剑桥国际英语第四册Unit 5听力原文

Yoshiko: In some ways, I’m a typical Japanese teenager. I go to public high school and wear a uniform, just like everyone else. I go to school five and a half days a week – I get Sundays off. I have interests similar to most of my friends: I like to play video games and am a big fan of American movies. Brad Pitt is one of my favorite actors.
There’s one big way I’m different, though. I spent almost six years living outside Japan. My father’s company transferred him overseas, and of course we went with him. Living in a foreign culture was really tough at first, but I guess I am lucky in a way. I learned to speak English, and I made a lot of new friends. So you can see that I am really quite a bit different from my classmates!
Renato: My life is pretty typical, I think. I head off to school at seven in the morning, and school finishes at midday. After school, I usually study or play soccer. On weekends, I like to get together with my friends. We usually hang out in one of the shopping centers. Everyone just shows up there on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a lot of fun… most of the time.
I think one way I am different is that I like to do my own thing sometimes. I don’t always want to hang out with the group. There’s a lot of peer pressure to spend time with my friends, but I don’t listen to what they say. I guess you could say that I think for myself. Sometimes it makes my friends angry, but that’s just the way I am.
Suzanne: I guess I worry about the same things other kids my age do… you know, grads, getting along with my parents… I am doing OK in school, but I have to study really hard. I want to make sure that my grades are good enough so I can get into a decent university. I am pretty typical: I go to classes, attend club meetings after school, and do homework at night. Weekends are great because I get to sleep late. Oh yeah, I am also a member of the orchestra at school, I play the violin.
My school is different from a typical school in the United States. We study all the core subjects – like most other students – in the morning: science, math, English, history – the usual stuff. In the afternoon, though, we study things like music, dance, and art. You see, I go to a special school for the arts. A lot of us have dreams of becoming dancers and singers someday. That’s why we spend so much time learning about the arts.
Dominique: You see, I find making an expensive purchase quite difficult. Probably because
I don’t want to make a mistake and get suck, especially for something that costs a lot of money, like a car. You see, when I bought a car, I knew I just couldn’t go into a showroom and choose a car! No impulse purchases for me! I needed a lot of time to think it over and consider the options. So, I read consumer magazines to see how they rated their cars. I wanted to know the average prices and safety records of different cars. I mean, you never know…. I also talked to people in the field who are knowledgeable. You know, the guy down the street who works in the garage, oh, and, uh, also, my bother-in-law – he’s a car fanatic. And once I decided which one I liked, I finally went to the showroom to test-drive the car. I suppose you could say that my approach takes a lot of time, but I feel secure in my decisions.
Carla: I am in charge of hiring new staff for my department at work, I mean, several of us do the interviews, but I am the person who gives the final approval. If I say “no”, then the person isn’t hired. It is a lot of pressure! Sometimes I get stressed out about it.
I have to admit that I hate to waste time making decisions. It is funny, my boss does it completely differently. She just likes to sit and think, you know, mull over the information and let the decision “come to her”. We have completely different styles!
I think I’ve learned a lot from my previous mistakes: You just have to go with your instincts – that is, do what you think is best and then just hope that it works out. I mean, we all get strong feelings about things, and usually those feelings are right. The important thing is to act quickly! Up until now I’ve been pretty lucky. The people I’ve hired have all worked out – no major problems so far.
Wayne: When I have to make an important decision, I find I need to talk to a lot of people, get their input. If I have to do it myself, I get confused. It’s like the more I think about something and consider all the options, the more frustrated I get. I could sit and analyze something forever. My friends say that I can always see both sides of everything, which makes it hard to decide on anything! You can imagine how irritated my friends must get.
When I was deciding where to spend my long Christmas holidays last year, I asked everyone for help. Basically what I did was pose this question: “Where would you go in December if you had three weeks?” I listened to all the answers and then make my decision. You might think I am strange, but it worked. Based on everyone’s advice, I went to Miami. I had an amazing vacation.。