英语听力必备二十篇1.文科段子：艺术类音乐It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway production in this class, "The Lion King" especially, since it's based on a popular Hollywood movie. I mean music preformed for Broadway theater in the heart of New Y ork city surely would seem to be in the western tradition of popular music and not have much in common with the music we have been studying in this course, such as gamelan music of Indonesia, or Zulu chants of South Africa, music that developed outside the western tradition of Europe and America. But in fact, musicians have a long-standing tradition of borrowing front one another's cultures. And this production's director intentionally included both western and non-western music. That way, some of the rhythms, instrument, and harmonies typical of non-western music contrast with and complement popular music more familiar to audiences in North America and Europe, music like rock, jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I want to spend the rest of this class and most of the next one on the music from the show "The Lion King" as a way of summarizing some of the technical distinctions between typical western music and the non-western music that we've been studying. Now the African influence on the music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director got a South African composer to write songs with a distinctly African sound. And the songs even include words from African languages. But we'll get back to the African influence later. First let's turn to the music that was written for the shadow puppet scenes in "The Lion King", music based on the Indonesian music used in the shadow puppet theater of that region2.理科段子：天文学In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were the basis of both these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses of the moon the earth was between the sun and the moon, and they saw that during these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realized that this could be true only if the earth was spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would be stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star, or Polaris, appeared lower in the sky when they traveled south, in the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be much higher in the sky. By the way, it was also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the circumference of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadium. Today, it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first telescope was invented.3.文科段子：文学名著Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. NowStowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the United States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for all the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south, but much of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In fact, Stowe's best writing is about village life in the New England's states in the 19th century. In recording to the customs of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect the images as realistically as possible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters when they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain popularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher. The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a geography book for children. Later when she was married, her writing helped her support her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biograp hical sketches and children's books, as well as novels for adults.4.生活段子：噪音影响I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the health center by the number of students we are seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. First, I want to go over some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school environment and see if we can figure out some ways to protect hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too much moderate noise for a long time or some types of intense noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudness is measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels generally aren't harmful. That's noise like traffic on a busy street. But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are up to around 140 decibels, that's like a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud noise at close range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we can take a look at the decibel level of some common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football games. They are really dangerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises5.文科段子：电影艺术To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first two classes giving you background lectures about some basic cinematic concepts. Once you are a little more familiar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to look at the history of movies in the United States. Y ou'll be expected to attend showing of films on Tuesday evenings at 7 o'clock in Jennings Auditorium. That's our lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss in depth the movie we saw the night before. We are not covering silent films in this course. We will begin with the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next week, we'll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of the escapist trend in films released duringthe depression. Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank Capra's Why We Fight. Others you might have already seen on TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley Cooper's Doctor's Strange Love. However, I hope you see even familiar film with new eye. In the last three weeks of the course, we will be watching films from the 1980s and you'll choose one of them as a subject for an extensive written critique. We'll talk more about the requirements of the critique later in this semester6.文科段子：历史发展Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about the political management of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to justify for their citizens just why the war was necessary. In 1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would determine the future of de mocracy through out the world. For him the issue was whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain its integrity, could it remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who led the southern rebellion, could they arbitrarily break up the government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion. At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn't last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the war would be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied northerners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to perceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade against southern society.7.文科段子：传媒变迁Moving away from newspapers, let's now focus on magazines. Now the first magazine was a little periodical called the Review and it was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers of the time, but in terms of its contents it was much different. Newspapers were concerned mainly with news events but the Review focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the policies of the government. Now, in England at the time, people could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were critical of the king. And that is what happened to Daniel Defoe. He was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the first issue of the Review from prison. Y ou see, he had been arrested because of his writings that criticized the policies of the Church of England, which was headed by the king. After his release, Defoe continued to produce the Review and the magazine started to appear on a more frequent schedule, about three times a week. It didn't take long for other magazines to start popping up. In 1709, a magazine called the Tattler began publication. This new magazine contained a mixture of news, poetry, political analysis and philosophical essays.8.理科段子：远程教育Hi, Lynn. I saw you at registration yesterday. I sailed right through, but you were standing in along line.Y eah. I waited an hour to sign up for a distance-learning course.Distance learning? Never heard of it.Well, it's new this semester. It's only open to psychology majors. But I bet it'll catch on else where. Y esterday, over a hundred students signed up.Well, what is it?It's an experimental course. I registered for child psychology. All I have got to do is watch a twelve-week series of televised lessons. The department shows them seven different times a day and in seven different locations.Don't you ever have to meet with professor?Y eah. After each part of the series I have to talk to her and the other students on the phone, you know, about our ideas. Then we'll meet on campus three times for reviews and exams.It sounds pretty non-traditional to me. But I guess it makes sense, considering how many students have jobs. It must really help with their schedules, not to mention how it will cut down on traffic. Y ou know, last year my department did a survey and they found out that 80 percent of all psychology majors were employed. That's why they came up with the program.Look, I'll be working three days a week next semester and it was either c ut back on my classes or try this out.The only thing is: doesn't it seem impersonal though? I mean, I miss having class discussions and hearing what other people think.Well, I guess that's why phone contact's important. Any way, it's an experiment.Maybe I'll end up hating it.Maybe. But I'll be curious to see how it works up.9.生活段子：游览沼泽地公园Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Everglade is a watery plain covered with saw grass that's the home to numerous species of plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to see it all today. But this tour will offer you a good sampling. Our tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to start because it's home to many of the plants and animals typically associated with the everglade. Y ou'll see many exotic birds and of course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk that goes across the marsh, so you can look down at the animals in the water from a safe distance. The boardwalk is high enough to give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature wonderful tropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close view of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running a canoe sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you have a very good sense of direction and can negotiate your way through tall grass. We hate to have to come looking for you. Y ou have a good fortune of being here in the winter, the best time of the year to visit. During the spring and summer the mosquitoes will just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome, but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent.10.理科段子：地理冒险Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of youreminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E. Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the controversy around Peary's pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th' 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surrounded by controversy. Tins was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier. Over the decades Peary was given the benefit of the doubt, but critics persisted in raising questions about his navigation and the distances he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Foundation spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examination of documents relating to Peary's polar expedition. The documents supposed Peary's claims about the distances he covered. After also conducting an extensive computer analysis of photos taken by Peary at the pole, they concluded that Pierre and his companions did in fact reach the near vicinity of the North Pole on April 6th. 1909. OK, today we're going to talk about exploration of the opposite end of the world, I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott.11. 理科类段子：讨论“生物学”Today, we are going to continue our discussion on social insects, focusing on the Argentine ants, which as you might guess is a species of ants that are natives to Argentina. We'll consider what happened to this type of ants after some members of the species move to California from their original habitat. OK, well, in Argentina, these Argentine ants behave like most ant species around the world. They fight other ants of the same species if those ants are from some other nests. But the Argentine ants living in California behave differently. Ants from different nests form a single large colony. Within this colony, there is little aggression among ants from different nests. And when they fight with insects from outside their colony, the Argentine ants can quickly recruit a huge army from their network of nests. This of course gives them advantages over other ants' species. So then, why do Argentine ants behave differently in California than they do in Argentina? Well, using genetic testing, researches found that all the Argentine ants in California were very similar genetically. Y ou see, when the first Argentine ants came to California, their population must have been very small and all the later generations of Argentine ants there must have desce nded from the same few ancestors. So they are all closely related. This discovery is important, because for most social insects, membership in a colony is based on how closely related they are genetically.12文科类段子：讨论“政治学”We know then that in the US, it's the job of Congress to review propose new laws, which we call bills, and perhaps to modify these bills and then wrote on them. But even if the bill passed in Congress, it still doesn't become a law until the president had a chance to review it too. And if it's not to the president's liking, the bill can be vetoed or killed in either of two ways. One is by a veto message. The president has ten days to veto the bill by returning it to Congress, along with the message explaining why it's being rejected. This keeps the bill from becoming a law unless overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress vote to over-right the president's veto. Something they really do. Often, lawmakers simply revised the vetoed bill and passed it again.This time, in the form the president less likely to object to, and thus less likely to want to veto. The other way the president can kill a bill is by pocket veto. Here's what happen. If the president doesn't sign the bill within ten days, and Congress are jurors during that time, then the bill will not become law. Notice that is only the end of entire session of Congress that the pocket veto can be used, not just whenever Congress take the shorter break, say, for a summer vacation, after a pocket veto, that particular bill is dead. If a lawmaker in Congress want to push the matter in their next session, they'll have to start all over with a brand new version of the bill.13文科类段子：讨论“艺术史”One important thing about art movements is that their popularity can be affected by social conditions, which are themselves often affected by historical events. As an example, look at what happened in the United States early in the 20th century, around the time of the great depression, the art movement known as the Regionalism had begun in the United States even before the depression occurred. But it really flourished in the 1930s, during the depression years.Why? Well, many artists who had been living in big cities were forced by the economic crisis to leave those big cities and move back to their small towns in rural America. Some of these artists came to truly embrace the life in small towns and to eject city life in so called "sophisticated society." These artists or specifically certain painters really built regionalist movement. They created things in everyday life in small towns or farming areas. And their style was not all-neutral, really big glorified or romanticized country life, showing it stable, wholesome, and embodying important American traditions. And this style became very popular, in part because of the economic conditions of the time. Y ou see, the depression had caused many Americans to begin to doubt their society. But regionalism artists painted scenes that glorified American values, scenes that many Americans could easily identify with. So the movement helped strengthen people' s faith in their country, faith that had weakened as the result of the depression. But in the 1940s, before and after the Second World War, American culture began to take on a much more international spirit, and Regionalism, with its focus on small town life, well it lost a lot of popularity, as American society changed once again.14 文科类段子：讨论“政治学”We are going to start today to discuss Congressional aids. That's the people who worked for our congressional representatives both in Washington and in the representative's local district. It used to be that members of congress had a relatively small staff of people working for them. And all of these are in a primary importance. And now there are thousands of government' s aids. They profoundly affect the whole government works. Congressional aids work in two different notations, one in Congressional representative's local office, which they were elected, and two, in Washington. Staff in the local office helps members of Congress staying in touch with their districts. These citizens can bring problems in person or by mail or phone. This personal connection between the aids and local people can be helpful when the next election comes around. People remember the help they get from office of local representatives. But as you know, members of congress have to spend most of their times in Washington taking care of their legislative duties. Over 6000 new laws are introduced to the Congress each session, without help, representatives would have trouble keeping up with the proposed laws that directly affect the district. So that'swhy the congressional aids play a major role in Washington. They keep the bosses informed about the opinion in legislation and just keep their local congress representatives up to date and inform what's going on in other parts of Congress. Now another thing that congressional aids do is to help develop ideas for that their bosses will eventually propose to Congress. This can be called the steps ultra portfolio function. That's a bit like in business trying to find out what product is most popular. Congressional aids promoted or encourage laws they think will be popular for public. Y ou also got other people work for whole Congress, not just individual members, we will talk about these people next.15 文科类段子：讨论“经济学”Finally there is one more element to business success that we haven't talked about. I know what you think I'm going to say, luck and you're partially right. Good entrepreneurs know how to make their own luck and that means being in the right place at the right time with the right product. Let me give you a little example, early in this century, if you're a traveler by train and subway and you happen to get a little thirsty in the station, where would you go for some water? There were no big soda machine at every corner or even drinking fountains, yet there we re thousands of thirsty travelers out there, well, what they did was drank water out of one little tin cup that was passed from one thirsty commuter to the next. That's right, everybody drank out of the same cup, and you can bet it didn't get washed after every user. Well, that was the right time for the right product and there was a man who had it. His name is HM and his product was the disposable paper cup. He came up with it just as the nation was becoming concerned about their health risks associated with the tin cups. Laws were passed outlying the things; reports were published showing just what sorts of germs can be passed around from sharing them. Mr. M roaded that way to become the best known producers of one of the most successful paper products of all time. He originally called his product health cups, but later changed the nature, so can anyone guess what that name might be?16文科类段子：讨论“生物学”I've mentioned how DNA has solved many mysteries in biology. And today I want to talk about how it might relate to hypothesis about the travels of the green turtle. Every winter some green turtles make a 2000km journey from Brazil to Ascension Island in the middle of Atlantic, where they mate and lay eggs. But the question is why do they travel so far to lay their eggs? One researcher hypothesized that there are two parts to the explanation. One is natal homing, the instinct that drives green turtles to always return to the beach where they were hatched. The second part has to do with continental drift, the theory that the positions of earth continents have changed considerably overtime. Brazil and Ascension Island were once much closer together, and continental drift drove them apart. But the turtles kept on going back to the island where they hatched. However another scientist question this explanation on the ground that it would be very unlikely that conditions would allow generations of turtles over hundreds of millions of years to keep going back to the same nesting ground every single year. So, what is the connection to DNA? Well, there are groups of green turtles that nest in locations other than the Ascension Island. If green turtles always return to the place where they were hatched, then the turtles that have been going to the Ascension Island to nest would have been genetically isolated long enough to have DNA that was very different from the green turtles that nest elsewhere. But when scientistsexamine DNA from these turtles, their DNA wasn't that different from the DNA of the turtles that go to Ascension Island. Do you have a shock? Well, we still don't know the answer to the question about why a certain group of turtles go to Ascension Island, but this study was a nice example of the usefulness of DNA analysis to biology.17理科类段子：讨论“天文学”We are going to talk today about the moon, our moon. First of all, the earth's moon is unusual. Why? It's larger than other moons or satellites in the solar system, in relation to its planet. Its diameter is more than a quarter that of the earth. And if you compare the earth and the moon in terms of substance, you find the moon isn't much like the earth. For example, the earth has a significant iron core, but the moon contains very little heavy materials like iron. That's why its density is much lower than that of the earth. Now one time it was believed that the moon and the earth were formed at the same time from the same material. But then wouldn't the moon have as much iron as the earth? Another theory is that the moon was formed elsewhere in the solar system, and then it was captured, sort of speak, by earth. But study shows that the young earth would not have had enough gravitational force to stop a body the size of a moon from traveling through the solar system and pull it into orbit. The newest theory is called the big splash theory Here, the new young earth was hit by another big planet. Most of the colliding planet entered the earth and became part of it. But the huge impact created a vapor that shed out into space and eventually condensed as the moon. Because this material came mostly from the earth surface crust, not the iron core, the moon contains almost no iron. Well, as plausible as it sounds, it' s only a theory, and we can't be sure that this is what really happened, that this is how the moon originated. Plenty of research remained to be done.18文科类段子：讨论“心理学”In order to diagnose and treat abnormal behavior, we have to start with clear definitions of what's meant by abnormal and normal. Criteria must be worked out for distinguishing one from the other in actual clinical cases. The word abnormal implies a deviation from some clearly defined norm. In the case of physical illness, the boundary lines between normality and pathology are often clearly delineated by medical science, making it easier to diagnose. On the psychological level, however, we have no ideal model to use as a base of comparison, nothing to help us distinguish mental health from mental disorder. The problem of defining abnormal behavior via establishing just what is meant by normal behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described behavior has proved extremely difficult. However, as chapter 5 outlines, several criteria have been proposed. One norm described in detail in your text is personal adjustment. An individual who was able to deal with problems effectively without serious anxiety or unhappiness or more serious symptoms is said to be well-adjusted. Personal adjustment as a norm has several serious limitations though. For example, it makes no reference to the individual's role in the group. How're we going to classify, for example, a typical politician or business person who engages in unethical practices. Either might be a successful, happy, well-adjusted individual. Obviously, the welfare of the group, as well as that of the individual, must be considered, which brings me to the next approach.。
