大学英语四级考试

Part II Listening Comprehension

Section A

Directions:In this section, you will hear three news reports.

At the end of each news report, you will hear two or three questions. 

Both the news report 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 1 with a single line through the centre.

News Item 1

College professor John is stunned and their young son is frantic when wife and mother 

Lara is dragged out in handcuffs, accused of murdering her boss.

Convicted on circumstantial evidence, she is sentenced to life in prison.

Refusing to believe that Lara did it, John pursues every possible appeal, but to no avail.

“Forget that Lara is your wife.Look at the evidence.”

“I've seen the evidence.She is innocent.”

“It doesn't matter what we believe; Lara is not getting out.” 

With only three days before her transfer from the local jail to a high security prison, 

John sets out to break Lara out and reunite their family,even if they have to be on the run.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because we have no other choice.”

Russell Crowe stars as the distraught and determined husband.

“He has obviously got an unshakeable belief in his wife,” explains Crowe, 

“and that transfers into how he researches what he needs to research and then when he hits those 

hurdles and things don't work out properly, the mere fact that he keeps going …the transformation, 

if there is one, is in his persistence.

News Item 2

Indonisia has begun an inquiry into reports of a maid working in Saudi Arabia 

who was killed by her employers and her body dumped by the roadside.Indonisian President Susilo Bambang 

Yudhoyono says the government is also looking into the protection of Indonisians working 

aboard after a stream of cases over the alleged abuse in the Middle East and Malaysia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:

“We will review all the policy regarding Indonisian workers aboard, especially in those countries 

with which we have not signed any memorandum of understanding.There should be a bilateral agreement 

between governments.And also an agreement between employees and their employers.

We already have such an agreement with Malaysia.” 

Police in Thailand say they have now discovered more than two thousand human foetuses

out in a Buddhism temple in Bangkok.The foetuses were found at the temple's mortuary 

and containers normally used for storing bodies awaiting cremation.

They arrested two temple workers and a woman suspected of collecting remains from clinics 

before in unlawful abortions.

News Item 3

 A program in the eastern United States invites young people into a prison to try to scare them away 

from prison.The goal is to teach them to avoid bad choices and bad influences 

that could put them behind bars for life.

Students can take a tour of the prison, in school groups or by themselves.

At the end, the young people sit down for a discussion with some of the inmates.

The program is called Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy, or PATT.

It takes place at the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown, a medium-

security prison for men.Sal Mauriello is a case specialist there.

SAL MAURIELLO: “We have a group of eleven inmates who are in the PATT program.

They tell the youth what they went through as a child, what their crimes consist of.

They try to teach them about peer pressure.They try to teach them about bad choices.”

The Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program also includes an essay-writing contest.

Tomi Dare is a seventeen-year-old student at Hagerstown Community College.She saw an announcement 

for the contest on her college website.To enter, 

students had to write about peer pressure and why they do not do drugs.

The prize: five hundred dollars for school.

In her essay, Ms.Dare wrote about her own experience growing up as an African-American girl 

interested in sports.

TOMI DARE: “Drugs and alcohol not only slow a person down, 

it doesn't make you feel like you are a winner.It doesn't make you feel like you are the best.

As an athlete, I'm 6-2 \[188 centimeters\], so I feel that I should be above peer pressure because 

I'm bigger than everybody that I'm around.

“So I was talking about that and I was talking about how I consider myself a queen.And if I'm royalty, 

I need to not put substances in my body.Drugs and alcohol are not what a queen should be taking.”

Section B  

Directions:In this section, you will hear two long conversations. At the end of each conversation, 

you will hear four questions. Both the conversation 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 1 with a single line through the centre.

Now you'll hear the two long conversations.

Conversation One 

M:Many people are surprised that women are buying more power tools than ever before. 

Do you know how to use them?

W: Yes, I know. I watched some TV programs, looked in books and asked some people. 

I didn't want to spend a lot of money fixing up my dining room.

M: I don't think it is enough.

W: You are so smart. Some DIY stores offer lessons and general advice on home improvement. 

I attended it of course.

M: How did you fix up your dining room?

W: I was stripping the walls and repairing holes in the plaster around the window frames. 

M: If the frames leaked again, how can you fix it?

W: I can buy one of those guns, and seal the outside.

M: It seems that you really can save your money. And the skills are empowering.

W: Ah, thank you! Next month I'm going to tile my own bathroom and lay my own patio. 

I think I have already loved this feeling.

M: What kind of feeling? 

W: I like knowing that I don't have to rely on a man to fix things.

M: Ok, I think you own more tools than the builders.

W: That's great!

Questions8.

Q:What surprised people?

Questions9.

Besides watching some TV programs, looking in books and asking some people, 

what did the woman do in order to fix up her dining room?

Questions10.

What will the woman do if the window frames leaked again?

Questions11.

Q:The woman said she loved the feeling of fixing. What did she mean?

Conversation Two

W: Let me show you how to drink red wine. First thing-hold the glass up and examine the wine againstthe light. 

You're looking for color and clarity. Just get a sense of it.

M: OK, I'm looking for it.

W: That's right. You can check the red wine is thick or thin.  

M: Yes. And to see is it watery or syrupy.

W: Good. Now tip it. What you're doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim.

 That's going to tell you how old it is, among other things. 

It's usually more important with reds. OK?

M: OK.

W: Now stick your nose in it. 

M: Yes?It looks so strange. I don't want to smell the wine by sticking my nose.

W: Don't be shy. Really get your nose right in there. It smells like a little citrus. 

 Or maybe some blue strawberry which is a kind of passion fruit. And there is 

just like the faintest soupcon of asparagus. And here's a flutter of a nutty Edam cheese.

M: It sounds not as easy as I thought. 

W: Wow. Strawberries. Yeah.

M: Not the cheese. 

W: All right. Put your glass down. Get some air into it. Oxygenating it opens it up. 

It unlocks the aromas, the flavors. It is very important. Smell again. 

That's what you do with every one of them. 

M: Wow. When do we drink it?

W: Now.

M: How would you rate this one?

W: Well, usually they start you on wines with learning disabilities but this one is pretty damn good. 

This is the new one. Right?

Questions12

Which is not mentioned in the cnversation?

Questions13

Q:What are the speakers going to do at the first step of looking for red wine's color and clarity? 

Questions14

Q:What does the man say about the smelling the red wine? 

Questions15

Q:When should the people drink red wine?

Section C

Directions:In this section, you will hear three 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 1 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One 

Susan Boyle, the dowdy Scottish spinster who dumbfounded the judges and won-over the audience 

of Britain's Got Talent with her extraordinary singing voice. Ms. Boyle, 48, from Blackburn, 

West Lothian, who is now tipped to win the contest, 

told The Times yesterday that she hopes her story will set an example to the nation.

At the pre-recorded audition, broadcast four days ago, audience members laughed at the frizzy-haired, 

church-going Catholic who looks like a garage and lives alone with her cat in a rundown

council estate when she said she wanted to follow in the footsteps of the West End star Elaine Paige. 

Minutes later the audiences were on their feet, applauding wildly after her soaring rendition of 

I Dreamed a Dream, from Les Miserables. Today, she is a worldwide sensation. 

A clip of her performance from the show has viewed almost 2.5 million times on YouTube, 

and made it on to the news schedules in the United States. 

Her ambition is to see her name in lights in London's West End. “It is early days yet,” 

she says but hints that there may already be a deal in the pipeline. “Baby steps,” she replies, 

when asked if she has had any offers.She believes her age and life experience is her biggest asset: 

“It gives you faith in your abilities,” she said. “I think I am ready for it.”

Questions 16 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard. 

Questions16

Q:Where did Susan Boyle vanquish the audience with her extraordinary singing voice? 

Questions17

Q:What kind of person is Susan Boyle? Which is not correct in the following statement?

Questions18

Q:What kind of person Susan Boyle is after her wonderful performance? 

Questions19

Q:Susan Boyle said she was ready for that, what did she mean?

Passage Two

Droughts do more harm than just parching the land. They can also exacerbate rising carbon dioxide levels, 

government scientists have found. In North America alone, 

human activity—from driving cars to generating power in factories—releases about two billion tons of carbon

in the form of carbon dioxide every year. Natural carbon sinks such as forests, grasslands, 

crops and soil absorb about one-third of those emissions, scientists estimate. 

But droughts seem to hamper the ability of these sinks to suck up the greenhouse gas. 

The data, detailed in a new study in the Nov. 

26 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that in 2002, 

when North America experienced one of the largest droughts in more than a century, 

the amount of carbon taken up by vegetation and soil plunged from 716 million tons to 363 million tons. 

Drought and other variations in a region's climate can change temperatures, rainfall, 

soil moisture and even the length of the growing season in that region. 

If less rain falls and soil moisture drops, plants may wither and die and so take up less carbon dioxide.

The connection between drought and increased carbon dioxide levels isn't unique to North America;

the widespread drought and heat wave that struck Europe in 2003 left more than 500 million extra tons 

of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that year, Carbon Tracker showed. 

This problem could have consequences for efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard. 

Questions20

Q:What have the government scientists found about droughts?

Questions21

Q:According to the scientists' estimate, how much emissions can be absorbed by natural carbon sinks? 

Questions22

Q:What kind of consequence will take place in the end if less rain falls and soil moisture drops?

Passage Three

I get a number of invitations to speak at commencements, which I find a bit puzzling.A practitioner, 

like me, of the dismal science of economics-is not usually the first choice for providing inspiration 

and uplift. I will do my best, though, and in that spirit I will take a more personal 

perspective than usual in my remarks today. 

The business reporters should go get coffee of something, 

because I am not going to say anything about the markets or monetary policy. 

Instead, I'd like to offer a few thoughts today about the inherent unpredictability of our individual

lives and how one might go about dealing with that reality. 

In planning our own individual lives, we all have a strong psychological need to believe that 

we can control, of at least anticipate, much of what will happen to us. 

But the social and physical environments in which we live, and indeed, we ourselves, 

are complex systems, if you will, subject to diverse and unforeseen influences. 

Scientists and mathematicians have discussed the so-called butterfly effect, which holds that, 

in a sufficiently complex system, a small cause—the flapping of 

a butterfly's wings in Brazil—might conceivably have a disproportionately large effect-a typhoon 

in the Pacific.All this is to put a scientific gloss on what you probably know from everyday life or 

from reading good literature: life is much less predictable than we would wish.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard. 

Questions23

Q:At the beginning of the passage, why does the speaker feel a little puzzling?

Questions24

Q:What does the business reporters want to know from speech?

Questions25

Q:How does the speaker prepare the speech at commencements?