书城外语2016新题型大学英语四级听力突破
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第8章 新增题型短篇新闻专项突破(3)

News Item 15

答案:CD

原文:More than 100000 international students will spend this summer working and traveling in the United States.They are participating in the Summer Work Travel program through the State Department.They receive J-1 exchange visitor visas.The idea is for students to work for up to three months and earn enough money to then spend a month traveling before they return home.The Exchange Visitor Program,aims to increase global understanding through educational and cultural exchanges.The Summer Work Travel program has existed for years.This year there are some changes.The State Department recently amended the employment rules.The State Department has now banned the use of Summer Work Travel students in warehouses or packaging plants.Also,the majority of their work hours cannot fall between ten at night and six in the morning.More jobs will be banned in the fall.These include most construction,manufacturing and food processing jobs.Summer Work Travel students will also not be allowed to work in most mining and agricultural jobs.The State Department's changes will help return the program to its original purpose as a cultural exchange program.

1.What is the aim of the program for the student?

2.Which of the following is not included in the new employment rule?

News Item 16

答案:BD

原文:Do you think getting cold can give you a cold?Is it bad to drink milk when you have a cold?Can chicken soup cure a cold?

Ranit Mishori is a family medicine doctor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington.She says colds are more common in winter,but not because of low temperatures.The cold weather just means people stay inside more.

Adults generally get two to three colds a year.Children are likely to catch four or five.Dr.Mishori says some people mistakenly believe they can become resistant to colds.

There is still no cure for the common cold.But Dr.Mishori says there are ways to feel better sooner.She says honey can also help.

Dr.Mishori says honey seems to be especially effective in children with colds.But the Agriculture Department says never to feed honey to babies less than one year old.

1.Why do people catch a cold?

2.What can we learn from the news?

News Item 17

答案:CB

原文:Automatic faucets use an electronic sensor to start and stop the flow of water when people wash their hands.These faucets save a lot of water,which is one reason they are found in busy public bathrooms.Another reason is because of concerns about the spread of infection by people touching the handles on traditional faucets.

Hospitals started using automatic faucets about ten years ago.But a new study at one hospital finds that these devices may not always be worth the savings in water use.

Researchers took apart twenty automatic faucets at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore,Maryland.They found that half contained Legionella bacteria,compared to fifteen percent of manual faucets.

Healthy people rarely get sick from the bacteria.So the study should not concern most users of automatic faucets in public bathrooms.But Legionella bacteria can cause a form of pneumonia in people with weakened immune systems.

1.What is the advantage of the automatic faucets?

2.What can we learn from the news?

News Item 18

答案:BC

原文:All things are little stormy upon the sun right now.There isn't any rain or thunder there.To solar storm,that involves geomagnetic particles and the sun doesn't always keep those to itself.There were two solar flares earlier this week and they sent those geomagnetic particles toward earth.It takes light about eight minutes to travel the 92 million miles from the sun to the earth.The material from these flares got here about 23 hours,so it was moving at four million miles per hour.Those solar storms can sometimes cause problems for power grids here for GPS.Scientists say that doesn't seem to be happening right now.

Most Americans will be seeing more of the sun and maybe a little less sleep.Daylight saving time starts this Sunday,when we move our clocks ahead one hour will move them back again one hour on November 4th.The idea is to reduce the amount of electricity that's used by extending daylight hours.Ben Franklin came up with daylight saving time in the seventeen hundreds.It was used for the first time in Great Britain during World War One.US states don't have to take part in daylight saving,some of they don't,but around seventy countries,do move clocks forwards in the spring.

1.What problem can sometimes be caused by the solar storms?

2.What's the purpose for using daylight saving time?

News Item 19

答案:AB

原文:Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has reached the worst level recorded in years.Official measures of air quality have far exceeded the point at which children and elderly people are advised to remain indoors.For days now a heavy smog has smothered Beijing.By Saturday afternoon,it was so thick people could see just a few hundred meters in the city center.Tower blocks vanished into the grayness.The air tastes of coal dust and vehicle fumes,two of Beijing's main sources of pollution.Even indoors the air looked hazy.World Health Organization guidelines say average concentrations of the tinniest pollution particles should be no more than 25mg/m3.In Beijing,the pollution there was over 400 by the city's official readings and more than 800 according to a US embassy monitoring center.

1.What is the main source of the pollution in Beijing?

2.According to the city's official readings,to what extent is the pollution in Beijing?

News Item 20

答案:BD

原文:Scientists say a huge percentage of bird species are in danger because their habitats,or homelands,are disappearing.Traditional migration paths take birds through countries that are not protecting locations to stop,rest and feed.The scientists studied the migration,or flight,paths,of almost 1500 species.They decided that 91 percent of them passed through dangerous areas.The major danger for migratory birds is development.Building and paving has covered over nature where birds stop and feed as they move from one part of the world to another.One of the scientists who worked on the study says"many of these critical sites have been lost to land reclamation owing to urban,industrial and agricultural expansion."The problem,according to investigators,is that many of these small birds die along their migration because they don't have a safe place to eat and rest.There is no place to restore their energy for the next leg of their journey.

1.Why is a huge percentage of bird species in danger?

2.Why do some small birds die along their migration?

News Item 21

答案:AC

原文:An international group of scientists has established the complete genetic blueprint of the gorilla,one of mankind's closest relatives.The researchers found that 15%of the human genome is closer to that of gorillas than it is to chimpanzees-our closest relative of all.Our science correspondent Pallab Ghosh has more.

"Initial studies of the gorilla genome have shown that our species separated from gorillas 10 million years ago,much earlier than some scientists thought.Another discovery is that something in their genes prevents gorillas from suffering from dementia-a finding that researchers could study further to help them find a cure for senility.But the ultimate prize for the research community is to discover just what it is that makes us uniquely human."

1.Which of the following did the researchers find?

2.What is the ultimate prize for the research community?

News Item 22

答案:BC

原文:A controversial art historian,Maurizio Seracini,says he's on the trail of a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci,The Battle of Anghiari.Professor Seracini says samples from a hidden wall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence contain traces of paint that was only used by the Renaissance master.The work is hidden behind another masterpiece of the period by Giorgio Vasari.The discovery has been hailed by Terry Garcia of the US National Geographic Society,which sponsored the research.

"I'm quite convinced that something has been found,and yes,it is a very historic day.And you know,I mean,this is a combination of a number of factors:one,as Doctor Seracini pointed out,there is overwhelming historical documentation that indicates that the Leonardo was painted,that it was behind the wall and that it was in existence at the time that Vasari painted his fresco."

1.Where are the samples found?

2.Why does finding the samples make it a very historic day?