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1、- 1 -第二版新视野大学英语听说教程 4Passage 原文Unit 1 The Fame GameThe Dangers of FameYou young people go crazy over famous people. Will you listen to me when I tell you your generation is wrong about this? Let me use an example to illustrate my point to you.Marilyn Monroe, you might not even know who she is. Back
2、in my day, when I was your age, she was a big movie star. But she wasnt born a movie star, no sir. She was a simple girl with beauty and innocence until she went to Hollywood to develop a respectable name in her profession, she sought fame. Well, Ill tell you, she made her movies All About Eve in 19
3、50, Gentiemen Prefer Blondes in 1953, Some Like it Hot in 1959, and more. She got into trouble throughout drugs, abuseAll of this came crashing down on her head, and she died at an early age in 1962. Sad, really.I hope that this example shows you the dangers of fame. Believe me, its best just to liv
4、e a simple life.Unit 2 One of a KindCharlie ChaplinSome people stand out as truly special and one of a kind. Charlie Chaplin, a superstar of silent comedies and one of the great icons of - 2 -the 20th-century film, is one of those unique people. Chaplin had a rotten childhood and an early start on s
5、tage, performing even as a child in vaudeville. He went to Hollywood in 1914 and began acting in silent comedies. By 1915, he controlled most aspects of his films, in which he usually appeared as a character called simply the “Little Tramp”: a lovably shabby dreamer with a bushy moustache, bowler ha
6、t and cane. Chaplin was one of the founders of United Artists Studios and was one of the first movie makers to have complete control over his features. His best-know films include 1925s The Gold Rush, 1931s City Lights, and 1936s Modem Times. Famously outspoken and sympathetic to communism, Chaplin
7、left the United States in 1952 because of increased political pressure. He settled in Switzerland, where he and his wife Oona raised eight children, including actress Geraldine Chaplin. In 1972 he returned to the United States to accept a Oscar, and in 1975, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth .Unit
8、3 Crushed by MisfortuneCare for the Americas PoorWhat to do about the poor and needy is a concern of every government. The U.S. is not exempt from this concern, but care for its poor has changed over time. Until the Great Depression of the 1930s, state and local governments in America bore some - 3
9、-responsibility for providing assistance to the poor. However, such assistance was minimal at best.The New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt included new federal initiatives to help those in poverty. With millions of people unemployed during the 1930s economic depression, welfare assi
10、stance was beyond the financial resources of the states. Therefore, the federal government provided funds for maintaining a standard of living, either directly to recipients or to the states.Between 1935 and 1996, federal programs were established that provided additional welfare benefits, including
11、 medical care, public hosing, and food stamps. By the 1960s, however, criticism began to grow that these programs discouraged people from finding employment. Even defenders of public welfare benefits acknowledged that the system was imperfect noting the financial disincentives associated with taking
12、 a low-paying job and losing the array of benefits, especially medical care.Unit 4 Zooming up the Information SuperhighwayInformation HighwayThe “information highway”, the “information superhighway”, the “Interweb”, the “Internet”all of these words have come to identify the same thingthe widespread
13、connection of computers and information from around the world. And as our understanding - 4 -of this connection has changed, so too have the terms weve used to describe it.The information highway was a term used especially in the 1990s to describe the Internet. The official project was dubbed the Na
14、tional Infrastructure and went beyond the interconnectivity of just computers; the scope broadened to include all types of data transmissions between a plethora of places, people, and devices. It is often associated with the United States politician and former vice president, Al Gore, who promoted f
15、unding for programs that led to aspects of the development of the Internet, Although its currency was wider than merely Goremany policy organizations made pronouncements about the so-called information highway or the variant information superhighway. Both terms are used less frequently now that for
16、many people the Internet has become a less abstract and more concrete thing; the highway analogy, though useful and apt, has perhaps served its purpose.Unit 5 My Roommate, My Friend?DormitoryMost people prefer living by themselves, as they think that the advantages of living alone, such as privacy and quiet, outweigh the negatives, which include loneliness and higher costs. However, some people, college students most of all, do not have a choice. Because - 5 -
