Talks and Conversations 1

M: May I help you?
W: Yes, I want to buy some shoes to replace the ones I am wearing.
M: What’s wrong with them?
W: They are too old and shabby.
M: I can see they have simply been worn out. Would you like the same color? More or less?
W: Yes, and something a little less casual.
M: How about this light brown pair? They are similar to what you have, but a little bit dressier.
W: Yes. I was thinking of something along that line. I will try them on.
M: They certainly look charming.
W: The trouble is, they feel uncomfortable.
M: Then try on this other pair in the similar style, but by a different manufacturer.
W: These are much better, do you have the main red?
M: Yes, would you like both pairs?
W: Yes, if they won’t cost too much.
M: Oh, no. They won’t. The second pair is half price. Shall I put them both in a box for you?
W: Just the red and the old ones. I wear the new brown pair home.

Questions:
11. What did the woman’s shoes look like?
12. What was wrong with the first pair of shoes the woman tried on?    
13. How many pairs of shoes did the woman buy?  
14. Which shoes did the woman wear home?

点评：这段对话是女士买鞋子的场景。整体上来说，全篇没有难词，比较容易混淆的是对细节的考查。比如女士试了几双鞋，买了几双，为什么没有买，穿着哪双回家了等等，在听的时候学员注意排除干扰项，记下细节。

Talks and Conversations 2

I lived in a dread for a whole year, and I have to be honest and say that at first I wasn’t very happy. You see, I was homesick, I missed my family and I just wanted to go home. Part of the problem was my Spanish. I couldn’t communicate very well. But I love to eat, and that’s what really saved me. You see, once I discovered Tapas … oh ,let me explain — these delicious appetizers you eat. So I made some Spanish friends and we’d go out to Tapas bars. So I got to eat a lot of delicious food. And of course, my Spanish improved dramatically as well. But there was one thing that was difficult to adjust to, and that was that dinner was always served at a late hour. I wasn’t used to eating at eleven at night.

Questions:
15. How long did the woman live in a dread?  
16. Which of following partially explains why the woman was so homesick at first?
17. What did the woman particularly like?
18. According to the woman, which was the thing that was difficult to adjust to?

点评：这篇小谈话谈论的是留学生活。女主人公先是谈到自己刚来西班牙时的恐惧状况，然后谈了自己因喜欢西班牙的食物，从而摆脱了不能用西班牙语交流造成的这种恐惧状况。最后她指出，她仍然不习惯西班牙很晚吃饭的习惯。
总体而言，本文比较简单。可能本文中一开篇出现的dread（恐惧、惧怕）一词会困扰部分考生，但其实根据整篇文章，并不难理解其词义。除此以外，针对文章的考查点，并无生僻词。这就提醒考生不要死抠某个单词，而影响整篇短文的把握。

Talks and Conversations 3

M: Mrs. Dereal, can you tell us something about further and continuous education in Britain?
W: Further and continuous education in Britain can be of different kinds. Apart from the world famous Open University, there are other colleges that can provide programs of further education for adults students.
M: We are all quite familiar with the Open University, what about the other colleges?
W: Well, first there are the Polytechnics. The Polytechnics are colleges or institutions of further education. They are study centers that offer many different courses for students of all ages. These courses lead to Diplomats or to Degrees awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards, which was set up to award Degrees to adult students in non-university institutions.
M: And then what about Non-Degree courses for adult students?
W: Second, there are specialist colleges, such as the Agricultural Colleges, Colleges of Art or Music and so on. There are also a large number of local colleges of further education: Technical Colleges and Colleges of Commerce. All these special colleges provide a variety of Non-Degree courses for adult students.
M: What about the courses? Are they specially designed for adult students?
W: Courses for adult students may also be vocational or recreational. That is, they may be related to a person’s job or taken purely for interest and pleasure. Examples of popular recreational classes are pottery, woodwork, car maintenance, cookery and so on. At the same time, university lecturers may give up some of their free time every week to talk to town and village clubs about anything from archeology to the sociological effects of the industrial revolution.

Questions:
19. What is the topic of the interview?
20. What are the polytechnics?
21. According to the interviewee, what is a vocational course?
22. Which of the following is not a subject for recreational classes?

点评：本段讲的是英国的各种成人进修和继续教育体制，总体难度适中。文章从不同的学校类型入手，分别介绍高职院校、专修学校的课程设置、学位授予等方面，以及职业型和娱乐型教育课程。题目设置基本进口每部分开头的介绍，而22题也考察了学生对细节和举例的把握。

Talks and Conversations 4

As a normal person, you see colors everywhere, so long as you have good eyesight. In fact, color plays a central role in our life. For example, color is used to communicate life-saving information. To the driver of a vehicle, the green color means “go”, and the red color means “stop”. You should always pull up when the traffic light turns red. Besides, colors can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your appetite, or even change your mood. A delicious meal with appropriate colors can certainly make your mouth watering. Good colors also help us in many other ways. Statistics show, that in sports competition a team wearing red has a higher chance of winning. Of course, it’s largely due to the psychology of wearing red. Luck and ability can be more important.
For animals, color reflects their environments and their characteristics. For instance, a male peacock has its tail feathers of bright colors to win the attention of female peacocks. A tree frog can be so green as to indicate its poisonous nature. So don’t eat it, or you might die. A wasp, with its bright yellow color, may warn us that it has a sting, and it is not afraid to use that sting. People often think that rainbow is the most colorful, but for our artists, all they need are three colors, namely, red, blue and yellow. They are called the primary colors——colors that cannot be made by mixing others together. And our artists can mix them together to create any color in the rainbow, and hundreds of other shades in making art.

Questions：
23. Why are green and red colors important to drivers?
24. According to statistics, what team has a higher chance of winning in sports competition?
25. which animal has green color that warns us of its poisonous nature?
26. what is a primary color?

点评：本篇文章探讨了关于颜色的话题。颜色在我们生活中扮演了很重要的角色，既可用于交通中给司机传达指令，又可在日常生活中发挥其他的作用。此外，颜色对于动物 来说也很重要。有的动物利用颜色来吸引雌性；而有的动物则利用身上的颜色来警告其他动物禁止侵犯。虽然在我们眼里，颜色是多种多样的，但是所有的 颜色都来源自三种颜色：红、蓝和黄。文章内容贴近我们现实生活，文中也并没有出现很多生词。考生只需要适当地做些笔记，结合平常的生活常识，在听的过程中 即可选出正确答案。

Talks and Conversations 5

W: Of course, we ought to be permitted to think, speak, and feel as we like, provided we don’t do any harm to anyone else.
M: How do you know when you are doing harm or not？Would you permit people to take drugs, for example?
W: That depends on the drugs, some of them can be harmful in all sorts of ways, like too much drink and smoking as many cigarettes as you do.
M: Well, I have been trying to give up smoking for a long time. But you know, it’s not easy. And I’m afraid I don’t have that strong will.
W: I think the government should banned smoking in all the public places and they should levy heavier taxes on selling and buying cigarettes.
M: What really makes me mad is the attitude toward morals. Some people are really shocked, because in the theaters today actors are allowed to walk about the stage with little or without any clothes on. And they think it’s right that the police should be able to walk into our galleries and decide whether pictures are works of art or obscene. But the same people aren’t shocked by advertisements which persuaded the public to buy things which can do real harm, like cigarettes and alcohol, for example. I think a lot of advertisements are much more immoral than so-called pornographic or dirty plays and books. Because they lie, or at least disguise the truth.
W: How do you know that pornographic pictures in books don’t do harm?
M: I didn’t say they did no harm, I’m just suggesting that the whole question of morality is relative. I think the behavior of some businessman is relative more immoral than that of some of the young people they criticize.
W: You seem to think that everything will be alright if you just allow people to be natural. I personally feel we all need some kind of outside authority to help us discipline ourselves.

Questions:
27. What has the man been trying to do for a long time?
28. According to the man, what things can do real harm to people?
29. Why does the man think that advertisements are much more immoral than dirty place and books?
30. According to the woman, what do we need to discipline ourselves?

点评：此对话主要是谈论哪些行为是会对他人造成伤害。女士认为烟酒对他人造成极大伤害，因此国家应该禁止公众场合的吸烟行为或者征收更多的税，而男士却认为只要不 过量，烟酒就不会造成伤害。男士认为人们的道德观会对他人造成极大伤害，并以人们对现代艺术和广告的虚假信息两种事物的态度来举例说明。最后，女士总结男 士的观点是人们应顺其自然地要求自我，而女士的观点则是希望通过外界的权威来约束自我。
本文紧紧围绕中心观点进行讨论，其中关于不良书籍的说法可能会造成一定干扰，但切忌勿因小失大，而忘记听真正要考查的重要信息。