英语中级听力课程Lesson19.docx

1、英语中级听力课程Lesson19Lesson 19Presenter: This weeks financial talk will be given by our property expert, James Milligan, who is here to tell us about some surprising new developments in the London area. James Milligan: Good afternoon. Not so very long ago it would have been really unusual to pay 1 millio

2、n for a house. Unfortunately this is no longer so. Decline in the real value of money over the past few years has made property values rocket. The cheap house is a thing of the past. Now, the sale of a 1 million house no longer causes surprise, nor is it likely to be the subject of a newspaper artic

3、le. What exactly can we expect to get for 1 million today? Well, first of all, space, of course. Living in large cities has made us all tired of living in those cramped little houses and flats built just after the war. We now want space; space to live and relax in, preferably with a garden. And this

4、, of course, is what puts the price up. Another reason for needing space is the fact that we have larger families growing up under one roof and even quite small children demand their own room these days, while teenagers may demand an extra room where they can entertain their friends privately. Also

5、the trend of going out to eat is dying out due to rising prices of restaurant and transport, so people are once more beginning to entertain and dine at home, which requires a larger dining room. There are numerous new developments in London at the moment which can provide all this and moreif you hav

6、e the money! At the moment the most fashionable places seem to be the Barbican, St Johns Wood, Morgans Walk in Battersea. People wanting quiet in the evening tend to prefer the Barbican situated in the business heart of the city and therefore fairly free of traffic in the evenings, although several

7、theatres have opened there lately. The Barbican is also for those who like living high up, accommodation being situated mostly in tower blocks. St Johns Wood, on the other hand, is favoured mostly by upper-middle class families who prefer a detached house surrounded by a walled garden, thus ensuring

8、 their privacy. Gardens of course tend to raise the price of a property. Those not interested in gardening can choose from the grand mansions in Battersea where you get a wonderful view of the Thames and are still only a few minutes away from Londons theatres and shops. Look around and take your pic

9、k. Oh . just make sure that you have that million pounds first!Interviewer: Now youre the First Lady of Jazz; probably the greatest blues singer the world has ever known. Just what is it that makes you sing as you do? Singer: I dont know; one night its a little bit slower, the next night its a littl

10、e bit lighter. Its all according to how I feel. I never feel the same way twice. The blues is a mixed up sort of thing. Theres two kinds of blues; theres happy blues and theres sad blues. I dont think I ever sing the same way twice. Interviewer: And how did you become a jazz singer in the first plac

11、e? Singer: Well, it was all by accident really. You see, I wanted to be a dancer so I went along to try out, you know, to an audition and I was just a kid, I didnt know how to dance at all. So I kept doing the two steps I did know over and over until they told me to get off the stage. But I guess th

12、e pianist felt sort of sorry for me because he called me back and asked me if I could sing. Huh, Course I can sing, man, I told him; Ive been singing all my life. What the hell use is that? And then he asked me to sing a blues song, St Louis Blues, I think it was, and I just kept on singing and he j

13、ust kept on playing, and in the end I had a job. That was on West 42nd Street. Now that was the street for jazz in those days. And slowly I became known; people started coming to see me rather than just to listen to the orchestra, and thats how it started. I mean, it began like that and its just bee

14、n going on ever since. Interviewer: Youve never looked back and youve been successful ever since? Singer: Well, it wasnt quite as easy as it sounds. I mean, when I started out I didnt know anything, I mean like chords and sharps and flats. I just sang. But if youre going to sing jazz you have to kno

15、w these things. And people were very nice and kind to me and they slowly taught me what key I had to sing each song in. And thats how I really became a professional musician. I mean, the beginning was just luck, but if you want to stay at the top you really have to know your job. You have to know wh

16、at youre doing and you have to know how to be able to change it to go with the publics taste; with the changing fashions. Otherwise you find yourself out of work and back on the streets where you started from. Interviewer: But surely, you never needed to go with the fashions? I mean, youve always be

17、en popular. Singer: Well, thats true up to a point. And if youre good enough you can even change the fashions. Ive never done that. Ive always sung what I wanted and if they didnt like it, they didnt have to buy it. Ive never made a fortune from my music because I wont sing just any damn thing. I ch

18、oose what I want to sing. But anything I do sing is part of my life. So it has to be important to me before Ill sing it. I think this is why people like my music; they know that whatever I say in my songs I really believe and this means something to them and helps them in their lives. Im not a rich

19、pop singer and never wanted to be. And theres been a lot of scandal attached to my life. Some of its true; some of its not. But at least Ive always been my true self in my music and Ill always stay that way. I think a guy called Shakespeare once wrote Unto thine own self be true and thou canst not t

20、hen to any man be false. Well, thats how I feel when Im singing my songs. You may like them, you may hate them, but nobody can say that Im not singing from deep down inside myself. I wont ever sing anything I dont believe in although, as I said, its never the same way two nights running: it may be h

21、appy one night and sad the next. Its all according to how I feel. And now Im feeling the need for a drink of something strong; Ive got four hours on stage tonight and that really takes it out of you, believe me. Interviewer: Go right ahead and thank you for the interview. Singer: Thats OK. Heres a c

22、ouple of tickets; come and see the show. Now first we must identify the parts of this home computer system. Before we can set up the system, we must all know what the names of the different parts of the computer are and what they do. So first Im going to tell you the names of the parts and what they

23、 are used for in a home computer system. First, and most important of all, is your instruction manual. Can you all see that? The instruction manual is the book of instructionsit tells you how to set up your system and then how to use it. OK? Next, the monitor. The monitor is the part that everyone c

24、an recognize immediately because it looks just like a television. The monitor shows you the information you have typed in on the screen. You can change the information, move it around or take it away, while it is on the screen. Right? Now, when you have finished working with your information and you

25、 want a copy of this on paper, then you have to use the printer. The printer prints out on paper what you have on the monitor screen. Then you have a copy of your work on paper. Now the keyboard. The keyboard contains the actual computer and it looks just like a typewriter. Each piece on the keyboar

26、d is called a key. You have keys for letters (a, b, c etc.) and keys for instructions to the computer. You have to be able to type if you want to use a computer properly. Now what have we got left? Ah yes, the 2 floppy discs and the disc drive. The disc drive is quite simpleits the part of the syste

27、m that operates the floppy discs, we say it powers the floppy discs. You put the floppy discs into the disc drive and the disc drive makes them work. So finally, the two floppy discs. You need two because the first one contains the programmethat is, the instructionsand the second is where you type i

28、n your information and where the program works on this information. So you really work on the second floppy disc: then, when you are ready to print, the printer takes everything from the second floppy disc and prints out what you have done. Now, is that clear? Are there any questions? Theres no doub

29、t that the computer has enlarged mans working capacity as well as his intellectual capacity enormously. Er . but it brings with it dangers to match the benefits. Now by this, I mean danger to physical and mental well-being of the people who work at computer terminals, not the dangers to personal pri

30、vacy or national or industrial security. Theres one very alarming set of statistics which come from a survey done in the UK on 800 pregnant women, who happened to use computer terminals for a major part of their working day. In no less than 36% of the subjects there was some severe abnormality durin

31、g the pregnancy, enough to make a termination necessary. Now these figures compare significantly with a control group of pregnant women of the same age but who did not work with computer terminals. The incidence of severe abnormalities in their case was only 16%. This survey confirms similar investi

32、gations carried out in Denmark, Canada, Australia and the USA. Now, no one yet has a clear idea about the exact connection between working with computer terminals and the problems with pregnancy, but the figures at least suggest that theres, well, a cause for alarm. In more general terms, increased stress and disturbances to vision have been noted in workers exposed for long periods to the video screen, and in many countries trade unions of workers involved with computers have laid down the