英语四级听力文本

1、The Dog that Made Us a Family[00:07.33]We inherited my daughter Liana[00:10.19]when she was barely 5.[00:11.99]She had been adopted from China[00:14.30]by my closest friend of 30 years, Linda,[00:17.47]a single51-year-old woman,[00:20.40]slim and delicate-looking but tough and firm inside. [00:24.07]Linda had a background of diverse illnesses.[00:26.82]My husband later told me[00:28.75]that when she walked merrily off the plane[00:31.18]on Christmas Day in 1994,[00:33.91]with her round, worried-looking Chinese baby[00:37.10]bundled in red and holding a toy bear,[00:39.78]he had a weird impression[00:41.64]that we would eventually raise this child.[00:45.19]Three years later, my best friend died[00:47.82]and Liana came home with us.[00:50.25]I was 55, a fulltime textbook editor[00:53.36]with two almost-grown daughters.[00:56.16]My husband, an English professor, was 48.[00:59.46]I was looking forward to a few years[01:01.88]of empty nesting and then some grandchildren.[01:05.55]Starting over with a dynamic kindergartner[01:08.42]was, to be frank, not in my expectation.[01:12.09]Shortly after she came to us,[01:14.27]Liana began asking for a dog.[01:16.88]She had been passed from family to family[01:19.74]during Linda' s six-month illness,[01:21.92]spoiled by sympathetic people[01:23.91]who wanted to make her cheerful.[01:26.09]She was not accustomed[01:27.52]to hearing the refusal "no."[01:29.51]I have affection for dogs.[01:31.63]But I already had to be responsible for a new[01:34.74]and unexpected member[01:35.98]and I didn't want another responsibility.[01:39.65]Initially our little apartment was our excuse:[01:42.53]not abundant space.[01:44.95]But four years later we moved to a house,[01:47.63]and we could no longer resist Liana's request.[01:51.24]So off we went to an animal shelter.[01:54.04]Molly wagged its tail all the time.[01:56.90]She was mild but energetic.[01:59.14]As long as Liana and my husband, John,[02:01.63]promised to do the walking,[02:03.43]I decided I could handle having a dog.[02:06.48]So we brought Molly home.[02:08.54]Twenty-four hours later I opened the front door,[02:11.77]liked a streak of lightning—[02:13.83]Molly, bolting out the door.[02:15.94]Liana and John chased after her, but losing the trail.[02:20.13]Liana came back into the house and cried.[02:23.17]In her four years with us, she had rarely ever cried.[02:26.84]And she had hardly ever mentioned her adoptive mother, [02:30.20]my best friend. I almost resented[02:33.32]that she seemed to have moved past grief[02:35.81]without a second thought.[02:37.36]But now she sobbed in sorrow.[02:40.22]Her thick black hair stuck to her cheeks, wet with tears. [02:44.02]She wrapped her arms around herself,[02:46.26]then around me, squeezing hard.[02:49.01]She cried for three hours.[02:51.07]"She's gone," Liana moaned.[02:53.25]"My dog is gone. My mother is dead.[02:56.92]I loved my dog. Why did my mother die?"[03:00.71]She hadn't moved past the miserable event.[03:03.76]She just concealed it, deep beyond reach, until now.[03:08.65]For John, finding Liana's dog became a mission.[03:12.46]Luckily, we had taken some cell-phone photos of Molly [03:16.31]and we sent them out to all the shelters in the community. [03:20.37]After three weeks I was discouraged.[03:22.99]But then we got a call.[03:24.87]A woman had claimed spotting a dog[03:27.36]matching the description and photos of Molly 15 miles away. [03:32.15]Despite repeated sightings,[03:33.96]Molly somehow stayed out of reach.[03:36.20]The kind-hearted woman who'd noticed Molly[03:39.31]enlisted the neighborhood kids to report sightings.[03:42.23]Eventually John hired a team of animal facilitators—[03:45.96]they used to be called dog-catchers—[03:48.95]and they set out a trap.[03:50.96]For another week Molly ignored it until they changed the bait, [03:55.14]at John's suggestion, from fish to steak.[03:58.25]Then she walked in, and she came home.[04:01.26]For five years now, Molly has slept with Liana every night. [04:05.63]When Liana is away, her dog paces.[04:09.05]Molly's tail still wags, but she is 7 now,[04:12.55]a little staggering and much less troublesome.[04:15.41]Liana, a slender beauty of 15[04:17.71]with fashionably black nails and a loyal circle of flashing friends,[04:21.88]has moved onto "Twilight" and the Jonas Brothers.[04:26.05]She still loves dogs, but a little dog[04:28.79]that she can dress up with cute stuff is more preferable.[04:32.46]Occasionally it seems as though Liana hardly remembers[04:35.88]when her dog ran away and she cried for her dead mother.[04:39.80]But John and I remember,[04:41.42]because that was the moment[04:43.78]that Liana and our lost friend and our lost dog[04:47.39]all came together, and we became a family.[04:51.87]2、Are kids becoming phone addicts?There was a time when children's telecommunications meant two cans connected with string or,for luckier kids, a set of walkie-talkies.But now the mobile phone has become prevalent in school playgrounds. Children as young as five may have their own.A company in England is even targeting toddlerswith a phone designed in the shape of a Teddy bear. Three-quarters of Australian children aged 12 to 14 own a mobile phone but by the time they are 15 that number surges to 90 per cent. "Because it's parents who come in and sign up for the phones,it's difficult to say exactly how much this area has grown but the age at which kids get phones is getting younger," says Carmen Gould,head of customer service at retail chain Crazy John's. "Whereas before it was often teenagers getting mobiles, it's not unusual now for parents to buy phones for children as young as eight." Most parents cite the peace of mind that comes from being able to contact their children at any time as the main reason behind the trend. "All research into this trend suggests that parents believe that they can improvethe safety and security of their children by giving them a phone," says Randal Markey of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. This view is backed by the most recent study of mobile use among youngsters by the NSW(New North Wales) Commission for Children and Young People. After interviewing 1 500 children for its MobileMe report, it concluded it was nearly always parents who decided to give their children phones—to contact them in "case of emergencies". The other reason was that a phone would give greater independence. Trend has created concerns. In Septembera Swedish scientist said children and teenagers were five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones. Psychologists have warned children can become too reliant on their phones- or "phone addicts". And academics suggest that children are ill prepared to understand the financial responsibilities that come with a mobilephone. Most controversial is the research linking mobiles to brain tumours. While the World Health Organisation and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency state there is no evidence of this connection,some researchers say thinner skulls and smaller brains put children at greater risk. But one area less disputed is that many children, particularly those who sign up to a monthly plan, can pile up huge bills. Deakin University's Dr. Nina Weerakkody has studied the financial implications of children owning mobile phones. "It can be a huge problem for some children, who can run up bills of as much as $500 a month. They have little concept of what they are spending. This can lead to getting into constant debt,and it is a very bad financial situation which children can carry on into their adult life with things like credit cards." As for addiction, two Spanish teenagers made headlines around the world in June when they were admitted to a mental health clinicfor "phone addiction". The children, 12 and 13, were sent there by their parents, who said they could not carry out normal activities without their mobiles phonesand would spend six hours a day on them. "We find that there are certainly teenagers who have an over-reliance on their mobiles and who become anxious at the prospect of going without their phone. Queensland University of Technology[04:31.15]psychologist Shari Walsh says. "They worry that they'll run out of battery or credit and they'll be forced to go without this way of communicating with their network of friends. It's a big fear for them and it illustrates just how important they see the phone as being to their lives."3、Getting Over Your ShynessNewly married at 28, I was looking forward toa romantic Christmas with my husband,but his proposal made me shiver:"Hey, let's have some friends over for dinneron Christmas Eve!"On hearing his remark, I started to sweat.Probably for many people the ideamight sound amusing and fascinating.But for me? I hated, and extremely hated dinner parties.I'd been shy in front of the public since I was a kid.Furthermore, dinner parties forced meto encounter all I wasn't any good at:Cooking, making small talk, and public speaking."Public speaking?" my husband stared at mein surprise as I attempted to explain myself."These are our friends, and you love talking to them.""Sure, one-on-one," I replied.But dinner parties require you to address a group.I told him, even if it's a small one,I still suffer from anxiety and stress.Like the majority of Americans,I also regard speaking to a crowd as one fear in life. "Shyness is universal and epidemic,"claims Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD,professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University."Not to be shy is the exception"."Actually, only 5 percent of the people in the United States believe that they are never socially anxious."In reality, shyness seems to become the severe obstacleto the interaction.Bernardo J. Carducci, PhD,]director of the Shyness Research Instituteat Indiana University Southeast,attributes this phenomenon to the rise of the virtual world.As more of our lives come to be lived online,we have fewer opportunities for in-person communication.If we are shy by character,we tends to communicate on line,thereby, there's less motivation to get over it.Gradually, shyness serves as a tough issue.How to become less bashfulhas aroused more and more concern.Dr. Carducci gives the best suggestionany shy person could ever receive:Quit thinking about yourself!"Shy people are inclined to be very self-focused," he asserts. We constantly worry aboutwhether we're good enough and intelligent enoughwithout realizing that others might have the same insecurities. "Be other-focused," Dr. Carducci recommends.Once shy people stop concentrating on themselves, he affirms, they will get rid of their shyness."You don't have to be perfect," Dr. Carducci says."You just have to be nice."The following strategies contribute to overcoming"dinner party"shyness.1. Arrive earlyMost people don't like big parties at first.They normally dare not show up early,because they prefer to disappear in the crowd.The perfect way to "make a big party small" is to arrive early. You'll meet everyone there.All that's required is to speak first,"Hi, my name is____. And yours?"Remember, people form an opinionof a person in the first ten seconds.Why waste the first five in uneasy silencewaiting for them to greet you?2. Show interest in the tedious thingsNo matter how boring your acquaintance's words may be,you are supposed to respondas though that person just made the most interesting revelation you've heard all week.Conversely, no matter how boring you thinkyour own statement is,present it in a this-is-the-greatest-thing tone.And guess what? It will sound interesting to the other person.3. Use names - in moderationSay someone's name in greeting.It makes him or her feel more connected to you.But beware: If you use it too much, it will not sound sincere. 4. Ask "keep talking" questionsLeave uh-huh and okay behindand throw out some who? what? when? where? why?and how? questions.They indicate that you want to hear more,and will make your conversational companion thrilled.And also you won't feel pressured to come upwith humorous and clever responses.4、The Other Love of His LifeMy fiancé, Brandon, his first marriage ended in tragedy.Before we could be happy,he had to make peace with it. So did I.He had been married for less than six monthswhen his beloved wife was killed in a car accident.When I met him two years later,he was still wearing his wedding ring,but on his right hand.The ring is a symbolof his continued commitment to her, I assumed.Not a sign that he was ready to establish a lifewith someone new.Beyond the ring, I could numerate a million reasonswhy I should have passed Brandon by.I love books. He never reads.I live near the beach. He's 74 miles inland.I'm a health nut. He is keen on Buffalo wings and beer. But there were bigger reasons for me to stay:He was humorous, considerate and charming—and he knew how to make me laughfrom deep within my belly.Plus, I resembled her. And they were happy.A chill came over mewhen I visited her memorial pageand read through the online guest book:"No one could ever fill her shoes," someone wrote. Some other day later, I read this from some article:"If he has pictures of her on the walls,clothes and accessories of herson display in the closet, he is not ready."This description is exactly about him.Brandon insisted he wanted to move on,that she was dead and he was not.About a month into the relationship,the ring came off.Pictures were tucked away and replaced.Gradually, her clothes began todisappear from the closet.Yet it was hard for me to overcome the feelingthat I might never measure up to what he lost.In his mind, she will always be 33 and gorgeous.Me? I'll get gray hair, wrinkled skinand walk with a crutch.What's more, their relationship will remain perfect, frozen forever in newlywed bliss.In six short months, they didn't weather the choresthat come with age and time:sleepless nights caring for newborns,arguments over money.They haven't encounteredall the complexities in real life.As I fell more deeply in love,]more questions emerged.If he had to pick one of us,whom would he choose?After we die,will he want to be buried next to her or to me?Will we spend eternity as a trio?But the memorable day cameon the morning of July 12when I accompanied him to visit her at the cemetery.At first, I thought I didn't belong there,with the opinion thatshe would want to spend her birthdaywith her husband minus the new girlfriend.I felt guilty for living the life she was robbed of—that I was lucky because she wasn't.But Brandon reassured me."She would want me to find someone else," he said, "Someone who can make me as happy as she did."So we celebrated her birthday together—all three of us. Brandon and I arranged flowersand planted a mini-balloon into the earth."She's usually pretty quiet," he said, trying to get a laugh. The breeze blewand the balloonbegan quivering back and forth."It looks like she's waving at us," I said.Secretly, I hoped she was letting me know she approved.In that moment, I realized I didn't want to fill her shoes.I had my own.She and I had much in common,but we were also very different.I call Brandon out on things she might have let slide.She enjoyed shopping; I prefer wine tasting.She was a master quilter; I can't stitch a pair of pants."I am a very lucky man," Brandon said,as he hugged me on the cemetery lawn.I used to disagree.How could someone who lost his wife in an instant]call himself "lucky"?But as we walked back to the car,I knew he was right.He possesses the love of two women.Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic,but I like to believe the first onehelped guide him to the second.5、Barack and Michelle Obama The Interview (1)The Power of Women:LHJ(Lady's Home Journal):Upstairs at the press conference,you were introduced as a couple.Ladies' Home Journal's mottois "Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman."Could you each comment onwhat that phrase means to you?Michelle Obama:Well, for me, I think womenare capable of balancing all the things－even starting as young children.We have two daughters,and when I think about the complexity and levelof detail of their thought and their emotional empathy—people do observethat there is a difference in girls in these respects.I think that enable us to deal with all that we have to,]and are amazing resourcesthat should be harnessed in society for the benefit of many. So for me, I think about our capability to balance,and to structure,and to coordinate in ways that I don't think men can do. LHJ: Senator, does this call for a rebuttal?Barack Obama: No, no, no. Being married to Michelle,and having the two tall, beautiful, strong-willed girlsin my house, never permit me to underestimate women.But also, I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. My grandmother was a remarkable woman.When my grandfather was off during World War II,she was working while she was raising my mother.When they moved to Hawaii, she got a job as a secretary. With never more than a high school education,she ended up being the first woman vice presidentof a bank in Hawaii.She was the primary breadwinner for the familyfor a pretty long time.And so I've been raised understandingthat women are capable to do everythingthat men can do, and some things that men can't do.Part of it is also my mother's profession.By the time she was forty years old, her essential workwas around women's development issues internationally.I remember very early on her explainingthat the best judge of whether or not a countryis going to develop is how it treats its women.If it's educating its girls, women have equal rights,that country is going to move forward.But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate,then it is going to fall behind.I apply her idea when I think aboutwhat we need to do here in the United States as well.And that's why it's so crucial for me to ensurethat my policies are representingthe needs and concerns of women.Can This Marriage Be Saved?LHJ: Let's talk a little bit more about your marriage.One of our signature columns is, "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" Senator, even during your Senate days,you wrote in The Audacity of Hopethat your wife was, quoted,pretty fed up with raising our children aloneand beginning to question my priorities."Which is fairly serious complaint.And so I have to ask, did you everhave a "Can this marriage be saved?" moment?Barack Obama: Sure. I mean, you know, look. We had —Michelle Obama: We did?Barack Obama: Oh, I mean—well, I haven't read the column,so I don't want to characterize the—no, no.But, undoubtedly there were some strains there.I believe most married folks can relate to this.If you've got two working parents,you've got small kids and one of the spouses—in this case, me—is gone a bunch of the time.And the other spouse, Michelle, is at home,expected to work and look after the children.And occasionally help me.That's a tremendous burden and stress.And at that time, we were still paying off student loansand we'd be short at the end of the month sometimes.6、Barack and Michelle ObamaThe Interview (2)Barack Obama: I still rememberwhen I was a state legislator and Michelle called me,close to tears, because our wonderful babysitterhad quit and made the decision to go back to nursing. And Michelle's thinking to herself,"What am I going to do?"because she had depended so heavily on this person to deal with housework chores.She was, frankly, outrageous against me,because she felt as if she was all alone in this process. LHJ: How did you cope with those bad moments? Michelle Obama: Part of it was time.Our kids got older, and then they're in school.Those early years are tough.But the truth is that everybody struggles with it—we just don't talk about it out loud.And then also I had to change.There were a lot of things that he couldn't provide, because he was not there.So, I ceased being angry at him,]and started problem-solving,and assembled together all the resources.I also had to admit that I needed spaceand I needed time to speculate and adjust.And the more time I could get to myself,the less stress I felt.So it was a growth process for me individuallyand for us as a couple, too.Handling the PressureLHJ: One of the things you talk about in your bookis that you learned growing up,"Never let them see you sweat.","Always act confident."Are you more daunted by the prospectof being the leader of the free world than you look? Barack Obama: I think if you were not occasionally jolted awake at three in the morning thinkingabout the magnitude of the work to be done,then you probably shouldn't be president.What keeps me awake at nightis not the prospect of losing.It's the prospect of winning and governing.There are a couple of thingsthat permit me to stay steady in that process.One is my faith.will hopefully keep us—this country and this world—moving in a better direction.And so I pray on that.The second thing is my family.The third thing, is a real beliefthat no one person moves this country forward,and no one person moves this country backward.It requires a lot of citizens,]who'll hold me accountable if I make a mistake. This gives me more confidencethat this is a team effort, and not just me out there. LHJ: Mrs. Obama, how can you distinguishwhen your husband is really stressed?Michelle Obama: When he is writing small noteslate at night.When he's really sort of brooding about something, it's late at night,and there's a lot of note-writing going on.That's when I know,"What happened? What's going on?"LHJ: Mrs. Obama, can you tell us a storyabout your husband that demonstrates to youthat he has the grace and capability to fulfill this job? Michelle Obama: I don't think there's one story.I've seen him be over the course of our life together. He's consistent,considerate, thoughtful, devoted. And he desires to be a better father.It touches me when our girls touch him,whether it's with a story or a word.You can see it in his face.That's the leader I want:somebody who is so moved by their own children that they'll go out there and fight for everyone else's. ]LHJ: And what is your daughters' senseof their own race in the world today?Michelle Obama: They're living in a familywhere they've got an African-American grandmother, and an Indonesian aunt.They've got a Chinese-American cousin.They've got African-American cousins.They've got a multiracial cousin in Africawho's African and English.The in-laws of our in-lawsho are Chinese-Canadian are part of their families.7、Equal Stress?A new Families and Work Institute surveyof almost 2 800 employed people reflectssome surprising changes in how men and womensee themselves both in the workplace and at home.Women are contributing more financially thanin times past, and men are doing more child care.But even as men spend more time with their kids,the challenges of balancing a careerand parenting duties are taking their toll.Three out of five men reported some or a lot of stressrelated to workplace-family life balance.It's about 25 percent more than in the late 1970s.While for women the numbershave stayed virtually the same, at around 45 percent.One thing hasn't changed:partners still disagree about who does morearound the house. Men give themselves higher marksthan women do for helping with child care,cleaning and cooking.(Fifty-six percent of husbands saythey do nearly equal or even a greater amount of cooking, while wives report only 25 percent of their husbands do.)But Neil Chethik, author of VoiceMale:What Husbands Really Think About Their Marriages,Their Wives, Sex, Housework, and Commitment,explains that this perception gap may stem from the modelthat men are working from. "When it comes down to it,many men come from a generationwhere fathers did little (housework), and it could be thatmen compare themselves not as much to their wivesbut to their fathers," he says. So even if they're doing twiceas much as their dads did, it may still not measureup to what women perceive as an equal division of all the work. The study looked at a variety of other questionsabout how men and women view parenting and work. Highlights:1. "I can't stay, I have to go to pick up my kid."More men have been uttering those words or some variation thereof in the past decade. In 2008, 31 percent of womensaid that their spouses took equal or more responsibilityfor the care of their children. In 1992, it was only 21 percent. And on average, though employed moms still spendeven more time with their kids than employed dads do,working dads are now spending three hours per workdaywith their kids under 13(working moms spend about four hours). Among younger working parents (those under 29),dads spend even more time—4.2 hours per day on average—and moms spend 5.1 hours. The study's authors thinkthese changes might be because parentsmay have more flexibility to work from home,and they may be spending less time on themselves.2. Can working moms still be good moms?Among both men and women, about two out of five report thatit's better "if the man earns the moneyand the woman takes care of the home and children."(That's down from about three in five in 1977.)80 percent of women believe thata mom who works outside the home can havejust as good a relationship with her children as one who is home, and 67 percent of men agree.(According to recent federal numbers, about 70.5 percentof American women with children under 18 work outside the home —including 60 percent of mothers with children under 3.)3. Millennial ambitions.Women under 29 are just as likely as men to want jobswith greater responsibility—even if they have kids at home.In 1992, if moms under 29 had children at home,only 60 percent of them wanted jobs with more responsibility, compared with 78 percent of women without children,but now the numbers have averaged out—about 66 percent of women want more responsibility at work, regardless of whether they have children.And men and women under 29 both reportwanting more responsibility at about the same rate, too.4. She's bringing home more bacon.Women are contributing more to family incomesthan in the past.In fact, about a quarter of surveyed women in 2008had annual earnings at least 10 percent higherthan their partners'.And on average,women contributed 44 percent of family income,up from 39 percent in 1997.5. We like what we know.]Men and women whose own mothersworked outside the home all or most of the time。