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

　　Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

　　29: What topic does this text mainly deal with?

　　30: In what way is a teachers work different from an actors?

　　31: What is the main difference between students in class and audiences in theaters?

　　Passage Three

　　When someone says, Well, I guess Ill have to go and face the music, it does not mean he is planning to go to a concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this or that. Sour music, indeed, but it has to be faced. The phrase to face the music is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old. Where did the expression come from? The first information came from the American writer James Fenimore Cooper. He said ―in 1851― that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on stage. After they got their cue to go on, they often said, Its time to go to face the music. And that is exactly what they did ―face the orchestra which was just below the stage.

　　An actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved on to the stage in front of the audience that might be friendly or perhaps unfriendly, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. So, to face the music came to mean having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you had no choice. The other explanation comes from the army. Men had to face inspection by their leader. The soldiers worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean and shiny enough to pass inspection? Still, the men had to go out, and face the music of the band, as well as the inspection. What else could they do?