【英语考试托福】TPO17听力文本共(8页)

1、TPO 17ConversationNarrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.Professor OK, let ' s see. Right, Modern Stagings of a Shakespearian Classic. Well, like I told you last week, I think that ' s a great topic for you paper. So theet would be something like . uh .Student I

2、 am not really sure, probably something like 20th century stagings of A Midsummer Night ' s Dre am Professor Yes, I like that. Straightforward and to the point. So how is the research going?Student Well, t hat ' s what I came to talk to you about. I was wondering if you happen to have a copy

3、 of the Peter Brook production of A Midsummer Night ' Dream in your video collection. I ' vbeen looking for it everywhere and I am having a really hard time tracking it down.Professor That ' s because it doesn ' t exist.Student You mean in your collection? Or at all?Professor I mean

4、at all. That particular production was never filmed or recorded.Student Oh no. I had no idea. From what I read, that production, like, it influenced every other production of the play that came after it. So I just assumed it had been filmed or videotape d.Professor Oh, It definitely was a landmark p

5、roduction. And it ' s not like it ran for just a week, but either it was never filmed or if it was the film' s been lost. Aodict because there ' s even a film about the making of the production,but none of the production itself.Student So now what do I do? If there is no video.Professor

6、Well, think about it. This is the most i mportant 20th century staging of A Midsummer Night' s Dream, right?Student But how can I write about Brook' s interpretation of the play if I can' t see his production.Professor Just because there ' s no recording doesn ' t mean you canihf

7、lu egued oth howroductions.Student Yeah, I guess there ' s enough material around, but it will be a challenge.Professor True. But think about it, you are writing about dramatic arts, the theater, and that' s the nit?Student You mean because it is live, when the performance is finished .Profe

8、ssor That ' s it. Unless it ' s filmed, it ' s gone. But that doesn ' t mean we can ' t study it. And of cour this class are writing about productions in the 19th century, there are no videos of those. You know, one of the challenges for people who study theater is to find way of

9、 talking about something thattransient 短暂的s reaOyso 转瞬即逝的,about something that, in a sense, doesn ' t exist.Lecture 1 -Art History ( Prehistoric Art Dating )Narrator Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.Professor Good morning, ready to continue our review of prehistoric art? Today

10、, we will be covering the UpperPaleolithic Period 旧石器时代 ,which I am roughly defining as the period from 35,000 to 8,000 BC. A lot of those cave drawings you have all seen come from this period. But we are also be talking about portable works of art, things that could be carried around from place to

11、place . Here is one example.This sculpture is called the Lady with the Hood, and it was carved from ivory 象牙,probably a mammothtugksK牙、糠牙.Its age is a bit of a mystery. According to one source, it dates from 22,000 BC. But other sources claimed it has been dated closer to 30,000 BC. Amy?Amy Why don

12、' t we know the exact date when this head was made?Professor That ' s a fair question. We are talking about prehistory here. So obviously the artists didn put a signature or a date on anything they did. So how do we know when this figure was carved?Tom Last semester I took an archaeology 考古学

13、 class and we spent a lot time on, studying ways to date things. One technique I remember was using the location of an object to date it, like how deep it was buried.Professor That would be Stratigraphy 地层学；地层情况.Stratigraphy is used for dating portable art. Whenarchaeologist s are digging at a site,

14、 they make very careful notes about which stratum 岩层、地层 (strata ), which layer of earth they find things in. And, you know, the general rule is that the oldest layers are at the lowest level. But this only works if the site hasn ' t been touched, and the layers arel无缺的； 未经触动的； 未受损伤的.A problem wi

15、th this dating method is that an object could have been carried around, used for several generations before it was discard ed. So it might be much older than the layer or even the site where it was found. The stratification 层化、 成层 technique gives us the minimum age of an object, which isn' t nec

16、essarilly its true age. Tom, in your archaeology cldid you talk about radiocarbon dating 放百寸性碳年代测I定法 ?Tom Yeah, we did. That had to do with chemical analysis, something to do with measuring the amount of radiocarbon 放 射性碳、 碳的放射性同位元素 that ' s left in organic stuff. Because we know how fast radioc

17、arbondecays, we can figure out the age of the organic material.Professor The key word there is organic. Is art made of organic material?Tom Well, you said the lady with the hood was carved out of ivory. That' s organic.Professor Absolutely. Any other examples?Amy Well, when they did those cave d

18、rawings. Didn' chaeoafeor lrkaybe colors, dyes made from plants?Professor Fortunately, they did, at least some of the time. So it turns out that radiocarbon dating works for a lot of prehistoric art. But again there' s a problem. This technique destroys whafeit yoalyzee to chip off bits of t

19、heobject for testing. Obviously we are reluctant to do that in some cases. And apart from that, there ' s another problems. The date tells you the age of the material, say, a bone or a tree, the object is made from, but not the date when the artist actually created it. So, with radiocarbon datin

20、g, we get the maximum possible age for the object, but it could be younger.Ok, let ' s say our scientific analysis has produced an age range. Carnwsow it down?Amy Could we look for similar styles or motives? You know, try to find things common to one time period .Professor We do that all the tim

21、e. And when we see similiarities in pieces of art, we assume some connection in time or place. But is it possible that we could be imposing our own values on that analysis?Tom I am sorry. I dont get your point.Professor Well, we have all kinds of pre-conceived ideas about how artistic styles develop

22、. For example, a lot of people think the presence of details demonstrates that the work was done by a more sophisticated artist. While a lack of detail suggests a primitive style. But trends in art in the last century or so certainly challenge that idea. Don though, analyzing the styles of prehistor

23、ic art can help dating them. But we need to be careful with the idea that artistic development occurs in a straight line, from simple to complex representations.Amy What you are saying is, I mean, I get the feeling that this is like a legal process, like building a legal case, the more pieces of evi

24、dence we have, the closer we get to the truth.Professor Great analogy. And now you can see why we don ' t have an exact date for our sculpture, the lady with the hood.Lecture 2 -Environmental Science ( Milankovitch Hypothesis )Narrator Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental science clas

25、s.Professor Ok, so we have been talking about theories that deal with the effects of human activity on the climate. But today I ' d like to talk a little bit about other theorie that can explain variations in climate. And one of the best-known is called the Milankovitch Hypothesis .Now what the

26、Milankovitch Hypothesis is about? It says that variations in earth' s movements, specifically in its orbitaround the sun, these variations lead to differences in the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth. And it is these differences in the amount of energy that' s reaching earth from

27、 the sun, it is what causes variations in earthOk, a lot of people think of earth orbit around the sun as being perfectly circular 圆形的、 环形的、 循环的,as smooth and as regular as, say, the way that hands move on a well -made watch, but it just doesn ' work that way. You are probably aware that the ear

28、th' s orbit around the sun, it is rlikeshppefect circle. It is more of an oval 椭圆形的,it is elliptical 椭圆形的.But the shape of this orbit isn consistent, it varies over time, over a period of about a thousand years. Sometimes it is a little more circular, sometimes it is more elliptical. An d when e

29、arth ' s orbit is more elliptical, earth is actually closer to the sun during part of the year. Which makes earth, and in particular, the northern hemisphere, warmer. And why is that important? well, because most of the planet' orthlaoieneiaiisphehe； and if itgets too warm, then glaciers wil

30、l stop forming. And we' vealready talked about how that affects earth ' overall temperature.The second movement involved in the hypothesis has to do with axial tilt . The tilt of earth axis, thas imaginery pole that runs through the center of the earth. And depending on the angle it tilts at

31、, the seasons can be more or less severe. It makes winters cooler and summers warmer, or what some might say it is doing now, it makes summers less hot, and more importantly, the winters less cold. Which just like what I mentioned before, can also stop, prevent glaciers from forming, or cause them t

32、o melt.There is a third movement the hypothesis covers called precession 运动.Precession, basically is the change in the direction of earth 'axis of rotation 转动轴.It will take me a million years to explain even just the basics of this movement as precession is quite complex. And all these details a

33、re way beyond our scope. What 'important for you to understand is that these three movements, well, they are cyclical 轮转的、 循环的 ,and they work together to form, to produce complex but regular variation s 变化、变动 in earth ' s climate,land to the growth or decline of glaciers.Now, when Milankovit

34、ch first proposed this theory in the 1920s, many of his colleagues were skeptical 怀疑性的、 好怀 疑的.Milankovitch didn ' t have any proof. Actually there wouldn ' t be any evidence to support his hypothesis until the 1970s, when oceanographers 海洋学家 were able to drill deep into the seafloor and coll

35、ect samples, samples which were then analyzed by geologists. And from these samples they were able to put together a history of ocean temperatures going back hundreds of thousands of years, and this showed that earth 'climate had changed pretty much the way Milankovitch hypothesis suggested it w

36、ould. So this evidence was pretty strong support for the MilankovitchHypothesis. And by the 1980s, most people accepted this theory.However, in the late 1980s, some scientists were exploring Devil 'Hole, which is basically an extensive water-filled cave, far from the ocean, in Nevada2, in the we

37、stern United States. Over millions of years, groundwater left deposits of a mineral called calcite3 方解石,on the rock within Devil ' Hole. And by studying these calcite deposits, we can determine the climate conditions, the temperatures over the last half million years. Well, the Devil ' Hole

38、findings contradicted the ones obtained during the 1970s, so basically the question was, were the ages of one or both the samples were wrong, or were scientists misunderstanding the significance of the evidence.Well, in the 1990s, a new study was done on the two samples. And the ocean floor samples

39、were found to be correct, ascoHesond to 相were the samples from Devil ' s Hole. And nows generally believed that the sample from Devil 当于 variations in local climate, in the western United States, rather than global climate changes.Conversation 2Narrator Listen to a conversation between a student

40、 and a food service manager.Student Excuse me, Mrs. Hanson. My name is John, John Grant. I work as a waiter in the campus dining hall , in the faculty dining room.Manager What can I do for you, John?Student Well, I work week nights, except for Friday. I was wondering if I could switch from working t

41、he dinner service to working at lunch.Manager That ' s going to be a problem. I am afraid we donopeHing havteunch time. A lot of students want towork then, so it is really rare for us to have an open spot at that time of day.Student Oh, you see, I have joined this group, the University Jazz Band

42、 爵士乐队,and the band ' s practice time is right around dinner time. You know, it is so hard to get into this group, I must have audition ed 试听、试音 like ten times sinceI have been at the school, so I am . Anyway, so I was really hoping to have the dinner hour free so I can go to practice. Manager We

43、ll, we do have other open times, like breakfast.Student Eh, that won ' t work, I am soritynean that, I can ' t work that early. I have this very important music class I got to take, and it is like, first thing in the morning.Manager Well, if you don' mind working in the kitchen, we'

44、vegot some pretty flexible hours for students doing food-prep work, anything from early morning to late afternoon.Student What' s prep work?Manager You prepare food for the cooks. You know, like cutting up vegetables for soup, or cleaning greens for salads. Student Oh, that doesn ' t sound,

45、I meangBeiwaiter, I get to see a lot of the professors, like in a different light, we joke around a little you know. In the classroom, they always have to be pretty formal, but .Manager Well, the money is no different since we pay students the same amount for any of the jobs here in food service, so

46、 it ' s up to you.Student Oh, man. I always thought that sacrificing for 为而牺牲 my art, that 'mean working long hours as a musician for, like, no money. I didn' t think it ' d mean, peeling carrots.Manager Let me see, I am offering you something that has the hours you want, it is right

47、 here on campus, and you make as much money as you did being a waiter, quite a sacrifice.Student I am sorry, I know you are just trying to help. I guess I should look into the food-prep job.Manager Ok, then, I ' ll tell the kitchen manager that you vsiiop by tomorrow to talk about the job and sc

48、hedule your hours. And I will let the dining hall manager know that he needs to find a new waiter for the evening.Student Oh, ok, I guess that ' s it. Thanks, Mrs. Hanson.Lecture 3 -History(Ancient Egyptian Calendar)Narrator Listen to part of a lecture in a history class. The professor has been

49、discussing ancient Egypt.Professor Ok, so one of the challenges that faced ancient civilization s like Egypt was timekeeping , calendar s 日历、月 历.When you have to grow food for whole cities of people, it is important to plant your crops at the right time. Andwhen you start having financial obligation

50、s, rents, taxes, you have to keep track of how often you pay. So today we will look at how the Egyptian s adressed these problems. In fact, they ended up using two calendars, one to keep track of the natural world, or their agriculture concerns, and another one, that was used to keep track of the bu

51、siness functions of the Kingdom. So let 'take a look at the hows and whys of one ancient Egyptian calendar system, starting with the Nile River. Why the Nile? Well, there' s no other way to put it. Egyptian liferbasivally around the mysterious rise andfall of the river. The success of their

52、agriculture system depended upon them knowing when the river would change. So, naturally, their first calendar was divided up into three seasons, each based on the riverinunsathanges没、泛滥,subsidence 沉淀、陷没、下沉 and harvest.The first season was the flooding, or inundation, when the Nile valley was essent

53、ially submerge d in water for a few months or so. And afterwards during the season of subsidence, the water would subside, or recede, revealing a new layer of fertile black silt 淤泥 and allowing for the planting of various crops. And finally the time of the year would arrive when the valley would pro

54、duce crops, such as wheat, barley 大麦,fruit, all ready to harvest. Ok, so it was important to the ancient Egyptians to know when their Nile based seasons would occur, their way of life depended upon it.Now, the way they used to count time was based on the phases of the moon 月相,which, regularly and pr

55、edictably, goes through a cycle, starting with a new moon, then to a full moon , and back again to the new moon. Now this cycle wes then used to determine the length of their month. So, um, one lunar cycle 月运周期 was one Egyptian month, and about four of the months would constitute a season. Now, 12 o

56、f these months was an approximately 354-day year. So they had a 354-day agricultural calendar that was designed to help them determine when the Nile would inundate 淹没、(洪水般 地)涌来、充满 the land.Well, of course it had to be more complicated than that. The average amount of time between floodings wasn'

57、 t actually354 days. I mean, although it varies, the average was clearly longer than 354 days. So how did they keep this short calendar in step with the actual flooding of the Nile?Well, their astronomers had discovered that at a certain time of year the brightest star, Sirius 天狼星,would disappear. A

58、ctually, it ' d be hidden in the glare of the Sun. And then, a couple of months later, one morning in the eartern sky just before dawn, Sirius would reappear. And it happened regularly, about every 365 days. Even more significantly, the reappearance of Sirius would occur around the same time as

59、the Nile ' flooding. And this annual event is called a heliacal太阳的；和太阳同时或几乎同时出没的rising4.The heliacal rising was a fair indicator of when the Nile would flood. The next new moon, after the heliacal rising of Sirius, which happened in the last month of the calendar year, marked the New Year. And b

60、ecause the ancient Egyptians were using the lunar cycle in combination with this heliacal rising , some years ended up having 12 lunar months, while others had 13 lunar calender 阴历 months, if Sirius didn ' t rise in the 12th month.Even though the length of the agricultural calendar still fluctuate d, with some years having 12 months and others ha