[02:51.21]College English Test Band-4
[02:55.23]Part III Listening Comprehension
[03:00.04]Section A
[03:03.21]Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations
[03:10.76]and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation,
[03:16.88]one or more questions will be asked about what was said.
[03:21.59]Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once.
[03:28.48]After each question there will be a pause.
[03:34.16]During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D),
[03:43.02]and decide which is the best answer.
[03:47.51]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2
[03:53.41]with a single line through the centre.
[03:57.54]Now let's begin with the eight short conversations.
[04:03.77]11．M: I just received an Email from one of my former classmates.
[04:10.99]I was surprised, I hadn’t heard from him for ages.
[04:15.91]W: Well, I’ve been out of touch with most of my old friends,
[04:20.28]only one or two still drop me a line occasionally,
[04:24.99]Q: What does the woman mean?
[04:42.75]12. M: If you can make up your mind about the color,
[04:48.89]I can start on the outside of your house early next week.
[04:52.49]W: Well, right now I think I want white for the window frames
[04:57.42]and yellow for the walls, but I’ll let you know tomorrow.
[05:02.56]Q: Who is the woman talking to?
[05:19.54]13. W: Excuse me, do you have any apartments
[05:25.68]available for under 500 dollars a month?
[05:28.75]I need to move in next week when my new job starts.
[05:32.90]M: The only vacant one I have is 600 dollars,
[05:36.95]have you inquired at the apartment complex down the street?
[05:41.98]Q: What does the man suggest the woman do?
[06:00.94]14. W: You bought a pair of jeans yesterday,
[06:06.53]didn’t you? What are they like?
[06:09.05]M: Oh, they are pretty much like my other ones,
[06:12.11]except with a larger waist. I guess I haven’t spent much time exercising lately.
[06:18.45]Q: What can we infer from the conversation about the man?
[06:39.16]15. W: I really like those abstract paintings we saw yesterday.
[06:46.07]What do you think?
[06:48.15]M: I guess it’s something I haven’t acquired a taste for yet.
[06:52.96]Q: What does the man imply?
[07:11.25]16. W: You haven’t seen a blue notebook, have you?
[07:17.50]I hope I didn’t leave it in the reading room.
[07:20.89]M: Did you check that pile of journals
[07:23.52]you’ve borrowed from the library the other day?
[07:26.25]Q: What is the man trying to say to the woman?
[07:45.53]17. M: How about joining me for a cup of coffee?
[07:51.56]W: I’d love to, but I’m exhausted.
[07:55.17]I was up till 3 this morning, writing a paper for my literature class.
[08:00.75]Q: Why does the woman decline the man’s invitation?
[08:20.88]18. W: You had a job interview yesterday, didn’t you? How did it go?
[08:28.48]M: Not too bad, I guess.
[08:30.98]There were about 20 candidates competing for the sales manager’s job.
[08:36.28]And finally it was down to three of us, but the other two seemed better qualified.
[08:42.38]Q: What does the man imply?
[09:01.64]Now you'll hear the two long conversations.
[09:07.02]Conversation One
[09:09.64]W: Simon, how does it feel to be retired?
[09:13.43]M: Well, not so bad.
[09:15.59]W: How have you been spending your time?
[09:18.59]M: I have been spending more time with my family.
[09:21.21]I’ve also travelled a bit, you know,
[09:23.73]off season when everywhere is less crowded and hotels cost less.
[09:28.43]W: Great.
[09:29.42]M: You know I haven’t stopped work completely.
[09:32.37]W: Yes, could you tell us more about this?
[09:35.87]M: I’m on a scheme that’s called phased retirement;
[09:40.24]I had a six-month break from work,
[09:43.09]after that I could apply for project work with the company I used to work for.
[09:48.66]W: How does the scheme work?
[09:50.85]M: Well, it’s a trial at the moment.
[09:53.48]Instead of hiring temporary stuff,
[09:56.32]the company advertises posts on its website
[10:00.26]that retired employees like myself can access.
[10:03.98]W: What sort of works advertised?
[10:06.93]M: Well, all sorts of things, really.
[10:09.33]Administrative work and more specialized work, the sort of thing I can do.
[10:15.35]Some of the projects can last five or six months,
[10:19.72]and others can just be a couple of days.
[10:23.12]I can decide more or less when to work. So I can manage my own time.
[10:29.68]W: I can see it’s good for you. What is your company get out of this?
[10:34.82]M: Well, I still have all my old contacts at work,
[10:38.32]so I know who to contact to get something done.
[10:41.49]The company gets flexibility, too.
[10:44.55]Once the job’s over, that’s it. I’m not on their books any more.
[10:50.46]Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
[10:59.64]19. Why does Simon find his retired life enjoyable?
[11:22.01]20. How does Simon get to know about the company’s available posts?
[11:45.07]21. Why does the company adopt the phased retirement scheme?
[12:06.50]Conversation Two
[12:10.03]W: Oh, where are we going?
[12:12.11]M: I want to show you something.
[12:13.97]W: I know, but what is it?
[12:16.27]M: A farm. It’s just down this road. It’s a small place,
[12:21.84]but at least it would be our own.
[12:24.14]W: A farm? How can we afford to buy a farm?
[12:28.40]M: It isn’t very large, only 40 acres.
[12:31.80]We wouldn’t have to pay very much right now.
[12:34.86]W: Is there a house on the place?
[12:37.15]M: A small one, two bedrooms, but it needs to be fixed up a little.
[12:42.19]I can do the job myself.
[12:44.59]W: OK. Is there enough space for a kitchen garden?
[12:48.75]M: There is about half an acre around the house.
[12:51.92]That’s plenty of space.
[12:54.65]W: Then we can grow our own fresh vegetables.
[12:58.37]And maybe keep a few chickens, couldn’t we?
[13:01.43]M: Yes, and we can probably grow a lot of our own food.
[13:05.70]W: What are you thinking about growing, if we do take this place?
[13:10.51]M: Well, it really isn’t big enough for corn.
[13:14.01]I thought we might try to raise a crop of potatoes.
[13:18.60]W: Potatoes? There are a lot of work.
[13:21.78]M: We are used to hard work, aren’t we?
[13:23.85]W: Yes, we are, but the money.
[13:26.92]Do we have enough to get started? It seems like a dream.
[13:31.29]M: I think we’ve saved enough.
[13:34.24]We can pay a little on the farm
[13:36.65]and maybe put a few dollars down on the tractor, too.
[13:40.81]Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
[13:48.58]22. What are the speakers going to do at the time of the conversation?
[14:10.97]23. What does the man say about the farm?
[14:32.52]24. Why does the man intend to grow potatoes rather than corn on the farm?
[14:56.80]25. What is the woman’s greatest concern about the man’s plan?
[15:20.34]Section B
[15:22.67]Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages.
[15:28.47]At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions.
[15:33.17]Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once.
[15:38.53]After you hear a question,
[15:41.16]you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D).
[15:49.69]Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2
[15:54.83]with a single line through the centre.
[15:59.64]Passage One
[16:02.05]Members of the city council and distinguished guests,
[16:06.10]it is my privilege to introduce to you today Mr. Robert Washington,
[16:12.33]chief of our city’s police force.
[16:15.29]He will address us on the subject of the Community Policing Program.
[16:20.21]Most of you know that Mr. Washington has a distinguished record
[16:26.11]as head of our police force for more than ten years.
[16:29.61]However, you may not know that he also holds a master’s degree in criminology
[16:36.28]and studied abroad for a year with the international police force
[16:40.77]which deals with crimes around the world.
[16:44.27]Mr. Washington first introduced the Community Policing Program 8 years ago.
[16:51.92]The idea behind the program is to get police officers out of their cars
[16:58.27]and into our neighborhoods where they can talk directly to merchants and residents
[17:03.19]about the real dynamics of our city. These officers do more than make arrests.
[17:10.30]They try to find ways to help solve the problems
[17:14.13]that contribute to crime in the first place.
[17:17.19]Often that means hooking people up with services offered by other city agencies,
[17:23.86]such as schools, hospitals,
[17:26.81]housing, drug treatment centers.
[17:29.55]And the program seems to be working:
[17:33.59]crime is down and our citizens report that they feel more secure.
[17:39.06]Today Mr. Washington is going to tell us more about this program.
[17:44.42]Now let’s welcome Mr. Robert Washington.
[17:48.69]Quentions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you've just heard.
[17:56.46]26. What is the purpose of the speaker’s remarks?
[18:16.34]27. What does the speaker say about Mr. Robert Washington?
[18:38.08]28. What is the idea behind the Community Policing Program?
[19:00.50]29. How has the Community Policing Program turned out to be?
[19:22.57]Passage Two
[19:25.44]There are between 3000 and 6000 public languages in the world,
[19:31.19]and we must add approximately 6 billion private languages
[19:36.00]since each one of us necessarily has one. Considering these facts,
[19:42.13]the possibilities for breakdowns in communication seem infinite in number.
[19:48.14]However, we do communicate successfully from time to time.
[19:53.83]And we do learn to speak languages.
[19:56.89]But learning to speak languages seems to be a very mysterious process.
[20:03.13]For a long time,
[20:06.08]people thought that we learned a language only by imitation and association.
[20:12.20]For example, a baby touches a hot pot and starts to cry.
[20:17.67]The mother says, “Hot, hot!” And the baby, when it stops crying,
[20:24.12]imitates the mother and says, “Hot, hot!” However,
[20:29.94]Noam Chomsky, a famous expert in language,
[20:33.99]pointed out that although children do learn some words by imitation and association,
[20:41.09]they also combine words to make meaningful sentences in ways that are unique,
[20:47.11]unlearned and creative.
[20:49.84]Because young children can make sentences they have never heard before,
[20:54.98]Chomsky suggested that human infants are born with the ability to learn language.
[21:01.66]Chomsky meant that underneath all the differences
[21:05.70]between public and private languages,
[21:08.57]there is a universal language mechanism that makes it possible for us,
[21:13.93]as infants, to learn any language in the world.
[21:17.76]This theory explains the potential that human infants have for learning language.
[21:24.32]But it does not really explain how children come to use language in particular ways.
[21:32.50]Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[21:40.57]30. Why does the speaker say
[21:44.07]there are great possibilities for communication breakdowns?
[22:02.65]31. What is Chomsky’s point on the ability to learn a language?
[22:24.64]32. What does Chomsky’s theory fail to explain according to the speaker?
[22:47.81]Passage Three
[22:49.92]When US spacewoman Joan Higginbotham is not flying and working in space,
[22:56.37]she might be found somewhere on earth giving a speech. Higginbotham,
[23:02.17]who grew up in Chicago and became an engineer before joining NASA,
[23:07.53]that is the National Air and Space Administration,
[23:11.03]gives about a dozen speeches a year.
[23:14.74]Each speech is different because she tailors her remarks to each audience.
[23:20.54]Through interviews and E-mails,
[23:23.60]she finds out in advance her listeners' educational level
[23:28.20]and what information they want to know.
[23:31.37]On the subject of space walks, for example, audiences vary in their interests
[23:38.73]and how much complexity they can comprehend.
[23:41.79]To elementary school children,
[23:45.73]Higginbotham may discuss a problem that many kids want to know about.
[23:50.54]"How do spacemen in a spacesuit eat, drink, and go to the bathroom?"
[23:57.98]Her answer is “the spacesuit is really a small spacecraft
[24:03.88]with room for food and water-containers, and a waste-collection system.”
[24:09.68]To a high school audience, she might satisfy a curiosity
[24:16.57]that often arises in her pre-speech interviews with students
[24:20.18]who obviously have seen many science fiction movies.
[24:24.66]“Do spacemen carry weapons in case they encounter enemies in space?”
[24:30.79]Her answer is "No".
[24:34.07]To scientists,
[24:36.47]she might provide technical details on such topics
[24:39.43]as the design of spacesuits that protects spacemen from
[24:43.58]the deadly temperature extremes of space.
[24:47.19]Just as elaborate preparation is required for success in space,
[24:53.10]Higginbotham says that it’s important for speakers to learn
[24:58.02]as much as possible about their listeners
[25:00.54]before a speech because every audience is different.
[25:07.45]Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
[25:15.32]33. What did Joan Higginbotham do before joining NASA?
[25:37.39]34. How does Higginbotham prepare her speeches on space walks?
[26:10.99]35. What does the high school audience want to know about space travel?
[26:37.80]Section C Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times.
[26:46.58]When the passage is read for the first time,
[26:49.86]you should listen carefully for its general idea.
[26:53.69]When the passage is read for the second time,
[26:57.51]you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words
[27:05.61]you have just heard.
[27:07.46]For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information.
[27:15.67]For these blanks,
[27:17.85]you can either use the exact words you have just heard
[27:21.80]or write down the main points in your own words. Finally,
[27:27.59]when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
[27:34.27]Now listen to the passage.
[27:37.28]Crime is increasing worldwide.
[27:41.32]There is every reason to believe
[27:44.06]the trend will continue through the next few decades.
[27:47.45]Crime rates have always been high in multi-cultural industrialized societies
[27:53.58]such as the United States. But a new phenomenon has appeared on the world scene—
[27:59.15]rapidly rising crime rates in nations that previously reported few offences.
[28:05.71]Street crimes such as robbery, rape, murder and auto theft are clearly rising,
[28:13.48]particularly in Eastern European countries,
[28:16.54]such as Hungary, and in Western European nations,
[28:19.71]such as the Untied Kingdom. What is driving this crime explosion?
[28:27.15]There are no simple answers.
[28:30.00]Still, there are certain conditions associated with rising crime.
[28:36.01]Increasing heterogeneity of populations, greater cultural pluralism,
[28:42.97]higher immigration, democratization of governments, changing national borders,
[28:49.90]greater economic growth and the lack of accepted social ideas of right and wrong.
[28:58.43]These conditions are increasingly observable around the world.
[29:05.10]For instance, cultures that were previously isolated and homogenous,
[29:11.33]such as Japan, Denmark and Greece, are now facing the sort of cultural variety
[29:17.57]that has been common in America for most of its history.
[29:21.94]Multiculturalism can be a rewarding, enriching experience,
[29:27.52]but it can also lead to a clash of values.
[29:30.80]Heterogeneity in societies will be the rule in the 21st century,
[29:35.50]and failure to recognize
[29:37.63]and plan for such diversity can lead to serious crime problems.
[29:45.39]Now the passage will be read again.
[29:50.53]Crime is increasing worldwide.
[29:53.19]There is every reason to believe
[29:55.49]the trend will continue through the next few decades.
[30:00.16]Crime rates have always been high in multi-cultural industrialized societies
[30:05.74]such as the United States.
[30:08.25]But a new phenomenon has appeared on the world scene—
[30:12.96]rapidly rising crime rates in nations that previously reported few offences.
[30:19.08]Street crimes such as robbery, rape, murder and auto theft are clearly rising,
[30:26.74]particularly in Eastern European countries,
[30:30.13]such as Hungary, and in Western European nations,
[30:34.17]such as the Untied Kingdom.
[30:37.57]What is driving this crime explosion?
[30:40.44]There are no simple answers.
[30:43.50]Still, there are certain conditions associated with rising crime.
[30:48.86]Increasing heterogeneity of populations, greater cultural pluralism,
[30:55.42]higher immigration, democratization of governments,
[31:00.23]changing national borders,greater economic growth
[31:04.39]and the lack of accepted social ideas of right and wrong.
[32:20.85]These conditions are increasingly observable around the world.
[32:25.70]For instance, cultures that were previously isolated and homogenous,
[32:31.06]such as Japan, Denmark and Greece,
[32:34.23]are now facing the sort of cultural variety
[32:37.95]that has been common in America for most of its history.
[33:44.86]Multiculturalism can be a rewarding, enriching experience,
[33:49.93]but it can also lead to a clash of values.
[33:53.87]Heterogeneity in societies will be the rule in the 21st century,
[33:59.67]and failure to recognize
[34:02.18]and plan for such diversity can lead to serious crime problems.
[35:02.21]Now the passage will be read for the third time.
[35:06.20]Crime is increasing worldwide.
[35:09.71]There is every reason to believe
[35:12.33]the trend will continue through the next few decades.
[35:15.72]Crime rates have always been high in multi-cultural industrialized societies
[35:22.06]such as the United States. But a new phenomenon has appeared on the world scene—
[35:27.53]rapidly rising crime rates in nations that previously reported few offences.
[35:34.21]Street crimes such as robbery, rape, murder and auto theft are clearly rising,
[35:41.86]particularly in Eastern European countries,
[35:44.81]such as Hungary, and in Western European nations,
[35:48.20]such as the Untied Kingdom. What is driving this crime explosion?
[35:55.09]There are no simple answers.
[35:58.37]Still, there are certain conditions associated with rising crime.
[36:03.95]Increasing heterogeneity of populations, greater cultural pluralism,
[36:10.78]higher immigration, democratization of governments, changing national borders,
[36:18.22]greater economic growth and the lack of accepted social ideas of right and wrong.
[36:27.08]These conditions are increasingly observable around the world.
[36:32.98]For instance, cultures that were previously isolated and homogenous,
[36:39.44]such as Japan, Denmark and Greece, are now facing the sort of cultural variety
[36:45.89]that has been common in America for most of its history.
[36:50.05]Multiculturalism can be a rewarding, enriching experience,
[36:55.30]but it can also lead to a clash of values.
[36:59.23]Heterogeneity in societies will be the rule in the 21st century,
[37:03.72]and failure to recognize
[37:05.69]and plan for such diversity can lead to serious crime problems.
[37:10.69]This is the end of listening comprehension.
