托福聽力必備背景知識匯總
在托福聽力備考的過程中，相信大家都會感覺到托福聽力考試涉及的內容比較多，專業(yè)詞匯更是令大家眼花繚亂。想要快速的融入這些知識點，并不是想象中的那么容易。然而，在這其中，托福聽力的背景知識則又是一個很重要的備考資料。那么，一下內容中就為大家?guī)硗懈Ｂ犃Ρ貍浔尘爸R匯總，希望能為大家的托福聽力備考帶來幫助。
托福聽力必備背景知識：美國教育體制
與英國的現(xiàn)行教育體制相似，美國的教育體制可分為三個主要階段：初等教育、中等教育和高等教育。在接受初等教育之前，學生可以受到學前教育(主要形式是保育學?！猲urseryschool與幼兒園——kindergarten)。
初等教育的主要教育機構是小學(elementary or primary school)。兒童五六歲入小學學習。美國的小學有四年、六年制和八年制等幾種。從不同學制的小學畢業(yè)出來的學生進入不同學制的中學(四年制小學畢業(yè)生事先須進入中間中學學習四年，再進入中學)接受中等教育。
中等教育是在中學里完成的。美國的中學有四年制與六年制兩種。四年制中學主要有普通中學(high school)，職業(yè)技術中學(technical school)和一些專門中學(special school，如海事中學、自動化中學等)。六年制中學又有兩種。一種是將初中(junior high school)與高中(senior high school)獨立分開的中學，兩者在課程設置、課表安排與行政管理等方面都享有獨立的自主權;另一種是六年一貫制中學，將初、高中合為一體，在教學與行政等方面實行統(tǒng)一管理。在美國，公立中學不許開設宗教課程，所以出現(xiàn)了一些私立的教會中學( 實為教會所有)，專門培養(yǎng)教會神職人員。
高等教育主要在高等學校完成。高校分大學(university)與學院(college)兩種。大學一般是綜合性的，可包括若干個學院(如醫(yī)學院、法學院等)。大學為各州設立、管理。學院也可分為兩類：由州或大城市設立管理的四年制本科學院(包括文學院、獨立專業(yè)學院——如理工、醫(yī)、法專業(yè)學院)和由小城市或縣設立管理的兩年制學院(相當于中國的?？茖W院或稱大專)。前者可提供本科學歷(可授予學士學位——Bachelor?s deGREe)，后者只提供?？茖W歷(主要是專門職業(yè)培訓)。設有研究生院的大學可授予碩士學位(Master?s degree)和博士學位(Doctors degree)等更高的學位。在美國要拿到某專業(yè)的學士學位，須學完該專業(yè)規(guī)定的課程及學分(每門課程的學分不同)，學分總數(shù)達到規(guī)定的要求后，學生可獲得學士學位。拿到學士學位的本科生，再通過一至兩年的攻讀，達到要求者可獲碩士學位。博士學位則要求研究人員完成有較大難度的、規(guī)定的研究工作，并提交學術論文，方可獲得。在美國，文科的最高學位是哲學博士(Doctor of Philosophy—Ph. D. )。
托福聽力必備背景知識：天文學
In ancient times, many people believed the earth was a flat disc. Well over 2,000 years ago; the ancient Greek philosophers were able to put forward two good arguments proving that it was not. Direct observations of heavenly bodies were the basis of both these arguments. First, the Greeks knew that during eclipses of the moon the earth was between the sun and the moon, and they saw that during these eclipses, the earth's shadow on the moon was always round, they realized that this could be true only if the earth was spherical, It the earth was a flat disc, then its shadow during eclipses would not be a prefect circle; it would be stretched out into a long ellipse. The second argument was based on what the Greeks saw during their travels. They noticed that the North Star, or Polaris, appeared lower in the sky when they traveled south, in the more northerly regions, the North Star appeared to them to be much higher in the sky. By the way, it was also from this difference in the apparent position of the North Star that the Greeks first calculated the approximate distance around the circumference of the earth, a figure recorded in ancient documents says 400.000 stadium, that's the plural of the world stadium. Today, it's not known exactly what length one stadium represents, but let's say it was about 200 meters, the length of many athletic stadiums. This would make the Greek's estimate about twice the figure accepted today, a very good estimate for those writing so long before even the first telescope was invented.
托福聽力必備背景知識：噪音影響
I'm grad to see so many of you here. We've become really alarmed over the health center by the number of students we are seeing, who are experiencing hearing loss. First, I want to go over some basic about hearing. Then we can take a look at our school environment and see if we can figure out some ways to protect hearing. The leading cause of preventable hearing loss is excessive noise. Too much moderate noise for a long time or some types of intense noise for even a short time can damage hearing. Loudness is measured in units called decibels. One decibel is the lowest sound that the average person can here. Sounds up to 80 decibels generally aren't harmful. That's noise like traffic on a busy street. But anything louder than 80 decibels, especially with continuous exposure, may eventually hurt your hearing. Once you are up to around 140 decibels, that's like a jet plane taking off, then you might even feel pain in your ears. And pains are sure sign that your hearing's at risk. Even one exposure to a really loud noise at close range can cause hearing loss. So what you need to do is limit your exposure to harmful levels. If you pass along this handout, we can take a look at the decibel level of some common campus sounds. Notice how loud those horns are that people take to football games. They are really dangerous if blown right behind you. Now, let's try to generate a list of damaging noises
托福聽力必備背景知識：文學名著
文科段子：文學名著
Continuing our survey of the 19th century, let's take a look now at Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now Stowe is best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that details the harshness of plantation life in the south. The book was extremely popular in the United States as well as in other countries. Ironically though, for all the attention given to Uncle Tom's Cabin, it's far from Stowe's best work. She did write one other novel about life in the south, but much of her best work has nothing with the south at all. In fact, Stowe's best writing is about village life in the New England's states in the 19th century. In recording to the customs of the villages she wrote about, Stowe claimed that her purpose was to reflect the images as realistically as possible. She usually succeeded, for her settings were often described accurately and in detail. In this sense, she was an important forerunner to the realistic movement that became popular later in the 19th century. She was one of the first writers to use local dialect for her characters when they spoke. And she did this for 30 years before Mark Twain popularized the use of local dialect. It makes sense that Stowe would write about New England life, since she was born in Connecticut. As a young woman there, she worked as a teacher. The teaching job helped lead to her first published work, a geography book for children. Later when she was married, her writing helped her support her family financially. Throughout her life, she wrote poems, travel books, biographical sketches and children's books, as well as novels for adults.
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