听写练习答案.doc

Passage 1Why Some People Are PoorThe poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. / People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. / As the general standard of living rises, / the poverty line does, too. / Therefore, even with todays relatively high standard of living, / about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. /Economists suggest several reasons. / For one thing, more than half of the poor people are qualified to work. / By law, children less than 16 years old can not work in many industries; / many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, / which is considered the normal retirement age. / Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons. / Other poor people look for a job but cant find one. / Many poor adults never went to high school. / Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.Passage 3Old AgeMany people mistakenly believe that old age is a time of increased illness and loneliness. / In fact, people do not suddenly change / when they reach the age of 60 or 65. / Consequently, we should not expect more mental illness / among the 60 to 70 age group than among the 50 to 60. / Furthermore, although more parents and their married children live in separate households than ever before, / this is usually by choice. / It is not because children now tend to neglect their parents / when they become old. / It is also wrong to believe that old age seriously affects a persons mental abilities. / There is clear proof that people who were eager to learn and who welcomed new experiences in their middle age, / continue to do so in old age. / It is true that older people tend to take longer to learn something new than young people. / Nevertheless, if they are given sufficient time, / they learn as well as young people do.Passage 4Cars in the FutureAs big cars cause many problems, such as pollution, shortage of parking space, crowded traffic, / scientists are now trying to design some small cars / that may some day replace todays big automobiles. / If more people begin to drive such cars in the future, / there will be less air pollution. / There will also be more space for parking cars in cities, / and the streets will be less crowded. / Three such cars can fit in the space / that is now needed for one car of the usual size. / The little cars will cost much less to own and to drive. / Driving will be safer as these cars can go only 60 kilometers per hour. / The cars of the future will be fine for driving around the city. / However, they will not be suitable for long trips, / because these cars by petrol can only go 450 kilometers / before needing to stop for refilling.Passage 5Dining Customs in the USAAmericans, like many people elsewhere in the world, like to invite friends to their homes / for an evening of food, drink and conversation. / Formal dinners in fine homes and hotels in the U.S. are much the same as formal dinners anywhere in the world. / But as most people in the U.S. have no servants, / their dinner parties at home tend to be informal. / Guests may sit down at a table, / or, as many new small homes have no separate dining room or very small dining space, / guests can also serve themselves and eat in the living room, / holding their plates or trays on their knees. / A more enjoyable form of entertainment is the picnic. / Americans are great picnickers / and almost every family has a picnic basket. / Summer invitations are often for a picnic at a park or in the open countryside. / Unless hamburgers or hot dogs are cooked over a fire, / picnic food is usually cold.Passage 6GardeningGardening is one of the oldest of the arts. / The Chinese with their deep sensitiveness to beauty / laid the foundations for a form of garden art / which was later to have great influences upon other lands. / The Greeks gave to the world a new concept of gardening. / Their homes were decorated with flowers, / but it was in their civic design that they most skillfully applied their garden art. / Their temples were surrounded by rows of trees, / and trees lined the important streets and market places in their principal cities. / The Romans acquired much of the knowledge and skill in garden craft from Greeks. / In the second century AD the Romans began to build gardens of great scale, / inspired by the vast palace gardens they had conquered. / They brought water from great distances to supply the ornamental fountains / which decorated their villa gardens. / Later these great villas were to inspire the Italian garden architects to follow the Roman style.Passage 7How and Why We SleepIts apparent that everyone needs to sleep. / However, most people rarely think about how and why they sleep. / We know that if we sleep well, we feel rested. / If we dont sleep enough, we often feel tired and irritable. / It seems there are two purposes of sleep: / physical rest and emotional and psychological rest. / We need to rest our bodies and our minds, / both of which are important in order for us to be healthy. / Each night we alternate between two kinds of sleep: active sleep and passive sleep. / The passive sleep gives our body the rest and prepares us for active sleep, / in which dreaming occurs. / Throughout the night, people alternate between passive and active sleep. / The brain rests, then it becomes active, then dreaming occurs. / The cycle is repeated several times throughout the night. / During eight hours of sleep, people dream for a total of one and half hours on the average.Passage 8Airplane EnginesIn 1945 a new type of airplane engine was invented. / It was much lighter and more powerful than earlier engines, / and enabled warplanes to fly faster and higher than ever. / This type of engine was called the jet engine / because it blows a large jet of hot air backwards at high speed. / The first airplane to use the new jet engine was built in Britain / and it began carrying passengers in 1952. / It had two jet engines and lfew much higher than petrol-engine airplanes. / At this height the air is thinner and very cold, / and so the airplane can cut through the air more easily. /However, the cabin has to be air-conditioned and has to be at normal pressure / so that the passengers may eat, read and sleep in comfort./ Today all long-distance airplanes have jet engines. / The modern jet airplanes are very big and can carry hundreds of passengers on two different floors, / which makes air travel much cheaper.Passage 9Railways in BritainThe success of early railways, such as the lines between big cities, / led to a great increase in railway building in Victorian times. / Between 1835 and 1865 about 25,000 kilometers of track were built, / and over 100 railway companies were created. / Railway travel transformed peoples lives. / Trains were first designed to carry goods. / However, a law in the 19th century forced railway companies to run one cheap train a day / which stopped at every station and cost only a penny a mile. / Soon working class passengers found they could afford to travel by rail. / Cheap Day Excursion trains became popular and seaside resorts grew rapidly. / The railways also provided thousands of new jobs: / building carriages, running the railways and repairing the tracks. / Railways even changed the time. / The need to run the railways on time meant that local time was abolished / and clocks showed the same time all over the country.Passage 10United Nations DayThe 24th of October is celebrated as United Nations Day. / It is a day that belongs to eve