2005年12月大学英语四级考试听力原文(3)_新闻中心

2005年12月大学英语四级考试听力原文(3)

http://www.sina.com.cn 2005年12月26日13:46 人民网

Passage Two 　　Were you the first or the last child in you family? Or were you a middle or an only child? Some people think it matters where you were born in you family. But there are different ideas about what birth order means. Some people say that oldest children are smart and strong-willed. They are very likely to be succ essful. The reason for this is simple. Parents have a lot of time for their first child， they give him or her a lot of attention. So this child is very likely to do well. An only child will succeed for the same reason. What happens to the other children in the family? Middle children don’t get so much attention， so they don’t feel that important. If a family has many children， the middle one sometimes gets lost in the crowd. The youngest child， though， often gets special treatment. He or she is the baby. Often this child grows up to be funny and charming. Do you believe these ideas of birth order too? A recent study saw things quite differently. The study found that first children believed in family rules. They didn’t take many chances in their lives. They usually followed orders. Rules didn’t mean as much to later children in the family. They went out and followed their own ideas. They took chances and they often did better in life. 　　Q14. According to common belief， in what way are the first child and the only child alike? 　　Q15. What do people usually say about middle children? 　　Q16. what do we learn about later children in a family from a recent study of birth order? 　　Passage Three 　　When my interest shifted from space to the sea， I never expected it would cause such confusion among my friends， yet I can understand their feelings. As I have been writing and talking about space flight for the best part of 20 years， a sudden switch of interest to the depth of the sea doer seem peculiar. To explain， I’d like to share my reasons behind this unusual change of mind. The first excuse I give is an economic one. Underwater exploration is so much cheaper than space flight. The first round-trip ticket to the moon is going to cost at least 10 billion dollars if you include research and development. By the end of this century， the cost will be down to a few million. On the other hand， the diving suit and a set of basic tools needed for skin-diving can be bought for 20 dollars. My second argument is more philosophical. The ocean， surprisingly enough， has many things in common with space. In their different ways， both sea and space are equally hostile. If we wish to survive in either for any length of time， we need to have mechanical aids. The diving suit helped the design of the space suit. The feelings and the emotions of a man beneath the sea will be much like those of a man beyond the atmosphere. 　　Q17. How did the speaker’s friends respond to his change of interest? 　　Q18. What is one of the reasons for the speaker to switch his interest to underwater exploration? 　　Q19. In what way does the speaker think diving is similar to space travel? 　　Q20. What is the speaker’s purpose in giving this talk?