托福听力文本-Test 1(下)

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　　BOOKSTORE

　　Student: Excuse me. I’m looking for someone who can help me with the textbook reservation program.

　　$ Manager: Oh, well, I can do that. What do you need?

　　$ Student: Okay. Um, my friend told me that I could get used books if I order, I mean, preorder them now.

　　$ Manager: That’s right. Do you want to do that?

　　$ Student: I think so, but I’m not sure how it works.

　　$ Manager: Actually, it’s fairly straightforward. We have a short form for you to fill out. Do you know what you’re going to take next semester?

　　$ Student: Yeah, I do.

　　$ Manager: And you have the course names and the schedule numbers for all your classes?

　　$ Student: Unhuh.

　　$ Manager: Okay, then, just put that information down on the form and, uh, make a checkmark in the box if you want recommended books as well as required books. And you said you were interested in used books, right?

　　$ Student: Right.

　　$ Manager: So mark the box for used books, sign the form and bring it back to me.

　　$ Student: Do I have to pay now? Or, do you want a deposit?

　　$ Manager: No, you can pay when you pick up the books.

　　$ Student: And when can I do that?

　　$ Manager: The week before classes begin.

　　$ Student: That’s good, but, um, what if I change my schedule? I mean, I don’t plan to but . . .

　　$ Manager: . . . it happens. Don’t worry. If you change classes, you can just bring the books back any time two weeks from the first day of class to get a full refund. Of course, you’ll need the original cash register receipt and a photo ID and, if it’s a new book, you can’t have any marks in it. But you said you wanted used books, so it won’t matter.

　　$ Student: Yeah, that’s the main reason why I want to do this—because I’ll have a better chance to get used books.

　　$ Manager: If there are used books available and you marked the form, that’s what we’ll pull for you.

　　$ Student: Okay, thanks a lot. I’ll just fill this out and bring it back to you later today. I don’t have all the numbers with me, the section numbers for the classes.

　　$ Manager: Fine. We need those numbers because when different professors are teaching the same class, they don’t always order the same books.

　　$ Student: Right. So, will you be here this afternoon?

　　$ Manager: I probably will, but if I’m not, just give the form to the person in this office. Don’t give it to one of the student employees, though. They’re usually very good about getting the forms back to the office, but sometimes it gets really busy and . . . you know how it is.

　　$ Student: Sure. Well, I’ll bring it back to the office myself.

　　$ Manager: That’s probably a good idea. And, oh, uh, one more thing. I should tell you that the used books tend to go first, so, if you want to be sure that you get used books . . .

　　$ Student: You know what? I’m going to go right back to the dorm to get those numbers now, while you’re still here.

　　$ Manager: Okay. That’s good.

　　ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE CLASS

　　Professor:

　　$ Hydrogen is the most recent and, I’d say, one of the most promising, in a long list of alternatives to petroleum. Some of the possibilities include batteries, methanol, natural gas, and, well, you name it. But hydrogen fuel cells have a couple of advantages over some of the other options. First of all, they’re really quiet, and they don’t pollute the atmosphere. Besides that, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and it can be produced from a number of sources, including ammonia, or . . . or even water. So, it’s renewable, and there’s an almost unlimited supply.

　　Okay. Now fuel cells represent a radical departure from the conventional internal combustion engine and even a fairly fundamental change from electric battery power. Like batteries, fuel cells run on electric motors; however, batteries use electricity from an external source and store it for use in the battery while the fuel cells create their own electricity through a chemical process that uses hydrogen and oxygen from the air. Are you with me? Look, by producing energy in a chemical reaction rather than through combustion, a fuel cell can convert, say 40–60 percent of the energy from the hydrogen into electricity. And when this ratio is compared with that of a combustion engine that runs at about half the efficiency of a fuel cell, well, it’s obvious that fuel cell technology has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry.

　　So, fuel cells have the potential to generate power for almost any kind of machinery or equipment that fossil fuels run, but, the most important, um, let’s say goal, the goal of fuel cell technology is the introduction of fuel cell powered vehicles. Internationally, the competition is fierce to commercialize fuel cell cars. I guess all of the leading automobile manufacturers worldwide have concept cars that use fuel cells, and some of them can reach speeds of as high as 90 miles per hour. Even more impressive is the per tank storage capacity. Can you believe this? Some of those cars can run for 220 miles between refills. But many of those cars were designed decades ago, so . . . what’s the holdup?

　　Well, the problem in introducing fuel cell technology is really twofold. In the first place, industries will have to invest millions, maybe even billions of dollars to refine the technology—and here’s the real cost—the infrastructure to, uh, support the fueling of the cars. And by infrastructure, I mean basic facilities and services like hydrogen stations to refuel cars and mechanics who know how to repair them. I think you get the picture. And then, consumers will have to accept and use the new products powered by fuel cells. So, we’re going to need educational programs to inform the public about the safety and . . . and convenience of fuel cells, if we’re going to achieve a successful transition to fuel cell products. But, unfortunately, major funding efforts get interrupted. Here’s what I mean. When oil prices are high, then there seems to be more funding and greater interest in basic research and development, and more public awareness of fuel cells, and then the price of oil goes down a little and the funding dries up and people just go back to using their fossil fueled products. And this has been going on for more than thirty years.

　　$ Some government sponsored initiatives have created incentives for fuel cell powered vehicles but probably one of the most successful programs, at least in my opinion, is, uh, the STEP program, which is an acronym for the Sustainable Transportation Energy Program. STEP is a demonstration project sponsored by the government of Western Australia. Now, in this project, gasoline driven buses have been replaced with fuel cell buses on regular transportation routes. I think that British Petroleum is the supplier of the hydrogen fuel, which is produced at an oil refinery in Kwinana, south of Perth. So we need to watch this carefully. Another collaborative research effort is being undertaken by the European Union and the United States. Scientists and engineers are trying to develop a fuel cell that’s effectively engineered and attractive to the commercial market. Now, under an agreement signed in about 2000, if memory serves, it was 2003, but anyway, the joint projects include the writing of codes and standards, the design of fueling infrastructures, the refinement of fuel cell models, and the demonstration of fuel cell vehicles. In Europe, the private sector will combine efforts with government agencies in the public sector to, uh, to create a long-term plan for the introduction of fuel cells throughout the E.U. And the World Bank is providing funding to promote the development and manufacture of fuel cell buses for public transportation in China, Egypt, Mexico, and India, and we’re starting to see some really interesting projects in these areas. So, uh, clearly, fuel cell technology is an international effort.

　　Okay, at the present time, Japan leads the way in addressing the issues of modifying the infrastructure.

　　$ Several fueling stations that dispense hydrogen by the cubic meter are already in place, with plans for more. But even when a nationwide system is completed, decisions about how and where to produce the hydrogen and how to transport it will still have to be figured out. Most countries share the view that fleets of vehicles have significant advantages for the introduction of fuel cell powered transportation because, well obviously they can be fueled at a limited number of central locations. And, uh, and other benefits of a fleet are the opportunity to provide training for a maintenance crew and for the drivers. As for consumer education, no one country seems to have made the advances there that . . . that would serve as a model for the rest of us. But perhaps when the demonstration projects have concluded and a few model cars are available to the public, well, more attention will be directed to public information programs.

　　Philosophy Class

　　Professor:

　　$ Humanism is a philosophical position that places the dignity of the individual at the center of its movement.

　　$ A primary principle of humanism - I don’t need to spell that for you, do I? Okay, a primary principle of humanism is that human beings are rational and have an innate predisposition for good. Although humanism is associated with the beginning of the Reformation, the humanist philosophy was not new when it became popular in Italy during the Middle Ages. In fact, according to the ancient Greek philosopher, Protagoras, mankind was “the measure of all things.” And this idea was echoed by Sophocles when he said, “Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as mankind.” This is classical humanism. Man as the ideal at the center of all creation. Even the ancient Greek gods were viewed as resembling man both physically and psychologically. And, in a sense, isn’t this personification of the deity just another way to exalt human beings? But that aside, it was precisely the rediscovery and translation of classical manuscripts that coincided with the invention of printing presses around the mid-15th century, which, uh, . . . which provided a catalyst for the humanistic movement throughout Europe.

　　$ As the clergy and upper classes participated in the rediscovery and dissemination of classical literature, humanism became popular among theologians and scholars, and soon set the stage for the Renaissance.

　　$ This one, I’ll spell. Does anybody remember the meaning of the word renaissance?

　　$ Student 1: Rebirth, renewal.

　　$ Professor:

　　$ Right you are. Renaissance literally means “rebirth,” and it refers to the return to ancient Greek and Roman art and literature, which, like all things in the humanistic tradition, they were measured by human standards. Art returned to the classical principles of harmony and balance. In the field of architecture, we see both religious and secular buildings styled after ancient Roman designs, with mathematical proportions and . . . a human scale, a scale that contrasted with the Medieval Gothic buildings of the previous era. Public works such as bridges and aqueducts from the Roman occupation were repaired, restored, or rebuilt. In the sculptures of the period, nude figures were modeled in life-sized images, with true proportions, and it was also at this point that realism became the standard for painting, with a preference for naturalistic settings and the placement of figures in . . . realistic proportion to those settings.

　　$ It was also evident that the portraits tended to be more personal and authentic. And artists even produced self-portraits at this time. Remember, the figures in the paintings of the previous era tended to be of another world, but Renaissance painters placed recognizable human beings in this world. In music, there was an effort to create harmonies that were pleasing to the human ear and melodies that were compatible with the human voice. In addition, music lessons became more widespread as a source of education and enjoyment. Dancing increased in popularity with a concurrent trend toward music that had rhythm and invited movement as a pleasurable activity.

　　$ Student 2: Wasn’t that why Latin became so important?

　　$ Professor:

　　$ Yes. Both Greek and Latin became important as tools for scholarship, and classical Latin became the basis for an international language of the intellectuals throughout Europe. To be true to humanism, and all it represented, it was necessary to be knowledgeable about, and, uh, . . . and faithful to the ancient philosophies as expressed in their writing, and how best to express them than in the original languages?

　　$ By the way, Latin as a universal language for clerics and the aristocracy, this encouraged the exchange of ideas on a wider scale than ever before, and legitimized in a sense the presumption that mankind was at the center of all things. It also made it possible for individual scholars to make a name for themselves and establish their place in the history of mankind.

　　$ Well, it was at this time that a close association, almost a partnership was forged between art and science. In their efforts to be precise, sculptors and painters studied the human form. In effect, they became anatomists. You may recall the drawing in your textbook, the one by Leonardo da Vinci which demonstrates the geometrical proportions of the human body. And, of course, Alberti, in his many books on architecture, sculpture, and painting . . . he emphasized the study of mathematics as the underlying principle of all the arts. Whereas artists had considered themselves craftsmen in the Middle Ages, the great Renaissance artists viewed themselves as intellectuals, philosophers, if you will, of humanism.

　　$ They were designing a world for human beings to live in and enjoy. One that was in proportion and in harmony with mankind. So, perhaps you can see why the so-called Renaissance man emerged.

　　$ Student 1: Okay. But exactly what is the definition of a Renaissance man? I know it means a very talented person, but . . .

　　$ Professor:

　　$ Good question. Sometimes we use these terms without really defining them. So I would say that a Renaissance man would be talented, as you said, but would also have to demonstrate broad interests . . . in both the arts and the sciences. The quality that was most admired in the Renaissance was the extraordinary, maybe even . . . universality of talents . . . in diverse fields of endeavor. After all, this quality proved that mankind was capable of reason and creation, that humanism was justified in placing man in the center of the world, as the measure of all things in it. With the humanistic philosophy as a justification, scholars would interpret the ancient classics and some of them would argue to a reasonable conclusion a very new and more secular society built on individual, human effort. It was not difficult for the Renaissance man to make the leap of logic from classical humanism to political humanism, which encouraged freedom of thought, and indeed even democracy, within both the church and the state. But that is a topic for another day.

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