全新版大学英语听说教程第三册听力原文TapescriptsofUnit12.docVIP

Unit 12 Part B Text 1 The Launching of the Euro As firework displays ushered in the euro from Paris to Athens, Rome to Madrid, curiosity drove Europeans to cash machines at midnight December 31, 2001 for the first look at the brightly colored new notes. More than 300 million Europeans began changing their old currencies for the euro in the most ambitious currency changeover in history. To prepare for the large demand, banks across the euro zone disabled 200,000 ATMs in the afternoon, changing software and loading them with euro notes. Altogether 15 billion banknotes and 52 billion coins -- worth 646 billion euros, or $568 billion -- have been produced for the switchover. Knowing how people can be attached to their national currencies, architects of the euro expressed hope that it will help realize dreams of a united Europe. Across the continent, officials welcomed the euro as a sign of economic stability -- a new symbol to bind 12 nations on a continent at the heart of two world wars. We will become a greater Europe with the euro, EU Commission President said in Vienna, shortly after he used the new currency to buy flowers for his wife. We shall become stronger, wealthier. His view was shared by Helmut Kohl, the former German chancellor, who with the late French leader Francois Mitterrand had championed the single currency to bring peace and security to Europe. Kohl wrote in a newspaper, A vision is becoming a reality. For me, the common currency in Europe fulfills a dream. It means there is no turning back from the path toward unification of our continent. The nations adopting the euro are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. Those staying out are Britain, Sweden and Denmark. Questions: 1. What does the passage mainly tell us? 2. What can be said about the passage? 3. What can be inferred from the passage? Text 2 Britains Reaction to the Single Curren