College English Test band Six

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 four 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.

Conversation One

W: Hello, Patrick, is that you?

M: Yeah Jane, what can I do for you?

W:I was calling about the apple tree that you were trimming yesterday.

M: That was hard work!

W: I’m sure it was. It truely looked difficult.

M: Yeah, I’m glad it’s finished. Hauling the branches

to the front for garbage pickup was no fun either.

W: Well,I don’t think you’re quite finished yet,

some of the larger branches fell over into my yard,

and I think you should come and get them.

M: Listen Jane, I don’t see why I should do that.

You’ve eaten all the apples that fall in your yard

and you’ve never complained about that before.

W: Well, it’s easier to pick up apples than to

drag tree branches all the way to the curb.

My kids pick up the apples, and the branches are just too big

for them to drag.

M: Well, I guess you’ll just have to do it yourself, Jane.

W: Patrick, I wish you would reconsider.

We’ve always gotten along fairly well,

but I think you’re out of line here.

The branches are your responsibility.

M: Sorry Jane, I disagree! You take the benefits of the apple tree,

but refuse to deal with the bad side of it! Besides,

it won’t take you any time to get the branches out front!

W:Get the branches off my property or I’ll have to sue you.

M: Yeah? For what?! You’re taking those law classes too seriously!

I’ve gotta go, I have to pick up my son.

W: You’ll be hearing from me.

M:Yeah, yeah. See you in court Jane.

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

1:Q：What did the man do yesterday?

2:Q：What did the woman ask the man to do?

3:Q：What did the woman threaten to do?

4:Q：What was the man's reaction to the woman's threat?

Conversation Two

M:Did you hear about the air crash that occurred in South America

recently? It was quite a tragic accident!

W: No，I didn’t see anything in the news about it. What happened?

M: A foreign airliner was attempting to land at night

in a mountainous area of Argentina and flew into a hill!

W: That sounds really terrible! Did anyone survive?

M: No, everyone aboard, including the crew, was killed instantly.

W: What were the circumstances? Was the bad weather,

a fire, or engine failure?

M: Apparently, there were some low clouds in the area,

but mostly it was just miscommunication between the pilots

and the air traffic controllers.

W: Weren’t they both speaking in English, the official

international aviation language?

M: Yes they were, but the transmition from poor quality

radios was slightly distorted and the accents of the

Spanish speaking controllers were so strong that

the pilots misunderstood a vital instruction.

W: How could a misunderstanding like that cause such a serious accident?

M: The pilots were told to descend to “two-two thousand” feet.

The instruction actually meant 22,000 feet,

but they thought they heard “descend to 2,000 feet”.

That’s a huge difference, and it should have been confirmed,

but it was not. Unfortunately,the terrain of the mountains

in Norweija extends up 20,000 feet.

W: So the pilots did descend to the wrong altitude then,

because they were following the air controllers’ instructions.

M: Sadly enough, yes they did. It was a really bad mistake.

Many people died as a result of the simple misunderstanding.

W:Wow, that’s a powerful lesson on how important it can be to accurately

communicate to each other.

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

5:Q：What was the cause of the tragedy?

6:Q：How high are the mountains in Norweija?

7:Q：What lesson could be drawn from the accident?

8:Q：Where did the air crash accur?

Section B

Directions:

In this section,

you will hear two passages.

At the end of each passage,

you will hear three or four 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 Sheet1

with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

More than fifty years ago, the United Nations declared that literacy

is a basic human right. It’s very important for improving the lives

of individuals, however,it is estimated that 818 million

adults around the world are illiterate, that is,

they are unable to read or write.

A majority of them are women.

Over 110 million school age children in the world do not attend school.

Many others complete school or fail to finish their studies without

learning to read or write. Many countries

depend on the efforts of people who offer their time to help illiterate

individuals. For example, John Mogger became concerned about the problem

of illiteracy three years ago, so he started teaching five prisoners in Brazil.

In his teaching, he developed a system with these prisoners.

He says his way of teaching can help anyone learn how to read and write with

about thirty hours of study. To learn his system, people must

first know how to write letters of the alphabet and learn which sounds they represent.

The system divides letters into three groups.

The first group of letters can be written between two lines.

The second can be written between two lines but part of

the letters is above the top line.

The third group has letters that are partly written below the lower line.

John Mogger taught his students to write simple words from the letters.

In this way, his students learned more than seven hundred words.

Many of them can now write to family members.

They also can read newspapers and magazines.

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

9.Q:According to the speaker,which group of people makes up the majority

of the illiterate population?

10.Q:What is the most important feature of John Mogger’s method of teaching the alphabet?

11.Q:What does John Mogger say about his teaching method?

Passage Two

Edgar Allen Poe, an American writer, was born in 1809. His parents were actors.

Edgar was a baby when his father left the family.He was two years

old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman named John Allen.

He then received his new name, Edgar Allen Poe. As a young man,

Poe attended the University of Virginia. He was a good student,

but he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money.

As an unskilled game player, he often lost money.

Since he couldn’t pay off his gambling debt,

he left university and began working for magazines.

He worked hard, yet he was not well paid,

or well known. At the age of 27, he got married.

For a time it seemed that Poe would find happiness,

but his wife was sick for most of their marriage, and died in 1847.

Through all his crises, Poe produced many stories and poems which appeared

in different publications, yet he didn’t become famous until 1845,

when his poem, The Raven, was published. There is a question, however,

about Poe’s importance in American Literature.Some critics say

that Poe was one of America’s best writers,

and even influenced many French writers, but others disagree.

They say that Poe’s work is difficult to understand and most of his writing

describes many unpleasant situations and events.

Edgar Allen Poe died in 1849 when he was 40 years old.

It is said that he was found dead after days of heavy drinking.

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

12.Q:What happened to Edgar Allen Poe’s family, when he was only two years old?

13.Q:Why did Edgar Allen Poe leave the University of Virginia?

14.Q:What do some critics say about Edgar Allen Poe?

15.Q:How did Edgar Allen Poe’s life come to an end?

Section C

Directions:

In this section,

you will hear three recordings of lectures or talks

followed by three or four 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.

Recording  One

Hi, everybody. This week, we continued our mission to destroy ISIL.

This remains a difficult fight, and the situation in Syria and Iraq is incredibly complex.

ISIL is entrenched, including in urban areas. It uses innocent civilians as human shields.

Despite these challenges, I can report that we're making progress. And this week,

I directed my team to continue accelerating our campaign on all fronts.

Our 66-member coalition, including Arab partners, continues to grow stronger.

More nations are making more contributions.

Every day, our air campaign-more than 10,000 strikes so far-continues to destroy ISIL forces.

And we continue to go after ISIL leaders and commanders-taking them out,

day in, day out, one after another after another.

In Iraq, ISIL has now lost more than 40 percent of the areas it once controlled.

In Syria, a coalition of local forces is tightening the squeeze

on ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa. As we bomb its oil infrastructure,

ISIL's been forced to slash the salaries of its fighters.

Thanks to the work of many nations, the flow

of foreign terrorist fighters into Syria finally appears to be slowing.

In short, in Syria and Iraq, ISIL's territory is shrinking,

there are fewer ISIL fighters on the battlefield,

and it's harder for them to recruit and replenish their ranks.

Still, the only way to deal ISIL a lasting defeat is to end the

civil war and chaos in Syria upon which ISIL thrives.

A cessation of hostilities in the civil war is scheduled to take effect this weekend.

We're not under any illusions. There are plenty of reasons for skepticism.

Even under the best of circumstances, the violence will not end right away.

But everyone knows what needs to happen. All parties must end attacks,

including aerial bombardment. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach areas under siege.

Much will depend on whether the Syrian regime,

Russia and their allies live up to their commitments.

The coming hours and days will be critical, and the world is watching.

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

16.Q:How many allies do they have according to the speaker?

17.Q：According to the speaker, how many air strikes have they launched by now?

18.Q：In Iraq, how many areas has ISIL now lost?

19.Q：According to the speaker, what is the only way to deal ISIL?

Recording  Two

The day I left home for the first time to go to university was a

bright day brimming with hope and optimism. I'd done well at school.

Expectations for me were high, and I gleefully entered the student life of lectures,

parties and traffic cone theft. Now appearances, of course, can be deceptive,

and to an extent, this feisty, energetic persona of lecture-going and traffic

cone stealing was a veneer, albeit a very well-crafted and convincing one. Underneath,

I was actually deeply unhappy, insecure and fundamentally frightened，

frightened of other people, of the future,

of failure and of the emptiness that I felt was within me.

But I was skilled at hiding it, and from the outside

appeared to be someone with everything to hope for and aspire to.

This fantasy of invulnerability was so complete that I even deceived myself,

and as the first semester ended and the second began,

there was no way that anyone could have predicted what was just about to happen.

I was leaving a seminar when it started, humming to myself,

fumbling with my bag just as I'd done a hundred times before,

when suddenly I heard a voice calmly observe, “She is leaving the room.”

I looked around, and there was no one there,

but the clarity and decisiveness of the comment was unmistakable.

Shaken, I left my books on the stairs and hurried home, and there it was again.

“She is opening the door.”

This was the beginning. The voice had arrived. And the voice persisted,

days and then weeks of it, on and on, narrating everything I did in the third person.

“She is going to the library.”

“She is going to a lecture.”

It was neutral, impassive and even, after a while, strangely

companionate and  reassuring, although I did notice

that its calm exterior sometimes slipped and that it

occasionally mirrored my own unexpressed emotion.

So, for example, if I was angry and had to hide it,

which I often did, being very adept at concealing how I really felt,

then the voice would sound frustrated. Otherwise,

it was neither sinister nor disturbing,

although even at that point it was clear

that it had something to communicate to me about my emotions,

particularly emotions which were remote and inaccessible.

Now it was then that I made a fatal mistake,

in that I told a friend about the voice,

and she was horrified. A subtle conditioning process had begun,

the implication that normal people don't hear voices and

the fact that I did meant that something was very seriously wrong.

Such fear and mistrust was infectious.

Suddenly the voice didn't seem quite so benign anymore,

and when she insisted that I seek medical attention,

I duly complied, and which proved to be mistake number two.

I spent some time telling the college G.P. about what

I perceived to be the real  problem: anxiety,

low self-worth, fears about the future,

and was met with bored indifference until I mentioned the voice,

upon which he dropped his pen,

swung round and began to question me with a show of real interest.

And to be fair, I was desperate for interest and help,

and I began to tell him about my strange commentator.

And I always wish, at this point, the voice had said, “She is digging her own grave.”

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

20. Q：According to the speaker, which of the following statements is wrong?

21.Q：When the speaker told a friend about the voice, what's the reaction of her friend?

22.Q：After listening the whole passage, do you think what's wrong with the speaker?

Recording  Three

Since the HeForShe launch in New York last September,

I think it would be fair to say that my colleagues

and I have been stunned by the response.

The HeForShe conference was watched over 11 million times,

sparking 1.2 billion social media conversations,

culminating in the HeForShe hashtag becoming so popular that Twitter painted

it on the walls of its headquarters.

And men from almost every country in the world signed up to our commitment.

Everyone, from Desmond Tutu to Prince Harry to Hillary Clinton to

Yoko Ono have issued their support or contacted us since September 20.

Everything from marathons being run, merchandise being created,

15-year-old boys writing to national newspapers deploring female discrimination,

young girls collecting hundreds of signatures it's all happened in the last four months.

I couldn't have dreamed it, but it's happened. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for watching and thank you so much for your support.

So what is Impact 10x10x10?

It's about engaging governments, businesses, and universities

and having them make concrete commitments to gender equality.

But I want to hear from the human beings that are behind these organisations.

I spoke about some of my story in September.

What are your stories?

Girls, who have been your mentors?

Parents, did you make sure you treated your children equally?

If so, how have you done it?

Husbands, have you been supporting your female partner privately

so that she can fulfill her dreams too?

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

23.Q：How many times was the HeForShe conference watched ?

24.Q：Which of the following four statements cannot prove the HeForShe's popularity?

25.Q：When did the speaker tell her own story?

This is the end of listening comprehension.