1998年01月托福听力文字_第2页

Part B
Questions 31-35 Listen to a conversation between two students who’ve met on campus.
How do you and your housemates like the new co-op? I’m thinking of joining it
myself.
We like it quit a bit. We get some very fresh produce and both staples and fair prices.

But it certainly hasn’t saved us time. The co-op doesn’t carry everything. So we still
wind up going to the supermarkets too, for cleaning supplies, batteries, that sort of thing.
I wish the co-op sold those items. I’ve been talking about it with some of the other
members.
What do members have to do? Just pay a membership fee?
Yeah. There’s a fee and there’re meetings. But attendance isn’t acquired. But we
do have to work there for an hour every week, which isn’t too bad. Once you are there
you can get your shopping done.
I wouldn’t mind working there sometime. You’ll get to know about the products. But
is the food free of additives. That will be the main reason I join. I’m a convert from
junk food. Until now my diets have been largely chemical additives and pesticides.
Well, a lot of food is pure and pesticide-free. They also have vitamin supplements
and soy and tofu and that kind of thing. Lots of health food enthusiasts shop there. So
if any source health oriented, the co-op is.
I’d like to try it just for a month or so. Do they have trial memberships?
The shortest membership time is one month. Then if you like it, you can join for
longer periods. And it becomes cheaper. A six-month membership costs as much as
five individual months.
Sounds pretty easy. Maybe the next time I run into you again it’ll be at the checkout
line in the co-op.
31. What are the speakers mainly discussing?
32. What change does the woman suggest the co-op make?
33. What is one thing members of the co-op must do?
34. Why might the man join the co-op?
35. What is the advantage for the people who join the co-op for a six-month period?
Questions 36-39 Listen to a conversation between two students in the campus cafeteria.
Gosh! Fred. Another cup of coffee? That’s your third since lunch.
Yeah. Well, I stayed up all night cramming for my history exam. I couldn’t keep my
eyes open in my last class. I’m having this coffee so I can stay awake this afternoon.
Don’t you know that drinking too much coffee is harmful?
What do you mean harmful?
Well, for one thing, it may cause heart disease.
Nah. Most of the research about the link between coffee and heart disease is
inconclusive.
But coffee has caffeine which is addictive.
You can’t become addicted to caffeine like other drugs.
Yes, you can. Don’t you know that people who are deprived of caffeine suffered
withdraw symptoms especially headaches.
One cure for headaches, oddly enough, is caffeine. Haven’t you ever noticed that
many over-the-counter headache remedies use caffeine as one of their ingredients?
Besides, coffee helps me work faster.
Studies have shown that coffee makes you work faster, but not necessarily better.
You may finish your exam in a shorter period of time but you won’t have fewer errors.
You know, that soda you’re drinking has caffeine in it too.
But twelve ounces of soda has only half the caffeine of a five ounces cup of coffee.
And a cup of tea has less than that.
But I like the taste of coffee.
You could drink decaf.
Decaffeinated coffee doesn’t have as much flavor or body as regular coffee.
Besides, I want something that will keep me alert in class.
36. What is the conversation mainly about?
37. What is the man’s problem?
38. What does the man say research shows about coffee?
39. What does the woman probably think about coffee?

Part C
Questions 40-43 Listen to part of a lecture in a composition class.
By the end of the term, I hope you will be convinced as I am that formal writing always
requires revision. Sometimes it requires a fairly major rewriting of the paper. Some
students have the mistaken idea that revision means simply making corrections in spelling
and grammar. I call that proofreading. What I expect you to do with your revise is to
evaluate and improve the overall effectiveness of your paper. But how can you tell if
your paper is effective?
Well, for example, start by asking yourself these questions: Is the topic restricted
enough to be fully discussed within the given length? Are the main ideas clear? Are
they supported by specific details and examples? Do they move smoothly from one idea
to the next?
You need enough time for a possible major overhaul. That is you may have to make
a lot of changes before your paper becomes really clear to the reader. So I’ll expect a
preliminary draft of each paper two weeks before the final due date. That way I can
criticize it and get it back in time for you to revise it. Then you can submit a final draft for
grading.
This process may seem like a great deal of trouble at first, but I think you’ll find it
valuable. In fact, after you finish this course, I doubt that you well ever turn in a term
paper without first revising it carefully.
40. What is the purpose of the talk?
41. What should be the students’ main goal as they revise their work?
42. When should the first drafts be turned in?
43. What effect does the instructor think the class will have on the students?
Questions 44-46 Listen to part of a radio program about environmental issues.
Are electric cars the way of the future? Automobile manufactures are under pressure
to develop cars that do not pollute. One powerful motive is a California law requiring that
by the year 2000 ten percent of new car sells in the state be so called zero-emission
vehicles. These cars must put no pollutants whatsoever into the atmosphere.
California is a huge market for the automobile companies, so they are working hard to
meet these standards. So far the electric car seems to be the best alternative. So the
big advantage of electric cars is that they don’t pollute. However they will be in
competition with gas-powered cars and that’s where the weaknesses come out.
The big problem is that the batteries that power electric cars weigh a lot relative to the
amount of power they deliver. For instance, in one prototype electric car, the batteries
weighed 400 kilograms. And they provide enough energy to go 250 kilometers before
recharging, which takes eight hours. Compare that to a moderately fuel-efficient
conventional car, it can go 600 to 700 kilometers on a tank of gas and refilling takes just
minutes. If there are other drains on an electric car’s batteries besides the motor,
headlights, air-conditioning or a heater, its already limited range will be significantly
reduced. So automobile engineers are trying to make more powerful batteries that would
increase the cars’ range and make them more attractive to buyers.
44. What is the talk mainly about?
45. What is the main advantage of electric cars over gas-powered cars?
46. What is the main drawback of the electric car?
Questions 47-50 Listen to a talk given at a museum of natural history.
I’d like to welcome you all to the Museum of Natural History. Today’s tour will take us
through our newly renovated dinosaur exhibit where we have the largest collection of
dinosaur fossils anywhere in the world.
Before we begin the tour, let me mention that there have been some major
modifications to some of the exhibits over the past three years. Basically these changes
were made because of recent changes in the way scientists interpret dinosaur behavior.
For example, when we get to the first room, you’ll be able to see that the tyrannosaur’s
rex skeleton is no longer standing upright with its tail dragging on the floor. That’s
because paleontologists as they examined the area around its footprints more closely,
realized they could find no evidence of a heavy dragging tail which would have left behind
marks in the earth. In its new position, the backbone is parallel to the floor, its head is
pushed forward and its tail is stretched out acting as a counterweight. This new pose
stresses the relationship between dinosaurs and modern birds and supports the theory
that dinosaurs are actually more closely related to birds than to any other existing
creature.
Let me also point out that we have changed the way we grouped dinosaurs in our
displays. There’s a new school of thought called kledistics where scientists determine
relationships among the animals according to common physical characteristics. The
plesiosaurs and the oviraptour for instance, are separated by 148 million years. But
they are grouped together here, because they both have a grass bean forefoot and an
s-shape neck, physical evidence that they are indeed related. So now the exhibition
halls are arranged more like a family tree rather than the work-through tine that they used
to be.
47. Why has the museum modified its dinosaur exhibit?
48. According to the speaker what is the tyrannosaur’s rex new position evidence of?
49. Why are the plesiosaurs and the oviraptour displayed together?
50. How were the dinosaurs originally grouped in the exhibit?