08年英语专四听力原文和答案

[ti:Dictation 1 Superstition] [00:00.50]Dictation 1 Superstition 迷信

[00:05.39]One person in four in Britain is, apparently, superstitious, [00:11.35]and they'll do everything from hanging horseshoes

[00:14.58]over their fireplace to crossing their fingers,

[00:17.84]touching wood and absolutely never walking under a ladder.

[00:22.40]And they're careful about cats.

[00:25.58]Black cats are supposed to be the familiars of witches, [00:30.02]so if one is following you it's definitely bad luck

[00:34.70]- a witch is after you!

[00:36.46]On the other hand, if one crosses your path and continues

[00:41.17]then it's good luck because it hasn't noticed you.

[00:45.15]However, in some places the beliefs are different [00:49.53]- so it pays to know where your black cat comes from!

[00:53.36]Old superstitions linger even in today's modern world.

Dictation 听力原文

9. Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879, His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe

many of the religion’s rules. Albert was a quite child who spent much of his time alone. He was

slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave

him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle

always pointed in the same direction—to be north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to

understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something

hidden had to be behind things.

Waves How does light get from the sun to the earth? How does music get from the stage to the audience? They move the same way-----in waves! Light and sound are fomp3s of energy. All waves carry energy, but they may carry it differently. Light and sound travel through different kinds of matter. For example, light waves cannot move through walls, but sound waves can. That is why you can hear people talking in another room even though you cannot see them. The energy of some waves is destructive. An earthquake produces seismic waves. Catch a wave. Ask a friend to stand a few feet away from you. Stretch a spring between you. Shake the spring to transfer energy to it. What happens? The spring bounces up and down in waves. When the waves reach your friend, they bounce back to you! Light waves travel 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second! They can also travel through a vacuum. That is why light from the sun and distant stars can travel through space to the earth!Soils There are many different kinds of soils. Different soils have different types of rock and minerals in them. Some soils have more water in them than others. Some soils might have more plant and animal material in them, too. Different kinds of soils are found in different parts of the world. There are several kinds of soils found in the United States. In some areas, the soil has a lot of clay. Other soils are very sandy. Loam is a kind of soil that has a good mixture of clay and sand. In some places, soil layers are very thick. Lots of plants grow in places with a thick soil layer. In dry and windy places soil layers are much thinner. Layers of soil on mountains are thin because gravity pulls the soil downhill. The type of soil in a particular place affects what kinds of plants can grow there. Crisis Life is a contest! Who will win? A bluebird and sparrow both compete for space to build their nests. A fast-growing maple tree and slower-growing dogwood compete for the sunlight they both need. Oil competes with coal and nuclear power as an energy source for electric power plants! There is a problem. There is a limited amount of space for birds, sunlight for trees, and energy for people! If we do not cut back on our uses of some of our resources, someday they will be gone! How can we use energy today and know we will have enough to go around in the future? We can choose alternate, or replacement, energy resources. It takes the earth millions of years to create coal, oil, and gas. They are nonrenewable resources. Solar energy, wind energy and water energy are renewable resources. It takes the earth millions of years to create coal, oil, and gas. They are nonrenewable resources. Solar energy, wind energy and water energy are renewable. What other ways can we conserve our sources? How can we make sure there is always enough to go around? America’s Worst Surprise December 7, 1941 was one of the worst days in American history. Nearly all Americans who are old enough to remember that day can still remember what they were doing at the moment they heard “the news”. The news was that America had been attacked! Shortly before 2:00 P.M., a radio dispatch came into Washington from Honolulu, Hawaii. “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor— This is no drill.” Japanese planes had begun an attack on the largest American military base in the Pacific. They first destroyed planes on the ground. Then they bombed the ships in the harbor. No one had expected the attack. So no one was prepared for it. And it did not take long for Japanese to do their damage. When the smoke cleared, the Navy counted its losses. Eighteen ships had been sunk or badly damaged. Nearly 150 planes had been destroyed. More than 2,400 Americans had been killed and more than 1,200 wounded. Great Depression in the U.S. In 1929, the bills started to come in. American industry had produced too many goods. Americans could not afford to buy all of them. So factories had to cut down on their production. Many workers lost their jobs. Investors tried to get their money back. But businesses did not have enough money to pay them. Banks tried to get their money back from investors. But the investors could not pay, either. Too many people owed money. And few of them could pay their bills. During the next few years, business got worse and worse. By 1932, banks all over the country were closing. People without money could not buy goods. So more businesses closed. More and more people lost their jobs. By 1932, more than 12 million Americans were jobless. Millions more were earning barely enough to live on. The country was in a great depression they had never experienced before. A Place of Our Own We are all usually very careful when we buy something for the house. Why? Because we have to live with it for a long time. We paint a room to make it brighter, so we choose the colors carefully. We buy new curtains in order to match the newly decorated room, so they must be the right color. We move the furniture round so as to make more space—or we buy new furniture—and so on. It is an endless business.

United Nations Day(1999)

The 24th of October is celebrated as United Nations Day. h is a day that belongs to everyone. And it is

celebrated in most countries of the world. Some countries celebrate for a week instead of a day. In many parts

of the world, schools have special programs for the day. Boys and girls in some communities decorate a UN

tree. In other communities, young people put on plays about the UN. Some libraries exhibit children’s art works

from around the world. Schools celebrate with the songs and dances of other countries or give parties where

foods of other countries are served. No matter how the day is celebrated, the purpose of these celebrations is to

help everyone understand the UN, and the important roles it plays in world affairs. The UN encourages people

to learn about other lands and their customs. In this way, people can gain a better understanding and