全新版大学英语听说教程2 Unit11（在线收听）

2-11-A

Passage 1:

Napoleon was many things but he was, first of all, remembered as a military leader. Rising from an artillery officer to the commander of the French army, he waged war after war against neighboring countries. In 1804, he declared himself emperor and became the most powerful man in the world. At one time he controlled most of Europe. But Napoleon's power was short-lived. His defeat came when he decided to attack Russia. Soon the whole of Europe rose against him, eventually forcing him to give up his throne. In 1821, he died alone on the small island of St. Helena.

Passage 2:

Tom Cruise has always represented cool, but somehow over the last couple of years, he has gone from just another Hollywood pretty boy to a certified world renowned actor. It seems that everything he touches turns to gold. Not everyone likes him, but at least now almost everyone respects him. His movies make millions, he is an international star -- men envy him, and women love him.

Passage 3:

His critics agree that the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, is a dignified moral idealist.

But he's also tough. Elected to the post in 1996, thanks largely to the US's displeasure with Boutros-Ghali, Annan has proved to be energetic and willing to press Americans to accept greater international responsibility.

As the host of 159 heads of state at this year's Millennium Summit in New York September 6 to 8, he advocated intervention against war, disease and poverty.

2-11-B

A Musician-turned Economist

Alan Greenspan, who has been Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board for over a decade, is regarded as one of the most important men by many people in the world.

Greenspan was born on March 6, 1926. His father was a stockbroker and his mother worked in retailing. When he was 4 years old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother in New York.

Young Alan was a shy boy but he was very good at large numbers. When he was only five, his mother would get him to add two three-digit numbers in his head.

He loved baseball and tennis. And, like his mother, he developed a deep appreciation for music. In the mid-1940s he studied briefly at a music school in New York, and then toured the country for a year with a music band. Then he entered New York University's School of Commerce and graduated with a degree in economics. He got a Master's degree at NYU in 1949, and shifted to Columbia University to work on his PhD. When his money ran low, he withdrew from graduate school and went to work for the National Industrial Conference Board. He eventually earned a PhD from NYU in 1977.

In the mid-1950s Greenspan opened an economic consulting company. In 1987 he began to work in the Federal Government. Today his work as Chief of Federal Reserve Board is much the same as the work he did on Wall Street, trying to understand how the economy is working and what drives it; offering suggestions for improvement. He is, however, making less money.

2-11-C

Edwin Hubble

Edwin Powell Hubble was a tall, elegant, athletic man. During his lifetime, his research was focused on nebulae, which are misty patches of light in the sky. In 1924, he announced the discovery of a star in a nebula. He calculated that this star was much further away than anyone had thought and that therefore the nebula was not inside our galaxy, but a galaxy of stars just like the Milky Way, only much further away. His discovery enabled the world to realize that the universe was much bigger than had been previously presumed.

Hubble wanted to classify the galaxies according to their content, distance, shape and brightness patterns, and in his observations he made another great discovery: the galaxies were moving away from each other at a rate constant to the distance between them. This is known as Hubble's law. The greater the distance between them, the faster they move away from each other. This supported the big bang theory of how the universe came into being.

Hubble died in 1953. To honor his great contribution to space exploration, his name was chosen for the world's most powerful space telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope.