Talks and Conversations 4

As a normal person, you see colors everywhere, so long as you have good eyesight. In fact, color plays a central role in our life. For example, color is used to communicate life-saving information. To the driver of a vehicle, the green color means “go”, and the red color means “stop”. You should always pull up when the traffic light turns red. Besides, colors can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your appetite, or even change your mood. A delicious meal with appropriate colors can certainly make your mouth watering. Good colors also help us in many other ways. Statistics show, that in sports competition a team wearing red has a higher chance of winning. Of course, it’s largely due to the psychology of wearing red. Luck and ability can be more important.

For animals, color reflects their environments and their characteristics. For instance, a male peacock has its tail feathers of bright colors to win the attention of female peacocks. A tree frog can be so green as to indicate its poisonous nature. So don’t eat it, or you might die. A wasp, with its bright yellow color, may warn us that it has a sting, and it is not afraid to use that sting. People often think that rainbow is the most colorful, but for our artists, all they need are three colors, namely, red, blue and yellow. They are called the primary colors——colors that cannot be made by mixing others together. And our artists can mix them together to create any color in the rainbow, and hundreds of other shades in making art.

Questions：

23. Why are green and red colors important to drivers?

24. According to statistics, what team has a higher chance of winning in sports competition?

25. which animal has green color that warns us of its poisonous nature?

26. what is a primary color?

点评：本篇文章探讨了关于颜色的话题。颜色在我们生活中扮演了很重要的角色，既可用于交通中给司机传达指令，又可在日常生活中发挥其他的作用。此外，颜色对于动物来说也很重要。有的动物利用颜色来吸引雌性;而有的动物则利用身上的颜色来警告其他动物禁止侵犯。虽然在我们眼里，颜色是多种多样的，但是所有的 颜色都来源自三种颜色：红、蓝和黄。文章内容贴近我们现实生活，文中也并没有出现很多生词。考生只需要适当地做些笔记，结合平常的生活常识，在听的过程中即可选出正确答案。

Talks and Conversations 5

W: Of course, we ought to be permitted to think, speak, and feel as we like, provided we don’t do any harm to anyone else.

M: How do you know when you are doing harm or not?Would you permit people to take drugs, for example?

W: That depends on the drugs, some of them can be harmful in all sorts of ways, like too much drink and smoking as many cigarettes as you do.

M: Well, I have been trying to give up smoking for a long time. But you know, it’s not easy. And I’m afraid I don’t have that strong will.

W: I think the government should banned smoking in all the public places and they should levy heavier taxes on selling and buying cigarettes.

M: What really makes me mad is the attitude toward morals. Some people are really shocked, because in the theaters today actors are allowed to walk about the stage with little or without any clothes on. And they think it’s right that the police should be able to walk into our galleries and decide whether pictures are works of art or obscene. But the same people aren’t shocked by advertisements which persuaded the public to buy things which can do real harm, like cigarettes and alcohol, for example. I think a lot of advertisements are much more immoral than so-called pornographic or dirty plays and books. Because they lie, or at least disguise the truth.

W: How do you know that pornographic pictures in books don’t do harm?

M: I didn’t say they did no harm, I’m just suggesting that the whole question of morality is relative. I think the behavior of some businessman is relative more immoral than that of some of the young people they criticize.

W: You seem to think that everything will be alright if you just allow people to be natural. I personally feel we all need some kind of outside authority to help us discipline ourselves.

Questions:

27. What has the man been trying to do for a long time?

28. According to the man, what things can do real harm to people?

29. Why does the man think that advertisements are much more immoral than dirty place and books?

30. According to the woman, what do we need to discipline ourselves?

点评：此对话主要是谈论哪些行为是会对他人造成伤害。女士认为烟酒对他人造成极大伤害，因此国家应该禁止公众场合的吸烟行为或者征收更多的税，而男士却认为只要不过量，烟酒就不会造成伤害。男士认为人们的道德观会对他人造成极大伤害，并以人们对现代艺术和广告的虚假信息两种事物的态度来举例说明。最后，女士总结男士的观点是人们应顺其自然地要求自我，而女士的观点则是希望通过外界的权威来约束自我。

本文紧紧围绕中心观点进行讨论，其中关于不良书籍的说法可能会造成一定干扰，但切忌勿因小失大，而忘记听真正要考查的重要信息。

1. Sydney is an important commercial, industrial and tourist center on the south-east coast of Australia. It is Australia’s largest city with a population of more than 3 million.

译文：位于澳大利亚东南部海岸的悉尼，是澳大利亚重要的商业、工业和旅游中心。悉尼拥有300万人口，是澳大利亚最大的城市。

2. For those who worry too much about their future, my advice is to live for the present, find some joy in each day, and help others in need.

译文：对于那些过度为自己未来担忧的人来说，我的建议就是活在当下，每天都要找到生活的乐趣，并且为需要帮助的人伸出援助之手。

3. A woman lawyer has some advantages in the court. For example, if my client is a woman who claim rights from her divorced husband, a woman lawyer can understand better and do a better job.

译文：在法庭上，女性律师是有些优势的。比如说，如果委托人是一名与离婚丈夫发生权利纠纷的女性的话，那么女性律师更能够理解这位委托人，也就能够更好地完成工作。

4. Researchers suggest that playing video games has similar effects to observing violent television content. Children imitate the aggressive actions from a video game just as they imitate violent television content.

译文：有研究表明，玩电子游戏产生的负面影响和观看暴力电视节目产生的影响有些类似。小孩子会像模仿电视节目中的暴力行为一样模仿电子游戏中的过激行为。

5. Every day, Americans use 450 billion gallons of water, such amount would cover New York City to a depth of 96 feet. We must remember that water is not inexhaustible on earth.

译文：美国人每天要使用4500亿加仑的水。这个用水量可以把纽约市淹没至高达96英尺的水位。我们必须谨记，地球的水资源不是取之不尽用之不竭的。

解析：这一部分总体难度适中，所涉内容基本与日常生活相关，几乎没有出现生僻的词汇。句型都比较简单，对理解题意不会造成影响。第四题的句式较其他几句稍复杂，需要理顺句中进行对