现代大学英语听力Unit.docx

Unit 6 Work
Task 1
Laura usually leaves the offices of Quest Productions at about 5 o'clock, but last Monday she left at 5:30. She wanted to get home by 6:30 and she ran to the bus stop but she couldn't get on a bus. There were too many people and not enough buses. Laura was desperate to get home so she decided to go by tube. In the station she went to one of the automatic ticket machines but she didn't have enough change, so she had to join the queue at the ticket window. She bought her ticket and ran to the escalator. Laura went to the platform and waited for the tube. It arrived and the crowd moved forward. Laura was pushed into the train. It was almost full but she was given a seat by a man with a moustache. Laura thanked him and sat down. She started to read her newspaper. In the tunnel the train stopped suddenly and Laura was thrown to the floor together with the man with the moustache. Somebody screamed. The lights went out. It was quarter past 6 on a cold, wet December evening.
Key
A
1. d —b---a---e---c

B
1. a
Task 2
X was a secret agent. He had rented a furnished room in a provincial town not far from the public park and had been there two weeks. He was standing at the window looking out at the dull beds of geraniums, the park gates and the cold, uninviting statue of Queen Victoria that stood across the street from him. It was raining hard and the few people who passed by looked wet and miserable. X was miserable, too. How, he wondered, could anybody think there was anything interesting about the life of a secret agent He knew it was because people had seen so many television plays about glamorous spies that they thought the life of a secret agent was exciting. They were convinced that every cigarette lighter concealed a secret tape recorder; that a fountain pen held in a certain way would open a locked door, that the touch of a gold ring against the hand of an enemy would make him reveal all his secrets. How wrong they were! He looked round his room. The wallpaper was in the worst possible taste, the pictures horrible, the carpet worn, dirty and faded; and he was cold. This was the third Monday he had come to the window to look out. He prayed it would be the last.
As if in answer to his prayer, a certain meeting he had been sent to investigate was about to take place. He took out his camera. Just beneath the statue two women had stopped to speak. He knew one of them, and it was she who pointed in his direction. The other woman looked up towards him and in that brief moment he photographed her.
Key
A
1. a 2. b 3. d 4. c B
1. T 2. T 3. F
C
wondered; television plays; exciting; every cigarette lighter; tape recorder; held in a certain way;

the touch of a gold ring against the hand of; reveal; How wrong they were!
Task 3
Harry: Well, Robert, have you made up your mind yet what you want to do when you leave college
Nora: Oh Harry. Surely he's a bit young to decide on his career. He hasn't even got to college yet.
Harry: Not at all, Nora. It's wisest to decide in good time. Look at me, for example. I really wanted to be a sailor, but now I spend my days sitting at a desk in an office. Yes, it's silly to train for the wrong job. And after all, Robert will be going to college soon.
Nora: Now if I were a man I'd be a farmer. To see the crops growing —that's my idea of a good life.
Harry: Yes, and to see the money rolling in is more important still.
Robert: Well, that's not the way I look at it, Dad. It's the job I care about, not the money.
Harry: Maybe not; but you'll learn to care about the money too, when you've got a family to keep.
Nora: And of course Peter—well, he's keen to be a racing driver, or else an explorer
Robert: Oh, Peter's not old enough to make up his mind about such things.
Harry: You haven't answered my question yet, Robert. What would you like to do
Nora: Are you sure you don't want to be a farmer, Robert Or a market gardener
Robert: No, I'm sorry Mum, but I don't want to at all. I'd rather be a civil engineer. I want to build roads and bridges.
Harry: Not ships Isn't it better to be a shipbuilding engineer
Robert: Look here, is it my career we're planning, or yours
Harry: All right, all right, there's no need to lose your temper But you'd better win that scholarship first.
Key
A
Harry---Sailor Nora---Farmer(if she were a man)
Robert---Civil engineer Peter---Racing driver or explorer
B
1. a 2. b 3. c . b 5. d
Task 4
Here are some of the things a young man or woman should not do when he first asks an editor for a job:
He should not tell the editor that he wants to be a foreign correspondent or a columnist. Very probably the editor does not need either. He wants a reporter who will go to such places as government offices and police stations and write a true story of what is happening there Being a foreign correspondent or a columnist will come later.
A young person should not tell the editor that newspaper work is only the first step on the way to bigger and better jobs, such as those in government. The editor must take a lot of time and trouble teaching someone to be a good newspaperman or woman. He does not like the idea of teaching people who are soon going to leave him to work for someone else.
A young journalist should accept the working hours and free time the editor gives him. As a new journalist, it is very probable that he will work longer hours than others and work on weekends. The editor did the same when he was a young newspaperman with no experience. He expects a journalist to understand how things are on a newspaper.

Key
1. correspondents; columnist; may not need either; to go to places where events take place and write stories about them
2. first; bigger; better; who will soon leave to work for other people
3. working hours; free time; work long hours to begin with
Task 5
Sylvia: We've got a new manager in our department.
Larry: Oh You hoped to get that job, didn't you
Sylvia: Yes, I did.
Larry: I'm sorry. That's too bad. Who is it Who got the job, I mean
Sylvia: Someone called Drexler. Carl Drexler. He's been with the company only two years. I've been here longer. And I know more about the job, too!
Larry: Hmm. Why do you think they gave it to him and not to you
Sylvia: Because I'm the wrong sex, of course!
Larry: You mean you didn't get the job because you're a woman
Sylvia: Yes, that was probably it! It isn't fair.
Larry: What sort of clothes does he wear
Sylvia: A dark suit. White shirt. A tie. Why
Larry: Perhaps that had something to do with it.
Sylvia: You mean you think I didn't get the job because I come to work in jeans and a sweater
Larry: It's possible, isn't
Sylvia: Do you really think I should wear different clothes
Larry: Well...perhaps you should think about it.
Sylvia: Why should I wear a skirt Or a dress
Larry: I'm not saying you should. I'm saying you should think about it. That's all!
Sylvia: Why should I do that I'm good at my job! That's the only important thing!
Larry: Hmm. Perhaps it should be the only important thing. But it isn't, not in this company.
Key
A
1. acd 2. abe B
1. she is the wrong sex 2. she wears the wrong clothes
Task 6
Al: Is this the right line to file a claim
Bob: Yeah. It's the same line for everything. You just stand here and wait.
Al: Oh. Is there always such a long line
Bob: Every week. Sometimes longer. Is this your first time here
Al: Yes.
Bob: What happened Your plant closed down
Al: No. I'm a car salesman, or, I was a car salesman. But we just aren't selling cars. It's the interest rates. Two years ago, I averaged ten new cars a month. Do you know how many cars I sold last month One. One car to a lady who had the cash. But the interest rates are up again. The boss let three of us go. How about you
Bob: I worked at a vacuum cleaner plant with about fifty workers. We put in a good day's work.

But the machinery was getting old. As a matter of fact, the whole plant was old. So the management decided to build a new plant. You know where In Singapore. The workers here made about seven dollars an hour, a couple of people made eight or nine an hour. You know how much they're paying the workers in Singapore $ an hour! Anyway, all fifty of us got laid off.
Al: How long ago was that
Bob: They closed down ten months ago.
Al: Any luck finding another job
Bob: Nothing. I have one, sometimes two, interviews a week. Last week I thought I had something. They liked my experience with machines. But I never heard from them again.
Al: At least you know something about machines. All I can do is talk.
Bob: Maybe you'll talk yourself into another job. Good luck. I'll see you here next week. Al: I hope not. I hope I'll have something by then.
Key
Former Jobs When Laid-off Why Laid-off
1st man Car salesman Recently Low sales, due to the increase of interest rates
2nd man Worker at a vacuum 10 months ago Plant moved to Singapore where cleaner plant worker are paid much less
B
1st speaker---bcd 2nd speaker---ae
C
1. F 2. F
Task 7
Interviewer: Do you prefer what you're doing to teaching
First Man: Yes, one of the things I found a bit frustrating about teaching was rather difficult, especially if you're teaching in England and most of the students know quite a lot of English before they arrive. They learn a lot of English outside the classroom, in pubs or coffee shops or other places, with the families they're living with. It's very difficult to pin down how much they learn from your actual lesson, whereas in marketing, again there are lots of areas that are grey rather than black or white, but there are quite a few other areas where one can see quite clearly the results of one's efforts.
Interviewer: What did you do after you quit your job in advertising
Second Man: In fact, I became a journalist and I worked as a freelance. I didn't have a full-time job with any newspaper. I just had to contribute things as they came along and I wrote for magazines, and I did quite a lot of broadcasting for the VOA. Well, this was in a way the opposite of advertising because I enjoyed it a lot but I found it very hard to earn enough money to live on.
Interviewer: And then you decided to be a teacher
Second Man: Well, and so I thought. Well, I must do something which produces an income that I can be sure of. While I was working as a journalist I had done an article for a magazine about the English language teaching world and in fact I had come to the school where I now teach as a journalist and interviewed a lot of the people. And I thought it seemed a very nice place and I thought that the classes I visited had a very, very nice feeling about them, and so I thought, well, I'll see if they'll have me.
Interviewer: Why do you prefer teaching to advertising
Second Man: Well, partly because in teaching you work regular hours. In advertising you just had

to stay at the office until the work was finished [I see.] and it could be three o'clock in the morning. [Oh, dear.] Also you were very often made to work at weekends. Often some job would come up that was very important and they said it had to be finished —it had to go into the newspapers next week.
Interviewer: So there was a lot more pressure.
Second Man: There was a lot more pressure in advertising. Also, the people I worked with when I was first in advertising were young hopeful people like myself. By the end I was working with a lot of old people who quite honestly were awful. And I kept looking at them and saying, “Am I going to be like that” And I thought if I am I'd better get out, whereas the English language teachers I saw, who were older people I thought, well, they seemed quite nice. And I wouldn't mind being like that myself.
Key
A
1. F 2. F 3. T 4. F 5. T 6. F
B
1. According to the first speaker, it is frustrating because the teacher cannot see clearly the results of his efforts.
According to the second speaker, English language teaching is a good job, because it guarantees a stable income and regular working hours and means less pressure. He also likes the way elderly teacher are.
Task 8
Matthew: Michael, do you go out to work
Michael: Not regularly, no. I used to; I used to have a job in a publishing company, but I decided it wasn't really what I wanted to do and that what I wanted to do wouldn't earn me much money, so I gave up working and luckily I had a private income from my family to support me and now I do the things I want to do. Some of them get paid like lecturing and teaching, and others don't.
Matthew: What are the advantages of not having to go to work from nine till five
Michael: Ah... there're two advantages really. One is that if you feel tired you don't have to get up, and the other is that you can spend your time doing things you want to do rather than being forced to do the same thing all the time.
Matthew: But surely that's in a sense very self-indulgent and very lucky because most of us have to go out and earn our livings. Do you feel justified in having this privileged position
Michael: Yes, because I think I use it well. I do things which I think are useful to people and the community and which I am enjoying doing.
Matthew: Chris, what do you think the value of work is
Chris: Well, I think in our present-day society, for most people, work has very little value at all. Most of us go out to work for about eight to nine hours of our waking day. We do things which are either totally futile and totally useless or have very little justification whatsoever, and for most of us the only reason for working is that we need to keep ourselves alive, to pay for somewhere to live, to pay to feed our children.
Matthew: But surely people wouldn't know what to do if they didn't have to go to work
Chris: Well, again this raises the sort of two main aspects of work. Should we think of work only as a sort of bread-winning process, and this is very much the role it has in current society, or should we take a much wider perspective on work and think of all the possible sort of activities

that human beings could be doing during the day I think the sort of distinction currently is between say, someone who works in a car factory and who produces cars which are just adding to pollution, to over-consumption of vital resources, who is doing something which is very harmful, both to our environment and to, probably society, to contrast his work with someone perhaps like a doctor, who I think in any society could be justified as doing a very valuable job and one which incidentally is satisfying to the person who is doing it.
Matthew: What do you do Is your job just a bread-winning process or do you get some satisfaction out of doing it
Chris: Well, in the job I do find that most of the satisfaction is a mental one; it's coming to grips with the problems of my subject and with the problems o