朗文英語聽說教程聽力原文

1、CONTEMPORARY TOPICS 2 61 LECTURE AUDIOSCRIPTSUnit 1 What's in a Name? Teacher： Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Felipe, Monica, Theo, . . . and I cant remember your name. Student 1： Patricia.丨. Teacher： Patric

2、ia, right, Patricia. Those are all beautiful names, and that’s our topic today 一 names. Names are a cultural universal. This means everyone uses names. A persons name can tell us a bit about a persons family. Today,

3、we，ll begin by looking at first names and how people choose names for their children. And then well talk about family names, and look at the different categories of family names. Although the scope of the lecture today i

4、s English-language names, we can use the same approach, you know, to look at names from any culture. Lets take a br i e f br i e f\ o o k o o kat first, or given, names. There are several ways parent's choose the fi

5、rst name for their child. The first way is by family history. Parents may choose a name because it is passed*from generation to generation； for example, the firstborn son might be named after his father or grandfathe

6、r. Although family names are also passed to daughters, it is usually as a middle name. Adding “junior”.or “the second”一 for example, William Parker the second—is only done with boys, not with girls5 names. The second

7、 way parents choose a name is after a family member or friend who has died recently, or after some-one they a d m i r e, a d m i r e,like a well-known leader or a famous musician. Although most English first names mean

8、something, for example, “Richard” means powerful and “Ann” means grace, nowadays meaning is not the main reason people select their baby's name. The third way is to provide a “push” for the child. Parents want co

9、choose a name that sounds very “successful.” A strong name might help them in the business world, for example. Or they might choose a name that works for either gender, like laylor or Terry. So, given these three met

10、hods, what is the most common way parents choose a name? Many parents choosc a name simply because they like it, or because its fashionable or classic. Fashions in names change just as they do in cloches. One hundred

11、 years ago, many names came from the Bible~names such as Daniel, and Anna, and Hannah and Matthew. Then, fifty years ago, Biblical names went out of fashion. Nowadays, names from the Bible are becoming popular again.

12、Similarly, parents often choose classic names, names that were popular in 1900, 1950, and are still popular now. Classic names For boys include Thomas, David, Robert, and Michael. And for girls: Anna, Elizabeth, Emil

13、y, and Katherine, just to name a few. They’re classic. They never go out of style. Let’s look at the origin of last names, also called family names or surnames. Researchers have studied, thousands of last names, and t

14、heyve divided them into four categories. The categories are: place names, patronymics, added names, and occupational names. A recent survey showed that of the 7,000 most popular names in the United States today, 43 p

15、ercent were place names, 32 percent were patronymics, 15 percent were occupational names, and 9 percent were added names. The first category is place names. Place names usually identified where a person lived or work

16、ed. Someone named John Hill lived near a hill, for example, and the Rivers family lived near a river. If you hear the name Emma Bridges,. ? . what image do you see? Do you see a family that lives near a bridge? If you

17、 do, you get the idea. The second, category is patronymics. That's P-A-T-R-O- N-Y-M-I-C-S. A patronymic is the fathers name, plus an ending like S-E-N or S-O-N. The ending means that a child, a boy, is the son of

18、 his. father. The names Robertson, Petersen, and Wilson are patronymics. Robertson is son of Robert, Petersen is son of Peter, and so on. The third category is added, names. Linguists sometimes call this category “ni

19、cknames/，but when most of us hear the word “nickname,” we think of a special name a friend or a parent might use. The word “nickname” is actually an old English word that means an additional name, an added name. So u

20、se the term “added name.” This category of last names is fun because the names usually described a person. Reed, Baldwin, and Biggs are examples. Reed was from “red” for red hair. Baldwin was someone who was bald, s

21、omeone who had little or no hair. And Biggs? STUDENT 2: Someone big? Teacher： Yeah, someone big, right. Now, if we look around the room, we could probably come up with some new last names, like, uh, Curly or Strong. No

22、w, the fourth category is occupational names. The origin of the family name was the persons occupation. CONTEMPORARY TOPICS 2 63 as an official language makes it easier for people to communicate. The third reason to s

23、upport the global argument is that every year about 1 billion people study English. Why? What are some of the reasons? Hiroshi? How about^you? STUDENT 1: Well, now to study, and someday I want to be in international

24、business. TEACHER: Thats a solid reason. How about you, Oksana? STUDENT 3: rm not really sure. 1 just think it will help me in the future somehow. TEACHER: OK. Theres a more general reason. The point is, people want and

25、 need to learn English because it offers them opportunities. To sum up, English is used every day by many people. People all over the world come in contact with each other for many reasons. They need, a common langua

26、ge, a language to facilitate communication. Being proficient in English gives someone an advantage in these situations. OK. I have given you many examples of how English is used in a variety of situations. Ne v e r t h

27、 el e s s’ Ne v e r t h el e s s’does this mean chat English is a global language? Lets look ac why son>e people don’t believe English has replaced other languages. First, there are about three times as many people

28、who speak Chinese as their first language as those who speak English as a first language. And. in many countries where some people use English for work each day, they donr use English anywhere else. Even in English-s

29、peaking countries, there are millions of people who prefer to speak a language other than English at home, with friends, or at work. Second, I mentioned before that sevenry-five countries have English as their offici

30、al language. This doesn’t mean all, or even most of the people in these countries can speak English. For example，in India, most sources agree that only about 5 percent of the population speaks English. Thats a small

31、percentage! Third, how much English does a person need to know to be called, an English speaker? People may learn some English for specific situations, such as the taxi driver I mentioned earlier. However, I think you

32、 would all agree with me that a taxi driver who knows a few phrases like “Where are you going?” or “What: is the name of your hotel?” isn’t really a proficient English speaker. Another example is Airspeakj the Englis

33、h that is used, by air traffic controllers and pilots. A pilot for Japan Airlines or an air traffic controller in Paris needs to know Airspeak. But they may learn only the English words they need for these jobs, and t

34、herefore they can’t be considered English speakers. The point here is that people alt over the world may use some English for work or other situations. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean they are fluent in English. The

35、y still use their first language for daily communication. English is not their main language. So, what does this all mean? I think its safe to say that English will continue to be the main language used in many intern

36、ational settings because, as I said earlier, people all over the world need a common language. And, for now, English is that language. But, English won’t replace other languages for most daily communication and this,

37、to me, is what a global language really is, one that replaces others for most everyday communication. Some people are afraid of this. They worry that as people use English more and more, their ability in their first

38、language will decline. I chink people will use English along with other languages. We are moving into a global culture, and as this continues, I think people from non-English speaking countries will want to maintain

39、their culture, including their first language. They may stiii want to learn English, but I don’t see them giving up their own language for English. What do you think? I’m going to stop there. I know thats a lot of in

40、formation to digest. Well continue talking about some of the differences in the English words used in various countries like Australia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Thats all for today. Come see me if you have any

41、 questions. Unit 3 High Anxiety: Phobias Teacher： Good afternoon. Today we re going to turn to a new topic in psychology and start looking at some specific psychological problems. There are a variety of mental problem

42、s that can afFect us in our daily lives一'some are not so serious，like a fear of cats or of insects, and others are more serious. Now as psychologists, we try to study these different problems and find ways to help pe

43、ople. I want to start the discussion by talking about a fairly common kind of psychological problem—a phobia, thats P-H-O-B-I-A. First, I，ll explain what a phobia is, and then I’ll talk about some theories on why peo

44、ple have phobias. As you probably know, a phobia is a fear. So do any of you have phobias? Oh, come on, you can tell me; Frn a psychologist. Yes, Monica? Student 1： 1 have a fear of swimming. I don’t like to go near t