Part II Listening Comprehension

Section A

Directions:

In this section, you will hear two long conversations.

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

Both the conversation 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.

Now you will hear two long conversation.

Conversation One

M: What`s the matter, Bonnie?

W: A real dilemma.

M: Does it have anything to do with you and Jasper?

W: Yes, but I don`t know where to start.

M: Maybe I can help. Tell me what it is, Bonnie.

W: Thanks, Grandpa. Please sit down.

Oh! Jasper has been offered a job in Detroit.

M: Well, this is something to think about.

W: There are so many things to consider.

There`s Tina. I wonder if a move would be a bad thing for her.

And my job. I don`t know if I can get a good job in Detroit.

And what about our family?

M: Can I tell you what I think?

W: Tell me.

M: I think that you`re very successful and that you have a fantastic reputation in the shoe industry.

I think you could talk to Mr. Samson,

and I think he could help you find a real good job in Detroit.

He was very helpful to me, remember?

W: I suppose I could call him. But I`m not so sure that I want to leave Los Angeles,

you, and the rest of our family.

M: Well, I`m not going to kid you, Bonnie.

You know we`d all miss you. But this should be your decision.

It`s something that only you and Jasper can work out.

W: If moving to Detroit is in Jasper`s best interest,

I have to do what I can do to support him.

M: In every marriage, sacrifices have to be made by one partner from time to time.

W: And what about Tina?

W: I think Tina is better off staying where she is.

M: Well, what do you think?

M: What does she think?

W: I don`t know for sure.

M: Well, you`ll have to ask her.

W: I think I`m going to have a talk with Mr. Samson and get his feelings about my leaving.

And about helping me find a job in Detroit.

M: Good idea.

W: I`ll call him right now. No point in delaying. Thanks, Grandpa.

Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Questions 1

What did the woman`s grandpa suggest to do?

Questions 2

Which of the following doesn`t contribute to the woman`s hesitation?

Questions 3

Why is it a great decision?

Questions 4

Who is Jasper?

Conversation Two

W: Morning, Dad. Is something the matter, Dad?

M: The editorial in this paper made my friend James Harper very upset.

Ah! I`ll read it to you. “The old library building on Chestnut Street,

which has been vacant for over a year now, was supposed to be made

into a community center to serve the senior citizens as well as

the younger people of Riverdale. Due to lack of funds for the repainting of the interior

of the building and for the furniture needed,

the plans for the community center have been postponed indefinitely.”

He`s coming over to talk about it.

W: Is it that serious a problem, Dad?

M: It is. James is not as lucky as I am, Joy. He doesn`t have any family with him.

He lives alone and depends on places like a community center

to be with people—people of his own age.

W: But there`s the old community center on Elm Street.

M: It`s small, and the problem is that it`s set up primarily for kids to play.

Ping pong tables, soda machines, and lots of music.

It`s too noisy for some old people like James.

W: I never realized that.

M: It`s hard for some older people to take all that noise.

That`s why the new community center is a good idea.

Part of the building for older people,

part of the building for younger people.

W: I see what you mean.

Questions 5-8 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Questions  5

What do we know about James Harper?

Questions 6

How did Joy`s father know about this?

Questions 7

What does Joy think about the matter?

Questions 8

Which of the following does not contribute to the construction of the community center?

Section B

Directions:

In this section, you will hear two 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

Nearly 400 years ago a young man traveled up to London.

The young man had comeon foot from Stradford on Avon,

a small town on the Avon. He was poor, but he had confidence in his future,

the future of a great actor. His name was William Shakespeare.

He had not been in London very long before he noticed that play goers all went to the theatre on horseback.

“Here is an opportunity!” he thought,

“There must be someone to take care of the horses when people are watching a play.”

So he began to do the job and he did it so well that people all liked him very much.

Soon the actors found the young man a very promising actor

and he was given an opportunity to play a part on the stage.

From that time on, his name became known.

But he was not content with the life of an actor.

He took great interest inplay writing.

The plays he wrote, popular in England of his own time and up to the present day,

have shown him to be one of the greatest writers the world has ever produced.

He is among those who are loved by the people in all time and inall lands.

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

Questions 9

Why did William Shakespeare go to London when he was young?

Questions 10

How did the playgoers go to the theatre?

Questions 11

When did his name become known?

Passage Two

Why don’t birds get lost on their long migratory flights?

Scientists have puzzled over this question for many years.

Now they’re beginning to fill in the blanks.

Not long ago, experiments showed that birds rely on the sun to guide them during daylight hours.

But what about birds that fly mainly by night?

Tests with artificial stars have proved conclusively

that certain night flying birds are able to follow the stars in their long distance flights.

One such bird—a warbler—had spent its lifetime in a cage and had never flown under a natural sky.

Yet it showed an inborn ability to use the stars for guidance.

The bird’s cage was placed under an artificial star filled sky at migration time.

The bird tried to fly in the same direction as that taken by his outdoor cousins.

Any change in the position of the make believe stars caused a change in the direction of his flight.

Scientists think that warblers, when flying in daylight, use the sun for guidance.

But the stars are apparently their principal means of navigation.

What do they do when the stars are hidden by clouds? Apparently,

they find their way by such landmarks as mountain ranges, coastlines,

and river courses. But when it`s too dark to see these,

the warblers circle helplessly, unable to get their bearings.

Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Questions 12

What do we learn from the experiment with the warbler?

Questions 13

How do warblers migrate according to the passage?

Questions 14

How do warblers find their way when the stars are hidden by clouds?

Questions 15

How do warblers find their way in total darkness?

Section C

Directions:

In this section, you will hear recordings of lectures or talks followed by some questions.

The recordings will be played 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.

Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 16 to 19.

In the last few weeks, we have been looking at various aspects of social history of London.

And this morning we`re continuing with a look at life of an area called East End.

I`ll start with a brief history of this district,

and then focus on life of the first half of the 20th century.

Back in the first to the fourth centuries AD,

when the Romans controlled England, London grew into a town of 45,000 people.

And what`s now the East End—the area by the River Thames,

and along the road heading north east from London to the coast—consisted of farmland

with crops and livestock, which helped to feed that population.

The Romans left in 410, at the beginning of the fifth century,

and from then onwards, the country suffered a series of invasions by tribes

from the present day Germany and Denmark,

The Angles, Saxons and Jutes, many of whom settled in the East End.

The technology they introduced meant that metal

and leather goods were produced there for the first time.

And as the East End was by the river, ships could transport goods between there and foreign markets.

In the 11th century, in 1066 to be precise, the Normans conquered England,

and during the next few centuries,

London became one of the most powerful and prosperous cities in Europe.

The East End benefited from this. And because there were fewer restrictions there than in the city itself,

plenty of newcomers settled there from abroad, bringing their skills as workers,

merchants or money lenders during the next few hundred years. In the 16th century,

the first dock was dug, where ships were constructed,

eventually making the East End the focus of massive international trade.

And in the late 16th century when much of the rest of England were suffering economically,

a lot of agricultural workers came to the East End to look for alternative work.

In the 17th century,

the East End was still a series of separate semi rural settlements.

There was a shortage of accommodation, so much land was drained

and built on to house the large number of people now living there.

By the 19th century,

London was the busiest port in the world,

and this became the main source of employment in the East End.

Those who could afford to live in more pleasant surroundings moved out,

and the area became one where the vast majority of people lived in extreme poverty

and suffered from appalling sanitary conditions.

That brief outline takes us to the beginning of the 20th century…

Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 20 to 22.

Ok, so we`ve been looking at the attitudes of various social

and cultural groups towards the management of their personal finances;

how important they feel it is to save money and what they save their money for.

One aspect that we haven`t yet considered is gender.

So if when we considered gender issues,

we are basically asking whether men and women have different attitudes towards saving money

and whether they save money for different things.

Let`s look at what men and women actually save for.

Research studies of women in North America have found that women are far more likely

to save for their children`s education.

And they are also more likely to save up to buy a house one day. The same studies have found that men,

on the other hand, tend to save for a car, which by the way,

takes a surprisingly large amount of the household budget in North America.

But the other main priority for men when saving money is their retirement.

When they are earning, they are far more likely to put their money aside for their old age than women are.

Now this is rather disturbing because in fact the need

for women to save for their old age is far greater than for men.

Let`s consider this for a moment. To start with, it is a fact that,

throughout the world, women are likely to live many years longer than men.

So they need money to support  them during this time.

Since women are likely to be the ones left without a partner in old age,

they may therefore have to pay for nursing care because they don`t have a spouse to look after them.

Furthermore, the high divorce rates in North America are creating a poverty cycle for women.

It is the divorced woman who will most often have to look after the children

and thus  they need more money to look after not just themselves but others.

Now listen to the following recording and answer questions 23 to 25.

Well my group has been dong a project on how household waste is recycled in Britain.

We`re quite shocked to discover that only 9 per cent of people here

in the UK make efforts to recycle their waste.

This is a lower figure than most of other European countries

and needs to increase dramatically in the next few years

if the government is going to meet its recycling targets.

The green targets for the UK mean that by 2008 we must reduce

our Co2 emissions by 12.5% compared with 1990.And recycling

can help to achieve that goal in two main ways: the production of recycled glass

and paper uses much less energy than producing them from virgin material.

And also recycling reduces green house gas emissions from landfill sites and incineration plants.

As part of our project, we carried out a survey of people in the street,

and the things that came up over and over again is that

people don`t think it`s easy enough to recycle their waste.

One problem is that there aren`t enough “drop off” sites,

that is, the places where the public are supposed to take their waste.

We also discover that waste that`s collected form householders is taken to places called “bring banks”,

for sorting and bailing into loads.

One problem here is taking out everything that shouldn`t have been placed in the recycling containers:

people put all sorts of things into bottle banks,

like plastic bags and even broken umbrellas.

All this has to be removed by hand.

Another difficulty is that toughened glass used for cooking doesn`t fully melt

at the temperature required for other glass, and so that also has to be picked out by hand．

Glass is easy to recycle because it can be reused over and over again without becoming weaker.

Two million tons of glass is thrown away each year, that is seven billion bottles and jars,

but only 500,000 tons of that is collected and recycled.