全国英语等级考试四级听力辅导材料

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全国英语等级考试四级听力辅导材料

　　说到英语听力，相信许多小伙伴们都会觉得有压力吧，毕竟分值的比重较大，以下是小编为大家搜索整理的全国英语等级考试四级听力辅导材料，希望对正在关注的您有所帮助!

全国英语等级考试四级听力辅导材料

　　材料一

　　Protesters Join Funeral of Former British Prime Minister

　　As the funeral procession made its way to the cathedral, opponents of Thatcher lined the route...

　　Turning their backs on her coffin as it made its way through central London.

　　They chanted “waste of money” in protest at the millions of dollars spent on Wednesday’s funeral and waved anti-Thatcher signs.

　　While in power, Thatcher became an enemy of many on the left. A Conservative prime minister, she pursued privatization and deregulation, cut taxes on the rich and attacked trade unions.

　　On Wednesday, her opponents said they had not forgiven her.

　　“It’s a mark of not wanting to be involved in the pageantry really and the celebration of her life - because I don’t think it was a life to celebrate," said one woman.

　　“I’m here and I’m so happy today that she’s dead," said a man.

　　Wednesday was not the first protest since Thatcher’s death.

　　On Saturday, her opponents poured into London’s Trafalgar Square to “celebrate.”

　　They said they were protesting against her politics and the legacy they say she’s left behind - rising inequality and high costs of living in Britain.

　　Many Britons have been critical of those “celebrating” - but Thatcher’s opponents they say it’s a good chance to address divisions in British society.

　　A man handing out pamphlets Wednesday for a talk on Thatcher’s legacy said, “Britain is still a very divided society. She’s probably one of the most controversial prime ministers. So hopefully by having this protest and by raising the issue and showing there’s an alternative people will begin to tackle her legacy.”

　　Thatcher’s death, he hopes, will ignite fresh debate about Britain’s future.

　　材料二

　　Detroit Government Retirees Struggle to Keep Benefits

　　Don Taylor spent 26 years of his life as a police officer in Detroit, the city where he was born and raised. It was a dangerous job, but one he is fond of.

　　It also provided a dependable paycheck, as well as a guaranteed pension and health care coverage in retirement. Or so he thought. “There’s a dispute on the pensions, you know," he said.

　　“Borrowing a billion dollars to fund your pension, yes the pension is funded, but now it’s done through more debt," said Eric Scorsone of Michigan State University. He is on the team helping the city of Detroit emerge from its fiscal crisis.

　　“It’s probably as bad as any city has ever seen in terms of a fiscal crisis. My part is to work on tax and revenue forecasting and tax issues in general for the city as they work on a plan to move forward," he said.

　　The plan includes figuring out how to pay for retirement pensions funded with borrowed money, and how to pay for health care plans for current and retired public sector employees.

　　“The city really should be paying hundreds of millions of dollars more than it is right now, but there’s no money to do it, so the question is how do you fund that liability or do you reduce the liability by reducing benefits," said Scorsone.

　　Taylor says the pensions and health care plans of retirees are already modest.

　　“There are a lot of misconceptions too that in the city of Detroit, that the people’s benefits are “Cadillac” plans, and they’re overpaid, where the average pension is only $30,000," he said.

　　“I cannot believe that they could do any more cutting," said retired Detroit police officer Greg Trozak, who has two sons on the police force. While he is concerned about cuts to his own benefits, he is more worried about future benefits.

　　“I’m sure the active people are going to be hurting a lot more than a lot of us retirees are," he said.

　　“The elected officials in the city of Detroit should have seen this reduction in revenue coming, and should have seen that the population was declining years ago and should have adjusted for that, but they failed to do so. Now it’s resting on the backs of the employees and retirees," said Taylor.

　　The clock is ticking to turn Detroit’s finances around. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr has less than eighteen months to make difficult decisions that would bring about the Motor City’s eventual solvency.

　　材料三

　　Company Finds, Trains Technology Workers in Africa

　　A new Nigerian technology company plans to produce some of the best software developers in the world.

　　The company is based in Lagos. It is called Andela. It performs work for large companies, most of which are in the United States. At the same time, it trains software developers. The training period is four years. During that time, Andela teaches workers programming languages and skills.

　　“Our goal is to basically train 100,000 software developers who are world class, in Africa, over the next 10 years,” said Seni Sulyman. He is the company’s director of operations.

　　Sulyman says after the developers train at Andela, they can work for major tech companies such as IBM and Microsoft.

　　Recently, several groups showed their support for Andela by investing $24 million in the company.

　　The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was one of the investors. That group -- created by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan -- issued a statement praising Andela. The statement said Andela’s “innovative model of learning” was one of the reasons the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invested in the company.

　　Others have also praised Andela for providing high-quality training. Bankole Oluwafemi is the editor of a technology news website. He said Andela is different from other technology companies in Africa because it focuses on education.

　　“Andela is kind of like, attack that problem, and they’re kind of like, unique in that they’re one of the first, if not the first, to attack that problem at scale, the problem of education,” he said.

　　Seni Sulyman says the company hopes to use the money it recently received to increase the number of workers it recruits.

　　Andela hires only about 12 new people every three months. It chooses them from about 3,000 to 5,000 applications.

　　Sulyman said Andela would also like to find more companies to complete projects for, and to expand into a third country in Africa. Andela now works in Nigeria and Kenya.

　　Sulyman noted the recent investment of $24 million seems like a lot of money. But, he said, Andela has so many things it wants to do that he’s sure the company will figure out ways to spend it.

　　I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.

　　材料四

　　Now, the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

　　There are many American expressions about insects -- like bees, for example. Bees are known as very hard workers. They always appear to be busy, moving around in their homes, or hives. So you might say you were as busy as a bee if you spent your weekend cleaning your house.

　　In fact, you might say your house was a beehive of activity if your whole family was helping you clean. You also might say you made a beeline for something if you went there right away. When we go to see a movie, my friend always makes a beeline for the place where they sell popcorn.

　　Here is an expression about bees that is not used much any more, but we like it anyway. We think it was first used in the nineteen twenties. If something was the best of its kind, you might say it was the bees knees. Now, we admit that we do not know how this expression developed. In fact, we do not even know if bees have knees!

　　If your friend cannot stop talking about something because she thinks it is important, you might say she has a bee in her bonnet. If someone asks you a personal question, you might say that is none of your beeswax. This means none of your business.

　　Speaking of personal questions, there is an expression people sometimes use when their children ask, where do babies come from? Parents who discuss sex and reproduction say this is talking about the birds and the bees.

　　材料五

　　Time

　　Time is tangible. One can gain time, spend time, waste time, save time, or even kill time. Common questions in American English reveal this concrete quality as though time were a possession. “Do you have any time?”, “Can you get some time for this?”, “How much free time do you have?” The treatment of time as a possession influences the way that time is carefully divided.

　　Generally, Americans are taught to do one thing at a time and may be uncomfortable when an activity is interrupted. In businesses, the careful schedu ling of time and the separation of activities are common practices. Appointment calendars are printed with 15-, 30-, and 60-minute time slots. The idea that “there is a time and place for everything” extends to American social life. Visitors who drop by without prior notice may interrupt their host’s personal time. Thus, calling friends on the telephone before visiting them is generally preferred to visitors’ dropping by. (157 words)

　　材料六

　　Cartoonist

　　In a good cartoon, the artist can tell in a few lines as much as a writer can tell in half a dozen paragraphs. The cartoonist not only tells a story but he also tries to persuade the reader to his way of thinking. He has great influence on public opinion. In a political campaign, he plays an important part. Controversial issues in Congress or at meetings of the United Nations may keep the cartoonist well-supplies with current materials.

　　A clever cartoonist may cause laughter because he often uses humour in his drawings. If he is sketching a famous person, he takes a prominent feature and exaggerates it. Cartoonists, for instance, like to lengthen an already long nose and to widen an already broad grin. This exaggeration of a person’s characteristics is called caricature. The artist uses such exaggeration to put his message across. (144 words)

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