[reading-material] 托福听力 [复制链接]

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发表于 2009-2-1 22:03:36 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

[转]十二篇各种类型听力材料

新托福确实挺难，光是听力就能撂倒一大片了。我觉得平时多练些不同角度不同类型的听力段子，练久了再难的内容也不怵了。这十二篇都是我觉得很精华的听力材料，有几篇是我筛选出的典型材料，有几篇是我磨了半天嘴皮子跟在秦苏珊补习班上课的学妹套过来的。总之得来不易，好好珍惜哟~
1.理科段子：地理冒险　
　Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E. Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the controversy around Peary's pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th' 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surrounded by controversy. Tins was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier. Over the decades Peary was given the benefit of the doubt, but critics persisted in raising questions about his navigation and the distances he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Foundation spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examination of documents relating to Peary's polar expedition. The documents supposed Peary's claims about the distances he covered. After also conducting an extensive computer analysis of photos taken by Peary at the pole, they concluded that Pierre and his companions did in fact reach the near vicinity of the North Pole on April 6th. 1909. OK, today we're going to talk about exploration of the opposite end of the world, I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott
2. 理科段子：天文学 　　
In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were the basis of both these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses of the moon the earth was between the sun and the moon, and they saw that during these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realized that this could be true only if the earth was spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would be stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star, or Polaris, appeared lower in the sky when they traveled south, in the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be much higher in the sky. By the way, it was also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the circumference of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadium. Today, it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first telescope was invented. 3. 3. 991044

3.文科段子：文学名著　
　Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the United States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for all the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south, but much of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In fact, Stowe's best writing is about village life in the New England's states in the 19th century. In recording to the customs of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect the images as realistically as possible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters when they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain popularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher. The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a geography book for children. Later when she was married, her writing helped her support her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches and children's books, as well as novels for adults.
4.生活段子：噪音影响　　
I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the health center by the number of students we are seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. First, I want to go over some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school environment and see if we can figure out some ways to protect hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too much moderate noise for a long time or some types of intense noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudness is measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels generally aren't harmful. That's noise like traffic on a busy street. But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are up to around 140 decibels, that's like a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud noise at close range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we can take a look at the decibel level of some common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football games. They are really dangerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises
5.文科段子：电影艺术　　
To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first two classes giving you background lectures about some basic cinematic concepts. Once you are a little more familiar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to look at the history of movies in the United States. You'll be expected to attend showing of films on Tuesday evenings at 7 o'clock in Jennings Auditorium. That's our lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss in depth the movie we saw the night before. We are not covering silent films in this course. We will begin with the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next week, we'll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of the escapist trend in films released during the depression. Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank Capra's Why We Fight. Others you might have already seen on TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley Cooper's Doctor's Strange Love. However, I hope you see even familiar film with new eye. In the last three weeks of the course, we will be watching films from the 1980s and you'll choose one of them as a subject for an extensive written critique. We'll talk more about the requirements of the critique later in this semester
6. 文科段子：历史发展 　　Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about the political management of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to justify for their citizens just why the war was necessary. In 1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would determine the future of democracy through out the world. For him the issue was whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain its integrity, could it remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who led the southern rebellion, could they arbitrarily break up the government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion. At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn't last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the war would be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied northerners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to perceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade against southern society. 7. 文科段子：传媒变迁 　　
Moving away from newspapers, let's now focus on magazines. Now the first magazine was a little periodical called the Review and it was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers of the time, but in terms of its contents it was much different. Newspapers were concerned mainly with news events but the Review focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the policies of the government. Now, in England at the time, people could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were critical of the king. And that is what happened to Daniel Defoe. He was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the first issue of the Review from prison. You see, he had been arrested because of his writings that criticized the policies of the Church of England, which was headed by the king. After his release, Defoe continued to produce the Review and the magazine started to appear on a more frequent schedule, about three times a week. It didn't take long for other magazines to start popping up. In 1709, a magazine called the Tattler began publication. This new magazine contained a mixture of news, poetry, political analysis and philosophical essays.
8.理科段子：远程教育　
　Hi, Lynn. I saw you at registration yesterday. I sailed right through, but you were standing in a long line. 　　Yeah. I waited an hour to sign up for a distance-learning course. 　　Distance learning? Never heard of it. 　　Well, it's new this semester. It's only open to psychology majors. But I bet it'll catch on else where. Yesterday, over a hundred students signed up. 　　Well, what is it? 　　It's an experimental course. I registered for child psychology. All I have got to do is watch a twelve-week series of televised lessons. The department shows them seven different times a day and in seven different locations. 　　Don't you ever have to meet with professor? 　　Yeah. After each part of the series I have to talk to her and the other students on the phone, you know, about our ideas. Then we'll meet on campus three times for reviews and exams. 　　It sounds pretty non-traditional to me. But I guess it makes sense, considering how many students have jobs. It must really help with their schedules, not to mention how it will cut down on traffic. 　　You know, last year my department did a survey and they found out that 80 percent of all psychology majors were employed. That's why they came up with the program. 　　Look, I'll be working three days a week next semester and it was either cut back on my classes or try this out. 　　The only thing is: doesn't it seem impersonal though? I mean, I miss having class discussions and hearing what other people think. 　　Well, I guess that's why phone contact's important. Any way, it's an experiment. 　　Maybe I'll end up hating it. 　　Maybe. But I'll be curious to see how it works up.
9.生活段子：游览沼泽地公园　
　Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Everglade is a watery plain covered with saw grass that's the home to numerous species of plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to see it all today. But this tour will offer you a good sampling. Our tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to start because it's home to many of the plants and animals typically associated with the everglade. You'll see many exotic birds and of course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk that goes across the marsh, so you can look down at the animals in the water from a safe distance. The boardwalk is high enough to give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature wonderful tropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close view of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running a canoe sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you have a very good sense of direction and can negotiate your way through tall grass. We hate to have to come looking for you. You have a good fortune of being here in the winter, the best time of the year to visit. During the spring and summer the mosquitoes will just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome, but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent.
10.文科段子：艺术类音乐 　　

It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway production in this class, "The Lion King" especially, since it's based on a popular Hollywood movie. I mean music preformed for Broadway theater in the heart of New York city surely would seem to be in the western tradition of popular music and not have much in common with the music we have been studying in this course, such as gamelan music of Indonesia, or Zulu chants of South Africa, music that developed outside the western tradition of Europe and America. But in fact, musicians have a long-standing tradition of borrowing front one another's cultures. And this production's director intentionally included both western and non-western music. That way, some of the rhythms, instrument, and harmonies typical of non-western music contrast with and complement popular music more familiar to audiences in North America and Europe, music like rock, jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I want to spend the rest of this class and most of the next one on the music from the show "The Lion King" as a way of summarizing some of the technical distinctions between typical western music and the non-western music that we've been studying. Now the African influence on the music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director got a South African composer to write songs with a distinctly African sound. And the songs even include words from African languages. But we'll get back to the African influence later. First let's turn to the music that was written for the shadow puppet scenes in "The Lion King", music based on the Indonesian music used in the shadow puppet theater of that region

11.理科类段子：讨论“生物学”
Today, we are going to continue our discussion on social insects, focusing on the Argentine ants, which as you might guess is a species of ants that are natives to Argentina. We'll consider what happened to this type of ants after some members of the species move to California from their original habitat. OK, well, in Argentina, these Argentine ants behave like most ant species around the world. They fight other ants of the same species if those ants are from some other nests. But the Argentine ants living in California behave differently. Ants from different nests form a single large colony. Within this colony, there is little aggression among ants from different nests. And when they fight with insects from outside their colony, the Argentine ants can quickly recruit a huge army from their network of nests. This of course gives them advantages over other ants' species. So then, why do Argentine ants behave differently in California than they do in Argentina? Well, using genetic testing, researches found that all the Argentine ants in California were very similar genetically. You see, when the first Argentine ants came to California, their population must have been very small and all the later generations of Argentine ants there must have descended from the same few ancestors. So they are all closely related. This discovery is important, because for most social insects, membership in a colony is based on how closely related they are genetically.
12.文科类段子：讨论“艺术史”
One important thing about art movements is that their popularity can be affected by social conditions, which are themselves often affected by historical events. As an example, look at what happened in the United States early in the 20th century, around the time of the great depression, the art movement known as the Regionalism had begun in the United States even before the depression occurred. But it really flourished in the 1930s, during the depression years. Why? Well, many artists who had been living in big cities were forced by the economic crisis to leave those big cities and move back to their small towns in rural America. Some of these artists came to truly embrace the life in small towns and to eject city life in so called "sophisticated society." These artists or specifically certain painters really built regionalist movement. They created things in everyday life in small towns or farming areas. And their style was not all-neutral, really big glorified or romanticized country life, showing it stable, wholesome, and embodying important American traditions. And this style became very popular, in part because of the economic conditions of the time. You see, the depression had caused many Americans to begin to doubt their society. But regionalism artists painted scenes that glorified American values, scenes that many Americans could easily identify with. So the movement helped strengthen people' s faith in their country, faith that had weakened as the result of the depression. But in the 1940s, before and after the Second World War, American culture began to take on a much more international spirit, and Regionalism, with its focus on small town life, well it lost a lot of popularity, as American society changed once again.

[转]IBT各学科知识的准备方法

尽管新托福OG一再强调，对于一些学术方面的听力、阅读文章，不需要考生有预先对于该科目的任何知识，但我们发现，对于涉及我们本专业题材的文章，我们做起来总会较为顺手一点。所以掌握一定知识的背景对我们阅读时候的理解和心态都是有帮助的。

长久以来，ETS的文章明显分为人文科学和自然科学两大部分。我们大多数人不是上知天文，下知地理的牛人，我从没见过一次考试全是人文科学或者全是自然科学的文章。自然科学类包括：生物，地理，物理，天文等等，其中生物出现的频率最高，地理也不低，从没见过出化学类的题目，包括GRE在内好像也很少有化学文章，可能是因为化学偏词太多，而且化学很大程度上渗透到生物（含人体生理）之中了。社会科学类一般包括：History (Archeaology), Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Arts & Music, Economics & Management。

IBT的阅读极少涉及到某学科深奥的部分，基本上都是引入一个现象，然后展开解释的总—分结构。这与GRE的驳斥类文章不尽相同。正因为如此，才有了最后一个summary的那种题型。考的题目也多与文章本身有关，而很少涉及学科内容本身。即使涉及到了，也多是一些直接信息题，可以从题目中直接找到答案。

据我个人的经验，尤其是在秦苏珊英语班经过了大量的阅读练习以后，我发现在所有文章中，社会科学类的文章要比较难一些。因为这类文章语言较为晦涩，逻辑性较强，比较难于理解；而另一方面，自然科学类的文章虽然往往生词比较多，但是并不碍于理解，反而答起来比较顺手。但更重要的原因，我认为是我们对待社会科学的思路与美国人不尽相同导致的。

艺术及历史：

艺术类的文章对于大多数人来说不是那么容易理解的。美国人有两个根本上的弱点，一个是艺术，一个是历史。因为他们本身是没有历史的，艺术方面比起欧洲来也是相去甚远。而我们生活在中国这样一个有数千年文化和历史的国家，我们对于艺术和历史的态度，已经几于麻木。历史课的学习在我们的基础教育中一直处于一个比较尴尬的地位，更不用说艺术了。一般人从上初中开始学习历史，到高中，学习四到六年。这其中包括了中国史和世界史的学习。这么短的时间内，学习断代史也只能知其皮毛，何况我们需要用两三年的时间学习一个从元谋人到改革开放的百万年大通史。所以，我们学习历史的时候更多是以编年史的形式进行的。我们上课的时候更多按照事件来学习，我们学习秦始皇如何统一六国，而不学习秦始皇的生平；我们学习王安石变法的内容，意义，而不学习王安石的生平；我们学习鸦片战争，戊戌变法，辛丑条约，辛亥革命的意义，而不学习其中某个人的生平。因为几千年的历史中有无数的重要人物，一个人谈10分钟，恐怕也不是说得完的。对于艺术，也只是在历史课上粗略带过。每10课可能有一课讲“三国魏晋南北朝时期的艺术”，讲讲建安七子，讲讲王羲之也就完了。

而另一方面，美国人根本没有这么长的历史。他们的历史事件无非就是，波士顿倾茶，独立战争，南北战争，西部开发，甚至经济大萧条这么几件大事。所以按照事件学习历史的话，绝对没有什么太多好说的了。因此，美国人的历史、艺术问题多是以某人为主线，所有的历史性题目都是围绕这么几件事情展开的。而在文章中，我们经常可以看到“before the civil war”，“after the great recession”等语言，表明某事件的分水岭。而我们所看到的阅读中遇到的所有历史事件，也都与这些有关。最常见的题目是黑人问题，Native American，妇女权益和某一时期的经济。都离不开这么几件事。

对于艺术、历史的叙述，也都采用纪传体的方式，而不是我们熟悉的记事体。说某一艺术流派，或者某一人物在历史中的地位。叙述过程大多以时间顺序为主线。从幼年时期讲起，初期的成就，人生中的转折点，其他相关人物（如对他有重大影响的，或者主要合作伙伴），鼎盛时期的成就，晚年的结局等方面。大都是换汤不换药。阅读这类文章，需要把握叙事的一个顺序，这样有助于理解各段的主要内容，进而做完第一遍的快速阅读，更对最后一个提纲题有帮助。另外，美国人十分注意与欧洲的区别。很多文章都是直接表明美国最初如何模仿欧洲，后来怎样发展出自己的风格的。

Anthropology的范围比较宽，一般来说是介绍世界上某一人种的特点。具体包括：居住地，起源，早期的农牧猎特点，建筑和艺术风格，社会阶级，人口变迁，大规模迁徙等等。这类问题以美国的Indian Tribes居多。这时候还要涉及到旧大陆来的移民对于土著的影响等问题。对于这个题材的，也需要按照上述分类具体分析每一段的具体内容，把握文章的主线。

上述两类文章，看多了以后，甚至可以根据前面的内容很快的预测一下后面将要讲什么。因为讲述的角度无外乎那几种。以把握宏观上的问题为主，因为具体细节题，如果能在把握大概结构的基础上很快准确定位，并不太难。