历年英语专四考试真题难度还原

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

Which of the following does not contain a non-finite clause?

A．He swims in the river every day.

B．Do you mind my shutting the door?

C．It's been nice talking to you.

D．There being nothing to do, he left.

Ask an American schoolchild what he or she is learning in school these days and you might even get a reply, provided you ask it in Spanish. But don't bother, here's the answer: Americans nowadays are not learning any of the things that we learned in our day, like reading and writing. Apparently these are considered fusty old subjects, invented by white males to oppress women and minorities.

What are they learning? In a Vermont college town I found the answer sitting in a toy store book rack, next to typical kids' books like Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy Is Dysfunctional. It's a teacher's guide called Happy To Be Me, subtitled Building Self Esteem.

Self-esteem, as it turns out, is a big subject in American classrooms. Many American schools see building it as important as teaching reading and writing. They call it "whole language" teaching, borrowing terminology from the granola people to compete in the education marketplace.

No one ever spent a moment building my self-esteem when I was in school. In fact, from the day I first stepped inside a classroom my self-esteem was one big demolition site. All that mattered was "the subject", be it geography, history, or mathematics. I was praised when I remembered that "near", "fit", "friendly", "pleasing", "like" and their opposites took the dative case in Latin. I was reviled when I forgot what a cosine was good for. Generally I lived my school years beneath a torrent of castigation so consistent I eventually ceased to hear it, as people who live near the sea eventually stop hearing the waves.

Schools have changed. Reviling is out, for one thing. More important, subjects have changed. Whereas I learned English, modern kids learn something called "language skills." Whereas I learned writing, modern kids learn something called "communication". Communication, the book tells us, is seven per cent words, 23 per cent facial expression, 20 per cent tone of voice, and 50 per cent body language. So this column, with its carefully chosen words, would earn me at most a grade of seven per cent. That is, if the school even gave out something as oppressive and demanding as grades.

The result is that, in place of English classes, American children are getting a course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Consider the new attitude toward journal writing: I remember one high school English class when we were required to keep a journal. The idea was to emulate those great writers who confided in diaries, searching their souls and honing their critical thinking on paper.

"Happy To Be Me" states that journals are a great way for students to get in touch with their feelings. Tell students they can write one sentence or a whole page. Reassure them that no one, not even you, will read what they write. After the unit, hopefully all students will be feeling good about themselves and will want to share some of their entries with the class.

There was a time when no self-respecting book for English teachers would use "great" or "hopefully" that way. Moreover, back then the purpose of English courses (an antique term for "Unit") was not to help students "feel good about themselves." Which is good, because all that reviling didn't make me feel particularly good about anything.

Which of the following is the author implying in paragraph 5?

A．Self-criticism has gone too far.

B．Communication is a more comprehensive category than language skills.

C．Evaluating criteria are inappropriate nowadays.

D．This column does not meet the demanding evaluation criteria of today.