全新版大学英语听说教程第四册 unit3

Unit 3

Part B

Birthday Celebrations Around the World

Chairman: Welcome to this special birthday edition of One World. Yes, folks, we've been on the air for exactly one year now, and we thought it would be a nice idea to have a special program dedicated 1 to birthday celebrations around the world. With us in the studio tonight we have Shaheen Hag and Pat Cane 2, who have a weekly column on birthdays in the Toronto Daily Star.

Shaheen: Good evening.

Pat: Good evening.

Chairman: Shaheen, perhaps we could begin with you. How are birthdays celebrated 3 in India?

Shaheen: Well, perhaps we're all assuming that everyone in the world celebrates their birthday. This just isn't the case. Low-income families in India, for instance, simply can't afford any festivities. And most Muslims don't celebrate their birthdays.

Pat: I think Shaheen has raised an interesting point here. The Christian 4 church, too, was actively 5 against celebrating birthdays, and in any case most people, until a couple of hundred years ago, couldn't even read and wouldn't have even been able to spot their birthday on a calendar anyway.

Shaheen: Of course some Muslims do celebrate their birthdays. In Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia, for example, the rich people invite friends and families around. But not in small villages.

Chairman: Here in England your twenty-first used to be the big one. But now it seems to have moved to eighteen. Is that true?

Pat: Yes, in most parts of the West eighteen is now the most important birthday. In Finland, for example, eighteen is the age when you can vote, you know, or buy wines, drive a car and so on. But in Japan I think you have to wait till you're twenty before you can smoke or drink.

Shaheen: I know in Senegal, which is another Muslim country, girls get to vote at sixteen and boys at eighteen. And in Bangladesh, girls at eighteen and boys at twenty-one.

Chairman: That's interesting. I mean is it typical that around the world girls are considered to be more mature than boys?

Shaheen: Yes, I think so, and there are some countries, particularly in South America, which have a big party only for girls. In Mexico and Argentina, for example, they have enormous parties for 15-year-old girls.

Pat: You know in Norway they have a great party for anyone who's not married by the time they're thirty. It's kind of embarrassing. I mean you get pepper thrown at you.

Chairman: Pepper? Why pepper?

Pat: I'm not really sure.

Shaheen: So does that mean that on your 29th birthday you can start thinking 'God I better get married'?

Pat: Well, I'm not sure how seriously they take it.

Chairman: In England we have quite big parties for your fortieth, fiftieth, sixtieth and so on.

Pat: Well, in Japan your eighty-eighth is considered ...

Chairman: Eighty-eighth?

Pat: ... to be the luckiest birthday. Eight is a very lucky number in Japan.

Questions:

1. What is One World?

2. What is the topic of the program?

3. What do Shaheen Hag and Pat Cane do?

4. Why don't some people in India celebrate their birthdays?

5. According to Pat, when did people around the world begin to celebrate their birthdays?

6. Why is the eighteenth birthday so important in Finland?

7. Why can girls in some countries get to vote at an earlier age than boys?

8. Which of the countries mentioned in the text are Muslim countries?

Part C 

Additional Listenings

One World One Minute

    One World One Minute is a unique film project that invites participants in every country around the globe to record, simultaneously 6, one minute of their lives, one minute of our world. Sponsors of this project have chosen 12:48 GMT, September 11th 2002 as the one minute to record. At that moment exactly a year earlier began the terrorist attacks that led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people from over 60 countries. For many this will be a time of remembrance and reflection. And for others this will be an appropriate time for international communication, cooperation and sharing. It will offer them an opportunity to share a moment of their world and their life with others, an opportunity to both talk to and listen to the world, to join with others around the globe and create a truly unique record and experience. This is the idea behind the project One World One Minute.

     Participants are free to choose what and how to record their One Minute. Some may want to take photographs, some paint or draw pictures, while others may want to write something and record their readings. The material can be submitted to the project organizers in Scotland via e-mail or post within 6 weeks of September 11th. All the material will then be made into a feature-length film, which will capture that One Minute of our existence.

     The film will explore the rich diversity that is both humanity and our world. It will allow a voice to all people regardless of nationality, religion, race, political viewpoint, gender 8 or age. The rich diversity that is Humanity shall be there for all to see.

     Participants will not only be kept informed of the progress of the film and the release process but will be invited to actively participate through newsletters and discussion forums 9.

     When the film is finished, it will be shown in every country of the world, both in cinemas and on TV. Contributors will be invited to attend the premiere of the film in their respective countries and will receive a full screen credit on the finished production.

Statements:

1. One World One Minute is a project sponsored by some filmmakers in Hollywood.

2. The purpose of the project is to record how people of the world mourn the death of those who lost their lives in New York's World Trade Center.

3. Participants may come from different races or nations, have different religious beliefs, and maintain opposite political viewpoints.

4. Participants are invited to record one minute of their lives on any given day.

5. Participants are encouraged to make short video films to record an important event in their lives.

6. The project will offer people from various parts of the world an opportunity to share a moment of their life with others.

7. The organizers believe that humanity is represented by the colorful variety of people's life all over the world.

8. Participants are required to submit what they have recorded to organizers by e-mail not later than September 11, 2002.

9. All the material submitted by the participants will be made into a feature-length film and shown on TV and in cinemas throughout the world.

10. The film will become a powerful means to unite people all over the world in the war against terrorism.

Part D

One World, Many Universes

    Ours is, in many ways, a world without boundaries. Being a citizen of a particular nation is almost as much as being a resident of a particular town or province. Boundaries of class and caste that once shaped societies continue to fade. The freedom of people to move increases gradually with the relaxation 10 of immigration laws in the last century. Many countries have fairly simple requirements for obtaining citizenship 11 and voting rights.

     In Europe, for example, the European Union's membership has grown to 15 countries and may increase to 21 or more by 2010. It has developed a common body of laws, common policies and practices, and a great deal of cooperation among its members. The adoption 12 of the single currency, the euro, by 12 of its member countries and the circulation of euro cash in January 2002 have enabled citizens in these countries to move about even more freely.

     In addition, all of the major organized religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism 13, Hinduism, and Islam, are alive and well, but less clearly and exclusively identified with specific cultures and geographic 14 regions. People everywhere feel free to convert to other religions, and many people identify themselves with more than one religion.

     Since 1995, which is called the Year of the Internet, cyberspace 15 has become a rich and realistic realm of experience. Its activities include the No-Self Network, which is concerned with liberation from the self. The network's members regard this liberation as an ordinary human achievement-roughly comparable to learning to play the piano -- and not as a superhuman or divine feat 7. One World, Many Universes is, for me, the most persuasive 16 mix of idealism and realism. This particular future is likely to be the most fast-changing one, rapidly evolving beyond what I have described.

Questions:

1. What is the passage mainly about?

2. Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage as a reason that makes national boundaries less prominent?

3. Which of the following is not one of the major religions mentioned in the passage?

4. What enabled citizens in many EU countries to move about more freely?