《现代大学英语听力2》听力原文及答案Unit1

Unit 4Task 1答案A.1 They are farms that grow vegetables for city people to eat fresh.2 It’s a farm that grow plants and flowers to sell.3 They protect the plants from the cold in the winter but let them get plenty of light; so the plants can be grown all through the year.B.1 canned; frozen2 flowers; garden plants; home gardens; yards; window boxes3 buildings; furniture; firewood原文Grain; vegetables and fruits are found on most farms. All of them are food for animals and people.Grain can be fed to animals just as it is harvested. But before people use them grains are usually made into flour or breakfast cereal. Bread; macaroni通心粉; and cereals麦片 all come from grain.Tomatoes; beans; potatoes; beets甜菜; lettuce生菜; carrots and onions are field and garden vegetables. Can you think of any others Vegetables are good for people and for some animals such as pigs and rabbits.Farms that grow vegetables for city people to eat fresh are called truck farms. Truck farms are usually close to big cities. Each day hundreds of loads of fresh vegetables are brought to stores on the farmers' trucks. Without the truck farmers people in cities would not eat well. And without city people who eat fresh vegetables; the truck farmers would have no work.There are many kinds of fruit. Apples; pears; peaches; cherries; oranges; grapefruit; and berries are a few kinds. You will be able to think of other kinds that you like. Most fruit is grown on specialized farms. But many general farms have some fruit to use and sell also.Like vegetables; fruit is sold fresh in markets. But a large part of both fruit and vegetable crops is sent to factories to be canned or frozen.In warm parts of our country farmers grow cotton; rice; tobacco; sugar cane甘蔗; and peanuts.Specialized farms raise flowers and garden plants. They are sold to florists花商 and to families for home gardens; or yards; orwindow boxes. A farm that grow plants and flowers to sell is called a nursery苗圃. Most nurseries have glass buildings; called hothouses or greenhouses. The hothouses are heated to protect the plants from cold in the winter but let them get plenty of light; so they can be grown all through the year.Some farms grow only trees. Some of these are Christmas tree farms. Others are large forests where trees are grown for their wood. The wood is used for buildings; furniture and firewood. Some tree farms grow only nut trees.Task 2答案1 The UN agencies report that the market value of pesticides in developing countries last year was about three thousand million dollars.2 The agencies called for worldwide acceptance of Food and Agriculture and World Health Organization pesticide rules. They say this would help guarantee the safe production of and trade in pesticides.原文Two United Nations agencies are expressing concern about the safety of some pesticides used to kill insects. They report that about thirty percent of all pesticides sold in developing countries fail to meet widely accepted rules for quality. They say these products are a serious threat to human health and the environment.The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World HealthOrganization gave the warning.In developing countries; pesticides are used mainly for agriculture. Pesticides kill insects and other organisms that threaten crops. Pesticides also are used for public health. They control insects that spread disease; such as mosquitoes that spread malaria.The UN agencies report that the market value of pesticides in developing countries last year was about three thousand million dollars. They say the estimated market value of pesticides worldwide was thirty-two thousand million dollars.Officials say poor quality pesticides often contain harmful chemicals. These chemicals often are banned or restricted in some countries.Possible causes of low quality in pesticides include production problems and failure to use the right chemicals. Officials say the active chemicals in many pesticides are stronger than those permitted by many governments. They also say poor quality pesticides may contain poisonous substances or substances that are not pure.Officials say the quality of pesticide containers and product information on the containers are other concerns. They say information on the containers often fails to explain the active chemicals and how to use the product safely.The WHO says products listing false information have been sold for years in some areas. The agencies say the problem of poor quality pesticides is widespread in parts of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. They called for worldwide acceptance of Food and Agriculture and World Health Organization pesticide rules. They say this would help guarantee the safe production of and trade in pesticides.Officials say the agencies' rules are especially important for developing countries. They say developing countries often lack systems for testing pesticides.Task 3答案A.1 c 2 d 3 bB.That’s because they’re making an investment all the time; but are still not sure whether or not they can make profits.原文Interviewer: Cattle raising and beef in the US is big business; isn't itBob Beck: Yes; it's the largest business—cattle business.Interviewer: It must be a very profitable business then.Bob Beck: Uh; not necessarily.Interviewer: It's not necessarily a profitable businessBob Beck: At times; it's not profitable. Your production costs get...it's a supply and demand market; and if your supply islarger than your demand...Interviewer: So the price is fluctuating all the time...Bob Beck: Right. It fluctuates; and it can get below production costs.Interviewer: But you never know. For instance; next year; you don't know what it'll bring on the market.Bob Beck: No; technically it takes a year and a half from the time you breed the cow; until you get the calf; until the calf'smarketable.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Bob Beck: You've got a year; to a year and a half; tied up there. Interviewer: So; you're making an investment all the time.Bob Beck: Right. So you're not sure.Interviewer: It sounds like it might be a very insecure kind of existence. Wonder why it is that people want to be farmersor ranchers大农场主 then...Bob Beck: I think the majority of it is you like it. It's one thing.It's a breed kindof people. They like it. If you don'tlike what you're doing; why...Interviewer: What is there about it You live essentially in a rural area. Doesn't that feeling of isolation ever bother you Bob Beck: No. It's getting too crowded.Interviewer: Too crowdedBob Beck: Too many peopleInterviewer: I can see that; for instance; in a city; you have restaurants to go to; movie theaters—all kinds ofthings available to people; a lot of conveniences whichyou don't have in the more rural areas. What do peoplewho farm and ranch do for recreation and relaxation; forinstance... erm...Bob Beck: Well; I think a lot of it is if you're a livestock raiser;you'll go check your cows in the evening instead of goingto a movie.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Bob Beck: That's as much recreation as driving through a bunch or cows; and if you like them; you enjoy that.Interviewer: In terms of the way of life; to a lot of people; it would seem that it's a very hard life. It means a lot ofhard work. I mean; you have a schedule—whether you feellike it or not; you have to get out and feed animals; andso forth. Would you regard that as one of the difficultthings about it; or is that...Bob Beck: No.Interviewer: …just sort of... part of itBob Beck: For me; if I had to go to a desk every morning; that'd kill me.Task 4答案A. paid off; fall back on; a security; operating expenses; complete disasterB.1 Some of them cook the meals; clean the house and take care of the kids every day.2 Yes. That is especially so after they've had one or two bad years when they couldn’t make money.3 When their children are small; they were with their parents to go out to work; when they are very small; Sharon didn’t go out as much as she would later.4 She thinks that in this way the children are a lot more self-reliant. They learn to work and they learn responsibility. They learn a lot about life by being continually in life with animals.原文Bob Beck: I think; for a wife; the same as a husband; they like it or they wouldn't marry a farmer or a rancher.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Bob Beck: They'd get out. I think it's not at all wives. Some of them are just like suburban housewives.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Bob Beck: They cook the meals; and they clean the house and that's it... take care of the kids...Interviewer: Have you known some situations like thatBob Beck: Oh; yeah; I know situations like thatInterviewer: Sharon; is there a problem of the feeling of security Sharon Beck: What kind of security are you talking about—financial securityInterviewer: Uh; yeah; financial security. Uh; the thing is up and down. You don't know what the market's going to bring;er... for beef. You work all year; and so forth... Isthere any problem of that sortSharon Beck: Sure; there's the problem of security. Especially; if you've had one or two bad years. You feel awfullyinsecure.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Sharon Beck: If you've borrowed money to buy a farm or to operate;and there's no money coming in; you feel awfullyinsecure.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Sharon Beck: But if you've got a fairly good amount of your ranch paid off; you've got that to fall back on. You can alwaysthink of that as a security. If everything else fails;if you can’t pay for your operating expenses…Interviewer: Uh-huh.Sharon Beck: ...you can always sell your equity in your ranch. So it isn't complete disaster.Interviewer: But it's not something that bothers you terribly. I mean; it's a fact of life. It's sort of...Sharon Beck: Something you live with; yeah...Interviewer:... part of the thing. The role of the wife in this situation is quite different than that of a suburbanhousewife. You don't have much free time; do you Sharon Beck: No.Interviewer: Because; essentially; you work in much the same way that your husband does.Sharon Beck: Yes; I'm usually with him.Interviewer: How do you handle the whole family-life situation—children You're out almost as much as aworking mother in the city; aren't youSharon Beck: Yes. The only difference is we're together. Interviewer: The children too...Sharon Beck: The children too. When they're not in school; when they were small; they were with us. When they were very small;of course; I didn't go out as much.Interviewer: Do you feel that there are advantages in growing up in this waySharon Beck: Yeah; I definitely feel that there're advantages. There are disadvantages too; but I think the advantages faroutweigh the disadvantages.Interviewer: What are some of those advantages you think thechildren haveSharon Beck: The advantagesInterviewer: Uh-huh.Sharon Beck: Well; they're a lot more self-reliant. They learn to work. Erm; they learn responsibility.Interviewer: Uh-huh.Sharon Beck: They learn a lot about life by being continually in life; with animals; and... I think it makes them...erm... They grow up。

Task 1News Item 1The United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, has raised interest rates for the third time this year. The Federal Reserve raised the overnight bank lending rate by 0.25 percent (one fourth of one percent) to 5.5 percent. It raised the discount rate also by 0.25 percent to 5 percent. The Federal Reserve said it had no plans to raise interest rates again any time soon. It said the increase today should reduce the danger of inflation.News Item 2The merce Department says the American economy has shrunk for the first time in eight years. The total value of goods and services produced in the United States fell by four tenth of one percent (0.4 percent) in the period of July through September. A recession is monly defined as at least six months where the economy shrinks.News Item 3A fall in the New York market had been widely predicted following Friday's better than expected US employment figures. US bonds from which the government funds long-term borrowing fell nearly two points on the news that more jobs had been created in March than had been expected. The Dow Jones Index was closed on Friday for the Easter holiday, so today was the first chance for the share market to react.News Item 4And we go straight to Wall Street where share prices closed higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 1 percent or 89 points at 10,205. Shares made up for some of the losses they incurred in the past week, thanks to what was interpreted as "signs the US inflation is under control".Task 2News Item 1China has launched a manned space flight, being the third country to do so 40 years after the Soviet Union and the United States. A single astronaut was on board the Shenzhou V Craft, which took off from the Gobi Desert. It's expected to go round the earth 14 times during a 24-hour period before landing in Inner Mongolia. President Hu Jintao watched the launch, a sign of the importance China attaches to its space programme. Francis Marguez reports from Beijing.Half an hour after the spacecraft blasted off, China's state television showed footage of the launch, the rocket climbing slowly into the clear blue sky. And many Chinese will feel their country has taken a proud step towards modernity.News Item 2China's first man in space has returned to Earth. Reports say Chinese officials declared the space flight a success. Astronaut Yang Liwei is also reported to be in good health. On Tuesday, China became only the third nation to send a person into orbit. Astronaut Yang and his spacecraft landed in China's Inner Mongolia early Thursday. He had orbited the earth 14 times in about 20 hours. The United States and Russia praised China for the launch. Russia and the United States were the first two nations to send people into space.Task 3Negotiators have agreed to the wording of a proposed international treaty on tobacco control. Delegates from more than 170 countries approved the final wording earlier this month in Switzerland. This came after four years of negotiations. The proposed treaty is called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It will be presented in May at the yearly meeting of the World Health Organization, a UN agency. The final version approved there will also require individual approval by WHO members. Once 40 nations have approved it, the treaty will go into effect in those countries.Member states cannot make any amendments once the WHO approves a final version of the treaty. They must either accept or reject the agreement as it is written. The proposed Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is part of the efforts to reduce deaths and diseases from smoking.The WHO estimates that almost five million people die each year from lung cancer and other tobacco-related diseases. That number could rise to ten million a year by 2020. Developing nations are the biggest growth areas for tobacco-related diseases. These nations are calling for the strongest laws possible to control tobacco. The treaty would ban advertising and other marketing campaigns for tobacco products, where doing so would not violate a country's constitution. It also calls for high tobacco taxes. It would even require panies to make public all the substances they use to make cigarettes.In addition, tobacco panies would have to place health warnings on at least thirty percent of their products. These warnings could not include information that might lead people to believe that some cigarettes are less harmful than others. In addition, governments would have to support treatment programs to help people stop smoking. And, there would have to be education campaigns to get people not to start. The proposed treaty also calls for measures to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke, that is, smoke from other people's tobacco.Task 4Thank you. And thank you for asking me to share in your weekly address to the American people.Britain and America have so much in mon: language, values, belief in family and munity, in a real sense of national pride. We share many problems, too. And it has been clear from our discussions thatwe are agreed, in general terms, about some of the solutions.You took the tough decisions needed for long-term economic stability. We are doing so. You have focused on education, welfare reform, a new approach to crime. So are we. Together, we are breaking down boundaries of left and right and creating a new politics of the radical centre.Task 5Each year, the Nobel mittee in Oslo, Norway announces the winners of its famous Nobel Prizes. Most winners of the Nobel Peace Prize have been men. Only ten percent have been women since the prize was first presented in 1901.Now the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the human rights group International Alert have presented a new award to honor women peacemakers. It is called the Millennium Peace Prize for Women. Officials will present the award every three years. The award recognizes women's actions in building peace, protecting women's human rights and supporting munity life during and after war.Experts say women are usually not as involved in the peace process as men are. However, their work to reestablish normal munity life after peace has been reached is very important. Because of this, International Alert says women also need to be recognized as leaders in peace building.Earlier this month, six women and organizations received the Millennium Peace Prize for Women. One of the winners is the Colombian group "Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres", or Women's Road to Peace. This group has organized protests against the violence between rebel groups and the Colombian government.The group "Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency" also won the peace prize. It helped in the peace process between the military and rebel forces in Papua New Guinea. Another winner is the group "Women in Black". It is an international organization that organizes protests against violence, aggression and war.Flora Brovina also received the peace prize. She organized the "League of Albanian Women of Kosovo". Doctor Brovina has taught emergency medical skills to people in Kosovo.Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani are also peace prize winners. They worked to support human rights and women's rights in Pakistan. And the leader of the women's movement in Rwanda also won the Millennium Peace Prize, after her death. Veneranda Nzambazamariya helped rebuild Rwanda after the mass killings in 1994. She died in a plane crash last year.Task 6News Item 1Brazil's new Health Minister Hosein Selar has sacked two senior health officials in Rio de Janeiro amid growing concern about the epidemic of dengue fever. More than 80,000 people in southeast Brazil have caught the mosquito-born disease which causes severe headaches, fever and vomiting. In some cases, it can be fatal. Our Brazil correspondent Steven Switch reports that President Fernando Henrique Cardoso regards the issue of health care as his government's biggest political weakness.News Item 2In agriculture news. The European Union has banned all imports of animal products from the Netherlands. The ban was ordered after the Dutch government confirmed four cases of foot-and-mouth disease there. Dutch officials have had all infected animals destroyed. Until now, only Britain and France have been affected by the animal disease. Also, in the American State of Vermont, officials seized some sheep suspected of having mad cow disease. More than 230 sheep were taken from a farm. The animals will be destroyed and tested for the disease.Task 7Announcer: ... in Garderers' Question Time at 2 o'clock. And now over to Gordon Chartwell in the newsroom.Newsreader: Here is the news, read by Gordon Chartwell. The cruise liner, Princess of Wales , which ran aground last night off the island of St. Catherine in the Caribbean, is reported to be sinking. Here's a report from our correspondent in Jamaica, Graham Smith.Graham Smith: A weak radio signal was received here in Kingston a few hours ago from the radio operator on the 28,000-ton luxury cruise ship, the Princess of Wales. According to this message, the ship is taking in water and is starting to sink. All the passengers have been ordered into the lifeboats and told to make for the nearby island of St. Catherine, the coast of which is some 20 miles from the scene of the accident. In normal circumstances this would be an easy 3-hour trip, but with Hurricane Zelda approaching fast and blowing away from the island, it's feared that some boats may not make it in time to the safety of the island. Once on the island, it would be possible for passengers and crew to shelter from the wind and await rescue. The Royal Navy frigate Steadfast is heading for St. Catherine at full speed but it may take her up to 24 hours to get there. So things look pretty grim for the 700 passengers and 420 crew at the moment. This is Graham Smith in Kingston, Jamaica. Newsreader: As soon as we have any further news we will interrupt our programmes to bring it to you. And now the rest of the news. In Liverpool today the Prime Minister said in a speech...Part TwoAnnouncer: We interrupt this programme to take you over to the newsroom for a newsflash. Newsreader: This is Gordon Chartwell in the newsroom with a further report from our correspondent Graham Smith in Jamaica about the stranded liner, Princess of Wales.Graham Smith: A further signal has been picked up from the Princess of Wales within the past few minutes. According to this, the ship is now out of danger. Apparently the damage to the liner is not as serious as was originally thought and she is still pletely seaworthy and out of danger. However, before this was realized, 5 of the lifeboats had been launched and about 200 passengers and crew had made their way to the island of St. Catherine where they are reported to be safe. For the time being they are likely to remain on the island. The remaining 920 people are still on board the liner and in no danger. Although Hurricane Zelda has reached the island, the wind seems to have blown itself out tosome extent and although there are heavy seas, there is no danger for a ship of the size of the Princess of Wales. The ship is now clear of the rocks. The passengers and crew sheltering on the island will be brought off by the Royal Navy frigate Steadfast, which is now close to the area. Apart from a few minor injuries there are no casualties. This is Graham Smith returning you to the studio. Newsreader: There will be a further report in our main news at one o'clock. And now back to Down Your Way...Task 8News Item 1The European Union has officially approved the Kyoto Treaty on climate change. Officials from all 15 EU states attended a ceremony Friday at the United Nations in New York. However, the treaty still needs the approval of more countries to e into effect. The treaty limits the release by industrial countries of gases blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere. The United States was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto Treaty, but has since withdrawn. President Bush says the treaty could harm the American economy.News Item 2Wele to BBC World News, I'm Nick Gowing. Environment ministers from 180 countries will start trying to rescue the Kyoto Treaty on global warming shortly. They join their officials who have been meeting all week in the German city of Bonn. The 1997 Kyoto agreement mits industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol was undermined in a major way in March when US President George W. Bush said it would weaken America's economy.It's Beethoven who dominates the town square here and it's unlikely that he'll have to give up his place to a monument celebrating a conference which halted global warming. Ministers from over 180 countries have already agreed to global cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases 5 percent below the 1990 levels. But here they must decide how this will be achieved. Since George Bush pulled out of the deal, the argument is between Japan and Europe. The Japanese want flexible rules allowing them to plant more trees in place of steep cuts in pollution and weaker penalties for missing targets. Europe doesn't like it but really wants a deal.News Item 3A major international conference on climate change is to open in Moscow shortly with Russia ing under renewed pressure to sign the Kyoto Protocol. That's the agreement to limit the industrial pollutants that are believed to contribute to global warming. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 can only e into force when 55 percent of countries have signed up to it. With United States refusing to sign, ratification by Russia is crucial to the treaty's success. From Moscow our environment correspondent Tim Hersch reports.President Putin himself called this conference in his own capital to discuss the latest signs of climatechange and it had been thought he might use the opportunity to announce that his government was finally prepared to sign up to Kyoto, but ments from senior Kremlin officials have played down expectations, saying Russia wanted firm guarantees of foreign investment in clean technology before pressing ahead with ratification. The European Union and UN bodies have been putting pressure on Mr. Putin to end the delays so that international action against global warming could finally start six years after the Kyoto agreement was signed.Task 9The United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on children beginning September 19th. The meeting will bring together government leaders, child activists, non-governmental organizations and many young people. The three-day gathering will give officials a valuable chance to change how the world thinks about children.Eleven years ago, the UN held a similar meeting called the "World Summit for Children". During that conference, seventy-one heads of state and government signed a treaty aimed at improving the lives of children around the world. Efforts to reach the goals established in that treaty have made the rights of children an important issue.The UN agency for children, UNICEF, is supporting the special session. Officials are expected to produce a plan of action to guarantee that three important goals are reached. The goals are the best possible start in life for all children, a good education for all children and the chance for all children to bee an important part of their munities. The session will also examine progress made since the 1990 World Summit for Children.Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela is working toward these goals. He is joined by his wife Graca Machel who is an activist for children. They are calling on munity, business and government leaders to form an international movement aimed at improving the world for young people.The movement is hoping to build international support for a public campaign to help children. Several world leaders have joined the movement. Movie stars, professional sports teams, and the creators of children's television programs and books also have joined the movement.The group's public campaign lists ten ways to improve the lives of young people. These include educating children, protecting them from war and fighting the disease AIDS. UNICEF officials say the goal of the movement is for people around the world to get involved, take action and work for change. They say that for every child who es into the world, the hopes and dreams of the human race are reborn.Task 10The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says hunger kills millions of people each year—especially children. The UN organization says millions more people will die unless more money is invested to fight against hunger.This is based on the results of a new UN study called "The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2002". It found that more than nine million people die each year from hunger. Six million of them are children younger than age five. Researchers also found that the number of starving people is growing in some parts of the world.The report says that about eight hundred and forty million people around the world are not getting enough food to eat. Ninety-five percent of these people are in developing countries.。

I had two months until my new job began. It was like waiting an entire summer for school to start. I spent those two months talking to figure skating coaches and judges. I read boring rule books. I drove to the rinks where the skaters trained, and made notes about our conversations. I even took a lesson, which made some of the skaters laugh.Unit 6Task 1【答案】A.[d]—[b]—[a]—[e]—[c]B.a【原文】Laura usually leaves the offices of Quest Productions at about 5 o'clock, but last Monday she left at 5:30. She wanted to get home by 6:30 and she ran to the bus stop but she couldn't get on a bus. There were too many people and not enough buses. Laura was desperate to get home so she decided to go by tube.In the station she went to one of the automatic ticket machines but she didn't have enough change, so she had to join the queue at the ticket window. She bought her ticket and ran to the escalator. Laura went to the platform and waited for the tube. It arrived and the crowd moved forward.Laura was pushed into the train. It was almost full but she was given a seat by a man with a moustache. Laura thanked him and sat down. She started to read her newspaper. In the tunnel the train stopped suddenly and Laura was thrown to the floor together with the man with the moustache. Somebody screamed. The lights went out. It was quarter past 6 on a cold, wet December evening.Task 2【答案】A.1) a 2) b 3) d 4) cB.1) T 2) T 3) FC.wondered; television plays; exciting; every cigarette lighter; tape recorder; held in a certain way; the touch of a gold ring against the hand of; reveal; How wrong they were【原文】X was a secret agent. He had rented a furnished room in a provincial town not far from the public park and had been there two weeks. He was standing at the window looking out at the dull beds of geraniums, the park gates and the cold, uninviting statue of Queen Victoria that stood across the street from him, It was raining hard and the few people who passed by looked wet and miserable. X was miserable, too. How, he wondered, could anybody think there was anything interesting about the life of a secret agent? He knew it was because people had seen so many television plays about glamorous spies that they thought the life of a secret agent was exciting.They were convinced that every cigarette lighter concealed a secret tape recorder; that a fountain pen held in a certain way would open alocked door, that the touch of a gold ring against the hand of an enemy would make him reveal all his secrets. How wrong they were! He looked round his room. The wallpaper was in the worst possible taste, the pictures horrible, the carpet worn, dirty and faded; and he was cold. This was the third Monday he had come to the window to look out. He prayed it would be the last.As if in answer to his prayer, a certain meeting he had been sent to investigate was about to take place. He took out his camera. Just beneath the statue two women had stopped to speak. He knew one of them, and it was she who pointed in his direction. The other woman looked up towards him and in that brief moment he photographed her.Task 3【答案】B.1) a 2) b 3) c 4) b 5) d【原文】Harry: Well, Robert, have you made up your mind yet what you want to do when you leave college?Nora: Oh Harry. Surely he's a bit young to decide on his career. He hasn't even got to college yet.Harry: Not at all, Nora. It's wisest to decide in good time. Look at me, for example.I really wanted to be a sailor, but now I spend my days sitting at a desk inan office. Yes, it's silly to train for the wrong job. And after all, Robert will be going to college soon.Nora: Now if I were a man I'd be a farmer. To see the crops growing--that's my idea of a good life.Harry: Yes, and to see the money rolling in is more important still.Robert: Well, that's not the way I look at it, Dad. It's the job I care about, not the money.Harry: Maybe not; but you'll learn to care about the money too, when you've gota family to keep.Nora: And of course Peter — well, he's keen to be a racing driver, or else an explorer.Robert: Oh, Peter's not old enough to make up his mind about such things.Harry: You haven't answered my question yet, Robert. What would you like to do? Nora: Are you sure you don't want to be a farmer, Robert? Or a market gardener? Robert: No, I'm sorry Mum, but I don't want to at all. I'd rather be a civil engineer.I want to buildroads and bridges.Harry: Not ships? Isn't it better to be a shipbuilding engineer?Robert: Look here, is it my career we're planning, or yours?Harry: All fight, all right, there's no need to lose your temper. But you'd better win that scholarship first.Task 4【答案】I. correspondents; columnistA. may not need eitherB. to go to places where events take place and write stories about themII. first; bigger; better; who will soon leave to work for other peopleIII. working hours; free time; work long hours to begin with【原文】Here are some of the things a young man or woman should not do when he first asks an editor for a job:He should not tell the editor that he wants to be a foreign correspondent or a columnist. Very probably the editor does not need either. He wants a reporter who will go to such places as government offices and police stations and write a true story of what is happening there. Being a foreign correspondent or a columnist will come later.A young person should not tell tile editor that newspaper work is only the first step on the way to bigger and better jobs, such as those in government. The editor must take a lot of time and trouble teaching someone to be a good newspaperman or woman. He does not like the idea of teaching people who are soon going to leave him to work for someone else.A young journalist should accept the working hours and free time the editor gives him. As a new journalist, it is very probable that he will work longer hours than others and work on weekends. The editor did the same when he was a young newspaperman with no experience. He expects a journalist to understand how things are on a newspaper.Task 5【答案】A.1) acd 2) abeB.1) she is the wrong sex 2) she wears the wrong clothes【原文】SYLVIA: We've got a new manager in our department.LARRY: Oh? You hoped to get that job, didn't you?SYLVIA: Yes, I did.LARRY: I'm sorry. That's too bad. Who is it? Who got the job, I mean?SYLVIA: Someone called Drexler. Carl Drexler. He's been with the company onlytwo years. I've been here longer. And I know more about the job, too!LARRY: Hmm. Why do you think they gave it to him and not to you?SYLVIA: Because I'm the wrong sex, of course !LARRY: You mean you didn't get the job because you're a woman?SYLVIA: Yes, that was probably it! It isn't fair.LARRY: What sort of clothes does he wear?SYLVTA: A dark suit. White shirt. A tie. Why?LARRY: Perhaps that had something to do with it.SYLVIA: You mean you think I didn't get the job because I come to work in jeans and a sweater?LARRY: It's possible, isn't it?SYLVIA: Do you really think I should wear different clothes?LARRY: Well. . . perhaps you should think about it.SYLVTA: Why should I wear a skirt? Or a dress?LARRY: I'm not saying you should. I'm saying you should think about it. That's all!SYLVIA: Why should I do that? I'm good at my job! That's the only important thing!LARRY: Hmm. Perhaps it should be the only important thing. But it isn't. Not inthis company.Task 6【答案】B.1st speaker(bcd) 2nd speaker(ae)C.1) F 2) F【原文】Al: Is this the right line to file a claim?Bob: Yeah. It's the same line for everything. You just stand here and wait.Al: Oh. Is there always such a long line?Bob: Every week. Sometimes longer. Is this your first time here?Al: Yes.Bob: What happened? Your plant closed down?Al: No. I'm a car salesman, or, I was a car salesman. But we just aren't selling cars. It's the interest rates. Two years ago, I averaged ten new cars a month.Do you know how many carsI sold last month? One. One car to a lady who had the cash. But the interest ratesare up again. The boss let three of us go. How about you?Bob: I worked at a vacuum cleaner plant with about fifty workers. We put in a good day's work. But the machinery was getting old. As a matter of fact, the whole plant was old. So the management decided to build a new plant. You know where?In Singapore. The workers here made about seven dollars an hour, a couple of people made eight or nine an hour. You know how much they're paying the workers in Singapore? $2.50 an hour! Anyway, all fifty of us got laid off.Al: How long ago was that?Bob: They closed down ten months ago.Al: Any luck finding another job?Bob: Nothing. I have one, sometimes two, interviews a week. Last week I thought I had something. They liked my experience with machines. But I never heard from them again.Al: At least you know something about machines. All I can do is talk.Bob: Maybe you'll talk yourself into another job. Good luck. I'll see you here next week.Al: I hope not. I hope I'll have something by then.Task 7【答案】A.1) F 2) F 3) T 4) F 5) T 6) FB.1) According to the first speaker, it is frustrating because the teacher cannot see clearly the results of his efforts.2) According to the second speaker, English language teaching is a good job, because it guarantees a stable income and regular working hours and means less pressure. He also likes the way elderly teacher are.【原文】Interviewer: Do you prefer what you're doing to teaching?John Smith: Yes, one of the things I found a bit frustrating about teaching was that it was rather,very intangible than um, especially if you're teaching in England and most of the students know quite a lot of English before they arrive. They learn a lot of English outside the classroom, in pubs or coffee shops or other places, with the families they're living with. It's very difficult to pin down how much they learn from your actual lesson, whereas in marketing um, again there are lots of areas that are gray rather than black or white, but there are quite a few other areas where one can see quite clearly the results of one's efforts.Interviewer: What did you do after you quit your job in advertising?Second Man: In fact, I became a journalist and I worked as a freelance. I didn't have a full-time job with any newspaper. I just had to contribute thingsas they came along and 1wrote for magazines, and I did quite a lot of broadcasting for the VOA. Well, this was in a way the opposite of advertising because I enjoyed it a lot butI found it very hard to earn enough money to live on.Interviewer: And then you decided to be a teacher?Second Man: Well, and so I thought. Well, I must do something which produces an income that I can be sure of. While I was working as a journalist I had donean article for a magazine about the English language teaching world andm fact I had come to the school where I now teach as a journalist andinterviewed a lot of the people. And I thought it seemed a very nice placeand I thought that the classes I visited had a very, very nice feelingabout them, and so I thought, well, I'll see if they'll have me.Interviewer: Why do you prefer teaching to advertising?Second Man: Well, partly because in teaching you work regular hours. It I advertising you just had to stay at the office until the work was finished [I see.]and it could be three o'clock in the morning. [Oh, dean] Also you werevery often made to work at weekends. Often some job would come up thatwas very important and they said it had to be finished — it had to gointo the newspapers next week.Interviewer: So there was a lot mom pressure.Second Man: There was a lot more pressure in advertising. Also, the people I worked with when I was first in advertising were young hopeful people like myself.By the end I was working with a lot of old people who quite honestly wereawful. And I kept looking at them and saying, "Am I going to be like that?"And I thought if I am I'd better get out, whereas the English languageteachers I saw, who were older people I thought, well, they seemed quitenice. And I wouldn't mind being like that myself.Task 8【答案】The interview with Michale:【原文】Matthew: Michael, do you go out to work?Michael: Not regularly, no. I... I used to; I used to have a job in a publishing company, but Idecided it wasn't really what I wanted to do and that what I wanted to do wouldn't earn me much money, so I gave up working and luckily I had a private income from my family to support me and now I do the things I want to do. Some of them get paid like lecturing and teaching, and others don't.Matthew: What are the advantages of not having to go to work from nine till five? Michael: Ah... there' re two advantages really. One is that if you feel tired you don't have to get up, and the other is that you can spend your time doing things you want to do rather than being forced to do the same thing all the time. Matthew: But surely that's in a sense very self-indulgent and very lucky because most of us have to go out and earn our livings. Do you feel justified in having this privileged position?Michael: Yes, because I think I use it well. I do things which I think are useful to people and the community and which I enjoy doing.Matthew: Chris, what do you think the value of work is?Chris: Well, I think in our present-day society, for most people, work has very little value at all. Most of us go out to work for about eight to nine hours of our working day. We do things which are either totally futile and totally useless or have very little justification whatsoever, and for most of us the only reason for working is that we need to keep ourselves alive, to pay for somewhere to live, to pay to feed our children.Matthew: But surely people wouldn't know what to do if they didn't have to go to work?Chris: Well, again this raises the sort of two main aspects of work. Should we think of 'work only as a sort of bread-winning process, and this is very much the role it has in current society, or should we take a much wider perspective on work and think of all the possible sort of activities that human beingscould be doing during the day? I think the sort of distinction currently is between say, someone who works in a car factory and who produces cars which are just adding to pollution, to over-consumption of vital resources, who is doing something which is very harmful, both to our environment and to, probably society, to contrast his work with someone perhaps like a doctor, who I think in any society could be justified as doing a very valuable job and one which incidentally is satisfying to the person who is doing it.Matthew: What do you do? Is your job just a breadwinning process or do you get some satisfaction out of doing it?Chris: Well, in the job I do find that most of the satisfaction is a mental one;it's coming to grips with the problems of my subject and with the problems of teaching in the University. Clearly this is the type of satisfaction that most people doing what we call in England "white-collar" jobs. This is quite different from the sort of craftsman, who is either working that his hands or with his skills on a machine, or from people perhaps who are using artistic skills, which are of a quite different character. Certainly it's becoming a phenomena that people who do "white-collar jobs during the day, who work with their minds to some extent, people who work on computers, people who are office clerks, bank employees, these people have fairly soul-destroying jobs which nevertheless don't involve much physical effort, that they tend to come home and do "do-it-yourself" activities at home. They make cupboard, paint their houses, repair their cars, which somehow provide the sort of physical job satisfaction that they're denied in their working day.Task 9【答案】A.B.1) No major change. For some→“less paperwork”Some:→less working hoursOthers:→earn more money.2) Most adults→would go on working.Esp. young adults (18 to 24)→9 out of 10 would go on working【原文】Are most workers today feeling bored and dissatisfied with their jobs? It is often claimed that they are. Yet a study conducted by Parade magazine more than 20 years ago showed that people at that time felt the opposite.Parade asked questions of a representative sampling of adult Americans from coast to coast. The sampling included different sexes, age groups, and occupations. The interviewees were asked to make a choice from one of the following three to describe their feelings towards their work.A. Like their jobs.B. Dislike their jobs.C. Like their jobs in part,Results showed that 91 percent of the male interviewees and 84 percent of the females chose A, while only 5 percent men and 12 percent women interviewed chose B. The rest said that they liked their jobs in part and they comprised a very tow percentage.In all the three age groups — from 18 to 24, from 25 to 29 and 30 to 39 —those who liked theirjobs made up the majority. 70 percent, 88 percent and 92 percent respectively choose A. Those choosing B accounted for 20 percent, 9 percent and 8 percent of different age groups. And the rest, 6 percent, 3 percent and 0 percent respectively claimed that they only liked their jobs in part.The difference in responses among people with different occupations is small. Among the white-collar employees, those choosing A, B and C are 87 percent, 8 percent and 4 percent of the total. And for the blue-collar employees, 91 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent choose A, B and C respectively.It is interesting to note that there are few differences in attitude between men and women, professionals and factory workers. In each group, the largest number reported that they liked their jobs.Next, Parade asked, "If there were one thing you could change about your job, what would it be?" It was expected that many would wish to make their jobs less boring, but very few gave this reply. No major changes were reported. Some wished for "less paperwork"; many would shorten their working hours, but others would like more hours in order to earn more money. No serious complaints were made.Most people have to work in order to live. But what would happen if someone had enough money to stop working? Parade asked, "If you inherited a million dollars, would you go on working — either at your present job or something you liked better--or would you quit work?" The answers showed that most adults would prefer to work, even if they didn't have to. This is true especially of the younger adults aged 18-24. Of these, nine out often said they would go on working, even if they suddenly became millionaires.Task 10【答案】B.1) F 2) TC.1) b 2) aD.1. She really enjoyed meeting new people.2. She had good qualifications in English and Maths.3. She did not mind hard work, even if it was not always pleasant.4. She liked living away form home.【原文】Officer: Come in, please take a seat. I'm the careers officer. You're Cathy, aren't you?Mother: That's right. This is Catherine Hunt, and I'm her mother.Officer: How do you do, Mrs. Hunt? Hello, Catherine.Cathy: Hello. Pleased to meet you.Officer: And you'd like some advice about choosing a career?-Mother: Yes, she would. Wouldn't you, Catherine?Cathy: Yes, please.Officer: Well, just let me ask a few questions to begin with. How old are you, Catherine?Mother: She's nineteen. Well, she's almost nineteen.Officer: And what qualifications have you got?Mother: Well, qualifications from school, of course. Very good results she got. And she got certificates for ballet and for playing the piano.Officer: Is that what you're interested in, Catherine, dancing and music? Cathy: Well...Mother: Ever since she was a little girl, she's been very keen on music and dancing. She ought tobe a music teacher or something. She's quite willing to train for a few more years to get the right job, aren't you, Catherine?Cathy: Well, if it's a good idea.Mother: There you are, you see. She's a good girl really, a bit lazy and disorganized sometimes,but she's very bright. I'm sure the careers officer will have lots of jobs for you.Officer: Well, I'm afraid it's not as easy as that. There are many young people these days who can'tfind the job they want.Mother: I told you, Catherine. I told you, you shouldn't wear that dress. You have to look smart toget a job these days.Officer: I think she looks very nice. Mrs. Hunt, will you come into the other office for a momentand look at some of the information we have there. I'm sure you'd like to see how we can help young people.Mother: Yes, I'd love to. Mind you, I think Catherine would be a nice teacher. She could work with young children. She'd like that. Or she could be a vet. She's always looking after sick animals.Officer: I'm afraid there's a lot of competition. You need very good results to bea vet. This way, Mrs. Hunt. Just wait a minute, Catherine.(The mother exits.)Officer: There are just one or two more things, Catherine.Cathy: Do call me Cathy.Officer: OK, Cathy. Are you really interested in being a vet?Cathy: Not really. Anyway, I'm not bright enough. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I'm not brilliant. I'm afraid my mother is a bit over-optimistic.Officer: Yes, I guessed that. She's a bit overpowering, isn't she, your mum? Cathy: A bit. But she's very kind.Officer: I'm sure she is. So, you're interested in ballet and music, are you? Cathy: Not really. My mother sent me to lessons when I was six, so I'm quite good,I suppose. But I don't think I want to do that for the rest of my life, especiallymusic. It's so lonely.Officer: What do you enjoy doing?Cathy: Well, I like playing tennis, and swimming. Oh, I went to France with the school choir last year. I really enjoyed that. And I like talking to people. But I suppose you mean real interests — things that would help me to get a job? Officer: No. I'm more interested in what you really want to do. You like talking to people, do you?Cathy: Oh yes, I really enjoy meeting new people.Officer: Do you think you would enjoy teaching?Cathy: No, no, I don't really. I was never very interested in school work, and I'd like to do something different. Anyway, there's a teacher training college very near us. It would be just like going to school again.Officer: So you don't want to go on training?Cathy: Oh, I wouldn't mind at all, not for something useful. I wondered about beinga hairdresser — you meet lots of people, and you learn to do somethingproperly—but I don't know. It doesn't seem very worthwhile.Officer: What about nursing?Cathy: Nursing? In a hospital? Oh, I couldn't do that, I'm not good enough. Officer: Yes, you are. You've got good qualifications in English and Maths. But it is very hard work.Cathy: Oh, I don't mind that.Officer: And it's not very pleasant sometimes.Cathy: That doesn't worry me either. Mum's right. I do look after sick animals. Ilooked after our dog when it was run over by a car. My mother was sick, but I didn't mind. I was too worried about the dog. Do you really think I could be a nurse?Officer: I think you could be a very good nurse. You'd have to leave home, of course. Cathy: I rather think I should enjoy that.Officer: Well, don't decide all at once. Here's some information about one or two other things which might suit you. Have a look through it before you make up your mind.Task 11【原文】I began my career during college, reporting on news stories at a Toronto radio station. The station’s program manager was also a professor who taught one of my classes. I convinced him that she needed a youth reporter because that year was International Youth Year. After graduation, I took a job as a television news reporter and later, news anchor. But sports reporting was something different, so I decided to try it. Figure skating was my first assignment.I had two months until my new job began. It was like waiting an entire summer for school to start. I spent those two months talking to figure skating coaches and judges. I read boring rule books. I drove to the rinks where the skaters trained, and made notes about our conversations. I even took a lesson, which made some of the skaters laugh.（注：可编辑下载，若有不当之处，请指正，谢谢!）。

《现代大学英语听力2》听力原文及题目答案Unit 2Unit 2Task 1【答案】1) b 2) a 3) d【原文】Texas was the biggest state before Alaska became the forty-ninth state in 1959. One good way to understand the size of Texas is to learn about its weather. Different parts of the state have very different kinds of weather.Laredo is one of the hottest cities in the United States in summer. The best time to visit Laredo is in winter, when it is pleasantly warm.Amarillo gets very cold in winter. Sometimes there is more snow in Amarillo than in New York, which is a northern city. Summers are better, but sometimes it gets quite hot. The best time to visit Amarillo is in the autumn when it is cool.If anyone asks you about the weather in Texas, ask him, “What part of Texas do you mean？”Task 2【答案】A.1)T 2) F 3) FB.1) d 2) c 3) cC.climate, reputation, extraordinary, unreliable, dry, wet, clear, dull, hot, cold, bad, mild【原文】Our friend, Nick, whose English gets better and better, declared solemnly the other day that he thought that the British climate was wonderful, but the British weather was terrible. He went on to explain by pointing out that the British climate was a temperate one. This meant, he said, "that you could always be certain that the weather would never be extreme —at any rate not for any length of time —never very hot and never very cold." He quite rightly pointed out that the rainfall in Britain, according to the statistics, was not very heavy. "Why then," he asked, "has the British climate such a bad reputation?" He answered by saying it was because of the extraordinary, unreliable weather. There was no part of the year at which you could be certain that the weather would be dry or wet, clear or dull, hot or cold. A bad day in July could be as cold as a mild day in January. Indeed you could feel cold at almost any time of the year. Nick blamed drafty British houses for this, but agreed you could also blame the small amount of sunshine and a great amount of dampness. He advised every student coming to Britain to bring an umbrella and to understand the meaning of that splendid word "drizzle".Task 3【答案】I.the country; Trees, grass, lakes and steamsII.A.1. concrete, iron, steel2. take in the heat during the day and throw off heat into the air at nightB. Warmer winters, car engines; electrical applianceⅢ.A. air pollution may stop sunlight from reaching the earthB.1. Ice near the North and South poles to melt2. to be slowly flooded and people living in these cities to move to higher land 【原文】Cities change the climate around you. In the country, there are trees, grass, lakes, and streams. In hot weather, the trees and grass cool the area around them. Lakes and rivers also cool the area around them.But cities are not cooled in these natural ways. Cities are built of asphalt, concrete, iron, andsteel. There are few trees and usually not much grass. Rain falls onto the streets and into the sewers.When the summer sun shines, streets and buildings take in the heat; after the sun sets, the streets and buildings throw off heat into the street. Once the sun sets, the countryside cools off, but a city may stay hot all night.Cities are hotter than the countryside in winter, too. Standing near a car with its motor running, winter or summer, you will feel the heat thrown off by the engine. The heat comes from the gasoline burned by the engine. This heat warms the air and the ground around the car. Thousands of running cars are almost like thousands of small fires burning.Carefully put your hand near a light bulb or television set. As you can see, electricity creates a lot of heat. This heat from electricity warms the house and the outside air.The heat given off by cities can affect the climate. Some experts even believe that cities can change the climate of the whole world. They think that air pollution may stop sunlight from reaching the earth. If less sunshine reaches the earth, the earth may become cooler.Still other experts think the world will get warmer. If the world did get warmer, great changes would occur. Ice near the North and South poles would melt. This would make the oceans rise. Cities near oceans — like Los Angeles, Boston, and Miami —would slowly be flooded. People living in these cities would have to move to higher land.Task 4【答案】A.1) b 2) cB. night, delight; morning, warning; gray, way, red, headC.1) F 2) T 3) F【原文】A red sky at either dusk or dawn is one of the spectacular and beautiful weather predictors we have in nature. By closely observing this phenomenon, you can achieve short-range accuracy of the weather as good as, or better than your local weatherman. In the Bible, Jesus in Matthew 16, 2-3 is quoted as saying, “When it is evening, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red” when speaking to the Pharisees. An old English weather proverb based on this passage is:Red sky at night, sailors delight.Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.OrEvening red and morning gray,Sends the traveler on his way.Evening gray, morning red,Brings the rain down on his head.At dusk, a red sky indicates that dry weather is on the way. This is due to the sun shining through dust particles being pushed ahead of a high pressure system bringing in dry air. A red sky in the morning is due to the sun again shining through dust. In this case however, the dust is being pushed on by an approaching low reassure system bringing in moisture. Don't confuse a red sky in the morning with a red sun in the morning. If the sun itself is red and the sky is a normal color, the day will be fair.Task 5【答案】1) c 2) b 3) d 4) c 5) c【原文】Mark: I am an avid fly fisherman and frequently find myself on the river in a raft during lightning storms. We always have a debate at thesetimes on where we are safest —pulling into shore or staying on thewater. Since I have heard one is safe in a car when lightning strikesI wonder if the raft floating on the water is insulated, and thereforethe safest place to be.Meteorologist A: We spoke with some scientists about your question, and they all agreed that under no circumstances should you remain on the waterduring a lightning storm. If your raft is made of rubber, you mightfeel that you're .well insulated, but don't kid yourself. Typicallightning flashes travel 10 to 15 kilometers and can deliver as muchas 100,000 amps of current. In comparison, a toaster uses about 10amps of current. If lightning strikes the water near you, it willhave no trouble traveling through a few extra centimeters of rubber. Meteorologist B: So, if you're on the water and a thunderstorm approaches, get to the shore and seek shelter on land. Try a building or car. If neitheris available, look for a cave, cliff, wall, or a group of trees. Nevertake shelter under an isolated tree-it's also a good target forlightning.Task 6【答案】A.1) F 2) T 3) F 4) T 5) F 6) TB.Incredible, one minute, one kilometer, destroyed, lifted up, carried away, killed, injured【原文】Every spring and summer many inland areas are hit by tornados. A tornado is a kind of storm. It's a revolving, funnel-shaped column of air that moves through the sky at very high speeds. A tornado looks like a huge, black ice cream cone whirling through the sky. The speed of a tornado is very fast-it is believed to be between 200 and 700 kilometers per hour.Tornados form under very special weather conditions, and these special weather conditions occur most often in inland areas, such as the central United States. A tornado forms when a layer of warm, dry air is on top of a layer of cooler, moist air. This combination of dry, warm air above wet, cool air creates a condition that causes the lower layer of air to lift up. As the lower air rises, both layers of air begin to rotate, to turn around and around. The air begins to rotate faster and faster because of centrifugal force. The tornado has a center called an “eye” and the air rotates quickly around this eye.As the air begins to rotate faster and faster, the tornado cloud begins to grow downward; that is, it begins to form a funnel or cone, and this cone goes down toward the ground.The cone of air is dark because it develops from a dark rain cloud. As the cloud gets longer, as the cloud gets closer to the ground, it begins to pull up dirt from the ground. Then the funnel ofrotating air becomes very dark because of the dirt in it. As the tornado funnel gets longer, it begins to drag along the ground.When the tornado touches the ground, it does incredible damage. It usually touches the ground for only about one minute, and it usually travels along the ground for only about one kilometer, but during that one minute, buildings are destroyed, trees are lifted up out of the ground, small objects are carried away, and sometimes people are injured or killed.Task 7【答案】A.1) b 2) a 3) bB.1) It has been nice weather during the day, but it is going to change at night.2) Fine weather in southern Europe and not so nice in northern EuropeFor todaySoutheast England---26 degrees Celsius by mid-afternoonSouthern Scotland---Maximum temperatures of around 21 degreesBrighton---15 hours of lovely sunshineMidlands---23 degrees Celsius by early afternoonNorthwest of Scotland---Light showers around middayFor the weekendSpain---34 degrees CelsiusGreece---32 degrees CelsiusFrance---Cloudy with rain, maximum temperatures of 22 degreesNorthern Ireland---Heavy rain, 17 degrees CelsiusMost of England---Cloudy but mainly dry with sunny periods, 23 degrees Celsius 【原文】Radio Announcer: You’re listening to Radio Metro. It’s two minutes to nine, and time for the latest weather for cast from Dan Francis at the London Weather Centre. Francis: Hello. It's been another warm and fine day for most of us. Temperatures in southeast England reached 26 degrees Celsius by mid-afternoon, and Brighton had 15 hours of lovely sunshine. Further north it was a little cooler with maximum temperatures of around 21 degrees in southern Scotland, and in the far northwest of Scotland there were some light showers around midday. But the rest of the country, as I said, has been warm and dry with temperatures in the Midlands reaching 23 degrees Celsius by early afternoon though it was a little cooler along the west coast and in Northern Ireland. But already the weather is beginning to change, I'm afraid, and during the night showers will slowly move in from the Atlantic to reach south-west England and the southern coast of Wales by early morning.The rest of the country will have a very mild, dry night with minimum temperatures no lower than 15 degrees in the south, a little cooler — 11degrees or so —in the north. Any remaining showers in northwest Scotland will pass quickly to leave a mild, dry night there too.And now the outlook for Friday and the weekend. Well, southern Europe will, once again, get the best of the weekend weather, and if your holiday starts this weekend, then southern Spain is the place to go, with temperatures of 34 degrees along the Mediterranean coast. At the eastern end of the Med, too, you can expect uninterrupted sunshine and temperatures of up to 32 degrees Celsius in Greece and southeast Italy, but further north the weather's not so settled. Much of France, Belgium and the Netherlands will be cloudy with occasional rain, and maximum temperatures will be around 22 degrees — very disappointing for this time of the year.Scotland and Northern Ireland will have heavy rain for much of the weekend and temperatures will drop to a cool 17 degrees. Across most of England the weather will be cloudy but mainly dry with sunny periods. And when the sun does come out, temperatures could rise to a maximum of 23 degrees.Task 8【答案】【原文】As the air pressure around you either rises or falls, many changes in nature occur. Most of these are very obvious changes while others are of a more subtle nature.Mountains and other far away objects will appear to be much closer and more sharply focused as wet weather approaches and the air pressure drops. The dust particles in the air begin to settle to the ground and the air clears, allowing you to see more details of faraway objects. As a high pressure front approaches and the air becomes “thicker,” more dust particles become suspended in air and things take on their normal somewhat hazy appearance.“Sharp horns on the moon threaten bad weather.” This and a bright, clear moon are good indicators that wet weather is on the way. As the air clears of dust particles ahead of a low pressure system, the moon appears to come closer and be more sharply focused due to the lack of dust.Sound also becomes sharper and more focused prior to stormy weather. Instead of traveling upward and outward into the atmosphere sound waves are bent back to the earth and their range extended. Bird calls sound sharper, and, at my house, we can hear the blowing of the train horn as it rumbles through the valley below.If you find yourself out in a marsh or swamp and the air really seems to stink more than normal, expect rainy weather. This happens when the pressure drops and the methane trapped on the bottom of the swamp is released in greater quantities. In reverse, as fair weather approaches and the pressure rises, things won't smell quite so strong.Birds and bats have a tendency to fly much lower to the ground right before a rain due to the “thinning” of the air. They prefer to fly where the air is the most dense and they can get greater lift with their wings. With high pressure and dry air, the atmosphere becomes denser and they can easily fly at higher altitudes.Smoke rising straight into the air means fair weather and smoke hanging low meansrain is on the way. This is pretty much the same as with the birds and methane in the swamp. When high pressure approaches, smoke will rise whereas with low pressure it can't rise and tends to lay low.Remember a grandparent talking about how their corns, bunions, or joints ached right before a rain? Again, this is due to the decreasing atmospheric pressure allowing the gas in our bodies to expand.Task 9【答案】A. Statements 3, 6, 7 are true.B.f—c—a—d—b—eC.1) F 2) T 3) F 4) FD.1) d 2) b【原文】It was 1974. Richard Nixon was still president. Kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst was still missing. In Xenia, a pretty spot of 25,000 people amid fields of soybeans and corn, American Graffiti was held over at the Cinema. The Xenia Hotel offered a chicken and dumpling dinner for $, but everyone flocked to the A&W drive-in for burgers and root beer floats. That's where five of the bodies were found after the storm.In all, 33 people died in Xenia's tornado, the deadliest of 148 storms that raged through 13 states during the infamous "Super Outbreak'' of tornadoes April 3 to 4, 1974. In 16 hours and 10 minutes, 330 people were killed and nearly 5,550 were injured from Illinois to Georgia.Though the Xenia death toll has been matched by other killer storms, the degree of devastation makes the city's tornado among U.S. history's most destructive. The storm still is studied in colleges by aspiring meteorologists, a textbook case of a rare Category F-5, the most intense of tornadoes.On that fateful day, I was a young boy of 8 years old. We lived in the Arrowhead Subdivision. That afternoon I was around the corner playing with some neighbor kids.I thought I could hear my father calling me, so I ran back to the house. Thinking back now, there is no way I would have been able to hear him. I was too far away for a voice to have traveled in the afternoon noise. Besides, Dad had a very bad case of tonsillitis that day. Like I was saying, I went back home and got through the door just in time to answer the ringing phone. On the other end of the phone was my Mother. Mom was working. She told me she heard a bad storm was on the way. She told me to make sure the garage door was shut and to stay inside. After I hung up the phone, I settled down to watch The Dennis Show. To this day I can vividly remember the electricity going out. I looked out the large window in the living room and didn't have a clue as to what I was looking at.Dad was asleep on the couch, so I woke him up to look. Dad looked and said to get into the bathroom. We sat on the floor. Dad had his back to the door and hisfeet pushing against the wall opposite the door. I remember that as soon as we sat down, the windows broke. Glass blew under the door, and the sound was tremendous.I know it really didn’t take too long for the tornado to go past, but I do remember the conversation we had in the process. I could feel the cool air rushing under the floor through the crawlspace vents. I asked if we were flying. He said he wasn't sure, but he didn't think we were. He said the house was tearing apart. I asked him how he knew. He said he just knew it was.When things calmed down, we opened the door. The odd feeling I had, looking up the street from inside what once was my hallway, is still with me today.I think back often to that day. I think back and wonder what would have happened if my Dad hadn't been sick that day. Like a lot of kids, I stayed home by myself after school back then. I seriously doubt I would be able to tell you my story, if I had been alone that day. I still live in Xenia and wouldn’t trade this town for any other.Task 10【原文】Undoubtedly, Tibet is one of the harshest places for human existence. It is cool in summer but freezing cold in winter. In Lhasa, the mildest city temperature may exceed 29C in summer while plummeting to -16C in winter! Sun radiation is extremely strong in Tibet. The sunlight in Lhasa is so intense that the city is called Sunlight City. The thin air can neither block off nor retain heat so that the temperature extremes can be met in daytime and the same night respectively in Tibet. However it is not impossible to visit the holy snow land. April to October is the best time to visit Tibet, out of the coldest months, which are from December to February usually. The average temperature in north Tibet is subzero and winter arrives in October until the following May or June. July and August are the best time to visit the area, enjoying warm temperature, intense sunshine, beautiful scenery and festive events. May, June and September is the tourist season in east Tibet. In winter, roads are all blocked by heavy snow. Landslides and rock falls frequently occur, which will make travel difficult.。

《现代大学英语听力2》听力原文及答案Unit 1Unit 1Task 1【答案】A.1) She wanted to see St. Paul’s Cathedral.2) She was so surprised because she saw so many Englishmen who looked alike.3) They were all wearing dark suits and bowler hats, carrying umbrellas and newspapers.4) Because she had often read about them and seen photographs of them, who all looked as if they were wearing a uniform.5) No, he didn’t.6) He used the English saying “It takes all kinds to make a world” to prove his opinion.B.If all the seas were one sea, what a great sea it would be! And if all the trees were one tree, what a great tree it would be! And if this tree were to fall in the sea, what a great splash there would be!【原文】Yesterday morning Gretel went to the City of London. She wanted to see St. Paul's Cathedral. She was surprised to see so many Englishmen who looked alike. They were all wearing dark suits and bowler hats. They were all carrying umbrellas and newspapers. When she returned home she asked Mr clark about these strange creatures. "They must be typical English gentlemen," she said." I have often read about them and seen photographs of them. They all look as if they are wearing a uniform. Does the typical English gentleman still exist"Mr. Clark laughed. "I've never thought about it," he answered." It's true that many of the men who work in the City of London still wear bowler hate and Isuppose they are typical Englishmen. But look at this." Mr. Clark picked up a magazine and pointed at a photo of a young man. "He's just as typical, perhaps. It seems as if there is no such thing as a 'typical' Englishman. Do you know the English saying 'It takes all kinds to make a world' That's true of all countries-including England."“Oh, just like the poem ‘If All the Seas Were One Sea’,” Gretel began to hum happily. If all the seas were one sea, what a great sea that would be! If all the trees were one tree, what a great tree that would be! And if this tree were to fall in the sea, w hat a great splash that would be!”Task 2【答案】A.1) people were much busier2) colder than England; minus thirty degrees; last longer3) much more mountainous; much higher and much more rocky; more beautiful4) tend to be more crowded5) the houses; smallerB.1) T 2) T 3) F 4) F 5) F【原文】John is British but has worked in Japan. Etsuko is Japanese from Osaka, but she is studying in Britain. In the following passage you are going to hear, they are comparing life as they see it in the two countries. But before listening to it, think of the two countries and try to answer the following pre-listening questions.John: I found that living in Japan, people were busier. They seem to work the whole day.Etsuko: Yes, that’s right. We work from Monday through Saturday, even in summer.You know, summer in Japan is just horrible. It’s very, very humid and hot, and you need to shower three times a day.John: So you find it cooler in England？Etsuko: Yes, that’s right.John: Where I was living in Japan, in the North, it was much colder than England, especially in winter, minus thirty degrees centigrade. Does the winter in Osaka last longer than the winter in England？Etsuko: No, I don’t think so. December, January, February, March.John: Yes. It’s a little bit shorter if anything.Etsuko: Ever since I came here, I noticed that the countryside here in England is very beautiful.John: It’s much flatter than in Japan.Etsuko: Yes. Japan is a mountainous country and our cities are full of people. There are lots of people in a limited flat area.John: Yes, I found Japan much more mountainous than Britain, especially in the north. The mountains are much higher and much more rocky. I found it more beautiful than Britain, I think.Etsuko: Yes, if you like mountains.John: And therefore the towns and villages tend to be more crowded.Etsuko: Yes, that’s right.John: Yes. So because the cities are more crowded, the houses tend to be smaller, don’t they？Etsuko: Yes, they are very compact, and we don’t hav e a lot of space. In big cities we have a lot of taller buildings now.John: Is this a problem because there are more earthquakes in Japan？Etsuko: Yes, that’s right and…Task 3【答案】A.1) In the US, people usually dance just to enjoy themselves; they don’t invite other people to watch them.2)Usually eight people dance together.3)Because people form a square in dancing with a man and a woman on each side ofthe square.4) He usually makes it into a song.5) They wear old-fashioned clothes.B.1) F 2) T 3) F 4) F 5) TC.1) eight people form a square; on each side of the square2) what they should do; makes it into a song; sings it3) don’t have much time to think4) old-fashioned clothes【原文】Rosa: Why don’t you have folk dances in the United States Most countries have special dances that the people have done for many years. The dancers wear clothes from the old days. Everyone likes to watch them dance.Steve: We have folk dances, too. A lot of people belong to folk dancing groups. But when they dance, they usually do it just to enjoy themselves. They don’t invite other people to watch them.Rosa: Is there a folk dancing group hereSteve: I think so. There must be. There’s one in almost every city, and some big cities have several.Rosa: What are the dances likeSteve: Usually eight people dance together, four men and four women. When they start, they form a square, with a man and a woman on each side of the square. That’s why it’s called square dancing.Then there’s a man who tells the dancers what they should do. He usually makes it into a song. He sings it while they dance.Rosa: Oh, that should make the dances easy!Steve: Yes, but they are very fast. They don’t have much time to think. I like to watch them, though. The dancers wear old-fashioned clothes. That makes the dances pretty to watch.Rosa: I’d like to watch a group dance.Steve: I’ll take you sometime.Task 4【答案】1) It was a time to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring.2) They burned the picture of their kitchen god to bring good luck.3) The custom said the brides must wear “something old, something new, somethingborrowed, and something blue” to bring good luck.4)Because they could not eat meat, eggs or dairy products during Lent, so theytried to use up these things before Lent began.5)It was a straw man made by children in Czech; it was a figure of death.6)People brought their animals to church. And before the animals went into thechurch people dressed them up in flowers and ribbons.【原文】1) On the evening of February 3rd, people in Japanese families took one dried bean for each year of their age and threw the beans on the floor, shouting "Good luck in! Evil spirits out!" This was known as "Setsubun", a time to celebrate the endof winter and the beginning of spring.2) Before the Chinese Lunar New Year in the old days, many Chinese families burned the picture of their kitchen god to bring good luck. When Lunar New Year's Day came, they put ancw picture of the kitchen god on the wall.3) When American women got married, they sometimes followed an old custom in choosing what to wear on their wedding day. The custom said the bride must wear "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue". This was to bring good luck.4) Before Lent (a time on the Christian calendar), the people of Ponti, Italy ate an omelet made with 1,000 eggs. People could not eat meat, eggs or dairy products during Lent, so they tried to use up these things before Lent began.5) When winter ended in Czech, the children made a straw man called "Smrt", which was a figure of death. They burned it or threw it in the river. After they destroyed it, they carried flowers home to show the arrival of spring.6) January 17th was St. Anthony's Day in Mexico. It was a day when people brought their animals to church. But before the animals went into the church, the people dressed them up in flowers and ribbons. This ceremony was to protect people's animals.Task 5【答案】A.1) F 2) T 3) F 4) T 5) F 6) T 7) TB.【原文】Man: Well, I think life used to be much more fun than it is now. I mean, look at the Victorians. They had lots of servants to do all the work; they never had to do any cooking or cleaning; they just wore those beautiful dresses and went to tea parties.Woman: You must be joking! Their clothes were terribly uncomfortable and their tea parties were very formal and boring. They used to wear their hats and long gloves even when they were eating cakes and biscuits. And men were not usually invited.Man: Really Weren't theyWoman: And think of the poor servants. What a terrible life — just cleaning and cooking for other people all the time!Man: But you hate housework!Woman: Yes, I know, but there are lots of machines now to help you with the housework.People don't need servants.Man: Maybe they don't, but life then was much slower than it is now-people nowadays are always rushing, and they never have time to stop and enjoy themselves. Woman: Life then was fine for the rich, but it was dreadful for the poor. There was much more illness. They didn't have the money to pay doctors, and they often used to die of illnesses that don't exist in England now.Man: Maybe. But people used to talk to each other, play the piano or play cards together. Nowadays people just sit in front of the television for hours and never talk to each other.Woman: I agree with you about television; but what about their children They left their Children with the servants all day. Children hardly ever saw their parents! And the clothes they had to wear! Horrible, tight, uncomfortable, grown-up clothes. Children have a much better life now than they used to, and schools and education are much better too.Man: I hate school.Woman: And look at opportunities for women. In those days, women used to stay at home, play the piano, change their clothes several times a day and have tea parties. What a life! They didn't have any freedom at all. I'm very happy living now. I can work, have a career, do what I want to.Man: You mean you can work hard all your life like a Victorian servant. Woman: Life isn't all tea parties, you know.Task 6【答案】A.1) b 2) a 3) c 4) aB.1) family unit; process; change; used to be; the extended; the nuclear2) job patterns; progressed; agricultural; industrial; forced; job opportunities; split up3) traditional; family; expanded; other living arrangementsC.1) mother, father, children, and some other relatives, such as grandparents, livingin the same house or nearby2)only the parents and the children3)previously married men and women marry again and combine the children from formermarriages into a new family【原文】The American family unit is in the process of change. There used to be mainly two types offamilies: the extended and the nuclear. The extended family most often included mother, father, children, and some other relatives, such as grandparents, living in the same house or nearby. Then as job patterns changed and the economy progressed from agricultural to industrial, people were forced to move to different parts of the country for job opportunities. These moves split up the extended family. The nuclear family became more prevalent; this consisted of only the parents and the children. Now besides these two types of traditional groupings, the word "family" is being expanded to include a variety of other living arrangements.Today's family can be made up of diverse combinations. With the divorce rate nearly one in two, there is an increase in single parent homes: a father or mother living with one or more children. "Blended families" occur when previously married men and women marry again and combine the children from former marriages into a new family. On the other hand, some couples are deciding not to have any children at all, so there is an increase in childless families. There are also more people who live alone: single, widowed, divorced. Now one in five Americans lives alone.Task 7【答案】A.B.1) c 2) c 3) a 4) b 5) c 6) c 7) c【原文】In Japan both men and women go to university and both men and women study the arts such as history or English. But very few women study science, medicine or engineering. In engineering classes of thirty or forty students, there may be only one or two women. Men and women both go to university in order to get good jobs: men want to work for a big company, be successful, earn a lot of money and support a family; women, on the other hand, want to work for a big company because they have a better chance of meeting a successful man and getting married. This is changing, however, as Japanese women begin to think about their own careers. They have beganto take jobs which they like rather than jobs in order to find a husband.Men work for their whole lives and usually stay with the same company. A woman may work up to ten years, but after that she usually gets married. Most women are married by the age of twenty seven, then they stay at home and look after the children.A man does not cook or look after the children. When he comes home, his meal must be ready. The woman may go out in the afternoon, shopping with her friends or having a chat, but she must go back home by four o'clock to prepare the meal. Then she may have to wait a long time for her husband to come home. Often he has to go out for a drink after work: if he doesn't he may not rise very high in the company. After her children grow up, a woman can go back to work, but it is not easy. If her former company takes older women back, she might be lucky. But most women find it difficult to find a job when they are older.Task 8【答案】A.1) a 2) c 3) b 4) c 5) c 6) b 7) c 8) bB.1) T 2) T 3) F 4) F 5) T 6) F 7) F 8) F 9) T 10) F【原文】Matthew: Geth, how do people set about getting married in EnglandGeth: I suppose the most common way is still for people to go home. For example, people who live in London now will go back to their homes in the provinces where they'll meet all their relatives and their parents, and they'll get married in a church, with the bride wearing white, the traditional white.Then they'll go off and have a booze-up with their relatives and friends and a jolly good time will be had by all. Otherwise you can get married ina registry office, which means you turn up with your bride-to-be orbridegroom-to-be with two witnesses only. The ceremony takes about five minutes, I suppose. You sign the form and that's it.Matthew: There are many today who say that marriage is a complete waste of time.What's your view of marriage in the twentieth centuryGoth: Well, I live in London as you know. I think in London, the tendency is to...for a... boy and girl, man or woman to live together before marriage and often to live together without any prospect of marriage at all. I think this probably is... is true of London and the other big cities than elsewhere, because after all people in London are living in a big place where home ties are obviously less restrictive. They can do more or less as they please andI think this is the pattern.Matthew: But do you think it helps for people to live together before taking their vowsGeth: I think in a sense the habit of living together before marriage may, ina strange sort of way, make marriage stronger, because after all the peoplewill know each other better when they do get married and it might be suggested that divorce would be less likely between such a couple.Matthew: Sue, you've been married for two or three years now. How's it working out Sue: I think it's a successful marriage. It's... I mean, it's difficult to say why, because we basically suit each other very much. We have a goodfriendship, apart from anything else, and, you know, we just go together very well because we respect each other's freedom and individuality, but on the other hand we really need each other, you know, it's... Matthew: What about.., have you thought of having childrenSue: Well, obviously, like most young couples, we have thought about it, but, you know, we both feel rather, sort of, loath to lose our freedom just yet.I think we'll probably wait another few years.Matthew: Is it easy in England today to people to get divorced, or is that quite difficultChris: I think technically it's probably fairly easy, I think, because I'm not English but, I think technically it's fairly easy to be... to get divorced.But it's not just the technicality of it which is the problem. Divorce is...is a social stigma which people can probably Cope with to varying degrees, but it's also a lot easier for the man because the woman, after she is divorced is, in fact, frowned upon by... by a lot of people in society. She is... is...at a... a much more difficult social position in terms of... of meeting other men, or whatever, simply because she is a divorcee.Task 9【原文】Social customs and ways of behaving change. But they do not necessarily always change for the better. Things which were considered impolite many years ago are now acceptable. Just a few years ago, it was considered impolite behaviour for a man to smoke on the street. No man who thought of himself as being a gentleman would make a fool of himself by smoking when a lady was in the room.The important thing to remember about social customs is not to do anything that might make other people feel uncomfortable — especially if they are your guests. There is a story about a rich nobleman who had a very formal dinner party. When the food was served, one of the guests started to eat his peas with a knife. Other guests were amused or shocked, but the nobleman calmly picked up his knife and began eating in the same way. It would have been bad manners to make his guest feel foolish or uncomfortable.。

Unit 1 Social CustomsTask 1A1.She wanted to see St. Paul’s Cathedral.2.She was so surprised because she saw so many Englishmen who looked alike.3.They were all wearing dark suits and bowler hats, carrying umbrellas andnewspapers.4.Because she had often read about them and seen photographs of them, who alllooked as if they were wearing a uniform.5.No, he didn’t.6.He used the English saying “It takes all kinds to make a world”to prove hisopinion.BIf all the seas were one sea, what a great sea it would be! And if all the trees were one tree, what a great tree it would be! And if this tree were to fall in the sea, what a great splash there would be!Task 2A1. people were much busier2. colder than England; minus thirty degrees; last longer3. much more mountainous; much higher and much more rocky; more beautiful4. tend to be more crowded5. the houses; smallerB1.T2. T3. F4. F5. FTask 3A1.In the US, people usually dance just to enjoy themselves; they don’t invite otherpeople to watch them.ually eight people dance together.3.Because people form a square in dancing with a man and a woman on each side ofthe square.B1. F2. T3. F4. F5. TC1.eight people form a square; on each side of the square2.what they should do; makes it into a song; sings it3.don’t have much time to think4.old-fashioned clothesC1. eight people form a square; on each side of the square2. what they should do; makes it into a song; sings it3. don’t have much time to think4. old-fashioned clothesTask 41.It was a time to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring.2.They burned the picture of their kitchen god to bring good luck.3.The custom said the brides must wear “something old, something new, somethingborrowed, and something blue” to bring good luck.4.Because they could not eat meat, eggs or dairy products during Lent, so they triedto use up these things before Lent began.5.It was a straw man made by children in Czech; it was a figure of death.6.People brought their animals to church. And before the animals went into thechurch people dressed them up in flowers and ribbons.Task 5A1. F2. T3. F4. T5. F6. T7. TBLife in Victorian timesAdvantages:Lots of servants to do the work; beautiful clothes to wear; lots of tea parties; life being slower; plenty of time to talk to each other, play the piano or play cards together Disadvantages:Terrible life for servants; very uncomfortable clothes; boring and formal tea parties---often no men being invited; much more illness; children left with servants all day; very poor education; no freedom for womenLife todayAdvantages:Lots of machines to help with the housework; a much better life for children; more freedom for womenDisadvantages:People being always rushing, having no time to stop or enjoy themselves; too much time spent in front of the television, no talk to each otherTask 6A1. b2. a3. c4. aB1. family unit; process; change; used to be; the extended; the nuclear2. job patterns; progressed; agricultural; industrial; forced; job opportunities; split up3. traditional; family; expanded; other living arrangementsC1.mother, father, children, and some other relatives, such as grandparents, living inthe same house or nearby2.only the parents and the children3.previously married men and women marry again and combine the children fromformer marriages into a new familyTask 7A1. Both2. Men3. Both4. Women5. Men6. Men7. Women8. Women9. Women 10. Women 11. Men 12. WomenB1. c2. c3. a4. b5. c6. c7. cTask 8A1. a2. c3. b4. c5. c6. b7. c8. bB1.T2. T3. F4. F5. T6. F7. F8. F9. T 10.FTask 9Social customs and ways of behaving change. But they do not necessarily always change for the better. Things which were considered impolite many years ago are now acceptable. Just a few years ago, it was considered impolite behaviour for a man to smoke on the street. No man who thought of himself as being a gentleman would make a fool of himself by smoking when a lady was in the room.The important thing to remember about social customs is not to do anything that might make nobleman who had a very formal dinner party. When the food was served, one f the guests started to eat his peas with a knife. Other guests were amused or shocked, but the nobleman calmly picked up his knife and began eating in the same way. It would have been bad manners to make his guest feel foolish or uncomfortable.Unit 2 WeatherTask 11. b2. a3. dTask 2A1.T2. F3. FB1. d2. c3. cC1.climate2. reputation3. extraordinary4. unreliable5. dry6. wet7. clear8. dull 9. hot 10. cold 11. bad 12. mildTask 31.the country; Trees, grass, lakes and steams2.concrete; take in the heat during the day and throw off heat into the air at night;Warmer winters, car engines; electrical appliance3.air pollution may stop sunlight from reaching the earth; Ice near the North andSouth poles to melt; to be slowly flooded and people living in these cities to move to higher landTask 4A1. b2. cB1.night2. delight3. morning4. warning5. gray6. way7. red8. head C1. F2. T3. FTask 51. c2. b3. d4. c5. cTask 6A1. F2. T3. F4. T5. F6. TB1. incredible2. one minute3. one kilometer4. destroyed5. lifted up6. carried away7. killed8. injuredTask 7A1. b2. a3. bB1.For today: It has been nice weather during the day, but it is going to change atnight.2.For the weekend: Fine weather in southern Europe and not so nice in northernEuropeCFor todaySoutheast England---26 degrees Celsius by mid-afternoonSouthern Scotland---Maximum temperatures of around 21 degreesBrighton---15 hours of lovely sunshineMidlands---23 degrees Celsius by early afternoonNorthwest of Scotland---Light showers around middayFor the weekendSpain---34 degrees CelsiusGreece---32 degrees CelsiusFrance---Cloudy with rain, maximum temperatures of 22 degreesNorthern Ireland---Heavy rain, 17 degrees CelsiusMost of England---Cloudy but mainly dry with sunny periods, 23 degrees CelsiusTask 8Natural Phenomena Air Pressure Causes(Rise or Fall)Faraway objects are Fall The dust particles begin to settle to the more sharply focused. ground in thinner air and the air clears. Birds’ calls become Fall Instead of traveling upward and Sharper. outward into the atmosphere they arebent back to the earth and their rangeextended.Swamp doesn’t Rise The methane is trapped in the bottom smell very strong. of the swamp because of the thick air. Bird fly high. Rise Birds prefer to fly where the air is thedensest and they can get greater liftwith their wingsSmoke rise high in the air Rise Smoke rises with thicker air.Elderly people’s joints ache. Fall The gas in our bodies expands in lowerair pressure.Task 9AStatements 3, 6, 7 are true.Bf—c—a—d—b—eC1. F2. T3. F4. FD1. d2. bTask 10Undoubtedly, Tibet is one of the harshest places for human existence. It is cool in summer but freezing cold in winter. In Lhasa, the mildest city in Tibet, temperatures may exceed 29 degrees Celsius in summer while plummeting to -16 degrees Celsius in winter! Sun radiation is extremely strong in Tibet. The sunlight in Lhasa is so intense that the city is called Sunlight City. The thin air can neither block off nor retain heat so that there are great temperature extremes on the same day! The average temperature in northern Tibet is subzero and winter arrives in October until the following May or June. July or August are the best time to visit the area, enjoying warm temperatures, intense sunshine, beautiful scenery and festive events. May, June and September represent the tourist season in east Tibet. In winter, roads are blocked by heavy snow. Land slides and rock falls frequently occur, which will make travel difficult.Unit 3 Social IssuesTask 1A1.Stress on the job costs American companies as much as $150 billion a year inlower productivity, unnecessary employee sick leave, and higher medical costs. 2.The most stressful professions are those that involve danger and extreme pressureand those that carry a lot of responsibility without much control.3.The best way to deal with stress is through relaxation, but sometimes the onlyanswer is to fight back or walk away.B1. Three- quarters2. psychologists, doctors3. nervousness, anger, frequent illness, forgetfulness, mental problemsTask 2A1.give in so easily to hijackers’ demandsa)threaten to blow up a plane, commit some other outageb)hold out against this kind of blackmail, always have terrorists, Start executingterrorists automaticallyc)be prepared to face the consequences of evil2a)It’s the lesser of two evils. Terrorists have proven often enough that they reallymean business.b)Innocent lives, threatening the innocent will achieve its ends.B1.She implies that if the first speaker was one of the victims of terrorism, she wouldwant the government to give in to the demands so that she wouldn’t die.Task 3A1. thirty-five, natural light, a small window, hot, airless, very noisy2. Mexico3. ought to, shouldn’tB1.It is located in a narrow street with five-and six-storey buildings eight kilometersfrom downtown Los Angeles.2.This factory makes shirts and jeans3.She’s already been working for ten hours, but won’t stop for another two hours.4.She can’t complain about those things because she is an illegal immigrant.Task 4AEvery year the British government publishes statistics about social trends. Their findings show definite patterns in the British way of life.1.marked differencesa)one hour more every day, three hours more every weekb) 1 percent, cleaning and ironing, keep household accounts, do repairs orimprovementsc)30 percent2.leisure activities, watching television, 20 hours a week, going for walks,Swimming, British womenB1.Unlike the other couples, Carla has always kept her won accounts and Adrian hasalways done his own housework. Neither of them like watching television very much and they both like swimming.Task 5ATopic: How a city in Japan solve the problem of garbage disposal.Supporting details: 160 million, every year, 10 percent, 10 percent, the rest, public cooperation1.garbage that can be easily burned, kitchen and garden trash2.electrical appliances, plastic tools, plastic toys3.are poisonous, cause pollution, batteries4.bottles and glass containers that can be recycled5.metal containers that can be recycled6.furniture and bicycledon different days, on request, fertilizer, to produce electricity, recycled, cleaned, repaired, resold cheaply, give awayB1.The garbage will be taken to a center that looks like a clean new office building orhospital. Inside the center, special equipment is used to sort and process the garbage.2.official from cities around the world visit Machida to see whether they can usesome of these ideas and techniques to solve their own garbage disposal problems. Task 61.They were talking about Mrs. Carter.2.She was a tall, handsome woman who used to come into the shop at least twice aweek.3.She lived alone in a large house on an old farm---about three miles from the shop.4.He was absolutely certain, otherwise he would never call the police. His evidencewas this: First, he saw her do it; second, he found the things in her bag; third, she had done it before.5.Because two young people saw her. The shopkeeper believed that if they didn’tpunish her, young people would think that stealing didn’t matter.6.The judge thought that it was difficult case from a humanitarian point of view. Theexcuses her found for her were: First, the woman was old and she lived alone---she was lonely. Second, she wasn’t poor---she was well-known for her generosity to charities and she didn’t need to steal. Te items were only worth a pound or two. Third, she pleaded not guilty and she didn’t know that she had done it.Task 7ATopic: According to the urban planner, not all modern cities are alike. There seem to be two types of modern city.1. a single high-density center, skyscrapers, motorways, as far as you can see2.the low-density multi-center city, a large collection of a number of small centers,shopping centers, factories, businesses, skyscrapersB1.He thinks that the second type( the Los Angeles model) is more sensible.2.He considers it highly likely that the kind of city we know now will completelydisappear.Task 8A1.He thinks that this country’s problems all come from inflation, which is the resultof the Democrat’s careless spending.2.No, she doesn’t agree with Ned. She believes that the problem is unemployment.If the government cuts spending too much, people will fall into a vicious circle of more unemployment and fewer taxpayers to share the burden.3.She agrees with Barbara. She believes that unemployment is a big problem,especially in the big industrial cities. And the government isn’t doing very much to help the big industries out.4.He believes in the free market system rather than government regulation orprotection. He thinks that without a lot of government interference everything will be okay.5.No, they think it’s bad for the weak, the poor and the unprotected/ it’s bad for theunderprivileged.B1.more and more money2. come from somewhere3. higher taxes and higherpricesTask 9A1.The problem is whether or not the inner city---the core of most urban areas---willmanage to survive at all.2.They moved to the suburbs in search of fresh air, elbow room, and privacy.3.As a result, suburbs began to sprawl out across the countryside. Many cities beganto fall into disrepair. And many downtown areas existed for business only.4.The result was that urban centers declined even further and the suburbs expandedstill more.5.Because from the decision of the Taylors and many other young couples, we cansee that some people may be tired of spending long hours commuting, and they may have begun to miss the advantages of culture and companionship provided by city life.B1. F2. T3. F4. F5. T6. TC1.middle-class, tax money, neighborhoods2. Crime, public transportation3. housing construction costs, was allowed to, constructedTask 10A1. 54. 20. 1980, 70,0002. 30, 19803. a newspaper article, to research the market4. another few months, in April 1981, a 1,500 sq ft5. third, Canada, America, 20 percent, ￡1 million6. 20, 70, 3B1. F2. T3. F4. F5. TC1.He was deeply involved in the present job and rather enjoyed himself. He thoughtthe shop was his own little baby and thought it was fun to serve behind the counter.However, he also thought that there was a lot more hard work than he was used to;he was working over the weekend doing his books. He called his old job “boring trips to Manchester to sell vast quantities of PVC.”2.He thought that there was far more job satisfaction; and believed that he wasmaking money, rather than making money for other people.3.He’s about to diversify into commercial distribution of imported and domesticallyproduced wine and wines he’s producing himself.Task 11I could hear the guard blowing his whistle, so I ran onto the platform and up to the train. Luckily, someone saw me coming, a door opened, and I jumped on while the train was moving out of the station. “Phew!” I thought. “That was hard work!” I was sure the other passengers could hear my heart beating; it was so loud, and I was in a cold sweat.After a while, I recovered, and had a look at the other passengers. Thecompartment was full, but I was the only one standing. The people in the carriage turned their eyes away as they noticed me liking at them. All except one, a beautiful woman sitting in the corner. I saw her watching me in the mirror. Automatically, I adjusted my tie. She had seen me running for the train: maybe this was my lucky day after all. I prepared to say hello.She spoke first, however. “Would you kike my seat?”she asked. “You look rather ill.” That was the day on which I realized I was getting middle-aged.Unit 4 LiteratureTask 11.They were orphans and had nobody to support them.2.Each boy was given only one bowl of gruel for supper and no more---far fromenough.3.They boys were so hungry that they could not bear it any more. They decidedthat tone of them must ask the master for more gruel. Olive Twist was chosen by casting lots.4.He never thought that any boy would dare to ask for more food than the givenportion. Therefore, he was both surprised and angry on hearing Oliver’s request.5.He was struck on the head by the master and pushed out of the room. And fora week Olive remained prisoner in the cellar.Task 2A1. F2. F3. TB1. d2. bTask 3AName: Lewis Carroll; Occupation: mathematics; Oxford UniversityLiterary works: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; 1865;Through the Looking-Glass; 1871B1.These stories are about a dream world in which Alice meets strange creatures andhas interesting adventures.Task 41. the Greeks2. closed the gates of the city and stayed behind the walls3. the Greeks4. a huge wooden horse5. hide inside it6. the horse7. they stopped 8. hid their ships 9. Greek prisoner 10. the horse11. The Greek soldiers 12. the wooden horseTask 5A1. c2. aB1.All the animals thought that he was the king of beasts. Actually he was a coward.He was afraid of human beings and other big animals. He roared only to scare them away and never really hurt them.2.Dorothy and her dog wanted to get back to Kansas. The Scarecrow wanted somebrains and the Tinman wanted a heart. The Lion wanted to have courage.Task 6A1.civil war2. first; equality3. battlefields; bloodiest4. ordinaryB1. d2. cTask 7A1. A red, red rose that’s newly spring in June and the melody that’s sweetly played intune.2.He will love her till all the seas are dried and the rocks melt in the sun. his lovewill last as long as the sands of life run(there is life on earth).3.Yes, he is, and he will come back no matter how far it is.BJune---tune I---dry sun---run while ---mileTask 81.Tall stories, that is, unlikely ones.2.Because he wanted to be a member of a certain club.3.he went there because he was told that a lion came there each evening to drinkwater.4.Sixteen times.5.He killed sixteen lions.Task 91. a young prince who lived on land; rose to the surface of the sea and waited for theprince to come to her; never came2. a witch; changed her fish’s tail into a pair of human legs; she gave the witch hertongue3.the prince’s palace; her feet hurt terribly; didn’t love herTask 10A1. b2. c3. b4. a5. aB1. e2. b3. a4. d5. cTask 111.stuck a rock and began to break up; sank too; had survived2.he was tied very firmly by a large number of fine ropes; about forty little men shotat him with their arrows, which hurt like needles; the little men gave him all the bread, meat and wine they had3. 3. was seven feet by three feet, equipped with twenty-two wheels and pulled byfifteen hundred little horsesTask 12Aesop was a very clever man who lived in Greece thousands of years ago. He wrote many good fables. He was known to be fond of jokes. One day, as he was enjoying a walk he met a traveler, who greeted him and said, “Kind man, can you tell me how soon I shall get to town?”“Go,” Aesop answered.“I know I must go”, said the traveler, “but I should Like you to tell me how soon I shall get to town.”“Go,” Aesop said again angrily.“This man must be mad,” the traveler thought and went on.After he had gone some distance, Aesop shouted after him, “You will get to town in two hours.” The traveler turned around in astonishment. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” he asked.“How could I have told you before?” answered Aesop. “I did not know how fast you could walk.Unit 5 EducationTask 1A1.People’s ideas on permanent education.2.One is an ordinary “man in the street”. The other is an educational psychologist.3.The first person thinks this idea of permanent education is crazy. He can’tunderstand people who want to spend all their lives in school. The second person thinks the idea of permanent education is practical because people are never really too old to go on learning.B1.was; hated; stand; got out2. all their lives3. certain limits; age limitsTask 2AAge SchoolingFour Nursery SchoolFive The Infants’ SchoolSeven The Junior SchoolB1.He stayed there for a year.2.He has faint, but very pleasant memories of it. He had fun and playedgames---including story-telling, drawing, singing and dancing.3.He began t have more formal lessons and even worry about exams.4.The exam was called the “Eleven Plus”. Students took the exam to see what kindof secondary school they would get into.Task 3Apulsory; the ages of 5 and 16; state-funded; independent2.available; at a nursery school; in the nursery class at a primary school3.preparatory; primary; aged 5 to 134.enter the state education system; at the age of 5; secondary school5.7, 11, 13 or 16; gain admission at 11 or 13; the Common Entrance Examination6.one further year; Advanced Supplementary Examinations; Advanced LevelExaminations7.classroom; laboratory; work independently; undertake research for projects8.vocational; conventional9.secondary education; with A-levels; further; higherB1.GCSE stand for the General Certificate of Secondary Education. It is normallytake at the age of sixteen.2.Students usually study form 8 to 12 subjects over two years.3.Some subjects take account of the work students do throughout the year, whileothers are assessed entirely by examination.Task 4ATopic of This Discussion: Corporal PunishmentInterviewees Position onThis Topic Arguments/ReasonsFor/AgainstKate For It’s difficult to teach children these days, whenmany of them know they won’t get jobs. It’s hardto control the class if you can’t punish them. Somechildren need discipline.Rolf Against It always has been difficult to be a teacher. But youdon’t have to use violence. It’s impossible to teachstudents about nonviolence and being good citizenswhen you are violent yourself.Jane AgainstRaoul For Its’ impossible to teach the rest of the class of youhave one student who constantly misbehaves. It’sbad for the others.B1.. F2. FTask 5A1.Because the television program by that name can now be seen in many partsof the world.2.This program is very popular among children. Some educators object tocertain elements in the program. Parents praise it highly. Many teachers also consider it a great help, though some teachers find that problems arise when first graders who have learned from “Sesame Street”are in the same class with children who have not watched the program.3.In order to increase the number of children who can watch it regularly.4.1) The reasons may include the educational theories of its creators, thesupport by both government and private businesses, and the skillful use of avariety of TV tricks2) Perhaps an equally important reason is that mothers watch “Sesame Street”along with their children. This is partly because famous adult stars oftenappear on “Sesame Street”.3) The best reason for the success of the program may be that it makes everychild watching it feel able to learn. The child finds himself learning, and hewants to learn more.B1.six million; regularly; half; economic; racial; geographical2.fifty; Spanish; Portuguese; German; one hundred thousand; English; every twoweeks3.songs; stories; jokes; pictures; numbers; letters; human relationshipsTask 6A1.It is to have all public schools connected to the Internet computer system and havecomputers available for all students.2.Its web site provides information about the school, the teacher and their mailaddresses. It also lists student events and organizations.3.They learn numbers and letters. They also learn how to use the computers theywill need later in their education.B1.1994; 35%; Last year; 89%2.universities; colleges; urge; requireTask 7A1.spoken; written; saying poetry aloud; giving speeches; advanced degrees; field ofstudy; custom; candidates; doctor’s degree2.written; nineteenth; the great increase in population; the development of modernindustry; objective; personal opinions; memory of facts and details; range of knowledge; a fairer chance; easier; quicker; learning; essay; ling answers; broad general questions; the element of luck; put facts together into a meaningful whole;really knowing much about the subject; have trouble expressing their ideas in essay form; examiner’s feelings at the time of reading the answer.3.unsatisfactory; along withB1. bTask 8Americans know that higher education is the key to the growth they need to lift their country, and today that is more true than ever. Just listen to these facts. Over half the new jobs created in the last three years have been managerial and professional jobs. The new jobs require a higher level of skills.Fifteen years ago the typical worker with a college degree made 38 percent more than a worker with a high school diploma. Today that figure is 73 percent more. Two years of college means a 20 percent increase annual earnings. People who finish two years of college earn a quarter of a million dollars more tan their high school counterparts over a lifetime.Unit 6 WorkTask 1A1.d—b---a---e---cB1. aTask 21. a2. b3. d4. cB1.T2. T3. FCwondered; television plays; exciting; every cigarette lighter; tape recorder; held in a certain way; the touch of a gold ring against the hand of; reveal; How wrong they were!Task 3AHarry---Sailor Nora---Farmer(if she were a man)Robert---Civil engineer Peter---Racing driver or explorerB1. a2. b3. c . b 5. dTask 41.correspondents; columnist; may not need either; to go to places where events takeplace and write stories about them2.first; bigger; better; who will soon leave to work for other people3.working hours; free time; work long hours to begin withTask 5A1.acd2. abeB1.she is the wrong sex2. she wears the wrong clothesTask 6Former Jobs When Laid-off Why Laid-off1st man Car salesman Recently Low sales, due to the increaseof interest rates2nd man Worker at a vacuum 10 months ago Plant moved to Singapore where cleaner plant worker are paid much lessB1st speaker---bcd 2nd speaker---aeC1. F2. F。

Unit 9Task 1【答案】1) the campus hero; the women’s track coach2) the class started before I got here3) will develop4) cloudy; the glass is a little dirty5) a symbol of happiness; wear black【原文】1) Man: I had the girls running in circles when I was in college.Woman: I never knew you were the campus hero.Man: I wasn't. I was the women's track coach.2) Instructor: Mr. Jenkins, why are you late?Student: I guess because the class started before I got here.3) Woman: Doctor, you have to come immediately--my baby swallowed some camera film!Doctor: Just calm yourself, nothing will develop.4) Customer: Waiter, this water is cloudy.Waiter: The water's okay, madam. It's just that the glass is a little dirty.5) Woman: The bride wears white on her wedding day as a symbol of happiness, for this is themost joyous day in her entire life.Man: Why does the groom wear black?Task 2【答案】Speakers Preferences Reasonslst speaker French Melodic; easy on the ear; poetic; a rhythm to thelanguage; rounded; no sharp, jagged edges; pleasing2nd speaker Dane speaking English Beautiful, low, sensitive, very soft quality3rd speaker French speaking English Nice pronunciation of "h" and "th"; very nice, steadyrhythms; gentle; lyrical4th speaker Mediterranean accents Mediterranean culture; gives English life; beautifulmixture of the serious Northern European and theSouthern European5th speaker Swedish accent Makes her smile; sing-songy; makes her want toimitate【原文】Catherine: I think firstly I find the French language, very melodic to listen to. It's very easy on the ear, and it almost sounds poetic. No matter what kind of mood the individual is in,who's talking, or what they're talking about, there seems to be a rhythm to the language.And it's rounded; there are no sharp, jagged edges to the language, so it's very pleasingto the ear.Chris: I think the accent I really like is the Dane speaking English. They sound awful when they speak Danish, but when they speak English there's a beautiful, low, sensitive, verysoft quality about it.Donald: I like the way they bring their French pronunciation into English. They can't pronounce "h"s and they can't pronounce "th" properly. And I think that actually sounds very nice.Also I like the rhythm: they bring French rhythms into English--nice, steady rhythmsand I like that too. It's just it, it... whenever I hear a French person speaking English itsounds more gentle and more lyrical.Lesley: I think the most attractive foreign accents for me are Mediterranean accents because they, if you like, import their own culture into the English accent and give it a lot of life that sometimes, that kind of--the gestures and everything that the English people don't have, so you get a beautiful mixture of the serious Northern European and the Southern European together.Susan: I like the Swedish accent because it, it makes me smile and the way it's spoken is so sing-songy that you can't help but smile when other people actually speak it. And it always makes you want to try and put the accent on yourself.Task 3【答案】spelling; meaning; history; a slab of ham; a lump of bread; hunk of something to eat; a strong man;a book of maps; the top bone of the neck; Olympians; holding the sky on his head and hands; Sixteenth; on the cover of a book of maps; blessing; I hope you will have a good night; day’s eye; it has a little golden eye, like a tiny sun; the English daisy closes at night; the English loved their daisies.【原文】The spelling and meaning of words are very interesting. But what's more interesting is the history of a word, or where it came from. Let's examine some of the words and see how they got into our language.LUNCH Lunch perhaps comes from an old Spanish word lonje, a slab of ham. We may also get our word from a form of lump, maybe a lump of bread, but whether lunch comes from ham or bread, it meant a hunk of something to eat.ATLAS An atlas is a strong man, and also a book of maps. The story of this word begins a long time ago in Greece. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods had once been a race of giants called Titans. The Titans fought with another group of gods called Olympians, and the Olympians won. Atlas was a Titan. He was punished for fighting by having to stand at the western edge of the world, holding the sky on his head and hands, so that it would not fall on the world and smash anything.After the ancient Greek religion died out, the idea of Atlas changed. From holding up the sky with his head and hands, he came to be thought of as holding the world on his shoulders. Mercator, a mapmaker of the sixteenth century, used a picture of Atlas on the cover of a book of maps, so a book of maps came to be called an atlas.The word has still another meaning. The top bone of the neck is called atlas because it supports the head.GOOD-BYE Good-bye is a blessing; originally it was God be with ye, and in the course of time it became one word. Many of our greetings are good wishes, but we say them with so little thought that we forget this. When we say good morning, good evening, good night, and so on, what we are really saying is, "I hope you will have a good morning (or evening, or night)."DAISY The daisy has a little golden eye, like a tiny sun. Perhaps this is the reason the English people named it day's eye, or perhaps they chose the name because the English daisy closes at night. The English loved their daisies, which were pink and red, as well as white. Six hundred years or so ago, the English poet Chaucer said:The daisy, or else the eye of the day,The queen, and prettiest flower of all.Task 4【答案】A.1) T2) T3) F4) T5) FB.1) b2) c3) a4) c5) c6) b【原文】MATTHEW: Chris, why is it that there are so many different languages , and that in Europe certainly if you travel more than a hundred miles , you're likely to find peoplespeaking a completely different language to your own?CHRIS: Well, it's true to say that there are er ... hundreds and hundreds of different languages.It's perhaps um . . . however , more interesting and more informative to say that thereare several different groups of languages er . .. Most European languages,with theexception of I think Finnish and er .. . Basque and . . . Hungarian I believe,belong tothe Indo-European group of languages, I'm not very sure myself of the . . . the actualdetails of the history of these languages, but you can be very sure that er ... most ofthese languages , say Latin and Greek nd our own language a and er . . . German ander ... French and ... all the others, are connected. The reason why you can travel fromone Willage to another in Switzerland and er . . . from one area to another in Englandand find different dialects, if not different languages spoken, is that um ... severalhundred years ago communication was by word of mouth. Word of mouth meant thatpeople had to move ; if people were to move they needed roads and there were noroads.MATTHEW: Do you see any chance for a universal language like Esperanto?CHRIS: Not for an artificial er ... language, no ... I suppose the Roman Catholic Church usedLatin. but Latin had a ... a particular religious basis and this is probably why it wastherefore chosen. I don't see very much chance for Esperanto; I think it's an awfullygood idea but I don't believe that language works like that.I think people willprobably er .. . work towards the most convenient language to use.They will not setout to learn a new language. It seems to me that er ... either English,. Russian orChinese, perhaps Japanese, will be the language of the future er . . . My bet's onEnglish.MATTHEW: Maggie, why do you think it is that so few English people speak a second language? MAGGIE: I think when you learn a language at school ...it tends to be rather a dead occupation, and it's very difficult to stimulate any interest among school children. But when youactually go to the country and spend say a month in . . . in an exchange visit whenyou're a schoolgirl, or a schoolboy um ... then you suddenly become more interestedbecause you ... you want to communicate with poeple when you're actually abroad,and it's not safe to rely on the fact that most people speak English when um . . . inforeign countries. Mm . . . I think English people traditionally thought that . . . thatforeigners always spoke English, and a lot of foreigners do, but there are people thatyou meet in the street or you want to take a bus somewhere, then you find that youneed to speak the language and'it's very unnerving to be in a situation where you can'tcommunicate with people when you do want to travel around.MATTHEW: Have you ever been abroad and learnt er ... a language in the country? MAGGIE: Yes , well when I was a secretary I er... went and lived in Geneva for two years, andI learnt French at school but I . . . I really didn't speak it at all. I knew it theoreticallybut I wasn't able to communicate with people. But I was in a situation where if I didn't speak French , then I would not have been able to do my shopping and buy food ,and so I picked the language up and I made friends with French people ... Swiss French people,and I found that if I wanted to communicate with all . . . all the people that I met ,then I had to learn French, and I think it's the best method of learning because you'rein the situation. It's very hard at times —you can sit through dinner parties and notunderstand what ... what's going on and you think everybody thinks you're stupidbecause you can't communicate with them, but it's ... it's the hard way but I think it'sthe best way to learn.MATTHEW: Elfriede, you come from Austria and yet you've been living in England now for the last three years. Has having to learn and speak another language created greatproblems?ELFRIEDE: Um ... At the beginning, yes, it was rather difficult for me to get the right job . . .um. after you've lived here for one or two years you get to know the system and thenthat's quite good. You know how to use libraries and oh .. . you get to know where toum... call in emergencies; um ... you get to know ... er ...trying to get a radio andunderstand the radio and all the . . . programmes they have . . . um and when they'reon and the little stories.MATTHEW: What about English humour on the radio?ELFRIEDE: Um . . . I think that takes a very very long time to understand and I'm sorry to say that I haven't managed yet to understand it completely, but er... I find it veryinteresting to speak other languages um ... because English people have differenter ...have a different mentality, and have a very different character and a differenttemperament and it is fascinating for me to talk to them um... and also for myself tobe able to express myself in a different language and to communicate with them.Task 5【答案】1) A mother is leaving instructions with her babysitter before going out.2) Wake up; give her the dummy; give her a cuddle; sing to her; read her a story; go back to sleep.3) Two friends are taking about their holiday together.4) It reminds.., of... holiday; city; wine; good food; tower; view; walking along the river; paintings;I love...; I like...; I remember...5) Two women are meeting at a doctor’s waiting room.6) It's diagnosed; have another look; do something about...; go away; give.., for...; it's your turn. 【原文】Number 1Fiona: Okay, Deek, I'm off now. [Okay.] Everything's okay, is it?Deek: Yes, I think so. The only thing is... is she likely to wake up?Fiona: No, I don't think so. She doesn't usually, but...Deek: What if she does?Fiona: Well, yes. Don't. worry about it. Her dummy's by the bed, so if you just pick her up, give her the dummy, give her a little bit of a cuddle; [Yes.] sing to her if you like.Deek: Shall I read her a story or something?Fiona: Yes, anything like that. [Yes.] Then she should just go back to sleep again quite happily. Deek: Okay.Fiona: Oh! And I've left stuff for you in the fridge. There's some salad and cold chicken and some beer as well. Okay then?Deek: Right then. Bye.Fiona: Bye-bye.Number 2Lesley: Ah ... it's such a lovely day. It reminds me of last week, doesn't it you?Fiona: Oh don't! I mean that was just so fantastic, that holiday!Lesley: I love that city, you know.Fiona: I do too. Really, it's got something about it, a certain sort of charm ...Lesley: Mm, and all that wine and good food ...Fiona: And so cheap. Right, I mean, compared to here ...Lesley: Yes, although the shops are expensive.Fiona: Mm, yes.Lesley: I mean, really I bought nothing at all. I just ate and ate and drank and drank.Fiona: I know. Wasn't that lovely?Lesley: Yes, and I, I go there. I like listening to the people talking, sitting outside drinking wine. Fiona: Yes. Could you understand what they were saying? When they were speaking quickly, I mean.Lesley: Well, it is difficult, of course. And then I liked that tower, too.Fiona: You liked that tower? I'm not sure about it, really. (No) It's very unusual, right in the centre of the city.Lesley: True, but there's a lovely view from the top.Fiona: Oh, you went right up, didn't you? (Mm, yes) Oh no, I didn't.Lesley: Of course you didn't.Fiona: I remember that day. We weren't together.Lesley: No, that's right. (Mm) You went down by the river, didn't you?Fiona: That's it. Oh, walking along the river and all the couples (Yes) and it's so romantic ... (Is it true) and the paintings too ...Lesley: They do have artists down by the river, do they? (Yes) Oh, how lovely!Fiona: Oh, it really is super.Lesley: Yes. Oh, I think we ought to go back there again next year, don't you?Fiona: I do, yes. (Mm) If only just to sample some more of the wine.Lesley: It'd be lovely, wouldn't it?Fiona: Yes.Number 3Mary: I'm so pleased. What about you then?Jane: Well, he said he wanted to have another look at it.Mary: Yes. What are they doing about it?Jane: Well, I don't think they're going to do anything really. It just sometimes goes away [Well, can't...] something like that.Mary: Well, can't they give you anything for it?Jane: Well, no, they didn't say the9 could. [Really?] No, just got to be patient and wait for it to go away.Mary: Well, that seems a bit stupid, doesn't it?Jane: Yes, it does.Mary: You'd have thought.., you'd have thought they'd have thought of something.Jane: Yes. Ooh it's your mm.Mary: Yes. Certainly.Jane: Good luck!Mary: Thank you!Task 6【答案】A.1) c2) a3) b4) cB.1) T2) F3) F4) T5) F6) T【原文】Learning to SpeakIt is, everyone agrees, a huge task that the child performs when he learns to speak, and the fact that he does so in so short a period of time challenges explanation.Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though they word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their voices. This self imitation leads on to deliberate imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at say seven months, of "mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply Because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes.Playful and apparently meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents cash in on this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.Task 7【答案】Topic: Body language1. Brief introduction"statements"; non-verbal communication; small facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements that we make to express our feelings2.Detailed introductionour facial expressions and gestures are automatic and unconscious most of the time; we paid conscious attention to the hidden messages in body language; facial; body2.1 facial expressionsEyes, eyebrows, lips and facial muscles: capable of “saying” things.Eyes Suggestions NoteWide eyes Surprise, wonder, excitement orsometimes fear (possible) One element alone does not tell us everything. We have to see gesturesWide eyes, a little smile and a Wonderfully pleasedslight tilt of the head in combination.Anger or hostility"Squinty" eyes, tight lips, andthe head pushed forwardHalf-closed eyes Fatigue, boredom or indifference(possible)Half-closed eyes, a lowered tiltCoy and flirtatiousof the head, a fluttering of theeyelids and a slight smileThe size of our pupils Our interest in a subjectEyebrows Signal FlagsOne brow up, one down Doubt, disbelief or uncertaintyBoth up Surprise or mistrustSqueeze them together Frown or scowlLips Both Nonverbal and Verbal MessagesBaring the teeth just on one side or pullSnarl and threat (close to animals)the lips tightly across the teethThe "pout" "I'm not happy because I'm not getting what I want."Anxiety and fearTuck the lower lip into out mouth andbite itLicking the lips: a "dry mouth" gesture Stress or anxietyHand or sign language: highly developed, especially by the deaf.The Routine Hand Language MessagePointing with the index finger To accuse someoneThe clenched fist beating in the air To threaten someoneA clenched fist held close to the body Tension or anxietyThe open hands, palms up "I'm innocent" or "give me" or "forgive me" Both hands raised up and facing the audience "I give up" or "I surrender"Tilt the hand and palm down and extend the arm "I bless" or "I give"Pat on the head Blessing or love and givingClap hands To show approval or call someone or getattentionbring our finger to our lips; scratch or rub our heads; slap our heads; take our head in both hands to sort of clear our minds3. ConclusionA sampling of; we pull an ear; we cross our legs; who don't communicate with body language; writers; frowns, scratches his chin, slaps his head, purses his lips, stares at the ceiling and throws up his arms.【原文】Let's talk about body language. You already "speak" it and "read" it. Body language is all of the small facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements that we make. We may not realize it, but each movement and expression says something about our feelings.In fact, we might say that body language is the clearest and most common way Of communicating our feelings directly to others. We all know the most obvious body "statements": We wave our hands in greeting, we shake hands, pat each other on the back, we hug friends and kiss loved ones. We smile, we laugh, we wink and we frown, and sometimes we cry. All of these gestures are called non-verbal communication (non-verbal means we do not use words to "say" what we feel.)Normally, we don't think very much about our body language. Our facial expressions and gestures are automatic and unconscious most of the time. But researchers tell us we might learn to under-stand each other a little better if we paid conscious attention to the hidden messages in body language. Let's consider a few of the more obvious facial, hand and body gestures.The human face is wonderfully rich in its ability to express feelings. The eyes, the eyebrows, the lips and the facial muscles are all capable of "saying" things.For example, we speak of "wide-eyed wonder". If the eyes open wide, that may mean surprise, wonder, excitement or sometimes fear. And that is an important thing to remember about body language--one element alone does not tell us everything. We have to see gestures in Combination. So wide eyes alone would not tell us whether the person was surprised, pleased or scared, but when we see wide eyes, a little smile and a slight tilt of the head, we understand that the person is "wonderfully pleased"."Squinty" eyes, tight lips, and the head pushed forward probably suggest anger or hostility.Half-closed eyes may suggest fatigue, boredom or indifference. But add a lowered tilt of the head, a fluttering of the eyelids and a slight smile, and we get a coy and flirtatious message.Strangely enough, one of the eye features over which we have very little control--the size of our pupils--says something about our interest in a subject. If we like something, our pupils get larger. Studies show that most men think a woman with large pupils is more "attractive" than the same woman with small pupils. But the men aren't really conscious of the pupils. They just know they like the "looks" better in the samples with large pupils. No wonder eye make-up is so popular.Eyebrows are almost like signal flags: one brow up, one down suggests doubt, disbelief or uncertainty. Both up means surprise or mistrust. Squeeze them together and we get a frown or scowl.The lips shape non-verbal as well as verbal messages. The smile is the most obvious, but try baring the teeth just on one side or pull the lips tightly across the teeth and the smile becomes a snarl and a threat. In this, and in many of our other body gestures, we are close to the animals.The lower lip by itself can say little things. The "pout" is a fat lower lip pushed way out. It means "I'm not happy because I'm not getting what I want." But if we tuck the lower lip into our mouth and bite it, we are conveying anxiety and fear. Licking the lips is a "dry mouth" gesture which usually means stress or anxiety.There are whole books written on hand gestures, and, in fact, hand or sign language has often been highly developed, especially as an aid to the deaf. But the routine hand language, such as pointing with the index finger to accuse someone, or the clenched fist beating in the air to threaten someone, is familiar to us all. But a clenched fist held close to the body usually meanstension or anxiety while the open hands, palms up may mean "I'm innocent" or "give me" or "forgive me".Both hands raised up and facing the audience means "I give up" or "I surrender". But tilt the hands and palm down and extend the arm and it means "I bless" or "I give". The "pat on the head" is a kind of blessing or gesture of love and giving. We clap hands to indicate approval or in some cases to call someone or get attention.When the hands get very busy we say that someone "talks with his hands" and among certain individuals and cultures it is almost impossible to talk without a wild display of hand motions.If we are slightly puzzled by something, we may bring our finger to our lips. If it's a real puzzler, we scratch or rub our heads. If we do something wrong, we slap our heads. To start allover something, we often begin by taking our head in both hands to sort of clear our minds and "set our head on straight".These are only a sampling of the many types of body language. There are books which discuss everything from the way we pull an ear to the way we cross our legs. From the looks of things, the only people who don't communicate with body language are the writers. Readers never get to see how often the writer frowns, scratches his chin, slaps his head, purses his lips, stares at the ceiling and throws up his arms.Task 8In contemporary English, there are many reported differences in the talk of males and females . In same gender pairs having conversations, women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men . Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news . Men tend to respond to mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman’s . There is a pattern documented in the American English social context of women cooperating and seeking connection via language, whereas men are more competitive and concerned with power via language . In mixed-gender pairs having conversations, the rate of men interrupting women is substantially greater than he reverse. Women are reported to use more expressions associated with tentativeness , such as “hedges”(sort of , kind of ) and “tags”(isn’t it ? , don’t you ?) , when expressing an opinion : Well ,erm , I think that golf is kind of boring , don’t you ?。

Unit 9Task 1【答案】1) the campus hero; the women’s track coach2) the class started before I got here3) will develop4) cloudy; the glass is a little dirty5) a symbol of happiness; wear black【原文】1) Man: I had the girls running in circles when I was in college.Woman: I never knew you were the campus hero.Man: I wasn't. I was the women's track coach.2) Instructor: Mr. Jenkins, why are you late?Student: I guess because the class started before I got here.3) Woman: Doctor, you have to come immediately--my baby swallowed some camera film!Doctor: Just calm yourself, nothing will develop.4) Customer: Waiter, this water is cloudy.Waiter: The water's okay, madam. It's just that the glass is a little dirty.5) Woman: The bride wears white on her wedding day as a symbol of happiness, for this is themost joyous day in her entire life.Man: Why does the groom wear black?Task 2【答案】【原文】Catherine: I think firstly I find the French language, very melodic to listen to. It's very easy on the ear, and it almost sounds poetic. No matter what kind of mood the individual is in,who's talking, or what they're talking about, there seems to be a rhythm to the language.And it's rounded; there are no sharp, jagged edges to the language, so it's very pleasingto the ear.Chris: I think the accent I really like is the Dane speaking English. They sound awful when they speak Danish, but when they speak English there's a beautiful, low, sensitive, verysoft quality about it.Donald: I like the way they bring their French pronunciation into English. They can't pronounce "h"s and they can't pronounce "th" properly. And I think that actually sounds very nice.Also I like the rhythm: they bring French rhythms into English--nice, steady rhythmsand I like that too. It's just it, it... whenever I hear a French person speaking English itsounds more gentle and more lyrical.Lesley: I think the most attractive foreign accents for me are Mediterranean accents because they, if you like, import their own culture into the English accent and give it a lot of life that sometimes, that kind of--the gestures and everything that the English people don't have, so you get a beautiful mixture of the serious Northern European and the Southern European together.Susan: I like the Swedish accent because it, it makes me smile and the way it's spoken is so sing-songy that you can't help but smile when other people actually speak it. And it always makes you want to try and put the accent on yourself.Task 3【答案】spelling; meaning; history; a slab of ham; a lump of bread; hunk of something to eat; a strong man;a book of maps; the top bone of the neck; Olympians; holding the sky on his head and hands; Sixteenth; on the cover of a book of maps; blessing; I hope you will have a good night; day’s eye; it has a little golden eye, like a tiny sun; the English daisy closes at night; the English loved their daisies.【原文】The spelling and meaning of words are very interesting. But what's more interesting is the history of a word, or where it came from. Let's examine some of the words and see how they got into our language.LUNCH Lunch perhaps comes from an old Spanish word lonje, a slab of ham. We may also get our word from a form of lump, maybe a lump of bread, but whether lunch comes from ham or bread, it meant a hunk of something to eat.ATLAS An atlas is a strong man, and also a book of maps. The story of this word begins a long time ago in Greece. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods had once been a race of giants called Titans. The Titans fought with another group of gods called Olympians, and the Olympians won. Atlas was a Titan. He was punished for fighting by having to stand at the western edge of the world, holding the sky on his head and hands, so that it would not fall on the world and smash anything.After the ancient Greek religion died out, the idea of Atlas changed. From holding up the sky with his head and hands, he came to be thought of as holding the world on his shoulders. Mercator, a mapmaker of the sixteenth century, used a picture of Atlas on the cover of a book of maps, so a book of maps came to be called an atlas.The word has still another meaning. The top bone of the neck is called atlas because it supports the head.GOOD-BYE Good-bye is a blessing; originally it was God be with ye, and in the course of time it became one word. Many of our greetings are good wishes, but we say them with so little thought that we forget this. When we say good morning, good evening, good night, and so on, what we are really saying is, "I hope you will have a good morning (or evening, or night)."DAISY The daisy has a little golden eye, like a tiny sun. Perhaps this is the reason the English people named it day's eye, or perhaps they chose the name because the English daisy closes at night. The English loved their daisies, which were pink and red, as well as white. Six hundred years or so ago, the English poet Chaucer said:The daisy, or else the eye of the day,The queen, and prettiest flower of all.Task 4【答案】A.1) T2) T3) F4) T5) FB.1) b2) c3) a4) c5) c6) b【原文】MATTHEW: Chris, why is it that there are so many different languages , and that in Europe certainly if you travel more than a hundred miles , you're likely to find peoplespeaking a completely different language to your own?CHRIS: Well, it's true to say that there are er ... hundreds and hundreds of different languages.It's perhaps um . . . however , more interesting and more informative to say that thereare several different groups of languages er . .. Most European languages,with theexception of I think Finnish and er .. . Basque and . . . Hungarian I believe,belong tothe Indo-European group of languages, I'm not very sure myself of the . . . the actualdetails of the history of these languages, but you can be very sure that er ... most ofthese languages , say Latin and Greek nd our own language a and er . . . German ander ... French and ... all the others, are connected. The reason why you can travel fromone Willage to another in Switzerland and er . . . from one area to another in Englandand find different dialects, if not different languages spoken, is that um ... severalhundred years ago communication was by word of mouth. Word of mouth meant thatpeople had to move ; if people were to move they needed roads and there were noroads.MATTHEW: Do you see any chance for a universal language like Esperanto?CHRIS: Not for an artificial er ... language, no ... I suppose the Roman Catholic Church usedLatin. but Latin had a ... a particular religious basis and this is probably why it wastherefore chosen. I don't see very much chance for Esperanto; I think it's an awfullygood idea but I don't believe that language works like that.I think people willprobably er .. . work towards the most convenient language to use.They will not setout to learn a new language. It seems to me that er ... either English,. Russian orChinese, perhaps Japanese, will be the language of the future er . . . My bet's onEnglish.MATTHEW: Maggie, why do you think it is that so few English people speak a second language? MAGGIE: I think when you learn a language at school ...it tends to be rather a dead occupation, and it's very difficult to stimulate any interest among school children. But when youactually go to the country and spend say a month in . . . in an exchange visit whenyou're a schoolgirl, or a schoolboy um ... then you suddenly become more interestedbecause you ... you want to communicate with poeple when you're actually abroad,and it's not safe to rely on the fact that most people speak English when um . . . inforeign countries. Mm . . . I think English people traditionally thought that . . . thatforeigners always spoke English, and a lot of foreigners do, but there are people thatyou meet in the street or you want to take a bus somewhere, then you find that youneed to speak the language and'it's very unnerving to be in a situation where you can'tcommunicate with people when you do want to travel around.MATTHEW: Have you ever been abroad and learnt er ... a language in the country? MAGGIE: Yes , well when I was a secretary I er... went and lived in Geneva for two years, andI learnt French at school but I . . . I really didn't speak it at all. I knew it theoreticallybut I wasn't able to communicate with people. But I was in a situation where if I didn'tspeak French , then I would not have been able to do my shopping and buyfood ,and so I picked the language up and I made friends with French people ... SwissFrench people, and I found that if I wanted to communicate with all . . . all the peoplethat I met , then I had to learn French, and I think it's the best method of learningbecause you're in the situation. It's very hard at times —you can sit through dinnerparties and not understand what ... what's going on and you think everybody thinksyou're stupid because you can't communicate with them, but it's ... it's the hard waybut I think it's the best way to learn.MATTHEW: Elfriede, you come from Austria and yet you've been living in England now for the last three years. Has having to learn and speak another language created greatproblems?ELFRIEDE: Um ... At the beginning, yes, it was rather difficult for me to get the right job . . .um. after you've lived here for one or two years you get to know the system and thenthat's quite good. You know how to use libraries and oh .. . you get to know where toum... call in emergencies; um ... you get to know ... er ...trying to get a radio andunderstand the radio and all the . . . programmes they have . . . um and when they'reon and the little stories.MATTHEW: What about English humour on the radio?ELFRIEDE: Um . . . I think that takes a very very long time to understand and I'm sorry to say that I haven't managed yet to understand it completely, but er... I find it veryinteresting to speak other languages um ... because English people have differenter ...have a different mentality, and have a very different character and a differenttemperament and it is fascinating for me to talk to them um... and also for myself tobe able to express myself in a different language and to communicate with them.Task 5【答案】1) A mother is leaving instructions with her babysitter before going out.2) Wake up; give her the dummy; give her a cuddle; sing to her; read her a story; go back to sleep.3) Two friends are taking about their holiday together.4) It reminds.., of... holiday; city; wine; good food; tower; view; walking along the river; paintings;I love...; I like...; I remember...5) Two women are meeting at a doctor’s waiting room.6) It's diagnosed; have another look; do something about...; go away; give.., for...; it's your turn. 【原文】Number 1Fiona: Okay, Deek, I'm off now. [Okay.] Everything's okay, is it?Deek: Yes, I think so. The only thing is... is she likely to wake up?Fiona: No, I don't think so. She doesn't usually, but...Deek: What if she does?Fiona: Well, yes. Don't. worry about it. Her dummy's by the bed, so if you just pick her up, give her the dummy, give her a little bit of a cuddle; [Yes.] sing to her if you like.Deek: Shall I read her a story or something?Fiona: Yes, anything like that. [Yes.] Then she should just go back to sleep again quite happily. Deek: Okay.Fiona: Oh! And I've left stuff for you in the fridge. There's some salad and cold chicken and some beer as well. Okay then?Deek: Right then. Bye.Fiona: Bye-bye.Number 2Lesley: Ah ... it's such a lovely day. It reminds me of last week, doesn't it you?Fiona: Oh don't! I mean that was just so fantastic, that holiday!Lesley: I love that city, you know.Fiona: I do too. Really, it's got something about it, a certain sort of charm ...Lesley: Mm, and all that wine and good food ...Fiona: And so cheap. Right, I mean, compared to here ...Lesley: Yes, although the shops are expensive.Fiona: Mm, yes.Lesley: I mean, really I bought nothing at all. I just ate and ate and drank and drank.Fiona: I know. Wasn't that lovely?Lesley: Yes, and I, I go there. I like listening to the people talking, sitting outside drinking wine. Fiona: Yes. Could you understand what they were saying? When they were speaking quickly, I mean.Lesley: Well, it is difficult, of course. And then I liked that tower, too.Fiona: You liked that tower? I'm not sure about it, really. (No) It's very unusual, right in the centre of the city.Lesley: True, but there's a lovely view from the top.Fiona: Oh, you went right up, didn't you? (Mm, yes) Oh no, I didn't.Lesley: Of course you didn't.Fiona: I remember that day. We weren't together.Lesley: No, that's right. (Mm) You went down by the river, didn't you?Fiona: That's it. Oh, walking along the river and all the couples (Yes) and it's so romantic ... (Is it true) and the paintings too ...Lesley: They do have artists down by the river, do they? (Yes) Oh, how lovely!Fiona: Oh, it really is super.Lesley: Yes. Oh, I think we ought to go back there again next year, don't you?Fiona: I do, yes. (Mm) If only just to sample some more of the wine.Lesley: It'd be lovely, wouldn't it?Fiona: Yes.Number 3Mary: I'm so pleased. What about you then?Jane: Well, he said he wanted to have another look at it.Mary: Yes. What are they doing about it?Jane: Well, I don't think they're going to do anything really. It just sometimes goes away [Well, can't...] something like that.Mary: Well, can't they give you anything for it?Jane: Well, no, they didn't say the9 could. [Really?] No, just got to be patient and wait for it to go away.Mary: Well, that seems a bit stupid, doesn't it?Jane: Yes, it does.Mary: You'd have thought.., you'd have thought they'd have thought of something.Jane: Yes. Ooh it's your mm.Mary: Yes. Certainly.Jane: Good luck!Mary: Thank you!Task 6【答案】A.1) c2) a3) b4) cB.1) T2) F3) F4) T5) F6) T【原文】Learning to SpeakIt is, everyone agrees, a huge task that the child performs when he learns to speak, and the fact that he does so in so short a period of time challenges explanation.Language learning begins with listening. Individual children vary greatly in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though they word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particularly indicative of delight, distress, sociability, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new sounds to their voices. This self imitation leads on to deliberate imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at say seven months, of "mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply Because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes.Playful and apparently meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents cash in on this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.Task 7【答案】Topic: Body language1. Brief introduction"statements"; non-verbal communication; small facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements that we make to express our feelings2.Detailed introductionour facial expressions and gestures are automatic and unconscious most of the time; we paid conscious attention to the hidden messages in body language; facial; body2.1 facial expressionsEyes, eyebrows, lips and facial muscles: capable of “saying” things.Hand or sign language: highly developed, especially by the deaf.bring our finger to our lips; scratch or rub our heads; slap our heads; take our head in both hands to sort of clear our minds3. ConclusionA sampling of; we pull an ear; we cross our legs; who don't communicate with body language; writers; frowns, scratches his chin, slaps his head, purses his lips, stares at the ceiling and throws up his arms.【原文】Let's talk about body language. You already "speak" it and "read" it. Body language is all of the small facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements that we make. We may not realize it, but each movement and expression says something about our feelings.In fact, we might say that body language is the clearest and most common way Of communicating our feelings directly to others. We all know the most obvious body "statements": We wave our hands in greeting, we shake hands, pat each other on the back, we hug friends and kiss loved ones. We smile, we laugh, we wink and we frown, and sometimes we cry. All of these gestures are called non-verbal communication (non-verbal means we do not use words to "say" what we feel.)Normally, we don't think very much about our body language. Our facial expressions and gestures are automatic and unconscious most of the time. But researchers tell us we might learn to under-stand each other a little better if we paid conscious attention to the hidden messages in body language. Let's consider a few of the more obvious facial, hand and body gestures.The human face is wonderfully rich in its ability to express feelings. The eyes, the eyebrows, the lips and the facial muscles are all capable of "saying" things.For example, we speak of "wide-eyed wonder". If the eyes open wide, that may mean surprise, wonder, excitement or sometimes fear. And that is an important thing to remember about body language--one element alone does not tell us everything. We have to see gestures in Combination. So wide eyes alone would not tell us whether the person was surprised, pleased or scared, but when we see wide eyes, a little smile and a slight tilt of the head, we understand that the person is "wonderfully pleased"."Squinty" eyes, tight lips, and the head pushed forward probably suggest anger or hostility.Half-closed eyes may suggest fatigue, boredom or indifference. But add a lowered tilt of the head, a fluttering of the eyelids and a slight smile, and we get a coy and flirtatious message.Strangely enough, one of the eye features over which we have very little control--the size of our pupils--says something about our interest in a subject. If we like something, our pupils get larger. Studies show that most men think a woman with large pupils is more "attractive" than the same woman with small pupils. But the men aren't really conscious of the pupils. They just know they like the "looks" better in the samples with large pupils. No wonder eye make-up is so popular.Eyebrows are almost like signal flags: one brow up, one down suggests doubt, disbelief or uncertainty. Both up means surprise or mistrust. Squeeze them together and we get a frown or scowl.The lips shape non-verbal as well as verbal messages. The smile is the most obvious, but try baring the teeth just on one side or pull the lips tightly across the teeth and the smile becomes a snarl and a threat. In this, and in many of our other body gestures, we are close to the animals.The lower lip by itself can say little things. The "pout" is a fat lower lip pushed way out. It means "I'm not happy because I'm not getting what I want." But if we tuck the lower lip into our mouth and bite it, we are conveying anxiety and fear. Licking the lips is a "dry mouth" gesturewhich usually means stress or anxiety.There are whole books written on hand gestures, and, in fact, hand or sign language has often been highly developed, especially as an aid to the deaf. But the routine hand language, such as pointing with the index finger to accuse someone, or the clenched fist beating in the air to threaten someone, is familiar to us all. But a clenched fist held close to the body usually means tension or anxiety while the open hands, palms up may mean "I'm innocent" or "give me" or "forgive me".Both hands raised up and facing the audience means "I give up" or "I surrender". But tilt the hands and palm down and extend the arm and it means "I bless" or "I give". The "pat on the head" is a kind of blessing or gesture of love and giving. We clap hands to indicate approval or in some cases to call someone or get attention.When the hands get very busy we say that someone "talks with his hands" and among certain individuals and cultures it is almost impossible to talk without a wild display of hand motions.If we are slightly puzzled by something, we may bring our finger to our lips. If it's a real puzzler, we scratch or rub our heads. If we do something wrong, we slap our heads. To start allover something, we often begin by taking our head in both hands to sort of clear our minds and "set our head on straight".These are only a sampling of the many types of body language. There are books which discuss everything from the way we pull an ear to the way we cross our legs. From the looks of things, the only people who don't communicate with body language are the writers. Readers never get to see how often the writer frowns, scratches his chin, slaps his head, purses his lips, stares at the ceiling and throws up his arms.Task 8In contemporary English, there are many reported differences in the talk of males and females . In same gender pairs having conversations, women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men . Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news . Men tend to respond to mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman’s . There is a pattern documented in the American English social context of women cooperating and seeking connection via language, whereas men are more competitive and concerned with power via language . In mixed-gender pairs having conversations, the rate of men interrupting women is substantially greater than he reverse. Women are reported to use more expressions associated with tentativeness , such as “hedges”(sort of , kind of ) and “tags”(isn’t it ? , don’t you ?) , when expressing an opinion : Well ,erm , I think that golf is kind of boring , don’t you ?。

2.现代大学英语听力Unit2Book1答案Unit 2 Men, Animals and PetsObjectives:●Understand what animals are being described.●Get to know more about animals.●Get to know more about how man and animals co-exist.●Catch main ideas and supporting details.●Have practice in liaison and contraction.Task 1Script1) They live in Africa and India. They have four legs and a tail. They are very big and very strong. They are intelligent, too. They have a trunk and some of them have tusks. They sometimes live for 70 years.2) They live in Africa and Asia. They are brown. They have arms and legs, but they don't have a tail. Their arms are very long and they have big ears. They are good climbers. They are very intelligent, too.3) They live in Africa. They are very tall. They have four legs,a tail and a very long neck. They eat leaves and twigs. They can run very fast. They are brown and white.4) They live in very cold countries. They have wings, but they can't fly. They are good swimmers. They eat fish. They are blue and white or black and white.5) They live in Australia. They are red or gray. They have short front legs, long back legs and a very long tail. The back legs and the tail are very strong. They can run very fast. The females carry their young in a pouch.6) They live in Africa. They have four legs and a tail. They havea beautiful coat with black and white or brown and white stripes. They eat grass and plants.7) They live in very cold countries. They have four legs. They are very big and very strong. They have a white coat. They can swim. They eat seals and fish.(Length: 2 min. 23 sec.)KeyA. Write down the name of the animal beings described in each case.1) elephants2) chimpanzees3) giraffes4) penguins5) kangaroos6) zebras7) polar bearsB. Complete the following sentences with what you hear on the tape,1) They live in Africa and India. They have four legs and a tail.2) Their arms are very long and they have big ears.Task 2ScriptThe fastest animal on land is the cheetah. It can run at a speed of about 100 kilometres an hour. The fastest bird in the world can fly at 170 km/h, and the fastest fish can swim at more than 100 km/h.Human beings are not very fast. The fastest man in the world can only run at about 40 km/h. Many animals can run faster than this. But most animals run on four legs. Four legs are better than two, aren't they? Why do we only have two legs?Scientists say that we are more intelligent than other animals because we stand on two legs, so we can use our hands for other things. We can pick things up with them. We can use tools. Human beings have used tools for millions of years. That is why our brains have developed. That is why we have become the most intelligent animals in the world.In the past few years, we have made all kinds of machines. We have made cars, ships, aeroplanes and spacecraft. In these machines we can travel faster than any animal--by land, by sea, or by air. We can even go to the moon. No other animal has ever done that!(Length: 1 min. 30 sec.)KeyA. Answer the following questions.1) What is the fastest animal on land?Key: The cheetah.2) What is the speed of the fastest birds?Key: 170 km/h.3) What is the speed of the fastest fish?Kay: More than 100km/h.4) Why can many animals ran faster than human beings?Key: Because most animals run on four legs.5) Why can human beings travel faster than any animals?Key: Because we have machines.B. Decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the tape.1) The fastest man in the world can run at 100 km/h. [ F ]2) Most animals run on two legs. [ F ]3) We have become the most intelligent animals in the world because we have used tools for millions of years. [ T ]Task 3ScriptA: You know, we're studying dinosaurs in science class. It's really interesting.B: Oh, yeah? Hey, have you learned why the dinosaurs disappeared?A: Well, no one knows for sure.B: I thought it had something to do with the climate. The temperature might have gotten cooler and killed them off.A: Yeah, that's one theory. Another idea is that they may have run out of food.B: Uh-huh. And you know, there's even a theory that they could have been destroyedby aliens from outer space.A: That sounds crazy to me!(Length: 48 see.)KeyA. Answer the following questions.1) What are the possible reasons why the dinosaurs disappeared?Key: Climate, lack of food and aliens from outer space might be responsible for their extinction.2) Does the man believe in the theory of alien invasion?Key: No.B. Fill in the missing words with what your hear on the tape.B: I thought it had something to do with the climate. The temperature might have gotten cooler and killed them off.A: Yeah, that's one theory. Another idea is that they may have run out of food.B: Uh-huh. And you know, there's even a theory that theycould have been destroyed by aliens from outer space.Task 4ScriptFor the shortest life, the first prize must go to the mayfly, which typically lives only a matter of a few hours after it emerges from its shell. Few mayflies live to see the sun rise again. These creatures devote their whole lives to a single desperate mission: finding a mate and producing young. They don't even have functional mouths and stomachs. They simply have no time to eat. In fact they have no time for anything else.The record-holder for the longest life may be the Arctic clam, one of which lived quietly underwater for 220 years. However it did not have any birth certificate to prove this. One could only judge by its growth rings.If you insist on better documentation, the oldest animal ever was probably a tortoise that died in 1918. It had been captured already full-grown in 1766, nine years before the American Revolution began, and it died 152 years later as World War I came to a close.(Length: 1 rain. 20 sec.)KeyAnswer the following questions.I) What animal has the shortest life? For how long?Kay: The mayfly. A few hours.2) What do mayflies do in their lifetime?Kay: They just do two things: finding a mate and producing young.3) How do we know that one of the Arctic clams lived for 220 years?Key: We could judge by its growth rings.4) How long was the tortoise that died in 1918 kept in captivity?Key: It was kept for 152 years.Task 5ScriptEvery year about 17 million animals are used in laboratory experiments. But in many countries today, a difficult question is being asked: Do we have the right to use animals in this way?People who are for using animals in research argue that the use of animals in medical research has many practical benefits. Animal research has enabled researchers to develop treatments for many diseases, such as heart disease and depression. It would not have been possible to develop vaccines for diseases like smallpox and polio without animal research. Every drug anyone takes today was tried first on animals.Future medical research is dependent on the use of animals. Which is more important: the life of a rat or that of a three-year-old child?Medical research is also an excellent way of using unwanted animals. Last year, over 12 million animals had to be killed in animal shelters because no one wanted them as pets.However those who are against it point out that the fact that humans benefit cannot be used to justify using animals in research any more than it can be used to justify experimenting on other humans. Animals suffer a lot during these experiments. They are forced to live in small cages, and they may be unable to move.Much of the research that is carried out is unnecessary anyway.Animals have the same rights as humans do to be able tomove freely and not to have pain or fear forced on them. Researchers must find other ways of doing their research, using cell culture and computer modeling. There should be no animals in research laboratories at all.(Length: 1 min. 50 sec.)KeyA. Answer the following question.What is the main idea of the passage?Key: People have different opinions on using animals for research.B. Complete the following outline of the passage.1) The case for using animals in research:a) Every drug anyone takes today was tried first on animals.b) Future medical research is dependent on the use of animals.c) Medical research is also a good way of using unwanted animals.2) The case against using animals in research:a) Animals suffer a lot during the experiments.b) Much of the research is unnecessary.c) Animals have the same right as humans do.3) Some alternative ways for scientists to do their research:a) Using cell culture.b) Using computer modeling.Task 6ScriptVisitors to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. can see three new young tigers. The rare babies met the public for the first time late last month. Chip O'Neal tells us about them.The mother tiger sat nearby on the grass as her babies rolled,chased and bit each other playfully. Then Korenchy also jumped into the games. Her cubs were born at the zoo four months ago. They are called Mike, Eric and Chrisy. The new young tigers at the National Zoo each weigh about 13 kilograms. Their fur is dark orange with black stripes. They eat horse meat and drink milk from Korenchy.Korenchy and her babies are Sumatran tigers. Sumatran tigers came from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They are now in danger of disappearing from the earth. Fewer than 500 of these tigers remain in the world. That includes about 60 living in zoos in North America.Korenchy came to the National Zoo from the Jakarta Zoo in Indonesia. The gift was part of the Sumatran Tiger Species Survival Program. Korenchy has given birth to live cubs three times. The father of her new cubs is Rokan, a Sumatran tiger who arrived two years ago from another zoo.Korenchy and Rokan had their babies the natural way instead of the scientific method often used to produce young animals in zoos.A wire fence separates Rokan from his babies. Zoo workers who care for Rokan say he reaches through the fence to wash the cubs with his tongue. They say this means he recognizes Mike, Eric and Chrisy as his cubs. However, zoo officials are hoping that Rokan will produce more cubs with another female Sumatran tiger at the zoo, so they do not want him to become too interested in this family.The National Zoo hopes to keep the Sumatran tiger cubs for at least 18 months before sending them to other zoos. That is about the age when most tiger cubs in the wild leave their mothers. The National Zoo has placed cameras in the Sumatrantigers' living area, so people with computers can see them. To do this, use your computer to find the National Zoo's Website at /doc/a71724613.html,/natzoo.(Length: 3 min. 40 sec.)KeyA. Answer the following questions.1) Was the mother tiger born in the National Zoo as well?Key: No.2) Why is the father tiger separated from his cubs?Key: Because zoo officials want him to produce cubs with another female tiger, so they don't want him to become too interested in this family.B. Complete the following sentences with what you hear on the tape.1) The young tigers are four months old.2) Each of them weighs about 13 kilograms.3) They eat horse meat and drink their mother's milk.4) People with computers can see the daily life of these tigers by visiting theNational Zoo'sWebsite at www. /doc/a71724613.html,/natzoo.C. Choose the best answer to each of the following questions.1) How many Sumatran tigers remain in the world? ( c)a) About 60. b) More than 500. c) Less than 500.2) Korenchy has given birth to _______. ( c )a) three cubs b) four cubs c) five or more cubs3) After 18 months, these cubs will be sent_______ (b)a) to the wild b) to other zoos c) to the Jakarta Zoo Cats in AmericaTask 7ScriptAn old expression says, "Man's best friend is his dog." Today, however, it seems that cats have replaced dogs as the most popular pets in American homes.Americans have more than 62 million pet dogs. But even more cats--more than 64 million--live in American homes.These pet cats may have long hair or short hair. They are different colors and sizes. Some are costly animals that take part in competitions. Many more are common American mixtures of several kinds of cats.Most house cats live a good life. They are not expected to work for their food. Instead, they rule their homes like furry kings and queens. They wait for their owners to serve them.Americans are increasingly serious about their cats. These concerns have made the care of cats into big business.Each year, cat owners buy tons of food especially prepared for cats. They buy toys and other equipment. They buy jewelry and clothes for themselves with images of cats on them. Some owners even bury their dead pets in special burial grounds.Humans have loved and respected cats for centuries. Scientists have evidence that cats and people lived together as long as 8,000 years ago. The small house cat was once a highly honored animal. In ancient Egypt for example, people who killed a cat could be punished by death.Early in American history cats were not treated as gods, however. They probably arrived in the United States with settlers and traders from Europe. These cats worked. They killed rats and mice.Sometimes, Americans mistreated their cats. During the early days of the nation, religious extremists believed that some catswere working for the devil. Black cats were especially suspected of being evil.Later, American families who had enough food began taking cats into their homes. People cared for the cats because the animals gave them pleasure. The cats thanked people for feeding them by making a purring sound. This pleasant noise usually means a cat is happy.Animal experts offer several reasons why cats have become so popular as house pets. They say cats need less care than dogs. And cats do not seem to suffer as much as dogs from being alone if the owners are away.Still, millions of other people do not like cats at all. They say dogs are better and more loving pets. They say cats do not have much feeling. They believe cats stay with people only to be fed. Cat owners defend their pets against such criticism. They say cats are just much more independent than dogs.A student of animal medicine explains the situation this way: dogs follow you around they want you to talk to them and play with them a lot of the time. Cats like more space and more privacy--this does not mean they do not love their owners.(Length: 4 min. 27 sec.)KeyA. Answer the following questions.1) Which have become more popular in America, dogs or cats? How do you knowthat?Key: Cats have become more popular, because there are more pet cats in American homes.2) How long have humans had cats in their homes?Key: About 8,000 years.3) Where did American house cats come from?Key: They probably arrived in the United States from Europe.4) Cats have been treated well in the United States all along, haven't they?Key: No.B. Fill in the missing words in the summary.1) The care of cats has become a big business, because cat owners:a) buy tons of food especially prepared for cats.b) buy toys and other equipment.c) buy things with images of cats on them.d) bury their dead pets in special burial grounds.2) People who prefer cats say cats:a) give their owners pleasure.b) need less care.c) suffer less from being alone.d) are more independent.C. Decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the tape.1) Most house cats lived a good life. [ F ]2) Early American cats were treated like gods. [ F ]3) Black cats were once suspected working for the devil. [ T ]4) Cats are treated like fairy kings and queens. [ F ]5) Cats want you to talk to them a lot. [ F ]Task 8ScriptLittle Steve has a pet rabbit, Bunny. He plays with it every day after school. One day his mother sees that her little boy is holding Bunny by the ears. From time to time he gives the poor rabbit an angry shake and says, "How much is two plus two?" "Steve," sayshis mother, "why do you treat your poor little Bunny that way?""Well," explains Steve angrily, "our teacher says that rabbits multiply very quickly, but this dummy can't even add."(Length: 40 sec.)Task 9ScriptMost mammals live on land, but not all of them. Millions of years ago, some mammals went back to the sea and lived there. The legs of these animals disappeared, and after a long time they looked like fish. These animals became whales and dolphins.Whales and dolphins are still like other mammals in many ways. They are warm-blooded and they breathe air. They also have big brains. That is why they are more intelligent than fish. Whales have the biggest brains in the world. Their brain is bigger than the brain of a human being.(Length: 50 sec.)。

Unit 1Social customs and ways of behaving change. But they do not necessarily always change for the better. Things which were considered impolite many years ago are now acceptable. Just a few years ago, it was considered impolite behaviour for a man to smoke on the street. No man who thought of himself as being a gentleman would make a fool of himself by smoking when a lady was in the room.The important thing to remember about social customs is not to do anything that might make other people feel uncomfortable — especially if they are your guests. There is a story about a rich nobleman who had a very formal dinner party. When the food was served, one of the guests started to eat his peas with a knife. Other guests were amused or shocked, but the nobleman calmly picked up his knife and began eating in the same way. It would have been bad manners to make his guest feel foolish or uncomfortable.Unit 2Undoubtedly, Tibet is one of the harshest places for human existence. It is cool in summer but freezing cold in winter. In Lhasa, the mildest city temperature may exceed 29C in summer while plummeting to -16C in winter! Sun radiation is extremely strong in Tibet. The sunlight in Lhasa is so intense that the city is called Sunlight City. The thin air can neither block off nor retain heat so that the temperature extremes can be met in daytime and the same night respectively in Tibet. However it is not impossible to visit the holy snow land. April to October is the best time to visit Tibet, out of the coldest months, which are from December to February usually. The average temperature in north Tibet is subzero and winter arrives in October until the following May or June. July and August are the best time to visit the area, enjoying warm temperature, intense sunshine, beautiful scenery and festive events. May, June and September is the tourist season in east Tibet. In winter, roads are all blocked by heavy snow. Landslides and rock falls frequently occur, which will make travel difficult.Unit 3I could hear the guard blowing his whistle, so I ran onto the platform and up to the train.Luckily someone saw me coming, a door opened, and I jumped on while the train was moving out of the station. “Phew!” I thought. “That was hard work!” I was sure the other passengers could hear my heart beating; it was so loud, and I was in a cold sweat.After a while, I recovered, and had a look at the other passengers. The compartment was full, but I was the only one standing. The people in the carriage turned their eyes away as they noticed me looking at them; all except one, a beautiful woman sitting in the corner. I saw her watching me in the mirror. Automatically, I adjusted my tie. She had seen me running for the train: maybe this was my lucky day after all. I prepared to say hello.She spoke first, however. “Would you like my seat?” she asked. “You look rather ill.” That was the day on which I realized I was getting middle-aged.Unit 4Aesop was a very clever man who lived in Greece thousands of years ago. He wrote many good fables. He was known to be fond of jokes. One day, as he was enjoying a walk he met a traveler, who greeted him and said, “Kind man, can you tell me how soon I shall get to town?”“Go,” Aesop answered.“I know I must go”, said the traveler, “but I should L ike you to tell me how soon I shall get to town.”“Go,” Aesop said again angrily.“This man must be mad,” the traveler thought and went on.After he had gone some distance, Aesop shouted after him, “You will get to town in two hours.” The traveler turned around in astonishment. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” he asked.“How could I have told you before?” answered Aesop. “I did not know how fast you could walk.Unit 5Americans know that higher education is the key to the growth they need to lift their country, and today that is more true than ever. Just listen to these facts. Over half the new jobs created in the last three years have been managerial and professional jobs. The new jobs require a higher level of skills.Fifteen years ago the typical worker with a college degree made 38 percent more than a worker with a high school diploma. Today that figure is 73 percent more. Two years of college means a 20 percent increase annual earnings. People who finish two years of college earn a quarter of a million dollars more tan their high school counterparts over a lifetime.Unit 6I began my career during college, reporting on news stories at a Toronto radio station. The station’s program manager was also a professor who taught one of my classes. I convinced him that she needed a youth reporter because that year was International Youth Year. After graduation, I took a job as a television news reporter and later, news anchor. But sports reporting was something different, so I decided to try it. Figure skating was my first assignment.I had two months until my new job began. It was like waiting an entire summer for school to start. I spent those two months talking to figure skating coaches and judges. I read boring rule books. I drove to the rinks where the skaters trained, and made notes about our conversations. I even took a lesson, which made some of the skaters laugh.Unit 7Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead ofthe difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.Unit 8The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says hunger kills millions of people each year — especially children . The UN organization says millions more people will die unless more money is invested to fight against hunger.This is b ased on the result of a new UN study called “The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2002”. It found that more than nine million people die each year from hunger. Six million of them are children younger than age five. Researchers also found that the number of starving people is growing in some parts of the world.The report says that about eight hundred and forty million people around the world are getting enough food to eat. Ninety-five percent of these people are in developing countries.Unit 9In contemporary English, there are many reported differences in the talk of males and females . In same gender pairs having conversations, women generally discuss their personal feelings more than men . Men appear to prefer non-personal topics such as sport and news . Men tend to respond to mention personal experiences that match or connect with the other woman’s . There is a pattern documented in the American English social context of women cooperating and seeking connection via language, whereas men are more competitive and concerned with power via language . In mixed-gender pairs having conversations, the rate of men interrupting women is substantially greater than he reverse. Women are reported to use more expressions associated with tentativeness , such as “hedges” and “tags” , when expressing an opinion : Well ,erm , I think that golf is kind of boring , don’t you ?Unit 10The University of Oxford, situated in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world . The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are sometimes referred to collectively as Oxbridge. The two universities have a long history of competition with each other, as they are two oldest and most famous universities in England.The date of Oxford’s foundation is unknown, and indeed it may not have been a single event , but there is evidence of teaching there as early as 1096. When Henry II of England of forbade English students to study at the University of Paris in 1167, Oxford began to grow very quickly . The foundation of the first halls of residence, which later became college, dates from this period and later. Following the murder of two students accused of rape in 1209, the University was disbanded, and this led to the foundation of the University of Cambridge. In 1214, the University returned to Oxford with a charter, and the University’s status was formally confirmed.Unit 11Planet Earth is 4,600,000,000 years old. If we condense this time span we can compare it to a person 46 years old. Only at the age of 42 did the Earth begin to flower. Dinosaurs and the great reptiles did not appear until one year ago, when the planet was 45. Mammalsarrived only eight months ago, and in the middle of last week human-like apes developed into ape-like humans, and last weekend the last ice age covered the Earth.Modem man has been around for 4 hours. During the last hour agriculture was discovered. The Industrial Revolution began a minute ago. Since then, we have multiplied our numbers to plague proportions, caused the extinction of 500 species of animals, turned the planet upside down in the search for fuels, and now we stand, arrogant with power, on the edge of a war to end all wars, and close to effectively destroying this oasis of life in the solar system.Unit 12London is one of the biggest cities in the world. It has a population of over 8 million. Some people like it very much because there is a lot to do there and it is very interesting. There are hundreds of cinemas, theatres, museums and restaurants there. But other people don't like it because there is so much traffic and noise everywhere.Brighton is a medium-sized town with a population of around 300,000. It is on the coast, about 50 miles from London. Of course it isn't as interesting as London, but the air is a lot cleaner and better. There are a few factories, but not many. It isn't very easy to find a good job there. But there are a lot of hotels and language schools in the town, and in the summerthe town is full of tourists.Unit 13An old man died and left his son a lot of money. But the son was a foolish young man, and he quickly spent all the money, so that soon he had nothing left. Of course, when that happened, all his friends left him. When he was quite poor and alone, he went to see Nasreddin, who was a kind, clever old man and often helped people when they had troubles.“My money has finished and my friends have gone,” said the young man. “What will happen to me now?”“Don’t worry, young man,” answered Nasreddin. “Everything will soon be all right again. Wait and you will soon feel much happier.”The young man was very glad. “Am I going to get rich again then?” he asked Nasreddin.“No, I didn’t mean that,” said the old man. “I meant that you would soon get used to being poor a nd to having no friends.”Unit 14The future will not determine itself. The future is determined by the actions of the present day.Edward Cornish, the editor of The Futurist magazine published by the World Future Society, says:The responsibility we have for the future begins when we recognize that we ourselves create the future — that the future is not something imposed upon us by fate or other forces beyond our control. We ourselves build the future both through what we do and what we do not do.A novel way of teaching may change the way universities are run. An engineering teacher at the American University of Illinois has had great success without textbooks, without examsand without deadlines. His students won nine of the top ten engineering awards in a university competition.The engineering professor, Ricardo Uribe, let his engineering students express themselves, in-stead of telling them what to do. His students all focused on the problems that interested them, not what their teacher told 'them. They worked their own hours, not hours set by the university. They did not have to sit tests, and they helped each other in open classes.Unit 15Newspapers are one of the main sources from which we learn what is going on--in world politics, science, local government, the arts, fashion, food, education and sports. The papers we choose show our interests and usually the politics which we believe in. There are nine national daily newspapers in Britain, of which five are tabloids and four are quality papers. Do these newspapers realty serve the people they are written for? Many people question the objectivity of newspapers. How objective are they? We might be better able to judge if we understand how a newspaper is produced. Reporters, of course, are the source from which the facts must come, but there are many other people who are involved in and influence newspapers.。

Unit 1Task 1:【答案】A.Event Year Kenny G was born. 1956He toured Europe with his High School band. 1971He made his first solo album. 1982He won released his most successful album. 1993He won the Best Artist Award. 1994He broke the world record for playing a single note. 1997B．1) F2) F3) T【原文】Saxophonist Kenny G is now the world's most successful jazz musician. He was born in 1956 as Kenny Gorelick in Seattle, USA, and he learned to play the saxophone at an early age. When he was just 15 years old, he toured Europe with his High School band. After studying at Washington University he started his career as a musician. In 1982 he signed for Arista Records and made his first solo album Kenny G.Success came slowly at first, but during the 1990s Kenny became well-known on the international scene. He released Breathless, his most successful album so far in 1993, and in 1994 won the Best Artist Award at the 21st American Music Awards held in Los Angeles.As well as making records, he also found time to play in front of another famous saxophone player—US President Bill Clinton—at the "Gala for the President" concert in Washington, and to break the world record for playing a single note (45 minutes and 47 seconds!) at the J & R Music World Store in New York in 1997.During the last 20 years, Kenny G has played with superstars like Aretha Franklin, Michael Bolton and Whitney Houston, and he has sold more than 36 million albums worldwide... and he hasn't sung a note!Task 2:【答案】1) c2) d3) c【原文】Senn: Everybody always has this misconception that female policemen don't do the same thing as men do, you know. I've worked..Interviewer: That's not true?Senn: That is not true! I've worked my share of graveyard shifts, and, you know, split shifts, and double-back and no days off, and...Interviewer: Uh-huh...Senn: ...as much as the next guy. There's no distinction used if there's a male or female officer on duty. Two men on duty—I'll refer to as two men, ‟cause in myfield there's no difference between the genders. We're still the same. Okay, if there'stwo men on duty—just because one's a female, she still gets in on the same type ofcall. If there's a bar disturbance downtown, then we go too. There's been manytimes where being the only officer on duty—that's it! It‟s just me and whoeverelse is on duty in the county. They can come back me up if I need assistance. And itdoes get a little hairy. You go in there, and you have these great big, hugemonster-guys, and they're just drunker than skunks, and can't see three feet in frontof them. And when they see you, they see fifteen people, and you know... But still,there's enough...Interviewer: That's where the uniform is important, I should imagine.Senn: Sometimes, you kno w. If somebody is going to…or has a bad day, and they are out to get a cop, you know, it doesn't matter if you're, you know, boy, girl,infant or anything! When you've got that cop uniform on, they'll still take it out onyou.Interviewer: Yeah...Senn: But I think there's one advantage to being a female police officer. And that is the fact that most men still have a little respect, and they won't smack you as easy as theywould one of the guys.Interviewer: Uh-huh...Senn: But I'll tell you o ne thing I‟ve learned—I'd rather deal with ten drunk men that one drunk woman any day of the week!Interviewer: Well, why is that?Senn: Because women are so unpredictable. You cannot ever predict what a woman's going to do.Interviewer: Hmm...Senn: Especially, if she's agitated, you know.Interviewer: Emotionally upset.Senn: Yeah. I saw a lady one time just get mad at the guy she was withbecause he wouldn't buy her another drink— take off her high heel and layhis head wide open. Yuch! Oh, they can be so vicious, you know.Task 3:【答案】1) d2) b3) b4) b【原文】You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the headswith chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window—and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast-moving trains, who crash cars of even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called “stunt men”. That is to say, they perform “tricks”.There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress. Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar!But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stunt man‟s success depends on careful timing. For example, w hen he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.Naturally stuntmen are well-paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute failed to open—and he was killed.In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for “men only”. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are “stunt girls” too！Task 4:【答案】1) He started writing poetry when he was about 14 or 15.2) He has published four books.3) His first book came out when he was about 26. It wasn‟t easy. He got a lot of his work rejected at first.4) The British, or at least the English, are embarrassed by it. They‟re embarrassed by people who reveal personal feelings, emotions, thoughts and wishes.【原文】When Thomas Edison was born in the small town of Milan, Ohio, in 1847, America was just beginning its great industrial development. In his lifetime of eighty-four years, Edison shared in the excitement of America‟s growth into a modern nation. The time in which he lived was an age of invention, filled with human and scientific adventures, and Edison became the hero of that age.As a boy, Edison was not a good student. His parents took him out of school and his mother taught him at home, where his great curiosity and desire to experiment often got him into trouble. When he was six, he set fire to his father‟s barn “to see what would happen.” The barn burned down.When he was ten, Edison built his own chemistry laboratory. He sold sandwiches and newspapers on the trains in order to earn money to buy supplies for his laboratory. His parents became accustomed, more or less, to his experiments and the explosions which sometimes shook the house.Edison‟s work as a sales boy with the railroad introduced him to the telegraph and, with a friend, he built his own telegraph set.Six years later, in 1869, Edison arrived in New York City, poor and in debt. He went to work with a telegraph company. It was there that he became interested in the uses of electricity.Task 5:【答案】1815，1914，35millionI.A. villages，seaportB. danger，long ocean voyageC. a new land，a new languageD. finding a place to liveII.a better life，opportunity，freedomIII.A. England, Germany, Russia, HungaryB. Roman Catholic, JewishC. customs，languagesIV.A. Americanized，disappeared.B. haven't disappeared，customs，identitiesV.A. were cheated，prejudice，mistreatedB. hardest，least-paid，dirtiest，most overcrowdedD. rejected，old-fashioned，ashamedovercome【原文】Thousands of people came to American cities before Blacks and Puerto Ricans did. Between 1815 and 1914, more than 35 million Europeans crossed the ocean to find new homes in the United States.Most of these immigrants were ordinary people. Few were famous when they arrived. Few became famous afterward. Most had lived in small villages. Few had ever been far outside them. Most of them faced the same kinds of problems getting to America: the hardship of going from their villages to a seaport, the unpleasantness—even danger—of the long ocean voyage, the strangeness of a new land, and of a new language, the problem of finding a place to live, of finding work in a new, strange country.Every immigrant had his own reasons for coming to America. But nearly all shared one reason: They hoped for a better life. They considered America a special place, a land of opportunity, a land of freedom.Immigrants came from many different countries: England, Germany, Denmark, Finland[, Russia, Italy, Hungary and many others.They came with many different religions: Roman Catholic, Jewish, Quaker, Greek Orthodox.They brought many different customs and many languages.Some people have called the United States a "melting pot". After immigrants were here awhile—in the melting pot—they became Americanized. Differences were "melted down". They gradually disappeared.Some people say no. America isn't a melting pot. It's more like a salad bowl. Important differences between groups of people haven't disappeared. Many groups have kept their own ways, their customs, their identities, and this has given America great strength.Melting pot? Salad bowl? Perhaps there's some troth to both ideas.In any case, life in America was hard for most immigrants—especially at first. Often they were cheated. Often they met with prejudice. They were often laughed at, even mistreated, by people who themselves had been immigrants.Most of them soon found that the streets of America weren't paved with gold. They usually got the hardest jobs, and those that paid the least, the dirtiest places to live in, the most overcrowded tenements.They came to be citizens of a new country; but often they felt like people without a country. They had given up their own, but they didn't understand their new one. They didn't really feel a part of it. And the people of the new one didn't always welcome them.They came for the sake of their children, but in America their children often rejected them. To the children, their parents seemed old-fashioned. They didn't learn the new language quickly. Some didn't learn it at all. Their parents' customs made children ashamed.Gradually, however, problems were overcome. For most immigrants, life in America was better. It certainly was better for their children and for their grandchildren.Task 6:【答案】A.The Life Story of Thomas EdisonOhio，1847，industrial development, 1931, a modern nationI.A. curiosity，desireB. 1857，station master‟s sonC. 1863II.A. New York City，electricity，report the pricesB. New Jersey，invented，producedC. organized industrial researchD. 1877E. 1879III.A. 1,000B. motion-picture machineC. photographyD. streetcars，electric trainsIV.B. turn off all powerC. the progress of manB.1) F2) F3) T4) T5) F【原文】When Thomas Edison was born in the small town of Milan, Ohio, in 1847, America was just beginning its great industrial development. The time in which he lived was an age of invention, filled with human and scientific adventures, and Edison became the hero of that age.As a boy, Edison was not a good student. His parents took him out of school and his mother taught him at home, where his great curiosity and desire to experiment often got him into trouble. When he was ten, Edison built his own chemistry laboratory. He sold sandwiches and newspapers on the local trains in order to earn money to buy supplies for his laboratory. His parents became accustomed, more or less, to his experiments and the explosions which sometimes shook the house.Edison‟s work as a sales boy with the railroad introduced him to the telegraph and with a friend, he built his own telegraph set.He taught himself the Morse telegraphic code and hoped for the chance to become a professional telegraph operator. A stroke of luck and Edison's quick thinking soon provided the opportunity.One day, as young Edison stood waiting for a train to arrive, he saw the station master's sot wander into the track of an approaching train. Edison rushed out and carried the boy to safety. The thankful station master offered to teach Edison railway telegraphy. Afterwards, in 1863, he became tan expert telegraph operator and left home to work in various cities.Six years later, in 1869, Edison arrived in New York City, poor and in debt. He went to work with a telegraph company. It was there that he became interested in the uses of electricity. At that time electricity was still in the experimental stages, and Edison hoped to invent new ways to use it for the benefit of people. As he once said: "My philosophy of life is work. I want to bring out the secrets of, nature and apply them for the happiness of man. I know of no better service to render for the short time we are in this world."The same year, when he was only 22 years old, Edison invented an improved ticker-tape machine which could better report the prices on the New York Market. The ticker-tape machine was successful, and Edison decided to leave his job and concentrate wholly on inventing. When the president of the telegraph company asked how much they owed him for his invention, Edison was ready to accept only $3,000. Cautiously he said: "Suppose you make me an offer.""How would $40,000 strike you?" the president inquired. Edison almost fainted, but he finally replied that the price was fair.With this money, and now calling himself an electrical engineer, Edison formed his own "invention factory" in Newark, New Jersey. Over the next few years he invented and produced many new items, including the mimeograph machine, wax wrapping paper, and improvements of the telegraph.In 1877 Edison decided he could no longer continue both manufacturing and inventing. He sold his share in the factory and built a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was the first laboratory of its kind devoted to organized industrial research. One of the first inventions to come from his new laboratory was an improvement of Alexander Bell's telephone. Edison invented a more powerful mouthpiece which removed the need to shout into the telephone. But his greatinventions were still to come.On August 12, 1877, Edison began experimenting with an instrument which he had designed and ordered to be built. It was a cylinder, wrapped in tinfoil and turned by a handle. As it revolved, a needle made a groove in the foil. Turning the handle, Edison began to shout."Mary had a little lambWhose fleece was white as snow!"He stopped and moved the needle back in the starting position. Then, putting his ear close to the needle, he turned the handle again. A voice came out of the machine:"Mary had a little lamb,Whose fleece was white as snow!"Edison had just invented the phonograph, a completely new concept: a talking machine.While he was perfecting his phonograph, Edison also worked on another invention. He called it "an Electric Lamp for Giving Light by Incandescence". Today we call it the light bulb.For years other inventors had experimented with electric lights, but none of the lights had proven economical to produce. Edison, in studying the problem, spent over a year experimenting. He tested 1,600 materials (even hairs from a friend's beard) to see if they would carry electric current and glow. Finally, on October 21, 1879, he tried passing electricity through a carbonized cotton thread in a vacuum glass bulb. In his own words Edison described the experiment: "... before nightfall the carbon was completed and inserted in the lamp. The bulb was exhausted of air and sealed, the current turned on, and the sight we had so long desired to see met our eyes." The lamp gave off a feeble, reddish glow, and it continued to bum for 40 hours. Edison's incredible invention proved that electric lighting would be the future light of the world.Edison was now so famous as an inventor that people thought there was nothing he could not do. They began to call him "the wizard", as if he could produce an invention like magic. Few people realized how hard Edison worked, often 20 hours a day, and that most of his inventions were the results of hundreds of experiments.For 60 years Edison was the world's leading inventor. He patented over 1,000 inventions which changed our way of living. He was one of the earliest inventors of the motion-picture machine. His invention of the phonograph was joined with photography to produce talking pictures. He also perfected the electric motor which made streetcars and electric trains possible.It is no wonder that Edison received many honors during his life for contributions to the progress of mankind. The United States gave him its highest award, a special Congressional Medal of Honor. Yet, in spite of all his fame, Edison remained a modest man. He preferred to continue his work, rather than rest on his achievements. His motto was: "I find what the world needs; then I go ahead and try to invent it." He never considered himself a brilliant man and once remarked that genius was "2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration".When Edison died in 1931, it was proposed that the American people mm off all power in their homes, streets, and factories for several minutes in honor of this great man. Of course, it was quickly realized that such an honor would be impossible. Its impossibility was indeed the real tribute to Edison's achievements. Electric power had become so important and vital a part of America's life that a complete shut-down for even a few seconds would have created chaos. As "one of the great heroes of invention", Edison rightfully belongs among America's and the world's great contributors to the progress of man.Task 7:【答案】A.1) c2) a3) d4) c5) c6) aB.1) That‟s because the explosion robs the fire of oxygen.2) Once the fire is out, the well still needs to be covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the surrounding area to explode.3) In March of 1991, Red Adair went to Kuwait. He and his crews were called in to help put out oil well fires.4) He has spent his 76th birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew.5) At his funeral, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes.【原文】Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. He was one of five sons of a metal worker. He also had three sisters. While growing up, he became known as Red Adair because his hair was bright red. The color became a trademark for Adair. He wore red clothes and red boots. He drove a red car, and his crew members used red trucks and red equipment.During World War Two, Adair served on a trained army team that removed and destroyed bombs. After the war, he returned to Houston and took a job with Myron Kinley. At the time, Kinley was the leader in putting out fires in oil wells. Red Adair worked with Myron Kinley for fourteen years. But in nineteen fifty-nine, Adair started his own company.During his thirty-six years in business, Red Adair and his crews battled more than two thousand fires all over the world. Some were on land. Others were on ocean oil-drilling structures. Some fires were in burning oil wells. Others were in natural gas wells.Red Adair was a leader in a specialized and extremely dangerous profession. Putting out oil well fires can be difficult. This is because oil well fires are extinguished, or put out, at the wellhead just above ground. Normally, explosives are used to stop the fire from burning. The explosion robs the fire of oxygen. But, once the fire is out, the well still needs to be covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the surrounding area to explode.Red Adair developed modern methods to extinguish and cover burning oil wells.They became known in the industry as Wild Well Control techniques. In addition to explosives, the techniques involved large amounts of water and dirt. Adair also developed special equipment made of bronze metal to help extinguish oil well fires. The modern tools and his Wild Well Control techniques earned Red Adair and his crews the honor of being called the "best in the business."Red Adair was known for not being afraid. He was also known for his sense of calm and safety. None of his workers were ever killed while putting out oil well or gas fires. He described his work this way: “It scares you—all the noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everyone's face, when you are finished and packing, it is the best smile in the world; and there is nobody hurt, and the well is under control.”One of Red Adair's most important projects was in nineteen sixty-two. He and his crew put out a natural gas fire in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. The fire had been burning for six months. This famous fire was called the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter." Fire from the natural gas well shot about one hundred forty meters into the air. The fire was so big that American astronaut John Glenn could see it from space as he orbited Earth.The desert sand around the well had melted into glass from the extreme heat. News reports said Adair used about three hundred forty kilograms of nitroglycerine explosive material to pull the oxygen out of the fire.Adair's success with the "Devil's Cigarette Lighter" and earlier well fires captured the imagination of the American film industry. In nineteen sixty-eight, Hollywood made an actionfilm called Hellfighters. It was loosely based on events in Red Adair's life. Actor John Wayne played an oil well firefighter from Houston, Texas whose life was similar to Adair's. Adair served as an advisor to Wayne while the film was being made. The two men became close friends. Adair said one of the best honors in the world was to have John Wayne play him in a movie.In nineteen eighty-eight, Adair fought what was possibly the world's worst off-shore accident. It was at the Piper Alpha drilling structure in the North Sea. Occidental Petroleum operated the structure off the coast of Scotland. The structure produced oil and gas from twenty-four wells.One hundred sixty-seven men were killed when the structure exploded after a gas leak. Red Adair had to stop the fires and cap the wells. He faced winds blowing more than one hundred twenty kilometers an hour, and ocean waves at least twenty meters high.In March of nineteen ninety-one, Red Adair went to Kuwait following the Persian Gulf War. He and his crews were called in to help put out fires set by the Iraqi army.The Red Adair Company capped more than one hundred wells. His crews were amongtwenty-seven teams from sixteen countries called in to fight the fires. The crews' efforts put out about seven hundred Kuwaiti fires. Their efforts saved millions of barrels of oil. Some experts say the operation also helped prevent an environmental tragedy. The job had been expected to take three to five years. However, it was completed in just eight months.Red Adair had spent his seventy-sixth birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew. When asked when he might retire, he told reporters: "Retire? I do not know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work, and he is productive out there and he feels good—keep at it."Still, Red Adair finally did retire in nineteen ninety-four. At that time, he joked about where he would end up when he died. He said he hoped to be in Heaven. But he said this about Hell: "I have made a deal with the devil. He said he is going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there—if I go there—so I won't put all the fires out."Red Adair died in two thousand four. He was eighty-nine years old. At his funeral, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes. Many Americans remember Red Adair for his bravery. He lived his life on the edge of danger. He was known for his willingness to risk his own life to save others.Task 8:【答案】A.1) She was born in New York City in 1884.2) After she finished school, Eleanor began teaching children to read in one of the poorest areas of New York City. She investigated factories where workers were said to be badly treated. She became involved with other women who shared the same ideas about improving social conditions.3) She decided she would no longer play the part of a politician's wife. Instead, she began to builda life with interests of her own.4) Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932. His new economic program was called the New Deal.5) She was different from the wives of earlier presidents in that she was the first to become active in political and social issues.6) She publicly resigned her membership to protest the action of the group.7) She spent the last years of her life visiting foreign countries. She became America's unofficial ambassador. She called on Americans to help the people in developing countries.B.1) F2) T3) T【原文】Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of America's thirty-second president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She helped her husband in many ways during his long political life. She also became one of the most influential people in America. She fought for equal rights for all people -- workers, women, poor people, black people. And she sought peace among nations.Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City in eighteen eighty-four. Eleanor's family had great wealth and influence. When she was eight years old, her mother died. Two years later, her father died. It was Eleanor's grandmother who raised the Roosevelt children.After she finished school, Eleanor began teaching children to read in one of the poorest areas of New York City, called "Hell's Kitchen." She investigated factories where workers were said to be badly treated. She saw little children of four and five years old working until they dropped to the floor. She became involved with other women who shared the same ideas about improving social conditions.Franklin Roosevelt began visiting Eleanor. Franklin belonged to another part of the Roosevelt family. Franklin and Eleanor were married in nineteen-oh-five. In the next eleven years, they had six children.Franklin Roosevelt began his life in politics in New York. He was elected to be a state legislator. Later, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to be assistant secretary of the Navy. The Roosevelts moved to Washington in nineteen thirteen. It was there, after thirteen years of marriage, that Eleanor Roosevelt went through one of the hardest periods of her life. Shediscovered that her husband had fallen in love with another woman. She wanted to end the marriage. But her husband urged her to remain his wife.She did. Yet her relationship with her husband changed. She decided she would no longer play the part of a politician's wife. Instead, she began to build a life with interests of her own.Eleanor Roosevelt learned about politics and became involved in issues and groups that interested her. In nineteen twenty-two, she became part of the Women's Trade Union League. She also joined the debate about ways to stop war. In those years after World War One, she argued that America must be involved in the world to prevent another war. "Peace is the question of the hour," she once told a group of women. "Women must work for peace to keep from losing their loved ones."The question of war and peace was forgotten as the United States entered a severe economic depression in nineteen twenty-nine. Prices suddenly dropped on the New York stock market. Banks lost their money. People lost their jobs.Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in nineteen thirty-two. He promised to end the Depression and put Americans back to work. Mrs. Roosevelt helped her husband by spreading information about his new economic program. It was called the New Deal. She traveled around the country giving speeches and visiting areas that needed economic aid.Eleanor Roosevelt was different from the wives of earlier presidents. She was the first to become active in political and social issues. While her husband was president, Missus Roosevelt held more than three hundred news conferences for female reporters. She wrote a daily newspaper commentary. She wrote for many magazines. These activities helped spread her ideas to all Americans and showed that women had important things to say.One issue Eleanor Roosevelt became involved in was equal rights for black Americans. She met publicly with black leaders to hear their problems. Few American politicians did this during the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. One incident involving Eleanor Roosevelt became international news.In nineteen thirty-nine, an American singer, Marian Anderson, planned a performance at Constitution Hall in Washington. But a conservative women's group refused to permit her to sing there because she was black.Missus Roosevelt was a member of that organization, the Daughters of the American Revolution. She publicly resigned her membership to protest the action of the group. An opinion study showed that most Americans thought she was right.Eleanor Roosevelt helped the performance to be held outdoors, around the Lincoln Memorial. More than seventy thousand people heard Marian Anderson sing. Eleanor Roosevelt was always considered one of its strongest supporters of the civil rights movement.。