英语专业八级满分听力 test-1

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[00:06.98]Chapter Five
[00:31.39]Test One
[00:33.77]SECTION A  MINI-LECTURE
[00:36.37]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture.
[00:39.23]You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening,
[00:43.09]take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked,
[00:47.25]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture.
[00:51.40]When the lecture is over, you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes,
[00:55.98]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.
[00:59.16]Now listen to the mini-lecture.
[01:01.58]Good afternoon, everyone.
[01:04.75]Today we’ll be continuing our discussion of the Canadian government,
[01:09.10]with the focus on its structure.
[01:11.19]As a former British colony, Canada’s system of government
[01:16.33]was based on the British system of parliamentary democracy.
[01:19.93]This is often referred to as “Westminster-style” democracy,
[01:24.86]named after the British House of Commons.
[01:27.44]Like other former colonies like New Zealand and Australia, many Canadian laws,
[01:33.12]political practices and customs were brought from the “Old Country”
[01:37.83]and adapted to the different conditions of the new country. At first glance,
[01:43.81]the similarity between British and Canadian political conditions are great;
[01:48.62]but when we look more closely,
[01:50.75]we can see important differences which have arisen from the experience
[01:55.00]of governing a huge but sparsely populated country.
[01:58.71]We’ll divide our discussion into three parts:
[02:01.83]the official head, the Canadian system of government and the Canadian parliament.
[02:07.29]Now，first, the official head of Canada.
[02:11.00]Like Britain, Canada is a monarchy. The official head of state is the Queen,
[02:16.80]who is also the Queen of Great Britain, Australia,
[02:20.52]New Zealand and other former British colonies.
[02:23.37]The Queen is Canada’s queen in her own right;
[02:26.54]if, for example, Britain decided to become a republic,
[02:30.58]the Queen would still be the Queen of Canada. Because she does not live in Canada,
[02:36.54]she is represented by an official called a Governor General.
[02:40.91]When heads of state visit Canada,
[02:43.44]they will first be greeted by the Governor General,
[02:46.38]before being welcomed by the Prime Minister.
[02:49.34]Both the Queen and the Governor General occupy roles which are largely ceremonial.
[02:55.50]Most Canadians would be unable to tell you the name
[02:59.28]of the current Governor General, or identify him or her in a picture.
[03:03.76]And while the Queen and her family are regarded with affection by most Canadians,
[03:09.45]the monarchy as such bears little relevance to the governing of modern Canada.
[03:14.97]We see that Canada and Britain have the same official head of state.
[03:19.64]Then, what is special  about the Canadian government
[03:23.38]as compared against the British government？
[03:26.22]This brings us to the second part of our discussion, the system of government.
[03:30.65]The biggest difference between Canada and the UK is that Canada is a federation—
[03:36.45]that is , it has ten provinces and two territories,
[03:40.71]each with their own government,
[03:42.88]which have joined to form one country.
[03:45.63]The government of the whole country is referred to as the “federal government”,
[03:50.66]to distinguish it from the lower level governments of each province.
[03:55.03]These provinces all have a great deal of power
[03:58.23]in relation to the federal government.
[04:00.41]Canada was the first political community
[04:03.90]to combine federalism with a British system of government,
[04:07.91]a model which was later applied to other areas in the British Commonwealth,
[04:12.68]notably in Australia, Malaysia, Nigeria and India—
[04:17.92]large countries with powerful regional and ethnic divisions.
[04:22.18]Canada’s founding fathers of Confederation, who, between 1864 and 1867,
[04:29.63]had to decide what sort of government the new country was to have,
[04:34.55]chose the British model of government over the model
[04:39.14]being enacted in the United States.
[04:41.32]The American system was characterized
[04:44.50]by “checks and balances” on political power. In Contrast,
[04:49.21]the founding fathers preferred the British system
[04:52.25]because they wanted a strong central government.
[04:55.42]The British model offered “strength, order and authority”,
[04:59.38]which they thought was preferable to the weakness of the American system.
[05:03.42]In the American system,
[05:05.15]the President and the Congress frequently battle over policy.
[05:09.64]Finally, we’ll talk about the Canadian parliament.
[05:12.58]The Canadian parliament is divided into a lower house,
[05:16.50]the House of Commons, and an upper house called the Senate.
[05:20.54]Canadians vote in elections for people
[05:23.94]they want to represent them in the House of Commons.
[05:26.65]These Members of Parliament (MPs) each fill a “seat” in the House of Commons,
[05:32.99]which represents a particular electoral district.
[05:36.37]Electoral districts are based on population rather than geographic size,
[05:42.39]so there are more MPs from urban areas and very few from the sparsely settled,
[05:48.74]wilder regions of Canada.
[05:50.92]The House of Commons contains about three hundred seats.
[05:54.55]Because most of the Canadian population is concentrated in Ontario and Quebec,
[06:00.54]these two provinces have the most seats,
[06:03.51]and therefore the most power in the House of Commons.
[06:06.67]This has caused a lot of trouble
[06:08.98]because the provinces with smaller populations
[06:11.92]feel they are not adequately listened to by “Central Canada”.
[06:16.10]For example, in the nineteen ninety-seven election,
[06:20.02]because of its large population, Ontario elected one hundred and three MPs,
[06:25.17]whereas the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan
[06:29.03]and Manitoba each only had fourteen MPs.
[06:32.96]As is the case in Britain, MPs generally all belong to political parties.
[06:39.42]The party that wins the most seats forms the government;
[06:43.02]the party leader becomes Prime Minister, and so, like in the UK,
[06:47.73]the most important person in Canadian government is the Prime Minister.
[06:52.31]The Cabinet, chosen by the Prime Minister,
[06:55.59]consists of senior MPs from the governing party.
[06:59.21]They are usually given particular areas of responsibility,
[07:03.48]like external affairs, multiculturalism, or health and education.
[07:08.73]The Senate, the upper house, is not elected.
[07:12.43]It is appointed by the Governor General,
[07:15.38]who acts on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
[07:18.56]The Senate is not like the US Senate,
[07:21.51]but analogous to the House of Lords in the UK,
[07:24.92]although the Lords can earn their seat by right of birth
[07:28.45]as well as by being appointed.
[07:30.51]To balance the fact that
[07:32.71]the Commons is dominated by MPs from populous Ontario and Quebec,
[07:37.96]senators are, by tradition, picked to represent the regions more equally.
[07:43.21]There have been calls in recent years
[07:45.71]to reform the Senate and make it an elected body.
[07:48.98]This just about concludes our time for today.
[07:51.86]You are expected to read the recommended material after class.
[07:55.68]Next week’s lecture will be focused on Canadian Prime Ministers.