NPR边听边练57:纽约新年庆祝活动

 　　以下段落是摘自新闻里的一些重要信息,并不是一个段落的听写。空内信息可在本新闻中全部找到,大家可以根据这些信息复述新闻。

　　一、泛听建议：

　　1、完整听一遍，掌握大意。

　　2、继续听，特别注意关键信息。遇到相似的词，写下来。

　　3、复述新闻。

　　Close to a million people show up each year for New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square and organizers say more than a billion people around the world _1_ watch the festivities on television and on the Web.

　　As NPR's Margot Adler reports, planning for this night is a year round job and the days before the event _2_ tests. Testing the ball-drop, that makes sense, given some 32,000 LED lights. But many of the tests are fun and silly, like the confetti test. Tonight, confetti will _3_ seven buildings. On Saturday, there was a test with the media in tow¹.

　　Jeffrey Straus, of Countdown Entertainment, and Allison Hagendorf, a broadcast personality and host of this year's event, dropped confetti from an eighth floor window onto Times Square, over and over. Three, two, one, Happy New Year.Three, two, one, woo.

　　Whoa, beautiful. Beautiful, I _4_ my fluffing there. You see it _5_ perfectly².Now, this is taking place December 29th. And the cynic might say,Why wouldn't the confetti float?All this week, people have been visiting this building, One Times Square, to write their wishes on pieces of confetti. Those wishes _6_ with the regular confetti.So, if you're in Time Square you see all of these peoples' wishes falling down on you from the sky. And people actually _7_ and save them.

　　I watched Tracy Baggins(ph) write two wishes on a piece of confetti. I guess my first thought would be world peace and actually authentic³ love.The other thing tourists do here is get their pictures take in front of a big replica⁴ of The Time Square Ball. Wilbur Tune(ph), who works⁵ for the organizers, is taking pictures of each family group with their own camera or cell phone. And he's totally hamming it up as if they were models on a runway.

　　词汇解析：

　　1、confetti . （婚礼、狂欢节中抛撒的）五彩纸屑；（旧时狂欢节或庆祝场合抛撒的）糖果

　　2、Countdown . 倒数计秒

　　3、cynic . 愤世嫉俗者；犬儒学派的人adj. 犬儒学派的

　　4、replica . 复制品，复制物

　　1、are expected to 2、are filled with 3、be dropped from 4、take pride in

　　5、floated 6、get mixed in 7、pick them up

1 tow   

n.拖，拉，牵引

参考例句：

• The broken-down car was taken in tow by a lorry.那辆坏了的车由一辆货车拖着。
• Mrs Hayes went to the supermarket with her four little children in tow.海斯太太带着她的4个小孩到超市去了。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

4 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

5 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。