2008年12月4级真题听力文本

Question 31. What is Chomsky’s point on the ability to learn a language?

Human infants are born with the ability to learn language and the potential to learn any language in the world.

Question 32. What does Chomsky’s theory fail to explain according to the speaker? It does not really explain how children come to use language in particular ways.

Passage 3

When US spacewoman Joan Higginbotham is not flying and working in space, she might be found somewhere on earth giving a speech. Higginbotham, who grew up in Chicago and became an engineer before joining NASA, that is the National Air and Space Administration, gives about a dozen speeches a year. Each speech is different because she tailors her remarks to each audience. Through interviews and E-mails, she finds out in advance her listeners' educational level and what information they want to know. On the subject of space walks, for example, audiences vary in their interests and how much complexity they can comprehend. To elementary school children, Higginbotham may discuss a problem that many kids want to know about. \in a spacesuit eat, drink, and go to the bathroom?\Her answer is “the spacesuit is really a small spacecraft with room for food and water-containers, and a waste-collection system.” To a high school audience, she might satisfy a curiosity that often arises in her pre-speech interviews with students who obviously have seen many science fiction movies. “Do spacemen carry weapons in case they encounter enemies in space?” Her answer is \To scientists, she might provide technical details on such topics as the design of spacesuits that protects spacemen from the deadly temperature extremes of space. Just as elaborate preparation is required for success in space, Higginbotham says that it’s important for speakers to learn as much as possible about their listeners before a speech because every audience is different.

33. What did Joan Higginbotham do before joining in NASA? 34. How does Higginbotham prepare her speech on space walks?

35. What does the high school audience want to know about space travel?

Section C

Compound Dictation

Crime is increasing worldwide. There is every reason to believe the trend will continue through the next few decades. Crime rates have always been high in multi-cultural industrialized societies such as the United States. But a new phenomenon has appeared on the world scene: rapidly rising crime rates in nations that previously reported few offences. Street crimes such as robbery, rape, murder and auto theft are clearly rising, particularly in Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, and in Western European nations, such as the Untied Kingdom. What is driving this crime explosion? There are no simple answers. Still, there are certain

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conditions associated with rising crime. Increasing heterogeneity of population, greater cultural pluralism, higher immigration, democratization of governments, changing national borders, greater economic growth and the lack of accepted social ideas of right and wrong. These conditions are increasingly observable around the world. For instance, cultures that were previously isolated and homogenous, such as Japan, Denmark and Greece, are now facing the sort of cultural variety that has been common in America for most of its history. Multiculturalism can be a rewarding, enriching experience, but it can also lead to a clash of values. Heterogeneity in societies will be the rule in the 21st century, and failure to recognize and plan for such diversity can lead to serious crime problems.

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