1999 年8 月托福听力文字_第2页

Part B
Questions 31-34 Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.
Doctor Cole, thank you for agreeing to this interview for the Daily Campus News.
Can you tell us about what you and your colleagues discussed at the annual astronomy society meeting last month?
Yes. For the first time ever, the scientific community has established the existence of planets outside our own solar system.

Of course, we knew that certain distant stars existed, but only recently did we learn that several of them are orbited by their own planets.
Why did it take so long to locate those planets?
Well, you have to understand, that they are a billion times dimmer than their parent stars. It would be like trying to see the light of a candle next to a huge explosion. We don’t currently have a telescope that can be used to see them.
But if the astronomers didn’t see the planets through a telescope, how did they find them?
By a very indirect method. Umm, the astronomers measured subtle distortions in the frequency of the light from the parent stars and observed that some of the stars seem to rock back and forth. They determined that this is caused by the gravitational pull from orbiting planets.
There is a powerful new telescope being built in Arizona. Will that help them see these planets?
They should be able to see them at least in the form of small pots of light. And then the scientists would be able to break down and analyze this light. By doing this, they hope to learn about the chemical composition of these planets. Oxygen and ozone molecules, for example, would be telltale signs of life on these planets.
I’m working forward to hearing more when the telescope is in operation and I’m sure
our readers would be interested too.
31. What is the purpose of the conversation?
32. What is the conversation mainly about?
33. How did scientists establish the existence of the planets?
34. What does the professor say the scientists might learn about the planets by using the
new telescope?

Questions 35-38 Listen to a conversation between two college students in a cafeteria.
Is this table in the corner okay?
Sure, we can sit here.
Gee, you’ve hardly got any thing on your tray.
Yeah, I guess I’m just not that hungry.
What’s the matter? Are you feeling well?
Well, I’ve been really worried. It’s my car. It’s in the shop again!
Really? What’s wrong this time?
I don’t know exactly. Something’s wrong with the brakes I think.
Well, at least that shouldn’t cost too much to fix. Parts are cheaper for old American
cars like yours. Did the mechanic say how much it would cost?
He said he’d call me with an estimate later on today.
Watch out he doesn’t try to take advantage of you.
What do you mean?
Well, some car mechanics, if they think that someone doesn’t know much about cars,
they might try to overcharge that person.
Maybe so, but I trust this guy. He was recommended by one of my neighbors. He’s
done some work for me in the past and his prices seemed to be reasonable.
Oh, that’s good to know. Maybe I’ll try using him in the future. By the way, did you
need a ride home after class today?
Oh, I’ll sure appreciate it. It’s really tough getting around without a car when you live
off campus.
35. What does the woman imply about her car?
36. What does the man say about the woman’s car?
37. What does the woman say about the mechanic?
38. What does the man offer to do?

Part C
Questions 39-42 Listen to part of a talk being given to a film class on a college campus.
To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first two classes giving you background lectures about some basic cinematic concepts. Once you are a little more familiar with basic film terminology, we will be ready to look at the history of movies in the United States. You’ll be expected to attend showing of films on Tuesday evenings at 7 o’clock in Jennings Auditorium. That’s our lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we’ll discuss in depth the movie we saw the night before.
We are not covering silent films in this course. We will begin with the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next week, we’ll be looking at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of the escapist trend in films released during the depression. Some of the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like Frank Capra’s Why We Fight. Others you might have already seen on TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley Cooper’s Doctor’s Strange Love. However, I hope you see even familiar film with new eye.
In the last three weeks of the course, we will be watching films from the 1980s and you’ll choose one of them as a subject for an extensive written critique. We’ll talk more about the requirements of the critique later in this semester.
39. What is the purpose of this talk?
40. What will the students study during the first two weeks of class?
41. Where will students view the film?
42. What will students do during each Wednesday seminar?
Questions 43-47 Listen to a talk by a marine biologist in an aquarium.
Welcome to our aquarium. As we begin our tour, the first animal we’ll see today is the starfish. You probably have seen pictures of the starfish, but in a few minutes, you’ll see some live one and learn a little about their structure and life cycle.
First of all, the starfish are not really fish. They belong to the family of echinoderms which are spiny-skinned sea animals. That is their skin is covered with thorny bumps. Most starfish have five arm-liked extensions on their bodies, and so they look like a five-pointed star. But some other kinds have as many as 40 or more arms. Starfish like other members of the echinoderm family have what’s called radio symmetry. All that means is that the body parts of these animals are arranged around the center, kind of like spokes of a wheal around the hub.
One of the special features of the starfish is that it can drop off arms as a defensive reaction, to get away from an attacker, for example. They can then grow new arms to replace the old ones.
Starfish reproduce by releasing eggs into the sea. These eggs develop into larvae and can swim freely. These early forms which the larvae are differ from adult starfish because the larvae have bilateral symmetry. That means that the two halves of the larvae look exactly the same, which makes them look a lot different from the later form ofthe star fish. Eventually, the larvae sink to the ocean bottom and charge into the adult radio form. If you don’t have any question, we’ll go in now and see some of these creatures in person.
43. What is the talk mainly about?
44. What does the speaker say about the skin of echinoderms?
45. Why does the speaker give the example of the hub of a wheel surrounded by spokes?
46. What happens if a starfish loses an arm?
47. What is the major difference between newly developed and adult starfish?

Questions 48-50 Listen to part of a talk in the United States history class. The professor
is discussing the Civil War.
Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I want to talk today about
the political management of the war on both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and
the south under Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was to
justify for their citizens just why the war was necessary.
In 1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which he presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to preserve democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble crusade that would determine the future of democracy through out the world. For him the issue was whether or not this government of the people, by the people could maintain its integrity, could it remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words, could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who led the southern rebellion, could they arbitrarily break up the government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion.
At the time, he was hopeful that the war wouldn’t last long and the slave owners would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the war would be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied northerners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to perceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade against southern society.
48. What is the talk mainly about?
49. What does the speaker imply was the purpose of Lincoln’s speech?
50. Who were the discontented individuals to whom Lincoln referred in his speech?