听力测试题录音文字稿:
SECTION 1: LISTENING TEST
Part A: Spot Dictation
Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear a passage and read the same passage with blanks in it. Fill in each of the blanks with the word or words you have heard on the tape. Write your answer in the corresponding space in your answer booklet. Remember you will hear the passage only once. Now let's begin Part A with Spot Dictation.
Today I'm going to consider very briefly a problem concerned with the competition for land use, that is, whether crops should be used to produce food or should be used to produce fuel and in considering this problem I will look at four main areas: the historical background to the problem, the economies involved in the competition for land use, some examples, and a possible solution to a potential problem.
In considering the historical background we should look at the oil crisis of the 1970s due to the rapid trend in increasing oil prices. Many countries' have looked for alternative energy sources to make them independent of other countries fossil fuels. Examples of alternative energy sources include such things as solar power, the harnessing of wind and waves, and also the production of biogas. Biogas is methane which is produced from human and animal waste.
A particularly interesting possibility for many developing countries has been the coversion of plant material to alcohol. This is interesting because in many developing countries there is a large agricultural sector and at the same time a small industrial sector and thus the possibility of using the agricultural sector to produce fuel is of interest to those countries.
Research is going on in the production of alcohol, for example, from sugar and there are two main economic reasons for this. First of all, the world price of sugar has fallen dramatically or the world price of sugar has fallen in very real terms in the last decade. This has caused a problem for those economies which are dependent on their sugar production as it gives them an alternative possibility for using their sugar. And secondly sugar is the most efficient source of alcohol, therefore, it is relatively economical to make fuel by distilling alcohol from it.
In addition to sugar there are other starchy plants that can be used to make alcohol, for example in tropical countries such plants as the cassava plant and the sweet potato are good sources from which alcohol can be made and in non-tropical countries you have such things as corn and sugar beet.
Part B: Listening Comprehension
Directions: In this part of the test, there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken only once. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your answer booklet. Now let's begin Part B with Listening Comprehension. http://tr.hjenglish.com/
Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following conversation
F: Er…roughly, Mr. Andrew Simpson, when did you begin collecting badges?
M: At my primary school, I think. The teachers used to give out badges to pupils who were particularly good at certain things. So I got a little blue badge with the word “swimming ”on it, and then another one I remember—it was green—which had the word“Tidy”on it! Ha!
F: And have you still got those badges in your collection?
M: No… well, I've got the swimming badge, but I think I was so untidy that I must have lost the tidy badge years ago!
F: And you started collecting badges, then, from that, the age of about nine?
M: Er, yeah, I guess so… eight or nine or so. That's right. In those days—we're talking about the early fifties—there weren't so many cars around as there are today. So filling stations didn't have so many customers. So the petrol companies used to give out badges. I suppose they thought that kids whose parents had a car would keep asking them to go to a particular filling station so that they could get another free badge. My dad bought our first car in 1954. I think it was—a black Ford Popular—and every time I went out with him in it I used to ask him to go to a different petrol station so that I could add more to my growing badge collection. Actually, he was a very shy man, my father, and I'm sure he didn't like asking for free things…
F: So petrol company badges were the first ones in your collection, weren they?
M: After “swimming”and “tidy”, yeah…But soon all sorts of companies started making badges to advertise their products, even cigarette companies. I've got one in my collection for Wills's Woodbines—they were the cheapest cigarettes in those days—and on the badge, at the bottom, it says,“Smoked by Millions”—no health warnings in those days…
F: How did you start collecting foreign badges?
M: I started traveling! Actually, I have to say that as a teenager I rather lost interest in badges and in fact I threw away a lot… or, er lost quite a lot… ones which would be rather valuable today. But when I left university I got a job in Austria and whenever I had aholiday, I used to take cheap trips to countries in Eastern Europe. Badges are very popular there and I soon started collecting again. I've got some really beautiful badges from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, and some lovely ones from Yugoslavia, too.
F: Do people in Eastern Europe wear badges or do they just collect them?
M: Oh, they wear themjust like we do. http://tr.hjenglish.com/
F: Why do you think people do wear badges?
M: Well, I think there are probably three main reasons. I think some people wear them to show that they belong to something. You know, like a group or a club or an association of some sort… like the Rotary Club or a trade union. And then I think people wear badges for they have something to say to the world. To tell people what they think—political or religious badges—which show what kind of person the wearer is, what he or she believes in, what they want to communicate… or badges which say things like, er,“Please don't smoke near me”or“I'm a vegetarian”. I think that sort of badge is very popular these days.
F: You said you thought there were three main reasons why people wear badges…
M: Oh, yes. Well, the third reason, I think, is to show everyone else where you ve been… you know, badges which say things like “I've been to Disneyland”. A lot of people put stickers like that on their cars, too. There are other reason, of course but I think they re the main ones.
Question No.1. What colour was the“Tidy”badge?
Question No.2. Which badge does Andrew Simpson think he has lost?
Question No.3. When do you think Andrew Simpson was born?http://tr.hjenglish.com/
Question No.4. What is the slogan on the Wills's Woodbines badge?
Question No.5. How many main reasons are given by Andrew Simpson for people to wear badges?
Question 6 to 10 are based on the following news
It's 12 noon and here are this lunch-time s main stories.
The work-to-rule by air-traffic controllers is now affecting the majority of Britain's airports. Some 75% of all flights leaving Heathrow Airport this morning were delayed, and it was a similar story at Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Passengers bound for European destinations were the worst hit. A British Airways spokesman claimed that they were managing to clear a backlog of breakfast-time flights by mid-morning, but such large-scale delays were causing havoc with schedules for later flights because aircraft were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The spokesman praised passengers for the great patience they have shown so far. The outlook for those traveling today or tomorrow, at least, is not very cheerful, at the advised times. The controllers, who began their action at midnight last night, are protesting against what they claim to be inadequate and potentially dangerous manning levels at the country's main air-traffic control centers.
Latest Government figures show a slight improvement in the unemployment situation. The number of registered unemployed fell by just over 12,000 last month; the first drip there has been in the total, this year.
The Opposition, however, claims that when the number of students who left the register to return to colleges and universities is taken into account, there was a substantial increase in the number of long-term unemployed. Mr. Eric Watkins, the Shadow Employment Spokesman, said that today's figures present a totally unrealistic picture of the unemployment situation.“There is no real decrease in unemployment, nor in the suffering and misery of thousands of families in this country”, said Mr. Watkins. He called on the Government to take positive steps, in next month's budget, towards revitalizing the depressed.
Police in North London are looking for a gang of armed robbers who got away with over $14 million-worth of jewllery in a raid on a Hampsstead jeweller's this morning. Staff who arrived to open the shop at 8:30 were held at gun-point by the gang, who proceeded to empty display cabinets and the safe. They made their escape in a white Jaguar car which was later found abandoned in nearby Finchley. http://tr.hjenglish.com/
Three men died and woman and child were seriously injured in an accident which happened on the A 11 near Norwich. Their car was in a head-on collision with an articulated lorry. The lorry driver escaped with minor injuries and was released from hospital in Norwich after treatment for cuts and bruises. Police are appealing for witnesses to the accident, which happened at about 7:30 this morning.
Question No.6. About what percentage of all flights leaving Heathrow Airport this morning were delayed?
Question No.7. What are air-traffic controllers protesting against?
Question No.8. According to the government, how is the unemployment situation now?
Question No.9. According to the news, what was stolen by a gang of armed raiders in North London?
Question No.10. Who died in the accident which happened near Norwich?
Question 11 to 15 are based on the following interview
I=Interviewer, E=Edward Epstein
I: Like me, you've probably always believed that diamonds—those gorgeous, brilliant, shining—jewels—are precious because they re both beautiful and rare. It's the demand for rare gems that makes them expensive. Well, the author of The Death of the Diamond is an American writer and journalist, Edward J. Epstein and, when I met him in his apartment in New York earlier this year, he soon put me right on a few things.
E: Diamonds are not rare at all. They're one of the most common minerals in the crust of the earth. In fact, if you think about it, there are more diamonds in America, or England, than any other commodity, than families with children. There are more diamonds than dishwashers or other appliances. Almost every family, a least in America, has a diamond.
I: If that's so, why is it that diamonds should be so expensive?
E: Well, diamonds are expensive because there's monopoly that has tried to fix the price of diamonds and they charge a rent for getting married. It's a marriage rent. Because you think it's symbolic and important for the marriage, you're willing to buy a little pebble, that you wouldn't buy in store if you weren't getting married, and pay $1000. It's sort of a private marriage license.
I: Edward Epstein's book is an expose of that monopoly. The corporation in question is De Beers; the South African company that exercises extraordinary control over the world's diamonds are found in many places in the world; there have recently been big finds in Australia, for example. But, De Beer's main suppliers outside South Africa are, surprisingly, the Russians and, as is better known, Black African states, such as Zaire, Angola and Tanzania. De Beer's policy for dealing with these unlikely allies is very simple.
E: De Beers makes an offer to buy up all the diamonds in the world at a set price.And, because it controls the means of cutting, the means of distribution, the means of credit and financing for diamonds, most African countries find it worthwhile to sell to De Beers. De Beers then puts it all in a central stockpile and then redistributes it to the diamond cutters in Belgium, in England and Israel, and other places.
I: It seems quite extraordinary to think that black African nations, which are, presumably, pledged to the downfall of South Africa should have this constant arrangement with a South Africorporation.
E: Well, it's one of the many ironies of the diamond business (is) that South Africa is, in a sense, dependent on Black Africa, especially Zaire, not to compete with it. But I have a feeling that this relationship goes deeper than merely diamonds; that South Africa is an important economic force in all of southern Africa.
Question No.11. Who is Edward Epstein?
Question No.12. According to Edward Epstein, why are diamonds so expensive?
Question No.13. What is De Beer's Corporation?
Question No.14. Which country is one of De Beer s main suppliers outside South Africa?
Question No 15. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the interview?
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk
There is no doubt that the computer has enlarged man's working capacity as well as his intellectual capacity enormously. Er… but it brings with it dangers to match the benefits. Now by this, I mean danger to physical and mental well-being of the people who wiork at computer terminals, not the dangers to personal privacy or national or industrial security.
There's one very alarming set of statistics which come from a survey done in the UK on 800 pregnant women, who happened to use computer terminals for a major part of their working day. About 35% of the subjects there had some severe abnormality during the pregnancy, enough to make a termination necessary. Now these figures compare significantly with a control group of pregnant women of the same age but who did not work with computer terminals. The incidence of severe abnormalities in their case was only 16%. This survey confirms similar investigations carried out in Denmark, Canada, Australia and the USA. Now, no one yet has a clear idea about the exact connection between working with computer terminals and the problems with pregnancy, but the figures at least suggest that there's well a cause for alarm.
In more general terms, increased stress and disturbances to vision have been noted in workers exposed for long periods to the video screen, and in many countries trade unions of workers involved with computers have laid down their own guidelines to protect members health. Erm… for instance, rest periods, or a change of activity from time to time are recommended, and the termial should be placed so that there's a source of natural light, and something else to look at, emm, no blank walls behind the terminal, in other words, so that the operator has a chance to rest his eyes from time to time.
Ironically, it seems that it's not only those who work with computers who are at risk. Er… there's perhaps more danger for people who use computers for interest or pleasure in their own homes. Now, it's obviously not possible to impose in the privacy of people's homes the sort of sateguards that can be applied in the working environment. Most people get so fascinated by what they are doing that they stay in front of the screen for hours on end; some are real fanatics!
Question No.16. What is the talk mainly about?
Question No.17. During the survey mentioned in the talk, what percentage of the women were found to suffer severe abnormality in pregnancy?
Question No.18. In which country was this survey conducted?
Question No.19. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the talk as a risk to health?
Question No.20. According to the talk, why are amateur computer users in greater danger than professional ones.
