Learners of English, especially self-taught learners may have trouble in understanding speeches by native speakers. The following ways might help improve their listening ability.
First of all, do things step by step. It is not good to listen to something beyond your level. Better choose a suitable course and start with the first book. Go on to the second book only after you are sure you understand the first one.
Secondly, stick to one course of study. Don’t change books often. Never let your attention be attracted by another course just because it seems to be more “fashionable”.
Thirdly, listen to the English news program over the radio from time to time. Better go through the news stories in the Chinese-language newspaper first. That will make it easy for you to understand the English news on the radio.
Fourthly, if you have time, listen to some interesting stories in “Special English from the V.O.A. or other listening materials of the same level as that of your textbook”.
小题1:This is a piece of advice to learners of English on how to ________.| A．improve their listening ability | | B．read fast | | C．write better English and read faster | | D．speak correctly |
小题2:If you want to understand the English news program on the radio, you should ________.| A．read the Chinese-language newspaper step by step | | B．read again and again the Chinese-language newspaper | | C．go through the Chinese-language newspaper first | | D．be able to recite the Chinese-language newspaper |
小题3:The author advised that once you have taken up a course, you ________.| A．should stick to it | | B．should begin with the last book | | C．should take up other courses if they are more fashionable | | D．shouldn’t do anything else |
小题4:In this passage, V.O.A. stands for ________.
A. a book B. a magazine C. a text-book D. a radio station |
小题1:A
小题2:C
小题3:A
小题4:D |
试题分析：本文是关于如何提高人们的英语听力水平，并给出了4个建议。
小题1:A 细节题。根据文章第一段最后一句The following ways might help improve their listening ability.说明本文是关于听力方面的建议，故A正确。
小题2:C 细节题。根据第四段第二行Better go through the news stories in the Chinese-language newspaper first.说明最好先看一下中文说明，有助与你的理解，故C正确。
小题3:A 细节题。根据第三段第一行stick to one course of study. Don’t change books often
说明我们要坚持一套材料，不随便换学习的材料，故A正确。
小题4:D 推理题。根据本句if you have time, listen to some interesting stories in “Special English from the V.O.A.说明VOA是播放英语故事的的电台，故D正确。
点评：本文是学习英语听力方面的建议，考查了细节题，答题时在文章找到对应的地方，用笔进行标记，这有利于后期有时间检查时可以立刻找到答案的位置。仔细理解作者所讲的意思，再结合选项，通过排除法和自己对全文的把握，选出正确答案。 |
核心考点
试题【Learners of English, especially self-taught learners may have trouble in underst】；主要考察你对
题材分类等知识点的理解。
[详细]举一反三
Reading can provide lots of fun for children and teens during summer vacation. Children who read during the summer are better prepared for school when they return to classes in the fall. Public libraries throughout Wisconsin will host summer events to encourage children and young adults to include reading in their summer fun.
●All Star Readers
The Milwaukee Public Library will host its 2007 Summer Reading Club for kids from 3 to 18. Signing up starts on June 1 at all Milwaukee public libraries and bookmobile sites.
Children aged 6 to 12 are invited to become “All Star Readers” at the Milwaukee library when they sign up for the Summer Reading Club. Children can score a point by reading 10 books or 1,000 pages. When they reach the reading goal, they will win a bag full of prizes.
●Sparkey Spots the Ball
Children up to 5 years old can join the read-to-me club, “Sparkey Spots the Ball”. They will receive their own reading folders to record the books read to them by parents, brothers and sisters or relatives. Once they have listened to 20 books, they will win a baseball and a coupon（优惠券）for McDonald’s ice cream.
●X-treme Read
Teens between the age of 13 and 18 can join in their own reading program called “X-treme Read”. Teens can read to win movie passes, CDs and more.
The library also plans extreme bike races by C4BMX at four libraries in June and July. Check with your local library or Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the exact dates, times, and places of the demonstrations (集会).
小题1:Students who take part in the reading club can _________.| A．take part in extreme bike races | | B．get a good mark in the final exam | | C．get better prepared for the new term | | D．finish their homework ahead of time |
小题2:In order to become “All Star Readers” and win a lot of prizes, you _________.| A．should be 19 years old | | B．should be at least 5years old | | C．must read at least 1,000 pages or 10 books | | D．should listen to 20 books. |
小题3:Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?| A．Children up to 5 can not join in the read –to- me club. | | B．Children can score two points by reading 10 books or 1,000 pages.. | | C．Teens between the age of 6 and 12can join in “X-treme Read”. | | D．There are extreme bike races by C4BMX at four libraries in June and July. |
小题4:In which club will they win a baseball and a coupon for McDonald’s ice cream.?| A．2007 Summer Reading Club | B．Sparkey Spots the Ball | | C．X-treme Read | D．All Star Readers |
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IMAGINE if there was a device that could do everything for you – wake you up every morning, chat with you and type your e-mails.
The piece of technology in question would be smart, able to tell you about the weather and where the nearest restaurants are.
The good thing is you no longer need to wonder, because something like this already exists. And its name is Siri.
Siri is a voice recognition application designed for Apple products and the concept has been around for almost a year.
When Siri first came out it could only speak English, but now it has “learned” lots of new languages, including Chinese, Cantonese and Taiwanese, reported The Wall Street Journal. So, you can give it orders in your mother tongue.
But how could a cell phone or a computer “hear” what you are saying and understand it? This is all because of voice recognition technology.
When you speak, your voice creates vibrations (振动) in the air – a bit like waves in the water when you throw a rock into the lake. The microphone receives the vibrations and the computer changes them into digital data that is then divided into many parts. They are analyzed one by one to see what pronunciations each part stands for. The computer then puts these pronunciations together into possible words according to its built-in dictionary.
But figuring out the words is far from enough; building words into meaningful sentences is the most difficult part. The computer has to compare what it hears to a large library of known phrases and sentences to determine what the user is saying.
However, people don’t always talk in the most standard way and sometimes make grammatical mistakes. This is why traditional voice recognition software always requires you to remember keywords and to speak in a certain way.
Fortunately, Siri isn’t like that. It’s not just “voice recognition”; it’s “natural language understanding (NLU)”. You can ask it things like “Do I need an umbrella today?” and it will know that you are asking about the weather, according to ABC News.
“The key thing is NLU – understanding what you mean and what you want,” Neil Grant from Nuance, a software company in the US, told The Guardian. “Historically, you had to learn a huge long list of commands . As NLU progresses, you can say what you want in a way that’s natural to you.”
小题1:What is the function of the first two paragraphs?| A．To show that invention usually results from need. | | B．To clear doubts about voice recognition technology. | | C．To introduce something that offers these helpful services. | | D．To show how the voice recognition works. |
小题2:Which step is the most complicated in the process of voice recognition according to the article?| A．Changing the received vibrations into digital data. | | B．Analyzing the digital data to see what pronunciations it represents. | | C．Putting the pronunciations together into possible words. | | D．Figuring out meaningful sentences based on the words. |
小题3:How can you get Siri to respond according to the article?| A．You can speak in a natural way as you would to a person. | | B．You can only speak English and Chinese. | | C．You have to say things in a certain way. | | D．You have to remember keywords and speak specific commands. |
小题4:What can be concluded from the article?| A．Siri can record and save what you say frequently into a computer dictionary. | | B．Siri will fail to understand what you say if you make grammatical mistakes. | | C．The biggest advantage of Siri is that it’s NLU is rather than just voice recognition. | | D．Since first applied to Apple products a year ago, Siri has made great improvements. |
小题5:The text is mainly about ________.| A．the convenience of future life. | | B．an introduction to the Apple products. | | C．the working system of voice recognition | | D．the introduction to Siri |
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After a long day at school, I walked home with my heavy schoolbag. Sleepy and 1 , I threw my things on the sofa and picked something from the 2 to eat. I passed by the living room and wished I could watch TV, but I knew my 3 would take me the whole night. I took my schoolbag and went 4 to my room. I tried to understand chemistry and 5 sleepiness at the same time. I tried to keep my eyes 6 and I wanted something to cheer me up.
Later, I 7 the sound of the front door opening. And I waited for it—the sound of my mom singing. Though she sang off-key(跑调), 8 made me excited that she was here. I ran down to 9 my mom. We hugged each other and talked for a while. I like it when my mom was happy. Her 10 seemed to flow down to me and I got the strength to 11 the stress (压力) again.
Sometimes, I wonder how my mom can still be 12 after coming back from work. Every weekday, she wakes up 13 in the morning to go to work and spends all hour on the bus before getting downtown. At a 14 factory, she works standing for the whole day and draws patterns(图案) for clothes over and over. After work, my mom at times gets stuck(被困) in 15 for two hours on her way back home. When I 16 my school life with her work life, I should not be the one to 17 . At least I have some interesting things to do at school, but one mistake at work can cost my mom her job. I 18 that my mom has a positive (积极的) attitude and lives her life with a joyous heart, which encourages me to do my work well, 19 there may be difficulties. Seeing her happy makes me feel 20 , too.
| 小题1: | | A．heavy | B．busy | C．hungry | D．unlucky |
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| 小题2: | | A．classroom | B．kitchen | C．bedroom | D．apartment |
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| 小题3: | | A．dream | B．supper | C．homework | D．experience |
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| 小题4: | | A．downstairs | B．outside | C．upstairs | D．inside |
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| 小题5: | | A．break | B．put | C．get | D．fight |
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| 小题6: | | A．opening | B．opened | C．open | D．closing |
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| 小题7: | | A．felt | B．listened | C．raised | D．heard |
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| 小题9: | | A．look | B．greet | C．said to | D．help |
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| 小题10: | | A．need | B．idea | C．faith | D．energy |
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| 小题11: | | A．face | B．change | C．accept | D．1eave |
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| 小题12: | | A．creative | B．sensitive | C．competitive | D．positive |
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| 小题13: | | A．early | B．soon | C．fast | D．1ate |
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| 小题14: | | A．furniture | B．shoe | C．car | D．clothing |
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| 小题15: | | A．chat | B．traffic | C．duty | D．task |
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| 小题16: | | A．replace | B．exchange | C．decorate | D．compare |
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| 小题17: | | A．complain | B．decide | C．study | D．play |
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| 小题18: | | A．achieve | B．notice | C．admire | D．improve |
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| 小题19: | | A．however | B．though | C．despite | D．at least |
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| 小题20: | | A．good | B．skillful | C．successful | D．important |
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The common cold is the world"s most widespread illness, which is a serious infection that man receives.
The most widespread mistake of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by touching directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in separate Arctic (北极的)areas, explorers have reported being free from colds until touching again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.
During the First World War, soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches, cold and wet, seldom caught colds.
In the Second World War, prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp, bare and starved, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds.
At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for a long time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in a room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.
If then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in winter? Despite the most hard research, no one has yet found out the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and that makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.
No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain-killers such as aspirin, but all that they do is to reduce the symptoms.
小题1:The writer thinks the cause of catching cold is due to_______.| A．touching anyone directly | | B．touching anyone indirectly | | C．cold weather | | D．getting viruses from person to person |
小题2:Arctic explorers may catch colds when___.| A．they are working in the separate Arctic areas | | B．they are writing reports in terribly cold weather | | C．they are free from work in the isolated Arctic regions | | D．they are coming into touch again with the outside world |
小题3:Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit___.| A．suffered a lot | B．never caught colds | | C．often caught colds | D．became very strong |
小题4:The passage mainly discusses___.| A．the experiments on the common cold | | B．the mistake about the common cold | | C．the reason and the way people catch colds | | D．the continued spread of common colds |
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Scientists are trying to make the deserts into good land again．They want to bring water to the deserts，so people can live and grow food．They are learning a lot about the deserts．But more and more of the earth is becoming desert all the time．Scientists may not be able to change the desert in time．
Why is more and more land becoming desert？Scientists think that people make deserts．People are doing bad things to the earth．
Some places on the earth don’t get much rain． But they still don’t become deserts． This is because some green plants are growing there． Small green plants and grass are very important to dry places． Plants don’t let the sun make the earth even drier． Plants do not let the wind blow the dirt away． When a bit of rain falls， the plants hold the water． Without plants， the land can become desert more easily．
小题1:Deserts ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ ． | A．never have any plants or animals in them | | B．can all be turned into good land before long | | C．are becoming smaller and smaller | | D．get very little rain |
小题2:Small green plants are very important to dry places because ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ ． | A．they don’t let the sun make the earth even drier | | B．they don’t let the wind blow the soil away | | C．they hold water | | D．All of the above． |
小题3:Land is becoming desert little by little because ＿＿＿＿＿＿． | A．plants can’t grow there | | B．there is not enough rain | | C．people haven’t done what scientists wish them to do | | D．scientists know little about the deserts |
小题4:Why is more and more land becoming desert according to this passage？| A．Earthquakes make deserts. | B．Wind makes deserts. | | C． Lack of water makes deserts. | D．People make deserts． |
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