大学体验英语听说教程4(第二版)文本

Unit 8 Examination Listening task 1 At first, fifth-grader Edward Lynch didn’t pay much attention to his teacher’s warnings about the big tests the class would take at the end of the school year. But two weeks before North Carolina’s first-ever elementary-promotion exams, Edward says he’s scared. He’s a B student but an erratic test taker. “The other night I had a dream my books were squishing me and my pencils were stabbing me,”says the 11-year-old. His classmate West Bullock says, “I have friends who throw up the night before tests.” Their teacher, Kelly Allen, worries that half of her 21 students are at risk of failing next week’s multiple-choice tests on math and reading. If they fail, they won’t be able to graduate to middle school. In 1996 the state of North Carolina launched its ABCs testing program, a carrot-and-stick approach that holds schools responsible for their students’educational progress. Over the next four years, scores on statewide tests rose 14%. But critics of the program say the cost has been high, in ways that range from stomachaches to insomnia and depression. Schools, also, are sacrificing important lessons in science, social studies and foreign languages to focus on concepts that will be tested. Thus the harmful practices such as retention in grade and tracking are encouraged. High school biology students no longer dissect frogs. A history teacher doesn’t assign research papers because they don’t help him prepare students for state-mandated tests. Lisa, a mother of a struggling fifth-grader said. “If they have kids with straight A’s, they think it’s fine, but I think there’s too much pressure with this pass-fail system.”She views the accountability system as a social experiment whose outcome is not yet known. Listening task 2 No one wants to be tested. We would all like to get a driver’s license without answering questions about right of way or showing that we can parallel park a car. Many future lawyers and doctors probably wish they could join their profession without taking an exam. But tests and standards are a necessary fact of life. They protect us—most of the time—from inept drivers, hazardous products and shoddy professionals. In schools, too, exams play a constructive role. They tell teachers what their students have learned—and have not. They tell parents how their children are doing compared with others their age. They encourage students to exert more effort. Therefore, formal testing has its place in the overall scope of education. The test data can be very useful in making decisions for the upcoming school year as well as for long term planning. Besides, the parents need accountability to themselves. Welcome the opportunity to discover their child’s strengths and weaknesses and to ascertain needs that should be addressed or pieces that are missing in the student’s academic training. However, all tests have a margin of error. Several factors will affect tests scores, including rapport established with examiner, health of students, lack of sleep the night before, temperature of testing room, attention span, and many other variables. In other words, don’t fall apart if the scores aren’t what you think they should have been. They are just test scores and tests are not infallible. Real World Listening K: The SAT and ACT are two standardized tests that are almost mandatory or compulsory for college admittance. These tests predict how well you will do in your first year of college. SAT is used by colleges as part of their admission criteria. Q: How do I choose which one to take? K: The SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) generally tests your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The SAT I is a three-hour exam that measures verbal and math reasoning skills. Scores on each section range from 200-800points. The SAT II consists of more than 20 subject area—or achievement—tests designed to measure subject-area knowledge. The ACT (American College Testing Program) is more content oriented. It is designed to measure achievement in English, math, reading, and science. Scores for each section are averaged to create a composite score. A perfect score on thr ACT Assessment is 36. Q: Now, I am preparing myself for a graduate degree, what test should I take? K: For students interested in pursuing a graduate or professional degree, the most common of these standardized tests are GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT. Q: Could you tell more me about the GRE and GMAT? K: The General GRE (Graduate Record Exam) Test is a test on verbal, quantitative, and analytical abilities intended for applicants to graduate schools. In addition to the General Test, the GRE includes subject area tests in 16 different fields. The General Test is available in paper-and computer-based forms. The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is required for admission to most business schools in the United States. It includes multiple-choice questions and a writing section. The GMAT results in four scores: verbal, quantitative, total, and analytical writing. The test is also available in paper-and computer-adaptive forms. Unit 9 Entertainment Listening task 1 When I heard I was nominated I went into shock. I just stood there staring, fantasizing about the glitterati of the film world and then this little tear appeared. Everybody assumes that the Academy pays for everything, but they don’t. Luckily, some guy from Balloch wrote to Continental Airlines and said how about helping this girl, so I got free flights. Adobe paid for my hotel and the film school helped me to buy things like shoes and travel insurance. I traveled in San Francisco last Saturday, with all the nominees in my category. We spent the week doing a road trip around all the major animation studios. No matter who wins we’ll be happy. I’ve met the head of DreamWorks and Nick Park, who is so sweet. I definitely see avenues opening up for me with the big studios. I’m not saying there is job offer, but they’re all interested and want to meet up again. I don’t feel like an Oscar nominee, I feel like I’m on holiday. I saw the red carpet being rolled out at the Kodak Theatre yesterday and it really hit home. Now I’m ironing the creases out of my dress, and I’m like, “My God, I’m going to the Oscars!”Hollywood is a really strange place—people’s dogs wear better frocks than I do! But once I’m on the red carpet, I’ll pose for the cameras. Oscar night is the world’s greatest wrap party. God, I was so nervous in the limo! When we arrived the crowds were going nuts. We stepped out on to the carpet and it was like a sea of photographers and people, everywhere you looked—an amazing sight. We walked in right beside Keanu Reeves and George Clooney! It was a brilliant experience to be sitting in the same room as Tim Burton and all these amazing people. We didn’t go to the Vanity Fair party, where all the celebrities go, because you can only get in with an Oscar-winner. So we drove around in the limo for a while, and then called it a night. Listening task 2 George Miller’s new movie Happy Feet is the story of the Emperor penguins’ quest to find true love through singing, and one unique penguin, Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood, danced by Savion Glover), who shows his deepest feelings through his feet. The movie also illustrates the important effect humans have on wildlife all across the globe. This musical extravaganza is a toe tapping good time in theatres and an even more spectacular experience in IMAX. The film stars the voices of Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brittany Murphy, and Robin Williams, and the feet of a renowned tap dancer Savion Glover. As for the inspiration to do the movie, George Miller recalled: “I saw a wonderful documentary about eight years ago called Life in the Freezer, which was made by National Geographic and the BBC. I saw how amazing the Emperor penguins were, and how they survived. When I also heard they sang to each other to find a mate and make an egg, I thought that they live such extraordinary lives in such a magnificent landscape; it would be a wonderful story to tell. It eventually evolved into a musical where one of the penguins couldn’t sing, so he goes to a remedial teacher who asks him to look inside himself to bring out his deepest feelings, which comes out as tap-dancing. That led to the story of Happy Feet.” Real World Listening Sam: What sort of preparation did you do to learn how penguins act? Miller: We had a penguin expert named Dr. Gary Miller, the world’s leading authority on penguins. He spent 17 years in Antarctica, and then we had enormous amounts of documentary footage. Everybody who worked on the film went to a kind of penguin school to learn everything there was to know about penguins. Sam: Did all of the actors record the voices together? Miller: Normally in animation the actors are not together. But in this case I made sure they were all together so they could work off each other, and that made it much more spontaneous and alive. Sam: How hard was it for them to act in a sound booth rather than using their body to show emotion? Miller: That’s a good question. They in fact used their bodies a lot; we just don’t get to see it. Sam: Did you animate first, or record the voices? Miller: In all animation you start with the voices and then you animate to that. Just as you record songs first and then you animate after that. Sam: What effect do you think watching the movie in IMAX format adds? Miller: It’ll be amazing because the IMAX screen is ten times bigger than a regular screen in a movie theatre, and the sound is so much more amazing. In a movie like Happy Feet, where you have hundreds of thousands of penguins and the most amazing landscape you could ever imagine, and to see it on IMAX on such screen is amazing. Sam: What do you think is the main lesson you want kids to learn from the movie? Miller: That it’s okay to be different and to be true to yourself. Sam: What is your favorite aspect of film making? Miller: The writing, of the films. It’s the most difficult part, to write the stories. Sam: What do you think this movie teaches kids about environment? Miller: It teaches us that no matter who we are, the planet is our home. Even some place that seems a long way away, like Antarctica, is part of our home and we have to look after our home. If you don’t pay attention to it, it all just crumbles away. Unit 10 Work Listening task 1 The era of guaranteed jobs is history. These days, no matter what our official employment status, we are all temporary workers. Whether we have conventional full-time jobs or we are just contract workers, we are all living and working in TempWorld. In TempWorld everything shifts rapidly. Nothing is forever, everything is temporary: where you work, what you do there, the skiklls you use, the people you work with. In this fast-shifting world, there can be no guarantees attached to any particular job. But there is much that you can do to protect yourself from change, by equipping yourself with the skills to manage your career more effectively. You need to become a career activist. Being a career activist means stepping back from the frenzy of daily business to reflect on what you are doing, why you are doing it, and whether it meets your short-and long-term needs. It means taking the long view of your career. In TempWorld you must withstand disappointment, juggle stressful situations, and handle pressure with perseverance. You must learn from your setbacks and use them to your advantage in the future. Successful people treat things that didn’t go well in an honest way. Listening task 2 A difficult or abusive boss can poison the best of jobs. But you are not powerless. Before you even consider quitting, try the boss-taming strategies below. CHANGE YOUR OWN WAYS Few people are randomly violent. They blow up on particular occasions over particular issues. Track your boss’s patterns, then eliminate the triggers within your control. For example, if one of your coworkers manages your boss’s moods skillfully, ask him what you could be doing more effectively, then borrow a few of his moves. STAY COOL UNDER FIRE Respond to the content of your boss’s criticism and accusation, not the curses. Whatever you do, don’t cower, stammer or apologize. Some people get off on treating others brutally, and passively make you a target. Respond confidently: Say “I’d like to put together a report that will satisfy you. Let’s discuss how I can make that happen.” USE CONSTRUCTIVE CONFRONTATION Your boss may be more willing to change his behavior than you think. Some managers don’t realize how much their words or actions upset staffers. Tell him how his outbursts make you feel. Say, for example, “When you call me names and criticize my work in meetings I feel embarrassed. Please address me respectfully and take me aside to discuss criticism in private.” If he values your work, he may stop his abusiveness. APPEAL TO A HIGHER AUTHORITY If your boss becomes intolerably abusive, you may have to go above his head to your personnel department or senior manager. But before you take this course, carefully ask coworkers if they’ve clashed with your boss in the past. Ideally, they will back you up and permit you to mention their names when you make your charges. Make it clear that you want to improve the situation, not punish your boss. If discipline is what he needs, let the higher-ups make that call. Real World Listening Hans: Dr. Corliss, is it true that there is more stress in today’s society than in years past? Dr. Corliss: People often ask me that question, sometimes comparing our lives with that of the cave man—who didn’t have to worry about the stock market or nuclear weapons. They forget that the cave man worried about being eaten by a bear while he was asleep, or about dying of hunger. I doubt whether modern man experiences more distress than his ancestors. It’s not that people suffer more stress today: it’s just that they think they do. Hans: But isn’t everybody subject to stress? Dr. Corliss: That’s right. Everybody thinks he or she is under the greatest stress. The truth is that everybody actually is under stress because if you really managed to avoid stress completely, you would be dead. Hans: Then stress is a normal state of affairs? Dr. Corliss: Yes. Whenever anyone experiences something unpleasant, they say they are under stress. Yet there is such a thing as pleasant stress—as in the case of the Olympic winner at the moment of his glory. Hans: What are the most frequent causes of stress? Dr. Corliss: One cannot generalize. They differ in various civilizations and historical time periods. One of the main problems for youngsters these days is that they have no motivation. No wind blows in favor of the ship that has no port of destination. Hans: How can people cope with stress? Dr. Corliss: To some extent, stress emerges when demands cannot be met. My suggestion is that people should break large demands into small, manageable parts and then work through one task at a time. For most people, it is a matter of learning how to live, how to behave in various situations