托福TPO听力12完整文本

TPO 12
Conversation 1
Narrator
Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.
Student
So Professor Tibets, your notes said that you want to see me about my heavy-weight paper. I have to say that grade wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought I’d done a pretty good job.
Professor
Oh, you did. But do you really want to settle for pretty good when you can do something very good?
Student
You think it can be very good?
Professor
Absolutely!
Student
Would that mean you’d…I could get a better grade?
Professor
Oh, sorry! It’s not for your grade. It's…I think you could learn a lot by revising it.
Student
You mean, rewrite the whole thing? I really swamped. There’re deadlines wherever I turn and… and I don’t really know how much time I could give it.
Professor
Well, it is a busy time, with spring break coming up next week. It’s your call. But I think with all a little extra effort, you could really turn this into a fine essay.
Student
No… yeah…I mean, after I read your comments, I...I can see how it tries to do too much.
Professor
Yeah. It’s just too ambitious for the scope of the assignment.
Student
So I should cut out the historical part?
Professor
Yes. I would just stick to the topic. Anything unrelated to the use of nature EMITRY has no place in the paper. All that tangential material just distracted from the main argument.
Student
Yeah, I never know how much to include. You know…where to draw the line?
Professor
Tell me about it! All writers struggled without one. But it’s something you can learn. That will become more clear with practice. But I think if you just cut out the…emm…
Student
The stuff about history, but if I cut out those sections, won’t it be too short?
Professor
Well, better a short well-structured paper than a long paper that poorly-structured and wanders off topic.
Student
So all I have to do is to leave those sections?
Professor
Well, not so fast. After you cut out those sections, you’ll have to go back and revise the rest, to see how it all fits together. And of course, you’ll have to revise the introduction too, to accurately describe what you do in the body of the paper. But that shouldn’t be too difficult. Just remember to keep the discussion focused. Do you think you can get it to me by noon tomorrow?
Student
Wow…emm…I have so much…er…but I’ll try.
Professor
OK, good! Do try! But if you can’t, well, sure for after spring break, OK?
【Lecture 1】
Biology
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a Biology Class.
Professor
As we learn more about the DNA in human cells and how it controls the growth and development of cells, then maybe we can explain a very important observation, that when we try to grow most human cells in libratory, they seem programmed to divide only a certain number of times before they die. Now this differs with the type of cell. Some cells, like nerve cells, only divide seven to nine times in their total life. Others, like skin cells, will divide many, many more times. But finally the cells stop renewing themselves and they die. And in the cells of the human body itself, in the cells of every organ, of almost every type of tissues in the body, the same thing will happen eventually.
OK, you know that all of persons’ genetic information is contained on very long pieces of DNA called Chromosomes. 46 of them are in the human cells that’s 23 pairs of these Chromosomes are of very lengths and sizes. Now if you look at this rough drawing of one of them, one Chromosome is about to divide into two. You see that it sort of looks like, well actually it’s much more complex than
this but it reminds us a couple of springs linked together to coil up pieces of DNA. And if you stretch them out you will find they contain certain genes, certain sequences of DNA that help to determine how the cells of the body will develop. When researchers look really carefully at the DNA in Chromosomes though, they were amazed, we all were, to find that only a fraction of it, maybe 20-30%, converts into meaningful genetic information. It’s incredible; at least it was to me. But if you took away all the DNA that codes for genes, you still have maybe 70% of the DNA left over. That’s the so-called JUNK DNA. Though the word junk is used sort of townies cheek. The assumption is that even these DNA doesn’t make up any of the genes it must serve some other purpose. Anyway, if we examine these ends of these coils of DNA, we will find a sequence of DNA at each end of every human Chromosome, called a telomere. Now a telomere is a highly repetitious and genetically meaningless sequence of DNA, what we were calling JUNK DNA. But it does have any important purpose; it is sort of like the plastic tip on each end of shoelace. It means not help you tie your shoe but that little plastic tip keeps the rest of the shoelace, the shoe string from unraveling into weak and useless threads. Well, the telomere at the end of Chromosomes seems to do about the same thing--- protect the genes the genetically functional parts of the Chromosome from being damaged. Every time the Chromosome divides, every time one cell divides into two. Pieces of the ends of the Chromosome, the telomere, get broken off. So after each division, the telomere gets shorter and one of the things that may happen after a while is that pieces of the genes themselves get broken off the Chromosomes. So the Chromosome is nowlosing important genetically information and is no longer functional. But as long as the telomeres are at certain length they keep this from happening. So it seems that, when the, by looking at the length of the telomeres on specific Chromosomes we can actually predict pretty much how long certain cells can successfully go on dividing. Other some cells just seem to keep on dividing regardless which mean not be always a good thing if it gets out of control. But when we analyze the cells chemically we find something very interesting, a chemical in them, and an enzyme called telomerase. As bits of the telomere break off from the end of Chromosome, this chemical, this telomerase can rebuild it, can help resemble the protected DNA, the telomere that the Chromosome is lost. Someday we may be able to take any cell and keep it alive functioning and reproducing itself essentially forever through the use of telomerase. And in the future we may have virtually immortal nerve cells and immortal skin cells of whatever because of these chemical, telomerase can keep the telomere on the ends of Chromosomes from getting any shorter.
【Lecture 2】
Business
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a Business Class
Professor
Ok, as we’ve talked about a key aspect of running a successful business is knowing, um, getting a good sense of what the customer actually wants, and how they perceive your product. So with that in mind, I want to describe a very simple method of researching customer preference, and it is becoming increasingly common, it's called----MBWA----which stands for managing bywandering around. Now, MBWA, that's not the most technical sounding name you've ever heard, but it describes the process pretty accurately. Here is how it works.
Basically, Um, the idea is that business owners or business managers just go out and actually talk to their customers, and learn more about how well the business is serving their needs, and try to see what the customer experiences, because that's a great way to discover for yourself, how your product is perceived, what the strengths and weaknesses are, you know, how to you can improved it that sort of thing, you know Dortans, they make soup and can vegetables and such. Well, the head of the company, had Dortans’ topped executives walk around supermarkets, um, asking shoppers what they thought of Dortans’ soup, and he use the data to make changes to the company's product, I mean, when Dortans of all the companies, embraces something as radical as MBWA, it really show you how popular the theory has become, yes, Lisa?
Student A
But this is dangerous to base decisions on information from a small sample of people? Is it large scale market research safer getting data on a lot of people?
Professor
That's a good question, and well I don't want to pretend that W… MBWA is some sort of, um, replacement for other methods of customer research. Now, the market research data definitely can give you a good idea of, um, of the big picture, but MBWA is really useful kind of filling in the blanks, you know, getting a good underground sense of how you products you use, and how people need respond to them, and Yes, the numbers of opinion you get is small so you do need to be careful, but, good business managers will tell you that the big fear they have an.. .and one of the most frequent problems they come across is well becoming out of touch with what their customers really want and need, you know surveys and market research stuff like that, they can only tell you so much about what the customers actually want in their day-to-day lives. Managing by wandering around on the other hand, that get you in there give you a good sense about what customers needs so. So when use combination then, MBWA and market research were the powerful tools. Oh, here is another example for you, um, see you executive for a clothing manufacture. It was, um, Lken, Lken jeans you know, they went in work in the store for a few days, selling Lken's cloths. Now that give them a very different idea about their product, they saw how people responded to it; they could go up to customers in the store asked questions about it, yes Mike?
Student B
Well, I would think that a lot of customers will be bothered by, you know, if I'm shopping, I don't know if I want some business representatives coming up to me and asking me questions, it's.. It's like when I got phone call at home from marketing researchers, I just hang up them
Professor
Oh, well, it's certainly true that well no one likes getting calls at home from market researchers or people like that, but I will tell you something. Most customers have exact opposite reaction when they comes to MBWA. Now, don't ask me why, because I really have no idea, but the fact is that customers tend to respond really well to MBWA, which is the key reason for a success.
In fact, the techniques of MBWA works so well, they have actually been extended to all kinds of different contacts like politics for instance, Um, a few years back, the major of Botamore, Um.. I can guess its name is Shapher or something like that. Anyway, he decided that the best way to serve the people of the city, of his city, was actually get out there in it and experience the things that they experienced, so he right around the city in, you know, all parts of it, and he see all the prattles; he see how the trash was sometimes, um, not pick up but off side the street and then they go back to the office and they write these memos, and these memos to stuff about the problems he had seen, and how they needed to be fixed, you know that sort of thing, but the thing is he got all the information just by going around and seeing the different Botamore neighborhoods and talking to the people in them, and he called it--- small politics, we'd call it MBWA, or just, playing good customer service.
Conversation 2
Narrator
Listen to a conversation between a student and a Department Secretary.
Student
Hi. Miss Andrics.
Secretary
Hi Bret, how are you?
Student
I’m fine; except I have a question about my paycheck.
Secretary
Sure. What’ up?
Student
Well it’s already been several weeks at the end of the semester my check was supposed to go directly into my bank account but there haven’t been any deposits.
Secretary
That’s odd.
Student
Yea, I thought graduate teaching a system for automatically put on the payroll at the beginning of the semester.
Secretary
They are. Let’s see did you complete all the forms for the payroll?
Student
I filled in whatever they sent me, and I returned like the end of August.
Secretary
Hum, well, you definitely should have been paid by now. At least two pay periods have passed since then
Student
I asked the bank and they didn’t know anything. Who should I talk to about this, payroll?
Secretary
I’m going to contact them for you. There was a problem in processing some of the graduate students’ payroll paper work. ‘Cause their computer program crashed after all the information was processed. And some people’s information couldn’t be retrieved.
Student
Hum. But why didn’t any one let me know?
Secretary
I don’t know how they work over there, ‘cause they couldn’t even figure out whose information was missing. And this isn’t the first time, seems like something like this happens every semester.
Student
So how do I find out if my information was lost?
Secretary
I will contact them tomorrow morning to see if you’re in the system. But you’re probably not.
Student
What then will let me to do?
Secretary
Sorry but you will need to fill out those forms again and then I will fax them over the payroll office.
Student
And then what… Well, what I really need to know is how long till I get the money, I’m already a month behind my bills and my tuitions due soon.
Secretary
That’ll get you into the system the same day they receive your paper works. So if you do that tomorrow, you’ll get paid next Friday.
Student
That’s a long time from now. Will that pay checking include all the money I am owed?
Secretary
It should. I will double check with the payroll department.
Student
And another thing, Is there any way I could get paid sooner, I have been teaching all these weeks…
Secretary
I know that’s not fair but I don’t think they can do anything; all the checks are computed automatically in the system. They can’t just write checks.
Student
But there is another one to make mistakes. They’ve never told me!
Woman
I understand how you feel and if I were you, I’d be upset too. I’ll tell you what: when I call them, I will explain the situation and ask them if there is any way you can be paid sooner. But I have to tell you that base on past experiences you shouldn’t count on it.
Student
(Sigh) I understand thanks. I know it’s’ not your fault and that you’re doing everything you can.
Secretary
Well, what I CAN do is make sure that your first check for total amount the university owes you.
Student
That’ll be great! Thank you. I will be on campus about 10 tomorrow morning and I will come back to see you then.
【Lecture 3】
Music history
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a music history class. The professor has been discussing Opera.
Professor
The word opera means work, actually it means works. It’s the plural of the word opus from the Latin. And in Italian it refers in general to works of art. Opera Lyric or lyric of opera refers to what we think of as opera, the musical drama. Opera was commonplace in Italy for almost thousands of years before it became commercial as a venture. And during those years, several things happened primarily linguistic or thematic and both involving secularization. Musical drama started in the churches. It was an educational tool. It was used primarily as a vehicle for teaching religion and was generally presented in the Latin, the language of the Christian Church which had considerable influence in Italy at that time. But the language of everyday life was evolving in Europe and at a certain point in the middle ages it was really only merchants, Socratics and clergy who can deal with Latin. The vast majority of the population used their own regional vernacular in all aspects to their lives. And so in what is now Italy, operas quit being presented in Latin and started being presented in Italian. And once that happened, the themes of the opera presentations also started to change. And musical drama moved from the church to the plaza right outside the church. And the themes again, the themes changed. And opera was no longer about teaching religion as it was about satire and about expressing the ideas of society your government without committing yourself to writing and risking imprisonment or persecution, or what have you. Opera, as we think of it, is of course a rather restive form. It is the melodious drama of ancient Greek theater, the term ‘melodious drama’ being shortened eventually to ‘melodrama’ because operas frequently are melodramatic, not to say unrealistic. And the group that put the first operas together that we have today even, were, they were…well…it was a group of men that included Gallo Leo’s father Venchesil, and they met in Florence he and a group of friends of the counts of the party and they formed what is called the Camarola Dayir Bardy. And they took classical theater and reproduced it in the Renaissance’s time. This…uh…this produced some of the operas that we have today. Now what happened in the following centuries is very simple. Opera originated in Italy but was not confined to Italy any more than the Italians were. And so as the Italians migrated across Europe, they carried theater with them and opera specifically because it was an Italian form. What happened is that the major divide in opera that endures today took place. The French said opera auto-reflect the rhythm and Kevin of dramatic literature, bearing in mind that we are talking about the golden age in French literature. And so the music was secondary, if you will, to the dramatic Kevin of language, to the way the rhythm of language was used to express feeling and used to add drama and of course as a result instead of arias or solos, which would come to dominated Italian opera. The French relied on that what is the Italian called French Word 1 or French Word 2 in English. The lyrics were spoken, frequently to the accompany of a harpsichord. The French said you really cannot talk about real people who lived in opera and they relied on mythology to give them their characters and their plots, mythology, the past old traditions, the novels of chivalry or the epics of chivalry out of the middle Ages. The Italian said, no this is a great historical tool and what a better way to educate the public about Neo or Attalla or any number of people than to put them into a play they can see and listen to. The English appropriated opera after the French. Opera came late to England because all theaters, public theaters were closed, of course, during their civil war. And it wasn’t until the restoration in 1660 that public theaters again opened and opera took off. The English made a major adjustment to opera and exported what they had done to opera back to Italy. So that you have this circle of musical influences, the Italians invented opera, the French adapted it, the English adopted it, and the Italians took it back. It came to America late and was considered to elites for the general public. But Broadway musicals fulfilled a similar function for a great long while. George Champon wrote about opera, “If an extraterrestrial being or two appear before us and say, what is your society like, what is this Earth thing all about, you could do worse than take that creature to an opera.” Because opera does, after all, begin with a man and a woman and any motion.
【Lecture 4】
Environmental science
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.
Professor
All right folks, let’s continue our discussion of alternative energy sources and move on to what’s probably the most well-known alternative energy source--- solar energy. The sun basically provides earth with virtually unlimited source of energy every day, but the problem has always been how do we tap this source of energy. Can anyone think of why it’s so difficult to make use of solar energy?
Student A
Because it is hard to gather it?
Professor
That’s exactly it. Solar energy is everywhere, but it’s also quite diffused. And the thing is the dream of solar energy is not a new one. Humanity has been trying to use the sun’s light as a reliable source of energy for centuries. And around the beginning of the 20th century there were actually some primitive solar water heaters on the consumer market. But they didn’t sell very well. Any of you wanna guess why?
Student A
Well, there were other energy choices like oil and natural gas, right?
Professor
Yeah. And for better or for worse, we chose to go down that path as a society. When you consider economic factors, it’s easy to see why. But then in the 1970s, there was an interest in solar energy again. Why do you think that happened?
Student B
Because oil and natural gas were...err...became scarce?
Professor
Well, not exactly. The amount of oil and natural gas in the earth was still plentiful, but there were other reasons. It’s a political thing really and I’m gonna get into that now. So what happened in the 1970s was oil and natural gas became very expensive very quickly, and that spurred people to start looking into alternative forms of energy, solar energy probably being the most popular. But then in the 80s, this trend reversed itself when the price of oil and natural gas went down. Alright let’s shift our focus now to some of the technologies that have been invented to overcome the problem of gathering diffused solar energy. The most basic solution is simply to carefully place windows in a building, so the sun shines into the building and then it’s absorbed and converted into heat. Can anyone think of where this is most commonly used?
Student A
Greenhouses.
Professor
Yep, greenhouses where plants are kept warm and provided with sunlight because the walls of the building are made entirely of glass. But we do also have more complex systems that are used for space heating and they fall into two categories, passive and active heating systems. Passive systems take advantage of the location or design of a house. For example, solar energy is gathered through large glass panels facing the sun. The heat is then stored in water-filled tanks or concrete. No mechanical devices are used in passive heating systems. They operate with little or no mechanical assistance. With active systems, on the other hand, you collect the solar energy at one location, and then you use pumps and fans to move heat from the collectors through a plumbing system to a tank, where can be used to heat a home or to just provide hot water.
Student B
Excuse me professor, but I’ve got to ask, how can solar energy work at night or on cloudy days?
Professor
That’s...Well...that is a really good question. As a matter of facts, science is still working on it, trying to find ways of enhancing energy storage techniques so that coming of night or cloudy days really wouldn’t matter. That is the biggest drawback to solar energy. The problem of what do you do in cases where the sun’s light is weak or virtually non-present. So the storage of solar energy, lots of solar energy, is a really important aspect.
Student A
Does that mean that solar energy can only be used on a small scale, like heating a home?
Professor
Well actually, there have been some attempts to build solar energy power plants. The world’s largest solar plant is located in Cremer Junction California. It can generate 194 megawatts of electric power, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. Right now the utility companies are interested in increasing the capacity of Cremer Junction Plant, but only time will tell if it will ever develop into a major source of power for that region, considering the economic and political factors involved.