ListeningPracticeThroughDictation_4_transcript.pdf

Transcripts

Nature and the Environment

from green to red, yellow, orange, or brown.

Actually, the leaves are really these colors all

year long. They look green because of a chemical

called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll works with the

sun to help the trees make food. In autumn,

when there is less sun, the tree cannot make

chlorophyll, so the green color fades. This

reveals other colors, like red and yellow, that

were always in the leaves.

Like trees, animals also sense changes in the

cooler autumn climate. Animals that hibernate

eat a lot during autumn. They gain weight to store

energy in the form of fat. They use this energy to

survive the winter while hibernating. Many birds

survive the cold in a different way: they leave.

Each year, many birds migrate south to warmer

climates during autumn. They migrate north

again in the spring. Not a bad idea if you ask

me! After all, who would refuse a mid-winter trip

to sunny Thailand?

Unit 1 Hibernation

Some animals in cold climates hibernate.

This means that they spend the winter months in

a very long and deep sleep. Many animals find

shelter underground. They dig out shelters to

sleep in. Animals that cannot dig find cracks or

holes at the base of trees and bushes. If they like

the place they find, they might use it for years

and years.

Animals that hibernate include cold-blooded

animals, such as lizards, frogs, and snakes. Many

warm-blooded animals also hibernate, such as

mice, bats, and squirrels. When these animals

are hibernating, they seem like they are not alive

at all. Warm-blooded animals seem colder to the

touch. However, their blood is still very warm.

Hibernating animals have a very slow heartbeat.

They almost stop breathing. Extra blood sugar

and fat in their bodies keep them alive. They eat

lots of food just before they hibernate.

Winters that do not stay cold are dangerous

for hibernating animals. They can sometimes

wake up in their shelters when it gets a little

warm. Then they use energy by moving around.

During winter, there is very little food. These

animals can get very thin and weak. If they move

around too much and do not eat, they can die.

Animals hibernate to escape the cold. There

are also animals in hot climates that escape the

heat. During very hot or dry weather, they sleep

underground. This is called aestivation.

Unit 3 How the Dinosaurs Disappeared

G: The death of the dinosaurs is a great mystery.

About 65 million years ago, dinosaurs lived all

over the Earth. They had existed for nearly 200

million years. Suddenly, they all became extinct.

Many scientists believe that the dinosaurs

were killed by a large meteor. They think that

this meteor was about six to twelve miles wide.

It crashed into southern Mexico and made a

hole about 130 miles wide. The crash threw dust

and dirt into the sky. Dust clouds darkened the

Earth’s atmosphere. The crash caused fires,

earthquakes, and tidal waves. The plants were

killed. The oceans were poisoned. Very soon,

there was no food left for the plant-eating

dinosaurs. When they died, there was no food

for the meat-eating dinosaurs. The meteor killed

almost 70 percent of all plants and animals on

Earth. The only animals that could survive were

small ones that could eat many different kinds

of food.

Some scientists say the meteor alone did not

cause dinosaurs to become extinct. They think

that dinosaurs were already getting weaker.

They are not sure why. One reason might be

disease. Another might be climate change. A big

Unit 2 Falling Leaves

Autumn, or fall, is the season between summer

and winter. The days become shorter, and the air

gets cooler. Trees sense these changes, so they

start preparing for colder weather.

Trees that have leaves block water and food

from coming through the branches to the leaves.

When this happens, the leaves die. They fall off

the tree or the wind blows them away. This is

why autumn is usually called fall in America. As

the leaves start to die, they appear to change

part of the mystery is why some types of animals

survived. If climate change killed dinosaurs, it

should also have killed frogs. If the meteor killed

most sea reptiles, it should have killed crocodiles.

Yet frogs and crocodiles still exist in the world

today.

M1: Well, Sue, residents of Seattle will be happy to

hear that this rainy spell we’ve been having is

finally coming to an end. Although we’ve seen

occasional showers today, by tonight things

should dry out, and Friday morning should

be clear and sunny. This fine weather should

continue until the end of the weekend, with

temperatures ranging from 55 to 75 degrees, so

everyone can put away those umbrellas. Back

to you, Sue.

W1: Thank you, Barry. On behalf of the Thursday

Six o’clock News team, we wish you a pleasant

evening.

Unit 4 Acid Rain!

M: I hate this rain. It’s causing the traffic to back up

for miles!

W: Well, I hate this traffic, because it’s helping turn

this rain into acid rain.

M: I heard that acid rain has really bad effects.

Doesn’t it cause cancer and brain damage, and

even Alzheimer’s disease?

W: It definitely can, but the major thing it does is

cause breathing problems. The acid in the rain

comes from smoke and gases that are given off

by cars and factories. It’s like riding your bike

behind a bus that’s showering you with its

exhaust fumes.

M: Oh, I was reading something about that the

other day. It said there’s too much sulfur in the

air and that it’s killing thousands of people every

year.

W: Yes. Sulfur is the major element in factory and

car exhaust. It combines with oxygen and nitrogen

in the air to become the acid in acid rain. This

stuff doesn’t just kill us, you know. It also kills

trees and lakes and animals. The acid soaks into

the plants and animals, so that anyone who eats

the plants and animals is also eating the acid.

M: This sounds terrible! What can people do to

stop acid rain?

W: One simple thing they could do is to use less

energy. Another way to stop acid rain is to drive

less, or at least carpool. Imagine if every car on

this road had four people in it right now. There

would be fewer cars and a lot less acid rain.

Part II

M2: Did you hear the weather report, Jenny? It

looks like it’ll be a clear weekend after all, so

we won’t have to cancel our trip to the lake.

W2: That’s almost unbelievable! I’m really looking

forward to getting out of the city and camping

under the stars. But we’d better get our stuff

ready tonight, Paul, if we’re planning to leave

tomorrow right after work.

M2: Yes, we’ll need our tent, sleeping bags, camping

stove, and a cooler for the drinks. What about

food?

W2: Let’s stop at a store and pick up some groceries

on the way out.

M2: Sounds good. Well, we’d better get packing if we

want to be ready to go by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Science and Technology

Unit 6 Who Invented That?

W: What’s so funny? I can’t concentrate on my

work if you keep laughing loudly like that.

M: I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m reading this article in

Science Today magazine about some of the

unusual things that people have invented. These

inventions are incredible!

W: OK, tell me about some of these inventions, and

let’s see if I think they’re as funny as you do.

M: All right. The first one is a ladder for spiders, “a

thin, flexible, rubber strip which attaches to the

top edge of the bath.”

W: Ha ha! I wonder how long it took someone to

invent that.

Unit 5 The Weather Forecast

Part I

W1: And now, over to Barry with our weather

forecast for this weekend. How’s it looking for

this weekend, Barry? Speaking for myself, I

know I’m looking forward to clear skies. The

past two weeks have been even rainier than

usual for Seattle.

M: Another inventor has designed a portable seat

that you wear on a belt around your waist. In

this picture it looks like a big plastic cushion.

W: Well, that is very unusual. But who would want

to walk around with a portable plastic seat

hanging from their waist all the time?

M: Another unusual invention is this one. Look, it’s

a car plate that indicates whether the driver is a

man or a woman by using different colors on

either side. There’s one color for males and one

for females.

W: What’s the point of that invention?

M: The inventor says that other road users will

change the way they behave. They will become

more polite if they know a woman is driving, so

there will be fewer car accidents.

W: Ha! Do you really think that will happen? That’s

completely unbelievable!

Unit 8 Inches and Centimeters

B:Hi, Julie. I’m trying to figure out the dimensions

of this MP4 player I want to buy, but I’m having

trouble converting these English measurements.

You’re really good at mathematics, aren’t you?

It says that the MP4 player is 3.6 inches tall and

two inches wide, but what does that mean in

centimeters?

G:Well, according to my math book, one inch

equals 2.54 centimeters, so to convert that, we

need to multiply each English measurement by

that number. Wait, I have a calculator in my

pocket.

B:Great!

G:According to the calculator, that would make it

9.1 centimeters tall and, let’s see, about five

centimeters wide.

B:So, its height is about nine centimeters and its

width is about five centimeters, but what about

its weight? The website says that it weighs 3.6

ounces.

G:We multiply 3.6 by 28.3, which is the equivalent

in grams, and that converts to about 102 grams.

B:All right then, the MP4 player is about nine

centimeters tall and five centimeters wide, and

weighs about 102 grams. I thought it would

have to have larger dimensions to be able to

hold 5,000 songs, but it’s small and light! Do

you think I should buy it, Julie?

G:It sounds like a good product, but it depends on

the price.

B:Well, now I have the same sort of problem

again. Could you help me figure out how to

convert Chinese currency to our currency?

Unit 7 The White Noise Machine

W: And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you

have all been waiting for. Here’s the winner of

this year’s science contest: Charles Moore!

Charles, tell everyone about your invention.

M: Thank you! For the science contest this year, I’ve

invented a white noise machine. Let me explain

what that is. Have you ever been kept awake at

night because of the sound of traffic, or people

talking, or loud music? These types of noise are

sometimes called dark noise. Dark noise is made

up of sounds that bother you so much that you

can’t concentrate on what you are doing.

White noise is not exactly noise; in fact,

white noise can’t be heard at all. White noise is

made up of invisible waves of sound that reduce

the effects of dark noise by making sounds of

the opposite frequency. It’s like being in the

ocean and seeing a large wave coming toward

you. It might knock you down. But if you could

send a wave, or many small waves, toward the

big wave, it wouldn’t be as powerful, because

the small waves would hit it and reduce its size.

My machine does this with sound. As a sound

enters the microphone, the machine determines

the sound’s frequency. Then it makes a sound in the

opposite frequency that cancels out the first sound.

I hope my machine will give some peace and quiet

to people living in noisy places. Thank you.

Computers have transformed the way people

communicate. In some ways this transformation

is good, but in other ways it could be harmful.

Statistics show that millions of people use the

Internet every day. People shop online, play

games, and search for information. Studies also

show that people use the Internet mainly for

communication.

The Internet has made communication fast

and convenient. Email can travel anywhere

within seconds. Chat rooms include people from

Unit 9 Communicating Online

all over the world. People can even make

Internet telephone calls.

However, this type of communication is very

different from what people did in the past.

People spend less time talking face to face. They

might “chat” for days without being in the same

room with a real person. They also might

communicate with many people at the same

time. Some researchers think this is unhealthy.

One study on Internet use found that people

who used the Internet a lot were lonely. Also,

they did not communicate as much with members

of their family.

Many people have criticized this study. They

say it did not include enough people and that

loneliness is hard to measure. In my opinion, all

types of communication are good. It is great to

email someone and get a fast response. It is also

nice to talk face to face. We can do both. The

Internet is a fantastic tool. We should use it

wisely to benefit from it.

In school, my teachers were surprised. They

were used to boys giving all the answers in

science class. They were impressed with my

science exam scores. I have lots of confidence in

myself. I know that boys are not smarter than

girls in science and math classes. I just wish I

could convince my friends!

Art and Culture

Love. Hate. Death. These things are at the

heart of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Romeo

and Juliet . The St. Stephens High School drama

club performed this play last weekend.

Romeo and Juliet is the story of two families,

the Capulets and the Montagues, who are bitter

enemies. Tragedy follows when the son of one

falls in love with the daughter of the other. The

play is set in Verona, Italy, in the late 16 th century.

Allison Bourne played Juliet, Capulet’s

beautiful young daughter. She showed the mixed

emotions Juliet felt after secretly marrying the

son of her family’s most hated enemy. At times,

she was happy, and at times, she was afraid.

David Taylor played Romeo, Montague’s

son. He put on a good performance despite

having a head cold. His lines were said with

great feeling in a clear voice.

Eric Parker was the perfect Tybalt: dark and

angry. Maggie Jones played the nurse. She acted

the part of a gossipy old woman very well. She

made everyone in the audience laugh at her

jokes and her comic character.

The whole cast showed enthusiasm in every

scene. The actors knew the meaning of their

lines. They used body language to show this

meaning well. The stage lights were sometimes

too bright or too dim. But the sword fights looked

very real, and the costumes were wonderful.

Overall, St. Stephens’ production of Romeo

and Juliet was a great night of high school theater.

Unit 10 Science for Girls

G: Hi. My name is Sandy. Welcome to physics,

my favorite class. Although there are 30 students

in our class, only six of us are girls.

Most of my friends don’t like science as

much as I do. They are convinced that science

and mathematics are “boys’ subjects.” They say

that boys learn about science and mathematics

by playing with toys like building blocks, racing

cars, and simple machines, while girls play with

toys like dolls and tea sets. They say their parents

didn’t do science experiments with them or

encourage them to learn math.

Well, that wasn’t the case with me! I played

with dolls, too, but my parents also built up my

confidence in science and math. They used long

plastic rods, which are like sticks, to help me

learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and

division. For my eighth birthday, they gave me a

kids’ chemistry set, which helped me do all sorts

of cool experiments! Whenever we went to the

park, my parents asked me different questions

about the plants and animals that we saw. When

we got home, we looked up the answers together.

Unit 11 On Stage!

Unit 12 A Famous Portrait

B: The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous

paintings in the world. It was painted by the

great Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci, between

the years 1503 and 1505. The portrait was done

with oil paint on a simple piece of wood. The

portrait shows a woman in front of a landscape

with mountains. Many people believe that the

model for the painting was the wife of an important

man in the area. However, some people now

think that da Vinci actually drew a picture of

himself. They say the face looks similar to his.

Apparently, da Vinci loved the painting so much

that he carried it with him at all times until he

sold it to the king of France.

The portrait is famous for several reasons.

The best-known reason is for Mona Lisa’s

unusual smile. It is difficult to say if she is being

pleasant or looking arrogant. Another reason

the painting is famous is that it was stolen from

an art museum in 1911. Both France and Italy

sent people to look for the lost painting. It was

then found two years later in a hotel in France.

It is currently on display at the Louvre Museum

in Paris. People from all over the world go to the

museum each year to see the Mona Lisa . In fact,

the painting has so much appeal today that it

has been copied many times.

birds fly?” Then he would try to find the answers.

He was interested in everything. For example,

he studied the inner workings of the human

body. He would cut up dead bodies to examine

their insides.

Leonardo was also a talented inventor. He

believed that by understanding how each part of

a machine worked, the parts could be changed

and combined in different ways to make new

machines. Using his artistic talent, Leonardo drew

pictures of many inventions. However, few of

them were built and tested during his lifetime.

For example, his parachute wasn’t built until

1783. Also, his war tank wasn’t used until World

War I in 1917.

Unit 14 Ludwig van Beethoven

G: Ludwig van Beethoven was a musical genius.

He composed hundreds of songs in his lifetime.

The first four notes of his Fifth Symphony--- bom

bom bom bommmmm ---are the most famous

in the world. These notes are played on a

trombone. Beethoven was the first composer to

use trombones in a symphony. A symphony is a

very complex and beautiful song. Beethoven

wrote nine symphonies in all. He said that he

first composed symphonies in his head. He

heard the part for every instrument in his mind

before he wrote the first note on paper.

Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn,

Germany. His birthday was probably in

December. Nobody is sure. He gave his first

public performance at age seven. He wrote his

first composition before he was 12. Sadly, at the

age of 28, he started to go deaf. But he continued

to compose music and to lead the orchestra. He

never got married.

After his death in 1827, friends found love

letters that he had written to someone he called

“Immortal Beloved.” To be immortal means to

live forever. “Beloved” is a way of saying you love

someone. His lover’s name still remains a mystery.

For these reasons, and because of his wonderful

music, he is remembered as a remarkable man in

history. Perhaps no other composer has had

such a large effect on the history of western

music as Beethoven.

When most people hear the name Leonardo

da Vinci, they think of art. But in fact, he was a

man of many talents. He was a scientist, an

inventor, and an artist.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in

Vinci, Italy. When he was 14, his father sent him

to Florence to train under Andrea del Verrocchio,

one of the best artists in the area. Leonardo

became better than Verrocchio. By his early

twenties, Leonardo was famous for his painting.

He was especially good at painting colors and

details. This made his paintings very lifelike. His

most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and

The Last Supper .

Leonardo was also a great scientist. He was

a good observer of life and nature. He would

ask himself simple questions like, “How do

Unit 13 Leonardo da Vinci

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