Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I have been asked today to talk to you about the urban landscape. There are two major areas that I will focus on in my talk: how vegetation can have a significant effect on urban climate, and how we can better plan our cities using trees to provide a more comfortable environment 【Q31】for us to live in.
Trees can have a significant impact on our cities. They can make a city, as a whole, a bit less windy or a bit more windy,【Q32】 if that's what you want. They can make it a bit cooler if it's a hot summer day in an Australian city, or they can make it a bit more humid【Q33】 if it's a dry inland city. On the local scale - that is, in particular areas within the city - trees can make the local area more shady,【Q34】 cooler, more humid and much less windy. In fact trees and planting of various kinds can be used to make city streets actually less dangerous【Q35】 in particular areas. How do trees do all that, you ask?
Well, the main difference between a tree and a building is a tree has got an internal mechanism to keep the temperature regulated. It evaporates water through its leaves【Q36】 and that means that the temperature of the leaves is never very far from our own body temperature. The temperature of a building surface on a hot sunny day can easily be twenty degrees more than our temperature. Trees, on the other hand, remain cooler than buildings because they sweat. This means that they can humidify the air and cool it - a property which can be exploited to improve the local climate.
Trees can also help break the force of winds. The reason that high buildings make it windier at ground【Q37】 level is that, as the wind goes higher and higher, it goes faster and faster. When the wind hits the building, it has to go somewhere. Some of it goes over the top and some goes around the sides of the building, forcing those high level winds down to ground level. That doesn't happen when you have trees. Trees filter the wind and considerably reduce it,【Q38】 preventing those very large strong gusts that you so often find around tall buildings.
Another problem in built-up areas is that traffic noise is intensified by tall buildings. By planting a belt of trees at the side of the road, you can make things a little quieter, but much of the vehicle noise still goes through the trees. Trees can also help reduce the amount of noise in the surroundings, although the effect is not as large as people like to think. Low【Q39】- frequency noise, in particular, just goes through the trees as though they aren't there.
Although trees can significantly improve the local climate, they do however take up a lot of space. There are root systems to consider and branches blocking windows and so on. It may therefore be difficult to fit trees into the local landscape. There is not a great deal you can do if you have what we call a street canyon - a whole set of high-rises enclosed in a narrow street. Trees need water to grow. They also need some sunlight to grow and you need room【Q40】 to put them. If you have the chance of knocking buildings down and replacing them, then suddenly you can start looking at different ways to design the streets and to introduce...
Complete the notes below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
观察已知信息，可以知道文章的总体脉络非常清晰。文章先提到将要谈到的两个方面，然后阐明了树木的大范围影响和小范围影响，最后把树木和建筑物的相关信息作了比较。做题前的观察往往有利于更好地听题，使听题时不至于很盲目。
此题空前给出文字里提到“plan”一词，因此，在听原文时，注意“plan”这个信号词至关重要。另外， 此题一定要填复数“cities”，否则不给分。
speaker 介绍“Trees can have a significant impact on our cities”时，出现了定位词“impact”和“cities”，这时要注意听后面的答案，“They can make a city, as a whole, a bit less windy or a bit more windy”，听到的“a bit less…a bit more”和题干中的“more or less”是同义转换，而且答案“windy”重复了两遍。
这道题出现了答案置前，定位词“inland city”靠后的情况。原文中“they can make it a bit more humid if it’s a dry inland city”与题干中“they can make inland cities more humid”为同义转换，答案为 humid（潮湿的，湿润的）。
原文中说“On the large scale —that is, in particular areas within the city, trees can make the local area more shady, cooler, more humid and much less windy.”当听到定位词“local area”时要注意，准备听写随之出现的答案。“shady”意为“多荫的”。
原文中说“In fact, trees and planting of various kinds can be used to make city streets actually less dangerous in particular areas.”定位词“make city streets”出现就预示着答案将随之出现，录音中说道“actually less dangerous in particular areas”，答案即为 dangerous ( 危险的 )。
原文中说“It evaporates water through its leaves and that means the temperature of the leaves is never very far from our own body temperature.”当听到定位词“evaporate water”时，要集中注意力，随时准备听写答案，接着原文中说道“through its leaves”，所以答案为 leaves ( 树叶的复数，单数为“leaf”)。
原文中说到“The reason that high buildings make it windier at ground lever is that, as the wind goes higher and higher, it goes faster and faster.”听到的“high building”和题干中的“tall building”是同义转换，当定位词“building”出现后，接着听到空格前的实词“more wind”被“windier”替换，随之答案出现 at ground level。
这道题的定位词是主语“trees”和“wind force”，通过预测，这道题缺少谓语，所以要着重听动词。原文中说“Trees filter the wind and considerably reduce it.”“filter”表示“过滤，渗透”的意思。
这道题的定位词是离空格最近上一行的“traffic noise”和空格后面的实词“frequency noise”，预测空格处可能填形容词，修饰“frequency”。原文中说“Trees can also ( 路标词 ) help reduce the amount of noise（定位词）in the surroundings, although（路标词）the effect is not as large as people like to think. Low frequency noise…”答案为 low。
这道题的定位词是“sunlight”和“water”，and 连接并列结构，所以预测空格处所填答案为不可数名词。原文中说“They also need some sunlight to grow and you need room to put them.”答案为 room ( 空间 )。
