听力minilecture 原文

6 Study in America

This week in our Foreign Student Series, we discuss something for students interested in higher education in the United States.

Firstly, let’s learn about how to get the information you need. One place to go for advice and information about American colleges and universities is an Education USA center. More than four hundred of these educational advising centers are located around the world. The advisers at Education USA centers do not charge any money for their services.They help students find schools and get information about financial aid, admissions tests and visa requirements. The centers are supported by the State Department. Y ou can find the nearest one on the State Department's Web site for international students.

Another place to get information is at an educational fair.Representatives of American colleges and universities present information and answer questions from students and their parents.The Institute of International Education has been organizing United States Higher Education Fairs in Asia since 1982. Last year, more than fourteen thousand students attended these fairs in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The next higher education fairs in Asia are in October.

Secondly, we talk about applying to an American college or university. International admissions officers advise students to apply to at least three schools.Y ou may be able to apply online and pay the application charge with a credit card, or by mail.

Y ou should study the Web sites of schools that interest you. Y ou can find information about how and when to apply, how much it will cost and whether any financial aid is available. And you can probably e-mail the admissions office with any questions.

In most schools, the admissions Web site has an area where people can send questions to current international students.

Wherever you apply, you should start the application process at least two years before you want to begin your studies. Completing the applications and any required admissions tests will take time.

There are two competing admissions tests at the undergraduate level: the SAT and the ACT.

The SA T involves mathematics and language and includes writing an essay.

The ACT is designed to measure what a student learned in high school. There are questions in four skill areas: math, English, reading and science.

Most American colleges and universities require applicants for a bachelor's degree to take one of the tests. Some students take both.

The ACT is advertised as "America's most widely accepted college entrance exam." The SA T is advertised as the one "most widely taken" and, combined with high school grades, "the best predictor of college success."

For graduate-level programs, applicants often have to take the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE.The general test measures reasoning, thinking and writing skills.

Non-native English speakers will most likely have to take the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or IELTS, the International English Language Testing System.

Most American colleges and universities accept one or both of the two major tests.

The TOEFL is given in 180 countries. The competing IELTS is given in 121 countries.

One million people each year take the TOEFL, says Tom Ewing, a spokesman for the Educational Testing Service. Same with the IELTS, says Beryl Meiron, the executive director of IELTS International.

She says two thousand colleges and universities in the United States now recognize the IELTS.

The IELTS is a paper test, while the TOEFL is given on paper only in places where a computer test is unavailable.

The TOEFL paper test costs 150 dollars. It tests reading, listening and writing. A separate Test of

Spoken English costs 125 dollars.

The computer version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-based test. The price is different in each country, but generally falls between 150 and 200 dollars.

The TOEFL iBT and the IELTS both measure all four language skills --- listening, reading, writing and speaking. But with the IELTS, the speaking test is done separately as a live interview. Y ou speak with an examiner who is certified in ESOL - English for speakers of other languages.

IELTS International says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and employment. Institutions in Britain and Australia jointly developed it.

Thirdly, what’s the next step if you get accepted? Just getting accepted to an American college or university does not guarantee that you will get a visa. And getting a visa just lets you arrive in the United States. It does not guarantee that an immigration officer will permit you to enter the country.

Travel documents come from the Department of State. But immigration is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.

The State Department has a Web site with all the rules for getting a visa. The address is https://www.360docs.net/doc/7814393440.html,. Unitedstatesvisas is all one word.

If you are requesting a visa for the first time, you will probably have to go to an American embassy. Y ou will need to bring a government form sent to you by your American school that shows you have been accepted.

Y ou will also need banking and tax records that show you have enough money to pay for your education. And be prepared to provide evidence that you will return to your home country after your studies end.

All of this is important in satisfying the requirements to get a visa.

Foreign students must contact their local embassy to request an interview and to get other information. This includes directions about how and where to pay the visa application charge. The cost is 200 dollars.

Y ou should apply for the visa as soon as you have been accepted to a school in the United States. The government needs time to perform a background investigation.

Y ou cannot receive a visa more than 120 days before the start of your program. And if you are coming as a student for the first time, you cannot enter the country more than thirty days before classes begin.

Once you come to the United States, you can stay for the length of your period of study. Y our school is required to provide the Department of Homeland Security with reports on your status as a student.

7 How to Conduct Research Online

Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture, I’ll talk about tips on how to do researc h online. Nowadays, online resources can be found easily, and they can be of very high quality. The best way to find high-quality journal articles is to get them through your online library, or to buy the articles through an article provider.

However, there are good sources that are both accurate and of high quality on the Web, and they are often free and don’t need any password.

Whether you are looking for journal articles, thesis, factual information, or high-quality resources, the same principles are always helpful. Narrow your topic, make sure your search terms are relevant and focused, make sure your articles and your topic are consistent, examine your sources for prejudice and distortion, and finally, make sure that your research provides enough support and background for your argument.

Let's expand the steps and look at them again. It is useful to look at each of the steps

individually.

(1)Define your topic.

Narrow it down, but don't constrain it too much. Develop a solid topic statement that gives you room to develop an argument. This is a great time to do brainstorming. Clusters, mind maps, concept maps, decision trees, and free-writing are all very useful.

Determine what fields of study your research question will address.

(2)Identifying the fields of study will help you determine which journals or databases to

search.

(3)Make a list of items that interest you about the topic.

For example, you may be required to write an essay on an aspect of Hamlet in your English class. At first, you feel puzzled. Later, however, you think about the characters and situations that most interested you and you recall that Ophelia's speech and then her death were interesting to you. Y ou wondered about the psychological state, and how she was thought by the others in the play. Does her situation show something essential about the human condition? Y ou don't have any idea, but you'd like to explore it. So, you start by looking into what others have said about Ophelia in Hamlet. Y ou find that her madness and death reflect and reinforce the overall themes of death, madness, murder, and betrayal. How does Ophelia's madness contrast with Hamlet's?(4) Y ou start writing down ideas and key words. These will help you develop search terms and focus your search by going to the correct types of journals and materials.

Narrow your topic.

This requires another round of brainstorming, but this time you will be focusing on what others have written. List terms, ideas, and concepts that occur to you, and then focus on the subcategories that you find most interesting.

Then, use the list to narrow your topic. (5)Avoid old-fashioned subjects and the ones that are too narrow or too broad.

What have others said?

As you conduct beginning research in the library, you will find books and articles on your topic. As you read the material, try to form an idea of what the major issues have been in the discussions about your topic.

For example, if your topic is on how the study of pragmatics starts, you will need to have an idea of who started researching the topic first. Y ou will also need to identify the sides of the argument. Who is for it? Who is against it? Why? What are the issues?

(6) Once you have a sense of the main players, you can start to do searches based on author name as well as key words or topics.

Evaluate your material.

How do you determine if a source of information is of high quality? Even if you are getting your data from a library database such as Lexis-Nexis, (7) you should be aware that the articles contained in the newspapers they have in their database could be prejudiced.

Anyone with access to a server can put material on the web; there are no controls on what people choose to write. As a result, web pages should be viewed with even more caution than most print materials. In particular you should look for:

- who is responsible for the site ---is there a name and contact address?

- what is the operating rule for the site ---is it supporting a particular viewpoint to prove other views to be wrong?

- is there a list or bibliography of evidence?

-(8) is there a date when the site was last updated ---how long ago did this happen?

- does the site seem to be permanent or part of a permanent organization?

Organize your sources, articles, and notes.

After you have found your articles, be sure to organize them so that you have a sense of where they will go in your paper. Keep your original topic in mind and the points you are trying to make. Y ou should support them with evidence and research findings from your articles.

This is a good time to return to your outline and to start mapping out where you plan to use your sources and materials.

Create a bibliography.

(9)As you download and read your articles, you can keep track of them by creating an

"electronic notebook" which would consist of a list of your sources. Create an entry for each source. Use the appropriate style. After you have completed that, be sure to write a one-sentence summary of the article and how it relates to your topic.

Update your outline.

Re-examine your thesis. Look at your argumentation structure. Does each paragraph help support your thesis? How does your research fit? Determine where you have gaps and redundancies.

Fill in the gaps.

Make a list of the places in your paper where you need additional support for your argument.

(10)Then, after eliminating redundancies, map where you need to fill gaps, and where your argument needs additional support.

8 Mass Media in America

Good morning, everyone, today my topic is mass media in America. By media, we refer to the variety of means by which technology transmits information and entertainment to us. Thus, in its broadest sense, the term media includes newspaper, television, movies, radio, books, and magazines. Mass media specifically refer to those publications and programs that attempt to serve most or all of the people in a given market. Here I would like to introduce the mass media in America by dividing them into three groups: newspaper; magazines; radio and television.

First, let’s have a look at newspapers. For a long time, newspapers have been the chief means by which people get themselves informed. While television has replaced newspapers as the primary source of news for most Americans, and while computer network is increasingly becoming a faster and easier way of obtaining news for many Americans, newspapers still remain as one of the most powerful means of communications in the United States. For one thing, reading newspapers is different from watching TV. It gives detailed coverage of news items,and tends to provide substantial treatment of news events. And, sometimes it offers interesting and stimulating opinions as well as analysis over important events at home and abroad.For another, unlike watching TV, reading newspapers does not require one to be confined to his sitting-room.He can do it virtually anywhere he likes: in his car, at the breakfast table, sitting in the sun, waiting at the subway station, and believe it or not, in the restroom. So, for these and many other reasons, newspapers in the United States are still a big business. And, this is borne out by two facts: (1) the large circulation of a number of important newspapers such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal; (2) the great variety of newspapers available in the United States, big and small, local and national, special and general, radical and conservative, and so on. The top 3 daily newspapers in the United States are: Wall Street Journal, USA Today and New Y ork Times.

Second, we’ll move to magazines. According to a statistical r ecord in 1990, there were over 12, 205 magazines being published in the United States. More than 4, 000 of them appear monthly, and over 1, 300 are published each week. They cover all topics and interests, from art and architecture to sports, from aviation and gardening to computers and book reviews, from fashion design and cooking to homemaking. Quite a few have international editors, are translated into other languages,

or have “daughter” editions in foreign countries. Among the many internationals are National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Time, Newsweek, Scientific American and Psychology Today. The weekly newsmagazines --- the best known are Time, Newsweek, and U. S. News & World Report --- serve as a type of national press. Unlike newspapers, however, weekly newsmagazines tend to give extensive coverage and provide detailed, and sometimes in-depth, analysis. Also unlike newspapers, which usually have the lowest common denominator in their appeal to the general reading public, weekly newsmagazines normally target at the well-educated, well-informed, and public-conscious people of the society.Many weekly newsmagazines also have considerable international impact, particularly Time and Newsweek. The top three magazines in America are: (1) Reader’s Digest; (2) TV Guide; (3) The Conde Nast Select.

Third, I’ll say something about radio and television. In more than two generations, the two powerful mass media transformed much of American life.

Radio, emerging at the same period when the Great Depression pervaded in America, provided free entertainment in the comforts of the home. Families that could no longer afford to go out for entertainment gathered together in their living rooms to escape reality by laughing, fantasizing and dreaming of happier times. From then on, radio became a first-class entertainment medium for most Americans. Up until now, in view of the popularity of radio programs in the United States, the future of radio as a form of medium continues to look bright.

Then, with the rapid development of science and technology, TV came into being in 1920s. It primarily serves as a medium of entertainment, and then also has a big role to play as a news broadcasting agency. Networks began experimenting with news at locally owned stations as early as January 1940. But, early-day television news could not begin to compare with radio news. Only after the invention of portable cameras and videotape recorders had television been made a much more credible news medium because viewers saw pictures of the news events on the day they occurred. Consequently, access to news is made much easier, and the general public is getting better informed.

Gradually, television’s impact on American society has been more and more profound. It has changed the life-styles of most Americans and become a major influence on American culture. It can be seen from 5 aspects.

First and foremost is the socialization effect. Many studies have shown that TV’s dominance as household activity often reduces the level of communication among family members and, as a result, much of the culture being distributed to youngsters today in the United States comes from the tube rather than the family.

Secondly, television programming has played an important role in shaping and reflecting for the masses the cultural changes that have been occurring in American society. TV functions both as a transmitter of new cultural trends and as a molder of new attitudes towards these new trends.

Thirdly, television has revolutionized the marketing of goods in the American economy. With TV marketing, people become vulnerable to the products, or in other words, to the commercials.

Fourthly, the cultural impact of violent TV programs has been quite enormous. Needless to say, the question of violence on TV has been around nearly as long as the medium. Many critics claim that TV violence increases violence in American society.

Fifthly, the impact of TV on religion has also been an issue of great concern to many Americans. So far now, it is still an issue full of disputes.

To sum up, the mass media in America includes so many different forms, and each of them plays a vital role in American people’s life not only in the past, but also at present and in the future. To know much about America, one must have a good knowledge about its mass media.

9 Problems for EFL Learners

Even though some EFL learners achieve high score in a certain standard English test such as IELTS or TOFEL, they still have some problems concerning the learning of English. Today I’d l ike to talk about some of the problems that students face when they follow a course of study through the medium of English - if English is not their mother tongue. The purpose is to show that we’re aware of students’ problems, and that by analyzing them perhaps it’ll be possible to suggest how some of them may be overcome.

The problems can be divided into three broad categories:psychological, cultural and linguistic. Some of the common psychological problems really involve fear of the unknown: for example, whether one’s academic studies will be too difficult, whether one will fail the exams, and so on. All students share these apprehensions.

It’s probably best for a student not to look too far ahead but to concentrate day-by-day on increasing his knowledge and developing his ability. The overseas student in Britain may also suffer from separation from his family and possible homesickness; enjoyment of his activities in Britain and the passage of time are the only real help here.

Looking now at the cultural problems,we can see that some of them are of a very practical nature, for example, arranging satisfactory accommodation, getting used to British money (or the lack of it), British food and weather. Some of the cultural difficulties are less easy to define: they are bound up with the whole range of alien customs, habits and traditions --- in other words, the British way of life. Such difficulties include:settling into a strange environment and a new academic routine; learning a new set of social habits, ranging from the times of meals to the meanings of gestures; expressing appropriate greetings; understanding a different kind of humor; and learning how to make friends. Being open-minded and adaptable is the best approach to some of the difficulties listed here.

The largest category is probably linguistic. Let’s look at this in some detail. Most students have learnt English at school, but they have had little everyday opportunity to practice using English. When foreign learners first have the opportunity to speak to an English-speaking person they may have a shock: they often have great difficulty in understanding! There are a number of reasons for this. I’ll just mention three of them.

Firstly, it seems to students that English people speak very quickly. Secondly, they speak with a variety of accents. Thirdly, different styles of speech are used in different situations, for example, everyday spoken English, which is colloquial and idiomatic, is different from the English used for academic purposes. Don’t f orget, by the way, that if students have difficulty in understanding English-speaking people, these people may also have difficulty in understanding the students!

What can a student do then to overcome these difficulties? Well, obviously, he can benefit from attending English classes and if a language laboratory is available use it as much as possible. He should also listen to programmes in English on the radio and TV. Perhaps the most important of all, he should take every available opportunity to meet and speak with native English-speaking people. He should be aware, however, that English people are, by temperament, often reserved and may be unwilling to start a conversation. Nevertheless, if he has the courage to take the initiative, however difficult it may seem to be, most English people will respond. He will need patience and perseverance.

In addition to these problems regarding listening and understanding, the student probably has difficulty in speaking English fluently. He has the ideas, he knows wh at to say but he doesn’t know how to say it in English. The advice here will seem difficult to follow but it’s necessary. Firstly, he must simplify his language so that he can express himself reasonably clearly;for example, short sentences will be better than long ones. Secondly, he must try to think in English, not translate from his mother tongue. That’ll only begin to take place when his use of English becomes automatic;

using a language laboratory and listening to as much English as possible will help. In general, he should practice speaking as much as possible. He should also notice the kind of English, and its structure, that educated people use, and try to imitate it.

The problem with learning English as a foreign language is that all English learners want to speak English well; however, most learners don't want to spend time on learning English on their own. Learning English requires action. Y ou may know all the learning tips, but if you don't start doing things, you will achieve nothing. The fact is, if you want to learn to speak English well, you must change your life.

Thank you for your attention.

10 Attending a College or University in the USA

Today, I’m going to talk about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. Experts say you must plan early if you want to study in the United States. They say to begin at least two years before you want to start your studies.

The first step is to visit an American educational advising center. There are more than 400 such offices around the world.Y ou can find the one closest to your home by using a computer.Go to an Education Report on the Special English Web site and click on the link to the State Department Education Foreign Student Web page.

Or ask the Public Affairs Office at the United States Embassy in your country to tell you where the nearest American educational advising center is. Educational advising centers have information about American colleges. They have computers so you can do a search to find the best school for you.

Colleges and universities in the United States offer different kinds of degrees that require one or more years of study. For example, some schools offer certificate programs. These programs offer one year of training in subjects like office work, computer programming or car repair.

Y ou may also choose a two-year junior college or community college. Such programs lead to an associate degree. For example, some two-year programs prepare students for skilled jobs in electronics.Studying at a community college costs much less than at a four-year college. Many colleges and universities accept community college work as the first two years toward a four-year bachelor’s degree. To get a bachelor’s degree, you study general subjects lik e English, history, mathematics, and science during the first two years. During the last two years you take classes in your major area of study.

If you already have a college degree, you may want to get an advanced degree at an American graduate school. A master’s degree usually takes two or three more years of full-time study in one subject. Y ou must attend graduate school if you want to be a college professor, medical doctor or lawyer. These special degree programs require between three and six years of additional study.

People attend a college or university to continue their education after high school. This prepares them for work. It also provides them with a greater understanding of the world and its past. And, it helps them value the arts and sciences. But what is the difference between a college and a university in the United States?

Students usually attend a college for four years to complete a program of study. Those who are successful receive a bachelor’s degree. Colleges generally do not offer additional study programs or support research projects.Universities often are much larger than colleges. Universities carry out research. They also offer several programs in many areas of study. Universities offer bachelor’s degrees after four years of study. They also offer graduate degrees that require additional years of study.

Modern universities developed from those of Europe’s Middle Ages. They took their name from the Latin word “universitas”. It meant a group of people organized for one purpose. Th e first

European colleges were groups of students who came together because of the same interests. In England, colleges were formed to provide students with living places. Usually each group was studying the same thing, so the word “college” came to mean o ne area of study.

Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. The liberal arts are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They trained a person’s mind. They were considered different from subjects that were us eful in life. The word “college” also means a part of a university that teaches one area of study. That is because the first American universities divided their studies into many areas and called each one a college. For example, the University of Texas at Austin has fourteen different colleges. It also has the most students of any single university in the country. This year, more than 52,000 men and women are studying there.

One way to earn a degree at an American college or university is to stay at home a nd use a computer. American universities have been offering classes online for a number of years. Students who have taken online classes say they like them. One reason is because they do not have to travel to a building at a set time to listen to a professor. Professors say they have better communication with students through electronic mail notes than they do in many traditional classes.

Some colleges offer academic degrees online. One is Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado. Its web site says it is the first fully online accredited university.It offers both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees.

The University of Phoenix in Arizona has been offering degrees online since 1989. University officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. For example, in some programs, groups of the same six students progress through all their classes together. They communicate by computer.

Another online school is Cardean University ,near Chicago, Illinois. It began operations two years ago. It is offering online classes leading to a Master’s of Business Administration degree. Cardean University uses a problem-solving method of teaching. Students attempt to solve real problems in their classes online instead of reading information.

Anyone with a computer can find information on the Internet about these schools and others. Y ou can use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Type “online education”, and choose from a list of schools. Each will provide information about its programs and costs.

However, experts say you should not send money to any school that says you can get a college degree without doing any work. These are illegal operations. Experts also say that you should find out if such college degrees are recognized in your country before you decide to get an education online.

Well, this is part of a series of talks about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. Next week, we’ll continue with the talk s.