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.

Now you will haer the two long conversations

Conversation 1

W: Jack, sit down and listen. This is important.

 we'll have to tackle the problems of the exporting step by step.

 And the first move is to get an uptodate picture of where we stand now.

M: Why don't we just concentrate on expending here at home?

W: Of course, we should hold on to our position here.

But you must admit the market here is limited.

M: Yes, but it's safe.The government keeps out foreigners with import controls.

So I must admit I feel sure we could hold our own against foreign bikes.

W: I agree.That's why I am suggesting exporting.

 Because I feel we can compete with the best of them.

M: What you are really saying is that we'd make more profit by selling bikes abroad,

where we have a cost advantage and can charge high prices.

W: Exactly.

M: But,wait a minute. Packaging, shipping, financing, etc.

will push up our cost and we could no better off, maybe worse off.

W: OK. Now there are extra cost involved. But if we do it right,

they can be built into the price of the bike and we can still be competitive.

M: How sure are you about our chances of success in the foreign market?

W: Well, that's the sticky one. It's going to need a lot of research.

I'm hoping to get your help. Well, come on, Jack. Is it worth it, or not?

M: There will be a lot of problems.

W: Nothing we can't handle.

M: Um… I'm not that hopeful.

But, yes, I think we should go ahead with the feasibility study.

W: Marvelous, Jack. I was hoping you be on my side.

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

Q 1：What does the woman intend to do?

Q 2：Why does the man think it's safe to focus on the home market?

Q 3：What is the man's concern about selling bikes abroad?

Q 4:What do the speakers agree to do?

Conversation 2

W: What does the term “alternative energy source” mean?

M: When we think of energy or fuel for our homes and cars, we think of petroleum,

 a fossil fuel processed from oil removed from the ground,

of which there was a limited supply.But alternative fuels can be many things.

 Wind, sun and water can all be used to create fuel.

W: Is it a threat of running out of petroleum real?

M: It has taken thousands of years to create the natural stores of petroleum we have now.

We are using what is available at a much faster rate that it is being produced over time.

The real controversy surrounding the mass petroleum we have is how much we need

 to keep in reserve for future use.Most experts agree that by around 2025,

the petroleum we use will reach a peak，

then production and availability will begin to seriously decline.

 This is not to say there will be no petroleum at this point.

 But it'll become very difficult and therefore expensive to extract.

W: Is that the most important reason to develop alternative fuel and energy sources?

M:There are two very clear reasons to do so.

One is that whether we have 60 or 600 years of fossil fuels left,

we have to find other fuel sources eventually. So the sooner we start, the better off we will be.

The other big argument is that when you burn fossil fuels, you release substances trapped into

the ground for a long time, which leads to some longterm negative effects,

like global warming and greenhouse effect.

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

Q 5:What do we usually refer to when we talk about energy according to the man?

Q 6:What do most experts agree on according to the man?

Q 7:What does the man think we should do now?

Q 8:What kind of energy can lead to greenhouse effect according to the man?

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

Karen Smith is a buyer for a department store in New York. Department store buyers purchase

the goods that their stores sell. They not only have to know what is fashionable at the moment,

but also have to guess what will become fashionable next season or next year.

Most buyers work for just one department in a store,

but the goods that Karen finds may be displayed and sold in several different sections

of the store.

Her job involves buying handicrafts from all over the world.

Last year, she made a trip to Morocco, and returned with rugs, pots, dishes, and pans.

The year before, she visited Mexico, and brought back handmade table cloths,

mirrors with frames of tin, and paper flowers. The paper flowers are bright and colorful,

so they were used to decorate the whole store. This year, Karen is traveling in Malaysia,

 Thailand,and Indonesia.

 Many of the countries that Karen visits have government offices that promote handicrafts.

They officials are glad to cooperate with her,

by showing her the products that are available.

Karen especially likes to visit markets and small towns and villages whenever

she can arrange for it.

She's always looking for interesting and unusual items. Karen thinks she has the best

job she could have found.

 She loves all the traveling that she has to do,

because she often visits markets and small outoftheway places.

She sees much more of the country she visits than an ordinary tourists would.

As soon as she gets back to New York from one trip, Karen begins to plan another.

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

Q 9:What is said to make a good department store buyer?

Q 10:What does Karen's job involve?

Q 11:Why does Karen think she has got the best job?

Passage 2

 Mark felt that it was time for him to take part in his community,

so he went to the neighborhood meeting after work.

 The area city councilwoman was leading a discussion about how the quality of life was on the decline.

 The neighborhood faced many problems. Mark looked at the charts taped to the walls.

 There were charts for parking problems, crime, and for problems in vacant buildings.

 Mark read from the charts, “Police patrols cut back, illegal parking up 20%”.

People were supposed to suggest solutions to the council woman. It was too much for Mark.

“The problems are too big”, he thought.

He turned to the man next to him and said, “I think this is a waste of my time.

 Nothing I can do would make a difference here.”

As he neared the bus stop on his way home, Mark saw a woman carrying a grocery bag,

and a baby. As Mark got closer, her other child, a little boy, suddenly darted into the street.

The woman tried to reach for him, but as she moved, her bag shifted, and groceries started to fall out.

Mark ran to take the boy's arm and led him back to his mother. “You gotta stay with mom,” he said.

Then he picked up the stray groceries while and the woman smiled in relief. “Thanks,” she said,

“You've got great timing.” “Just being neighborly,” Mark said. As he rode home,

he glanced at the poster near his seat in the bus.  Small acts of kindness add up.

Mark smiled and thought, “Maybe that's a good place to start.”

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

Q 12:What did Mark think he should start doing?

Q 13:What was being discussed when Mark arrived at the neighborhood meeting?

Q 14:What did Mark think of the community's problems?

Q 15:Why did Mark smile on his ride home?

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.

Passage 1

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

The global challenge that I want to talk to you about today rarely makes the front pages.

It, however, is enormous in both scale and importance.

 Look, you all are very well traveled; this is TEDGlobal after all.

 But I do hope to take you to some places you've never been to before.

So, let's start from in China. This photo was taken two weeks ago. Actually,

one indication is that little boy on my husband's shoulders has just graduated from high school.

 But this is Tiananmen Square. Many of you have been there. It's not the real China.

 Let me take you to the real China.

This is in the Dabie Mountains in the remote part of Hubei province in central China.

Dai Manju is 13 years old at the time the story starts. She lives with her parents,

 her two brothers and her greataunt. They have a hut that has no electricity,

 no running water, no wristwatch, no bicycle. And they share this great splendor with a very large pig.

 Dai Manju was in sixth grade when her parents said, “We're going to pull you out

of school because the 13dollar school fees are too much for us.

 You're going to be spending the rest of your life in the rice paddies.

Why would we waste this money on you?” This is what happens to girls in remote areas.

Turns out that Dai Manju was the best pupil in her grade.

She still made the twohour trek to the schoolhouse and tried to catch every little bit of information

 that seeped out of the doors.

We wrote about her in The New York Times.

We got a flood of donations—mostly 13dollar checks because New York Times readers

 are very generous in tiny amounts but then, we got a money transfer for $10,000—really nice guy.

 We turned the money over to that man there, the principal of the school. He was delighted. He thought,

“Oh, I can renovate the school. I can give scholarships to all the girls, you know,

 if they work hard and stay in school. So Dai Manju basically finished out middle school.

 She went to high school. She went to vocational school for accounting.”

She scouted for jobs down in Guangdong province in the south. She found a job,

 she scouted for jobs for her classmates and her friends.

She sent money back to her family. They built a new house, this time with running water, electricity,

a bicycle, no pig.

What we saw was a natural experiment. It is rare to get an exogenous investment in girls' education.

And over the years, as we followed Dai Manju, we were

able to see that she was able to move out of a vicious cycle and

into a virtuous cycle. She not only changed her own dynamic,

she changed her household, she changed her family, her village.

The village became a real standout. Of course, most of China was flourishing at the time,

but they were able to get a road built to link them up to the rest of China.

16.How old is Dai Manju at the time the story starts?

17.How many people are there in Manju's family?

18.Why did most donators send 13dollar checks?

19.How about Dai Manju's hometown today?

Passage 2

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

Once in a while driving, you'll find yourself wanting to wander go explore,

dream a little and visit some faraway places, cities off your normal course,

the normal course that everyone else is taking.

Take the side roads in life, you know and then you might find yourself out in the middle of a farmfield

and you either got there because you were dreaming or because you trusted your GPS system.

Your intellectual and physical energy is at peak at this age.

 Look at the young age of the people who started Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo!

Back then and a lot of these other companies,

they're your age and they come up with ideas that they believe in and they work for life

like Rihanna did and you gotta get to trust yourself and know what your internal passion is and

that's what would drive you to success. When you have success, are you gonna become a different

person though? And all of a sudden,

money and power and wealth are increasingly important to you or your ideals today gonna be with you forever.

You can't tell yourself, I wanna be this person that I like forever in life.

Now it's your time to change the world and to think different.

Go Bears, go Oski, go with peace.

20.Which of the following companies was not created by those young people?

21.According to the speaker, what drives us to success?

22.At the young age, what is at peak?

Passage 3

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

I gave this talk at Facebook not so long ago to about 100 employees, and a couple hours later,

 there was a young woman who works there sitting outside my little desk, and she wanted to talk to me.

I said, okay, and she sat down, and we talked.

And she said, “I learned something today. I learned that I need to keep my hand up.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

She said, “Well, you're giving this talk, and you said you were going to take two more questions.

And I had my hand up with lots of other people, and you took two more questions. And I put my hand down,

 and I noticed all the women put their hand down, and then you took more questions, only from the men.”

And I thought to myself, wow, if it's me—who cares about this,

obviously—giving this talk—and during this talk,

I can't even notice that the men's hands are still raised,

 and the women's hands are still raised, how good are we as managers of our companies

and our organizations at seeing that the men are reaching for opportunities more than women?

We've got to get women to sit at the table.

Message number two: make your partner a real partner.

I've become convinced that we've made more progress in the workforce than we have in the home.

The data shows this very clearly. If a woman and a man work fulltime and have a child,

the woman does twice the amount of housework the man does,

and the woman does three times the amount of childcare the man does.

So she's got three jobs or two jobs, and he's got one.

 Who do you think drops out when someone needs to be home more?

 The causes of this are really complicated, and I don't have time to go into them.

 And I don't think Sunday footballwatching and general laziness is the cause.

I think the cause is more complicated. I think, as a society,

we put more pressure on our boys to succeed than we do on our girls.

I know men that stay home and work in the home to support wives with careers,

and it's hard. When I go to the MommyandMe stuff and I see the father there,

I notice that the other mommies don't play with him. And that's a problem,

 because we have to make it as important a job,

because it's the hardest job in the world to work inside the home, for people of both genders,

if we're going to even things out and let women stay in the workforce.

Studies show that households with equal earning and equal responsibility

also have half the divorce rate.

23.How many questions did the speaker answer while giving a talk at Facebook?

 24.If a woman and a man work fulltime and have a child,

how much does the woman do the amount of childcare?

25.What is the divorce rate of couples with equal earning and equal responsibility?