2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料(2)

Nowadays, she says, she repeats her instructions, and even conducts a reality check with some patients. She asks them to tell her what they think they’re supposed to do. She also provides take-home sheets, which are computer printouts, tailored to the patients’situation.

Dr. Meyer’s listeners are not unusual. When new or difficult material is presented, almost all listeners are faced with a challenge, because human’s speech lacks the stability and permanence of the printed word. Oral communication is fast-moving and impermanent.

Question 29-31

2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料

Q29. What did the child’s family members argue about in the hospital?

Q30. What does Dr. Meyer do to ensure her patients understand her instructions?

Q31. What does the speaker say about human speech?

Passage 3

It is logical to suppose that things like good labor relations, good working conditions, good wages and benefits, and job security motivate workers. But one expert, Frederick Herzberg argued that such conditions do not motivate workers, they are merely satisfiers.

Motivators, in contrast, include things such as having a challenging and interesting job, recognition and responsibility. However, even with the development of computers and robotics, there are always plenty of boring, repetitive and mechanical jobs, and lots of unskilled people who have to do them. So how do managers motivate people in such jobs?

One solution is to give them some responsibilities, not as individuals, but as a team. For example, some supermarkets combine office staff, the people who fill the shelves, and the people who work at the checkout into a team. And let them decide what product li nes to stock, how to display them, and so on.

Many people now talk about the importance of a company shared values or culture, with which all the staff can identify. For example, being the best hotel chain, or making the best, the most user friendly, or the most reliable products in a particular field. Such values are more likely to motivate workers than financial targets, which ultimately only concern a few people. Unfortunately, there is only a limited number of such goals to go around. And by definition, not all the competing companies in an industry can seriously play in to be the best.

Question 32-35

Q32. What can actually motivate workers according to Frederick Herzberg?

Q33. What does the speaker say about jobs in the computer era?

Q34. What do some supermarkets do to motivate employees?

Q35. Why does the speaker say financial targets are less likely to motivate workers?

Section C

In the humanities, authors write to inform you in many ways. These methods can be classified into three types of informational writing: factual, descriptive and process.

Factual writing provides background information on an author, composer or artist, or on a type of music, literature or art. Examples of factual writing include notes on a book jacket, or album cover and longer pieces, such as an article describing a style of music, which you might read in a music appreciation course. This kind of writing provides a context for your study of the humanities.

2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料2009年12月大学英语四级听力材料

As its name implies, descriptive writing simply describes, or provides an image of a piece of music, art or literature. For example, descriptive writing might list the colors an artists used in the painting, or the instrument a composer included in a musical composition, so as to make pictures or sound in the readers’mind, by calling up specific details of the work. Descriptive writing in the humanities, particularly in literature, is often mixed with critical writing.

Process writing explains a series of actions that bring about result. It tells the reader how to do something. For example, explaining the technique used to shoot a film. This kind of writing is often found in art, where understanding how an art has created a certain effect is important. Authors may actually use more than one type of technique in a given piece of informational writing.