Part II Listening Comprehension

Section A

Directions:

In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations

and 2 long conversations.

At the end of each conversation, one or more questions

will be asked about what was said.

Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.

After each question there will be a pause.

During the pause, you must read the four choices marked

A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer.

Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1

with a single line through the centre.

1.M: I don’t know what to do.

I have to drive to Chicago next Friday for my cousin’s wedding,

but I have got a Psychology test to prepare for.

W: Why don’t you record your notes

so you can study on the way?

Q: What does the woman suggest the man do?

2.M: Professor Wright,

you may have to find another student to play this role,

the lines are so long and I simply can’t remember them all.

W: Look, Tony.

It is still a long time before the first show.

I don’t expect you to know all the lines yet.

Just keep practicing.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

3.M: Hello, this is Dr. Martin from the Emergency Department.

I have a male patient with a fractured ankle.

W: Oh, we have one bed available in ward 3,

send him here and I will take care of him.

Q: What are the speakers talking about?

4.W: Since Simon will graduate this May,

the school paper needs a new editor.

So if you are interested, I will be happy to nominate you.

M: Thanks for considering me.

But the baseball team is starting up a new season.

And I’m afraid I have a lot on my hands.

Q: What does the man mean?

5. W: Have you heard the news

that Jame Smeil has resigned his post as prime minister?

M: Well, I got it from the headlines this morning.

It’s reported that he made public

at this decision at the last cabinet meeting.

Q: what do we learn about Jame Smeil?

6. W: The morning paper says the space shuttle

is taking off at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

M: Yeah, it’s just another one of this year’s routine missions.

The first mission was undertaken a decade ago

and broadcast live then worldwide.

Q: what can we infer from this conversation?

7. M: We do a lot of camping in the mountains.

What would you recommend for two people?

W: You’d probably be better off with the four real drive vehicle.

We have several off-road trucks in stock, both new and used.

Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?

8. W: I hear you did some serious shopping this past weekend.

M: Yeah, the speakers of my old stereo finally gave out

and there was no way to repair them.

Q: What did the man do over the weekend?

Now you'll hear the two long conversations.

Conversation One

W: Now, could you tell me

where the idea for the business first came from?

M: Well, the original shop was opened

by a retired printer by the name of Gruby.

Mr Gruby being left-handed himself,

thought of the idea to

try to promote a few products for left-handers.

W: And how did he then go about actually setting up the business?

M: Well, he looked for any left-handed products

that might already be on the market which were very few.

And then contacted the manufactures

with the idea of having products produced for him,

mainly in the scissors range to start with.

W: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock.

M: Yes, very much so.

About 75 percent of our stock is specially made for us.

W: And the rest of it?

M: Hmm, the rest of it now,

some 25, 30 years after Mr. Gruby’s initial efforts,

there are more left-handed product actually on the market.

Manufactures are now beginning to see

that there is a market for left-handed products.

W: And what’s the range of your stock?

M: The range consists of a variety of scissors

from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers etc.

We also have a large range of kitchen ware.

W: What’s the competition like?

Do you have quite a lot of competition?

M: There are other people in the business now in specialists,

but only as mail-order outlets.

But we have a shop here in central London plus a mail-order outlet.

And we are without any doubt

the largest supplier of the left-handed items.

Questions 9 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Q9: What kind of business does the man engaged in?

Q10: What does the man say about his stock of products?

Q11: What does the man say

about other people in his line of business?

Conversation Two

M: Can we make you an offer?

We would like to run the campaign for four extra weeks.

W: well, can we summarize the problem from my point of view?

First of all, the campaign was late.

It missed two important trade affairs.

The ads also did not appear into key magazines.

As a result, the campaign failed.

Do you accept that summary of what happened?

M: well, the delay wasn’t entirely our fault.

You did in fact make late

changes to the specifications of the advertisements.

W: Uh, actually, you were late with the initial proposals

so you have very little time and in fact,

we only asked for small changes.

M: Well whatever,

can we repeat our offer to run the campaign for 4 extra weeks?

W: That’s not really the point.

The campaign missed two key trade affairs.

Because of this,

we are asking you either to repeat the campaign next year for free,

or we only pay 50% of the fee for this year.

M: Could we suggest a 20% reduction to the fee

together with the four week sustention to the campaign.

W: We are not happy. We lost business.

M: I think we both made mistakes.

The responsibility is on both sides.

W: Ok, let’s suggest a new solution.

How about a 40% cut in fee, or a free repeat campaign?

M: Well, let’s take a break,

we’re not getting very far.

Perhaps we should think about this.

Questions 12-15 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

12: What do we learn about the man’s company?

13: Why was the campaign delayed according to the man?

14: What does the woman propose as a solution to the problem?

15: What does the man suggest

they do at the end of the conversation?

Section B

Directions:

In this section, you will hear 3 short passages.

At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions.

Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.

After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer

from the four choices marked A) , B) , C) , and D) .

Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1

with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

The University of Tennessee’s Walters Life Sciences building,

is a model animal facility, spotlessly clean,

careful in obtaining prior approval for experiments

from an animal care committee.

Of the 15,000 mice house there in a typical year,

most give their lives for humanity.

These are good mice

and as such won the protection of the animal care committee.

At any given time however some mice escape and run free.

These mice are pests.

They can disrupt experiments

with the bacteria organisms they carry.

They are bad mice and must be captured and destroyed.

Usually, this is accomplished by means of sticky traps,

a kind of fly paper on which they become increasingly stuck.

But the real point of the cautionary tale,

says animal behaviorist Herzau,

is that the labels we put on things

can affect our moral responses to them.

Using stick traps or the more deadly snap traps

would be deemed unacceptable for good mice.

Yet the killing of bad mice requires no prior approval.

Once the research animal hits the floor and becomes an escapee,

says Herza, its moral standard is instantly diminished.

In Herzau’s own home,

there was more ironic example

when his young son’s pet mouse Willy died recently,

it was accorded a tearful ceremonial burial in garden.

Yet even as they mourned Willy, says Herzau,

he and his wife were setting snap traps

to kill the pest mice in their kitchen

with the bare change in labels from pet to pest,

the kitchen mice obtained totally different moral standards.

Questions 16 to 19 are based on the passage you have just heard.

16. What does the passage say

about most of the mice used for experiments?

17. Why did the so-called bad mice

have to be captured and destroyed?

18. When are mice killed without prior approval?

19. Why does the speaker say

what the Herzau’s did at home is ironical?

Passage Two

There are roughly three New Yorks.

There is, first,

the New York of the man or woman who was born here,

who takes the city for granted and accepts its size

and its turbulence as natural and inevitable.

Second, there is the New York of the commuter

— the city that is swallowed up

by locusts each day and spat out each night.

Third, there is the New York of the person

who was born somewhere else

and came to New York in quest of something.

Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last,

the city of final destination,

the city that has a goal.

It is this third city

that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition,

its dedication to the arts,

and its incomparable achievements.

Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness;

natives give it solidity and continuity;

but the settlers give it passion.

And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy

to set up a small grocery store in a slum,

or a young girl arriving from a small town

in Mississippi to escape the indignity

of being observed by her neighbors,

or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt

with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart,

it makes no difference:

each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love,

each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer,

each generates heat

and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.

Questions 20 to 22 are based on the passage you have just heard.

20. What does the speaker say about the natives of New York?

21. What does the speaker say commuters give to New York?

22. What do we learn about the settlers of New York?

Passage Three

“If you asked me television is unhealthy”,

I said to my roommate Walter,

as I walked into the living room.

“While you are sitting passively in front of the TV set,

your muscles are turning to fat,

your complexion is fading, and your eyesight is being ruined.”

“Shh~”Walter put his finger to his lips,

“This is an intriguing murder mystery.”

“Really?” I replied.

“But you know, the brain is destroyed by TV viewing.

Creativity is killed by that box.

And people are kept from communicating with one another.

From my point of view,

TV is the cause of the declining interest in school

and the failure of our entire educational system.”

“Ah ha, I can’t see your point.” Walter said softly.

“But see?

The woman on the witness stand in this story

is being questioned about

the murder that was committed one hundred years ago.”

Ignoring his enthusiastic description of the plot,

I went on with my argument.

“As I see it,” I explained,

“not only are most TV programs badly written and produced,

but viewers are also manipulated by the mass media.

As far as I am concerned,

TV watchers are cut off from reality from nature,

from the other people, from life itself!

I was confident in my ability to persuade.

After a short silence, my roommate said,

“Anyway, I’ve been planning to watch the football game.

I am going to change the channel.”

“Don’t touch that dial!” I shouted,

“I wanted to find out how the mystery turns out!”

I am not sure I got my point to cross.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.

23. As the speaker walked into the living room,

what was being shown on TV?

24. What does the speaker say about watching television?

25. What can we say about the speaker?

Section C

Directions:

In this section,you will hear a passage three times.

When the passage is read for the first time,

you should listen carefully for its general idea.

When the passage is read for the second time,

you are required to fill in the blanks

with the exact words you have just heard.

Finally,when the passage is read for the third time,

you should check what you have written.

In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines

has been their inability to work on a micro scale.

For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them

to go inside the human body to detect health problems

or to perform delicate surgery.

Repair crews did not have a way of identifying broken pipes

located deep within a high-rise apartment building.

However, that’s about to change.

Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature

revolution that allows scientists to envision

and in some cases actually build microscopic machines.

These devices promise to dramatically change the way we live and work.

Micromachines already are making an impact.

At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,

Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon chip

that holds 700 tiny primitive motors.

At Lucas Nova Sensor in Fremont, California,

scientists have perfected

the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor.

Threaded through a person’s blood vessels,

the sensor can provide blood pressure

readings at the valve of the heart itself.

Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact,

advanced versions are still several years away.

Auto manufacturers, for example,

are trying to use tiny devices that can sense

when to release an airbag and how to keep engines

and breaks operating efficiently.

Some futurists envision nanotechnology

also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine,

or even to launch finger-sized rockets

packed with micro miniature instruments.

“There is an explosion of new ideas and applications,”

So, when scientists now think about future machines

doing large and complex tasks,

they’re thinking smaller than ever before.

Now the passage will be read again.

In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines

has been their inability to work on a micro scale.

For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them

to go inside the human body to detect health problems

or to perform delicate surgery.

Repair crews did not have a way of identifying broken pipes

located deep within a high-rise apartment building.

However, that’s about to change.

Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature

revolution that allows scientists to envision

and in some cases actually build microscopic machines.

These devices promise to dramatically change the way we live and work.

Micromachines already are making an impact.

At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,

Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon chip

that holds 700 tiny primitive motors.

At Lucas Nova Sensor in Fremont, California,

scientists have perfected

the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor.

Threaded through a person’s blood vessels,

the sensor can provide blood pressure

readings at the valve of the heart itself.

Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact,

advanced versions are still several years away.

Auto manufacturers, for example,

are trying to use tiny devices that can sense

when to release an airbag and how to keep engines

and breaks operating efficiently.

Some futurists envision nanotechnology

also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine,

or even to launch finger-sized rockets

packed with micro miniature instruments.

“There is an explosion of new ideas and applications,”

So, when scientists now think about future machines

doing large and complex tasks,

they’re thinking smaller than ever before.

Now the passage will be read for the third time.

In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines

has been their inability to work on a micro scale.

For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them

to go inside the human body to detect health problems

or to perform delicate surgery.

Repair crews did not have a way of identifying broken pipes

located deep within a high-rise apartment building.

However, that’s about to change.

Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature

revolution that allows scientists to envision

and in some cases actually build microscopic machines.

These devices promise to dramatically change the way we live and work.

Micromachines already are making an impact.

At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,

Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon chip

that holds 700 tiny primitive motors.

At Lucas Nova Sensor in Fremont, California,

scientists have perfected

the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor.

Threaded through a person’s blood vessels,

the sensor can provide blood pressure

readings at the valve of the heart itself.

Although simple versions of miniature devices have had an impact,

advanced versions are still several years away.

Auto manufacturers, for example,

are trying to use tiny devices that can sense

when to release an airbag and how to keep engines

and breaks operating efficiently.

Some futurists envision nanotechnology

also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine,

or even to launch finger-sized rockets

packed with micro miniature instruments.

“There is an explosion of new ideas and applications,”

So, when scientists now think about future machines

doing large and complex tasks,

they’re thinking smaller than ever before.

This is the end of listening comprehension.