英语视听说Unit1-4

英语视听说Unit1-4

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新编大学英语视听说教程第二册

Unit One

Listening, Understanding and Speaking

Listening One

A Mother's Love

You can see it in her eyes— in her gaze and in her sighs. It is a mother's love.

You can feel it in her touch— in her tender hugs and such. It is a mother's love.

You can hear it in her words— in her praises and bywords. It is a mother's love.

She cares. She understands.

She lends an ear and holds our hands. She gives us a mother's love

Listening two

For more than four decades, John Adams has fought to defend the environment and empowered individuals in the U.S. and around the world to join the cause. Adams is cofounder 0f the Natural

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Resources Defense Council the NRDC the nation's first law firm for the environment. \"Defending the environment,”John Adams says,\"is personal”

\"When you care about something, like the environment, it does become a passion”he says.\"It becomes your life. I grew up on a small-town farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York. It was a wonderful place to grow up. I loved it\"

But by the l960s, he didn't love what he saw happening to the environment.

\"We were a major industrial force with no pollution controls. So if you were in Pittsburgh or New York or the factory areas of New Jersey or California, you would be hit with air pollution that had virtually no pollution controls,\"says Adams\"In New York we burned a lot of our garbage right in the buildings. Fly ash would come up and it was over the city, The Hudson River was filled with raw sewage and it smelled because there were no requirement for sewage control.\"

He also worried about the disappearing farmland around the big cities which became suburban sprawl with very little planning.

Adams turned his love for nature into action, leaving his job with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York in l970 to help establish the Nature Resources Defense Council. The 33-year-old lawyer became its first director.

In their book ,A Force For Nature John Adams and his

life Patricia also an environmental activist chronicle the evolution of the NRDC from a homegrown advocacy group to a 1.3一million一member organization with intematlon reach.

Adarms led the NRDC for 36 years and remains on its Board of Trustees. Today, he is chairman of the 0pen Space Institute, working to purchase scenic and natural land in New England to protect it from development.

Listening Three

I grew up in a family with six sisters. In my lifetime I have seen all of them abused by various men in their lives. Even my mother has the scars from two unsuccessful marriages.

When I was a teenager, my mother shared some insights into all of their failed relationships. She

explained that they really weren't expecting to be treated as queens, but they did desire two things from the men in their lives: to be told frequently that they are loved and to be shown often that they are special. It was at that point that I decided I would be the sort of husband my mom and sisters had dreamed of but never had.

When I was dating my wife-to-be I remembered those two points my mother shared with me years

earlier. I admit that I struggled trying to be able to express my love in words and in action. For most men,

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it isn't natural for us to be romantics. But then again, it isn't natural for us to be millionaires or sports superstars. It does take effort, practice and diligence. But the rewards are there.

Now we've been married for nine years. I really, truly, deeply love my wife and let her know it every day by what I say and what I do. Our friends and family members all admire us and want to know our secret.

Listening Four

In past generations the challenge Oo dating was different Men and women wanted a partner who could fulfill their basic needs for security and survival. Women looked for a strong man who would be a good breadwinner；men searched for a nurturing woman to make a home. This practice that worked for thousands of years has suddenly changed.

The new challenge of dating is to find a partner who not only will be supportive of our physical needs for security and survival but will support our emotional and spiritual needs. Today we want more from our relationships. Millions of men and women around the world are searching for a soul mate to experience lasting love happiness and romance.

It is no longer enough to just find someone who is willing to marry us．We want partners who will love us more as they get to know us：We want to live happily ever after．To find and recognize partners who can full fill our new needs for increased closeness,good communication,and a great love life,we need to update our dating skills．

Further listening

Listening One

My son's primary school celebrates Valentine's Day in a wonderful way. Each day throughout the month of February, the school honors each student in informal ceremonies. At the ceremony, classmates, teachers and parents get together to deliver compliments to that particular child. They believe that a child's emotional and social skills should be developed alongside their intellectual skills. Learning to

acknowledge qualities and strengths in others—and receiving that acknowledgment gracefully—is a very important learning lesson.

I know I compliment my son frequently, and certainly try to make sure he knows he is loved. But I realize that I have never actually pointed out, one by one, specific qualities that make him unique and so special to me. And how infrequently we really point out what is special in others. Sure, we say “I love you” or “thanks” regularly, but when do we take the opportunity to really and truly examine what makes a person special What is unique and different about them

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This year, the time was scheduled for my son to receive more than 40 compliments from his peers,

teachers, parents, and himself. Each child had their day at the center of the circle, their friends coming up one by one to give a gift of powerful words. This year, my son heard that his thoughtfulness was

appreciated, his ideas important, his expressions inspiring. He was also expected to write and deliver a compliment to each of his classmates.

Listening two

In the end, I had to ask my husband to read my Valentine compliment to our son. I was simply crying too hard to get the words out. Witnessing the tenderness of school-age children saying what they thought was special about my little boy proved too much for me. But I was not alone. When I warned my son I might get emotional, he said, “That's OK. Lots of parents cry.” He was right. This is what my husband read to our son on my behalf: Dear Cole:

Your love of language and information has always amazed me. I love learning from you and with you. I admire how new words are so easily incorporated into your vocabulary. I think you are fresh and eager and loving.

I admire that relationships are important to you. I like to listen to the connections you make with past experiences. I think you are good at remembering.

I love how you are proud of yourself when you try something new. I feel proud, too.

I like how your whole body tells a story, and your expressions make me feel good. I am proud of your willingness to express your fears and appreciate the reminder that you will grow at the pace that suits you best. I love your jokes and your fondness for telling them over and over—so I will laugh. I think you are fun to be with. I love that you are my son.

I am really grateful to this school for creating a learning environment. These exercises ben

Listening Three

Hisham and I will have been married for twenty years this February. Everybody said it would not work. He is Jordanian, Muslim, and I am Italian, Catholic. We met in Florida twenty-two years ago. What we had in common was nothing except youth. He could barely speak the English language, and I thought Arabs were from India. Within a year I found out where Jordan was exactly and he could say “I love you” in broken English.

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When we got married people actually placed bets at our small wedding in my family's dining room. They thought our relationship would not last a year. Hisham did not tell his parents he was married for almost five years. He felt that if he failed at school his family would blame the marriage. Of course everybody, from Arabs to Americans, thought he married me to get a green card. I knew he didn't.

I lived in his country for six years after graduation and had a son there. Through Hisham's eyes I saw the beauty of his culture and religion and the simple ways of his people. Being from New York and living in Amman, Jordan, I still had my Christmas tree each year, my Easter eggs and even a Halloween pumpkin in the window. I also took some of their ways—cooking, methods of mothering, socializing—and it enhanced my own character in the long run.

Throughout the years, I was not the Italian girl from New York, not the American married to the Arab; I was a beautiful blended person with two children and a man who loves me.

Listening Four

Traditionally the heart is the part of the body where emotions come from. If you are a warm hearted

person, for example, you are kind and thoughtful toward others. If you have a heart of gold you are a very generous person. But if you are heartless, you are cruel and unfeeling.

Of all the emotions, it is love that is most associated with the heart. In love songs all over the world, love almost always goes together with The heart. As the song from the movie Titanic says:\"You are here in my heart and my heart will go on and on… Love can touch us one time and last for a lifetime, and never let go till we re gone”

Perhaps the role of the heart in love comes from what happens to it when you feel really attracted to someone. The strong feelings of attraction make your breathing speed up and your heart beat faster.

Unit Two

Listening, Understanding and Speaking

Listening One

Mrs. Black was having a lot of trouble with her skin,so she went to her doctor. However he could not find anything wrong with her. So he sent her to the local hospital for some tests. The hospital, of course, sent the results of the tests directly to Mrs. Black's doctor. The next morning he telephoned her to give her a list of the things that he thought she should not eat, as any of them might be the cause of her skin trouble.

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Mrs Black carefully wrote all the things down on a piece of paper which she then left beside the telephone while she went out to a meeting.

When she got back home two hours later, she found her husband waiting for her. He had a big basket full of packages beside him and when he saw her he said \"Hello, dear. I have done all your shopping for you\" \"Done all my shopping?”she asked in surprise.\"But how did you know what I wanted?”

\"Well, when I got home，I found your shopping list beside the telephone\" answered her husband \"so I went down to the shops and bought everything you had written down\"

Of course, Mrs. Black had to tell him that he had bought all the things the doctor would not allow her to eat!

Listening Two

American and British people both speak Englis, of course，but sometimes it does not seem like the same language. ln fact，there are some important differences between British English and American English First of all，they sound very different. 0ften, Americans don’t say all the letters in each word. For example, Americans

may say \"l dunno”instead of\"l don’t know”, or they may say \"Whaddya say?”instead of what do you say?”

Sound is not the only difference between British English and American English. The two languages have different

words and expressions for some things. For example,some words for clothing are different. Americans use the word \"sweater”but the British say \"jumper”Americans wear

\"vests\" over their shirts but the British wear \"vests\" under their shirts. Americans talk about \"pants”or \"slacks\" but the British talk about \"trousers\" The British \"chips\" are American \"French fries” A British \"chemist’s shop”is an American \"pharmacy\" or \"drugstore”. In Britain, if you are going to telephone friends，you \"ring them up”. In America，you \"give them a call\".

There are also some differences in grammar. For example, Americans almost always use the helping verb \"do\" with the verb\"have”They might say,“Do you have an extra pen?” The British often ask the question in a different way. They might say，\"Have you got an extra pen\"

These differences can be confusing when you are learning English. But when the same language is used in different places，it is understandable that it changes in each place.

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Listening Three

Nick: Hi, Dieter. OK

Dieter: Oh, hi, Nick. Yes, I'm fine, except that I had a big problem ordering my drink. I didn't think my English was so bad!

Nick: Your English is very good! What kind of problem

Dieter: Well, look at this beer I've got here—this warm, brown, English beer—it wasn't what I wanted! Nick: Why, what did you ask for

Dieter: Well, I just asked for a small beer. Then the barman asked what type of beer and said lots of names that I didn't understand—and something about a pie or a pine. I didn't understand anything! Nick: Oh, no! He probably said a pint! In English you don't ask for a big or a small beer. You ask for either a pint or a half. A pint's the big one. Dieter: So this one I've got here is a half

Nick: Yes, that's a half of bitter. Bitter's the name for that type of beer.

Dieter: Ah, that's what he said—bitter! Well, it's very different from the beer we drink in Germany, I must say.

Nick: Yes, I know. They call the German type of beer lager. So you have to ask for a half of lager, or a pint of lager.

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Dieter: OK. I understand that now. My another problem was chips. I asked for a packet of chips, and the barman said something strange—that they don't have chips in the evening, only at lunchtime. What did he mean

Nick: Yes, they have fish and chips, but I think you meant crisps. In England, chips are fried potatoes, you know, French fries. The ones you buy in a packet are crisps.

Dieter: Well, in the end I didn't get anything to eat. So you see, I did everything wrong!

Listening Four

Mr. and Mrs. Jones are having a conversation one evening while Mrs. Jones happens to be looking at some of the textbooks her daughter，who is in the fifth grade, is using.

Mrs. Jones：Listen to what this book says. It really makes me angry! When talking about the settling of the western part of the U.S., It says\"MEN by the thousands headed west.”Then on the very same page it says,\"The average citizen in theUnited States is proud of HIS heritage”

Mr. Jones：What’s wrong with that?It's true. I don't understand why you are angry.

Mrs. Jones：Why?Because women are left out!

Mr. Jones:Everyone knows when the writer says\"men\" or \"his\" in those sentences, he means to include women.

Mrs. Jones：I think you are wrong. When young people read these sentences，they simply do not form a mental image which includes females Mr. Jones: Mm Do you have other examples?

Mrs. Jones: Yes I do! This book mentions\"MAN—made improvements that have raised America’s

standard of living.”It is gender biased and a child will not think that females as well as males have made contributions when reading this.

Mr. Jones：I still don't think it's very important.

Mrs Jones：Of course, you don't!You’re a man. But don't you want our daughter and other little girls to have the idea that they can be important citizens in their country，Just as other women have been in the past?

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Mr. Jones：Well,I guess you’re right. I hope not all textbooks are like that.

Further Listening

Listening One

Much has been said about how anti—social the Internet and mobile phones are The truth is，however, according to new research, communication technology is bringing people closer together. A study by the Pew Internet and American life Project found family members were keeping in regular contact today more than ever before. And this is all down to

e—mail，chat，cellphones and SMS messaging. It makes sense. Years ago, it fook a long time to write a letter, then find an envelope and go to the post office to buy a stamp and post it. Today we write mails while we wait for our change in the convenience store and they’re sent in an

instant. Having free Internet telephone calls also helps us to stay in touch more often and for longer Everyone’s at it from five—year-olds to tech-savvy grandparents.

According to the Pew survey, technology has a very positive effect on communication within families.Researchers asked 2,252 adults whether new technologies had increased the quality of communication with their family.Fifty-three percent said it increased communication with family

members they did not live with two percent said technology decreased this. Numbers were similar for those living ln the same house as their family. The project director Lee Rainey said：\"There’s a new kind of connectedness being built inside of families with these technologies.\" Survey co-author Barry Wellman agreed.\"It used to be that husbands went off to work, wives went off to a different job or else stayed home… and the kids went off to school and not until 5：30, 6 o’clock did they ever connect,”he said.

Listening Two

At an early age, little girls' conversation is less definite and expresses more doubts, while little boys use conversation to establish status with their listeners.

These differences continue into adult life. In public conversations, men talk more and interrupt other speakers more. In private conversations, men and women speak in equal amounts, although they say things in a different style. For women, private talking is a way to establish and test intimacy. For men, private talking is a way to explore the power structure of a relationship.

Teaching is one job which shows the differences between men's and women's ways of talking. When a man teaches a woman, he wants to show that he has more knowledge, and hence more power in

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conversation. He uses his language to show this. When a woman teaches another woman, however, she is more likely to take a sharing approach and to encourage her student to join in.

But it doesn't suggest that women are naturally more helpful. Actually, women feel they achieve power by being able to help others.

Listening Three

Walking down the street, a dog saw an ad in an office window. “Help wanted. Must type 70 words a minute. Must be computer literate. Must be bilingual. An equal-opportunity employer.”

The dog applied for the position, but he was quickly refused. “I can't hire a dog for this job,” the office manager said. But when the dog pointed to the line that read “An equal-opportunity employer”, the office manager sighed and asked, “Can you type” Silently, the dog walked over to a typewriter and typed a letter without a mistake. “Can you operate a computer” the manager inquired. The dog then sat down at a computer, wrote a program and ran it perfectly.

“Look, I still can't hire a dog for this position,” said the office manager. “You have fine skills, but I need someone who's bilingual. It says so right in the ad.” The dog looked up at the manager and said, “Meow.”

Listening Four

Ramon Romero is a seventeen-year-old boy from Bolivia. He speaks Spanish and a little bit of English. Ramon lives in the United States now, in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the Hutchinsons. They are not his real family. His real family is back in Bolivia. They cannot come to America because they have jobs and duties in their country and aren't able to leave. However, they do want their son to have an American education and be fluent in English.

He misses his family and wishes to see them. It seems that no one understands his true feelings. It is difficult to listen to English all the time and then to express his thoughts in English. His American family is very nice to him and helps him in every way. In return, Ramon does little things to help the family. For instance, he takes the dog for a walk every morning and every evening.

When he comes back from the morning walk, he tells Mrs. Hutchinson about the weather. This tells her how to dress her four-year-old son. On Tuesday, Mrs. Hutchinson asks, “How is the weather today” Ramon answers, “It rain.”

“No, Ramon, in English we say, 'It's raining.'”

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On Wednesday, it rains again. “It's raining today,” reports Ramon.

On Thursday, it snows. On Friday, the sun finally shines. Ramon is very happy that he doesn't have to wear boots or carry an umbrella. He comes into the house with a big smile on his face. “How's the weather today” asks Mrs. Hutchinson.

“Oh, today I am very happy,” replies Ramon. “There is no weather.”

Unit Three

Listening, Understanding and Speaking

Listening Three

(Three students, Sarah, Tom and Jen, are sitting in the student center having a coke. They have been discussing the 100th anniversary of flight.)

Sarah: I'm tired of hearing so much about what winners the Wright brothers were with their first plane flight.

Tom: Why do you say that, Sarah

Sarah: I have always thought the female pilot Amelia Earhart as even more of a winner. Jen: I admire her too but she failed to fly around the world in 1937. Tom: She crashed into the Pacific Ocean, didn't she

Sarah: No one ever knows for sure, but that probably is what happened. Tom: Then how is she a winner

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Sarah: She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. She did this in 1932 in a small plane. Jen: That's true.

Sarah: Until then, many people said that a woman wasn't strong enough mentally or physically to make such a trip alone. Well, not only did she do it, but she also made the trip faster than anyone had before. Jen: Good for her!

Sarah: Then in 1935 she flew alone from Hawaii to California, the very first person to be successful in making the trip.

Tom: But, as I said before, she failed to fly around the world. Sarah: I don't think Amelia would think that she had really failed. Jen: Why

Sarah: She had written a letter to her husband in which she said, “I am quite aware of the dangers. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”

Jen: And you are saying that she has challenged others. Sarah: Right!

Further listening

Listening One

(At a dormitory lounge on a college campus. Two students, John, a biology major, and Mary, an English major, are sharing a morning newspaper.) John: Did you see this article about Jane Goodall

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Mary: No, but I've heard of the name. I don't remember why she's famous.

John: Well, she's probably the world's top authority on the behavior of chimpanzees and gorillas. She has written several books, published many articles, and lectured all over the world about her studies. Mary: How did she begin her work in this area

John: That's quite a story. The article says that she was a timid twenty-six-year old person without a university education when she got the courage to call Louis Leakey, the famous anthropologist at the Museum of Natural History in Kenya. She had been working as a waitress, saving her money, and hoping for a chance to study animals. Mary: What happened next

John: Leakey offered her a job as his assistant in 1960. She paid her own expenses for a year, and Leakey then helped her find the money to continue her research and finally finish a university degree in

anthropology. Her studies have continued since then, changing our ideas about these animals who are man's closest relatives.

Mary: What is the newspaper writing about her now

John: She is doing a new TV show next month on “The Animal Planet” where she will tell about her most recent studies in Africa.

Mary: I'd like to see that even though I'm not a biologist.

Listening Two

Bob: Hi, Mary, what did you find this time

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Mary: Do you remember in our Music Appreciation class we studied music by Ludwig van Beethoven I found a CD with some of his best-known symphonies.

Carol: Oh yes, I think that “Ode to Joy” in his Ninth Symphony is one of the happiest and most joyful pieces of music ever written!

Bob: I agree, but Beethoven had many unhappy times during his life.

Mary: He seemed “born to win” as a musician. He first studied with his father who was a singer and organist in Bonn, Germany. He published his first music at the age of twelve in 1782, played in private concerts, and had his first public concert in 1795.

Carol: But, even though he was a brilliant pianist, it was his original music which he was best known for. I also remember that in 1802 he began to lose his hearing. Was that the end of his music career

Bob: No, but he became bitter and unhappy after that, and his music, though excellent, was a struggle for him.

Mary: We were told that he could “hear the music in his mind” even though he could not hear the actual music. Despite the many personal disappointments he suffered, he became known as the greatest musician of his time.

Listening Three

In the United States, Norman Rockwell is the best-known artist who ever lived. He painted average people, but also recorded major events, such as Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927 and Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon many years later. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson also sat for portraits which he painted.

Rockwell was born in New York in 14. When a schoolboy, he wanted to compete in athletics, but was unsuccessful. He was poorly coordinated, had to wear corrective shoes, and also wore very thick glasses. However, he discovered one thing he could do very well. He could draw. From an early age he used his drawing skills to entertain his school friends.

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He quit high school to attend art school and finally went to Paris to study modern French painting. He did not do well with this, but he did discover that he really liked to paint people. He returned to the U.S., studied with leading magazine illustrators of the time, and became successful at painting people. In 1916, he painted a cover for the popular weekly magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. By 1919 he was its chief cover artist. The American public loved the way he recorded ordinary people and events on the magazine covers. He did so for over 45 years.

Listening Four

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana. He was the seventh child of

Joseph and Catherine Jackson. Joseph, a steel-mill worker, encouraged his three sons, Sigmund, Toriano, and Jermaine, to practice the guitar and write songs. This trio performed at nightclubs and talent shows. Young Michael loved to imitate his brothers' dancing and singing. His parents were often amused to find him imitating a song and his brothers' dance steps. As he grew older, they found that he had a natural talent for singing.

He sang his first solo in front of his entire school, the song “Climb Every Mountain”, which was a popular number from the musical The Sound of Music.

By the early 1960s, Joseph decided that Michael and his elder brother, Marlon, should join their older siblings and form a group. The result was “Jackson Five”. This group performed in nightclubs and talent shows. Despite his young age of six, Michael soon distinguished himself as a singer and dancer of unusual ability.

Unit Four

Listening, Understanding and Speaking

Listening One

A potato farmer was sent to prison just at the time when he should have been digging the ground for planting the new crop of potatoes. He knew that his wife would not be strong enough to do the digging by herself, but she could manage to do the planting; and he also knew that he did not have any friends or neighbors who would be willing to do the digging

for him. So he wrote a letter to his wife, which said\"Please do not dig the potato field. I hid the money and the gun there”

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Ten days later he got a letter from his wife. It said”think somebody is reading your letters before they go out of the prison. Some polioemen arrived here two days ago and dug up the whole potato field. What shall I do now?”

The prisoner wrote back at once”Plant the potatoes of course.\"

Listening Two

The manager of a large office building received many complaints about the lift service in the building. He hired a group of engineers to study the situation. They suggested two solutions： 1 adding more lifts of the same type; 2 replacing the lifts with faster ones.

The manager decided that both suggestions were too expensive. So he asked a psychologistto study the problem. The psychologist noticed that many people felt angry and impatient because they thought they had to wait too long for the lifts. However, the psychologist found that they had to wait only a relatively shor time. It occurred to him that the reason why they felt angry and impatient was that they had nothing to do while they were waiting for the lifts. He suggested a simple, inexpensive solution to the manager. This was adopted and complaints stopped immediately. The solution was to place a large mirror next to the lifts.

Listening Three

After just a few years of marriage, filled with constant arguments, a young man and his wife decided the only way to save their marriage was to try therapy. They had been at each other's throats for some time and felt that this was their last resort.

When they arrived at the therapist's office, the therapist jumped right in and opened the floor for

discussion, “What seems to be the problem” Immediately, the husband held his long face down without anything to say. On the other hand, the wife began describing all the wrongs within their marriage. After 5—10—15 minutes of listening to the wife, the therapist went over to her, picked her up by her shoulders, kissed her for several minutes, and sat her back down. Afterwards, the wife sat there—speechless.

He looked over at the husband who was staring in disbelief at what had happened. The therapist spoke to the husband, “Your wife NEEDS that at least twice a week!”

The husband scratched his head and replied, “I can have her here on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

Listening Four

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(Joan, Kristen and Shelly are discussing their evening plans while having lunch.)

Joan: I'm so stressed out! I just can't get that new computer program written. I wonder if I'll ever finish it. I'm supposed to have dinner with my best friend from college tonight but I think I should call her and say I can't.

Kristen: No, Joan, don't call her. Have dinner with her and have a good time.

Shelly: I agree with Kristen. Have dinner and talk about what fun you two had in college. Tomorrow you'll feel less stressed.

Joan: How do you know, Shelly

Shelly: I recently read an article in the magazine Psychology Today. It said social support, especially with old and good friends, can help you keep down your stress level. It can actually slow your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure.

Kristen: I read that too. It also said that making time for close relationships is vital to helping you have good health. Some research suggests that people who are socially connected get a better night's rest too. Joan: OK, I'll go. I really wanted to, but, well, you know... By the way, Kristen, your job is stressful too. What are you doing tonight

Kristen: I've joined a book discussion group. We're meeting tonight. I always enjoy the discussion and social interaction, so I go home afterwards, feeling relaxed.

Shelly: I'm going to call my sister. We don't live close to each other so we phone when we can and laugh a lot. I always feel great afterwards.

Joan: Sounds like we'll all be “distressing” tonight. I'm glad we talked.

Further listening

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Listening One

Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space. The amount of space a person needs around him is a cultural preference, not an economic one. Knowing your own psychological space needs is important because they strongly influence your choices, including, for example, the number of bedrooms in the home. If you were brought up in a two-child family and both you and your sister or brother had your own bedrooms, then it's very likely that you will also provide separate bedrooms for your children. In America they train people to want their own private rooms by giving them their own rooms when they are babies. This is very rare in the world. In many cultures the baby sleeps in the same bed with his parents or in a crib near their bed.

The areas in the home where people meet also reveal a lot about psychological space needs. Some families cluster, and the size of their house has nothing to do with it. Others have separate little places where family members go to be alone.

Although psychological space needs are not determined by economic factors, they sometimes have to be modified a little because of economic pressures. It is almost impossible, however, to completely change your psychological space needs.

Listening Two

Two recent studies by psychologists suggest that noise can influence how nice we are to others. They experimented by giving people a chance to help someone in trouble. A person would see a man carrying two boxes filled with books. As the person came closer, the book carrier dropped several books. The other researcher observed whether the passer-by offered to help.

When the noise level was normal, 20 percent of the passers-by helped. When the experimenter wore a cast on his arm, 80 percent offered help.

But when a very noisy lawnmower was nearby, 10 percent of the passers-by helped the non-handicapped man, and 15 percent helped the man with a cast.

It seemed that people were less helpful when it was noisy because they wanted to escape the noise. So the researchers set up a similar experiment in a situation where the subjects couldn't leave.

A student volunteer waited in a room before being called for an experiment he expected. The

experimenter waited in the same room, holding some books. He dropped the books. The noise level in the room varied from normal to loud; 75 percent of the 52 students helped pick up the books under normal conditions, but only half that many volunteered when the room was noisy. Perhaps because of the distracting noise, the students didn't notice and respond quickly to the book-dropping. Or perhaps the book-dropping further annoyed the students already irritated by the noise, making them less likely to help out.

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Listening Three

(Three students, Janice, Sue, and Kelly, are looking at magazines in the library and commenting on some articles they see.)

Janice: I think I've seen everything now! Sue: What do you mean

Janice: Have you ever heard of psycho-geometrics Sue: No.

Janice: I hadn't either. It's a new way of identifying personalities. Kelly: How

Janice: You think of the four basic shapes—square, triangle, circle and rectangle and decide which shape you like best.

Sue: I like triangles. They make me think of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. What does that say about me

Janice: The triangle stands for ambition and high achievement. Sue: I like that. What else

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Janice: You like to achieve. Once you decide what you want, nothing will stop you. Also you like to give big parties for friends and love being in the center of the crowd.

Listening Four

Bob had finally made it to the last round of the $,000 Question. The night before the big question, he told the host that he desired a question on American history. The big night had arrived. Bob made his way on stage in front of the studio and TV audience. He had become the talk of the week. He was the best guest this show had ever seen. The host stepped up to the mike.

“Bob, you have chosen American history as your final question. You know that if you correctly answer this question, you will walk away $,000 richer. Are you ready”

Bob nodded with confidence. The audience went nuts. He hadn't missed a question all week.

“Bob, your question on American history is a two-part question. As you know, you may answer either part first. As a rule, the second half of the question is always easier. Which part would you like to answer first” Bob was now becoming very nervous. He couldn't believe it, but he was drawing a blank. American history was his easiest subject, but he played it safe. “I'll try the easier part first.”

The host nodded approvingly. “Here we go, Bob. I will ask you the second half first, then the first half.” The audience silenced with great anticipation.

“Bob, here is your question: And in what year did it happen”

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