英语四级听力

英语四级听力 61.When you wish to give someone a gift it is always good to remember some of the basic rules. ___S1___ the age and sex and the length of your acquaintance as well as the ___S2___. You should know when it is ___S3___ right to give a gift of money, and when it would be ___S4___. In any case, when you receive a present, don?t ___S5___ to send a thank-you note as soon as ___S6___ can. Often people like to take with them a gift for the host?s wife of a party they have been invited to. This can be something just for the host?s wife, or something for the party, like ___S7___ or fruits, things which all may enjoy. ______________________ _______________________________S8__________________ ____________________________. Again, you may choose something for the host?s wife alone or for the entire family. Sometimes it is not possible to return a favor as you would like to. _______ __________________S9_______________________________ __________________________________________. Weddings are times when gifts of money are greatly appreciated and quite acceptable. _________________________________________ ____S10__________________________________. 62. Anyone who has been in a ___S1___ country, not knowing he ___S2___, will appreciate this story, which has been ___S3___ many times in Mexico. A very shy man from Mexico once had to make a ___S4___ trip to the United States, but he knew no English. Upon his ___S5___, he told one of his friends that the bad part of his trip was that he ___S6___ nothing but coffee and ___S7___ for the entire five days. “Why?” asked the friend. “That?s all I knew.” “Didn?t you try?” ___________________________________S8______________ _______________ __________________________, „I?ll have a steak.? They brought him steak, potatoes, vegetables, and everything. _________________________S9___________________ She answered, going 100 kilometers per hour, “Would you like rib steak? T-bone? Porterhouse? You want it rare? Medium? A baked potato? French fries? What will you have?” __________________S10_______________________________ __ 63. Well, I ___S1___ a small branch of a large ___S2___, and we lose a lot of money through shoplifting. I have to try to ___S3___ it or else I?ll lose all my ___S4___. A lot of shoplifting is done by young people, ___S5___ in groups. They do it for fun. They?re not ___S6___ so we have to make it difficult for them. Obviously a supermarket can?t have chains or ___S7___ on the goods, so we have store detectives, who walk around like ordinary shoppers, otherwise they?ll be recognized. We have big signs up, saying “ shoplifters will be prosecuted,” but that doesn?t help much. ______________________________S8_____________________________ _, or else the shoplifters will walk straight out with things. ____________________S9_______ _______________________. We also use closed-circuit television, but that?s expensive. _____________________________________________S10___________ __________________, but it has to be done, otherwise shoplifting itself will make all the prices much higher, and the public doesn?t what that! 64. In 1984, Sade leapt to fame with the release of her debut single you love is king, which went straight into the British Top Ten charts, and debut ___S1___ diamond life, which stayed in the UK charts for 98 weeks and was the biggest selling debut album by a British ___S2___ singer. Her music was played everywhere, her face appeared on ___S3___ magazine covers, and she was hounded by the ___S4___. But just over a ___S5___ later, the picture has changed ___S6___, and Sade?s “diamond life”, in Britain at least, is over. Her fourth album love deluxe, released in 1992, sold only a ___S7___ of her first two albums diamond life and promise (1985), and was criticized by some as being too like her previous albums. Towards the end of last year, the Best of Sade was released, whose sales, again, are far less that those of her first two albums. So why have Sade?s UK fans deserted her? Between her third album Stronger Than Pride (1988) and love deluxe, there was a gap of four ears. _______________ ______________________________S8___________________ ____________________________________. Then there is her music. Her style is restrained and understated. It suited perfectly the 80s but is now clearly out of fashion in the 90s. Sade doesn?t seem too worried by her now fickle British supporters for two good reasons. Firstly, she is still hugely popular throughout the world. ______________ ________________S9_________________________________ ______. Secondly, she is a very private person. __________________________________ ___S10________________________. From her north London house, she can come and go as she pleases. “People here are indifferent to me now and I enjoy that indifference,” she says. Sade herself is not clear as to why her UK fans stopped buying her albums. 65. Helen was a student at a university. She was studying English. She was a clever girl, and she was also very good at sports and games. Her best sport was ___S1___ the javelin, and she always won a prize for that at ___S2___ games. Helen?s best friend was called Mary. She went to the same classes as Helen, and she was a very good ___S3___. The two girls often went out together in the evenings. One evening they went to practice their sports in the university grounds, and when they had finished, they ___S4___ part of the way home together, but at one corner they had to say goodbye, because their homes were in different ___S5___ “Be careful on your way home,” Mary said to Helen. “ I would be happier if our houses were nearer.” “Me too,” answered Helen. The streets were very ___S6___ at that time of the evening. The next morning Helen and Mary met at an English class, and Helen said ___ tome after I left you yesterday to Mary, “do you know what ___S7 evening?” “No,” answered Mary anxiously. “What happened to you?” “Well,” Helen said, “_______________________________________S8__________ ___________________ ______________________________________________.” “I wish I?d been there,” Mary said angrily. “________________________S9_________________________ ________. But what are you going to do now? Have you been to the police?” “No,” Helen answered with a smile. “Why not?” Mary asked in surprise. “Because,” Helen said, “ ___________________S10__________________________ _____________________. I caught a chain which he was wearing round his neck and pulled it off him. My necklace was a plastic one.” 66. We arranged that Kissinger would fly to Vietnam for consultations early in July and then stop in Pakistan on the way back. There he would develop a ___S1___ that would require him to stay in bed and not be seen by the ___S2___. Then, with President Yahya?s ___S3___, he would be taken to an ___S4___ where a Pakistan jet would fly him over the ___S5___ to China. Kissinger?s trip was given the ___S6___ name Polo after Marco Polo, another Western ___S7___ who made history by journeying to China. Everything went without a hitch. His indisposition in Islamabad received only minor attention from reporters covering him. _____________________S8__________________________ ______________________________________________. Because of the need for complete secrecy and the lack of any direct communication facilities between Beijing and Washington, I knew that we would have no word from Kissinger while he was in china. _____________________ _____S9_________________________, so before Kissinger left, we agreed on a single code word — Eureka — ___________________S10___________________ ____________________. On July 11, A1 Haig, who knew our code word, phoned me to say that a cable from Kissinger had arrived. “What?s the message?” I asked. “Eureka,” he replied. 67. James wrote a play for television, about an immigrant family who came to England from Pakistan, and the problems they had settling down in England. The play was ___S1___ successful, and it was bought by an American TV ___S2___. James was invited to go to New York to help with the ___S3___. He lived in Dulwich, which is an hour?s ___S4___ away from Heathrow Airport. The flight was ___S5___ to leave at 8:30 a.m., so he had been at the ___S6___ about 7:30 in the morning. He ___S7___ a mini-cab for 6:30, set his alarm for 5:45, and went to sleep. Unfortunately he forgot to wind the clock, and it stopped shortly after midnight. Also the driver of the mini-cab had to work very late that night and overslept. James woke with that awful feeling that something was wrong. He looked at his alarm clock. It stood there silently, with the hands pointing to ten past twelve. __________________________S8________________________ ________. He swore quietly and switched on the electric kettle. ______________________________________S9______________ ____________________ ___. The announcer began to read the news …. Reports are coming in of a crash near Heathrow Airport. A Boeing 707 bound for New York crashed shortly after taking off this morning. Flight number 2234… James turned pale. ______________________S10_______________________ 68. Mr. And Mrs. Brown was going ___S1___ for their holiday. They had a dog called Blackie which they were very ___S2___ of, but they could not take him abroad with them, so they looked for a good place to ___S3___ him while they were away, and at last found a place which looked after dogs very well while their ___S4___ were away. They took Blackie there just before they left for their holiday, and sadly said goodbye to him. At the end of their holiday, they got back to ___S5___ very late at night, and as they thought that the place where Blackie was staying might be closed at that late hour, they ___S6___ to wait until the next morning before going to get him.? So the next morning Mr. Brown got into his car and drove off happily to ___S7___ Blackie. When he reached home with the dog, he said to his wife. “___________________________S8______________________ __________________. He barked all the way home in the car as if he wanted to tell me something.” ________________________S9_________________________ _______________. He was certainly trying to tell you something. But he wasn?t trying to tell you that he hadn?t enjoy his stay at that place. _______________________S10______________ _____________________________. 69. Thousands of people like to shop at large store. Mrs. Swift is not one of them. She dislikes shopping at ___S1___ stores; she cannot stand supermarkets. ___S2___ she goes up to the West End for a shopping ___S3___ at one of the big department stores. But for her everyday needs she uses the ___S4___ shops. How do these independent shops ___S5___ in competition with the big stores? Well, quite a few of the smaller ones do not. It is particularly hard on small shops such as ___S6___, grocer?s and greengrocer?s, because the recent growth of supermarkets has taken away some of their ___S7___. Many housewives prefer to do all their shopping in one store instead of going from one shop to another. ____________________________S8_____________________ ____________________________. This is because their turnover is so large that they can be satisfied with a lower mark-up. So, to survive, _____________________________________________________ _________________S9__________________________________________________ ________________ They gossip about prices, about the weather, their children, their neighbours? children; seldom about anything important. ____________________ __________________________________. 70. What do I like about my job? Money. M-O-N-E-Y. No, I like the ___S1___, and I like my ___S2___. All my tools are like ___S3___ to me ― you know, my ___S4___, pens and ink, colored pencils, ___S5___ table ― I love playing with them. And I have lots of different kinds of ___S6___ ― I do magazines, book covers, ___S7___ covers, newspaper articles ― so there's lots of variety, which I like. ____________________________S8______________________ _________________________________________________________ ― what some people call a flow experience. _____________________________S9_______________________ _______________. You?re always working against a tight deadline. And I don't like the business end of it ― _________________________S10______________________________ _________________. Passage71 In America, self-improvement is a national ___S1___. Every year, more and more Americans spend their ___S2___ time trying to improve themselves one way or another. One popular form of self-improvement is the search for ___S3___ fitness. Thousands of Americans who never ___S4___ are now out on the streets jogging in ___S5___ running suits and expensive sneaker. They ___S6___ of how many miles they run each day and of how many ___S7___ they lose each week. Others are turning to swimming, tennis, dance, and the martial arts to improve their physical fitness. _________________________________S8___________________ ____________________________________________. They are seeking to improve themselves by finding peace and tranquility. Adult education is another form of self-improvement. _________________S9________________________________ ___________. There they can study a variety of subjects. Often these people are preparing to return to the job market trying to qualify themselves for better fobs. ___________________________S10______________________ _________________. A secretary might return to study accounting. Some retired people go back for the education they missed t an earlier age. Passage72 One day a house cat ___S1___ a mouse across the floor. The mouse ran as fast as he could and ___S2___ escaped into his hole in the ___S3___ of the room. Safe in his hole, the mouse wiped his ___S4___ and said, “ I didn?t know they had a new cat. Boy, he is fast!” While he thought about how he got away from the new cat, the mouse ___S5___ very proud of himself. “I?m really a very clever ___S6___, if I have to say so myself,” he said. “No at is as clever as I am!” Just then he heard, “arf! Arf!” And the ___S7___ of the cat out in the living room. The mouse jumped for joy. “Oh boy! Oh boy!” he exclaimed. “_______________S8_______________________________” The mouse scampered out of his hole into the room and looked, but he did not see the dog or the cat. Then, all of a sudden, WHAM! Something came from behind and slammed down on his tail. ______________S9___________________________ “Oh no!” he said, as he looked up into the piercing eyes of the cat. “How can this be? I heard the bark and the scream, and I thought the dog…” ____________________S10_______________________________ _____ Passage73 If you have ___S1___ taken the Cambridge First Certificate examination or you are in an advanced class, you may be thinking about ___S2___ the Cambridge Advanced Exam, the CAE. It is a ___S3___ new exam and a lot of people are not sure about what it ___S4___. The CAE is the Certificate in advanced English set by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). It is ___S5___ twice a year, in December and June, at UCLES examination ___S6___ around the world. It is a high level exam which has become ___S7___ popular since it was introduced in 1991. the level is much higher than First Certificate (FCE) but not as high as Proficiency (CPE). Because it is only four years old, it is quite different from FCE and CPE, both in its aims and in its format. One of the reasons that the exam has become popular is the fact that it is very practical.______________________________S8_____________ __________________________________________________. If you are at advanced level and you are trying to decide between the advanced and Proficiency exams, then you should consider your own attitude to English and your future ambitions. ________________________________________________ _________S9__________________________________but if you plan to use English for work or study and you are more interested in what you can do with English rather that in English for its own sake, you will find CAE more relevant to your needs. _______________________S10__________________________ _____________. Passage74 The thanksgiving Holiday is a day for Americans to give thanks to God, their families and friends for all the good things that have happened in the past year. Very early settlers to America ___S1___ of thanksgiving. But most Americans ___S2___ the first Thanksgiving Day to a group of people called Pilgrims. They arrived in ___S3___. Soon more than half had died of ___S4___ or lack of food. In the autumn of 1621, those who ___S5___ held a day of thanksgiving. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native American Indians, who showed them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims ___S6___for three days. About 19 Indians joined the ___S7___. They ate ducks, geese, deer and turkeys. The modern holiday of Thanksgiving is the result of the efforts of Sarah Hale. She was a writer and editor in the nineteenth century. She believed all Americans should give thanks on the same day. Sarah Hale.________________________________ ____S8___________________________Finally President Abraham Lincoln approved her idea. In 1863 he proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. _______________________S9__________________________ ___. Today friends and family members may travel thousands of kilometers to be together for Thanksgiving. ___________________S10_________________________. Almost everyone, however, tries to do what the Pilgrims did. They have a feast. America's traditional Thanksgiving Day foods are some of the same ones the Pilgrims ate ― turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Passage 75 The year was 1932. Amelia Earhart was flying ___S1___from North America to England in a small ___S2___ airplane. At midnight, several hours after she had left Newfoundland, she ran into bad weather. To make things ___S3___, her altimeter failed and she didn?t know how ___S4___ she was flying. At night, and in a ___S5___, a pilot is in great difficulty without an altimeter. At times, her plane nearly ___S6___ into the sea. Just before daylight, there was ___S7___ trouble. Amelia noticed flames coming from the engine. Would she be able to reach land? There was nothing to do except to keep going and to hope. In the end, Amelia Earhart did reach Ireland,__________________________ ___S8______________________When she returned to the United States, she was honored by President Hoover at a special dinner in the White House From that time on, Amelia Earhart was famous. What was so important about her flight? _________________________________ ______________S9______________________________________ ____ In the years that followed, Amelia Earhart made several flights across the United States, and on each occasion she set a new record for flying time. ____________________S10_____________________________ _______________. Passage76 The Swiss-run ICRC looks after the sick, ___S1___ lost children, visits ___S2___, helps mine victims, ___S3___ the hungry and saves lives in the ___S4___ of emergencies from east Zaire, Rwanda and Somalia to ex-Yugoslavia, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Increasingly, the ICRC?s work ___S5___ more a coping with emergencies. It also ___S6___ long-term help such as in Rwanda where it helped to build new prisons to ___S7___ the suffering of 90, 000 Hutu suspects of the 1994 genocide in overcrowded jails. The ICRC, with more than 8, 000 workers, ______________S8_______________ _____________________________________________________ A Red Cross leaflet for fighters in war zones reads: _______________________ __________________________S9_______________________ _______________ The Red Cross concept of humanitarian service was founded in 1863 by a young Geneva businessman. Henry Dunant, _______________________________________ __________S10_________________________________________ _____ This became the founding organization of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Passage77 A miser, to make sure of his___S1___, sold all that he had and ___S2___ it into a great lump of gold, which he hid in a ___S3___ in the ground, and went ___S4___ to visit and inspect it. This roused the ___S5___ of one of his workmen, who, suspecting that there was a ___S6___, when his master?s back was turned, went to the ___S7___, and stole it away. ____________________________S8_____________________ _______________. But a neighbor who saw him in this extravagant grief, and learned the cause of it, said, “Fret thyself no longer, _____________________S9____________________ _________, for, as you never meant to use it, the one will do you as much good as the other.” ____________________S10_____________________ Passage78 Any visitor to heart of England would do well to start in the Sevem Valley in Shropshire. The valley was ___S1___ out by the River Sevem, which ___S1___ from its source in Wale through the counties of Shroshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in England, before ___S3___ the sea in the Bristol Channel. The Sevem Valley has a number of claims to ___S4___, but two come to mind ___S6___: its river is Britain?s most well-known ___S7___ after the Thames and the country?s Industrial Revolution began in its Irongridge Gorge, where today you can find the award winning Ironbridge Gorge Museum. ________________________ __________________________S8_______________________ __________________. And, of course, there is Iron Bridge itself, the first iron bridge ever built. Shropshire?s main town is Shrewsbury, ______________________________ __________________________S9_______________________ __________________________________ It also has some of the country?s best walks as well as two abbeys: Shrewsbury Abbey founded in 1083 and Haughmond Abbey, founded in about 1135. Passage 79 Christopher Columbus was first and ___S1___ a sailor. He was born and ___S2___ in Genoa, one of the oldest European seafaring ___S3___, as a youth he made several voyages in the ___S4___. At the age of twenty-four, by a lucky chance, he was ___S5___ into Lisbon, center of European oceanic ___S6___. There, while employed partly in making ___S7___ and partly on long voyages under the Portuguese flag, he conceived the great enterprise that few but a sailor would have planned, and none but a sailor could have executed. His idea was to reach “The Indias” ― Eastern Asia ― by sailing west. ___________________________ __________________________S8_______________________ __________________. America was discovered by Columbus purely by accident and was named for another man. _________________________________S9________________ _____________ __________________. Yet we re right in so honoring him, for he had the persistence, the knowledge,___________________________________________ _____________ _____________________________S10____________________ __________________ ______________. Passage80 Technically, any substance other than food that ___S1___ our bodily or mental functioning is a drug. Many people mistakenly believe the ___S2___ “drug” refers only to some sort of ___S3___ or an illegal chemical taken by drug ___S4___. They don?t realize that familiar ___ and tobacco are also drugs. This is why the substances such as ___S5 more neutral term “substance” is now used by many physicians and ___S6_______ The phrase “substance abuse” is often used ___S7___ of “drug abuse” to make clear that substances such as alcohol and tobacco can be just as harmfully misused as heroin and cocaine. ________________________________S8_________________ _______________ _______; an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves. ____________________S9________ ________________________________? First of all, most substances taken in excess will produce negative effects such as poisoning or intense perceptual distortions. Repeated use of a substance can also lead to physical addiction or substance dependence. ______________________________S10___________________ _____ _____________________________________ and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80.