Part BListening ComprehensionDirections: In this part of the test there will be some short

Part B Listening Comprehension

Directions: In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken ONLY ONCE. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

听力原文： Many a grown man can remember with pleasure the cool refreshment that came to him as a five-year old when he ran to his mother after playing on a hot afternoon and she fanned his perspiring face for a moment with her fan. If it was a folding lace fan it may have had a drop of sweet-smelling perfume in it to make the breeze sweet to a child.

Today, air-conditioning and electric motors have made us forget fans. In these days it often seems, too, that we have no time to sit and fan ourselves—and that's our great loss.

And yet you may be surprised to know that fans have not yet disappeared from the science. A good many are still made in France, which has always been a great home of the fan, and in the Orient, and quite a few even in busy, bustling America. You might never expect to see a fan today in a great, rushing city, and yet a few are still sold in New York and other great cities.

Today in Fifth Avenue's smart shops you may buy a severe little fan for a lady for $ 3, or a fine French "Louis ⅩⅣ" fan, with pictures of the king's countries, and the price？... $ 25.

Fans are still used here and there by people who find time to sit on porches, and they're used, too, at concerts and in church—and at dances. Today, however, they're finding a new use they never had before; once a year an interior decorator from St. Paul, Minnesota, journeys 1,100 miles to New York City to buy fans which she then frames as "shadow-boxes" and uses as decorations in smart homes.

Though no one knows where fans came from, researchers say that primitive men in all countries seem to have used them. Chances are that the first fan may have been a branch with leaves to whisk flies away from food, or a palm leaf used to fan up a fire in smouldering wood.

The word comes from Latin vannus: a Roman instrument for winnowing grain. The Bible says (Isaiah, 30:24): "The oxen.., shall eat clean provender which hath been winnowed with the shovel and the fan." This fan, or vannus, was a basket of special shape for tossing grain high into the air so the breeze could blow away the chaff. On hot days, farmers no doubt found they could cool each other by fanning with the vannus.

But fans have a very ancient history as the Chinese had fans in 2699 B. C. , if not long before. The Assyrians, 3,000 years ago, hung fans from the ceiling and, when they were pulled by ropes, they gave "enough wind to wreck a ship". In early Egypt, fans were widely used by kings and became a symbol of authority.

The strange thing about fans is: they are talkative. Since early times, man has used fans to say things. What can you say with a fan？ Until fifty years ago, Japanese generals when giving an order to attack, threw fans in the air as high as possible where, whirling over and over, the fans inspired men to fight.

Laborers in the Far East for hundreds of years used fans to cool themselves while working. Soldiers fanned themselves while under attack. Laborers and soldiers alike learned to greet each other pleasantly by a "nod" of their fans.

Questions:

1. How does a gown-up feel at the sight of a fan？

2. Where was the earliest birthplace of fans？

3. From what language does the word "fan" come？

4. Which of the earliest fans is mentioned in the talk？

5. Why are fans not as popular today as they used to be？

(21)

A．Refreshing.

B．Pleasant.

C．Cooling.

D．Exciting.