英语周报：2008年12月四级听力模拟试题(十一)

　　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

　　North Korea's famine, poverty and other problems have brought the nation's health care system close to collapsing and sharply boosted the mortality rates. The U. N.’s top health official talked with reporters in Beijing about her trip to North Korea in the last week.

　　The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, says malaria has infected up to 300, 000 North Koreans, with tuberculosis striking tens of thousands more. And North Korean medical facilities do not have the means to treat many of the infected.

　　Dr. Brundtland brought a delivery of medication to North Korea that will make it possible to treat thousands of victims.

　　Malaria was once nearly eliminated in North Korea, but years of famine, natural disasters, and economic mismanagement have allowed the scourge to reappear in South Korea.

　　Dr. Brundtland says the diseases are one reason the death rate for North Koreans has risen about 35 percent in recent years.

　　The U. N. health chief urged North Korea's foreign and health ministers to spend more money on health care, but acknowledged the international community will have to step in with millions of dollars to make a difference. "These are not overdone appeals and it is in no way more than needed, so that is a challenge," she said.

　　During her trip to North Korea, Dr. Brundtland opened the U. N. World Health Organization's first permanent office in Pyongyang.

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. What kind of disease has reappeared in North Korea?

　　27. Which has not been mentioned in this passage as having a bad effect on North Korea's health care system?

　　28. Which of the following statements is not true according to the passage?

　　Passage Two

　　In sports, the sexes are separate, because women are weaker than men. That is what people say. Women are called "the weaker sex," or, if men want to please them, "the fair sex.” But boys and girls are taught together at schools and universities. There are women who are famous Prime Ministers, scientists and writers. And women live longer than men. A European woman can expect to live until the age of seventy-four, and a man, only until he is sixty-eight. Are women's bodies really weaker? .

　　The fastest men can run a mile in under four minutes. The best women need four and a half minutes. Women's times are always slower than men's, but some facts are a surprise. Some of the fastest women swimmers today are teenage girls. This does not mean that women are catching up with men. Conditions are very different now, and sports have become much more serious. It is so serious that some women athletes are given hormone injections. At the Olympics, a doctor has to check whether the women athletes are really women or not. It seems sad that sports have such problems. Life can be very complicated when there are two separate sexes! .

　　Questions 29 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29. Why are women called "the weaker sex"?

　　30. According to the passage, what do men mean when they call women “the fair sex” ?

　　31. Who are the fastest women swimmers?

　　32. What does the author really think of the Olympics?

　　Passage Three

　　In the history of the human race, the use of prisons as punishment for crimes is of fairly recent origin. A long time ago, prisons were merely places of preliminary detention. People were locked up in them to wait for torture, death, or other cruel punishment. In the late Middle Ages, the people of Europe became angry about the cruelties of that system and protested. Therefore, less cruel techniques of punishment were used. For example, people were sent away from their country and were never allowed to come back, or they were kept in prison.

　　The early settlers of America brought with them the idea of isolating prisoners. They could not see or talk to each other and could only read and exercise by themselves. After a long isolation, the prisoners could be released because they would not commit any more crimes. The Walnu Street Jail in America operated on this idea. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, however, a religious group stopped that system.