M: We don’t have the resources to stop those people from buying us out unless a miracle happens. This may be the end of us。

W: I still have hope we can get help from the bank. After all we don’t need that much money。

Q: What do we learn about the speakers from the conversation?

答案：A. They are in desperate need of financial assistance。

解析：18题为商务话题，关键词 resources，考题类型为观点态度类，答案出现在第二人woman回答处，出现不绝对模凌两可的词汇给出观点态度，此为本题考点。第一人话中讲到“buy sb. out”表示收购；对于这个词不认知问题不大，后面给出了提示，表明发生了问题。而第二人给出了建议。具体而言，第一人说情况很不乐观，第二人说还有希望，能向银行求助。由此可知，他们的经济状况不佳，急需帮助。

Conversation One

听力原文

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard。

W: You know I’ve often wondered why people laugh at the picture of a big belly businessman slipping on a banana skin and falling on his bottom. We are to feel sorry for them。

M: Actually, Laura, I think we laugh because we are glad it didn’t happen to us. But of course there is also a kind of humorous satisfaction in seeing somebody self-important making a fool of themselves。

W: Yes, and there are a lot of jokes about people who are too fat or physically handicapped, you know, deaf, or short-sighted things like that. After all, it’s not really funny to be like that。

M: Oh, I think that’s because we’re embarrassed. We don’t know how to cope with the situation. Perhaps we are even a bit frightened we may get like that, so we laugh。