Exercise One
Section 1.Compound Dictation.
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Rice is an important part of many people’s diets. (1)Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts havereleased a report about rice. It shows that eating white rice increases the risk of Type Two diabetes. However, eating brown rice reduces the risk of the disease.
The World Health Organization says more than two hundred twenty million people worldwide have diabetes. Type Two diabetes results when the body cannot (2) effectively use the sugar it produces.
More than thirty-nine thousand men and one hundred fifty-seven thousand women took part in the study. They were asked about their diet and day-to-day activities, as well as any (3) pre-existing diseases. The study found that the people who ate five or more servings of white rice per week had a seventeen percent increased risk of (4)developing Type Two diabetes. But those who ate two or more servings of brown rice a week had an eleven percent reduced risk of getting the disease.
Brown rice is the (5) grain in its natural form. White rice results after it has been refined. This involves (6) removing the outer cover, including the husk, bran and germ. Only the inner white kernel is left. White rice is often (7) enriched to replace some nutrients lost during the refining process.
Qi Sun is the lead writer of the report. He says the outer parts of brown rice slow down the work of the body’s (8) digestive enzymes into starch. This means that the release of sugar into the bloodstream is slower after eating brown rice compared to white rice.
A diet of foods that quickly release sugar into the bloodstream has been linked with a greater risk of Type two diabetes. (9) The exact reason for this is not known.(Please pause here for 30’’- 40’’)
Doctor Sun says less refined grains have more nutritional value than refined grains. He says replacing white rice with whole grains like whole wheat or barley (10) could result in a thirty-six percent lower chance of developing Type Two diabetes. (Please pause here for 30’’- 40’’) He says people should replace white rice and other refined carbohydrates with whole grains whenever possible.
However, brown rice does not last as long as white rice because of the oil-rich layer of bran. (11) This makes it less usable in poor communities. (Please pause here for 30’’- 40’’) The International Rice Research Institute is working to develop kinds of white rice whose starch is released more slowly.
And, that’s the VOA Special EnglishHealth Report. I’m Steve Ember.
Section 2. Note-taking Key:
1. budget problems 2. the weak economy 3. increased prices for food and fuel 4. property taxes and sales taxes 5. were having budget problems 6. receiving free or reduced price lunches at school 7. finance public schools and to help young people attend college
Script：
Education Report - School, and Family, Budgets Under Pressure
Fifty million public school children in America are starting a new school year. The number is a record high. Yet, at the same time, school systems in many areas are facing budget problems.
The weak economy is not the only cause. Another reason has to do with increased prices for food and fuel. They mean higher costs for school meals and bus transportation.
The United States will spend more than five hundred billion dollars on public education for the coming school year. The federal government helps pay, but the responsibility for education is mostly on state and local governments.
Two major sources of money for public schools are property taxes and sales taxes. A slowdown in consumer spending, the engine of the economy, means fewer goods to tax. And the collapse of the housing market means less money to collect in property taxes.
A report in July from the National Conference of State Legislatures said thirty-one of the fifty states were having budget problems. And the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says school officials in at least eleven states have cut or proposed cuts in education.
Florida, for example, has cut school aid by about two percent per student. State officials say tax collections are low and lottery sales have fallen by one hundred million dollars. Florida and many other states use money from sales of lottery tickets to help pay for education.
Around the country, the economic slowdown has added to the numbers of children receiving free or reduced price lunches at school. In other words, many of the same economic problems that have hit school budgets have also hit family budgets.
Each year, the education group Phi Delta Kappa and the Gallup organization gather opinions about American public schools. This year’s poll found support for increased use of federal taxes to finance public schools and to help young people attend college.
People were also asked which presidential candidate they would vote for if they were voting on the basis of a desire to strengthen the public schools. Forty-six percent chose Democrat Barack Obama. Twenty-nine percent chose Republican John McCain.
In the last two presidential elections, the poll found Americans equally split on which candidate would be more supportive of the schools.
Section 3.Short Answering Questions.
Foreign Student Series, Special English, VOA
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week, in part nine of our Foreign Student Series, we talk about getting a student visa to come to the United States.
Just getting accepted to an American college or university does not guarantee that you will get a visa. And getting a visa just lets you arrive in the United States. It does not guarantee that an immigration officer will permit you to enter the country.
Travel documents come from the Department of State. But (1) immigration is the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security.
The State Department has a Web site with all the rules for getting a visa. The address is unitedstatesvisas.gov. Unitedstatesvisas is all one word.
(2) If you are requesting a visa for the first time, you will probably have to go to an American embassy or consulate. You will need to bring a government form sent to you by your American school that shows you have been accepted.
(3) You will also need banking and tax records that show you have enough money to pay for your education.And be prepared to provide evidence that you will return to your home country after your studies end.
All of this is important in satisfying the requirements to get a visa. A consular official will also take your picture and your fingerprints.
Foreign students must contact their local embassy or consulate to request an interview and to get other information. This includes directions about how and where to pay the visa application charge. (4) The cost is two hundred dollars.
You should apply for the visa as soon as you have been accepted to a school in the United States. The government needs time to perform a background investigation.
You cannot receive a visa more than one hundred twenty days before the start of your program. And if you are coming as a student for the first time, (5) you cannot enter the country more than thirty days before classes begin.
Once you come to the United States, you can stay for the length of your period of study. Your school is required to provide the Department of Homeland Security with reports on your status as a student. We will talk more about what that means next week.
And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach.
Section 4. Listening and Translation
1. A century ago, less than five percent of all people lived in cities.By the middle of this century it could be seventy percent, or almost six and a half billion people. Already three-fourths of people in developed countries live in cities. 到本世纪中这个比例可以达到70%，近65亿人口。发达国家中已有四分之三的人口生活在城市。
2. Schools are almost all connected to the Internet. But some have more technology, and use it more, than others. For example, some schools use computers for activities like video conferencing, to bring the world into the classroom. 但有些学校拥有更多的技术，对技术的利用也更多。比如一些学校通过电脑开展视频会议，把世界带入课堂。
3. Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries. For example, in the mid-eighties, American films had eighty percent of the market in South Korea. Today that share is about forty percent. 比如在八十年代，美国电影占韩国市场的80%，现在这个份额为40%。
4. Agricultural experts have launched a land and water management project in the Middle East. The project seeks to increase food security in dry areas. Researchers say the water availability in some of the areas has dropped well below the internationally recognized standard. 这个项目寻求提高干旱地区的粮食安全。研究者说水的可利用率在一些地区已远低于国际认可的标准。
5. The economic crisis is claiming another victim: world trade. Last month the World Bank predicted a two percent decrease this year -- the largest drop since the nineteen forties. Economies that depend on exports for growth have been hit hard. 上个月世行预测今年全球贸易会下降两个百分点，为上世纪40年代以来的最大降幅。增长依赖出口的经济体已经受到严重影响。
上海交通大学英语讲义Exercise One 听力原文及答案
