2014 National English C ompetition for College Students

(L evel A - P reliminary)

听力录音原文

P art I L istening C omprehension (30 marks)

Section A (5 marks)

In this section, you will hear five short conversations. Each conversation will be read only once. A t the end of each conversation, there will be a fifteen - second pause.  During the pause,  read the question and the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.

1.    W: Can I see your hand luggage, please?

M: I just have this bag and a laptop.

W: Could you put them on the scales? I’m afraid the bag will have to go in the hold.

2.    W: Have you always been on this site?

M: No, we used to be on an industrial estate on the outskirts of York.

W: Why did you move?

M: We needed larger premises so we moved to this greenfield site last year.

3.    W: What kind of person are we looking for?

M: We want someone who is already working as a Project Manager in a software house. He or she should have at least three years’ experience.

W: Absolutely. So where can we find this person?

M:  I think we should advertise with an online recruitment agency but we may have to use a  firm of head- hunters.

4.    M: Wessex Information. Can I help you?

W: This is Stewart Callaghan, of Coles. We manufacture anti- personnel devices that can be used in case of assault or  robbery. We haven’ t got  any agents in Scandinavia, so I  wondered if  you might  have any contacts there?

M: Oh, I see. In fact I do know some people. How do you think my company,Wessex Information, can I help you?

W: What I’d really like is crime statistics broken down for each Scandinavian country.

5.    M: So that’s the offer, Sophie. The work is well within our range and abilities. There’s a profit of a million pounds in it for us. It looks too good to miss. What do you think?

W: I’m not sure. It just doesn’t feel right.

M: What exactly doesn’t feel right? A million pounds feels all right to me. I know the profit margin is high, but we’re the best in the business.

W: It’s not the money. Call it gut feeling, whatever. I can’t put my finger on it.

Section B (10 marks)

In this section, you will hear two long conversations. Each conversation will be read only once. A t the end of each conversation, there will be a one - minute pause. During the pause, read the  questions  and  the  four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.

Conversation One

W: In England, there are in effect two types of schools. There is a maintained school run by the local authority, which is responsible to the government, and then there is the independent school, which is really independent of local authority and to some extent independent of the government, and which is known as the fee- paying sector.

M: So on that basis, Bablake is an independent school.

W:  Yes, and we’re also a selective school, which means that I only take the children if they’ve  passed an entry exam. And the children have to sit a verbal reasoning paper, an English paper  and a maths paper, and they also have to have a good report from their current headteacher.

M: Are most independent schools selective or...?

W: The vast majority are selective and particularly day schools, which is what Bablake is, a day school. You also have some boarding independent schools and they tend to be less selective, because they don’t have the choice.

M: Have you adopted the National Curriculum?

W: We have to, but the National Curriculum is fairly constraining in what you can offer, so we offer a lot more than a school that follows completely the National Curriculum. But we have to follow very much what goes on in the national sector.

M: We know at least 20% of the school population is of an ethnic group. And do you have to take this very much into account in the organisation of the school?

W: No, we don’t really make any special consideration. We are a Christian foundation, but we recognise the other ethnic groups and their religions, and we teach all the children about the different ethnic groups and their various religions. And we will celebrate special occasions as a whole school, simply by acknowledging them.

M: That’s nice. Thank you!

Conversation Two

W: Has alcohol always been a part of people’s lives?

M: Alcohol has been with us for thousands of years  and  must  be  nearly  as  old  as  civilization  itself.  The earliest piece of graffiti ever found, on a wall in ancient  Sumeria,  complained  that  the  beer  was  being watered down. In most societies, it is an integral part of celebrations and social gatherings.

W: So do you believe a little alcohol can actually do us good?

M:  There seems to be substantial medical evidence that a small amount of alcohol can be beneficial to health. The bad news is that an increasing number of people are suffering from alcohol- related health problems. It’s estimated that between 8,000 and 25,000 people die each year in Britain from alcohol abuse.

W: Why is it that drinking alcohol usually has the effect of making people feel happier about everything around them?

M: Although alcohol contains very little by way of vitamins or minerals, it does provide energy;  about 100 calories per glass of wine and about 200 per pint of beer. It is this sudden rush of energy which causes the feeling of euphoria and well- being that alcohol often produces.

W: How exactly does it damage the body?

M: Once you have drunk alcohol, it begins to get into the bloodstream. You notice its effects  immediately when it reaches the brain. Most people know the feeling of being drunk. But once it’s in the blood, it is distributed throughout all the water in the body and that means it can be found in almost every organ and tissue. That’s where the trouble starts, because only the liver can convert alcohol to other substances and clear it from the system.

W: Is it better, then, to do without alcohol altogether?

M: Going over the limit once or twice a year, at a party or a celebration, probably won’t do any  lasting damage. But if you drink too much regularly, then you increase the risk to almost every  body function. Constantly overworking the liver can cause it to enlarge, and  jaundice  and  cirrhosis may result. It increases the risk of cancer and depresses the entire immune system, making heavy drinkers prone to all manner of infections. Most worryingly, it  helps cause obesity and is one of the causes of the very high incidence of heart disease in Britain.

Section C (5 marks)

In this section, you will hear five short news items. A fter each item, which will be read only once, there will be a fifteen- second pause. During the pause, read the question and the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the centre.

16.   The prime minister, David Cameron, is urging today’s youngsters to look beyond the traditional French and German lessons to concentrate on the tongue of the future—Mandarin. Cameron said that a partnership between the British Council and Hanban—the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language—will  double  the  number  of  Chinese  language  assistants  in  the  UK  by  2016  and  provide increased funding to lower the cost to schools of offering Mandarin as a language option.

17.   South Korea’s parliament is considering a law that would classify online gaming as a potentially antisocial addiction alongside gambling, drugs and alcohol. The bill has won support from parents, religious groups and doctors but has alarmed the Internet industry and enraged gamers. The legislation includes provisions to limit advertising, while a separate bill would take 1% of the gaming industry’s revenue to create a fund to curb addiction. The uproar over the legislation highlights conflicting social and economic priorities in South Korea.

18.“Cirrhosis triggered by obesity threatens to sweep through hospitals across the UK”, said  Doctor Jude Oben, a hepatologist. Oben recently launched the charity Obesity Action Campaign to help in the battle against the spread of the condition. In the past, excess alcohol consumption and hepatitis infections have been the main causes of cirrhosis in Britain. Now a third cause—obesity—has triggered a major increase in cases of liver disease in the UK. Liver disease is the fifth largest cause of death in the UK, and in the past 10 years there has been a fivefold increase in cirrhosis for those aged between 35 and 55.

19.   President Obama signaled Friday that he may halt the National Security Agency’s collection and storage of millions of Americans’ phone records and instead require phone companies to hold the data. His remarks suggested that Obama’s views have changed significantly since details  of  the  NSA’s far – reaching surveillance programs were publicly revealed in June. He said he  believed his administration has struck the right balance between intelligence gathering and  privacy protection but acknowledged that concerns about the potential for abuse may make it necessary to rein in the programs to restore public trust.

20.   Scientists believe one in five stars in our galaxy have Earth- like planets orbiting them. But  the ultimate goal of finding a world that truly resembles our own has continued to elude astronomers. Now researchers have come a step closer by finding Earth’s gassy twin in another solar system 200 light years away.  It orbits a dim red dwarf star at such a close distance that temperatures on its surface could be as high as 104毅C—too hot for most forms of life on Earth. KOI- 314C is only 30 percent more dense than water. This suggests that the world is enveloped by a blanket of hydrogen and helium hundreds of miles thick.

Section D (10 marks)

In this section, you will hear a short passage. For questions 21 - 30, complete the notes using three words or fewer for each blank. The passage will be read only once. Remember to write  the answers on the answer sheet.

Temporal perception is just one aspect of how we are shaped by our cultures. Another very strong element of our cultures is context. This refers to our environment, particularly how much of it is significant during communication. In terms of context, there are two types of cultures, high context cultures and low context cultures. High context cultures assign a lot of importance to the environment surrounding a message. High context speakers may not state a message very directly. The meaning of the message is implied, not expressed. In order to understand what is being said, the listener must understand the situation and his or  her relationship to the speaker. In different situations, a given statement could have very different meanings. In contrast, low context cultures place the highest importance on the message itself, which is often quite explicit. External factors like interpersonal relationships or family histories do not usually alter the message very much. In such cultures, it is common to send a message to a large number of people and expect them to understand the message in the same way.

This is the end of the listening part. P lease transfer your answers to the answer sheet.

Part I Listening Comprehension (30 marks)
Section A (5 marks)
1—5  BACCA
Section B (10 marks)
6—8 CCD  9—10 CB  11—15 ADBCA
Section C (5 marks)
16—20 BDCDA
Section D (10 marks)
21. communication
22. surrounding a message 
23. directly 
24. implied
25. very different meanings
26. Low 
27. message itself
28. explicit
29. External factors 
30. the same way