新世纪研究生英语听说(下)PARTB听力原文.doc

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1、Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.-author-date新世纪研究生英语听说(下)PARTB听力原文新世纪研究生英语听说(下)PARTB听力原文新世纪研究生英语听说学生用书(下) PART BLESSON ONEPassage onePopulation and Resources The population of the world has been increasing faster and faster. In 1

2、0,000 B.C., there were probably 10 million people. In A.D. 1, there were 300 million. It took 1750 years for the population to reach 625 million, a little more than double the A.D. 1 figure. In 1990, there were 5.3 billion people. By the year 2000, the worlds population was over 6 billion, and by 20

3、50, it is expected to reach 10 billion. Does the earth have enough natural resources to support this many people? Different scientists give different answers to this question. Some say that there are enough resources to support more than 6 billion people. However, the richest countries, with a small

4、 percentage of the worlds population, use most of the resources. If these resources could be distributed more equally around the world, there would be enough for everyone. Other scientists say that we must limit population growth because our resources are limited. Only 10 percent of the earths land

5、can be used for farming and another 20 percent for raising animals. It is possible to increase the amount of farmland, but only a little. Some land in developing countries could be more productive if people started using modern farming methods, but this would not increase worldwide production by muc

6、h. We all know that there is a limited amount of petroleum. There are also limits to the amounts of metals. There is a limit to the amount of water we can use since most of the earths water is salt water, and most of the fresh water is frozen at the North and South Poles. It is difficult to say how

7、many people the earth can support, but it will help everyone if we can limit population growth before serious shortages develop. The problem is how to do it. Passage TwoThe Middle Easts Water Resource Crisis Fresh water, life itself, has never come easy in the Middle East. Ever since the Old Testame

8、nt when God punished man with 40 days and 40 nights of rain, water supplies here have been dwindling. The rainfall only comes in winter and drains quickly through the semiarid land, leaving the soil to bake and to thirst for next November. The regions accelerating population growth, expanding agricu

9、lture, industrialization, and higher living standards demand more fresh water. Drought and pollution limit its availability. War and mismanagement squander it. Nations like Israel and Jordan are swiftly sliding into that zone where they are using all the water resources available to them. They have

10、only 15 to 20 years left before their agriculture, and ultimately their food security, is threatened. Even amid the scarcity there are haves and have-nots. Compared with the United States, which has a freshwater potential of 10,000 cubic meters a year for each citizen, Iraq has 5,500, Turkey has 4,0

11、00, and Syria has little more than 2,800. Egypts potential is only 1,100, Israel has 460, and Jordan has less than 260. But these are not firm figures, because upstream use of river water can dramatically alter the potential downstream. Scarcity is only one element of the Middle Easts water crisis.

12、Inefficiency is another, as is the reluctance of some water-poor nations to change priorities from agriculture to less water-intensive enterprises. Some experts suggest that if these nations would share both water technology and resources, they could satisfy the regions population, currently 159 mil

13、lion. But in this patchwork of ethnic and religious rivalries, the water crisis is not a clear-cut issue. It is entangled in the politics that keep people from trusting and seeking help from one another. Here where water, like truth, is precious, each nation tends to find its own water and supply it

14、s own truth. LESSON TWOPassage IPurse Snatching Purse snatching is an increasingly common crime. There are estimated 50 to 100 purse snatchings each month in the New York City subways, the number often swinging widely because of the depredations( 掠夺, 破坏) of a single teenager. When such a professiona

15、l is in custody(被监禁, 被拘留着), the snatches can decrease by more than 50 a month. One of the favored techniques is to stand between two subway cars and as a train starts pulling out of the station, reach out and pull free a womans purse. Recently, a crime analysis officer for the New York Police Depart

16、ment found that purse stealing in Manhattans top restaurants was up 35 percent over the previous year. When a woman puts her purse on an empty chair at a table or at her feet beside her chair, she is inviting a purse snatcher to take it. Purse snatchers often work in pairs. When a target in a restau

17、rant is seen, one of them will create some kind of disturbance to gain the victims attention. While the woman is looking away from her table, the actual snatcher will lift the purse. A popular technique is for the thief to carry an umbrella with the curved handle down. The umbrella handle suddenly h

18、ooks the bag and in an instant it is on the thiefs wrist, or under the coat over his arm if he is a man, and on its way out of the restaurant. Police advise that women in restaurants keep their purse either on their laps or on the floor between their legs.Other purse snatchers who operate in theater

19、s are called seat tippers, victimizing women who put their purses down on a neighboring empty seat. Others specialize in snatching purses from ladies rooms. When a woman is in a toilet stall, her purse should never be placed on the floor or hung on the coat hook on the door. Thieves simply dive unde

20、r the door and grab the purse on the floor, or stand on the toilet in the next stall and reach over and take the purse off the hook. The snatcher has enough time to escape since the victim cant immediately pursue the thief.Passage IIHow Do Handwriting Experts Catch Criminals On the afternoon of July

21、 4, 1995, Mrs. Beatrice Weinberger brought her one-month old baby back from an outing. She left the pram(童车；婴儿车 （亦作： perambulator）)outside her house and hurried inside to get the baby a clean nappy. When she returned a few moments later, the pram was empty and a scrawled(乱涂, 潦草地写) note was lying whe

22、re her baby had been. The note said: Attention. I badly need money, and cant get it any other way. Dont tell the police about this, otherwise I will kill the baby. Just put $2,000 in small bills in a brown envelope, and place it next to the road lamp at the corner of Albemarle Rd. at exactly 10 oclo

23、ck tomorrow (Thursday ) morning. If everything goes smooth, I will bring the baby back and leave him on the same corner safe and happy at exactly 12 noon. No excuse, I can not wait! Your baby-sitter. Despite the kidnappers warning, Mrs. Weinberger contacted the police. A small parcel containing brok

24、en pieces of newspaper was placed on the corner the following morning. But the kidnapper did not show up. He failed to keep two other appointments with the Weinbergers, and left a second note signed Your baby-sitter. By then, the police felt that the baby was no longer alive. The FBI was called in,

25、and the handwriting experts set to work to try to track down the kidnapper. In both notes an unusual z-shaped stroke was placed at the front of the y in words such as money and baby. Starting with the New York State Police Office, the experts spent the next six weeks carefully going over local recor

26、ds at police offices, factories, hotels, clubs and schools and examining handwriting samples and comparing them with the writing on the kidnappers notes. Then, in the middle of August, the experts hard efforts paid off. The handwriting of John Rush Blake matched that of the kidnappers, especially in

27、 the peculiar formation of the ys. (While achieving success is easier said than done , persistence does in fact pay off.获得成功说起来比做起来容易，然而坚持不懈确实会有好结果。) Not long after, John Blake was arrested for making illegal alcohol. On being shown the handwriting samples, he confessed to kidnapping the baby. He to

28、ld the police that he had left the baby alive and well in a nearby park on the day after the kidnapping . But when officers hurried to the place, all they found was the babys dead body. The criminal was later put into New Yorks Sing Sing Prison. Even if John Blake had tried to disguise his handwriti

29、ng he would still have been caught. No matter how hard someone may try to disguise his handwriting characteristics, the individuality of the writer shows through, the very angle at which he or she holds a pen, the way a t is crossed and an / is dotted, the height and size of capital and small letter

30、s, the amount of space between words, the use (or misuse) of punctuation marks. All these can identify a person as surely as fingerprints. LESSON THREEPassage OneThe Application of Computers In Education The best method for improving educational standards is to utilize every tool available including

31、 state-of-the-art达到最新技术发展水平的technology. Computers and the Internet have expanded the way in which information can be delivered to the students of today. Todays networking technologies provide a valuable opportunity to practice new learning techniques. Educators are discovering that computers are fac

32、ilitating learning. Computer-based communications, or telecommunications can offer many educational opportunities; therefore, educators will need to adapt current teaching methods to incorporate this new media into the classroom. Computers have made a fundamental impact on most industries, providing

33、 a competitive advantage that has come to be essential to many businesses. Therefore, schools must also use technology to improve the educational process. School systems often consider purchasing a compute network, and justify its purchase by applying it to routine administrative tasks, such a atten

34、dance records and grading. While these tasks are very important, they only show a small part of what technology can do for a school. Technology must go further than simply keeping attendance; it must focus on keeping students interested and productive. Since computers and the Internet have expanded

35、the ways in which education can be delivered to students, it is currently possible to engage in distance education” through the Internet. Distance education involves audio and video links between teachers and students in remote areas. Video conferencing allows groups to communicate with each other.

36、Desktop video conferencing promises to bring students together from geographic and cultural distances face to face via computer. Not only will the teacher talk to the students, but the students will be able to interact with each other. This will make students more interested in learning. Passage Two

37、E-Commerce The Internet, as a means for commerce, did not become reality until the 1990s. Before this time, it was mainly a tool for the army, and a research device for some American universities. Its popularity grew when it proved to be a fast and efficient means to conduct long distance transactio

38、ns, as well as an effective way to distribute information. The first advantage that e-commerce possesses is speed. With increased speeds of communication, the delivery time is expedited 加快and that makes the whole transaction from start to finish more efficient. Also, you can find practically any pro

39、duct available for sale on the Internet. Even more significant is the fact that information appearing on the Internet can be changed rapidly. This gives business owners the ability to inform customers of any changes to the service that they are offering. The second advantage of electronic commerce i

40、s the opportunity it offers to save on costs. By using the Internet, marketing, distribution, personnel, phone, postage and printing costs, among many others, can be reduced. You can start doing business in cyberspace for as little as $100. The savings, therefore, are tremendous. These funds can the

41、n be diverted to marketing and advertising your product or service. Cyberspace knows no national boundaries. That means you can do business all over the world as easily as you can in your own neighborhood. Since the Internet connects everyone in cyberspace, information is transmitted at the speed of

42、 sound or the speed of light, depending on your connection. Either way, distance becomes meaningless, which enables you to link to nearly anyone on the globe, and anyone on the globe can link to you. The ability to establish links makes doing business on the Internet attractive to customers in any p

43、art of the world. A potential source of trouble is customer concerns with privacy and security. Anything sent over the Internet is sent through several different computers before it reaches its final destination. The concern regarding Internet security and privacy is that unscrupulous hackers can ca

44、pture credit card or check account data as it is transferred or break into computers that hold the samePart D Extensive listeningLESSON FOURPassage OneOne day in 1848, a remarkable discovery was made by a carpenter named Marshall. He happened to pick up some bright yellow particles from the water ne

45、ar his sawmill. Not knowing what they were, he took them to his master Mr. Sutter. Sutter immediately realized the importance of the discovery and sent a man to San Francisco to inform the governor of it so that he could get permission to found a settlement on both banks of the river. Unfortunately

46、in the beginning, the man did not believe it. Only after a reporter from a weekly newspaper went to Sutters sawmill to make a report, did the news spread all over the USA, and even to Europe.Within a month, thousands and thousands of people hurried towards California to search for the valuable metal

47、. Soldiers deserted the army, sailors left their ships and all sorts of people gave up their jobs so as not to miss the chance of becoming rich. Large number of Europeans joined in the search, too. Crowds of people, ships and wagon trains rushed to the same destination. This was the California Gold

48、Rush. While this went on, families were broken up, husbands were taken away from their wives and children from their parents. On their way to California, lots of worshippers of gold lost their lives before they got a single particle of it. Some of them were killed in storms at sea; some could not stand the extraordinary hardships, and died of hunger, cold or illness. The Gold Rush proved a disaster for Sutter himself. For years he tried to drive the prospectors off his land to keep the entire wealth for himse