听力原文： The dollar dipped against the euro and the yen on Monday in the wake of weak U. S. jobs data, although the euro remained vulnerable due to worries about the political and economic outlook of the European Union.

M: You bet! I've already put it aside to cover the increase my landlord just announced for next year. Q: What does the man mean？ (8) A．He has decided how he's going to spend the prize money. B．He doesn't know how much his rent is going to increase. C．He's already planning to enter next year's essay contest. D．He has already paid his landlord for next year's rent.

M: It's coming along. But I've been staring at the computer screen for hours and my eyes hurt. W: Yeah Typing the words on the screen really make your eyes dry and tired. You should take a break. M: I can't. The deadline is approaching. W: You know, I read about computers and eye problems recently. The article says that they are usually caused by not blinking your eyes enough. M: Blinking？ I thought I just needed new glasses. W: when you blink, the movement of closing and opening your eyes, even though it happens really fast relaxes your eyes. M: That makes sense. W: People using computer tends to stare at the screen and blink less often than they normally would. M: That is what I am doing. And I am suffering from the dry eyes. W: That is one of the typical symptoms. M: But what does it have to do with the computer？ W: The article I read about the office workers found that the workers averagely blink 22 times a minute when relaxed But just 7 times a minute while looking at the text on a computer screen. M: Wow That's quite a difference. W: Yeah. So you need to blink your eyes and take a break from the computer M: I wonder if using some kind of eye-drops will make me feel better. W: That might help.But the best prescription is to take a break and rest your eyes M: Ok. Let's go get some coffee. I can finish this later tonight. (23) A．Something goes wrong with his computer. B．He can not finish the documents in time. C．The computer screen is hurting his eyes. D．He can not understand the article.

听力原文： The Coast Guard does what its name says; it guards the coasts of the United States. During a war, the Coast Guard becomes part of the United States Navy, and helps to protect against enemy attacks. In times of peace, however, The Coast Guard is part of the United States Department of Transportation. It has responsibility for many different duties. The Coast Guard can be found at many large lakes in America, as well as in coastal waters. It enforces laws controlling navigation, shipping, immigration, and fishing. It enforces other laws that affect the thousands of privately-owned boats in the United States. Coast Guard planes, boats and helicopters search for missing boats and rescue people in dangerous situations. Last year, Coast Guards men saved the lives of almost 7,000 people. The Coast Guard does scientific research on the ocean. It also uses ice-breaking boats to clear ice from rivers or lakes, so boats can travel safely. One of The Coast Guard's most important duties now is helping to keep illegal drugs out of the United States. Coast Guard boats, armed with guns, use radios and radar to find boats that may be carrying drugs. They stop the boats suspected of carrying drugs and search them, They seize the drugs and arrest the people on the boats. Last year, Coast Guardsman seized more than 800,000 kilo grams of marijuana and cocaine. And-they arrested more than 700 persons trying to bring illegal drugs into the United States. This kind of action is exiting. Most of the time, however, Coast Guardsman say they see nothing more exciting than the ocean. (33) A．Guarding the coasts of the United States. B．Being part of the United States Navy. C．Guiding people along the coast. D．Protecting people from army attack.

M: Well; Mr. Smith seems to be the wrong person to head that department. One more wrong step and he will be removed from that office. Q: What can we learn from the conversation？ (16) A．Mr. Smith will be replaced if he makes another mistake. B．Mr. Smith is an admirable chief of the Asian department. C．Mr. Smith's department is more successful than ail the others. D．Mr. Smith is seldom in his office.

What did the chairman do at the meeting？ A．He asked the board to prepare a development plan. B．He wanted the board to discuss the outline. C．He described what the company would do in the years to come.

(24) A．This book is worth 30 dollars now. B．I'm surprised to find this book cost 10 dollars last year. C．It will cost you three dollars to get this book this year. D．This book is 10 dollars each if you buy three.

M: You have a lot of nerve asking me to lend you money after acting as if you didn't even know me at the reception last night. Q: How did Ron respond？ (18) A．He was interested in the woman's request. B．He was nervous about lending the woman money. C．He was offended by the woman's inconsistency. D．He acted as if he didn't know the woman.

(24) A．I paid 4 dollars for the shrimp. B．I paid 6 dollars for the shrimp. C．I paid 8 dollars for the shrimp. D．I paid 12 dollars for the shrimp.

听力原文： Technicians are making the last-minute preparations for the launch of the U. S. space shuttle Discovery on a flight to the International Space Station. Flight officials with the space agency NASA are aware of storm clouds near the Atlantic coast launch site in Florida, which could postpone the launch. This is the second shuttle flight since Columbia disintegrated on reentry three years ago, killing all seven astronauts on board. Since then NASA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to correct design flaw that caused a piece of foam insulation to break off from the fuel tank and puncture Columbia's wing. NASA is launching Discovery despite objections by the space agency's chief safety officer and chief engineer. They say the problems with the foam insulation have still not been resolved. Shuttle astronaut Steve Robinson says he is not worried. "The thing like this happened to every single flight and what's really great -- you remember how much we talked about culture change after Columbia. This is culture change. You are seeing it." The space agency's chief safety officer ______ NASA's plan to launch Discovery. A．vetoed B．sanctioned C．supported D．disapproved

W: I'm sorry, sir. I'm not allowed to give change without a purchase. If you go across the hall, you'll find a change machine in front of the jewelry store. Q: Where does the woman suggest that the man get change？ (16) A．At the call box. B．At the jewelry store. C．From a machine. D．From the purchaser.

听力原文： For the second consecutive summer, the community center will-be offering American sign language and performing arts. The series of classes, seminars and workshops are de signed to develop special skills needed to use American sign language on the stage. Beginning and advanced students will learn acting and main techniques. The course last four weeks, credit is awarded by the state college upon completion of program. Classes are also offered for deaf children and adults. For more information on this program, please call 5553080. What's the main topic of the course？ A．How to teach arts and crafts to children and adults. B．How to perform. in front of a large audience. C．How to use sign language in the theater.

听力原文： The climate of the west coast is the most moderate in Canada. Summers are coast and fairly dry and winters are mild, cloudy and wet. Even in mid-winter, average temperatures are usually above freezing. The central plain from the Rocky Mountains to Great Lakes is characterized by cold winters, short but hat summers, and light snow and rain.The large water-surfaces of Central and Eastern Canada produce considerable modification in the climate. Southern Ontario and Quebec experience cold, damp winters and hot, humid summers. Most of Atlantic Canada has a humid climate owing to its marine character. Nevertheless, it experiences weather systems arriving from the dry continental interior as well as from the sea. The combined influence of these systems creates some of the most variable day-to-day weather conditions to be encountered anywhere in Canada. The north-central part of Canada is usually snow-covered for more than half of the year, with a frost flee period of barely two months. Rain is relatively light. Further north, on the islands along the Arctic coast and round Hudson Bay, the land is always frozen. Average temperatures stay above freezing for only a few weeks of the year. The Arctic Islands and the northern border of the mainland do not have a summer season of the kind known in Southern Canada. (33) A．The Arctic coast. B．The west coast. C．The east coast. D．The central plain.

(30) A．The figure on the check exceeds the balance in the bank account, so it's worthless. B．If you cash the check in the amount of 15;000, we can do that for you. C．You have plenty of money in your bank account, so we'll cash your check right now. D．Your check can still be cashed if you deposit another 50,000 dollars now.

听力原文： By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861- 1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox -- a precursor of the modem refrigerator, had been invented. Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The common sense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox. But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool. Which of the following led to the growth of ice trade according to the passage？ A．The growth of the American population. B．The expansion of cities. C．The change of the diet of ordinary citizens. D．The increasing need for food.

听力原文： Lecturer: In the last lecture, we looked at the adverse effects of desert dust on global climate. Today we're going to examine more closely what causes dust storms and what other effects they can have. As you know, dust storms have always been a feature of desert climates, but what we want to focus on today is the extent to which human activity is causing them. And it is this trend that I want to look at, because it has wide-ranging implications. So, what are these human activities？ Well, there are two main types that affect the wind erosion process, and thus the frequency of dust storms. There are activities that break up naturally wind-resistant surfaces such as off-road vehicle use and construction and there are those that remove protective vegetation cover from soils, for example, mainly farming and drainage. In many cases the two effects occur simultaneously which adds to the problem. Let's look at some real examples and see what I'm talking about. Perhaps the best-known example of agricultural impact on desert dust is the creation of the USA's 'dust bowl' in the 1930s. The dramatic rise in the number of dust storms during the latter part of that decade was the result of farmers' mismanaging their land. In fact, choking dust storms became so commonplace that the decade became known as the 'Dirty Thirties'. Researchers observed a similar, but more prolonged, increase in dustiness in West Africa between the 1960s and the 1980s when the frequency of the storms rose to 80 a year and the dust was so thick that visibility was reduced to 1,000 metres. This was a hazard to pilots and road users. In places like Arizona, the most dangerous dust clouds are those generated by dry thunderstorms. Here, this type of storm is so common that the problem inspired officials to develop an alert system to warn people of oncoming thunderstorms. When this dust is deposited it causes all sorts of problems for machine operators. It can penetrate the smallest nooks and crannies and play havoc with the way things operate because most of the dust is made up of quartz which is very hard. Another example - the concentration of dust originating from the Sahara has risen steadily since the mid-1960s. This increase in wind erosion has coincided with a prolonged drought, which has gripped the Sahara's southern fringe. Drought is commonly associated with an increase in dust-raising activity but it's actually caused by low rainfall which results in vegetation dying off. One of the foremost examples of modern human-induced environmental degradation is the drying up of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Its ecological demise dates from the 1950s when intensive irrigation began in the then Central Asian republics of the USSR. This produced a dramatic decline in the volume of water entering the sea from its two major tributaries. In 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake in the world, but since that time it has lost two-thirds of its volume, its surface area has halved and its water level has dropped by more than 216 metres. A knock-on effect of this ecological disaster has been the release of significant new sources of wind-blown material, as the water level has dropped. And the problems don't stop there. The salinity of the lake has increased so that it is now virtually the same as sea water. This means that the material that is blown from the dry bed of the Aral Sea is highly saline. Scientists believe it is adversely affecting crops around the sea because salts are toxic to plants. This shows that dust storms have numerous consequences beyond their effects on climate, both for the workings of environmental systems and for people living in drylands ... SECTION 4 Questions 31-40 Questions 31-32 Complete the notes using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer Main focus of lecture: the impact of 【31】______ on the occurrence of dust st

A．Yes, please B．Here you are C．Be careful．

听力原文： The main policy-making bodies of the EU are the Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. The Commission has 17 members appointed by EU countries for four-year terms. It is an executive body with the right of proposing initiatives to the Council of Ministers. This Council is made up of the foreign ministers from the member nations. Although the Commission represents community interests, the Council represents the national interests of the members. Members of the Council rotate the presidency with each holding the office for six-month terms. The European Parliament had 626 members in 1995. The representatives are elected by citizens of member nations. The number of representatives differs according to the size of each country. Germany for example, has 99 representatives, while Luxembourg has six. When the Parliament meets, the representatives sit in political groups, not by nation. Some of the political groups are: the Socialists, the European People's party (or Christian Democrats), the Liberal Democratic and Reform. Group, the European Democrats, and the Greens (an environmental group). Other EU institutions are the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee, and the European Investment Bank. The Court of Justice, founded in 1958, reviews the legality of acts of the Commission and Council. The Court of Auditors, founded in 1977, monitors the revenues and expenditures of the EU. Since 1958 the Economic and Social Committee has revised the Commission and the Council on general economic policy. The Committee has 189 members representing employers, labor unions, farmers, professions, consumers, and small businesses. The European Investment Bank, founded in 1958, is an independent public institution that oversees long-term investment. Whose interests does the Council of Ministers represent？ A．The community interests. B．The interests of the foreign ministers from the member nations. C．The interests of the Council members. D．The national interests of the members.

Israel suspended fuel supplies to those areas in the wake of the suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis a week ago. The government lifted the ban on Wednesday. Now, the Israeli company that is the sole supplier of fuel to the Palestinians says it may be forced to stop pumping oil to those areas because of Israel's refusal to pay for the fuel with tax money collected on behalf of the Palestinians under the interim peace deals. The Israeli Company, Dor Energy, said the Israeli government had canceled an earlier arrangement to pay the company for fuel out of the taxes collected. Israel stopped transferring customs and tax funds to the Palestinian Authority shortly after the current conflict began last September in order to keep the Palestinians from using the money to support the uprising against Israel. What caused the death of 20 Israelis a week ago？ A．Battle between Israel and Palestine. B．A suicide bombing. C．A car bombing. D．A plane crashing accident.

W: Yes, we can convert your leftover RMB back into foreign money. Q: How much RMB yuan does the customer want to exchange for US dollars？ (19) A．700 yuan. B．600 yuan. C．650 yuan. D．750 yuan.

(5) A．The paying bank sends the check to the remitting bank for repayment. B．The remitting bank sends the check to the paying bank for repayment. C．The collecting bank sends the check to the remitting bank for repayment. D．The remitting bank sends the check to the collecting bank for repayment.

How many hijackers are involved in the news？ A．18. B．2. C．8. D．1.

Which of the countries mentioned contributed a lot to maintain the flow of usable water in the passage？ A．Saudi Arabia, Israel B．Jordan, Syria C．Saudi Arabia, Kuwait D．Lebanon, the Palestinian territories

听力原文： Britain has finally won a medal at the athletics World Championships in Helsinki. The UK team came in third in the men's 4×100 metres relay to take a bronze medal. France came first and Trinidad & Tobago won silver. Britain's Jason Gardener, Marion Devonish, Mark Lewis-Francis and Christian Malcolm had been hoping for a gold after the U.S. team crashed out. The defending champions had failed to qualify after Mardy Scales and Leonard Scott made a mess of the first changeover. Britain's failure until now to win a single medal has been a major embarrassment for UK athletics. Which country won the goal medal in the men's 4×100 metres relay？ A．Britain. B．France. C．Trinidad & Tobago. D．The United States.

听力原文： The traditional American Thanksgiving Day celebration goes back to 1621. In that year a special feast was prepared in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The colonists who had settled there had left England because they felt denied of religious freedom. They came to the new land and faced difficulties in coming across the ocean. The ship which carried them was called the Mayflower. The North Atlantic was difficult to travel. There were bad storms. They were assisted in learning to live in the new land by the Indians who in habited the region. The Puritans, as they were called, had much to be thankful for. Their religious practices were no longer a source of criticism by the government. They learned to adjust their fanning habits to the climate and soil. When they selected the fourth Thursday of November for their Thanksgiving celebration, they invited their neighbors, the Indians, to join them in dinner and a prayer of gratitude for the new life. They recalled the group of 102 men, women, and children who left England. They remembered their dead who did not live to see the shores of Massachusetts. They reflected on the 65 days' journey which tested their strength. What is the best title for this passage？ A．First Settlers in Plymouth. B．Puritans and Indians. C．Mayflower. D．American Thanksgiving Day.