2019年12月英语六级听力真题录音第二套

2019年12月英语六级听力真题录音第2套 听力原文

Section A 

Long Conversation 1 

　　Man: Today our guest is RosieMelinda (Q1) who works as a features editor for Fashion magazine. HiRosie, you're a features editor at one of the most widely read women's magazines in the U.K. What kind of responsibilities does that job entail?

　　Woman: We spend our days looking at ideasfrom journalists, writing copy for the magazine and website and editing. We dorandom things like asking people in the street questions and testing sportsclothing. We also do less tangible things like understanding what our readerswant. It's certainly varied and sometimes bizarre.

　　Man: During your working day what kind ofwork might you typically do?

　　Woman: My day mainly incorporatesresponding to emails (Q2), writing and editing stories and coming up withnew feature ideas.

　　Man: How does the job of features editordiffer from that of fashion editor or other editorial positions?

　　Woman: The feature's team deals witharticles such as careers, reports, confidence and confessions. Everythingexcept to fashion and beauty.

　　Man: A lot of people believe thatworking at a magazine is a glamorous job (Q3).Is this an accuraterepresentation of what you do?

　　Woman: I'd say it's glamorous to an extent,but not in the way it's portrayed in films. We do have our moments such as interviewingcelebrities and attending parties which is a huge thrill. Ultimately though,we're the same as our readers. But working in a job we're all very lucky tohave.

　　Man: Did you have to overcome anydifficulties to reach this point in your career? How did you manage to do this?

　　Woman: I had to be reallypersistent and it was very hard work. After three years of working in apetrol station and doing unpaid work I still hadn't managed to get an entrylevel job. I was lucky that my last desperate attempt led to a job(Q4). I told myself that all experiences make you a better journalist inthe long run and luckily, I was right.

　　Q1: What is the woman's profession?

　　Q2: What is one of the woman's mainresponsibilities?

　　Q3: What do many people think about thewoman's job?

　　Q4: What helped the woman to get hercurrent position?

Long Conversation 2 

　　Woman: Are you watching any good showsthese days?

　　Man: Actually, yes. I'm watching agreat satire (Q5) called Frankie. I think you'd like it.

　　Woman: Really? What's it about?

　　Man: It's about a real guy named Frankie.He is a famous comedian in New York and shows a mixture of comedy and dramaloosely depicting his life.

　　Woman: I'm sorry, do you mean to say, it'sa real-life series about a real person? It's nonfiction, isn't it?

　　Man: No … Not really, no. It's fiction, aswhat happens in every episode is made up. However the lead role is a comedianby the name of Frankie, and he plays himself. So Frankie in both real life andin the TV show lives in New York City, is a comic, is divorced, and has twolittle daughters. All those things are true, but aside from him, all hisfriends and family are played by actors. And the plots and the events that takeplace are also invented.

　　Woman: Oh, I think I see now. That soundslike a very original concept.

　　Man: Yes, it is. In fact, (Q6) thewhole show is written, directed, edited and produced by him, and (Q5)isvery funny and has won many awards.

　　Woman: That's cool. I will try todownload it. (Q7) I'm watching a comedy called The Big Bang Theory. It's ahuge hit around the world.

　　Man: Oh yes. I've heard of it, but neveractually watched it.

    Woman: Well,then you should check it out. It's also very funny. It's about four malescientists and a female waitress. The men are very socially awkward but verybright. And this is contrasted by the lady's social skills and common sense. (Q8)The show has been running for over ten years, and some of the actors arepractically global super stars. Now that they are such famous celebrities.

　　Q5: What does the man think of thesatire Frankie he recently watched?

　　Q6: What does the man say especial aboutthe satire Frankie?

　　Q7: What does the woman say she is goingto do with the satire Frankie?

       Q8: What doesthe woman say about the comedy The Big Bang Theory?

Section B 

Passage 1 

      Related to the‘use-it-or-lose-it law’ is the ‘keep-moving principle’. We learned aboutstagnation from nature. A river that stops moving gets smelly. The same thinghappens to people who stop moving, either mentally or physically. Those whoplay contact sports know that [9] the player who usually gets hurt themost is the one who is standing still. Of course, you’ll need some time tocatch your breath every so often, but the essential massage is keepmoving, extending and learning. Ships last a lot longer when they go to seathan when they stay in the harbor. The same is true for the airplanes. Youdon't preserve an airplane by keeping it on the ground, you preserve it bykeeping it in service. We also get to live a long healthy life by staying inservice. [10] Longevity statistics reveal that the average person doesn'tlast very long after retirement. The more we’ll hear is don’t retire. If afellow says “I’m 94 years old and I worked all my life”, we need to realize,that is how he got to be 94, by staying involved. George Bernard Shaw won aNobel Prize when he was nearly 70. Benjamin Franklin produced some of his bestwritings at the age of 84, and Pablo Picasso put brush to canvas right throughhis eighties. Isn’t the issue how old we think we are? [11] A bonus withthe ‘keep-moving principle’ is that while we keep moving, we don’t have achance to worry. Hence we avoid the dreaded paralyses by analysis.

　　Q9. What does the speaker say aboutplayers of contact sports?

　　Q10. What do longevity statistics revealabout the average person?

　　Q11. What bonus does the keep movingprinciple bring us according to the speaker?

Passage 2 

　　 In 2014, one in sixteen Americans visitedthe hospital emergency room for home injuries. One of the main causes of theseaccidents? A wandering mind! [12] By one estimate, people daydream throughnearly half of their waking hours. Psychologists have recently focused on thetendency to think about something other than the task one is doing. For oneexperiment, [13] researchers developed an app to analyze the relationshipbetween daydreaming and happiness. They found that the average person’s mind wanderedmost frequently about 65% of the time during personal activities, such asbrushing their teeth and combing their hair. Respondents’ minds tended towander more when they felt upset rather than happy. They were more likely towander toward pleasant topics than unpleasant ones. How do daydreams affectdaydreamers? A wandering mind leaves us vulnerable when driving. In one study,researchers interview 955 people involved in traffic accidents, the majority ofthem reported having daydream just before the accident. Yet other researchsuggests that daydreaming has benefits. [14] Researches have found that itgives us a chance to think about our goals and it also seems to increasecreativity. In one experiment, 145 undergraduates completed four unusual usestasks, each requiring them to list as many uses as possible for everydayobject. After the first pair of tasks was completed, one group of participantswas assigned an undemanding activity intended to cause their minds to wander.When all the participants proceeded to the second pair of tasks, [15] thedaydreamers performed 40% better than the others.

       Q12: What doesthe passage say about people’s mind?

　　Q13: For what purpose did theresearchers develop the new app?

　　Q14: How does daydreaming benefit peopleaccording to some researchers?

       Q15: What wasthe finding of the experiment with 145 undergraduates?

Section C 

Recording 1  

　　Dating from as far back as the 12thcentury, they are claimed to be the rarest historic buildings in western Europe.These buildings offer vital insight into Scandinavia’s Viking past. But now,with only 30 wooden churches remaining [16] and their condition deteriorating,experts are working to preserve the structures for future generations.

　　Some of these spectacular churches are nomore than small buildings, barely 4 meters wide and 6 meters tall. Others aremuch larger structures. They soar up to 40 meters into the cold air. [17]Most consist of timber frames that rest on stone blocks. This means that theyhave no foundations. Although many of the churches appear from the outside tobe complex structures, they normally feature only a single storey but numerousdifferent roof levels.

　　Staff from the Norwegian government havecarried out conservation work on 10 of the churches over the past two years.Most of these churches date from between the 12th and 14th centuries. Otherchurches were conserved in previous years. So far, specialists have worked toadd preservative materials to the churches’ exteriors. They also replacedrotting roots and halted the sinking of the churches into the ground. In twocases, huge machines have been used to lift the buildings up to 30 centimetersinto the air. This was accomplished so that the team could examine and repairthe churches’ original medieval stone blocks. The team plans to return toaround a dozen of the buildings to assess progress and consider further action.

      The earliestfree-standing wooden church was probably built in Norway in around 1080.However, the largest known wooden churches were built from the 1130s onwards.This period was one of inter-elite rivalry, in which nobles sought to increasetheir influence by funding the construction of churches and other buildings.The reason for constructing the buildings from wood is probably that ideallyproportioned straight and [18] slender timber was available in largequantities in Scandinavia’s vast pine forests. As wood was so plentiful, it wascheaper to use than the stone used in the buildings of other European cultures.The area’s ship building tradition, partly established by the Vikings, alsomeant that sophisticated carpentry was a major aspect of the local culture. Thecomplex style of the medieval wooden church carvings and the skills used tomake them almost certainly to derive from the ancient Viking tradition.

　　Q16. What does the speaker say about theViking wooden churches?

　　Q17. What is special about most of theViking wooden churches?

　　Q18. Why were the Viking churchesconstructed from wood?

　Recording 2  

　　In last week’s lecture, we discussed thecharacteristics of the newly born offspring of several mammals. You probablyremember that human infants are less developed physically than other mammals ofthe same age. But [19] in today’s lecture, we’ll look at three veryinteresting studies that hint at surprising abilities of human babies.

　　In the first study, three-year-olds watchtwo videos shown side by side. Each featuring a different researcher, one ofwhom they’d met once two years earlier. The children spend longer watching thevideo showing the researcher they hadn’t met. This is consistent with youngchildren’s usual tendency to look longer at things that aren’t familiar. Andreally this is amazing. It suggests the children remember the researcherthey’ve met just one time when they were only one-year-olds. Of course, as mostof us forget memories from our first few years as we grow older, this earlylong-turn memories will likely be lost in subsequent years.

　　Our second study is about music, for thisstudy researchers play music to babies through speakers located on either sideof a human face. They waited until the babies got bored and inverted their gazefrom the face. And then they change the mood in the music either from sad tohappy or the other way around. This mood switch made no difference to thethree-month-olds; but for the nine-month-olds, it was enough to renew theirinterest and they started looking again in the direction of the face. [20]This suggests that babies of that age can tell the difference between a happymelody and a sad tune.

　　Our final study is from 1980, but it’sstill relevant today. In fact, [21] it’s one of the most famous pieces ofresearch about infant emotion ever published. The study involved ordinaryadults watching video clips of babies nine months or younger. In the videoclips, the babies made various facial expressions in response to real lifeevents including playful interactions and painful ones. The adult observerswere able to reliably discern an assortment of emotions on the babies faces.These emotions included interest, joy, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust,contempt, and fear.

      Next week, we’llbe looking at this last study more closely. In fact, we will be viewing some ofthe video clips from that study. And together, see how well we do in discerningthe babies’ emotions.

　　Q19: What are the three interestingstudies about?

　　Q20: What does the second study findabout nine-month-old babies?

　　Q21: What is the 1980 study about?

Recording 3 

　　 Today I’d like to talk about the dangers ofbeing too collaborative. Being a good team player is a central skill in ourmodern workplace. The ability to work well with others and collaborate onprojects is a sought-after ability in nearly every position. However, placingtoo much emphasis on being a good team player [22] can negatively affectyour career growth. Don’t be overly focused on gaining consensus. Don’t be tooconcerned with the opinions of others.This can hinder your ability to makedecisions, speak up and gain recognition for your individual skills andstrengths. Some people are too subordinate to others’ opinions, too focused ondecision consensus, too silent about their own point of view, too agreeable totake things on when they don’t have time or energy. This leads to building abrand of under confident, submissive, low-impact non-leaders and hampers theirgrowth and career advancement.

　 　[23]Collaboration certainly makes yourindividual competencies and contributions more difficult for outsiders toidentify. Collaborative projects mean you’re sharing the spotlight with others.Outsiders may then find it difficult to determine your contributions andstrengths. This may end up costing you opportunities for promotions or payraises. You certainly shouldn’t ditch teamwork, but how can you avoid thehazards of being an over-collaborator?

　　 Working in a team can have huge benefits.Your team may have repeated successes and often gain recognition.[24] You thenhave more opportunities to expand your professional network than if you workedalone. However, finding a balance between team efforts and individual projectsthat give you independent recognition is important for making a name foryourself and providing opportunities for advancement.

      Be selective inwho you work with. This will maximize the benefits and minimize the downsidesof being a team player. Collaborate with people who have complementaryexpertise. Select projects where there’s potential for mutual benefit. Perhapsyou’re bringing your unique knowledge and gaining access to someone else’sprofessional network, or maybe you’re able to learn a new skill by working withsomeone. Seek out your teammates purposefully rather than jumping on every newgroup project opportunity. [25] When we’re too collaborative, we wanteveryone to agree with a decision before we proceed. This can createunnecessary delays as you hold meetings trying to achieve consensus. It’s fineto be collaborative when seeking input. But put a deadline on the input stageand arrive at a decision, even if it’s a decision that doesn’t have consensus.

　　Q22. What does the speaker say aboutbeing over collaborative?

　　Q23. What does the speaker say aboutpeople engaged in collaborative projects?

　　Q24. How do people benefit from workingin a team?

　　Q25. Why is it undesirable to spend toomuch time trying to reach consensus?