视听说听力原文lesson1

1、Lesson 1 NapoleonToday, I ' m going to talk to you about one of the most important historical figures in European history: Napoleon Bonaparte. Let by talk ing about his early life. Napole on was born in 1769 on the isla nd of Corsica. Whe n he was on ly 10 years old, his father sent him to milit

2、ary school in Fra nee. Napole on was not a very good stude nt in most of his classes, but he excelled in mathematics and military scienee. When he was 16 years old,he joined the French army. In that year 1785,he began the military career that would bring him fame ,power,riches and fin ally defeat. N

3、apole on became a gen eral in the Fre nch army at the young age of 24. Napole on had many victories on the battlefield but he also became involved in French law and politics. And in 1804, at the age of 35,he became the first emperor of the Fra nee.Napoleon was many things. He was, first of all, a br

4、illiant military leader. His soldiers were ready to die for him. As a result, N.won many military victories. At one time he con trolled most of Europe, but some countries, including England, Russia, and Austria fought fiercely against him. His defeat “ his end ” came when he decided to attack Russia

5、. In this military campaig n aga inst Russia, he lost most of his army.The great French conq ueror died alone deserted by his family and friends in 1821. Napole on was only 51 years old whe n he died.Less on 2 PompeiiThe lecture for this class is about the city of Pompeii. A natural disaster occurre

6、d there almost 2000 years ago.Today many rich people who live in large metropolitan areas such as Beiji ng, Paris and New York leave the city in the summer. They go to the mountains or to the seashore to escape the city no ise and heat.2,000 years ago, wealthy Roma ns did the same thin g.They left t

7、he city of Rome in the summer. Many of these wealthy Roma ns spe nt their summers in the city of Pompeii, a beautiful city, located on the Bay of Naples.In the summer of the year 79 C.E., a young Roma n boy who later became a very famous Roman historian was visiting his uncle in P. The boy n ame was

8、 Pli ny the Youn ger. One day Pli ny was look ing up at the sky.He saw a frighte ning sight. It was a very large dark cloud. This black cloud rose high into the sky. What Pliny saw was the eruption of the volca no called Mount Vesuvius.Rock and ash flew through the air. The city of P . was at the fo

9、ot of Mt. V. When the volcano first erupted, many people were able to get out of the city and to escape death. In fact, 18,000 people escaped the terrible disaster. Un fortun ately, there was not eno ugh time for every one to escape. More tha n 2,000 people died. These uni uckypeople were buried ali

10、ve under the volcanic ash.The eruption lasted for about 3 days. When the eruption was over, P . was buried under 20 feet of volca nic rock and ash. The city of P . was forgotte n for almost 1,700 years.In the year of 1748 an Italian farmer was digging on his farm. As he was digg ing, he un covered a

11、 part of a wall of the an cie nt city of P. Soon archaeologists bega n to dig in the area. As time went by, much of the ancient city of P. was uncovered. Today tourists come from all over the world to see the ruins of the famous city of Pompeii.Lesson 4 Roller CoasterLet's talk about the physics

12、 involved in a ride on a roller coaster. I'm sure many of you have take n a ride on a roller coaster. A simple roller coaster con sists of a frame with a track on it. The track is very much like a train track, this track goes over a series of hills and around curves. It follows a path that ends

13、at the same place it started. A train of cars travels around on this track, very fast. The cars have two sets of wheels. One set of wheels rolls on top of the track, and the others set of wheels rolls below the track. The wheels below the track keep the fast movi ng cars from coming off the track, r

14、oller coaster cars as you probably know don't have any motors or engin es. In stead, a cha in pulls the cars up the first, tallest and steepy staff hill, this is how the ridebegins. Then, at the top of the hill the chain comes off the cars and gravity takes over. gravity pushes the cars dow n th

15、e other side of the hill. the taller and steeper the first hill is, the faster the ride will be. And the farther the cars will travel. as the cars rolled downhill they gained speed. the cars have eno ugh speed and en ergy to send them up the n ext hill. as the cars n ear the top of the sec ond hill

16、they beg in to slow dow n. but the n, the cars reached the top of that hill, and start dow n the other side. gravity aga in pushes them toward the ground. this process repeats on each hale. Okay, so let's go over this process aga in. first, the cars are pulled by a chain up the first highest hil

17、l. then they go dow n a very steep slope, at this point, there is eno ugh en ergy to pull the cars up and over the n ext hill. whe n they reached the bottom of that hill, there is eno ugh en ergy to climb the n ext hill, the roller coaster cars lose en ergy as the ride continu es. so, the hills have

18、 to be smaller toward the end of the track, fin ally we roll to a stop on ground level right where we bega n.Lesson 5 Language: How Children Acquire TheirsWhat I 'lie to talk to you about today is the topic of child Ian guage developme nt. I know that you all are trying to develop a sec ond Ian

19、guage, but for a moment, let 'think about a related topic, and that is: How childre n develop their first Ian guage.What do we know about how babies develop their Ianguage and com muni cati on ability? Well, we know babies are able to com muni cate as soon as they are born, eve n before they lea

20、r n to speak their first Ian guage. At first, they com muni cate by cry ing. This crying lets their pare nts know whe n they are hun gry, or un happy, or un comfortable. However, they soon begi n the process of acquir ing their Ian guage. The first state of Ian guage acquisition begins just a few we

21、eks after birth. At this stage, babies start to make cooing no ises whe n they are happy. Then, aro und four mon ths of age they begi n to babble. Babies all over the world beg in to babble around the same age, and they all begi n to make the same kinds of babbli ng no ises. Now, by the time they ar

22、e ten mon ths old, however, the babbli ng of babies from different Ianguage backgrounds sounds different. For example, the babbling of a baby in a Chinese-speakinghome sounds differe nt from the babbli ng of a baby in an En glish-speak ing home. Babies begi n a new stage of Ian guage developme nt wh

23、e n they beg in to speak their first words. At first, they invent their own words for things. For example, a baby in an English-speaking home may say-baba II for the word bottle II or kiki II for cat. I In the n ext few mon ths, babies will acquire a lot of words. These words are usually the n ames

24、of things that are in the baby ' s environment, words for food or toys, for example. They will begi n to use these words to com muni cate with others. For example, if a baby holds up an empty juice bottle and the n says juice, II to his father, the baby seems to be saying, I want more juice, Dad

25、dy II or May I have more juice, Daddy? This word juice II is really a on e-word senten ce.Now, the n ext stage of Ian guage acquisiti on begi ns around the age of 18 mon ths, whe n the babies begi n to say two-word senten ces. They begi n to use a kind of grammar to put these words together. The spe

26、ech they produce is called telegraphic II speech because the babies omit all but the most essential words. An English-speaking child might say something like Daddy, up II which actually could mean Daddy, pick me up, please. I Then, between two and three years of age, young children begi n to lear n

27、more and more grammar. For example, they beg in to use the past tense of verbs. The childre n begi n to say thi ngs such as I walked home II and I kissed Mommy. II They also beg in to overgeneralize this new grammar rule and make a log of grammar mistakes. For example, childre n ofte n say such thi

28、ns aI goed to bed II in stead of I went to bed, I or I eated ice cream II in stead of I ate ice cream 11 In other words, the childre n have lear ned the past tense rule for regular verbs such as walk I and kiss, I but they haven' t learned that they cannot use this rule for all verbs. Some verbs

29、 like eat II are irregular, and the past tense forms for irregular verbs must be learned in dividually. Any way, these mistakes are n ormal, and the childre n will soon learn to use the past tense for regular and irregular verbscorrectly. The children then continue to learn other grammatical structu

30、res in the same way.If we stop to think about it, actually it' s quite amazing how quickly band childre n all over the world lear n their Ian guage and how similar the process is for babies all over the world.Do you remember any thi ng about how you lear ned your first Ian guage during the early

31、 years of your life? Think about the process for a minute. What was your first word? Was it mama II or maybe papa II ? Now think also about the process of learning English as a second Ianguage. Can you remember the first word you learned in English? I doubt that it was mama. II Now, think about some

32、 of the similarities and differe nces invo Ived in the processes of child and adult Ian guage lear ning. We' ll talk about some similarities and differences in the first and secondIan guage lear ning processes tomorrow. See you the n.Lesson 7 RobotsWhen people think about a robot, they often pic

33、ture a machine that look ssomething like a human being. However,that 'not always the case.Mo st robots do not look much like a human being at all, they look like machi nes becausethat 'what most of them are- in dustrial machi nes.Today,I ' igoi ngto talk mostly about in dustrial robots u

34、sedi n in dustry.Theseare robots that do work that for humans would be physicallydemandin g, repetitive, dan gerousor very bori ng. Most in dustrial robots work on in an assemblyline in a factory. Forexample, a robot might put liz on j ars of fruits or start boxesforshaping. In a car factory, roboti

35、c arms on an assemblyli ne jo in the parts of a car together; other robots tighte n the b oats on the car 'wheelsor paint the car.Thereare thousandsof robots p utting carstogether in plan. Theserobots are very precise when repe ating a task. For example, they always tighten boats with the same e

36、xact amount of force. They always move a heavy engineto exactly where it sh ould be a nd they always put ahold in the exact same place i n every card oor hour after hour. Theseare examplesof robots doing the work human scould do but the robots are doing the work more efficiently and precise ly.So,ju

37、st how do robots work? Todo its job a robot first needsacontrol s ystem. Thiscontrol system directs the robots mechanical parts. Thecontr ol system of a robot is sort of speak- a robot bra in. So how does a robot lear n which acti on to do first and whi ch of its moving part needsto do that action?

38、A robot learns its job with the help a ndguida nee of a huma n bein g. To teach a nin dustrial robot to do something, first a person must use a handheld computer. The computer is used to guide the robot 'aism and hand through the motions it needsto do. Then, the robot stores exact movem ent in i

39、ts computer memory. The robot hassensorsto gather information,so now the robot will use its sensorsto direct its actions. The robot tells its moving part what to do and then it performs the action. Forexample, to pick up and move a box, the robot first finds the box, next it decidest he weight of th

40、e box. The nit decideshow much force is n eeded to lift an d move the box, and fin ally, it fin ds the correct place to put the boxdow n .It repeatsthe processover and over un til it's tur ned off. It doesthe sa me job until it is giventhe job and new program to follow. Somescientist sthink that

41、 robots of the future will be smarter than today's robots. They may alsolook more huma n like or eve nani mal like. In fact, they may wo rk and think more like humans do. Theindustrial robots we've been talki ng about so far today are automatic robots.They are k nown asautomatic robots becau

42、se they have program to follo w a specific series of movement. Usually, they have parts that move but t hey really don't travel around. On the other hand, an autonomous machi ne can changeitsbehavior in relation to its surroundings. Forexample,an autonomous robot with wheelsor legsto move around

43、 canchangedirec tion when it sensesthat there are something in its way. A robot such as candetect the movement of people nearby. It can move to avoid bump ing into sb. coming toward it. Asthma can even learn to dance by followi ngthe movements of a dancer next to it. I don't know whether or when

44、 people would welcome autonomousmachinesor human like robots. I gu ess that we will not only thi nk about that in the future. We n eed to thinkabout how we will in teract with our global doctor: robal teacher, robal pet, or even our robal friend.Lesson 8 A Tidal WaveA tidal wave is a very large and

45、very destructive wall of water that rushesin from the ocea n towards the shore. Many scie ntists call these wavestsun ami. I n Japa nese tsun ami means“ storm wave. ” But do you know thattidal are not caused by storms and that they are not true tidal at all? Atrue tidal is the regular rise a waves a

46、nd fall of ocean waters, at definitetimes each day, but a tidal wave comes rushing in suddenly and un expectedly. A tidal wave is caused by an un derwater earthquake. The word “ seaquake ” is made up of two words, the word“ sea ” which me“ oceanand the word “ quake ” “Tquake ” means “ toshake ”or “

47、totremble. ” When a seaquake takes place at the bottom of the ocean, the ocean floor shakes and trembles, and sometimes the ocean floor shifts. It is this shak ing that produces the tidal wave. The tidal wave beg ins to move across the sea at great speed.Tidal waves have take n many huma n lives in

48、the past. Today scie ntists can predict when a tidal wave will hit land. They use a seismograph to do this.A seismograph is an in strume nt that records the stre ngth, the directi on,and the length of time of an earthquake or seaquake. It is not possible to hold back a tidal wave, but it is possible

49、 to warn people that a tidal waveis coming. This warni ng can save many lives.Lesson 9 Levels of LanguageToday I want to talk about levels of Ian guage usage. You probably have no ticed that people express similar ideas in differe nt ways, depe nding on the situation they are in. This is very natura

50、l. All Ianguages have two general, broad categories, or levels of usage: a formal level and an in formal level. En glish is no exceptio n. I' m n ot talki ng about correct anin correct En glish. What I' m talk ing about are two levels of correct En glish.The difference in these two levels is

51、 the situation in which you use a particular level. Formal Ianguage is the kind of Ianguage you find in textbooks, reference books such as en cyclopedias, and in bus in ess letters.For example, a letter to a uni versity would be in formal style. You would also use formal English in compositions and

52、essays that you write in school.People usually use formal English when they give classroom lectures or speeches and at cere monies such as graduati ons. We also tend to use formal language in conversations with persons we don' t know well or wpeople we have a formal relati on ship with, such as

53、professors, bosses, doctors, friends of our pare nts' , stra ngers, etc. In formal la nguage is usedin conversations with colleagues, family and friends, and when we write personal notes or letters to close friends, as well as in diaries, etc.Formal Ian guage is differe nt from in formal Ian gua

54、ge in several ways.However, today I ' m going to talk only about a couple of ways. First of all, formal Ianguage tends to be more polite. Interestingly, it usually takes more words to be polite. For example, I might say to a friend or family member, "Close the door, please", but to a s

55、tra nger or some one in authority I probably would say "Would you mind closing the door" or "Excuse me, could you please close the door" Using words like "could" and "would" makes my request sound more polite, but also more formal.Ano ther differe nee betwee n

56、 formal and in formal la nguage is some of the vocabulary. There are some words and phrases that belong in formal Ian guage and others that are in formal. Let me give you a couple of examples of what I mean. Let' s say "I ' m just crazy about soccer!" But if Iwere talking to my sup

57、ervisor or a friend of my parents' , I would presay "I really enjoy soccer" or "I like soccer very much". Let' s sasome one some n ews I heard about the police arrest ing a crim in al. To my friend I might say "The cops bagged the crook". To my pare nts' fri

58、emight say "The police arrested the thief".Although the line betwee n formal and in formal la nguage is not always clear and although people are probably less formal today tha n in the past, it is useful to be aware that these two levels, or categories, do exist. The best way for a non-nat

59、ive speaker of English to learn the difference is to observe the different ways English speakers speak or write in different situatio ns. Televisio n n ewscasters, your college professors in class, yourdoctors in their offices, etc, will usually speak rather formally. However, your classmates, teammates, family members, frie nds, etc. will gen erally speak in an in formal fashi on. The differe nce can be lear ned over time by observ ing and in teract ing with n ative speakers.Lesson 10 Power: The Kinds People Use and AbuseJoh n Mack, who is the author of a book about power, says that the