节选自邱邱的《托福听力新思维》
1. 000139 文科段子：艺术类音乐
It may seem strange that we're discussing music from a Broadway
production in this class, "The Lion King" especially, since it's
based on a popular Hollywood movie. I mean music preformed for
Broadway theater in the heart of New York city surely would seem to
be in the western tradition of popular music and not have much in
common with the music we have been studying in this course, such as
gamelan music of Indonesia, or Zulu chants of South Africa, music
that developed outside the western tradition of Europe and America.
But in fact, musicians have a long-standing tradition of borrowing
front one another's cultures. And this production's director
intentionally included both western and non-western music. That
way, some of the rhythms, instrument, and harmonies typical of
non-western music contrast with and complement popular music more
familiar to audiences in North America and Europe, music like rock,
jazz or Broadway style show tunes. So I want to spend the rest of
this class and most of the next one on the music from the show "The
Lion King" as a way of summarizing some of the technical
distinctions between typical western music and the non-western
music that we've been studying. Now the African influence on the
music is clear. The story takes place in Africa. So the director
got a South African composer to write songs with a distinctly
African sound. And the songs even include words from African
languages. But we'll get back to the African influence later. First
let's turn to the music that was written for the shadow puppet
scenes in "The Lion King", music based on the Indonesian music used
in the shadow puppet theater of that region
2. 000143 理科段子：天文学
In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat
disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers
were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was
not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were the basis of both
these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses of the
moon the earth was between the sun and the moon, and they saw that
during these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always
round, they realized that this could be true only if the earth was
spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during
eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would be stretched out
into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the
Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star,
or Polaris, appeared lower in the sky when they traveled south, in
the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be
much higher in the sky. By the way, it was also from this
difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the
Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the
circumference of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents
says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadium.
Today, it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents,
but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic
stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the
figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so
long before even the first telescope was invented.
3. 991044 文科段子：文学名著
Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look
now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best known for her novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation
life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the United
States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for all
the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's
best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south,
but much of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In
fact, Stowe's best writing is about village life in the New
England's states in the 19th century. In recording to the customs
of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was
to reflect the images as realistically as possible. She usually
succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately and in
detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the
realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century.
She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her
characters when they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before
Mark Twain popularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense
that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born
in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher.
The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a
geography book for children. Later when she was married, her
writing helped her support her family financially. Throughout her
life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches and
children's books, as well as novels for adults.
4. 991040 生活段子：噪音影响
I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really
alarmed over the health center by the number of students we are
seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. First, I want to go over
some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school
environment and see if we can figure out some ways to protect
hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive
noise. Too much moderate noise for a long time or some types of
intense noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudness is
measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound
that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels
generally aren't harmful. That's noise like traffic on a busy
street. But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with
continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are
up to around 140 decibels, that's like a jet plane taking off, then
you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that
your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud noise at
close range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit
your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we
can take a look at the decibel level of some common campus sounds.
Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football games.
They are really dangerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try
to generate a list of damaging noises
5. 990839 文科段子：电影艺术
To get us started this semester I am going to spend the first
two classes giving you background lectures about some basic
cinematic concepts. Once you are a little more familiar with basic
film terminology, we will be ready to look at the history of movies
in the United States. You'll be expected to attend showing of films
on Tuesday evenings at 7 o'clock in Jennings Auditorium. That's our
lab. Then during our Wednesday seminar, we'll discuss in depth the
movie we saw the night before. We are not covering silent films in
this course. We will begin with the first talking motion picture,
The Jazz Singer, released in 1927. The next week, we'll be looking
at The Gold Diggers of 1933, a piece that is very representative of
the escapist trend in films released during the depression. Some of
the films we will be watching will probably be new to you, like
Frank Capra's Why We Fight. Others you might have already seen on
TV like Rebel without A Cause starring James Deane, or Stanley
Cooper's Doctor's Strange Love. However, I hope you see even
familiar film with new eye. In the last three weeks of the course,
we will be watching films from the 1980s and you'll choose one of
them as a subject for an extensive written critique. We'll talk
more about the requirements of the critique later in this
semester.
6. 990848 文科段子：历史发展
Last time, we outlined how the Civil War finally got started. I
want to talk today about the political management of the war on
both sides: the north under Abraham Lincoln and the south under
Jefferson Davis. An important task for both of these presidents was
to justify for their citizens just why the war was necessary. In
1861, on July 4th, Lincoln gave his first major speech in which he
presented the northern reasons for the war. It was, he said, to
preserve democracy. Lincoln suggested that this war was a noble
crusade that would determine the future of democracy through out
the world. For him the issue was whether or not this government of
the people, by the people could maintain its integrity, could it
remain complete and survive its domestic foes. In other words,
could a few discontented individuals and by that he meant those who
led the southern rebellion, could they arbitrarily break up the
government and put an end to free government on earth? The only way
for the nation to survive was to crush the rebellion. At the time,
he was hopeful that the war wouldn't last long and the slave owners
would be put down forever, but he underestimated how difficult the
war would be. It would be harder than any the Americans had thought
before or since, largely because the north had to break the will of
the southern people, not just by its army. But Lincoln rallied
northerners to a deep commitment to the cause. They came to
perceive the war as a kind of democratic crusade against southern
society.
7. 981042 文科段子：传媒变迁
Moving away from newspapers, let's now focus on magazines. Now
the first magazine was a little periodical called the Review and it
was started in London in 1704. It looked a lot like the newspapers
of the time, but in terms of its contents it was much different.
Newspapers were concerned mainly with news events but the Review
focused on important domestic issues of the day, as well as the
policies of the government. Now, in England at the time, people
could still be thrown in jail for publishing articles that were
critical of the king. And that is what happened to Daniel Defoe. He
was the outspoken founder of the review. Defoe actually wrote the
first issue of the Review from prison. You see, he had been
arrested because of his writings that criticized the policies of
the Church of England, which was headed by the king. After his
release, Defoe continued to produce the Review and the magazine
started to appear on a more frequent schedule, about three times a
week. It didn't take long for other magazines to start popping up.
In 1709, a magazine called the Tattler began publication. This new
magazine contained a mixture of news, poetry, political analysis
and philosophical essays.
8. 971035 理科段子：远程教育
Hi, Lynn. I saw you at registration yesterday. I sailed right
through, but you were standing in a long line.
Yeah. I waited an hour to sign up for a distance-learning
course.
Distance learning? Never heard of it.
Well, it's new this semester. It's only open to psychology
majors. But I bet it'll catch on else where. Yesterday, over a
hundred students signed up.
Well, what is it?
It's an experimental course. I registered for child psychology.
All I have got to do is watch a twelve-week series of televised
lessons. The department shows them seven different times a day and
in seven different locations.
Don't you ever have to meet with professor?
Yeah. After each part of the series I have to talk to her and
the other students on the phone, you know, about our ideas. Then
we'll meet on campus three times for reviews and exams.
It sounds pretty non-traditional to me. But I guess it makes
sense, considering how many students have jobs. It must really help
with their schedules, not to mention how it will cut down on
traffic.
You know, last year my department did a survey and they found
out that 80 percent of all psychology majors were employed. That's
why they came up with the program.
Look, I'll be working three days a week next semester and it
was either cut back on my classes or try this out.
The only thing is: doesn't it seem impersonal though? I mean, I
miss having class discussions and hearing what other people
think.
Well, I guess that's why phone contact's important. Any way,
it's an experiment.
Maybe I'll end up hating it.
Maybe. But I'll be curious to see how it works up.
9. 970539 生活段子：游览沼泽地公园
Welcome to Everglade's National Park. The Everglade is a watery
plain covered with saw grass that's the home to numerous species of
plants and wild life. And one and half million acre is too big to
see it all today. But this tour will offer you a good sampling. Our
tour bus will stop first at Tailor Slue. This is a good place to
start because it's home to many of the plants and animals typically
associated with the everglade. You'll see many exotic birds and of
course a world famous alligators. Don't worry. There's a boardwalk
that goes across the marsh, so you can look down at the animals in
the water from a safe distance. The boardwalk is high enough to
give you a great view of the saw grass prairie. From there we'll
head at some other marshy and even jungle-like areas that feature
wonderful tropical plant life. For those of you who'd like a close
view of the saw grass prairie, you might consider running a canoe
sometime during your visit here. However, don't do this unless you
have a very good sense of direction and can negotiate your way
through tall grass. We hate to have to come looking for you. You
have a good fortune of being here in the winter, the best time of
the year to visit. During the spring and summer the mosquitoes will
just about to eat you alive. Right now, they are not so bothersome,
but you'll soon want to use an insect repellent.
10. 000147 理科段子：地理冒险
Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to
address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last
lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E.
Peary was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I
neglected to mention was the controversy around Peary's pioneering
accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical
society examined Commodore Peary's claim to have reached the North
Pole on April 6th' 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This
judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress
in 1911. Nevertheless, Peary's claim was surrounded by controversy.
Tins was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook
who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier.
Over the decades Peary was given the benefit of the doubt, but
critics persisted in raising questions about his navigation and the
distances he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Foundation
spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examination of
documents relating to Peary's polar expedition. The documents
supposed Peary's claims about the distances he covered. After also
conducting an extensive computer analysis of photos taken by Peary
at the pole, they concluded that Pierre and his companions did in
fact reach the near vicinity of the North Pole on April 6th. 1909.
OK, today we're going to talk about exploration of the opposite end
of the world, I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are
now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott.
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