PART A Micro-Listening
1. W: Are we going to have the swimming competition at the school swimming pool today?
M: It will be held at the sports center because it's raining so hard.
Q : What do we learn from the conversation?
2. W: Have you finished your paper?
M: Not yet. I keep rewriting it and I really don't know when I can finish it.
Q : What do you learn about the man?
3. M: Is Helen ready to leave for her trip to Europe?
W: She is busy packing now. Her suitcase is so full that it won't shut.
Q : What's Helen's problem?
4. M: Did you watch the eight o'clock news program last night?
W: I couldn't because I had an appointment with Professor Li then.
Q : Why did the woman miss the news program?
5. W: I thought you were going out to dinner.
M: I was, but the party was postponed because Michael's wife Sue came down with a fever.
Q : Why was the party postponed?
6. M: It's so crowded here that I can hardly see a thing.
W: I don't understand why they didn't have this show in a bigger theater, do you?
Q : Why is the man complaining?
7. M : Would you come to the beach with me if it doesn't rain?
W: No. It's very hot out there and I burn easily.
Q : Why won't the woman go to the beach?
8. M: Have you found an apartment yet?
W: No. We need such a large space that all the apartments we've seen are not big enough.
Q : Why is the woman having trouble finding an apartment?
9. M: Do you take cream and sugar in your coffee?
W: I've had enough sugar today, so just black.
Q : What does the woman want in her coffee?
10. W: Carol made up for the time she missed by working overtime.
M: Oh, that's why she was working in the weekend shift.
Q: What did Carol do?
PART B Macro-Listening
Passage I
Great American Drinks
Tapescript
The French are famous for their wines. The German are famous for their beers. And the Americans are famous for their carbonated drinks. For example, Colas, the country's most popular carbonated drinks, are available in almost every part of the world.
Carbonated drinks, also known as soft drinks, are called 'pop' in some parts of the United States. In other sections of the, country, people call them 'soda' Nowadays, the bottle cap doesn't make a popping sound when you open the bottle. The drink doesn't have any soda in it. There are still bubbles but it is the carbon dioxide (CO2) that makes the bubbles. Nevertheless, the old-fashioned names 'pop' and 'soda' are popular.
What is a carbonated drink? It's mostly sugar and flavoring. Most Cola companies keep their exact recipes a secret, but everyone knows that the Cola flavoring comes from coca leaves. Cocaine, an illegal and dangerous drug, comes from the same plant, so the government watches the extraction process very carefully.
Americans are heavy drinkers of carbonated drinks. You can find these drinks everywhere in the country -- in supermarkets, gas stations, schools, movie theaters, fast food restaurants, bars, and even elegant restaurants. You can also find Americans go with a can of, say, Coca-Cola at any time and on any occasion at classes, at meetings, at meals, and at sports games. Carbonated drinks have become part of life of most Americans.
Today, the average American drinks about 300 bottles of pop each year. Profits within the soft drinks industry are huge. The Coca-Cola Company is the biggest soft drink company in the world. In a recent year, its profits were over $ 400 million. Other huge soft drink companies -- Pepsi and 7-Up, for example ---also make millions of dollars each year.
Passage 2
What Kinds of Food Do People Need?
Tapescript
Scientists have learned a great deal about the kinds of food people need. They say that there are several kinds of food that people should eat every day. What are these classes of food? They are 1) green vegetables of all kinds, such as string beans, peas, lettuces, and cabbages; 2) fruits, such as apples, peaches and bananas; 3) other vegetables, examples of these are beets, onions, carrots, tomatoes and so on; 4) meat of all kinds, fish and eggs; 5) milk and food made from milk, such as butter, cheese and ice cream; 6) bread or cereal. Rice is also in this class of food.
People in different countries and different areas of the world eat different kinds of things. Scientists say that none of these differences are really important. It doesn't matter whether food is eaten raw or cooked, canned or frozen. It doesn't matter if a person eats dinner at four o'clock in the afternoon or at eleven o'clock at night. The important thing, they say, is that every day a person should eat something from each of these kinds of food.
There are two problems, then, in feeding the ever-increasing number of people on earth. The first is to find some way to feed the world population so that no one is hungry. The second is to make sure that people everywhere have the right kinds of food to make them grow to be strong and healthy. |