作为走在上海应试教学研究最前沿的上海新东方学校，这一次又在国家教委发布大学英语四级考试试点样题之际第一时间组织一线教师对试题作了仔细的研究和讨论。我们听力组经过讨论后总结出如下听力部分的改革要点。首先，如以前的改革考纲所示，听力部分的分值已经从以前的20%上升到35%，和阅读理解部分并列成为整张试卷中分值比例最重要的两部分。其次，题型的种类和以往相比改动不大。老题的听力题目由两部分组成，一部分叫做短对话(short conversation)，和新题的第一部分是一模一样的。老题的第二部分有两种选择，一种是长段子(passage)，另外一种是复合式听写(compound dictation)，而新题中这两种题型都必须考察，考察的形式和题目数量均与以往完全一致。唯一不同的部分是新题中增设了一个长对话部分(longer conversation)，而且和以往我们预测的稍有出入的一点是样题中把原有的短对话从10题减少到8题，而长对话比我们预测的5题增加了2题，对话数量也由我们预测的1个增加为2个。不过对话部分题目总数保持不变，还是15个。总的来说，题目的总量增加了，做题时间增加了，本身对学生是否能够长时间的集中听力注意力就增加了考验。另外以往有同学在考听力的时候存在侥幸心理，特别是惧怕复合式听写的同学往往会在考前祈祷这次考试不要出现这种题型。改革以后以往所有的题型都必考了，无形中还是增加了总体的难度。接下来我将就其中的两种题型：长对话和长段子给大家分析一下，着重于和以往题型的对比，目的在于给大家的复习方向以明确的指导。
首先我们来看一下样题中给出的两篇长对话。
Conversation One
W: Hello, Gary. How’re you?
M: Fine! And yourself?
W: Can’t complain. Did you have time to look at my proposal?
M: No, not really. Can we go over it now?
W: Sure. I’ve been trying to come up with some new production and advertising strategies. First of all, if we want to stay competitive, we need to modernize our factory. New equipment should’ve been installed long ago.
M: How much will that cost?
W: We have several options ranging from one hundred thousand dollars all the way up to half a million.
M: OK. We’ll have to discuss these costs with finance.
W: We should also consider human resources. I’ve been talking to personnel as well as our staff at the factory.
M: And what’s the picture?
W: We’ll probably have to hire a couple of engineers to help us modernize the factory.
M: What about advertising?
W: Marketing has some interesting ideas for television commercials.
M: TV? Isn’t that a bit too expensive for us? What’s wrong with advertising in the papers, as usual?
W: Quite frankly, it’s just not enough anymore. We need to be more aggressive in order to keep ahead of our competitors.
M: Will we be able to afford all this?
W: I’ll look into it, but I think higher costs will be justified. These investments will result in higher profits for our company.
M: We’ll have to look at the figures more closely. Have finance draw up a budget for these investments.
W: All right. I’ll see to it.
Questions 19 to 20 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19.What are the two speakers talking about?
20.What does the woman say about the equipment of their factory?
21.What does the woman suggest about human resources?
22. Why does the woman suggest advertising on TV?
第一篇文章给我们的第一印象是篇幅非常的长。之前我们的预测是6-8个回合的对话考5道题目，而现在发现篇幅远远超过了这个预测，题目却少了一道，这也给同学们在短时间内从大量信息中寻找答案制造了困难。不过如果大家再回过头仔细去看看我用下划线标示出来的这些内容，马上就可以发现这些部分就是4道题目的答案出处，而且每次答案的出现都伴随着一个问题。这首先就说明了一点，每每遇到问答的形式都是考官青睐的考点，而且考试的重点往往落在答语上。这一点和短对话中体现的原则不谋而合，而且短对话中的建议请求原则也和此处的情况及其相似。另外还有一个特点，大家观察后不难发现，并不是每一组问答都被作为考点，而作为考试重点的几组问题之间关联性是不大的。换句话来说，第一个问题考察了文章的main idea, 从第二个问题开始分别考察了new business strategy 所呈现的3方面问题。其中每一个方面选择了一个最重要的问题来考察，这一点又和以往的passage考察方法很类似，特别是人物生平发展或者故事类的题目很相似，每一方面的内容只考察一道题目，而且出题的顺序和文章的顺序是一致的。
Conversation Two
W: Sir, you’ve been using the online catalogue for quite a while , Is there anything I can do to help you?
M: Well, I’ve got to write a paper about Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, and I’m really struggling. There are hundreds of books, and I just don’t know where to begin.
W: Your topic sounds pretty big. Why don’t you narrow it down to something like…uh… the history of the studios during that time?
M: You know, I was thinking about doing that, but more that 30 books came up when I typed in “movie studios.”
W: You could cut that down even further by listing the specific years you want. Try adding “1930s” or “1940s” or maybe “Golden Age.”
M: “Golden Age” is a good idea. Let me type that in … Hey, look, just 6 books this time. That’s a lot better.
W: Oh… another thin you might consider… have you tried looking for any magazine or newspaper articles?
M: No, I’ve only been searching for books.
W: Well, you can look up magazine articles in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. And we do have the Los Angeles. Times available over there. You might go through their indexes to see if there’s anything you want.
M: Okay, I think I’ll get started with these books and then I’ll go over the magazines.
W: If you need any help, I’ll be over at the Reference Desk.
M: Great, thanks a lot.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. What is the man doing?
24. What does the librarian think of the topic the man is working on?
25. Where can the man find the relevant magazine articles?
从划线出我们再次发现，惊人的相似!问答式的考点，分层次的考察，建议请求的运用。特别明显的是对话的开头部分一直在纠缠如何narrow down topic, 所以只考察了一道题目，第二道题目直到对话的中后部才出现，因为两个人直到那时才从book转到magazine这个话题上来。此外，这两则对话还秉承了passage的一个重要的考场方式，就是在对话的开头部分一定会出题目。这一点的考察利用的是考生往往很难在一个段落刚开始的时候集中注意力，所以这时候考察的题目难度就显得很高。
综上所述，长对话并不可怕，它结合了短对话对问答句式，建议请求，和关键场景赐予的考察和长段子对文章层次和理解能力的要求。所以做这样的题目往往需要具备综合的素质，既要注意其中的细节，又要注意整体的把握，还要能够应付7道题目的题量，这比以往的四级题目对综合能力的要求显著提高了。建议考生在练习的时候可以先把短对话和长段子两部分分别练好，再寻找一些长对话题目进行综合练习。我们熟悉的雅思考试和托福考试的真题中都有大量的长对话题目可供大家参考。
最后简单的说一下passage。因为样题中给出的passage不论从出题的形式，考察的重点，以及题目的数量来看都和原来考察的题目一模一样，就连样题中的文章和题目也有部分是完全照搬以前的真题。所以对于这部分大家完全不用担心，该怎么练习就怎么练习，不必特别的对待。不过由于passage题目对许多考生来说一向是很难攻克的部分，在这里强烈建议大家采用听写的方式练习，即把听到的内容逐句写下来，这对短时间提高passage的正确率以及长远来说提高听力的能力都是有好处的!现在又有了长对话，我个人认为听写练习的必要性将进一步的提高。
总的来说，对于四级考试的听力部分，改革并不是一件可怕的事情。从上面的分析大家也不难看出，我们复习的策略并不应该有很大的变动，更不需要因为改革而慌了手脚，盲目的认为以前所学的知识都没有用处了。就听力部分而言，我建议以前好的方法完全可以沿用下来，以前的真题也完全可以继续使用。唯一需要增加的是对长对话的训练，增加题感，这样才能做到有的放矢，从容应对。
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