2003年9月大学英语六级听力原文B

Section B

　 Graffiti is drawing or writing often found in a wall in public places. These drawings and writings are usually rude, humorous, or political. The words “ Graffiti” comes from an Italian word meaning address. Graffiti provides a record of the past because people have written on walls for centuries. Cave drawings are the earliest examples we have of the art of graffiti.
Writing on walls is a way to comment on the world we live in. Women’s liberation groups in Britain, for example, have used to sell goods.
　Yesterday’s graffiti can be today’s foreign attraction. When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, people found that it was covered with graffiti from all over the world. Graves of famous of famous people, like rock-star Jim Morrison, are covered with written messages from fans.
　 Graffiti is also a popular art form. Graffiti pictures have gained respect in artistic circles. Today, graffiti is likely to be found hanging inside modern, New York apartments as well as in downtown streets. In New York, graffiti pictures have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Graffiti artists have been paid to use their art to brighten up dull environments.
　But graffiti can bring us trouble. Scenes of natural beauty and important landmarks have been spoiled by mindless graffiti. The London underground authority has spent about 2 million pounds a year on removing graffiti from trains and stations. If you are caught doing it, you can be sent to person. In Britain, the maximum sentence for this type of crime is ten years.
　Whether you think graffiti is mindless violence against property, or a living art form, its popularity suggests that it is here to stay.
4. What do women’s liberation groups in Britain do with graffiti?
5. What do some New Yorkers think of graffiti?
6. Why does the speaker cite the example of graffiti in the London underground?


The Asian elephant is one of the world’s rarest animals. Unfortunately, its sad condition has not been as well publicized as that of the African elephant. This is because Asian elephant’s ivory supplies only a small percentage of the world ivory trade. In fact, we know very little about the Asian elephant. They live in the remote forests of southern Asia and it is therefore very difficult to study them. Most knowledge of Asian elephants is from those that have been captured, or tamed, Asian elephants are easier to tame than African elephants. The elephants you see in the circuses and zoos are nearly always Asian.
　 The major reason for the decline of Asian elephants is the harm to their forests. The huge increase in the human population has caused the destruction of the Asian forest for human population. As a result, the Asian elephants are compelled to scatter in different areas. Originally they lived all over the continent, but now there are only small isolated populations left. These isolated elephant populations are vulnerable to extinction.
　 While Asian elephants are threatened by illegal capture and detaining, they are also killed for ivory and skin. In July 1990, a British wildlife group uncovered a black market for elephant skin. Elephants are shot in the forest along the border between Thailand and Burma, and their skin was sold to factories in Bangkok. Their skin is made into shoes, belts, suitcases, wallets, etc., to sell to tourists.
7. What’s the difference between the Asian elephant and the African elephant?
8. Where does most knowledge of Asian elephants come from?
9. What’s the major cause in the decline of Asian elephants?

　After the early period of settlements, the first sharp increase in immigration took place in the 1830’s and 1840’s. This brought to America flocks of people from northern Europe who lost employment in the Industrial Revolution, and then a great number of Irish people who fled from famine. German political refugees arrived shortly after. Many immigrants from northern and western Europe settled on farms in the Middle-west. The Irish became construction laborers on roads, bridges, and railroads.
　In the 1880’s, a tremendous flood of immigrants began coming in, this time largely from southern and eastern Europe. To most Americans, these newcomers seemed far more strange than the early settlers. Their languages, customs, and ways of life were very different from those of Americans. The newcomers moved into the poorest neighborhood of the large cities. They tended to stay together and cling to their old ways. As they were accustomed to poverty, they were willing to work for very low wages. This made other workers, especially those in labor unions, afraid that the immigrants with the lower wage level would take away jobs from them. Indeed, organized labor became one of the key opponents of continued immigration.
　 This opposition finally led to the posting of immigration law in the 1920’s,which restricted further immigration. In 1965, these unfair laws were replaced by a new immigration act, which granted equal opportunities to foreigners, regardless of their place of origin. Asians, like Koreans and Vietnamese, soon began to arrive. Many of these newcomers have worked very hard to establish themselves in their new land.
10. Why did northern European people come to settle down in the United States?
11. What did the labor unions worry about?
12. What was the purpose of the immigration law passed in the 1920’s?
13. What do we know from the passage about Asian immigrants? 

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