Conversation Two

　　W: Sir, you’ve been using the online catalogue for quite a while , Is there anything I can do to help you?

　　M: Well, I’ve got to write a paper about Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, and I’m really struggling. There are hundreds of books, and I just don’t know where to begin.

　　W: Your topic sounds pretty big. Why don’t you narrow it down to something like…uh… the history of the studios during that time?

　　M: You know, I was thinking about doing that, but more that 30 books came up when I typed in “movie studios.”

　　W: You could cut that down even further by listing the specific years you want. Try adding “1930s” or “1940s” or maybe “Golden Age.”

　　M: “Golden Age” is a good idea. Let me type that in … Hey, look, just 6 books this time. That’s a lot better.

　　W: Oh… another thing you might consider… have you tried looking for any magazine or newspaper articles?

　　M: No, I’ve only been searching for books.

　　W: Well, you can look up magazine articles in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. And we do have the Los Angeles. Times available over there. You might go through their indexes to see if there’s anything you want.

　　M: Okay, I think I’ll get started with these books and then I’ll go over the magazines.

　　W: If you need any help, I’ll be over at the Reference Desk.

　　M: Great, thanks a lot.

　　Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　23. What is the man doing?

　　24. What does the librarian think of the topic the man is working on ?

　　25. Where can the man find the relevant magazine articles?

本文第一題同樣是對對話主題的考察;而第二題則是對女人態(tài)度以及反問句式的考察，并且該反問句式還是建議句型的表達模式;最后第三題則是對建議句型的考察，考察女人建議男人怎么做。

　　因此，長對話完全是一種色厲內(nèi)荏的題目形式，難度明顯低于段子題，以短對話和段子題揉雜的形式加之長對話的名字考察考生的綜合運用能力，相信充分掌握短對話和段子題的特征后，長對話的挑戰(zhàn)可以迎刃而解。

　　最后的聽寫部分保留了以往考試的大部分特色，僅加了一個單詞作為改變，從本質(zhì)上說沒有任何區(qū)別——單詞以實詞為主，句子長度則控制在 10~25 個單詞之間。在平時加強聽寫練習(xí)是提高聽寫能力的唯一方法。所謂聽寫練習(xí)主要目的是一方面加強考生聽到單詞后的反應(yīng)與速記能力，另一個方面則是加強對長句的記憶能力。因此對于這個部分基礎(chǔ)比較薄弱的同學(xué)而言，可以先嘗試以整句(一般 20 詞左右)為單位聽句子后解釋其中文大意;熟練后可進行第二步，即以整句為單位聽句子后用英語復(fù)述其內(nèi)容;最后一步落實到聽寫，這樣循序漸進的方法可以從根本上改善考生的聽寫水平。

　　在考試中，聽寫部分則需要特別注意名詞單復(fù)數(shù)形式;動詞時態(tài)語態(tài);弱讀、失爆等語音、語調(diào)、語速所引起的干擾特征;同、近音詞匯;難詞、易錯詞拼寫以及轉(zhuǎn)換了詞性的單詞的考察等幾個常見的聽寫中容易出現(xiàn)問題的地方，在平時勤加練習(xí)，必能精誠所致，金石為開。

　　綜合以上種種，本文以《四級考試新題型試測卷》為藍本，對改革后新四級聽力部分的考點、技巧以及發(fā)展趨勢分別作了綜合的分析，旨在幫助考生更好地了解、應(yīng)戰(zhàn)新四級考試，做到“知己知彼，百戰(zhàn)不殆”。