2023年冲击波专四听写合集.doc

Passage 1 Professor Bumble
Professor Bumble is not only absent-minded but short-sighted as well. /His mind is always busy with learned thoughts and he seldom notices what is going on around him./
On a fine day recently he went for a walk in the countryside. /But as always he read the book as he walked. /He hadn't gone far when he ran into a large cow and fell down./ He had lost his spectacles in the fall, and he thought he had stumbled over a fat lady. /"I beg your pardon, madam," he said politely before searching for his glasses./ As soon as he had put the glasses on，he realized his mistake./
Soon he was concentrating on his book again and paying no attention to anything else./ He had scarcely been walking for five minutes when he fell over again,/ losing both his book and his glasses. /This time he became very angry./ Seizing his umbrellas, he struck the "cow" in anger. /Then, after finding his glasses, he realized with horror that he had made a second mistake. /A large fat woman was running away from him in terror./
Passage 2 Teamwork
Teamwork is just as important in science/ as it is on the playing field or in the gym./ Scientific investigations are almost always carried out by teams of people working together./ Ideas are shared, experiments are designed, data are analyzed, /and results are evaluated and shared with other investigators./ Group work is necessary and is usually more productive than working alone./
Several times throughout the year you may be asked to work with one or more of your classmates. /Whatever the task your group is assigned, /a few rules need to be followed to ensure a productive and successful experience/
What comes first is to keep an open mind/because everyone's ideas deserve consideration /and each group member can make his or her own contribution./ Secondly, it makes a job easier to divide the group task among all group members./ Thirdly, always work together, take turns, and encourage each other by listening, clarifying and trusting one another. /Mutual support and trust often make a great difference. /
Passage 3 Mistakes Are Good Teachers
After the birth of my second child, I got a job at a restaurant. Having worked with an experienced waitress for a few days, I was allowed to wait tables on my own. When Saturday night came, I was luckily given the tables not far from the kitchen. However, I still felt a little hard to carry the heavy trays. So I moved slowly, minding every step. I remember how happy I was when I saw the tray standing next the tables. It looked different from the one I was trained on. It had nice handles which made it easier to move around. I was pleased with everything and began to believe I was a natural at this job. Then, an old man came to me and said that was his wife’s walker. I stood frozen as ice, but my face was on fire. Since then, I have learned to be more careful and not to be too sure of myself.
Passage 4 Time Has the Power to Change Attitude
Last week, my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home.
My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and family but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him; as a school girl and young adult, I feared him and felt bitter about him.
On the first day of my visit, we did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son’s funny facial expressions. Gone was my father’s critical air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around?
The next day, my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closet to him at that moment. After so many years, I’m at last seeing another side of my father.
Passage 5 Experiences Speak
There are many different ways of seeing a town for the first time. One of them is to walk around it, guidebook in hand. Of course, we may study with our guidebooks the history and special developments of a town and get to know them. But then, if we take out time and stay in a town for a while, we may get to know it better When we look it as a whole, we begin to have some questions, which even the best guidebooks do not answer. Why is the town just like this, this shape, this plan, this size?
Here even the best guide-book fails us. We can’t find in it the information about how a town has developed to the present appearance. However, we may get some idea of what it used to look like by walking around the town. A personal visit to a town may help one better understand why it is attractive than just reading about it in a guidebook.
Passage 6 Representatives of Civilization: Pottery
Ancient people made clay pottery because they needed it for their survival. They used the pots they made for cooking, storing food, and carrying things from place to place. Pottery was so important to early cultures that scientists now study it to learn more about ancient civilizations. The more advanced the pottery in terms of decoration, materials, glazes and manufacture, the more advanced the culture itself. The artisan who makes pottery in North America today utilizes his or her skill and imagination to create items that are beautiful as well as al, transforming something ordinary into something special and unique. The potter uses one of the Earth's most basic materials, clay. Clay can be found almost anywhere. Good pottery clay must be free from all small stones and other hard materials that would make the potting process difficult. The most important tools potters use are their own hands; however, they also use wire loop tools, wooden modeling tools, plain wire, and sponges.
Passage 7 Words Can Make a Difference
On August 26, 1999, New York City was struck by a terrible rainstorm during the morning rush hour that caused the streets to flood.
Many people who were going to work were forced to go home. Some battled to call a taxi, get a bus or walk miles to get to work. I soon discovered most of the subway lines had stopped service. I finally found an operating line, but there were so many people that I couldn’t initially get to the platform. Finally, I got to my office, wet through, and exhausted.
After an unenjoyably day, Garth, my Director, sent an e-mail to everyone:
“Thanks to everyone who reported to work. It is always reassuring when employees show their devotion to their jobs. Thank you.”
Garth’s email was short，but welcomed. It made me realize that even when times are tough, a few words can make a big difference.
Passage 8 Fairy Tales
Tales of the supernatural are common in all parts of Britain. In particular, there was a belief in fairies. Not all of these fairies are the friendly, people-loving sprites that appear in Disney films, and in some folktales they are cruel and cause much human suffering. This is true in the tales about the Changeling. These tell the story of a mother whose baby grows sick and pale and has changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable to the parents. It was then feared that the fairies had come and stolen the baby away and replaced the human baby with a fairy Changeling. In those cases there was often a way to get the real baby back. You could place the Changeling on the fire--then it would rise up the chimney, and you would hear the sound of fairies’ laughter and soon after you would find your own child safe and sound nearby.
Passage 9 Self-Image
Self-image is your own mind’s picture of yourself. This image includes the way you look, the way you act, the way you talk and the way you think. Interestingly, our self-images are often quite different from the images others hold about us. Unfortunately, most of these images are more negative than they should be. Thus changing the way you think about yourself is the key to changing your self-image and your whole world.
It might be that you are experiencing a negative self-image because you can’t move past one flaw or weakness that you see about yourself. Well, roll up your sleeves and make a change of it as your primary task. The best way to get rid of a negative serf-image is to realize that your image is far from objective, and to actively convince yourself of your positive qualities. Changing the way you think and working on those, you will go a long way towards promoting a positive self-image.
Passage 10 Shopaholics
The word addiction usually makes you think of alcohol or drugs, but in modern-day society we are seeing some new kinds of addictions. Some people are compulsive shoppers. Others find it impossible to pull themselves away from their work. Still others spend countless hours watching TV or playing computer games.
Over the years, shopping has become a very common activity. Many people enjoy going to malls or stores more and more every day, but it’s more than a common hobby for some of them. They have turned into shopaholics. They are people who simply enjoy shopping and walking around spending money without being able to stop doing it. They are hooked on shopping and usually buy things that they don’t need. Even though they don’t have enough money, they buy everything they want.
Why do they have this addiction? There isn’t a specific answer. Some people go shopping when they are sad, worried, upset or lonely. Some even tend to have this addiction when they feel guilty.
Passage 11 Time Management
Time is something from which we can’t escape. Even if we ignore it, it’s still going by, ticking away, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. So the main issue in using your time well is, “Who’s in charge?” We can allow time to slip by and let it be our enemy. Or we can take control of it and make it our ally.
By taking control of how you spend your time, you’ll increase your chances of becoming a more successful student. Perhaps more importantly, the better you are at managing the time you devote to your studies, the more time you will have to spend on your outside interests.
The aim of time management is not to schedule every moment so we become slaves of a timetable that governs every waking moment of the day. Instead, the aim is to make informed choices as to how we use our time.
Passage 12 Charity Shops
The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won't find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.
Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public.
The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more.
Passage 13 Passive Learning
We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning. We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it's not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor.
That's what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.
Passage 14 Different “Styles” of Directions
I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask ”How can I get to the post office?”
In Japan, people use landmarks in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. For example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don’t know.
Passage 15 Rain Forests
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet – storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is a deliberate tactic to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects.
They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75% of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal – and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet.
Passage 16 Juana Lopez’s Invention
One day, Juana Lopez had an idea for a dish washing machine that worked without using water. She went to see several dish washer manufacturers about producing the machine, but none of them were interested. Joanna found investors to support her idea and founded her own production company. She spent millions of dollars on developing her dish washer, and it was lunched three years later. From then on, sales were very good, better even than Joanna had hopped. But Global Domestic, one of the companies that she has been to, made its own waterless dish washer. Joanna obtained one and found they use the technical ideas she had developed. She had obtained legal protection for these ideas so that other companies could not use them. After a long legal process, glob domestic was forced to stop making its competing dish washer and to pay Joanna several million dollars. Now Joanna’s waterless dish washer ha