Part A: Spot Dictation
Was it envisioned for the euro to eventually become such a strong currency that it could compete with the dollar on a global level? Or was that a dream then and is it still a dream now?
I think it was an attainable dream, and it is becoming actually, in some ways, less attainable right now.
You may ask why?
Well, the dream to give credit where credit is due was not only advocated by some European officials but by some American economists, including our Institute’s director, Fred Bergsten, who was way out in the front with that. Richard Portes, who teaches at London Business School, also was way out in front with that. And they were very much against the tide of people like Martin Feldstein and others in London and the United States who were very skeptical towards the euro.
At face value, the euro area is the same size in GDP as the United States, roughly speaking. The euro area does have very large and deep financial markets, although the more you look in detail, there are still some things there that differentiate it from the United States. And the euro area has delivered price stability. They have a very low rate of inflation pretty consistently. So you put those three things together, on paper it looks like the euro should be at least a very clear second to the dollar in investor’s portfolios, in government reserve holdings, in how much you invoice trade like oil or planes or things like that.
But what our research finds in this book -- in particular in good chapters by Kristin Forbes and Linda Goldberg -- is the fact that if you look under the hood a bit, there is a huge shortfall between what you would expect just based on size and how much the euro is used. So there’s an awful lot of trade that’s still invoiced in dollars, not in euros, even between countries that are not dollar countries. There are huge amounts of financial flows that come to the United States, and the depth of European assets and financial flows is not commensurate with the size.
【解析】
本文節(jié)選自Growing Pains for the Euro。在段落一開始，作者就拋出了一個問題：歐元最終成為一種能與美元相抗衡的國際貨幣是不是一場夢？并指出這個期望相比曾經(jīng)，正變的越來越難以實現(xiàn)。
文中指出，雖然歐元的確有廣大的經(jīng)濟市場，而且通貨膨脹的概率也較小，但是通過研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果一旦深探，就會看到期望值與歐元的實際使用率之間存在著巨大差額，以致在一些非美元使用區(qū)中，流通的貨幣仍然為美元。
本文的題材雖然為考生比較懼怕的經(jīng)濟類，但是如果能夠聽懂首段作者的提問，以及之后作者的態(tài)度I think it was an attainable dream, and it is becoming actually, in some ways, less attainable right now，就不難馬上領(lǐng)悟全文的主旨。
考生平時要多多關(guān)注�？嫉慕�(jīng)濟類文章，有了平時的積累，才能在考場上發(fā)揮自如。
Listening comprehension 1
W: So, one of the things that I really have trouble understanding is how jazz music developed to be so different from many other kinds of music? My class notes are terrible.
M: Well, what can’t you understand from your notes?
W: Uh, one thing is I copied down the musical training from the blackboard. What did it mean by that?
M: Well, most people who became professional musicians have some kind of formal training in music. But the first people who play jazz music had almost none.
W: OK, but so what? Doesn’t it just mean that they weren’t very good musicians?
M: Well, it’s not that the early jazz musicians weren’t good; it’s that they played their instruments differently. Let’s say you are receiving formal instruction in the trumpet. First you would learn the right way to place your mouth, and the right way to use your fingers, and the right way to blow air. And then you will practice single notes and different combination of notes until you could do those correctly. And only after that, would your teacher give you a piece of music to play.
W: And the early jazz musician didn’t learn to play this way?
M: No, the first people who play jazz music learned to play their instrument by actually trying to play a song the way they like. They were humanity, and tried to play themselves on their instruments. Because they were mostly teaching themselves, they began to express themselves in ways that formally traditionally trained musicians didn’t. In traditional instruction, there is one correct way to play something, and everyone who plays tries to make the correct sound. But in jazz...
W: In jazz music, there isn’t one right way to play. In fact, individual musicians are supposed to interpret the music in their own style. So you are saying that this aspect of jazz developed because the first people who play jazz didn’t have any formal musical training?
M: Yes, I believe so.
Q1: What is the woman most probably according to the conversation?
Q2: What is the problem the woman has trouble understanding?
Q3: How did early jazz musicians learn to play their instrument?
Q4: Which of the following is true according to the conversation?
Q5: Why did jazz music develop to be so different from many other kinds of music?
【解析】
本文難度并不大，圍繞著女生的疑問以及男生的解答，講述了爵士是如何發(fā)展成一種與其他種類相距甚大的音樂的。
對話中，女生無法理解音樂訓(xùn)練這一點，于是男生回答說不同于其他正規(guī)音樂指導(dǎo)，比如想要吹喇叭，就要從嘴部、手指，以及吹氣一步步訓(xùn)練起來。而最早玩爵士樂的人并沒有如此的訓(xùn)練，而是單純用自己的風格將音樂演奏出來，這也就造就了爵士樂與其他音樂的大不同。
Listening comprehension 2
London, the United Kingdom
The UK housing market is seeing a slight pick-up in activity with mortgage lending and prices both rising, figures have suggested. Gross mortgage lending was up 4% in April, compared with March, to £12.1bn, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. This was 21% higher than April 2012, but this data is skewed by the end of the stamp duty concession a year ago. Official figures show UK house prices rose by 2.7% in the past twelve months. However, this was driven by rises in England and Wales, with property price falls in Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to the Office for National Statistics.
【文章大意】英國房地產(chǎn)市場略有回暖，抵押借貸活動增加，房價上漲。題目考查數(shù)字細節(jié)。
pick-up 上漲
mortgage lending 抵押借貸
skew 歪曲
Paris, France
Developed economies returned to growth in the first three months of the year, although the euro zone continued to lag behind the U.S. and Japan, according to figures released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Tuesday. The Paris-based research body said the combined gross domestic product of its 34 developed-country members grew by 0.4% from the final three months of 2012. There were “diverging patterns” across its members, but that largely involved a contrast between contractions in France, Italy and the euro zone as a whole, and a pickup in growth in Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. With growth so unbalanced and business and consumer confidence weak in the face of uncertainties surrounding the outcome of the euro zone’s fiscal crisis and fiscal difficulties in the U.S., economists don’t expect a strong pickup in global growth in the near term.
【文章大意】今年第一季度，發(fā)達國家經(jīng)濟恢復(fù)增長，歐元區(qū)仍落后于美國日本�？疾樾畔⑼茢�。
euro-zone 歐元區(qū)（統(tǒng)一使用歐元的國家地區(qū)）
lag behind 落后
diverge 分開，偏離
Washington, the United States
Apple has been accused of being "among America's largest tax avoiders". A Senate committee said Apple had used "a complex web of offshore entities" to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes. But it said there was no indication the firm acted illegally. Apple chief Tim Cook will go before the panel on Tuesday. In prepared testimony Apple said it did not use tax gimmicks. The US Senate had said that Apple paid little or nothing on billions of dollars in profits placed in Irish subsidiaries. The company says it is one of the largest taxpayers in the US, having paid $6bn in federal corporate income tax in the 2012 fiscal year. US corporation tax is one of the highest in the world at 35%. However, companies typically pay far less, thanks to numerous deductions and exemptions.
【文章大意】蘋果公司被指避稅�？疾橹髦即笠狻�
tax avoidance 避稅
offshore 海外的
gimmick 花招，伎倆
exemption 豁免，免稅
Oklahoma city, the United States
At least 91 people, including 20 children, are feared to have been killed by a huge tornado which tore through Oklahoma City suburbs, local officials say. Worst hit was Moore, south of the city, where neighborhoods were flattened and schools destroyed by winds of up to 200mph. About 120 people are being treated in hospitals. President Barack Obama has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma. He also ordered federal authorities to join in the search efforts which have continued throughout the night. The official death toll is 51, but local authorities say the figure is expected to rise as another 40 bodies have been found.
【文章大意】俄克拉荷馬城遭巨型龍卷風襲擊，至少91人恐已死亡。考查數(shù)字細節(jié)。
tornado 龍卷風
death toll 死亡人數(shù)
Dubai, Saudi Arabia
A Saudi woman has made history by reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain. Raha Moharrak, 25, not only became the first Saudi woman to attempt the climb but also the youngest Arab to make it to the top of Everest. She is part of a four-person expedition that also includes the first Qatari man and the first Palestinian man attempting to reach the summit. They are trying to raise $1m for education projects in Nepal. Originally from Jeddah, Ms Moharrak is a university graduate currently based in Dubai. Coming from Saudi Arabia - a conservative Muslim country where women's rights are very restricted -- she had to break a lot of barriers to achieve her goal, her climb team said.
【文章大意】一名沙特女性成功登上珠峰�？疾橹髦即笠狻�
summit 頂峰
Everest 珠穆朗瑪峰
expedition 探險隊
Qatari 卡塔爾的
Q6. According to the official figures, by how much did UK house prices increase in the past year?
Q7. Which of the following statements best describes the economic state of the world’s developed countries?
Q8. What has the Apple company been accused of by a US senate committee?
Q9. At least how many people are feared to have been killed by a huge tornado in Oklahoma?
Q10. According to the report, what has a Saudi woman done recently to make history?
Listening comprehension 3
W: Hi, Paul. Thanks very much for joining us today. You’ve spent the past 20 years as a physician working in some of the poorest places on earth. And over that time, you’ve written a lot about inequality and health care. How has the connection affected your work?
M: I think in a way, studying in difficult places at a squatter settlement in central Haiti has been very helpful to our work. Because there’s an extremity hid there in terms of the health status of the people. And what’s available to them that you just have to confront early on. There isn’t health infrastructure. There aren’t people there to deliver health services whether prevention or care. And yet, that’s precisely where the sickest people are. I think looking back to 20 something years ago, it was because we started in that setting that we had to develop models that would work in places with very scant health infrastructure and knowing that we would build it over time. But that there was a lot that you could do immediately -- train local people to be community health workers, erect modest facilities and try to provide high quality care. That’s how it started for us in Haiti. And really, that’s the model we’ve taken to the other nine countries in which we work.
W: It sounds so you needed to deal with issues that many people might not consider medical like housing and water, and things like that.
M: That is true. There are two ways to look at this. I think as a physician or a provider of services. If I’m in the Harvard training hospital and I’m a surgeon, then no one’s going to expect me to diagnose and treat the disease but also build the operating room and find electricity and supplies. But that’s very much what we have to do. So, there’s that side of the model and that leads as you’ve said to listening hard to what patients say about their other problems. If you have someone who has typhoid, they got that because they don’t have clean drinking water. So, you can keep spending your whole life treating typhoid which can be a fatal disease as you probably know. Or you can treat typhoid and try to put in clean water.
Q11. What’s the man’s job most probably?
Q12. For how many years has the man worked in Haiti?
Q13. Why does the man think starting work in Haiti has been very helpful to his work?
Q14. They did several things to build a model in Haiti. Which of the following is not one of these things?
Q15. Apart from diagnosing and treating the disease, what should a doctor do when he works in Haiti?
【解析】
根據(jù)女性的問題可以聽出，該訪談的對象是一名在海地（Haiti）工作的醫(yī)生。該醫(yī)生除了治病救人之外，還十分關(guān)注海地社會中的不平等以及該國的醫(yī)療衛(wèi)生 狀況。在貧困地區(qū)進行的研究給他的工作帶來了巨大的幫助，那里醫(yī)療基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施條件差、醫(yī)療服務(wù)從業(yè)者稀少，但是他們克服了重重阻礙，建立起了醫(yī)療設(shè)施，訓(xùn)練 當?shù)厝顺蔀樯鐓^(qū)醫(yī)療服務(wù)者，為當?shù)匾约捌渌毨液偷貐^(qū)醫(yī)療衛(wèi)生事業(yè)的發(fā)展樹立了模范。
本篇聽力難度適中，對于一些專有名詞如Haiti、typhoid，如果聽不出，不用過分糾結(jié)，重點是把握大意，抓住一些重點細節(jié)，如數(shù)字、時間、工作具體內(nèi)容等等。
關(guān)鍵詞
physician 內(nèi)科醫(yī)師
inequality 不平等
extremity 極端；險境
infrastructure 基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施
facility 設(shè)施
diagnose 診斷
Listening comprehension 4
Thank you all for coming to my talk this evening. It’s nice to see so many people in the audience. For those of you who don’t know very much about PS Camping. Let me start by giving you some background information about the company.
The company started 25 years ago. It actually opened as a retail chain selling camping equipment. And then twenty years ago, it bought a small number of campsites in the UK, and began offering camping holidays. The company grew rapidly and has been providing holidays in continental Europe for the last fifteen years.
If you book a camping holiday with us, you’ll have a choice of over three hundred sites. In Italy we now have some 64 sites that we either own, or have exclusive use of. France is where we have the majority of sites, and we currently have a project to expand into Switzerland. We also have a number of sites in Northern Spain, particularly in the mountainous region of Picos de Europa. We’ve upgraded all these Spanish sites, and improved them considerably from their original three-star rating.
We believe our holidays offer superb facilities for the whole family. Parents who want their children to be fully occupied for all or part of the day can take advantage of our children’s activities. These are organized by our well-qualified and enthusiastic staff. Each day kicks off with a sports match, perhaps football, or volleyball, followed by an hour of drama for everyone. This may include singing or dancing, mime or other activities. In the afternoon, there’s a different art activity for each day of the week including a poster competition or model making. What’s more, our sites are truly child-friendly, and, with this in mind, we operate a no-noise rule in the evenings. Children’s evening activities usually finish at 9:30, or occasionally 10, and from 10:30 holiday-makers are expected to be quiet in the areas where there are tents.
We want nothing to go wrong on a PS Camping holiday, but if it does, we also want all customers to be insured. If you haven’t organized an annual insurance policy of your own you’ll need to take out the low-cost cover we offer and we require that you arrange this when you make your holiday reservation.
There are many advantages to choosing PS Camping, and to recommending it to others. As a regular customer, you’ll be kept informed of special offers. And you can benefit from ten per cent off their holiday, or book a luxury tent for the price of a standard one. In return, we’ll send you a thank-you present, which you can choose from a list of high-quality items.
Q16. How many years ago was the company PS Camping established in the UK?
Q17. What was the company’s business when it opened in the UK?
Q18. In which of the following countries does the company have the majority of camping sites?
Q19. There are several kinds of activities which can fully occupy children for all or part of the day. Which of the following is not one of these?
Q20. Which of the following is an advantage that a regular customer can enjoy from the company?
【解析】
本篇聽力取材于雅思考試真題，內(nèi)容是一家名叫PS Camping公司的介紹，包括公司歷史，業(yè)務(wù)范圍，各項活動，優(yōu)惠政策等等。該公司成立于25年前，原本是一家露營裝備銷售商，后來轉(zhuǎn)向為露營假日活動 組織者，在歐洲大陸業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展迅速。 該公司能夠為客戶組織各種活動供全家娛樂，但要求客戶投保，最后還提供了給老客戶的多項優(yōu)惠政策。
除了專有名詞Picos de Europa（歐羅巴山）之外，全文沒有生僻詞匯。五個題目均是常見的細節(jié)題，而文中細節(jié)要素比較多，要求考生注意力集中，抓住細節(jié)做好筆記，選出正確答案。
Note Taking and Gap Filling
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Last week, we talked about some important terms in environmental science. Shall you still remember them, right? So in today’s environmental science class, I want to discuss a few of the terms here, actually some ideas about how we manage our resources. Let’s talk about what that means.
If we take resources like water, now maybe we should get a little bit more specific here, back from a more general case and talk about underground water in particular. So hydro geologists have tried to figure out how much water can we take out from underground sources. That has been an important question. Let me ask you guys, how much water, based on what you know so far, could you take out of , say, an aquifer… under the city. As much as what gets recharged?
Ok. So we wouldn’t like to take out more than naturally comes into it. The implication is that, well, if you only take as much out as comes in. You’re not going to deplete the amount of water that stores in there. Right? Wrong. But that’s the principle. That’s the idea behind how we manage our water supplies. It’s called Safe Yield. Basically what this message says is that you can pump as much water out of the system as naturally recharges, as naturally flows back in. So this principle of safe yield is based on balancing what we take out with what gets recharged. But what it does is it ignores how much water naturally comes out of the system, and natural system of certain matter of recharge comes in and certain matter of water naturally flowing out through springs, streams and lakes, and over long terms the amount that’s stored in the aquifer doesn’t really change much. It’s balanced. Now humans come in and
