新视野大学英语第二版听说教程4Passage部分听力原文.docx

1、新视野大学英语第二版听说教程4Passage部分听力原文UNIT 1The Dangers of FameYou young people go crazy over famous people. Will you listen to me when I tell you your generation is wrong about this? Let me use an example to illustrate my point to you.Marilyn Monroe, you might not even know who she is. Back in my day, when I

2、 was your age, she was a big movie star. But she wasnt born a movie star, no sir. She was a simple girl with beauty and innocence until she went to Hollywood to make movies. Thats right. Instead of living out a simple life of integrity and hard work or trying to develop a respectable name in her pro

3、fession, she sought fame. Well, Ill tell you, she got her wish. She made her movies - All About Eve in 1950, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953, Some Like It Hot in 1959, and more. She got into trouble throughout - drugs, abuse. All of this came crashing down on her head, and she died at an early age

4、in 1962. Sad, really.I hope that this example shows you the dangers of fame. Believe me, its best just to live a simple life.UNIT 2Charlie ChaplinSome people stand out as truly special and one of a kind. Charlie Chaplin, a superstar of silent comedies and one of the great icons of the 20th-century f

5、ilm, is one of those unique people. Chaplin had a rotten childhood and an early start on stage, performing even as a child in vaudeville. He went to Hollywood in 1914 and began acting in silent comedies. By 1915, he controlled most aspects of his films, in which he usually appeared as a character ca

6、lled simply the Little Tramp: a lovably shabby dreamer with a bushy moustache, bowler hat and cane. Chaplin was one of the founders of United Artists Studios and was one of the first movie makers to have complete control over his features His best-known films include 1925s The Gold Rush, 1931s City

7、Lights, and 1936s Modern Times. Famously outspoken and sympathetic to communism, Chaplin left the United States in 1952 because of increased political pressure. He settled in Switzerland, where he and his wife Oona raised eight children, including actress Geraldine Chaplin. In 1972 he returned to th

8、e United States to accept a special Oscar, and in 1975, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.UNIT 3Care for the Americas PoorWhat to do about the poor and needy is a concern of every government. The U.S. is not exempt from this concern, but care for its poor has changed over time. Until the Great D

9、epression of the 1930s, state and local governments in America bore some responsibility for providing assistance to the poor. However, such assistance was minimal at best. The New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt included new federal initiatives to help those in poverty. With million

10、s of people unemployed during the 1930s economic depression, welfare assistance was beyond the financial resources of the states. Therefore, the federal government provided funds for maintaining a minimum standard of living, either directly to recipients or to the states.Between 1935 and 1996, feder

11、al programs were established that provided additional welfare benefits, including medical care, public housing, and food stamps. By the 1960s, however, criticism began to grow that these programs discouraged people from finding employment. Even defenders of public welfare benefits acknowledged that

12、the system was imperfect: noting the financial disincentives associated with taking a low-paying job and losing the array of benefits, especially medical care.UNIT 4Information HighwayThe information highway, the information superhighway, theInterweb, the Internet. all of these words have come to id

13、entify the same thing - the widespread connection of computers and information from around the world. And as our understanding of this connection has changed, so too have the terms weve used to describe it. The information highway was a term used especially in the 1990s to describe the Internet. The

14、 official project was dubbed the National Information Infrastructure and went beyond the interconnectivity of just computers; the scope broadened to include all types of data transmissions between a plethora of places, people, and devices. It is often associated with the United States politician and

15、 former vice president, Al Gore, who promoted funding for programs that led to aspects of the development of the Internet. Although its currency was wider than merely Gore - many policy oranizations made pronouncements about the so-called information highway or the variant information superhighway.

16、Both terms are used less frequently now that for many people the Internet has become a less abstract and more concrete thing; the highway analogy, though useful and apt, has perhaps served its purpose.UNIT 5Dormitory Most people prefer living by themselves, as they think that the advantages of livin

17、g alone, such as privacy and quiet, outweigh the negatives, which include loneliness and higher costs. However, some people, college students most of all, do not have a choice. Because costs are so high, they have to live with one or more other students in whats called a dormitory.The term dormitory

18、 usually refers to a large room with many single beds. Examples are found in many rooming houses, hostels, universities, colleges, and barracks. The room typically is a large room with beds and only spares furnishings. Such rooms can contain anywhere from two to hundreds of beds - though very large

19、rooms are rare except perhaps in military barracks. Such rooms provide little or no privacy for the residents, and very limited storage for personal items in or near the beds. Storage is sometimes provided in special store rooms in another part of the building.UNIT 6Reasons for Different PunishmentS

20、ome people complain about what they see as hypocrisy in society. White-collar criminals, people who commit business crimes, are punished less severely than are blue-collar criminals, people who commit crimes such as assault and mugging. I, however, think there is a sensible reason for the difference

21、.A reason for differential treatment might be the fact that, all other things being equal, criminal penalties tend to be more related to the degree of physical force or violence involved than to the monetary loss. Because white-collar crimes are usually committed by people with opportunties that do

22、not require violence, they are far less likely to get severe penalties. For example, someone who mugs a victim on the street by threatening to knife him is very likely to be punished with a more severs sentence than an inside trader who cheats shareholders out of million dollars. This doesnt seem so

23、 wrong to me.UNIT 7Genetic Technologies LimitedGenetic Technologies Limited, also called GTG, is a biotechnology company, pursuing commercial opportunities in three main areas of activity: out-licensing its non-coding patents globally, expanding its genetic service-testing business in the Asia-Pacif

24、ic Region, and supporting certain research projects in which the Company is already involved. On June 30, 2005, its subsidiaries included the wholly owned Gene Type Pty. Ltd., the wholly owned Simons Gene Type Diagnostics Pty. Lty., the wholly ownde Gene Type AG, the wholly owned Gene Type Corporati

25、on, the 75.8%-owned Gtech International Resources Limited, the 65%-owned ImmunAid Pty. Ltd., the wholly owned Silbase Scientific Services Pty. Ltd., the wholly owned Genetic Technologies Corporation Pty. Ltd., and the 50.1%-owned AgGenomics Pty. Ltd. GTG has operations in Australia, Canada, and Swit

26、zerland.For the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2005, Genetic Technologies Limited revenues totaled $7.2M, up from 2.6M. Net losses rose by 19% to $5.7M. Revenues reflect increased sales in biotechnology segment, higher income from service testing and increased returns from licenses. Higher loss refle

27、cts increased service testing expenses, higher research & development expenses, an increase in patent & license fees and higher general & administrative expenses.UNIT 8The History of SlaveryThere is a lot of injustice in the world, inequalities of many different sorts. And the most extreme form of i

28、njustice is slavery. Beginning in the 16th century, a public and racially based type of slavery was established when Europeans began importing slaves from Africa to the New World. An estimated 11 million people were taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. By the mid-19th century the

29、slave population in the US had risen to more than four million, although slave imports had banned from 1809. Following the rise in public outcry, Britain outlawed slavery in its colonies in 1833, and Frande did the same in 1848. During the American Civil War, slavery was abolished in the confederacy

30、 by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which was decreed by President Abraham Lincoln. Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, doing so in 1888. Official policy notwithstanding, slavery continues to exist in many parts of the world. Many contemporary slaves are women and children forced

31、into prostitution or working at hard labor or in sweatshops. Debt bondage is common, affecting millions of people, and slaves are still often traded for material goods. Unit 9 Amusement Parks: Loads of Fun Coming to a Place near You The History of Disney Parks Your first thought of Disneyland might

32、be California, the location of the first Disney theme park, opened in 1955. And while Disney is largely influenced by the culture of its birthplace, Disney theme parks are spreading around the world. In 1983 the first international Disney theme park opened: Tokyo Disneyland Park in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland Park is now part of the Tokyo Disney Resort, and has a sister theme park Tokyo Disney Sea. Both Tokyo Disneys are owned by a Japanese corporation, the Oriental Land Company. The Walt Disney Company receives royalties based on revenues and maintains creative control. In 1992, Eu