Lesson 5

听力部分

听力练习

一级练习：［难度系数★］

本课的主题“young people”在英语专业四级听力里出现。试一试！

1. What is said about Harry's brother?

A. He is happy with his job.

B. He is a very ambitious man.

C. He is too ambitious to be an engine driver.

D. He doesn't like to be an engine driver.

2. The speaker likes teaching because of ______.

A. its interesting nature

B. the good salaries

C. contact with the young

D. more summer holidays

听力原文如下：

1. Harry's brother would not remain an engine driver if he were ambitious.

2. I have to teach the same course books several times in the summer holiday camp, which is sometimes boring and not well-paid, but by and large I'm quite delighted at being with young people.

二级练习：［难度系数★★］

这次的主题“culture”在较长的六级听力段落题里出现。依然是你熟悉的主题和词汇，挑战一下吧！

1. A. Because we might be offered a dish of insects.

B. Because nothing but freshly cooked insects are served.

C. Because some yuppies like to horrify guests with insects as food.

D. Because we might meet many successful executives in the media industry.

2. A. From yuppie clubs.

B. In the seafood market.

C. In the supermarket.

D. On the Internet.

3. A. It's easy to prepare.

B. It's tasty and healthful.

C. It's exotic in appearance.

D. It's safe to eat.

4. A. It will be consumed by more and more young people.

B. It will become the first course at dinner parties.

C. It will have to be changed to suit local tastes.

D. It is unlikely to be enjoyed by most people.

听力原文如下：

Yuppies are young people who earn a lot of money and live in a style that is too expensive for most people. If you are invited to a yuppie dinner party, don't be surprised if you are offered freshly cooked insects as the first course. While the idea of eating fried insects fills most of us with horror, insect-eating is becoming highly fashionable. For example, in the media industry, successful executives are often seen eating fried or boiled insects from time to time while working at their desks. These safe-to-eat insects can be found and ordered on the Internet, and young people are logging on to exotic food websites and ordering samples of prepared insects to serve at their dinner parties.

Although the idea of eating insects is probably disgusting to most of us, few people would claim that cakes, chickens and some kinds of seafood we often eat are examples of great beauty. One day, insects could be marketed and sold as a food item in supermarkets. According to their fans, they are not only high in protein and low in fat, but also very tasty. But until our attitudes to food change fundamentally, it seems that insect-eaters will remain as a select few.

Q:

1. Why does the speaker say we might be surprised at a yuppie dinner?

2. Where can people order the unusual food mentioned by the speaker?

3. Why are some yuppies attracted by the unusual food?

4. What does the speaker say about the future of this type of unusual food?

听说练习

一级练习：听写填空［难度系数★］

这次的主题“culture”在段落听写练习里出现。在这里我们加大了段落题的难度，加入了口语练习，但录音的速度适当放慢了。依然是你熟悉的主题和词汇，先用听写填空的方式挑战一下吧！

______________, hundreds of thousands of people took part in ______________________________, including ______________________, ____________________________, ________________________, ________________ ________, and ________________________. These activists were ________________ American society through ___________________, sit-ins, and teach-ins.

二级练习：口语复读与背诵［难度系数★★］

刚才听写填空练习的答案是“culture”主题的关键表达，一定要积累成自己的口语素材。在今后同类主题的听力口语考试中，回忆起来，从容应对。

第一步：看着上面的听力原文跟读一遍。

第二步：自己试着完整地背诵一遍。（计时3分钟，背诵开始…）

词汇部分

一级练习：［难度系数★］

本课新学的词汇出现在六级、考研、考博考试中。这些词汇如果在题干里出现，是否减轻了你的阅读负担呢？如果在选项里出现（可它们不一定是正确选项），你能选对吗？试一试吧！

临考情境模拟：每题控制在1分钟内，本级测试限时8分钟，请把计时器调到8分钟。计时开始！

考查词汇：contrast

1. Comparison and contrast are often used ______ in advertisements.

A. intentionally

B. pertinently

C. incidentally

D. tiresomely

［六级真题］

2. A large part of human activity, particularly in relation to the environment, is ______ conditions or events.

A. in response to

B. in favour of

C. in contrast to

D. in excess of

［六级真题］

考查词汇：commitment

3. As visiting scholars, they ______ willingly to the customs of the country they live in.

A. submit

B. commit

C. conform

D. subject

［六级真题］

4. By signing the lease we made a ______ to pay a rent of $150 a week.

A. conception

B. commission

C. commitment

D. confinement

［六级真题］

考查词汇：identity

5. When construction can begin depends on how soon the ______ of the route is completed.

A. conviction

B. identity

C. orientation

D. survey

［六级真题］

考查词汇：contrast

6. Preliminary estimation puts the figure at around $110 billion, ______ the $160 billion the President is struggling to get through the Congress.

A. in proportion to

B. in reply to

C. in relation to

D. in contrast to

［考研真题］

考查词汇：identity

7. The term “New Australians” came into vogue in the 50s and 60s, which implied that the goal of immigration was assimilation and that migrants would place their new-found Australian identity ahead of the ______ context from which they had come.

A. athletic

B. ethic

C. aesthetic

D. ethnic

［考博真题］

考查词汇：elderly

8. Some polls show that roughly two-thirds of the general public believe that elderly Americans are ______ by social isolation and loneliness.

A. reproached

B. favored

C. plagued

D. reprehended

［考博真题］

二级练习：［难度系数★★］

这次新学的词汇在较难的GRE考试里出现，挑战一下吧！

临考情境模拟：每题控制在2分钟内，本级测试限时12分钟，请把计时器调到12分钟。计时开始！

考查词汇：fundamental

1. Hydrogen is the ______ element of the universe in that it provides the building blocks from which the other elements are produced.

A. steadiest

B. expendable

C. lightest

D. final

E. fundamental

2. Congress is having great difficulty developing a consensus on energy policy, primarily because the policy objectives of various members of Congress rest on such ______ assumptions.

A. commonplace

B. trivial

C. explicit

D. divergent

E. fundamental

考查词汇：commitment

3. The technical know-how, if not the political ______, appears already at hand to feed the world's exploding population and so to ______ at last the ancient scourges of malnutrition and famine.

A. will...weaken

B. expertise...articulate

C. doubt...banish

D. power...denounce

E. commitment...eradicate

考查词汇：devotion

4. The prevailing union of passionate interest in detailed facts with equal devotion to abstract ______ is a hallmark of our present society; in the past this union appeared, at best, ______ and as if by chance.

A. data...extensively

B. philosophy...cyclically

C. generalization...sporadically

D. evaluation...opportunely

E. intuition...selectively

考查词汇：contrast

5. The theory of cosmic evolution states that the universe, having begun in a state of simplicity and ______, has ______ into great variety.

A. equilibrium...modulated

B. homogeneity...differentiated

C. contrast...metamorphosed

D. proportion...accelerated

E. intelligibility...developed

6. In contrast to the substantial muscular activity required for inhalation, exhalation is usually a ______ process.

A. slow

B. passive

C. precise

D. complex

E. conscious

阅读部分

一级练习：［难度系数★］

本课的主题“culture”在考研阅读里出现。下面的文章和题目中有你熟悉的主题和词汇，试一试！

临考情境模拟：请在5分钟内读完文章，4分钟做完题。请把计时器调到9分钟。计时开始！

Aimlessness has hardly been typical of the postwar Japan whose productivity and social harmony are the envy of the United States and Europe. But increasingly the Japanese are seeing a decline of the traditional work-moral values. Ten years ago young people were hardworking and saw their jobs as their primary reason for being, but now Japan has largely fulfilled its economic needs, and young people don't know where they should go next.

The coming of age of the postwar baby boom and an entry of women into the male-dominated job market have limited the opportunities of teenagers who are already questioning the heavy personal sacrifices involved in climbing Japan's rigid social ladder to good schools and jobs. In a recent survey, it was found that only 24.5 percent of Japanese students were fully satisfied with school life, compared with 67.2 percent of students in the United States. In addition, far more Japanese workers expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs than did their counterparts in the 10 other countries surveyed.

While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics, Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression. “Those things that do not show up in the test scores— personality, ability, courage or humanity—are completely ignored,” says Toshiki Kaifu, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's education committee. “Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild.” Last year Japan experienced 2,125 incidents of school violence, including 929 assaults on teachers. Amid the outcry, many conservative leaders are seeking a return to the prewar emphasis on moral education. Last year Mitsuo Setoyama, who was then Education Minister, raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War II had weakened the “Japanese morality of respect for parents.”

But that may have more to do with Japanese lifestyles. “In Japan,” says educator Yoko Muro, “it's never a question of whether you enjoy your job and your life, but only how much you can endure.” With economic growth has come centralization, fully 76 percent of Japan's 119 million citizens live in cities where community and the extended family have been abandoned in favor of isolated, two generation households. Urban Japanese have long endured lengthy commutes（travels to and from work） and crowded living conditions, but as the old group and family values weaken, the discomfort is beginning to tell. In the past decade, the Japanese divorce rate, while still well below that of the United States, has increased by more than 50 percent, and suicides have increased by nearly one quarter.

1. In the Westerners' eyes, the postwar Japan was ______.

A. under aimless development

B. a positive example

C. a rival to the West

D. on the decline

2. According to the author, what may chiefly be responsible for the moral decline of Japanese society?

A. Women's participation in social activities is limited.

B. More workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.

C. Excessive emphasis has been placed on the basics.

D. The life-style has been influenced by Western values.

3. Which of the following is true according to the author?

A. Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder.

B. Japanese education is characterized by mechanical learning as well as creativity.

C. More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity.

D. Dropping out leads to frustration against test-taking.

4. The change in Japanese life style is revealed in the fact that ______.

A. the young are less tolerant of discomforts in life

B. the divorce rate in Japan exceeds that in the U.S.

C. the Japanese endure more than ever before

D. the Japanese appreciate their present life

［考研真题］

二级练习：［难度系数★★］

这次新学的词汇在较难的英语专业八级考试里出现，挑战一下吧！

临考情境模拟：请在5分钟内读完文章，5分钟做完题。请把计时器调到10分钟。计时开始！

Pardon me: how are your manners?

The decline of civility and good manners may be worrying people more than crime, according to Gentility Recalled, edited by Digby Anderson, which laments the breakdown of traditional codes that once regulated social conduct. It criticises the fact that “manners” are scorned as repressive and outdated.

The result, according to Mr. Anderson—director of the Social Affairs Unit, an independent think-tank—is a society characterised by rudeness: loutish behaviour on the streets, jostling in crowds, impolite shop assistants and bad-tempered drivers.

Mr. Anderson says the cumulative effect of these—apparently trivial, but often offensive—is to make everyday life uneasy, unpredictable and unpleasant. As they are encountered far more often than crime, they can cause more anxiety than crime.

When people lament the disintegration of law and order, he argues, what they generally mean is order, as manifested by courteous forms of social contact. Meanwhile, attempts to re-establish restraint and self-control through “politically correct” rules are artificial.

The hook has contributions from 12 academics in disciplines ranging from medicine to sociology and charts what it calls the “coarsening” of Britain. Old-fashioned terms such as “gentleman” and “lady” have lost all meaningful resonance and need to be re-evaluated, it says. Rachel Trickett, honorary fellow and former principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford, says that the notion of a “lady” protects women rather than demeaning them.

Feminism and demands for equality have blurred the distinctions between the sexes, creating situations where men are able to dominate women because of their more aggressive and forceful natures, she says.

“Women, without some code of deference or respect, become increasingly victims.”

Caroline Moore, the first woman fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, points out that “gentleman” is now used only with irony or derision.

“The popular view of a gentleman is poised somewhere between the imbecile parasite and the villainous one: between Woosteresque chinless wonders, and those heartless capitalist toffs who are..., the stock-in-trade of television.”

She argues that the concept is neither class-bound nor rigid; conventions of gentlemanly behaviour enable a man to act naturally as an individual within shared assumptions while taking his place in society.

“Politeness is no constraint, precisely because the manners..., are no‘code’ but a language, rich, flexible, restrained and infinitely subtle.”

For Anthony O'Hear, professor of philosophy at the University of Bradford, manners are closely associated with the different forms of behaviour appropriate to age and status. They curb both the impetuosity of youth and the bitterness of old age.

Egalitarianism, he says, has led to people failing to act their age. “We have vice-chancellors with earrings, aristocrats as hippies..., the trendy vicar on his motorbike.”

Dr. Athena Leoussi, sociology lecturer at Reading University, bemoans the deliberate neglect by people of their sartorial appearance.

Dress, she says, is the outward expression of attitudes and aspirations. The ubiquitousness of jeans “displays a utilitarian attitude” that has “led to the cultural impoverishment of everyday life”.

Dr. Leoussi says that while clothes used to be seen as a means of concealing taboo forces of sexuality and violence, certain fashions—such as leather jackets—have the opposite effect.

Dr. Bruce Charlton, a lecturer in public health medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne, takes issue with the excessive informality of relations between professionals such as doctors and bank managers, and their clients.

He says this has eroded the distance and respect necessary in such relationships. For Tristam Engelhardt, professor of medicine in Houston, Texas, says manners are bound to morals.

“Manners express a particular set of values”, he says. “Good manners interpret and transform social reality. They provide social orientation.”

1. According to the passage, the decline of good manners is more worrying because ______.

A. it leads to more crime in society

B. people view manners as old-fashioned

C. rudeness on the street cannot be stemmed out

D. it can seriously affect our daily life

2. Rachel Trickett seems to indicate the term “lady” ______.

A. has acquired a different meaning

B. is too old-fashioned to use

C. is preferred by feminists

D. victimizes women in society

3. According to Caroline Moore, the media has projected a ______ image of the gentleman.

A. humorous

B. favourable

C negative

D. traditional

4. In Anthony O'Hear's view, a well-mannered person ______.

A. acts rashly when he is young

B. tends to be bad-tempered in old age

C. behaves with a sense of appropriateness

D. attaches importance to his status

5. Dr. Bruce Charlton would probably prefer to see a more formal relationship ______.

A. among doctors

B. among managers

C. between doctors and managers

D. between doctors and patients

［专八真题］

写作部分

本课涉及了老年人与青年人的代沟问题，这里给大家提供这方面的写作素材，方便大家积累下来，在以后遇到的教育类的话题中结合课文使用。

真题举例

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? There is nothing that young people can teach older people. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

［TOEFL真题］

写作素材

1. The older generation today always complains that the youth are unmotivated and directionless, they lack focus and the future is going down because of these behaviors. Nonetheless, youth are the product of its upbringing and the representation of its time. Thus, what they are and what they know will certainly be different from those of the older generation. Therefore, to say that the youngsters are useless is not only wrong as they can also contribute in their own way and teach the older generation a lesson or two.

2. As we all know, today's technology moves very fast. With adult's daily responsibility, it is almost impossible for them to keep up with every little new gadget that comes out everyday. With young people, it's different; new things interest us. Furthermore, being young we absorb new knowledge like a sponge. Thus, we can help them in getting in tune with new technologies. Young kids, for example, can probably teach their grandparents to use the computers, which in turn, will also be good for their relationships.

3. One good example is brought by the technology boom where only during the recent years computers had become a ubiquitous tool among the young generation. Majority of the older people have no idea on how to use a computer, some even fear it since it appears so alien to them. Understanding that computers provide functionalities that are extremely useful to everyday lives, the young generation can encourage and help teach the older generation how to use them.

4. Things that can be taught to the older people are not limited to new technologies. There are things that have changed in the past few years, one of which is fashion. Many old people still wear the same style of clothes as 30 or 40 years ago. The young ones can recommend a new style for them to wear so as to give them a fresher look. They don't have to wear what teens nowadays wear. They only have to pick more suitable clothes for them since fashion is evolving and something better keeps coming.