托福听力3大主要考点详解 知道难点才能做好应对准备
托福听力难点分析：考试持续时间长
托福听力的标准考试时间是41分钟，但如果遇到了听力加试，那么时间就会延长到57分钟。即使不考虑加试部分的时间，听力本身持续的时间也是托福考试听说读写四个环节中最长的。而且听力对考生注意力集中有很高的要求，想要保持连续至少半小时以上的集中专注是非常耗费精神的，更不用说听力考试前后还有其它的考试环节。因此大部分同学虽然在平时备考中面对听力练习能得到比较好的结果，但因为缺乏对于听力持久应试能力的训练，都会在听力考试进行到一半或者三分之二的时候就出现比较明显的注意力不集中精神涣散的情况，甚至会不知道自己到底听了什么。这样考试表现发挥的直线下滑就会让大家的得分表现明显下降，严重影响到听力得分。
托福听力难点分析：考试机制不友好
托福听力本身考试机制对于考生来说也是极其不友好的。具体限制可以归纳为三点，也就是不能提前看选项、不能返回前面的题目以及不能修改选定的答案。小编相信很多经历过国内英语听力考试的同学都会习惯于直接拿到听力题目以后按照题目去仔细听听力内容的做题方式，做完题目觉得没把握也可以返回检查甚至修改答案。但在托福听力考试中这些比较稳妥的做法全部被直接禁止，许多通过分析选项差异以及联系上下文题目来做选择的解题技巧也都无法使用，这对考生来说无疑也增加了很大的难度。
托福听力难点分析：听力内容非常
托福听力的第三个难点就在于听力内容本身，无论是持续2-3分钟看似篇幅较短的conversation还是平均5分钟左右的lecture，对话中的含金量都是很高的，涉及到的内容非常多。大家如果能找到一些听力文本类的资料可能就会有这种感慨：听上去没几分钟的内容居然说了这么多东西。而听力内容一多考生的记忆能力就会受到严重考验。只靠脑子去记显然不够，而即使有着草稿纸可以让大家用听写技巧来辅助记录，考生想要准确把握好听力材料的内容也是非常困难的事情，更不用说听写技能本身还是要花不少时间才能训练好。
总而言之，托福听力考试由于其较长的时间流程和严格的限制等特点，对中国考生来说是很大的挑战。而只有掌握了听力的真正难点所在，考生才能制定出更合理的备考计划来进行应对提升。因此上文内容，还请大家仔细学习了解一下。
托福听力练习对照文本
A lot of people in the United States are coffee drinkers.
在美国，很多人都是喝咖啡的人
Over the last few years, a trend has been developing to introduce premium, specially blended coffees, known as "gourmet coffees" into the American market.
在过去的几年里，已经发展出一种趋势，引进高价的，特殊调制的咖啡，被称作“美味咖啡”，到美国的市场。
Boston seems to have been the birthplace of this trend.
Boston似乎是这一趋势的诞生地
In fact, major gourmet coffee merchants from other cities like Seattle and San Francisco came to Boston, where today they're engaged in a kind of "coffee war" with Boston's merchants.
事实上，大多数来自其他的城市诸如Seattle 和 San Francisco的美味咖啡商人们来到了Boston，今天他们在这里参与进了同Boston的商人们的某种“咖啡战争”
They are all competing for a significant share of the gourmet coffee market.
他们都在为美味咖啡的一个重要市场份额竞争
Surprisingly, the competition among these leading gourmet coffee businesses will not hurt any of them.
令人惊讶的是，在这些主要的美味咖啡生意之间的竞争，将不会伤害他们中的任何人。
Experts predict that the gourmet coffee market in the United States is growing and will continue to grow, to the point that gourmet coffee will soon capture half of what is now a 1.5-million-dollar market and will be an 8-million-dollar market by 1999.
专家们预测美味咖啡的市场在美国正在增长并将持续增长，达到这种程度：美味咖啡将很快夺得现在150万美元的市场份额的一半，并将在1999年达到800万美金的市场份额
Studies have shown that coffee drinkers who convert to gourmet coffee seldom go back to the regular brands found in supermarkets.
研究已经表明，喝咖啡的人一转喝美味咖啡，很少回到常规的，在超市中找到的品牌
As a result, these brands will be the real losers in the gourmet coffee competition.
结果，这些品牌将在美味咖啡竞争中成为真正的输家
托福听力练习对照文本
Welcome to the Four Winds Historical Farm, where traditions of the past are preserved for visitors like you.
欢迎来到Four Winds历史农场，在这里过去的传统为你们这样的游客保留了下来。
Today, our master thatchers will begin giving this barn behind me a sturdy thatched roof, able to withstand heavy winds and last up to a hundred years.
今天，我们的茅屋匠大师将开始给予我身后的谷仓一个结实的茅草屋顶，能够抵挡大风并且维持上百年。
How do they do it? Well, in a nutshell, thatching involves covering the beams or rafters, the wooden skeleton of a roof with reeds or straw.
他们是怎么做到的呢?好，简而言之，用茅草覆盖屋顶包括用芦苇和稻草覆盖大梁和椽木，屋顶的木制骨架。
Our thatchers here have harvested their own natural materials for the job, the bundles of water reeds you see lying over there beside the barn.
我们这儿的茅屋匠们已经为这项工作收割了他们自己的天然材料，你们看见横放在那边谷仓旁的一束束的水芦了吧
Thatching is certainly uncommon in the Untied States today.
用茅草盖屋顶在今天的美国确实不太常见了
I guess that's why so many of you have come to see this demonstration.
我猜这也是为什么你们那么多人过来看这个演示。
But it wasn't always that way.
当并不总是这样。
In the seventeenth century, the colonists here thatched their roofs with reeds and straw, just as they had done in England.
在十七世纪，殖民者用芦苇和稻草覆盖他们的屋顶，就像他们在英国做的那样。
After a while, though, they began to replace the thatch with wooden shingles because wood was so plentiful.
然而，过了一阵子，他们开始使用木板瓦来代替茅草屋顶因为木材是如此充足。
And eventually, other roofing materials like stone, slate, and clay tiles came into use.
并且最终，其他屋顶材料如石头，石板，还有陶土瓦开始被使用了。
It's a real shame that most people today don't realize how strong and long lasting a thatched roof is.
真是很遗憾，今天大多数的人没有认识到一个茅草屋顶是多么结实和持久耐用。
In Ireland, where thatching is still practiced, the roofs can survive winds of up to one hundred ten miles per hour.
在爱尔兰，那里茅草屋顶依然被使用着，这种屋顶更够幸存于高达每小时一百一十英里的风速。
That's because straw and reeds are so flexible.
那是因为稻草和芦苇是这么的柔韧
They bend but don't break in the wind like other materials can.
他们在风中弯曲却不会像其他材料那样能断裂
Another advantage is that the roofs keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
另一个优势是这种屋顶保持了房子在夏天凉爽，并且在冬天温暖(冬暖夏凉)
And then, of course, there's the roofs' longevity—the average is sixty years, but they can last up to a hundred.
而且，当然了，还有屋顶的长寿命–平均是六十年，但他们能维持到一百年。
With all these reasons to start thatching roofs again, wouldn't it be wonderful to see this disappearing craft return to popularity?
带着所有这些理由去重新开始用茅草盖屋顶，难道看见这种正在消失中的工艺回归流行不是很美妙吗?
托福听力练习对照文本
You may remember that a few weeks ago we discussed the question of what photography is.
你们可能还记得几周前我们讨论过什么是摄影的问题。
Is it art, or is it a method of reproducing images? Do photographs belong in museums or just in our homes?
它是艺术，或者它是一个复制影响的方法?
Today I want to talk about a person who tried to make his professional life an answer to such questions.
今天我想谈谈关于一个试图使他的职业生涯成为这类问题的答案的人。
Alfred Stieglitz went from the United States to Germany to study engineering.
Alfred Stieglitz从美国除非去德国学习工程学
While he was there, he became interested in photography and began to experiment with his camera.
当他在那里的时候，他对摄影产生了兴趣，并开始用他的相机去实验。
He took pictures under conditions that most photographers considered too difficult.
他在大多数摄影师认为过于困难的条件下拍照片。
He took them at night, in the rain, and of people and objects reflected in windows.
他在夜晚，在雨中，以及在人和物体在窗户上的反射上取景(拍照片)。
When he returned to the United States he continued these revolutionary efforts.
当他回到美国时，他延续了这些革命性的努力。
Stieglitz was the first person to photograph skyscrapers, clouds, and views from an airplane.
Stieglitz是为摩天大楼，云朵，以及飞机上的景观拍照的第一人
What Stieglitz was trying to do in these photographs was what he tried to do throughout his life: make photography an art.
Stieglitz在这些照片上所努力去做的事儿，是他努力去做了一辈子的事儿：使摄影成为一门艺术。
He felt that photography could be just as good a form of self-expression as painting or drawing.
他觉得摄影能够成为一种自我表达形式，就像油画或者绘画一样。
For Stieglitz, his camera was his brush.
对Stieglitz来说，他的相机就是他的画笔。
While many photographers of the late 1800's and early 1900's thought of their work as a reproduction of identical images, Stieglitz saw his as a creative art form.
当很多十九世纪晚期和二十世纪早期的摄影师认为他们的工作就是相同的影像复制，Stieglitz把他的(工作)看做一种创造性的艺术的形式
He understood the power of the camera to capture the moment.
他了解相机在捕捉瞬间的上的能力
In fact, he never retouched his prints or made copies of them.
事实上，他从未修整过他的图片或者制造它们的副本。
If he were in this classroom today, I'm sure he'd say, "Well, painters don't normally make extra copies of their paintings, do they?"
如果今天他在这个教室中，我相信他会说：“好吧，画家们通常不会给他们的画制造额外的副本，对吗?”
