2008年大学英语四级考试AB卷真题及答案（五）_第5页

　　Passage three

  In February last year, my wife lost her job. Just as suddenly, the owner of the greenhouse where I worked as manager died of a heart attack. His family announced that they were going to close the business because no one in the family wanted to run it. Things looked pretty gloomy. My wife and I read the want-ads each day. Then one morning, as I was hanging out "Going out of Business" sign at the greenhouse, the door opened and in walked a customer. She was an office manager whose company has just moved into the new office park on the edge of town. She was looking for petite plants to place in the reception areas and offices. "I don't know anything about plants," she said. "I'm sure in a few weeks they'll all be dead." Why was I helping her select her purchases? My mind was racing. Perhaps as many as a dozen firms have recently opened offices in the new office park, and there were several hundred more acres with construction under way. That afternoon, I drove out to the office park. By six o'clock that evening I had signed contracts with seven companies to rent plants from me and pay me a fee to maintain them. Within a week, I had worked out an agreement to lease the greenhouse from the owner's family. Business is now increasing rapidly.

  And one day, we hope to be the proud owners of the greenhouse.

   32．What do we learn about the greenhouse?

       It is a place where we can buy plants.

  33.  What was the speaker doing when the customer walked in one morning?

       He just finish making a phone call.

  34   What did the speaker think of when serving the office manager?

       He does not know for sure why he helps her

  35. What was the speaker's hope for the future?

      He hopes to be the proud owner of the green house.

  这次四级passage的三篇文章分别属于社会类、故事传记类。相对来说，第一篇文章比较有难度，而后两篇因为情节发展清晰而有条理，所以只要理清脉络顺序，搞懂逻辑关系就并不会很难。从词汇角度来看，虽然文章中有个别生僻的词汇，但都不影响对于文章的总体理解。

  我们在平时训练时给大家划过答案分布特点，这次的三篇文章也正体现了这个解题规律。

  第一篇有关time的文章除了在讲现代人的时间观外海在文章中开头处提到了著名的TIME杂志。虽然后面的问题并不直接与此有关，但总很大程度上体现出四级听力越来越注重英美文化背景的补充。

  第二篇文章主要讲的是作者的stepmother，其中也提到并考到了美国the Great Depression的背景，体现出四级考试对学生的经济、历史背景知识的一定要求。

  第三篇文章讲了一个立志的创业故事，和我们昂立这次的四六级复习专题《奋斗》，也就是大家熟悉的那部电视剧不谋而合，大方向明确了，解题就不会很难。当然就后一篇文章还考到了对于hang up固定搭配的考察，可见虽然是听力部分的考试，但词汇基础也很重要。