2007秋季高级口译考试第二部分听力原文

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2008:01:21 16:16:15
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Delfman曾在2006年12月六级考试中得到648分的高分，此篇听写仅供参考。

Note taking and spot-filling

Good morning and welcome to todays lecture.

Today were going to discuss the mass urbanization of the worlds population, which is an unprecedented trend worldwide.

First, Ill focus on two major reasons why people are moving to cities. Well, the first reason is economic. People are moving to the cities because thats where they can find jobs and earn money. Until the 20th century, the major source of employment, full- and part-time, was farming. Now, no more than 15% of all jobs are connected to farming. Jobs now are being created in information techonology, manufacturing and service areas such as tourism and financing. And all of these new jobs are in or around major cities. The second reason for the move to the cities has to do with quality of life issues--comfort and convenience. For example, most of us would like our children to receive a good education and cities often offer better schools. And then for many, city life is just more comfortable. There are transportation networks, shops, and places of entertainment. An interesting consequence of urbanization is that the average age of people in the countryside is increasing while that of the cities is falling. More old people stay in the countryside than young people, and the opposite is true in the cities. This is of course connected to the fact that its the young people who want jobs.

Now Id like to identify three key changes in our cities. First of all, theyre getting bigger and bigger. For the first time in history, there will soon be more people living in urban areas than in rural environments. Most cities are bigger now than ever before. In 1950, New York City was the only city with a population of 10 million. For the first time in the history of society, we now have many cities with populations of over 10 million people--what we call megacities. Tokyo, Mexico City, Shanghai, New York City and Sao Paulo are just a few examples of todays megacities. And experts say that the number of megacities will increase in the future. Cities are not just getting bigger, theyre also changing shape. Theyre getting taller because land is getting more and more expensive. So instead of having a few big houses on a piece of land, we can have a taller apartment building that a thousand people can live in. All of you can probably think of buildings or parks or stores that have been torn down to make room for bigger, taller or more modern buildings. Skyscrappers have become a symbol of modern cities. Things are also changing shape in other ways. The concentric zone model represents the structure of some cities built at the beginning of the 20th century. The business district is in the center, surrounded by the other zones. But the sector model and the multiple nuclei model are probably more typical of the cities we know today. They show the urban sprawl thats occuring in contemporary cities. Urban sprawl basically means that cities are spreading out often in an uncontrolled way. Notice that in these two models, the business districs is close to all the other districs. These sprawls often occurs in random and unpredictable ways and has a huge impact on the quality of life of city residents.

The third change is that our cities are breaking up into smaller communities often by ethnic group or income level. Of course, many cities do have a kind of identity or personality, but the city is not homogeneous. For example, migrates to the cities often want to live in their own communities, or with people from a similar cultural background. Another example is that if youre moving from a smaller community to a city, you will be most gladly to move close to friends or family members who will help you get a job or give you support. However, this often means that people stay within their community and do not come into contact with others from different backgrounds. The biggest challenge facing us now is to improve the quality of life in cities because, sadly, they dont always offer economic security, the safety, or the comfort they promise. Many cities have slum areas or ghettos where people live in dangerous or destitute conditions. The beautiful architecture and vibrant night life are one face of the city, but cities also have problems of inequality, crowding and poverty.

Sentence translation

1. Shopping online is a convenience that many people now feel they couldnt do without, but when it comes to purchasing medications on the web, doctors are warning buyers to beware.

2. If it tastes good, it must be bad--so the saying goes. But delicious dark chocolate may be the exception to the rule. It may help lower blood pressure by an average of 10%.

3. World economy is getting increasingly intergrated and this has very serious implications, socially and politically. We also have a cultural phenomenon--the emergence of a global culture or cultural globolization.

4. Work is viewed as one of the central meanings of life. But at the same time, it now takes so much of many adults lives that theres little room for anything else.

5. Married persons spend more time doing household activities than unmarried persons--two hours vs. 1.5 hours per day. Women, regardless of marital status, spend more time doing these activities than men.

Passage translation

1. I want to thank Mr. chairman for giving me the opportunity to talk on the environmental issues of today. I am really proud to address this group as youre at the front lines of the battle to save the world. Time is not on our side, we need to keep moving forward and we need to move fast. Were at a crucial point in the worlds history. Our oceans and floors are suffering, species are disappearing, the climate is changing, Around the world, billions of our fellow human beings lack the most basic requirements of health and dignity.

2. According to a recent survey on leisure activities, American people spend about 4 hours each day watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. It was also disclosed that over the past 5 years, people reduced their time reading to 2.1 hours per month and over 1/3 of all books were bought by customers aged 55 and older. On the other hand, 30% of Americans surveyed said they would rather read a book than do anything else, 21% said watching TV is their favorite activity. Thats the good news. The bad news is that only 13% 0selected spending time with family.