slash
vt. 砍；大幅度削减；n. 砍；斜线号
metric
a. 公制的，米制的
immense
a. 广大的，巨大的
drain
v. 排走；渐渐耗尽 n. 耗竭；排水管
insulate
vt. 使绝缘；隔离
prototype
n. 原型
compact
a. 紧凑的；紧密的；vt. 把…压实 n. 合同
notorious
a. 臭名昭着的
equation
n. 方程，等式
subsidy
n. 补助金
tub
n. 桶，塑料杯；盆，浴缸
giant
n. 巨人；才智超群的人；a. 巨大的
decisive
a. 决定性的；坚定的
hike
n. 徒步旅行；增加；v. 徒步旅行；提高
thermal
a. 热的；保暖的
specialize
vi. （in）专攻
furnace
n. 火炉
portion
n. 一部分，一份；vt. 分配
implement
vt. 使生效，实施；n. 工具，器具
keen
a.热心的；敏锐的；激烈的；锋利的
clutch
v.企图抓住；抓紧；n. 离合器；掌握
mall
n. 购物中心
lounge
n. 休息厅；vi. （懒散地）躺；闲逛
cozy/cosy
a. 舒适的；亲切友好的
relieve
vt. 使轻松；减轻；使得到调剂；接替
precaution
n. 预防，警惕
haunt
vt. 常出没于；使苦恼；缠绕；n. 常去的地方
vanish
vi. 消失；不复存在
bankrupt
a. 破产的；彻底缺乏的；vt. 使破产 n. 破产者
freight
n. 货物；vt. 运送（货物）
integral
a. 构成整体所必需的
remedy
n. 补救办法；药品，治疗法；vt. 补救；治疗
defy
vt. 违抗；藐视；使成为不可能；挑，激
vague
a. 含糊的，模糊的
betray
vt. 背叛；失信于；泄露；暴露
embrace
vt. 拥抱；包括；包围；n. 拥抱
occupation
n. 职业；消遣；占领
gauge
n. 测量仪表；厚度；规格；vt. 估计；计量
suspect
vt. 推测；对…表示怀疑 ；n. 可疑分子 a. 可疑的
casual
a. 冷淡的；非正式的；偶然的；临时的
acquaintance
n. 熟人；认识，了解
embarrass
vt. 使尴尬
inferior
a. 劣等的；下级的；n. 下级
parade
n. 游行，检阅；v.（使）列队行进
donation
n. 捐款，捐赠
gap
n. 缺口；差距；不足
cheat
v. 欺骗；作弊；n. 欺骗；骗子
gaze
vi./；n. 注视
jealous
a. 妒忌的；精心守护的
payment
n. 支付的款项；支付
peculiar
a. 奇怪的；特有的；n. 特有财产，特权
judgement
n. 看法；判断力；审判
scope
n. 范围；余地
scrape
v. 刮，擦；n. 刮，擦，刮擦声
organize
vt. 组织；使有条理
revolve
vi. 旋转
sanction
vt. 批准；n. 批准；约束力；（常pl.）国际制裁
penetrate
v. 渗入；刺穿；洞察
rival
n. 竞争对手；可与匹敌的人（或物）；a. 竞争的 vt. 与…竞争；比得上
upset
vt. 使心烦意乱；打乱；弄翻；n.不适 a. 心烦的
expansive
a. 易膨胀的；开朗的，健谈的
conscience
n. 良心
exemplify
vt. 是…的典型；举例证明
sexual
a. 性的；性别的
听力
SectionA
Conversation 1
M: Do you mind taking my photo with the statue【雕像】over there? I think it will make a great shot【设计、镜头、一小杯】.
W: Sure, no worries. You're always taking photos. What do you do with all the photos you take?
M: Well, don't laugh. My dream is to become an online celebrity【名人】of sorts.
W: You are not serious, are you?
M: I am, completely. I just got the idea a few months ago after posting some holiday photos on my social media accounts. A lot of people liked my photos and started asking me for travel tips. So I figured I'd give it a go. I post a lot on social media anyway. So I've got nothing to lose.
W: I guess that's true. So what do you have to do to become Internet famous?
M: Surprisingly a lot more than I did as a hobby【业余爱好】. Recently, I've been spending a lot more time editing photos, posting online and clearing storage on my phone. It's always full now.【现在总是满的】
W: That doesn't sound like too much work.
M: Well, there's more to it. I spent all last weekend researching what topics are popular, what words to use in captions【标题】and similar accounts to follow. It really was a lot to take in. And I was up well past midnight【我半夜还没睡】. I'd say it's paying off though【我想说这是值得的】. I increased the number of people following my accounts by 15% already.
W: That is impressive【给人印象深刻的、令人钦佩的】. I guess I never thought much about all the effort behind the scene【我想我从来没有想过这些幕后的努力】. Now that I think about it, there's always something wrong with my photos as it is—half smiles，closed eyes, messy hair. I hope you have better luck than I do. Then again【其次】, I think the only person interested in my photos is my mom.
1. What does the man ask the woman to do?
2. What does the man dream of?
3. What has the man been busy doing recently?
4. What does the woman say about her photos?
Conversation 2
M: Good evening and welcome to Physics Today. Here we interview some of the greatest minds in physics as they help us to understand some of the most complicated【复杂的】theories. Today, I'm very pleased to welcome Dr. Melissa Phillips, professor of theoretical physics. She's here to tell us a little about what it is she studies. Dr. Phillips, you seem to study everything.
W: I guess that would be fair to say I spent most of my time studying the Big Bang theory and where our universe【宇宙】came from.
M: Can you tell us a little about that?
W: Well, I'm very interested in why the universe exists at all. That may sound odd, but the fact is at the moment of the Big Bang, both matter and anti-matter were created for a short time, and I mean just a fraction of【一小部分】a second. The whole universe was a super-hot soup of radiation【辐射】filled with these particles【粒子】. So what's baffled【困惑】scientists for so long is "why is there a universe at all?"
M: That's because matter and anti-matter are basically opposites of each other. They are exactly alike【完全一样】except that they have opposite electrical charges. So when they collide【碰撞】, they destroy each other?
W: Exactly. So during the first few moments of the Big Bang, the universe was extremely hot and very small. Matter and the now more exotic anti-matter would have had little【几乎没有】space to avoid each other. This means that they should have totally wiped each other out, leaving the universe completely barren【贫瘠的、不毛的】.
M: But a recent study seems to point to the fact that when matter and anti-matter were first created, there were slightly【轻微的】more particles of matter, which allowed the universe we all live in to form.
W: Exactly. Because there was slightly more matter, the collisions quickly depleted all the anti-matter and left just enough matter to create stars, planets【行星】and eventually us.
5. What does the man say is Physics Today?
6. What is the woman physicist's main research area?
7. What is the woman interested in?
8. What seems to be the finding of the recent study?【最近的研究有什么发现?】
universe【宇宙】
university【大学】
particles【粒子】
practice【实际上】
planets【行星】
plant【植物】
Section B
Passage 1
In this week's edition【版本】of special series on Bizarre Medical Conditions, there is a report of the case of【……的情况】Michelle Myers. Myers is an American woman who woke up one day speaking with a British accent【口音】, even though she's lived in the United States all her life. In 2015, Myers went to bed with a terrible headache. She woke up sounding like someone from England. Her British accent has remained for the past two years. Previously, Myers had woken up speaking in Irish and Australian accents. However, on both of those occasions, the accents lasted for only a week.
Myers has been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome【综合征】. It's a disorder in which a person experiences a sudden change to their speech【演说、发言】so that they sound like they're speaking in a foreign accent. The condition is most often caused by a stroke【中风】or traumatic【创伤的】brain injury. Although people with the syndrome have intelligible【明白易懂的】speech, their manner of speaking is altered in terms of timing【时机】and tongue placement, which may distort【扭曲】their pronunciation.The result is that they may sound foreign when speaking their native language.It's not clear whether Myers has experienced a stroke or other brain damage, but she also has a separate【单独的、不同的】medical condition, which can result in loose joints【关节松动】, easily bruised【擦伤】skin and other problems.
Foreign Accent Syndrome is rare, with only about 60 cases reported within the past century. However, a different American woman reportedly spoke with the Russian accent in 2010 after she fell down the stairs【楼梯】and hit her head.
9. What happened to Michelle Myers one day?
10. What does the passage say about Foreign Accent Syndrome?
11. What accent did another American woman speak with after a head injury?
Passage 2
There is something about water that makes it a good metaphor【隐喻】for life. That may be one reason why so many people find relief in swimming when life's seas get rough【粗糙】. And it goes some way towards explaining why books about swimming, in which people tackle icy lakes【结冰的湖泊】, race in rivers and overcome oceans while reflecting on【思考、反思】 their lives, have recently become so popular.
These books reflect a trend, particularly strong in Britain, where swimming in pools is declining, but more and more folks【人们】are opting for【选择】open water. "Wild swimming" seems to be especially popular among women. Jenny Landreth recently published a guide to the best swimming spots in London. Her new book, Swell, interweaves【交织】her own story with a history of female pioneers【先驱】who accomplished remarkable feats【功勋】and paved the way for future generations.
Notions of modesty【谦虚（腼腆）的观念】 restricted women in the Victorian era, but they still swam. A "bathing machine" was rolled down【滚下】to the seashore【海岸】so women would not be seen in swimwear【泳衣】. In 1892, The Gentlewoman's Book of Sport described a woman swimming in a heavy dress【衣服】, boots【靴子】, hat, gloves【手套】and carrying an umbrella【雨伞】.
Eventually, swimming became freer. Mixed bathing【混合沐浴】was permitted【允许】on British beaches in 1901. Women won the right to swim in public pools, learned to swim properly, created appropriate swimwear and, in time, even competed against men. The first woman to cross the English Channel【英吉利海峡】was Gertrude Ederle in 1926. She beat the record by almost two hours and her father rewarded【奖励】her with a red sports car.
12. What has become so popular recently?
13. What did Jenny Landreth do recently?
14. What do we learn about women in the Victorian era?
15. What does the passage say about Gertrude Ederle?
Section C
Recording 1
Today I'm going to talk about a very special kind of person. Psychologists call them "masters of deception," those rare individuals with a natural ability to tell with complete confidence when someone is telling a lie. For decades, researchers and law enforcement agencies have tried to build a machine that will do the same thing.
Now a company in Massachusetts says that by using magnetic【磁的】brain scans they can determine with 97% accuracy whether someone is telling the truth. They hope that the technology will be cleared for use in American courts【法庭】by early next year. But is this really the ultimate tool for you, the lawyers of tomorrow?
You'll not find many brain scientists celebrating this breakthrough. The company might be very optimistic, but the ability of their machine to detect deception【欺骗】has not provided credible proof【可信的证据】. That's because the technology has not been properly tested in real-world situations. In life, there are different kinds of lies and diverse【各式各样的】context【环境】in which they're told. These differences may elicit【引出、得到】different brain responses. Does their hypothesis【假设】behind the test apply in every case? We don't know the answer, because studies done on how reliable this machine is have not yet been duplicated. Much more research is badly needed【迫切需要更多的研究】.
Whether the technology is eventually deemed reliable enough for the courts will ultimately be decided by the judges. Let's hope they're wise enough not to be fooled by a machine that claims to determine truthfulness at the flick of a switch【请按一下开关】. They should also be sceptical of the growing tendency to try to reduce all human traits and actions to the level of brain activity. Often, they do not map【地图、映射】 that easily.
Moreover, understanding the brain is not the same as understanding the mind. Some researchers have suggested that thoughts cannot properly【恰当的、正确的】be seen as purely "internal." Instead, thoughts make sense【有意义】only in reference to【关于】the individual's external world. So while【尽管】there may be insights【见解】to be gained【获得】from matching behavior to brain activity, those insights will not necessarily lead to justice in a court of law. Problems surround the use of machines to spot deception【发现欺骗】, at least until it has been rigorously【严厉的】tested. A high-tech test that can tell when a person is not telling the truth sounds too good to be true. And when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
16. What have researchers and law enforcement【执行】agencies tried to do?
17. How do many brain scientists respond to the Massachusetts company's so-called【所谓的】technological breakthrough?
18. What does the speaker think of using a high-tech【高科技】test to determine whether a person is telling the truth?
Recording 2
Last week I attended a research workshop【工坊、研讨会】on an island【岛屿】in the South Pacific【太平洋】.Thirty people were present and all except me came from the island, called Makelua, in the nation of Vanuatu.They live in 16 different communities and speak 16 distinct【不同的】languages. In many cases, you could stand at the edge of one village and see the outskirts【郊区】of the next community. Yet【然而】the residents of each village speak a completely different language. According to recent work by my colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, this island, just 100 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, is home to speakers of perhaps 40 different indigenous【本土的】languages.
Why so many? We could ask the same question of the entire globe【全世界】. People don't speak one universal【通用的、普遍的】language, or even a handful【一小撮】. Instead, today our species collectively speaks over 7, 000 distinct languages, and these languages are not spread randomly across the planet. For example, far more languages are found in tropical regions【热带地区】than in the mild zones. The tropical island of New Guinea is home to over 900 languages. Russia, 20 times larger, has 105 indigenous languages. Even within the tropics, language diversity varies widely. For example, the 250, 000 people who live on Vanuatu's 80 islands speak 110 different languages, but in Bangladesh, a population 600 times greater speaks only 41 languages.
How come humans speak so many languages? And why are they so unevenly【不均匀的】spread across the planet? As it turns out, we have few clear answers to these fundamental questions about how humanity communicates. Most people can easily brainstorm【灵感】possible answers to these intriguing【非常有趣的】questions. They hypothesize【假设】that language diversity must be about history, cultural differences, mountains or oceans dividing populations. But when our diverse team of researchers from six different disciplines【纪律、科目】and eight different countries began to review what was known, we were shocked【震惊】that only a dozen【一打、十二个】 previous studies had been done, including one we ourselves completed on language diversity in the Pacific. These prior【以前的】efforts all examined the degree to which different environmental, social and geographic variables correlated with the number of languages found in a given location【给定的区域】. The results varied a lot from one study to another, and no clear patterns emerged. The studies also ran up against many methodological challenges, the biggest of which centered on the old statistical【统计学】saying—correlation【相关性】does not equal causation【随机性】.
19. What does the speaker say about the island of Makelua?
20. What do we learn from the talk about languages in the world?
21. What have the diversed team of researchers found about the previous studies on language diversity?
island【岛屿】
inland【内陆】
Recording 3
We often hear people say that America is a land of opportunity, a country built on hope to aspire the greatness【伟大】on the American dream. But is the dream as we once knew it dying【die的过去分词】? Today's demographics【人口统计资料】show that the middle-class is disappearing and now the richest 1% of the population has mastered more wealth than the bottom 90%. Once upon a time【以前】, Americans thought that if they worked hard enough, even in the phase of adversity【逆境】, they would be rewarded with success.These days, though【虽然、然而】, the divide between rich and poor is greater than it has ever been.
The question is, what is it going to take to change things【怎样才能改变现状】? Maybe one day soon real change will actually be made in our nation and the gap will be eradicated【根除】. But what happens in the meantime? Is there something that we can do to help close the gap? Is there something that we can do to prove that a little compassion【同情】goes a long way【对……大有帮助】? If we want to fix the problem of the income gap, first, we have to understand it. It is a grim【令人沮丧的】reality that you can have one person who only makes around $13,000 a year, or across town, another is making millions. For me, it is kind of astonishing【惊人的】. And if you ask low-income people what's the one thing that will change their life, they'll say "a full-time job." That's all they aspire to. So why is it so difficult for so many people to find employment? It partly comes down to profit-driven business models that are built around low-wage work and part-time jobs that don't provide benefits. Businesses, in order to boost profits, hire employees as part-time workers only. This means they are paid the lowest legal wage and receive no health care or other benefits provided to full-time employees.
Simultaneously, technological advancement【进步】and a global economy has reduced the demand for well-paying blue-collar jobs here in the United States. The cumulative【累积的】effect of these two factors is that many Americans are forced to take two or more part-time jobs, just to make ends meet【使收支平衡】. What has become obvious to me when it comes to【谈到】the income gap is that there needs to be an opportunity for the people at the bottom to push them back up and push them into the middle-class to give them hope in their lives.
22. What do the surveys show about America according to the speaker?
23. What did Americans use to believe?【美国人过去相信什么?】
24. What do low-income people aspire to?
25. What do businesses do to increase their revenues?