现代大学英语听力2Unit 9.docx

1、现代大学英语听力2Unit 9Task 11) Man: I had the girls running in circles when I was in college. Woman: I never knew you were the campus hero. Man: I wasnt. I was the womens track coach. 2) Instructor: Mr. Jenkins, why are you late? Student: I guess because the class started before I got here. 3) Woman: Docto

2、r, you have to come immediatelymy baby swallowed some camera film! Doctor: Just calm yourself, nothing will develop. 4) Customer: Waiter, this water is cloudy. Waiter: The waters okay, madam. Its just that the glass is a little dirty. 5) Woman: The bride wears white on her wedding day as a symbol of

3、 happiness, for this is the most joyous day in her entire life. Man: Why does the groom wear black? Task 2Catherine: I think firstly I find the French language, very melodic to listen to. Its very easy on the ear, and it almost sounds poetic. No matter what kind of mood the individual is in, whos ta

4、lking, or what theyre talking about, there seems to be a rhythm to the language. And its rounded; there are no sharp, jagged edges to the language, so its very pleasing to the ear. Chris: I think the accent I really like is the Dane speaking English. They sound awful when they speak Danish, but when

5、 they speak English theres a beautiful, low, sensitive, very soft quality about it. Donald: I like the way they bring their French pronunciation into English. They cant pronounce hs and they cant pronounce th properly. And I think that actually sounds very nice. Also I like the rhythm they bring Fre

6、nch rhythms into Englishnice, steady rhythms and I like that too. Its just it, it. whenever I hear a French person speaking English it sounds more gentle and more lyrical. Lesley: I think the most attractive foreign accents for me are Mediterranean accents because they, if you like, import their own

7、 culture into the English accent and give it a lot of life that sometimes, that kind ofthe gestures and everything that the English people dont have, so you get a beautiful mixture of the serious Northern European and the Southern European together. Susan: I like the Swedish accent because it, it ma

8、kes me smile and the way its spoken is so sing-songy that you cant help but smile when other people actually speak it. And it always makes you want to try and put the accent on yourself. Task 3The spelling and meaning of words are very interesting. But whats more interesting is the history of a word

9、, or where it came from. Lets examine some of the words and see how they got into our language. LUNCH Lunch perhaps comes from an old Spanish word lonje, a slab of ham. We may also get our word from a form of lump, maybe a lump of bread, but whether lunch comes from ham or bread, it meant a hunk of

10、something to eat. ATLAS An atlas is a strong man, and also a book of maps. The story of this word begins a long time ago in Greece. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods had once been a race of giants called Titans. The Titans fought with another group of gods called Olympians, and the Olympia

11、ns won. Atlas was a Titan. He was punished for fighting by having to stand at the western edge of the world, holding the sky on his head and hands, so that it would not fall on the world and smash anything. After the ancient Greek religion died out, the idea of Atlas changed. From holding up the sky

12、 with his head and hands, he came to be thought of as holding the world on his shoulders. Mercator, a mapmaker of the sixteenth century, used a picture of Atlas on the cover of a book of maps, so a book of maps came to be called an atlas. The word has still another meaning. The top bone of the neck

13、is called atlas because it supports the head. GOOD-BYE Good-bye is a blessing; originally it was God be with ye, and in the course of time it became one word. Many of our greetings are good wishes, but we say them with so little thought that we forget this. When we say good morning, good evening, go

14、od night, and so on, what we are really saying is, I hope you will have a good morning (or evening, or night). DAISY The daisy has a little golden eye, like a tiny sun. Perhaps this is the reason the English people named it days eye, or perhaps they chose the name because the English daisy closes at

15、 night. The English loved their daisies, which were pink and red, as well as white. Six hundred years or so ago, the English poet Chaucer said: The daisy, or else the eye of the day, The queen, and prettiest flower of all.Task 4Mathew: Chris, why is it that there are so many different languages, and

16、 that in Europe certainly if you travel more than a hundred miles, youre likely to find people speaking a completely different language to your own. Chris: Well, its true to say that there are hundreds and hundreds of different languages. Its perhaps. however, more interesting and more informative t

17、o say that there are several different groups of languages. Most European languages, with the exception of I think Finnish and Basque and Hungarian, I believe, belong to the Indo-European group of languages. Im not so very sure myself of the actual details of the history of these languages, but you

18、can be very sure that most of these languages, say, Latin and Greek and our own language and German and French and all the others, are connected. The reason why you can travel from one village to another in Switzerland and from one area to another in England and find different dialects, if not diffe

19、rent languages spoken, is that several hundred years ago communication was by word of mouth. Word of mouth meant that people had to move; if people were to move they needed roads and there were no roads. Mathew: Do you see any chance for a universal language like Esperanto? Chris: Not for an artific

20、ial language, no. I suppose the Roman Catholic Church used Latin, but Latin had a particular religious basis and this is probably why it was therefore chosen. I dont see very much chance for Esperanto; I think its an awfully good idea but I dont believe that language works like that. I think people

21、will probably work towards the most convenient language to use. They will not set out to learn a new language. It seems to me that we, either English, Russian or Chinese, perhaps Japanese, will be the languages of the future. My bets on English. Mathew: Maggie, why do you think it is that so few Eng

22、lish people speak a second language? Maggie: I think when you learn a language at school, it tends to be rather a dead occupation, and its very difficult to stimulate any interest among school children. But when you actually go to the country and you spend, say a month when in an exchange visit when

23、 youre a schoolgirl, or a schoolboy, then you suddenly become more interested because you want to communicate with people when youre actually abroad, and its not safe to rely on the fact that most people speak English when in foreign countries. I think English people traditionally thought that forei

24、gners always spoke English, and a lot of foreigners do, but there are people that you meet in the street or you want to take a bus somewhere, then you find that you need to speak the language and its very unnerving to be in a situation where you cant communicate with people when you do want to trave

25、l around. Mathew: Have you ever gone abroad and learnt a language in the country? Maggie: Yes, well when I was a secretary I went and lived in Geneva for two years. And I learnt French at school but I really didnt speak it at all. I knew it theoretically but I wasnt able to communicate with people.

26、But I was in a situation where if I didnt speak French, then I would not have been able to do my shopping and buy food, and so I picked the language up and I made friends with French peopleSwiss French people, and I found that if I wanted to communicate with all the people that I met, then I had to

27、learn French, and I think its the best method of learning because youre in the situation. Its very hard at timesyou can sit through dinner parties and not understand what. whats going on and you think everybody thinks youre stupid because you cant communicate with them, but its the hard way but I th

28、ink its the best way to learn. Mathew: Elfriede, you come from Austria and yet youve been living in England now for the last three years. Has having to learn and speak another language created great problems? Elfriede: At the beginning yes, it was rather difficult for me to get the right job. After

29、youve lived here for one or two years you get to know the system and then thats quite good. You know how to use libraries and you get to know where to call in emergencies. You get to know.trying to get a radio and understand the radio and all the programmes they have and when theyre on and the littl

30、e stories. Mathew: What about English humour on the radio? Elfriede: I think that takes a very, very long time to understand and, Im sorry to say that I havent managed yet to understand it completely, but I find it very interesting to speak other languages because English people have different. have

31、 a different mentality, and have a very different character and a different temperament and it is fascinating for me to talk to them, and also for myself to be able to express myself in a different language and to communicate with them. Task 5Number 1 Fiona: Okay, Deek, Im off now. Okay. Everythings

32、 okay, is it? Deek: Yes, I think so. The only thing is. is she likely to wake up? Fiona: No, I dont think so. She doesnt usually, but. Deek: What if she does? Fiona: Well, yes. Dont worry about it. Her dummys by the bed, so if you just pick her up, give her the dummy, give her a little bit of a cuddle; Yes. sing to her if you like. Deek: Shall I read her a story or something? Fiona: Yes, anything like that. Yes. Then she should just go back to sleep again quite happily. Deek: Okay. Fiona: Oh! And I