Noise in Cities剑桥雅思12-听力原文翻译及答案解析

一、Noise in Cities听力原文：

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听力中文翻译：

这堂课将是关于声学的科学，即与城市环境（如城市）相关的声音研究。

作为一名声学工程师，我认为这是一个我们可能会看到巨大变化的领域。

过去，研究城市声景很简单。

我们以分贝为单位测量声音的音量，所以我常常拿着我的音量表，在某处测量噪音，然后我可能会问一些人，他们的声音在多大程度上变得烦人。

有了这样的数据，声学工程师已经能够绘制出我们称之为噪声图的声音环境图。

但实际上，这些并没有多大用处。

他们所显示的是，最高的噪音水平通常发生在道路上，这并不奇怪。

但这些地图并没有显示出很多情况，因为它们无法捕捉声音随时间变化的复杂方式。

因此，他们忽视了一些重要的问题，例如有人可能会从邻居敞开的窗户或花园里听到的噪音，而这种噪音在夏天可能非常严重。

我们没有关于这类信息的任何数据库。

除此之外，这些声级记录并没有考虑到人们对噪音的看法不同这一事实，所以像我这样在声学领域工作多年的人在这方面可能与你大不相同。

但无论如何，尽管这些噪音地图相当粗糙，但它们在提供信息和提高人们对噪音问题的认识方面很有用，我们需要处理它，因此这是一个政治问题。

这一点很重要，我们需要规章制度，因为噪音会引发各种问题。

你们这些城市居民都知道，事情每天24小时都在进行，所以城市居民经常睡眠中断。

众所周知，由于身体的物理变化会影响血液成分，噪音会导致压力水平上升。

还有其他问题，例如，如果小学生没有一个安静的学习场所，他们的工作就会受到影响。

现在，分贝测量的一个问题是它不能区分不同类型的噪音。

某些类型的声音，大多数人可能会认为是美妙和放松的，可能在分贝级别上得分很高——例如，想想城镇广场上喷泉发出的声音。

这不一定是我们想要控制或减少的事情。

因此，也许研究人员应该在城市设计中考虑这些声音。

这将是一个棘手的问题，因为仅仅测量分贝水平对我们没有帮助。

相反，许多研究人员正在使用社会科学技术，通过问卷调查等方式研究人们对声音的情绪反应。

那么，在城市环境中，人们到底想听到什么呢？

最近的一些跨学科研究得出的结果乍一看似乎是矛盾的——一个城市需要有一种活动感，所以它需要充满活力，听起来像是高跟鞋在人行道上的咔嚓声或咖啡机的嘶嘶声，但这些声音不能太咄咄逼人，因为同时我们需要能够放松。

实现这一目标的主要问题之一是让建筑师和城市规划师使用这项研究。

除了学习声学的基础知识外，这些人很少接受这方面的培训。

但事实上，他们应该将声音视为增加城市生活体验的机会，而目前他们倾向于将其视为需要尽量避免或减少的事情，或者只是街道排水系统等工程师的工作。

我们需要的是将城市噪音视为一种美学品质，一种具有艺术形式品质的东西。

如果我们承认这一点，那么我们迫切需要知道是什么支配着它，以及设计师如何使用它。

我们需要对许多因素有一个复杂的理解。

声音和文化之间的关系是什么？

关于声音如何与人类发展和社会关系相互作用，以及声音如何影响我们的思想和感情，我们可以从心理学等学科中学到什么？

我们能从物理学中学到声音本身的本质吗？

今天强大的技术也可以帮助我们。

为了向我们展示他们的想法并帮助我们想象他们的建筑将产生的效果，建筑师和城市规划师已经使用了虚拟现实——但这些程序都是沉默的。

在未来，这样的程序可以使用真实的声音，这意味着可以在建造之前对声音景观进行探索。

因此，我们希望，利用我们能够掌握的最好技术，未来的城市将是一个赏心悦目的城市。

三、Noise in Cities听力问题：

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听力答案：

31.gardens

32.political

33.work

34.fountain

35.social

36.lively

37.training

38.culture

39.nature

40.silent

五、Noise in Cities听力答案解析

31.题目中定位为邻居的什么，所以答案为名词。文中用了从属gardens of their neighbours。此前的open windows也可作为信号词，在文中重现。

32.题目定位是对issue的修饰，所以答案词性为名词或者形容词。People realize与文中的rise awareness意思一致，所以答案就很接近，后面的deal with it，关键词前置，所以答案是后面的political。

33.题目定位schoolchildren,文中出现原词，答案词是名词，所以文中的their work will suffer,是答案句，suffer与effect替换。

34.题目分析这里是对好听声音的一个举例，所以答案为实物名词。文中先提到了nice and relaxing与pleasant对应，所以后面的sound made by a fountain即为答案句。

35.此题答案是对科学的修饰，所以答案词性为名词或形容词，前面的methods也可作为关键词，文中直接讲到了social science，即为答案。

36.题目中答案是对城市中活动的说明，所以答案词性为形容词，或者名词。文中先提到了activity，暗示答案已经接近，后面讲到it needs to be lively，所以答案即是lively。

37.题目中有否定，且限定在声学领域，much后跟可数名词。录音中的very little表否定，很少的，与题目对应，所以答案是training。

38.relate to和…有关，文中用了the relationship between与其对应，所以答案是culture。

39.题目中是物理可以帮助了解声音的什么，physics在文中易于定位，所以后面的nature of sound即为答案句。

40.题目问的是缺点，所以最后再讲到科技进步带来的好处后有but转折，所以答案在后面的these programs are silent.与题目正好对应。