全国英语专八听力考试备考训练

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全国英语专八听力考试备考训练

　　全国英语专八听力考试备考训练 1

　　ECTION A MINI-LECTURE

　　In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You willhear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, takenotes on the important points. Your notes will not bemarked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture isover, you'll be given two minutes to check yournotes, and another 10 minutes to complete thegap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture.

　　Good morning. Today's lecture is about themotivation for words. First, what is motivation? Motivation deals with the connection betweenname and sense. In the previous lecture, we have mentioned two rival schools of thought:one school is the Naturalists, who believed that there was an intrinsic connection betweensound and sense; the other school is the Conventionalists, who held that the connectionbetween sound and sense was purely a matter of tradition and convention. The firstmotivation is the onomatopoeic motivation.

　　The word onomatopoeia is derived from the Greek word onomatopoeia, which means "word-making". Onomatopoeic motivation means defining the principle of motivation by sound. Thesounds of such words as cuckoo, ding-dong, buzz seem to be appropriate to their senses.But it has to be pointed out that onomatopoeic words constitute only a small part of thevocabulary. According to Stephen Ullmann, onomatopoeic formation can be divided intoprimary onomatopoeia and secondary onomatopoeia. Primary onomatopoeia means theimitation of sound by sound. Here the sound is truly an "echo to the sense". Terms like crack,growl, hum, roar, squeak, whiz and a great many fall into this category.

　　Secondary onomatopoeia means that certain sounds and sound-sequences are associated withcertain senses in an expressive relationship. In this form, the sounds evoke a movement, asin such words: quiver, wriggle, slither. The sound may also evoke some physical or moralquality, usually unfavorable. For example, gloom, slimy, sloppy, sloth. Some of theseonomatopoeic terms have certain elements in common. For example, the sound /sn/ mayexpress three types of experiences. They are, first, "breath-noise" as in sniff, snuff, snore,snort, second, "quick separation or movement" as in snip, snap, snatch, and third, "creeping"as in snake, snail, sneak. Final groups have similar functions. For example, the combination of— are at the end of a word suggests "big light or noise" as in blare, flare, glare, stare; thecombination of -ump at the end of a word suggests "heavy fall" as in dump, crump, plump,slump, thump.

　　Another interesting feature of onomatopoeic patterns is that they often work by vowelalternation. By substituting one vowel for another, one can express different noises. Forexample: snip---snap, sniff---snuff, flip---flap---flop. Closely connected to this tendency arereduplicated words and phrases, such as wishy-washy, tit-tat, tick-tock, click-clack. It should benoted that many onomatopoeic forms are based on alternations of not vowels but of initialconsonants, such as higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, namby-pamby, roly-poly etc.

　　The second motivation is semantic motivation. Semantic motivation means that motivation isbased on semantic factors. It is a kind of mental association. When we speak of the bonnetof a car, a coat of paint, or when we speak of potatoes cooked in their jackets, theseexpressions are motivated by the similarity between the garments and the objects referredto. In the same way, when we say the cloth for the clergy, "town and gown" for "town anduniversity", there is semantic motivation due to the fact that the garments in question areclosely associated with the persons they designate. Both types of expressions are figurative:the former are metaphoric and the latter are metonymic. We can see that semantic motivationis closely connected with figures of speech. Here I'll name three of them.

　　First, metaphor. Metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison. Forexample: "he has a heart of stone". "The curtain of night has fallen." Another figure of speechis metonymy. It is a device in which we name something by one of its attributes, as in crownfor king, the turf for horse-racing, the White House for the US president. Similar to metonymyis synecdoche, which means the substitution of a part for a whole or a whole for a part, as inbread for food, the army for a soldier, etc.

　　Apart from onomatopoeic motivation and semantic motivation, there is also logical motivation.Logical motivation deals with the problem of defining a concept by means of logic. A definitionhas two forms. A common form of definition is"This means such and such." "Fat" means"having much flesh". Another form of definition is "This means the same as that" or"This isequivalent to that". "Fat" means "the same as obese'. These two forms of the definition showthat a definition has two parts: the word being defined, and the definition that is beingmade.

　　Giving a definition involves two steps to be taken. One step is to identify the concept of agenus, that is, a class of things made up of two or more subordinate classes or species. Theother step is to identify the attributes distinguishing one species from other similar species inthe same genus. A combination of these two approaches helps to define a concept. Forexample, in the 1950's, there appeared a new crisis gripping the minds of part of the Americanyouth. These young people felt disturbance and anxiety about their personality developmentand adjustment. This crisis is called an identity crisis. The word "crisis' is a genus, whichconsists of two or more species, such as spiritual crisis, economic crisis, political crisis, etc.The expression "identity crisis" is used to distinguish itself from other crisis.

　　So far we have covered the three motivations for words: onomatopoeic motivation, semanticmotivation, and logical motivation. However, it is not always easy to identify clearly themotivation for each word in our vocabulary. In such case, we may say the motivation is lost.There may be two factors which lead to loss of motivation. One is a change in the morphologicalstructure of a word, and the other factor is change of meaning.

　　In next lecture, we'll discuss these two changes in detail. This is the end of today's lecture.Thank you for your attention.

　　Section B INTERVIEW

　　In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions thatfollow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview.At the end of the interview, you will be given 10seconds to answer each of the following 5 questions.Now listen to the interview.

　　Interviewer(W): Today I'd like to welcome EdwardFox, a seasoned real-estate agent, who is going totalk to us about buying a house. Hello, Edward.

　　Edward Fox (M): Hello.

　　W: Now Edward, for most people buying a house is a major life event, and probably the singlemost expensive item they are ever likely to buy. What precautions do they have to take beforea real purchase? Can you give some suggestions?

　　M: You are right in saying buying a house costs a lot. But as to me, the most important thingto consider before buying any property is the location.

　　W: Location?

　　M: Right. Because it is where you plan to spend a large part of your life. Or, indeed, the rest ofyour life in some circumstances. Therefore, consider the type of life you enjoy leading. If you area very sociable person who enjoys nightclubs and discos, you may consider something close toa city. Anyway, a city is convenient for all types of nightlife.

　　W: Then, for those who seek a quiet life, do you recommend a house in the countryside?

　　M: Well, countryside is a tranquil place. However, do remember that proximity to the place ofwork also counts. Indeed, we spend most of our life at work, and you don't want to have tospend two or more hours every day traveling to work, do you? Therefore, transport is of theutmost importance. City suburbs, however, are often conveniently located for commuting towork, or for shopping, without being in the heart of a busy city.

　　W: But houses in the suburbs are far more expensive than those in cities.

　　M: They seem to be, but actually houses located in cities can often exceed the price ofsuburban houses, so check out the prices. You may be surprised.

　　W: Really? So we should consider our place of work and personality in choosing the location. Isthat so?

　　M: I'm afraid you have to take family into consideration as well. You may prefer a house that isaway from a busy street or main road. And of course, remember that children have to attendschool. If you have children, or you plan to have children, location is a very important factor.And of course, remember that a family influences the size of the property.

　　W: Oh, I see. How many types of houses can we choose?

　　M: There are various types of houses. The first is called detached houses, which stand alone,and are not joined by another building. Then there are semi-detached houses, which are themost common. This is because they are, in fact, two houses joined together, and therefore takeup less space. And there are town houses, too, which are many houses joined together to forma long row. But don't think that town houses are less expensive than semi-detached houses.They rarely are. This is because they are usually built in cities where the price of property isvery expensive.

　　W: Then what about old houses? They must be cheaper than new ones.

　　M: Maybe they are. But if the house is too old, you may be faced with expensive repairs andrenovation bills. So have a house thoroughly checked by a professional surveyor before youdecide to buy.

　　W: I agree. It's economical to buy old houses only when they are in good condition. By theway, a lot of property has a garden attached to it. Do you think it's a good choice?

　　M: It's true that a lot of property has a garden. If you enjoy gardening, that's fine. But if youdon't enjoy gardening then you may prefer a small garden, as opposed to a big one. But evenif you do enjoy gardening it is important to remember that gardens take up a lot of your time.So keeping a garden in good order may be very difficult if you work long hours.

　　W: You are quite right. Any other suggestions?

　　M: One final thing is the general feel of the place. Does it have a good atmosphere? And mostimportant of all, would you feel comfortable living there?

　　W: Edward, I never knew I had to consider so many things while buying a house. Thank youvery much for talking with us.

　　M: My pleasure.

　　全国英语专八听力考试备考训练 2

　　SECTION A

　　MINI-LECTURE

　　In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You willhear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening,takenotes on the important points. Your notes will not bemarked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture isover,you’ll be given two minutes to check yournotes, and another 10 minutes to complete thegap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture.

　　In this lecture, we’ll discuss English vocabulary. First, let’s define the term “vocabulary”. Whatis vocabulary? It usually refers to a complete inventory of the words in a language. But it mayalso refer to the words and phrases used in the variants of a language, such as dialect,register, terminology, etc. The vocabulary can be divided into active vocabulary and passivevocabulary. The active vocabulary refers to lexical items which a person uses. The passivevocabulary refers to the words which he understands. The English vocabulary is characterizedby a mixture of native words and borrowed words. First, about the native words. Most of thenative words are of Anglo-Saxon origin. They form the basic word stock of the Englishlanguage. In the native stock, we find words denoting the commonest things necessary for life,such as those words denoting natural phenomena,divisions of the year, parts of the body,animals, foodstuffs, trees, fruits, human activity. And also other words denoting the mostindispensable things. The native stock also includes auxiliary and modal verbs, pronouns,most numerals, prepositions and conjunctions. Though they are small in number, these wordsplay no small part in linguistic performance and communication. Next, we come to borrowedwords. Borrowed words are also known as loan-words. They refer to linguistic forms takenover by one language or dialect from another. The English vocabulary has replenished itself bycontinually taking over words from other languages over the centuries. The adoption of foreignwords into the English language began even before the English came to England. We know thatthe Angles and Saxons formed a part of the Germanic people. Long before the Anglo-Saxonscame to England, the Germanic people had been in contact with the civilization of Rome. Thus,Words of Latin origin denoting objects belonging to the Roman civilization gradually found theirway into the English language. For example, wine, butter, cheese, inch, mile, mint, etc. Whenthe English, or the Anglo-Saxons, were settled in England, they continued to borrow wordsfrom Latin, especially after Roman Christianity was introduced into the island in the sixth andseventh centuries. A considerable number of Latin words were adopted into the Englishlanguage. These words chiefly signify things connected with religion or the services of thechurch, such as bishop, candle, creed, monk, priest, and a great many others. The Englishvocabulary also owes a great deal to the Danes and Northmen. From these settlers, Englishadopted a surprising number of words of Scandinavian origin that belong to the core-vocabulary today. Such as they, them, their, both, ill, die, egg, knife, low, skill, take, till, though,want, etc. The Norman Conquest in 1066 introduced a large number of French words into theEnglish vocabulary. French adoptions were found in almost every section of the vocabulary. Forexample, in the section of law, there are such words as justice, evidence, pardon; in thesection of warfare, there are conquer, victory; in religion, there are grace, repent, sacrifice;in architecture, there are castle, pillar, tower; in finance, there are pay, rent, ransom; in rank,there are prince, princess; in clothing, there are collar, mantlet; in food, there are dinner, feast,sauce, etc. In the first 43 lines of the Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, there are 39words of French origin. We can see the English vocabulary takes in so many words from French.And in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Renaissance swept Europe. It wasa revival of art and literature based on ancient Greek learning. The Renaissance opened up anew source for the English vocabulary to enrich itself. And English borrowed many words fromGreek through the medium of Latin, such as crisis, topic, coma, etc. a wide range of learnedaffixes are also from Greek, such as bio-, geo-, hydro-, auto-, homo-, para-, -ism, -logy, -graph, -meter, -gram and many others. From the sixteenth century forward, there was a greatincrease in the number of languages, and English borrowed many words from these languages.French continued to provide a considerable number of new words, for example, trophy, vase,moustache, unique, soup. English borrowed a lot of words from Italian in the field of art, musicand literature, for example, model, sonnet, opera, quartet, etc. there was also a Spanishelement in English, for example, potato, cargo, parade, cigar. Besides, German, Portugueseand Dutch were also fertile sources of loan words, for example, dock, zinc and plunder arefrom German; cobra, buffalo and pagoda are from Portuguese; tackle, buoy and skipper arefrom Dutch. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a growth ofinternational trade and the urge to colonize the known world, English made a number of directadoptions from languages spoken outside Europe. Some examples are: sultan and ghoul fromArabic, lichi and typhoon from Chinese, shah and shawl from Persian, yoghurt from Turkish,czar from Russian. Since the end of the Second World War, still more loan words have beenincorporated into the English vocabulary For example, cuisine from French, sushi from Japanese,mao tai from Chinese, and many others. In the twentieth century, it should be observed thatEnglish has created many words out of Latin and Greek elements, especially in the field ofscience and technology, such as antibiotic, astronaut, auto-visual, autolysis, etc. Although allthese Latin and Greek derived words are distinctly learned or technical, they do not seem and,in this respect, they are very different from the recent loanwords from living languages, such ascappuccino, angst, and sputnik. Thus, for the Modern English period a distinction must bemade between the adoptions from living languages and the formations derived from the twoclassical languages. That’s the end of today’s lecture. Next time we’ll concentrate on Englishword formation. Thank you for your attention!

　　Section B

　　INTERVIEW

　　Interviewer(M): Mrs. Hobson, would you pleasedescribe some of the things you do withaggressive children in this special school?

　　Mrs. Hobson(W): Well, you must realize that when he comes here he is meeting otheraggressive children, and aggressive children all together usually gum each other up.

　　M: Umm.

　　W: And they find that aggressive here doesn't pay off because you can be jolly sure there'sone tougher and worse than he is.

　　M: Umm.

　　W: So I usually have ohm... Sometimes have organized fights.

　　M: Organized fights? You actually...

　　W: Yes.

　　M: You actually encourage the children to.

　　W: We have a ring and we have a bell.

　　M: A boxing ring?

　　W: Yes! They must conform, they must keep to the rules, and when they have either lost orwon, we discuss what it is to be the winner and what it is like to lose. And we carry on with ourdiscussion and go on to what it is like in life.

　　M: Umm.

　　W: We must win or lose and we must do each very gracefully.

　　M: Would you please describe some children you have had problems with?

　　W: I had one boy who cut off his dog's ears.

　　M: Cut off his dog's ears? Good lord!

　　W: Yes. And put a stone around his neck and drowned him.

　　M: The dog?

　　W: Yes. Then there was another boy that used to attack me.

　　M: Attack you?

　　W: Yes. Umm...with anything at hand. I hid scissors. Umm...he tried to cut my hair once.And...

　　M: When you weren't looking?

　　W: Yes. You have to be strong. And of course...er...

　　M: By strong you mean...

　　W: Physically strong and mentally.

　　M: So that you can shove them away?

　　W: Well, so that you can defend yourself. I always say to them I'm going to win. And once I'veestablished that, we're all right.

　　M: Mrs. Hobson, why do you think some children are aggressive?

　　W: If a child is one of six or seven children in a family, it's pretty sure that he is naughty andaggressive because he is crying out for attention and in this large family he's found that a jollygood way of getting attention is to shout, be naughty. At least mummy turns round and says, "Be quiet, be a good boy, or you'll get this or that."

　　M: So some children are aggressive simply in order...

　　W: To gain attention! Aggressiveness usually is that. It's really the children crying out andsaying, "Look at me, please."

　　M: Umm.

　　W: I'm not saying it's the answer in all circumstances but it usually is.

　　M: What are the advantages of your school, as compared with ordinary school?

　　W: The classes are smaller for one thing.

　　M: How small?

　　W: Er...we only have groups up to five or six.

　　M: And in a normal school?

　　W: Oh. that varies of course but it could be thirty to forty.

　　M: Umm.

　　W: Here he does have individual attention every day.

　　M: Do you think the work is important?

　　W: I do. Without our unit or something similar.

　　M: The unit is the school?

　　W: Yes, the whole unit. I think a lot of children would be left and then perhaps at the age ofsixteen we would have our juvenile delinquent. I'm not saying we're curing them all, but I thinkat least with the unit available to these children, they have had a chance to make good.

　　M: Umm.

　　W: I'm not saying it always pays off, but they have had a chance.

　　Section C NEWS BROADCAST

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions thatfollow. Questions 6 to 7 are based on the followingnews. At the end of the news item, you will be given10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　Now that the U.S. space shuttle Discovery is back onEarth, future shuttle missions are postponed untilthe space agency NASA solves the problem of launchdebris endangering the orbiters. Whenever missions resume, they will continue building theInternational Space Station, which the United States operates with Russia and the support ofEurope, Canada, and Japan. But there is a legal obstacle that may keep the U.S. astronautsoff the Space Station. The issue dates back to 1996, when the two countries agreed thatRussia would provide the United States free crew and cargo transportation to the stationuntil next April. This provision proved crucial during the long ban on shuttle flights after theColumbia disaster in 2003, for the United States had no other way to get its astronauts andsupplies to the station. Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. MalaysianPresident Abdullah Badawi says the Muslim world should do more to improve the economicstanding of all Muslims. He told business leaders gathered in Hong Kong Monday that theIslamic world must do all it can to end poverty among all Muslims. Mr. Abdullah, who currentlychairs the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference, says the time has come for the OIC toemphasize the economic development of its members. He says Muslim populations must notonly strive for peace, but also for economic vitality. Many of the OIC's members are developingcountries in Africa and the Middle East. Malaysia has recently been taking steps to promoteIslamic banking and finance. Next week, senior officials from the Islamic Development Bank, thefunding agency of the OIC, will meet in Kuala Lumpur to discuss and formulate economicprograms for the organization's poorer members. Questions 9 and 10 are based on thefollowing news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of thetwo questions. Now listen to the news.) This is the 59th annual Tony awards ceremonybroadcast nationwide from Radio City Music Hall. Monty Python's Spamalot has been a sold-outhit since it opened on Broadway in March. It won the Antoinette Perry Awards, the Tonys, forbest musical, and for director and featured actress in the musical category. A new musical,The Light in the Piazza, won the largest number of awards, six. Broadway's top dramatichonors went to the much-acclaimed play, Doubt, A Parable. The story of a nun's suspicion ofchild abuse at a parochial school won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this year after switching toBroadway from a successful off-Broadway run. Veteran actress Cherry Jones and directorDoug Hughes also took home the top honors in the dramatic category. Playwright EdwardAlbee, the author of Broadway classics, such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A DelicateBalance and The Zoo Story, was presented with a special Lifetime Achievement Award.

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