题目内容

Part B Listening Comprehension
Directions: In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken ONLY ONCE. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.
听力原文: Many a grown man can remember with pleasure the cool refreshment that came to him as a five-year old when he ran to his mother after playing on a hot afternoon and she fanned his perspiring face for a moment with her fan. If it was a folding lace fan it may have had a drop of sweet-smelling perfume in it to make the breeze sweet to a child.
Today, air-conditioning and electric motors have made us forget fans. In these days it often seems, too, that we have no time to sit and fan ourselves—and that's our great loss.
And yet you may be surprised to know that fans have not yet disappeared from the science. A good many are still made in France, which has always been a great home of the fan, and in the Orient, and quite a few even in busy, bustling America. You might never expect to see a fan today in a great, rushing city, and yet a few are still sold in New York and other great cities.
Today in Fifth Avenue's smart shops you may buy a severe little fan for a lady for $ 3, or a fine French "Louis ⅩⅣ" fan, with pictures of the king's countries, and the price?... $ 25.
Fans are still used here and there by people who find time to sit on porches, and they're used, too, at concerts and in church—and at dances. Today, however, they're finding a new use they never had before; once a year an interior decorator from St. Paul, Minnesota, journeys 1,100 miles to New York City to buy fans which she then frames as "shadow-boxes" and uses as decorations in smart homes.
Though no one knows where fans came from, researchers say that primitive men in all countries seem to have used them. Chances are that the first fan may have been a branch with leaves to whisk flies away from food, or a palm leaf used to fan up a fire in smouldering wood.
The word comes from Latin vannus: a Roman instrument for winnowing grain. The Bible says (Isaiah, 30:24): "The oxen.., shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and the fan." This fan, or vannus, was a basket of special shape for tossing grain high into the air so the breeze could blow away the chaff. On hot days, farmers no doubt found they could cool each other by fanning with the vannus.
But fans have a very ancient history as the Chinese had fans in 2699 B. C. , if not long before. The Assyrians, 3,000 years ago, hung fans from the ceiling and, when they were pulled by ropes, they gave "enough wind to wreck a ship". In early Egypt, fans were widely used by kings and became a symbol of authority.
The strange thing about fans is: they are talkative. Since early times, man has used fans to say things. What can you say with a fan? Until fifty years ago, Japanese generals when giving an order to attack, threw fans in the air as high as possible where, whirling over and over, the fans inspired men to fight.
Laborers in the Far East for hundreds of years used fans to cool themselves while working. Soldiers fanned themselves while under attack. Laborers and soldiers alike learned to greet each other pleasantly by a "nod" of their fans.
Questions:
1. How does a gown-up feel at the sight of a fan?
2. Where was the earliest birthplace of fans?
3. From what language does the word "fan" come?
4. Which of the earliest fans is mentioned in the talk?
5. Why are fans not as popular today as they used to be?
(21)

A. Refreshing.
B. Pleasant.
Cooling.
D. Exciting.

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A.Old English.B.Chinese.C.Latin.D.the Bible.

A. Old English.
B. Chinese.
C. Latin.
D. the Bible.

The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term.
Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries, the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past.
Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP(in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25 % -0.5 % of GDP. That is less than one quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil importing emerging economies -- to which heavy industry has shifted -- have become more energy intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed.
One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist's commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70% and in 1979 by almost 30%.
The main reason for the latest rise of oil price is ______.

A. global inflation
B. reduction in supply
C. fast growth in economy
D. Iraq's suspension of exports

A.They are out of fashion.B.They fail to provide a cool breeze.C.Air-conditioners are

A. They are out of fashion.
B. They fail to provide a cool breeze.
C. Air-conditioners are comfortable substitutes.
D. Fewer fans are manufactured.

What is the author's tone in this text?

A. Explanatory.
B. Accusatory.
C. Gentle.
D. Proud.

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