新视野大学英语第四册听说教程Unit4听力原文

Long conversation

M: So what do you think? Should Vietnam invest heavily in communications technology?

W: Hm?

M: Vietnam, the country…

W: I know about the country. I learned about it in school, But I don’t have the foggiest notion of what you’re talking about.

M: The Vietnamese Government is putting a lot of money into communications technology-you know, the Internet, mobile phone lines and the like,.

W: OK, so what’s the problem?

M: it’s a really poor country-most people there don’t have much as our family-and many people outside of the country are saying the government should do more to help poor people. I, for one, find the government’s actions unbelievable. So…

W: So what?

M: So, do you have any ideas? I’d like to know you think.

W: I think that the Vietnamese government is independent of outside influence and can do what it likes.

M: The question isn’t if it can or can’t do it. The question is what it SHOULD do?

W: I don’t know, man. I guess, well, I have a new computer, a mobile phone, the internet, a mess of other technology. And I like these things. The Vietnamese might like them too, and maybe make good use out of them.

Passage

The “information highway”, the” information superhighway”, the” interweb”, the”internet”…all of these words have come to identify the same thing-the widespread connection of computers and information from around the world. And as our understanding of this connection has changed, so too have the terms we’ve used to describe it.

The information highway was a term used especially in the 1990s to describe the Internet. The official project was dubbed the National Information Infrastructure and went beyond the interconnectivity of just computer; the scope broadened to include all types of data transmission between a plethora of places, people, and devices. It is often associate with the Unit States politician and former vice president. Al Gore, who promoted funding for programs that led to aspects of me development of the Internet. Although its currency was wider than merely Goer-many police organizations made pronouncements about the so-called information highway or the variant information superhighway, both terms are used less frequently now that for many people the Internet has become a less abstract and more concrete thing; the highway analogy, though useful and

apt, has perhaps serve its purpose.

Task 1

W: Have a seat, Mr. Johnson. Now, what’s the problem?

M: Well, as I told you on the phone, I’m having a bit of trouble with my landlord. W: Yes! What sort of trouble?

M: Well, when I moved in six month ago, he said he was going to fix up tow or three things that needed doing.

W: What sort things exactly?

M: Well, there was no ventilation in the kitchen and the hot water system wasn’t working properly.

W: And he said he’d have them attended to?

M: Yes, that’s right. He agreed to have them done. But now six months have gone by and still nothing has bee done.

W: Um…so he’s broken his promise.

M: Yes, and not only that. Now that lease has run out, he wants to increase the rant by $10 a week!

W: Well, he can’t do that without your agreement, you know.

M: Yes, I know that, but the trouble is he can evict me if I don’t agree.

W: Yes, that’s true, he can. However, eviction is easier said than done.

M: You mean it could be difficult for him?

W: Yes, he can’t just throw you out the street. He has to give you reasonable notice, usually a month.

Task 2

People who want to find love on the internet often do so because the want people to know them “for who they really are”, rather than what they look like. These people believe that it is the inside of person that is, the intellect and heart of a person, that should be the deciding factor in love. The outside shouldn’t matter.

This belief can be found in the famous story of “Beauty and the Beast”. “Beauty and the Beast”is a German fairy tale about a beautiful and gentle young woman who is taken to live with a man-beast in return for the Best sparing her father’s life when he accidentally insults him. Beauty is kind to the well-mannered Beast, but pines for her family until the Beast allows her to visit them. Once home, Beauty delays her return until she hears that Beast is dying without her. She returns to the Beast and restores him to health. When she agrees to marry the Beast, the evil spell upon him is broken, and he becomes a handsome prince. Beauty and her prince live happily ever after.