大学英语六级考试听力模拟试题三

　　English Weekly CET-6 Listening Practice Test Ⅶ

　　Part III Listening Comprehension

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　11. W: Could you turn down your stereo a bit? I really cant concentrate on my book.

　　M: Why didnt you just say so?

　　Q: What can be inferred about the man?

　　12. M: What? Youre going to the hairdresser again? Seems like you just had a haircut.

　　W: You kidding! Its been over a month.

　　Q: What does the woman mean?

　　13. W: Look at the delicious sandwiches! Johns really gone all out this time!

　　M: Just wait until you see the dessert!

　　Q: What does the man imply?

　　14. M: The coat you tried on was really nice, and reasonably priced.

　　W: I wouldve bought it right away if they had it in my size.

　　Q: What can be inferred about the woman?

　　15. M: Im trying to talk Jan out of studying abroad next semester.

　　W: Thats a lost causeyou know Jan when she has her heart set on something

　　Q: What does the woman mean?

　　16. M: I came in here to get something from my briefcase, and now Ive forgotten what I wanted.

　　W: You were going to show me a newspaper article.

　　Q: What does the woman imply?

　　17. M: Now, if you have any questions concerning this agreement, Ill be happy to try to answer them.

　　W: Nothing comes to mind right now, but Id like to read it through once more before signing.

　　Q: What is the woman doing?

　　18. M: The washing machine in our apartments more than 17 years oldand it worked just fine until last night.

　　W: Youll never be able to get parts for it. It might be time to invest in a more recent model.

　　Q: What does the woman imply about the washing machine?

　　Now youll hear two long conversations.

　　Conversation One

　　M: Hello.

　　W: Hello, Samthis is Paula Hansen. Sorry to bother you, but Im having a small problem I thought you might be able to help me with.

　　M: Sure, Paula, whats up?

　　W: Well, the dishwasher broke down, so we reported it to Ms. Connors, the owner. She said shed take care of it, but a month went by and nothing happened.

　　M: Did you get back in touch with her?

　　W: I got a repair person to give me an estimate. Then I sent it to her. When I didnt hear from her, I had the repair done. And I deducted the cost from the rent check.

　　M: So whats the problem?

　　W: She called here mad as a hornet. She said she couldve gotten the repair done for less money. Now shes threatening to evict us for not paying the full rent.

　　M: Hold on, Paula. It does sound pretty serious, but Im sure you can all sit down and work this out.

　　W: Well, youre over at the law school, so I wondered if you would mind coming with Sarah and me when we go to talk to Ms. Connors. Were supposed to meet with her tomorrow night at 8.

　　M: Sure, I havent studied a lot about contracts yet, but Id be glad to help you straighten things out. Why dont I stop by about 7:30?

　　W: Thanks, Sam! Youre a lifesaver!

　　Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　19. Why is Paula unhappy?

　　20. Why is Ms. Connors angry?

　　21. What are Paula and her roommate planning to do?

　　22. Why does Paula think Sam can help her?

　　Conversation Two

　　M: Hey, Karen. Looks like you got some sun this weekend.

　　W: Yeah, I spent the weekend at the beach.

　　M: Oh yeah? Thats great! Where did you stay?

　　W: Some friends of my parents live out there and they invited me for as long as I wanted to stay.

　　M: So what are you doing back here already?

　　W: Oh, I have a paper I need to work on, and I just couldnt do any serious studying at the beach.

　　M: I dont blame you. So what did you do out there I mean besides lie out in the sun, obviously?

　　W: I jogged up and down the beach and I played some volleyball. You know, I never realized how hard it is to run on sand. I couldnt even get through a whole game before I had to sit down. Its much easier to run in the wet sand near the water.

　　M: Not to mention cooler. Did you go swimming?

　　W: I wanted to, but they said the water isnt warm enough for that until a couple months from now, so I just waded in up to my knees.

　　M: It all sounds so relaxing; I wish I could get away to the beach like that.

　　W: It looks like you could use it. Dont tell me you spent the weekend in the library again.

　　Questions 23to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　23. Why did the woman come home so soon?

　　24. Why did the woman have to stop playing the volleyball game?

　　25. Why didnt the woman go swimming?

　　Section B

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

　　Passage one

　　Speechthe act of uttering sounds to convey meaningis a kind of human action. Like any other constantly repeated action, speaking has to be learned, but once it is learned, it becomes a generally unconscious and apparently automatic process.

　　As far as we can determine, human beings do not need to be forced to speak; most babies seem to possess a sort of instinctive drive to produce speech like noises. How to speak and what to say are another matter altogether. These actions are learned from the particular society into which the baby is born; so that, like all conduct that is learned from a societyfrom the people around usspeech is a patterned activity.

　　The meandering babble and chatter of a young child are eventually channeled by imitation into a few orderly grooves that represent the pattern accepted as meaningful by the people around him. Similarly, a childs indiscriminate practice of putting things into his mouth becomes limited to putting food into his mouth in a certain way.

　　The sounds that a child can make are more varied and numerous than the sounds that any particular language utilizes. However, a child born into a society with a pattern of language is encouraged to make a small selection of sounds and to make these few sounds over and over until it is natural for him to make these sounds and no others.

　　Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. For an adult, what does the process of speaking usually involve?

　　27. When does a childs chatter become speech?

　　28. What are the sounds that a child is able to make like?

　　29. According to the author, what is the function of a society around a child?

　　Passage Two

　　Americans now spend more money on fast food than they do on higher education, personal computers, software or new cars. The rapid growth of the fast-food industry has been driven by fundamental changes in the U.S. economy. The hourly wage of the average American worker peaked in 1973 and then steadily declined until last year. Women entered the work force in record numbers, often motivated less by feminism than by a need to help pay the bills. In 1975, about a third of American mothers with young children worked outside the home; today about two-thirds of such mothers are employed. As the sociologists Cameron Lynne MacDonald has noted, the entry of women into the nations work force has greatly increased demand for the types of services that housewives traditionally performed: cooking, cleaning and child-care. The fast-food industry has benefited from these demographic changes, supplying at low cost the meals no longer prepared in the home and hiring at low wages millions of young women in need of extra income.

　　The McDonalds Corporation. has become a powerful symbol of Americas service economy, the sector now responsible for ninety percent of the countrys new jobs. In 1968, McDonalds operated about 1,000 restaurants. Today it has about 23,000 restaurants worldwide and opens roughly 2,000 new ones each year. An estimated one of every eight Americans has worked at McDonalds. The company annually trains more new workers than the U.S. Army. McDonalds is the nations largest purchaser of beef and potatoes. It is the second-largest purchaser of poultry.

　　Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　30. Why do American women go out to work?

　　31. How does the fast-food industry benefit from the changes of the American economy?

　　32. How many new restaurants does McDonalds open every day?

　　Passage Three

　　There are many computer users who are wondering if they should be putting their computers to sleep at the end of the day or if they should actually shut them down. Sleep mode was originally implemented simply as a screen saver. On laptop computers it became very useful for conserving battery power if the computer was to remain idle for a period of time. Later, the monitor companies got on the green computing kick, and began to build in energy saver features that would put just the monitor to sleep, but not the computer. So now the purpose of the desktops sleep became a) to conserve power, and b) to let the computer rest.

　　Putting your computer to sleep at the end of the day has these two very advantageous benefits. First and foremost, the sleep mode allows your computer to go to sleep when not in use, and to re-launch very quickly. A cold startup will take as much as 10 times as long. Thats the most important function. It also allows you to leave projects in progress like they are, and reappear instantly when you return.

　　There is a downside however. So some warnings are in order. As Mr. Murphy put it, if something can go wrong, it will. If anything happens during the period of sleep, you can come back to a crashed computer, and any unsaved work gone forever. For instance, around here I cant leave the computers at sleep during a thunder storm seasonin a black-out, without battery back-up, youve got a crash.

　　Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　33. What is the benefit sleep mode brings to the laptop?

　　34. Whats the most important function of sleep mode?

　　35. Whats the disadvantage of sleep mode?

　　Section C

　　Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.

　　The term balanced diet is constantly heard but rarelyexplained. What it means is a diet that includes a combination of several different food types, including grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy products, fats and oils.

　　Crucial to the idea of a balanced diet is including foods in the right proportions; the aim is to get all the nutrients your body needs while maintaining a healthy weight. The US government provides a basic idea of what nutrients we need on their website.

　　It isnt a case of having roughly equal measures of everything. There should be a lot of some kinds and just a little of others. Some fats and oils, for example, are important in the diet for various reasons. But you only need a small amount compared with foods such as vegetables.

　　In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has developed a program called The Balance of Good Health to show people what proportions and types of foods make up a healthy balanced diet. This divides foods into five different groups. The largest groups are bread and vegetables, followed by milk and meat. The smallest by far is the salt and sugar group.

　　Fresh fruit and vegetables are low in fat, calories and salt, and an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Most of us dont eat enough to meet the current recommendations of three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit a day. Protein-rich foods and dairy foods are needed in more moderate amounts. Your diet should include two or three servings of milk or dairy products a day, for example.