20110618四级听力原文

Section A
11.
M: Shawn's been trying for months to find a job. But I wonder how he could get a job when
he looks like that.
W: Oh, that poor guy! He really should shave himself every other day at least and put on
something clean.
Q: What do we learn about Shawn?

12.
W: I wish Jane would call when she know she'll be late. This is not the first time we've had to
wait for her.
M: I agree. But she does have to drive through very heavy traffic to get here.
Q: What does the man imply?

13.
M: Congratulations! I heard your baseball team is going to the Middle Atlantic
Championship.
W: Yeah, we're all working real hard right now!
Q: What is the woman's team doing?

14.
W: John's been looking after his mother in the hospital. She was injured in a car accident
two weeks ago and still in critical condition.
W：Oh, that's terrible. And you know his father passed away last year.
Q: What do we learn about John?

15.
M: What a boring speaker! I could hardly stay awake.
W: Well, I don't know. In fact, I think it's been a long time since I've heard anyone is good.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

16.
W: I'm having a lot of trouble with logic and it seems my professor can't explain it in a way
that makes sense to me.
M: You know, there is a tutoring service on campus. I was about to drop statistics before
they helped me out.
Q: What does the man mean?

17.
M: This is a stylish overcoat. I saw you wearing it last week, did't I ?
W: Oh, that wasn't me. That was my sister Joe. She's in your class.
Q: What does the woman mean?

18.

M: Jane, suppose you lost all your money while taking a vacation overseas, what would you
do?
W: Well, I guess I'd sell my watch or computer or do some odd jobs till I could afford a
return plane ticket.
Q: What are the speakers talking about?

Conversation One
M: Hello, Professor Johnson.
W: Hello, Tony, so what shall we work on today?
M: Well, the problem is that this writing assignment isn’t coming out right. What I thought I
was writing on was to talk about what a particular sport means to me when I participate in.
W: What sport did you choose?
M: I decided to write about cross- country skiing.
W: What are you going to say about skiing?
M: That’s the problem. I thought I would write about how peaceful it is to be out in the
country.
W: So why is that a problem?
M: I’d like to start describing how quite it is to be out in the woods. I keep mentioning how
much effort it takes to keep going. Cross-country skiing isn’t as easy as some people think. It
takes a lot of energy, but that’s not heart of my paper, so I guess I should leave it out. But
now I don’t know how to explain that feeling of peacefulness without explaining how hard
you have to work for it. It all fits together. It’s not like just sitting down somewhere and
watching the clouds roll by. That’s different.
W: Then you have to include that in your point. The peacefulness of cross-country skiing is
the kind you earn by effort. Why leave that out? Part of your point you knew beforehand,
but part you discovered as you wrote. That’s common, right?
M: Yeah, I guess so.

Q19. What is the topic of the man’s writing assignment?
Q20. What problem does the man have while working on his paper?
Q21. What does the woman say is common in writing papers?

Conversation Two

W: Good evening and welcome to this week's Business World. A program for and about
business people. Tonight we have Mr. Angeleno who came to the US six years ago, and is now
an established businessman with three restaurants in town. Tell us Mr. Angeleno, how did
you get started?
M: Well I started off with a small diner. I did all the cooking myself and my wife waited on
tables. It was really too much work for two people. My cooking is great. And word got
around town about the food. Within a year, I had to hire another cook and four waitresses.
When that restaurant became very busy, I decided to expand my business. Now with three
places my main concern is keeping the business successful and running smoothly.
W: Do you advertise?

M: Oh yes. I don't have any TV commercials, because they are too expensive. But I advertise
a lot on radio and in local newspapers. My children used to distribute ads. in nearby
shopping centres, but we don't need to do that anymore.
W: Why do you believe you've been so successful?
M: Em, I always serve the freshest possible food and I make the atmosphere as comfortable
and as pleasant as I can, so that my customers will want to come back.
W: So you always aim to please the customers?
M: Absolutely! Without them I would have no business at all.
W: Thank you Mr. Angeleno. I think your advice will be helpful to those just staring out in
business.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
22 What is the woman’s occupation?
23 What do we learn about Mr. Angeleno’s business at its beginning?
24 What does Mr. Angeleno say about advertising his business?
25 What does the man say contribute to the success of his business?

Section B
Passage One
There are many commonly held beliefs about eye glasses and eyesight that are not proven
facts. For instance, some people believe that wearing glasses too soon weakens the eyes. But
there is no evidence to show that the structure of eyes is changed by wearing glasses at a
young age. Wearing the wrong glasses, however, can prove harmful. Studies show that for
adults there is no danger, but children can develop loss of vision if they have glasses
inappropriate for their eyes.

We have all heard some of the common myths about how eyesight gets bad. Most people
believe that reading in dim light causes poor eyesight, but that is untrue. Too little light
makes the eyes work harder, so they do get tired and strained. Eyestrain also results from
reading a lot, reading in bed, and watching too much television. However, although eyestrain
may cause some pain or headaches, it does not permanently damage eyesight. Another myth
about eyes is that they can be replaced, or transferred from one person to another. There are
close to one million nerve fibers that connect the eyeball to the brain, as of yet it is
impossible to attach them all in a new person. Only certain parts of the eye can be replaced.
But if we keep clearing up the myths and learning more about the eyes, some day a full
transplant may be possible.

26. What does the speaker want to tell us about eyesight?
27. What do studies about wearing the wrong glasses show?
28. What do we learn about eye transplanting from the talk?

Passage Two

When people care for an elderly relative, they often do not use available community services

such as adult daycare centers. If the caregivers are adult children, they are more likely to use
such services, especially because they often have jobs and other responsibilities. In contrast,
a spouse usually the wife, is much less likely to use support services or to put the dependent
person in a nursing home. Social workers discover that the wife normally tries to take care
of her husband herself for as long as she can in order not to use up their life savings.
Researchers have found that caring for the elderly can be a very positive experience. The
elderly appreciated the care and attention they received. They were affectionate and
cooperative. However, even when care giving is satisfying, it is hard work. Social workers
and experts on aging offer caregivers and potential caregivers help when arranging for the
care of an elderly relative. One consideration is to ask parents what they want before they
become sick or dependent. Perhaps they prefer going into a nursing home and can select one
in advance. On the other hand, they may want to live with their adult children. Caregivers
must also learn to state their needs and opinions clearly and ask for help from others
especially brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters are often willing to help, but they may
not know what to do

29. Why are adult children more likely to use community services to help care for elderly
parents?
30. Why are most wives unwilling to put their dependent husbands into nursing homes?
31. According to the passage, what must caregivers learn to do?

Passage Three

Since a union representative visited our company to inform us about our rights and
protections. My coworkers have been worrying about health conditions and complaining
about safety hazards in the workplace. Several of the employees in the computer department,
for example, claim to be developing vision problems from having to stare at a video display
terminal for about 7 hours a day. The supervisor of the laboratory is beginning to get
headaches and dizzy spells because she says it’s dangerous to breathe some of the chemical
smoke there. An X-ray technician is refusing to do her job until the firm agrees to replace its
out-dated equipment. She insists that it’s exposing workers to unnecessarily high doses of
radiation. She thinks that she may have to contact the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration and asked that government agency to inspect the department. I’ve heard
that at a factory in the area two pregnant women who were working with paint requested a
transfer to a safer department, because they wanted to prevent damage to their unborn
babies. The supervisor of personnel refused the request. In another firm the workers were
constantly complaining about the malfunctioning heating system, but the owners was too
busy or too mean to do anything about it. Finally, they all met and agree to wear ski- clothing
to work the next day. The owner was too embarrassed to talk to his employees. But he had
the heating system replaced right away.

32 What does the talk focus on?
33 What did the X-ray technician ask her company to do?
34 What does the speaker say about the two pregnant women working with paint?

35 Why did the workers in the firm wear ski-clothing to work?

Section C
Contrary to the old warning that time waits for no one, time slows down when you are on the
move. It also slows down more as you move faster, which means astronauts some day may
survive so long in space that they would return to an Earth of the distant future. If you could
move at the speed of light, your time would stand still, if you could move faster than light,
your time would move backward.

Although no form of matter yet discovered, moves as fast as or faster than light, scientific
experiments have already confirmed that accelerated motion causes a traveler’s time to be
stretched. Albert Einstein predicted this in 1905, when he introduced the concept of relative
time as part of his Special Theory of Relativity. A search is now under way to confirm the
suspected existence of particles of matter that move at a speed greater than light. And
therefore, might serve as our passports to the past. An obsession with time—saving, gaming,
wasting, losing and mastering it—seems to have been part of humanity for as long as human
have existed. Humanity also has been obsessed with trying to capture the meaning of time.
Einstein used a definition of time for experimental purposes, as that which is measured by a
clock. Thus time and time’s relativity are measurable by any hour glass, alarm clock, or
atomic clock that can measure a billionth of a second.