听力原文： The old house-allotting policy had at least two disadvantages. First, the government spent a lot of money building some houses, but these houses were allotted to people free of charge. Thus. the government would have no money to build more houses for people who badly needed them. Second, the persons who were in power could get more houses than those who were powerless. This was quite unfair. On the contrary, the new system of house allotment may bring about many new things. For example, the government will have more money which can be used in house construction. So, the housing industry can develop more quickly. Besides, because houses will be sold to people, the chances they get will be equal.

M: It might be time to invest in a more recent model. Q: What does the man mean？ (14) A．The woman should buy a famous brand. B．The washing machine should have worked longer. C．The woman should consider buying a new one. D．The washing machine was not a good investment.

W: You'll never be able to get spare parts for it. It might be time to invest in a more recent model. Q: What can be inferred from the conversation about the washing machine？ (16) A．It should have lasted longer. B．The man should buy new parts for it. C．The man should consider buying a new one. D．It wasn't a good investment.

M: Yes. Good for him. W: I don't think it is a good idea for Mr. Smith. M: Why not？ W: Because he is old. In my country, when a person is 80, he is supposed to stay at home and be taken care of M: Really？ I think Mr. Smith can do whatever he wants as long as he knows how to do it well and he is sure be is safe. W: I agree with you there. (20) A．To join in the sport games B．To have a parachute jump C．To travel around the world D．To practicing diving

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.

M: Well, of course it is an increasingly serious problem, I mean a fairly large part of the old population becomes confined to the house. They cannot go out, because they don't want to trouble others, thus little by little they become a burden to the younger generation. Q: What are the speakers talking about？ (17) A．Population explosion. B．Generation Gap. C．Problem of the aged. D．Climate changes.

M: Not much．But then，the new ones aren't so great either. Q: What does the man mean？ (14) A．He no longer watches much television. B．He prefers comedies from the sixties. C．He thinks comedies haven't improved for years. D．He hasn't seen many of the old shows.

听力原文： An almost 100-year-old English textbook might be the earliest such book published in China, its owner, Mr. Wang, told reporters last week in Beijing. The 440-page textbook, entitled "English with Chinese Phonetics", was possibly published in 1904 or before, predating another early textbook, "English Words at Entrance Level", which was thought to be the earliest English textbook in China. Though almost a century old, with pages yellow with age, the various letter types listed in the book are still clearly recognizable, displaying the high standard of print quality at that time. As the title of the book suggests, the textbook uses Chinese characters to provide phonetic equivalent for English words, thus constituting a major drawback of this early school tutorial work, since there was no such a thing as standardized Mandarin at that time, the phonetics were arranged in line with the so-called "orthodox" Cantonese, resulting in misleading and what today seems a quite funny effect. Nevertheless, the book has been hailed as a "revolutionary guidebook inventing creative study methods for those ambitious people doing foreign businesses". The book was acquired by its present owner, Mr. Wang, quite by chance. In 1992, when he was living in Papua New Guinea, an old local Chinese, originally from Guangdong Province presented him the book as a gift. (33) A．In 1904. B．In 1905. C．In 1914. D．In 1915.

M: As far as the work efficiency is concerned, why not the typist？ Q: What does the man imply？ (19) A．They should find a new place for the old typewriter. B．They should find a new place for the typist, C．They should find a new typist. D．They should buy a new typewriter.

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.

M: Some of these books aren't so old, though. See？ This novel was published only six years ago. It cost seventy-five cents. W: Hey! Look at this! M: What？ Are you getting interested in nineteenth-century plays all of a sudden？ W: No. Look at the signature. Someone gave this book as a present, and wrote a note on the inside of the front cover. It's dated 1856. Maybe it's worth something. M: Everything on that shelf is worth fifty cents. W: But if this is the signature of someone who is well-known, it might bring a lot more. I hear William Shakespeare's signature is worth about a million dollars. M: Oh？ I can hardly read what the one says. Who wrote it？ W: The name looks like "Harold Dickinson". Wasn't he a politician or something？ I'm going to buy this book and see if I can find a name like that in the library. M: Good luck. Your book of plays may make you rich, but I'll bet my seventy-five cents novel is a better buy. Where is this conversation taking place？ A．In a classroom. B．In a library. C．At a secondhand bookstore. D．In a museum.

The speaker is mostly probably A．a school librarian. B．a museum director. C．a tourist guide. D．a famous historian.

When will the couple be married？ A．This July. B．Next June. C．This June. D．This Wednesday.

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.

M: I do have a lot of papers and magazines down on the basement. Volunteers used to come by these apartments regularly to collect waste paper. I still save it but people seldom ask for it nowadays and I' ve never gone over to the recycling center myself. W: That’s typical. A few years ago people were really enthusiastic about musing waste paper. Unfortunately, interest has been decreasing lately. Manufacturers now use waste paper for things, like paper bags, towels, napkins and boxes. But the demand is down. I think they need to find new commercial uses for recycled paper. M: I suppose things like greeting cards, calendars and writing paper could be made from it too. But recycled paper usually has a dingy color, doesn't it？ W: Well, it wouldn’t be suitable for art books or high-quality magazine paper. But who cares about the drab color if waste paper can take place of virgin wood pulp and so help to preserve forests. M: You are right. I'll bring my waste paper over to your apartment in a little while. Thanks for offering to take it. According to the speakers, what products are now made from recycled paper？ A．Paper towels, napkins, bags and boxes. B．Insulation for basements. C．Art books and other high-quality printed matter. D．Imitation wood.

听力原文： A twenty-one-year-old American named Philo Farnsworth built the first working television receiver in nineteen twenty-seven. Many scientists around the world had made important discoveries that led to the development of television. But Philo Farnsworth had recognized as a boy that electrons could capture a picture sent as light and sound waves through the air. Over the years, the technology has changed and improved. But the idea behind the television broadcast is still the same. TV stations send a powerful signal from a transmitting antenna. An antenna connected to a television set receives the signal. The problem with this system is that the receiver antenna has to be in line with the transmitting antenna. Mountains or tall buildings can interfere. One solution is cable television. This system began in the nineteen forties in Pennsylvania. Only a few television stations existed then, and they were in large cities. People in small towns could not receive the signals. So a store owner put an antenna on top of a pole and placed it on a nearby mountain. This antenna received the television signal. Wires led from the antenna to the store. The cable brought clear pictures to the television sets inside. Later, the idea of cable television spread to cities, to provide people with more stations to watch. Today, people can watch hundreds of stations. And another way to receive them is with a satellite dish antenna. A small round device of the size of a pizza can receive signals from satellites .high above the Earth. The antenna is connected to a special receiver which connects to the television set. Some broadcasts over satellite can be watched free of charge. But the others cost money, just like cable service. The passage mainly focuses on ______. A．the importance of TV B．the function of TV C．the production of TV D．the evolution of TV

(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.

听力原文： Michael Dell, the 39-year-old chairman and founder of Dell Computer, was at the top of the annual list of the "40 Richest Americans under the Age 40". His first business idea was to take apart an Apple computer in the bedroom of his parents' Houston, Texas home. From there, he went on selling computers out of his dorm room. He had developed a brand new approach to do business: sell computers directly to the consumers without going through retailers. And, in the process, he decided to design and deliver a computer based upon the customers' special needs. Prior to this there was absolutely no idea about make the PC special for each customer. In 1984, he founded the Dell Computer Corporation with US $1,000. Dell gave a short version of his success secrets at a conference in Texas. He said:" First of all, don't start a business just because everybody else is doing it or it looks like it's a way to make a lot of money. Start a business because you found something you really love doing and have a passion for. Start a business because you found something unique that you can do better than anyone else. And start a business because you really want to make a big contribution to society over a long period of time." (33) A．Between the age of 20 to 30. B．Between the age of 30 to 40. C．Between the age of 40 to 50. D．Between the age of 50 to 60.

听力原文：Interviewer: With us today is Steve Thomas, a 23 year-old chef who delights TV audiences with his imaginative cooking programme. Steve, what's the secret of your success？ Steve: Well, I think I'm different from other TV chefs in that I want people to see how I prepare a dish from the word go, so I don't present them with a dish that's half prepared already. If anything should go wrong during the programme, know, suppose something gets burned, well, that's part of the experience. When they try preparing it themselves, then they'll see the beauty of the finished product, but not on the screen. Interviewer: So how did you come to get your own TV series？ Steve: I was working in a restaurant called the Gala in December last year when they came to make a documentary about the place. I didn't even look at the camera.I was too busy making pasta and cooking fish. But the producer spotted me and the following week they phoned me to offer me a job... The Gala owner wished me all the best and let me go without a complaint. Interviewer: Wow!! Now, is it true that you come from a family of cooks？ Steve: Well, you could say that ... I started cooking at the age of eight. My mum and dad have a restaurant and Dad used to do all the cooking back then. My mum was too busy looking after us ... Dad insisted that if I wanted some money, I should work for it. And it seemed a lot more interesting to help out in the kitchen and see how things were made than to earn my money washing Dad's car ... Interviewer: You attended a catering course at college. How did you like that？ Steve: At school I wasn't very good at anything much. At that time, my mind wasn't on anything other than cooking. I found sitting in a classroom trying to pay attention to things very very trying. I managed to get to college though and there I was fine, because when it came to the actual cooking, I knew what I was doing. I realised that a bit of academic work didn't do you any harm either and I found it much easier when I was interested in the subject, and so I've no regrets, really. Interviewer: And now you have a TV programme and several cooks working under your orders. How do you get on with them？ Steve: Oh, I love working with them. But on my programme everyone has to be really special. They need to have gone through college training before they even apply for the job. I suppose the problem is that fairly frequently I tend to raise my voice if they don't work emciently ... but I'm just as likely to praise them if they do well ... What I say to them is, you want the audience to say we are the best, so we need to make a special effort ... Interviewer: Is there any chef celebrity that you admire especially？ Steve: I definitely think that Ron Bell is the best, and I'm pleased that he's now got his own food column in a newspaper. I had the great privilege of working with him for a while. What's so special about him is that he's always been enthusiastic about using ingredients that come from the area where he works ... For example the fish of the day would be the catch from the river close to his restaurant. He's been criticised for sticking to old-fashioned recipes, maybe that's a weakness, but I think that's his decision ... Interviewer: I heard that you are also going to write a book. Steve: Yes, I’m writing it at the moment. It may disappoint readers who expect a lot of glossy pictures, as most cookbooks nowadays seem to be things to look at rather than read ... I've gone for a style. that may be less attractive with fewer colour pictures but it will be more useful for most types of reader. What I say in my book is that we must remember the success of a meal does not depend on how it looks ... it's what it tastes like and the company of the friends you'll share it with that matters ... Interviewer: Well, thank you, Steve, I look forward to trying some rec A．the process of cooking. B．amusing incidents. C．attractively presented dishes.

(86)

Delegation chief Jean-David Levitte of France poke to reporters after talks with the president Friday in Kinshasa. He said Mr. Kabila impressed the 12-member U. N. team with his statements and his answers to their questions. Ambassador Levitte also said Mr. Kabila's decision Thursday to end a ban on political parties will help set up a national dialogue between Congolese political forces as called for in the Lusaka peace accords. Mr. Kabila became head of state in January, following the assassination of his father, then-President Laurent Kabila. Following the Kinshasa talks, the U. N. delegation left for Luanda for talks with Angolan President Jose Edu-ardo Dos Santos, who has given military backing to the Congolese government. Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi back the Congolese rebels while Namibia and Zimbabwe have joined Angola in supporting the Kinshasa government. On Thursday, the U. N. delegation was in South Africa for talks on the wars in Congo and Burundi. Who has taken steps to resolve the conflict？ A．U.N. Secretary Council Envoys. B．President Joseph Kabila. C．Jean-David Levitte. D．President Jose Eduardo Dos Santo.

It can be inferred from the statement that the Swedish social welfare system, which pro vides life-long care of its citizens, is no longer feasible and satisfactory. A．正确 B．错误

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.