Conversation one.
M:You are a professor of physics at the university of Oxford.
You're a senior advisor at the European organization for nuclear research.
You also seem to tour the globe tirelessly giving talks.
And In addition, you have your own weekly TV show on science. Where do you get the energy?
W:Oh,well, I just love what I do. I'm extremely fortunate to have this life, doing what I love doing.
M:Professor, what exactly is your goal? Why do you do all of this?
W:Well, As you said, I do have different things going on.
But these, I think, can be divided into two groups.
The education of science and the further understanding of science.
M:Don't these two things get in the way of each other?
What I mean is, doesn't giving lectures take time away from the lab?
W:Not really. No, I love teaching.
And I don't mind spending more time doing that now than in the past.
Also what I will say is that teaching a subject helps me comprehend it better myself.
I find that it furthers my own knowledge when I have to explain something clearly.
When I have to aid others in understanding it.
And when I have to answer questions about it, teaching at a high level can be very stimulating.
One, no matter how much expertise they may already have in the field, they are instructing.
M:Any scientific breakthroughs that you see on the near horizon?
A significant discovery on venture we can expect soon?
W:The world is always conducting science and there are constantly new things being discovered.
In fact, right now we have too much data sitting in computers.
For example, we have thousands of photos of planet mars taken by telescopes that nobody has ever seen.
We have them. Yet nobody has had time to look at them with their own eyes, let alone analyze them.
Questions one to four are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 1. Why does the woman say she can be so energetic?
Question 2. What has the woman been engaged in?
Question 3. What does the woman say about the benefit teaching brings to her?
Question 4. How does the woman say new scientific breakthroughs can be made possible?
Conversation two.
M:Do you think dreams have special meanings?
W:No, I don't think they do.
M:Don't either. But some people do.
I would say people who believe that dreams have meanings are superstitious, especially nowadays.
In the past, during the times of ancient Egypt, Greece or China, people used to believe that dreams could foresee the future.
But today, with all the scientific knowledge that we have, I think it's much harder to believe in these sorts of things.
W:My grandmother is superstitious, and she thinks dreams can predict the future.
Once she dreamed that the flight she was due to take the following day crashed, can you guess what she did?
She didn't take that flight. She didn't even bother to go to the airport the following day.
Instead she took the same flight but a week later. And everything was fine of course. No plane ever crashed.
M:How funny! Did you know that flying is actually safer than any other mode of transport?
It's been statistically proven. People can be so irrational sometimes.
W:Yes, absolutely. But even if we think they are ridiculous, emotions can be just as powerful as rational thinking.
M:Exactly. People do all sorts of crazy things because of their irrational feelings.
But in fact, some psychologists believe that our dreams are the result of our emotions and memories from that day.
I think it was Sigmund Freud who said that children's dreams were usually simple representations of their wishes, things they wished would happen.
But in adults, dreams are much more complicated reflections of their more sophisticated sentiments.
W:Isn't it interesting how psychologists try to understand using the scientific method something as bizarre as dreams?
Psychology is like the rational study of irrational feelings.
Questions five to eight are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 5. What do both speakers think of dreams?
Question 6. Why didn't the woman's grandmother take her scheduled flight?
Question 7. What does the woman say about people's emotions?
Question 8. What did psychologist Sigmund Freud say about adults dreams?
Passage one.
While some scientists explore the surface of Antarctica, others are learning more about a giant body of water four kilometres beneath the ice pack.
Scientists first discovered Lake Vostok in the 1970s by using radio waves that penetrate the ice.
Since then, they have used sound waves and even satellites to map this massive body of water.
How does the water in Lake Vostok remain liquid beneath an ice sheet?
“The thick glacier above acts like insulating blanket and keeps the water from freezing,” said Martin Siegert, a glaciologist from the University of Wales.
In addition, geothermal heat from deep within the earth may warm the hidden lake.
The scientists suspect that microorganisms may be living in Lake Vostok closed off from the outside world for more than 2 million years.
"Anything found there will be totally alien to what's on the surface of the earth", said Siegert.
Scientists are trying to find a way to drill into the ice and draw water samples without causing contamination.
Again, robots might be the solution. If all goes as planned, a drill-shaped robot will through the surface ice.
When it reaches the lake, it will release another robot that can swim in the lake, take pictures, and look for signs of life.
The scientists hope their discoveries will shed light on life in outer space, which might exist in similar dark and airless conditions.
Recently, close up pictures of Jupiter's moon Europa shows signs of water beneath its icy surface.
Once tested in Antarctica, robots could be sent to Europa to search for life there too.
Questions nine to eleven are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 9. What did the scientists first use to discover Lake Vostok in the 1970s?
Question 10. What do scientists think about Lake Vostok?
Question 11. What do the scientists hope their discoveries will do?
Passage two.
The idea to study the American Indian tribe – Tarahumaras, came to James Copeland in 1984 when he discovered that very little research had been done on their language.
He contacted the tribe member through a social worker who worked with the tribes in Mexico.
At first, the tribe member named Gonzalez was very reluctant to cooperate.
He told Copeland that no amount of money could buy his language.
But after Copeland explained to him what he intended to do with his research and how it would benefit the Tarahumaras, Gonzalez agreed to help.
He took Copeland to his village and served as an intermediary.
Copeland says, thanks to him, the Tarahumaras understood what their mission was and started trusting us.
Entering the world of Tarahumaras has been a laborious project for Copeland.
To reach their homeland, he must strive two and half days from Huston Taxes.
He loads up his vehicle with goods that the tribe's men can't easily get and gives the goods to them as a gesture of friendship.
The Tarahumaras, who don't believe any humiliating wealth, take the food and share among themselves.
For Copeland, the experience has not only been academically satisfying but also has enriched his life in several ways.
"I see people rejecting technology and living a very hard, traditional life, which offers me another notion about the meaning of progress in the western tradition," he says.
"I experienced the simplicity of living in nature that I would otherwise only be able to read about.
I see a lot of beauty and their sense of sharing and concern for each other."
Questions twelve to fifteen are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 12.Why did James Copeland want to study the American Indian tribe -- Tarahumaras?
Question13. How did Gonzalez help James Copeland?
Question 14. What does the speaker say about James Copeland's trip to the Tarahumaras village?
Question 15. What impressed James Copeland about the Tarahumaras tribe?
Recording one.
What is a radical? It seems today that people are terrified of the term, particularly of having the label attached to them.
Accusing individuals or groups of being radical often serves to silence them into submission, thereby maintaining the existing state of affairs,
and more important, preserving the power of a select minority who are mostly wealthy white males in western society.
Feminism is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
The women's movement has been plagued by stereotypes, misrepresentations by the media, and accusations of man hating and radicalism.
When the basic foundation of feminism is simply that women deserve equal rights in all facets of life,
when faced with a threat of being labeled radical, women back down from their worthy cause and consequently participate in their own oppression.
It has gotten to the point that many women are afraid to call themselves feminists because of the stigma attached to the word.
If people refuse to be controlled and intimidated by stigmas, the stigmas lose all their power, without fear and which to feed such stigma as can only die.
To me, a radical is simply someone who rebels against the norm or advocates a change in the existing state of affairs.
On closer inspection, it becomes clear that the norm is constantly envolving and therefore is not a constant entity.
So why there is deviation from the present situation such a threat when the state of affairs itself is unstable and subject to relentless transformation.
It all goes back to maintaining the power of those who have it and preventing the rise of those who don't.
In fact, when we look at the word radical in a historical context, nearly every figure we now hold up as a hero was considered a radical in his or her time.
Radicals are people who affect change. They are the people about whom history is written.
Abolitionists were radicals.
Civil rights activists were radicals, even the founders of our country in their fight to win independence from England were radicals.
Their presence in history has changed the way our society functions, mainly by shifting the balance of power that previously existed.
Of course there are some radicals who have made a negative impact on humanity.
But undeniably, there would simply be no progress without radicals.
That being said, next time someone calls me a radical, I will accept that label with pride.
Questions sixteen to eighteen are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 16.What usually happens when people are accused of being radical?
Question 17. What is the speaker's definition of a radical?
Question 18. What does the speaker think of most radicals in the American history?
Recording two.
We are very susceptible to the influence of the people around us.
For instance, you may have known somebody who has gone overseas for a year or so and has returned with an accent perhaps.
We become part of our immediate environment.
None of us are immune to the influences of our own world and let us not kid ourselves that we are untouched by the things and the people in our life.
Fred goes off to his new job at a factory.
Fred takes his 10 minute coffee break, but the other workers take a half an hour.
Fred says, what's the matter with you guys? Two weeks later, Fred is taking 20 minute breaks.
A month later, Fred takes his half hour.
Fred is saying, if you can't beat them, join them. Why should I work any harder than the next guy?
The fascinating thing about being human is that generally we are unaware that there are changes taking place in our mentality.
It is like returning to the city smog after some weeks in the fresh air.
Only then do we realize that we have become accustomed to the nasty smells.
Mix with critical people, and we learn to criticize.
Mixed with happy people, and we learn about happiness.
What this means is that we need to decide what we want from life and then choose our company accordingly.
You may well say that is going to take some effort.
It may not be comfortable. I may offend some of my present company. Right.
But it is your life. Fred may say I'm always broke frequently depressed.
I'm going nowhere and I never do anything exciting.
Then we discover that Fred's best friends are always broke, frequently depressed, going nowhere and wishing that life was more exciting.
This is not coincidence, nor is it our business to stand in judgment of Fred.
However, if Fred ever wants to improve his quality of life, the first thing he'll need to do is recognize what has been going on all these years.
It's no surprise that doctors as a profession suffer a lot of ill health because they spend their lives around sick people.
Psychiatrists have a higher incidence of suicide in their profession for related reasons.
Traditionally, nine out of ten children whose parents' smoke, smoke themselves.
Obesity is in part an environmental problem.
Successful people have successful friends. And so the story goes on.
Questions nineteen to twenty-one are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 19. What does the speaker say about us as human beings?
Question 20. What does the speaker say Fred should do first to improve his quality of life?
Question 21.What does the speaker say about psychiatrists?
Recording three.
Virtually every American can recognize a dollar bill at a mere glance.
Many can identify it by its sound or texture, but few people indeed can accurately describe the world's most powerful, important currency.
The American dollar bill is colored with black ink on one side and green on the other, the exact composition of the paper and ink is a closely guarded government secret.
Despite its weighty importance, the dollar bill actually weighs little.
It requires nearly 500 bills to tip the scales at a pound.
Not only is the dollar bill lightweight, but it also has a brief lifespan.
Few dollar bills survive longer than 18 months.
The word "dollar" is taken from the German word "taler," the name for the world's most important currency in the 16th century.
The taler was a silver coin first minted in 1518 under the reign of Charles the 5th, emperor of Germany.
The concept of paper money is a relatively recent innovation in the history of American currency.
When the constitution was signed, people had little regard for paper money because of its steadily decreasing value during the colonial era.
Because of this lack of faith, the new American government minted only coins for common currency.
Interest-bearing bank notes were issued at the same time, but their purpose was limited to providing money for urgent government crises, such as American involvement in the war of 1812.
The first noninterest-bearing paper currency was authorized by congress in 1862, at the height of the civil war.
At this point, citizens, old fears of devalued paper currency had calmed, and the dollar bill was born.
The new green colored paper money quickly earned the nickname "greenback."
Today, the American dollar bill is a product of the federal reserve and is issued from the 12 federal reserve banks around the United States.
The government keeps a steady supply of approximately 2 billion bills in circulation at all times.
Controversy continues to surround the true value of the dollar bill.
American history has seen generations of politicians argue in favor of a gold standard for American currency.
However, for the present, the American dollar bill holds the value that is printed on it and little more.
The only other guarantee on the bill is a federal reserve pledge as a confirmation in the form of government securities.
Questions twenty-two to twenty-five are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Question 22. What does the speaker say about the American dollar bill?
Question 23. What does the speaker say about the exact composition of the American dollar bill?
Question 24. Why did the new American government mint only coins for common currency?
Question 25. What have generations of American politicians argued for?
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