新编大学英语(第三版浙江大学编著)4视听说教程原文Unit 6
郑州大学自主招生-一年级数学期末试卷
新编大学英语（第三版浙江大学编著）4视听说教程原文
Unit6
Part1
Listening 1
Husband: Oh! It’s
unbelievable!
Wife: What’s the matter?
Husband: The article says that lifespan varies
according to race, income level and whether you
are male or female. Now, can you guess which
is the most important factor?
Wife: Hmm, I
think it might be the sex.
Husband: That’s
right! My grandma lived four years longer than my
grandpa. Generally speaking,
women live longer
than men. In 1993, the average lifespan of women
was 6.9 years longer than
that of men in the
United States.
Wife: 6.9 years! I can’t
believe it. Then how about race?
Husband:
About race, the paper says white women live 5.1
years longer than black women.
Wife: So this
means I am doubly lucky since I am a white woman.
Husband: Yes. But actually the largest risk
you could run is being poor. Being poor is far
more
likely to kill you than smoking,
drinking, a hereditary disease, or an unhealthy
lifestyle.
Wife: That’s true. If you are poor,
you may not have good living conditions, good
medical care and
good nutrition. But still I
have a question. Why do women live longer than
men?
Husband: I think you’d better ask the
experts.
Listening 2
The possibility that something bad will happen
is a risk. Risk can also be defined as the degree
of
danger that goes along with an opportunity.
All risks have possible negative results. However,
some risks are worth taking. For example,
suppose that you have the chance to join a school
football team. You risk a possible injury
while playing to achieve the sense of
accomplishment
that comes with being on the
team. You decide that the pleasure of playing is
worth the risk of
injury. By being fit, you
can also reduce the risk of physical injury.
How can we determine the risks involved in an
action? Many risks that relate to health choices
have been studied. These risks relate to
choices made over activities or behavior that
influence
one’s health, either positively or
negatively. Scientists can use statistics to
measure these risks.
Statistics is a branch of
mathematics that helps determine the possibility
that something will
occur. The
information about this possibility is called
statistical risk and can help you make
healthy
choices.
For example, statistics indicate that
in the United States the chance of dying from
cancer is about
20 percent. In other words,
two out of every 10 deaths are due to some kind of
cancer. Therefore,
the risk of death from
cancer is quite high. However, statistics also
show that 80 percent of all
cancers are
related to things over which you have some
control. In other words, you can make
choices
that will reduce your risk of developing cancer.
These include such things as avoiding
pollution, not smoking and eating a diet high
in fiber. If you do these things, you are less
likely to
develop cancer.
Listening 3
If you plan to go
hiking in the wilderness or a national park, make
sure you are prepared. A
compass, a knife, and
maps are all essential items to take with you. You
should also take wooden
matches in a
waterproof case; some concentrated food such as
nuts and dried fruit and water in
a canteen.
Plan for emergencies as well. Take along first-aid
equipment, shelter for the rain, and
extra
clothes. In order to stay warm, your head, hands
and feet must be kept warm, so you
should
bring gloves, extra socks and a wool hat.
If
you get lost in the woods, first try to backtrack
and find the trail you were on. Look for trail
signs other people may have left, such as
piles of rocks, tied bunches of grass, or broken
branches.
Sit down and try to figure out which
direction you came from and then go back that way.
If you can’t find the trail, try to explore
the area, making your path as you go. Climb a tree
and
look for landmarks. During the day, look
for roads or rooftops in the distance. At night,
look for
lights and sniff the air. You may be
able to smell smoke from a campfire. If you detect
any of these
signs, start to walk in their
direction, but if it is dark, find shelter for the
night and wait until the
morning. Even a full
moon won’t give you enough light to see; it can
throw shadows that hide
dangers.
If you
are lost, do not expect to be rescued. Even if
someone knows you are lost and sends out a
search party, it may not find you. Therefore,
if you can get out on your own, do so. However, if
you cannot move far for some reason, build a
bright fire at night and a smoky one during the
day.
Try to clear an area that can be seen
from the air, and use rocks to write a message.
You can also
use bright colors, shiny metal or
mirrors to signal aircraft. Above all, do not
panic.
Listening 4
I’ve been in a lot of dangerous situations.
Over in Bolivia, for example, I was working for a
small
airline, and we carried just about
everything: animals, whisky, dynamite, and, of
course, people.
There were times when I felt I
was flying a bomb, not a place. Once I was taking
dynamite to the
mines. Dynamite! Man, I had
never seen so much. They had even put some on the
floor right
next to me. I was certainly
nervous on that trip. Well, I was flying over the
mountains when
suddenly the engine
stopped. Somehow I got my parachute on, and got
down without the plane,
but I was hurt. I was
flying out there for about four days before they
found me. They told me later
that they had
almost given me up for dead. Anyway, they got me
back to the hospital, and three
months later I
was flying again. No, I’m not afraid of flying.
But there’s a lot to worry about as a
pilot.
Part2
Listening 1
Balley: Hello, fire
service.
Grace: Oh, em, I’m ringing because I
think there’s a fire in the house across the
street. Smoke is
coming out of the upstairs
windows, and I can see flames too.
Balley: Can
you give me your name and address and telephone
number, Madam?
Grace: Yes. Grace Litton, 17
Mallett Street, Alford.
Balley: I’m sorry. Can
you spell Mallett, please?
Grace: yes, M, A,
double L, E, double T. The telephone number is
6943168. The fire’s in number
18, just across
the road.
Balley: Is anyone in the house?
Grace: No, they’ve gone on holiday. They went
to Bournemouth last Saturday, for two weeks.
Balley: All right, Madam. We’ll send a fire
engine up to Mallett Street straightaway.
Grace: What shall I do? Shall I warn the
neighbors?
Balley: Yes, you’d better tell the
people living next door, at number 16 and number
20. But don’t
go into the house.
Listening 2
Six days ago, in
Russia, a mine was flooded and lots of miners were
trapped underground.
Nobody knew how much air
was inside and what the situation was for the
tapped miners. Rescue
teams tried every way to
get some message from the miners, but it all
seemed in vain. This
caused worldwide
concerns. The accident was reported by the world
media. But this morning, to
people’s great
surprise, came the dramatic news that rescue teams
had dug 60 meters and
tunneled through. They
had discovered survivors in the part of the mine
not flooded. For the rest
of the miners,
however, those were really anxious moments. They
had prepared themselves for
the worst. Now
suddenly there was hope that they could see their
loved ones again. And then
they too were
rescued and brought out of the mine. Exhausted and
wounded, they were not
strong enough to wave
to their relatives or friends. Wrapped with
blankets, these survivors were
carefully handed over to the ambulances
and taken to nearby hospital. However, not
everyone
survived. One miner was reported to
have been found dead, another missing.
Listening 3
Joe Burns is a
famous racing driver. He is being interviewed on a
sports program.
Reporter: You’ve had a very
dangerous life, haven’t you, Joe? I mean, you’ve
been almost killed
several times?
Joe:
Yes. I suppose that’s right.
Reporter: When
was your worst accident?
Joe: I’d say last
year. It was during the British Grand Prix. I
smashed into a wall. The car was
completely
ruined and my left leg was broken. Luckily, nobody
was killed.
Reporter: Is that the only time
you’ve been close to death?
Joe: No. Once,
during the Mexican Grand Prix, two cars in front
of me had a bad accident. One of
them ran into
the other. I swerved to avoid them and hit a
fence. My car was badly damaged, but
luckily,
I wasn’t even hurt.
Reporter: You must enjoy
danger. I mean, you wouldn’t be a racing-driver
otherwise?
Joe: I don’t know about that. I had
a very frightening experience quite recently. I
was frightened
to death! I thought I was going
to be killed at any moment.
Reporter: Really?
Was that during your last race?
Joe: No. It
was on my way to this studio. I had to drive
through London during rush hour.
Listening 4
On the morning of
April 10, 1912, the luxury liner, Titanic, left
English on a voyage to New York.
Four days
later, she lay at the bottom of the Atlantic
Ocean. On July 18, 1956, the ocean liner,
Andrea Doria, left Italy. It was also
traveling to New York. Eight days later, this
great ship also lay
at the bottom of the
Atlantic.
The sinking of these two huge ships
shocked the world. Reports of the two tragedies
filled the
newspapers for days. When Andrea
Doria went down, people compared her sinking with
the
sinking of Titanic. There were
similarities between the two events; however,
there were also
important differences.
What were some of these similarities? First of
all, both ships were transatlantic ocean liners.
In
addition, they were both luxury liners.
They carried many of the world’s rich and famous
people.
In fact, 10 American millionaires lost
their lives when Titanic went down. Today,
millions of dollars
worth of gold, silver and
cash may still remain locked inside these two
sunken ships.
Another similarity, is that as
each ship was sinking, there were acts of heroism
and of evil. Some
people even gave up their
lives so that others could live. There were also
some people who acted
like cowards. For
example, one man on Titanic dressed up as a woman
so that he could get into a
lifeboat and save
his own life. One last similarity, is that both of
these ships were considered
“unsinkable”. People believed that they
would never sink.
There are also differences
between these great ship disasters. To begin with,
Titanic was on her
very first voyage across
the Atlantic; Andrea Doria, on the other hand, was
on her hundred and
first transatlantic
crossing. Another difference is that the ships
sank for different reasons. Titanic
struck an
iceberg; while Andrea Doria collided with another
ship. Also, Andrea Doria had radar to
warn of
the approach of another ship; but Titanic was not
equipped with radar—It had only a
lookout. The
lookout was only able to see the iceberg moments
before the ship struck it. But, of
course, the
greatest difference between these two terrible
accidents is the number of lives lost.
When
Titanic sank, more than 1500 people died—They
drowned or froze to death in the icy,
North
Atlantic water. Also, about 700 people survived
the sinking. In the Andrea Doria accident,
60
people lost their lives, and around 1650 lives
were saved. One of the reasons that so many
people died on Titanic is that the ship was
considered to be unsinkable, and so there were
about
half the number of necessary lifeboats
to rescue all the people aboard. Andrea Doria had
more
than enough lifeboats to rescue every
person on the ship. However, they were only able
to use
about half of the lifeboats due to a
mechanical problem. The passengers and crew of
Andrea
Doria were very lucky that another ship
was able to rescue most of them. The passengers on
Titanic were not so fortunate. It is
interesting too that the wreck of Titanic was only
found in
September, 1985.