-15 ACBDB 16-20 AABDA21-25 CADCC 26-30 BADBA(7)PART 1Almost everyone knows that laser is used to produce very powerful beams of light. / These beams of light are so powerful./that they can make holes in steel in a flash./Today laser is getting wider and wider use /in more and more fields./Why is laser so much more powerful than other kinds of light? / What makes laser beams so different from other light beams? / Laser is a kind of light and also a form of energy. / A laser beam is made up of every short waves . /The laser beam keeps going on and off all the time./During the time /the laser beam is off ,/ the energy for the next flash is being built up,/ so when the beam is on again , /it will be a very strong flash. /The laser beam is much more powerful than other light beams. /PART 21-5 DBDBC 6-10 BACDD 11-15 AADAA16-20 CCABC 21-25 DDADD 26-30 CBCAD(8)PART 1Y ou can not see an atom, nor the electrical power with it./Y et you can see 6large holes made in the earth by atomic force./Y ou can see the power plants. Y ou can see ships driven through the ocean by atomic power. / And you can see many other things that atomic power is used in, /for example, space travel, medicine and electronics. /The power in an atom comes from the heart or nucleus of the atom./When an atom is divided,/heat appears and very small pieces called neutrons fly away from the nucleus./When many atoms are brought together, a chain reaction happens./.This causes a continuing explosion./ By controlling the nuclear reaction, scientists can put the power from the heat to work. /This power or energy can be used to make electricity. /It can also be used to make fresh water from sea water, / or to drive the engines of ships or submarines. /PART 21-5 DADCB 6-10 BADCD 11-15 DAAAD 16-20 BCBCB 21-25 DACDC 26-30DCBAB 7。

DictationBread-makingPeople made bread in different ways, / but the bread that’s made in Britain contains five ingredients. / There’s water, flour of course, / and then there’s salt, sugar and something called yeast./ A long time ago, people made bread just from flour and water, / and their bread looked and tasted very different from the bread we make today./ It was a different shape---like large flat biscuits, / and it was dark brown in colour. / But it was too heavy to digest. / Then the Egyptians discovered that yeast,/ which is a kind of fungus, will make bread rise./ Well, in fact, if you look at a modern loaf of bread through a microscope, / it looks a bit like a sponge, doesn’t it? / Full of little holes. / Well, the holes make the bread lighter, of course, and easier to digest.yeastfungusspongeConversations1.W: Did you have a good time last weekend?M: Yes, I did. I visited some friends in Pennsylvania. They live in a small town called Canonsburg.W: That must have been interesting. I’ve never been in a small town—just big cities.M: Neither have I.W: What did you do?M: There isn’t as much to do there as is here. No plays or concerts, that is,people make their own entertainment, though.W: What do you mean?M: Well, Saturday we went to a potluck supper.W: A potluck supper? What’s that?M: The whole neighborhood has a party. Everybody brings something. It’s all put on the table and you can eat whatever you like. That is a potluck supper.W: It’s something like a picnic, isn’t it?M: Well, yes. The weather was warm, so we had this one outdoors. But in winter they have them indoors, too.W: What else did you do?M: Sunday we went for a drive. We had lunch at a drive-in.W: Is the countryside interesting?M: Beautiful farmland. You’d like it.W: I’m sure I would.M: Sunday evening some people came for dinner. It was very informal—we just sat around and talked. Just a nice Sunday night supper.W: That’s the kind of evening I like. I don’t care for a formal dinner so much. W: Neither do I.potluck 家常便饭potluck supper聚餐：每个客人都自带食物然后大家分而食之的一顿饭的drive-in 免下车餐馆, 免下车电影院(顾客可坐在自己的车上购物、进餐、看电影等等)Conversation 2W: Today’s arts report is on Dan Parker of the American Indian Dance Theater.Mr. Parker, I understand your troupe performs traditional music and dance from many different Native American cultures. Can you give us some ideas of some of the dances you’ll be doing in the performance tonight?M: Certainly. We’ll be doing won-us-award dance. Originally it was a story telling device to recount battles. Another is the grass dance, performed by the plains Indians, where they actually flatten tall field grass to prepare it for a ceremony.W: Since your dancers are from many different tribes, how can you be sure the dances are done correctly?M: Everything we do has been approved by the elders of our tribes. That’s partly because we don’t necessarily know each other’s styles of dances.But it’s also because it’s hard to get complete agreement even within the same tribe about exactly how the dance should be done.W: Anyone who attends one of your performances will notice that your company goes to a lot of trouble to provide detailed explanations of the origin of the dances, the music, the costumes and so forth. Could you explain to our listeners why you do these?M: Good question. Our explanations show that in our cultures, dance is ritual rather than entertainment. We also want to make it clear to our audience that we are not performing any dances used for sacred ceremonies.troupeConversation 3M: I really appreciate your filling me in on yesterday’s lecture.W: No problem. I thought you might want to go over it together. And anyway it helps me review. Hope you’re feeling better now.M: I am. Thanks. So, you said she talked about squid? Sounds a little strange. W: Well, actually it was about the evolution of sea life—a continuation from last week. The octopus and the squid descended from earlier creatures with shells. They survived by shedding their shells—somewhere between 200 and 500 million years ago.M: That’s a pretty long span of time. Some squid are really huge. Can you imagine something that big if it still had a shell?W: Actually, it’s because they lost their shells that they could evolve to a bigger size.M: Make sense. I’ve read about fishermen who caught squid that weighed over a ton. Did she talk about how that happened?W: Not really. But she did mention some unusual cases. In 1933 they caught a squid in New Zealand… let’s see here. ..it was twenty-two yards long. M: Remind me of all those stories of sea monsters.W: Dr. Simpson thinks there are probably even larger ones that haven’t been found because squid are intelligent and fast—so they can easily get away from humans. Maybe some of those monster stories are true.Section B PassagesPassage 1Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country’s impressive population growth. For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in 1966. In September 1966 Canada’s population passed the 20 million mark. Most of this surging growth came from natural increase. The depression of the 1930’s and the war had held back marriages, and the catching-up process began after 1945. The baby boomcontinued through the decade of the 1950’s, producing a population increase of nearly fifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to 1956. After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until in 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were staying at school longer; more women were working; young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before starting families; rising living standards were cutting down the size of families. It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial revolution. Passage 2In the early days of the United States, postal charges were paid by the recipient and charges varied with the distance carried. In 1847 the United States Post Office Department adopted the idea of a postage stamp, which of course simplified the payment for postal service but caused grumbling by those who did not like to prepay. Besides, the stamps covered only delivery to the post office and did not include carrying it to a private address. In Philadelphia, for example, with a population of 150,000, people still had to go to the post office to get their mail. The confusion and congestion of individual citizens looking for their letters was itself enough to discourage the use of mail. It is no wonder that, during the years of these cumbersome arrangements, private letter-carrying and express business developed. Although their activities were only semi-legal, they thrived, and actually advertised that between Boston and Philadelphia they were a half-day speedier than the government mail. The government postal service lost volume to private competition and was not able to handle efficiently even the business it had. Finally, in 1863, Congress provided that the mail carriers who delivered the mail from the post offices to private addresses should receive a government salary and that there should be no extra charge for that delivery.recipientgrumblecongestion拥塞, 充血cumbersomePassage 3There are two factors which determine an individual’s intelligence. The first is the sort of brain he is born with. Human brains differ considerably, somebeing more capable than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an individual will have a low order of intelligence unless he has opportunities to learn. So the second factor is what happens to the individual and the sort of environment in which he is reared. If an individual is handicapped environmentally, it is likely that his brain will fail to develop. The importance of environment in determining an individual’s intelligence can be demonstrated by the case of the identical twins, Peter and Mark. Being identical, the twins had identical brains at birth, and their growth processes were the same. When the twins were three months old, their parents died, and they were placed in separate foster homes. Peter was reared by parents of low intelligence in an isolated community with poor educational opportunities. Mark was reared in the home of well-to-do parents who had been to college. He was sent to good schools, and given every opportunity to be stimulated intellectually. This environmental difference continued until the twins were in their late teens, when they were given tests to measure their intelligence. Mark’s IQ was 125, twenty-five points higher than the average and fully forty points higher than his identical brother.Section 3 NewsNews 1The sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference will open in Hong Kong a week from tomorrow. Police say they will deploy 9,000 officers, one thirds of its manpower, during the event. The government says the weeklong conference will bring inconvenience to the public and is appealing for understanding. The weeklong WTO Ministerial Conference opens on the 13th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wanchai. Police revealed that they have received applications for public meetings and protests on practically everyday of the week during the conference.News 2Thousands of people living in villages closest to the volcano have already been moved to emergency shelters. Many more are lining up by the side of the road waiting for trucks to take them to safety. But still there are a few farmers refusing to move. Without their crops and animals they have no income and cannot support their families so they’re waiting until the government offers financial help. Meanwhile, the mountain above them is becoming more active by the day. At least one village about three kilometers from the crater has been covered in a dusting of volcanic ash. One scientist told the BBC he now believed Merapi was in what be called the early stages of an eruption but he added “we cannot predict when it will reach its peak.”News 3Palestinians have exported the first shipment of crops grown in Gaza greenhouses left behind by evacuated Jewish settlers. Palestinian officials said two and a half tons of peppers left Gaza through the Karni Crossings, and will be sold in Israel. The Director of the Palestinian Economic Development Company said he was very pleased. He said the shipment moved without problems and he hopes this will be a good start. Palestinian officials hope to export a further shipment of produce to Europe, via Israel, next week. Until this summer, the greenhouses belonged to Jewish settlers in Gaza. When Israel withdrew from Gaza, and dismantled the settlements, private, foreign donors bought the greenhouses for $13 million and gave them to the Palestinians. Palestinian officials say access to the outside world is crucial for strengthening Gaza’s troubled economy.evacuatedismantleNews 4Eighty-three million miles out in space, a comet had a visitor from planet Earth earlier today. The comet is named Tempel 1 and the visitor was called Deep Impact, which also describes its mission to slam into the speeding comet and learn just what it’s made of. Well, it worked. It was a brilliant success. The picture perfects collision of Deep Impact’s unmanned probe, the explosion of images and data. Even Mission Controllers could barely believe they’d pulled off such a brash technological feat.unmanned probe 无人探测News 5This was one of the most daring prison breakouts to take place in Greece. The helicopter landed in a courtyard of Korydallos prison in Athens as those on board threw flares into the area. Amid the confusion, two inmates managed to climb into the helicopter which took off again, flying to a nearby cemetery. The escaped prisoners then fled with their accomplices on motorbikes which have since been found near the port of Piraes. One of the men, Vassilis, Paleokostas, was serving a twenty-five year sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery.It’s thought his brother, who’s been on the run since 1990, was behind the breakout. The police have arrested the helicopter pilot, who says he was forced to fly to the prison at gunpoint. Korydallos hold some of the country’s most notorious criminals including the leaders of the militant left-wing organization, November Seventeenth, who were found guilty ofmurdering politicians, businessmen and foreign diplomats.News 6Many people may be nervous about using online bill pay. But a new report says it can be safer than using traditional methods. The story posted on reports, Javelin Dtrategy and Research says, eliminating paper bills makes it harder for thieves to steal information,often done by searching a person’s mail. The report claims that by simply buying into the high-tech approach, customers can save $4.8 billion in fraud costs each year. The group also says people who use Internet banking or bill pay are more likely to monitor their transactions on a regular basis. One of the snags, though most companies do charge a monthly fee for the online services.snag。

101.Alcohol on CampusIn the United States, the legal age to drink alcohol is 21. Americans debate whether it should be lowered, or whether young drinkers would only drink more. In parts of Europe, the legal drinking age for beer, and sometimes hard liquor, is 16. Yet France may raise the age limit for beer and wine sales to 18, the same as for hard liquor there.Rules on alcohol differ from college to college in the United States. Many schools require all first-year students to take an alcohol prevention and education program. Some have a "zero tolerance" policy where alcohol is banned from all buildings. Parents are informed of violations and students may be suspended.Campus police and local police report underage drinking violations to administrators. The university judicial committee decides punishment on a case by case basis. For example, the committee might suspend or expel a student. It might require an alcohol education program.102.The F.B.I.The F.B.I. is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is the main investigating agency of the Department of Justice in the United States. The F.B.I. enforces more than two-hundred federal laws. But it says its two most important jobs now are to prevent terrorismand spying.The F.B.I. assists other law enforcement agencies in the United States and foreign countries. It has the world's largest collection of fingerprints and is also known for its crime laboratories.The F.B.I. employs about 27,000 people. They work in 56 offices in the United States and more than 40 offices in other countries. More than 11,000 men and women serve as special agents. They investigate crimes like bank robberies, but also crimes involving computers, the environment and terrorism.The F.B.I. has been criticized for its part in the failure to stop the hijackings on September 11th, 2001.It has made it easier to share information about possible terrorist threats.103. Getting a Green CardA green card is an official document identifying a person as a permanent resident of the United States. It does not give citizenship to the card holder but permits him or her to live and work legally in the country.There are many ways to get a green card. One common way is through family members who have American citizenship. American gives special consideration to husbands, wives, children and parents of American citizens. Green card holders can also nominate their husbands, wives and children for green cards. Aforeign citizen who has been offered a job in the United States can request a green card. The employer would serve as sponsor in that case. There are also green card qualifiers for some non-citizens who invest in America, for refugees.Still all these paths leave out many people who want a green card. So, each year the United States carries out a lottery that provides about 50,000 green cards to lucky winners.。

about gold专四英语听力第一节(共5小题)听下面5段对话。

每段对话后有一个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C 三个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的'相应位置。

听完每段对话后，你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。

每段对话仅读一遍。

1.Who is the man talking about now?A.His girlfriend.B.His sister.C.His mother.2.What are they talking about?A.A traffic accident.B.A fire.C.A crime.3.Where does the conversation most probably take place?A.At a bookshop.B.At a kitchen.C.At a bank.4.Who was injured?A.George.B.George’s wife.C.George’s wife’s father.5.What do we learn from the conversation?A.Tony could not continue the experiment.B.Tony finished the experiment last night.C.Tony will go on with his experiment.第二节(共15小题)听下面5段对话或独白。

每段对话或独白后有几个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的相应位置。

听每段对话或独白前，你将有时间阅读各个小题，每小题5秒钟;听完后，各小题将给出5秒钟的作答时间。

每段对话或独白读两遍。

听第6段材料，回答第6至7题。

6.Where does this conversation most likely take place?A.In the street.B.At the woman’s home.C.Over the phone.7.What is the woman going to do tonight?A.Help her sister with English.B.Meet her friend at the station.C.Go to an exhibition with her parents.听第7段材料，回答第8至10题。

DictationChanging Rate of EmploymentWest Germany had one of the lowest rates of unemployment back in 1980./ It stood at just three percent. But then over the nest three years it rose quite sharply and steadily. / In 1982 it was nearly six percent, and in 1983 it was the same as France. / 1984 saw a slight increase, and 1985 a slight fall./ The 1985 figure was eight percent,/ in between France and the United States. / The United States has had ups and downs, / or rather, it’s the only country to show a sig nificant drop in the number of unemployed. / This is due to high interest rates, / which haven’t helped the rest of the world. / In 1980 the rate was about the same as France and Great Britain, / slightly higher than France, actually, at about seven percent. / This rose to 7.5 percent in 1981, and then peaked the following year at over nine percent.Conversation 1W: Oh, it’s very nice. I really enjoyed the meal. Thank you very much for inviting me.M: Not at all. Er..Pamela..W: Did you watch TV last night, Bill?M: No, I didn’t. I hardly watch television, Pamela…W: Really? I did. I watched the World Cup. The match yesterday was between Germany and Italy. It was so exciting…M: Pamela…W: Yes, both teams played well, though. Actually I tried to ring you, but you weren’t in.M: Why?W: Because it was so exciting. All the fans shouted and cheered so much that you could hardly hear anything. And I know how much you like football.M: No, I don’t . I hate it.W: It is incredible, you used to play it at school, didn’t you?M: Yes, I did. But I stopped playing years ago. Listen, Pamela…W: What’s the matter? You look as white as a sheet. Is there anything wrong?M: Yes, I’m afraid there is. I’ve got something to tell you.W: What?M: I didn’t bring any money with me. I can’t pay the bill. Conversation 2W: Hi, Mark, how is it going?M: Well, not so great. I’ve got a big problem with the poetry course that’s required for my major.W: Is that all filled up?M: No, no, there’s plenty of room, but there is a prerequisite. I’ve got to take an introduction to poetry before I can take the special course in poets of the 1960s and the introductory course is only offered in the evenings. W: You don’t like evening classes?M: No, that’s no the point. I work in the cafeteria every evening. I need the money to pay my tuition.W: Can you ask someone to switch hours with you?M: I wish I could. My boss just did me a favor by putting me on evenings. And he’ll hit the ceiling if I ask to change again.W: Wait a minute. I have an idea. Have you checked the courses over atthe community college? They might offer an introductory poetry course during the day.M: Hey, that’s a great idea! I’m free this afternoon. I think I will go over and check it out.W: Yeah, their courses are actually cheaper, and you can transfer the credits over there.M: Thanks for the advice, Linda. I’ll let you know what happens.Prerequisite 先决条件Switch 交换Conversation 3M: How do you and your housemates like the co-op. I’m thinking of joining it myself.W: We like it quite a bit. We got some very fresh produce and both staples at fair prices. But the co-op doesn’t carry everything. So we still wind up going to the supermarket too, for cleaning supplies, batteries, that sort of thing. I wish the co-op solved those items. I’ve been talking about it with some of the other members.M: What do members have to do? Just pay a membership fee?W: Yeah, there’s a fee, and there are meetings. But attendance isn’t required. But we do have to work there for an hour every week.M: I wouldn’t mind working there sometimes. But is the food free of addictives. That will be the main reason I join. I’m a convert from junk food.W: Well, a lot of food is pure and pesticides-free.M: I’d like to try it just for a month or so. Do they have trial memberships?W: The shortest membership is one month. Then if you like it you can join for a longer period. And it becomes cheaper. A six-month membership costs as much as five individual months.M: Sounds pretty easy. Maybe the next time I run into you again it will be in the checkout line at the co-op.housemateco-opstaple日常必需品;主食;主要产品; 钉书订addictivejunk foodpesticide杀虫剂，农药checkout结帐；检验；调查；查看Section B passagesPassage 1The United States is on the verge of losing its leading place in the world’s technology. So says more than one study in recent years. The main reason for this decline is the parallel-decline in the number of U.S. scientists and engineers. Since 1976, employment of scientists and engineers has gone up 85 percent. This trend is expected to continue. However, the trend shows that the number of 22-year-olds—the near term source of future phDs to foreign nationals is increasing rapidly. Our inability to motivate students to pursue science and engineering careers at the graduate level is compounded because of the intense demand industry has for bright Bachelor’s and Master’s degree holders. Too often, promising PHD candidates, confronting the cost and financial sacrifice of pursuing their education, find the attraction of industry irresistible.Compound 使增加；增加：e.g. …compound the dif ficulties of the firefighters.Passage 2It is estimated that some seven hundred million people are unable to read and write and there are probably two hundred and fifty million more whose level of attainment is so slight that it barely qualifies as literacy.Recently the attack on illiteracy has been stepped up. A world plan has been drawn up by a committee of UNESCO experts in Paris, as part of the UNESCO Nations Development Decade, and an international conference on the subject has also been held. UNESCO stresses that functional literacy is the aim. People must learn the basic skills of responsible citizenship: the ability to read notices, newspapers, timetables, letters, pricelists, to keep simple records and accounts, to sort out the significance of the information gathered, and to fill in forms. The major areas of illiteracy are in Asia, Africa and Central and South America. There are at least one hundred million illiterates in Africa, comprising eighty-five percent of the total population. In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million, most of them in Southern Europe, Italy, Portugal, and Yugoslavia heading the list.literacy有文化，有教养，有读写能力UNESCO联合国教科文组织(United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) cPassage 3Nowadays, the standard for measuring power has changed. These changes foretell a new standard for measuring power. No longer will a nation's political influence be based solely on the strength of its militaryforces. Of course, military effectiveness will remain a primary measure of power. But political influence is also closely tied to industrial competitiveness. It's often said that without its military the Soviet Union would really be a third-world nation. The new standard of power and influence that is evolving now places more emphasis on the ability of a country to compete effectively in the economic markets of the world. America must recognize this new course of events. Our success in shaping world events over the past 40 years has been the direct result of our ability to adapt technology and to take advantage of the capabilities of our people for the purpose of maintaining peace. Our industrial prowess over most of this period was unchallenged. It is ironic that it is just this prowess that has enabled other countries to prosper and in turn to threaten our industrial leadership. The competitiveness of America's industrial base is an issue bigger than the Department of Defense and is going to require the efforts of the major institutional forces in our society: government, industry and education.prowess高超的技艺和能力Section 3 NewsNews 1Former Deputy President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is to becharged with corruption. Mr. Zuma was sacked by President Thabo Mbeki last week after being implicated in a fraud trial. Jacob Zuma, just days ago, was Deputy President of Africa's most powerful nation. Now he's out in the cold. First he was sacked, now he's to face a trial that could end in the prison. His people, especially the Zulus are behind him. They think it's all a set-up to get rid of the man they wanted to be the next leader of South Africa. But a judge, two weeks ago, accused Zuma of probable corruption in a multi-billion-pound arms scandal.Deputy PresidentsackfraudNews 2Japan's super-fast maglev train has broken the world's train speed record previously set by itself. The magnetically levitated train reached five hundred and eighty-one kilometers per hour or three hundred and sixty-one miles per hour on a test track west of Tokyo. Racing to a new record. The MLX-01 clocks in the world's fastest ever train speed at three hundred and sixty-one miles per hour. No one was on board the maglev train as it hurtled across the eleven-mile test just outside Tokyo. It was remote controlled by these engineers. Just two days ago, this team broketheir old record by sending the maglev to three hundred and forty-eight miles per hour. Now, after reaching three hundred and sixty-one miles or five hundred and eighty-one kilometers per hour, they're celebrating another world record for the super-fast train.磁力悬浮火车:magnetically levitated trainMagnetic levitationMaglevNews 3OPEC has decided this was not the time for cutting petroleum output. Energy ministers here didn't have the stomach to cut back production at a time when crude oil prices were reaching historic highs on the international exchanges. It was feared that cuts in the output would send prices even higher and dent global economic growth. While nobody here seems surprised about oil output level's remaining the same. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela managed to raise a few eyebrows among delegates when he held a highly politicized speech calling on OPEC to be an anti-imperialist organization. He went on to describe Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the jailed Marxist militant, as a good friend. Venezuelan-born Ramirez, better known as Carlos the jackal, led a terror attack againstOPEC's Vienna headquarters in 1975.dent削弱,使凹下, 凹进militant斗士jackal 走狗;同伙News 4The President has signed the first ever legislation outlawing certain kinds of SPAM messages that plague computer users with unwanted junk e-mail. The new law has long name. Officially it's called, the Controlling the Assault of non-solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. The White House says SPAM is not just annoying, but it also hurts productivity, jams up computers, and thus is costly to the economy. The law makes it a crime, punishable by large, multi-million dollars fines for violators and possibly jail time, forbidding mass e-mails with misleading subject lines or with sender's identity disguised.outlaw宣布...为不合法,将...放逐垃圾邮件：SPAM messages；junk e-mailplague折磨, 使苦恼, 使得灾祸News 5The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he believes that UN peacekeeping forces will have to return to East Timor just a year after its withdrawal. Speaking to the Security Council, Mr. Annan expressed deep concern about the recent situation in East Timor, where at least 20 people have died in the fighting between rival sections of the security forces. Chrisben Thoreau reports from New York. "East Timor was held as a great success of the United Nations, a model of nation building. But after the violence in the recent weeks which left at least 20 people died, the prospects of Asia's youngest nation do not look good. At the moment soldiers from four countries led by Australia are patrolling daily. They were deployed there at the end of May. The United Nations' peacekeeping forces left the country a year ago but they may now return. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he expected the Australian would remain in East Timor in the medium term before possibly handing over to the UN."Security Council联合国安全理事会News 6The South Korean businessman who founded the Daewoo Industrial Group has been arrested on his return home after six years on the run.Kim Woo Choong fled South Korea after his business empire collapsed with debts of more than $70 billion. He's accused of fraud and embezzlement. Kim Woo Choong arrived on an early morning flight from Vietnam and was immediately arrested by prosecutors. He faces an array of embezzlement and fraud charges, including the illegal diversion of $20 billion overseas. He also faces more than 40 civil suits. He was mobbed at the airport by reporters and protestors, some of whom lost millions when The Daewoo business group collapsed in 1999. Kim Woo Choong fled abroad shortly afterwards and is reported to have spent most of his time in France.embezzlement盗用, 侵占, 挪用illegal diversion 非法转移mob围住。

DictationA Difficult CalculationA study shows that a group of second year high school students last spring / had the same scores on the same maths test that first year students had six years ago./ In the opinion of the researchers / the main factor influ encing this decline is/ the pupil’s inability to do mental arithmetic / as a result of the emphasis on calculator s./ But the government gave its blessing to the use of calculators in schools / in a report published five years ago./ The report suggested tha t “properly used in the classroom,/ calculators can help and encourage children to improve their skills”. / Inspector s thought that it was essential to make sure that / youngster s knew how to use them correctly and sensibly. / The report suggests that not only should calculators be allowed in schools/ but they should be introduced as a compulsory piece of equipment / for every secondary school pupil.Conversation 1W: Hello James.M: Deborah! Hello! Enjoying yourself?W: Yes, thank you. I don't know many of Shirley's friends, though.M: Nor do I.W: Are you here on business?M: Oh dear. Do I look that old? It must be the jet lag! No, I'm still a student. I'm just here on holiday.W: Oh, that's good. How do you like our city so far?M: So far, I love it. There are so many things to do here, and so many things to see.W: How do you like the food?M: Very much. It makes Western food seem quite dull by comparison. I especially like the "dim sum" here. Shirley and I went to a "dim sum" restaurant this morning and it was excellent. I'm a great fan of Asiancuisine.W: Really? Such as..?M: Oh, Korean food, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese and Thai.W: You know, sometimes tourists are a little hesitant about trying the local food.M: I think that's a shame really. I mean, why bother going to another country if you're not prepared to try new things?W: I agree. When you are traveling, you ought to try all kinds of things. M: You should really.Conversation 2W: I want to register for this mathematics course.M: I'm sorry that the registration has closed.W: Closed? The clerk told me I could come back and register at any time during the first week of classes.M: Well, that's not possible. The computer's official student account has already been sent to the state. And that's what our budget is based on. Who told you that anyway?W: Some woman here when I tried to register three weeks ago.M: She must have been a temporary worker. They don't have much training. Why didn't you register then?W: She said I couldn't until I had my birth certificate. Here it is.M: Your birth certificate?W: Well. I'm a new part-time student. So she asks for identification.M: Huh. That's no reason to demand a birth certificate. I'm afraid she gave you the wrong information. Still you'll have to wait and take your math's class next semester.W: But that's not fair.M: Well, I sympathize with your problem, but frankly, I don't think there is anything anyone can do for you. You were trapped in the system. If you want to you can talk to the director. She will help you if she can.W: Great.M: But don't get your hopes up.Conversation 3W: Gosh! Fred, another cup of coffee? That's your third since lunch.M: Yeah. Well, I stayed up all night cramming for my history exam. I couldn't keep my eyes open in my last class. I'm having this coffee so I can stay awake this afternoon.W: Don't you know that drinking too much coffee is harmful? It may cause heart disease.M: Nah. Most of the research about the link between coffee and the heart disease is inconclusive.W: But coffee has caffeine which is addictive.M: You can't become addicted to caffeine like other drugs.W: Yes, you can. Don't you know that people who are deprived of caffeine suffer withdraw symptoms, especially headaches?M: One cure for headaches, oddly enough, is caffeine. Besides, coffee helps me work faster.W: But faster is not necessarily better. You may finish your exam in a shorter period of time but you won't have fewer errors.M: You know, that soda you are drinking has caffeine in it too.W: But 12 ounce s of soda has only half the caffeine of a 5 ounces cup of coffee. And a cup of tea has less than that.M: But I like the taste of coffee.W: You could drink decaf. Decaffeinated coffee doesn't have as much flavor or body as regular coffee. Besides, I also want something that will keep me alert in class.Section B PassagesPassage 1Today the official language of the United States and most of Canada is English. However, French almost became the official language because of a war. The French and Indian War was fought between 1754 and 1763. The name of this war is not accurate because the war was actually between England and France. The Indians fought on the side of theFrench. France and England were trying to gain control of North America. France held Canada, and England held part of what is now the United States. However, France tried to expand its land by moving southward into New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. When the French built a fort on the Ohio River, the residents in Virginia sent George Washington to attack the fort in 1754. However, the French defeated Washington. The French, aided by the Indians, outsmart ed the English and won many early battles. Later, the British began to do well against the French. In the final battle in Quebec, Canada, General Wolfe of England faced General Montcalm from France. Both generals died in this battle. But the English outlast ed the French and won the battle. Thus, most of North America today has the English culture and language.Passage 2In an attempt to resist the rising cost of fuel and fight the pollution choking our cities, many outgoing students have taken to riding bicycles to school. The unfortunate result of this otherwise positive trend is the traffic problems caused by bicycles having to share the road with cars. Unfortunately, traffic accidents involving bicycles are on the increase throughout the country, so this new solution has lead to a dilemma. To solve this dilemma, special bike paths have been created on most roads leading to and from college campuses. It is essential that cyclists stay onthose paths. It is necessary for the safety of those of you who ride bicycles as well as the motorists that you share the road with. Obviously, it may be inconvenient to ride in the bike paths at times, but we must insist on it. To enforce the necessity of staying on the paths, there are fine s for bicyclists who ride down the middle of the street. The federal fines are currently running at $25 for a first time violations, but if the law is continually violated, the fines will increase by different amounts depending on your local ordinance s. The money that is collected from the fines will go towards a fund to help build better bike paths. You may have special bicycle bridges in your neighborhood right now. If not, you can count on seeing them in the future.Passage 3Many of the buildings in this neighborhood were built a long time ago, but this one we're about to enter is not quite as old as it looks. It is actually quite a bit younger than most of the other buildings around it. Despite the fact that it was constructed at the turn of the century, the architects who designed it were influenced by European craftsmen of the fifteenth century. Although the blocks appear to be hand chisel ed, they were in fact cut that way by a machine. However, this practice of mechanical cutting was discontinued some time before the building was completed in 1904, because workmen charged so much to produce thehand-hewn effect that it became very expensive. The blocks were fastened similarly to a technique that the Romans developed. The technique involved cutting every block into a unique geometrical form which anchor ed into the previous block. Since every block had to be hand carved, the process was extremely time-consuming. Some might ask why the architects who live in the modern world. Would seek to copy a kind of architecture from such a long time in the past. Maybe they felt that the five-hundred-year-old buildings were so perfectly refined that there was no other way they could improve upon their beauty. If you look at the building now, it is easy to agree with them.Section 3 NewsNews 1A coalition of industry, native communities, and environmental groups has reached an agreement to protect the world's largest intact forest in Canada. The Boreal Forest makes up more than half of Canada, and under a new agreement, at least half of it would be off limits to any industrial development--logging, oil and gas exploration, or agriculture. The remaining half would be open to development only under strict conditions. The agreement called the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework has been in the works for three years and lacks the force of law, but Canada's leading industries say they're committed to the deal.News 2The 34-member Organization of the American States, the OAS, on Tuesday rejected a United States' call to monitor democracy to its final statement. The statement called on OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel to draw up proposals to assure the democratic process and the rule of law in the region are not compromised. Several countries saw the U.S. Proposal as an attempt to interfere in other countries' domestic affairs. This comes after Venezuela accused Washington of helping opposition groups' try to unseat Preside Hugo Chavez, and the resignation of Bolivia and Ecuador's presidents after street protests.News 3Israel has denied responsibility for the explosion which killed seven Palestinians on the beach in Gazalast Friday. After the explosion, the armed wing of Hamas abandoned the six-month long ceasefire, leading to a spiral of attacks and counterattacks. From Jerusalem N.C. Reports. "The Israeli Defense Minister, the Chief of Staff and the General who conducted the enquiry all lined up at the news conference to insist the activities of the Israeli defense forces last Friday were not responsible for the incident on the beach. The enquiry, they said, had countered for all Israeli weapons used on that day. It looked at the timing of the incident as the Israeli military assessed it, and the pieces of shrapnel recovered formone of the survivor by Israelis have no connection with any Israeli weapon being used, the general said. But the Israeli military also said it wasn't sure what did cause the blast. The Palestinians and human rights experts are already rejecting these findings which were leased to the Israeli media.News 4Can green tea fight cancer? Green tea is one of the most popular drinks in Asia. It's different from most American teas because its leaves are raw, not ferment ed. Japanese scientists have discovered that green tea can lower cholesterol and stop the growth of some cancer, with a substance that attacks cancer-producing free radicals. Free radicals are in every body, but too many can stimulate cancer growth, green tea pumps up the immune system to make the charge and break apart cancer cells. The Japanese drink several cups of green tea a day and have very low levels of lung cancer, even though they are known to be among the world's heaviest smokers.News 5President Bush spoke publicly about the much criticized Guantanamo Bay prison camp on Cuba for the first time since three inmate s committed suicide there on Saturday. Mr.Bush said he liked to close the center but the decision would depend on whether the U.S.Supreme Court allowed the detainees to go on trial in military courts. "I like to close Guantanamo but also recognize that we hold some people are going dangerous and we had better have a plan to deal with them in a court is the best way to handle and my judgement handle this type of people through military courts, and that is why I'm waiting the Supreme Court to make a decision."News 6France has been chosen to host a multibillion Euro experimental nuclear fusion reactor that's designed to harness the power of the sun and the stars. France was the obvious choice for the panel after Japan withdrew its bid. The choice of France to host "ITER", the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, was announced this morning in a ceremony in Moscow. The project partners, the EU, the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and China, were all present. France's candidacy was backed by the EU, Russia and China, and Japan's by the US and South Korea. Japan will construct and house the project's main research facility and Japanese nationals will make up a fifth of jobs at the head office including ITER's top post.。