2015英语专业八级考试冲刺训练：专八听力MP3+原文（3）

　　英语专业八级考试听力是比较难的一项，相较专四听力语速及词汇量都有所提高，新东方在线特整理了2015英语专业八级考试冲刺训练：专八听力MP3+原文系列文章供即将迎来专八考试的考生们练习。

　　Test One

　　SECTION A MINI-LECTURE

　　In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You willhear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, takenotes on the important points. Your notes will not bemarked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture isover, you'll be given two minutes to check yournotes, and another 10 minutes to complete thegap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture.

　　Good afternoon, everyone. Today we'll be continuing our discussion of the Canadiangovernment, with the focus on its structure. As a former British colony, Canada's system ofgovernment was based on the British system of parliamentary democracy. This is oftenreferred to as "Westminster-style" democracy, named after the British House of Commons.Like other former colonies like New Zealand and Australia, many Canadian laws, political practicesand customs were brought from the "Old Country" and adapted to the different conditions ofthe new country. At first glance, the similarity between British and Canadian politicalconditions are great; but when we look more closely, we can see important differences whichhave arisen from the experience of governing a huge but sparsely populated country. We'lldivide our discussion into three parts: the official head, the Canadian system of governmentand the Canadian parliament. Now，first, the official head of Canada. Like Britain, Canada is amonarchy. The official head of state is the Queen, who is also the Queen of Great Britain,Australia, New Zealand and other former British colonies. The Queen is Canada's queen in herown right; if, for example, Britain decided to become a republic, the Queen would still be theQueen of Canada. Because she does not live in Canada, she is represented by an official called aGovernor General. When heads of state visit Canada, they will first be greeted by the GovernorGeneral, before being welcomed by the Prime Minister. Both the Queen and the GovernorGeneral occupy roles which are largely ceremonial. Most Canadians would be unable to tell youthe name of the current Governor General, or identify him or her in a picture. And while theQueen and her family are regarded with affection by most Canadians, the monarchy as suchbears little relevance to the governing of modern Canada. We see that Canada and Britainhave the same official head of state. Then, what is special about the Canadian government ascompared against the British government? This brings us to the second part of our discussion,the system of government. The biggest difference between Canada and the UK is that Canadais a federation— that is , it has ten provinces and two territories, each with their owngovernment, which have joined to form one country. The government of the whole country isreferred to as the "federal government", to distinguish it from the lower level governments ofeach province. These provinces all have a great deal of power in relation to the federalgovernment. Canada was the first political community to combine federalism with a Britishsystem of government, a model which was later applied to other areas in the BritishCommonwealth, notably in Australia, Malaysia, Nigeria and India— large countries with powerfulregional and ethnic divisions. Canada's founding fathers of Confederation, who, between 1864and 1867, had to decide what sort of government the new country was to have, chose theBritish model of government over the model being enacted in the United States. The Americansystem was characterized by "checks and balances" on political power. In Contrast, the foundingfathers preferred the British system because they wanted a strong central government. TheBritish model offered "strength, order and authority", which they thought was preferable tothe weakness of the American system. In the American system, the President and theCongress frequently battle over policy. Finally, we'll talk about the Canadian parliament. TheCanadian parliament is divided into a lower house, the House of Commons, and an upper housecalled the Senate. Canadians vote in elections for people they want to represent them in theHouse of Commons. These Members of Parliament (MPs) each fill a "seat" in the House ofCommons, which represents a particular electoral district. Electoral districts are based onpopulation rather than geographic size, so there are more MPs from urban areas and very fewfrom the sparsely settled, wilder regions of Canada. The House of Commons contains aboutthree hundred seats. Because most of the Canadian population is concentrated in Ontarioand Quebec, these two provinces have the most seats, and therefore the most power in theHouse of Commons. This has caused a lot of trouble because the provinces with smallerpopulations feel they are not adequately listened to by "Central Canada". For example, in thenineteen ninety-seven election, because of its large population, Ontario elected one hundredand three MPs, whereas the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba each only hadfourteen MPs. As is the case in Britain, MPs generally all belong to political parties. The partythat wins the most seats forms the government; the party leader becomes Prime Minister, andso, like in the UK, the most important person in Canadian government is the Prime Minister. TheCabinet, chosen by the Prime Minister, consists of senior MPs from the governing party. Theyare usually given particular areas of responsibility, like external affairs, multiculturalism, orhealth and education. The Senate, the upper house, is not elected. It is appointed by theGovernor General, who acts on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Senate is notlike the US Senate, but analogous to the House of Lords in the UK, although the Lords canearn their seat by right of birth as well as by being appointed. To balance the fact that theCommons is dominated by MPs from populous Ontario and Quebec, senators are, by tradition,picked to represent the regions more equally. There have been calls in recent years to reformthe Senate and make it an elected body. This just about concludes our time for today. You areexpected to read the recommended material after class. Next week's lecture will be focused onCanadian Prime Ministers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

　　Section B CONVERSATION

　　In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions thatfollow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on aconversation. At the end of the conversation, youwill be given 10 seconds to answer each of thefollowing 5 questions. Now listen to theconversation.

　　Jane (W): Good morning, professor Green.professor

　　Green(M): Good morning.

　　W: What are we going to talk about today?

　　M: Today we will be going over the ten-week long course syllabus and setting up some generalguidelines for this quarter, as well as answering any questions you may have about the readingand writing assignments… OK, now, in week one, we will cover chapters one to ten in thetextbook and relate them to the novel by Julia Stephen "Walking the Dragons". The primaryfocus will be on the living conditions of peasants during the 1930s.

　　W: Does that mean we have to read all ten chapters and the novel by Monday?

　　M: Good question, Jane. I'm glad you asked. The reading that you should have completed byMonday is Chapters one to six and the first half of Stephen's novel. By Wednesday you shouldread through to chapter ten and finish the novel, and on Friday we will have our first writingassignment due. It is a brief response to Stephen' s novel.

　　W: How about the length requirement?

　　M: Seeing that this is a rather informal response paper, the length requirement is only one totwo pages.

　　W: Would you like us to use quotes from the novel?

　　M: For this paper, since it is so short I would prefer if you only used your own words… Now, ifthere are no further questions I will continue. In week two we will cover Chapters eleven totwenty as well as "The Blind Calligrapher" by Jonathan Wu. In week three we will cover chapterstwenty-one to thirty and your second writing assignment will be due. This paper should be fiveto seven pages in length, and it should focus on the change in the lifestyle of peasants ascompared to the change in lifestyle of the urban city-dwellers from 1930 to 1940. You shoulduse quotations from at least two authors who give contrasting opinions about this time period.Are there any questions?

　　W: Shall we need a bibliography for this paper?

　　M: Absolutely. If you quote an author, there must be a Bibliography to make clear exactlywhere you found that author's words.

　　W: what style should we follow when documenting these sources?

　　M: The MLA style is preferred. That is, in the body of your essay, after a citation of a source,you need to enclose in parentheses the author's last name and the page number on whichthe information is found.

　　W: I see.

　　M: If there are no more questions I'll continue. OK. In week four there is no novel, onlychapters thirty-one through forty. On Friday of week five we will have an in-class midtermcovering chapters one to fifty and the two novels.

　　W: That seems like quite a lot of material. Will we have any review sessions?

　　M: Yes, absolutely. Your teaching assistant will be leading discussion groups twice a weekoutside of class to help you grasp the information more clearly. I strongly urge you to attendas many of these sections as possible… Moving on, in week six, we will have no classes Mondayand Wednesday, so we will watch a film about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In week seven,we will cover chapters fifty-one through sixty and your third writing assignment will be due. Inweek eight, we will cover chapters sixty-one through seventy, as well as a selection of shortessays. Week nine will be review and your final papers will be due in week ten along with thefinal examination.

　　W: Is it all right if we turn in handwritten papers?

　　M: If you are unable to use a computer, then it is OK as long as you use blue or black ink andturn in a legible paper, however I would prefer it if all papers were printed out from a computer.

　　W: Would it be all right if we worked with a partner for any of the papers?

　　M: I want all your papers to be original works so I'll have to say no to that request.

　　W: We will do.

　　M: Are there any further questions? No? If there are no further questions then you can gonow.

　　W: Thank you, Professor Green. Bye.

　　M: Bye.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

　　Section C NEWS BROADCAST

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions thatfollow. Questions 6 to 7 are based on the followingnews. At the end of the news item, you will be given10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　Tony Blair's message to the European Union is that itmust change the way it does business if it is tosurvive. He told the European Parliament that thepeople of Europe are ahead of the continent'spoliticians in recognizing the need for change. Mr. Blair's message comes as the EU wondershow it can get out of a crisis caused by French and Dutch voters' rejection of its constitutionand its failure at a summit last week to agree on a long-term budget. But for Mr. Blair, theissue is bigger than the constitution or the budget. It is that Europe must adapt itself tochanging times in order to compete economically, not just with the United States but also withsuch rising giants as China and India. Mr. Blair has been accused by the French and theGermans, among others, of wanting to destroy Europe's welfare state and impose unfetteredcapitalism across the continent. His critics also say Britain wants the EU to be a big commonmarket and is not interested in closer political integration. Mr. Blair said those criticisms areunfair and his aim is not to kill Europe's highly regulated social model but to change it.Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. The Nobel prize in literature for 2005is awarded to the English writer, Harold Pinter. He is regarded as Britain's greatest livingplaywright. Mr. Pinter has written more than 30 works, and he is best known for his sparsestyle, dubbed "Pinteresque," which takes full advantage of the pauses and silences that buildthe dramatic effect. He is widely acknowledged to have influenced an entire generation ofBritish writers. Mr. Pinter also has never shied away from fierce political debate. This humanrights campaigner and anti-war activist has in recent years been an outspoken critic of the warin Iraq. Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, youwill be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the news.Astronomers have detected the most distant explosion ever witnessed in the heavens. It wasa flash so powerful that they could observe the faint light as it came in from almost the edgeof the known universe. The U.S. space agency's Swift satellite was routinely scouring thecosmos for exploding stars on September 4 when it spotted what scientists have since realizedis the most distant such burst on record. In astronomy, distance means time. The furthersomething is away, the longer its light has been traveling to get to us. So the star blast is alsothe most ancient ever observed. The exploding star the Swift satellite observed was typical ofthe death of a massive star. These blasts are the most powerful in the universe, sending out100 million times the energy the Sun does in one year. They are not rare, but occur daily,emitting their light in high energy gamma rays. If you could see gamma rays, the sky wouldtwinkle with such bursts.

专四专八精选好课 暖心助学

新东方好老师 手把手带学