英语四级标准听力强化训练(MP3+文本) 第38期:短文(17)

【听力答案】

4. D 5. A 6. C

【听力原文】

Passage 2

It seems that neighbors are going out of style in America. The friend next door from whom you borrowed four eggs or a ladder has moved and the people in there now are strangers.

Some of the traditional stories of neighborliness are impractical or silly, and it may be just as well that our relations with our neighbors are changing,（4）The saying in the Bible "Love Thy Neighbor" was probably a poor translation of what must have originally been "Respect Thy Neighbor."（作者认为《圣经》中的“爱你的邻居”不适用于形容当代美国的邻里关系，更准确地说应为“尊重你的邻居。”）Love can't be called up on order.（5）Fewer than half the people in the United States live in the same house they five years ago,（在美国，大多数人五年之内就会搬新居，这使得邻里之间的互爱关系变得毫无必要。）so there's no reason to love the people who live next door to you just because they happened to wander into a real estate office that listed the place next door to yours. The only thing neighbors have in common, to begin with, is proximity, and unless something more develops, that isn't reason enough to be best friends. It sometimes happens naturally, but the chances are very small that your neighbors will be you choiceas friends,（6）The best relationship with neighbors is one of friendly distance. You say hello, you have small talk if you see them in the yard，you discuss problems as they arise and you help each other in an emergency.（作者给出一些保持良好邻里关系的建议，其中并没有频繁拜访邻居这一项，而且这也不符合作者提出的邻里关系要keep a friendly distance这一点。）

【核心词汇】

emergency n.紧急情况

originally ad.起初，原本

proximity n.接近，邻近

real estate 不动产，地产