2012年9月翻译考试口译中级真题_第4页

本篇文章内容难度适中。虽然其中穿插长句子。但是问题答案都是文章中可以直接听出来的。举例说明能帮助大家很好的理解内容。因此在听的时候，要有上下文的概念，前面如有长句没听懂，注意后面的例子说明。全文的意思就一目了然了。

本篇话题是“孩子如何学习社会行为”。主要集中的讲的是家庭这个社会单元对孩子行为的影响。并且提到孩子学习社会行为的三种方式：奖励、惩罚、模范。本课中主要讲的是“奖励”这种方式。

关键词：Social behavior  社会行为，社交行为 Social structure 社会结构

Talks and Conversations 3

John: Good morning, Betty. Do you know what the assignment is for our term paper in history?
Betty: Sure John. But weren’t you in class on Monday? That’s when it was given out.
John: No, I missed that class. Was there a handout?
Betty: No, the instructor just wrote the assignment on the board.
John: Could I copy the assignment from your notes?
Betty: You could if I had copied it all down, but I just wrote down the part that I wanted.
John: Oh no...
Betty: You see, there were four choices of topics for the term paper, but when I saw them, I knew which one I wanted, so I didn’t copy the others down.
John: Can you remember any of the others?
Betty: Let’s see... There was one about World War I, something about it, but I don’t remember what. And there was one called the idea of progress in the 19th century.
John: And what was the last one?
Betty: I can’t remember. My mind is a complete blank. Maybe you could ask someone else.
John: Yes, I will. Anyway, those are certainly broad topics.
Betty: Yes, but you can focus on a special area within them. Which one would you take?
John: Of course, I don’t know what the last one is, but of these three, I think I’d take the idea of progress.
Betty: That’s very abstract.
John: Yes, but it is one of my interests and I’ve read a lot on the subject. I’ve never written a term paper on it though.
Betty: Me neither. I haven’t even read about it. Are you going to class on Wednesday?
John: Yes.
Betty: Maybe he’ll write it on the board again.
John: I hope so. Good luck with your paper.
Betty: Same to you.

Questions:

19. How many topics did the teacher give for the term paper?
20. How was the assignment given out by the instructor?
21. Why can’t John copy the assignment from Betty’s notes?
22. Why does John choose to write on the idea of progress in the 19th century?