Noise in Cities劍橋雅思12-聽力原文翻譯及答案解析

一、Noise in Cities聽力原文：

This lecture will be about the science of acoustics,the study of sound,in relation to urban environments such as cities.

As an acoustic engineer myself,I think this is an area where we're likely to see great changes.

In the past,researching urban soundscapes was simple.

We measured levels of sound in decibels,so I used to take my sound meter and I measured the noise somewhere,and then I might ask a sample of people to say at what level the sound became annoying.

With data like this,acoustic engineers have been able to build up what we call noise maps,maps of the sound environment.

But actually these aren't a lot of use.

What they do show is that the highest noise levels are generally on roads—well,that's not really very surprising.

But there's quite a lot going on that these maps don't show,because they can't capture the complex way that sound varies over time.

So they ignore important issues such as the noise someone might hear from the open windows or gardens of their neighbours,and this sort of noise can be quite significant in summer.

We don't have any databases on this sort of information.

As well as that,these records of sound levels take no account of the fact that people vary in their perceptions of noise—so someone like me with years of working in acoustics might be very different from you in that regard.

But anyway,even though these noise maps are fairly crude,they've been useful in providing information and raising awareness that noise matters,we need to deal with it and so it's a political matter.

And that's important-we need rules and regulations because noise can cause all sorts of problems.

Those of you who are city-dwellers know that things go on 24 hours a day,so city-dwellers often suffer from interrupted sleep.

It's also known that noise can lead to a rise in levels of stress,due to physical changes in the body affecting the composition of the blood.

And there are other problems as well,for instance if schoolchildren don't have a quiet place to study,their work will suffer.

Now,one problem with decibel measurement is that it doesn't differentiate between different types of noise.

Some types of sounds that most people would probably think of as nice and relaxing might well score quite highly in decibel levels-think of the sound made by a fountain in a town square,for example.

That's not necessarily something that we'd want to control or reduce.

So maybe researchers should consider these sorts of sounds in urban design.

This is going to be tricky because just measuring decibel levels isn't going to help us here.

Instead,many researchers are using social science techniques,studying people's emotional response to sound by using questionnaires and so on.

So what exactly do people want to hear in an urban environment?

Some recent interdisciplinary research has come out with results that at first sight seem contradictory-a city needs to have a sense of activity so it needs to be lively with sounds like the clack of high heels on a pavement or the hiss of a coffee machine,but these mustn't be too intrusive,because at the same time we need to be able to relax.

One of the major problems in achieving this will be getting architects and town planners to use the research.

Apart from studying the basics of acoustics,these people receive very little training in this area.

But in fact they should be regarding sound as an opportunity to add to the experience of urban living,whereas at present they tend to see it as something to be avoided or reduced as far as possible,or something that's just a job for engineers like the street drainage system.

What's needed is for noise in cities to be regarded as an aesthetic quality,as something that has the qualities of an art form.

If we acknowledge this,then we urgently need to know what governs it and how designers can work with it.

We need to develop a complex understanding of many factors.

What is the relationship between sound and culture?

What can we learn from disciplines such as psychology about the way that sound interacts with human development and social relationships,and the way that sound affects our thought and feelings?

Can we learn anything from physics about the nature of sound itself?

Today's powerful technologies can also help us.

To show us their ideas and help us to imagine the effect their buildings will have,architects and town planners already use virtual reality-but these programs are silent.

In the future such programs could use realistic sounds,meaning that soundscapes could be explored before being built.

So hopefully,using the best technology we can lay our hands on,the city of the future will be a pleasure to the ears as well as the eyes.

二、Noise in Cities聽力中文翻譯：

這堂課將是關(guān)于聲學(xué)的科學(xué)，即與城市環(huán)境（如城市）相關(guān)的聲音研究。

作為一名聲學(xué)工程師，我認(rèn)為這是一個(gè)我們可能會(huì)看到巨大變化的領(lǐng)域。

過去，研究城市聲景很簡(jiǎn)單。

我們以分貝為單位測(cè)量聲音的音量，所以我常常拿著我的音量表，在某處測(cè)量噪音，然后我可能會(huì)問一些人，他們的聲音在多大程度上變得煩人。

有了這樣的數(shù)據(jù)，聲學(xué)工程師已經(jīng)能夠繪制出我們稱之為噪聲圖的聲音環(huán)境圖。

但實(shí)際上，這些并沒有多大用處。

他們所顯示的是，最高的噪音水平通常發(fā)生在道路上，這并不奇怪。

但這些地圖并沒有顯示出很多情況，因?yàn)樗鼈儫o法捕捉聲音隨時(shí)間變化的復(fù)雜方式。

因此，他們忽視了一些重要的問題，例如有人可能會(huì)從鄰居敞開的窗戶或花園里聽到的噪音，而這種噪音在夏天可能非常嚴(yán)重。

我們沒有關(guān)于這類信息的任何數(shù)據(jù)庫。

除此之外，這些聲級(jí)記錄并沒有考慮到人們對(duì)噪音的看法不同這一事實(shí)，所以像我這樣在聲學(xué)領(lǐng)域工作多年的人在這方面可能與你大不相同。

但無論如何，盡管這些噪音地圖相當(dāng)粗糙，但它們?cè)谔峁┬畔⒑吞岣呷藗儗?duì)噪音問題的認(rèn)識(shí)方面很有用，我們需要處理它，因此這是一個(gè)政治問題。

這一點(diǎn)很重要，我們需要規(guī)章制度，因?yàn)樵胍魰?huì)引發(fā)各種問題。

你們這些城市居民都知道，事情每天24小時(shí)都在進(jìn)行，所以城市居民經(jīng)常睡眠中斷。

眾所周知，由于身體的物理變化會(huì)影響血液成分，噪音會(huì)導(dǎo)致壓力水平上升。

還有其他問題，例如，如果小學(xué)生沒有一個(gè)安靜的學(xué)習(xí)場(chǎng)所，他們的工作就會(huì)受到影響。

現(xiàn)在，分貝測(cè)量的一個(gè)問題是它不能區(qū)分不同類型的噪音。

某些類型的聲音，大多數(shù)人可能會(huì)認(rèn)為是美妙和放松的，可能在分貝級(jí)別上得分很高——例如，想想城鎮(zhèn)廣場(chǎng)上噴泉發(fā)出的聲音。

這不一定是我們想要控制或減少的事情。

因此，也許研究人員應(yīng)該在城市設(shè)計(jì)中考慮這些聲音。

這將是一個(gè)棘手的問題，因?yàn)閮H僅測(cè)量分貝水平對(duì)我們沒有幫助。

相反，許多研究人員正在使用社會(huì)科學(xué)技術(shù)，通過問卷調(diào)查等方式研究人們對(duì)聲音的情緒反應(yīng)。

那么，在城市環(huán)境中，人們到底想聽到什么呢？

最近的一些跨學(xué)科研究得出的結(jié)果乍一看似乎是矛盾的——一個(gè)城市需要有一種活動(dòng)感，所以它需要充滿活力，聽起來像是高跟鞋在人行道上的咔嚓聲或咖啡機(jī)的嘶嘶聲，但這些聲音不能太咄咄逼人，因?yàn)橥瑫r(shí)我們需要能夠放松。

實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)的主要問題之一是讓建筑師和城市規(guī)劃師使用這項(xiàng)研究。

除了學(xué)習(xí)聲學(xué)的基礎(chǔ)知識(shí)外，這些人很少接受這方面的培訓(xùn)。

但事實(shí)上，他們應(yīng)該將聲音視為增加城市生活體驗(yàn)的機(jī)會(huì)，而目前他們傾向于將其視為需要盡量避免或減少的事情，或者只是街道排水系統(tǒng)等工程師的工作。

我們需要的是將城市噪音視為一種美學(xué)品質(zhì)，一種具有藝術(shù)形式品質(zhì)的東西。

如果我們承認(rèn)這一點(diǎn)，那么我們迫切需要知道是什么支配著它，以及設(shè)計(jì)師如何使用它。

我們需要對(duì)許多因素有一個(gè)復(fù)雜的理解。

聲音和文化之間的關(guān)系是什么？

關(guān)于聲音如何與人類發(fā)展和社會(huì)關(guān)系相互作用，以及聲音如何影響我們的思想和感情，我們可以從心理學(xué)等學(xué)科中學(xué)到什么？

我們能從物理學(xué)中學(xué)到聲音本身的本質(zhì)嗎？

今天強(qiáng)大的技術(shù)也可以幫助我們。

為了向我們展示他們的想法并幫助我們想象他們的建筑將產(chǎn)生的效果，建筑師和城市規(guī)劃師已經(jīng)使用了虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)——但這些程序都是沉默的。

在未來，這樣的程序可以使用真實(shí)的聲音，這意味著可以在建造之前對(duì)聲音景觀進(jìn)行探索。

因此，我們希望，利用我們能夠掌握的最好技術(shù)，未來的城市將是一個(gè)賞心悅目的城市。

三、Noise in Cities聽力問題：

Question 31-40

Complete the notes below.Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.Noise in Cities

Past research focused on noise level(measured in decibels)and people’s responses.

Noise‘maps’

show that the highest noise levels are usually found on roadsdo not show other sources of noise,e.g.when windows are open or people’s neighbours are in their ignore variations in people’s perceptions of noisehave made people realize that the noise is a issue that must be dealt with Problems caused by noise

sleep disturbanceincrease in amount of stresseffect on the of schoolchildren Different types of noise

Some noises can be considered pleasant e.g.the sound of a in a town

To investigate this,researchers may use methods from sciences e.g.questionnaires

What people want

Plenty of activity in urban environments which are but also allow people to relax

But architects and town planners

do not get much in acousticsregard sound as the responsibility of engineers Understanding sound as an art form

We need to know

how sound relates to what can be learnt from psychology about the effects of soundwhether physics can help us understand the of soundVirtual reality programs

advantage:predict the effect of buildingscurrent disadvantage:they are

四、Noise in Cities聽力答案：

31.gardens

32.political

33.work

34.fountain

35.social

36.lively

37.training

38.culture

39.nature

40.silent

五、Noise in Cities聽力答案解析

31.題目中定位為鄰居的什么，所以答案為名詞。文中用了從屬gardens of their neighbours。此前的open windows也可作為信號(hào)詞，在文中重現(xiàn)。

32.題目定位是對(duì)issue的修飾，所以答案詞性為名詞或者形容詞。People realize與文中的rise awareness意思一致，所以答案就很接近，后面的deal with it，關(guān)鍵詞前置，所以答案是后面的political。

33.題目定位schoolchildren,文中出現(xiàn)原詞，答案詞是名詞，所以文中的their work will suffer,是答案句，suffer與effect替換。

34.題目分析這里是對(duì)好聽聲音的一個(gè)舉例，所以答案為實(shí)物名詞。文中先提到了nice and relaxing與pleasant對(duì)應(yīng)，所以后面的sound made by a fountain即為答案句。

35.此題答案是對(duì)科學(xué)的修飾，所以答案詞性為名詞或形容詞，前面的methods也可作為關(guān)鍵詞，文中直接講到了social science，即為答案。

36.題目中答案是對(duì)城市中活動(dòng)的說明，所以答案詞性為形容詞，或者名詞。文中先提到了activity，暗示答案已經(jīng)接近，后面講到it needs to be lively，所以答案即是lively。

37.題目中有否定，且限定在聲學(xué)領(lǐng)域，much后跟可數(shù)名詞。錄音中的very little表否定，很少的，與題目對(duì)應(yīng)，所以答案是training。

38.relate to和…有關(guān)，文中用了the relationship between與其對(duì)應(yīng)，所以答案是culture。

39.題目中是物理可以幫助了解聲音的什么，physics在文中易于定位，所以后面的nature of sound即為答案句。

40.題目問的是缺點(diǎn)，所以最后再講到科技進(jìn)步帶來的好處后有but轉(zhuǎn)折，所以答案在后面的these programs are silent.與題目正好對(duì)應(yīng)。

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