大学英语四级听力美文

大学英语四级听力美文，用最美的享受提高听力。下面是小编给大家整理的大学英语四级听力美文的相关知识，供大家参阅!

大学英语四级听力美文1

Pop Stars

Since the 1950s, most of the stars of pop music have come from Britain and America.

However, in the last ten years, when many different kinds of music have established themselves on the pop scene, more and more stars have come from other countries.

Pop music changes all the time and new stars appear and become famous.

Many of today's stars started out in the 1960s and have changed their music to suit the time.

Although most stars take many years to become famous, their fame does not usually last long.

For a musician to stay popular and still produce good, original music over a long period of time, is a sign of true star.

Most stars start their careers in a simple way - playing in unknown nightclubs or dance halls where people want to dance to the music, not listen to it.

They may have continued doing this for many years until they get a "break" - a chance to perform in a well-known place or get a recording contract.

To become a star is the aim of every singer or musician and the dream of many a pop-crazy teenager.

However a group or star makes it to the top, they can be sure that their lives will change once they are successful.

Ordinary teenagers living at home with their parents may suddenly find themselves rich enough to buy their own houses.

An established superstar may be able to buy several.

Despite the large amounts of money that are earned, life at the top is not easy for many stars.

The pop scene is hard work and many stars need to spend a lot of time away from home.

For a lot of them, this means they have no home life and their personal relationships suffer.

In spite of great public success, life at the top can be very lonely.

大学英语四级听力美文2

The Importance of Developing Attitudes

Of all the areas of learning the most important is the development of attitudes.

Emotional reactions as well as logical thought processes affect the behavior of most people.

“The burnt child fears the fire” is one instance; another is the rise of figures like Hitler.

Both these examples also point up the fact that attitudes come from experience.

In the one case the experience is direct and impressive, in the other it is indirect and gradual.

The class room teacher in the elementary school is in strategic position to influence attitudes.

This is true partly because children acquire attitudes from those adults whose words theyrespect.

Another reason why it is true is that pupils often search somewhat deeply into a subject inschool that has only been touched upon at home or has possibly never occurred to thembefore.

To a child who had previously acquired little knowledge of Mexico, his teacher's method ofhandling such a unit would greatly affect his attitude toward Mexicans.

The teacher can develop proper attitudes through social studies, science matters, the veryatmosphere of the classroom, etc.

However, when children come to school with undesirable attitudes, it is unwise to attempt tochange their feelings by criticizing them.

The teacher can achieve the proper effect by helping them obtain constructive experience.

To illustrate, first-grade pupils, afraid of policemen will probably change their attitudes after aclassroom talk with the neighborhood officer in which he explains how he protects them.

In the same way, a class of older children can develop attitudes through discussion, researchand all-day trips.

Finally, a teacher must constantly evaluate his own attitudes, because his influence can beharmful if he has personal prejudices.

This is especially true in respect to controversial issues and questions of which children shouldbe encouraged to reach their own conclusion as result of objective analysis of all the facts.

大学英语四级听力美文3

Computers: Are They Easier to Use ?

Here's my simple test for a product of today's technology: I go to the bookstore and check theshelves for remedial books.

The more books there are, the more my suspicions are raised.

If computers and computer programs are getting easier to use, why are so many companies stillmaking a nice living publishing books on how to use them?

Computers manipulate information, but information is invisible.

There's nothing to see or touch.

The programmer decides what you see on the screen.

Computers don't have knobs like old radios.

They don't have buttons, not real buttons.

Instead, more and more programs display pictures of buttons, moving even further intoabstraction and arbitrariness.

I like computers, but I hope they will disappear, that they will seem as stranger to ourdescendants as the technologies of our grandparents appear to us.

Today's computers are indeed getting easier to us, but look where they started: so difficult thatalmost any improvement was welcome.

Computers have the power to allow people within a company, across a nation or even aroundthe world to work together.

But this power will be wasted if tomorrow's computers aren't designed around the needs andcapabilities of the human beings who must use them — a people-centered philosophy, in otherwords.

This means retooling computers to cope with human strengths, observing, communicating andinnovating instead of asking people to conform to the unnatural behavior computers demand.

That just leads to error.

Many of today's machines try to do too much.

When a complicated work processor attempts to double as a desktop pulsing program or akitchen appliance come with half a dozen attachments, the product is bound to be awkwardand burdensome.

My favorite example of a technological product on just the right scale is an electronic dictionary.

It can be made smaller, lighter and far easier to use than a print version, not only givingmeanings but even pronouncing the words.

Today's electronic dictionaries, with their tiny keys and barely legible displays, are primitive butthey are on the right track.