95 年12 月 托福听力文字
Part A
1. A: It’s a beautiful day today. Want to go roller-skating?
B: Any other time will be great. But today I’m working on a paper.
What does the woman mean?
2. A: I though you said you are going to call me last week about that car I’m selling.
Questions 35-38 Listen to a radio interview about cycling.
And now here is our guest Jane Thomas to tell us about Montreal’s famous yearly
island bicycle tour which is coming up in June. Good morning, Jane. What’s the bike
tour all about?
Well, Peter, it’s an event that’s opened to anybody who’d like to ride a bicycle through
the streets of Montreal. The tour covers a standard distance of 65 kilometers. But the
route’s quite different every year. So even people who’ve already done it might enjoy
doing it again.
How long does it take to go the whole distance?
It varies. Cyclists are free to go as fast or as slow and do as much or as little of the course as they like.
Well, what’s the typical pace for a participant?
Between 12 and 30 kilometers per hour. Some cyclists stop along the way and don’t cross the finish line until early evening. But the whole point is that there is no rush. It’s not a race.
I understand last year’s tour had 45,000 cyclists and it was the largest mass cycling event in the world. How many do you expect this year?
The same as last year. And since we regularly have so many participants, can I take this opportunity to remind our listeners to sign up early? We filled up quickly last year and we had to refused lots of applications.
Before we close, any other tips for all prospective cyclists?
Yes, take water with you. It is available at the relay station. But it helps to have an additional supply. And pack a good lunch with plenty of fruit for energy. Candy and chocolate don’t do the trick.
35. What is the main subject of the conversation?
36. According to the woman, what is different every year?
37. What does the woman imply about the participants?
38. What does the woman mention is provided at the relay station?
Part C
Questions 39-42 Listen to talk given by a history professor.
I’m sure almost everyone of you looked at your watch or at a clock before you came to class today. Watches and clocks seem as much part of our life as breathing or eating. Any yet, do you know that watches and clocks were scarce in the United States until the late 1850s. In the late 1700s people didn’t know the exact time unless they were near a clock. Those delightful clocks in the squares of European towns were built for the public.
After all, most citizens simply couldn’t afford a personal timepiece. Well, until the 1800s, in Europe and the United States, the main purpose of a watch, which by the way was off and on a gold chain, was to show others how wealthy you were. The word “wrist watch” didn’t even enter the English language until nearly 1900. By then, the rapid pace of industrialization in the United States meant that measuring time had become essential. How could the factory worker get to work on time, unless he or she knew exactly what time it was. Since efficiency was now measured by how fast the job was done, everyone was interested in time. And since industrialization made possible the manufacture of large quantities of goods, watches became fairly inexpensive. Furthermore, electric lights kept factories going around the clock. Being “on time” had entered the language and life of every citizen.
39. What does the professor mainly discuss?
40. What was true of watches before the 1850s?
41. According to the speaker, why did some people wear watches in the 1800s?
42. What effect did industrialization have on watch making?
Questions 43-46 Listen to a guide in an aquarium.
This room is devoted to electric fish. The eel in the tank behind me can produce a strong jolt of electricity to stun its prey. But most of the fish in here produce only weak electrical impulses that are useful for navigating, locating food and even for communicating.
The knife fish is a good example. This fish navigates using tiny receptors in the skin that are sensitive to electrical impulses. The knife fish produces an electrical signal and the receptors in its skin let it know when the signal is distorted by a tree root or other obstacle, so it can go around it.
Fish also use the ability to produce and detective electrical impulses to communicate.
They can tell each other what species they belong to, how big they are and whether they are male or female. We had a tank here that’s specially equipped to convert the inaudible signals that fish produce into sounds you can hear when you put on these headphones. I urge you all to listen in when I’m done speaking.
Now have a look at the electric rays. Rays are specially interesting to medical researchers because of the organs they use to produce electricity. These organs contain a chemical that carries signals from one nerve ending to the next, not only in rays but also in people. By studying these organs, scientists hope to learn more about diseases that interrupt the transmission of impulses from one nerve to another.
43. What is the talk main about?
44. What does the knife fish use electricity for?
45. Why does the speaker suggest putting on headphones?
46. According to the speaker, what medical benefits might result from studying electrical
rays?
Questions 47-50 Listen to a lecture given in a dance history class.
So why did what is now called “modern dance” begin in the United States? To begin to answer this question I’ll need to back track a little bit and talk about classical ballet.
By the late 1800s, ballet had lost a lot of its popularity. Most of the ballet dancers who performed in the United States were brought over from Europe. They performed using the rigid techniques that had been passed down through the centuries. Audiences and dancers in the United States were eager for their own contemporary dance form. And so around 1900, dancers created one. So how was this modern dance so different from classical ballet?
Almost notably, it wasn’t carefully choreographed. In stead, the dance depended on the improvisation and free personal expression of the dancers. Music and scenery were of little importance to the modern dance. And lightness of movement wasn’t important either. In fact, modern dancers make no attempt at all to conceal the effort involved in the dance step.
But even if improvisation appealed to audiences, many dance critics were lest enthusiastic about the performances. They questioned the artistic integrity of dancers who were not professionally trained and the artistic value of works that had no formal structure. Loi Fore, after performing fire dance, was described as doing little more than turning round and round like an eggbeater. Yet the free personal expression of the pioneer dancers is the basis of the controlled freedom of modern dance today.
47. What does the speaker mainly discuss?
48. Why were ballet performances unpopular in the United Stated in the early 1900s?
49. What is the distinguishing feature of modern dance performances?
50. Why were early modern dancers criticized by dance critics?