英语四级复合式听力练习8题.doc

Compound Dictation Exercises (1)Around the world young people are spending (36) _ sums of money to listen to rock music. Forbes Magazine (37) _ that at least fifty rock stars have (38) _ of between two million and six million dollars (39) _ year.“It doesnt make much sense,” says Johnny Mathis, one of the (40) _ music millionaires, who made a million dollars a year when he was most popular, in the 1950s. “Performers arent (41) _ this kind of money. In fact, nobody is.”But the rock stars admirers seem to (42) _ . Those who love rock music spend about two billion dollars a year for records. They pay 150 million to see rock stars in person.Some (43) _ think the customers are buying more than music. According to one theory, (44) _. There is no gulf between the audience and the performer. Every boy and girl in the audience thinks, “I could sing like that.” (45) _ _. Young people are glad to pay to worship a rock star because it is a way of worshipping themselves.Luck is a key word for explaining the success of many. In 1972 one of the luckiest was Don McLean, who wrote and sang “American Pie.” McLean earned more than a million dollars from recordings of “American Pie.” Then, too, (46) _.Compound Dictation Exercises (2)A growing number of scientists insist that answers to the worlds problems will not come from a (36) _ array of electronics and machines. Instead, as they see it, solutions must (37) _ from a better understanding of the humans that drive the system and from a fuller (38) _ of the limits and potential of the earths resources.What this means is an increased (39) _ on the life and earth sciences, on sociology, psychology, economics and even philosophy.More and more of the best minds in science, particularly young researchers, are being drawn into these (40) _ fields.Industry officials are concerned by a (41) _ rate of innovation in technology. Patent applications by Americans have been (42) _ in the U. S. since 1971. Yet many scientists seem to be saying: The need for better televisions, bigger power plants and faster airplanes markers of rapid-fire technological creativity is becoming (43) _ at best. (44) _.All this is not to say that technological creativity will not play a critical role in solving energy and food shortages, or that (45) _.Where the real challenge lies is (46) _.Compound Dictation Exercises (3)London is the center of the international art market and Sothebys, which has its (36) _ there, is the worlds biggest and oldest seller of art and antiques. If you were lucky enough to own a priceless “Old Master”, an Impressionist, or a (37) _ antique, and you wanted to sell it, you would probably put it up for auction at Sothebys.Sothebys auctions are (38) _ by some of the worlds richest people, who spend millions of pounds on art and antiques each year. (39) _, the company is very proud of its status and its 250-year-old (40) _. But, earlier this year, that reputation came under threat, when a journalist (41)_ Sothebys staff of bringing art treasures to London illegally. If these (42) _ are true, they will severely damage Londons (43) _ as a center of the worlds art trade.As if that were not bad enough, (44) _ from European Union regulations. If passed in Britain, the EU laws would make London a much less attractive place to purchase art treasures. Buyers and sellers would then look elsewhere for the best prices and could stop coming to London altogether.The problems began last year, (45) _. He made this allegations in a book and television program, which used hidden camera to film Sothebys staff. Watson says (46) _, and that the international art trade needs to be cleaned up.Compound Dictation Exercises (4)In the medical profession, technology is advancing so fast that questions of law and ethics cannot be discussed and answered fast enough. Most of these questions (36) _ ending or beginning a human life. For example, we have the medical ability to keep a person (37) _ “alive” for years, on machines, after he or she is “brain dead”. But is it ethical to do this? And what about the (38) _? In other words, is it (39) _not to keep a person alive if we have the technology to do so?And there are also many ethical questions involving the (40) _ of a human baby. External fertilization, for example, is becoming more and more common. By this method, couples who have difficulty (41) _ a child may still become parents. At a cost between $70,000 and $75,000 for the (42) _ of one such baby, should society have to pay for this especially when there are many (43) _ children who need parents? (44) _; is this fertilized egg a human being? If the parents get a divorce, to whom do these frozen eggs belong?And there is the question of surrogate mothers. There have been several cases of a woman (45) _. After delivering the baby, the surrogate mother sometimes changes her mind and wants to keep the baby. Whose baby is it? (46) _ _.Compound Dictation Exercises (5)As heart disease continues to be number-one killer in the United States, researchers have become increasingly interested in (36)_ the potential risk factors that (37) _ heart attacks. High-fat diets and “life in the fast lane” have long been known to contribute to the high (38) _ of heart failure. But according to new studies, the list of risk factors may be (39) _ longer and quite surprising.Heart failure, for example, appears to have seasonal and (40) _ patterns. A higher percentage of heart attacks occur in cold weather, and more people experience heart failure on Monday than on any other day of the week. In addition, people are more (41) _ to heart attacks in the first few hours after waking. Cardiologists first observed this morning (42) _ in the mid-1980s and have since discovered a number of possible causes. An early-morning rise in blood pressure, heart rate, and concentration of heart (43) _ hormones, plus a reduction of blood flow to the heart, (44) _.In other studies, both birthdays and bachelorhood have been implicated as risk factors.Statistics reveal that (45) _. And unmarried men are more at risk for heart attacks than their married counterparts. (46) _.Compound Dictation Exercises (6)Some people cannot learn in ordinary schools. Often some physical or (36) _ handicap prevents a child from learning. In education today new methods are being used in special schools to help the handicapped learn.(37) _ the many interesting schools for handicapped persons, there is one which is being (38) _ in the southern part of New Jersey, U. S. A. It is called the Bbancroft Community. Here handicapped young (39) _ will be trained to support themselves and to get along in the (40) _ world.The Bancroft Community is not (41) _ by walls of any kind. Its director (42) _ that it be open so that students may gradually develop (43) _ relations with the rest of the world. Bancroft Community students (44) _. Gradually, as they become able, they will buy their own furniture, paying for it out of their own earnings. They will pay rent and pay for their food, too. (45) _.As a step toward the goal of becoming independent, each handicapped person will decide what kind of work he wants to be trained to do. (46) _. They will be trained by townspeople for whom they will work without pay.Compound Dictation Exercises (7)The truth is that radio has not been eclipsed by television and cable and the Internet. In fact, radio is as (36) _ as it has ever been. According to the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association, 675 million radio receivers are (37) _ in use in the United States; on average, Americans over the age of eleven spend three hours and eighteen minutes of (38) _ listening to at least one of them.I dont mention this to make the (39) _ that radio is “better” than other electronic media, but I will say that it is different, very different. Radio is special to people. And in an (40) _ when we in the West have so many other media (41) _ to us, media that can “do” so much more than radio ever could, radio still (42) _ a kind of loyalty that (43) _ channels and Web sites cannot claim.This loyalty is largely due to radios very limitations. (44) _. That is, it has to speak to us, through either words or music. Couple this with the fact that radio is a curiously intimate medium: people tend to feel that they are connecting with their radios one-on-one. This is generally not the case with television, (45)_. But because radio is a “smaller” medium (many low-powered mom-and-pop operations, which were never part of television, still exist on radio), (46) _.Compound Dictation Exercises (8)One of the basic ingredients of American popular culture is consumption, and it is the advertising industry that makes mass consumption possible. Advertising sells us (36) _, beauty, youth, fashion, happiness, success, status and (37)_. When Clavin Klein, for example, advertises blue jeans, he is selling us sex (38) _, not jeans. Polo sells us fashion status and Miller Beer offers us macho (男子的)good times.Research has shown that the average adult can be (39) _ to 500 advertisements each day from radio, television, newspapers and magazines.In 1987, $109 billion was spent on advertising in the United States and these (40) _ are growing at a faster rate than the (41) _ national product. Although advertising costs are (42) _ on to customers, advertising can also save consumers money by (43) _ more customers to manufacturers, thus making possible mass production and mass consumption, which leads to lower prices. Color television sets, for example, cost $800 to $1,000 when they first went on the market in the later 1950s, but (44) _.Advertising is an important element of our culture because it reflects and attempts to change our life styles. (45) _.It is estimated that, by the time a person raised in the United States reaches the age of 21, he or she has been exposed to 1 million to 2 million advertisements. (46)_. It influences our choice to wear Reebok running shoes, brush our teeth with Crest, and feed out cats Fancy Feast.Keys Compound Dictation Exercises (1) Around the world young people are spending (36) unbelievable sums of money to listen to rock music. Forbes Magazine (37) claims that at least fifty rock stars have (38) incomes of between two million and six million dollars (39) per year.“It doesnt make much sense,” says Johnny Mathis, one of the (40) older music millionaires, who made a million dollars a year when he was most popular, in the 1950s. “Performers arent (41) worth this kind of money. In fact, nobody is.”But the rock stars admirers seem to (42) disagree. Those who love rock music spend about two billion dollars a year for records. They pay 150 million to see rock stars in person.Some (43) observers think the customers are buying more than music. According to one theory, (44) rock music has a special appeal because no real training is needed to produce it. There is no gulf between the audience and the performer. Every boy and girl in the audience thinks, “I could sing like that.” (45) So rock has become a new kind of religion, a new form of worship. Young people are glad to pay to worship a rock star because it is a way of worshipping themselves.Luck is a key word for explaining the success of many. In 1972 one of the luckiest was Don McLean, who wrote and sang “American Pie.” McLean earned more than a million dollars from recordings of “American Pie.” Then, too, (46) like most performers, McLean writes his own music, so he earns an additional two cents on every single record of the song.Keys Compound Dictation Exercises (2)A growing number of scientists insist that answers to the worlds problems will not come from a (36) flashier array of electronics and machines. Instead, as they see it, solutions must (37) evolve from a better understanding of the humans that drive the system and from a fuller (38) appreciation of the limits and potential of the earths resources.What this means is an increased (39) emphasis on the life and earth sciences, on sociology, psychology, economics and even philosophy.More and more of the best minds in science, particularly young researchers, are being drawn into these (40) developing fields.Industry officials are concerned by a (41) declining rate of innovation in technology. Patent applications by Americans have been (42) dropping in the U. S. since 1971. Yet many scientists seem to be saying: The need for better televisions, bigger power plants and faster airplanes markers of rapid-fire technological creativity is becoming (43) marginal at best. (44) The market in the industrialized nations for this kind of technology is reaching a saturation point.All this is not to say that technological creativity will not play a critical role in solving energy and food shortages, or that (45) answers to environmental difficulties will not come from further advances in the same technologies that may have helped cause the problems.Where the real challenge lies is (46) in finding ways to produce goods to meet the worlds needs, using less of the raw materials that are becoming scarce.Compound Dictation Exercises (3)London is the center of the international art market and Sothebys, which has its (36) headquarters there, is the worlds biggest and oldest seller of art and antiques. If you were lucky enough to own a priceless “Old Master”, an Impressionist, or a (37) valuable antique, and you wanted to sell it, you would probably put it up for auction at Sothebys.Sothebys auctions are (38) attended by some of the worlds richest people, who spend millions of pounds on art and antiques each year. (39) Consequently, the company is very proud of its status and its 250-year-old (40) reputation. But, earlier this year, that reputation came under threat, when a journalist (41) accused Sothebys staff of bringing art treasures to London illegally. If these (42) allegations are true, they will severely damage Londons (43) credibility as a center of the worlds art trade.As if that were not bad enough, (44) Londons art dealers and auction houses are facing an even bigger threat from European Union regulations. If passed in Britain, the EU laws would make London a much less attractive place to purchase art treasures. Buyers and sellers would then look elsewhere for the best prices and could stop coming to London altogether.The problems began last year, (45) when a journalist from Britains Times newspaper, Peter Watson, claimed that senior staff at Sothebys were at the center of a widespread smuggling operation. He made this allegations in a book and television program, which used hidden camera to film Sothebys staff. Watson says (46) the program, which was shown last February, proves that art treasures were being illegally exported to London on a regular basis an