2015年6月英语四级听力预热练习1

英语自学网

　　英语四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同学每天练习一点听力，考试时听力就能取得高分了。
　　

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听力音频点击下载.mp3
　　

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听力材料：
　　Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recentlysurprised Chinese students when he spoke to themin Chinese. In a talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing,Zuckerberg spoke Chinese for about 30 minutes.Although his Mandarin was far from perfect,students and faculty cheered his effort.
　　Clayton Dube is the head of the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. Hepraises Zuckerberg's effort and thinks more American CEOs should learn foreign languages.
　　"To speak Chinese means you begin to think as Chinese people do. You begin to understandhow Chinese speakers have the world organized, how they perceive things. And that is a vitalstep if you're going to be culturally competent."
　　Zuckerberg's talk raises a larger question: is Chinese the language of the future? Could itreplace English as the world's international language? Mandarin Chinese already has the mostnative speakers of any language. And, China may soon pass the United States as the world'slargest economy.
　　The study of the Chinese language is increasing in the United States and around the world. In2009, about 60,000 American college students were studying Chinese. That is three times asmany as in 1990.
　　A small but growing number of American parents are even sending their children to bilingualChinese immersion schools. Leianne Clements has no cultural connection to China, but herchildren are learning Chinese at the Yu Ying Public Charter School in Washington D.C. Everyother day, classes at this school are 100 percent in Chinese. Ms. Clements thinks knowingChinese could give her children a competitive advantage.
　　"So far, English has kind of been the universal language, but more and more, with Chinesebusinesses and just the amount of industry that they have there it seems that that would be,you know, logical thing that could be happening or it seems like it would make you a valuableemployee if you also spoke Chinese."
　　Clayton Dube thinks Chinese will grow in importance, especially for people who want to workand do business in China. But he does not think Chinese will overtake English any time soon.
　　"As China rises you can anticipate that more people will adopt the language. But is Chinagoing to replace English? I don't think so--certainly not in my lifetime, probably not in the nexttwo, three, four generations."
　　English rose to prominence through the British Empire in the nineteenth century. Americandominance in the twentieth century spread the language even further. Dube says Americanpop culture is one reason for English's popularity as a foreign language.
　　"American movies, music, television, video games have wide audiences...So far China's successin this realm has been very limited. Chinese films, Chinese television shows, Chinese musicdoesn't have a huge following outside of China."
　　Andres Martinez is the editorial director at Zocalo Public Square and a professor of journalismat Arizona State University. He says that he respects Chinese culture and expects the languageto grow. But he says English, with its association with freedom, will remain the globallanguage.
　　"You don't have anybody on the Internet stifling speech in English, censoring speech in English.And most of the dominant English-language countries internally also have a tradition offreedom of speech."
　　Martinez says that English is seen as a more neutral language than Chinese. Unlike Chinese, itis not associated with one country. He says even the ideas of equality are built into Englishgrammar.
　　"If you study German, if you study Spanish, if you study Russian, there are many languageswhere the "you" form and how you conjugate verbs is very different depending on whetheryou're talking to a grandparent or a boss versus one of your children or an employee or aclose friend...If I'm talking to President Obama or if I'm talking to my closest friend or my son,its ‘you.'"
　　Chinese is also a more difficult language to learn. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute estimates itwould take a native English speaker 2,200 hours to reach professional fluency in Chinese. Thatis four times longer than it would take to reach the same level in Dutch, French, or Spanish.While Chinese grammar is much simpler, Chinese has a tone and writing system that is moredifficult for adult learners to master.
　　A recent survey by Gallup showed that only one in four Americans is multilingual, or able tospeak more than one language. And most multilingual Americans are immigrants or the childrenof immigrants. For most Americans, Brits, and Australians, learning a foreign language is achoice, not a necessity. China Daily estimates that 400 million Chinese are studying English.That means China has more English learners than the U.S. has English speakers.
　　Last month, China hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the capital city ofBeijing. But the meeting was not in Chinese – or any Asian language. The official language ofAPEC is English.