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Part III Listening Comprehension (35 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
11.W: Did you hear that Anna needs to stay in bed for 4 weeks?
M: Yeah. She injured her spine in a fall and a doctor told her to lie flat on her back for a month so it can mend.
Q: What can we learn from the conversation?
【答案】A) The injury will confine Anna to bed for quite a while.
【解析】此題為細節(jié)題。從對話中可知，Anna摔倒導致脊椎受傷，醫(yī)生讓其臥床休息一個月。
12.M: A famous Russian ballet is coming to town next weekend. But I can’t find a ticket anywhere.
W: Don’t be upset. My sister just happened to have one and she can’t go since she has got some sort of conflict in her schedule.
Q: What does the woman mean?
【答案】C) She can get a ballet ticket for the man.
【解析】此題為推理題。男子找不到俄羅斯芭蕾表演的票子，女子告訴她不要失落，因為自己的姐姐碰巧有張票，并且因為和安排有沖突去不了。
13.W: Hello, my bathroom drain is blocked and I’m giving a party tonight. Do you think you could come and fix it for me?
M: Sorry, ma’am. I’m pretty busy right now. But I can put you on my list.
Q: What does the man mean?
【答案】A) He has to do other repairs first.
【解析】此題為推理題。從對話可知，女子請男子幫忙修浴室的地漏，但是男子現(xiàn)在忙，不過他會記錄下。
14.W: We’re taking up a collection to buy a gift for Gemma. She’ll have been with the company 25 years next week.
M: Well, count me in. But I’m a bit short on cash now. When do you need it?
Q: What is the man going to do?
【答案】C) Give his contribution some time later.
【解析】此題為推理題。從對話中可知，下周Gemma在公司的時間就滿25年了，大家正在湊錢買禮物。男子也要加入，但是手頭缺少現(xiàn)金。從他的詢問可見他會晚點交錢。
15.W: Tony’s mother has invited me to dinner. Do you think I should tell her in advance that I’m a vegetarian?
M: Of course. I think she’d appreciate it. Imaging how you both feel if she fixed the turkey dinner or something.
Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?
【答案】D) Tell Tony’s mother that she eats no meat.
【解析】此題為推理題。Tony的媽媽邀請女子吃飯，女子詢問男子是不是應該提前告知自己是素食主義者。從男子的“I think she’d appreciate it”可知，男子給了他肯定的回答。
16.M: Just look at this newspaper, nothing but robberies, suicide and murder. Do you still believe people are basically good?
W: Of course. But many papers lack interest in reporting something positive like peace, love and generosity.
Q: What are the speakers talking about?
【答案】B) The coverage of newspapers.
【解析】此題為推理題。從關(guān)鍵詞newspapers，robberies等可知，男子認為報紙上涉及的都是搶劫、自殺等內(nèi)容，可見兩人正在談論報紙的內(nèi)容。
17.M: I can’t believe so many people want to sign up for the Korea Development Conference. We will have to limit the registration.
W: Yeah, otherwise we won’t have room for the more.
Q: What are the speakers going to do?
【答案】C) Limit the number of participants in the conference.
【解析】此題為細節(jié)題。男子沒有想到那么多人來參加會議，所以必須限制人們注冊，從女子對其的肯定回答也可進一步肯定他們要限制參與人數(shù)。
18.W: Hi, I’m calling about the ad for the one bedroom apartment.
M: Perfect timing! The person who was supposed to rent it just backed town to take a room on campus.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
【答案】A) The apartment is still available.
【解析】此題為推理題。從對話可知，男子告訴女子她打電話來的時機正好，因為本來要租房子的人回到城鎮(zhèn)去租大學的房間了，所以女子還能夠租廣告上的公寓。
Conversation 1
W: One of the most interesting experiments with dolphins must be one done by Doctor Jarvis Bastian. What he tried to do was to teach a male dolphin called Bass and a female called Doris to communicate with each other across a solid barrier.
M: So how did he do it exactly?
W: Well, first of all, he kept the two dolphins together in the same tank and taught them to press levers whenever they saw a light. The levers were fitted to the side of the tank next to each other. If the light flashed on and off several times, the dolphins were supposed to press the left-hand lever followed by the right-hand one. If the light was kept steady, the dolphins were supposed to press the levers in reverse order. Whenever they responded correctly, they were rewarded with fish.
M: Sounds terribly complicated.
W: Well, that was the first stage. In the second stage, Doctor Bastian separated the dolphins into two tanks. They could still hear one another, but they couldn’t actually see each other. The levers and light were set up in exactly the same way except that this time it was only Doris who could see the light indicating which lever to press first. But in order to get their fish, both dolphins had to press the levers in the correct order. This meant of course that Doris had to tell Bass whether it was a flashing light or whether it was a steady light.
M: So did it work?
W: Well, amazingly enough, the dolphins achieved a 100 % success rate.
Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Q19. What is the purpose of Doctor Jarvis Bastian’s experiment?
Q20. What were the dolphins supposed to do when they saw a steady light?
Q21. How did the second stage of the experiment differ from the first stage?
答案：
19. D) to see if dolphins can communicate with each other.
20. A) Press the right-hand lever first.
21. C) Only one dolphin was able to see the light.
【解析】
這篇長對話主要圍繞巴斯蒂安博士關(guān)于海豚的實驗而展開，實驗的目的是要教會海豚學會互相溝通和交流訊息。隨著男士對實驗的發(fā)問，女士便對實驗的兩個階段進行了詳細介紹。這篇長對話整體難度適中，考生只要在平時注意練習和打好詞匯基礎，想要得滿分并不難。需要提醒考生的是，做聽力題也要講究技巧，一定要帶著問題去有目的地聽，相關(guān)的信息著重記憶，不相干的信息迅速忽略。懂得抓題眼和懂得取舍，這樣聽力才能做得好。
重點詞匯和表達：
lever n.杠(桿)；途徑，工具
in reverse order 以相反的順序
be rewarded with 得到獎勵
flashing light 閃光燈
Conversation 2
W: This week’s program Up Your Street takes you to Harrogate, a small town in Yorkshire. Harrogate became a fashionable resort during Victorian times, when people came to take a bath in the mineral waters. Today, few people come to visit the town for its mineral waters. Instead, Harrogate has become a popular town for people to retire to. Its clean air, attractive parks, and the absence of any industry, make this an ideal spot for people looking for a quiet life. Now, to tell us more about Harrogate, I have with me Tom Percival, President of the Chamber of Commerce. Tom, one of the things visitor notices about Harrogate is the large area of open park land right down into the middle of the town. Can you tell us more about it?
M: Yes, certainly. The area is called the Stray.
W: Why the Stray?
M: It’s called that because in the old days, people let their cattle stray on the area, which was common land.
W: Oh, I see.
M: Then, we’ve changes in farming and in land ownership. The Stray became part of the land owned by Harrogate.
W: And is it protected?
M: Oh, yes, indeed. As a special law, no one can build anything on the stray. It’s protected forever.
W: So it will always be park land?
M: That’s right. As you can see, some of the Stray is used for sports fields.
W: I believe it looks lovely in the spring.
M: Yes, it does. There’re spring flowers on the old trees, and people visit the town just to see the flowers.
Question 22-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Q22. Where does this conversation most probably take place?
Q23. What do we learn about modern Harrogate?
Q24. What does the man say about the area called the Stray?
Q25. What attracts people most in the Stray during the spring time?
答案：
22. B) In a resort town.
23. D) It is an ideal place for people to retire to.
24. D) It is protected as parkland by a special law.
25. C) The beautiful flowers.
【解析】
這段長對話是對Harrogate這個旅游小鎮(zhèn)的介紹，談到其如何得名，如何變遷，以及如何受到政府的保護。由此可見，這段對話最有可能發(fā)生在一個旅游城鎮(zhèn)。這段對話稍微難一點的地方在于幾個單詞，一個是地名Harrogate，另一個是Stray，以及頭銜President of the Chamber of Commerce。解決這些難點也很容易，因為Harrogate這個地名和頭銜不是考察點，考生可直接忽略。另外關(guān)于Stray，考生開始不懂沒關(guān)系，要帶著這個疑問去注意聽原文，對話中隨后就給出了明確解釋，所以考生也會獲得解答。
需要提醒考生的是，雖然考試中我們可以忽略一些人名，地名或者無關(guān)緊要的細節(jié)，這也是為了一時的應試而迫不得已。在平時練習中，還是建議廣大考生多積累這些人文及百科知識，包括一些人名和地名。積累的多了，以后在任何場合聽起來就不會犯難了。
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Russell Fazio, an Ohio State psychology professor who has studied interracial roommates there and at Indiana University, discovered an intriguing academic effect. In a study analyzing data on thousands of Ohio State freshmen who lived in dorms, he found that black freshmen who came to college with high standardized test scores earned better grades if they had a white roommate — even if the roommate’s test scores were low. The roommate’s race had no effect on the grades of white students or low-scoring black students. Perhaps, the study speculated, having a white roommate helps academically prepared black students adjust to a predominantly white university.
That same study found that randomly assigned interracial roommates at Ohio State broke up before the end of the quarter about twice as often as same-race roommates.
Because interracial roommate relationships are often problematic, Dr. Fazio said, many students would like to move out, but university housing policies may make it hard to leave.
“At Indiana University, where housing was not so tight, more interracial roommates split up,” he said. “Here at Ohio State, where housing was tight, they were told to work it out. The most interesting thing we found was that if the relationship managed to continue for just 10 weeks, we could see an improvement in racial attitudes.”
Dr. Fazio’s Indiana study found that three times as many randomly assigned interracial roommates were no longer living together at the end of the semester, compared with white roommates. The interracial roommates spent less time together, and had fewer joint activities than the white pairs.
Question 26-29
26. What do we know about Russell Fazio ?
27. Who benefited from living with a white roommate according to Fazio’s study?
28. What did the study find about randomly assigned interracial roommates at Ohio State University?
29. What did Dr. Fazio find interesting about interracial roommates who had lived together for 10 weeks?
答案：
26, C. He specialized in interpersonal relationship.
27. D. Black freshman with high standardized scores
28, C. They broke up more often than same-race roommates
29, C. The racial attitudes improved.
【解析】：本文節(jié)選自2009年7月的《紐約時報》，原文標題為Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice。文章屬于社會類話題，大意為俄亥俄州立大學的一位名為Russell Fazio的心理學教授研究不同人種混居的有趣現(xiàn)象以及結(jié)論。無獨有偶，2011年6月四級真題閱讀理解Section B的Passage 1也選用了相同的話題，大家平時在備考中要對真題重視起來哦！
