2008年12月四级听力模拟试题六_大学英语听力

2008年12月四级听力模拟试题六

　　W: I should think theyd get tired of hearing music all day.

　　M: They dont though. One fellow in San Francisco told me, If the music stops, somebody always runs to the telephone to complain.

　　W: Now that I think about it, I cant remember when there wasnt background music in restaurants and stores.

　　M: Actually, background music started during World War II when some factories had their own orchestras to keep workers happy and calm. Now, of course, the music is piped in by a machine, and different kinds of music are played at different times during the day. They play faster music at ten in the morning than at eight, for instance, because workers tend to be slower then.

　　W: What about restaurants? Do they play the same music for dinner and lunch?

　　M: I dont know about that, but I do know that hamburger places play fast music. When they started playing faster music, they found that a customer spent only seventeen minutes eating. The time was twenty-two minutes before that.

　　W: So they have more people coming in and out to buy hamburgers.

　　M: Exactly. And thats good for business. You can see why music has become so popular. In Los Angeles, for instance, thirty different companies are selling background music services.

　　W: I still think theres something about it that I dont quite like.

　　M: I know what you mean, but lots of people wouldnt agree with you. The Xerox Corporation in Rochester, N.Y. spends more than $80,000 a year for background music. Prisons use it, and farmers use it to keep their cattle calm. Its even supposed to have an effect on plants.