endow
vt. 捐赠；赋予
provision
n. 供应；准备；
patriot
n. 爱国者
democratic
a. 民主的
unconscious
a. 失去知觉的；无意识的
desirable
a. 令人向往的；可取的
flourish
vi. 繁荣；vt. 挥动
reservation
n. 保留；保护、居留地
bound
a. 肯定的；受约束的； n. 跳跃；限制
rotate
v. 转动；
resemble
vt. 像，类似于
conduct
vt. 实施、进行 n. 行为、举止；
orbit
n. 轨道
fare
n. 票价；vi. 进展
tremendous
a. 巨大的；精彩的
reluctant
a. 不情愿的
tenant
n. 房客，租户
sneak
v. 偷偷地走
rally
n. 集会；公路汽车赛；v. 召集、集合
institution
n. 社会公共机构；制度；设立
trim
vt. 修剪；削减；
compensation
n. 补偿的款物；赔偿
concession
n. 让步、妥协；
intimidate
vt. 恐吓、威胁
sue
v. 控告；对……提起诉讼、（for）请求
distort
v. 曲解；（使）变形
terrain
n. 地形
altitude
n. 高度
expel
vt. 把…除名；驱逐；排出
gamble
v./n. 赌博；冒险
grieve
v.感到悲痛，使伤心
alphabet
n. 字母表
bloom
vi. 开花
fertilizer
n. 肥料
addition
n. 加法；增加的人或物
subtract
v. 减（去）
specific
a. 特定的；具体的；n. (pl.)详情
insight
n. 洞察力
bless
求上帝保佑、祝福
agony
n. 痛苦
rage
n. 狂怒；风靡一时的事物；
linger
vi. 继续逗留，徘徊；（on）继续存留
tentative
a. 试探（性）的
obscure
a. 模糊不清的
pretext
n. 借口，托词
shear
vt. 剪（羊毛、头发等）；（剪羊毛、树枝等的）大剪刀
transcend
vt. 超出，超越（经验、理性等）的范围
profound
a. 深大的；知识渊博的；深奥的
overturn
vt. 使翻转；颠覆，推翻
decree
n. 法令，政令；判决
pertinent
a. 相关的
opaque
a. 不透光的；难理解的，晦涩的
supersonic
a. 超声的，超音速的
aerial
a. 飞机的，航空的
symphony
n. 交响乐；和谐
aggregate
n. 总数，合计；a. 合计的
beforehand
ad. 预先，事先
decimal
a. 十进位的；n. 小数
chord
n. 和弦，和音；弦，
definitive
a. 最终的，权威性的；决定性的
bibliography
n. 参考书目；
enclosure
n. 围墙；（信中的）附件
circus
n. 马戏，马戏团；圆形广场
听力
Section A
Conversation 1（00:40）
W: Wow, I would give anything to be more like Audrey Hepburn.
M: I never really understood why so many girls were such big fans of her. I mean. I’ve seen the famous films, Roman Holiday, Breakfast At Tifany’s and a few others, but I still don’t fully get it. Was she that great of an actress【女演员】?
W: Well, for me, my adoration【崇拜】goes beyond her movies. She had such a classic elegance【优雅】about her. She was always so poised【镇定的】, in part because she spent years training as a ballet dancer before becoming an actress.
M: Why didn’t she stick to dancing as a career?
W: It seems it was fate【命运】. She suffered from inadequate【不充分的】nutrition during the war, and therefore, a career as a professional dancer would have been too demanding【太高的要求】on her body. So she focused on acting【表演】instead. Roman Holiday was her first big break which made her a star.
M: Was that the film that opened with her shopping for jewelry【珠宝】in New York city? You know, the scene she was wearing a black dress and dark sunglasses【太阳镜】with a pearl【珍珠】necklace【项链】and long black gloves【手套】. I see the photo of her in that costume【服装】everywhere.
W: No, that one is Breakfast At Tiffany's, That costume is often referred to as the most famous little black dress of all time. Her character in that film is very outgoing【外向】and charming【迷人】, even though in real life, Audrey always described herself as shy and quiet.
M: So what did she do after her acting career?
W: She dedicated【致力于】much of her life to helping children in need. Her family received international aid during the war when she was growing up. I think that left a big impression on her. That's where I got the idea to volunteer for children’s charity next weekend.
M: I’ll join you. I may not be as charming【迷人】as Audrey Hepburn, but I’m all for supporting a good cause【原因、事业】.
Q1: What does the man say he never really understood?
Q2: What prevented【阻碍】Audrey Hepburn from becoming a professional dancer?
Q3: What do we learn about Audrey Hepburn in real life？
Q4: Why did Audrey Hepburn devote【献身、致力于】much her life to charity【慈善】after her acting career?
adoration / admire【崇拜】
Conversation 2（4:09-）
W: So, how is our presentation【介绍会、仪式、报告】about the restructuring of the company coming along？
M: Fine, I’m putting the finishing touches【收尾工作】to it now. But we’ll have to be prepared for questions.
W: Yes, there’s already a feeling that this is a top down change. We really need to get everyone on board.
M: Well, there’s been an extensive【广阔的、巨大的】consultation【商讨、咨询】period【时期】.
W: I know, but there’s always the feeling that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
M: People are worried about their jobs, too. I think we need to stress【强调】that while【虽然】there will be job changes, there won’t be anyone getting dismissed【解雇】. In fact, we’re looking to take on more staff.
W: Agreed. You can hardly blame【责怪】people for worrying though. We need to make it clear that it’s not just change for change’s sake【目的、理由】. In other words, we really must make the case【提出理由】for why we are doing it. So what’s the outline【轮廓、大纲】of the presentation?
M: I’ll start with a brief review of the reasons for the change that we really need to make a clean break【突破】to restart growth. After that I’ll outline the new company’s structures and who’s going where. Then I’ll hand it over to you to discuss the timeline and summarize and we’ll take questions together at the end. Anything else?
W: Oh, yeah, we should let the staff know the channels of communication, you know, who they can contact or direct questions to about these changes?
M: Yes, and we can collect some frequently asked questions and present some general answers.
W: Um, and we’ll make the presentation and the questions available via the company’s own computer network, right?
M: Yes, we’ll make a page on the network where staff can download all the details.
W: All right. Perhaps we should do a practice run【世纪演习】of the presentation first.
M: You bet【一点没错】.
Q5: What is the man going to do?
Q6: What does the man say about the restructuring?
Q7: What will the man explain first?
Q8: How can the staff learn more about the company’s restructuring?
Section B
Passage 1（7:51）
Airline passengers have to deal with a lot these days, getting bumped from flights【航班取消】and losing luggage【行李】on top of the general anxiety that nervous passengers always feel.
At the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, miniature【微型的】horses deliver a calming force two times a month. Denver and Ruby are two of the 34 therapy horses brought in from a local farm. They can usually be found in the ticket counter【柜台】area interacting with travelers. More than 30 airports across the country now have therapy【治疗】dogs. San Francisco has a therapy pig. San Jose,California, began a dog program after the terrorist【恐怖分子】attacks of September 11. Since its beginning, the program has now grown and has 21 therapy dogs and a therapy cat. The animals don’t get startled【受惊吓的】. They have had hundreds of hours of airport training, so they are used to having luggage and people crowding around them. These professional animals are probably better at finding their way in the airports than the most frequent of travelers.
The passengers often say that seeing animals makes them feel much better and helps them to calm down before a flight. This little bit of support can sometimes make a big difference. Some passengers enjoy the animals so much that they call the airport to schedule flights【航班、飞行】around their visits. Visits to nursing【nurse的ing形式：护理、照料】 homes and schools are also a regular part of the horses’ schedule. Their owner is already working on a new idea for a therapy animal—donkeys【驴】.
Q9: What is special about the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky international airport?
Q10: What are the trained animals probably capable【有能力的】of doing in an airport?
Q11: What do some passengers try to do?
Passage 2（10:50）
Hello, viewers. Today I’m standing at the 2000-year-old Roman-era site. Here the brightly-colored scenes that once decorated a mansion【大厦、宅邸】are being dug up【挖掘】. These scenes are turning up in the southern French city of Arles, surprising the historians who have been working here since 2014. Patches of paint【油漆、涂料】still cling to the stone walls of the bedroom and reception【接待处、接收】hall【走廊】. Some of these painted walls are preserved in places to a height of one meter. In addition, thousands of fragments that fell off the walls have been recovered. These pieces【片、段、作品】have been put back together with great care and display a variety of images. Some of these images include figures never seen before in France, such as a woman playing a stringed【有弦的】instrument【器械、仪器】, possibly a character from mythology.
The paintings were done with such skill and with such expensive dyes【染料】that experts believe the artists originally came from Italy. They were likely hired by one of the city’s elite【上层人士、精英】. Perhaps a Roman official wanted Pompeii-like interior【内部】to remind him of home. He was probably stationed in【驻扎在…】this provincial trading【交易，买卖（trade的现在分词）】port founded【建立、创立（found 的过去式和过去分词）】in 46 B.C【公元前】. as a colony【殖民地】for veterans【退伍军人】of the Roman army. Or maybe a wealthy local wanted to show off his worldly sophistication【精明老练、精密、复杂】. The paintings may yield even more stunning surprises as additional sections are put together, like pieces of a puzzle【使困惑、拼图游戏】. Whoever it was that created such magnificent pieces of art, they surely had no idea that their work would still be【依然存在】around thousands of years later.
Q12: Where is the speaker standing?
Q13: What do the thousands of fragments【碎片】display when they are put back together?
Q14: What makes experts think the paintings were done by artists from Italy?
Q15: What do we learn from the passage about the owner of the mansion?
Section C
Recording 1（14:36-）
Good afternoon, class. Today I want to discuss with you a new approach to empirical【经验主义的】research. In the past, scientists often worked alone. They were confined to【只限于】the university or research center where they worked. Today, though, we are seeing mergers of some of the greatest scientific mind, regardless of【不管】their location. There has never been a better time for collaborations with foreign scientists.
In fact, the European Union is taking the lead. Spurred on by funding policies, half of European research articles had international co-authors in 2007. This is more than twice【两次、两倍】the level of two decades ago. The European Union’s level of international co-authorship is about twice that of the United States, Japan and India. Even so, the levels in these countries are also rising. This is a sign of the continued allure【吸引力、魅力】of creating scientific coalitions【联合、结盟】across borders【跨国界】.
Andrew Schubert, a researcher at the Institute for Science Policy Research, says that the rising collaboration is partly out of necessity. This necessity comes with the rise of big science. Many scientific endeavors【努力、尝试】have become more complicated【复杂的】. These new complications【并发症】require the money and labor of many nations. But he says collaborations have also emerged【出现、暴露】because of increased possibilities. The Internet allows like-minded scientists to find each other. Simultaneously, dramatic drops in communication costs ease【容易、舒适】long-distance interactions. And there is a reward. Studies of citation【引用】counts show that internationally co-authored papers have better visibility【能见度、知名度】. Schubert says international collaboration is a way to spread ideas in wider and wider circles【循环】.
Caroline Wagner, a research scientist at George Washington University, notes that international collaborations offer additional flexibility. Whereas local collaborations sometimes persist past the point of usefulness because of social or academic obligations【责任】, international ones can be cultivated【培养】and dropped more freely. The collaborative trend is true across scientific disciplines. Some fields, though, have a greater tendency for it. Particle physicists and astronomers【天文学家】collaborate often. This is because they must share expensive facilities. Mathematicians, by contrast, tend historically towards solitude【独处、孤独】. As a consequence, they lag【掉队、落后于】behind other disciplines. However, Wagner says partnerships【伙伴关系；合伙】are rising there, too. The level of collaboration also varies from country to country. There are historical and political reasons as to why collaborations emerge, says Wagner. This rise is also apparently boosted by policies embedded in European framework funding schemes. These policies underlie【 构成……的基础】funding requirements that often require teamwork【团队合作】.
Q16: What do we learn about the research funding policies in the European Union?
Q17: Why do researchers today favor international collaboration?
Q18: What do we learn about the field of mathematics?
complicated【复杂的】
complications【并发症】
Recording 2（19:20-）
Good evening. In 1959, on the day that I was born, a headline in Life magazine proclaimed “Target Venus: There May be Life There!” It told of how scientists rode【ride的过去式】a balloon【气球、热气球】to an altitude【海拔高度】of 80,000 feet to make telescope【望远镜】observations of Venus’s atmosphere, and how their discovery of water raised hopes that there could be living things there.
As a kid, I thrilled【非常兴奋】to tales【故事】of adventure and Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science-fiction novel Luck Starr and the Oceans of Venus. For many of my peers【同龄人】, though, Venus quickly lost its romance. The very first thing that scientists discovered with the mission to another planet was that Venus was not at all the Earthly paradise【天堂】that fiction had portrayed【描绘】. It is nearly identical【完全一样的】to our own planet in bulk【主体】properties such as mass, density, and size. But its surface has been cooked and dried by an ocean【海洋】of carbon dioxide【二氧化物】. Trapped in【被困在】the burning【burn的现在分词：燃烧】death-grip of a runaway【逃跑】greenhouse effect, Venus has long been held up as a cautionary【警告的】tale for everything that could go wrong on a planet like Earth. As a possible home for alien life, it has been voted the planet least likely【最不可能】to succeed.
But I have refused【拒绝】to give up on Venus, and over the years my stubborn【固执的】loyalty【忠诚】has been justified. The rocky【岩石的】views glimpsed by Venera 9 and other Russian landers suggested a tortured【遭受重创的】volcanic【火山的】history. That was confirmed in the early 1990s by the American Magellan orbiter【人造卫星】, which used radar to peer through the planet’s thick clouds and map out a rich, varied, and dynamic surface. The surface formed mostly in the last billion years, which makes it fresher and more recently active than any rocky planet other than Earth. Russian and American spacecraft【太空飞船】also found hints【提示、暗示】that its ancient climate might have been wetter【wet的比较级：湿润的】, cooler, and possibly even friendly to life. Measurements of density and composition imply that Venus originally formed【构成】out of basically the same stuff as Earth. That presumably included much more water than the tiny【微小的】trace【追踪、痕迹】we find blowing in the thick air today. Thus, our picture of Venus at around the time life was getting started on Earth is one of warm oceans, probably rich with organic【绿色的、有机的】molecules【分子】, splashing【喷洒、飞溅】around rocky shores【海岸】and volcanic vents【通风口】. The sun was considerably less bright back then. So, Venus was arguably【可论证地】a cozier【cozy 的比较级：舒适的】habitat for life than Earth.
Q19: What do we learn from the Life magazine article?
Q20: What are scientists’ findings about Venus?
Q21: What information did Russian and American space probes【探索】provide about Venus?
Recording 3（23:35-）
I’m a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. I specialize in Cultural Psychology, examining similarities and differences between East Asians and North Americans. Our research team has been looking at cultural differences in self-enhancing motivations, how people have positive feelings towards not only themselves, but things connected to themselves. For example, when you own something, you view it as more valuable than when you don’t own it. It’s called the “endowment【捐赠】effect”. The strength of that effect is stronger in Western cultures than in Eastern cultures. So we’ve been looking at other ways of seeing whether this motivation to view oneself positively is shaped by cultural experiences. We’ve also started to look at how culture shapes sleep.
We are still in the exploratory stages of this project—although what’s noteworthy【值得注意的】is that East Asians on average sleep about an hour and a half less each night than North Americans do. And it’s not a more efficient sleep, not like they’re compressing【压缩】relatively【相当的】 more value out of their hours. Other studies have found that even infants in East Asia sleep about an hour less than European infants. So we’re trying to figure out how culture shapes the way you sleep.
Our experiment does not take place in a sleep lab. Instead, we lend people motion-detecting watches【运动检测手表】, and they wear them for a week at a time. Whenever they are not having a shower or swimming, they keep it on【让它开机着】. These kinds of watches are used in sleep studies as a way of measuring how long people are sleeping, how efficient their sleep is, and whether they are waking up in the night. Ideally, I’d like to take this into a controlled lab environment. We’ll see where the research points us. We usually start off with the more affordable methods and if everything looks promising, then it will justify【证明...是合理的】trying to build a sleep lab and study sleep across cultures that way.
Why do we study sleep? Sleep is something that has really been an unexplored topic cross-culturally. I’m attracted to it because culture isn’t something that only shapes the way our minds operate; it shapes the way our bodies operate too, and sleep is at the intersection【交接点】of those.
Q22: What does the speaker mainly study?
Q23: What does the speaker say about North Americans?
Q24: How did the speaker conduct the sleep study?
Q25: What does the speaker say about research on sleep?