Part Ⅱ Listening Comprehension

Section A

Conversation One

1.A）He would be embarrassed.

B）He would feel very sad.

C）He would feel insulted.

D）He would be disappointed.

Q：How would the man feel if he found his book in a second-hand bookstore？

【解析】C）。对话中男士说，如果二手书店有他的书，他会想：“好吧，这是一种侮辱。”C）是对话中信息的再现，故为答案。

2.A）They are of little value.

B）They make good reading.

C）They are worthy of a prize.

D）They need improvement.

Q：What does the man’s wife think of his books？

【解析】A）。对话中男士说，她认为他写的是垃圾。即他妻子评价他的书为没有价值，故答案为A）。A）中的of little value与对话中的rubbish（垃圾）对应。

3.A）He writes several books simultaneously.

B）He draws on his real-life experiences.

C）He often turns to his wife for help.

D）He seldom writes a book straight through.

Q：What does the man do when he engages in writing？

【解析】D）。对话中男士说，他常常把一本书搁置起来，放上好几年。D）是对对话中信息的同义转述，其中的seldom...straight through对应对话中的often stopped...and left it for a few years。

4.A）Writing a book is just like watching a football match.

B）Unlike a football match，there is no end to writing a book.

C）He likes watching a football match after finishing a book.

D）Writers actually work every bit as hard as footballers.

Q：What does the man want to say by mentioning the football match？

【解析】B）。对话中男士说，对于作家来说很搞笑，因为没有一个像足球比赛那样的结束的哨声。B）是对对话中信息的同义转述，其中的unlike a football match对应It’s funny for an author；no end to writing a book对应never a finishing whistle。

W：Mr.Ishiguru，have you ever found one of your books at a second-hand bookstore？

M：Yes.That kind of thing is difficult.[1]If they’ve got my book there，I think，“Well，this is an insult！ Somebody didn’t want to keep my book！”But if it’s not there，I feel it’s an insult，too.I think，“Why aren’t people exchanging my book？Why isn’t it in this store？”

W：Does being a writer require a thick skin？

M：Yes.For example，my wife can be very harsh.I began working on my latest book，The Buried Giant，in 2004，but I stopped after I showed my wife a little section.[2]She thought it was rubbish.

W：Even after you won a Booker Prize？

M：She is not intimidated at all，and she criticizes me in exactly the same way she did when I was first unpublished and I was starting.

W：But you would never compromise on your vision.

M：No，I wouldn’t ever compromise on the essential，the ideas or the themes.This isn’t really what my wife is trying to criticize me about.It’s always about execution.

W：So why did you put your book The Buried Giant aside for so long？Apparently you started working on it over ten years ago.

M：[3]I have often stopped writing the book and left it for a few years，and by the time I come back to it，it may have changed.Usually my imagination has moved on，and I can think of different contexts，or a different way to do it.

W：What does it feel like when you finally finish your book？

M：It’s funny you ask that because I never have this moment when I feel，“AhI finished.”I watch footballers at the end of the match，you know，the whistle goals and they’ve won or lost.Until then，they’ve been giving everything they have， and at that moment they know it’s over.[4]It’s funny for an author.There is never a finishing whistle.

Conversation Two

5.A）Undergraduate enrollments of black athletes.

B）Financial assistance to black athletes in college.

C）High college dropout rates among black athletes.

D）Achievements of black male athletes in college.

Q：What are the speakers talking about？

【解析】C）。对话中女士说，黑人运动员在全国各大学的辍学率惊人。即对话主要谈论“黑人运动员在大学里的高辍学率”，故答案为C）。C）中的highrates对应对话中的at alarming rates。

6.A）They make money for the college but often fail to earn a degree.

B）They have difficulty finding money to complete their studies.

C）They are better at sports than at academic work.

D）They display great talent in every kind of game.

Q：What is the new finding about black male athletes in the study？

【解析】A）。对话中男士说，也就是说他们（即黑人男性运动员）在大学中实际上就是创收工作阶层的运动员……那么真正糟糕的是，据说这些运动员都曾得到承诺，至少获得一样东西作为他们付出血汗的回报，那就是大学学位。由此可知，答案为A）。

7.A）Around 40%. C）About 15%.

B）Slightly over 50%. D）Approximately 70%.

Q：What is the graduation rate of black male athletes？

【解析】B）。在65所学校里这一群体中的黑人男性运动员毕业人数大概只有一半以上。B）是对对话中just barely more than half的同义转述，故为答案。

8.A）College degrees do not count much to them.

B）They have little interest in academic work.

C）Schools do not deem it a serious problem.

D）Coaches lack the incentive to graduate them.

Q：What accounts for black athletes’failure to obtain a college degree according to the man？

【解析】D）。对话中男士说，教练不一定会激励这些运动员毕业。D）是对对话中信息的同义转述，其中的lack对应do not necessarily have。

W：According to a study of Race and Equity in Education，[5]black athletes are dropping out of college across the country at alarming rates.With us to talk about the findings in the study is Washington Post columnist Kevin Blackistone.Good morning.

M：Good morning，how are you？

W：Fine，thank you.What is new that you found in this study？

M：Well，this is Shaun Harper’s study，and he pointsout that on major college campuses across the country，black males make up less than 3 percent of undergraduate enrollments.Yet，when you look at their numbers or percentages on the revenue-generating sports teams of football and basketball，they make up well into 50 to 60 percent of those teams.[6]So the idea is that they are really there to be part of the revenue-generating working class of athletes on campus and not necessarily there to be part of the educating class as most students in other groups are.

W：Compared with other groups，I think[7]the numbers in this group at those 65 schools are something like just barely more than half of the black male athletes graduate at all.

M：Exactly.[7]And what’s really bad about this is these athletes are supposedly promised at least one thing as reward for all their blood and sweat.And that is a college degree，which can be a transformative tool in our society when you talk about upward mobility.And that’s really the troubling part about this.

W：Well，this has been talked about so much，really，in recent years.Why hasn’t it changed？

M：Well，I think one of the reasons it hasn’t changed is because there’s really no economic pressure to change this.All of the incentive is really on winning and not losing on the field or on the court.[8]Coaches do not necessarily have the incentive to graduate players.

Section B

Passage One

9.A）Online stores. C）Shopping malls.

B）Marketing strategies. D）Holiday shopping.

Q：What is the speaker mainly talking about？

【解析】D）。短文开头提到，美国的假日购物季开始于黑色星期五，也就是感恩节的第二天。这是一年中最繁忙的购物日。短文接下来围绕假日购物季消费者人数、销售额等方面展开。由此可推断，短文主要谈论“假日购物”，故答案为D）。

10.A）About 136 million.

B）About 183.8 million.

C）About 50%of holiday shoppers.

D）About 20-30%of holiday shoppers.

Q：How many people will shop on Cyber Monday？

[9]America’s holiday shopping season starts on Black Friday，the day after Thanksgiving.It is the busiest shopping day of the year.

Retailers make the most money this time of year，about 20 to 30 percent of annual revenue.About 136 million people will shop during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

More and more will shop online.In an era of instant information，shoppers can use their mobile phones to find deals.[10]About 183.8 million people will shop on Cyber Monday，the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

More than half of all holiday purchases will bemade online.One-in-five Americans will use a tablet or smartphone.

Online spending on Black Friday will rise 15 percent to hit$2.7 billion this year.Cyber Monday spending will increase 12 percent to$3 billion.

For many，shopping online was“a more comfortable alternative”than crowded malls.

The shift to online shopping has had a big impact on traditional shopping malls.Since 2010， more than 24 shopping malls have closed and an additional 60 are struggling.

[11]However，Fortune says the weakest of the malls have closed.The sector is thriving again.The International Council of Shopping Centers said 94.2 percent of malls were full，or occupied with shops by the end of 2014.That is the highest level in 27 years.

[12]Economist Gus Faucher said lower unemployment and rising wages could give Americans more money to spend.

The average American consumer will spend about$805 on gifts.That’s about$630.5 billion between November and December—an increase of 3.7 percent from last year.

Passage Two

13.A）They are life-threatening diseases.

B）They are overprescribed antibiotics.

C）They are new species of big insects.

D）They are antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Q：What do we learn about the“superbugs”？

【解析】D）。短文中提到，“超级病菌”即因过度使用抗生素而发展成为耐抗生素的细菌。D）是短文中信息的再现，故为答案。

14.A）Routine operations have become complex.

B）Large amounts of tax money are wasted.

C）Many infections are no longer curable.

D）Antibiotics are now in short supply.

Q：What is the result of the overuse of antibiotics？

【解析】A）。短文中提到，“超级病菌”即因过度使用抗生素而发展成为耐抗生素的细菌。下文提到，由于这些感染的潜在威胁，像膝关节置换手术这样看似常规的手术现在都变得更加危险。这些感染就是过度使用抗生素的结果，这些感染继而导致常规手术变得更加复杂，故答案为A）。

15.A）Money. C）Facilities.

B）Expertise. D）Publicity.

Q：What is most urgently needed for tackling the large life-threatening epidemic according to the speaker？

【解析】A）。短文中提到，如果有大规模危及生命的传染病，遗憾的是国家卫生研究院目前用于研究这一问题的解决办法的预算资金仅占总数的1.2%。由此可知，解决大规模危及生命的传染病最迫切需要的是资金，故答案为A）。

For years，many of us have relied on antibiotic use to treat various infections.And the reality is that antibiotics have been responsible for saving millions of lives since penicillin，one of the earliest antibiotics，first used on a clinical basis 70 years ago.

However，today is a new era in which taking antibiotics can cause some very dangerous and potentially life-threatening situations.In fact，you may have heard about the new[13]/[14]“superbugs”，which are antibiotic-resistant bacteria that have developed as a result of overprescribed antibiotics.In the past，health experts warned us that the day would come in which it would become very difficult to provide medical care for even common problems such as lung infection or severe sore throat.And，apparently，that day has come[14]because seemingly routine operations such as knee replacements are now much more hazardous due to the looming threat of these infections.

The problem has grown into such epidemic proportions that this severe strain of resistant bacteria is being blamed for nearly 700，000 deathseach year throughout the world；and，unfortunately， health experts worry that the number will rise to 10 million or more on a yearly basis by 2050.[15]With such a large life-threatening epidemic，it is sad to say that only 1.2%of budgetary money for the National Institutes of Health is currently being spent on research to tackle this problem.This is a far cry from the funds necessary for a problem of such magnitude.

Section C

Recording One

16.A）It improves students’ability to think.

B）It is accessible only to the talented.

C）It starts a lifelong learning process.

D）It gives birth to many eminent scholars.

Q：What does the speaker say about a university？

【解析】A）。录音开头提到，你来这里（即大学里）了解更好地思考（understand thinking）、更好地为自己考虑（think better yourself）……在未来几年当中，你有机会专注于思考（focus on thinking）。由此可知，讲话者认为大学能提高学生的思考能力，故答案为A）。

17.A）They protect students’rights.

B）They promote globalization.

C）They uphold the presidents’authority.

D）They encourage academic democracy.

Q：What do we learn from the speaker’s stories about universities？

【解析】D）。录音中提到，讲话者身为校长，却遭到一名大一新生的批评。虽然讲话者进行了反驳，但通过这件事说明，大学最突出的一点就是以思想为权威。而且学生也可以挑战教师们提出的理论。由此推断，讲话者通过这个故事意在说明大学鼓励学术民主，故答案为D）。

18.A）His eagerness to find a job.

B）His thirst for knowledge.

C）His potential for leadership.

D）His contempt for authority.

Q：What does the speaker see in a young man who challenged his paper？

【解析】B）。录音最后提到，一名学生对讲话者说，讲话者的论文虽然不错，但是有重大错误。讲话者认为，你可以争辩这些错误到底是不是错误，但是那个年轻人对学习的渴求是不容辩驳的。由此可知，讲话者从这名学生的身上看到了其对知识的渴望。B）中的thirst for knowledge对应录音中的hunger to learn。

This is the reason you’re here in a university. You’re here to be educated.[16]You’re here to understand thinking better and to think better yourself.It’s not a chance you’re going to have throughout your lifetime.[16]For the next few years，you have a chance to focus on thinking.

I think about some of the students who took advantage of their opportunities in a university.One of the stories I always like to tell is of a freshman seminar that I had a chance to teach at Harvard when I was president of the university.I taught a seminar on globalization，and I assigned a reading that I had written about global capital flows.And as I did each week，asked one of the students to introduce the readings.

And this young man in October of his freshman year said something like the following.“The reading by President Summers on the flow of capital across countries，it was kind of interesting，but the data did not come close to supporting the conclusions.”And I thought to myself，“What a fantastic thing this was！How could somebody who had been there for five weeks，tell the person who had the title‘President’that he didn’t really know what he was talking about.”And it was a special moment.

Now，I don’t want to be misunderstood.I explained to my student that I actually thought he was rather more confused than I was and I argued back，[17]but what was really important about that was the universities stand out as places that really are about the authority of ideas.You see it in faculty members who are pleased when their students make a discovery that undermines a cherished theory that they had put forward.

I think of another student I had who came to me one morning，one evening actually，walked into my office and said that I had written a pretty good paper，but that it had five important mistakes and that he wanted a job.You could debate whether they actuallywere mistakes，but[18]you couldn’t debate that young man’s hunger to learn.You could not debate that that young man was someone who wanted to make a difference in economics and he is today a professor of economics.And his works are more cited as an economist than any other economist in the world.

Recording Two

19.A）People tend to underestimate their mental powers.

B）Most people have a rather poor long-term memory.

C）People can enhance their memory with a few tricks.

D）Few people know how to retrieve information properly.

Q：What does the simple test suggest？

【解析】A）。录音开头提到，心理学研究显示，我们一直低估我们的脑力。A）是对录音中信息的同义转述，其中的tend to对应录音中的consistently。

20.A）They contain names of the most familiar states.

B）They are exactly the same as is shown in the atlas.

C）They include more or less the same number of states.

D）They present the states in a surprisingly different order.

Q：What do we learn about the two lists in the test？

【解析】C）。录音中提到，这两份清单包含的州数差不多。C）是对录音中信息的同义转述，其中的include对应录音中的contain；more or less对应roughly。

21.A）Making sensible decisions while choosing your answers.

B）Reviewing your lessons where the exam is to take place.

C）Having a good sleep the night before.

D）Focusing on what is likely to be tested.

Q：What does the speaker suggest about preparing for and taking an exam？

【解析】B）。录音中提到，如果可能的话，你还应该试着在进行考试的教室里学习。B）是对录音中信息的同义转述，其中的reviewing your lessons对应录音中的learn information；where the exam is to take place对应where it is going to be tested。

22.A）Follow the example of a marathon runner.

B）Give yourself a double bonus afterwards.

C）Discover when you can learn best.

D）Change your time of study daily.

Q：What tip does the speaker give on learning？

【解析】C）。录音中提到，试着组织你的生活，以便使安排给学习的时间与记忆力最强的时间重合。C）是对录音中此信息的同义转述，故为答案。

[19]Psychological research shows we consistently underestimate our mental powers.If you think this does not apply to you，then here is a simple test to show you are wrong.Write down the names of all the American states you can remember.Put the list away and then set yourself the same task a week later.Provided you have not cheated by consulting an atlas，you will notice something rather surprising. [20]The two lists will contain roughly the same number of states，but they will not be identical.Some names will have slipped away，but others will have replaced them.

This suggests that somewhere in your mind you may well have a record of virtually every state.So it is not really your memory letting you down，just your ability to retrieve information from it.

We would remember a lot more if we had more confidence in our memories and knew how to use them properly.One useful tip is that things are more likely to be remembered if you are in exactly the same state and place as you were when you learned them.

So if you are a student who always reviews over black coffee，perhaps it would be sensible to prime yourself with a cup before the exam.[21]If possible，you should also try to learn information in the room where it is going to be tested.When you learn is also important.Lots of people swear they can absorb new information more efficiently at some times of the day than at others.Research shows this is not just imagination.There is a biological rhythm for learning.Though it affects different people in different ways，for most of us，the best plan is to take in new information in the morning，and then try to consolidate it into memory during the afternoon.

But this does not apply to everyone，so it is essential to establish your own rhythm.You can do this by learning a set number of lines of poetry at different times of the day and seeing when most lines stick.When you have done this，[22]try to organize your life so that the time set aside for learning coincides with the time when your memory is at its best.

Avoid learning marathons—they do not make the best use of your mind.Take plenty of breaks，because they offer a double bonus：the time off gives your mind a chance to do some preliminary consolidation，and it also gives a memory boost to the learning.Recording Three

23.A）He is a politician.

B）He is a sociologist.

C）He is a businessman.

D）He is an economist.

Q：What does the speaker do？

【解析】B）。录音中提到，它不仅与我们社会学家有关……由此可知，讲话者是一名社会学家，故答案为B）。

24.A）In slums.

B）In Africa.

C）In developing countries.

D）In pre-industrial societies.

Q：Where does the speaker say we can find extreme poverty？

【解析】C）。录音中提到，只有在发展中国家才能发现极端贫困。C）是录音中信息的再现，故为答案。

25.A）Their children cannot afford to go to private schools.

B）They work extra hours to have their basic needs met.

C）Their income is less than 50% of the national average family income.

D）They have no access to health care，let alone entertainment or recreation.

Q：What do we learn about American people living in relative poverty？

【解析】C）。录音中提到，在美国，如果一个家庭的收入少于全国平均家庭收入的50%，这个家庭就可被视作贫困。C）是录音中信息的再现，故为答案。

Hello，today I’m going to talking about poverty.Poverty has become a critical issue in today’s world.[23]It concerns not only us sociologists，but also economists，politicians and business people.

Poverty has been understood in many different ways.One useful way is to distinguish between three degrees of poverty：extreme poverty，moderate poverty，and relative poverty.

The first type of poverty is extreme poverty.It’s also called absolute poverty.In extreme poverty，households cannot meet basic needs for survival.People are chronically hungry.They are unable to access safe drinking water，let alone health care.They cannot afford education for their children.In short，people who live in extreme poverty do not have even the minimum resources to support themselves and their families.

[24]Where does extreme poverty occur？Well，you can find it only in developing countries.

Well，what about moderate poverty？Unlike extreme poverty，moderate poverty generally refers to conditions of life in which basic needs are met，but barely.People living in moderate poverty have the resources to keep themselves alive，but only at a very basic level.For example，they may have access to drinking water but not clean safe drinking water.They may have a home to shelter themselves but it does not have power supply，a telephone or plumbing.

The third kind of poverty is relative poverty.Relative poverty is generally considered to be a household income level which is below a given proportion of average family income.The relatively poor live in high income countries but they do not have a high income themselves.The method of calculating the poverty line is different from country to country，but we can say that basically a family living in relative poverty has less than a percentage of the average family income.For example，[25]in the United States，a family can be considered poor if their income is less than 50%of the national average family income.They can meet their basic needs but they lack access to cultural goods，entertainment，and recreation.They also do not have access to quality health care or other prerequisites for upward social mobility.

Well，I have briefly explained to you how poverty can be distinguished as extreme poverty，moderate poverty，and relative poverty.We should keep these distinctions in mind when we research people’s living conditions，either in the developing or the developed world.