听力材料：
　　Questions 1 ~ 10 :
　　Do It Yourself Magazine organizes a competition every summer to elect the "Handyman of the year". The winner of this year is Mr. Roy Miller, a Sheffield postman. A journalist and a photographer have come to his house. The journalist is interviewing Mr. Miller for an article in the magazine.
　　W:Well, I'm very impressed by all the work you've done on your house,
　　Mr. Miller. How long have you been working on it?
　　M:I first became interested in Do-it-Yourself several years ago. You see, my son Paul is disabled. He's in a wheel-chair and I just had to make alterations to the house. I couldn't afford to pay workmen to do it. I had to learn to do it myself.
　　W:Had you had any experience in this kind of work? Did you have any
　　practical skills?
　　M:No. I got a few books from the library but they didn't help very much. So I decided to go to evening classes so that I could learn basic carpentry and electrical wiring.
　　W:What sort of changes did you make to the house?
　　M:First of all, practical things to help Paul. You never really realize the problems handicapped people have until it attacks your own family. Most government buildings, for example, have steps up to the door. They don't plan buildings so that disabled people can get in and out. We used to live in a flat, and of course, it was totally unsuitable. Just imagine the problems a disabled person would have in your house. We needed a larger house with wide corridors so that Paul could get from one room to an-other. We didn't have much money and we had to buy this one. It's over ninety years old and it was in a very bad state of repair.
　　W:Where did you begin?
　　M:The electrical. I completely rewired the house so that Paul could reach all the switches. I had to lower the light switches and raise the power-points. I went on to do the whole house so that Paul could reach things and go where he needed.
　　W:What else did you do?
　　M:By the time I'd altered everything for Paul, do-it-yourself had become a hobby. I really enjoyed doing things with my hands. Look, I even in-stalled smoke-alarms.
　　W:What was the purpose of that?
　　M:I was very worded about fire. You see, Paul can't move very fast. I fitted them so that we would have plenty of warning if there were a fire. I put in a complete burglar-alarm system. It took weeks. The front door opens automatically, and I'm going to put a device on Paul's wheelchair so that he'll be able to open and close it when he wants.
　　W:What are you working on now?
　　M:I've just finished the kitchen. I've designed it so that he can reach every-thing. Now I'm building an extension so that Paul will have a large room on the ground floor where he can work.
　　W:There's a $10,000 prize. How are you going to spend it?
　　M:I am going to start my own business so that I can convert ordinary houses
　　for disabled people. I think I've become an expert on the subject.
　　Questions 11 ~ 13 :
　　Do you find getting up in the morning difficult and painful? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleiman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a dally energy cycle.
　　During the hours when you labor through your work you may say that you're "hot". That's true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak. For some people the peak comes during the forenoon. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so. The possible explanation is that one is at his temperature-and-energy peak in the evening. Much family quarreling ends when husbands and wives realize what these energy cycles mean, and which cycle each member of the family has.
　　You can't change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit it better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleiman believes. Maybe you're sleepy in the evening but feel you must stay up late anyway. Counteract your cycle to some extent by habitually staying up later than you want to. If your energy is low in the morning but you have an important job to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won't change your cycle, but you'll get up and work better at your low point.
　　Get off to a slow start which saves your energy. Get up with a leisurely yawn and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the trouble for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. Whenever possible, do routine work in the afternoon and save tasks requiring more energy or concentration for your sharper hours.
　　Questions 14 ~ 16 :
　　Yesterday we discussed the problem of rising prices, or,. in the economist's terms, inflation. We noted that, during periods of inflation, all prices and incomes do not rise at the same rate. Some incomes rise more slowly than the cost of living, and a few do not rise at all. Other incomes rise more rapidly than the cost of living.
　　We concluded that persons with fixed incomes, for example, the elderly who depend upon pensions, and persons with slow-rising incomes as, for ex-ample, an employee with a salary agreed to in a long-term contract, will be most seriously affected by inflation. Please remember that while their dollar incomes, stay the same, the cost of goods and services rises, and in effect, real income decreases, that is, they are able to purchase less with the same amount of money.
　　We also talked about the fact that stockholders and persons with business interests and investments would probably benefit most from inflation, since high prices would increase sales receipts, and profits would likely rise
　　faster than the cost of living.
　　And now, before we begin today's lecture, are there any questions a-bout the term, inflation or any of the examples given in our discussion so far?
　　 Questions 17 ~ 20 :
　　I want to talk today about some studies. They seem to indicate that there is a startling world-wide decline in the number of amphibians, such as frogs, toads and salamanders. There's little doubt that one reason why the number of amphibians is declining is their habitats have been destroyed when the developers fill in ponds and marshes to build houses. Amphibians can'! just move somewhere. They need water to lay their eggs in. Another problem is the growing fish industry. Another range of popular pool fish such as carp have been introduced to many lakes and ponds all over the world. Raising and selling these fish can be profitable, but the fish eat the eggs and off-spring of amphibians that were already living in. the lakes and ponds. Other factors could be contributing to the decline include acid rain and the spread of pesticide residues. Many pesticides that farmers added to their crops are eventually washed away by the rain and end up in ponds and other bodies of water where amphibians live. Amphibians are especially vulnerable to pesticides dissolved in the water because of their moist skins. Water can pass through amphibians allowing toxins dissolved in the water to enter the amphibians' body.
　　Questions 21 ~ 30 :
　　For those of you who are either already studying in the United States or planning to one day, it might be interesting to know something about the foreign student population in the United States. For the academic year 1995/96there was a sum of approximately 34~, 000 foreign students studying in the United States. This figure of 344,000 may seem like a very large number until you compare it with the total population of 241,000,000. The foreign student population has been growing for a number of years and is still growing, but the rate of increase has dropped sharply during the 1990s. During the 1980s, the population grew quite rapidly. For example, between 1985and 1990, the average yearly increase was 12. 5%. However, the picture in the 1990s is quite different. The rate of increase has declined quite noticeably. In fact, the rate of increase between 1994/95 and 1995/96 was only0. 5%, or one-half of one percent. Although the overall rate of increase has dropped to only 0. 5%, the number of students from some parts of the world is increasing while the number of students from other areas is decreasing. Forexample, during this same period, that is between the academic years 1994/95 and 1995/96, there was a decrease in the number of students from the Middle East, while the number of students from South and East Asia in-creased. These changes in the number of students coming from different parts of the world no doubt reflected changing economic and political situations. I'm sure you are aware of many of these changes, and perhaps we can discuss them at our next meeting. For today let's confine our talk to first, a discussion of the origin of these students, or, in other words, where they came from; second, the kinds of studies they pursue; and, finally, the academic levels they are found in. If we have a little time left, we might quickly talk about in which geographic areas most of them go to school.
　　Let's discuss the origins of the foreign student population in the United States for the academic year 1995/96. Let's discuss it in order from those areas sending the most students to those areas sending the fewest students. If
　　we look at the figures provided by the annual census of foreign students in the United States for the year 1995/96, we see that most of the foreign students studying in the United States during this year were from South and East Asia. This is a rather large geographical area which includes such countries as China, Korea, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The total number of students from this area, South and East Asia was 156,830. In other words, roughly 2 out of every 5 foreign students come from South and East Asia. Almost 24,000 of this total were from China. MalaySia was close behind with just a little over 23,000 students. The next largest number of students came from the Middle East. The number of students from the Mid-die East came to about one-third the number from South and East Asia. The fourth largest number came from South America. Next came Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania. Let's recapitulate what we've said. The largest number of students studying in the United States during the academic year 1995/96 were from South and East Asia, followed by the Middle East, South America, Europe, Africa, North America, and Oceania.
　　What fields are these large numbers of foreign students studying in? It probably won't surprise you that the largest number are in the field of engineering. In fact, 21.7% of the total number are studying engineering. Business and management is close behind, however, with a total of 18.9%. The third most popular field was mathematics and computer sciences with 10.3%. As you can see, engineering with 21.7%, business and management with 18.9%, and mathematics and Computer sciences with 10.3% comprise about one half of the total number of foreign students.
　　Let's discuss which academic levels these students can be found in. Foreign students can be found studying at all levels of higher education. As you might expect, the greatest number of them are studying at the undergraduate level approximately 158,000. The second largest group study at the graduate level and that number is just under 122,000. The rest study at junior colleges or in non-degree programs. It is at the graduate level that foreign students have the most impact. While foreign students comprise only 2.7% of the total U. S. student population, they account for 8. 7% of all the graduate students studying at U. S. institutions. Let me give you those percentages a-gain so you can get a better view for the overall picture. Foreign students make up only 2.7 % of the total U. S. student population, but they make up8.7% of the total graduate student population.
　　Well, I see that's all the time we have today. We'll have to leave discussions of the geographic areas these students study in until another time.