2009年英语专八真题听力原文

　　Part 1, Listening Comprehension

　　SECTION A MINI-LECTURE听力原文

　　Good morning, everyone. Today we’ll discuss some preliminaries concerning how to writeexperimental reports.

　　When you first signed up for a course in university, like a psychology course, chances arethat you didn’t really expect what was coming in your study; particularly, the course emphasison methodology and statistics. For a few of you, this may have come as a pleasant surprise,provided that you have already known something about the course. For most, however, I daresay, it will undoubtedly have been a shock to the system. No doubt in other parts of yourcourse study, you will read books and journals, examining, critically, models and theories,assumptions and hypotheses put forward by scholars and specialists. My task today is to helpyou understand some of the important features of experimental reports, because you willhave to write up some kind of report of this nature if your course gives prominence to practicalwork, especially experimenting.

　　Then what is an experimental report? All the report is, really, is the place in which you tellthe story of your study, like what you did, why you did it, what you found out in the processand so on. In doing this, you’re more like an ancient storyteller, whose stories were structuredin accordance with widely recognized and long established conventions than a modern novelistwho is free to dictate form as well as content. Moreover, like the storyteller of old, althoughyou will invariably be telling your story to someone who knows quite a bit about it already, youare expected to present it as if it had never been heard before. This means that you will need tospell out the details and assume little knowledge of the area on the part of your audience.Then, perhaps, you may ask, what is the nature of the conventions governing the report? Aclue, I think, can be found in its basic structure. A highly structured and disciplined report iswritten in sections, and these sections, by and large, follow an established sequence. Whatthis means is that, in the telling, your story is to be cut up into chunks. Different parts of thestory are to appear in different places in the report. What you did and why you did it appear inthe section called introduction. How you did it is in the method section. And what you found outis in the result section. And, finally, what you think it shows appears in the discussion part. Asyou can see, the report, therefore, is a formal document composed of a series of sections inwhich specific information is expected to appear. We will discuss the precise conventionsgoverning each section as we go along.

　　For example, what are the subsections in the method? But today, I will introduce to youcertain general rules straight away. The first of these concerns the person to whom you shouldaddress your report, whom I should call your reader. A very common mistake, especially earlyon, is to assume that your reader is the person who will be marking the report. In reality,however, the marker will be assessing your report on behalf of someone else: an idealized,hypothetical person who is intelligent but unknowledgeable about your study and the area inwhich it took place. Your marker will, therefore, be checking to see that you have written yourreport with this sort of reader in mind. So you need to make sure that you have, one,introduced the reader to the area relevant to your study; two, provided the reader with thebackground necessary to understand what you did and why you did it; three, spelt out anddeveloped your arguments clearly; four, defined technical terms; and five, provided precisedetails of the ways in which you went about collecting and analyzing the data that you obtained.In short, you should write for someone who knows little about your area of study, taking littlefor granted about your reader’s knowledge of your area of study. So when in doubt, spell itout. This is my advice to you.

　　If you find this difficult to do, then a useful approach is to write the report as if it would beread by someone you know who is intelligent but unknowledgeable about your subject. Afriend of yours, say. Write it as if this person were going to have to read and understand it.Indeed, it is a good idea, if you can, to get just such a person to read your report beforehanding it in. The demands and expectations placed upon you will of course, vary with yourexperience of report writing. Early on in your study, as an author of experimental reports, lesswill be expected of you than later. At this early stage, you will be expected mainly to show thatyou understand what you did in your report and its implications, together with evidence thatyou have, at least a basic grasp of the demands of the report’s format. Later on, however, youwill be expected to pay more attention to this research significance of what you did. The "whyyou did it" part will become more important because in being responsible for the choice of topicand design, you will be expected to be able to justify this choice. So you must be able to tell uswhy it is, that given the options available to you, you decided to conduct your particularstudy. You will need, therefore, to develop the habit of thinking about how the ideas that you’reentertaining for your experiment or study will look in the report, paying particular attentionto how they will fit into the part of introduction. Specific dangers that you must watch out forhere are, first, a lack of adequate material to put in the section; and second, the undertakingof a project that lacks any research justification, because it is based on assumptions that arecontradicted by existing findings in the area. Thinking clearly in advance will help you to avoidmaking these mistakes.

　　OK. Today we’ve had a brief look at the format of an experimental report, what eachsection is about and some of the basic issues like reader awareness, so on and so forth. Nexttime, we will discuss how to write up the introduction section.

　　SECTION B INTERVIEW

　　Interviewer: Good morning, Mrs. Collins, welcome to our studio. As a distinguished memberof Toastmasters International, could you tell us a bit about the background of the organization?

　　Mrs. Collins: I'm delighted to have that opportunity. Toastmasters is an internationalorganization, designed to develop effective speaking and listening skills. It was founded in1924 by Ralph Smedley and it's headquartered in California.

　　I: What is the purpose of Toastmasters?

　　M: Toastmasters has a two-fold purpose: the personal growth of the individual and the strongeffective communication skills.

　　I: Then, who is Toastmasters open to? And what kind of members do you have now?

　　M: Well, many people think Toastmasters is open only to those individuals who wish to beprofessional speakers. That is definitely not true. Toastmasters is open to the public at large.Any individual who wishes to improve his public speaking is welcomed. And also, those who justwant to increase their overall self-confidence are encouraged to attend.

　　I: Another question is how can Toastmasters help you in job situations?

　　M: By becoming involved in Toastmasters, you will learn different methods of communicatingwhat you really want to say. And equally important, you will learn what your audience expectsfrom you so you can deliver that message to them in a logical fashion. Some people arecomfortable around friends, but when they appear before a group they don't know, they gettense. Our organization helps our members to get calm and organize thoughts, and deliverthem in an effective way.

　　I: Is Toastmasters concerned with total communication, not just for speaking but for othercommunication skills?

　　M: Most often, people are assumed that when you are listening, you are also paying attention.This is not always true. Many times people are waiting for their turn to speak and not reallylistening at all. Toastmasters can develop a person overall in terms of organizing theirthoughts, getting input from others, and then receiving effective feedback.

　　I: Then, how does Toastmasters train people?

　　M: Toastmasters has an approach of learning by doing. The Toastmasters InternationalOrganization provides a menu we refer to as the basic menu, because it gives a guideline for thedevelopment of speeches. These speeches cater to different purposes, for example, oneobjective might be to develop vocal variety; another might be to organize your thoughts, ordevelop your use of humor in speeches.

　　I: Can you also learn other skills, such as parliamentary procedures or being master ofceremonies?

　　M:Yes, different assignments within Toastmasters involve not only in preparation of speechesand then presenting these before an audience, but also the opportunity of serving astoastmaster of the meeting. This assignment helps members practice being an MC for ameeting, that is a master of ceremonies. Other assignments include serving as an evaluator foranother speaker or serving as a grammarian who will monitor use of filler words or phrases,such as and, er, or you know. Both of these assignments will allow the members to increase orenhance their listening skills.

　　I: I know that there is an 8-week program for young people and also an 8-week speech craftcourse offered for adults. What do these involve?

　　M: They are basically an introduction to Toastmasters in general, a sample providing theopportunity for an individual to determine whether or not they wish to get involved inToastmasters by joining in a club.

　　I: What can an individual gain from being in Toastmasters?

　　M: I would say self-confidence and some tricks of the trade in the development of speeches.But that is only the beginning. As an individual continues to give speeches and then improve, heprogresses from the point of being fearful to stand before a group of peers to the point wherehe can address any group of people with a degree of self-confidence. Leadership skills arealso developed by learning to organize and conduct meetings.

　　I: Ok, thank you very much, Mrs. Collins, for talking to us in the studio.

　　SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

　　1. Last week, a United Nations report says humans are very likely the cause of most of temperature increases in the last 50 years. It says global warming is undeniable and the world can expect to feel the effects for centuries to come. The intergovernmental panel on climate change released the report in Pairs at a conference of climate experts. Representatives of more than 100 governments agreed on the findings. This is the most detailed scientific report to date on global warming and the influence of fossil fuel burning and other human activities. The scientists say there is greater than a 90% chance that greenhouse gases are the main cause of rising temperatures and sea levels. The report also links global warming to other changes including increased dryness in some areas and violent storm patterns. The UN panel released its last climate change report 6 years ago. The scientists say the new report is based on studies done since then and stronger agreement on global warming. The new report makes no policy proposals but the aim is to press governments and industries to cut the release of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for trapping heat.

　　2. At least 80 people have died in a derailment of a luxury train in eastern India, which some government officials say could have been caused by terrorist sabotage, and investigation has been ordered to identify the cause of the accident. There were nearly 600 passengers and staff on board the train. It was going from the eastern city Calcutta to New Delhi when it was wrecked late Monday night. The train derailed as it was crossing a bridge over the Dhavi River, near Raffee Gange Station in the eastern Bihar State. One of the coaches sank in the river, at least two others hang precariously from the bridge, and several others left the tracks. The accident occurred in a remote area with poor telecommunication links. Many victims remained trapped in the wreckage through the night before they were rescued. A spokesman for Eastern Railway says rescue operations were slowed down by bad weather, but are now fully under way.

　　3. One in ten young people claimed to have had no career advice during their education. "Around two thirds have not decided on a career by the time they leave school," says the Hugel Paul for Recruitment Consultancy, Harvey Nash. "Most rely on friends but many are turning to the Internet for advice instead; and career service needs to embrace this", say the experts. The knock-on effect of confusing and unhelpful career advice is that young people are not making the best use of their skills and the industry is losing out on the most talented candidates. Harvey Nash Chief, Albert El said, "without direction and advice, not only are young people missing out on the potential career opportunities themselves, but businesses too could be missing out on the next generation of skills they need to compete".

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