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:Professor Henderson, could you give us a brief overview of what you do,

where you work and your main area of research?

M:Well the Center for Climate Research where

I work is the science of climate change to issues around economics and policy.

Some of our research is to do with the likely

impacts of climate change and all of the

associated risks.W:And how strong is the evidence

that climate change is happening that it’s

really something we need to be worried about.

M:Well most of the science of climate change particularly that to

do with global warming is simply fact.

But other aspects of the science are less

certain or at least more disputed. And so we’re

really talking about risk what the economics

tells us is that it’s probably cheaper to avoid climate

change to avoid the risk than it has to deal with the likely consequences.

W: So what are we doing? What can we do about it?

M: Well I would argue that we need to develop the science

specifically to understand the likely impacts of climate

change in different contexts. As I said we need to understand

the best ways of avoiding climate change and

this will involve a huge transition to low

carbon energy systems and the transition is a tremendous priority.

And for this to happen, we may need action on a global

scale from a political perspective.We need to understand

the terms on which major countries like China

and the USA might sign up to a global agreement

because at the moment we don’t have that consensus.

W:Right.M:And we also need to plan ahead so

that we’re in a position to deal with the

likely levels of climate change which are already inevitable and even

more so to for the levels that are likely if we don’t

get those global agreements

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

1.Q:What does Professor H say about his main area of research?

2.What does Professor H say about climate change?

3.Q:What does Professor H say is a top priority in combating climate change?

4.Q:What does Professor H advise us to do to better deal with climate change?

Conversation Two

W:I have many business English students.

When I teach the classroom, we often end up talking about things

like success and what leads to success.

And it’s interesting that many of them mention the element of luck.

M:Right.

W:Luck is important to success.

But since you’ve seen that fantastic video on the TED

Talks website by Richard St. John, he doesn’t mention luck at all.

M:Well, I’m a firm believer that people can make their own luck.

I mean what people regard as luck, you can actually create, to a degree.

W:Sure. I think a lot of what people consider luck

is attributed to how you respond to the opportunities that come your way.

M:Yes. Very good point.

W:Seizing the opportunities. But was there any point

in the video that you thought was particularly interesting?

M: Yes. Actually there was. Something very impressive

to me as many people think that luck is important

and that natural talent is something you must have in order to be successful.

And in the video we saw, the point about getting good at

something is not about having some natural talent.

It’s all about practice, practice, practice.

W:Definitely yeah. Natural talent helps

in some way but at the end of the day you really

do need to work hard and get really good at what you do.

M:Sure.

W:I thought one interesting thing in the video was

the idea of passion being so important and that people who really

love what they do. Of course you’re going to want to

work harder and put the time and effort into it.

And the funny thing is that if you

love what you do and are really passionate

about it and work really hard, the money kind of comes automatically.

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

5.Q：What are the speakers mainly talking about?

6.Q：What is the woman’s view of luck?

7.Q：What is the chief point the TED Talks video makes?

8.Q：What does the woman think is the funny thing in the TED Talks video?

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 Sheet

1 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Devil’s Tower, the first national monument in America,

could almost be mistaken for the stump of an enormous tree.

Its sheer rock size sweep up from a broad base until they

cut off abruptly at the flat summit. Rising more than one thousand

feet in the middle of the gently rolling plains at Wyoming.

The massive column of rock looks as though it was dropped down into

this location from a different time and place. In a sense it was,

Devil’s Tower is a relic of the past. When the melted rock of the earth’s

core forced its way to the surface to form the throat of a volcano.

As the centuries passed, the rock cooled and hardened,

shrinking and cracking into long columns. Born in fire and fury,

Devil’s Tower was then shaped by the slow,

gentle work of wind and water.

The outer layers of the volcano were worn away until the hard core

stood completely exposed. Small wonder that an Indian legend

described Devil’s Tower as being formed by supernatural powers.

The legend says that when seven girls were attacked by bears,

they took refuge on top of a small rock,

and appealed to the rock god for help.

The god caused the rock to grow and to lift the girls far above the ground,

while its sides were scored by the claws of the angry bears.

Even today, says the legend, the girls can be seen above

the tower in rock as seven shining stars in the night’s sky

Questions 9 to 12 are based on the passage you have just heard.

9.Q:What does Devil’s Tower look like?

10.Q:What caused the volcano’s outer layer to wear away?

11.Q:What does Indian legend say about Devil’s Tower?

12.Q:How did the rock god help the seven girls in the Indian legend?

Passage Two

It’s no accident that most gas stations have convenient stores attached.

Few of us can fill up the tank without buying a few snacks,

cigarettes, soft drinks or other items we can live without.

“I deserve it!” that’s what hardworking men and

women say to justify their lavish vacations,

big stereo systems or regular restaurant meals.

They do deserve such indulgences. However,

they also deserve a home of their own,

a secure retirement and freedom from worrying about unpaid bills.

No one should have to live with what a Taxes mother

described as constant stress tension even fear about the money.

Sadly, the pleasure that comes from extravagances

often disappears long before the bills do.

The video camera that one single mother bought for a special occasion,

for example, is not much fun now.

She’s figured out that it will take her another three years

to pay it off a thirty dollars a month.And the

New Yorkers who spent a bundle on an outdoor hot tub,

now admit that they rarely use it because

we can’t afford to heat it in winter. The solution,

said priorities, add up the annual cost of each item,

then consider what else she could buy with the same money.

That will help you to decide which item is really worth it.

One Chicago woman, for example, discovered the daily lunches

with coworkers cost her two thousand dollars a year.

She decided to take lunch to work instead.

“I now put twenty dollars a week into my vacation fund,

and another twenty into retirement savings,” she says,

“those mean more to me than lunch.”Section CRecording One

Questions 13 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.

13.Q:What does the speaker say about drivers who stop at gas stations?

14Q:What does the speaker say about extravagances?

15.Q:What does the speaker want to show by the example of the Chicago woman?

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

Let’s say you start to brain storm a list of all

the emotions you ever experienced. Just for fun,

try it now.What’s on your list? Chances are,

you included things like: happy, sad, excited, angry, afraid,

grateful, proud, scared, confused, stressed, relaxed and amazed.

Now sort your list into two categories: positive

emotions and negative emotions.Feeling both positive

and negative emotions is a natural part of being human.

We might use the word“negative”to describe more difficult

emotions but it does not mean those emotions are bad or we shouldn’t have them.

Still, most people would probably rather feel a positive emotion

than a negative one. It’s likely you prefer to feel

happy instead of sad or confident instead of insecure.

What matters is how our emotions are balanced.

How much of each type of the emotion positive or negative

we experience.Negative emotions warn us of threats or challenges

that we may need to deal with. For example,

fear can alert us to possible danger,

it’s a signal that we might need to protect ourselves.

Angry feelings warn us that someone is stepping on our toes,

crossing a boundary or violating our trust.

Anger can be a signal that we might have to act on our own behalf.

Negative emotions focus our awareness.

They help us to zero in on a problem so we

can deal with it. But too many negative emotions

can make us feel overwhelmed, anxious,exhausted or stressed out.

When negative emotions are out of balance,

problems might seem too big to handle.

The more we dwell on our negative emotions,the more negative we begin to feel.

Focusing on negativity just keeps it going.Positive

emotions balance out negative ones,

but they have other powerful benefits, too.

Instead of narrowing our focus,

like negative emotions do,

positive emotions affect our brains in ways that increase our awareness,

attention and memory. They help us take in more information,

hold several ideas in mind at once and understand how different ideas

relate to each other.When positive emotions open us up

to new possibilities, we are more able to learn and build on our skills.

That leads to doing better on tasks and

tests.People who have plenty of positive emotions

in their everyday lives tend to be happier, healthier,

learn better and get along well with others.

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.

16.Q：What does the speaker say about negative emotions?

17.:Q：What happens to people whose negative emotions are out of balance?

18.Q：How do positive emotions affect us?

Recording  Two

In the past few months, I’ve been traveling for

weeks at a time with only one suitcase of clothes.One day,

I was invited to an important event,

and I wanted to wear something special for it.

I looked through my suitcase but couldn’t find anything to wear.

I was lucky to be at the technology conference then,

and I had access to 3D printers.

So I quickly designed a skirt on my computer,

and I loaded the file on the printer. It just printed the pieces overnight.

The next morning, I just took all the pieces,

assembled them together in my hotel room, and this is actually

the skirt that I’m wearing right now.So it wasn’t the first

time that I printed clothes. For my senior collection at fashion design school,

I decided to try and 3D print an entire fashion collection from my home.

The problem was that I barely knew anything about 3D printing,

and I had only nine months to figure out how to print five fashionable looks.

I always felt most creative when I worked from home.

I love experimenting with new materials,

and I always tried to develop new techniques to make the most

unique textiles for my fashion projects.One summer break,

I came here to New York for an internship at a fashion house in Chinatown.

We worked on two incredible dresses that were 3D printed.

They were amazing—like you can see here.

But I had a few problems with them.

They were made from hard plastics and that’s why they were very breakable.

The models couldn’t sit in them,

and they even got scratched from the plastics under their arms.So now,

the main challenge was to find the right material for printing clothes with,

I mean the material you feed the printer with.

The breakthrough came when I was introduced to Filaflex,

which is a new kind of printing material. It’s strong,

yet very flexible. And with it, I was able to print the first garment,

a red jacket that had the word “freedom” embedded into it.

And actually, you can easily download this jacket,

and change the word to something else.

For example, your name or your sweetheart’s name.So I think in the future,

materials will evolve, and they will look and feel like fabrics we know today,

like cotton or silk.

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the recording you have just heard.

19.Q：What does the speaker say about the skirt she is wearing now?

20.Q：When did the speaker start experimenting with 3D printing?

21.Q：What was the problem with the material

the speaker worked on at a New York fashion house?

22.Q：What does the speaker say about Filaflex?

Recording  Three

Welcome to the third lecture in our series on the future

of small businesses in Europe.

The purpose of today’s lecture, as you have seen from the title and the abstract,

is to examine in more detail the problems facing small and medium

sized enterprises which arise at least in part from having to adapt

to rapid advances in technology.

And I want to look at these both from a financial and

from a personnel point of view and to offer a few hopefully

effective solutions.Here we have three of the most important problems

facing small businesses that I want to look at today.First,

keeping up with the pace of technological change.

Recruiting high quality staff and at a time of skills shortages

in IT as a whole and in a highly competitive market.

And the issue of retaining staff once they’ve been recruited and trained.

Now, all of these problems involves significant costs for all businesses.

But there are particularly challenging issue for small and medium

sized enterprises. And those costs would vary depending

on the size and scale of the businesses.

So let’s come to the first issue on our list

which is keeping pace with developments in technology.

Now we all know that the technology industry is intensely competitive

with new products being launched all year round as the

various companies strive to compete with each other,

rather than, say once a year or every couple of years.

And this is a real headache for smaller businesses.

So, let’s imagine we have a small company which is doing ok.

It’s just about making a profit and it spends most

of its income on the overheads. So for a company in this situation,

keeping up to date with the latest technology,

even if it’s only for the benefit of key staff,

this can be hugely expensive.So in my view,

some creative thinking needs to come in here

to find ways to help companies in this situation to stay ahead in the game,

but at the same time, to remain technologically competitive

.Well, there’s a possibility that small groups of companies

with similar requirements but not directly competing with each other,

they could share the cost of upgrading in much the same way as,

let’s say, an intranet operates within large organizations.

In fact, cost sharing could be a very practical solution,

especially in times of financial difficulty.

If there’s a downward pressure on costs,

because of a need for investment in other areas,

I would argue that this is a perfectly feasible solution.

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

23.Q:What does the speaker say about the problems

facing small and medium sized enterprises?

24.Q:What does the speaker say about the technology industry?

25.Q:What is a practical solution to the problems

of small and mediumsized businesses?