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:OK, that's it. Now we have to make a decision. We might as well do that now, don't you think?

M:Sure, let's see. First we saw Frank Brisenski. What did you think of him?

W:Well, he's certainly a very polite young man.

M:And very relaxed, too.

W:But his appearance…

M:En… He wasn't well dressed. He wasn't even wearing a tie.

W:But he did have a nice voice. He sounded good on the telephone.

M:True. And I thought he seemed very intelligent. He answered Dona's questions very well.

W:That's true, but dressing well is important. Well, let's think about the others.

Now what about Barbara Jones? She had a nice voice, too.

She sounded good on the telephone, and she was well dressed, too.

M:En… She did look very neat, very nicely dressed, but…

W:But so shy. She wouldn't be very good at talking to people at the front desk.

M:En…OK. Now who was the next? Ar…Yes, David Wallace. I thought he was very good, had a lot of potential.

What do you think?

W:En… He seemed like a very bright guy. He dressed very nicely, too. And he had a really nice appearance.

M:He seemed relaxed to me, the type of person people feel comfortable with right away.

W:He was polite, but also very friendly and relaxed as you say.

I think he'll be good with the guests at the front desk.

M:He had a very pleasant voice, too.

W:That's right. OK, good! I guess we have our receptionist then, don't you?

M:Yes, I think so. We'll just offer the job to…

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

1.Who is the first person mentioned by the speakers?

2.What are the speakers looking for?

3.What is Frank Brisenski's weakness?

4.What do the speakers decide to do?

Conversation Two

W:Hello.

M:Hello. Is that the reference library?

W:Yes, can I help you?

M:I hope so. I ran earlier and asked for some information about Dennis Hutton,

the scientist. You asked me to ring back.

W:Oh, yes. I have found something.

M:Good. I've got a pencil and paper. Perhaps you could read out what it says.

W:Certainly. Hutton Dennis, born Darlington, 1836, died New York, 1920.

M:Yes, got that.

W:Inventer and physicist, the son of a farmworker.

He was admitted to the University of London at the age of 15.

M:Yes.

W:He graduated at 17 with the first class degree in physics and mathematics. All right?

M:Yes, all right.

W:He made his first notable achievement at the age of 18.

It was a method of refrigeration which rolls from his work in low temperature physics.

He became professor of mathematics at the University of Manchester at 24,

where he remained for twelve years. During that time, he married one of his students, Natasha Willoughby

M:Yes, go on.

W:Later working together in London, they laid the foundations of modern physics

by showing that normal laws of cause and effect do not apply at the level of subatomic particles.

For this he and his wife received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1910,

and did so again in 1912 for their work on very high frequency radio waves. In his lifetime,

Hutton patented 244 inventions. Do you want any more?

M:Yes, when did he go to America?

W:Let me see. In 1920 he went to teach in New York and died there suddenly after only three weeks.

 Still he was a good age.

M:Yes, I suppose so. Well, thanks.

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

5.What do we learn about Dennis Hutton when he was 15?

6.What did Dennis Hutton do at the age of 24?

7.For what were Dennis Hutton and his wife awarded the Nobel Prize a second time?

8.Why did Dennis Hutton go to New York?

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

In America,white tailed deer are more numerous than ever before,

so abundant in fact that they've become a suburban nuisance and a health hazard.

Why can't the herd be thinned the oldfashioned way?

 The small community of North Haven on Long Island is home to some six hundred to seven hundred deer.

The department of Environmental Conservation estimates the optimum population at 60.

 The town has been browsed bare of vegetation except where gardens and shrubs are protected by high fences.

Drivers routinely collide with deer and there are so many dead bodies left by the side of the road

 that the town has made it a deal with a local pet cemetery to collect and dispose of the bodies.

Some people in the town have become ill from deer transmitted diseases.

On the occasions when hunting has been tried,

local animal rights people have worked to secure court orders against the hunts.

And when that is failed, they stop the hunters, banging on pots and pans to alert the deer.

 Town meetings called to discuss the problem inevitably dissolved into confrontations.

The activists believe simply that the deer are not the problem.

 Some communities have even discussed the possibility of bringing wolves back into the ecological mix.

That means wolves in the suburbs of New York. It is almost too wonderful not to try it.

The wolves would kill deer of course.

They would also terrorize and kill dogs and cats which is not what the suburban dwellers have in mind.

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

9.What do we learn about whitetailed deer in North Haven?

10.Why do local animal rights people bang on pots and pans?

11.What would happen if wolves were brought back into the ecological mix?

Passage Two

And now, if you'll walk this way, ladies and gentlemen,

the next room we're going to see is the room in which the family used to hold their formal

dinner parties and even occasionally entertain heads of state and royalty.

However, they managed to keep this room friendly and intimate.

And I think you'll agree. It has a very informal atmosphere, quite unlike some grand houses you visit.

The curtains were never drawn, even at night,

so guests got a view of the lake and fountains outside which were lit up at night a very attractive sight.

 As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, the guests were seated very informally around this oval table,

which would add to the relaxed atmosphere.

The table dates from the 18th century and is made from Spanish oak.

It's rather remarkable for the fact that although it's extremely big,

 it's supported by just six rather slim legs.

However, it seems to have survived like that for 200 years.

 So it's probably going to last a bit longer.

The chairs which go with the table are not a complete set.

There were originally six of them.

They are interesting for the fact that they are very plain and undecorated for the time,

 with only one plain central panel at the back and no armrests.

I myself find them rather uncomfortable to sit in for very long,

but people were used to more discomfort in the past.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to follow me into the great hall…

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

12.What do we learn about the speaker?

13.What does the speaker say about the room they are visiting?

14.What is said about the oval table in the room?

15.What does the speaker say about the chairs?

Section C

Directions:

In this section,

 you will hear 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

When you work hard for your money, you do not want to lose it.

And if you invest your hardearned money, you want to see great returns.

But if you're looking to invest money, be careful! We have an expression: If a deal is too good to be true,

it probably is.

There are many ways to be tricked out of your money.

 There are frauds, schemes, scams and cons carried out by fraudsters, schemers, scammers and con artists.

A Ponzi scheme is an investment trick.

Ponzi scheme is named after Charles Ponzi.

 In the 1920s, Charles Ponzi tricked thousands of people into investing in a postage stamp scheme.

At the time of his scheme, the annual interest rate for bank accounts was five percent.

Ponzi promised investors a high return50 percentin a very short amount of time. However,

there were no investments. There were no honest returns.

Ponzi used incoming funds from new investors to pay the returns to the earlier investors.

A man named Bernie Madoff ran the largest and longestrunning Ponzi scheme in the United States.

The website BusinessInsider.com says Madoff made off with about $20 billion of investors' funds.  

One reason Madoff was able to fly under the radar for so long is because he was very well

known and trusted in the financial industry.

He started his own investment firm in 1960 and helped start the Nasdaq stock market.

But no matter how financially smart you are,

a Ponzi scheme can only work if the clients keep their money in the scheme.

Madoff's world came crashing down when his clients demanded to be paid about $7 billion

and Madoff had only $200$300 million.

In 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme and stealing $17.5 billion from investors.

He is serving a 150year sentence in prison. But that is cold comfort to the thousands of investors,

some of whom lost their entire life savings.

So consider yourself warned! If an investment scheme sounds too good to be true, it is.

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

16.What's the purpose of the speech?

17.:How did Ponzi pay the high return to his investors?

18.How did Madoff's Ponzi scheme crash down?

Recording  Two

“Broken heart syndrome” is officially called Takotsubo syndrome,

 or TTS. It involves the sudden weakening of heart muscles.

 This weakening causes the left ventricle to expand abnormally at the bottom.

 The symptoms of Takotsubo syndrome are acute chest pain and shortness of breath.

 The syndrome can lead to heart attacks and death.

Even though Takotsubo syndrome is fairly rare,

the scientific community has studied how unexpected emotional shocks can cause a heart attack.

These shocks are usually unpleasant, such as the death of a spouse or a violent argument.

However, no one had ever investigated whether an extremely happy event could give the same result. Until now.

In 2011, a pair of researchers in Switzerland set up a global registry to track cases of the syndrome.

 Christian Templin and Jelena Ghadri are both with University Hospital Zurich. Five years later,

they had collected data on 1,750 cases of the Takotsubo syndrome.

The team found that emotional shocks caused 485 of those 1,750 cases.

 And within that group of 485, a total of 20 people could be said to have suffered from “happy heart syndrome.”

In an interview, Ghardi said that the researchers have shown that the causes for TTS

 are more varied than previously thought. The disease can be caused by positive emotions, too.

The events that caused the 20 cases of “happy heart syndrome” include a birthday party, a wedding,

a surprise farewell celebration, a favorite team winning a game, and the birth of a grand child.

 However, none of these cases of “happy heart syndrome” caused death.

So what is the important takeaway from this study? Emergency room doctors should be aware of the fact

that patients with signs of heart attack could be suffering from TTS.

 And these TTS cases could be caused by either positive or negative experiences.

Another interesting takeaway is that TTS affects mostly women.

For reasons the researchers do not yet understand,95 percent of the patients in both the “broken heart” and

 “happy heart” groups are women. These women are mostly in their mid to late60s.

Ghadri said she and her team still do not know why women are mostly affected by the Takotsubo syndrome.

The researchers suspect that the hormone estrogen may play a part in how the disease operates.

Women have much higher levels of estrogen than men.  

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

19:What could be the consequence of Takotsubo syndrome?

20.What was the new finding of the study conducted by the two Switzerland researchers?

21.What is the practical information from this study?

22.Which statement is true about Takotsubo syndrome?

Recording  Three

Some popular expressions are a mystery.

 No one is sure how they developed. One of these is the expression, carry a chip on your shoulder.

A person with a chip on his shoulder is a problem for anybody who must deal with him.

 He seems to be expecting trouble.

 Sometimes he seems to be saying, “I'm not happy about anything, but what are you going to do about it?”

A chip is a small piece of something, like a chip of wood.

 How did this chip get on a person's shoulder? Well,

experts say the expression appears to have been first used in the United States more than one hundred years ago.

One writer believes that the expression might have come from an old saying.

The saying warns against striking too high, or a chip might fall into your eye.

That could be good advice. If you strike high up on a tree with an axe,

the chip of wood that is cut off will fall into your eye. The saying becomes a warning

about the dangers of attacking people who are in more important positions than you are.

Later, in the United States, some people would put a real chip on their shoulder as a test.

 They wanted to start a fight. They would wait for someone to be brave enough to try to hit it off.

The word chip appears in a number of special American expressions.

 Another is chip off the old block. This means that a child is exactly like a parent.

The word chip can also be used in a threatening way to someone who is suspected of wrongdoing.

An investigator may say, “We're going to let the chips fall where they may.”

 This means the investigation is going to be complete and honest.

It is also a warning that no one will be protected from being found guilty.

Chips are often used in card games. They represent money.

 A poker player may, at any time, decide to leave the game.

 He will turn in his chips in exchange for money or cash.

This leads to another meaning.

 A person who finished or died was said to have cashed in his chips. 

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.23.Which statement is true about a person with a chip on his shoulder?

24.What did the expression “a chip on your shoulder” mean when it was first used in the United States more than 100 years ago?

25.What does “chip” usually refer to when they are used in card games?