听力材料
Text 1
Now I’d like to talk to you about the final exam. The exam will be held next Thursday, the last day of the exam week. Remember to bring along two or three pens in case you run out of ink. Unlike the mid-term, this test will not include multiple-choice questions. There will be only articles. You will have to answer three of the five questions to write your articles. The exam will be quite difficult, which means you will be responsible for all of the subject matter we’ve covered in class. I would suggest you review your mid-terms as well as the textbooks and your class notes. The final will count for 55% or your grade in the course, the research project will count for 20%, and the mid-term 25%. I’ll be in my office almost all day on Tuesday of next week. If you run into any problems, please feel free to stop in.
Good luck with your studying, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Text 2
M: I flew to San Francisco to take care of some business with Mr. Jordan. But as soon as I arrived, I got sick and couldn’t meet with him. I had to put our interview off. Then, when I felt better I thought about visiting him at his home, but he lived too far away. I tired to telephone him during office hours, but he was busy. The secretary said that Mr. Jordan would call me back, but he didn’t. I gave up trying to do a new interview because it would take more time and effort than I wanted to spend. A few days later, I saw a man on the street who looked like Mr. Jordan, and I called out to him. It was someone else. When I returned to my hotel that day, I found a message, which said that Mr. Jordan had suddenly gone out of town on some unexpected business. I was sorry I had missed seeing him, but I really enjoyed my sightseeing in San Francisco.
Text 3
W: My problem is that I don’t know how to make friends here. I’m new in town, and I don’t have any friends here yet. Before I came here, I had lots of friends, but they were the people I grew up with. They were always my friends. I don’t remember getting to know them, they were just always there from the first grade. I have been here for six weeks now, and some of the children start to smile and say hello, but I don’t really have any friends yet. What can I do?
Text 4
Villages in developing countries often lack many things, books, clean water or electricity. These shortages are easy to see. But a different kind of shortage is not easy to see. That is the shortage of experts. Many villages have no doctors, engineers or scientists. They have no one who knows how to treat unusual medical problems or design a new energy system. There is a way to ease this problem. You can do it with computers. In the past few years, computer scientists around the world have developed what they call“expert systems”. An expert system is a special kind of computer program. In some situations, it can take the place of a human expert.
For example, an expert medical system can help to take care of a sick person. After asking a few questions of the patient, it can tell what medicine or other treatment is needed.
Text 5
Now, you want to know about life in the past. Right? I can tell you. When I was a boy, things were different. I had to get up at six every morning. That was not very hot in the summer, but in winter it was cold. And we didn’t have any hot water in the house. We had to wash in cold water. We didn’t have a bathroom. My dad had some chickens. I had to feed them every morning and then I had to walk to school with my little sister. It was two miles to school and two miles back in the evening. But it always seemed longer in the morning when we were going to school. There was a bus, but we didn’t have the money. And we had to go to bed at seven o’clock every night. We couldn’t watch TV because there wasn’t any. On Sundays we had to go to church three times—morning, afternoon and evening. And we couldn’t play outside on Sundays. But it wasn’t all bad. We had some good times. We could go out and our parents didn’t have to worry about us. There weren’t so many cars on the roads then, so the streets were safe to play in. And there were not many robbers and thieves in those days. We had to work hard and we weren’t able to buy all those things in the shops today. Life was hard, but it was simple and people were happier. I don’t think I’d like to be young today.
Text 6
Once upon a time the animals of the forest came together to see who was the most beautiful. All the animals were happy and excited. However, the snake was very sad because she knew she was ugly.
The cock was very kind to her. He lent the snake his crown. She put it on her head and felt very happy. The snake told the cock she could return him the crown early the next morning.
The snake glided along proudly, like a queen. She wanted to show off her beautiful crown. The animals said she was the most beautiful. The snake did not see the large pool of water in front of her. She fell into the pool and dropped the crown. She searched for the crown but could not find it. She was afraid and did not want to tell the cock.
The next morning, the cock got up very early and waited for the snake. She did not appear. The cock called for her again and again. Still the snake did not come.
To this day, the cocks still gets up early each morning and crows. He is saying,“Where are you?”
