Conversation 1

【主题分类】长对话：娱乐

【高级表达】

1. online celebrity  网红

2. post photos  发布照片

3. pay off   值得，取得成功，付清

【关键句型】

       1. It really was a lot to take in.   的确有很多东西要去体会。

2.    2. I guess I never thought much about all the effort behind the scene.   我想我从未考虑过需要这么多的幕后努力。

3.     3. There is always something wrong with my photos as it is.   我的照片里总有一些瑕疵。

【听力原文】

M ： (1) Do you mind taking my photo with the statue over there? I think it will make a great shot.

W： Sure, no worries. You're always taking photos. What do you do with all the photos you take?

M： Well, don't laugh. (2) My dream is to become an online celebrity of sorts.

W： You are not serious, are you?

M： I am, completely. I just got the idea a few months ago after posting some holiday photos on my social media accounts. A lot of people liked my photos and started asking me for travel tips. So I figured I’d give it a go. I post a lot on social media anyway. So I've got nothing to lose.

W： I guess that’s true. So what do you have to do to become Internet famous?

M:  Surprisingly a lot more than I did as a hobby. (3) Recently, I've been spending a lot more time editing photos, posting online and clearing storage on my phone. It’s always full now.

W: That doesn't sound like too much work.

M：Well, there's more to it. I spent all last weekend researching what topics are popular, what words to use in captions and similar accounts to follow. It really was a lot to take in. And I was up well past midnight. I’d say it's paying off though. I increased the number of people following my accounts by 15% already.

W： That is impressive. I guess I never thought much about all the effort behind the scene. (4) Now that I think about it, there's always something wrong with my photos as it is—half smiles, closed eyes, messy hair. I hope you have better luck than I do. Then again, I think the only person interested in my photos is my mom.

【答案解析】

由选项可预测对话内容可能与照片有关，并且可能涉及到照片出版或者上传到网络等行为。

Q1. What does the man ask the woman to do?

C). A）将女士同意为男士拍照的答复曲解为担心，B）明显与内容不符，C) 和对话第一句意思相同，D) 在对话中并未提及。

Q2. What does the man dream of?

 A). 对话中男士直接说到他的梦想是成为网络名人，与A）完全符合。B), C)及D）在对话中均未提及。

Q3. What has the man been busy doing recently?

B). 考细节，男士提到最近花了很多时间编辑照片并发布到网上，以及清理手机内存，和B）相符。A）中collecting photos是从网上收集照片，C）中compare notes在对话中没有提及，D）意指研究流行的社交媒体上的照片，与对话不符。

Q4. What does the woman say about her photos? 

A).  女士最后说的一番话里描述自己的照片总有一些这样那样的瑕疵，不尽人意，和A）相符。对话中并未提及照片由谁拍摄，故排除B）。对话中的impressive并不是女士对自己照片的评价，所以C）错。D）未提及。

Conversation 2

【主题分类】长对话：物理学

【高级表达】

1. a fraction of a second   几分之一秒

2. baffle  v.   使困惑

3. collide  v.   碰撞

4. exotic  adj.   奇异的

5. deplete  v.   耗尽

【关键句型】

What’s baffled scientists for so long is…   长久以来困惑科学家的是……

They are exactly alike, except that they have opposite electrical charges.  它们具有相反的电荷，除此以外完全一样。

This means that they should have totally wiped each other out, leaving the universe completely barren.  这意味着它们本应完全湮灭彼此，徒留一片荒凉世界。

… there were slightly more particles of matter, which allowed the universe we all live in to form？ 物质粒子稍稍多一些，这就让我们所赖以生存的宇宙得以形成？

【听力原文】

M：Good evening and welcome to Physics Today. (5) Here we interview some of the greatest minds in physics as they help us to understand some of the most complicated theories.Today, I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. Melissa Phillips, professor of theoretical physics. She's here to tell us a little about what it is she studies. Dr. Phillips, you seem to study everything.

W：I guess that would be fair to say (6) I spent most of my time studying the Big Bang theory and where our universe came from.

M: Can you tell us a little about that?

W: Well, (7) I'm very interested in why the universe exists at all. That may sound odd, but the fact is at the moment of the Big Bang, both matter and anti-matter were created for a short time, and I mean just a fraction of a second. The whole universe was a super-hot soup of radiation filled with these particles. So what's baffled scientists for so long is "why is there a universe at all?"

M: That's because matter and anti-matter are basically opposites of each other. They are exactly alike, except that they have opposite electrical charges. So when they collide, they destroy each other?

W: Exactly. So during the first few moments of the Big Bang, the universe was extremely hot and very small. Matter and the now more exotic anti-matter would have had little space to avoid each other. This means that they should have totally wiped each other out, leaving the universe completely barren.

M: But a recent study seems to point to the fact that when matter and anti-matter were first created, (8) there were slightly more particles of matter, which allowed the universe we all live in to form?

W: Exactly. Because there was slightly more matter, the collisions quickly depleted all the anti-matter and left just enough matter to create stars, planets, and eventually us.

【答案解析】

选项中反复出现的高频词集中于物理学及宇宙相关，由此预测内容是物理学界对于宇宙起源的研究。

Q5. What does the man say is Physics Today?

D).  对话开头即称Physics Today采访一些物理学界首屈一指的学者，他们会帮助我们理解一些最为复杂的理论，所以它是访谈节目，与D）的定位相符，不是杂志或课程，排除A) 和B)。节目邀请物理学家与观众交流，而非物理学家之间的交流，所以C)不正确。

Q6. What is the woman physicist’s main research area?

B). 女物理学家介绍自己大部分时间都在研究宇宙大爆炸理论以及宇宙由何而来，即B)所指的宇宙起源。A)和C)未提及，D)也不是女士重点谈及的内容。

Q7. What is the woman interested in?

D). 女士直接指出她感兴趣的是宇宙为何存在，即D)，其它三项未提及。

Q8. What seems to be the finding of the recent study?

C). 相关句子指出新研究表明物质粒子稍多，所以宇宙得以形成，即C)。A)不属于新发现，B)与内容不符，D)也是已有发现，不符合题意。

Passage 1

【主题分类】听力篇章：语言

【高级表达】

bizarre  adj.   奇异的

syndrome  n.   综合症

traumatic  adj.   外伤的

intelligible  adj.  可理解的

bruise  v.   擦伤，挫伤

【关键句型】

Myers has been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome.   迈尔斯被诊断出患有外国口音综合症。

The condition is most often caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury.   这种疾病通常由中风或颅脑损伤引起。

Although people with the syndrome have intelligible speech, their manner of speaking is altered in terms of timing and tongue placement, which may distort their pronunciation.   虽然这种综合症患者的讲话内容可以理解，但说话方式（包括说话的节奏以及舌头的位置）发生了改变，这会扭曲他们的发音。

【听力原文】

In this week's edition of special series on Bizarre Medical Conditions, there is a report of the case of Michelle Myers. (9) Myers is an American woman who woke up one day speaking with a British accent, even though she's lived in the United States all her life. In 2015, Myers went to bed with a terrible headache. She woke up sounding like someone from England. Her British accent has remained for the past two years. Previously, Myers had woken up speaking in Irish and Australian accents. However, on both of those occasions, the accents lasted for only a week.

      Myers has been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. It's a disorder in which a person experiences a sudden change to their speech so that they sound like they're speaking in a foreign accent.（10）The condition is most often caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Although people with the syndrome have intelligible speech, their manner of speaking is altered in terms of timing and tongue placement, which may distort their pronunciation. The result is that they may sound foreign when speaking their native language. It's not clear whether Myers has experienced a stroke or other brain damage, but she also has a separate condition, which can result in loose joints, easily bruised skin and other problems.

 Foreign Accent Syndrome is rare, with only about 60 cases reported within the past century. However,（11）a different American woman reportedly spoke with the Russian accent in 2010 after she fell down the stairs and hit her head.                                                                                          

【答案解析】

由选项中出现的高频词可预测内容涉及到不同国家的语言或者同一语言的不同口音，并且可能涉及疾病对语言功能的影响。

Q9. What happened to Michelle Myers one day?

B). 由开头第二句话可知迈尔斯醒来后说话变成了英式口音，即B)。A)和D)均与内容不符，C)未提及。

Q10. What does the passage say about Foreign Accent Syndrome?

A). 内容中明确提到这种疾病通常由中风或颅脑损伤引起，即A)。B)错，因为并未谈及该综合症的治疗。扭曲的是发音，不是记忆，C)不符。D)未提及。

Q11. What accent did another American woman speak with after a head injury?

C). 由最后一句话可直接得出答案。

Passage 2

【主题分类】听力篇章：运动

【高级表达】

metaphor  n.   暗喻，隐喻

reflect on   反思

opt for   选择

interweave  v.   交织

【关键句型】

That may be one reason why so many people find relief in swimming when life’s seas get rough.  这也许就是为什么当生活变得艰辛时，会有那么多人在游泳中得到宽慰的原因之一。

…, interweaves her own story with a history of female pioneers who accomplished remarkable feats and paved the way for future generations.  将她自己的故事与那些取得了非凡成就，并为后代铺平道路的女性先驱的历史交织在一起。

Notions of modesty restricted women in the Victorian era.  在维多利亚时代，端庄的概念限制着当时的女性。

【听力原文】

There is something about water that makes it a good metaphor for life. That may be one reason why so many people find relief in swimming when life's seas get rough. （12） And it goes some way towards explaining why books about swimming, in which people tackle icy lakes, race in rivers and overcome oceans while reflecting on their lives, have recently become so popular.

These books reflect a trend, particularly strong in Britain, where swimming in pools is declining, but more and more folks are opting for open water. “Wild swimming” seems to be especially popular among women. （13）Jenny Landreth recently published a guide to the best swimming spots in London. Her new book, Swell, interweaves her own story with a history of female pioneers who accomplished remarkable feats and paved the way for future generations.

Notions of modesty restricted women in the Victorian era, but they still swam. A ^“bathing machine^” was rolled down to the seashore so women would not be seen in swimwear. （14）In 1892, The Gentlewoman，s Book of Sport described a woman swimming in a heavy dress, boots, hat, gloves and carrying an umbrella.

Eventually, swimming became freer. Mixed bathing was permitted on British beaches in 1901. Women won the right to swim in public pools, learned to swim properly, created appropriate swimwear and, in time, even competed against men. （15） The first woman to cross the English Channel was Gertrude Ederle in 1926. She beat the record by almost two hours and her father rewarded her with a red sports car.

【答案解析】

由选项中反复出现的词汇可推测内容与游泳有关，而且与女性相关。

Q12. What has become so popular recently?

D). 由开头可知最近变得流行的是关于游泳的书，其它选项虽然相关，但不准确。

Q13. What did Jenny Landreth do recently?

B). 原文中直接指明她最近出版了一本介绍伦敦最佳游泳场所的指南，其它选项与内容不符。

Q14. What do we learn about women in the Victorian era?

D). 原文中具体描述了女性游泳的时候穿着厚重的裙子和靴子，戴着帽子和手套，所以符合D)，其它选项与原文不符。

Q15. What does the passage say about Gertrude Ederle?

C). 原文结尾指出她是第一个游泳横渡英吉利海峡的女性，符合C)，其它选项内容与她无关。

Lecture 1

【主题分类】讲座：法律

【高级表达】

law enforcement agencies   执法机构

magnetic brain scans   脑部磁扫描

elicit  v.   引起

deem  v.   认为

be skeptical of   怀疑

【关键句型】

Does their hypothesis behind the test apply in every case?   他们试验背后的假设能应用于每一个案件吗？

So while there may be insights to be gained from matching behavior to brain activity, those insights will not necessarily lead to justice in a court of law.   因此尽管将行为和大脑活动进行匹配可能会获得一些洞见，但这些见解未必能实现法庭上的公正。

Problems surround the use of machines to spot deception, at least until it has been rigorously tested.   至少在严格测试前，使用机器识骗还存在诸多问题。

【听力原文】

     Today I'm going to talk about a very special kind of person. Psychologists call them “masters of deception,” those rare individuals with a natural ability to tell with complete confidence when someone is telling a lie. （16）For decades, researchers and law enforcement agencies have tried to build a machine that will do the same thing.

     Now a company in Massachusetts says that by using magnetic brain scans they can determine with 97% accuracy whether someone is telling the truth. They hope that the technology will be cleared for use in American courts by early next year. But is this really the ultimate tool for you, the lawyers of tomorrow?

 （17） You'll not find many brain scientists celebrating this breakthrough. The company might be very optimistic, but the ability of their machine to detect deception has not provided credible proof. That’s because the technology has not been properly tested in real-world situations. In life, there are different kinds of lies and diverse context in which they're told. These differences may elicit different brain responses. Does their hypothesis behind the test apply in every case? We don't know the answer, because studies done on how reliable this machine is have not yet been duplicated. Much more research is badly needed.

     Whether the technology is eventually deemed reliable enough for the courts will ultimately be decided by the judges. Let's hope they’re wise enough not to be fooled by a machine that claims to determine truthfulness at the flip of a switch. They should also be skeptical of the growing tendency to try to reduce all human traits and actions to the level of brain activity. Often, they do not map that easily.

     Moreover, understanding the brain is not the same as understanding the mind. Some researchers have suggested that thoughts cannot properly be seen as purely "internal". Instead, thoughts make sense only in reference to the individual’ external world. So while there may be insights to be gained from matching behavior to brain activity, those insights will not necessarily lead to justice in a court of law. Problems surround the use of machines to spot deception, at least until it has been rigorously tested.

 （18） A high-tech test that can tell when a person is not telling the truth sounds too good to be true. And when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

【答案解析】

由选项中反复出现的高频词可推测内容与测谎技术及法庭有关。

Q16. What have researchers and law enforcement agencies tried to do?

A). 由开头可知研究人员和执法机构在设法制造一台可以测谎的机器，即A)。B)文不对题，C)表达不准确，D)未提及。

Q17. How do many brain scientists respond to the Massachusetts company’s so-called technological breakthrough?

B). 第三段提到没有多少科学家会庆祝这项突破，因为机器的测谎能力没有可靠的证据，所以他们怀疑它的可靠性。A)未提及，C)和D)与内容不符。

Q18. What does the speaker think of using a high-tech test to determine whether a person is telling the truth?

A). 由全文内容及结尾可知机器测谎存在诸多问题，所以不可信。其它选项无信息支撑。

Lecture 2

【主题分类】讲座听力：语言

【高级表达】

indigenous  adj.   土著的

bangladesh  n.   孟加拉国

intriguing  adj.   有趣的

hypothesize  v.   假设

【关键句型】

Far more languages are found in tropical regions than in the mild zones.   在热带地区发现的语言种类远多于温带地区。

These prior efforts all examined the degree to which different environmental, social, and geographic variables correlated with the number of languages found in a given location.   此前的这些研究都是在检验不同环境，社会和地理变化定量与某既定地区所发现的语言数量之间的相关程度。

Correlation does not equal causation.   相关关系并不等于因果关系。

【听力原文】

      Last week I attended a research workshop on an island in the South Pacific. Thirty people were present and all except me came from the island, called Makelua, in the nation of Vanuatu. They live in 16 different communities and speak 16 distinct languages. In many cases, you could stand at the edge of one village and see the outskirts of the next community. (19) Yet the residents of each village speak a completely different language. According to recent work by my colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, this island, just 100 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, is home to speakers of perhaps 40 different indigenous languages.

      Why so many? We could ask the same question of the entire globe. People don't speak one universal language, or even a handful. Instead, today our species collectively speaks over 7,000 distinct languages, and these languages are not spread randomly across the planet. (20) For example, far more languages are found in tropical regions than in the mild zones. The tropical island of New Guinea is home to over 900 languages. Russia, 20 times larger, has 105 indigenous languages. Even within the tropics, language diversity varies widely. For example, the 250,000 people who live on Vanuatu's 80 islands speak 110 different languages, but in Bangladesh, a population 600 times greater speaks only 41 languages.

      How come humans speak so many languages? And why are they so unevenly spread across the planet? As it turns out, we have few clear answers to these fundamental questions about how humanity communicates. Most people can easily brainstorm possible answers to these intriguing questions. They hypothesize that language diversity must be about history, cultural differences, mountains or oceans dividing populations. But when our diverse team of researchers from six different disciplines and eight different countries began to review what was known, we were shocked that only a dozen previous studies had been done, including one we ourselves completed on language diversity in the Pacific. These prior efforts all examined the degree to which different environmental, social and geographic variables correlated with the number of languages found in a given location. (21) The results varied a lot firom one study to another, and no clear patterns emerged. The studies also ran up against many methodological challenges, the biggest of which centered on the old statistical saying—correlation does not equal causation.

【答案解析】

选项中的高频词和复现词与语言多样性及研究相关，故推测内容涉及语言多样性的研究。

Q19. What does the speaker say about the island of Makelua?

C). 由第一段可知每个村庄的居民都说着完全不同的语言。其它选项与原文不符。

Q20. What do we learn from the talk about languages in the world?

C). 由原文可知在热带地区发现的语言种类远多于温带地区。A)与原文抵触，B)和D)未提及。

Q21. What have the diverse team of researchers found about the previous studies on language diversity?

D). 由全文结尾内容可概括得出对语言多样性的原因没有定论。B)与原文抵触，A)和C)未提及。

Lecture 3

【主题分类】讲座：社会

【高级表达】

aspire  v.   渴望，追求

demographics  n.   人口统计资料

in the phase of adversity   在困境中

compassion  n.   同情心

grim  adj.   冷酷的

【关键句型】

The gap will be eradicated.   鸿沟（贫富悬殊）将会被消除。

It partly comes down to profit-driven business models that are built around low-wage work and part-time jobs that don’t provide benefits.   这部分归因于利润驱动的商业模式，它基于低薪工作和不提供福利的兼职工作而建立。

The cumulative effect of these two factors is …, just to make ends meet.   这两个因素的叠加效应就是……，而这仅仅能维持收支平衡。

【听力原文】

     We often hear people say that America is a land of opportunity, a country built on hope to aspire the greatness on the American dream. But is the dream as we once knew it dying? (22) Today’s demographics show that the middle-class is disappearing and now the richest 1% of the population has mastered more wealth than the bottom 90% . (23) Once upon a time, Americans thought that if they worked hard enough, even in the phase of adversity, they would be rewarded with success. These days, though, the divide between rich and poor is greater than it has ever been.

     The question is, what is it going to take to change things? Maybe one day soon real change will actually be made in our nation and the gap will be eradicated. But what happens in the meantime? Is there something that we can do to help close the gap? Is there something that we can do to prove that a little compassion goes a long way? If we want to fix the problem of the income gap, first, we have to understand it. It is a grim reality that you can have one person who only makes around $13,000 a year, or across town, another is making millions. For me, it is kind of astonishing. (24) And if you ask low-income people what's the one thing that will change their life, they'll say “a full-time job.” That's all they aspire to. So why is it so difficult for so many people to find employment? It partly comes down to profit-driven business models that are built around low-wage work and part-time jobs that don't provide benefits. （25）Businesses, in order to boost profits, hire employees as part-time workers only. This means they are paid the lowest legal wage and receive no health care or other benefits provided to full-time employees.

     Simultaneously, technological advancement and a global economy has reduced the demand for well¬-paying blue-collar jobs here in the United States. The cumulative effect of these two factors is that many Americans are forced to take two or more part-time jobs, just to make ends meet. What has become obvious to me when it comes to the income gap is that there needs to be an opportunity for the people at the bottom to push them back up and push them into the middle-class to give them hope in their lives.

【答案解析】

Q22. What do the surveys show about America according to the speaker?

A). 开头即指出人口统计资料显示中产阶级正在消失。B)和D)与内容抵触，C)未提及。

Q23. What did Americans use to believe?

B). 由内容得知过去美国人认为只要足够努力，即使在困境中也能收获成功。A)表达有偏差，C)与内容不符，D)无信息支撑。

Q24. What do low-income people aspire to?

D). 文中低薪群体回答说全职工作就是他们想要的全部。其它选项与内容不符。

Q25. What do businesses do to increase their revenues?

C). 文中谈到企业的做法是为了降低成本（增加利润）只雇佣兼职员工。A)未提及，B)和D)与原文不符。