Time I think a lot about time and not just because it’s the name of the news organization I work for. Like most working people, I find time or the lack of it, are never ending frustration and an unwinable battle. My every day is a race against the clock that I never ever seem to win. This is hardly a lonesome complaint, according to the families and work institutes, national study of the changing work force. 55% of the employees say they don’t have enough time for themselves, 63% don’t have enough time for their spouses or partners, and 67% don’t have enough time for their children. It’s also not a new complaint. I bet our ancestors returned home from hunting wild animals and gathering nuts, and complained about how little time they had to paint battle scenes on their cave walls. The differences about the boresome animal hunting and ahead of not gathering probably told them to shut up or no survival for you. Today’s workers are still demanding control over their time, the differences today’s bosses are listening. I’ve been reading your report issued today called when work works, produced jointly by 3 organizations. They set out to find and warn the employers who employ the most creative and most effective ways to give their workers flexibility. I found this report worth reading and suggest every boss should read it for ideas. Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard. 26. What is the speaker complaining about? He’s in a hurry to work everyday and doesn’t have enough spare time. 27. What does the speaker say about our ancestors? They were busy with finding food outside in order to survive. 28. Why does the speaker suggest all the bosses read the report by the 3 organizations? Because this report may help them keep their most creative and effective workers working without too much complaint.

Passage 2    Loving a child is a circular business. The more you give, the more you get. The more you want to give, Penalaeone said. What she said proves to be true of my blended family. I was born in 1931as the youngest of 6 children, I learn to share my parents’ love. Raising 6 children during the difficult time of the Great Depression took its toll on my parents’ relationship and resulted in their divorce when I was 18 years old. Daddy never had very close relationship with his children and drifted even farther away from us after the divorce. Several years later, a wonderful woman came into his life, and they were married. She had 2 sons. One of them is still at home. Under her influence we became a blended family and a good relationship developed between the 2 families. She always treated us as if we were her own children. It was because of our other mother, daddy’s second wife, that he became closer to his own children. They shared over 25 years together before our father passed away. At the time of his death, the question came up of my mother, daddy’s first wife, attending his funeral. I will never forget the unconditional love shown by my stepmother. When I asked her if she would object mother attending daddy’s funeral. Without giving it a second thought, she immediately replied, “of course not honey, she is the mother of my children.” Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you’ve just heard. 29. According to the speaker, what contributed to her parents’ divorce? The difficult time of the Great Depression 30. What brought his father closer to his children? A wonderful woman, his stepmother 31. What message does the speaker want to convey in this talk? Unconditional love may contribute greatly to keeping closer relationship between family members.

Passage 3 In February last year, my wife lost her job. Just as suddenly, the owner of the greenhouse where I worked as manager died of heart attack. His family announced that they were going to close the business because no one in the family wanted to run it. Things looked pretty gloomy, my wife and I read the want-ads each day. Then one morning, as I was hanging up, going out the business site at greenhouse, the door opened and in walked a customer. She was an office manager whose company has just moved into the new office park on the edge of town. She was looking for parted plants to place in the reception areas and offices. "I don't know anything about plants," she said. "I'm sure in a few weeks that all be dead." Why I was helping her select her purchases? My mind was racing. Perhaps as many as a dozen firms had recently opened offices in the new office park and there were several hundred more acres with construction under way. That afternoon, I drove out to the office park. By six o'clock that evening I had signed contracts with seven companies to rent plants from me and pay me a fee to maintain them. Within a week, I had worked out an agreement to lease the greenhouse from the owner's family. Business is now increasing rapidly. And one day, we hope to be the proud owners of the greenhouse.

32．What do we learn about the greenhouse? It is a place where we can buy plants. 33.  What was the speaker doing when the customer walked in one morning? He just finish making a phone call. 34．What did the speaker think of when serving the office manager? He does not know for sure why he helps her 35.          What was the speaker’s hope for the future? He hopes to be the proud owner of the green house.

　　這次四級passage的三篇文章分別屬于社會類、故事傳記類。相對來說，第一篇文章比較有難度，而后兩篇因為情節發展清晰而有條理，所以只要理清脈絡順序，搞懂邏輯關系就并不會很難。從詞匯角度來看，雖然文章中有個別生僻的詞匯，但都不影響對于文章的總體理解。 我們在平時訓練時給大家劃過答案分布特點，這次的三篇文章也正體現了這個解題規律。 第一篇有關time的文章除了在講現代人的時間觀外海在文章中開頭處提到了著名的TIME雜志。雖然后面的問題并不直接與此有關，但總很大程度上體現出四級聽力越來越注重英美文化背景的補充。 第二篇文章主要講的是作者的stepmother，其中也提到并考到了美國the Great Depression的背景，體現出四級考試對學生的經濟、歷史背景知識的一定要求。 第三篇文章講了一個立志的創業故事，和我們昂立這次的四六級復習專題《奮斗》，也就是大家熟悉的那部電視劇不謀而合，大方向明確了，解題就不會很難。當然就后一篇文章還考到了對于hang up固定搭配的考察，可見雖然是聽力部分的考試，但詞匯基礎也很重要。

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