【精品】高级英语视听说教程book2听力文本

1、-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -Book 2 Chapter 1 The PopulationToday were going to talkaboutpopulationinthe UnitedStates.According to the most recent government census, the population is281,421,906 people. Now this represents an increase of almost 33millionpeoplesincethe1990 census.A populationof over281 millionmake

2、s the United States the third most populous country in the wholeworld. As you probably know, the Peoples Republic of China is themost populouscountryinthe world.But do you know which isthesecondmost populous?Well,ifyou thoughtIndia,you were right.The fourth,fifth, and sixth most populous countries a

3、re Indonesia, Brazil, andPakistan.Now letsgetback to theUnited States.Let slookatthetotalU. S. population figure of 281 million in threedifferent ways.The first way is by race and origin; the second is by geographicaldistribution,orby where people live;and the thirdway isby theageand sex of the popu

4、lation.First of all, lets take a look at the population by race andorigin. The latest U. S. census reports that 75.1 percent of thepopulationiswhite,whereas12.3percentis black.Threepercentareof Asian origin, and 1 percent is Native American. 2.4 percent of thepopulation is a mixture of two or more r

5、aces, and 5.5 percent reportthemselves as “of some other race”. Let s make sure your figuresare right: OK, white, 75.1 percent; black, 12.3 percent; Asian, 3percent; Native American, 1 percent; a mixture of two or more races,2.4 percent; and of some other race, 5.5 percent. Hispanics, whoseorigins l

6、ie in Spanish-speaking countries, comprise whites, blacks,and NativeAmericans,so theyare alreadyincludedin the above figures.It is important to note that Hispanics make up 12.5 percent of thepresent U.S. population, however. Finally, the census tells us that31 million people in the United States wer

7、e born in another country.Of the31 millionforeignborn, thelargestpart,27.6 percent arefromMexico. The next largest group, from the Philippines, number 4.3 percent.Another way of looking at the population is by geographical distribution. Do you have any idea which states are the five mostpopulous in

8、the United States? Well, I ll help you out there. The five most populous states, with population figures, are California, with-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -almost 34million; New York, with21 million;Texas, with 19 million;and Florida, with 16 million; and Illinois with 12.5 million people.Did you getallthosefigure

9、sdown? Well,ifnot,I llgive you a chancelatertocheckyourfigures.Well,t hen,lets move on. Alltold,overhalf, or some 58 percent of the population, lives in the South and inthe West ofthe United States.This figure,58 percent,is surprisingto many people. It is surprising because the East is more denselyp

10、opulated. Nevertheless, there are more people all together in theSouth and West. To understandthisseeming contradiction,one need onlyconsidertherelativelylargersizeof many southernand westernstates,so although thereare more people, they are distributedover alargerarea. To finishup thissectionon geog

11、raphicaldistribution,considerthatmore thanthree-quartersofthepeoplelivein metropolitanareaslikeLos Angeles,New York,Chicago,and Houston.Thatmeans thatonly20 percent,or2 outof10 people,livein ruralareas.An interestingside note is that some 3,800,000 U.S. citizens live abroad, that is,in foreign count

12、ries.Before wefinish today, I wantto discuss thedistributionoftheU.S. population in terms of age and sex. Just for interest, would yousay there are more men or more women in the United States? Well,accordingtothe 2000 census,therearemore women. Infact,therearemore than five million more women than m

13、en in the U.S. population. Ifwe consider that more males than females are born each year, how canthis difference be explained? Well, for a variety of complicatedreasons that we can t go into here, there is a progressively higherdeath rate for males as they get older. This is seen in 2003 lifeexpecta

14、ncyfigures:thelifeexpectancyforwomenis80.4 yearswhereasformen itisonly74.5years.I dontknow how theselifeexpectancyfigures compare to those in your countries, but statistically womengenerally live longer than men worldwide. Now, to finish up, letslook at theaverage age of the whole population. Overal

15、l, theaverageage of the population is increasing: from 33.1 years in 1990 to 35.3years in 2000. The average age has been slowly, but steadily,increasing over the past several decades. This trend toward a higheraverage age can be explained by a decreasing birth rate and anincreasing life expectancy f

16、or the population as a whole. Well, Id-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -like to investigate these two subjects further, but I see our time isup, so we ll have to call it quits for today. You may want to pursuethe topic of the aging U.S. population further, so there are somesuggestions at the end of the lesson to help

17、you do so. Thank you.Chapter Two Immigration: Past and PresentThe act of immigrating, or coming to a new country to live, iscertainlynothingnew. Throughouthistory,people have immigrated,ormoved to new countries, for many different reasons. Sometimes thesereasons were economic or political. Other peo

18、ple moved because ofnatural disasters such as droughts or famines. And some people movedto escape religiousor politicalpersecution.No matterwhat the reason,most people do not want to leavetheirnativeland and do so onlyundergreatpressureof some sort,but a few people seem quiteadventuresomeand restles

19、s by nature and like to move a lot. It seems both kinds ofpeople came to America to live. The subject of immigration is quitefascinatingto most Americans, astheyview themselvesas a nation ofimmigrants. However, the early Britons who came to what is today theUnited States considered themselves“ settl

20、ers” or“ colonists,”rather than immigrants. These people did not exactly think they were moving to a new country but were merely settling new land for the“mother country. ” There were also large numbers of Dutch, French,German, and Scotch-Irishsettlers,as wellas largenumbers ofblacksbroughtfrom Afri

21、caas slaves.At thetime ofindependencefromBritainin 1776, about 40 percent of people living in what is now the UnitedStates were non-British. The majority of people, however, spokeEnglish,and the traditionsthat formedthe basis oflifewere mainlyBritishtraditions.Thisperiodwe have justbeen discussingis

22、usuallyreferred to as the Colonial Period. Today,were a little moreinterestedinactual immigrationafterthisperiod.Let s firstlookat what is often called theGreat Immigration,which began about1830and ended in1930.Then let sconsiderthe reasonsforthisso-calledGreat Immigrationand thereasonsitended. Fina

23、lly,letstalkaboutthe immigration situation in the United States today,As I said, we ll begin our discussion today with the period ofhistorycalledtheGreatImmigration,whichlastedfromapproximately1830 to 1930. It will be easier if we look at the Great Immigration-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -in terms of three major s

24、tages, or time periods. The first stage wasfrom approximate1y 1830 to1860. Now,before thistime, the number ofimmigrants coming to the United States was comparatively small, onlyabout10,000a year.However, theratebegan toclimbin the1830s whenabout 600,000 immigrants arrived. The rate continued to clim

25、b duringthe 1840s with a tota1 of 1,700,000 people arriving in that decade.The ratecontinuedtoclimb,and duringthe 1850s 2,600,000immigrantsarrived. During this first stage of the Great Immigration, that is,between the years1830 and1860, the majorityof immigrantscame fromGermany, Great Britain, and I

26、reland. Now lets consider the secondstageofthe GreatImmigration.The second stagewas froml860to 1890,duringwhichtimeanother10,000,000 peoplearrived.Between l860 and1890 themajorityofimmigrantscontinued tobe fromGermany, Ireland,and Great Britain. However, during the second stage, a smaller butsignifi

27、cant number of immigrants came from the Scandinavian nationsof Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The thirdstage of the Great Immigration,which lasted from 1890 to 1930, was the era of heaviest immigration.Between theyearsl890 and l930,almost22 millionimmigrantsarrivedin theUnitedStates.Most of these new a

28、rrivalscame fromtheSouthernEuropean countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain and theEastern European countries of Poland and Russia.Now that we know something about the numbers and origins ofimmigrantswho came to the StatesduringtheGreatImmigration,let sconsiderthereasonswhy most ofthesepeopl

29、eimmigratedtothe UnitedStates. Why did such large numbers ofEuropeans leave their homes forlife in an unknown country? It would be impossible to discuss all thecomplex politicaland economicreasons in anydepth today, butwe cantouch on a few interesting facts that might help to clarify thesituationfor

30、you.Firstofall,one ofthe most importantreasons wasthat thepopulationof Europe doubledbetween theyears 1750 and 1850.At the same time that the population was growing so rapidly, theIndustrial Revolution in Europe was causing widespreadunemployment.The combination of increased population and the deman

31、d for land byindustryalsomeant thatfarmlandwas becomingincreasinglyscarce inEurope. The scarcity of farmland in Europe meant that the abundanceof available land in the growing country of the United States was a-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -great attraction. During these years, the United States was anexpanding cou

32、ntryand itseemed thattherewas no end to land.In fact,in 1862, the government offered public land free to citizens and toimmigrants who were planning to become citizens. In addition toavailablefarmland,therewere alsoplentifuljobsduringthese yearsof great economic growth. Other attractions were freedo

33、m fromreligiousor politicalpersecution.Someothergroups also came to theUnitedStatesas the directresultsof naturaldisastersthatleftthemin desperate situations. For example, the frequent failure of thepotatocrop in Irelandbetween the years 1845 and 1849 led to widespreadstarvation in that country, and

34、 people were driven to immigrate.Another factor that affected the number of immigrants coming to theUnitedStateswas improved ocean transportbeginninginthe 1840s.Atthat time, ships large enough to carry large numbers of people beganto make regular trips across the ocean. Now lets summarize thereasons

35、 for the high rate of immigration to the United States duringthe years we discussed:first,the doublingof the populationin Europebetween 1750 and 1850; second, the unemployment caused by theIndustrial Revolution; and third, the land scarcity in Europe,followedby religiousand politicalpersecutionand n

36、aturaldisaster.These reasons combined with improved transportation probably accountfor the largest number of immigrants.I would now liketo talkbrieflyabout the periodof timefollowingthe Great Immigration and the reasons for the decline in the rate ofimmigration. Although immigration continues today,

37、 immigrationnumbers have never again reached the levels that we discussedpreviously. There are several reasons for this decline. This declinewas in part due to various laws whose aim was to limit the number ofimmigrants coming from different parts of the world to the UnitedStates.The firstsuch law t

38、hatlimitedthe number of immigrantscomingfrom a certainpartof the world was the Chinese ExclusionAct of 1882.This law was followed by many other laws that also tried to limit thenumbers of people immigrating from various countries or parts of theworld. In addition to such laws, certainly economic and

39、 geopoliticalevents as importantas the Great Depressionstartingin 1929 and WorldWar II also contributed to the decline in immigration.-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -Let sconclude ourtalkby discussingthe currentsituationwithrespecttoimmigration,whichis quitedifferentfromthatinthepast.To understandsome of thechanges,

40、it simportanttonotethatin 1965strict quotas based on nationality were eliminated. Let s see howdifferent things are today from the past. As I noted, the greatestnumber of immigrants to the United States have historically beenEuropean. According to U.S. Census figures, in 1860, the percentageof immig

41、rants that were European was 92 percent. But by 1960, thepercentageofEuropeanimmigrantshad dropped to74.5 percent,and bythe year 2002, it had dropped to 14 percent! In 2002, 52.2 percent ofimmigrants came from Latin America, that is, from the Caribbean,Central America, and South America. Mexico is o

42、rdinarily consideredpart of North America, but theU.S. Census BureauconsidersMexico asa Central American country in terms of immigration statistics, andestimates that more than one-third of the total of all immigrants tothe UnitedStatesin 2002 came fromMexicooranotherCentralAmericancountry.The nextl

43、argestpercentage,25.5percent,of immigrantscamefrom Asia, mainly from the Philippines, China, and India.Although immigration dropped sharply when the United Statesentered World War I and remained low throughout the Depression andWorld War II years, at the end of the l940s, immigration began toincreas

44、e againand has,in general,risensteadilysincethen.Itmightsurpriseyou toknow thatthe actualnumber ofimmigrantscoming yearlyto the States in recent years is about the same as the numbers comingyearlybetween 1900 and 1910.Keep inmind,though,thatthe populationof the United States ismuch largernow than at

45、theturnofthecentury,so thatwhiletheyearlynumbers may be similar,thepercentageofthepopulationthatisforeign-bornisconsiderablysmallertodaythanitwas a century ago.Itmightbe interestingto speculateon immigrationinthefuture.Will the trend continue for non-Europeans to immigrate to the UnitedStates?The an

46、swer is probablyyes fortheforeseeablefuture.Do thesenon-European people come to the UnitedStatesforthesame reasons thatEuropeanscame? Well,land isno longerplentifuland cheap.Industryno longer requires large numbers of unskilled workers. In fact, thegovernment usually tries to restrict immigration to

47、 those people who-WORD格式 - 可编辑 -alreadyhave theskillsto be successfulin U.S. society.Still,peoplecome forpolitica1and economic reasonsand probably willcontinuetodo so.Chapter 3Americans at WorkWhether you loveitorhate it,work isa major partof most people slives everywhere in the world. Americans are

48、 no exception. Americansmightcomplainabout“ blue Monday,” when they have to go back toworkafter the weekend, but most people put a lot of importance on theirjob,notonlyintermsofmoney butalsoin terms ofidentity.In fact,when Americans are introducedto a new person, they almost always askeach other, “W

49、hat do you do? ” They are asking, what is your job orprofession. Today, however, we won t look at work in terms of whatwork means socially or psychologically. Rather, we re going to takea look at work intheUnited Statestodayfromtwo perspectives.First,we ll take a historical look at work in America.

50、We ll do that bylooking at how things changed for the American worker from thebeginning to the end of the twentieth century, that is, from the year1900 to the year 1999. Then well look at how U.S. workers are doingtoday.As we look at the changes over the last century, we re going to usea lot of statistics to describe these changes. You will need to writedown a lot of numb