录音说2012年 2 0名小学生被枪杀引起全国关于持枪的讨论，也致使奥巴马 政府发出呼吁限制军用型枪支的持有（ fueled a national discussion over gun laws and calls by the Obama administration to limit the availability of military-style weapons) ， 但并没有立即说结果如何，反而接着用了一个however, 说第二年妥协性立法在参议院受挫，公众的呼吁没有用（However， compromise legislation was defeated in the Senate in 2013, despite extensive public support) 。这也就给出了正确答案 C，即参议院没有对来自公众的压力低头。

[重点难点]
排除有关信息的干扰，抓住主要信息，此处主要是以However开头的句子。

[录音原文]
Passage Three
The debate over gun control in the United States has waxed and waned over the years, stirred by a series of mass killings by gunmen in civilian settings. In particular, the killing of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 fueled a national discussion over gun laws and calls by the Obama administration to limit the availability of military-style weapons. However, compromise legislation was defeated in the Senate in 2013, despite extensive public support.
Gun-control advocates sought to rekindle the debate following another string of deadly mass shootings in 2015, including the killing of nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and 14 at a community center in San Bernardino, California. In January 2016, President Obama took a series of executive actions intended to curb gun violence. The most notable measure was to expand federal background checks to most gun buyers.
A number of gun advocates consider ownership a birthright and an essential part of America's heritage. The United States, with less than 5 percent of the world's population, has about 35-50 percent of the worlds civilian-owned guns. It ranks number one in firearms per capita. The United States also has the highest homicide-by-firearm rate among the world’s most developed nations.
Federal law sets the minimum standards for firearm regulation in the United States, but individual states have their own laws, some of which provide further restrictions, others which are more lenient. Some states, including Idaho, Alaska, and Kansas, have passed laws designed to circumvent federal policies, but the Constitution establishes the supremacy of federal law.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibited the sale of firearms to several categories of individuals, including persons under 18 years of age, those with criminal records, the mentally disabled, unlawful aliens, dishonorably discharged military personnel, and others. In 1993, the law was amended by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which mandated background checks for all unlicensed persons purchasing a firearm from a federally licensed dealer.

该题题干给出了 2016年，而录音中明确提到这一年，所以不属于难题。可以 利用排除法结合特殊词语（时间）对应来解题。选 项 A 给出奥巴马重新发起辩论，而辩论很难作为措施看待，仅从这一点就基本上可以排除。选项B 说的是stop gun violence，其中的stop过于简单笼统。选项C 所说的strengthen the police force未必 与涉及持枪立法方面有直接关系，所以也应该排除。正确答案D 在录音中明确表现为The most notable measure was to expand federal background checks to most gun buyers，理解为加强国家对绝大多数购买枪支人员的背景的检查，实际上就是选择项 D 所说的从根源上堵住这方面的漏洞（to close legal loopholes in gun purchases） 。

[重点难点]
理解expand ...checks与 close ... loopholes的语义功能等同关系。

涉及该题的录音内容从The United States开始，集中注意力对抓住细节很有 利。选项A 很有迷惑性，因为录音中有与之相同的词语The United States also has the highest homicide...，但在这个说法中，homicide只是临时复合词中的一个词，而整个复合词及其修饰语是homicide-by-firearm rate，所以选项A 所说的不加限定的the highest rate of homicide in the world是不符合事实的，即题干所说的NOT true的答案。其他选项则都是录音原意的变换说法。

[重点难点]
区分关键词语 the highest homicide-by-firearm rate 与 the highest rate of homicide in the world 的意义区别。

该题问题具有一定笼统性，这就给解题造成了难度。相比之下，利用排除法是比较可取的策略。原文中连续出现几个some states, 说出各州有自己或更严或更松的法律，这就排除了 A 、B 两项。选择正确答案C 需要理解录音中的circumvent 的意思是用迂回的方法来回避，这正是avoid表达的意思。选项D的内容在录音中没有提及，应该排除。

[重点难点]
理解circumvent和 avoid两个词的语义关联。

该题难度中等，难点在于正确选项A 在录音中出现得比较偏后，而且与录音 中的表述在字面上没有对应。录音中使用了 unlawful aliens (非法移居的外国人）， 这个在法律文书中比较常用的短语在口语中并不经常使用。所以，该题也是对词汇 掌握的测试，如果对unlawful aliens比较熟悉就可以正确答题；如果只是有印象而 不十分熟悉，答题时可以结合排除法, 同时根据题干中的illegal和录音中的unlawful 的对应关系来决定。

[重点难点]
掌握unlawful aliens的含义。