视听阅读3-Home-Listening-原文(上)

1、Unit 1 HOME LISTENINGaudio SCRIPTTarantula Pets In recent years, tarantulas have become increasingly popular as pets. For many people, caring for these creatures has become an enormously entertaining and educational hobby. There are over 800 different species to choose from and the majority of them

2、are very easy to care for. Handling a tarantula When one is considering getting a tarantula, it is important to be aware that experts do not advocate handling them regularly. Not to protect the pet owner, but to prevent stress and injury to the spider. Tarantulas are not aggressive unless threatened

3、 by an abrupt motion, so gentle handling isnt usually a problem. If a person is bitten, the bite generally only causes redness and swelling similar to a bee sting. However, even a short fall can cause the delicate outer covering of the tarantulas body, its “carapace(壳),” to break, causing it to blee

4、d to death. Choosing a tarantula Tarantulas can be purchased in pet stores, at pet shows, or even over the Internet. It is advisable to buy a spider only from a knowledgeable dealer who knows its exact scientific name and has already determined its sex. Knowing the species is important because each

5、one requires slightly different care and feeding. Being aware of the sex is important because female tarantulas live much longer than males. A typical female can live for as long as 20 years, while most males die within a year or two. The most important aspect of purchasing a tarantula is making sur

6、e that it is healthy. A tarantula that is shrinking back in a corner with its legs pulled in under itself is probably dying. Caring for a tarantula For the most part, adult tarantulas require very little care. They should be fed once a week but can easily last for two weeks without any food. The cag

7、e requires only an annual cleaning. However, a tarantula regularly goes through a process called “molting” in which it works its soft inner body out of its existing carapace and produces a new one. During the process, the spiders soft inner body is temporarily exposed and it can easily be injured or

8、 killed. It is essential not to disturb the spider during this process and, if there are signs that the tarantula is bleeding (its blood is pale blue), it may be necessary to coat the injured area with a hard substance to stop the loss of blood.Unit2 HOME LISTENINGHEINLE TimesHomes for Humans A Sanc

9、tuary（避难所） for KoalasNew South Wales, March 8 Koalas, with their cute, expressive faces and gentle behavior, are a favorite of animal-lovers all over the world. They exist only in Australia, and in the early 1900s, a demand for coats made from the soft, gray fur of these animals threatened to destro

10、y the entire species. In the 1930s the Australian government passed legislation to protect the animals, but that didnt solve the problem. Since then, the clearing of land for development has displaced large numbers of koalas and resulted in an even greater threat to the survival of the species. Luck

11、ily, as urban development continues to spread, some Australian construction companies are trying to find ways to balance the issues. They are working to create new housing for humans, while giving priority to protecting the habitat of the koalas. The developers of Koala Beach Estates on the north co

12、ast of New South Wales have managed to do just that. Theyve been able to follow the dictates（指示） of an ecologically sensitive（敏感） building program, while also providing an attractive living environment for people. Work on the project began in 1993 with a thorough survey of the local koala population

13、. First, a researcher for the Australian Koala Foundation fitted koalas in the area with radio transmitters. The information gathered by the researcher showed which koalas were permanent residents and which were visitors, and also which areas of the proposed development even which specific trees wer

14、e used by the koalas. As a result of this study, the entire housing development was designed around the koalas habitats. Other koala-friendly components（组成） were included at Koala Beach Estates. Dogs and cats were banned from the development because they sometimes kill koalas. Planners also provided

15、 traffic calming elements such as speed prevention methods and warning signs to protect the animals from cars. Since koalas have favorite paths between food trees, all fences were raised 30 centimeters above the ground to allow them to pass easily underneath. Ropes were placed in swimming pools so k

16、oalas could climb out if they fell in. An enormous amount of careful planning went into the project, which resulted in a pleasant coincidence; twenty-five other rare or endangered species including bats, frogs, and birds ultimately（基本） chose Koala Beach as their home. This bonus（红利） has increased ho

17、meowners excitement over this outstanding wildlife-friendly community even more than expected.Unit 3 August 10thTo the members of the city council of Albion, As a lifelong resident of Albion, I have seen many changes to our beautiful town. Fifty years ago, the population was 32,000 and Main Street w

18、as the center of everything. People went there to shop, eat in restaurants, see movies, and sometimes just walk around and visit with people. Today, Albions population is over 80,000 and nobody even thinks about going downtown. We shop at malls and shopping centers and on the Internet. We take out f

19、ast food and stay home and watch TV. Most of the downtown businesses have closed, putting people out of work, and taking away thousands of dollars of city tax revenues. I advocate a radical（基本的） proposal to turn things around. Lets declare the four block area to the north of Main Street a pedestrian

20、-only （只可步行）zone. Once we accomplish that, we can begin creating a lively street scene with antique（古董的） stores, open-air markets, sidewalk cafs, and street musicians or other performers. Instead of going to another city for entertainment, people may start making downtown Albion their free-time dest

21、ination. Parents can bring their children, and teenagers would be able to get together in a safe, public setting. New public transportation options（选择） could encourage people to leave their cars at home and provide the city with additional income. The changes could also have economic benefits for th

22、e city. Art galleries, clothing stores, and other businesses might begin to convert (转变)the abandoned stores into new businesses, providing renewed visitor traffic. As downtown street life becomes more exciting, Main Street could also begin to attract new residents. Young people responding to the en

23、ergizing atmosphere may move into the apartments above the stores. In this instance（实例）, real estate（不动产） investors（投资） will start building new apartments, providing new housing as well as work for local residents. All of this activity would help to restore（重建） the citys commercial and residential(住

24、宅的) tax base. If you want confirmation that this kind of plan works, just look at Springfields results. When they instituted(创立) their pedestrian-only zone in 2003, the changes were dramatic（戏剧性的）. Restaurants and hotels began to fill up, tax revenues（收入） rose, unemployment rates went down, and ther

25、e were even fewer auto accidents and deaths. At the same time, the people of the town gained an exciting new neighborhood. I certainly hope youll give this idea your serious consideration.Unit 4Museum News Traveling Exhibitions In the past, if a person wanted to see the national treasures of a count

26、ry, one had to go there in person. Therefore, very few people were able to enjoy some of historys most important and fascinating artifacts. This has changed with a recent increase in the number of traveling museum exhibitions. Today, more and more Ministries of Culture and federal government offices

27、 are allowing important historical and artistic works to be taken on around-the-world journeys to allow people everywhere to witness them with their own eyes.King Tutankhamen Artifacts A traveling exhibition of artifacts from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, popularly known as “King Tut,” toured the Un

28、ited States from November 1976 to April 1979. The 55 objects in this display were shown in six cities and were seen by around eight million museum-goers. A subsequent （后来的）touring exhibit was launched in 2007, this time with 130 artifacts（史前古器物） and stops in London and three different American citie

29、s. However some items, like the kings golden face mask, are too valuable or too delicate to be transported long distances, so “replicas（复制品）,” or pieces which simulate（模仿） the real piece, are featured in the show. Japanese Color Woodblock Prints The University of Virginia Art Museum, in Charlottesvi

30、lle, Virginia, has an extraordinary collection of Japanese color woodblock（木板） prints. These prints document the period from about 1850 to 1900, a time when Japan was opening itself to Western influences. Before this point, Japan was a closed society that had little contact with the world outside of

31、 its borders. These works of art beautifully show the feeling of change and the trend toward modernization. The museum has put together a traveling exhibition of 60 of these prints, which can be borrowed and exhibited worldwide for periods of eight weeks or more.Face-to-face with “Lucy” One of the w

32、orlds most famous archaeological（考古学） finds in history are the 3.2 million-year-old bones of a 106-centimeter-tall female found in the Ethiopian desert in 1974. Lucy, a name given to her by the discovery team, is a “hominid（原始人类）,” or a creature that scientists believe is a primitive ancestor of mod

33、ern human beings. Anthropologists（人类学） believe that human life began in this region, and Lucy is important to our understanding the evolution of humans. Rarely is an artifact this valuable allowed to travel widely, but Lucy has been taken to several museums in the U.S. while a detailed replica（仿真品）

34、remains at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum.Unit 5New ScienceDinosaur Debate There are several differing theories about what happened to the dinosaurs. Scientists agree that about 50 percent of all the plants and animals that existed on earth became extinct about 65 million years ago. They also

35、agree that at a similar time, a huge piece of rock from outer space, called a “meteorite,” landed in Mexico. Using this as a starting point, Doctor of Physics Luis Alvarez proposed the following theory: the impact of the meteorite was so strong that it caused enormous clouds of dirt and dust to cove

36、r the sky, blocking out the sun and causing the temperature on Earth to fall greatly. The result was called “impact winter.” Followers of this theory believe that during this cool period, many types of plants died out, which in turn resulted in the extinction of many animals on Earth, including dino

37、saurs. Other scientists have somewhat different interpretations（解释） of why the dinosaurs disappeared. Dewey McLean, a geologist at Virginia Polytechnic University, agrees that the impact caused severe changes in the earths climate. However, he believes that the earth was already experiencing an overall rise in the temperature of its atmosphere called “global warming.” He felt that this was due to extremely active volcanoes on the Indian subcontinent（次大陆）,