TOEFLJunior听力试题样本.doc

TOEFL Junior
Listening comprehension
We’ve been discussing the many benefits of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and the age of technology that followed it. Well, technology has certainly made life easier, but at what cost?
Excuse me, Ms. Hampton. Do you mean that there could be something bad about technology? I don’t see how that can be?
Well, let’s look at it this way. Before all the advances in technology , most people made their living through some sort of manual labor. Back then, walking was the primary means of transportation for short distances.. People walked most of the time to get from place to place on a daily basis. And when they did the laundry, they used their hands to scrub and writing the clothes. When they wanted to go upstairs, they had to climb them: when they wanted to clean a carpet, they had to beat it. And that’s not all: they even churned their own butter and milked their own cows.
Yes,but then came cars,washing machines,vacuum cleaners..all the things that made life a lot easier for everyone. Machines can now do all of the those things that made life so hard for people in the past.
Exactly! And there in lies the problem. All of today’s modern conveniences have decreased the need of physical activity. So people’s lifestyles have changed--we’ve become more sedentary, a lot less active. The things is , before 1900--before the Industrial Revolution--very few people suffered from many of the diseases that are common today. So if you think about it, the age of technology has made people more prone to disease.
Why is this?
Well, physical activity is very important to keep healthy. If we don’t have enough of it , our bodies will not function properly. But since we can’t go back to doing things as people used to do before the arrival of technology, we have to make a point of exercising regularly to maintain a healthy body.
1. What are the teacher and student mainly talking about?
A. Kinds of transportation
B. Disadvantages of technology
C. Jobs during the Industrial Revolution
D. Inventions in the United States after the Industrial Revolution
2. According to the teacher,how did people usually get around day to day before the Industrial Revolution?
A. By walking
B. By riding a horse
C. By using a bicycle
D. By riding in a carriage
3. What does the teacher use milking cows and churning butter as examples of ?
A. Tasks that required new technology
B. Activities still done on farms today
C. Jobs related to the food industry
D. Hard work people used to do
4. According to the teacher, why are people more prone to diseases today?
A. They eat too much processed food.
B. They are exposed to more germs than people were exposed to in the past.
C. They engage in little physical activity
D. They are unaware of the latest medical technology.