[00:05.69]Practice One Buried Alive Words You Need to Know
[00:12.31]cemetery coffin whiskey
[00:23.62]Exercise 1:Directions:You are going to hear five sentences from the passage. Listen carefully and write them down.
[00:34.38]1)For an hour the doctor rubbed whiskey on Max's lips and warmed hid body.
[00:41.29]2)A week later Max was playing with his friends.
[00:46.62]3)Max's parents buried their son in the town cemetery.
[00:53.03]4)Max's parents and a neighbour hurried to the cemetery.
[00:58.97]5)His mother dreamed that Max was moving in his coffin.
[01:04.87]Exercise 2 Directions:Listen to the passage and put the sentences you have written down in Ecercise 1 in the cor_rect order according to the sequence of the events.
[01:19.74]In 1865, in a small town in Germany, a little boy was very sick. His name was Max Hoffman.
[01:29.82]"Will our son die?" Max's parents asked the doctor.
[01:34.43]"Maybe," the doctor said quietly. "Stay with Max. Keep him warm. That's all you can do."
[01:42.60]For three days Max lay in his bed. Then he died. He was only five years old.
[01:51.46]Max's parents buried their son in the town cemetery. That night Max's mother had a terrible dream.
[01:59.52]She dreamed that Max was moving in his coffin. She screamed in her sleep.
[02:05.96]"Sh, sh," her husband said. "It's all right. You had a bad dream."
[02:12.62]The next night Max's mother screamed in her sleep again. She had the same terrible dream.
[02:19.93]On the third night Max's mother had another bad dream. She dreamed that Max was crying.
[02:27.78]She got out of bed and got dressed. "Quick! Get dressed," she told her husband.
[02:33.58]"We're going to the cemetery. I want to see Max. I want to dig up his coffin."
[02:38.69]At four o'clock in the morning Max's parents and a neighbor hurried to the cemetery.
[02:45.60]They dug up Max's coffin and opened it. There was Max. He looked dead. But he wasn't lying on his back.
[02:57.05]He was lying on his side.
[02:59.50]Max's father carried Max home. Then he ran to get the doctor.
[03:04.57]For an hour the doctor rubbed whiskey on Max's lips and warmed his body. Then Max opened his eyes.
[03:13.68]Max was alive! A week later he was playing with his friends.
[03:19.98]Max Hoffman died-really died-in the United States in 1953. He was 93 years old.
[03:30.38]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage again and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
[03:42.48]1)Max Hoffman really died in his nineties.
[03:47.45]2)His mother dreamed Max moved in the coffin.
[03:51.70]3)Max's father took his wife's first dream seriously.
[03:57.20]4)Max remained in the same position in the coffin when it was opened.
[04:02.78]5)Max had stayed in the coffin for five nights.
[04:07.75]Practice Two A Gory Lab Experiment
[04:12.29]Words You Need to Know
[04:14.23]primitive superstition rat inject mice Houston
[04:39.90]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following questions briefly.
[04:49.26]Primitive man would, as the story goes, eat the hearts of animals he killed.
[04:55.88]He would eat the heart of a lion to gain the lion's courage.
[05:00.13]"Superstition," you may say. Well, listen to this from the world of science.
[05:05.93]Dr George Ungar of Baylor University in Houston says that learned information can be passed to other animals from ones who did the learning.
[05:16.94]Dr Ungar trained rats to prefer lighted boxes to dark boxes. How did he do this to rats that usually preferred the dark?
[05:28.36]He shocked any rat who went into a dark area. After five to eight days the rats learned that a more peaceful life could be lived in lighted boxes.
[05:40.31]They got to love the light
[05:42.68]Then he killed the rats. He injected part of their trained brains into 638 mice.
[05:51.22]These mice had shown they liked the dark. He put parts of the brains of untrained rats into 132 other mice.
[06:01.08]These mice also liked the dark.
[06:03.71]Result? Animals that got the trained brains spent an average of 63 seconds in the dark.
[06:11.95]Animals that got the untrained brains averaged 118 seconds in the dark.
[06:18.40]The figures are very important. Normally only one mouse out of 5,000 would choose the light by chance.
[06:28.08]Maybe eating the heart of a lion might not be a bad idea! (221 words)
[06:32.62]1)Why would primitive man eat the heart of a lion he killed?
[06:39.17]2)What do rats naturally prefer?
[06:43.85]3)How long do rats take to learn to choose a more peaceful life in Dr Ungar's experiment?
[06:52.09]4)What is the proportion of mice that would prefer the light by chance?
[06:59.54]5)What can be passed to other animals from the ones who did the learning, according to Dr Ungar?
[07:08.04]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in the table with what you get from the recording.
[07:18.70]Practice Three "I Killed a Newborn Baby"
[07:23.66]Words You Need to Know
[07:25.43]confession euthanasia inquiry
[07:39.14]conscience deform illegitimate
[07:52.82]morphine David Maclay Glasgow Birmingham
[08:12.70]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which choice is the best answer to each of the questions.
[08:23.24]Thousands of people heard this dramatic confession in a radio broadcats on euthanasia.
[08:30.23]Last night, as the police began inquiries, Dr David Maclay told of the killing he kept secret for 40 years.
[08:39.62]"My conscience is clear," he said.
[08:43.04]The baby, born in Glasgow, was badly deformed.
[08:47.51]Dr Maclay said the mother had five illegitimate children. She was in no state to be consulted.
[08:55.28]"A colleague and I both felt the same way," he said.
[08:59.28]"I don't know if we said anything to each other. But we asked the sister for a gram of morphine, and injected it there and then."
[09:08.68]"I would prefer to call it 'freeing someone from a living death.'”
[09:13.61]"After all these years, I still believe it was the right thing to do," he said.
[09:19.19]"I don't think we even told the mother what had happened."
[09:23.08]Dr Maclay, now 66, practices part-time at Birmingham's children's clinics. (156 words)
[09:30.85]1)How long had the killing been kept a secret?
[09:35.53]2)What did Dr Maclay do before killing the baby?
[09:40.68]3)Why did the doctor kill the baby?
[09:44.75]4)Where did he probably make the confession to the public?
[09:50.80]5)How did Dr Maclay feel about the killing?
[09:55.15]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and complete Dr Maclay's confession with what you get from the recording.
[10:07.72]Practice Four A Dangerous Joke
[10:11.42]Words You Need to Know
[10:13.87]registration destination
[10:23.56]Exercise 1:You are going to hear five sentences from the passage.
[10:31.30]Listen carefully and write them down.
[10:34.97]1)Two men jumped into the cab and asked me to drive.
[10:40.55]2)The policeman and the two men apologized to me.
[10:45.62]3)The taxi driver tood the two men and me to the destinations.
[10:51.20]4)The taxi driver was drinking some coffee at a nearby coffee shop.
[10:57.14]5)I went to the taxi stand and found only one taxi with on driver in it.
[11:04.34]Exercise 2 Directions:Listen to the passage and put the sentences you have written down in Exercise 1 in the cor_rect order according to the seqrence of the events.
[11:18.49]One day last week, I needed a taxi. I went to the taxi stand, but there was only one taxi with no driver in it.
[11:27.56]I looked around and saw the taxi driver drinking some coffee at a nearby coffee shop
[11:33.40]I decided to wait there. As I waited, either the driver would come back to the taxi,
[11:39.77]or another one would comealong. So I leaned against the cab, read my newspaper, and waited.
[11:46.21]Suddenly, two men jumped into the cab and said, "To 101st Avenue and Main street, and hurry!"
[11:52.73]"No," I said. "I can't. Sorry."
[11:55.64]"What do you mean ? You can't? Get in and drive! "
[11:58.74]"No, I'm sorry, I can't," I said again.
[12:01.62]"If you don't take us there, we'll call the police," they insisted.
[12:05.40]So they called over a policeman, who was standing on the corner.
[12:09.29]"What seems to be the problem here?" asked the policeman.
[12:12.42]"He won't take us where we want to go," complained the man.
[12:16.24]"Let me see your registration," ordered the policeman.
[12:19.33]"I don't have any," I said innocently.
[12:22.10]"Well, then, if you don't have a registration, I'll have to arrest you."
[12:26.10]Just as the officer began to lead me away, the real taxi driver came out of the coffee shop.
[12:31.68]He saw all of us in front of his cab and wanted to know that the matter was.
[12:36.36]After listening to the whole story, the driver asked:
[12:40.00]"Did it ever occur to you that he wasn't the driver? I'm the driver. Let this guy go, get in the cab, and I'll take you all to your destinations."
[12:50.65]The two men and the officer apologized to me and insisted on paying for my ride. (283 words)
[12:55.87]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage again and answer the following questions briefly.
[13:05.77]1)Why did the speaker lean against the cab?
[13:11.46]2)Why did the two men call over a policeman?
[13:16.86]3)Why did the policeman want to arrest the speaker?
[13:22.84]4)What was the misunderstanding?
[13:26.87]5)Why didn't the speaker explain his identity?
[13:32.30]Happy Minute
[13:33.96]Listen to the following short story and enjoy yourself. And think about the question:What do you think of the boy in the story?
[13:43.03]Jenny was out for a walk one day when she came to a gate in a fence.
[13:48.83]"I wonder," she said to herself, "where this leads to?" She went through it and immediately came face to face with a very fiercelooking dog.
[14:01.57]It made her nervous.
[14:05.75]"Does your dog bite?" she asked the boy who was standing beside the dog.
[14:12.34]"No, it doesn't," he replied. Jenny leaned forward to pat the dog on the head.
[14:18.60]"Nice doggie," she said. But the dog immediately jumped at her and, as she ran for safety towards a tree,
[14:29.11]it ran after her, growling, and tore a piece of cloth from her coat.
[14:36.20]"I thought you said your dog didn't bite," she said to the boy as she hung from a branch of the tree.
[14:43.58]"That's right," he replied. "It doesn't . But this isn't my dog."
[14:49.16]Lesson Two Fascinating Mysteries
[14:53.59]Practice One Stonehenge Words You Need to Know
[14:59.57]fascinating archaeological ditch intrigue
[15:17.21]astronomical observatory concentric
[15:29.77]Merlin King Arthur Ireland Dane
[15:47.48]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following two questions briefly.
[15:57.20]Stonehenge is a fascinating archaeological site located in southwestern England.
[16:07.57]It is a small but impressive site of structures consisting of concentric circles made of earth and stonework.
[16:17.54]Its rings of stones, ditches, pits, and banks have intrigued people for hundreds of years.
[16:26.11]Who built Stonehenge? Why?
[16:29.89]There have been many ideas about the origin of Stonehenge.
[16:34.32]One story told in the Middle Ages said that Merlin, King Arthur's magician, brought Stonehenge to England from Ireland.
[16:44.98]In the seventeenth century, John Webb credited Stonehenge to the Romans, believing they had constructed it as a temple
[16:55.49]Others believed that it had been built by the Danes as a place to elect kings.
[17:01.21]Today, many scientists believe that Stonehenge was an astronomical observatory, calendar,
[17:10.43]and "computer", constructed over centuries by several different groups to serve different purposes. (135 words)
[17:24.11]1)What is the passage mainly about?
[17:27.92]2)How long did it take to build Stonehenge, according to the scientists today?
[17:35.05]exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and complete the following chart with the information you get from the tape.
[17:45.49]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and find the words used in the passage which are paraphrased in italics in the following sentences.
[17:58.81]Change the form when necessary.
[18:01.33]Practice Two Easter Island
[18:04.82]Words You Need to Know
[18:06.80]flourish yield interpret mystique
[18:21.35]testimony statue Easter
[18:32.51]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
[18:44.71]Easter Island is one of the hundreds of Pacific islands that were formed from volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago.
[18:59.94]It is, however, the only one of these islands that carries its own mystiques.
[19:06.56]First, it is isolated:It lies two thousand miles from the South American coat and fourteen hundred miles from the nearest inhabited islands.
[19:18.84]But more importantly, it is a place where a mysterious civilization once flourished,
[19:25.86]leaving behind more than a thousand huge stone statues as testimony to its greatness.
[19:34.21]The first Europeans came to the island in 1722, when three Dutch ships landed on Easter Sunday.
[19:42.85]Since that time, thousands of archaeologists have come to Easter Island to study the great stone statues,
[19:51.28]some of which weigh over a hundred tons. The archaeologists' work has yielded many answers,
[19:59.45]but we may never understand all of the history behind these stone faces.
[20:04.38]Even after a century of study, the written language found on the island has not been interpreted.
[20:13.49]In addition, no one knows for certain how the stone statues were transported or even why they were built. (182 words)
[20:26.95]1)Easter Island is the only Pacific island that has ever been found.
[20:33.32]2)The Dutch were the first Europeans coming to the island.
[20:38.47]3)Archeaologists understand the written language found on the island.
[20:44.74]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and answer the following questions briefly.
[20:53.59]1)When did the first Europeans come to the island?
[20:58.24]2)Can you explain why it was named "Easter Island"?
[21:03.74]3)What does the passage imply about the civilization of the island?
[21:09.04]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and fill in the chart with the information you get from the tape.
[21:20.30]Practice Three Abandoned Ships
[21:24.37]Words You Need to Know
[21:26.46]canary entry harbor destination
[21:41.98]log book freighter drift Carribbean
[21:58.57]Havana Rosalie Rubicon
[22:10.42]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
[22:21.86]The Rosalie was a French ship. In 1840 it sailed across the Atlantic to the Carribbean.
[22:33.02]But it never got to Havana, its destination. Another shiop found the Rosalie sailing along with all the sails up.
[22:42.67]The ship was in perfect order but there were no people. Not one sailor; no crew at all.
[22:51.89]The only living thing on board was a canary. Nobody knows what happened.
[22:58.04]But it was not only the Rosalie. In September, 1944, the Rubicon, a freighter carrying cargo
[23:07.40]left Havana harbor. The last entry in the captain's log book was for September the 26th and it said that the ship was in Havana harbor.
[23:20.11]There were no other entries. A few days later, another ship found the Rubicon drifting with no crew.
[23:29.04]It was like the Rosalie-no people. There was just one hungry dog.
[23:35.56]Possibly the crew got into the life boats, as there was no sign of them.
[23:42.22]But why did they leave the dog? The search found no bodies, no boats, no life jackets, nothing at all to solve the mystery. (176 words)
[23:53.05]1)The Rosalie and the Rubicon were both French ships.
[23:58.45]2)There was no life on either of the ships when they were found.
[24:03.89]3)People were sure that the crew on the Rubicon must have left the ship safely.
[24:10.80]4)People don't know what happened to both ships since there are not clues on them.
[24:17.93]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in the missing information according to the passage.
[24:27.58]Practice Four Loch Ness Monster
[24:31.43]Words You Need to Know
[24:33.34]monster mist
[24:40.82]lorry Loch Ness
[24:48.96]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following questions briefly.
[24:57.64]I've lived here beside Loch Ness since I retired last year. My house has a good clear view of the loch.
[25:06.35]In fact, it's only about a hundred meters from the lake,
[25:10.56]and there's nothing but the road in between. Now I had never been interested in the Loch Ness monster,you understand.
[25:19.31]Until last Tuesday, I thought it was just a good story to attract tourists.
[25:25.39]But I've had changed my mind after last Tuesday's experience.
[25:30.22]I got up as usual at about seven o'clock and went into my garden. I looked around,
[25:37.85]and something attracted my attention on the Loch. There was almost no mist that morning,
[25:44.69]and I could see that there was something moving quite fast, going north, in the middle of the loch.
[25:52.72]It looked like a giant snake, with its head and parts of its body about water, and it was moving very fast.
[26:01.93]I imagined that it was about thirty meters long. I ran into the house to get my camera,
[26:10.21]but when I got back it had gone.
[26:13.85]I waited for about five minutes and then it appeared again, this time nearer the road and my house,
[26:22.63]so I could see it clearly. I had a good view of it about two minutes and I managed to take several photographs of it.
[26:33.32]The photographs haven't come out very well, unfortunately, but one or two of them show the creature quite clearly.
[26:42.43]At one point it swam straight towards me, but then a lorry passed on the road, and perhaps it heard the noise of the engine because it disappeared again.
[26:55.97]I suppose the whole incident lasted for about fifteen minutes, because I looked at my watch the last time I saw it,
[27:04.25]and it said a quarter past seven. I've never seen anything so strange in my life. (305 words)
[27:12.17]1)How far is the speaker's house from the lake?
[27:16.78]2)Why had the speaker never been interested in the Loch Ness monster?
[27:22.93]3)How was the weather that morning?
[27:26.93]4)How were the photographs the speaker took?
[27:31.79]5)How long did the whole incident last?
[27:36.83]6)What is this passage mainly about?
[27:41.87]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and tick ( ) the statements containing the information you hear about the monster.
[27:53.75]Exercise 3:Directions:Find out from the passage the words which are similar in meaning to the expressions listed on the left column below |