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作者：陈文笠
本次考试听力部分就起内容难度而言较之前几次考试略有上升，但究其本质与之前的考点保持平行，主要体现在其短对话和听写难度有所降低，而长对话长度却提出了空前的挑战，PASSAGE文章本身难度也较过去几年略有提升。本次考试短对话的重心在于考察男生女生关系特点；而PASSAGE的考点则着重集中于首、末句的考察；长对话主要考试特征第一篇偏向短对话而第二篇则偏向PASSAGE；听写部分句子长度基本都控制得较好，在15~20词之间，且单词难度都偏低。由此可见，考官还是试图结合大量考察考点，平均安排难度系数，来照顾到考试本身对考生考察的效果。
女性地位高于男性的特征可以说在这里考试中考得酣畅淋漓，可以说几乎是三句话不离本行。
12.
W: I won the first prize in the National Writing Contest and I got this camera as an award.
M: It’s a good camera! You can take it when you travel. I had no idea you were a marvelous writer.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
有那么多句子供考官考察，偏偏考官都没看上眼，就把答案锁定在了D) The man admires the woman’s talent in writing.上，这绝非是没有道理的。
13.
M: I wish I hadn’t thrown away that reading list!
W: I thought you might regret it. That’s why I picked it up from the waste paper basket and left it on the desk.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
女人在本句中又MS有了先知先觉，居然还能将男人误以为是垃圾扔掉的“废纸”捡回、保存，在男人后悔莫及之时还能完璧归赵实在有点让人怀疑四、六级考题中男人的愚昧和女人的睿智。果然，考官的答案依然以这一思路为背景选择了B) The woman saved the man some trouble.
16.
M: Jane missed the class again, didn’t she? I wonder why?
W: Well, I knew she had been absent all week. So I called her this morning to see if she was sick. It turned out that
her husband was badly injured in a car accident.
Q: What does the woman say about Jane?
难得出现个翘课的女人，结果还是因为家中的丈夫受伤在家(果然男人总是很衰)，所以全心照顾，因此才落了课程。而答案孕育而生于此，故选择了D)
She has been away from school to attend to her husband.
本次考试另一大特征就是选项混淆性颇高，具有相当的迷惑性。
11.
W: Did you watch the 7 o’clock program on channel 2 yesterday evening? I was about to watch it when someone came to see me.
M: Yeah! It reported some major breakthrough in cancer research. People over 40 would find the program worth watching.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation about the TV program?
乍看之下，也有同学会选择“本片专为癌症病人播放”这一答案，而对话中其实只谈及是癌症研究方面的纪录片，除了病人也许也同样适合预防使用，因此混淆选项过分推理，导致错误。而只有答案C) It might appeal more to viewers over 40.适合本句原意，顾选。
14.
W: Are you still teaching at the junior high school?
M: Not since June. My brother and I opened a restaurant as soon as he got out of the army.
Q: What do we learn about the man from the conversation?
本题也是个很好的例子，混淆选项中说男人开了一个RESTAURANT，实际为与其兄合开，较之正确选项A) He quit teaching in June.，此混淆选项略显瑕疵，因此舍弃该混淆选项。
长对话中虽然第一篇篇幅长达12个回合，史无前例，但考官却刻意在其中安排了诸多停顿和迟疑来给考生留出足够的时间思考，也不可不谓用心良苦。对话内容本身相对比较简单，属于租房场景的典型例子。其中甚至引用到了以往真题中出现的一些内容，如：
W: Em…, I don’t think we have any rooms for tonight. There’s a conference going on in town and…er, let’s see…yeah, no rooms.
参考1991年6月四级考题中第10题：
M: I sent a letter to make a reservation for a single room a few days ago.
: I’m sorry, your request arrived too late. There are some conferences in town this week and we are full up.
Q: Are there any spare rooms at the hotel?
甚至连没有房间的理由也是一模一样，这不得不让人再次深思往年考题的重要性。无独有偶，本次考试中甚至有些短对话考题就将过去的真题进行小幅的修改后就直接使用，如短对话第15题：
M: Hi, Susan! Have you finished reading the book Professor Johnson recommended?
W: Oh, I haven’t read it through the way I read a novel. I just read a few chapters which interested me.
Q: What does the woman mean?
与03年6月考试中短对话第8题如出一辙：
M: Have you finished reading the book you bought last month?
W: Oh, I didn’t read it straight through the way you read a novel, I just covered a few chapters which interested me most.
Q: How did the woman read the book?
甚至从用词角度而言，今年的15题还不如03年6月的第8题来得难，去掉了straight，把cover直接用read代替，均降低了句子本身的难度。所以可以说今天考试短对话部分总体而言难度是略有所下降的。但本题的出现再次强调了往年真题的重要性，告戒考生须戒骄戒躁，将往年真体摸熟吃透，方能兵来将挡，水来土淹。
长对话就出题而言，位置倒颇是符合规律，以第二篇为例：
M: Sarah, you work in the admissions office, don’t you?
W: Yes, I’m…I’ve been here ten years as assistant director.
M: Really? What does that involve?
W: Well, I’m in charge of all the admissions of postgraduate students in the university.
M: Only postgraduates?
W: Yes, postgraduates only. I have nothing at all to do with undergraduates.
M: Do you find that you get particular…sort of…different national groups? I mean,
do you get large numbers from Latin America or…
W: Yes. Well, of all the students enrolled last year, nearly half were from overseas.
They were from African countries, the Far East, the Middle East, and Latin America.
M: Em. But have you been doing just that for the last 10 years, or, have you done other things?
W: Well, I’ve been doing the same job. Er, before that, I was secretary of the medical school
at Birmingham, and further back, I worked in the local government.
M: Oh, I see.
W: So I’ve done different types of things.
M: Yes, indeed. How do you imagine your job might develop in the future? Can you imagine shifting
?into a different kind of responsibility or doing something…
W: Oh, yeah, from October 1, I’ll be doing an entirely different job. There’s going to be more
?committee work. I mean, more policy work, and less dealing with students, unfortunately…I’ll miss my contact with students.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you’ve just heard:
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