Section One Tactics Listening

Listening and Translation

Directions: Listen to some sentences and translate them into Chinese. You will hear each sentence only once.

1. 年龄最大的一批在美国二战后生育高峰年代出生的人今年将满60岁。    

2. 美网和许多工业化国家的退休人口都在增长, 而这种增长预计还将持续。 

3. 当这一代人到达传统退休年龄—65岁时, 他们的人数将占美国人口的20%。

4. 战后生育高峰年代出生的人拥有住房的比例高于全国平均水平, 其中1/4的人拥一处以上的房产。                                               

5. 很多战后生育高峰年代出生的人觉得自己现在还很健康, 并且相信如果继续保持积极的心态, 他们将更加长寿、生活得更愉快。                     

Section Two Listening Comprehension

Part 1 Dialogue

Diamonds

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

De Beers The De Beers Group is a Johannesburg and London-based diamond mining and trading corporation. It has historically held a near-total monopoly in the diamond trade.

Directions: Listen to the dialogue and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. T People have long believed that diamonds are expensive because they are rare.

2. F Diamonds are one of the rarest minerals in the crust of the earth.

3. T Diamonds are expensive because there's a monopoly.

4. F Diamonds are symbolic and important in a marriage and are therefore costly.

5. F One needs to buy a diamond ring if one is getting married because it's a marriage licence.

6. T De Beers' main suppliers are outside South Africa.

7. T Black African states have long been the friends of South Africa.

8. T De Beers can have a monopoly of the diamond market because it controls the means of cutting, the means of distribution, etc.

9. T The main diamond cutters are outside South Africa.

10. T South Africa and Black African states have a subtle relationship in diamond business.

11. T Cutting is crucial in diamond business.

12. T America and Japan are two principal consumers of diamonds.

Part 2 Passage

Buying a Home

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

down payment An initial payment made at the time of purchase, with the balance to be paid later 首付款

closing cost (= closing fees)房地产买卖手续费

mutual fund An open-ended fund operated by an investment company which raises money from shareholders and invests in a group of assets, in accordance with a stated set of objectives. Mutual funds raise money by selling shares of the fund to the public, and then take the money they receive from the sale of their shares (along with any money made from previous investments) and use it to purchase various investment vehicles, such as stocks, bonds and money market instruments. In return for the money they give to the fund when purchasing shares, shareholders receive an equity position in the fund and, in effect, in each of its underlying securities.共有 基金

401K A retirement investment plan that allows an employee to put a percentage of earned wages into a tax-deferred investment account selected by the employer, which is invested in stocks, bonds, or money market instruments; also called “salary reduction plan”

A: Pre-listening Question

What do you know about mortgage?

B: Sentence Dictation

Directions: Listen to some sentences and write them down. You will hear each sentence three times.

1. As a fairly general rule, homes appreciate about four or five percent a year, varying from neighborhood to neighborhood, and region to region.               

2. Of course, you are making mortgage payments and paying property taxes, along with a couple of other costs.                                              

3. If you have been moving money between accounts during that time, there may be large deposits and withdrawal in some of them.                            

4. You may be required to produce some seemingly inconsequential data, which could get quite tedious.                                                  

5. For most people, changing employers will not really affect your ability to quality for a mortgage loan.                                              

C.Detailed Listening

Directions: Listen to the passage and choose the best answer to each of the following questions.

1.  Which of the following is a safe investment according to the speaker?  C 

A.Buying homes.

B.Buying stocks.

C.Buying treasury bills.

D.Buying money market funds.

2.  What does a lender consider when he or she reviews your loan package for approval?  C 

A.Your occupation.

B.Your age.

C.Your assets.

D.Your resume.

3.  What should you provide when a lender studies your loan package for approval?

A.A reference from your employer.  D 

B.Your criminal record.

C.A complete statement on your liabilities for the last two or three months.

D.A complete statement on any of your liquid assets for the last two or three months.

4.  What will the lender do on most loans to ensure quality control and eliminate potential fraud?  B 

A.The lender will carefully check the borrower's employment record.

B.The lender will carefully check the source of all the borrower's funds.

C.The lender will carefully check the borrower's money movement.

D.The lender will carefully check all the borrower's documents.

5.  What might the speaker suggest that a home buyer should do?  D 

A.Moving their money around.

B.Changing employers.

C.Selling a home shortly after buying it.

D.Putting a down payment of more than 10 percent.

D: After-listening Discussion

Directions: Listen to the passage again and discuss the following questions.

1.  What should you avoid when buying a home? Why?

2.  Would you like to buy a home or to rent one? Why?

Section Three News

News Item 1

A: Directions: Listen to the news and complete the summary.

This news item is about  a research which has found chemical evidence to support that those deprived of affection when young can later find life much harder to cope with                                                                 .

B: Directions: Listen to the news again and complete the following outline.

Hypothesis:  Children deprived of affection when young find later life much harder to cope with.                                                     

Method: Comparing a group of young children that had been brought up very early in life in  an orphanage  before  being taken in by families  with  their family-raised peers .

Findings: 1.  They had  very depressed  levels of the hormone arginine vasopressin which plays a key role in  regulating stress  and  managing social interactions .

2.  They reacted  far less  when  cuddled  by their  adoptive parents  as indicated by levels of the  relaxing  hormone oxytocin.

News Item 2

A: Directions: Listen to the news and complete the summary.

This news item is about  the success of Harry Potter scries and its impact on the publishing industry.                                                    .

B: Directions: Listen to the news again and answer the following questions.

1.  Why is there a gathering outside a bookshop in London?

 Because the Harry Potter fans are waiting for the arrival of the latest book in the series                                                                .

2.  Who are those people at the gathering?

 People from different parts of Britain, including the young and not so young, and some teenagers who have traveled over from the Netherlands.                   .

3.  Who else are also excited about the newest Potter tale?

 Bloomsbury, the books' publishers.                                     .

4.  What is Bloomsbury's profit forecast for this year?

 35 million dollars.                                                  .

5.  How popular is the Harry Potter series in the world?

 The previous five books in the series have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 62 languages.                        .

6.  What's the influence of the Harry Potter series on the publishing industry?

 Thanks to Potter, there has been a 10-fold increase in children's book publishing across the board                                                       .

News Item 3

A: Directions: Listen to the news and complete the summary.

This news item is about  Slumdog Millionaire, the winner of the Golden Globe .

B: Directions: Listen to the news again and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. T Slumdog Millionaire, an India film, won the Golden Globe.

2. F Slumdog Millionaire stars several high-profile Hollywood actors whose performances delighted the judges.

3. F The winners of the Oscars are often seen as favourites to win at the Golden Globes.

4. F  Indians now have their hopes pinned on further success when the Oscars are announced on January the 22nd.

5. T It is the first time that AR Rehman, the Elm's composer, had won an international award of such standing.

6. T The film's codirector and the leading actor said Rehman had made them very proud and happy.

Section Four Supplementary Exercises

Part 1 Feature Report

Working with Families Can Be Bad for Business

BAKFROUND INFORMATION

S&P 500 S&P 500 is a stock index, which is considered by most experts to be one of the best benchmarks available to judge overall US stock market performance. 标准 普尔指数

A: Directions: Listen to the news report and complete the summary.

This news report is about  why working with families can be bad for the business                                                             .

B: Directions: Listen to the news report again and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. T Family-owned companies are quite popular in the United States.

2. T Family businesses are on the rise in Europe and Asia.

3. F Jane and Tim Heartfield own a bakery franchise in a modem building downtown.

4. F The location of the Heartfields bakery is not ideal for the business.

5. T The number one rule that a couple working as business partners have to follow is not to argue in front of the employees even if they disagree with each other.

6. F Families with strong relationships can help their family business a lot.

7. T In a family business, family members will do everything to protect each other.

8. F If someone in the family is not very good at his job, normally he will be fired.

Part 2 Passage

Gender Gap Widens in US Colleges

A: Pre-listening Question

What do you know about the gender gap problem in US colleges?

B: Sentence Dictation

Directions: Listen to some sentences and write them down. You will hear each sentence three times.

1. Last year for the first time, women earned more than half the degrees granted statewide in every category.                                              

2. Just as they might consider race or geographical diversity in building freshman classes, they similarly look for gender parity.                                 

3. Talk of gender is fraught with social, legal and political minefields. For one thing, female inequities persist.                                            

4. Most of those tracking the issue agree that getting males into the college pipeline is best addressed in elementary and secondary schools.                  

5. The disparities on campuses worry some admissions officers, particularly at liberal arts colleges where gaps are widest.                                  

C: Detailed Listening

Directions: Listen to the passage and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F). Discuss with your classmates why you think the statement is true or false.

1. T There is a trend that more females than males are attending colleges in the USA.

2. F The young male/female ratio in the USA today is 43/57.

3. T Boys who graduated from high schools once liked to get a blue-collar job.

4. T Some people believe the imbalance between males and females in high schools and colleges may be due to the educational desires of young men.

5. F Pay gap was once a thing of female inequities.

6. T According to the Census Bureau, women on average earned 77% of what male counterparts got in 2004.

7. T Some admissions officers at liberal arts colleges are troubled most by the gender disparities on campuses.

8. F A study this year of admission processes at 13 liberal arts schools found that gender was an important determinant in admission decisions.

D: After-listening Discussion

Directions: Listen to the passage again and discuss the following questions.

1.  How can the problem of gender disparities in USA colleges be solved?

2.  Do you think there is any gender gap on campuses in China?