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英语听力教程第三版(张民伦主编)Unit 7 A Kaleidoscope of Culture听力原文

Unit 7 A Kaleidoscope of Culture

Part I Getting ready

Mew York is one of the most important cities in the world. It is not only a center for business, but also a center for music and art. It has many famous buildings and places of interest. And it, too, has jot its nickname. What is it

Audioscript：

A：Are you ready for the trip to the museum in "the Big Apple" I can hardly wait.

B："The Big Apple" What are you talking about

A："The Big Apple" is the nickname for New York City. You are going to New York with us, aren't you

B：Yes, I'm going. I'm especially looking forward to seeing the Museum of Modern Art. There's a special show of 20th century

American painters there. But, tell me, where did the nickname

"the Big Apple" come from

A：The jazz musicians of the 1920s are responsible for the name.

When they played a concert in a city, they called that city an apple.

Of course New York was the biggest city in the country and best place for a jazz concert. So the musicians called it "The Big

Apple".

B：Amazing! New York is such a fascinating place and it even has an interesting nickname, one that it's had for more than 50 years. Britain is famous for its pubs, where you can sample a pint of British beer, enjoy good-value bar meals and savor the friendly atmosphere. The pub boasts an excellent range of hot and cold bar snacks or a wide selection of home-cooked meals with a warm and relaxed atmosphere.

Audioscript：

There are visitors who come to England and leave thinking they have never been inside a pub. They don't realize that the words "pub" or "public house" are rarely included in the title of the place. So how do you know whether a building is a pub and what does a pub offer the visitor

The first thing to look for is a large sign either hanging over the street or placed on a pole outside the building. This sign may have a name like The Kings Arms, The Black Rabbit or The Duke ofKendal or an appropriate picture. Many pubs have names linked to royalty, popular

heroes, sports or great occasions. There is a pub called The Concorde after the new airliner.

On the doors of a pub you may see the words Saloon Bar or Public Bar. The Saloon Bar is more comfortably furnished. Occasionally the words Free House can be seen beside the name of the pub. This doesn't mean they serve free food and drink; it refers to the fact that the pub doesn't buy its drinks from one particular brewery only. It isn't a "tied house" -- tied to a brewery.

The services a pub offers vary around the country. The basic service is the sale of alcoholic drink at certain times of the day. Opening times, as these periods are often called, are usually from 10.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays. On Sundays the opening times are 12 noon until 2 p.m. and 7-10.30 p.m. although these times can vary slightly according to the region. Pubs can also offer food and accommodation. To help visitors, an experimental system of symbols has been tried out in Southern England and East Anglia. These symbols indicate just what is available from a particular pub.

Part II Times square

Times Square is in the heart of New York City. Every year, Times Square is the center of worldwide attention on New Year's Eve

because of the rooftop celebrations to usher in the New Year. Apart from that, there are some other things that make Times Square famous.

Audioscript：

"Times Square is New York." Those are the words of the head of the Times Square Alliance, a coalition of area businesses. The millions of visitors to Times Square each year would probably agree. The area has one of the most recognizable names in the world. But, Times Square is not really a square. It is the name for the area around where Broadway crosses 42nd Street in Manhattan. The Times Square area stretches more than ten blocks north to south. The borders to the east and west are uneven. Some people call the shape of the area a bow tie.

Times Square gets its name from The New York Times newspaper. In 1904, the newspaper began to build its headquarters in what was then called Long Acre Square. The city's underground train system built a stop under the Times Tower. The city renamed the area Times Square. On December 31st, 1904, the newspaper held a big celebration in Times Square to welcome the New Year. Fireworks lit the sky. Celebrations have taken place every year since then. Now, crowds also watch a big glass ball slide down a pole as the New Year arrives.

Hundreds of businesses are in Times Square. The alliance says twenty percent of all hotel rooms in New York City are in Times Square. It says Times Square also has about six and one-half million square meters of office space. And more is being built.

Times Square is home to famous Broadway theaters. And several television companies have studios there. MTV is one of them. Times Square is probably most famous for its huge colorful signs. The alliance says Times Square is the only place in New York where businesses are required to use them.

Audioscript：

It is another typical morning in Times Square: Taxi cabs blare their horns, 15 foot billboards look down over throngs of people hurrying by, and in the middle of it all, members of a smash Broadway musical climb up on a stage to dance and sing for the tourists.

The entertainment is being organized by the Times Square Business Improvement District, the people responsible for making the area as welcoming to tourists as possible. Right now, the square is crowded and business is booming. So much so, in fact, that several sidewalks had to be widened recently to cope with the increase in visitors. And

some New Yorkers are even pushing for the entire area to be off limits to traffic: modeling Times Square after a European plaza.

It has not always been this way. Until a decade or so ago, Times Square had the well-deserved reputation of a seedy neighborhood teeming with prostitutes and drug dealers. A sizeable part of the area's economy came from stores selling pornography or cheap knock-off goods. The city government neglected the area, spending little of its tourism budget on improvements.

But today, theaters, restaurants and upscale stores have replaced the sex shops. A thriving partnership between City Hall and private businesses, such as Disney Company, has revitalized Times Square.

The current mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, has made it a priority to clean up the area. Crime rates have declined and visitors feel a lot safer on the square. Part of that effort has involved the Times Square Business Improvement District and its President, Brendan Sexton.

Mr. Sexton and his colleagues are launching a new line of Times Square clothing and accessories which, they hope, will compete with everything else on offer to visitors to New York. Instead of just passing through Times Square and stopping only to take a picture of all the

flashing lights and neon signs, Mr. Sexton hopes tourists will stop and shop, and bring a little piece of the revitalized Times Square home with them.

Part III Americans love chocolate Chocolate is one of the most popular holiday gifts. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, snowmen and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and chocolate hearts or chocolate in heart-shaped boxes on Valentine's Day. Chocolate most commonly comes in dark, milk, and white varieties, with cocoa solids contributing to the brown color.

Audioscript：

Chocolate is as big a part of American culture as baseball and apple pie. But its roots run much deeper.

Cheri Friedman knows how much America loves chocolate. She is

co-owner of Kron Chocolatiers, a small, gourmet chocolate shop that opened 32 years ago in Washington, D.C.

"I think it's one of the best comfort foods there is. It's easy to eat. It melts in your mouth. There's a warm sensation. "

Friedman says she takes pride in the fact that Kron's chocolates are made with the finest ingredients, right on the premises.

Americans' love of chocolate has helped to make it a big business in this country. Mark Sesler is senior vice president of marketing at Russell Stover Candies, one of the largest manufacturers of chocolate in the United States.

According to Sesler, the industry got its start in the early 1900s with small-scale chocolatiers such as Steven Whitman, and Claire and Russell Stover. They started with small stores -- much like Kron -- but soon expanded their business into broader markets -- thanks, Sesler notes, to an important technological advance.

"It's the advent of refrigeration that has really made the availability of chocolate very prevalent throughout the United States. I think chocolate has secured its place as a delectable treat for a number of societies and a number of countries. So I think we're just one of many countries who enjoy the delicacy that is chocolate."

Susan Fussell is spokesperson for the National Confectioner's Association, a trade group that represents virtually everyone who's involved in the production and sale of candy in the United States.

And why does Fussell think chocolate is so universally popular

"Well there's really nothing like chocolate ... One of the main ingredients in chocolate is cocoa butter. And cocoa butter melts at body temperature. So when you put chocolate in your mouth, it has a mouth feel that's unlike any other food that you eat. It has that

melt-in-your-mouth sensation right there on your tongue, and it is very hard to approximate that with any other food."

Audioscript：

Chocolate is as big a part of American culture as baseball and apple pie. But its roots run much deeper.

Made from the seed of the tropical cacao tree, chocolate dates back at least 3 000 years to the ancient civilizations of Central and South America, where the cacao tree is native. The Aztec people valued the tree's cocoa beans so much, they used them as currency.

In what is now Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, in the southwestern United States, new archaeological evidence shows that people were eating chocolate here more than 1 000 years ago.

And they're still at it. Today, the average American eats almost 5 kilograms of chocolate each year.

Cheri Friedman knows how much America loves chocolate. She is

co-owner of Kron Chocolatiers, a small, gourmet chocolate shop that opened 32 years ago in Washington, D.C.

"I think it's one of the best comfort foods there is. It's easy to eat. It melts in your mouth. There's a warm sensation. "

Friedman says she takes pride in the fact that Kron's chocolates are made with the finest ingredients, right on the premises.

soon expanded their business into broader markets -- thanks, Sesler notes, to an important technological advance.

Susan Fussell is spokesperson for the National Confectioner's Association, a trade group that represents virtually everyone who's involved in the production and sale of candy in the US.

Fussell says that although the US is the largest total consumer of chocolate, it is not first in terms of per-capita consumption.

"In fact, we come in somewhere around No. 12, and that's because, of course, there are so many countries in Europe that have even more of an established culture around chocolate -- if you can imagine -- than we do in the United States."

And why does Fussell think chocolate is so universally popular "Well there's really nothing like chocolate ... One of the main ingredients in chocolate is cocoa butter. And cocoa butter melts at body

temperature. So when you put chocolate in your mouth, it has a mouth feel that's unlike any other food that you eat. It has that

melt-in-your-mouth sensation right there on your tongue, and it is very hard to approximate that with any other food."

But that melt-in-your-mouth sensation comes at a price. Chocolate as we know it today is made with lots of sugar and milk, both very high in calories. That's given chocolate a rather bad reputation among nutritionists.

In recent years, however, research has proved that chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, is also naturally rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants -- a fact that chocolate manufacturers like Russell Stover are happily promoting.

But no matter the preference, Fussell says when it comes to holidays, chocolate is king, especially on Valentine's Day, every February 14th. That's a day when people all across the country express their love for one another with gifts, flowers, cards and -- more often than not -- chocolates.

"Valentine's Day itself, February 14th, is the single largest sales day during the year for sales of boxed chocolates."

Part IV More about the topic:

Bullfighting

Spain has become internationally known for its bullfighting, a tradition that spawns debate in many parts of the world and within Spain itself. Fans of bullfighting claim that it is a culturally important tradition, while animal rights activists argue that it is a blood sport due to the suffering of bulls involved.

Audioscript：

Bullfighting is seen as a symbol of Spanish culture.It traces its roots to prehistoric worshiping and sacrificing of bulls.

A carpenter's assistant from the town of Ronda, Spain, Francisco Romero invented the "muleta," or red cape, used to lure the bull past the matador's body. Legend has it Romero rescued a young nobleman by using his flat-brimmed Andalusian hat to lure away an irate bull. Thus was born the modern bullfight. He was the founding father of a bullfighting dynasty, fundamental for bullfighting history. He was apparently the inventor of several characteristics that started to be used in a key period for bullfighting when the modern on foot system was defined, as the use of the cape and sword to kill the bull face to face. The bullfight, known in Spain as the "corrida," was first launched as an official spectacle sport in 1133. at the coronation of King Alfonso VIII,

and steadily gained in popularity through the years of the Reconquest of Moorish Spain.

A typical Spanish bullfight requires six bulls and three matadors, and is divided into three parts. If the matador has done exceptionally well, the audience will give a standing ovation and throw hats and roses into the arena. The matador will also receive one or two severed ears and the tail of the bull, depending on the quality of his performance. Bullfighting has always been controversial in Spain. Supporters of bullfighting regard it as a deeply ingrained, integral part of their national culture, but it is criticized by animal rights activists as a pointless and cruel blood sport.

In fact, bullfighting is not just a Spanish tradition; Portugal, Latin America and a few cities in southern France also have a history of bullfighting.

Audioscript：

Over 1000 people have demonstrated in Madrid to go for an end to bullfighting in Spain. Though small, the protest comes amid renewed debate in the country about bullfighting, which many see as inhumane but others consider an integral part of Spanish culture.

Carrying banners reading "Abolish bullfighting" and comments disparaging bullfighters, the coalition of animal rights activists and ecologists gathered in Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square. The Madrid regional government's decision to officially declare the sport part of Spain's cultural heritage has intensified opposition：

Male protestor (voice of translator):

"I feel very ashamed. I feel ashamed of being Spanish when I hear of these crimes, and people say this torture is culture. For me it is savage, more appropriate to other centuries."

The centuries-old spectacle, whose ritual includes implanting barbed sticks into the bull before a matador kills it with a sword, draws thousands to the country's bullrings and, matadors receive celebrity media coverage. Many Spaniards reject accusations of cruelty: Madrid resident (in Spanish)

This Madrid resident insists those who want to watch bullfighting should be allowed to continue doing so, as it is part of the nation's culture.

But support for bullfighting varies across the country, with parliament in the autonomous Catalan region recently debating a possible ban, and

a vote there on the issue is expected soon. In Spain's Canary Islands, the sport is already outlawed.

Part V Do you know ...

A name is a word or term used for identification. So a name can be given to a person, a place or a thing. But do names have meanings Many people tend to be unaware of the specific meaning of a name unless it happens to be their own name. Many names originally had meanings, but you can't assume that that meaning was intended in any given case.

Audioscript：

An American town called Boring has voted in favour of pairing with a village by the name of Dull in Scotland.

This means the two of them will participate in joint activities, such as the promotion of tourism and cultural exchange. Boring decided in favour of the move after being approached by the residents of Dull. But what's in a name Is Boring really tiresome and is Dull tedious Are these places in themselves humdrum and insipid or is it just their names which suggest they are drab

The village of Dull consists of just one row of houses on the north side of a river valley, which means that it must be very peaceful but probably rather stale and monotonous for young people looking for exciting nightlife. It should also be said that the origin of the name Dull is from the Gaelic language, which was spoken in Scotland before the arrival of the English. Therefore it probably means "meadow" rather than mundane.

Boring, on the other hand, was named after an early resident of the town, William H. Boring, though whether he was a wearisome fellow himself is not known. The town lies in the state of Oregon, about 30 kilometres from the city of Portland. Is it flat Not in a literal sense. Oregon is a mountainous state. And Boring's residents insist that the town is "The most exciting place to live". However, in comparison to Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, Boring must be at least a little lifeless.

However exciting the communities may or may not be, they are both planning events to celebrate their pairing. The Dull and Weem Community Council intends to mark the partnership with a new road sign and street party.

Part VII Watch and enjoy

Chinese cuisine is certainly a part of Chinese culture. In the following video clip, a woman will teach you how to cook a Chinese dish -- steamed sea bass. The steps of the cooking and the making of the sauce have been listed below. Arrange them in the correct order. The first ones have been done for you.

Videoscript：

In China it is believed that eating fish will help your wishes come true. And this is certainly a dream recipe. I want to cook you my steamed sea bass in a ginger, lime beer sauce, and it couldn't be simpler.

Slice a few slits. One side, and then the other. And I'm going to keep the head on because in Chinese tradition, that is a sign of unity and balance. Next, slice some ginger. Just big enough so they fit into the slits of the fish. And this is going to impart a delicious, aromatic heat, and it's going to taste fantastic. And on the other side, so the ginger's gone into the slits. And now all we do is just place it on a heat-proof plate in the bamboo steamer. Before we steam the fish, I'm going to add a little bit of Shaoxing rice wine. So about a tablespoon. In Chinese cooking, Shaoxing rice wine is a classic seasoning for fish and meat dishes, adding bitter-sweet flavors. Next, lay some finely sliced spring onion on the fish. Steam over boiling water for seven to eight minutes until the fish is opaque. In Chinese culture, we try to balance opposite

influences, known as Tin and Yang. They are the controlling elements in nature which should be balanced for a harmonious life. This dish, it's got those elements. The sea bass is very yin, and the ginger and rice wine which I have had a splash of that, they are very, very yang. This is the perfect balanced dish, and in Chinese cooking, we're always trying to achieve this perfect balance. Let's just check on the sea bass. The sea bass is lovely and it's cooked. You can see the meat has turned opaque, the eyes have turned white, and the flesh is lovely and flaky-ish. It just gives as you give it a slight poke.

And for the sauce, finely grate some ginger. This is the hot, or yang to the fish's cool yin. For additional freshness, some zingy lime zest, two tablespoons should be about right. What we want to do now is get the wok nice and hot. And I'm just going to place the sea bass ... here. Just let that plate cool slightly. My special ingredient for this dish is Chinese beer. This is really going to add a delicious sweetness and really compliment the sea bass. If you can't get Chinese beer, then you can just use a light lager.

So, wok lovely and hot, in with some groundnut oil, about a tablespoon or two. And then give this a good swirl. Then very, very quickly, in with the ginger. Before the ginger burns, put the fish carefully into the wok. Add a drop more rice wine or dry sherry, some light soy sauce

and freshen it up with lime zest. Finally, the beer ... No drinking, just pour! Just pour some of the beer over the fish. Cooking like this will burn off some of the alcohol, but don't burn too much, because it makes a delicious sauce. So just let that gently braise, and let the sea bass soak in those flavors. Now just before serving, we just want to chop up some coriander. I've chopped the stalks and leaves and just throw that all into the wok. And that's ready to serve.

Now to go with the sea bass, I've got some wild rice and basmati rice. The wild rice adds a nutty flavor and bite, contrasting with the neutral flavor and soft texture of basmati. The rice is going to allow you to soak up all those delicious flavors from the beer, the ginger, the spring onion and the coriander. So this is my steamed sea bass and delicious ginger lime beer sauce.