2009年12月英語(yǔ)六級(jí)聽力成功指南(第四期)

　　Questions 1 to 4 are based on the lecture you’ve just heard.

　　1.

　　What is the speaker mainly discussing?

　　2. Why do communities build

　　seawalls?

　　3. How does a gently sloping beach help prevent erosion?

　　4. What

　　would the speaker probably advise engineers to do?

　　Passage 2

　　In Britain the biggest number of working foreigners comes from the odd system know as ‘a(chǎn)u pair’. Every week hundreds of girls arrive from strange capitals to live with English families. They are called au pairs. An au pair girl stays with the family and has free food and lodging. In return she does light work in the house. This system began as a genuine exchange, but now has become a commercial bargain between families who need help and girls who need to learn English. As learning languages has become more important, so the numbers involved have gone up.

　　The system succeeds fairly well so far as

　　teaching the girls English is concerned. But it is debatable how far it increases international friendship. There is a basic conflict of objectives—the hosts want cheap labor, the girls want leisure and language. The girls often find it hard to meet English people of their own school ages, for the language schools and clubs are made up of other foreigners.

　　In spite of its

　　shortcomings, the au pair system has probably played some role in breaking down frontiers. The British Vigilance Society estimates that 15 percent of the girls are very happy, 15 percent very happy, and 70 percent more or less content; but only a small minority keep in touch after they go back home.