视听说文本

[John: Do you feel like going to the cinema, Liz? Liz: Oh...yes...yes, let's do that, John. John: Well, what shall we go and see? Liz: What kind of film do you like? John: Well, I like all sorts of films really... My favorite films are like Star Wars, you know, the...the fantasy, special effect ones that you can escape into another world with. Um...I also like mystery films. Do you like mystery films? Liz: I really like mystery films, yes, but I don't like horror films because they give me nightmares. John: Yes, I know. I don't like horror films either. I tell you, I just think they're sort of stupid and unbelievable. I do like...um...crime films, you know, ones where you follow the detective and try to guess who the murderer is. Like...like Agatha Christie stories, you know. And also where you take the side of the criminals. Do you know the ones I mean? You know, where you wonder if you're going to get...if they're going to get caught. You know, like a bank robbery or something like that. Liz: Haha. Do you think there's a film with Robert Redford or Paul Newman in it? John: Oh, I hope not. Liz: 'Cause I really... Oh, don't you like them? John: Well, I tend to prefer people like Clint Eastwood and... Liz: Oh, no! I'm not keen on him at all! John: Really? Liz: No... What about a good comedy or a good musical, something like that? John: No, no, I don't like films like that really. Liz: The trouble is there are not many very good ones around these days... John: Then what shall we go and see? Liz: Why don't we ring up the ABC Cinema and find out what's on? Then we can decide. John: That's a good idea...but I haven't got an evening paper. That's definitely the thing to do. ]     [Sally Marino gets married. After the wedding, there is a big party—a wedding reception. All the guests eat dinner. There is a band and, after dinner, everyone dances. Sally's mother and father pay for everything. At the end of the reception, Sally and her new husband cut the wedding cake and all the guests get a piece. Pete and Rose buy a new house. After moving in, they invite their friends and family to a party—a house-warming party. Everybody comes to see the new house. They look at the bedrooms, the dining room, even the garage. Pete and Rose serve drinks, sandwiches, and snacks. The party is on a Saturday afternoon. It is Christmas time. Ted and Sarah Robinson want to see many of their friends over the holiday. So they invite their friends to an open house. The hours of the party are from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The guests arrive and leave whenever they want. The Robinsons serve sandwiches, drinks, and snacks. Some guests stay for just 20 minutes, others stay for 3 hours. About fifty people come to the open house. Mr. and Mrs. Todd ask their neighbors to come to an evening drinks party. They don't serve much food, just snacks—pretzels, chips, peanuts. No one dances. Conversation is important with people asking questions like "What's new with you?". ] [My name is Atsuko Saeki. I work as a salesclerk in a big department store in Fuji, Japan. Six years ago when I was 21 years old, I went to California to attend college. Life in the United States was much more difficult than I had ever imagined. It wasn't like the descriptions I had read in my textbooks. People often seemed tense. I felt very alone. One of my hardest classes was physical education. We often played volleyball. All the other students were good at it, but I wasn't. One afternoon, the teacher asked me to hit the ball to my classmates. For most people, this would be easy but I was terrified that I would make a fool of myself. One of the boys on my team saw how nervous I was. He walked up to me and whispered, "Come on, you can do that." You can't imagine how those words of encouragement made me feel. I was so happy; I almost cried. I managed to hit the ball and I think I thanked the young man, but I'm not sure. I have never forgotten his kind words of encouragement. He probably doesn't even remember what he said to me or how much his kindness meant to me. Whenever things aren't going well, I think of those simple words of encouragement: Come on, you can do that. We often forget that our words can have a powerful impact on other people. Even a simple word—good or bad—can have a lasting effect. ] [The first part: Dear Miss Austen, I was so happy to receive your letter. It is a valuable letter of reply to me. I never expected such a detailed response. I am eighty years old and I am blind. There is little I can do except knit and that is why I knit so many caps, sweaters and scarves. Of course, I can't write, so my daughter-in-law is writing this letter for me. I know a little bit about the work you are doing. At the age of nineteen I married a man who was going as a missionary to China. For 40 years, with an occasional year at home in America, we worked in China. We had two sons, only one of whom is still alive. After 40 years, my husband's health began to fail. We moved back to the States where he took charge of a settlement house in Brooklyn, New York. When my husband died, I came to Toronto to live with my son and daughter-in-law.]   [The second part: What I most wanted to say is this. For 60 years I have been making up missionary packages of clothing, food, medicine, or books. I have sent them to various parts of the world. Sometimes I have received a printed slip of acknowledgement, sometimes nothing. Never before in all these years have I had a personal letter describing the village and telling me who is wearing the clothing and what they said. I never thought that in my lifetime I would receive a letter like that. May God bless you.] [Two Belgians and two Dutchmen traveled regularly to work on the same train. After a while the Dutchmen saw that the two Belgians only had one ticket between them and asked how they managed to achieve this. They explained that when they heard the conductor approaching from the other end of the carriage, the two of them left their seats, went into the toilet and locked the door. When the conductor knocked on the toilet door, saying, "Tickets, please!", they pushed one ticket under the door. It was then stamped and pushed back under the door again. The Dutchmen thought this was a very good idea and the following morning bought one ticket between them. When they got to their carriage there was only one Belgian. They told him what they had done and asked the Belgian if he had a ticket as he was traveling on his own. He said he didn't have a ticket at all and when they asked him how he planned to travel for free, he told them they would have to wait and see until the conductor arrived, but he had no doubt that he would manage it without difficulty. As soon as they heard the conductor coming, the two Dutchmen immediately went to the toilet and locked the door. A few moments later the Belgian followed them down the corridor and knocked on the toilet door, saying, "Tickets, please!" One ticket appeared under the door. ]   [(Dr. Herring, author of a book on language and communication, is being interviewed by Bob White, a writer for an academic journal on communication.) Bob White: Good morning, Dr. Herring! We both know that many communication specialists believe that gender bias exists in language, culture and society. Do you think this is really so? Dr. Herring: Yes, I certainly do. How we talk and listen can be strongly influenced by cultural expectations, and these begin during childhood. Children usually play together with other children of the same gender, and this is where our conversational style is learned. Bob White: Can you give some specific examples? Dr. Herring: Certainly. We find that girls use language mainly to develop closeness or intimacy as a basis for friendship. Boys, on the contrary, use language mainly to earn status in their group. Bob White: But, in communication by electronic devices like email discussion groups, there should be no gender distinction if writers' names are not used in the messages. Dr. Herring: One might think so, but in fact, email writing style is most comparable with spoken language, so basic language styles are still evident. Bob White: I thought email messages were gender neutral! Dr. Herring: No. While theoretical gender equality exists for the Internet, in reality women are not given equal opportunity because of different communication and language styles between the sexes. Bob White: How does that happen? Do you have any hard facts to back up this impression? Dr. Herring: Yes. I've done a research project using randomly selected email messages from online discussion groups. I found that females use language that is more collaborative and supportive such as "Thanks for all your tips on...", "Good point." and "Hope this helps!". Men tend to use more aggressive or competitive language such as "Do you understand that?", "You should realize that...", "It is absurd to think...". Bob White: How great are these gender differences? Dr. Herring: Males wrote messages using aggressive, competitive language more than twice as often as females did, while females used collaborative and supportive language three times as often as males did. In this study, it is clear that there is a gender difference in email messages just as there is in other communication styles. Bob White: So the "battle of the sexes" is still with us, even online. "Equal" does not always mean "the same". Men and women are created equal. But, boys and girls are not born the same. ] [You throw a little girl a ball, and it will hit her in the nose. You throw a little boy a ball, and he will try to catch it. Then it will hit him in the nose. A baby girl will pick up a stick and look in wonder at what nature has made. A baby boy will pick up a stick and turn it into a gun. When girls play with Barbie dolls, they like to dress them up and play house with them. When boys play with Barbie dolls, they like to tear their hair off. Boys couldn't care less if their hair is untidy. But for girls, if their hair got cut a quarter-inch too short, they would rather lock themselves in their room for two weeks than be seen in public. Baby girls find mommy's makeup and almost instinctively start painting their faces. Baby boys find mommy's makeup and almost instinctively start painting the walls. Boys grow their fingernails long because they're too lazy to cut them. Girls grow their fingernails long—not because they look nice—but because they can dig them into a boy's arm. Girls are attracted to boys, even at an early age. At an early age, boys are attracted to dirt. Most baby girls talk before boys do. Before boys talk, they learn how to make machine-gun noises. Girls turn into women. Boys turn into bigger boys. ]     [How do we learn gender roles? Do you know how you learned to be a woman? Do you know how you learned to be a man? What makes the difference in terms of gender and our roles in society? Even when our physical structures are revealed to be really similar, women and men "tend" to play different roles in society. In an article in the latest issue of Psychology Today, we find a study that reflects how parents of fifteen girl babies and fifteen boy babies differed in their descriptions of their babies. Despite the fact that objective data such as birth length, weight, irritability, etc. did not differ, when the parents were asked to describe their babies, they said that girl babies were softer, littler, more beautiful, prettier, cuter than boy babies. Based on these facts, we could conclude that parents' attitude is influencing their children.    Our parents and later our school, television and the Internet are showing us a whole set of expected behaviors that create our patterns. Thus, a simple cartoon can suggest to children how they are supposed to act. Male cartoon characters are not only more prominent than female characters, but they also portray a broader range of masculine traits. Male characters are powerful, strong, smart and aggressive. ] [In China, education is considered a race. Students have to begin as early as possible and have to proceed as quickly as possible along the track. The education system is considered to be successful when many students have reached the finish line as quickly as possible. In America, we recognize that education is a race too, but we feel that the students should have a chance to wander much more, even if they don't all reach the finish line. As a result of their wandering, some students may have more to offer by the end of the race. The advantage of the Chinese way is that more students become proficient and reach the finish line. The disadvantage is that they may have less to say or to show once they get there. The disadvantage of the American way is that many students never finish the race. The advantage is that some who do go "all the way" have very interesting and original things to say when they get there.] [Pottery has been found in the remains of every ancient civilization. The oldest known piece of pottery was found in China and dates back to 7,900 BC. That's almost 10,000 years ago! The first pots were large bowls, formed by taking a lump of clay and making a bowl shape. Pottery doesn't just include pots, but anything made from clay that can hold things, such as jugs, vases and cups. Pottery was used to hold water, milk, seeds and grains. Later, people learned to mix different clays together to make stronger pottery and to put the pottery in a fire oven so that the clay would harden faster. The potter's wheel was invented in China around 3,100 BC. The wheel spins clay like a top. It allowed people to make pottery much more quickly and make shapes that were perfectly symmetrical—bowls that were really round, rather than lumpy or uneven. Pottery is not only considered one of the first inventions but also one of the first art forms. Most types of pottery have been painted with figures or designs; some even tell a story! ] [There is an old and common saying in the United States that "There is nothing new under the sun." I thought of that today when I read an article in a magazine. The article tells about the growing number of people who are building earth-sheltered homes, homes which are partly underground. I have known about modern earth-sheltered homes, but I have never thought about their roofs before. Instead of having metal or tiles on the roofs, many of these homes now have living roofs. The wooden top of the house is covered with a special waterproof plastic material. On top of this there is soil, in which grass and flowers are planted. Such a roof can be very beautiful. But this really is not a new idea. When early settlers came to the United States, they often made their first homes by digging into the ground. Their roofs were made of wood, and then covered by big pieces of soil with grass. They were warm, though not always waterproof. People replaced these homes and roofs as soon as they could with regular wooden homes with wooden or metal roofs. Now, two hundred years later, some people think of this as a new idea. But I think, "There is nothing new under the sun."] [In his 35 years with the United Nations system, Kofi Annan came to be known as an even-handed man with an ability to see the parts and the whole at the same time. It is this quality that makes the secretary general perhaps the most popular executive in the United Nations today. He recalls an unforgettable lesson learned in Ghana at age 17: One day our headmaster walked into the classroom and put up a broad white sheet of paper with a small black dot in the corner. "Boys," he asked, "what do you see?" All of us shouted in unison, "A black dot!" Then he said, "So not a single one of you saw the broad white sheet of paper? Don't go through life with that attitude." Former Congressman Garry Franks also recalls one thing he learned in college that was not on the curriculum: I remember taking copious notes and listening to everything the teacher had to say in preparation for my first test at Yale. I looked at the exam and saw it was everything I had studied. I wrote the answers to the three questions thinking: Boy, this is easy. As we waited to get our tests back, I was positive I'd get an A. Instead my grade was a C. Under it, in big red letters, was written: "I know what I said. What do you think?" It was a valuable awakening. I realized that Yale did not simply want you to absorb ideas but to think about them and challenge them. It forced me to explore things from every possible angle, looking for aspects that might not be obvious at first but were helpful in developing a dialog on an issue. ] [During the thirties and forties, when someone asked a kid who his role models were, he would often respond with names of baseball players. Advertisers trying to sell a product would often turn to baseball stars because the public knew them and loved them. Now looking at today's players, the only time you seem to hear about them is when they are complaining about their salaries. No longer is baseball the great national pastime, and kids are looking elsewhere for role models.