感谢简书上朋友@刷牙喝凉白开的建议，我反思一下，觉得前两天的阅读材料偏长，试着改成短一点、听力新闻类的材料。
听力来源：NPR，仅用于英语学习。
无法插入音频，请到51英语网--本音频文本下载网页聆听。中学生们朗诵的都不错，情绪饱满。
These High Schoolers Have A Passion For 'Poetry Out Loud'
It started with tens of thousands of high school students. Tonight, nine of them face off in the finals of Poetry Out Loud, a kind of spelling bee for poetry. The champion gets fame, glory and $20,000. NPR's Elizabeth Blair went to yesterday's semi-finals.
EVAN REYNOLDS: "I Have A Time Machine" by Brenda Shaughnessy.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: That's the Poetry Out Loud state champion from Connecticut, Evan Reynolds.
EVAN: It can only travel into the future at a rate of one second per second.
BLAIR: Students recited poems by the likes of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson and Phillip Levine. They're judged on things like physical presence, voice and articulation and evidence of understanding. From the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mahlana Graham recited "Black Boys Play The Classics" by Toi Derricotte.
MAHLANA GRAHAM: The most popular act in Penn Station is the three black kids in ratty sneakers and T-shirts playing two violins and a cello.
BLAIR: As a senior, this is Graham's fourth and last Poetry Out Loud. She received an honorable mention but was sad not to move to the next round.
MAHLANA: This competition is a huge part of my life. I have been looking forward to it since I've been in elementary school.
BLAIR: The state champion from Maine, Joao Rodrigues Victor, is moving on to the finals. He recited "Bright Copper Kettles" by Vijay Seshadri.
JOAO RODRIGUES VICTOR: Dead friends coming back to life. Dead family speaking languages living and dead.
BLAIR: This is the second year in a row the Maine state champion is an asylum-seeker. Victor is from Angola. Last year, the main champion was Allan Monga from Zambia. He sued the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation for a chance to compete for the national title. Last year, the NEA said only U.S. citizens could compete. This year, the rules are different. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News, Washington.
知识点：
1.face off: to fight, argue, or compete with someone对决、对峙
e.g. The U.S. and Russia are facing off at the U.N. Security Council.
2.spelling bee: a competition in which the winner is the person who spells the most words correctly拼字比赛。其基本规则是，当主持人念出一个词，参赛者就要开始把字母口述拼出来。参赛者可以重新再拼，但已念出的字母或字母顺序不可再更改。只要参赛者拼错了一个词，他就会立刻被淘汰。比赛以回合制举行，直至淘汰到最后一位参赛者为止。
Why it's called "spelling bee"?（为何拼字比赛的英文名会叫作“拼字蜜蜂”?） 原因至今尚不清楚。其中一个可信的说法，是历史上在美国这一类为某种目的而聚集的社会活动多会被冠以“蜜蜂”称号，衍生为“群体聚会“、”蜂拥而上的行动“之意，与汉语的”集体劳动“相若，如19世纪初农民集体剥玉米壳的活动就被称作”去壳蜜蜂”（husking bee）。
3.recite poems:朗诵诗歌，请注意后面的by the likes of...这是指像..一类型的...
e.g. Why would somebody like her want to spend an evening with the likes of me?
4.move to the next round:进入下一轮
后面还有move on to the finals：进入决赛
e.g. Two of their candidates made it through to the next round.
5.asylum seeker：similar to "refugee"
6.sue: 起诉
e.g.
- The company is suing a former employee.
- He is being sued for divorce (=in order to end a marriage) by his wife.
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