大学英语四级考试巅峰 Track 30

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[00:01.41]Model Test Nine

[00:05.01]Section A

[00:06.11]Directions: In this section,

[00:09.94]you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations.

[00:15.40]At the end of each conversation,

[00:18.36]one or more questions will be asked about what was said.

[00:22.95]Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.

[00:28.20]After each question there will be a pause.

[00:32.47]During the pause, you must read the four choices

[00:37.17]marked A) , B) , C) and D) , and decide which is the best answer.

[00:43.84]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2

[00:49.42]with a single line through the centre.

[00:52.37]Now let's begin with the 8 short conversations.

[00:57.51]11. W: Jack 1, I expected to see you at Sam's birthday party yesterday

[01:04.98]but you were absent.

[01:06.29]M:  I had a date with my girlfriend.

[01:08.59]I have been terribly busy these days. You know, she is complaining.

[01:13.95]Q: What do we know about the man?

[01:33.86]12. M: Mary, see if you could give Mr. Bill a call

[01:38.78]and arrange the appointment on tomorrow morning.

[01:41.84]W: Ok. I'll call him and tell him you're expecting him at 9 on Wednesday.

[01:47.53]Q: Who is the woman?

[02:06.27]13. W: Linda has tried her best to win a prize

[02:10.53]since she joined the music team,

[02:12.28]but three years later she still hasn't.

[02:15.89]M: It takes so much time from her homework.

[02:18.76]Perhaps she should forget about music for now.

[02:22.26]Q: What are the two speakers talking about?

[02:41.91]14. M: Could you show me how to use it?

[02:44.97]W: Of course, put the paper into the machine,

[02:48.90]set your margin 2, put your fingers on the keys,

[02:52.95]now you are ready.

[02:55.36]Q: What is the man doing?

[03:13.32]15. W: Your exam is over, isn't it?

[03:16.82]Why aren't you more cheerful?

[03:19.12]M: Oh, I don't know.

[03:20.51]It isn't that the questions were too hard.

[03:23.02]But I always feel uneasy 3

[03:25.43]when the exam doesn't seem to have much to do with the book.

[03:29.48]Q: What was the man's opinion of the exam?

[03:50.00]16. M: I think it's high time we turned our attention

[03:54.71]to the danger of drunk driving now.

[03:57.55]W: I can't agree with you more.

[03:59.74]You see, countless 4 innocent people are killed

[04:03.57]by drunk drivers each year.

[04:05.32]Q: What does the woman mean?

[04:24.25]17. M: I don't think having big parties is a mistake.

[04:29.28]I like big parties.

[04:30.92]I think we should pay back our friends

[04:33.76]who have invited us to their parties.

[04:36.28]W: But big parties are so impersonal 5.

[04:40.32]I think we should have several small ones instead.

[04:43.06]Q: How does the woman feel about parties?

[05:02.79]18. W: Did you remember to bring the pen which I lent you?

[05:07.50]M: I'm sorry. It completely slipped my mind.

[05:10.56]I promise I'll bring it at the same time tomorrow.

[05:15.15]Q: Why did the man apologize to the woman?

[05:34.22]Now you will hear 2 long conversations.

[05:37.36]Conversation One

[05:39.10]W: Yes, sir. You rang?

[05:41.73]M: Yes, I wonder if you could bring me another orange juice?

[05:45.56]W: Certainly. Would you like anything else?

[05:48.40]M: No,thank you.

[05:49.71]My son-in-law is supposed to meet me in London at the airport.

[05:53.54]Do you think he'll be able to find me?

[05:56.38]W: I'm sure he will. You don't have to worry about that.

[06:00.22]M: Yes. I've never seen my grandson.

[06:03.06]In fact I've never seen my son-in-law either.

[06:06.34]W: I think you'll have a wonderful time in London.

[06:09.07]It's beautiful. Is this your first time abroad?

[06:12.58]M: No. I saw quite a bit of Europe before.

[06:15.85]Rome, Berlin, Paris, places like that.  But never London.

[06:20.01]W: Oh, then you have flown before too.

[06:23.29]M: No, that was during the Second World War and I went on a troopship.

[06:28.33]W: Things are quite different in Europe nowadays.

[06:31.93]M: I'm sure they are. I'm really anxious to get there.

[06:34.77]W: Well, it's 4: 00 now and we'll be there at 6: 00.

[06:39.37]Will you be staying long?

[06:41.23]M: I plan to stay five weeks. I was a teacher but I'm retired 6 now.

[06:46.15]My wife is dead so I can go where I want when I want.

[06:50.96]W: I think you're going to have a good time.

[06:53.26]And don't worry about being met.

[06:55.88]I bet your daughter will be there too.

[06:58.18]M: I hope so, but I don't know if she will.

[07:01.57]W: I'll go to get your orange juice for you.

[07:03.86]I'll be back in a minute.

[07:06.49]Questions 19 to 21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

[07:17.76]19. Where does the conversation most probably take place?

[07:38.73]20. What is the man going to do?

[07:56.52]21. What can we learn about the man?

[08:11.06]Conversation Two

[08:18.39]W: Frank, what's your hobby?

[08:20.47]M: I don't really have one.

[08:22.55]I suppose that bowling 7 is the closest thing to a hobby that I have.

[08:26.81]W: How about the other people in your family?

[08:30.31]M: Well, my brother likes collecting stamps and my sister has a garden.

[08:34.91]She spends an hour or so every day working in it.

[08:38.95]W: I have several hobbies but collecting coins is the one I like best.

[08:44.31]I have coins from almost every country. My favorite one is from China.

[08:50.22]M: Have you ever gone to China?

[08:52.41]W: I want to someday. So far I've been to Canada, Mexico and Japan.

[08:58.97]Why don't you have a real hobby?  Are you lazy or something?

[09:04.22]M: I like bowling but it's kind of expensive.

[09:07.39]The real reason I don't have a hobby is that I don't have the time.

[09:11.77]W: Oh, come on, Frank. You aren't that busy, are you?

[09:16.15]M: Yes, I am. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day.

[09:21.06]Being a traveling salesman is harder than you think, Sue 8.

[09:24.78]You know last week I was in Washington and before that in New York.

[09:29.92]And the next week I have to go to Chicago.

[09:33.10]W: It does sound like you're pretty busy.

[09:36.49]I guess it's better just to stay here in the office.

[09:40.09]At least I get to go home at 5: 00 every night.

[09:43.16]M: That's a lot better than 9: 30 or 10: 00 or sometimes even midnight.

[09:48.19]Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

[09:58.91]22. What is Frank's brother's hobby?

[10:18.86]23. Where does Sue want to go someday?

[10:38.73]24. Why doesn't Frank have a really hobby?

[10:58.28]25. What are the two speakers talking about?

[11:15.94]Section B

[11:17.36]Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages.

[11:24.69]At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions.

[11:28.95]Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.

[11:33.55]After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer

[11:38.03]from the four choices marked A) , B) , C) and D).

[11:43.28]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2

[11:47.98]with a single line through the centre.

[11:50.50]Passage One

[11:51.92]The agriculture revolution in the nineteenth century involved two things:

[11:58.82]the invention of labor 9-saving machinery 10

[12:01.65]and the development of scientific agriculture.

[12:05.26]Labor-saving machinery naturally appeared first where labor was scarce.

[12:11.50]“In Europe”, said Thomas Jefferson,

[12:14.12]“the object is to make the most of their land, labor being sufficient;

[12:19.27]here it is to make the most of our labor, land being abundant”.

[12:24.52]It was in America, therefore,

[12:27.47]that the great advances in nineteenth-century agricultural machinery first came.

[12:32.93]At the opening of the century,

[12:35.67]with the exception of a crude plow 11,

[12:37.97]farmers could have carried

[12:40.38]practically all of the existing agricultural tools on their backs.

[12:43.87]By 1860，most of the machinery in use today

[12:49.01]had been designed in an early form.

[12:51.75]The most important of the early inventions was the iron plow.

[12:56.45]As early as 1890 Charles Newbolt of New Jersey 12

[13:01.26]had been working on the idea of a cast-iron plow

[13:04.99]and spent his entire fortune in introducing his invention.

[13:09.58]The farmers, however, would home none of it,

[13:12.96]claiming that the iron poisoned the soil

[13:15.81]and made the weeds grow.

[13:17.45]Nevertheless, many people devoted 13 their attention to the plow,

[13:22.05]until in 1869, James Oliver of South Bend, Indiana,

[13:27.95]turned out the first chilled-steel plow.

[13:32.11]Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

[13:41.84]26. What were involved in the American agriculture revolution in the 19th century?

[14:06.78]27. What is implied in the passage about American agriculture in the 19th century?

[14:29.31]28. What is the passage mainly about?

[14:48.35]Passage Two

[14:49.56]When we talk about intelligence,

[14:52.29]we do not mean the ability to get good scores on certain kinds of tests

[14:57.10]or even the ability to do well in school.

[15:00.27]By intelligence we mean a way of living and behaving,

[15:04.87]especially in a new or upsetting situation.

[15:08.48]If we want to test intelligence,

[15:11.10]we need to find out how a person acts

[15:14.16]instead of how much he knows what to do.

[15:16.79]For instance, when in a new situation,

[15:20.40]an intelligent person thinks about the situation,

[15:24.34]not about himself or what might happen to him.

[15:27.94]He tries to find out all he can,

[15:30.57]and then he acts immediately and tries to do something about it.

[15:35.38]He probably isn't sure how it will all work out,

[15:39.10]but at least he tries. And, if he can't make things work out right,

[15:44.02]he doesn't feel ashamed that he failed;

[15:47.30]he just tries to learn from his mistakes.

[15:50.37]An intelligent person, even if he is very young,

[15:54.20]has a special outlook on life, a special feeling about life,

[15:58.98]and knows how he fits into it.

[16:01.39]If you look at children,

[16:03.03]you'll see great difference

[16:05.00]between what we call “bright” children and “not bright” children.

[16:08.93]They are actually two different kinds of people,

[16:12.44]not just the same kind with different amount of intelligence.

[16:16.59]For example, the bright child really wants to find out about life—

[16:21.08]he tries to get in touch with everything around him.

[16:25.12]But, the unintelligent child keeps more to himself and his own dreamworld;

[16:30.26]he seems to have a wall between him and life in general.

[16:34.63]Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

[16:45.25]29. What is intelligence according to this passage?

[17:08.09]30. What will an intelligent person do when confronting 14 a new situation?

[17:30.52]31. What would an intelligent person do if he failed in what he was trying?

[17:51.20]Passage Three

[17:52.95]In the United States,

[17:57.11]30 percent of the adult population has a “weight problem”.

[18:01.37]To many people, the cause is obvious: they eat too much.

[18:07.39]But scientific evidence does little to support this idea.

[18:12.09]Going back to the America of the 1910s,

[18:16.24]we find that people were thinner than today, yet they ate more food.

[18:21.61]In those days people worked harder physically 15, walked more,

[18:26.64]used machines much less and didn't watch television.

[18:30.91]Several modern studies, moreover,

[18:34.07]have shown that fatter people do not eat more on the average than thinner people.

[18:39.18]In fact, some investigations 16,

[18:42.35]such as the 1979 study of 3,545 London office workers,

[18:49.13]report that, on balance, fat people eat less than slimmer people.

[18:53.95]Studies show that slim people are more active than fat people.

[18:58.32]A study by a research group at Stanford University School of Medicine

[19:03.46]found the following interesting facts:

[19:06.09]The more the men ran, the more body fat they lost.

[19:10.46]The more they ran, the greater amount of food they ate.

[19:14.40]Thus, those who ran the most ate the most,

[19:18.23]yet lost the greatest amount of body fat.

[19:21.29]Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

[19:31.46]32. What was the physical problem that many adult Americans have?

[19:54.12]33. Is there any scientific evidence for the claim

[19:58.99]that eating too much will cause a “weight problem”?

[20:16.79]34. How were the Americans of the 1910s

[20:22.29]in comparison with the adult American population today?

[20:40.56]35. What has modern scientific research reported to us?

[21:01.64]Section C

[21:03.82]Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times.

[21:11.92]When the passage is read for the first time,

[21:15.20]you should listen carefully for its general idea.

[21:18.70]When the passage is read for the second time,

[21:22.86]you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43

[21:29.31]with the exact words you have just heard.

[21:32.37]For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required

[21:38.39]to fill in the missing information.

[21:40.36]For these blanks, you can either use the exact words

[21:45.72]you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words.

[21:50.74]Finally, when the passage is read for the third time,

[21:55.12]you should check what you have written.

[21:57.53]Now listen to the passage.

[22:01.24]For many years, no one seems to have a good idea

[22:05.40]to solve the problem of inflation 18. Nothing is satisfactory to everybody.

[22:10.43]But during the administration of President Ford 17

[22:14.04]he offered one on national television.

[22:17.65]He used the phrase, “to bite the bullet”.

[22:20.61]The words were not new, but they spread across the country.

[22:24.87]Mr. Ford called on Americans “to bite the bullet”

[22:28.70]and make personal sacrifices. This, he said, would help to halt inflation.

[22:34.39]He urged them to eat less, uses less gasoline, to spend less and save more.

[22:40.51]He appealed to them to do whatever was necessary to fight inflation,

[22:45.76]no matter how unpleasant.

[22:47.84]Such is the meaning of “to bite the bullet”—

[22:51.78]to do something quickly, with no further delay,

[22:55.17]no matter how painful the action may be.

[22:58.34]But what does biting the bullet have to do with all this?

[23:03.91]It is a reasonable question. This is the explanation.

[23:08.40]As we all know, people in great pain sometimes tighter their fists,

[23:13.43]or clench 19 their teeth, or bite down hard on a finger.

[23:17.80]It seems to ease the pain. Years ago, on the battlefield,

[23:22.40]one did not find pain-killing drugs.

[23:25.03]And it is said that during emergency operations,

[23:28.42]soldiers would bite a bullet to ease their suffering.

[23:31.91]This old phrase came back to life in the 1960s.

[23:36.19]Former president Nixcon used it in 1968.

[23:40.45]He asked congress to bite the bullet

[23:43.40]and approve of his proposal for a taxi increase.

[23:46.79]Now the passage will be read again.

[23:50.95]For many years, no one seems to have a good idea

[23:54.99]to solve the problem of inflation. Nothing is satisfactory to everybody.

[24:00.47]But during the administration of President Ford

[24:03.42]he offered one on national television.

[24:07.13]He used the phrase,“to bite the bullet”.

[24:10.41]The words were not new, but they spread across the country.

[24:14.46]Mr. Ford called on Americans “to bite the bullet”

[24:18.18]and make personal sacrifices. This, he said, would help to halt inflation.

[24:23.54]He urged them to eat less, uses less gasoline, to spend less and save more.

[24:30.32]He appealed to them to do whatever was necessary to fight inflation,

[24:35.68]no matter how unpleasant.

[24:38.31]Such is the meaning of “to bite the bullet”—

[24:42.24]to do something quickly, with no further delay,

[24:45.53]no matter how painful the action may be.

[24:49.03]But what does biting the bullet have to do with all this?

[24:53.51]It is a reasonable question. This is the explanation.

[24:57.44]As we all know, people in great pain sometimes tighter their fists,

[25:02.48]or clench their teeth, or bite down hard on a finger.

[25:56.98]It seems to ease the pain. Years ago, on the battlefield,

[26:02.02]one did not find pain-killing drugs.

[26:04.53]And it is said that during emergency operations,

[26:07.81]soldiers would bite a bullet to ease their suffering.

[27:02.46]This old phrase came back to life in the 1960s.

[27:06.40]Former president Nixcon used it in 1968.

[27:10.56]He asked congress to bite the bullet

[27:13.50]and approve of his proposal for a taxi increase.

[28:08.07]Now the passage will be read for the third time.

[28:11.03]For many years, no one seems to have a good idea

[28:15.29]to solve the problem of inflation. Nothing is satisfactory to everybody.

[28:20.54]But during the administration of President Ford

[28:23.93]he offered one on national television.

[28:27.33]He used the phrase, “to bite the bullet”.

[28:30.39]The words were not new, but they spread across the country.

[28:34.33]Mr. Ford called on Americans “to bite the bullet”

[28:38.59]and make personal sacrifices. This, he said, would help to halt inflation.

[28:43.84]He urged them to eat less, uses less gasoline, to spend less and save more.

[28:50.51]He appealed to them to do whatever was necessary to fight inflation,

[28:55.65]no matter how unpleasant.

[28:57.51]Such is the meaning of “to bite the bullet”—

[29:01.89]to do something quickly, with no further delay,

[29:05.06]no matter how painful the action may be.

[29:08.23]But what does biting the bullet have to do with all this?

[29:13.59]It is a reasonable question. This is the explanation.

[29:18.40]As we all know, people in great pain sometimes tighter their fists,

[29:23.55]or clench their teeth, or bite down hard on a finger.

[29:27.48]It seems to ease the pain. Years ago, on the battlefield,

[29:32.51]one did not find pain-killing drugs.

[29:34.70]And it is said that during emergency operations,

[29:38.31]soldiers would bite a bullet to ease their suffering.

[29:41.81]This old phrase came back to life in the 1960s.

[29:45.96]Former president Nixcon used it in 1968.

[29:50.33]He asked congress to bite the bullet

[29:53.29]and approve of his proposal for a taxi increase.