2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本（二十三）

2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本（二十三）

　　2019专八考试临近，寒假期间专八考生们也别松懈了对专八听力的训练，新东方在线专八频道整理了2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本，希望大家认真复习。

2019英语专八听力mini lecture全真模拟训练MP3附文本汇总

　　[00:10.12]TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS--GRADE EIGHT

　　[00:13.51]Section A MINI-LECTURE

　　[00:16.97]In this section you will hear a mini-lecture.

　　[00:20.29]You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY.

　　[00:23.73]While listening to the mini-lecture,

　　[00:25.82]please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE

　　[00:30.29]and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap.

　　[00:34.70]Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically

　　[00:39.23]and semantically acceptable.

　　[00:41.85]You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.

　　[00:45.67]You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.

　　[01:19.89]Now, listen to the mini-lecture.

　　[01:22.30]When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes

　　[01:25.05]to check your work.

　　[01:27.60]Is English Appropriate for a Global Language?

　　[01:31.71]Good morning, everyone.

　　[01:33.56]Today, we will continue our discussion about English as a global language.

　　[01:40.62]Some have argued that there are intrinsic features of the English language

　　[01:45.49]that set it apart, and make it an appropriate choice as a global language

　　[01:51.20]and it may be worthwhile investigating some of these claims.

　　[01:55.72]Today, I will give you a brief account of these features

　　[01:59.86]and approach the question whether English is appropriate for a global language.

　　[02:05.85]First of all, the richness and depth of English's vocabulary

　　[02:10.58]sets it apart from other languages.

　　[02:13.71]The 1989 revised "Oxford English Dictionary" lists 615,000 words in 20 volumes,

　　[02:23.44]officially the world's largest dictionary.

　　[02:27.01]If technical and scientific words were to be included,

　　[02:30.80]the total would rise to well over a million.

　　[02:34.85]By some estimates, the English lexicon is currently increasing

　　[02:39.61]by over 8,500 words a year,

　　[02:43.44]although other estimates put this as high as 15,000 to 20,000.

　　[02:50.07]It is estimated that about 200,000 English words are in common use,

　　[02:56.20]as compared to 184,000 in German, and mere 100,000 in French.

　　[03:03.87]The availability of large numbers of synonyms allows shades of distinction

　　[03:10.06]that are just not available to non-English speakers

　　[03:13.92]and, although other languages have books of synonyms,

　　[03:18.27]none has anything on quite the scale of "Roget's Thesaurus".

　　[03:23.61]Add to this the wealth of English idioms and phrases, and the available material

　　[03:29.49]with which to express meaning is truly prodigious,

　　[03:33.13]whether the intention is poetry, business or just everyday conversation.

　　[03:39.49]Secondly, English is a very flexible language.

　　[03:44.30]One example of this is in respect of word order

　　[03:48.11]and the ability to phrase sentences as active or passive —

　　[03:53.10]e.g. I kicked the ball, or the ball was kicked by me.

　　[03:58.11]Another is in the ability to use the same word as both a noun and a verb,

　　[04:04.34]such as drink, fight, silence, etc.

　　[04:09.37]New words can easily be created by the addition of prefixes or suffixes —

　　[04:15.60]e.g. brightness, fixation, unintelligible, etc,

　　[04:21.01]or by compounding or fusing existing words together —

　　[04:25.93]e.g. airport, seashore, footwear, etc.

　　[04:31.40]Just how far English's much-vaunted flexibility should go

　　[04:36.44]or should be allowed to go is a hotly-debated topic, though.

　　[04:41.27]For example, should common but incorrect usages be accepted

　　[04:46.34]as part of the natural evolution of the language,

　　[04:50.21]or reviled as inexcusable sloppiness which should be summarily nipped in the bud?

　　[04:57.51]Thirdly, its grammar is generally simpler than most languages.

　　[05:03.60]It dispenses completely with noun genders,

　　[05:06.96]and often dispenses with the article completely.

　　[05:10.98]The distinction between familiar and formal addresses was abandoned centuries ago.

　　[05:17.98]Case forms for nouns are almost non-existent,

　　[05:21.90]with the exception of some personal pronouns like I/me/mine, he/him/his, etc,

　　[05:29.86]as compared to Finnish, for example, which has fifteen forms for every noun,

　　[05:36.72]or Russian which has 12.

　　[05:39.71]In German, each verb has 16 different forms,

　　[05:44.39]while English only retains 5 at most (e.g. ride, rides, rode, riding, ridden)

　　[05:53.56]and often only requires 3 (e.g. hit, hits, hitting).

　　[06:00.52]Well, in the fourth aspect, some would also claim

　　[06:05.04]that it is also a relatively simple language in terms of spelling and pronunciation,

　　[06:11.52]although this claim is perhaps more contentious.

　　[06:15.91]While it does not require mastery of the subtle tonal variations of Cantonese,

　　[06:22.64]nor the bewildering consonant clusters of Welsh or Gaelic,

　　[06:27.06]it does have more than its fair share of apparently random spellings,

　　[06:31.98]silent letters and phonetic inconsistencies.

　　[06:36.52]There are somewhere between 44 and 52 unique sounds

　　[06:41.80]used in English pronunciation, depending on the authority consulted,

　　[06:46.92]almost equally divided between vowel sounds and consonants,

　　[06:51.61]as compared to 26 in Italian, for example, or just 13 in Hawaiian.

　　[06:59.34]This includes some sounds

　　[07:01.15]which are notoriously difficult for foreigners to pronounce,

　　[07:05.57]and some sounds which have a huge variety of possible spellings.

　　[07:11.04]In its defense, though, its consonants at least are fairly regular in pronunciation,

　　[07:17.67]and it is blessedly free of the accents and diacritical marks

　　[07:22.33]which festoon many other languages.

　　[07:25.44]Also, its borrowings of foreign words tend to preserve the original spelling

　　[07:31.90]rather than attempting to spell them phonetically.

　　[07:35.21]It has been estimated that 84% of English spellings

　　[07:39.78]conform to general patterns or rules, while only 3% are completely unpredictable.

　　[07:47.70]Arguably, some of the inconsistencies do help

　　[07:51.25]to distinguish between homophones like fissure and fisher;

　　[07:56.72]seas and seize; air and heir; aloud and allowed; weather and whether;

　　[08:04.75]chants and chance; flu, flue and flew; reign, rein and rain; etc.

　　[08:13.07]Finally, some argue that, from its adoption of thousands of words

　　[08:18.64]from other languages with which it came into contact,

　　[08:22.50]the cosmopolitan character of English gives it a feeling of familiarity and welcoming

　　[08:29.59]compared to other languages, such as French, for example,

　　[08:33.34]which has tried its best to keep out other languages.

　　[08:38.09]Despite a tendency towards jargon, English is generally reasonably concise

　　[08:43.83]compared to many languages, as can be seen in the length of translations.

　　[08:49.71]A notable exception is Hebrew translations,

　　[08:53.58]which are usually shorter than their English equivalents by up to a third.

　　[08:58.96]It is also less prone to misunderstandings

　　[09:01.87]due to cultural subtleties than, say, Japanese,

　　[09:06.10]which is almost impossible to simultaneously translate for that reason.

　　[09:12.09]The absence of coding for social differences

　　[09:15.33]may make English seem more democratic and remove some of the potential stress

　　[09:20.91]associated with language-generated social blunders.

　　[09:25.33]In many other languages, one has to distinguish between

　　[09:29.76]formal and informal verb forms

　　[09:32.89]and sometimes other more complex social distinctions.

　　[09:37.76]The extent and quality of English literature throughout history

　　[09:42.07]marks it as a language of culture and class.

　　[09:45.88]As a result, it carries with it a certain legitimacy, substance and gravitas

　　[09:52.69]that few other languages can match.

　　[09:56.05]OK. I have outlined five linguistic reasons to justify English as the global language.

　　[10:04.25]On balance, though, the intrinsic appeal of English as a world language

　　[10:09.62]is probably overblown and specious, and largely based on chauvinism.

　　[10:16.15]It is unlikely that linguistic factors are of great importance

　　[10:20.91]in a language's rise to the status of world language,

　　[10:25.28]and English's position today is almost entirely due

　　[10:29.55]to the aforementioned political and economic factors,

　　[10:33.78]which is the topic of next lecture.

　　[10:38.89]Now you have THREE minutes to check your work.

　　[13:43.00]This is the end of Section A MINI-LECTURE.

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