TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (2006)-GRADE FOUR- PART I DICTATION Listen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be read at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be read at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work. You will then be given 2 minutes to check through your work once more. Please write the whole passage on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Now listen to the passage. The Internet The Internet is the most significant progress in the field of communications. Imagine a book that never ends, a library with a million floors, or imagine a research project with thousands of scientists working around the clock forever. This is the magic of the Internet. Yet the Internet has the potential for good and bad. One can find well-organized, information-rich websites. At the same time, one can also find wasteful websites. Most websites are known as different Internet applications. These include online games, chat rooms and so on. These applications have great power too. Sometimes the power can be so great that young people may easily become victims to their attraction. So we need to recognize the seriousness of the problem. We must work together to use its power for better ends. The second and third readings, you should begin writing now. The Internet is the most significant progress in the field of communications. The Internet is the most significant progress in the field of communications. Imagine a book that never ends,a library with a million floors, Imagine a book that never ends,a library with a million floors, or imagine a research project with thousands of scientists or imagine a research project with thousands of scientists working around the clock forever. working around the clock forever. This is the magic of the Internet. This is the magic of the Internet. Yet the Internet has the potential for good and bad. Yet the Internet has the potential for good and bad. One can find well-organized, information-rich websites. One can find well-organized, information-rich websites. At the same time, one can also find wasteful websites. At the same time, one can also find wasteful websites. Most websites are known as different Internet applications. Most websites are known as different Internet applications. These include online games, chat rooms and so on. These include online games, chat rooms and so on. These applications have great power too. These applications have great power too. Sometimes the power can be so great Sometimes the power can be so great that young people may easily become victims to their attraction. that young people may easily become victims to their attraction. So we need to recognize the seriousness of the problem. So we need to recognize the seriousness of the problem. We must work together to use its power for better ends. We must work together to use its power for better ends. The last reading The Internet is the most significant progress in the field of communications. Imagine a book that never ends, a library with a million floors, or imagine a research project with thousands of scientists working around the clock forever. This is the magic of the Internet. Yet the Internet has the potential for good and bad. One can find well-organized, information-rich websites. At the same time, one can also find wasteful websites. Most websites are known as different Internet applications. These include online games, chat rooms and so on. These applications have great power too. Sometimes the power can be so great that young people may easily become victims to their attraction. So we need to recognize the seriousness of the problem. We must work together to use its power for better ends. Now you have 2 minutes to check through your work. That is the end of the Part I Dictation. PART II LISTENING COMPREHENSION In Sections A,B and C you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your answer sheet. SECTION A CONVERSATIONS In this section you will hear several conversations. Listen to the conversations carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the conversation. M: Hello. W: Oh, hello, you must be a new student. Did you find us, ok? M: Well, I got a bit lost and I had to ask a stranger, but I got here eventually. W: Oh, dear. Have you come far today? M: Only from Britain. I was staying with my brother. W: Oh, good. How did you get here? M: My brother took me to the railway station and I got a bus at this end. W: Aha, well, you'd better tell me your name, so I can find your form. M: It's Mark Bern. W: Bern, Bern. Ah, yes. Oh,you've changed since this photo. What happened to your beard and moustache, and you are not wearing glasses, either? M: No, I thought I'd better look smarter. W: Here is the key to your room. It is 501. M: Thanks. How do I get there? W: Go to the end of this corridor, turn left and it's the third door on the right. M: Thank you. Oh, there is a meeting for new students. What time is that? W: Half past five in the Common Room on the ground floor at the other end of the corridor. M: Thanks a lot. Bye. Questions 4 to 6 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the conversation. W: Hi, Steve, how are things? M: Hi, Maggie. Good, thanks. What's new with you? W: Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out tonight. M: Well, I was thinking of going to the university library to do a bit of study. What have you got in mind? W: I thought we could just go for a walk, maybe down to that park near the beach. M: Tonight? You must be joking. It's too cold. W: Oh, yes. It's too cold, but I still want to go out somewhere. That new Tom Cruise's film is on in town. How about that? M: Ok, what time does it start? W: Oh, I think it's half past eight or something. I will just get the paper and have a look. Just turn on for a minute. Look, the film got fantastic review in the paper last week. M: Ok, ok. Where are we going to meet? W: It'd be easier if we met at the cinema. M: Ok. Where is it? W: Oh, you know, the Olyang. M: Where is that? W: Near the Town Hall and opposite the bank. M: Oh, yeah. I know where it is. Ok, look, I will meet you there at fifteen past eight. Questions 7 to 10 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the conversation. W: What are you reading, Bill? M: It's this week's New Scientist, why? W: I was just wondering. It looks interesting. But I've never actually read it myself. It's for real scientists- or can ordinary people like me understand it? M: Oh, it's for anyone really. It usually has articles and stories about character affairs and about science as well as papers about new development and research. I am reading about new telephone that allows you to see the person you are speaking to as well as hear him. W: Oh, I've heard about it. Is it on the market yet? Can I buy one? M: No, not this one. But the company has made other models to try out on business. This one is special because its color and the image is moving. W: Oh, that's interesting. M: You see the first video phones that what they called were made in Japan. But they can only show a still, black and white image. So this video phone is much better than that. Mind you and I'm not sure I want one, would you? W: Well, no. I don't think I would. I bet it costs a lot of money. Does it say how much it costs? M: Yes, the early black and white ones cost several hundred pounds, but the one the story is about costs several thousand pounds. W: En. Why does anybody want one, do you think? M: Business organizations that need to frequently contact overseas organizations would want it. It's like a face-to-face conversation. So maybe a lot of overseas travel can be avoided. W: Yes, I suppose so. SECTION B PASSAGES In this section,you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the passage. If you're in a western country, you often see people walking their dogs. It is still true that a dog is the most useful animal in the world. However the reason why one keeps the dog has changed. Once upon a time, a man met a dog and wanted it to help him in the fight against other animals. And the dog listened to him and did what he told him to do. Later people used dogs for hunting other animals. And dogs did not eat what they got until their masters agreed. Dogs were also used for driving sheep and guarding chickens. But now people in towns and cities do not need dogs to fight other animals any more. Of course, they keep them to frighten thieves. But the most important reason for keeping dogs is that they feel lonely in the city. For a child, a dog is his best friend when he has no friends to play with; for a young wife, a dog is her child when she does not have her own; for old people, a dog is also a child when their real children have grown up and left. Now people do not have to use a dog, but they keep it as a friend, just like a member of the family. Questions 14 to 17 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the passage. I am going to work in a totally new environment. I'll have to get used to different working conditions. I am used to working in quite high-tech sort of industry that has got lots of machinery and everything. But now I am going to a place that has no machinery as such, apart from a typewriter. The place has no electricity at all, no photocopiers, all the things that you just take for granted here. They just won't be there any more. I'll be staying near the school in quite a small village. And I will be staying in a teacher's house, living with two or three other volunteer teachers. I'll have to get used to not having the variety of different foods that you have here like twenty different varieties of breakfast serial. And the range of food there is much smaller, not many choices. I'll also have to get used to getting water from a well, not having electricity which means gas lamps in the evening; which means the difficulty of preparing for the next day's lessons in poor light; which means different ways of getting your clothes washed. There will be all sorts of big differences like that, but I'll have to get used to when I arrive there. Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the passage. The most common type of child abuse you know is beating with the hands or with an instrument usually a cane in some places. Nearly a third of the abused children we see are in the age group between six and ten, and about sixty-five percent of them are boys. This is the age group when children are first to expect to study hard and parents have great expectations of their progresses in school. Boys of course attract more abuse such as beating because once again parental expectations are high, and boys tend to be more energetic and difficult to control than girls. Most experts seem to agree that the child abuse is caused by a combination of social and psychological factors. Families who beat their children are not particularly different from other people. The only difference that exists between them is that they lack skills in the establishing good relationships with their children. These families too, generally speaking, have other problems such as marriage problems or financial problems. Some parents are hurting their children because they strongly believe in the use of traditional discipline methods. But many of them have emotional problems. They are often the victims of violence themselves. Sometimes they even bear an unreasonable hatred for a child because they believe that the child has brought the family bad luck. SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST In this section, you will hear several news items. Listen to them carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 21 and 22 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. American coast guard officials in Florida say they have returned to Cuba a group of wouldbe migrants who try to make their way to the United States in an unusual vessel, a floating truck. They said one of their planes spotted the Cubans more than half way through their journey, and the coast guard could not believe their eyes when they saw the vessel. The Cubans had attached floats and propellers to a 1951 shabby truck. Questions 23 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 5 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. "All large and medium-sized Chinese cities will have greater air quality monitoring by 2010." says a government official. The government has spent 150 million yuan on air quality monitoring systems across China since 2000 when officials began paying greater attention to air quality monitoring. More than 220 cities now have air quality monitoring systems and 42 others will have systems in place by the end of this year. Questions 24 and 25 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. Storms sank two river ferries in southern Bangladesh on Sunday and some 90 passengers were reported missing while at least another 68 died. One of the packed ferries carrying around 150 people capsized early on Sunday on the Meghna river and 50 were rescued. A second ferry sank on the same river just one kilometer away leaving 40 passengers missing after 6 were rescued. Questions 26 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 5 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. The Indonesian government has given official approval for an Australian consulate in Dili. The first Australian consulate officials will travel to the East Timor capital next week as well as serving the consular needs of Australian in the region.The consulate will facilitate Australian support to the United Nation's assistance mission in East Timor. The announcement follows in principle their agreement reached on the opening of the consulate between Australian prime minister and Indonesian president in Barley last month. Questions 27 and 28 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. PepsiCo of the US and Unilever of the UK have become the latest foreign entrance in China's competitive bottle tea market. The two companies launched Lipton's iced tea in Guangzhou last week in a 50-50 venture." PepsiCo is contributing its bottling facilities and distribution networks to the alliance while Unilever provides the famous tea brand and recipe." company executive said. China has a growing bottle tea market estimated to be worth 10 billion Yuan. It has been dominated in recent years by two Taiwanese brands, Master Kang and Uni-President. Three other big brands, Nestle, Guangdong based Jianlibao and Lipton, have just entered the market this year. Swiss company Nestle is working in conjunction with Coca Cola. Questions 29 and 30 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news. The Isreali peace camp has launched the biggest protest in years with more than 100,000 people protesting on Saturday and demanding the country leave Gaza, after Palestinian militants dealt Israel's army its deadliest blow since 2002. Crowds at Tel Aviv's main square added to the growing call for withdrawal from the war-torn territory. The killing of 13 soldiers by militants in the Gaza strict last week has deepened already strong support in Israel for Prime Minister Sharon's Gaza pullout plan which is being delayed by hardliners in his right wing Likud party. This is the end of Listening Comprehension. |