Step by Step 3000 第1册 Unit5:Net changes Life(4)

 　　Part 4. Short talks on listening skills.

　　Listen to the short talk entitled "Be careful with numbers".

　　Some important words are taken away from the written passage.

　　Supply the missing words.

　　Be careful with numbers.

　　Quick and accurate response to numbers is very important in daily communication.

　　Telephone numbers, addresses, prices, temperatures, time and dates are all closely linked with the use of numbers.

　　Besides, numbers also play a very important part in broadcast programs such as scientific stories, statistics update and reports about ongoing¹ events of various kinds.

　　Although identification of numbers in print is usually easy.

　　Number identification through listening proves to be a big problem for many people.

　　In actual listening, we are often required to get the numbers immediately after we hear them.

　　And failure to get a correct number, sometimes a mere² mistake in digit³, can seriously affect the understanding of the whole story, and therefore cause severe losses.

　　The differences between million and billion, "-teen's" and "-ty's" are so great that no one can simply afford to ignore them.

　　Numbers are sometimes read in different ways.

　　For example, "seventeen point five million" or "seventeen million five hundred thousand" can also be read as "seventeen and one half million".

　　Intensive training in numbers can help us get familiar with these different yet still regular ways of numbers presentations.

　　For easy reading and writing, numbers of more than four digits⁴ are often separated by commas into group of three digits each.

　　For example, "1,234,567" is one million, two hundred and thirty four thousand and five hundred and sixty seven.

　　Saying numbers over to yourselves after you hear them can increase our sensitivity to numbers.

　　Numbers are all around us.

　　Let us practice with numbers and learn to be good at numbers.

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

3 digit   

n.零到九的阿拉伯数字，手指，脚趾

参考例句：

• Her telephone number differs from mine by one digit.她的电话号码和我的只差一个数字。
• Many animals have five digits.许多动物有5趾。

4 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》