UNIT 25 RADIO PROGRAMS ( Ⅴ ) Lesson 49 PartⅠ

UNIT 25 RADIO PROGRAMS (Ⅴ)

Lesson  49

PartⅠWarming-up Exercises

Spot Dictation: Louis Braille (Ⅰ)

Training Focus:

Spot dictation

Directions: You are going to listen to a passage. Some words on the printed passage have been taken out. Listen carefully. Fill in the blanks with the words you hear on the tape.

Key:

Everyone has heard of the Braille system of reading for the blind. But few people know why it is called the “Braille” system or who Louis Braille was.

In the year 1812, Louis Braille was a very small boy. He lived in a small town in France. Louis' father had a small shop in which he made things of leather. One day Louis was playing in his father's shop and picked up a small tool with a very sharp point. Louis fell, the point of the tool entered his eye, and later he became blind in both eyes.

One day, on a visit home, he said to his father, “Blind people are the loneliest people in the world. I can tell one bird from another by its sound. I can know the door of the house by feeling it with my hand. But there are so many things which I cannot hear and cannot feel. Only books can free the blind. But there are no books for us to read.”

Lesson 49 PartⅡ

Lesson  49

Ex.Ⅰ

Directions: Answer the questions according to what you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Ex.Ⅱ

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the words you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Tapescript:

An Outstanding Character  (2′24″)

----Helen Keller (Ⅰ)

Are you able to see and hear and speak? If so, can you imagine how it is to be unable to do these things? Can you imagine how it is to be blind, to see nothing ever, but darkness? Close your eyes, try to walk around the room you are in. Think of the ways you use your eyes every day. Imagine your life without sight. Cover your ears, imagine being deaf for the rest of your life. Think of the songs, the voices, the music you'll never hear again.

For the first 19 months of her life Helen Keller was able to see and hear. But then a sickness struck. She became completely blind and deaf. If you close your eyes you know that you can open them again. If you cover your ears you know that you can uncover them again. But Helen Keller could not. For the rest of her life she was never able to see or hear. She didn't even have memories of sights or sounds. And the sickness struck when she was a baby before she learned to talk. Her world was totally dark and silent. Yet Helen Keller became a teacher, writer and lecturer. She was inside the hearts of millions of people.

How did this miracle happen? For the first seven years of her life she was almost like a wild animal. Her mother and father could not control her. She screamed and kicked and struggled and cried. She wanted other people to understand her. She wanted so badly to communicate with them but there was no way. Finally Helen's parents sent for a teacher. Her name was Ann Sullivan. She herself had once been blind. She quickly saw that first she had to teach Helen how to obey and how to control her anger. This meant that she had to punish Helen when she didn't obey. Seeing their blind and deaf daughter punished hurt Helen's mother and father. So teacher and pupil moved into a little one-room house near Helen's parents. And there Helen Keller's education began.

Lesson  49

Ex.Ⅰ

Directions: Complete the sentences with the words you hear on the tape.

Key: (see tapescript)

Ex.Ⅱ

Directions: Answer the questions according to the information you hear from the news.

1. Who made a brief visit to Kampuchea Wednesday?

2. What did he promise?

3. Why did he say that he would return to Kampuchea very soon?

Tapescript:

News  (1′8″)

News Item 1

The United Nations

The General Assembly has decided to recognize a Kampuchean opposition group led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk as the U.N. representative of Kampuchea. The General Assembly rejected a proposal by the Soviet Union and Vietnam to leave Kampuchea's seat at the U.N. empty. Twenty-nine nations voted to support the proposal, 90 nations voted against it, and 26 countries did not vote.

News Item 2

Former Kampuchean head of state Prince Norodom

Sihanouk made a brief visit to Kampuchea Wednesday. He promised to end the Vietnamese occupation of his homeland. Prince Sihanouk heads a new coalition of three Kampuchean groups opposed to the occupation. Prince Sihanouk said he will return to Kampuchea very soon to establish an anti-Vietnamese coalition government.