全新版大学英语（第二版）听说教程3讲义Unit 13 Inventions

全新版大学英语（第二版）听说教程3讲义Unit 13 Inventions Unit 13 Inventions Part A Pre-listening Task Questions for Discussion 1.What do you think were the most important inventions in the last century? (For example, the computer and the Internet) 2.What is online shopping? What kind of things are bought most online? 3.Do you go shopping online? If yes, what do you buy? 4.Why can online stores attract customers? 5.Have you or your friends ever taken the medicine aspirin? What do you know about it?6.Suppose you were an inventor, what would you like to invent? Demo: 2. What is online shopping? What kind of things are bought most online? Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods, services, etc. from a seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service over the Internet. If an intermediary service is present the process is called electronic commerce. An online shop, e-store, Internet shop, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. Now you can buy almost everything on the Internet, from soap to computer. It is said that some terrorists have bought the technology of making atomic bombs. 6. Suppose you were an inventor, what would you like to invent? If I had studied biology and medical science, I would like to invent a drug that would enable people to live a long life, perhaps 200 years or longer. Many people say life is short. That is very true. When people live longer, they will be able to bring their knowledge and experience to better use and create a lot more good things for the human race. Language Focus Here are some sentences and structures that you may find useful in discussing the above questions. ,I think the most important inventions in the 20th century were the computer and the Internet.,I often / seldom go shopping online. ,I prefer to / would rather buy computer gear online. ,I’m fond of / interested in buying books at online bookstores. For books, CDs and video 当当网卓越网卓越games, I often visit Dangdang.com () / Joyo.com () / JoyoAmazon.com ( 亚亚亚网亚亚亚网) / Amazon.com (). ,淘宝网小玩意儿Sometimes I log on to Taobao.com () to buy gadgets (), stationery, gifts, food and even clothes like T-shirts and jackets. ,Books are one of the things bought most online. Web bookstores usually give buyers a better price. 1 ,Clothes, shoes, cosmetics, nutrition products, and groceries are increasingly being purchased online. More and more travelers buy their plane tickets (e-tickets) online because it is a quick and , easy way to compare prices of different airlines and make a purchase.,Online shopping provides more freedom and control than shopping in a store.,We can also buy various kinds of services online. ,What online stores attract me most is that they offer good prices, lower than at conventional retail stores. ,Online shopping is convenient. You can go shopping 24 hours a day. There are no limited store business hours. ,Online shopping saves time since there is no need to travel, no traffic to worry about. ,For something important / expensive / valuable, I dare not buy / purchase it on the Web 欺亚because I’m afraid of fraud () / delayed delivery / unexpected problems. ,Aspirin is a well-known common drug. It’s cheap and available in every pharmacy.,I take aspirin when I have a headache / cold / fever. I find it effective.,My grandparents take aspirin every day. They usually take it before going to bed. It is said that aspirin can prevent blood clotting so it can reduce the risk of heart attacks. ,If I were an inventor, I would like to create something that will cure cancer / do all the dangerous jobs for humans. Part B Listening Tasks Passage 1 Amazon.com Word Bank 商品commodity n. a product that is bought and sold 接近～取得的方法access n. means of reaching 亚亚～利用tap v. to penetrate into … for the purpose of using sth. 虚亚的virtual a. temporarily simulated by computer software 亚亚雇亚temp n. a temporary employee 怪人freak n. a person regarded as strange because of unusual appearance or behaviour mortar n. a mixture of lime with cement, sand and water, used in buildingto bond 砂亚～灰亚bricks or stones 持引人注意的姿亚的high-profile a. attracting much attention or publicity 模仿mimicv. to imitate 求助turn to to go or apply to 亚商店体brick and mortar store 亚亚亚站网Amazon.com 网站名eBay 亚亚亚站亚建者网Jeffery Bezos founder of Amazon.com 美最大亚亚亚店国Barnes & Noble 美一亚亚亚店国Waldenbooks 2 Script: Have you ever bought anything from Amazon.com? Millions of people in the United States and elsewhere in the world have shopped on this website. Amazon, like the enormously successful website store eBay, has set up a standard for effective commercial use of the Internet. Originally nothing but a bookseller, Amazon now sells music, clothes, computers, and countless other commodities. They have also expanded their services to include lists of books by users, recommendations, and access to used books. The ease of use of the Amazon website and the feeling of the site as a friendly community is key to their success. Like eBay, it taps the enormous resources of the Internet to create a virtual neighborhood among users. Amazon was launched in 1995 in a garage by Jeffery Bezos, who was born in 1964 in New Mexico and had a degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Princeton University. It now does over $3 billion a year in sales. Jeffery Bezos used doors as desks and his instructions to the temp agencies to which he turned to for staff were: “Send us your freaks.” Today, Amazon is a major threat to brick and mortar stores such as Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks. The two giant bookstore chains have responded to the challenge by establishing high-profile Web presences with sites that mimic a great deal of what Amazon has developed. Amazon is now well established all over the world as the Web place to go for books. It surely is a great leap from that garage. Language and Culture Notes 1. Background information The 20th century was an age of great inventions and discoveries, which revolutionized human life. The invention and popularization of the computer dramatically changed almost every aspect of people’s life and work. In the last decade of the 20th century, the World Wide Web (WWW) became available to anyone. The first e-commerce websites, such as eBay.com and Amazon.com, emerged and online trading began to do big business in the West. Near the end of the 20thcentury, there was an Internet boom in China. A number of online shopping websites were set up. The most successful ones are Dangdang.com, Eachnet.com, and Taobao.com. Like Amazon, Dangdang set out to sell books on the Internet and now becomes China’s largest online retailer of books, videos, CDs, and DVDs. Eachnet set out to imitate eBay in 1999 and was bought by eBay in 2003. Taobao represents the rise of China’s online auction shopping market, and was the most successful in China’s top ten online shopping websites in 2008. 2. Amazon.com America’s largest online retailer based in Seattle, U.S. Its founder Jeffery Bezos set up the company in 1994, and launched it online in 1995. The company started as an online bookstore, but now sells almost everything from computer software to clothes to nutrition products. Amazon has established separate websites in several other countries including Canada, the 卓越网United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Japan. It acquired China’s Joyo.com () in 2004 for $75 million. 3. eBay 3 the world’s biggest and most successful Internet auction and shopping site. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar, a French-born Iranian computer programmer in 1995. At present, eBay has established websites in thirty other countries. It bought China’s Eachnet.com in 2004. 4. Jeffery Bezos (1964- ) founder, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Amazon.com. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. He was named Person of the Year in 1999 by Time magazine and selected as one of America’s best leaders by U.S. News & World Report in 2008. His estimated wealth amounts to over $8 billion, mostly from his holding of Amazon.com stocks. 5. brick and mortar store a retail shop that is located in a building as opposed to an online store6. Barnes & Noble America’s largest bookseller, established as early as 1873. It operates mainly through its chain of about 800 bookstores throughout the United States. Besides books, the stores also carry wide selections of music, DVD titles and magazines. Most stores have cafes that sell Starbucks coffee. Over the years the stores have become a favorite place of reading and relaxation for people of all ages. 7. Waldenbooks an American bookstore chain, a subsidiary of Borders Group, which is the second largest bookseller in the U.S. It has about 500 bookstores located in shopping-malls across the U.S. In 2002, Waldenbooks teamed with Amazon.com to launch Waldenbooks.com, bringing together the nation’s leading mall-based retailer and the global leader in e-commerce.Exercise 1 Listen to the recording and choose the right answers to the questions you hear.1.What is the main idea of the passage? a.The similarity between eBay and Amazon. b.The history of the development of Amazon.com. c.The key to the success of Amazon.com. d.The competition between Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. 2.What is the speaker’s attitude toward Amazon.com? a.Objective. b.Critical. c.Sympathetic. d.Favorable. 3. What can we learn about Jeffery Bezos from the passage? a. He is a freak. b. He majored in computer science and business management at Princeton University. c. He is a far-sighted businessman. d. He was very poor at the time when he set up Amazon. 4. Which of the following statements is true? a. eBay is the parent company of Amazon. b. Amazon is a competitor of eBay. c.Both eBay and Amazon make very good commercial use of the Internet. 4 d.Conventional bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble will not be able to survive the challenge of online bookstores. Exercise 2 Listen again and fill in the blanks with the missing information about Amazon.com. In 1995, Amazon.com was launched in a garage. Starting out to sell only books, it now sells almost everything from clothes, computers to countless other commodities and makes more than $3 billion a year in sales. It is a major threat to big bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble. Today, Amazon.com is well established all over the world as the website to go for books. The key to its success is that, like eBay, it has created a virtual neighborhood among users on the Internet. Passage 2 Wonder Drug Word Bank 授予grant v. to give, esp. as a favor trademark n. a special name marked on a product to show that it can only be legally used by ;注,商亚册that producer 拒亚亚予 deny v. to refuse to give 亚物remedy n. medicine 亚克;德原亚亚名,国mark n. the former German unit of money 亚防的preventive a. that helps to prevent sth. undesirable, such as an illness stroke n. a sudden disabling attack or loss of consciousness caused by an interruption in the 中亚flow of blood to the brain 持久的enduring a. lasting 阿司匹林;亚名,aspirin 拜耳;德制亚,国厂Bayer 德化家国学Felix Hoffmann 帝亚利局国Imperial Patent Office Script: Aspirin has been said to cure or prevent everything from headaches to heart attacks. Some people call it “the wonder drug”. Then do you know who invented it? It was Felix Hoffmann, a German scientist, who worked this wonder. On March 6, 1999 the maker of aspirin, the German company Bayer celebrated Hoffmann’s discovery. The activity marked the 100th anniversary of aspirin’s launch. Berlin’s Imperial Patent Office granted Bayer a trademark for aspirin on March 6, 1899, but the company was denied patent protection because of its similarity to earlier discoveries. For this reason, aspirin was sold initially in powder form. However, it later became the first drug to be sold as a tablet. A Spanish philosopher summed up the remedy’s influence in the 1930s saying that modern man lived in “the age of the aspirin”. One hundred years after its introduction, Bayer’s annual sales total about 1 billion marks, which equals US$555 million. Even in the 21st century, aspirin 5 sales remain strong. The wonder drug is now widely used as a preventive treatment for heart attacks and strokes. Aspirin is simple to make and even easier to administer. Like Coca-Cola and Levi’s, it is one of the brands to have gone beyond cultures, borders and generations to enjoy almost universal recognition. The drug has now become as enduring an element of life in the 21st century as the car and television. Language and Culture Notes 1. Background information The research on aspirin began in 1897 by Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist at Bayer Chemical and Pharmaceutical Company. Two years later, in May 1899, Bayer began selling it around the world. Aspirin’s popularity grew in the first half of the 20th century, spurred by its use in treating the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. In the past several decades, scientists have found that aspirin is effective as an anti-clotting agent that reduces the risk of clotting diseases. It is now widely used as a preventive treatment for heart attacks and strokes. 2. Felix Hoffmann (1868-1946) a German chemist. Hoffmann studied medicine in Munich and joined Bayer’s research department in 1894. He is believed to be the first to synthesize acetylsalicylic acid into a usable form for medical applications. Bayer later marketed it as aspirin.3. Bayer Bayer Group, the third largest chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world, founded in 1863. The firm is a leader in research and development, spending nearly 12 percent of its revenues on this segment. 4. A Spanish philosopher … “the age of the aspirin”. The Spanish philosopher praised aspirin very highly. It is because the drug was widely used and considered very effective in reducing fever in treating the 1918 flu (also called Spanish flu), which was believed to have killed as many as 2.5-5% of human population from March 1918 to June 1920. However, a century later, some people began to question the use of aspirin in treating Spanish flu. They hold that aspirin’s quick action of relief of pain or fever might have masked the symptoms, delayed the treatment and made it more difficult to find the right remedy.Exercise 1 Listen to the recording and choose the right answers to the questions you hear. 1. What can we learn from the passage? a. The enduring popularity of the drug aspirin. b. The effectiveness of the drug aspirin against diseases. c. The development of aspirin from powder to tablet. d. How Felix Hoffmann discovered aspirin. 2. What can be inferred from the passage? a. Aspirin is as important to our life as the car and television. b. Aspirin is the only drug we need to take when we get sick. c. Aspirin is most popular in Spain. d. Aspirin is very much part of a modern man’s life. 6 3. Why does aspirin remain strong in sales in the 21st century?a. Because it is effective in people of all ages and nationalities.b. Because it is produced by Bayer, a famous German manufacturer of drugs.c. Because it is widely used to help prevent heart attacks and strokes.d. Because it has been used for over a century and trusted by users. 4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?a. Aspirin was granted patent protection when it was sold as a tablet.b. Aspirin was the first drug of its kind discovered in the world.c. Aspirin was not granted patent protection because there were similar discoveries. d. Aspirin was a unique chemical compound when it was granted its trademark. Exercise 2 Listen again and supply the missing information. Name of the drugaspirin InventorFelix Hoffmann Nationality of the inventorGerman The date when its trademark was granted March 6, 1899 Producer of the drugBayer Company in Germany UseSaid to cure or prevent everything from headaches to heart attacks Form of the drugPowder at first, tablet later Speaking Tasks Pair Work Reflections on the texts You have just heard two major inventions of our time. Now discuss the following questions with your partner and then give an oral presentation of your reflections on the stories. You may organize your presentation by linking up your answers to the questions.Guiding Questions For “Amazon.com” 1.Is Amazon.com a familiar name to you? 2.What do you think of Jeffery Bezos? Do you think he is a far-sighted entrepreneur? 3.What do you know about the development of Amazon.com? 4.Have you ever bought anything from Amazon.com? Why or why not? 5.What do you think of online shopping? 6.What are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping on the Web?For “Wonder Drug” Do you think aspirin is a wonder drug? Why?1. What is the usual life span of a drug? Why do some drugs cease to be used? 2. How popular is aspirin?3. What new use has been found for aspirin?4. 7 What is the drug mainly used for today?5. Possible Answers (for the teacher’s reference) For “Amazon.com” Amazon.com is known to most of us as online shopping is getting more and more popular. It is amazing that Amazon, which started its business in a garage, could have become the world’s leading online shopping website today. I think its founder Jeffery Bezos is really an inventive entrepreneur. At the days when dot.com companies were still at their early stages, he had the foresight to see the great potential of the commercial use of the Internet and opened an online bookshop, using a garage as his office and doors as desks. Now it has grown to be a website to go for books all over the world and a seller of every kind of commodity and service one can think of. Personally I haven’t done any shopping on this website. I guess it would be far too expensive to have things shipped to me from the United States. My experience with online shopping is restricted to Taobao.com and Eachnet.com. Shopping online is great. With a few clicks on the Internet, we can quickly seek out best deals for the goods or services we want to buy with different sellers. As online stores are available 24 hours a day, it is both convenient and time-saving. And the best thing about it is its lower price. Very often we can get a discount. However, there’s no denying that online shopping also has its disadvantages. Sometimes the delivery is delayed and sometimes the merchandise delivered may not be as good as we thought it would be. But in spite of all these, shopping online has certainly revolutionized our way of buying things. For “Wonder Drug” Aspirin is really a wonderful drug. It has existed for over one hundred years, yet is still widely used to treat all kinds of illnesses. A century is a very long period of time indeed. During such a period, many other drugs were developed, marketed, used, and then disappeared. Some were replaced by their improved versions. Some were banned due to serious side effects discovered later in use. But aspirin, marketed in Germany by the end of the 19th century, is able to cross borders and enter the medicine cabinets of people’s homes across the world. No cultural differences or generation gaps can stop its spread. It has joined the ranks of famous brands like Coca-Cola and Levi’s to receive almost universal recognition. And the most amazing thing is that just when people are beginning to have second thoughts about using the drug as a fever reliever, some new use is found for the drug. Today it is largely taken as a preventive drug for heart attacks and strokes. No wonder some people call it “the wonder drug”. Part C Test Your Listening A Compound Dictation Listen to the passage three times and supply the missing information. Nowadays in the United States, there are 1) 200,000 miles of pipeline, 170,000 gas stations and 243 million vehicles using petroleum fuels. 8 Guy Nègre, the 2) founder and CEO of Motor Development International, is hoping to change all that. He has invented a compressed air 3) technology for cars. The new invention is the AirPod. The AirPod is a small four-wheel 4) mini-car that uses compressed air to move pistons. It 亚亚uses a small motor to compress () outside air to keep the tank 5) full. The small motor can not only operate on gasoline, diesel, vegetable oil, but also be 6) plugged into an electrical outlet for 7) recharging. 8) With the demand for inexpensive, user-friendly, high-mileage vehicles that will not cause global warming, the AirPod is getting a lot of attention. Air France and KLM airlines will be using AirPods to transport passengers between arrival and departure gates at airports in Paris and Amsterdam beginning in 2009. Zero Pollution Motors 9) has purchased the rights for the U.S. market and expects to manufacture 8,000 vehicles a year in the United States beginning in 2011. Automaker, Tata Motors has purchased the manufacturing rights for India. 10) Licensing arrangements for other countries are currently in progress. Part D Time to Talk Look at these pictures and describe them one by one. If possible, try also to find something relevant to talk about. 9 Hints: 1.the wheel, one of the oldest inventions, people traveled on foot, or on horseback, revolutionized transportation, more convenient and fast, used in machines, in the Industrial Revolution 2.office room, computers, screen, keyboard, mouse, the greatest invention of modern times, everywhere, used for almost everything, hard to imagine life without it, more useful in future3.Thomas Edison, famous invention, electric light bulb, dramatically, change people’s lives, hard to imagine, a night without light, a genius, countless inventions, achieve success through hard 灵感出汗～汗水work, genius, one percent, inspiration (), perspiration (), key to success Demo: 10 1. The wheel is one of the oldest and one of the most important inventions in history. Before it was invented, people could only travel on foot or on horseback. This kind of traveling was neither comfortable nor fast. The wheel revolutionized transportation and made travelling become convenient and fast. In the Industrial Revolution, the wheel was used in mechanical devices as well, in addition to transportation. 2. The computer is undoubtedly one of the most important inventions in modern history. The picture shows an office room with two computers. Indeed, the computer has become so useful and so common that it is hard to imagine our life without it. As technology develops in the future, new uses of the computer will make our lives even better, easier and more enjoyable. 3. This is a picture of Thomas Edison. We also see in this picture one of his famous inventions — the electric light bulb. The light bulb dramatically improved people’s lives. Now we can hardly imagine spending the night in darkness. Edison was sometimes called a genius, because he made countless inventions, big and small. But he achieved success through hard work. Edison once said “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”. So hard work was the key to his success. Movie Time Word Bank 鞋亚shoelacen. 没有亚子的lacelessa. 瞧啊voilàint. 极好的niftya. 蠢人nerdn. 怪人freakn. 沙丁亚sardinen. 比亚metaphorn. 古怪的人weirdon. Script: - Have you ever felt like you were a little bit different? Like you had something unique to offer the world ... if you could just get people to see it. Then you know exactly how it felt ... to be me.- Go ahead, Flint. - What is the number one problem facing our community today? Untied shoelaces, which is why I’ve invented a laceless alternative foot covering. Spray-on shoes. Voilà.- They’re so nifty. - How are you gonna get them off, nerd? What a freak. He wants to be smart, but that’s lame.- I wanted to run away that day. But you can’t run away from your own feet. - Not every sardine is meant to swim, son. - I don’t understand fishing metaphors. 11 - What did I say? - Don’t worry. Honey, I think your shoes are wonderful. - Everyone just thinks I’m a weirdo. - So? People probably thought that these guys were weirdos too. But that never stopped them. I was saving this for your birthday, but here. - A professional-grade lab coat. Just like the real guys wear. It fits perfect.- The world needs your originality, Flint. You just have to grow into it. And I know that you’re gonna do big things someday. - From that moment on, I was determined to invent something great. Exercise A Read the following statements and decide whether the statements are true (T) or false (F).( ) 1. The boy regarded himself different from others. ( ) 2. The boy didn’t like wearing shoes. ( ) 3. The boy planned to save trouble of using laces with his invention.( ) 4. Students in class admired the boy for his invention. ( ) 5. The boy felt very awkward for not knowing how to take off the shoes.( ) 6. The boy’s father had fish for dinner. ( ) 7. The mother didn’t want her son to be weird. ( ) 8. The mother was confident in her son’s future invention. Answers: 1.T 2.F 3.T 4.F 5.T 6.F 7.F 8.T Exercise B Answer the following questions. 1.Do you agree that all great scientists are weirdos? Give an example, if you can.2.What qualities does a real scientist need to have? Hints: 1.Not necessarily. Scientists are normal persons. The only difference is they devote most of their time and energy to their research projects. Sometimes, they neglect or overlook some minor things in life. 2.There are many good qualities a real scientist should have. For example, a good scientist needs devotion to his job or research. Skepticism is another important quality a scientist can have, but only open-mindedness can truly prevent a bias. 12