大学体验英语视听说教程1(文本1-8)

大学体验英语视听说教程第一册 Unit 1 Lesson 1 Audio studio Steve Jobs is the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. and former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. He is the largest individual shareholder in Walt Disney. His name is associated with innovative products like the iPod, iPhone and iTunes. He is a much respected corporate leader whose management style is studied worldwide. His attention to design, function and style has won him millions of fans. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955. He became interested in computers when he was a teenager. In 1974, he got a job as a technician at the video game maker Atari. He saved enough money to backpack around India and then returned to Atari. Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in 1976. Jobs guided Apple to become a major player in the digital revolution. The introduction of the iMac and other cutting-edge products made it a powerful brand with a loyal following. Jobs also enjoyed considerable success at Pixar. He created Oscar-winning movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. In 2004, Jobs was diagnosed with a cancer. In April 2009, he underwent a liver transplant and his prognosis was ―excellent.‖ His advice to aspiring young entrepreneurs is: ―You‘ve got to find what you love.‖ Video studio I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents‘garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a two billion dollar company with over 4,000 employees. We‘d just released our finest creation — the Macintosh —a year earlier, and I‘d just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. And so at 30, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn‘t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me: I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over. I didn‘t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world‘s first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, and I retuned to Apple, and the technol ogy we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple‘s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I‘m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn‘t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. - 1 - Sometime life … sometimes life‘s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don‘t lose faith. I‘m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You‘ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven‘t found it yet, keep lo oking, and don‘t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you‘ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don‘t settle. Lesson 2 Audio studio Making the transition from high school to college life can be difficult. It is easy to become discouraged, overwhelmed and homesick. Here are a few tips that will make the transition to college life a little easier. You Are in Charge of Your Time Along with your newfound freedom at college comes responsibility. Being responsible involves being able to manage your time. Using a planner to help you stay organized is highly recommended. You should also try to plan your coursework in advance, so you can determine what extracurricular activities you will have time for. It’s Important to Keep an Open Mind When you first move to college, you‘re going to be in a new place, handling new situations. So you need to keep an open mind. College isn‘t just about learning facts and theories fr om textbooks. A large part of college involves learning how to be an adult. Home Is Only a Phone Call or Instant Message Away If going away to college is the first time you‘ve been away from home for a long period of time, it‘s natural to feel homesick. Don‘t be pessimistic. And if things get too bad, home is only a phone call or instant message away. Video studio At the start of freshman year, finding a job after graduation is probably the last thing on your mind, but before you know it, it‘ll be senior year and finding that job will be your top priority. Hi, I‘m Lindsey Pollak, generation Y career expert and author of Getting from College to Career. I‘m standing here on the campus of Columbia University to talk about a four year plan to land the job of your dreams after you graduate. Well, everybody‘s experience is very different. There are a few guidelines you can follow for each of your four years. Freshman year, don‘t worry too much about your career plans. Try lots of activities, get your feet wet on campus and take several different classes to see what it is you most enjoy. Sophomore year is the time to narrow down your academic focus and decide on a college major. You also want to narrow your options in terms of your extracurricular activities to focus on your biggest commitments. And finally I recommend getting a professional internship the summer between your sophomore and junior years to start having professional experience you‘ll be able to list on a résumé. Junior year is a time to take on leadership positions in the extracurricular activities that you‘ve chosen. It‘s also really important to get your GPA above a 3.0 because that‘s the cut-off for many employers to give you a job. And finally if you haven‘t done an internship already, it‘s essential to have at least one on your résumé by the end of your junior year. During your senior year, your goal should be to find a balance among the leadership positions you‘ve taken on in your extracurricular activities, keeping up your grade point average in your college major and focusing on the job search for a position after graduation. I strongly encourage you to become involved in your career services centre to make sure you‘re clear on the deadlines and requirements for any jobs you will be applying to. And finally it‘s your senior year of college. Enjoy, have some fun. Take some time to really enjoy college before you‘re off into the real world. Now that you‘ve got your four-year college career plan underway, let‘s talk about that dorm roo m situation. For tips on decorating in small spaces, check out the Back to School series on fncimag.com. I‘m Lindsey Pollak. Thanks for clicking on. Home listening 1.anxiety 2.definitely 3.experienced 4.volume 5.possibly 6.decisions 7.patience 8.satisfying 9.Explore the local town or suburbs with one or two of your new friends 10.Going to college is as much about finding out who you really are as it is about getting that degree Unit 2 Lesson 1 Audio studio Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, according to a recent study. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, recorded the brain activity of people searching the Web and found that those with experience of the Internet used more of their brain during their searches. This suggests that simply searching the Internet has the effect of training the brain and keeping it active and healthy. Many studies have found that challenging mental activities such as puzzles can help preserve brain function, but few have looked at what role the Internet might play. According to Dr Gary Small, a UCLA expert on ageing, this is the first time anyone has simulated an Internet search task while scanning the brain. Dr Small‘s team studied 24 normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half were experienced at searching the Internet and the other half had no Web experience. Both groups were asked to do Internet searches and book reading tasks while their brain activity was monitored. The team found that people who are familiar with the Internet can engage at a much deeper level of brain activity. Video studio Anchor: Did you know that the internet could be a good exercise for the brain? A new study from UCLA finds that, when middle age and senior age adults perform internet searches, it activates many different areas of the brain, including those involved with memory, decision making and reasoning. Joining us today is the lead author of a study looking at this — Dr. Gary Smalls [Small] —and he‘s also the author of the book iBrain, Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind. Welcome Dr. Smalls [Small]. Gary Small: Thank you! It‘s great to be here Anchor:So, in my parents‘ house, I have to tell you how it works. My mom and dad might sit up and at some point there‘s a discussion — hey you are on the internet, quit surfing internet. Can I now tell my parents, it‘s OK for dad to surf the internet,it‘s good for his brain? Gary Small:Well, we don‘t see any harm in it, and this first study to see what the brain looks like when it searches on the internet showed very dramatic results. Compared to just reading a book text page, there was much greater activation and particularly in the front part of the brain that controls complex reasoning and decision making. Anchor: Th at‘s interesting. So it‘s kind of akin to crossword puzzles, sounds like Gary Small: Well, it‘s… it‘s probably different from crossword puzzles but similar. One thing about when we‘re searching on the web is we‘re constantly deciding ―should you go for this site or that other site?‖, whereas if we‘re just reading a book page, the decision is ―should I turn the page when I finish the last sentence?‖And there‘s something about that decision making process, something about the interaction, that is activating a much greater extent of brain neural circuits. Anchor: That‘s interesting. Now what about ages where you‘re looking at these kind of… I saw your study was relatively small, it seemed to be 24 people on the stuff that I‘ve read. Uh, what ages are we looking at and when does this become potentially1 neural preventive for people? Gary Small: We don‘t know whether it‘s neural preventive and we don‘t know about the age effects2, but one thing I focus on in iBrain, in my new book, is the digital divide between young people, digital natives who are getting this technology 24/73 born into it, and the older generation, the digital native4, the digital immigrants who come to it more reluctantly later in life, and how do we bridge that so-called brain gap by upgrading the text skills of older people and helping younger people with their face-to-face human contact skills? Anchor: It‘s fascinating. We just have time for one last question, kind of comment, but I‘ve been fascinated how able people in their 60s and 70s are really in incorporating this new technology into their daily lives in internet searching etc. It‘s really been amazing to me to see how quickly that‘s happened. Gary Small: Well I encourage boomers and seniors to get involved in the technology, to have fun with it and enjoy it, and it‘s a great way to reach out to people who are not nearby. The communication ability is… (Absolutely) really spectacular. Anchor: Absolutely. Sorry we are out of time, but thanks so much for coming to see us Dr. Smalls [Small].Loved to hear what you had to say. Gary Small: Thank you. Lesson 2 Audio studio At the dawn of the digital age, many believed that the Internet, e-mail, blogs and interactive video games would produce a generation of more intellectually sophisticated children. The terms ―information superhighway‖ and ―knowledge economy‖ entered the dictionary, and it was assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to blaze a trail as the pioneers of this new digital age. That was the pro mise. But the enlightenment didn‘t happen. The technology that was supposed to make young adults more intelligent, diversify their tastes and improve their verbal skills has had the opposite effect. According to recent reports, most young people in the United States do not read literature, visit museums or vote. They cannot explain basic scientific methods, recount basic American history, name their local political representatives or locate Iraq or Israel on a map. The Dumbest Generation, written by Mark Bauerlein, is a startling indictment of the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its consequences for American culture and democracy. Video studio Anchor: And finally, the dumbest generation. And if you are watching this webcast, that apparently means you. At least that‘s a theory of a professor of English at Emory University who‘s written a book which basically argues that the internet is making people stupid. Mark Bauerlein:I‘m Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University. The book has a provocative title. It‘s The Dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. [In] Recent years though, I have begun to look at youth culture, youth knowledge, youth academic achievements, and what has come up, more and more, is that things don‘t look good. Young people today enjoy more and more digital connections, more screen time than ever before and one of the effects of that is that they are steadily disengaging from the traditional contents … uh … the liberal arts. One of the things we measured was how much people read literature, and how much they read books in general. And the first time we did the study was in 1982, and at that time, young people formed the most active reading group. When we did it again in 2002, they were the least active. Only about half of them ever read a book on their own. If it‘s not assigned for school, if it‘s not assigned in the workplace, they simply don‘t care. The internet is extraordinary. It is a miraculous tool for knowledge and information. But the fact is that is not what the internet means to the average sixteen-year-old. What the internet does is provide a more intense form of contact with other sixteen-year-olds. You know, I do often tell my students, read more books. Please, read more books in your leisure time, unplug for just an hour or two per day. I urge them, and they, they generally just laugh at me. Some of them may feel that I come down on them too hard, but they know deep down that this is right. Home listening 1.alters 2.Especially 3.access 4.information 5.difficulties 6.expert 7.suitable 8.attitude 9.it should not be a replacement for real friends, for a real life 10.The Internet was not made for children and so it should not be used as a babysitter. Unit 3 Lesson 1 Audio studio The U.S. already has high-speed trains: the Acela Express has been carrying millions of riders between Washington D.C., New York, and Boston since 2000. It zips along at 150 miles per hour for relatively short distances —just over 25 miles per hour faster than its conventional counterparts. But compare it with high-speed trains in Europe and Asia that can reach speeds over 200 miles per hour on hundreds of miles of track. The problem is: tracks in the U.S. are not designed to support high-speed travel. Plus, any new express trains might have to share those lines with slower freight traffic. So is high-speed train travel even possible in the U.S.? Well, the Obama administration hopes to make it so, setting aside $8 billion to create 10 high-speed lines between cities in the East, Southeast, Midwest, and West Coast. But it will take a lot more money to bring the U.S. passenger rail system up to the standards of, say, the French Train àGrande Vitesse, which runs on delicate tracks and holds the record for the fastest train at 357 miles per hour. And Amtrak has proven woefully inadequate at providing passenger rail service in its three decades of existence, requiring constant infusions of government cash and rarely keeping to schedule. So do not expect high-speed trains to show up fast at your local station. Video studio Obama’s Stimulus Plan on High-Speed Rail The president joined vice president Biden in Florida to announce the administration‘s biggest stimulus project of all. ―Right here, in Tampa, we are going to start building a new high rail line.‖ $8 billion to begin a European-style, clean energy, high-speed rail system. Planners hope it will eventually connect cities across the country, [the] largest infrastructure project since the interstate highway system. The White House claims it will create tens of thousands of jobs. The announcement is one of many plans in coming months to convince Americans —―Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010‖ —that the president was dead serious last night w hen he said he‘s pivoting to jobs. ―It was rhetoric about a pivot, but no pivot at all.‖ But Republican critics say, despite all the post-speech fanfare, the president spent only about five minutes of a 70- minute speech on specific proposals to create jobs in the short term. And Republicans say the centerpiece of the plan, a second stimulus expected to cost about $80 billion, is a non-starter. ―One more so-called stimulus bill built on the same failed policies of the last stimulus bill.‖ The president also proposed tax breaks for small business to encourage job creation. But critics say they are too narrow to do much good. ―I think they could be much much better and I think the net job creation from these tax cuts is going to be relatively small.‖ The president is not entirely pivoting to jobs. Today in Tampa he repeatedly brought up health care reform and his intention to keep fighting until it‘s law. Lesson 2 Audio studio Competition between airlines and rail operators will further hot up thanks to the launch of China‘s longest high-speed train link between Wuhan and Guangzhou. The line stretches more than 1 ,000 km and will slash the travel time from Wuhan to Guangzhou from 10 hours to just three. The link, on which trains will reach a top speed of 350 km per hour, is expected to pose a real threat to airlines. ―High-speed rail has three advantages over air travel: it is more convenient, more punctual and has a better safety record. This could help erode the airlines‘ market share,‖ said Si Xianmin, chairman of China Southern Airlines. To deal with this threat, China Southern Airlines has unveiled several counter measures, including cutting ticket prices from Wuhan to Guangzhou by almost half for purchases made in advance. ―If railway chiefs cut the numbe r of low-cost tickets on slower trains too sharply, as they did when the country‘s first high-speed link opened between Beijing and Tianjin last year, the airlines could win more passengers with their cheap offers. But whichever side wins, passengers will be the ultimate winner.‖ said Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University. Wu Wenhua, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission‘s comprehensive transport institute, says that ―developing high-speed rail networks is in line with the demand for high-efficiency, low-emissions transport.‖ By 2020 China plans to have high-speed rail services running between 70 percent of its key cities, covering more than 80 percent of the present airline network. Video studio High-Speed Rail Boost Travel Now travel agents in Fujian are also getting in on the action. They‘ve got big plans for the World Expo, even those taking place in Shanghai. The province has just begun a special high speed rail travel package to bring in Taiwan tourist s, just across the Strait. Let‘s take a look. High-speed rail service between Fuzhou and Shanghai takes only five hours. The Fujian branch of China Travel Service has exclusive rights to the High Speed Rail Tours for the World Expo. And it‘s counti ng on its location to bring in tourists from Taiwan. [Wang Ying, vice General Manager of Inbound Tours, CTS:] ―Once in Fujian, they can stay in the region for two to three days. And then they can take the high-speed rail to Shanghai for the World Ex po.‖ Packages range from 900 yuan to 3,000 yuan each. The tour operator says it‘s already signed cooperative deals with some travel firms in Taiwan. Island residents can apply with them. [Wang Ying:] ―Travel agencies in Taiwan are already estimating that t he event could help Fujian attract 800,000 to one million Taiwan tourists this year.‖ Tour operators say World Expo theme travel services are extremely popular in Taiwan. Fujian tourism authorities are also planning more World Expo tour packages to attract overseas Chinese from south-east Asian countries like the Philippines and Malaysia. Home listening 1.keep in mind 2.offer 3.make eye contact 4.crowded 5.slows 6.respect 7.Try not to spend your whole ride home on the phone 8.normal 9.There is no need to take over other pe ople‘s seats 10.fellow Unit 4 Lesson 1 Audio studio Paying for college in the US is about to get harder. Starting in July 2007, interest rates on new student loans will rise to 6.8 %, from today‘s rate of 4.7 %. And interest rates on new loans that parents take out called PLUS loans will rise to 8. 5%. The bottom line is that getting your degree is becoming even more expensive. On a $20,000 loan, students will be paying about $2,500 more over the life of the loan just in interest payments. And parents will have to put up $3,000 more. This is going to prevent a lot of young adults from living independently once they leave school. Many will be unable to pay off their credit card debt. Parents are also going to feel the pain because they will have to support their children for much longer, with the result that they may have to defer their own retirement. Video studio Anchor: How do you manage your cash? Do you have a budget? Do you keep track of what comes in, what goes out and where you spend your money? If you want to be debt free and have financial freedom, knowing every detail of your expenses is crucial, especially in this tough economic times. Jacob Gold is a third generation financial planner, as well as author of a new book – Financial Intelligence: Getting Back To Basics After An Economic Meltdown. And he‘s here to give us some tips on improving our cash flow. Welcome Jacob, it‘s great to see you. Jacob: Thanks for having me. Anchor:Now Jacob, before we get to all your tips, let‘s talk a little bit about your book. What motivated you to write it? Jacob:Well, you‘d be surprised that, with the abundance of financial information that‘s readily available to individuals via the internet and … and TV and newspapers, you would think that people would have a clear path to get back on track after this terrible economic meltdown. But the exact opposite has happened. There‘s too much information out there. And people tend to put their head in the sand and they don‘t have that path. So my goal was to create a simple ―How to‖ guide of getting back on track financially and prepare for yourself a financial future that is ... er … that is worthy of, of your time and effort. Anchor: It sounds great. A lot of confused folks out there, and they can definitely use, use some good advice. Now what are some of the biggest complaints you‘re hearing about the current economic situation? Jacob:You know, I‘d say the biggest complaint is people really didn‘t have a good grasp of how much risk they were taking on when they were investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds as well as real estate. And when there‘s an economic meltdown that is the worst since the Great Depression, many people lost more money than they ever thought they could lose in a given calendar year. So that has be en … er … absolutely a detriment for individuals and they‘re just scared on how to move forward. Anchor:All right. So let‘s jump right in with your first tip on how to improve cash flow. And you say organize yourself better. What exactly are the things we need to organize? Jacob: Well, a lot of times people have things all over the place. They don‘t know how much they have in their credit card debt. Perhaps they don‘t know what their mortgage payment is. And the first step is to get organized. Designate a place in the house where you focus on your financial situation. Perhaps you buy some type of software like a Microsoft Money or, or a Quicken. And really begin to categorize and alphabetize all of your expenses and try to find some type of spending pattern. Anchor: All right. And the next thing you say we need is dedication. What do we need to be dedicated to? Jacob:Well, it, it‘s never convenient to ... er ..., manage your money appropriately. There‘re always obstacles and people tend to always want to procrastinate. But what you need to do is you need to set aside a little time every single month to go over your expenses, to know what your debt liability is, and just really be focused on improving your financial situation. Anchor: So you really have to be dedicated to making this a goal, right? Jacob: Absolutely. I mean it is difficult to become financially independent and to have a good grasp of where you stand financially and you act always keep your eye on the price. Anchor: ... I love your next tip, b ut it‘s not a very easy thing to do. You say leave home with less cash. And I suppose that also means staying away from the cash machine. Jacob: You know, in, in, in some cases, yes. Er, you know, the problem about people going to an ATM machine is they repeatedly go to an A TM machine and withdraw 20, 100, 200 dollars a month. Many times when they start to go over their finances, they have no idea where they actually spent their money. So even if you were to use a debit card, at least electronically you can keep track of those purchases. And then also too, the less money you have in your pocket, we would hope the less money you would spend just on every day little items. Anchor: As long as you don‘t use that as an excuse to keep going to the ATM and incurrin g all these ATM fees, right? Jacob: Correct, absolutely. Lesson 2 Audio studio The financial aid package has just arrived in the mail from your dream school but with a slight problem-it‘s still not enough. Where are you going to find the extra? One of the most common ways of paying for college is through scholarships and grants. Scholarships are usually awarded to students based on academic achievement or merit, while grants are usually based on other considerations, such as geographical location or financial need. Both are considered ―gift aid‖ and do not have to be paid back after graduation. Another way to pay for college is through federal loans, which often come in association with grants, scholarships and other aid that an institution awards potential students for a given academic year. Repayment of these loans does not begin until six months after the student has graduated or left school. If there‘s nowhere else to turn, students can contact the college or university‘s financial aid office. They wil l usually then be assigned a specific financial aid counselor to help them with their concerns or to secure additional resources to enable them to finance their college education. A college education should not be put on hold due to funding problems. However reluctant students and their parents may be to get into debt in order to finance higher education, they will surely find that it turns out to be an investment that pays off when the student enters the professional world and starts a career. Video studio Anchor: Welcome Kim. Thanks for being here. Kim: My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Anchor: So the bottom line is the more a college student can cut now from their expenses, the better off they are on graduation day, right? Kim: Absolutely. Every dolla r you cut out of you expenses is one dollar you don‘t have to borrow or one dollar you don‘t have to earn or try to raise in scholarships. Anchor: So they should, really should be focused on keeping student loans especially to a minimum. Kim: Absolutely. I mean there are wonderful new repayment programs but still, less debt is always better. More ... less is more. Anchor:Less is more. Let‘s talk about some of the ways to cut the debt. First, you say ―sell the car‖. That is a significant cost. Kim: You know, college financial aid officers say the single biggest budget buster on campus is the car. Think about it, not only do you have the car payment, you‘ve got insurance, which for a young person is very high, and you‘d be surprised by how expensive parking i s, is on campus. And of course, then you‘ve got maintenance and gas. So we figure if you sell the car, you just, you‘ll right away you‘ll save like 6,000 dollars a year. Anchor:And plus you can save on your gym membership because you‘ll be walking everywhere, right? Kim: Right. Anchor: So next you say forego the suite in the dormitory. I had no idea that they had suites – I went to the university of Montana, there was no such thing. But how much could someone save from doing that? Kim: Well, um, one of the reasons college has gotten so much more expensive is that campuses are a lot nicer. You go into a, you go into a modern dorm these days, and you do see suites, you see single rooms and, if students are willing to live a little more like you and I lived, maybe double up, triple up, even say, live in a quadruple, you can save big bucks. Another wonderful way to save money is to look for what‘s called a coop dorm. This is a dorm when you have to do, let‘s say, five hours a week of chores, and you can save, literally, three, four, five thousand dollars a year on your dorm costs. Anchor:That‘s huge. Food is another major expense. Everybody wants to eat the pizza late at night. But you recommend dropping the …, stop, ordering delivery and eat from the cafeteria. Kim: Yeah. Just think about it. If you get your coffee at breakfast in the cafeteria each morning, that‘s three dollars each day you‘re saving. If you can manage not to order the late night pizza, you‘re saving ten to twenty dollars a night. And you probably won‘t gain that freshman fifteen. Anchor:Let‘s move on to the next one and this involves technology, and you suggest going on a technology diet. You don‘t always need the laptop, for instance. That could be pretty hard to do, especially in today‘s soc iety. But can they do it? Can they get by? Kim:They can. I mean it‘s not gonna be easy. Absolutely. Do you need access to a computer to succeed in today‘s college? Absolutely. But more and more colleges are provi … realizing this is an expense that a lot of students can‘t afford and are providing computers. Many dorms have one or two just … computers that you can use, sign up and use, so if you really want to save that extra one or two thousand dollars, you can forego the laptop. Anchor: How about cell phones? Kim: Yeah, cell phones. Well, one way you can save money on cell phones, of course, is to get a pre-paid plan. And if you don‘t, you know, forego the land line in your dorm, then maybe you‘re saving money on one hand and spending it on another. Obviou sly if you have an unlimited plan where you don‘t pay for each text message, it‘s probably a good idea if you‘re going to text ... text message a lot. Anchor: I was surprised when I went back to visit my sorority on campus, they don‘t even have phones in the house any more, so it almost seems as if ... (right) as if you have to have your cell phone. Home listening 1.devote 2.monitor 3.beyond 4.shop 5.returns 6.guarantee 7.access 8.commission 9.whose main concern is what is good for you 10.Following someone‘s advice simply be cause he is plausible and friendly Unit 5 Lesson 1 Audio studio Animation is the art of creating a sequence of drawings, each so slightly different that, when filmed and run through a projector at 24 frames per second, the figures seem to move. Early animations, which started appearing before 1910, consisted of simple drawings photographed one at a time. It was extremely labor intensive as there were literally hundreds of drawings per minute of film. Walt Disney took animation to a new level. He was the first animator to add sound to his movie cartoons with the premiére of Steamboat Willie in 1928. In 1937, he produced the first full length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. With the introduction of computers, animation took on a whole new dimension. Many feature films of today have had animation incorporated into them for special effects. A film like Star Wars by George Lucas relies heavily on computer animation for many of its special effects. Toy Story, produced by Walt Disney Productions and Pixar Animation Studios, became the first full length feature film animated entirely on computers when it was released in 1995. With the advent of personal computers, it has now also become possible for the average person to create animations. Video studio Narrator: For the last 20 years, a group of artists and scientists have transformed two-dimensional drawings into their own three-dimensional world. Narrator: Transforming the hand-drawn line into a new art form was no easy task. Over the last 20 years, these artists faced struggles and the risk of failure every step of the way. This marriage of art and science was the combined dream of three men, a creative scientist, Ed Catmull, a visionary entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, and a talented artist, John Lasseter. Together they have revolutionized an industry and blazed an unprecedented record in Hollywood history. Narrator: The creative force behind Pixar Studios and the director of Toy Story, John Lasseter, helped pioneer this new art form from an early love of bringing drawings to life. Lasseter: When I was growing up, I loved cartoons more than anything else. And when I was in high school, I found this book, this old, ratty book, called The Art of Animation. And it was about the Disney Studios and how they made animated films. And it was one of those things that it just dawned on me; people make cartoons for a living. They actually get paid to make cartoons. And [I thought], ―That‘s what I wanna do.‖ Right then, right there, it was like I knew that‘s what I wanted to do. Narrator: An unexpected visitor to Lucasfilm was Steve Jobs. Steve was 21 when he cofounded Apple Computer, revolutionizing the concept of user-friendly personal computing with the Apple II and the Macintosh. By the age of 30, he had become a multimillionaire, selling his innovative computers all over the world. Jobs: And he shared with me his dream to make the world‘s first computer-animated film. And I, in the end, ended up buying into that dream, both spiritually and financially. Narrator: Steve Jobs took a chance and invested $10 million to launch Pixar. Jobs: The stuff that Ed and his team were doing was at the very high-end, and I could see that it was way beyond what anyone else was doing. Catmull: We had the fortune to have Steve Jobs, who believes in passion and vision. He was responding to this passion. Lasseter: It was really exciting when … when Steve was the one that bought our group. Lasseter: I remember Ed came to me, and he says, ―Let‘s do a little animated f ilm, something that says who we are.‖ I wanted something simple and geometric, and I was sitting there at the desk kind of thinking. And I just kept staring at this lamp, and it was sort of like a classic Luxo lamp. I just started moving it around like it was alive. I love bringing inanimate objects to life, in maintaining the integrity of the object, and pull personality and movement and physics out of that. Narrator: In 1987, Luxo Jr. became the first three-dimensional computer-animated film nominated for an Academy Award. Catmull: Luxo is the one that changed everything. It was a pure little story. And once we hit it with that, then it became a new goal for everybody. Jobs: It was the combination of the new medium and John really bringing a character to life that made people say, ―Oh my God‖, you know. And the smart ones say, ―Look at this potential here.‖Narrator: A hopping Luxo lamp would become a symbol of Pixar‘s optimism and determination. Lesson 2 Audio studio The rapid advance of technology has made computer animation widely available to the masses and turned animation into one of the fastest growing industries in modern times. The demand for animated entertainment has expanded with the increase in broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV along with the growing popularity of the Internet. In the past, animation series were aimed at children aged nine and below. In recent years, however, TV stations have been producing animation series for teenagers, adults and the whole family. Animation series like The Simpsons and King of the Hill have been successfully aired on prime time TV. Major markets include the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Britain and Germany. Licensing operations for T-shirts, caps and other items have also been a major source of revenue for animation companies. In Japan, several successful computer games such as Pokemon and Detective Conan have been transformed into animated series. More broadly speaking, animation is increasingly used in video games, and movies are also increasingly reliant on animation and computer graphics special effects. Another key trend we are witnessing is the outsourcing of animation to Asia, especially by North American film and television program producers. The major factor behind this shift continues to be the availability of powerful computer animation platforms and much lower labor costs compared to North America and Europe. The bulk of the outsourcing is for 2D animation, with some for 3D as well. Video studio James Cameron (producer, director, and writer): I think the thing that people need to keep very strongly in mind is that this is not an animated film. These actors did not just stand at a lectern and do a voice part and then animators went off for the next two years and created the entire physicality of their performance. Sam Worthington (Jake Sully): The most exciting thing is, it is my performance. This thing walks, talks and acts like me. It‘s my interpretation. James: Every nuance, every tiny bit of the performance that you see on the screen was created by the actors. They had to run, they had to leap, they had to fight, they had to do all the things that you see them doing in the film and that‘s where the power of the performance comes from. Richard Banehan (animation supervisor): It‘s not just we capture motion; we‘re trying to capture what‘s the intent of the actor. Jon Landou (producer): What CGI technology does is it replaces prosthetics. Actors can now play any character that‘s designed in the computer without going through hours an d hours of makeup and what we get is their performance coming through the CGI character. Just like you would get Eric Stoltz‘s performance coming through in The Mask, you get Zoe Saldana‘s performance coming through in Neytiri. Joe Letteri (senior visual effects supervisor): Performance captures the technique where you try to capture the performance of an actor and translate it to a digital character. Stephen Rosenbaum (visual effects supervisor): Prior to them even moving out into the performance capture world, we put the actors inside this giant sphere covered with lights and we could photograph them and study their facial features and try to understand how to design their characters. Joe: And then you put an actor in a suit with markers on the suit. We put you in a spatial volume, using a lot of cameras all around to record the motions of all the markers.\ James: The computer is creating a realtime moving skeleton of you. From that skeleton you now can drive a computer generated character. The part that we had to create during the making of this film was the facial image-based performance capture technology that allowed what the actors did to 100 percent translate to what you see the characters doing. So we came up with the idea that we would actually have a little boom and on the end of that boom there‘d be a little tiny camera and it would image the face while the actor was working, so it captured every nuance of how their lips moved and how all their facial muscles moved, how their eyes moved. Joe: What w e‘re trying to do is take what the actor‘s doing emotionally in any given scene and to translate that into the characters and we do that by using their muscles. It gives us a way to correspond emotion to what you actually see expressed in the character‘s f ace. James: It was a very very exciting time while we realized that we had rounded that corner and we had true human emotion captured and performed by a non-human character. Home listening 1.definitely 2.spreading 3.extended 4.represent 5.ranges from 6.response 7.attributed 8.benefited from 9.expanded image licensing to new areas 10.has set the best possible example for local animation enterprises Unit 6 Lesson 1 Audio studio With the first anniversary of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August, 8th), just around the corner, people are assessing the legacy the Olympic Games has left the city, both materially and spiritually. There can be little doubt that the Games have brought substantial benefits. Our national sports culture has continued to develop and flourish. Local people are delighted that the Beijing municipal government has decided to open Olympic venues to the public, providing alternative gymnasiums as well as a chance to see the venues up close. Currently, six Olympic venues have been opened to the public. In choosing which venues to visit, people tend to select the ones nearest their homes. During the Olympics a hundred thousand volunteers impressed the world with their charming smiles and quality service. Many of them have chosen to continue serving the city as volunteers after the Olympics. They consider it to be a way of spreading the volunteer spirit far and wide and of developing a sense of civic responsibility. The Olympics have brought about significant changes in people‘s ways of life. Greater interest in sport, greater awareness of environmental protection and a greater willingness to volunteer are all valuable outcomes of the Games. Although the Olympics are now history, our lives have become richer as a result of them. Video [Four years on this] is the Olympic legacy in Athens. Millions of pounds were spent on venues like the Beach V olleyball Center. Like many now, it‘s empty, locked up and its future uncertain. Graffiti covers the outside of the gymnastics arena. What should have been a huge public park looks like this. And a venue built specially for taekwondo is deserted, nothing more than a backdrop for the local fishermen. And the Greek authorities would rather you didn‘t see it. ―No. No. No.‖ And it‘s not just the security guards. No one from the Greek government or from the company that now runs these sites or even from the ruling party here in Greece wanted to speak to us on camera. And maybe it‘s not surprising because 10 of the 20 venues from 2004 are not used at all for anything. And many of the others like the main Olympic Stadium here are only used every now and then. This is the Olympic legacy here in Athens. Try to visit the state-of-the-art Sailing Center and a fence blocks the way. The Greek people who paid for this can‘t see what they got for their money. A man down there didn‘t want to appear on camera, but he said that what was happening to facilities like that one there was a terrible waste. He said it was wrong that the Greek public had paid for facilities like that but weren‘t allowed to use them. In fact, he said he felt ashamed to be Greek. Stefanos Kalopisis was in the Olympic Kayak Squad in 2004. He, like most Greeks, is proud of the way the country staged the Games, but they worry about the long-term cost. ―The cost was huge, I mean, like a billion Euro per day and Greece is a small country, already it had the financing problem with, you know, the health system, with the educational system, … I‘m sure not …even … think what was all this money spent.‖ Officially all this cost Greece 8 billion pounds. Unofficially the bill might eventually reach 15 billion. The district of Helleniko is home to what was some of these showpiece venues. The neglect here angers Helleniko‘s mayor. ―Money,‖ he says, ―seems more important than using venues for the public good.‖ ―The cost was very big and the result was not what it should‘ve been. The venues have not been given to the local communities, with very few exceptions.‖The government agency that runs these venues is confident that it will eventually find people who want them. Politicians say that highlights a failure of planning. ―I don‘t think that … that the Greek people mind the bill. Perhaps what they mind is that, after the Olympics, we did not use the Olympics as a springboard for the count ry. And the quarrel leads to the question ?Was it worth it?‘ is could we have done more to explore the Olympics afterwards and the answer is absolutely yes, we could have, in terms of using the facilities more, in terms of using the feeling that it‘s great for the country.‖ Everywhere people will remember 2004, this man told me. Nowhere did it happen as it happened in Greece. National pride and some positives: the Athens transport network is now the envy of many countries; the Olympic Village, once temporary home to thousands of athletes, is now short-term accommodation for the city‘s underprivileged. The country that gave the world the modern Olympics didn‘t get it all right in 2004. There‘s still time for London to learn the lessons. Greg Milam, Sky News, Athens. Lesson 2 Audio Despite the fact that holding an Olympics is usually thought to provide a powerful long-term stimulus to the host country‘s economy, an examination of the ―before‖ and ―after‖ effects of previous host nations suggests the economic gains are more of a sprint than a marathon. Furthermore, according to analysis by HSBC of every Summer Olympic Games since the end of the Second World War, the GDP growth of the Olympic host nation usually drops below the global average after the end of the Games. However, in the aftermath of the Beijing Olympics, diplomats and economists have said that China‘s economy is not likely to suffer from a post-Olympic slowdown. Serge Abou, the European Union Ambassador to China, remains positive about China‘s development. As he has said, ―I don‘t think that after the Olympics China will have a kind of post-Olympic trauma. I don‘t believe that. I think that the growth and improvement of Beijing will continue after the Olympics.‖ Since Beijing‘s success in its bid for the 2008 Olympics in 2001, the Olympic dream has consumed and driven China. Now the country should be able to bask in the Games‘ success. Its desire to hold a successful Games has catalyzed the nation‘s developm ent and reshaped the capital with awe-inspiring sports venues, a cloud-scraping skyline and the world‘s biggest airport terminal. There is every reason to believe the momentum will continue. Video Many assume that the London Olympics will [give the capital a chance to reverse] the long decline of its public sports facilities. Over the past twenty years, the city has lost dozens of swimming pools and scores of playing fields, but there is a risk that the Games will make matters even worse. The plans include a proposal to turn the popular East Marshes in Hackney into a coach park. It‘s feared that these grounds will never be restored. ―These things tend to disappear for some project, and you‘ll never regain them. So what is this legacy? The legacy is just a promise. What will we end up with? Some very, very expensive sports facilities that people won‘t be able to use? Facilities that are difficult to get at?‖ ―London‘s vision is to reach people, young people, all around the world, to connect them with the inspirational power of the Games, so that they are inspired to choose sport.‖ ―There is a challenge here to, I think, marry, on the one hand, the Olympics being an élite sporting activity, whilst what we need it to be is to deliver a long-term grassroots benefit.‖