2016年12月英語四級考試還有不一個多月的時間，童鞋們備考進行的怎麼樣了呢?下面是yjbys網小編提供給大家關於英語四級聽力試題練習，希望對大家的備考有所幫助。
篇一：
Solar-Powered Airplane Lands in Spain
太陽能飛機在西班牙着陸
An airplane powered totally by the sun landed in Seville, Spain early Thursday after completing a 71-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
一架完全以太陽能爲動力的飛機週四早些時候在西班牙塞維利亞着陸，它剛完成了一次71小時的橫穿大西洋飛行。
The plane, a Solar Impulse 2 model, has just one seat. It left from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Monday morning.
這架陽光動力2號模型飛機只有一個座位。它於週一早晨離開紐約的約翰·F·肯尼迪國際機場。
This was the plane’s 15th stop in its planned around-the-world trip. The trip began in Abu Dhabi in March of 2015.
這一站是它按計劃環球飛行的第十五站。此次飛行始於2015年三月的阿布扎比市。
Swiss aviator Bertrand Piccard operated the solar-powered plane on this leg of the tour. The Solar Pulse 2 had an average speed of 70 kilometers an hour during his flight.
瑞士飛行員伯特蘭·皮卡德駕駛這架太陽能飛機飛完了此次旅程的這一站。在他的此次飛行中，這架太陽動力2號的平均飛行速度爲70 km/h。
The plane’s power comes from 17,000 solar cells built into the wings. The cells capture the sun’s energy, which is stored in batteries on the plane.
這架飛機的'動力來源於安裝在機翼上的17000個太陽能電池。這些電池捕捉太陽能量，將其儲存於飛機上的蓄電池中。
The Solar Pulse 2 has a 72-meter wingspan. That is longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747 passenger plane. The solar-powered plane weighs about as much as an automobile.
該飛機的翼展爲72米，比一家波音747客機的翼展還要長。這架太陽能飛機的重量大約相當於一輛汽車。
Piccard’s friend and business partner Andre Borschberg will operate the plane on the final part of the trip. He plans to fly from Seville to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
皮卡德的朋友及商業夥伴安德烈·博爾施伯格將駕駛這架飛機飛完剩下的旅程。他打算從塞維利亞飛往阿聯酋的阿布扎比市。
I’m Anne Ball.
安妮·鮑爾報道。
篇二：
The U.S. Supreme Court says the University of Texas can consider race when deciding which students to admit. The case was one of the most closely watched because it deals with the issue of affirmative action.
Affirmative action is a policy designed to help those who suffer from discrimination, especially regarding employment or education.
The decision has nationwide implications because other American universities use similar affirmative action policies. However, eight U.S. states do not allow race to be used when considering public college admissions. The states are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
By law, the University of Texas guarantees admission to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class. But when considering applications from about 25 percent of students, the University of Texas also considers the student’s race, along with other factors.
The 4-3 Supreme Court decision means the university’s admissions policy can remain.
Abigail Fisher, a white woman, filed the case against the University of Texas. She said the school denied her admission based on her race.
Fisher’s grades were not good enough to get her automatic admission under the top 10 percent rule. She was denied admission to the University of Texas in 2008.
When she found out that minority students with lower grades than hers were accepted, she sued the school for discrimination. The University of Texas said Fisher would not have been admitted with or without race as a factor.
The university says its race-based selection policies are necessary to maintain adiverse campus community. Fisher’s attorneys argued that the top 10 percent program is enough to make sure that adequate minority students are included in the admissions process.
Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the majority opinion for the court. “The university has thus met its burden of showing that the admissions policy it used... was narrowlytailored,” he wrote.
Kennedy also said that “it remains an enduring challenge to our nation's education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity.”
Three other judges - Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas – disagreed.
Alito said he thought the decision was an example of “affirmative action goneberserk.” He said he felt the university had relied "on a series of unsupported andnoxious racial assumptions."
In a separate dissent, Thomas expressed his view that the U.S. Constitution makes it illegal to use race as part of the admissions process in higher education.
U.S. President Barack Obama praised the Supreme Court’s decision for upholding “the basic notion that diversity is an important value in our society, and that this country should provide a high quality education to all our young people, regardless of their background.”
I’m Bryan Lynn.
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Words in This Story
factor – n. something that produces or influences a certain result
automatic – adj. happening by itself with little human involvement
diverse – adj. showing a lot of differences and variety
adequate – adj. acceptable in quality or quantity
tailor – v. adapt for a particular purpose or person
reconcile – v. restore friendly relations
dissent – n. the expression of opinions different from others
berserk – adj. out of control with anger or excitement
noxious – adj. harmful or unpleasant
