英语专业八级满分听力 test-1

[15:30.73]Section C  NEWS BROADCAST
[15:34.88]In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.
[15:38.93]Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
[15:42.77]Questions 6 to 7 are based on the following news.
[15:46.93]At the end of the news item,
[15:49.47]you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[15:54.27]Now listen to the news.
[15:56.69]Tony Blair's message to the European Union is that
[16:00.62]it must change the way it does business if it is to survive.
[16:04.00]He told the European Parliament that
[16:06.43]the people of Europe are ahead of the continent's politicians
[16:08.98]in recognizing the need for change.
[16:11.04]Mr. Blair's message comes as the EU wonders
[16:14.21]how it can get out of a crisis caused by French
[16:16.82]and Dutch voters' rejection of its constitution
[16:19.46]and its failure at a summit last week to agree on a long-term budget.
[16:23.72]But for Mr. Blair, the issue is bigger than the constitution or the budget.
[16:28.75]It is that Europe must adapt itself to changing times
[16:31.91]in order to compete economically,
[16:33.50]not just with the United States
[16:35.80]but also with such rising giants as China and India.
[16:39.03]Mr. Blair has been accused by the French and the Germans, among others,
[16:43.16]of wanting to destroy Europe's welfare state
[16:45.87]and impose unfettered capitalism across the continent.
[16:49.06]His critics also say Britain wants the EU to be a big common market
[16:53.87]and is not interested in closer political integration.
[16:57.15]Mr. Blair said those criticisms are unfair
[17:00.31]and his aim is not to kill Europe's highly regulated social model
[17:03.80]but to change it.
[17:26.37]Question 8 is based on the following news.
[17:28.74]At the end of the news item,
[17:30.48]you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.
[17:33.12]Now listen to the news.
[17:34.96]The Nobel prize in literature for 2005 is awarded to the English writer,
[17:42.08]Harold Pinter. He is regarded as Britain's greatest living playwright.
[17:47.22]Mr. Pinter has written more than 30 works,
[17:50.74]and he is best known for his sparse style, dubbed "Pinteresque,"
[17:55.09]which takes full advantage of the pauses
[17:58.36]and silences that build the dramatic effect.
[18:01.63]He is widely acknowledged
[18:03.10]to have influenced an entire generation of British writers.
[18:06.92]Mr. Pinter also has never shied away from fierce political debate.
[18:12.29]This human rights campaigner and anti-war activist
[18:16.11]has in recent years been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq.
[18:31.65]Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news.
[18:36.56]At the end of the news item,
[18:38.87]you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[18:42.80]Now listen to the news.
[18:45.08]Astronomers have detected the most distant explosion
[18:48.44]ever witnessed in the heavens.
[18:49.94]It was a flash so powerful that they could observe the faint light
[18:54.76]as it came in from almost the edge of the known universe.
[18:57.50]The U.S. space agency's Swift satellite was routinely scouring the cosmos
[19:02.32]for exploding stars on September 4
[19:04.73]when it spotted what scientists have since realized
[19:07.67]is the most distant such burst on record.
[19:10.47]In astronomy, distance means time. The further something is away,
[19:14.71]the longer its light has been traveling to get to us.
[19:17.41]So the star blast is also the most ancient ever observed.
[19:21.25]The exploding star the Swift satellite observed
[19:24.52]was typical of the death of a massive star.
[19:27.38]These blasts are the most powerful in the universe,
[19:30.65]sending out 100 million times the energy the Sun does in one year.
[19:35.46]They are not rare, but occur daily,
[19:37.88]emitting their light in high energy gamma rays.
[19:41.04]If you could see gamma rays, the sky would twinkle with such bursts.