2009年12月英语四级听力考试全真模拟题(8)

　　Another kind of challenge faced the Egyptians between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago when they decided to build the first pymp3id. They used six million tons of rock. That is enough to build a ten foot wall around all of France. Four hundred thousand men worked for twenty years to build it.

　　So, for thousands of years, people accepted challenges. Today we still have many challenges before us. Medical science faces the challenges of conquering the many diseases which still attack human beings. Engineers and planners must build new cities and new kinds of transportation. Scientists must develop new fomp3s of energy. And many of us are interested in the challenge of space. We live in an age of challenge.

　　Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　26. When people participate in sporting activities, what kind of challenge do they face?

　　【解析】选[B]。预读选项可知此题询问的是challenge的类型。在听的过程中需要留意涉及类型的细节。文中开头的Many of them like physical challenges后用一系列的例子，如How fast I can run?...They like climbing, running...表明，当人们参加体育活动时他们面对的是physical challenges。

　　27. Which belongs to social challenge?

　　【解析】选[D]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查对四种行为在细节上的区分。在听的过程中需要留意文中出现了哪几种行为、分别是为了说明什么问题而出现。

　　28. How do people react to the category of social challenges?

　　【解析】选[C]。预读选项可以推测此题是考查They对them的态度。在听问题时需要留意They和them分别指代的是什么。

　　Passage Two

　　Today we’ll examine the role that private transportation — namely, the automobile — plays in city planning.

　　A number of sociologists blame the automobile for the decline of the downtown areas of major cities. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the automobile made it possible to work in the city and yet live in the suburbs many miles away. Shopping patterns changed; instead of going to downtown stores, people in the suburbs went to large shopping malls outside the city and closer to the home. Merchants in the city failed, and their stores closed.