聽力短文P1-P3聽力點睛

　　Section B

　　Passage One

　　Everyone is looking for a good investment these days. And with stocks, currencies and companies all crashing, some are finding that taking the trip of a lifetime is actually a smart move right now. Prices are good, crowds are fewer and the dividends like expanded worldview, lifelong memories, the satisfaction of boosting the global economy—can't be easily snatched away. Sylvia and Paul Custerson, a retired couple from Cambridge, England, recently took a 16-day vacation to Namibia, where they went on bird-watching excursions. Later this year, they are planning a trip to Patagonia. "We're using our capital now," says Sylvia, "And why not? We're not getting any interest in the bank. If it's a place we really want to go, then we will go. We may as well travel while we're fit and healthy. "

　　Some travel agents are thriving in spite of the economy. "We've had more people booking in the first quarter of this year than last," says Hubert Moineau, founder of Tselana Travel, which is planning to introduce a new program of longer adventure trips, including polar expeditions and cruises in the Galápagos. "We're hearing things like, 'We don't know what the situation will be in six months so let's travel now' ", Ashley Toft, managing director of the U. K. tour operator Explore has been surprised to see an increase in last-minute bookings of high-priced trips to such places as India, Bhutan and Nepal. "It seems people would rather give up something else than the big trip," he says. Travel has become a necessity. It's just how we travel that is changing.

　　聽力點睛：

　　本文介紹了在總體市場經濟不景氣的前提下，旅游業異軍突起現象及其前因后果。文章開篇就介紹總的社會背景是各種不景氣前提下，外出旅游成為人們的選擇之一，緊接著以一個例子來證明。然后旅行社相關的權威人物的話語中更是證明目前旅游業正風頭正勁。文章中出現的人名、地名及職務名稱一定程度上會讓考生覺得頭疼，且分散注意力。這就需要考生有一定對重要信息的提取能力。人名、地名及職務名稱等聽過有個印象就好，不必過于糾結。

　　Section B P3

　　Florence Hayes is a journalist for the Green Ville Journal, the daily newspaper in town. Specifically she covers crime in the Green Ville area. This responsibility takes her to many different places every week——the police station, the court and the hospital. Most of the crimes that she writes about fall into two groups: violent crimes and crimes against property. There isn’t much violent crime in a small town like Green Ville, or at least not as much as in the large urban areas. But assaults often occur on Friday and Saturday nights, near the bars downtown. There’re also one or two rapes on campus every semester. Florence is very interested in this type of crime and tries to write a long article about each one. She expects that this will make women more careful when they walk around Green Ville alone at night

　　Fortunately, there were usually no murders in Green Ville. Crimes against property make up most of Miss Heyes’ reporting. They range from minor cases of deliberate damaging of things to much more serious offenses, such as car accidents involving drunk drivers or bank robberies but Florence has to report all of these violations from the thief who took typewriters from every unlock room in the dormitory to the thief who stole one million dollars worth of art work from the university museum. Miss Hayes enjoys working for a newspaper but she sometimes gets unhappy about all the crime she has to report. She would prefer to start writing about something more interesting and less unpleasant such as local news or politics, maybe next year

　　Florence Hayes

　　Green Ville

　　聽力點睛：

　　本文主要從Florence Hayes，一位來自Green Ville Journal的記者的工作揭示Green Ville的治安狀況。難度適中，難詞不多，難詞主要是對犯罪類詞匯的，如violent crimes, crimes against property, rape, robbery等，考生平時閱讀及詞匯學習一定要各種類型都涉及一點，掌握一些基本的專業詞匯。其次這類從一個人的角度去看的文章，既要注意文中主人公的主觀態度，也要關注客觀事實。題目很可能把2者混淆起來考查考生。

　　Passage Two

　　Somehow the old male and female stereotypes no longer fit. Men and women in this country haven’t been fulfilling their traditional roles for some time now. And there seem to be fewer and fewer differences between the sexes. For instance, even though more women than men are still homemakers without paying jobs, women have been taking over more responsibility in the business world, earning higher salaries than ever before and entering fields of work that used to be exclusively male areas. At office meetings and in group discussions, they might speak up more often, express strong opinions and come up with more creative and practical ideas than their male colleagues. Several days ago, my 23-year-old daughter came to me with some important news. Not only had she found the highest paying job of her career, but she’d also accepted a date with the most charming men she’d ever met.

　　“Really?”, I responded,” tell me about them.”

　　“Receptionist in an attorney’s office and a welder at a construction site.” She answered in a matter-of-fact way. The interesting thing is my daughter’s date is the receptionist and my daughter is the welder. The old stereotypes of men’s and women’s work have been changing more quickly than ever before, except perhaps in my own marriage.

　　“Who's going to mow the lawn? ” I asked my husband this morning.

　　“Oh, I will,” he answered politely. ”That's men's work. ”

　　“What?” Irritated, I raised my voice. “That's a ridiculous stereotype. I'll show you who can do the best job on the lawn.”

　　The work took 3 hours and I did it all myself.

　　篇章類型及提要：社會現象，兩性關系

　　聽力點睛：

　　本文介紹作者對男女關系的老套傳統觀念持質疑態度，并舉例證明其觀點。本文難詞不多，2個例子也以對話為主，所以難度適中。文章第一句"Somehow the old male and female stereotypes no longer fit. "非常直白的表明了作者的觀點。文章難度不大的，題目往往會比較討巧，所以一定不能放松警惕。題目中的以推理為主的題目會相對比較多。