MODEL TEST 2
Section A
In this section,
Directions:
you will hear 8 short conversations
and 2 long conversations.
At the end of each conversation,
one or more questions will be asked about what was said.
Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.
After each question there will be a pause.
During the pause,
you must read the four choices
marked A), B), C), and D),
and decide which is the best answer.
Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer sheet 2
with a single line through the centre.
now let's begin with the eight short conversation
11. W: You look so distressed.
Is there anything I can do to help you?
M: Well, thank you,
but I guess no one can help me but myself.
Q: What does the man imply?
12. M: You are in great shape now,
and you must have lost some weight.
W: Yeah, as a matter of fact,
I've been going to a yoga club for half a year now.
Q: What can we learn from the conversation?
13. W: You look so pale and tired, Brian.
M: Yeah. I've been feeling under the weather recently.
I caught a bad flu last week,
and I haven't gotten over it.
Q: What does the man imply?
14. W: I hear you are troubled by
the noise of construction outside of your apartment.
Have you considered buying some earplugs?
M: You bet! I have got great trouble in sleeping.
Q: What can we learn from the conversation?
15. W: So, what's wrong with the drain?
The water won't go down.
M: Let me have a look.
Well, the drain is blocked by some leftovers.
Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?
16. W: Why are you so strongly opposed
to your son skipping a grade at school?
M:It will put himself under a lot of pressure
if he skips a grade.
Although I want him to be successful,
I want him to be happy.
Q: Why does the man oppose to his son skipping a grade?
17. W: Honey, I’d like to have a talk about
the coming wedding ceremony sometime today?
M: I'd love to, but I've got a pretty tight schedule today.
Q: What is the relationship between the two speakers?
18. M: You must have seen the movie.
Was it as good as you expected?
W: To tell the truth, the plot is so boring that I fell asleep.
Q: What does the woman think about the movie.
Now you will hear the two long conversations
Conversation One
M: We seem to be having this conversation over and over again.
W: You’re definitely right.
M: Look, I know how you feel about my smoking.
You don’t have to tell me every day.
W: I’m sorry. I worry about you.
You know, smoking does harm to our heart,
our muscles and even our mental health.
M: I know. But work and school have me stressed out.
W: Let's be honest.
There’s always going to be a reason.
After you graduate, it's going to be hard to find a job,
then there will be the stress from just starting a job, then ...
M: Okay, I get your point.
It’s just so hard. You don't really understand
because you never smoke.
W: You need some help.
Why don’t you go to a doctor?
M: You mean a psychiatrist?
W: No, I mean a general practitioner.
M: Really, I believe I can’t quit on my own.
But I’ll think about it. I will.
W: All right. I won’t mention it for a week.
Then I want to know your decision
because I need to rethink our plans
if you don’t get some help.
M: You mean you’d break our engagement over this?
I can’t believe it!
W: I don’t know. I really treasure this relationship.
But I’m not sure I could accept everything
that goes along with the smoking.
Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation
you have just heard.
19. Why does the woman oppose smoking?
20. Why does the man want to smoke?
21. What does the woman suggest the man
do to giving up smoking?
22. What is the relationship between the two speakers?
Conversation Two
W: I have heard that it’s going to be really cold this winter.
M: Well, you didn’t expect it to be warm, did you?
W: Of course not, but I just heard the National Weather Services
prediction for the next 90 days.
They said it’s supposed to be much colder weather than usual.
M: Yeah, maybe. Personally,
I think those long-range forecasts are useless.
W: I am afraid that I can not agree with you.
M: Oh, come on,
it looks like you are talking about
what’s going to happen three months from now.
W: Well, you are half way right.
They aren’t very good for rainfall.
But they are a lot better for temperatures
especially for this time of the year.
M: Really, so I should take them seriously about the cold
but not count too much on a lot of extra snow?
W: Ah-ha.
M: But what did you say about this time of the year?
Do some seasons really give them more problems
in making a forecast?
W: Autumn is the worst;
apparently weather patterns change so much then.
Just think how variable our weather
has been the last three months.
M: That’s true.
It probably would have been hard to predict
all those changes back in the summer.
You are beginning to convince me of
the value of weather forecasting.
How come you know so much about it?
W: I get my information
from an expert at the Weather Bureau.
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation
you have just heard.
23. How does the woman know the weather in this winter?
24. What is the man’s attitude towards weather forecast?
25. Which season is it now?
Section B
Directions:
In this section,
you will hear 3 short 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 2
with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
When Thomas Edison was born in the small town
of Milan, Ohio, in 1847,
America was just beginning its great industrial development.
In his lifetime of eighty-four years,
Edison shared the excitement
of America’s growth into a modern nation.
The time in which he lived was an age of invention,
filled with human and scientific adventures,
and Edison became the hero of that age.
As a boy, Edison was not a good student.
His parents took him out of school
and his mother taught him at home,
where his great curiosity and desire to experiment
often got him into trouble.
When he was six,
he set fire to his father’s barn to see what would happen.
When he was ten,
Edison built his own chemistry laboratory.
He sold sandwiches and newspapers on the trains
in order to earn money to buy supplies for his laboratory.
His parents became accustomed,
more or less,
to his experiments and the explosions
which sometimes shook the house.
Edison’s work as a sales boy
with the railroad introduced him
to the telegraph and he built his own telegraph set.
Six years later, in 1869,
Edison arrived in New York City,
poor and in debt.
He went to work with a telegraph company.
It was there that he became interested in
the uses of electricity.
From then on,
he started his amazing life
as the greatest inventor ever.
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
26. What happened to American during the middle 19th century?
27. Which statement on Edison’s childhood is true
according to the passage?
28. For what purpose did he sell sandwiches
and newspapers on the trains?
29. When did he start his amazing life
as the greatest inventor?
Passage Two
Stockholm is, without doubt,
one of the most beautiful national capitals in the world.
The Old Town in summer is particularly spectacular
and walking around the city's waterways
and parks is a glorious way
to spend a week-long stretch of European summer.
Almost two million people live in greater Stockholm,
and over 15% of them are immigrants.
Just stroll through the streets
and you'll hear everything from Polish to Japanese.
The city's royal residences
include the largest palace in the world still in use.
This city, with its maritime bent
and international flavor, is a magnet for tourists.
It is ideally situated for trade connections,
with the 24 000 islands protecting the urban islands
from the open seas.
In fact, the city is best seen from the water.
Most of Sweden has a cool temperate climate
but the southern quarter of the country
has a warm temperate climate.
Sweden is shielded from rainy Atlantic weather systems
and can be influenced by high pressure over Russia,
giving fine weather instead.
Stockholm has an average of about nine hours
of sunshine daily from May to July.
Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
30. According to the passage,
where is particularly spectacular in summer?
31. How many people live in Stockholm?
32. Which statement is true according to the passage?
Passage Three
It has been shown that
children who smoke have certain characteristics.
Compared with non-smokers
they are more rebellious,
their work becomes worse as they move up in school,
they are more likely to leave school early
and commit crimes,
and are more often sexually mature.
Many of these features can be summarized
as anticipation of adulthood.
There are a number of factors,
which determine the start of smoking,
and these are largely psychological and social.
They include availability of cigarettes,
curiosity, rebelliousness, appearing tough,
anticipation of adulthood, social confidence,
the example of parents and teachers,
and smoking by friends and older brothers and sisters.
It should be much easier to prevent children
from starting to smoke than
to persuade adults to give up the habit once established,
but in fact this has proved very difficult.
The example set by people in authority,
especially parents, health care workers,
and teachers, is of prime importance.
School rules should forbid smoking by children at school.
There is, however,
a risk of children smoking just to rebel against the rules.
And even in those schools
which have tried to enforce no smoking
by physical punishment,
there is as much smoking as in other schools.
Nevertheless, banning smoking is probably
on balance beneficial.
Teachers too should not smoke at school,
at least not in front of children.
Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage
you have just heard.
33. Which is not a certain characteristic
of children who smoke?
34. Which is not an element determining the start of smoking?
35. Why is there a risk in banning smoking in schools?
Section C
Directions:
In this section,
you will hear a passage three times.
When the passage is read for the first time,
you should listen carefully for its general idea.
When the passage is read for the second time,
you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43
with the exact words you have just heard.
For blanks numbered from 44 to 46
you are required to fill in the missing information.
For these blanks,
you can either use the exact words you have just heard
or write down the main points in your own words.
Finally, when the passage is read for the third time,
you should check what you have written.
now listen to the passage
Some people say that
if you want to go into the recording business,
It’s not what you know,
but who you know, that matters.
My first reaction to that is to disagree,
but on second thought I must admit
that there is some truth in it.
When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
but the really important thing will be that
you can show you have had some useful experience.
If you don’t know anyone significant,
look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
And ask them if they need extra help.
They will not want to employ you
unless you have some previous experience,
so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
that you are just interested in recording,
and that you are on the lookout for
any job that comes up.
You should display your personality
as good as you can.
If they accept you,
at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.
When they get to know you and see
that you like studio work,
they may give you more interesting jobs
and think of employing you.
You will have to spend a year or so working there
before they offer you a job.
If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
Of course,
if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
leave it instantly and look for another one.
now the passage will be read again
Some people say that
if you want to go into the recording business,
It’s not what you know,
but who you know, that matters.
My first reaction to that is to disagree,
but on second thought I must admit
that there is some truth in it.
When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
but the really important thing will be that
you can show you have had some useful experience.
If you don’t know anyone significant,
look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
And ask them if they need extra help.
They will not want to employ you
unless you have some previous experience,
so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
that you are just interested in recording,
and that you are on the lookout for
any job that comes up.
You should display your personality
as good as you can.
If they accept you,
at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.

When they get to know you and see
that you like studio work,
they may give you more interesting jobs
and think of employing you.
You will have to spend a year or so working there
before they offer you a job.

If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
Of course,
if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
leave it instantly and look for another one.

Now the passage will be read for the third time
Some people say that
if you want to go into the recording business,
It’s not what you know,
but who you know, that matters.
My first reaction to that is to disagree,
but on second thought I must admit
that there is some truth in it.
When you go for an interview for a job in a studio,
they will be interested in the qualification you have on paper
but the really important thing will be that
you can show you have had some useful experience.
If you don’t know anyone significant,
look in the yellow pages for the list of local studios.
Go round to the ones that seem to be professional.
And ask them if they need extra help.
They will not want to employ you
unless you have some previous experience,
so tell them that you will work there for nothing,
that you are just interested in recording,
and that you are on the lookout for
any job that comes up.
You should display your personality
as good as you can.
If they accept you,
at first you have to make the tea or sweep the floor.
When they get to know you and see
that you like studio work,
they may give you more interesting jobs
and think of employing you.
You will have to spend a year or so working there
before they offer you a job.
If the studio is an active one doing music and speech work,
you will be able to learn a lot about recording in a year.
Of course,
if you realize that the studio is not a prosperous one,
leave it instantly and look for another one.
This is the end of listening comprehension