Short Conversation

1.
W: The students have been protesting against the increased tuition.
M: Yeah, I heard about the protest. But I don’t know how much good it will do.
Q: What does the man mean?

2.
W: Jay will turn 21 this week. Does he know the classes are having a surprised party for him?
M: No, he thinks we are giving a party for the retiring dean.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

3.
M: Hello, this is Carl’s garage. We found Mr. White’s briefcase and wallet after he left his car here this morning.
W: He has been wondering where he could have left them. I’ll tell him to pick them up this afternoon. Thank you for calling.
Q: What do we learn about Mr. White from the conversation?

4.
W: You know, some TV channels have been rerunning a lot of comedies from the 1960s’. What do you think of those old shows?
M: Not much. But the new ones including those done by famous directors are not so entertaining either.
Q: What does the man mean?

5.
M: How much longer should I boil these vegetables? The recipe says about 10 minutes in total.
W: They look pretty done to me. I doubt you should cook them anymore.
Q: What does the woman mean?

6.
W: Tom, are you going to your parents’ house tonight?
M: Yes, I promise to help them figure out their tax returns. The tax code is really confusing to them.
Q: What is the man going to do for his parents?

7.
W: I was surprised when I heard you’d finished your research project a whole month early.

M: How I manage to do it’s still a mystery to me.
Q: What does the man mean？

8.
W：I was hoping we could be in the same developmental psychology class.
M：Me too, but by the time I went for registration the course was closed.
Q: What does the man mean?

【点评】

本次六级考试的难度与往年持平，继续延续在六级考试中，出现大量推理判断题，即提问方式为：What does the man / woman mean? 这样的题目。所以这一常考题型，相信平时也已练习不少。其中，可能稍微有点难度的是几个单词，例如：protest（抗议）；rerun（重新出演），entertaining（有趣的，有娱乐性的），但其实这几个词并不影响做题。最难的也就最后一题：既有developmental psychology（发展心理学）这样的专业学科名称，又有registration这样部分考生不太熟悉的词，从而影响整个对话的理解。

M: It's really amazing how many colors there are in these Thai silks?
W: These are our new designs.
M: Oh, I don't think I've seen this combination of colors before.
W: They're really brilliant, aren't they?
M: Quite dazzling! May I have samples of the new cet6w.com?
W: Yes, of course. But aren't you going to place an order?
M: We order them regularly, you know, but I do want our buyer who handles fabrics to see them.
W: Have you looked at the wood and stone coverings? Did you like them?
M: Oh, they aren't really what I'm looking for.
W: What do you have in mind?
M: That's the trouble. I never know exactly until I see it. I usually have more luck when I get away from the tourist places.
W: Out in the countryside you mean.
M: Yeah, exactly. Markets seem small towns have turned out best for me.
W: You're more interested than in handcrafts that haven't been commercialized.
M: Yes, real folk arts, pots, dishes, basket ware — the kinds of things that people themselves use.
W: I'm sure we can arrange a trip out into the country for you.
M: I was hoping you'd say that.
W: We can drive out of Bangkok and stop whenever you see something that interests you.
M: That would be wonderful! How soon could we leave?
W: I can't get away tomorrow. But I think I can get a car for the day after.
M: And would we have to come back the same day?
W: No, I think I'll be able to keep the car for three or four days.
M: Wonderful! That'll give me time for a real look around.

9. What attracts the man to the Thai silks?
10. What is the man looking for in Thailand?
11. What do we learn about the trip the woman promised to arrange for the man?

W: Well, before we decide we're going to live in Enterby, we really ought to have a look at the schools. We want the children to have a good secondary education, so we'd better see what’s available.
M: They gave me some information at the district office and I took notes. It appears there are five secondary schools in Enterby, three state schools and two private.
W: I don’t know if we want private schools, do we?
M: I don't think so, but we'll look at them anyway. The Saint Mary's, that's a catholic school for girls and Carton Ibi, that's a very old boys' boarding school, founded in 1672.
W: Are all the state schools co-educational?
M: Yes, it seems so.
W: I think little kid is very good with his hands. We're to send him to a school with good vocational training — carpentry, electronics, that's sort of thing.
M: In that case, we are best off at Enterby Comprehensive. I gather they have excellent workshops and instructors. But it says here the Dawn Wall also has good facilities. Enterby High has a little, but they are mostly academic. No vocational training at all at Carton Ibi, Saint Mary’s.
W: What are the schools like academically? How many children go on to university every year?
M: Well, Enterby High is very good. And Carton Ibi even better, 70% percent of their pupils go on to university. Dawn Wall isn’t so good. Only 8%. And Enterby Comprehensive in Saint Mary’s not much more, about 10%.
W: Well, it seems like there is a broad selection of schools. But we have to find out more than statistics before we can decide.

12. What do their children to have?
13. What do the speakers say about little kids?
14. What school has the highest percentage of pupils who go on to university?
15. What are the speakers going to do next?

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! As instructed in our previous meeting, the subcommittee on building development has now drawn up a brief to submit to the firm's architect. In short, the building would consist of two floors. There would be a storage area in the basement to be used by the research center as well as by other departments. We are, as you know, short of storage base, so the availability of a large basement would be a considerable advantage. The ground floor would be occupied by laboratories. Altogether there would be six labs. In addition, there would be six offices for the technicians, plus a general secretarial office and reception area. The first floor would be occupied by the offices of Research and Development staff. There would be a suite of offices for the Research and Development director as well as a general office for secretarial staff. It's proposed to have a staff room with a small kitchen. This would serve both floors. There would also be a library for research documents and reference material. In addition, there would be a resource room in which audio visual equipment and other equipment of that sort could be stored. Finally, there would be a seminar room with closed circuit television. This room could also be used to present displays and demonstrations to visitors to the center. The building would be of cet6w.com so it's to conform to the general style of construction on the site. There would be a pitched roof. Wall and ceiling spaces would be insulated to conform to new building regulations.

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you've just heard.

16. What is said about the planned basement of the new building?
17. Where would be the Research and Development director's office?
18. Why would the building be of cet6w.com?

16. C) It will have a large space for storage.
17. A) On the first floor.
18. B) To match the style of construction on the site.

Huang Yi works for a company that sells financial software to small and medium size businesses. His job is to show customers how to use the new software. He spends two weeks with each client, demonstrating the features and functions of the software. The first few months in the job were difficult. He often left the client feeling that even after two weeks he hadn't been able to show the employees everything they needed to know. It's not that they weren't interested; they obviously appreciated his instruction and showed a desire to learn. Huang couldn't figure it out the software was difficult for them to understand, or if he was not doing a good job of teaching. During the next few months, Huang started to see some patterns. He would get to a new client site and spend the first week going over the software with the employees. He usually did this in ships, with different groups of employees listening to him lecture. Then he would spend the next week in installing the program and helping individuals trouble-shoot. Huang realized that during the week of trouble shooting and answering questions, he ended up addressing the same issues over and over. He was annoyed because most of the individuals with whom he worked seem to have retained very little information from the first week. They asked very basic questions and often needed prompting from beginning to end. At first, he wondered if these people were just a little slow, but then he began to get the distinct feeling that part of the problem might be his style presenting information.

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you've just heard.

19. What does Huang Yi do in his company?
20. What did Huang Yi think of his work?
21. What did Huang Yi do in addition to lecturing?
22. What did Huang Yi realize in the end?

19. C) Train clients to use financial software.
20. A) Unsuccessful.
21. D) He provided individual support.
22. D) The fault might lie in his style of presenting the information.

As we help children get out into the world to do their learning well, we can get more of the world into the schools. Aside from their parents, most children never have any close contact with any adults except their teachers. No wonder they have no idea what adult life or work is like. We need to bring more people who are not full-time teachers into the schools. In New York City, under the teachers' and writers' collaborative, real writers come into the schools, read their work, and talk to the children about the problems of their craft. The children love it. In another school, a practicing attorney comes in every month and talks to several classes about the law. Not the law it is in books, but the law as he sees it and encounters it in his cases. And the children listen with intense interest. Here's something even easier: let children work together, help each other, learn from each other and each other's mistakes. We now know from this experience of many schools that children are often the best teachers of other children. What's more important, we know that when the fifth floor six-grader who is being having trouble with reading, starts helping a first-grader, his own reading sharply improves. A number of schools are beginning to use what some call paired learning. This means that you let children form partnerships with other children. Do their work even including their tests together and share whatever marks or results this work gets. Just like grown-ups in the real world. It seems to work.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you've just heard.

23: Why does the speaker say most children have no idea what adult life is like?
24: What is happening in New York City schools?
25: What does the experience of many schools show?

23. C) They have little close contact with adults.
24. B) Writers and lawyers are brought in to talk to students.
25. B) Children are often the best teachers of other children.

【复合式听写】

Tests may be the most unpopular part of academic life. Students hate them because they produce fear and anxiety about being evaluated, and focus on grades instead of learning for learning's sake. But tests are also valuable. A well-constructed test identifies what you know and what you still need to learn. Tests help you see how your performance compares to that of others. And knowing that you'll be tested on a body of material is certainly likely to motivate you to learn the material more thoroughly. However, there's another reason you might dislike tests. You may assume that tests have the power to define your worth as a person. If you do badly on a test, you may be tempted to believe that you received some fundamental information about yourself from the professor --- information that says you are a failure in some significant way. This is a dangerous and wrong-headed assumption. If you do badly on a test, it doesn't mean you are a bad person or stupid or that you'll never do better again and that your life is ruined. If you don't do well on a test, you're the same person you were before you took the test. No better, no worse. You just did badly on a test. That's it! In short, tests are not a measure of your value as an individual. They're a measure only of how well and how much you studied. Tests are tools. They're indirect and imperfect measures of what we know.

参考答案
26) anxiety
27) identifies
28) compares to
29) a body of
30) motivate
31) define
32) fundamental
33) ruined
34) In short
35) imperfect