托福听力结构理解 TPO41-lecture2

托福听力结构理解

听力提升太难了

今天以TPO41 lecture2来看看讲座的其中一种结构

听完了再来看结构哈～

学生提问推动情节发展

提问和回答是出题的重点

FEMALE PROFESSOR:

It's interesting how much we can learn about culture in the United States by looking at how Christopher Columbus has been portrayed throughout United States history. So let's start at the beginning.

Columbus' ships first landed in, uh, landed in the Caribbean—there's some debate about which island—he landed in 1492 but it wasn't until 300 years later, in 1792, that his landing was first commemorated. And this was the brainchild of John Pintard.

Pintard was a wealthy New Yorker, the founder of the New York Histori-cal Society. And he decided to use his influence and wealth to, um, to find a great hero, a patron for the young country. And he chose Colum-bus.

And in New York in 1792, the anniversary of Columbus' landing was commemorated for the first time. Other cities, uh, Philadelphia and then Baltimore followed and …

MALE STUDENT: But why Columbus? And why then?

FEMALE PROFESSOR: Well, to Pintard, it was a way to build patriotism in the young, politically fractured country. Remember, the United States

had only declared its independence from Britain 16 years earlier and had yet to form a national identity.

Pintard also had a hand in helping to create Independence Day—July fourth—as a national holiday. So you see that he was very involved in creating sort of a “national story” for Americans. And Columbus … he felt Columbus could become a story that Americans could tell each other about their national origins that was outside of the British colonial context. The United States was in search of a national identity, and its people wanted heroes.

MALE STUDENT: But why not some of the leaders of the revolution? You know, like George Washington?

FEMALE PROFESSOR: The leaders of the Revolution were the natural candidates to be heroes. But, many were still alive and didn't want the job. To them, being raised to hero status was undemocratic. So Colum-bus became the hero, and the link between Columbus and the United States took hold.

FEMALE STUDENT: And so what was that link?

FEMALE PROFESSOR: Well, Columbus was portrayed as entrepreneurial, someone who took chances, who took risks … And he was cast as somebody who was opposed to the rule of kings and queens. Perhaps most of all, Columbus was portrayed as someone who was destined to accomplish things. Just as America in those early years was coming to see itself as having a great destiny.

FEMALE STUDENT: But Columbus was supported by the king and queen of Spain, he wasn't against them.

FEMALE PROFESSOR: True. To be historically accurate, the way Pintard thought about Columbus doesn't match up with the facts of his life at all. And I really have to stress this: the fact that Columbus became the hero of the young country had little to do with Columbus—anything he did—and a lot to do with what was happening in the United States 300 years later.