2014年12月英语六级听力冲刺练习14
英语六级听力部分算是同学们考试时的难点吧。听力这部分不能急于求成，需要时间来练习。对于这部分同学们平时在积累词汇的基础上多加练习就可以，听的多了就能掌握技巧，距离12月份的四六级考试还有一段时间，同学每天练习一点听力，考试时听力就能取得高分了。听力音频点击下载.mp3
听力材料：
FORT YATES, NORTH DAKOTA— As only thefourth sitting president to visit a NativeAmerican reservation, President Barack Obamahas made improving education in tribalcommunities one of his administration’s toppriorities. It’s an issue that will also be taken upwhen tribal leaders gather in Washington on December 3 for an annual White Houseconference.
As one of the first master's degree students in environmental science at Sitting Bull College,Louis Walking Elk eventually wants to use his degree to help those on the reservation. He isone of the first in his family to go to college.
“My dad and mom both encouraged me all throughout my life, my dad especially. He didn’t finishhigh school and he was always like, 'you have to do something,'” said Walking Elk.
Situated in the remote hills of North Dakota on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, Sitting BullCollege is one of more than 30 tribal colleges in the United States.
Some 300 students, including student body president Dakota Kidder, are completing theirhigher education at this federally-funded school in hopes of defying statistics that show onlyabout 10 percent of Native Americans have a college degree, roughly half the national average.
“We do have a lot of problems on the reservation. And Sitting Bull College does all that it canto make sure students are getting to class, whether it be transportation, child care,” saidKidder.
The mission of getting more Native Americans to college and making sure they leave with adegree is crucial to the school's president, Laurel Vermillion.
“A huge majority are first generation students, college students, who don’t have a lot ofexperience. They don’t have parents who can tell them or talk about college. And so when theyleave the reservation and go onto these big, mainstream campuses, they are lost,” saidVermillion.
Vermillion said many young Native Americans, particularly men, are looking for direction and asense of purpose.
In part through its technical program offering classes in welding and oil drilling, the college isfocused on attracting more men to campus. Right now, the male to female ratio is 30 to 70percent.
Scott Davis, the executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, is alsoworking to close the gap, helping tribal colleges get millions of dollars to start workforcedevelopment programs.
“There are plenty of jobs. We are talking right now in North Dakota, anywhere from 22,000 to25,000 jobs right now, and they are not a lot of people to fill them in small, rural North Dakota.But on the flip side of that coin, you have still some of our tribes really struggling with theunemployment rate,” said Davis.
Davis called tribal colleges a shining beacon on reservations, giving hope to young NativeAmericans of a life of possibility, not poverty.
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