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TOEFL LISTENING lecture enviromental class 托福听力听写练习

original listening material is from toefl listeing test.
Red marked places are mistakes I made when recording it.

Listen to part of a lecture in an environmental science class.

Now, we’ve been talking about the loss of animal habitat from housing developments, uh…, growing cities - small habitat lossss. But, today I wanna begin talking about what happens when habitat is reduced across a large area. There are, of course, animal spices that require large areas of habitat, and some migrate over very long distances. So what’s the impact of habitat loss on those animals – animals that need large areas of habitat. Well, I’ll use humming birds as an example. Now, you know that a humming bird is small, but even though it’s really tiny, it migrates over a very long distances, travel ups and down the western hemisphere - the Americas, back and forth between where it breeds in the summer and the warmer climates where it’s spent the winter.

So you would say that the whole area over which it migrates is its habitat because on this long distance journey, it needs to come down to feed and sleep every so often, right? Well, the humming bird beats its wings - get this - about 3000 times per minute. So you might think, wow, it must need a lot of energy, a lot of food, right?

Well, it does. It drinks a lot of nectar from flowers and feeds on some insects. But it’s energy-efficient too. You can’t say it isn’t. I mean, as it flies all the way across the Mexico Gulf, it uses up none of its body fat. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to eat. So humming birds have to rely on the plants in their natural habitat.

And it goes without saying, but the opposite is true as well, plants depend on ha too. There are some flowers only that can only be pollinated by the humming birds. With its stopping to feed and spread pollen from flower to flower, these plants would cease to exist.

But the problem… well, as natural habitat along these migration routes is developed by humans for housing or agriculture or cleared for raising cattle, for instance, there is less food available for migrating humming birds. Their nesting sites are affected by the same sorts of human activities. And all of these human activities pose a real threat to the humming bird population.

So help them survive, we need to preserve their habitats. And one of the concrete ways people have been doing this is by cleaning up polluted habitat areas and then replanting flowers, um, replanting native flowers that humming birds feed on.

Promoting ecological tourism is another way to help save their habitat. As the number of visitors, eco-tourists who come to humming bird habitats to watch the birds, the more the number of visitors grows, the more local businesses’ profit. So ecological tourism can bring them financial rewards, all the more reason to value all this beautiful little creatures in their habitat, right?

But to understand more about how to protect them to support the humming birds the best we can, we’ve got to learn more about their breeding, nesting sites and migration routes, and also about the natural habitats we find there. That just helps us to determine how to prevent further decline in the population.

A good research method, a good way to learn more, is by running a banding study. Banding the birds allows us to track them over their lifetime. It’s been a practice that’s been used by researchers for years. In fact, most of what we’ve known about humming birds comes from binding studies, where we capture a humming bird and make sure all the information about it, like its weight and age and length, are all recorded and put into an international information database.

And then we place an extremely lightweight band on one of its leg, well, what looks like a leg, although technically it’s considered part of the bird’s foot. Anyway, these bands are perfectly safe, and some humming birds have worn them for years with no evidence of any problems. The band is labeled with tracking number, oh, and there is a phone number on the band for people to call for free, to report a banded bird to be found or recaptured.

So when a banded bird is recaptured and reported, we learn about its migration route, its growth, and how long it has been alive, its lifespan. One recaptured bird was banded almost 12 years earlier – she was one of the oldest humming birds on record. Another interesting things we learned is that humming birds no longer use a certain route. They travel by a different route to reach their destinations. And findings like these have been of interest to biologists and environmental scientists in a number of countries who are trying to understand the complexities of how changes in a habitat affect the species in it.

TOEFL LISTENING CONVERSATION 托福听力听写练习 对话

Original listening material is from TOEFL listening test.
Red marked parts are mistakes I made when recording it.

Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

Uh, Professor Thompson, I know that your office hours are tomorrow, but I was wondering if you had a few minutes free now to discuss something?

 Sure, John. What did you want to talk about?

Well, I have some quick questions about how to write up the research I did this semester - about climate variations?

Oh, yes. You were looking at variations in climate in the Grant City area, right? How far along have you gotten?

I’ve got all my data, so I’m starting to summarize it now, preparing graphs and stuff. But, I’m just … I’m looking at it and I’m afraid that it’s not enough, but I’m not sure what else to put in the report.

I hear the same thing from every student. You know, you have to remember now that you are the expert on what you’ve done. So, think about what you’d need to include if you were going to explain your research to someone with general or casual knowledge about the subject, like … like your parents. That’s usually my rule of thumb: would my parents understand this?

Okay, I get it.

I hope you can recognize by my saying that how much do you know about the subject?

Right. I understand. I was wondering if I should also include the notes from the research journal you suggested I should keep.

Yes, definitely. You should use it to indicate what your revolution in thought was through time. So, just set up, you know what was the purpose of what you were doing - to try to understand the climate variability of this area – and what you did, and what your approach was?

Okay, so, for example, I studied meteorological records, I looked at climate charts; I use different methods for analyzing the data, like certain statistical tests, and then I discuss the results. Is that what you mean?

Yes, that’s right. You should include all of that. The statistical tests are especially important. And also be sure to include a good reference section where all your published and unpublished data came from, ‘cause you have a lot of unpublished climate data.

Hmm, something just came into my mind, and went out of the other side?

That happens to me a lot, so I’ve come up with a pretty good memory management tool. I carry a little pad with me all the time and jot down questions or ideals that I don’t want to forget. For example, I went to the doctor with my daughter and her baby son last week, and we knew that we wouldn’t remember everything we wanted to ask the doctor, so we actually made a list of five things we wanted answers to.

A notepad is a good idea. Since I’m busy now at the end of the semester, I’m getting pretty forgetful these days. OK. I just remembered what I was trying to say before.

Good. I was hoping you’d come up with it.

Yes, it ends up that I have data on more than just the immediate Grant city area, so I also included some regional data in the report, with everything else it should be a pretty good indicator of the climate in this part of the state.

Sounds good. I’d happy to look over a draft version before you hand in the final copy, if you wish?

Great, I’ll plan to get you a draft of the paper by next Friday.Thanks very much. Well, see you.

Okay.

Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a receptionist at the Registrar’s office on the first day of this semester.

Excuse me, I’m supposed to be having my physics class in the science building, but no one’s in the classroom. Could you tell me where the class is? Physics 403 - has it been moved?

Well, there is a room assignment sheet on the bulletin board outside this office.

Yeah, I know, but my class is not listed there. There must be some kind of mistake or something. Could you look it up, please?

Hmmm… okay, let me check on the computer. It’s physics, right? Wait, did you say physics 403?

Yeah.

I’m sorry, but it says here that it was cancelled, but you should have got a note letter from the registrar’s office.

What? I’ve never got it.

Are you sure? ‘cause it says on the computer that the letter was sent out to students a week ago.

Really? I should have got it by now. I wonder if I threw it away with all the junk mail by mistake.

Well, it does happen. Er…, let me check something. What’s your name?

Woodhouse, Laura Woodhouse.

Okay, hmmm… Woodhouse, let me see… ay, it says that we send it to your apartment on er… Center Street.

Oh, that is my old apartment. I moved out of there a little while ago.

Well, and I suppose you haven’t changed your mailing address at the administration office? Well, that would explain it.

Yeah, I guess that’s it. But how can they cancel the class after offering it. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have taken it last semester.

I know, it’s really inconvenient to you, I understand that, but er… if we don't have enough students sign up for the course, the college can’t offer it. You know, the practical issue, like we can’t have an instructor when there’re only a few students in the class. You see what I mean?

I guess, but now I don’t what course should I take instead.

Okay, let’s see. Do you have any courses you’re going to take next semester? If you do, you might want to take them now and sign up for physics 403 next semester?

Yeah, I guess I can do that. I just hope it won’t be cancelled again. Do you know how many people have to be enrolled in order to keep a class from being cancelled?

Well, it depends on the class, but for that class, you have to have er… let me see, usually it should be at least 10 people. But since it was cancelled this semester, they might even do it with less. But do you know what you should do? Give the physics department a call a couple of weeks before the semester starts. They will be able to tell you if they’re planning to go through it. It’s their decision, actually.

Well, I’ll do that. Thanks for the info!

No problem! Sorry about the class! Oh, why aren’t you to go change a mailing address now? It lonely takes a minute.

Oh, sure, I’ll do that right away.

toefl listening material conversation

Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

Uh, Professor Thompson, I know that your office hours are tomorrow, but I was wondering if you had a few minutes free now to discuss something?

 Sure, John. What did you want to talk about?

Well, I have some quick questions about how to write up the research I did this semester - about climate variations?

Oh, yes. You were looking at variations in climate in the Grant City area, right? How far along have you gotten?

I’ve got all my data, so I’m starting to summarize it now, preparing graphs and stuff. But, I’m just … I’m looking at it and I’m afraid that it’s not enough, but I’m not sure what else to put in the report.

I hear the same thing from every student. You know, you have to remember now that you are the expert on what you’ve done. So, think about what you’d need to include if you were going to explain your research to someone with general or casual knowledge about the subject, like … like your parents. That’s usually my rule of thumb: would my parents understand this?

Okay, I get it.

I hope you can recognize by my saying that how much do you know about the subject?

Right. I understand. I was wondering if I should also include the notes from the research journal you suggested I should keep.

Yes, definitely. You should use it to indicate what your revolution in thought was through time. So, just set up, you know what was the purpose of what you were doing - to try to understand the climate variability of this area – and what you did, and what your approach was?

Okay, so, for example, I studied meteorological records, I looked at climate charts; I use different methods for analyzing the data, like certain statistical tests, and then I discuss the results. Is that what you mean?

Yes, that’s right. You should include all of that. The statistical tests are especially important. And also be sure to include a good reference section where all your published and unpublished data came from, ‘cause you have a lot of unpublished climate data.

Hmm, something just came into my mind, and went out of the other side?

That happens to me a lot, so I’ve come up with a pretty good memory management tool. I carry a little pad with me all the time and jot down questions or ideals that I don’t want to forget. For example, I went to the doctor with my daughter and her baby son last week, and we knew that we wouldn’t remember everything we wanted to ask the doctor, so we actually made a list of five things we wanted answers to.

A notepad is a good idea. Since I’m busy now at the end of the semester, I’m getting pretty forgetful these days. OK. I just remembered what I was trying to say before.

Good. I was hoping you’d come up with it.

Yes, it ends up that I have data on more than just the immediate Grant city area, so I also included some regional data in the report, with everything else it should be a pretty good indicator of the climate in this part of the state.

Sounds good. I’d happy to look over a draft version before you hand in the final copy, if you wish?

Great, I’ll plan to get you a draft of the paper by next Friday.Thanks very much. Well, see you.

Okay.

toefl listening EARTH SCIENCE 托福听力听写练习

Original listeing material is from toefl test.
Redmarked places are the places I made mistakes when recording it.

Earth Science

Listen to part of a lecture in an earth science class. The class is having a discussing.

Okay, so we say rocks of volcanic. What do we really mean? Linda?

Well, would it come out as hot and melts of rock, lava from deep down inside the Earth, and then cool and harden in the air.

Good, except that it isn’t always the air that cools the lava into rock.

Oh, the ocean. Isn’t there a lot of volcanic activity down at the bottom of the ocean? Way out of the middle, along the … oh, what do you call it?

Daniel?

The middle ocean ridge?

Right.

See, how do scientists go about studying that?

Well, in the 70’s, they started mapping the shape of the ocean floor out there with solar. You know how solar works?

Sure, like radar.

Okay.

But solar is sound, high-frequency sound that a ship sends down. Well, the scientists on the ship can tell a lot about the ocean bottom by how these pulses of sounds echo back.

That’s good.

Thanks, but I was wandering like, couldn’t they just go down to the ocean floor in submarines and take a look?

Well, fist, we have to realize that at this depth, say, 3kms down, the pressure will be about 3000 times the pressure up the surface.

Oh, so, you are saying the pressure would crash any submarine out there that tried to go all the way down to the bottom.

Well, for a long time, that was the case, and still is, even today for any normal submarine. But eventually, a few of vey special ones were constructed, with titanium hulks that won’t collapse even at pressures that great. And they have got little windows made of special material that can withstand high pressures, and video cameras and really powerful lights that the people inside the sub use to explore the ocean bottom. And after about 4 hours moving around down there, using a battery-power motor, well, then the submarine releases its weights. The heavy metal weights that put it down. And for the next couple of hours, it’s rising back to the surface, and…

So, what do they end up seeing down there?

Well, for one thing - these long ridges running up and down in the middle of the oceans, they were able to confirm that these were volcanic, not just the origins. But I mean, the hot lava had flowed up recently, sort of like toothpaste coming out of the tube. And it’d cooled into the rock formations along the ridge. Oh, and that reminds me of one dive back in, I think that was 1979. The submarine went down to explore the middle ocean region of Pacific, and I have to understand the temperature of the bottom is normally just about freezing, zero degree celsius. And they’are down there exploring some very new lava formations. And they see what it looks like this big, black, sort of muddy cloud in the water. So they move up close enough to it that they can use this thermometer on the outside of the submarine. And suddenly, it starts melting, this thermometer was made to measure the temperatures over 300 degrees Celsius. It just melts. And these guys realized that temperatures like that can also melt the special windows in their sub. And they’re almost gone right into the middle of this big, black cloud.

Wow.

Yah, you said that - WOW. So, anyway, since then this things have been found spreading up all over along the middle ocean ridges. And now they haven’t a name. We call them smokers - black smokers. And then we’ve came to understand that they are part of a really important process, one that regulates the chemistry of the oceans.  

The chemistry? How so?

Well, we know that the rivers flowing into all the oceans around the world carry dissolved salts. So what happens to those salts? They don’t all just stay dissolved in the water.

No? Then what?

Well, they are cracks in volcanically active parts of the ocean floor where cold ocean water seeps down into the rock below. What do you suppose happens there?

Well, I guess, the water will cool the hot, volcanic rock down there…

And?

And that would heat up the water a lot!

Right, even super-heated, and then shot back again. And in theory, over millions of years, all the water in the oceans could’ve circulated down through the rocky crust, and come back up again super-heated. And in the process, reactions with the hot lava remove the salt, taking them out of water. So when the water shoots up from the ocean floor, it leaves behind the salts, and brings up a hot, thick, and incredibly rich cloud of minerals drawn out of the rock that was cooling.

Those ‘black smoker’ they saw…

Exactly!

toefl listening astronomy lecture 托福听力听写练习

Original listening material is from toefl test.
Red marked places are the mistakes i made when i recorded it.

Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.

I’m sure you all have been following the news about the Mars. A lot of spacecraft have been visiting the planet recently- some have gone into orbit around it, well, while others have landed on it. And, they’ve sent back a… an abundance of data that’s reshaping our knowledge … our vision of the planet in a lot of ways. Is there anything that you’ve been particularly struck by in all the news reports?

Well, they seem to mention water a lot, which kind of surprised me as I have this picture in my head that Mars is dry… sort of dry and dead.

You are not the only one. You know, for centuries, most of our knowledge of the planet came from what we saw through telescopes. So, obviously, it was pretty limited. And our views of the planet were formed as much by writers… as they were by serious scientists. When the first science-fiction came out, Mars was described as being a lot like Earth except…

I know that the planet was red and, uh, the people are green. I’ve seen some of those old movies. What were they thinking? I mean, really… they…

Well, it seems silly to us now but those ideas were quite imaginative and, occasionally, scary in their time.  Anyway, we began to rethink our image of Mars when the first spacecraft flew by the planet in 1965 and sent some pictures back to earth. Those pictures showed a planet that looked a lot more like our moon than earth- lots of craters and not much else. It was bitterly code. It had a very thin atmosphere. And that atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide. So, the view of Mars after this first flyby mission was that dry, dead planet that Lisa mentioned. But then there were more visitors to the planet in the 1970s - and this time the spacecraft didn’t just fly by, they orbited or landed. This allowed us to receive more detailed images of the planet, and it turned out to be a pretty interesting place. Mars had… has a lot more than craters, it has giant volcanoes and deep canyons. It also showed signs of dried-up riverbeds and plains that had been formed by massive floods. So we can concluded that there must have been water on the planet at one time, billions of years ago. Now, what does it take for water to exist?

You need to have a warm enough temperature so that it doesn’t to freeze.

That’s one thing - and the other is that you need enough atmospheric pressure, thick enough air so that the water doesn’t instantly vaporize. The Mars we see today doesn’t have either of those conditions. It’s too cold and the air is too thin. But a long time ago, there may have been a thicker atmosphere that created a greenhouse effect that raised temperatures – and maybe that combination produced water on the surface of the planet. So, maybe Mars wasn’t just a dead boring rock. Maybe it was a fascinating fossil that once was alive in dynamic – worthy of exploration. Now, let’s jump forward a few decades to the beginning of this century. And a new generation of orbiters and landers that have been sent to Mars. Of course the scientific instruments now surveying Mars are far more sophisticated than the instruments of the 70’s.  So we are getting all kinds of new data for analysis. And not surprisingly, that data is challenging our notions of what Mars is like. Lisa, you mentioned that a lot of the news reporters talked about water. Do you remember any of the details?

Well, they are showing these pictures with these long, uh, cuts in the ground which would be gullies here. I mean, on earth. They say that since, uh, gullies are usually formed by water. It seems like they might be evidence that water still exists on Mars, but I didn’t get how that worked.

I’m not surprised. There are a lot of theories, a lot of that speculation. Some argue that the formations aren’t caused by water at all. But there are some ingenious theories that assume there’s a lot of water right under the planet’s surface that is somehow causing the gullies to form. If only we can get a lander there… but gullies aren’t in places where we can send landers yet. Anyway, if there is some kind of water activity, it may change our view of the planet once again… to something that is not dead, not even a fossil, but rather a planet like Earth, that undergoes cycles. Think of our ice ages- over long periods of time. Maybe Mars can sustain water again at some distant date.

托福听力听写练习 TOEFL LISTENING lecture of biology class

The original listening material is from ETB test.
Red marked places are mistakes i made.

Biology

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

We’ve been discussing animal communication. Um, today we are going to talk about dolphins. Now, dolphins make a wide range of communicative sounds, and display something called vocal learning, which is the ability of an animal to modify its vocalizations based on its experience with other animals. There are many types of dolphin vocalizations. We still don’t know their precise meanings – partly, I suppose, because we haven’t really tried that hard to figure out their precise meanings – but we do know that dolphins use vocalizations as a way of communicating with one another. And we’ve categorized their vocalizations into three types: whistles, clicks, and burst pulses. The dolphin whistles are very high frequency sounds, ah partially above the range of human hearing. What’s fascinating is, each dolphin has a signature whistle, which is unique to each individual dolphin.  It allows them to call to and identify each other.  Jennifer?

Kind of like learning someone’s name? So… do dolphin parents choose names for their children?

Well, again, that’s something we don’t know, but we do know that no two signature whistles sound identical. And, members of the same family, their signature whistles have similar elements. Dolphins use them as contact calls – ah they call to each other while travelling and foraging. It helps keep the group together, and helps mother and children find each other. Think of it like …. if you were travelling in the forest with one other person who was just out of sight, you’d call out, “are you there?” and the other person would respond. But if there were several people in the forest, you would have to call that person’s name to call to them. In addition to whistles, dolphins produce clicks which are actually sonar or sound waves. They use clicks to communicate, but, more importantly to navigate and hunt. How?

Well, the sonar clicks bounce off objects, and then dolphins convert the incoming signals into a three dimensional picture… a mental map of what’ around them. Their clicks are extremely sensitive and accurate. Their sonar clicks are also very strong. And there is the theory that one reason dolphins swim side by side is to avoid interference from each other’s sonar clicks. Interference would be confusing… it would prevent them from getting an accurate picture of their surroundings. And what’s interesting is, dolphins will turn off their sonar when another dolphin passes in front. The third category of dolphin’s vocalizations is burst pulses. These are all this other sounds the dolphin makes – suawks, squeals, barks, groans, and so on. Burst pulses are used to display aggression, show dominance and attract mate. But whistles, clicks, burst pulses aren’t the only ways dolphins communicate. Does anyone remember any other ways?

 In the book, it said that they also slap their tails against water. Oh, and … the air that comes out when thye breathe or whistle … the … ah … the bubble streams? They can control how the air bubble streams come out? I thought that was really interesting.

Yes, the bubble streams are very interesting. Dolphins can identify and locate each other by their bubble streams and they can imitate the bubble steam patterns of other dolphins… sort of like saying hello. So as you can see, dolphins use many sounds and behaviors to convey messages to each other. I’d like to tell you about when I was a graduate student … and … I spent one summer on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean studying marine life. One morning, there were about 25 dolphins swimming with the boat. We can hear their whistles and clicks as they called to each other. Now, we were there as impartial scientists, to do research, but… how could we not notice the beauty as the bubble streams made patterns in the water and the dolphins appeared to dance and play? It’s wonderful if you do field work and actually experience something you‘ve been studying in a class room. So if you ever have the opportunity, go for it!

托福听力听写练习 TOEFL LISTENING conversation

Original listening material is from toefl test.
Red marked places are mistakes I made when recording.

Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a university employee.

Oh, hello… can I help you?

Um… yeah… I’m looking for Professor Kirk. Is he here? I mean, is this her office?

Yes, you are in the right place - Professor Kirk’s office is right behind me - but no, she is not here right now.

Uh, do you know when she’ll be back?

Well, she is teaching all morning. She won’t be back until… let me check, she won’t be back until… after launch. That’s when she has her office hours. Perhaps you can come back then?

Oh, unfortunately no. I have class this afternoon, and I was really hoping to talk to her today.

Hey, do you know if … she is still accepting any more students into her introduction to biology class?

You want to know if you can take the class.

Yes, if she is letting any more students sign up, I’d like, I’d like to join the class.

Introduction to biology is a very popular class, especially when she teaches it. A lot of students take it.

Yeah, that’s why the registrar said it was full. I’ve got the form the registrar gave me, um… with me to get her permission to take the class. It’s all filled out except for her signature. I’m hoping she’ll let me in even though the class is full. You see, I’m senior this year and this’ll be my last semester, so it’s my last chance.

Oh, wow, really? I mean, most of the students fulfill the science requirement the first year.

Well, I mean, um… to be honest, I kept putting it off. I’m not really a big fan of science classes in general, and with the labs and everything. I’ve not quite found the time.

Your advisor didn’t see anything?

Well, to tell you the truth, she’s been after me to take a class for a while, but I’m double majoring in art and journalism and so my schedule’s been really tight with all the classes I gotta’ take, so somehow I never…

Well, perhaps you could leave the form with me and I’ll see if she’ll sign it for you?

You know, I appreciate that, but maybe I should explain the problem to her in person? I didn’t want to do it, but… I guess I have to send her an e-mail.

Hmm, you know, not all professors check their emails regularly. I’m not sure whether professor Kirk does it or not? Here is an idea, why don’t you stick a note explaining your situation under her door and ask her to call you if she needs more information?

Hey, that’s a good idea; and then I can leave the form with you- if you still don’t mind…

托福听力听写练习 TOEFL listening anthropology

The Original listening material is from ETS online.
Red marked places are the mistakes I made when recording.

Anthropology

Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology class.

Okay, I want to start today by talking about calendars. I know, some of you are thinking it’s not all that fascinating, right? But listen; the next time you look at a calendar, I want you to keep something in mind. There are at least tree natural ways to measure the… the passage of time- by day, by month and by year. And these are all pretty easy to see, right? I mean, a day is based on one rotation of earth. A month is how long the moon takes to move around the earth. And a year is the time it takes for Earth to move around the Sun, right? So they are all based on natural events, but the natural clocks of Earth, the Sun, the Moon run on different times, and you can’t divide any one of these time periods by another one without having some messy fraction left over. I mean, one lunar month- that’s the time it takes for Moon to move around the Earth- one month is about 29.5 twenty-nine and a half days, not really a nice round number. And one year is little more than 365 days. So these are obviously numbers don’t divide into each other quite neatly. And this makes it pretty difficult to create some sort of tidy calendar that really works.

Not those different cultures haven’t tried. Have any of you ever been to Stonehenge. No… you know that amazing circle of giant stones in England? Well, if you ever go, and find yourself wondering why this culture way back in prehistory England would go to so much work to construct this monumental ring of enormous stones, …well, keep in mind that a lot of us think it was designed, at least partially as calendar- to mark when the seasons of the year begin, according to the exact day when the sun comes up from a particular direction. I have colleagues who insist it’s a temper, maybe, a tome … but they can’t deny it was also used as a calendar… probably to help figure out, for example, when farmers should begin their planting each year.

The Mayans, in Central America, also invented a calendar, but for a different purpose. The Mayans, especially the royalty and priests, wanted to look at long cycles of history - so the calendar the used had to be able to count far into the future as well as far into the past. And not only were the Mayans keeping track of the natural timekeepers we mentioned before - earth, the sun, and the moon - but another natural timekeeper: the planet Venus.

Venus rises in the sky as the morning star every 584 days, and the Venus cycle was incorporated in the Mayan calendar. So the Mayan kept track of long periods of time, and they did it accurately, in fact, that their calendar is considered about as complicated and sophisticated as any in the world.

Now, the ancient Chinese believed very strongly in astrology- the idea that you can predict the future events based on the positions of the stars and the planets like, say Jupiter. Incidentally, the whole Chinese system of astrology was based on the fact that the planet Jupiter goes around the Sun once every twelve years, so one orbit of Jupiter lasts for 12 of our earth years. Apparently that’s why the Chinese calendar has a cycle of 12 years, you know, like “the year of dragon”, “the year of tiger” and so on… all parts of the twelve year astrological cycle that we get from the orbit of Jupiter.

Calendars based on the orbits of other planets, though, are a lot less common than those based on the cycle of the Moon, the lunar month. I could mention any number of important cultures around the world that have depended on lunar calendars, but there really isn’t time. So, let’s go right to the calendar that’s now used throughout most of the world- a solar calendar- based on the number of days in a year. This calendar is mainly derived from the one of the ancient Romans derived a couple thousand years ago. I mean, the Romans- with more than a little help from the Greeks - realized that a year actually lasts about 365 and a quarter days. And so they decide to round off most years to 365 days but make every fourth year into a leap year. I mean, somehow, you have to account for that extra one fourth of a day each year, so every four years, they made the calendar one day longer. By adding the leap year, the Romans were able to make a calendar that worked so well – that, with a few minor adjustments, this calendar is still widely used today.

lynnwood road test lynnwood路考

    这次路考终于考过了，很开心。LYNNWOOD的路考基本上就是在DRIVE LICENSE OFFICE 旁边的小区里完成，PARALLER PARKING 是在外面的停车坪里考的，就是树立了几个桩子，留出一个停车位的那种。上周末去那附近转了下，在坪里练习了平行停车，很有帮助。
      考官上的话，如果可以选择的，男考官比女考官要宽容些；NATIVE SPEAKER比其他国家的移民考官要容易过些，因为英语没口音。我上次的考官是个50多岁的女考官，不知道是哪个国家的移民，有点像亚裔，但肯定不是华裔，英语口音很重，却又不是我熟悉的那种口音的，我有两次没有听懂指令。她很不友善，在考车过程中，我有操作不当的地方，她就在那一个劲的叹气，或者是口里嘀嘀咕咕的，搞得本来就很紧张的我更加紧张了。这次这个考官是个男考官，他就很好，只在一边发指令，然后观看记录，不会让人紧张，更不会让人反感。从评分上来看，上次那个女考官更是把所有的大分都扣掉了，左转说我转大了，扣去了6分，右转说我没看，扣6分，平行停车我停进去了，没有碰到CURB，没有撞到杆子，只是离后面的距离有点近，倒进去之后没有调整距离，也是4分全扣了。今天这个考官的评分就要客观公正的多。BACK AROUND CORNER我转的有点大，距离大了，他就扣2分，并没有全扣掉。考完之后，考官把该注意的几点都跟我解释了，这对以后开车也有帮助的。一个是开的有点慢，扣2分，另一个是整体表现，扣2分，机械操作扣2分，是因为我有两次刹车的操作不是很缓慢平稳。

托福听力 听写练习 conversation TOEFL LISTENING

The original listening material is from TOEFL IBT online.
Red marked places are the places I made mistakes when I typed it while listening.

Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a professor.

Sandy, how is class been going for you this semester?

Oh, it’s great. I really like your business psychology class, but I have one major concern about the last assignment, you know- the one where we have to interview a local business owner, uh, I mean, entrepreneur?

Are you having trouble coming up with interview questions?

Well, just it is. I mean, I worked on my high school newspaper for years, so I actually have great questions to ask. The thing is… I’m new to the area and I don’t know people off campus. So I was wondering if… well, could you possibly give me the name of someone I could interview?

You don’t know anyone who owns a business?

Well, yeah, back home. My next-door neighbors- they own a shoes store, and they are really successful-but they are not local.

Well, it wouldn’t be fair to the other student if I gave you the name of a contact- but I could help you figure out one way to find someone on your own. Let’s see…Do you read the local newspaper?

Sure, whenever I have the time.

Well, the business section in the newspaper often has stories about local business people, who have been very successful. If you find an article, you could call the person who was profiled.

You mean, just call them up…out of blue, asking them if they’ll talk to me?

Sure, why not?

Well, aren’t people like that awfully busy? Too busy to talk to a random college student?

Many people enjoy telling the story of how they got started. Remember, this is a business psychology class, and for this assignment, I want you to get some real insight about business owners, their personality, what drives them to be become an entrepreneur?

Like how they think?

And what motivates them, why did they start their business? I’m sure they’d talk to you, especially if you tell them you might start a business someday.

I’m not sure I’d have the guts to do that. Opening a business seems so risky, so scary.

Well, you can ask them if they feel that way too.

Now you just need to find someone to interview to see if your instincts are correct. 

托福听力听写练习 professor and a student

The original listening material is from ETS online.
Red marked places are the mistaken I made while typing it.

Professor and a student.

Hi, professor Haskel. Can I talk to you for a second?

Of course, nancy, come on in. Do you have a question about the lecture?

No. Actually, I was hoping to ask your advice.

Sure. What about?

Well, I’m applying for a grant from the geographic institute. And i wanna get the wording for my

application just right, especially the grant proposal part. Have you , have you ever applied for a grant?

More times than I can count. Let’s see what you’ve got so far.

Um, ok, this is a draft of my application and here is the description of the grant.  They have money available for students to study the traffic patterns in the city.

Okay, I see urban geography.

Right, I’m interested in foot traffic, actually, you know, how people walk to work in the city, here in Boston. I got statistics.

So People who already live here.

Or people who take a train in, and then walk to work from the station. Since the city raise the bus feras, I mean, they want a bu lot. I want to see whether that costs a lot people to walk before they have to take the bus. Anyway.

Ok, let’s see. Uh, well, you already have everything you need, but you may want to start with the proposal research itself. What your area of study is, what you will do with the money, why you deserve it, rather than starting out by outlining your education. Of course, they still wanna know about that, but you want them to know right away why you apply for the grant.

Oh, I didn’t realize that.

Yes. I’ve been on the committees that review grant applications. The applications that jump right into the subject matter are much easier to follow. Otherwise, the committee has to read through and figure out why you need the money and…

So, I should start off with my proposal research to get their attention.

Exactly. Grab their attention. Tell them right away, you want to study foot traffic in the city. Also mention what research you’ve already done, what your statistics have shown, what research you still need to do.

So when do I tell them about my background?

Well, after you explain why you need your grant money, then you describe your background to show how it’s prepared you for this research.

That should be easy. Just about every class I’ve taken as prepared me for this.

Okay, good. But remember the committee will be reading dozens of applications. The clearer it is, the better.

When is the due?

By the end of the month. So I have some time.

Ok, tell you what. Once you rewrite it, most some parts around? And then, I’ll take a look at it again before you submit it.

So, basically just reorganize it.

Right.

I’m glad I came to see you before I turn this in. I guess that I have to do some more work on it.

Well, it’s not exactly like something we teach courses in.

Okay, professor, thanks for your help.

You are welcome.