高级口译考试听力部分section1 完整听力原文.docx

1、高级口译考试听力部分section1 完整听力原文Today my topic is cultures and traditional holidays.Holiday are special times of respite from work and other routines. In some cases, they are legal holidays when stores, businesses and government offices are officially closed. In other cases, they are celebrated without tak

2、ing time off from work. Holidays are often times for celebration, revelry, eating, drinking, travel, and family gatherings, but they may also be times of rest and reflection. The current trend is away from rest and reflection, Even Mardi Gras, the day before the traditionally reflective period of Le

3、nt, has turned into an entire week of parties, parades and merry-making for those who make the annual pilgrimage to New Orleans, for example.In most cultures the scheduling of holidays originally was related to the seasons, the lunar cycle, and religion, Christmas (December 25) celebrates the birth

4、of Jesus, but it is not actually known whether Jesus was born in the wintertime. The first Roman emperor to espouse Christianity decided to have Christmas when the days are shortest to bring a spirit of optimism to the long winter months. It also helped bring Christianity to the pagans, who were acc

5、ustomed to having festivals at the winter solstice, encouraging warmth and sunshine to return. Over the years Christmas has come to symbolize goodwill and generosity for both Christians and non-Christians through the personification of Santa Claus, originally a Christian saint, known as St,Nicholas.

6、 Nowadays Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is almost as important a global symbol of Christmas as Jesus or Santa and the commercialization of Christmas threatens to replace generosity with greed. Many people forget that the original Christmas gifts were given by the Three Wise Men, all pagans, to Jesu

7、s, a Jewish child born in a manger. All they think of are the gifts they will give or receive, and all the money they have spent.One reason for the increasing popularity of Christmas is its proximity to New Years Day, encouraging a long holiday to evolve out of both. In the U,S., the holiday has tur

8、ned into an extended holiday season, lasting from Thanksgiving Day in late November until New Years Day, with a seemingly endless array of parties, dinners, concerts, parades, and vacation trips. The schools and colleges are closed from mid-December through early January while many people eat too mu

9、ch, drink too much, and watch too much American football on TV. Many gifts, cards, and annual newsletters are exchanged, and the various festivities are not always very restful. Then the same people make New Years Resolutions to eat less, drink less, spend less, and work harder in the coming year.Ch

10、ristmas is by far the most important holiday in English-speaking countries. Other important holidays in addition to Thanksgiving and New Years Day are Valentines Day, St,Patricks Day, April Fools Day, and Easter. On Valentines Day, celebrated on February 14, people give cards, chocolates, flowers, a

11、nd kisses to their spouses and sweethearts. On St,Patricks Day, March 17, people wear green to celebrate the luck of the Irish, and eat corned beef and cabbage washed down with green beer. During Easter Week in late March or early April, Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus while

12、Jews celebrate Passover, in memory of the escape of the Jews from ancient Egypt, where they had been slaves. Although it is not actually a holiday and has no religious connotation, April Fools Day, celebrated on April 1, is a day when people play embarrassing tricks on their friends and colleagues a

13、nd even on their teachers. Another holiday with some similarity to April Fools Day is Halloween on October 31,when children wear funny or scary costumes and ask their neighbors for, “tricks or treats”, The name Halloween means, hallowed evening”, the night before All Saints Day when Christian saints

14、 are honored. On the following day, All Souls Day, services and prayers are said for the dead. In many countries, it is a day when families visit cemeteries and place flowers on the tombs of their relatives. In Europe, Labor Day is celebrated on May 1, whereas in Canada and the United States, labor

15、and laborers are honored by a legal holiday on the first Monday in September.Spot dictation We already live in an over communicated world that will only become more so in the next tech- era. Weve developed technology that gets us so much information that weve got cell phones that we need every secon

16、d, weve got computers and laptops, weve got personal organizers and we are just being bombarded with communication and every advancing technology seems to create more and more communications at us. We are thought of overwhelmed by the information flow. Research suggests that all the multitasking may

17、 actually make our brains work better and faster, producing a worldwide increase in IQ up to 20 points and more in recent decades. Is there any real benefit in all these mental gymnastics we now have to go through? We are not becoming a race of global idiots but many do think certain skills are enha

18、nced and certain are not. You know the ability to make fast decisions to answer a dozen emails in five minutes or to fill out maybe big aptitude tests thats enhanced. Between someone is out there with his kids playing in his little league and or something like that, hes got his cell phone in his poc

19、ket. Hes always wondering Jeez! Did I got a voice mail? This might have negative effects on own brain patterns. Creativity is something that happens slowly. It happens when your brain is just whirling around, just playing. When it puts together ideas which you havent thought of . Or may be you have

20、time to read a book. You are a business person that you have time to read a book about history or about philosophy and something that happened long ago. Or something or some idea or some default of long ago. Actually it might occurred to you that you might think of your own business in that way so t

21、his mixture of unrelated ideas that feeds your productivity, feeds your creativity and if your mind is disciplined to answer every email then you dont have time for that playful whirling, you dont have time for those unexpected conjunctions. So I think maybe we are getting smarter in some senses but

22、 over communication is a threat to our creativity and to our reflection. 1.Owing to the over population in urban areas and the lack of employment opportunity, the crime rate is also a huge problem we are faced with. The problem of delinquency is increasingly more serious in this area. Also the lack

23、of the traditional family structure and weakened bounds of kinship, lower the moral of these children growing up in the urban areas. These children grow up in poverty and usually look at crimes as a quick and easy way out. The problems in urban areas are far more than can be handled in any short-ter

24、m efforts. We can only hope to contain them, and attempt to make sure that no more problems arise from the already existing ones.2The problem of childhood obesity is proportional to the number of environmental factors, such as the location of a grocery store, relative to a home. Poor diet and physic

25、al inactivity are the two major contributors to obesity in the city and the most preventable causes of death. Women are more likely to be obese than men, 25 percent versus 19 percent. Residents with diabetes and hypertension are more likely to be obese than to be of a normal weight. Residents who ea

26、t five or more fruits or vegetables daily are less likely to be overweight or obese. High-school-age boys are more likely to be obese at 19 percent than their female counterpart, nearly 16percent of whom are obese.2010年秋季高级口译考试下半场听力完整文本+答案解析 P3Man: When most couples married, they may discuss some th

27、ings in advance like how many children they want or where they want to live. But most of the day-to-day details or problems of married life work out after marriage. Not so with Steven Karen Parsons who have a 15-page prenuptial agreement that states the rules they must follow in almost every aspect

28、of their married life. Today, Karen is here with us.Man: Karen, first Id like to ask you why you decided to write this agreement. Youve both been married before. Am I right?Woman: Yes, Ive been married twice and Steve was married once before. So we have some experience about what goes wrong in a mar

29、riage.Man: And thats why you wrote this agreement.Woman: Yes, we found that many problems happen when a person has different expectations from his or her spouse. We want to talk about everything openly and honestly before we start living together. Also, we both know how important it is to respect ea

30、ch others quotes. Were all bothered by things that seems small to someone else, like it used to really bother me when my ex-husband let his dirty clothes on the floor. So we put that in the agreement: dirty clothing must be put in a laundry bag. Now Steve knows what my expectations are.Man: Im sure

31、that some people hearing this report will think this contract isnt very romantic.Woman: Well, we disagree. We think its very romantic. Disagreement shows that we set down and talked and really try to understand the other person. A lot of problems occur in a marriage because people dont talk about wh

32、at they want. Thats right. When we disagree about something, we work out solution. Thats good for both of us. Id much rather do that than get some romantic gifts like flowers or candy.Man: Some of these rules sound like, well, a business agreement. Many of your rules concern money in some way, even the rules about having children.Woman: In our experience, disagreements about money can cause a lot of problems, so we talked about how we want to spend our money and put that in the agreement as well.Man: So do you spend a lot of time checking on each other to see if