2014英语四级听力练习慢速3.24(1)_大学英语听力

2014英语四级听力练习慢速3.24(1)

　　It all boils down to one thing: education. It is the bottom line. You need an educated populace. You need to empower them through education. If you educate folks, this world will be better.

　　I attended my first city council meeting in Leander more than 10 years ago. About 14,000 people lived there then. More than twice that many live there now. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.

　　Dealing with the fast rate of growth was not easy. Mr. Cowman was a divisive mayor. And the city council meetings were often uninteresting and could be difficult to report. Sometimes citizens were very unhappy with the decisions city officials made. They would come to the meetings and show their emotions loudly and angrily.

　　I did not understand at the time that I was watching something special or, as Mr. Cowman claims, that I was part of it.

　　Everything you do learn, really starts at the local level, Anita, and youre living proof of it. We went through the war together. And see, thats why I love you for that, you know, its like, wow. You reported things in our area that were occurring and so you were part of the team. And thats the way we all viewed things. And yeah, there were some times I That darn Anita Powell, or Im afraid of her. But in the end look where we ended up.

　　I have now come to know how important my days reporting about Leander were. I understand that the story of city government is really the story of peoples hopes and fears and homes. Anita Powell, News, Johannesburg.