Step by Step 3000 第1册 Unit8:Trends in Economics(4)

 　　Part 4. Short talks on listening skills.

　　Listen to the short talk entitled "Thinking ahead of the speaker ——anticipation helps".

　　Some important words are taken away from the written passage, supply the missing words.

　　Thinking ahead of the speaker ——anticipation helps.

　　Listening is an extremely complex communicative activity.

　　In his book "Principals and implications of cognitive¹ phycology", Neisser defines listening as a "temporarily extended activity" in which the listener continuously develops more or less specific readiness for what will come next.

　　In other words, an effective listener is constantly setting up hypothesis in his mind, and also he is constantly testing his hypothesis by matching it with what he has heard in reality.

　　If he hears what he has expected, he receives the information, but if what he hears is totally out of his expectation, he fails to get the message.

　　The skill to anticipate what is coming in listening comprehension depends largely on the listener's familiarity with the theme of the message.

　　It also depends on the listener's knowledge of the speaker as well as the setting.

　　Obviously, when we listen to something that we already have some information about, it is generally a lot easier for us take in the new information.

　　Therefore, pre-listening preparation seems to have a big role to play in enhancing listening comprehension.

　　Before actual listening, we could perhaps first give some thought to the topic, discuss it with others, read some related materials and do some vocabulary work.

　　If we could make ourselves fully² oriented for the forthcoming talks or lectures, we are more likely to become effective listeners.

　　Of course, readiness beforehand is not at all enough, active thinking must take place all the way through.

　　In fact, we should always try to think ahead of the speaker.

　　The ability to anticipate helps us in logical and intelligent guesswork.

　　It does not only enable us to know generally what a person is going to talk about in a certain situation, but also interestingly enough.

　　Sometimes even exactly what a person's next utterance³ is going to be in a discussion.

1 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 utterance   

n.用言语表达，话语，言语

参考例句：

• This utterance of his was greeted with bursts of uproarious laughter.他的讲话引起阵阵哄然大笑。
• My voice cleaves to my throat,and sob chokes my utterance.我的噪子哽咽，泣不成声。