填空听写二十篇-(Spot-Dictation).doc

填空听写二十篇 (Spot Dictation)

说明：本次听写练习题的难度在英语专业三级水平（相当于大学英语四级）。每篇填空听写练习的前7个空只填写一个单词，较为简单，主要考查词汇量和辩音能力，第8-10个空应填写完整的句子，主要为专四标准听写做准备，可以不必完全与原句一样，用自己的话写出语法正确符合原文意思的Major Points即可。填空听写训练是向专四标准听写过渡的重要阶段，这类习题可以在非英语专业的大学英语四级练习题中找到，建议训练几十篇后再进行难度较大的全文听写。
试题的语音及文字资料仅供课堂教学使用，请勿用于其他任何形式的转载和引用。

Passage 1

People have been working on the idea of the helicopters for more than four hundred years. About four hundred years ago, a man thought of a flying machine and (1) _____ a picture of it. It was like a helicopter in some ways. But the people of that time did not know about the (2) _____ of flying. So the man's idea (3) _____ a picture on a piece of paper for many years.
About one (4) _____ ago, some men made (5) _____ of flying machines and the first airplanes were born. Since then (6) _____ has been making (7) _____ progress.
In about 1930, some people made a big helicopter. (8) _____. Then some other people made another kind of helicopter, which carried only one man, but could fly for many hours.
Today there are many kinds of helicopters, big and small. (9) _____. People in some places cannot always drive their cars to the airport to board a plane. Some of them have helicopters of their own, though they are not always rich people. They fly to the airport in their helicopter, get on a plane, and take off again.
(10) _____. Then people will go to work in their own helicopters just as they do in their cars today. Indeed, the helicopter is a great achievement of science.

Passage 2

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on (1) _____ 15, 1929. He was a black (2) _____, who devoted himself (3) _____ to the struggle for equal rights for the black people and an end to segregation in the South of the United States. In (4) _____, he organized a black boycott of the city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The black people there had (5) _____ that they would no longer ride in segregated buses. Led by King, they (6) _____ to the courts for support of their effort. The boycott against segregation lasted 381 days, and ended in (7) _____ the next year.
In the spring of 1963, he began to organize a march to Washington to persuade the U.S. government to back a mass Civil Rights Movement for black people. (8) _____. From all over the country, citizens came to "march on Washington" in support of civil rights legislation. It was then that King delivered the most impressive speech of his career. (9) _____.
In 1964, at the age of only 35, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (10) _____.

Passage 3

One of the (1) _____ of large modern cities is the number of big department stores, most of which are to be found in or near the (2) _____ area. They're vast buildings many stories high, where you can buy almost anything you need, from a box of toothpicks to a suite of (3) _____. Most of them are very modern and are equipped with (4) _____ elevators and escalators, and have (5) _____ lighting, air-conditioning and ventilation. You can spend hours (6) _____ around in one of these department stores, and you will probably lose your way while you are doing so, in spite of the many (7) _____ pointing the way to the elevators and exits.
If you have been in one of these stores so long that you feel hungry, you and your family will not need to leave the building, for nearly all the big stores have cafes, snack bars or restaurants in them. (8) _____, though occasionally an assistant may ask you whether he or she can be of help to you.
Another feature of Shanghai's shopping life is the chain-store, in which prices are lower than in the big store, and a wide variety of goods are offered — chiefly foodstuffs, household goods, clothing and stationery. (9) _____, in spite of the vigilance of the store security guards.
A lot of the food stores in Shanghai now operate on the "serve yourself" system: (10) _____. At the exit there are a number of counters where you pay for all your purchases together.

Passage 4

In the United States the cost of living has been (1) _____ rising for the past few (2) _____. Food prices, clothing costs, housing (3) _____, and tuition fees are constantly getting higher and higher. Partly because of (4) _____ need, and partly because of (5) _____ choices for personal fulfillment, mothers have been leaving the (6) _____ role of full-time homemaker. Increasingly they have been taking (7) _____ jobs outside the home.
Making such a significant role change affects the entire family, especially the children. Some consequences are obvious. For example, dinnertime is at a later hour. (8)_____. They suppress their guilt since they believe that their work will benefit everyone in the long run. The income will enable the family to save for college tuition, take an extended vacation, buy a new car, and so on.
The emotional impact on the children can be significant. (9) _____. They might need assistance with their homework or want to share the day's activities. (10) _____. Their priority is making the evening meal for the family, not engaging in relaxed conversation.

Passage 5

If you break your arm or leg, the doctor will (1) _____ send you to a hospital to have an X-ray photograph taken to find out just where the break is and what kind of break it is. If a small child (2) _____ a coin or some other hard (3) _____, as sometimes happens, the doctor will take an X-ray photograph of the child's (4) _____. Every hospital has an X-ray (5) _____, and doctors now depend on these photographs to find out if there is anything wrong with the (6) _____, for example, which can not be seen from outside the body.
X-rays were first discovered by a German scientist, Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen, in 1895, almost by (7) _____.
He and other scientists were experimenting with passing electric currents through certain gases in a special glass tube. (8) _____. This aroused Rontgen's curiosity. The next thing he found out was that if he put his hand between the rays and a photographic plate, the rays would print a shadow of the bony framework of his hand on the plate. (9) _____.
When Rontgen wrote an account of what he had discovered, (10) _____. Other scientists called them Rontgen rays in honor of the man who first found them, but X-ray is the name now commonly used.

Passage 6

Atoms are the building blocks of our world — (1) _____ units that make up everything around us. In the same way that wheels, bands, (2) _____, and pins fit together to make a clock or a toy, atoms of (3) _____ kinds fit together to form the (4) _____ around us.
At one time or another, almost everyone has taken apart a toy or a clock to see what makes it work. The result is simply a (5) _____ of parts. Some people can (6) _____ out how to put the parts together again, to rebuild the toy or clock. And a few people can even work out ways to make (7) _____ new devices out of the toy or clock parts.
Modern scientists have learned to do very much the same kind of thing with matter. (8) _____. Air, water, rock, and even people are composed of matter. (9) _____. A molecule is the smallest piece that keeps the characteristics of the original substance. For instance, a sugar molecule is the smallest piece that is still like sugar. (10) _____. These are atoms. From this example, we can see why atoms are called the building blocks of matter. All the kinds of matter in the world are made from only about 100 different kinds of atoms.

Passage 7

Since the (1) _____ of history, men have gathered information and have (2) _____ to pass it on to other men. The (3) _____ of word-pictures on the walls of (4) _____ caves as well as hieroglyphics on stone tablets (5) _____ some of man's earliest efforts to (6) _____ information. Evidently, these efforts were very simple and (7) _____.
But as civilizations grew more complex, better methods of communication were needed. The written word, carrier pigeons, the telegraph and many other devices carried ideas faster and faster from man to man but still not fast enough to satisfy ever-growing needs. (8) _____. With the invention and development of computers, it is as if man has suddenly come upon Aladin's magic lamp.
(9) _____. For this reason, computers can be defined as devices which accept information, perform mathematical or logical operations with the input information, and then supply the results of these operations as new information.
(10) _____. However, although computers can replace men in dull, routine tasks, they only work according to the instructions given them, in other words, they have to be programmed. Their achievements are not very spectacular when compared to what the minds of men can do.

Passage 8

Canada has the largest (1) _____ area in the world after the (2) _____ U.S. S. R., but it is rather (3) _____ populated. Most (4) _____ live in the south, within about 500 kilometers of the (5) _____ with the U.S.A.
The far north of Canada lies within the Arctic (6) _____, where the winters are long and (7) _____ cold. Eskimos live in the Arctic, a region where it is too cold even for trees to grow. South of that region is a vast area with many forests and lakes.

The more populated part of southern Canada stretches about 5 000 kilometers from east to west. Here are found valuable forests, rich deposits of minerals, and various manufacturing industries. (8) _____.
To the east of the Rockies are vast grasslands, called prairies, where cattle are reared and a large amount of wheat is grown. Coal and oil also come from this area. In south-eastern Canada is the important lowland region around the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. (9) _____. And this is where Canada's two largest cities, Toronto and Montreal, as well as the capital, Ottawa, are located.
English and French are the official languages. (10) _____. The country is divided into ten provinces and two thinly populated territories. It has a central government, with a parliament, headed by a prime minister.

Passage 9

Everybody knows that the car is a (1) _____ machine. The experts (2) _____ that cars of the future will be made of (3) _____ and carbon fibers that will be much stronger than steel and much lighter in weight. Even the (4) _____ will be made of these materials.
Cars of the future will be smaller and lighter but their designs will probably be (5) _____ to those of the latest (6) _____ of the modern sports cars. There will probably not be any (7) _____ design changes for a long time.
The real frontier for cars of the future lies not in body design but with computer activation. Cars may someday actually drive themselves. (8) _____. Everyone in the car would be able to relax, even take a nap, as the car speeds along at hundreds of kilometers per hour. (9) _____. Changes of destination along the way could be made from a computer in the car to a central computer controlling and regulating the traffic.
(10)_____, perhaps, even as early as the early 21st century — which would make it in your lifetime.

Passage 10

Do you have (1) _____ sleeping at night? Then, maybe, this is for you:
When you worry about not being able to sleep and (2) _____ around, trying to find a (3) _____ position, you're probably only making matters (4) _____. What happens is that your heart rate actually (5) _____, making it more difficult to (6) _____. You may also have some bad habits that contribute to the problem. Do you rest (7) _____ during the day? Do you get almost no exercise or do you exercise strenuously late in the day? Do you think about sleep a lot or sleep late on the weekend?
Any of all these factors might be leading to your insomnia by disrupting your body's natural rhythm. What should you do then on those sleepless night? Don't bother with sleeping pills. (8) _____. The best thing to do is to drink some milk or eat some cheese or tuna fish. (9) _____. This will enable you to relax and you'll be on the way to get a good night's sleep. (10) _____. Think about this: when the morning comes, everything will be all right again.

Passage 11

Education is (1) _____ in Australia. Children begin school when they are 6 and stay until they are at least 15. Children in Tasmania must stay in school until they are 16. Most children start in (2) _____ classes at the age of 5. There are (3) _____, or "state" schools in all (4) _____ parts of the country, but pupils who live in the (5) _____ outback take (6) _____ courses and listen to radio classes. Australia also has many (7) _____ or "independent" school. One child in four attends an independent school. As in England, the leading private schools are called public schools. (8) _____. The school year, which begins in late January or early February, ends in mid-December. This time of the year is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Christmas vacation is the time for taking long trips and for going to summer camps.
(9) _____. Games are taught as part of physical education classes. The boys play cricket in summer and Australian Rules football, soccer, and rugby in winter. The girls play basketball throughout the year. (10) _____.

Passage 12

Indians in the United States are faced with (1) _____ problems. Many Indians still live on reservations, in squalid shacks that don't even have indoor (2) _____. The water there is often so (3) _____ that it is not fit for drinking. Mechanization has (4) _____ eliminated many of the ranching and (5) _____ jobs formerly (6) _____ to the Indians, and few (7) _____ have been set up on the reservations.
In any case, most native Americans have had only very little schooling and remain untrained for skilled jobs. (8) _____. As groups of people with their own languages and cultures, each tribe wants to keep up its traditions and preserve some of its native customs. The adults want their children to be proud of being Indians, as well as to survive in the modern world. (9) _____. Like everyone else, they are anxious to get a good education and a good job. However, they have little prospect for success and become very frustrated because they usually can only go to inferior schools and often find it impossible to adjust to present-day life. (10) _____. The most important problem American Indians have to tackle, many experts believe, is the restoring of their pride and self-confidence. And this is to be first and foremost if they are to change their destiny.

Passage 13

Most Americans have great (1) _____ and (2) _____. They prefer to discipline themselves rather than be disciplined by others. They pride themselves on their (3) _____, their right to make up their own minds. They are prepared to take the (4) _____, even when there is a risk in doing so. They have (5) _____ and do not give in easily. They will take any sort of job anywhere rather than be (6) _____. They do not care to be looked af