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中级口译听力教程第三版6B

Unit 14. Part one. A great musician. 2. Exercises.

1. Listen to the passage about Beethoven and decide whether the following statements are true, T, or false, F.

Although Beethoven could sit down and make up music easily, his really great compositions did not come easily at all. They cost him a great deal of hard work. We know how often he rewrote and corrected his work, because his notebooks are still kept in museums and libraries. He always found it hard to satisfy himself. When he was 28, the worst difficulty of all came to him. He began to notice a strange humming in his ears. At first he paid little attention, but it grew worse. And at last, he consulted doctors. They gave him the worst news any musician can hear, he was gradually going deaf. Beethoven was in despair. He was sure that he was going to die. He went away to the country and from there he wrote a long farewell letter to his brothers. In this he told them how depressed and lonely his deafness had made him. It was impossible for me to ask men to speak loud or shout for I am deaf, he wrote. How could I possibly admit them in affirmative in the one sense, which should be more perfect in me than in others. I must live like an exile. He long to die. And said to death, come when you will, I shall meet you bravely. In fact Beethoven did something braver than dying. He gathered his courage and went on writing music. Though he could hear what he wrote only more and more faintly, he wrote his best music, the music we remember him for after he became deaf. The music he wrote was very different from any that had been composed before. Instead of the elegant and stately music that earlier musicians had written for their wealthy listeners, Beethoven wrote stormy, exciting, revolutionary music which reminds us of his trouble and courageous life. He grew to admire courage more than anything. And he called one of his symphonies the eroica or heroic symphony to celebrate the memory of a great man. Describing the dramatic opening notes of his famous fifth symphony he said, thus fate knocks on the door. In time Beethoven went completely deaf, so deaf that he could not hear even the stormiest part of his exiting music. But in those years he wrote more glorious leaf than ever. He could hear his music with his mind if not with his ears. His friends had to write down what they wanted to say to him. He was lonely and often unhappy, but in spite of this, he often wrote joyful music. In his last symphony, The Ninth, acquire seems a wonderful him of joy. Because of his courage and determination to overcome his terrible disaster, his music has given joy and inspiration to millions of people. 2. Listen again and supply the missing information in the following passage.

Part 2. Statements. 2. Exercises. Listen and then choose the answer that is closest in meaning to each statement you hear.

1) The doctor said that I should stay off my foot until the swelling goes down. But it just makes me uncomfortable to ask my friends to ride on me all the time.

2) I will see professor Brown this morning. I have to get his signature for taking the upper level seminar, because I haven’t taken the introductory course.

3) My cousin says I can’t borrow his portable computer worried I might mishandle his machine.

4) As long as Jean is visiting China she will make a point of seeing the great wall, which is said to be one of the world wonders.

5) Nancy who took up smoking in her early teens has stayed off cigarettes after her last visit to the physician.

6) In this country the university tuitions are already very high for most families don’t include accommodation and meals.

7) This morning the test was delayed for one and a half hours because of power cut. It was half past ten when the students took the test.

8) Many people use brighter light bulbs than they need. This might hurt their eyes and lead to waste of electricity as well.

9) Are you going to miss your bus? Don’t worry. I will drive you to the bus stop. And if the bus has already left, I can get you to your apartment.

10) The executive director resigned from the board, because his suggestion was rejected at the board meeting held last Friday.

11) Sorry I can’t talk to you about our research project now. I have a class in a few minutes. Why don’t you come to see me during office hours tomorrow?

12) George has an appointment to see the personnel manager next Monday. Probably he will submit his letter of resignation.

13) Are you asking for someone who can translate this contract? What about the new secretary. I hear she is bilingual.

14) We are going to hear doctor Madison’s speak about the solar system. He’s just arrived here from a conference in London.

15) Because she is taking so many courses this year Margaret is too busy to play basketball, I am afraid.

16) The teacher found it hard to believe that Henry passed the geometry test. He had escaped so many classes so far.

17) All my friends are going over to the cafeteria now, but I cannot. I am waiting for a phone call from my professor.

18) The home owner must pay a lot of interest on the mortgage, and pay it for many years before he becomes the owner of the house.

19) Frank is certainly in a good mood because the bargain he got on his new stereo has made him happy.

20) No sooner had I started to sit down to my reading assignment than there came the knock on the door and Jack called. Part three. 3. Exercises.

1. Background music. Listen to the following conversation about background music and then choose the best answer to each question you hear. M: What are you working on now?

W: I’ve just finished a piece on background music. Oh, like the music they are playing here now. You hear it everywhere in restaurants, airports, supermarkets, department stores, and banks too. I noticed that while we were at bank today. M: Did you? I didn’t.

W: You are not supposed to notice it. It’s just there in the background. It’s supposed to influence your attitudes, pulling you the right mood. M: I am not sure I like that idea.

W: Well, it seems to work. Company is paying millions of dollars every year for background

music. It’s supposed to give you a better feeling about yourself and the people around you. Factories use it a lot. It makes the workers happy and they work better that way. In one factory music increase production by 4.5 percent.

M: I should think that they will get tired if hearing music all day.

W: They don’t though. One fellow in San Francisco told me if the music stops somebody always runs to the telephone to complain.

M: Now that I think about it I can’t remember when there wasn’t background music in restaurants and stores.

W: That shows how young you are. Actually it all started during world war two when some factories had their own orchestras to keep workers happy and calm. Now of course the music is piped in by a machine. And different kinds of music are played at different times during the day. They play faster music at 10 in the morning than at 8 for instance, because workers tend to be slower then.

M: What about restaurants? Do they play the same music for dinner and lunch?

W: I don’t know about that. But I do know that hamburger places play fast music. When they started playing fast music they found that a customer spent only 17 minutes eating. The time was 22 before that.

M: So they have more people coming in and up to buy hamburgers.

W: Exactly. And that’s good for business. You can see why music has become so popular. In Los Angles, for instance, 30 different companies are selling background music services. M: I still think there is something about it that I don’t quite like.

W: I know what you mean. But lots of people will not agree with you. The Xerox corporation in Rochester New York spends more than 80,000 dollars a year for background music. Prisons use it and farmers use it to keep their cattle calm. It’s even supposed to have effect on plants. Questions:

1) When did background music started to be used in factories? 2) Why is fast background music used in hamburger places?

3) Which of the following statements is not true about background music?

4) Which of the following is not mentioned as a place where you can hear background music? 2. Native American music. Listen to the following talk about Jazz, and then choose the best answer to each question you hear.

Of all the varieties of music which fill our concert halls, theatres and nightclubs, only Jazz is native American music. Symphonies and concertos, the ancestors of movie and television scores as well as of serious legitimate electronic music were first composed in Germany. Musical comedies are descended from opera which was first performed in Italy. And our ever popular nightclub singers are the music heirs of the French singers. The one form of music which does not originate in Europe and which is popular today world wide is Jazz. Jazz was born in New Orleans, the child of the blacks. It drew on the rhythms as well as the emotionalism of the African music of the black’s ancestors which has been transformed into rap tongues and blues. From rap tongue Jazz took a single pitted rhythms, while from the blues it adopted monologue and harmonic elements such as mournful tunes once sung by slaves and close Barbie shop type chromatic coordination. Questions: