2008年12月英语四级听力模拟题(二)

　　Passage Two
　　How many of you drink cola? Nearly everyone. Did you know that cola started out not as a soft drink but as a cure for headaches back in the late 1800s? John S. Pemberton, a druggist from Atlanta, had experimented for many months trying to find a cure for the common headache. He worked in his backyard, mixing and heating different combinations of oils and flavors until he found one that seemed promising. Pemberton bottled the mixture and began selling it in drugstores as concentrated syrup that the customer had to mix with water before drinking.
　　Cola’s transformation from medicinal syrup to a carbonated soft drink came about quite by accident. One day, a customer came into a drugstore complaining of a headache and asked for a bottle of cola syrup. He wanted to take it right away. So he asked the clerk to mix the medicine while he waited. The clerk, instead of walking to the other end of the counter to get plain water, suggested mixing the syrup with soda water. The customer agreed, and after drinking it, remarked how good it tasted. The clerk continued offering the mix and carbonated cola grew in popularity. Today carbonated cola is sold in most countries around the world. And although they no longer contain the ingredients used to cure headaches, they are still very refreshing.
　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.
　　29.What is the passage mainly about?
　　30.How was cola sold originally?
　　31.How was cola syrup made into a soft drink?
　　Passage Three　
　　One of the most popular myths about the United States in the 19th century was that of the free and simple life of the farmer. It was said that farmers worked hard on their own land to produce whatever their families needed. They might sometimes trade with their neighbors, but in general they could get along just fine by relying on themselves, not on commercial ties with others. This is how Thomas Jefferson idealized the farmer at the beginning of the 19th century. And at that time, this may have been close to the truth, especially on the frontier.
　　But by the mid-century, sweeping changes in agriculture were well underway as farmers began to specialize in the raising of crops such as cotton, corn or wheat. Late in the century, revolutionary advances in farm machinery had vastly increased production of specialized crops and an extensive network of railroads had linked farmers throughout the country to markets in the east and even overseas. By raising and selling specialized crops, farmers could afford more and finer goods and achieve a much higher standard of living---but at a price.
　　Now farmers were no longer dependent just on the weather and on their own efforts. Their lives were increasingly controlled by banks, which had power to grant or deny loans for new machinery, and by the railroads which set the rates for shipping their crops to market. As businessmen, farmers now had to worry about national economic depressions and the influence of world supply and demand on, for example, the price of wheat in Kansas. And so by the end of the 19th century, the era of Jefferson’s independent farmer had come to a close.
　　Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
　　32. What is the main topic of the passage?
　　33. According to the passage, what was the major change in agriculture during the 19th century?
　　34. What was one result of the increased use of machinery on farms in the United States?
　　35. According to the passage, why was the world market important for United States agriculture?