英语专业八级满分听力 Chapter Four

[15:10.13]UNIT 4
[15:34.98]In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.
[15:38.36]Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
[15:41.75]Question 1 is based on the following news.
[15:44.79]At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.
[15:50.59]Now listen to the news.
[15:52.98]A U.S. judge has approved a plan that could resolve the U.S.
[15:58.78]Security and Exchange Commission’s fraud case against the company WorldCom.
[16:04.25]Under the terms of the recently revised deal,
[16:07.55]the telecom giant will pay 750 million dollars,
[16:12.17]500 million in cash and 250 million in stock to defrauded investors.
[16:18.85]And that would be the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the SEC.
[16:24.76]Later this month a U.S. bankruptcy court is expected to decide
[16:30.45]whether to sign off on WorldCom’s settlement.

[16:42.34]Questions 2 and 3 are based on the following news.
[16:47.81]At the end of the news item,
[16:51.21]you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[16:55.66]Now listen to the news.
[16:58.27]A United Nations report into global water resources has said that
[17:03.55]more than 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water.
[17:07.48]The report,
[17:08.90]released just before the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City later this month,
[17:13.60]says the problem is chiefly caused by poor governance and bad water management.
[17:18.57]More than a billion people lack good water,
[17:21.50]but this is not because the water isn’t there.
[17:24.01]The UN’s second World Water Development Report concludes that
[17:28.10]the world still has enough fresh water,
[17:29.86]but it’s failing to meet the challenge of managing its supplies
[17:33.26]and distributing water fairly and at affordable cost.
[17:36.45]Issues of governance it concludes are central.
[17:39.38]The management of a country’s water sector
[17:42.32]is likely to reflect the overall state of its administration.
[17:45.50]It says a system which is open and transparent
[17:48.56]and devolves responsibility and resources to local communities
[17:51.91]is far more likely to meet its water supply goals.
　　
[18:16.38]Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news.
[18:19.67]At the end of the news item,
[18:22.83]you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[18:26.79]Now listen to the news.
[18:29.29]The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO,
[18:34.98]held its two thousand and six international convention earlier this month in Chicago.
[18:40.89]It says attendance set a record
[18:43.83]with more than nineteen thousand people from sixty-two countries.
[18:47.55]BIO represents more than one thousand companies and other organizations.
[18:52.80]Its members genetically engineer products in health care, agriculture and other areas.
[19:00.36]The convention included former President Bill Clinton
[19:03.95]and what the organizers called the world's largest indoor cornfield.
[19:08.00]Jose Manuel Pomar is a farmer from the Aragon area of Spain
[19:13.91]who attended the convention.
[19:15.87]Mister Pomar grows Bt maize.
[19:18.26]Bt maize contains a gene from a bacterium that produces a poison.
[19:23.62]This poison helps the plants resist insects, especially the maize borer.
[19:29.64]Some things do not change with biotech crops.
[19:33.13]Mister Pomar says he uses the same amount of fertilizer with Bt maize
[19:38.93]as he does with conventional corn. The main difference, he says,
[19:43.26]is in the use of insecticide. Mister Pomar says
[19:47.39]he sprays his conventional maize with insect poisons three to four times a season.
[19:52.41]With Bt maize, he says,
[19:54.95]he might spray once if maize borers are present in large numbers.