20xx年三段对话/独白
1.
JoAnn: Don, you have been a strong advocate for teacher and student rights; you wrote about the politics of education in Testing Is Not Teaching(2002). How have things changed since you first wrote about writing in the1970s?
Don: In my report to the Ford Foundation in 1976, I documented how the government f unded no research in the teaching of writing. It was appalling how little opportunity there was to research the second R. I actually got the first grant from the government in 1978for my study in Atkinson, New Hampshire. There was also a cover story by Newsweek with the title, “Why Johnny Can’t.” That was around 1977,as I recall. So there was a burst of energy for writing in the early 80s. The National-writing Project expanded dramatically,and there was more research money for studying writing. Even Ronald Reagan allowed funds to go to writing and its improvement; I was on his panel for excellence. I’ve learned that American educator sand the government can maintain focus on a subject area for only so long. In the early 90s and continuing to the present, testing and accountability have become a major focus. They have become almost like curricula in their own right. They steal the focus from learning and—more particularly—from writing.
JoAnn: What impact have federal mandates had on our schools? What has this meant for the teaching of writing? Don: Testing and the emphasis on reading have stolen large blocks of time from writing. Writing requires human power and time to evaluate whatever is submitted. Reading, on the other hand, is much cheaper to assess. The No Child Left Behind Act is all about reading. The authors of the bill didn't realize just how much writing creates a different reader. Writing is the making of reading. People who construct things know far better how to take those things apart.[The federal mandates want us to believe that] it is much more important to find out if children are good receivers of information, rather than good senders of information. In short,we don’t want their ideas, but we do want to know if they can get the right answer about the information they should understand. In sum, from a political standpoint,we don’t really want to know if they can write with a voice that has idea sand facts to support those ideas.
JoAnn: What can teachers do when they find they have less time for writing?
Don: Teachers should band together asking lots of questions, both orally and in writing. They need to ask questions like:? How important is writing in relation to reading?? Do you think it is equally important for children to know how to send information, as well as to receive it?? Do you think writing is a medium for learning to think? Why or why not?? Do we, in fact, want our children to be thinkers who come up with original ideas? If so, how can we assess that?? Most professional writers read,interview, make outlines, take notes, and then write. Why is it that children are denied the very tools and opportunities that professional writers use when taking tests or following test prompts?To show how important the medium of writing is, we should put our questions in writing, then call for an appointment to have good dialogue with administrators, and policy makers. Of course, we need to have dialogue among ourselves about these matters first. Donald Graves(Continued from page 1)[The federal mandates want us to believe that] it is much more-important to find out if children are good receivers of information,rather than good senders of information. In short, we don't want their ideas, but we do want to know if they can get the right answer about the information they should understand.
2.
The epitome of a Victorian gentleman, Frederick Selous was a hunter, naturalist and conservationist who explored vast areas of Southern Africa and made valuable biological observations.Frederick Courtenay Selous was born in 1851 to a London Stock
Exchange official and a poet who loved adventure. From an early age, he had a fascination with David Livingstone, the great British explorer who had made his name exploring navigable rivers in Southern Africa. At the age of nine, he was said
to have been found sleeping in a nightshirt on the floor of his boarding school, Rugby, and when asked what he was doing there replied, "One day I am going to be a hunter in Africa, and I am just hardening myself to sleep on the ground."
Selous first visited Southern Africa in 1871, and then spent the next 20 years exploring and hunting between the Transvaal and the Congo Basin.As one of few white men to travel in the African interior at the time, Selous was instrumental in opening up Southern Africa for Cecil Rhodes and the British, negotiating with many of the great indigenous leaders. He documented the progress of the gold industry of Mashunaland (now Zimbabwe), and invited US President Theodore Roosevelt on a hunting expedition that was to effectively kick-start the safari industry for travellers who wanted to follow in Roosevelt's footsteps.
Selous published nine books in all, recounting his expeditions and adventures, of which A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa, Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia and African Nature Notes and Reminiscences are the best known.Selous epitomised the Victorian image of the 'great white hunter'. However, he was also an enthusiastic naturalist and conservationist at a time when such interests were considered unfashionable. While his fellow hunters rested during the afternoon heat, Selous would be out with his net catching butterflies and taking detailed notes. His precise observations provide a valuable historical record, and today the British Museum houses hundreds of his specimens.
3.
Laura Wood: First of all, I really enjoyed your book. You are one of the robotics pioneers, and so I was very excited to find out that at last you were writing a trade book to give readers a firsthand description of how robotics has been developing and where it is going. What prompted you to write a book now?
Rodney Brooks: There is a confluence of three things happening in robotics right now that I thought were worth describing to the world. First, the sort of work we did on simple mobile autonomous robots back in the '80s has now been refined and developed in corporate research labs so that is starting to hit the consumer market -- just as the first personal computers started to appear in 1978 or so, now the first generation of home robots, robot toys, lawn mowers, and floor cleaners are starting to be sold through retail outlets. Second, more recent work in university research labs has led to robots that are able to interact with humans in such lifelike ways that they illuminate the question of whether we are anything more than machines and whether we will soon be able to build sentient machines. And third, robotic technology is now being implanted in people to compensate for losses caused by diseases, and we find ourselves on the threshold of roboticizing our own bodies. Since I have been involved in aspects of all of these developments, I thought I had some interesting perspectives to share with readers.
Laura Wood: I have to say that in particular I have been interested in the notion of embodiment -- that these artificial creatures are physical beings interacting in the real world -- and how that relates to ideas of robots learning and evolving in ways akin to biological evolution. I also enjoyed your discussion of the possibility of machines such as these becoming conscious at some point. If human consciousness arises out of physical processes, then we cannot say a priori that machines will never gain some type of "machine consciousness." Frankly, I do believe that such artificial persons, if they come to be, should have rights. Rodney Brooks: While I think this is a question we will need to address in the future, I think we will have some marginally simpler ethical issues to deal with in the shorter term -- over the next 10 to 20 years. We will be building robots much simpler than humans but perhaps as complex in some ways as insects or simple vertebrates. Under what conditions should we extend our ethical treatment of such animals to these robots -- what will it take to convince us that they are alive? Concurrently with that issue we will also be adopting more and more technology into our bodies -- what sorts of technology will be "fair" and what sorts "unfair"? For instance, in 20 years will we insist that teenagers switch off their brain-implanted wireless Internet connections while they take the SATs, or will we expect every student to have one, just as today we expect them all to have
their own calculator?
Laura Wood: When I was at the MIT A.I. lab, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Cog and Kismet. I managed to get Cog to hold my hand, and when I was playing with Kismet, his current graduate student thanked me for keeping him entertained. I told her a story about how when I was moving apartments I had packed a Furby into one of the boxes. I think the movers were a little disturbed when this tiny voice started protesting "I'm bored!" I started to get this vision of robots who need at least some attention from us -- much the way pets do. Will programmers need to consider how much time people will spend with their robots when creating these interacting machines?
Rodney Brooks: I have been involved in developing robotic toys at iRobot Corporation, a company I cofounded back in 1990. We developed My Real Baby, which was marketed by Hasbro. MRB has an emotional system that makes for interesting play experiences for children -- the toy responds differently to the same sorts of stimulus, depending on what mood it is in. It is of course interesting to design such systems as toys, but a more interesting question is whether more complex robots will have "emotional lives," not for their entertainment or play value but as a way of providing regulation of their activities. Animals and humans have evolved with emotional systems playing just such roles. We may end up building emotional systems into our robots so that people can both understand them and influence the robots in the same ways that they influence each other.
Laura Wood: I often found you making points in the book that I had wondered about when reading other books on future technology. I got a chuckle out of your observation that people freezing their heads make an assumption that future generations would want to revive dozens (hundreds?) of late-20th- and early-21st-century humans. You conclude in your book that technology seems to be heading in the direction of incorporating machine elements (implants, prosthetics, and so on) into human bodies. Do you anticipate that this will happen so gradually that society won't really be aware that we're turning into cyborgs until a significant percentage of the population is already part machine?
Rodney Brooks: That is exactly what I think will happen. Like many technologies, this one is going to sneak up on us. We all know people with hip replacements, and we may know people who have cochlear implants. More and more people are going to get implants to handle more and more diseases, ranging from Parkinson's to blindness. And more and more people will have prosthetic devices to compensate for stroke damage. Before too long, people are going to start having implants to augment themselves, not just repair damage. More and more people will be part flesh and part machine.
Laura Wood: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Rodney Brooks: While there is an optimistic interpretation of all these technologies, I think there are a lot of ethical issues that we will all have to face over the next 10 to 20 years. It behooves us all to understand what is happening so that together we can decide, as a species, just how we want these technologies to be deployed.
年代不详
Section II Use of English
(15 minutes)
Read the following text and fill each of the numbered spaces with ONE suitable word．
Write your．answers on ANSWER SHEET l．
If you are buying a property in France，whether for a permanent or a holiday home，it is important to open a French bank account．Although it is possible to exist on traveller’s cheques，Eurocheques and credit cards(31) ＿issued＿＿by British banks，the(32) ＿fees＿＿for these(33) ＿services＿＿can be expensive．
The simplest way to pay regular(34) ＿bills＿＿，such as electricity，gas or telephone，(35) ＿particularly＿＿when you are not in residence，is by direct debit(a sum withdrawn from an account)from your French account．To
(36) ＿open＿＿a current account，you will need to(37) ＿show＿＿your passport and birth(38) ＿certificate＿＿and to provide your address in the United Kingdom．You will be issued with a cheque book within weeks of opening the account．In France it is illegal to be overdrawn．All accounts must be operated(39) ＿in＿＿credit．However，there are no (40) ＿bank＿＿ charges．
Note that cheques(41) ＿take＿＿longer to clear in France than in Britain，and call only be stopped(42) ＿if＿＿stolen or lost．
The easiest way to(43) ＿transfer＿＿money from a British bank account to a French(44) ＿one＿＿is by bank transfer．You simply provide your British bank with the name，address and(45) ＿number＿＿0f your French bank ac—count．The procedure takes about a week and(46) ＿costs＿＿between￡5 and￡413 for each transaction，(47) ＿depending＿＿on your British bank。
(48) ＿Alternatively＿＿．you can transfer money(49) ＿via＿＿a French bank in London．You can also send a sterling cheque(allow at least l2(1ays for the cheque to be cleared)，Eurocheques or traveller’s(50) ＿cheques＿＿． Finally．it is a good idea to make a friend of your French bank manager．His help call prove invaluable．
09年5月
Section I
Listening ComprehensionThis section is designed to test your ability to understand spoken English.You will hear a selection of recorded materials and you must answer the questions that accompany them.There are three parts in this section, Part A , Part B and Part C.Remember, while you are doing the test, you should first answer the questions in your test booklet, not on the ANSWER SHEET.At the end of the listening comprehension section, you will have 5 minutes to transfer your answers from your test booklet onto ANSWER SHEET 1.If you have any questions, you may raise your hand NOW as you will not be allowed to speak once the test has started.
Part A You will hear a conversation between a student, Mr.Wang, and his tutor, Dr.Wilson.As you listen, answer Questions 1 to 10 by circling True or False.You will hear the conversation ONLY ONCE.You now have 60 seconds to read Questions 1-10.
1.Dr.Wilson and Mr.Wang have met before.TRUE/FALSE
2.Wang prefers to live with an English family.TRUE/FALSE
3.Wang intends to study how computer is used for language translation.TRUE/FALSE
4.Back in his own country Mr.Wang studied C-language and chemistry.TRUE/FALSE
5.Wang has some experience in CAD.TRUE/FALSE
6.Dr.Wilson is satisfied with Wang’s past experience.TRUE/FALSE
7.Wang has little knowledge of the phonetic processing system.TRUE/FALSE
8.Wang decides to take courses and pass exams.TRUE/FALSE
9.Dr.Wilson suggests that Wang should extend his stay at the university.TRUE/FALSE
10.Dr.Wilson asks Wang to do a little more research before deciding on his project.TRUE/FALSE Tapescript:
Hearing a knock on the door] Come in please.Good morning Dr.Wilson.Good morning Wang.So nice to see you again.Take a seat...why don’t you, please.When did you get to the university?mwmi arrived yesterday.Well...Are you living in the college?No, I am with an English family...actually...because I want to improve my speaking.WmwOh, fine.Right, did you take a language proficiency test before you came?Yes.Uhh...my Overall Band is 6, but...unfortunately my speaking is only 5.OK, you know, here in this university, you have to take our own English test before you attend any lectures.So, first of all, what we’ve got to do is, we have to make an arrangement for the test date.Umm...will tomorrow be all right for you?mw Yeah, I have time tomorrow morning.Good, then.Tomorrow at ten.I don’t think the test will be any problem for you.Now, let’s make sure you make full use of your time here.Let’s put it like this.What exactly do you want to accomplish in the next 12 months?mi’m interested in computer language translation, I mean, from English to Chinese and Chinese to English.I’ll try, if possible, to produce a software or a device which can serve as an interpreter.WMYes, could you be a bit more specific about...er...the device?For instance, when, you talk to the device in English it will translate your words into Chinese and vice versa.WmwmwUhuh...do you mean it’ll be as competent as...er...a human interpreter?Yes...well, I’ll let it deal with general situations, at least.Fascinating...and how big will the device itself be, do you think?The size of a cigarette pack, I think.So people can put it in their pocket.Really.Well, that could be a Ph.D project.Tell me what you have done so far.In my four years of undergraduate study, I studied electronics, advancedMmathematics, hardware designing, some computer languages and program writing.Yes, but have you done anypractical jobs? I mean, have you written anyWprograms for practical use?I was involved in a project for
CAD in a shipyard.mwThe computer aided design.That was probably a good experience, but, unfortunately, it may not help your present project much.Are you familiar with C-language?No.mwUhuh...the phonetic processing system, do you know how such a system works?What do you mean by "phonetic processing system?"mwWell, you know, English is spoken by different people with different accents.Your English accent is different from mine, and of course mine is not the same as my colleagues’.So as I see it, your device would have to be able to recognise and understand different accents.Oh, I see.I think I can learn C-language and a phonetic processing systemMhere.Well, that’s probably true, but you’ve got only 12 months and you want aWdegree, don’t you?Yes.mwOK, so there’re two ways of studying for a degree here.You either take six courses, pass their exams and have your dissertation accepted or the other way is you do some research work and submit your project report.mwmwI think I’ll take the second way.Fine, but are you sure you can finish your project in 12 months?I don’t know, but I can work 12 hours a day and 7 days a week.Well, I’d suggest you spend some time in our library, trying to find out what other students have done before and perhaps re-consider your own project, to some extent.You might narrow your research area, concentrating on solving one or two major problems.And, it’d be a good idea to talk to your colleagues in the lab, first.Anyway, I’m sure we can work out something good.Shall I see you again in three days’ time?All right.I’ll go away and do some thinking.Then I’ll talk to you about myMnew plan.Good.See you then.WMThank you.Bye-bye.
You now have 20 seconds to check your answers to Questions 1 - 10.That is the end of Part A,
Part B:You will hear 3 conversations or talks and you must answer the questions by choosing A, B,
C or D.You will hear the recording ONLY ONCE.Questions 1 - 3 are based on the following talk.You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 1 - 3.
1.What does the speaker suggest that the students should do during the term?[A] Consult with her frequently.[B] Use the computer regularly.[C] Occupy the computer early.[D] Wait for one’s turn patiently.
2.What service must be paid for?[A] Computer classes.[B] Training sessions.[C] Laser printing.[D] Package borrowing.
3.What is the talk mainly about?[A] Computer lab services.[B] College library facilities.[C] The use of micro-computers.[D] Printouts from the laser printer.
Right, everybody.Welcome to Central College library services.My name’s Kathy Jenkins.I’ll give you a brief introduction to the library.We have a well-stocked bank of resources which are in three main locations: the library itself, with books and periodicals; the self-access language centre, with audio and video material; and the micro-computer lab.I’ll start with the micro-computer lab, or micro-lab as we call it.It is fitted with 24 personal computers.
If you are a member of the library, you may borrow CALL discs in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian as well as English.By the way, CALL stands for computer aided language learning: C A double L, "CALL", for short.You may also borrow a range of word processing and desktop publishing packages.All disks are, of course, strictly for use in the micro-lab only.If you wish to print anything you should use one of the five machines around the outside of the room.Four are connected to dot matrix printers, one is connected to the laser printer.If you want a top quality printout from the laser printer, come and see myself or any of the library staff.Dot-matrix printouts are free but there is a charge for using the laser printer.
There is always a queue to get to the terminals towards the end of term.Come in and get to know how to use the computers early in the term and use them regularly, rather than just before exams and essay deadlines, in order to avoid delay or disappointment.Training sessions are held on a regular basis, on the first and third Thursday of each month, and are free to full-time students of the college.See you there.Now, any questions?
You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to Questions 1 - 3.
Part C You will hear a talk given by a university lecturer.As you listen, you must answer Questions 1 -10 by writing NO MORE THAN THREE words in the space provided on the right.You will hear the talk TWICE.You now have 60 seconds to read Questions 1 to 10.
1.What’s the average annual increase of foreign student population in the period between 1985 and 1990 in terms of percentage?
2.Which part of the world contributed to an increase between 94/95 and 95/96?
3.When will the speaker talk about the economic and political changes?
4.What will the speaker discuss first?
5.Where do the three largest groups of students come from?
6.What’s the number of students from Malaysia?
7.Which is the most popular field of study?
8.What’s the percentage of students in business and management?
9.In terms of academic levels, in which level do we find the smallest number?
10.In summary, what did the speaker talk about?
Tapescript
For those of you who are either already studying in the United States or plan to one day, it might be interesting to know something about the foreign student population in the United States.For the academic year 1995/96 there was a total of approximately 344,000 foreign students studying in the United States.This figure of 344,000 may seem like a very large number until you compare it with the total population of 241,000,000.The foreign student population has been growing for a number of years and is still growing, but the rate of increase has dropped sharply during the 1990s.During the 1980s, the population grew quite rapidly.For example, between 1985 and 1990, the average yearly increase was 12.5%.However, the picture in the 1990s is quite different.The rate of increase has declined quite noticeably.In fact, the rate of increase between 1994/95 and 1995/96 was only .5%, or one-half of one percent.Although the overall rate of increase has dropped to only .5%, the number of students from some parts of the world is increasing while the number of students from other areas is decreasing.For example, during this same time period, that is between the academic years 94/95 and 95/96, there was a decrease in the number of students from the middle East, while the number of students from South and East Asia increased.These changes in the number of students coming from different parts of the world no doubt reflected changing economic and political situations.I’m sure you are aware of many of these changes, and perhaps we can discuss them at our next meeting.For today let’s confine our talk to first, a discussion of the origin of these students, or, in other words, where they come from; second, the kinds of studies they pursue; and, finally, the academic levels they are found in.If we have a little time left, we might quickly discuss in which geographic areas most of them go to school.
Let’s discuss the origins of the foreign student population in the United States for the academic year 1995/96.Let’s discuss it in order from those areas sending the most students to
those areas sending the fewest students.If we look at the figures provided by the annual census of foreign students in the United States for the year 1995/96, we see that most of the foreign students studying in the United States during this year were from South and East Asia.This is a rather large geographical area which includes such countries as China, Korea, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.The total number of students from this area, South and East Asia was 156,830.In other words, roughly 2 out of every 5 foreign students come from South and East Asia.Almost 24,000 of this total were from China.Malaysia was close behind with just a little over 23,000 students.The?next largest number of students came from the middle East.The number of students from the middle East came to about one-third the number from South and East Asia.The fourth largest number came from South America.Next came Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania.Let’s recapitulate what we’ve said.The largest number of students studying in the United States during the academic year 1995/96 were from South and East Asia, followed by the middle East, South America, Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania.
What fields are these large numbers of foreign students studying in? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the largest number are in the field of engineering.In fact, 21.7% of the total number are studying engineering.Business and management is close behind, however, with a total of 18.9%.The third most popular field was mathematics and computer sciences with 10.3%.As you can see, engineering with 21.7%, business and management with 18.9%, and mathematics and computer sciences with 10.3% comprise about one half of the total number of foreign students.
Let’s talk about which academic levels these students can be found in.Foreign students can be found studying at all levels of higher education.As you might expect, the greatest number of them are studying at the undergraduate level?approximately 158,000.The second largest group study at the graduate level and that number is just under 122,000.The rest study at junior colleges or in non-degree programs.It is at the graduate level that foreign students have the most impact.While foreign students comprise only 2.7% of the total U.S.student population, they account for 8.7% of all the graduate students studying at U.S.institutions.Let me give you those percentages again so you can get a better feel for the overall picture.Foreign students make up only 2.75 of the total U.S.student population, but they make up 8.7% of the total graduate student population.
Well, I see that’s all the time we have today.We’ll have to leave discussions of the geographic areas these students study in until another time.
Now you are going to hear the talk a second time.
REPEAT THE TEXT
You now have 3 minutes to check your answers to Questions 1 - 10.
That is the end of Part C.You now have 5 minutes to transfer all your answers from your test booklet to ANSWER SHEET 1.
That is the end of Listening Comprehension