大学英语四级听力Test5SectionC录音材料与解释

SectionC

Passage One

One of the biggest changes in the way people in Britain spend their leisure time in recent years has been the increase in the amount of time spent watching television.The average winter viewing figures are now about twenty-eight hours per week.
As you might expect, television viewing is less popular in summer than in winter and more popular with old people than with any other age group. Viewing also varies according to social class, with professional and managerial classes watching less than the unskilled and the unemployed. On average, women watch more than men.

British TV has an international reputation for producing programmes of high quality, such as documentaries, nature programmes, comedies and drama series and according to the government there should be a combination of "competition, quality and choice" in any plans for the future of TV. However, not everyone agrees that more TV means better TV and it has been argued that the standard of programmes with a mass appeal such as soap operas, quiz shows and situation comedies isn't very high. "Minority" programmes, such as many of those broadcast on BBC 2 and Channel 4,might disappear.

文章精要

这篇文章属社会文化类。简单介绍了英国国内收视率的走向，并指出观看电视的比重会随着季节、年龄、社会阶层的不同而不同，文章还对一些主要节目进行了比较。

16.Q:Who watches more TV in Britain?
解析
选B,信息明示题。文章明确指出，经理级和专业人员比赋闲在家的人看电
视看得少，平均来看，男人比女人看得少，由此很容易排除错误选项。

17.Q:What is the average winter viewing figure now in Britain?
*解折
选B,信息明示题。文章第一段结尾明确提到，The average winter viewing figures are now about twenty-eight hours per week.

18.Q:What are "minority"programmes?
*解析
选A,信息明示题。由文章最后有相关内容，such as many of those broadcast on BBC 2 and Channel 4...可知A为答案。
*考点
appeal作名词时指“吸引力，感染力”，如：a city with appeal for tourists对游容有吸引力的城市；作动词时常与to连用，表“吸引，引起兴趣”，如：She
appeals to me.我对她感兴趣。也可以指“求助于，上诉，诉诸”，如：appeal a decision to a higher court不服判决向上级法院提出上诉。

Passage Two

Although important events often reflect themselves quickly in literature of a country, the effect of World War I on American writing was delayed. The war promptly produced some mediocre prose and poetry, but distinguished work-mainly in the form of novels-appeared only some years later. The best came from Emest Hemingway. He had already written some very good short stories and one first-class novel-The Sun Also Rises. But he did not publish a novel fully involved with the war until 1929. It proved worth waiting for.

The onset of the Great Depression, on the other hand, was rapidly mirrored in American literature, especially in novels, and during the ten years after the Depression started, much writing dealt with it. One of the best of these novels was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. But the arrival of the Depression little affected Hemingway's attitudes. During the 1930s, he continued to publish novels and short stories. They dealt with a variety of subjects but customarily revealed his high view of courage. The brave did not always survive in his fiction but they lived their lives to the fullest. It was not until the late 1930s that reference to the Depression crept into Hemingway's writing and, even then, its influence was indirect.

文章精要

这篇文章属历史文化类。文章主要介绍了文学能够反映社会上的大事件，而一战和经济大萧条对美国文学的影响力是巨大的，尽管有些滞后，但还是有伟大的作品面世。

19. Q: What does the passage say about the effect of World War I on American literature?
*解析
选D,信息明示题。答案在文章的第一句话，文学是反映国家大事的风向标，然而一战对美国文学的影响却滞后了。

20.Q:How did the Great Depression affect Hemingway's writing?
*解析
选C,信息明示题。文中直接提到了But the arrival of the Depression little
affected Hemingway's attitudes,最后还说its influence was indirect,故选C。

21.Q:Who wrote the best novels dealing with World War I?
*解析
选B,信息明示题。由关键词the best,Emest Hemingway,first-class novel-The Sun Also Rises可知，B正确。文中也提到John Steinbeck的The Grapes of Wrath是反映大萧条的最优秀的小说之一。

22. Q: What's the passage mainly about?
*解析
选D,主旨题。听罢全文，选出文章大意应该不难，历史大事就提到了一战和经济大萧条，其次就是美国文学，只要选出最概括的选项即可。
*考点
worth意为“值…的，价值…的”，如：It isn't worth waiting for him.不值得等他。/a car worth $20,000一辆价值2万美元的小汽车。

Passage Three

One Saturday morning a careless motorist threw a lighted cigarette out of his car ten miles west of the small Canadian town of Stanton. The forest at the side of the road was dry because there had been no rain for many days. Within a few minutes the bushes and trees were on fire.

A lorry-driver saw the fire when he was on his way to Stanton. As soon as he reached the town he told the police about the fire. Soon firemen were hurrying westwards. When they reached the fire they saw that it was very big. It could not spread to the north because of a lake or to the south because of a wide river. But a west wind was carrying the fire towards Stanton and the firemen could not stop it.

When they realized this, one of the firemen sent a message back to the town by radio.The chief fire officer and hundreds of people hurried to a place about half a mile west of the town. There they used dynamite to blow down the trees and to clear a wide path or break through the forest. When the fire reached the break it began to die down because there was nothing left to burn. The wind blew some sparks across the break but firemen and volunteers soon beat out the small fires. After several hours they managed to put out the fire and save the town.

文章精要

这篇文章属社会问题类。文章以记叙文的形式，以时间为线索记录了一场由人为原因引起的森林大火从发生到被扑灭的全过程。

23. Q: How did the forest fire start?
*解析
选C,信息明示题。答案在短文开头，一个粗心的司机将点燃的烟头扔向车
窗外，加上天气干燥，引起了森林大火。

24. Q: Why couldn't the fire spread to the north or to the south?
*解析
选B,信息明示题。文中明确提到It could not spread to the north because of a lake or to the south because of a wide river,故选B。

25. Q: What did the firemen do to put the fire under control?
* 解析
选D,信息明示题。文章提到，消防队员使用dynamite来分隔树林，减小火
势，故选D。
*考点
1)diedown意为“渐弱，消退，平静”，如：The winds died down.风渐渐平息了。
2)beat out有“扑灭（火）,敲平”的意思，如：We beat the flames out.我们扑灭了火。/beat out the dent in car's wing锤平汽车挡泥板上的凹痕。