[06 - 01] 题 - conversation - lecture -

The mystery of yawning
Paragraph2: Another flaw of the tiredness theory is that yawning does not raise alertness or physiological activity, as the theory would predict. When researchers measured the heart rate, muscle tension and skin conductance of people before, during and after yawning, they did detect some changes in skin conductance following yawning, indicating a slight increase in physiological activity. However, similar changes occurred when the subjects were asked simply to open their mouths or to breathe deeply. Yawning did nothing special to their state of physiological activity. Experiments have also cast serious doubt on the belief that yawning is triggered by a drop in blood oxygen or a rise in blood carbon dioxide. Volunteers were told to think about yawning while they breathed either normal air, pure oxygen, or an air mixture with an above-normal level of carbon dioxide. If the theory was correct, breathing air with extra carbon dioxide should have triggered yawning, while breathing pure oxygen should have suppressed yawning. In fact, neither condition made any difference to the frequency of yawning, which remained constant at about 24 yawns per hour. Another experiment demonstrated that physical exercise, which was sufficiently vigorous to double the rate of breathing, had no effect on the frequency of yawning. Again the implication is that yawning has little or nothing to do with oxygen

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        flaw  n. 缺陷;瑕疵;缺点;错误;裂痕;裂隙;(性格上的)弱点

        conductance  n. 电导(率);(热)传导性

        change  v. 改变;变化;使不同;(使)变换，改换

        subject  n. 主题;题目;话题;题材;问题;学科;科目;课程;表现对象;题材;接受试验者;

        Experiment  n. 实验;试验;尝试;实践

        either  adv. (用于否定词组后)也;(补充时说)而且;(对两事物的选择)要么…要么

        neither  adv. 也不;既不…也不…

        vigorous  adj. 充满活力的;果断的;精力充沛的;强壮的;强健的

        again  adv. 再一次;又一次;返回原处;复原;增加;

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11. Paragraph 2 answers all of the following questions about yawning EXCEPT

○ Does yawning increase alertness or physiological activity?

○ Does thinking about yawning increase yawning over not thinking about yawning?

○ Does the amount of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the air affect the rate at which people yawn?

○ Does the rate of breathing affect the rate at which people yawn?

S：EXCEPT 排除题 

D：abcd

SG：

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Lightning
Paragraph1 : Lightning is a brilliant flash of light produced by an electrical discharge from a storm cloud. The electrical discharge takes place when the attractive tension between a region of negatively charged particles and a region of positively charged particles becomes so great that the charged particles suddenly rush together. The coming together of the oppositely charged particles neutralizes the electrical tension and releases a tremendous amount of energy, which we see as lightning. The separation of positively and negatively charged particles takes place during the development of the storm cloud.

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        oppositely  adv. 相反地；面对面；反向地；背对背

        in the form of  用…的形式

        tension n. 紧张;紧张局势(或关系、状况);矛盾;对立;(情绪上的)烦躁;紧张气氛;拉伸

        neutralize  vt. 使无效;中和;使成为中性;使中立

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12. According to paragraph 1, all of the following take place in the development of a flash of lightning EXCEPT

○ great tension between two oppositely charged regions

○ an increase in negatively charged particles over positively charged particle

○ oppositely charged particles coming together

○ the release of electrical energy in the form of visible light

S：EXCEPT 排除题 

D：abcd

SG：

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[ TPO2 - C2 ]

NARRATOR
Listen to a conversation between two students. They are both studying to be English teachers.
FEMALE STUDENT
Did you register already for your classes next semester?
MALE STUDENT
Yes, I did.
FEMALE STUDENT
What did you taking?
MALE STUDENT
Um... contemporary literature, English style, um... the teaching seminar, and I still have to do my student teaching.
I'm gonna help teach a writing class of the junior high.
FEMALE STUDENT
That's a heavy schedule.
MALE STUDENT
Yeah, it will be really busy and I'm also taking a theory class. But I have to quit my job in a couple of weeks ,cause it will be just too much.
FEMALE STUDENT
Where do you work at?
MALE STUDENT
Buster's coffee shop, but just till the end of the month. What are you doing next semester?
FEMALE STUDENT
Actually a teaching seminar too. And I will have to start writing my thesis. You know, I'm also going for my master's degree.
MALE STUDENT
So you are not writing any poetry, I imagine.
FEMALE STUDENT
No, I was actually thinking about revising some of my poems and sending them into places for publication.
MALE STUDENT
Cool, you should. Um, did you hear about that new poetry club, The Poetry Kitchen?
FEMALE STUDENT
Yeah, no time.
MALE STUDENT
It's fun. It's Sunday night. You don't do anything at Sunday nights?
FEMALE STUDENT
I do homework Sunday nights.
MALE STUDENT
Well, it’s only from 7:00 to 9:00.
FEMALE STUDENT
Is it every Sunday?
MALE STUDENT
Last Sunday of every month. I don't know about this month, cause it's probably a little too close to Thanksgiving, so they might move it up.
I don't know what they are gonna do, but it's a good time, it's fun, some really impressive readings.
FEMALE STUDENT
Who? From our class?
MALE STUDENT
Some people from our class are reading. A lot of them go, sometimes even the professor.
FEMALE STUDENT
Really? I don't know if I would wanna read in front of her.
MALE STUDENT
You wouldn't have to read, you can just watch. I just watched the first time, but it's a good environment to read them, I think anyway.
FEMALE STUDENT
I probably have to write something new, so maybe during the summer, I just can't now.
MALE STUDENT
Yeah, it wouldn't be the same just reading old stuff. Are you gonna do summer school?
FEMALE STUDENT
Definitely. Otherwise, I will be short 6 credits, I have no choice.
MALE STUDENT
Yeah, me too. This is the second summer I'll have to take classes. I gotta go now, my Shakespeare class starts in twenty minutes.

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What are the students mainly discussing? 
A. Their courses for next semester
B. Their plans for the weekend
C. A poetry club
D. A class assignment

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What does the man plan to do at the end of the month? 
A. Register for classes
B. Finish writing his master's thesis
C. Leave his job at the coffee shop
D. Take a short vacation

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Why does the man talk to the woman about the "Poetry Kitchen"? 
A. To find out how often the club meets
B. To inform her that the date of the next meeting has changed
C. To complain that not enough people are reading their poems
D. To encourage her to attend

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What is the woman's attitude toward participating in the poetry club? 
A. She is looking forward to hearing her professor's poetry
B. She is interested in attending but she has no time
C. She thinks the poetry that is read there is not very good
D. She used to participate but did not enjoy it

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What will the students do in the summer? 
A. They will both take courses
B. They will both have full-time jobs
C. They will travel to England together
D. They will teach a class together

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[ TPO5 - L4 ]

NARRATOR
Listen to part of a lecture in a literature class.
MALE PROFESSOR
Now we can't really talk about fairy tales without first talking about folk tales because there's a strong connection between these two genres, these two types of stories.
In fact, many fairy tales started out as folk tales.
So, what's a folk tale? How would you characterize them? Jeff?
Well, they are old stories, traditional stories.
They were passed down orally within cultures from generation to generation, so they changed a lot over time.
I mean, every story teller, or, maybe every town, might have had a slightly different version of the same folk tale.
That's right. There's local difference.
And that's why we say folk tales are communal.
By communal, we mean they reflect the traits and the concerns of a particular community at a particular time.
So essentially the same tale could be told in different communities, with certain aspects of the tale adapted to fit the specific community.
Um, not the plot, the details of what happens in the story would remain constant.
That was the thread that held the tale together.
But all the other elements, like the location or characters, might be modified for each audience.
Okay. So what about fairy tales?
They also are found in most cultures, but how are they different from folk tales?
I guess the first question is: what is a fairy tale?
And don't anyone say "a story with a fairy in it" because we all know that very few fairy tales actually have those tiny magical creatures in them.
But, what else can we say about them? Mary.
Well, they seem to be less realistic than folk tales, like they have something improbable happening - a frog turning into a prince, say.
Oh, that's another common element, royalty - a prince or princess.
And fairy tales all seem to take place in a location that's nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
What's the line-up? How do all those stories start?
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, oh, in the case of folk tales, each story teller would specify a particular location and time, though the time and location would differ for different story tellers.
With fairy tales, however, the location is generally unspecified, no matter who the story teller is.
That land far away, We'll come back to this point in a few minutes.
Um... I, I thought that a fairy tale was just a written version of an oral folk tale.
Well, not exactly, though that is how many fairy tales developed.
For example, in the late 18th century, the Grimm Brothers traveled throughout what's now Germany, recording local folk tales.
These were eventually published as fairy tales, but not before undergoing a process of evolution.
Now, a number of things happen when an oral tale gets written down.
First, the language changes. It becomes more formal, more standard - some might say, "Less colorful".
It's like the difference in your language depending on whether you are talking to someone, or writing them a letter.
Second, when an orally transmitted story is written down, an authoritative version with a recognized author is created.
The communal aspect gets lost.
The tale no longer belongs to the community.
It belongs to the world, so to speak.
Because of this, elements like place and time can no longer be tailored to suit a particular audience.
So they become less identifiable, more generalizable to any audience.
On the other hand, descriptions of characters and settings can be developed more completely.
In folk tales, characters might be identified by a name, but you wouldn't know anything more about them.
But in fairy tales, people no longer have to remember plots.
They're written down, right?
So more energy can be put into other elements of the story like character and setting.
So you get more details about the characters, about where the action takes place, what people's houses were like, um, whether they're small cabins or grand palaces.
And it's worth investing that energy because the story, now in book form, isn't in danger of being lost.
Those details won't be forgotten.
If a folk tale isn't repeated by each generation, it may be lost for all time.
But with a fairy tale, it's always there in a book, waiting to be discovered, again and again.
Another interesting difference involves the change in audience.
Who the stories are meant for?
Contrary to what many people believe today, folk tales were originally intended for adults, not for children.
So why is it that fairy tales seem targeted toward children nowadays?

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        folk  adj. 传统民间的;民俗的;流传民间的;普通百姓的

        genre  n.（文学、艺术、电影或音乐的）体裁，类型;

        passed down  传下来的;传递下去

        communal  adj. (尤指居住在一起的人)共享的，共有的，共用的;公共的;

        trait  n. 特质;(人的个性的)特征，特性，特点

        constant  adj. 恒定的;不变的;不断的;

        held  v. 拿着;抓住;抱住;托住;捂住，按住;使保持(在某位置) hold的过去分词和过去式

        improbable  adj. 不可能的;不大可能的;奇异的;不大可能真实的(或发生的);荒谬的

        line-up  n. 阵容;阵式;节目安排;项目安排

        faraway  adj. 遥远的;远方的;恍惚的

        authoritative  adj. 权威的;权威性的;命令式的;专断的;权威式的

        identifiable  adj. 可识别;可辨认的

        energy  n. 能量;能源;精力;活力;干劲;力量;能

        cabin  n. (轮船上工作或生活的)隔间;(飞机的)座舱;(通常为木制的)小屋

        involve  vt. 涉及;包含;牵涉;需要;

        meant  v. 表示…的意思;意思是;本意是;打算;意欲;有…的目的 mean的过去分词和过去式