大学英语四级考试听力部分是一项复合性的活动,我们所听到的听力材料并不是简简单单表达文字的含义,还包含说话人的各种情感因素。在日常交流活动中,语音、语调、语气是人们表达情感的重要手段,说话人的抑扬顿挫,个别词语的重复等等,无不需要我们在听的过程中“察言观色”。
1语气大学英语四级听力测试中,经常用语气来表达不同的含义,表达语气的句式有:虚拟语气、感叹句、祈使句。
a.虚拟语气虚拟语气用来表示与现在、将来、过去的事实相反的含义。大学英语四级听力测试中经常出现的虚拟结构有:if引导的虚拟语气和wish引导的虚拟语气。如:
What happened to the woman?
A)She had to get up early.
B)Her foot was hurt.
C)She forgot her ticket.
D)Her car ran out of gas.
You'll hear:
Woman:If I hadn't had my foot hurt,we could have got there.
Man:What a pity!We couldn't see our uncle off.
If引导的虚拟语气表示与过去事实相反,这位女士因为伤了脚而没来得及为她的叔叔送行。
What does the speaker mean?
A)She went to the classroom.
B)How long is the class?
C)Why did she break the glass?
D)She wants to end the class as soon as possible.
You'll hear:How I wish the class were over!
wish引导的虚拟结构表达了说话人无法实现的愿望。B)、C)两个语音干扰项(class,glass)很容易排除。
b.感叹句表达的语气英语中引导感叹句的词有两个:“how”和“what”。感叹句一般用来表达强烈的情感,如:愉悦、愤怒、惊讶、赞赏等。如:
What does the speaker mean?
A)She is covered.
B)She is very beautiful.
C)She is not clever.
D)She's very clever.
You'll hear:How clever sheis!
c.祈使句表达的语气祈使句用来表达命令、请求、要求等语气。如:
What does the woman mean?
A)She doesn't want him to smoke.
B)She doesn't smell any smoke.
C)She doesn't have a cigarette for him.
D)She doesn't smoke much.
You'll hear:
Man:Do you mind my smoking?
Woman:Please don't.
对话的内容是男士问女士他可否吸烟,女士请求他不要吸烟。因此,A)为正确答案。2重复大学英语四级听力测试中经常有语义重复的情况出现,即在speaker 1提出某种观点以后,speaker 2将其观点的一部分重复表述。用降调表示肯定;用升调表示惊讶和否定。如:
What can we learn from the conversation?
A)The woman has earned a lot of money.
B)The man has earned a lot of money.
C)The man has given the woman a lot of money.
D)The man has earned little money.
You'll hear:
Woman:I think you have earned a lot of money.
Man:↗A lot of money?I can just keep my soul and body together.
The man重复the woman的话时用了升调,表示否定。在这个对话中要注意keep the soul and body together这个习语的含义,意思是“勉强维持生计”,很显然D)是正确答案。
3否定大学英语四级听力测试中涉及否定的题很多。常用的表示否定的词有: no,not,little,few,not all,seldom,hardly,
scarcely,never,nobody,no one,neither,nor, nothing,none等。在四级听力测试中出现的否定形式有三种:(1)完全否定;(2)部分否定;(3)双重否定。
(1)完全否定所谓完全否定就是彻底的全盘否定。表示完全否定的否定词有no, nothing,none,no one,nobody,never,neither, nor等。如:
What does the speaker mean?
A)She saw a lot of foreigners before her.
B)It's the first time for her to see so many foreigners.
C)She has never seen foreigners before.
D)She has seen the foreigner before.
You'll hear:She has never seen so many foreigners before.
在上述四个选项中,只有C)项是表示否定的,并且原文当中也有表示否定的词(never)出现;但是根据录音原文,正确答案不是C),而是B)。因此,在做这种表示否定的听力试题时,考生应根据原文的意义,而不是选项的字面意义来选择,这样才能找到正确答案。
(2)部分否定部分否定就是对句子的一部分进行否定。在四级听力测试中,经常使用的表示部分否定的词有few,little,seldom , hardly,scarcely,not entirely,not all,not both等。如:
The speaker means that ______ .
A)I have earned a lot of money
B)it's easy for me to earn much money
C)it's hard for me to earn a lot of money
D)I don't have much money
You'll hear:I have hardly any money.
本句是由“hardly”构成的部分否定,在做涉及部分否定的测试题时,要明确否定词否定的是句子的哪一部分,以便找出正确答案。本句正确答案为D)。
(3)双重否定所谓双重否定就是句中出现两次否定,即否定之否定。实际上是一种肯定的表达方式。用来表示双重否定的常用否定词有no...no...,no...but,nothing... but,can't help but等。如:
What does the speaker mean?
A)A boat is crossing the river.
B)It's impossible to cross the river by boat.
C)It's quite possible to cross the river by boat.
D)It's hard to cross the river by boat.
You'll hear:Crossing the river by boat is not impossible.
“not impossible”构成双重否定表达肯定意义,这样可以把选项中表示否定意义的排除;再根据原文可以断定C)为正确答案。
在四级听力测试中,考生在做涉及到否定的试题的时候,要注意如下几个方面:首先,要深刻理解领会原文的含义,不要被选项的字面意义所迷惑;其次,要确定是哪种类型的否定,如果是部分否定,要确定否定的是句子的哪一部分;最后要仔细阅读选项,根据原文选出正确答案。
4比较比较是英语当中形容词和副词的比较。有三种比较形式:原级、比较级和最高级。常用的句式有:
(1)A+谓语+as+形容词或副词的原级+as+B
(2)A+be+not+as+形容词或副词的原级+as+B
(3)A+be+more+形容词或副词的原级 +than +B
(4)A+be+less+形容词或副词的原级 +than +B
(5)A+谓语+形容词或副词的比较级+ than +B
(6)主语+谓语+形容词或副词的最高级
此外,一些比较特殊的结构也可用来表达比较的含义。这些特殊的结构主要有be superior to,be inferior to,as expected,prefer to等。如:
What does the speaker mean?
A)Both Bill and Tom speak English.
B)Bill speaks English better than Tom.
C)Tom speaks English better than Bill.
D)Both Bill and Tom speak English very well.
You'll hear:Bill speaks English as well as Tom.
本句是由as...as构成的比较结构,正确答案为D)。
What can we learn from the sentence?
A)Everyone runs faster than Peter.
B)Peter prefers running to jumping.
C)Peter is the last one.
D)Peter runs the fastest of the all.
You'll hear:Nobody runs faster than Peter.
本句是否定词“nobody”作主语,与后面的比较级一起构成最高级。因此正确答案为D)。