短文听力训练答案.doc

短文听力训练Passage 11.A 2.B 3.DUnless you have visited the southern United States, you probably have never heard of Kudzu. Kudzu, as any farmer in the south will sadly tell you, is a super-powered weed. It is a strong climbing plant. Once it gets started, Kudzu is almost impossible to stop. It climbs to the tops of the tallest trees. It can cover large buildings. Whole barns and farm houses have been known to disappear from view. Wherever it grows, its thick twisting stems are extremely hard to remove. Kudzu was once thought to be a helpful plant. Originally found in Asia, it was brought to America to help protect the land from being swallowed by the sea. It was planted where its tough roots which grow up to five long could help hold back the soil. But the plant soon spread to places where it wasnt wanted. Farmers now have to fight to keep it from killing other plants. In a way, Kudzu is a sign of labor shortage in the south. Where there is no one to work the fields, Kudzu soon takes over. The northern United States faces no threat from Kudzu. Harsh winters kill it off. The plant loves the warmth of the south, but the south surely doesnt love it. If someone could invent some use for Kudzu and remove it from southern farmland, his or her fortune would be assured.Questions:1. What do we learn about “Kudzu” from the passage?2. What will happen if the fields are neglected in the southern United States?3. Why isnt Kudzu a threat to the northern United States?Passage 21.C 2.B 3.DReducing the amount of sleep students get at night has a direct impact on their performance at school during the day. According to classroom teachers, elementary and middle school students who stay up late exhibit more learning and attention problems. This has been shown by Brown Medical School and Bradley Hospital research. In the study, teachers were not told the amount of sleep students received when completing weekly performance reports, yet they rated the students who had received eight hours or less as having the most trouble recalling all the material, learning new lessons and completing high-quality work. Teachers also reported that these students had more difficulty paying attention. The experiment is the first to ask teachers to report on the effects of sleep deficiency in children. Just staying up late can cause increased academic difficulty and attention problems for otherwise healthy, well-functioning kids, said Garharn Forlone, the studys lead author. So the results provide professionals and parents with a clear message: when a child is having learning and attention problems, the issue of sleep has to be taken into consideration. “if we dont ask about sleep, and try to improve sleep patterns in kids struggling academically, then we arent doing our job”, Forlone said. For parents, he said, the message is simple, “getting kids to bed on time is as important as getting them to school on time”.Questions:1. What were teachers told to do in the experiment?2. According to the experiment, what problem can insufficient sleep cause in students?3. What message did the researcher intend to convey to parents?Passage 31.B 2.C 3.AReligious and private schools receive little or no support from public taxes in the United States. As a result, they are more expensive to attend. The religious schools in America are usually run by churches. Therefore they tend to be less expensive than private schools. When there is free education available to all children in the United Sates, why do people spend money on private schools? Americans offer a great variety of reasons for doing so. Some parents send their children to private schools because the classes there are usually smaller. In their opinion the public schools in their area are not of high enough quality to meet their needs. Private schools in the United Sates range widely in size and quality, and they offer all kinds of programs to meet the needs of certain students.Questions:1. Why is it usually expensive to attend religious and private schools?2. What is one of the reasons for people to send their children to private schools?3. Who usually run religious schools in the United States?Passage 41.C 2. A 3.BI live in a small village in the country. My wife and I run the village shop. We have a very peaceful life. Boring some might say, but we love it. We know all the people in the village, and have plenty of time to stop and chat. I have plenty of time for my hobbies toogardening, fishing, walking in the countryside. I love the outdoor life.It wasnt always like this though. I used to have a really stressful job, working till late in the office every evening, and often bringing work home at the weekend. The advertising world is very competitive. And when I look back, I cant imagine how I stood it. I had no private life at all, no time for the really important things in life. Because of the pressure of the job, I used to smoke and drink too much. The crisis came when my wife left me. She complained that she never saw me and I had no time for family life. This made me realize what was really important to me. I talked things through with her and decided to get back together again and to start a new and better life together. I gave up tobacco and alcohol and searched for new hobbies. Now I am afraid of looking back since the past life seemed a horrible dream.Questions:1. What did the speaker used to do for a living?2. What do we know about the speakers life in the past?3. What made the speaker change his lifestyle?Passage 51.D 2.C 3.AA friend of mine told me that when he was a young man, he went to work as a teacher in one of the states of India.One day, he received an invitation to dinner at the rulers palace. Very pleased, he went to tell his colleagues. They laughed, and told him the meaning of the invitation. They had all been invited and each person who was invited had to bring with him a certain number of silver and gold coins. The number of coins varied according to the persons position in the service of the government. My friends income was not high, so he did not have much to pay.Each person vowed before the ruler. His gold went onto one heap; his silver went onto another heap. And in this way he paid his income tax for the year.This was the simple way of collecting income tax. The tax on property was also collected simply. The ruler gave a man the power to collect a tax from each owner of land or property in a certain area, if this man promised to pay the ruler a certain amount of money. Of course, the tax collector managed to collect more money than he paid to the ruler. The difference between the sum of money he collected and the sum of money he gave to ruler was his profit.Questions:1. What do we know about the speakers friend?2. What was the real purpose of rulers invitation?3. What does the passage say about the tax collectors?Passage 61.D 2.A 3.BIn the next few decades people are going to travel very differently from the way they do today. Everyone is going to drive electrically powered cars. So in a few years people wont worry about running out of gas. Some of the large automobile companies are really moving ahead with this new technology. F & C Motors, a major auto company, for example, is holding a press conference next week. At the press conference the company will present its new, electronically operat