专四听写

Throughout history / the basic unit of almost every human society / has been the family. / Members of the family live together / under the same roof. / They share the economic burdens of life / as well as its joys. / The family head usually has considerable influence / in arranging marriages, / selecting careers / and determining all the important moves and purchases / by any member of the family. / Particularly in conditions / where society or the state / does not give aid / and the responsibilities of the family are greater, / this large group / provides better protection / in times of economic or other emergency. U2

Children learn almost nothing from television, / and the more they watch, / the less they remember. / They regard television purely as entertainment, / resent programs that make demands on them / and are surprised that anybody should take the medium seriously. / Far from being over-excited by programs, / they are mildly bored with the whole thing. / These are the main conclusions from a new study of children and television. / Its author confirms / that the modern child is a dedicated viewer. / The study suggests / that there is little point in the television company’s attempts / to isolate adult viewing in the later hours. / More than a third of the children regularly watched their programs after 9 p.m. / All 11-year-olds had watched programs after midnight. U3

Mother’s Day is celebrated / on the second Sunday in May. / On this occasion, / Mother usually receives greeting cards and gifts / from her husband and children. / For most mothers, / the rarest and best gift / is a day of rest. / Often, / families honor Mother / by taking her out for dinner. / In some households / the husband and children / take over meal preparations / so that Mom can spend a whole day / away from the kitchen. / Serving her breakfast in bed / is another family ritual. / Later in the day, / parents may take their children / to visit their grandparents. / Flowers are an important part of the day. / Mothers are often given corsages / for the occasion, / particularly if they are elderly. U4

One of the world’s most deadly health problems / is spreading to new places. / The problem is heart disease / and it is affecting more and more people / in developing nations. / For years / heart disease has been the No.1 cause of death / in most industrial nations. / The disease has claimed more lives / than cancer or accidents. / Now the WHO has warned that / heart disease is increasing rapidly / in almost every developing nation. / Why is this happening? / One reason is that / people in developing nations / are living longer. / Another reason is that / many people have changed the way they live. / They now eat more fat and salt / and fewer fruits and vegetables. U5

In order to learn to be one’s true self, / it is necessary to obtain a wide and extensive knowledge / of what has been said and done in the world; / critically to inquire into it; / carefully to consider it; / clearly to analyze it; / and earnestly to carry it out. /It matters not what you learn, / but when you once learn a thing, / you must never give it up / until you have thoroughly understood it. / It matters not what you try to think of, / but when you once try to think of a thing, / you must never give it up / until you have done it thoroughly and well. /If another man succeeds by one effort, / you will use a

hundred efforts. / If another man succeeds by ten efforts, / you will use a thousand. U6

About this time / I found out the use of a key. / One morning I locked my mother up in the pantry, / where she was obliged to remain three hours. / She kept knocking on the door, / while I sat outside on the porch steps and laughed. / This naughty behavior of mine / convinced my parents / that I must be taught as soon as possible. / After my teacher came to me, / I sought an early opportunity / to lock her up in her room. / I could not be induced to tell / where the key was. / My father had to get a ladder / and take the teacher out through the window. / Months after, / I produced the key. U7

Our boat floated on, / between walls of forest. / Nowhere did we find a place / where we could have landed. / In any case, / what would we have got by landing? / The country was full of snakes / and other dangerous animals, / and the forest was so thick / that one would be able to advance only slowly, / cutting one’s way with knives the whole day. / We live on fish, / caught with a homemade net of string, / and any fruit and nuts / we could pick up out of the water. / As we had no fire, / we had to eat everything uncooked, / including the fish. / As for water, / there was a choice: / we could drink the muddy river water, / or die of thirst. U8

I believe my father is a talented man. / He is decisive and efficient in doing things. / By his own talents and efforts, / he has secured for the family a good social position / and a comparatively rich life. / People of all fields come to my house, / and from them I have gained lots of valuable social experience / and seen a lot of joys and sorrows of the world. /But at home he is a harsh parent. / He has high expectations of me. / When I am idling away my time, / I can see that it hurts him deeply. / When I am doing something great, / such as writing a book, / he is more than excited. / With such a father, / I always remind myself that I must go on and on, never give up. U9

It’s that time of the year again, / when the entertainment world gets excited about the Oscars / and the madness that surrounds Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. / Everybody has an opinion / on which film should take home the Best Picture Prize / and who should walk away with the statuette for Best Actor and Best Actress. / But it’s only after the ceremony is over / that the real analysis begins. / People commented on the acceptance speeches, / rate the host on his or her performance, / and examine all attendee closely, / from their hairstyle right down to their socks. U10

It is simple enough to say / that since books have classes / — fiction, biography, poetry / — we should separate them / and take from each what it is right / that each should give us. / Yet few people ask from books / what books can give us. / Most commonly we come to books / with blurred and divided minds, / asking of fiction that it shall be true, / of poetry that it shall be false, / of biography that it shall be flattering, / of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. / If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, / that would be an admirable beginning. / Do not dictate to your author: / try to become him. / Be his fellow-worker and accomplice.

U11

After the war our church was in a very bad condition. / So we decided to build a modern one / at the top of a hill outside our town. / We raised a lot of money and bought all the necessary materials. / We built the walls of stone and glass, / and the heavy doors of wood and metal. / It was one of the most attractive buildings in town / when it was completed. / From the top of the church there is a wonderful view. / You can see the entire town and countryside / for miles around. / People from all parts of the country / come and visit the church every day. U12

A major topic of sociolinguistics / is the connection, if any, / between the structures, vocabularies, / and ways of using particular languages / and the social roles of the men and women / who speak these languages. / Do the men and women who speak a particular language / use it in different ways? / If they do, / do these differences arise from the structure of that language, / or alternately, / do any differences that exist / simply reflect the ways / in which the sexes relate to each other in that society, / whatever the reason? / These issues have generated / a considerable amount of thought and discussion / in the last decades of the twentieth century. U13

For a lot of people, / the word “failure” carries with it / a feeling of coming to an end, / but for the successful leader, / failure is a beginning, / a seed of hope. / Leaders don’t allow themselves / to be held prisoner by the fear of failure. / They don’t even use the word ”failure,”. / instead they rely on words like “false start, / never failure.”/The lesson understood by captains of industry / is that failure equals learning. / While we can’t say that they exactly welcome failure, / they are uniform in their ability to profit from it. / They use the healthy energy coming from failure / to reach higher goals. / Almost every “false step” is regarded as an opportunity / and not as the end of the world. U14

Broadly speaking, / the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person / who is fully relaxed only among people he knows well. / In the presence of strangers or foreigners / he often seems shy, / even embarrassed. / You have only to witness a commuter train any morning or evening / to see the truth of this. / Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers / or dozing in a corner; / no one speaks. / In fact, / to do so would seem most unusual. / An English wit, / pretending to be giving advice to overseas visitors, / once suggested, / “On entering a railway compartment /