商业托福英语备战听力综合辅导06

会计考友

　　顾名思义，所谓“Listen Again”即在新托福听力考试的某篇文章结束后，其中某一题采取再次复听，然后根据所听来做推断既而回答题目的形式来考察考生。对新托福考试关注者会发现，早在新托福考试刚浮出水面时，世面上众多分析文章评论说：“新托福听力考试可以听两遍了”。我们下这样的定义不能说不对，但似为偏颇，至少会误导对新托福听力不甚了解的朋友会真的以为整个新托福听力考试可以重复放音听两遍了。这也怪不得关注新托福考试的先驱者。在未见其真面目时，仅依其官方网上透露的内容去揣摩难免会被ETS误导，即便是现在ETS在网上公布的新托福在线测试样题与9月份真正在北美正式投入使用的新托福考试题也是有差别的。在这里笔者稍做澄清：（1）新托福考试放音过程是一遍完成；（2）只有“Listen Again”这种新增题型可以再次复听文章中的某一部分，并根据再次回放的这部分回答特殊的问题。
　　看题：
3 p8 J/ D' Q) f) K7 S9 `' Z　　下面我们看一篇新托福听力样题（此样题的考察问题全部为此种新增Listen Again 题型）（narrator） Listen to two student discussing a zoology course（man） Now, we can move on to discuss the next part of the chapter, the part of the chapter, the part on land tortoises（woman） Yes. Land tortoises are tortoises that don’t live in the water, although they may live near the water. They only come to the water to drink or bathe.
　　（woman） Oh, look here in the book. Here’s a picture of one of the 40 kinds of land tortoises.
/ _3 s) D/ w1 C6 }- ]% m　　（man） Land tortoises are the ones that live to such long ages, aren’t they?
　　（woman） Yes, my favorite part of the chapter was the part that was about how long land tortoises can really live.
+ |; p6 ]' @0 I$ B0 G& E　　（man） How old can they live to be?
- ]7 s; u( A$ h8 }　　（woman） It’s not really known for sure. There are lots of traditional stories about tortoises that lived for hundreds of years. I do remember hearing, when I was young, about tortoises that were supposed to be one-to two hundred years old.
　　（man） That couldn’t be…No way.
　　（woman） Well, there’re a lot of stories, but there’s no accurate records, so it’s impossible to verify whether or not they’re true.
　　（man） Well, how old is the oldest tortoise on record, do you know?
( U# h( f. b- r; h0 t2 R  _　　（woman） In the chapter I just read, it said that the oldest tortoise whose age can be verified to some extent is the one known as Marion’s tortoise.
6 [( U/ C1 n( R& u/ |  U3 Y. b　　（man） I read that Marion’s tortoise was 152 years old.
( r8 J# E' ?' q3 x9 c. }7 W  n　　（woman） Actually, I think the book said it was at least 152 years old. It was probably older.
- f2 ]# ?5 Z5 R1 |4 b2 g+ c/ c　　（man） So, they’re not really certain how old Marion’s tortoise really was when it died. What is truly known about Marion’s tortoise?
- b) T  {& [( N" d* S　　（woman） It’s certain that a French explorer named de Fresne, Marion de Fresne captured an adult tortoise in 1766, and he transported the tortoise to the island of Mauritius in that same year.
　　（man） Well, when did Marion’s tortoise die? Are there authentic records?
# w0 W* K2 ?3 }1 X. p2 k' h. b　　（woman） Historians are satisfied with the authenticity of the records that show that Marion’s tortoise died in 1918.
$ G2 v. a" f( E2 }5 f, M8 N　　（man） How do they know it was the same tortoise? Could it have been a different tortoise that died there in 1918?
2 U* [/ U* Z, E　　（woman） Tortoises don’t occur naturally on Mauritius, so Marion’s tortoise was the only tortoise on the island of Mauritius.
　　（man） And so this tortoise had been on the island of Mauritius for 152 years when it died.
! X/ ^# y& {& G7 P　　（woman） That’s right. Marion’s tortoise arrived in Mauritius in 1766 and died in 1918, so that would make it at least 152 years old.
　　（man） But didn’t you say that the tortoise that was captured and brought to Mauritius by Marion de Fresne was an adult when it was captured?
　　（woman） Yes. So Marion’s tortoise was known to have lived for 152 years on Mauritius. But because it was an adult when it was captured in 1766 and it’s unclear how old it was at that time, it could have been considerably older than 152 years when it died, maybe 180 years or more. Two hundred years old for this type of tortoise isn’t inconceivable.
) K3 w2 l! Y$ z　　（man） So a tortoise living to the age of 200 may be possible, but there’re no verified records of such a tortoise.
: h6 E; ?! G# h5 A　　（woman） Exactly!