参考答案：[听力原文]
Elias Howe
Most inventions come from long hours--sometimes years--of work. /At other times they came from just a bit of luck. /Take the case of Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine. /He had most of it worked out/but was having trouble with one thing. /He couldn’t get the thread fed into the needle/so that the machine could work right. /
One night, Howe had a dream in which he was being chased by men with spears. /The men held the spears with the point towards the ground. /As they ran, /they moved the spears up and down. /Howe noticed something strange about the spears. /Each of them had an eyehole, like a needle, /but the hole was at the bottom. /It was just above the point of the spear. /Howe woke up and hurried to his workshop/where he made a new needle, with the eye near the point. /It worked.
[听写提示]
上面的听写材料有下列几处难点：
1．第一句的两个破折号会造成一些听写困难，因为有两个破折号。今后如果遇到这种情况应该想到，双破折号的情况在英语中比较常见。如果听到years和of work之间有停顿，应判断其间有破折号，因为这两者之间不可能用逗号，由此推断long hours和sometimes years之间也应该有破折号。
2．spear不是常用词，或许很难联想出来。在这种情况下，可以按照读音规则试着拼出来，如果能符合上下文意思就是正确答案。
3．eyehole和eye可以由needle(针)联想出来。
