参考答案：今天，我想简单介绍一下现代标志性建筑物的先驱，澳大利亚的悉尼歌剧院。这一歌剧院不仅仅是一座城市的标志，而且也是一个国家和一个洲的象征，虽然其设计建筑师被迫辞职，而且内部建筑从未很好完成。这座于1957年设计并于1973年宣布最后竣工的歌剧院在1997年之前一直是全世界最著名的现代建筑物。悉尼歌剧院被许多人看作是文化现代性的一种全球性表述。
悉尼歌剧院享有得天独厚的地理位置，雄踞岬角，二面环水，衬托背景是悉尼港大桥。悉尼歌剧院告诉我们，任何事情都是可能的。它向我们表明，对于追求富有魅力的纯美的唯美理念来说，没有任何羞耻之处，有的只是骄傲之处。作为国际建筑业的一个偶像，悉尼歌剧院的地位是不可企及的，因为它是一名披荆斩棘的开路先锋。

解析：[听力原文]
Today, I’d like to introduce briefly Australia’s Sydney Opera House, the mother and father of all modern landmark buildings. Although its architect was forced to resign and it was never properly finished inside, the opera house has come to define not only a city, but also an entire nation and continent. First designed in 1957 and finally declared complete in 1973, the opera house was the single best-known modern building in the world until 1997. It is regarded by many as a global expression of cultural modernity.
Its unique location is an enormous help, sitting as it does on a promontory with water on three sides and the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge as a backdrop. The Sydney Opera House showed us that anything is possible, and it demonstrated that sheer seductive beauty for its own sake is nothing to be ashamed of, but everything to be proud of. It will outlive any other building as an international architectural icon, because it did all the difficult work first.