聽力原文： Lecturer: In the last lecture, we looked at the adverse effects of desert dust on global climate. Today we're going to examine more closely what causes dust storms and what other effects they can have. As you know, dust storms have always been a feature of desert climates, but what we want to focus on today is the extent to which human activity is causing them. And it is this trend that I want to look at, because it has wide-ranging implications. So, what are these human activities? Well, there are two main types that affect the wind erosion process, and thus the frequency of dust storms. There are activities that break up naturally wind-resistant surfaces such as off-road vehicle use and construction and there are those that remove protective vegetation cover from soils, for example, mainly farming and drainage. In many cases the two effects occur simultaneously which adds to the problem.

Let's look at some real examples and see what I'm talking about. Perhaps the best-known example of agricultural impact on desert dust is the creation of the USA's 'dust bowl' in the 1930s. The dramatic rise in the number of dust storms during the latter part of that decade was the result of farmers' mismanaging their land. In fact, choking dust storms became so commonplace that the decade became known as the 'Dirty Thirties'.

Researchers observed a similar, but more prolonged, increase in dustiness in West Africa between the 1960s and the 1980s when the frequency of the storms rose to 80 a year and the dust was so thick that visibility was reduced to 1,000 metres. This was a hazard to pilots and road users. In places like Arizona, the most dangerous dust clouds are those generated by dry thunderstorms. Here, this type of storm is so common that the problem inspired officials to develop an alert system to warn people of oncoming thunderstorms. When this dust is deposited it causes all sorts of problems for machine operators. It can penetrate the smallest nooks and crannies and play havoc with the way things operate because most of the dust is made up of quartz which is very hard. Another example - the concentration of dust originating from the Sahara has risen steadily since the mid-1960s.

This increase in wind erosion has coincided with a prolonged drought, which has gripped the Sahara's southern fringe. Drought is commonly associated with an increase in dust-raising activity but it's actually caused by low rainfall which results in vegetation dying off.

One of the foremost examples of modern human-induced environmental degradation is the drying up of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Its ecological demise dates from the 1950s when intensive irrigation began in the then Central Asian republics of the USSR. This produced a dramatic decline in the volume of water entering the sea from its two major tributaries. In 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake in the world, but since that time it has lost two-thirds of its volume, its surface area has halved and its water level has dropped by more than 216 metres. A knock-on effect of this ecological disaster has been the release of significant new sources of wind-blown material, as the water level has dropped.

And the problems don't stop there. The salinity of the lake has increased so that it is now virtually the same as sea water. This means that the material that is blown from the dry bed of the Aral Sea is highly saline. Scientists believe it is adversely affecting crops around the sea because salts are toxic to plants.

This shows that dust storms have numerous consequences beyond their effects on climate, both for the workings of environmental systems and for people living in drylands ...

SECTION 4 Questions 31-40

Questions 31-32

Complete the notes using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer

Main focus of lecture: the impact of 【31】______ on the occurrence of dust st

聽力原文： In the late eighteenth century, battles raged in almost every comer of Europe, as well as in the Middle East, South Africa, the West Indies, and Latin America. In reality, however, there was only one major war during this time, the war between Britain and France. All other battles were ancillary to this larger conflict, and were often at least partially related to its antagonist' goals and strategies. France sought total domination of Europe. This goal was obstructed by British independence and Britain's efforts throughout the continent to thwart Napoleon; through treaties. Britain built coalitions (not dissimilar in concept to today's NATO) guaranteeing British participation in all major European conflicts. These two antagonists were poorly matched, insofar as they had very unequal strengths; France was predominant on land, Britain at sea. The French knew that, short of defeating the British navy, their only hope of victory was to close all the ports of Europe to British ships. Accordingly, France set out to overcome Britain by extending its military domination from Moscow to Lisbon, from Jutland to Caldaria. All of this entailed tremendous risk, because France did not have the military resources to control this much territory and still protect itself and maintain order at home.

French strategists calculated that a navy of 150 ships would provide the force necessary to defeat the British navy. Such a force would give France a three-to-two advantage over Britain. This advantage was deemed necessary because of Britain's superior sea skills and technology, and also because Britain would be fighting a defensive war, allowing it to win with fewer forces. Napoleon never lost substantial impediment to his control of Europe. As his force neared that goal, Napoleon grew increasingly impatient and began planning an immediate attack.

Which of the following was the only major war during the late eighteenth century?

A．The war in the Middle East.

B．The war in South Africa.

C．The war in Latin America.

D．The war between Britain and France.

聽力原文： Lecturer: More and more American parents are becoming interested in having their children learn Chinese. This is not only a case of having their children attend private classes or of schools teaching the language instead of, or in addition to, the West European languages that are traditionally studied in the States, like Spanish, French and German. Oh, no. Studying geometry can be taxing for any 10-year-old, but at a select number of American schools, children are not only learning about angles, they are doing it in Chinese. This select number of schools is growing, since Chinese is a hot language thanks to China's surging economy and growing world clout. Even children as young as 6 are honing their Chinese at school, motivated by a mix of parental prodding and their own desire to do something different. I went to see one of these schools and it really is amazing when you walk into a kindergarten classroom, and the children are 'understanding what the teacher is saying and it's all in Chinese. Half of the time the kids aren't even aware that the teacher is speaking a different language. They just fall right into it.

The United States has declared this year to be the "Year of Languages", although few Americans are aware of the designation. According to a survey by the Language Association, more college students are studying foreign languages than ever before. Enrolment in Chinese has risen by 20 percent over the past 3 years. The 1.4 million students learning 15 leading languages represents a 17 percent increase over the same period. However, only 9.3 percent of Americans are able to speak a second tongue, compared to 52.7 percent of Europeans, according to the Census Bureau.

At first glance, weighty national priorities take a back seat to the fun of cultural exchange at Potomac Elementary. Hallways are festooned with Chinese art and learning aids, such as stuffed animals labelled with Chinese names. Children sing Chinese folk songs and American nursery rhymes in Chinese. In the fifth-grade immersion class, songs and games come only after a rigorous vocabulary drill and lessons on triangles and trapezoids-- all taught in Chinese. The students are good at listening and do pretty well at reading, but writing is their weak point, according to the class teacher, who has a Ph.D. in education and was a teacher in his native Beijing.

I asked two of the children--a boy and a girl--about their experiences of learning Chinese. The boy said that mastering Chinese characters was tough. When I asked why, he said that he finds the writing particularly hard because you have to do the strokes in the right order. The girl said that learning Chinese is "cool" and that she is starting to catch on to the complex writing system of characters that contain elements of meaning and sound. She pointed out that it is quite different to English because there's nothing like letters to refer to. However, she noted that she can remember how to write Coca-Cola in Chinese because it has a lot of little boxes that refer to a mouth. This visual aspect of Chinese characters and how it influences children when they are learning the language is a theme I'll return to later.

Even though it is clearly the parents who are pushing for more Chinese classes, my research revealed that they are not usually pushing their children too hard, which I think is a good thing. Parents of the kids say they are loathe to plan careers for 10 year olds. To quote one of them, "Even if my child doesn't use her Chinese going forward, she's learned so much about another culture." Some of the parents are encouraging their children--directly or indirectly--by taking night classes in Chinese. This has been proven to be a great motivator. If children see their parents learning something, they will usually take an interest in learning it too--or at least take a greater interest in learning generally.

Dr

聽力原文：M: Look, the lights in the lab are still on. It must be Professor Zhang who is still in it.

W: How could it be? I saw her go home just a moment ago.

What does the woman mean?

A．Professor Zhang couldn't be in the lab.

B．Professor Zhang forgot to turn off the lights in the lab.

C．Professor Zhang went home a long time ago.

D．Professor Zhang was the last one to leave the lab.

聽力原文：In the last few years， managers throughout industry have seen more changes than many of them could have expected to see in their entire working lives. Having to communicate information which often leads to feelings of insecurity has become a key activity. From being regarded as relatively unimportant in many companies ，management employee communication has become a central corporate need.

Concordia International provides a good example of a company that has adjusted well to the changing needs for communication. since 1995 ，Concordia has been turned inside-out and upside-down， to ensure that it is a marketing –led， customer-responsive business， one that looks outwards at customers and competitors， rather than inwards at its own processes and the way things were done in the past. In the last eight years， Concordia has reduced its workforce by more than 80,000 people - or 35% -on a voluntary basis， with further downsizing anticipated.

From being an engineering company， Concordia is now remaking itself as a service company. The role of employee communication in such a context is to build people’s self-confidence， to persuade them that， although it is inevitable that the changes will go ahead， they also bring with them new opportunities for employees. However， this is not an easy task. People tend to be skeptical of these claims and to feel that they are losing touch with the company they have worked for over many years. This is understandable，since many of the old certainties are being swept away ， including the core activities of the company they work for. Above all ， they have had to face up to the fact that they no longer have a job for life.

Research indicates that people respond to this predicament in a variety of ways. The bulk of employees fall into two main categories in terms of their response to the new situation： on the one hand there are the “ pragmatists” and on the other “ the highly anxious”. The former see their job as a means to an end and have a relatively short-term perspective， with strong loyalty to their local term ， rather than the company as a whole . The second category， usually the majority， may respond to threatened changes with a feeling of having been let down， and even feel angry at the company for what they see as changing the terms of their employment.

The employee communication process needs to be capable of accurately directing its messages at a variety of employee groups and departments within the workforce. This is why middle managers and line managers are so key to communication. They are the people who know about the full range of concerns among the workforce. The problem in the past was that this crucial area was often the responsibility of a separate， relatively isolated unit. Concordia puts responsibility for communication firmly on line managers. All their research points to the same conclusion：people prefer to get their information face-to-face from their line managers. That is the key relationship and where arguments and hearts and minds are lost.

The general rule in company communication is to tell employees as much as you can as soon as you can. If you can’t provide details，then at least put the news in context and commit yourself to providing greater detail when it becomes available. Another rule of company communication is that there must be a fit between what the company is telling its employees and what it is telling its shareholders.

You will hear a talk about management.

You have to complete the sentences 23--30 by choosing the correct answer.

Mark one letter A, B or C.

In the last eight years, Concordia has ______.

A．made over 80 000 employees redundant

B．completed a period of downsizing

C．reduced its workforce of 80 000 by 35%

Celts？ The Celts were an Indo-European group, that is, related linguistically

to the Greeks, the Germanic peoples, certain Italic groups and peoples of the

Indian sub-continent. They arose in central Europe at the beginning of the first

millennium B.C. and were an iron using and horse rearing peoples. By the end Q31

of the first millennium B.C. their cultural group had spread up and down the

Danube and Rhine, taking in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, across central Europe,

into northern Italy and northern Spain. Their roaming across Europe led some

of the Celtic tribes to sack Rome in 390 B.C. creating a fear of the northern

barbarians that was to haunt Romans for hundreds of years to come.

The Celts are defined archaeologically by the type-sites of Hallstat

and La Tene, the former being taken to relate to an earlier phase of cultural

development. Hallstat, an ancient salt mining area, was excavated from 1876 Q32

onwards by the Viennese Academy of Sciences and provided the first classification

of the prehistoric Celts. In 1858, the waters of Lake Neuchatel in Q33

Switzerland sunk to a low level, revealing a large prehistoric settlement with

a huge number of surviving artefacts. The nearby town of La Tene gave its

name to the second phase of Celtic cultural development. However, please

note that these phases overlap through time, and are defined according to

geographical area. Let's look at each of these, taking the Hallstadt first.

Hallstatt culture is characterised in 4 stages. A & B were during the Q34

late Bronze Age, from about 1200 to 700 BC; C was in the Early Iron Age,

from about 700-600 BC; D was from about 600 to 475 BC. The Hallstatt

culture spanned central Europe, with its centre in the area around Hallstatt in

Central Austria. There were two distinct cultural zones—the eastern and the

western. At the start of the period, long distance trade was already well established

in copper and tin—the basic requirements for manufacture of bronze. Q35

From about 700 BC, trade in iron also became established. The Hallstat area

also already controlled the trade in salt, crucial when there were few other

means to preserve food. Control of these two crucial trade goods—iron and

salt—provided the basis for the accumulation of wealth and influence. From

800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified, in central Europe,

with grave goods such as wheeled wagons and iron swords.

Hallstatt C saw the construction of fortified hilltop settlements to the Q36

North of the Alps. These had burial mounds holding very high quality goods,

such as vehicles and expensive imported treasures. By the time of the Hallstart

D period, these increasingly extravagant burial mounds were clustered

around a few major hill forts to the southwest of the region. This suggests a

development and a concentration of wealth and social power, possibly based

on the development of Massilia (present-day Marseilles) as a Greek trading

port. The expansion of luxury trade brought greater opportunities for profit Q37

and helped to create an increasingly stratified society, with the development

of a wealthy nobility. Over the period from 1846 to 1863, a thousand graves

were found at Hallstatt, with an astonishing range of artefacts, including

clothing and salt mining equipment as well as weapons, jewellery, pottery

and imported bronze vessels in the "chieftains'" graves.

The La Tene era was the time of Celtic expansion and migration and Q38

the time of formation

聽力原文： So, you've been reading about the beginning of modern philanthropy in the late 19m and early 20m centuries—a time of great expansion and progress in the United States—this was during the industrial revolution—and that lead to great wealth for some individuals. Well, today, I want to talk for a moment about Andrew Carnegie, a businessman and investor who rose from a modest background to great wealth, and became one of the most influential philanthropists of the time. He was also the richest man in the world in 1901, when at age 65, he sold his steel business for $ 480 million dollars! However, Carnegie had a long-standing interest in philanthropy and was one of the first wealthy individuals to say publicly that wealthy people had a responsibility to the community—a responsibility to give away their wealth for the benefit of the community.

Now, in 1889, Carnegie published a book—The Gospel of Wealth—and he discussed his ideas about the responsibility of the rich. Carnegie believed that people should only use the money they need to support themselves and their family, and then, beyond that, they… they should give the rest away to help the community. He said, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced." So, in other words, he thought that it was shameful for wealthy people to keep all their money for themselves, that instead they should use their money to help others. In fact, he even disapproved of wealthy people leaving money to charity after they died, instead of giving it away while they were alive. He thought that these people didn't really want to give their money away, that they only made these donations because they couldn’t take the money with them after death! So he had some very strong views about this.

And he followed through on his beliefs! Because by the time he died in 1911, he had given away ninety percent of his fortune—about $ 350 million dollars—that's more than $ 3 million—I'm sorry, I mean $ 3 billion in today's dollars!

As for the motivations for Carnegie's philanthropy… Well, some say it was based on his life experience. For example, take one of his most famous causes: public libraries. During his lifetime he built more than twenty-five hundred public libraries around the world, sixteen hundred of them in the United States. And it goes back to when he was a boy, only 13, and he had to go to work to help support his family. So he couldn't go to school. He loved to read, but there was no public libraries open for anyone to use. However, a rich man lived nearby, and he had a library, and he let Carnegie borrow his books for free! So, that's how Carnegie educated himself, by reading these books. And he never forgot that. He believed that anyone—no matter their background—anyone, with the right inclination and desire, could educate him or herself, and he saw public libraries as an important resource for this.

Now another cause that was very important to Carnegie was that of world peace and the end of war. In 1907, he wrote, "I am drawn more to this cause than to any." He believed that war could be eliminated… it could be ended by building stronger international laws and organizations. So, to that end, he established the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace in Washington DC, with a gift of $10 million dollars. But he had another more controversial idea for promoting world peace--and that was to simplify English spelling. He believed by making English spelling more sensible and regular, it could become a "lingua franca", a common language spoken around the world. And this, in turn, would help international communication. So, he established the Simplified Spelling Board, which he funded with $ 25, 000 per year. Realistically, I don't see why he believed that people would ever change something as… as… central to the language as spelling--most people completely opposed it! So his ideas never caught on, and twelve years later, after spending $ 300,000, he gave up and st

A．The influence of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy today.

B．The reasons for Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy.

C．The relationship between Andrew Carnegie and other philanthropists.

D．The story of Andrew Carnegie's life.

聽力原文：How often does Class A have listening classes in the language lab?

(5)

A．June 23.

B．Last week.

C．Yes, they all go there.

D．Every Monday and Friday.

聽力原文： In the early days I had to take premises all over the place, anywhere I could get them, just to get the business off the ground. But over the years I've always looked for the opportunity to get everyone together on one site. When all this is over, we'll look better and we'll perform. better. I know it means we're going to attract more business. And another thing, we're supposed to keep all the records on the database, but half the time, the various PCs aren't working or the network's down or something. That can surely only get better. Personally I can't wait.

(15)

聽力原文：M: Your article in the paper was perfect.

W: I only wished they had published the entire thing.

Q: What do we learn from the man's response?

(18)

A．The article was actually longer.

B．The newspaper printed his other paper.

C．He's just begun writing for the newspaper.

D．The article deals with books.