to take jobs which they like rather than jobs in order to find a husband. Men work for their whole lives and usually stay with the same company. A woman may work up to ten years, but after that she usually gets married. Most women are married by the age of twenty seven, then they stay at home and look after the children. A man does not cook or look after the children. When he comes home, his meal must be ready. The woman may go out in the afternoon, shopping with her friends or having a chat, but she must go back home by four o'clock to prepare the meal. Then she may have to wait a long time for her husband to come home. Often he has to go out for a drink after work: if he doesn't he may not rise very high in the company. After her children grow up, a woman can go back to work, but it is not easy. If her former company takes older women back, she might be lucky. But most women find it difficult to find a job when they are older.
Task 8
【答案】 A.
1) a 2) c 3) b 4) c 5) c 6) b 7) c 8) b B.
1) T 2) T 3) F 4) F 5) T 6) F 7) F 8) F 9) T 10) F 【原文】
Matthew: Geth, how do people set about getting married in England
Geth: I suppose the most common way is still for people to go home. For example,
people who live in London now will go back to their homes in the provinces where they'll meet all their relatives and their parents, and they'll get married in a church, with the bride wearing white, the traditional white. Then they'll go off and have a booze-up with their relatives and friends and a jolly good time will be had by all. Otherwise you can get married in
a registry office, which means you turn up with your bride-to-be or bridegroom-to-be with two witnesses only. The ceremony takes about five minutes, I suppose. You sign the form and that's it.
Matthew: There are many today who say that marriage is a complete waste of time.
What's your view of marriage in the twentieth century
Goth: Well, I live in London as you know. I think in London, the tendency is to...
for a... boy and girl, man or woman to live together before marriage and often to live together without any prospect of marriage at all. I think this probably is... is true of London and the other big cities than elsewhere, because after all people in London are living in a big place where home ties are obviously less restrictive. They can do more or less as they please and I think this is the pattern.
Matthew: But do you think it helps for people to live together before taking their vows
Geth: I think in a sense the habit of living together before marriage may, in
a strange sort of way, make marriage stronger, because after all the people will know each other better when they do get married and it might be suggested that divorce would be less likely between such a couple.
Matthew: Sue, you've been married for two or three years now. How's it working out Sue: I think it's a successful marriage. It's... I mean, it's difficult to say
why, because we basically suit each other very much. We have a good friendship, apart from anything else, and, you know, we just go together very well because we respect each other's freedom and individuality, but on the other hand we really need each other, you know, it's...
Matthew: What about.., have you thought of having children
Sue: Well, obviously, like most young couples, we have thought about it, but,
you know, we both feel rather, sort of, loath to lose our freedom just yet.
I think we'll probably wait another few years.
Matthew: Is it easy in England today to people to get divorced, or is that quite difficult
Chris: I think technically it's probably fairly easy, I think, because I'm not
English but, I think technically it's fairly easy to be... to get divorced. But it's not just the technicality of it which is the problem. Divorce is... is a social stigma which people can probably Cope with to varying degrees, but it's also a lot easier for the man because the woman, after she is divorced is, in fact, frowned upon by... by a lot of people in society. She is... is... at a... a much more difficult social position in terms of... of meeting other men, or whatever, simply because she is a divorcee.
Task 9
【原文】
Social customs and ways of behaving change. But they do not necessarily always change for the better. Things which were considered impolite many years ago are now acceptable. Just a few years ago, it was considered impolite behaviour for a man to smoke on the street. No man who thought of himself as being a gentleman would make a fool of himself by smoking when a lady was in the room.
The important thing to remember about social customs is not to do anything that might make other people feel uncomfortable — especially if they are your guests. There is a story about a rich nobleman who had a very formal dinner party. When the food was served, one of the guests started to eat his peas with a knife. Other guests were amused or shocked, but the nobleman calmly picked up his knife and began eating in the same way. It would have been bad manners to make his guest feel foolish or uncomfortable.
Unit 2 Task 1
【答案】
1) b 2) a 3) d 【原文】
Texas was the biggest state before Alaska became the forty-ninth state in 1959. One good way to understand the size of Texas is to learn about its weather. Different parts of the state have very different kinds of weather.
Laredo is one of the hottest cities in the United States in summer. The best time to visit Laredo is in winter, when it is pleasantly warm.
Amarillo gets very cold in winter. Sometimes there is more snow in Amarillo than in New York, which is a northern city. Summers are better, but sometimes it gets quite hot. The best time to visit Amarillo is in the autumn when it is cool.
If anyone asks you about the weather in Texas, ask him, “What part of Texas do you mean”
Task 2 【答案】 A.
1) T 2) F 3) F B.
1) d 2) c 3) c C.
climate, reputation, extraordinary, unreliable, dry, wet, clear, dull, hot, cold, bad, mild 【原文】
Our friend, Nick, whose English gets better and better, declared solemnly the other day that he thought that the British climate was wonderful, but the British weather was terrible. He went on to explain by pointing out that the British climate was a temperate one. This meant, he said, \the weather would never be extreme — at any rate not for any length of time — never very hot and never very cold.\Britain, according to the statistics, was not very heavy. \then,\he asked, \the British climate such a bad reputation\the extraordinary, unreliable weather. There was no part of the year at which you could be certain that the weather would be dry or wet, clear or dull, hot or cold. A bad day in July could be as cold as a mild day in January. Indeed you could feel cold at almost any time of the year. Nick blamed drafty British houses for this, but agreed you could also blame the small amount of sunshine and a great amount of dampness. He advised every student coming to Britain to bring an umbrella and to understand the meaning of that splendid word \
Task 3 【答案】 I.
the country; Trees, grass, lakes and steams II. A.
1. concrete, iron, steel
2. take in the heat during the day and throw off heat into the air at night B. Warmer winters, car engines; electrical appliance Ⅲ.
A. air pollution may stop sunlight from reaching the earth B.
现代大学英语听力2原文及答案
