托福TPO31听力文本

Section 1

Conversationl — Community Planning in the Colonies

Narrator

Listen to part of a conversation between a Student and her United States History Professor. Professor

So, Amanda, you've asked a lot of questions about trade during the colonialperiod of the United States. Has our discussion clarified things for you?

Student

Well, yeah, but now, I think writing about trade for my paper isn't going to work.

Professor

Oh, so your questions about shipping routes were for your research paper?

Student

Yeah. But now, I see that I probably need to come up with a new paper topic.Actually, there was one other idea I had. I have been thinking about doingsomething about community planning in the early British settlements in EasternNorth America.

Professor

Oh. OK. I am curious. Why are you interested in doing something on communityplanning in colonial times?

Student

Well, I am much more into architecture. It’s my major and I mean, planning out atown or city goes along with that. I mean, not that I don't like history...l aminterested in history…really interested. But I think, you know, for a career,architecture is more for me.

Professor

That's great. I've gotten some very thought-provoking papers from Studentswhose interests go beyond history.

Student

OK. But for the paper you wanted us to try to include a comparison, right?

Professor

Yes. Actually, that was really the purpose of the assignment. The way the UnitedStates developed or perhaps I should say the colonies, since the land that wouldbecome the Eastern United States…uh...there were British colonies there fourhundred years ago. But anyway…uh... development in the colonies differedgreatly depending on geography. I am looking for papers that have ideas aboutsomething that happened one way in the Northern colonies happened a differentway in the Southern colonies.

Student

Is that true in terms of urban planning?

Professor

Very true. Towns in the Northern colonies were centralized and compact. Theyprovided a

meeting point for exchanging goods, for participatory government,and for practicing religion. Houses would be built along the roads that led intotown. And just outside the developed area, there would usually be an open areaof some sort for grazing animals and also group activities. Actually, the model forplanning a town in the Northern colonies was not unlike the model for thedevelopment of towns in medieval Europe. After all, the colonists had just comefrom Europe and the medieval period was just ended.

Student

Medieval Europe. But what about the South?If I remember correctly... In theSouth, at least initially, they didn't build towns so much as they built tradingposts.

Professor

That's right. Most of the settlers in the North wanted to start a whole new life.But most of the people who came from Europe to the South just wanted to makesome money and then go back. It is not surprising that some of most commonbuildings were storage facilities and port facilities. Lecturel-Music — Ancient Greek Music & Plato

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in a music class.

Professor

Today we are going to do something a little different. In the past few classes,we've listened to traditional music from around the world and we've talkedabout the characteristics of these music, what makes these styles distinctive,what kinds of instruments are used. And you've talked about what soundsfamiliar to you and what sounds strange. And many of you found some of whatwe've listened to very strange indeed.

Well, today I want to start talking about western music and I am going to start inancient Greece. But, now here's the part that's different. We're not going to talkvery much about the actual music. Instead, we are going to talk about what theGreeks believed about music.

Now, there are some very good reasons to approach the material in this way.First, well, we don't have very much ancient Greek music studied. Only about 45pieces survived…uh...these are mostly records of poems and songs. And we arenot sure how well we can reproduce the melodies or rhythms, because they wereapparently improvised in many cases. So we really don't know all that muchabout what the music sounded like.

What we do know about - and this really is the most important reason I amapproaching today's lecture the way I am -is the Greek philosophy about musicand its continuing influence on western attitudes toward music.

Now, if we're going to understand the philosophy, we have to first understandthat music for the Greeks was about much more than entertainment. Yes, therewas music at festivals and we have sculptures and paintings showing peoplelistening to music for many of the same reasons that we do. But this isn't thewhole story.

The important thing about music was that it was governed by rules,mathematical rules. And for those of you who are also studying music theory,you’ll see thatit is in fact highly mathematical. Um...and for the Greeks, the same mathematical principles that govern musicalso govern the universe as well as the human character, the essence ofpersonality. People's characters were believed to be very sensitive to music.1fyou started playing around with the rules, you know,