新东方高级口译听力原文及权威解析(1)

 2008 春季英语高级口译资格证书第一阶段考试
听力部分原文（精准版）
新东方口译教研组听力课题组
spot dictation
most unassertive people are not confident, and take “no.” for an answer much too easily. there is
a growing awareness in our society that this tendency is jeopardizing the rights of large numbers
of people. for example, in recent years there has been an upsurge in consumer protection
organizations and pressure groups. this is a wee development, as there will always be a need
for such organizations to protect the interests of individuals and minorities in apetitive society.
the danger is that we be over-dependent on professional workers for our rights, and lose the
art of asserting ourselves. it is better for your self-esteem and relationships with other people if
you can learn the art of persistence for yourself.
now we have to learn to ignore some of the not-so-pleasant messages that may be ringing in our
unconscious minds, such as “if you ask once more, i’ll flatten you!” and “don’t make a scene!”
the main technique that we use in assertiveness training to practice the art of persistence is called
broken record. when the record is scratched, we hear one sentence over and over again until we
reach screaming pitch and jump to turn it off. broken record is the skill of being able to repeat
over and over again in an assertive and relaxed manner what it is you want or need, until the other
person gives in or agrees to negotiate with you. now this technique is extremely useful for dealing
with situations where your rights are clearly in danger of being abused, or coping with situations
where you’re likely to be diverted by clever, articulate but irrelevant arguments.
the beauty of using broken record is that you have nothing more to worry about, because you
know exactly what you’re going to say, however abusive or manipulative the other person tries to
be. as with most assertive techniques, it must be use appropriately. it is a self-protective skill, and
is not designed to foster deep interesting conversations and friendships with people. it is primarily
abuse in situations where your time and energy is precious.
listeningprehension

questions 1 to 5 are based on the following conversation.
m: teenagers, when allowed to, sleep nearly nine and a half hours every night, as much as young
children. but unlike young children, even when teens do get their full sleep, they still have waves
of sleepiness in the daytime and then surges of energies in the evening, making them wide awake
late at night, but not for the reasons most of us assume.
w: we kind of always thought that adolescents stayed up late because they like to, and because
there’s plenty of things to do.
m: but there’s also a big push from biology that makes teenagers such night owls. it’ses from
the mighty sleep hormone-melatonin.
w: melatonin is wonderfully simple signal that turns on in the evening. you’re getting sleepy. and
it turns off in the morning.
m: and you are awakened. during adolescence, melatonin isn’t secreted until around 11 p.m.
several hours later than it is in childhood. so a typical teenager doesn’t even get sleepy until that
melatonin surge signals the brain that it’s night. now matter how early the teen goes to bed. and
the melatonin doesn’t shut up until 9 hours later, around 8 a.m. but of course, most high schools
start around 7:30.the result is all too evident. a teenager’s body may be in the classroom, but his
brain is still asleep on the pillow.
w: one student says, “i’ll wake up, and i’ll just feel miserable!”
m: an adolescent, and particularly the adolescent in high school, is almost bound to get severely
sleep-deprived.
w: i know a scientist, that’s william demint of stanford university. will demint is dr. sleep,
captivated by the mysteries of sleep for decades, creating the specialty of sleep medicine.
m: he’s been accepting every invitation that he gets to speak to high school students. so he goes
to a high school, and it’ll be 10:30 in the morning or 2 o’clock in the afternoon. whenever it is,
several hundred students in an auditorium, and he’ll just watch them as he’s talking.
w: doing a little spontaneous field research.
m: and after 10 minutes of sitting, particularly as the light are dim, almost without exception, they
are all struggling to stay awake. 10 minutes!
w: this shows up in lab studies, too. the typical teenager, when monitored in a quiet environment
during morning hours, will fall asleep in less than three and a half minutes.
m: it’s just like magic! it’s like somebody turned on some kind of gas in the auditorium. and they
all looked gassed.
w: not gassed. just severely sleep-deprived, short of about 2 hours of sleep every school night,
accumulation into what demint calls “sleep debt”, an estimated 85% of high school students are
chronically sleep-deprived, unable to stay fully awake throughout the school day, and it’s not just
following a sleeping class, it’s also riding a bike, playing sports, using tools, driving. a high
school student hit a tree one night when he was driving.
m is it true?
w: yes! he told me he fell asleep for a couple of seconds. and the next thing he knew, he hit a
tree!
m: you can have a second when your eyelid blinks, and you’re not taking information or making
judgment.