2020年山西省英语专四、专八考试报名事宜通知

SECTION B INTERVIEW

Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.

Now listen to the interview.

听力原文：Interviewer: Well Charles, I must say that your shop is pretty remarkable. Um, it's basically a sweetshop, but you also do stationery and greeting cards and tobacco and fireworks

Shopkeeper: And newspapers.

Interviewer: And newspapers. Ah. And apart from all that, you've got photocopiers...

Shopkeeper: That's right.

Interviewer: And a fax machine.

Shopkeeper: Indeed.

Interviewer: Yes. How did. I mean, why the photocopiers?

Shopkeeper: Everything that's happened in my shop has almost happened by accident. But when I got into Clifton, I needed a photocopy one day and no one could tell me where to go. So it struck me that if I didn't know where to go, other people were in the same situation, so that's why I started it. And then I added on a facsimile machine because it seemed like a natural progression at the time. And all sorts of people use it.

Interviewer: Yes, who, what sort of people do use it?

Shopkeeper: Um, a lot of professional people —surveyors, engineers — particularly people who need to send plans. Because in the past you could send messages via telex, but a telex can't express a plan, whereas facsimile has that dimension, the added dimension.

Interviewer: Right. And do people send these fax messages abroad, or is it just to this country?

Shopkeeper: Well, it's surprising because when I started, I thought I'd be sending things to London and maybe Birmingham but, in fact, a high percentage of it is sent abroad, because it's immediate, it's very speedy. You can send a message and get an answer back very quickly.

Interviewer: And how much would it cost, for example, if I wanted to send a fax to the United States?

Shopkeeper: Well, a fax to the United States would cost you five pounds for a page. And when you think that in England by the Royal Mail, it would cost you twelve pounds to send a page by special delivery, it's actually a good value.

Interviewer: OK. What about your hours? How long do you have to spend actually in the shop?

Shopkeeper: Well, the shop is open from, essentially from eight in the morning until six at night, six days a week, and then a sort of fairly flexible morning on a Sunday. Um, and of those hours, I'm in it quite a lot.

Interviewer: And how long have you actually had the shop?

Shopkeeper: I started to have my shop in 1982, the 22nd of December, oh, sorry, the 22nd of November. It sticks in my brain.

Interviewer: And did you enjoy it?

Shopkeeper: Yes, overall I enjoy it. Running a business by yourself is jolly hard work and you never quite like every aspect all the time. 95% of the customers I love. Uh, 2% I really, you know, I'm not too bothered about. And 3% I positively hate.

Interviewer: What, What's the problem with those? Are they people who stay around and talk to you when you're busy or complain or what?

Shopkeeper: Um, it's bard to categorize really. I find people who are just totally rude, urn, unnecessary, and I don't really need their custom. And I suppose they form. the volume of the people that I don't like. But it's a very, very, very small percentage.

Interviewer: But is there a danger that shops like yours will disappear, more and more?

Shopkeeper" I think there's a very, very great danger that the majority of them will disappear.

Interviewer: Why's that?

Shopkeeper: Simply because costs of running a shop have just become very, very high. To give you some example, in the time that I've been there, my rent has quadrupled, the local property tax have doubled, other costs have gone up proportionately. And at the end of the day it is a little bit hard to try to keep u

A．cigarettes

B．exercise books

C．photocopiers

D．chocolates

【8】

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.

听力原文： The cancellation of the 16-day flight means that the crew and scientists on the ground are pursuing only their most important experiments in the few remaining hours left before the shuttle laboratory is closed. The US sapce agency NASA decided Sunday to bring the orbiter home 12 days early because of fears of weakened power generator could explode. The generator has been turned off, leaving the shuttle with only two thirds of its normal power supply. To conserve electricity for the experiments the crew is working in dimmer lighting than normal and has turned off all unessential equipment. NASA says the two remaining generators are sufficient for Tuesday's landing, but had nevertheless ordered the astronauts to study emergency procedures in case another fails. The shuttle team has expressed its disappointment at the curtailment of the science mission, and says enough data have already been collected in the materials, combustion and biological experiments to push science further ahead. The scientist' goal is to complete the experiments on a later shuttle flight. David Batlery, VOA news, Washington.

Why did NASA decide to bring the shuttle home earlier?

A．The laboratory was closed.

B．The generator was turned off.

C．The power generator might explode.

D．Electricity was going to run out.