[00:12.46]MODEL TEST 2
[00:14.96]Section A
[00:18.63]In this section,
[00:18.95]Directions:
[00:21.96]you will hear 8 short conversations
[00:23.14]and 2 long conversations.
[00:26.20]At the end of each conversation,
[00:28.36]one or more questions will be asked about what was said.
[00:33.12]Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.
[00:38.53]After each question there will be a pause.
[00:42.46]During the pause,
[00:44.78]you must read the four choices
[00:45.99]marked A), B), C), and D),
[00:50.16]and decide which is the best answer.
[00:52.89]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer sheet 2
[00:58.14]with a single line through the centre.
[01:01.68]now let's begin with the eight short conversation
[01:06.67]11. W: You look so distressed.
[01:10.77]Is there anything I can do to help you?
[01:13.79]M: Well, thank you,
[01:15.47]but I guess no one can help me but myself.
[01:19.84]Q: What does the man imply?
[01:37.99]12. M: You are in great shape now,
[01:41.92]and you must have lost some weight.
[01:44.42]W: Yeah, as a matter of fact,
[01:46.49]I've been going to a yoga club for half a year now.
[01:51.09]Q: What can we learn from the conversation?
[02:09.64]13. W: You look so pale and tired, Brian.
[02:15.02]M: Yeah. I've been feeling under the weather recently.
[02:18.37]I caught a bad flu last week,
[02:20.63]and I haven't gotten over it.
[02:23.16]Q: What does the man imply?
[02:41.06]14. W: I hear you are troubled by
[02:44.26]the noise of construction outside of your apartment.
[02:47.87]Have you considered buying some earplugs?
[02:50.80]M: You bet! I have got great trouble in sleeping.
[02:56.00]Q: What can we learn from the conversation?
[03:14.25]15. W: So, what's wrong with the drain?
[03:19.14]The water won't go down.
[03:21.05]M: Let me have a look.
[03:22.93]Well, the drain is blocked by some leftovers.
[03:27.53]Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?
[03:47.32]16. W: Why are you so strongly opposed
[03:50.91]to your son skipping a grade at school?
[03:54.01]M:It will put himself under a lot of pressure
[03:56.24]if he skips a grade.
[03:58.24]Although I want him to be successful,
[04:00.80]I want him to be happy.
[04:03.29]Q: Why does the man oppose to his son skipping a grade?
[04:22.76]17. W: Honey, I’d like to have a talk about
[04:26.89]the coming wedding ceremony sometime today?
[04:30.12]M: I'd love to, but I've got a pretty tight schedule today.
[04:34.24]Q: What is the relationship between the two speakers?
[04:54.46]18. M: You must have seen the movie.
[04:57.20]Was it as good as you expected?
[04:59.42]W: To tell the truth, the plot is so boring that I fell asleep.
[05:04.28]Q: What does the woman think about the movie.
[05:22.78]Now you will hear the two long conversations
[05:28.35]Conversation One
[05:33.04]M: We seem to be having this conversation over and over again.
[05:36.87]W: You’re definitely right.
[05:38.97]M: Look, I know how you feel about my smoking.
[05:41.51]You don’t have to tell me every day.
[05:43.58]W: I’m sorry. I worry about you.
[05:46.56]You know, smoking does harm to our heart,
[05:50.00]our muscles and even our mental health.
[05:53.23]M: I know. But work and school have me stressed out.
[05:58.72]W: Let's be honest.
[06:00.13]There’s always going to be a reason.
[06:02.69]After you graduate, it's going to be hard to find a job,
[06:06.56]then there will be the stress from just starting a job, then ...
[06:10.92]M: Okay, I get your point.
[06:13.42]It’s just so hard. You don't really understand
[06:16.79]because you never smoke.
[06:19.09]W: You need some help.
[06:21.15]Why don’t you go to a doctor?
[06:23.60]M: You mean a psychiatrist?
[06:26.17]W: No, I mean a general practitioner.
[06:28.85]M: Really, I believe I can’t quit on my own.
[06:32.99]But I’ll think about it. I will.
[06:35.92]W: All right. I won’t mention it for a week.
[06:38.90]Then I want to know your decision
[06:40.75]because I need to rethink our plans
[06:42.97]if you don’t get some help.
[06:44.83]M: You mean you’d break our engagement over this?
[06:47.79]I can’t believe it!
[06:49.50]W: I don’t know. I really treasure this relationship.
[06:52.82]But I’m not sure I could accept everything
[06:55.45]that goes along with the smoking.
[06:59.85]Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation
[07:03.85]you have just heard.
[07:06.59]19. Why does the woman oppose smoking?
[07:26.72]20. Why does the man want to smoke?
[07:47.11]21. What does the woman suggest the man
[07:50.49]do to giving up smoking?
[08:08.32]22. What is the relationship between the two speakers?
[08:30.26]Conversation Two
[08:31.42]W: I have heard that it’s going to be really cold this winter.
[08:35.36]M: Well, you didn’t expect it to be warm, did you?
[08:38.06]W: Of course not, but I just heard the National Weather Services
[08:41.67]prediction for the next 90 days.
[08:44.71]They said it’s supposed to be much colder weather than usual.
[08:48.38]M: Yeah, maybe. Personally,
[08:50.62]I think those long-range forecasts are useless.
[08:54.33]W: I am afraid that I can not agree with you.
[08:57.33]M: Oh, come on,
[08:58.57]it looks like you are talking about
[08:59.55]what’s going to happen three months from now.
[09:02.41]W: Well, you are half way right.
[09:04.95]They aren’t very good for rainfall.
[09:06.98]But they are a lot better for temperatures
[09:09.90]especially for this time of the year.
[09:12.31]M: Really, so I should take them seriously about the cold
[09:16.06]but not count too much on a lot of extra snow?
[09:18.82]W: Ah-ha.
[09:20.55]M: But what did you say about this time of the year?
[09:23.21]Do some seasons really give them more problems
[09:25.48]in making a forecast?
[09:27.18]W: Autumn is the worst;
[09:28.61]apparently weather patterns change so much then.
[09:32.48]Just think how variable our weather
[09:34.44]has been the last three months.
[09:37.16]M: That’s true.
[09:38.54]It probably would have been hard to predict
[09:41.29]all those changes back in the summer.
[09:42.80]You are beginning to convince me of
[09:44.21]the value of weather forecasting.
[09:46.61]How come you know so much about it?
[09:49.11]W: I get my information
[09:50.53]from an expert at the Weather Bureau.
[09:55.55]Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation
[09:59.40]you have just heard.
[10:02.11]23. How does the woman know the weather in this winter?
[10:23.49]24. What is the man’s attitude towards weather forecast?
[10:45.25]25. Which season is it now?
[11:08.35]Section B
[11:08.93]Directions:
[11:10.96]In this section,
[11:12.27]you will hear 3 short passages.
[11:15.55]At the end of each passage,
[11:17.55]you will hear some questions.
[11:20.04]Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.
[11:25.56]After you hear a question,
[11:27.53]you must choose the best answer from the four choices
[11:35.48]marked A), B), C) and D).
[11:36.16]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2
[11:40.47]with a single line through the centre.
[11:44.17]Passage One
[11:45.65]When Thomas Edison was born in the small town
[11:48.96]of Milan, Ohio, in 1847,
[11:52.62]America was just beginning its great industrial development.
[11:57.16]In his lifetime of eighty-four years,
[12:00.05]Edison shared the excitement
[12:01.90]of America’s growth into a modern nation.
[12:04.94]The time in which he lived was an age of invention,
[12:08.23]filled with human and scientific adventures,
[12:11.58]and Edison became the hero of that age.
[12:15.08]As a boy, Edison was not a good student.
[12:18.66]His parents took him out of school
[12:21.15]and his mother taught him at home,
[12:23.59]where his great curiosity and desire to experiment
[12:27.34]often got him into trouble.
[12:29.16]When he was six,
[12:30.57]he set fire to his father’s barn “to see what would happen.”
[12:34.94]When he was ten,
[12:36.31]Edison built his own chemistry laboratory.
[12:39.14]He sold sandwiches and newspapers on the trains
[12:42.60]in order to earn money to buy supplies for his laboratory.
[12:46.27]His parents became accustomed,
[12:48.16]more or less,
[12:49.25]to his experiments and the explosions
[12:52.22]which sometimes shook the house.
[12:54.62]Edison’s work as a sales boy
[12:56.52]with the railroad introduced him
[12:58.66]to the telegraph and he built his own telegraph set.
[13:02.49]Six years later, in 1869,
[13:05.83]Edison arrived in New York City,
[13:08.35]poor and in debt.
[13:10.52]He went to work with a telegraph company.
[13:13.31]It was there that he became interested in
[13:15.48]the uses of electricity.
[13:17.64]From then on,
[13:18.80]he started his amazing life
[13:21.06]as the greatest inventor ever.
[13:25.29]Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage
[13:29.11]you have just heard.
[13:31.59]26. What happened to American during the middle 19th century?
[13:53.50]27. Which statement on Edison’s childhood is true
[13:58.64]according to the passage?
[14:16.18]28. For what purpose did he sell sandwiches
[14:20.61]and newspapers on the trains?
[14:39.14]29. When did he start his amazing life
[14:43.07]as the greatest inventor?
[15:00.64]Passage Two
[15:01.93]Stockholm is, without doubt,
[15:04.16]one of the most beautiful national capitals in the world.
[15:08.58]The Old Town in summer is particularly spectacular
[15:12.81]and walking around the city's waterways
[15:15.64]and parks is a glorious way
[15:18.55]to spend a week-long stretch of European summer.
[15:22.51]Almost two million people live in greater Stockholm,
[15:25.95]and over 15% of them are immigrants.
[15:29.98]Just stroll through the streets
[15:32.10]and you'll hear everything from Polish to Japanese.
[15:35.98]The city's royal residences
[15:37.58]include the largest palace in the world still in use.
[15:42.85]This city, with its maritime bent
[15:45.10]and international flavor, is a magnet for tourists.
[15:49.42]It is ideally situated for trade connections,
[15:52.86]with the 24 000 islands protecting the urban islands
[15:57.70]from the open seas.
[15:59.74]In fact, the city is best seen from the water.
[16:03.99]Most of Sweden has a cool temperate climate
[16:07.14]but the southern quarter of the country
[16:09.59]has a warm temperate climate.
[16:12.37]Sweden is shielded from rainy Atlantic weather systems
[16:16.12]and can be influenced by high pressure over Russia,
[16:19.76]giving fine weather instead.
[16:22.00]Stockholm has an average of about nine hours
[16:25.13]of sunshine daily from May to July.
[16:30.49]Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage
[16:33.93]you have just heard.
[16:36.77]30. According to the passage,
[16:39.21]where is particularly spectacular in summer?
[16:58.15]31. How many people live in Stockholm?
[17:18.03]32. Which statement is true according to the passage?
[17:38.70]Passage Three
[17:40.07]It has been shown that
[17:41.60]children who smoke have certain characteristics.
[17:44.94]Compared with non-smokers
[17:46.85]they are more rebellious,
[17:48.80]their work becomes worse as they move up in school,
[17:52.28]they are more likely to leave school early
[17:54.93]and commit crimes,
[17:56.90]and are more often sexually mature.
[18:00.13]Many of these features can be summarized
[18:02.38]as anticipation of adulthood.
[18:05.80]There are a number of factors,
[18:07.48]which determine the start of smoking,
[18:10.05]and these are largely psychological and social.
[18:13.93]They include availability of cigarettes,
[18:16.60]curiosity, rebelliousness, appearing tough,
[18:21.07]anticipation of adulthood, social confidence,
[18:25.16]the example of parents and teachers,
[18:28.05]and smoking by friends and older brothers and sisters.
[18:32.60]It should be much easier to prevent children
[18:34.87]from starting to smoke than
[18:37.02]to persuade adults to give up the habit once established,
[18:40.75]but in fact this has proved very difficult.
[18:44.39]The example set by people in authority,
[18:47.31]especially parents, health care workers,
[18:50.21]and teachers, is of prime importance.
[18:53.68]School rules should forbid smoking by children at school.
[18:58.27]There is, however,
[18:59.18]a risk of children smoking just to rebel against the rules.
[19:03.35]And even in those schools
[19:04.94]which have tried to enforce no smoking
[19:06.96]by physical punishment,
[19:08.75]there is as much smoking as in other schools.
[19:11.84]Nevertheless, banning smoking is probably
[19:15.12]on balance beneficial.
[19:17.22]Teachers too should not smoke at school,
[19:20.12]at least not in front of children.
[19:23.63]Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage
[19:27.04]you have just heard.
[19:29.47]33. Which is not a certain characteristic
[19:33.61]of children who smoke?
[19:50.91]34. Which is not an element determining the start of smoking?
[20:12.75]35. Why is there a risk in banning smoking in schools?
[20:33.69]Section C
[20:35.30]Directions:
[20:36.90]In this section,
[20:38.48]you will hear a passage three times.
[20:41.76]When the passage is read for the first time,
[20:44.55]you should listen carefully for its general idea.
[20:48.48]When the passage is read for the second time,
[20:51.27]you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43
[20:57.83]with the exact words you have just heard.
[21:01.33]For blanks numbered from 44 to 46
[21:05.24]you are required to fill in the missing information.
[21:08.92]For these blanks,
[21:10.37]you can either use the exact words you have just heard
[21:13.77]or write down the main points in your own words.
[21:18.31]Finally, when the passage is read for the third time,
[21:21.91]you should check what you have written.
[21:24.77]now listen to the passage
[21:28.97]Some people say that
[21:30.18]if you want to go into the recording business,
[21:33.03]“It’s not what you know,
[21:35.10]but who you know, that matters.
[21:37.53]” My first reaction to that is to disagree,
[21:40.74]but on second thought I must admit
[21:43.43]that there is some truth in it.
[21:45.79]When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
[21:49.11]they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
[21:53.18]but the really important thing will be that
[21:55.60]you can show you have had some useful experience.
[21:59.64]If you don’t know anyone significant,
[22:02.24]look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
[22:06.36]Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
[22:09.67]And ask them if they need extra help.
[22:12.54]They will not want to employ you
[22:14.62]unless you have some previous experience,
[22:17.54]so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
[22:20.48]that you are just interested in recording,
[22:23.28]and that you are on the lookout for
[22:24.93]any job that comes up.
[22:27.10]You should display your personality
[22:29.18]as good as you can.
[22:30.99]If they accept you,
[22:32.78]at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.
[22:37.09]When they get to know you and see
[22:39.02]that you like studio work,
[22:41.08]they may give you more interesting jobs
[22:43.77]and think of employing you.
[22:46.02]You will have to spend a year or so working there
[22:49.87]before they offer you a job.
[22:52.19]If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
[22:56.26]you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
[23:00.45]Of course,
[23:01.48]if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
[23:06.00]leave it instantly and look for another one.
[23:15.06]now the passage will be read again
[23:20.75]Some people say that
[23:22.62]if you want to go into the recording business,
[23:24.65]“It’s not what you know,
[23:26.78]but who you know, that matters.
[23:29.23]” My first reaction to that is to disagree,
[23:32.41]but on second thought I must admit
[23:35.11]that there is some truth in it.
[23:37.47]When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
[23:40.71]they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
[23:44.63]but the really important thing will be that
[23:47.67]you can show you have had some useful experience.
[23:51.34]If you don’t know anyone significant,
[23:53.92]look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
[23:58.06]Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
[24:01.35]And ask them if they need extra help.
[24:04.11]They will not want to employ you
[24:06.34]unless you have some previous experience,
[24:09.27]so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
[24:12.17]that you are just interested in recording,
[24:14.98]and that you are on the lookout for
[24:17.09]any job that comes up.
[24:18.77]You should display your personality
[24:20.90]as good as you can.
[24:22.72]If they accept you,
[24:24.43]at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.
[24:28.27]
[25:29.31]When they get to know you and see
[25:30.47]that you like studio work,
[25:32.50]they may give you more interesting jobs
[25:35.13]and think of employing you.
[25:37.37]You will have to spend a year or so working there
[25:40.12]before they offer you a job.
[25:45.64]
[26:43.37]If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
[26:47.62]you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
[26:51.59]Of course,
[26:52.84]if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
[26:57.12]leave it instantly and look for another one.
[27:00.75]
[28:02.47]Now the passage will be read for the third time
[28:06.89]Some people say that
[28:08.35]if you want to go into the recording business,
[28:10.81]“It’s not what you know,
[28:12.98]but who you know, that matters.
[28:15.40]” My first reaction to that is to disagree,
[28:18.63]but on second thought I must admit
[28:21.35]that there is some truth in it.
[28:23.69]When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
[28:26.86]they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
[28:31.03]but the really important thing will be that
[28:33.85]you can show you have had some useful experience.
[28:37.58]If you don’t know anyone significant,
[28:40.13]look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
[28:44.26]Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
[28:47.56]And ask them if they need extra help.
[28:50.50]They will not want to employ you
[28:52.58]unless you have some previous experience,
[28:55.48]so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
[28:58.40]that you are just interested in recording,
[29:01.37]and that you are on the lookout for
[29:03.23]any job that comes up.
[29:05.00]You should display your personality
[29:07.17]as good as you can.
[29:08.95]If they accept you,
[29:10.65]at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.
[29:15.10]When they get to know you and see
[29:17.27]that you like studio work,
[29:19.12]they may give you more interesting jobs
[29:21.61]and think of employing you.
[29:23.96]You will have to spend a year or so working there
[29:27.54]before they offer you a job.
[29:30.13]If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
[29:34.30]you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
[29:38.46]Of course,
[29:39.42]if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
[29:43.80]leave it instantly and look for another one.
[29:50.82]This is the end of listening comprehension |