2016届高考英语高分冲刺特训听力素材3（word版）19

　　2016届高考英语高分冲刺特训听力素材3（word文本）：19

　　Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze said today that some Soviet troops will begin pulling out of Afghanistan within a few days. The remarks came during a news conference held in Ottawa. Shevardnadze told reporters, "We would like to see our boys back home as soon as possible." Shevardnadze is now in Mexico where he will meet with top government officials over the weekend.

　　The next space shuttle mission is planned for lift-off on February 18th, 1988. Today NASA announced its schedule of launches for the next 7 years. NPR's Daniel Zwerding reports: "The new launch schedule is pretty much what NASA's been predicting since shortly after the challenger exploded, NASA administrator James Fletcher said the agency will shoot for only five shuttle launches the first year, 1988, and that's less than half the number that NASA had been planning for this year until the accident happened. Fletcher said NASA will slowly work its way up to 16 launches a year in the early 1990s. And as administration officials have been predicting, those shuttles will carry a much different mix of cargoes than the shuttles of the past. For at least the first three years, military projects will fill more than half the flight. The Pentagon is way behind launching secret Star Wars tests and military communication satellites. NASA space exploration projects will get next priority, such as the Galileo and Ulysses satellites to study Jupiter and the sun. And commercial business satellites, which were originally supposed to be the financial backbone of the shuttle program, will get only a small fraction of the space in the shuttle cargo bays. I'm Daniel Zwerdling in Washington."

　　There are reports today that John Zaccaro, husband of former presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferarro, has been indicted by a local grand jury in Queens, New York. The Associated Press and United Press International quote a source close to a criminal investigation of Zaccaro, saying the indictment is the result of a probe of bribery allegations in the awarding of cable television contracts. The grand jury has been investigating the activities of Zaccaro and Michael Nussbaum, Campaign Manager of the late Queens Borough President, Donald Mannis.

　　If you want to watch the next space shuttle take-off, mark your calendar for February 18th, 1988. That is according to NASA's official new 7-year space shuttle schedule announced today. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports:

　　"During the first year, 1988, the agency plans to launch only 5 shuttles, less than half the number they'd been planning to launch this year until the Challenger accident happened. In 1989, they'll launch 10 shuttles, and then slowly work their way up to 16 flights a year in the early '90s. By then, the Agency officials said today, they'll have built the new 4th safer shuttle although they don't know yet exactly where they'll get the money and they'll start building a permanent space station. The new shuttle program looks a lot more sober than the previous one did. "No," said NASA administrator James Fletcher, "there are no specific plans to send up another teacher or journalist. Until the Challenger exploded, of course, NASA was holding a widely publicized competition to send a reporter into space."

　　"There's a lot of opposition from some quarters to flying any so-called civilians in space, but my bias is, that yes, in time, civilians will be flying again back in space, but certainly not in the first year. I think we want to get our act together first before we start taking a risk of that sort. And as administrative officials have been predicting, the shuttles will carry a much different mix of cargoes than NASA had been planning until the accident. The military will be much more prominent than ever before. For at least the first two years, the Pentagon will fill more than half the shuttle flights with secret Star Wars tests and military communication satellites. NASA space exploration projects will get next priority, such as the Hubble Telescope, which will see closer to the edges of the universe than any telescope in the past. As for commercial business satellites, which were originally supposed to be the financial backbone of the program, most of them will be bumped for lack of space. Under President Reagan's orders, all commercial space cargo launched in the US will eventually have to fly on private industries' own rockets. I'm Daniel Zwerdling in Washington."

　　Forbes magazine yesterday published its annual list of the 400 wealthiest people in America. Sam Moore Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart Department Store chain heads the list for the second year in a row with a total worth of 4.5 billion dollars. Other familiar names on the list include chicken producer Frank Perdue; fashion designer Ralph Lauren, and TV producers Merv Griffin and Dick Clark, each worth more than the minimum $180,000,000 needed to get on the list. That minimum figure was up from 150,000,000 last year. Also the number of billionaires jumped from 14 to 26. We asked Forbes' Editor Harry Seneker to help us interpret those figures.

　　"Well, it shows that the rich do get richer, and it also shows that we've been doing a little more of our homework each year. It's quite a lot of work to refine your estimates of what people's assets are worth when they are not very eager to co-operate with you. And each year we get a little better. Each year we find a few new ones that we'd missed before."

　　"And some people are left off this list because they don't co-operate, Malcolm Forbes, for one."

　　"Oh no, he's in there. It's just that we wouldn't for the life of us, say exactly where."

　　"You started this list about 5 years ago. Why did it start? Why do you continue to do it?"

　　"Why? Well, it started … the short answer for why it started is that Malcolm Forbes thought that people would be interested in it and insisted on us doing it and doing it right."

　　"But he didn't want to cooperate himself."

　　"Well, you run into certain problems with the IRS and inheritance taxes if you put a number on yourself. You want to negotiate that figure, or your heirs do."

　　"Is there any commonality to how these people have achieved such wealth? Did they earn it the old-fashioned way?"

　　"Well, at some point, everybody, every fortune had to be earned the old-fashioned way. And the old-fashioned way is, you set up a business that can be multiplied indefinitely beyond the limitations of your own personal efforts. It can be an oil business, like John D. Rockefeller did with the Standard Oil Trust. It could be, you know, an organization that can produce dozens of game shows like Merv Griffin."

　　"But of most of them that are on the list, say, this year, are they new to the list, new wealth, or is this mostly inherited fortunes?"

　　"There's a mix of both. You know, the new arrivals are mostly new wealth. Every once in a while, we find a branch of an old family that we really should have included. And this year we found a few Melons out there in Pittsburgh."

　　"Who's the youngest on the list this year?"

　　"One of those. His name is Michael Carrier. But, you know, he goes back to the Melons on his mother's side."

　　"And he is how old?"

　　"He's twenty-five."

　　"And how much is he worth?"

　　"On the order of a couple of hundred million dollars. You should understand with people like the Melons, it is enormously hard to get a sense of just how much is out there. We think we're being conservative with that figure."

　　"What about the oldest? Who's the oldest on the list?"

　　"The oldest is a lady named Dorothy Stimson Bullit. And she's known out in the Washington State. She has some radio stations and real estate out there. The lady is ninety-four."

　　"Do you get any mail response from this? People write in and have comments about it?"

　　"We get people writing in saying, 'Gee, you missed so-and-so.' Once in a while, we get somebody who writes in and says, 'You missed me.' He's usually exaggerating."

　　Harry Seneker, Senior Editor of Forbes magazine.