四级听写1. InsectsNobody likes insects. They are annoying and sometimes dangerous. Some of them bite us and give us diseases; others bite us and give us big red spots. Some do not bite, but just fly around our heads or crawl around our houses and gardens. /Indeed, we do not like most of them except those lovely butterflies. / But insects are interesting. Firstly, they are very old animals. Three hundred and twenty million years ago, there were no man in the world, but there were insects. Today, on every square mile of land there are millions of them flying and crawling about. Secondly, insects are very adaptable to their surroundings, so that today there are about a million different species in the world.Why then do some people try to kill insects? After all, not many of them hurt us. The reason is that they eat so much of man’s food and there are so many of them. (158 words)2. A Protest against InjusticeIt all started on a bus one day in 1955. A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But in those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses until the laws were changed. He led the protest movement to end such injustice to the blacks. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. (146 words) 3. Foolish TestsCenturies ago, a man accused of a crime / often had to go through a strange test. / In one country, for instance, a metal bar was dropped into boiling oil. / The prisoner had to put his hand into the oil and take out the bar. / It was believed that the oil would not burn an innocent man. / If the prisoner got his hand burned, he would be found guilty of the crime he was accused of. / Another foolish method was used in Europe. / When a man was accused of a crime, he was thrown into a pool or river. / If he floated, people declared that he was guilty. / They took him out of the water and punished him. / However, if the man sank, people claimed that he was innocent. / They pulled him out of the water quickly and released him. / We do not know what would have happened / if the man had learned to swim under the water. (160 words)4. Why Do People Want Work?People work because they need money to live. / They need money for food and clothes and to pay for their houses, flats or the rooms where they live. / People need money for many different things / and they can earn money if they work. / Work makes people feel important. / Work makes them feel that they are useful. / But machines can not do many things that people used to do. / Technology is giving us more cars, roads and food but less work. / Many businessmen believe that we will soon have robots / which will work all the time. / The robots will never complain or stop work. / Some scientists think that by the year 2025 / intelligent animals will do the work that many people do now. / In tomorrow’s world, / people will need to learn new things / because life will be changing so fast. / People will have to change their ideas about work. / (152 words) 5. The Great Depression The stock market crash in October 1929 / marked the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. / For the first year, the economy fell very slowly. / But it dropped sharply in 1931 and 1932. / By the end of 1932, the economy collapsed almost completely. / During the three years following the stock market crash, / the American gross national product dropped by almost half. / Millions of people lost their jobs. / Tens of thousands lost their homes. / Men with wives and children begged for money on the streets. / During the next several years, / a large part of the richest nation on earth / learned what it meant to be poor. / Hard times found their way into every area and every job. / Workers struggled as factories closed. / Farmers hit with falling prices and natural disasters / were forced to give up their farms. / Businessmen lost their stores, and sometimes their homes. / All the gains of the 1920s were washed away. (154 words)6. Learning to describeAll through my boyhood and youth, I was known as an idle person, / and yet I was always busy with my own private affairs, / which was to learn to write. / I always kept two books in my pocket, / one to read, and the other to write in. / As I walked, my mind was busy / fitting what I saw with appropriate words. / When I sat by the roadside, / I would either read, / or note down the features of the scene / or write some lines of verse. / Thus I lived with words. / What I wrote was not for futur。