1998年8月北美听力文字_第2页

Part B
Questions 31-34 Listen to a conversation between two teaching assistants.
Stan, do you have a minute?
Oh, hi, Cathy, sure. What’s up?
Well, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the situation in the office.

I’m not in that very often. It’s so noisy that I can’t work.
That’s exactly what I’m getting at. We’re supposed to be able to do our preparation
and marking in that office. But have you notice? Jack constantly has students coming
in to get help with his course. A lot of people are going in and out.
Has anybody spoken to him about it?
No, not yet. But someone’s going to have to.
We can’t really ask him to stop having students come in for help, can we?
No, of course not. But I’m not able to do my work and neither are you. I imagine it’s
the same for the others in the office.中 华 考 试 网
Hum… could we ask for a kind of meeting room? When TAs have to talk with the
students, they could go to the meeting room and not use the office. You know, there’s a
room down the hall, a rather small room that we could ask to use. It’s only for storing
supplies.
You mean that little storage room? Oh, that would be too small.
Are you sure? With the cabinets taken out, it might be bigger than it looks.
Come to think of it, you maybe on to something. I’d like to have a look at that room.
Can we go there now?
Sure, let’s go.
31. What problem at the office are Cathy and Stan discussing?
32. Why do Jack’s students come to see him?
33. What does Stan suggest they do?
34. What does Cathy say about Stan’s suggestion?
Questions 35-38 Listen to a conversation between two students.
I really appreciate you’re feeling me in on yesterday’s lecture.
No problem. I thought you might want to go over it together. And anyway, it helps
me review. Hope you’re feeling better now.
I am, thanks. So you said she talked about squid? Sounds a little strange.
Well, actually, it was about the evolution of sea life, a continuation from last week.
The octopus and the squid descended from earlier creatures with shells. They survived
by shattering their shells, somewhere between 200 and 500 million years ago.
That’s a pretty long span of time.
I know. That’s what she said though. To be precise, exactly when they emerged is
uncertain and why is still unexplained.
Some squid are really huge. Can you imagine something that big if it still had a
shell?
Actually, it’s because they lost their shells that they could evolve to a bigger size.
Make sense. But some are really huge. I’ve read about fishermen that caught
squid that weight over a ton. Did she talk about how that happens?
Not really, but she did mention some unusual cases. In 1933 in New Zealand, they
caught a squid… let’s see here… it was 22 yards long. Its eyes were 18 inches across.
Can you imagine?
Reminds me about all those stories of sea monsters.
Doctor Simpson thinks there are probably even larger ones that haven’t been found,
because squid are intelligent and fast—so they can easily get away from humans.
Maybe some of those monster stories are true.
35. What topic are the man and woman discussing?
36. Why does the man need to talk to the woman about the class?
37. According to the woman, what happened 200 to 500 million years ago?
38. What does the woman imply about sea monsters?

Part C
Questions 39-42 Listen to a talk given by the dean of the School of Education.
Community service is an important component of education here at our university.
We encourage all students to volunteer for at least one community activity before they
graduate. A new community program called “One on One” helps elementary students
who’ve fallen behind. You education majors might be especially interested in it, because
it offers the opportunity to do some teaching—that is tutoring in math and English.
You’ll have to volunteer two hours a week for one semester. You can choose to help
a child with math, English or both. Half-hour lessons are fine, so you could do a half hour
of each subject two days a week.
Professor Dodge will act as a mentor to the tutors. He’ll be available to help you with
lesson plans or to offer suggestions for activities. He has office hours every Tuesday and
Thursday afternoon. You can sign up for the program with him and begin the tutoring
next week.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this community service and you’ll gain valuable experience at the
same time. It looks good on your resume too, showing that you have experience with
children and that you care about your community. If you’d like to sign up or if you have
any questions, stop by Professor Dodge’s office this week.
39. What is the purpose of the talk?
40. What is the purpose of the program the dean describes?
41. What does Professor Dodge do?
42. What should students interested in the tutorials do?

Questions 43-46 Listen to an instructor in a business class.
I hope you’ve all finished reading the assigned chapter on insurance, so that you’re
prepared for our discussion today. But before we start, I’d like to mention a few things
your text doesn’t go into.
It’s interesting to know that insurance has exited in some form for a very long time.
The earliest insurance policies were what were called bottomry contracts. They provided
shipping protection for merchants as far back as 3000 BC. In general, the contracts
were often no more than verbal agreements. They granted loans to merchants with the
understanding that if a particular shipment of goods was lost at sea, the loan didn’t have to
be repaid. Interest on the loans varied according to how risky it was to transport the
goods. During periods of heavy piracy at sea for example, the amount of interest and
the cost of the policy went up considerably.
So you can see how insurance helped encourage international trade. Even the most
cautious merchants became willing to risk shipping their goods over long distances, not
to mention in hazardous weather conditions when they had this kind of protection
available.
Generally speaking, the basic form of an insurance policy has been pretty much the
same since the Middle Ages. There are four points that were salient then and remain
paramount in all policies today. These were outlined in chapter six and will surface the
basis for the rest of today’s discussion. Can anyone tell me what one of those points
might be?
43. What is the purpose of the instructor’s talk?
44. Who were the first insurance contracts designed to protect?
45. What does the instructor say determine the cost of early insurance policies?
46. What does the instructor say about current insurance policies?
Questions 47-50 Listen to a talk on the radio about a research project.
Located at the NASA research center in Iowa, there is a 5000 gallon vat of water.
And inside the tank is an underwater treadmill designed by Davan Newman, an
aerospace engineer. For four years, Newman observed scuba divers as they stimulated
walking on the moon and on Mars on her underwater moving belt. She wanted to
discover how the gravity of the moon and of Mars would affect human movement.
To do this, Newman attached weights to the divers and then lowered them into the
tank and onto the treadmill. These weights were carefully adjusted so that the divers
could experience underwater the gravity of the moon and of Mars as they walked on the
treadmill. Newman concluded that walking on Mars will probably be easier than walking
on the moon. The moon has less gravity than Mars does. So at lunar gravity the divers
struggled to keep their balance and walked awkwardly. But at Martian gravity, the divers
had greater traction and stability and could easily adjust to a pace of 1.5 miles per hour.
As Newman gradually increased the speed of the treadmill, the divers took longer,
graceful strides until they comfortably settled into an even quicker pace. Newman also
noted that at Martian gravity, the divers needed less oxygen.
The data Newman collected will help in the future design of Martian spacesuits.
Compare to lunar spacesuits, Martian spacesuits will require smaller air tanks. And to
allow for freer movement, the elbow and knee areas of the spacesuits will also be altered.
47. What did Newman change so that the divers could experience different gravity levels?
48. Why will Martian spacesuits be designed differently from lunar spacesuits?
49. What happened to the divers at Martian gravity when the speed of the treadmill was
increased?
50. What is one way that the design of Martian spacesuits will differ from lunar
spacesuits?