Section B
Passage One
Everyone is looking for a good investment these days. And with stocks, currencies and companies all crashing, some are finding that taking the trip of a lifetime is actually a smart move right now. Prices are good, crowds are fewer and the dividends like expanded worldview, lifelong memories, the satisfaction of boosting the global economy—can't be easily snatched away. Sylvia and Paul Custerson, a retired couple from Cambridge, England, recently took a 16-day vacation to Namibia, where they went on bird-watching excursions. Later this year, they are planning a trip to Patagonia. "We're using our capital now," says Sylvia, "And why not? We're not getting any interest in the bank. If it's a place we really want to go, then we will go. We may as well travel while we're fit and healthy. "
Some travel agents are thriving in spite of the economy. "We've had more people booking in the first quarter of this year than last," says Hubert Moineau, founder of Tselana Travel, which is planning to introduce a new program of longer adventure trips, including polar expeditions and cruises in the Galápagos. "We're hearing things like, 'We don't know what the situation will be in six months so let's travel now' ", Ashley Toft, managing director of the U. K. tour operator Explore has been surprised to see an increase in last-minute bookings of high-priced trips to such places as India, Bhutan and Nepal. "It seems people would rather give up something else than the big trip," he says. Travel has become a necessity. It's just how we travel that is changing.
听力点睛：
本文介绍了在总体市场经济不景气的前提下，旅游业异军突起现象及其前因后果。文章开篇就介绍总的社会背景是各种不景气前提下，外出旅游成为人们的选择之一，紧接着以一个例子来证明。然后旅行社相关的权威人物的话语中更是证明目前旅游业正风头正劲。文章中出现的人名、地名及职务名称一定程度上会让考生觉得头疼，且分散注意力。这就需要考生有一定对重要信息的提取能力。人名、地名及职务名称等听过有个印象就好，不必过于纠结。
Section B P3
Florence Hayes is a journalist for the Green Ville Journal, the daily newspaper in town. Specifically she covers crime in the Green Ville area. This responsibility takes her to many different places every week——the police station, the court and the hospital. Most of the crimes that she writes about fall into two groups: violent crimes and crimes against property. There isn’t much violent crime in a small town like Green Ville, or at least not as much as in the large urban areas. But assaults often occur on Friday and Saturday nights, near the bars downtown. There’re also one or two rapes on campus every semester. Florence is very interested in this type of crime and tries to write a long article about each one. She expects that this will make women more careful when they walk around Green Ville alone at night
Fortunately, there were usually no murders in Green Ville. Crimes against property make up most of Miss Heyes’ reporting. They range from minor cases of deliberate damaging of things to much more serious offenses, such as car accidents involving drunk drivers or bank robberies but Florence has to report all of these violations from the thief who took typewriters from every unlock room in the dormitory to the thief who stole one million dollars worth of art work from the university museum. Miss Hayes enjoys working for a newspaper but she sometimes gets unhappy about all the crime she has to report. She would prefer to start writing about something more interesting and less unpleasant such as local news or politics, maybe next year
Florence Hayes
Green Ville
听力点睛：
本文主要从Florence Hayes，一位来自Green Ville Journal的记者的工作揭示Green Ville的治安状况。难度适中，难词不多，难词主要是对犯罪类词汇的，如violent crimes, crimes against property, rape, robbery等，考生平时阅读及词汇学习一定要各种类型都涉及一点，掌握一些基本的专业词汇。其次这类从一个人的角度去看的文章，既要注意文中主人公的主观态度，也要关注客观事实。题目很可能把2者混淆起来考查考生。
Passage Two
Somehow the old male and female stereotypes no longer fit. Men and women in this country haven’t been fulfilling their traditional roles for some time now. And there seem to be fewer and fewer differences between the sexes. For instance, even though more women than men are still homemakers without paying jobs, women have been taking over more responsibility in the business world, earning higher salaries than ever before and entering fields of work that used to be exclusively male areas. At office meetings and in group discussions, they might speak up more often, express strong opinions and come up with more creative and practical ideas than their male colleagues. Several days ago, my 23-year-old daughter came to me with some important news. Not only had she found the highest paying job of her career, but she’d also accepted a date with the most charming men she’d ever met.
“Really?”, I responded,” tell me about them.”
“Receptionist in an attorney’s office and a welder at a construction site.” She answered in a matter-of-fact way. The interesting thing is my daughter’s date is the receptionist and my daughter is the welder. The old stereotypes of men’s and women’s work have been changing more quickly than ever before, except perhaps in my own marriage.
“Who's going to mow the lawn? ” I asked my husband this morning.
“Oh, I will,” he answered politely. ”That's men's work. ”
“What?” Irritated, I raised my voice. “That's a ridiculous stereotype. I'll show you who can do the best job on the lawn.”
The work took 3 hours and I did it all myself.
篇章类型及提要：社会现象，两性关系
听力点睛：
本文介绍作者对男女关系的老套传统观念持质疑态度，并举例证明其观点。本文难词不多，2个例子也以对话为主，所以难度适中。文章第一句"Somehow the old male and female stereotypes no longer fit. "非常直白的表明了作者的观点。文章难度不大的，题目往往会比较讨巧，所以一定不能放松警惕。题目中的以推理为主的题目会相对比较多。