视听说unit 1 听力原文

Active Listening & Speaking I
Script:
Hi, my name is Rebecca Darnell, workforce service specialist with Contra Costa County, and today we’re going to discuss how to choose a career based on your personality. The first step is to really understand yourself and your own personality. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. There are a lot of different tools that you can utilize in order to really get a clear view or picture of your personality and your personality traits. A lot of times, our own self-assessments are not always as accurate as we think they are, so it’s important to get a clear picture of what types of things best describe you and your personality traits.
They may be as simple as being an extrovert, which means that you are very social and enjoy being around people, versus an introvert, which would mean that you prefer to be more to yourself and in solitary situations. These types of personality traits are extremely important in determining what kind of career would be best for you because to be successful, you need to really be comfortable with yourself in the type of work that you’re doing.
So just for an example, if you were to take a personality test and it determined that you are an extrovert, then it would be a good idea for you to look at jobs or different employment opportunities in social settings, potentially retail, or if you are to be a clerk or in a different job environment that allows you to interact with people and work in a team environment, and actually have a partnership with people where your work combined with theirs to make an end product. If that’s not something that you feel comfortable with, then you would want to explore other types of work. Possibly if you’re more of an introvert, you would maybe look at something along the lines of truck driving where you spend most of your time alone and you rely solely on your own skills and your own time frames and you really set your own schedule.
So it’s important to take a look at how you fit into the job that you’re interested in because the happier you are and the better it fits with you, the more success you will have in your job search and in finding a job that’s going to make you happy.
Notes
1. end product: 最终产品，制成品
2. time frame: 时间范围，期限
3. fit into: 适应
4. Contra Costa County: 康特拉科斯塔县，位于旧金山湾区的东部
Active Listening & Speaking II
Script:
Personality Affects Life after Presidency
When former president George W. Bush left the White House in 2009, he largely left the spotlight.
However last year he worked alongside volunteers in Zambia to renovate a clinic that specializes in treating cervical cancer. Like other former presidents, Mr. Bush uses his fame to draw attention to issues, but says he prefers not to call attention to his own work.
“I hope you don’t see much of it, because I don’t want to be in the news. In other words, I believe that quiet service is the best kind of service.”
But former presidents have the ability to harness the public’s attention and goodwill. President Obama tapped Bush and former president Bill Clinton to lead a fundraising effort in 2010 after the earthquake in Haiti.
“On behalf of the American people, I want to thank both of you for returning to service and leading this urgent mission.”
Mr. Clinton has remained in the public eye since his presidency, pressing North Korea to release American prisoners, campaigning for his wife, Hillary Clinton, who ran for president in 2008, and founding the Clinton Global Initiative, or CGI. “CGI was designed to tackle big global challenges in bite-sized pieces.”
But the elder Mr. Bush has little interest in pursuing that kind of high-profile work, preferring personal causes, says the director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library, Mark Updegrove. “It’s a relatively passive post-presidency. Of course, the most significant chapter in his post-presidency was when he became the father of the president of the United States.”
“I think in many ways that the post-presidential activities of our former presidents are more reflective of their character than their years in office, which tend to be more insular in nature,” says Updegrove, the author of various books on the presidency.
Former president Jimmy Carter’s work often focuses on health, human rights, and democracy promotion, including election monitoring. He says his life’s interests did not change when he left office back in 1981.
“I would say, and I think my wife would agree, that the time we spent since the White House has been the most exciting and productive and adventurous and unpredictable and gratifying time.”
Notes
1. campaign for: 为……助选
2. bite-sized: 很小的
3. high-profile: 高调的
4. in office: 执政，在位
5. The Clinton Global Initiative(CGI), established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,100 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.
6. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum: Also known as the LBJ Presidential Library, one of 13 Presidential Libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The Library houses 45 million pages of historical documents, including the papers of Lyndon Baines Johnson and those of his close associates and others. The Library was dedicated on May 22, 1971, with Johnson and then-President Richard Nixon in attendance. The current director is Presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove.
Supplementary Listening & Speaking
Script:
Personality & Stress
You have been circling the parking lot for what seems like an hour trying to find a parking spot. You left home extra early so that you wouldn’t be late for your class again. Aha! You finally see someone pulling out of a parking spot. You put your blinker on and wait patiently, silently praising the parking gods for your good luck. Just as the person backs out of the parking spot, from out of nowhere, another car squishes around the corner coming from the opposite direction and quickly pulls into the spot that was clearly yours.
Your mouth drops open.
You can’t believe what just happened. How do you react? Does your personality play a role in terms of how you respond to the stressor? To a large extent, our personality predicts how we perceive and deal with stressors and those accompanying stressful emotions.
And that brings me to the question —is it possible to change our personality? In order to answer that question, let’s examine just exactly what I’m talking about when I refer to personality.
It is thought that personality is made up of four components: values, which are abstract qualities that give meaning to our lives; attitudes, perceptions derived from values; beliefs, thoughts, ideas and perceptions based on our attitudes and values; and behaviors, or actions based on our values, attitudes and beliefs.
So going back to the question of “is it possible to change our personality?”, let me first ask is it possible to change any of these components? Is it possible to change our values, attitudes, beliefs or behaviors? Actually it is possible to change all four of these components. But there is one component that’s the most easily influenced. This is not to imply that it is easy to change but it is the least difficult component to change compared to the other three. And that is behaviors! We definitely can change our behaviors. In fact, behaviors are considered to be the least difficult to change compared to the other three components. It is a bit more difficult to change deeply-rooted values, attitudes and beliefs. Of the four compon ents the one that’s the most difficult to change is your values, many of which are instilled at a very young age.
So going back to the question of whether or not we can change our personality, if we can change our behavior which is a component of personality, then technically, yes, we can change our personality to an extent. In a sense, learning to change your personality or one component of your personality is absolutely critical to effectively managing stress.
Notes
1. pull out of: 驶出
2. pull into: 驶入
3. put your blinker on: 打开你的闪光警戒灯
4. back out of the parking spot: 把车倒开出车位。