Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage one
An American study found, on average, a child watches between four and five hours of television each weekday, and ten hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was also noted that a typical child watches 25,000 hours of television before his or her 18th birthday. In the life of children, watching television is a significant sensory experience. Many children easily spend more time with the box than they do with any other form of entertainment.
Each year, children read less and less and watch television more and more. In fact, Americans of all ages watch more television each year. The typical child sits in front of the television for about four hours a day, and for children in lower socioeconomic families the amount of time thus spent is even greater. In either case, the child spends more time with TV than he or she spends talking to parents, playing with peers, attending school, or reading books. TV time takes family time, play time, and the reading time that could promote language development.
Watching TV is a passive event. Children and adult, remain completely immobile while watching the box. Most watching experiences, at least among Americans, are both quiet and non-interactive. All attention is given to the images. Just like the operating room light, television creates an environment that assaults and overwhelms the child. A highly active child will remain inactive while watching TV because that is what the medium requires. Tomorrow we shall talk about violence on TV and its effects on children.
Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. What did the study measure?
27. According to the speaker, what are most watching experiences like for a child?
28. How will the lecture change the next day?
Passage Two
In the 21st century, the automobile has become our major source of mass transportation. However, along with this necessity comes the issue of pollution to the environment. Finding an alternative source of energy to power these transportation vehicles is an obvious way of solving this problem.
One of the prominent fueled vehicles yet brought up is the electric car. There are numerous reasons and benefits in choosing an electric vehicle as your mode of transportation. One of the main reasons is electric vehicles are beneficial to the environment. Electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emission. In a recent statement, it was said that electric vehicles may be up to 98 percent cleaner than gasoline powered vehicles, since the emission of these electric vehicles is only water. Another major problem of motor vehicles is the unsafe pollutants in the car that pose environmental risks even after it dies.
However, the lead in the batteries of electric vehicles is in a very stable form and they do not risk contaminating the area. Electric cars, unlike motor vehicles, have no burning motors thus they are noticeably quieter. Also the cost of converting a nice old car into an electric car would cost considerably less than buying new gas powered cars.
Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
29. What is the topic of this passage?
30. According to the speaker, what is the only kind of emission that comes from electric cars?
31. What other problems does the author mention about gas powered motors besides emissions?
Passage Three
Stockbrokers, automobile dealers, mail carriers, insurance and real estate agents---what are their fates? The Internet will eradicate all these middlemen by the millions.
Besides all these middleman-jobs, others that are considered very common and necessary, will disappear in the 21st century. The first is the teacher. Distance learning is becoming more popular through the miracle of online classes and electronic grading. People may never sit in a classroom and face the teacher, listening and taking notes. The only thing they need to do is to find a computer, but not go to school.
The second will be the prison guard. A kind of sensor will be put into prisoners’ brains. The sensor will restrain prisoners from engaging in criminal activity. But now this technology still requires lots of improvements.
The next will be truckers. There will be a kind of “smart” device set on both sides of roads that can enable all computer-driven vehicles to travel point to point at the same high speed, without any accidents.
The printer may disappear, too. Magazines and newspapers will switch to digital paper. More and more people will be familiar with the E-Magazine, E-newspaper, even E-shopping.
In the end, maybe many years later, robots will become very common, like cars. Every family will own various kinds of robots to buy the food, to clean the home, and maybe, to take care of the children. Then, housekeepers can be liberated from housework forever.
Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
32. What will cause millions of middlemen to disappear in the future?
33. According to the passage you heard, how will people study in the future?
34. Why can’t we use the technology to control prisoners’ activities yet?
35. Which job that will disappear in the future is not mentioned in the passage?
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
It is [36] natural for young people to be critical of their parents at times and to blame them for most of the misunderstanding between them. They have always [37] complained, more or less justly, that their parents are out of touch with [38] modern ways; that they are possessive and [39] dominant; that they do not trust their children to deal with crises; that they talk too much about certain problems and that they have[40] no sense of humor, at least in parent-child relationships.
I think it is true that parents often [41] underestimate their teenage children and also forget how they themselves felt when they were young.
Young people often [42] irritate their parents with their choices in clothes and hairstyles, and in [43] entertainers and music. This is not their motive. They feel cut off from the adult world into which they have not yet been accepted. [44] So they create a culture and society of their own. Then, if it turns out that their music, entertainers, vocabulary, clothes or hairstyle irritate their parents, this gives them additional enjoyment. They feel they are superior, at least in a small way, and that they are leaders in style and taste. Sometimes they are resistant, and proud because [45] they do not want their parents to approve of what they do. If they did approve, it looks as if the teenager is assuming that he or she is the underdog. It is natural enough after long years of childhood, when [46] they were completely under their parents’ control. But it ignores the fact that they are now beginning to be responsible for themselves.
英语周报07年12月四级考试听力模拟(八)
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