2008年6月大学英语四级考试听力答案及听力原文-2

Section B

Passage One

26. A) The lack of time.          B) The quality of life.  

   C) The frustrations at work.          D) The pressure on working families.

27. A) They were just as busy as people of today.

      B) They saw the importance of collective efforts.

   C) They didn’t complain as much as modern man. 

      D) They lived a hard life by hunting and gathering.

28. A) To look for creative ideas of awarding employees.

      B) To explore strategies for lowering production costs.

      C) To seek new approaches to dealing with complaints. 

      D) To find effective ways to give employees flexibility.

原文：

Passage One

　 I think a lot about time and not just because it's the name of the news organization I work for. Like most working people, I find time or the lack of it, are never ending frustration and an unwinnable battle. My every day is a race against the clock that I never ever seem to win. This is hardly a lonesome complaint, according to the families and work institutes, national study of the changing work force. 55% of the employees say they don’t have enough time for themselves, 63% don’t have enough time for their spouses or partners, and 67% don’t have enough time for their children. It’s also not a new complaint. I bet our ancestors returned home from hunting wild animals and gathering nuts, and complained about how little time they had to paint battle scenes on their cave walls. The differences about the bore some animal hunting and ahead of not gathering probably told them to shut up or no survival for you. Today’s workers are still demanding control over their time, the differences today’s bosses are listening. I’ve been reading your report issued today called when work works, produced jointly by 3 organizations. They set out to find and warn the employers who employ the most creative and most effective ways to give their workers flexibility. I found this report worth reading and suggest every boss should read it for ideas.

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

26. What is the speaker complaining about?

27. What does the speaker say about our ancestors?

28. Why does the speaker suggest all the bosses read the report by the 3 organizations?

Passage Two

29. A) Family violence.        B) The Great Depression.

   C) Her father’s disloyalty.           D) Her mother’s bad temper.

30. A) His advanced age.     

      B) His children’s efforts.

      C) His improved financial condition.

      D) His second wife’s positive influence.

31. A) Love is blind.

      B) Love breeds love.

      C) Divorce often has disastrous consequences.

      D) Happiness is hard to find in blended families.

原文：

Passage Two

　    Loving a child is a circular business. The more you give, the more you get. The more you want to give, Penalaeone said. What she said proves to be true of my blended family. I was born in 1931as the youngest of 6 children, I learn to share my parents’ love. Raising 6 children during the difficult time of the Great Depression took its toll on my parents’ relationship and resulted in their divorce when I was 18 years old. Daddy never had very close relationship with his children and drifted even farther away from us after the divorce. Several years later, a wonderful woman came into his life, and they were married. She had 2 sons. One of them is still at home. Under her influence we became a blended family and a good relationship developed between the 2 families. She always treated us as if we were her own children. It was because of our other mother, daddy’s second wife, that he became closer to his own children. They shared over 25 years together before our father passed away. At the time of his death, the question came up of my mother, daddy’s first wife, attending his funeral. I will never forget the unconditional love shown by my stepmother. When I asked her if she would object mother attending daddy’s funeral, without giving it a second thought, she immediately replied, “of course not honey, she is the mother of my children.”

Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you’ve just heard.

29. According to the speaker, what contributed to her parents’ divorce?

30. What brought his father closer to his children?

31. What message does the speaker want to convey in this talk?

Passage Three

32. A) It was located in a park.

      B) Its owner died of a heart attack.

   C) It went bankrupt all of a sudden.

      D) Its potted plants were for lease only.

33. A) Planting some trees in the greenhouse.

   B) Writing a want ad to a local newspaper. 

      C) Putting up a Going Out of Business sign.           

   D) Helping a customer select some purchases.

34. A) Opening an office in the new office park.

      B) Keeping better relations with her company. 

      C) Developing fresh business opportunities.

   D) Building a big greenhouse of his own.

35. A) Owning the greenhouse one day.

      B) Securing a job at the office park.

      C) Cultivating more potted plants.

      D) Finding customers out of town.

原文：

Passage Three

    In February last year, my wife lost her job. Just as suddenly, the owner of the greenhouse where I worked as manager died of heart attack. His family announced that they were going to close the business because no one in the family wanted to run it. Things looked pretty gloomy, my wife and I read the want-ads each day. Then one morning, as I was hanging up a Going Out the Business sign at greenhouse, the door opened and in walked a customer. She was an office manager whose company has just moved into the new office park on the edge of town. She was looking for parted plants to place in the reception areas and offices. "I don't know anything about plants," she said. "I'm sure in a few weeks that all be dead." Why I was helping her select her purchases? My mind was racing. Perhaps as many as a dozen firms had recently opened offices in the new office park and there were several hundred more acres with construction under way. That afternoon, I drove out to the office park. By six o'clock that evening I had signed contracts with seven companies to rent plants from me and pay me a fee to maintain them. Within a week, I had worked out an agreement to lease the greenhouse from the owner's family. Business is now increasing rapidly. And one day, we hope to be the proud owners of the greenhouse.

Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you’ve just heard.

32. What do we learn about the greenhouse?

33. What was the speaker doing when the customer walked in one morning?

34. What did the speaker think of when serving the office manager?

35. What was the speaker’s hope for the future?

Section C  

Compound Dictation

    We're now witnessing the emergence of the advanced economy based on information and knowledge. Physical (36) labor / labour, raw materials and capital are no longer the key (37) ingredients in the creation of wealth. Now, the (38) vital raw material in our economy is knowledge. Tomorrow's wealth depends on the development and exchange of knowledge. And (39) individuals entering the workforce offer their knowledge, not their muscles. Knowledge workers get paid for their education and their ability to learn. Knowledge workers (40) engage in mind work. They deal with symbols: words, (41) figures, and data.

    What does all this mean for you? As a future knowledge worker, you can expect to be (42) generating, processing as well as exchanging information. (43) Currently, three out of four jobs involve some form of mind work. And that number will increase sharply in the future. Management and employees alike (44) will be making decisions in such areas as product development, quality control, and customers’ satisfaction. In the new world of work, you can look forward to being in constant training (45) to acquire new skills that will help you keep up with improved technologies and procedures. You can also expect to be taking greater control of your career. Gone are the nine-to-five jobs, lifetime security, predictable promotions, and even the conventional workplace as you're familiar with. (46) Don't expect the companies will provide you with a clearly defined career path, and don't wait for some one to “empower” you. You have to empower yourself.