听力原文:Marriage is still a popular institution in the United States, but divorce is beco

第1题

听力原文：The institution of marriage is universal although the customs may vary from count

听力原文： The institution of marriage is universal although the customs may vary from country to country. In the United States boys and girls date freely starting in their teens. They can meet their future mates in many different ways. Sometimes they are introduced by a mutual friend; mid sometimes they meet each other in school, at a party, or at work. Today, they are sometimes matched by a computer which acts as a mechanical matchmaker, The average age of marriage for women in the United States is 20 - 21 and for men 22 - 23. When they are ready to get married, the bride's family is supposed to pay for all the cost of wedding, the reception, and the bride's trousseau. All the groom is supposed to pay for is the marriage license, the wedding ring, and the bride's bouquet.

A couple must get a civil license to marry, and then they can be married either in a civil or a religious ceremony. After the marriage ceremony, there is often a reception and then the couple leaves on their honeymoon. When they return, the newly married husband and wife move into their own home.

(30)

A．American wedding.

B．The institution of marriage in the U.S.

C．An English wedding.

D．The marriage ceremony in the U.S.

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第2题

听力原文：In the United States, couples usually receive gifts from their relatives and frie

听力原文： In the United States, couples usually receive gifts from their relatives and friends when they get married. Sometimes a bride will exchange a gift for something else if she doesn't find it useful. We give gifts to express our good wishes for the marriage, but gifts aren't necessary for the marriage itself. However, in some societies gifts are very important, and the marriage isn't legal without them. One type of gift is called bride service. A young husband must work for his wife's family. He may work for as long as fifteen years or until the third child is bom. Bride service may seem strange to us, but it is necessary in societies where people don't have money or material things to exchange at marriage.

(20)

A．She will ask for another gift

B．She will exchange it for something useful

C．She will return it to the giver

D．She will just keep it

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第3题

听力原文：I met Susan at a dance about six months ago. We get along well together since we

听力原文： I met Susan at a dance about six months ago. We get along well together since we like music, dancing, swimming, and tennis. But whenever I start to get serious about our relationship and try to discuss with her how she feels about me and whether we might consider marriage, she gets angry and refuses to talk about it. Usually, she says something like: "I'm not the marrying kind" or "We're having too much fun to be serious." Besides all these, I don' t think that my parents like her very much. They think that she's not very intelligent.

Do you think I should continue to keep the relationship？ Or should I forget her？ We're both 22, but I'm ready to settle down and establish a home. I have a good job as a salesman, and by the time I' m 24, I hope to have saved enough money to start my own business.

(33)

A．The relationship between the speaker and Susan.

B．The arrangement of the speaker's marriage ceremony.

C．The speaker's parents' opinion of Susan.

D．The speaker's plan for the future.

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第4题

听力原文：A "typical" British family used to consist of mother, father and two children, bu

听力原文： A "typical" British family used to consist of mother, father and two children, but in recent years there have been many changes in family life. Some of these have been caused by new laws and others are the result of changes in society. For example, since the law made it easier to get a divorce, the number of divorces has increased. In fact one marriage in every three now ends in divorce. This means that there are a lot of one-parent families. Society is now more tolerant than it used to be of unmarried people, un married couples and single parents.

Another change has been caused by the fact that people arc living longer nowadays, and many old people live alone following the death of their partners. As a result of these changes in the pattern of people's lives, there are many families that consist of only one person or one person and children. You might think that marriage and the families are not so popular as they once were. However, the majority of divorced people marry again, and they sometimes take responsibility for a second family.

(33)

A．High rate of divorce in Britain.

B．Generation gap in Britain.

C．Changes in family life in Britain.

D．One-parent families in Britain.

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第5题

听力原文："Family" is of course an elastic word. But when British people say that their soc

听力原文： "Family" is of course an elastic word. But when British people say that their society is based on family life, they are thinking of "family" in its narrow, peculiarly European sense of mother, father and children living together alone in their own house as an economic and social unit. Thus, every British marriage indicates the beginning of a new and independent family — hence the great importance of marriage in British life. For both the man and the woman, marriage means leaving one's parents and starting one's own life. The man's first duty will then be to his wife, and the wife's to her husband. He will be entirely responsible for her financial support, and she for the running of the new home. Their children will be their common responsibility and theirs alone. Neither the wife's parents nor the husband's, nor their brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles, have any right to interfere with them—they are their own masters.

Readers of novels like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice will know that in former times marriage among wealthy families was arranged by the girl's parents, that is, it was the parents duty to find a suitable husband for their daughter, preferably a rich one, and by skillful encouragement to lead him eventually to ask their permission to marry her. Until that time, the girl was protected and maintained in the parents' home, and the financial relief of getting rid of her could be seen in their giving the newly married pair a sum of money called a dowry. It is very different today. Most girls of today get a job when they leave school and become financially independent before their marriage. This has had two results. A girl chooses her own husband, and she gets no dowry.

(23)

A．It indicates sufferings in their life.

B．It indicates a greater financial burden.

C．It indicates sadness of parents.

D．It indicates the beginning of a new and independent family.

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第6题

听力原文：The period of engagement is the time between the marriage proposal and the waddin

听力原文： The period of engagement is the time between the marriage proposal and the wadding ceremony. Two people agree to marry when they decide to spend their lives together. The man usually gives the woman a diamond engagement ring？ That tradition is said to have started when an Austrian man gave a diamond ring to the woman he wanted to marry. The diamond represented beauty. He plecod it on the third finger d her left hand. He chose that finger because it was thought that a blood vessel in that finger went directly to the heart. Today, we know that this is not true. Yet the tradition continues.

Americans generally are engaged for a period of about one year if they are planning a wedding ceremony and party. During the time, friends of the bride may hold a party at which women friends and family members give the bride gifts that she will need as a wife. These could include cooking equipment or new clothing.

Friends of the man who is getting married may have a bachelor party for him. This usually takes place the night before the wedding. Only men are invited to the bachelor party. During the marriage ceremony, the bride and her would - be husband usually exchange gold rings that represent the idea that their union will continue forever. The wife often wears both the wedding ring and engagement ring on the same finger. The husband wears hi ring on the third finger of his left hand.

Many people say the purpose of the engagement period is to permit enough time to plan the wedding. But the main purpose is to let enough time pass so the two people are sure they want to marry each other. Either person may decide to break the engagement. If this hap pens, the woman usually returns the ring to the man; they also return any wedding gifts they have received.

(30)

A．Beauty.

B．Loyalty.

C．Luck.

D．Durability.

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第7题

听力原文：The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fancifu

听力原文： The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day. Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.

Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform. marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. An other legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed "from your Valentine."

(33)

A．Celsius.

B．Claudius Day.

C．Lupercalia.

D．Lubricant Day.

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第8题

听力原文：A calendar is a kind of chart that is used to keep tracks of days, months, and ye

听力原文： A calendar is a kind of chart that is used to keep tracks of days, months, and years. The ancient calendars of China were sometimes divided into 12-year cycles. Each year in the 12-year cycle had the name of an animal. There were twelve animals that were used to name the 12 years of the cycle. These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. You can figure out the animal for any year if you remember the animals' names in this order.

There were two common areas of significance that the Chinese calendar was used in. One area of its use was in selecting a marriage partner. For example, a woman who was born in the year of the dog was perfectly suited to a man who was born in the year of the rabbit. Another use for the calendar was in selecting a profession. For example, a person born in the year of the dragon might be good for the medical profession, but not for the legal profession.

(30)

A．A kind of chart used to keep track of days, months and years.

B．A kind of book used to express days of months.

C．A list of the animal's names.

D．A list of holidays.

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第9题

听力原文： I met Susan at a dance about six months ago. We get along well together since we

like music, dancing, swimming, and tennis. But whenever I start to get serious about our relationship and try to discuss with her how she feels about me and whether we might consider marriage, she gets angry and refuses to talk about it. Usually, she says something like: "I am not the marrying kind" or" we are having too much fun to be serious." Besides all this, I don' t think that my parents like her very much. They think that she is not very intelligent.

Do you think I should continue to keep the relationship？ Or should I forget her？ We are both 22, but I am ready to settle down and establish a home. I have a good job as a salesman and by the time I am 24 I hope to have saved enough money to start my own business.

What is the main topic of the talk？

A．The relationship between the speaker and Susan.

B．The speaker' s arrangement of the speaker' s marriage ceremony.

C．The parents' opinion of Susan.

D．The speaker' s plan for the future.

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第10题

听力原文：Researching friendship，psychologist Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing mo

听力原文： Researching friendship，psychologist Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men. No matter what their age，their sex，the results were completely clear. Women have more friendships than men，and the difference in the content and the quality of those friendships is“marked and unmistakable”.

More than two-thirds of the single men，Rubin interviewed，could not name a best friend. Those who could were likely to name a woman. Yet three-quarters of the single women had no problem naming a best friend，and almost always it was a woman. More married men than women named their wife/husband as a best friend，most trusted person，or the one they would turn to in time of emotional distress. “Most women. ”says Rubin，“identified at least one，usually more，trusted friends to whom they could turn to in a troubled moment，and they spoke openly about the importance of these relationships in their lives. ”

“In general，”Rubin writes in her new book，“women's friendships with each other rest on shared emotions and support，but men's relationships are marked by shared activities. ”“Even when a man is said to be a best friend，”Rubin writes，“the two share little about their innermost feelings. Whereas a woman's closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave fl failing marriage，it wasn't unusual to hear a man say he didn't know his friend's marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa. ”

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A．Men spend more nights in their friends'home than women．

B．Women are much more talkative than men．

C．Women enjoy more and better friendships than men．

D．Men have more difficulty remembering names than women．

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听力原文：Marriage is still a popular institution in the United States, but divorce is beco