Part I Listening Comprehension
Section A
1. W: Carol told us on the phone not to worry about her. Her left leg doesn’t hurt as much as it did yesterday.
M: She’d better have it examined by a doctor anyway. And I will call her about it this evening.
Q: What does the man think Carol should do?
2. M: There is a non-stop train for Washington and it leaves at 2:30.
W: It’s faster than the 2 o’clock train. Besides, we can have something to eat before getting on the train.
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
3. M: Hi, Melissa, how’s your project going? Have you thought about going to graduate school? Perhaps you can get into Harvard.
W: Everything is coming along really well. I have been thinking about graduate school. But I’ll talk to my tutor Dr. Garcia first and see what she thinks.
Q: What do you learn about the woman from the conversation?
4. W: Did you attend Alice’s presentation last night? It was the first time for her to give a speech to a large audience.
M: How she could be so calm in front of so many people is really beyond me!
Q: What do we learn from the conversation?
5. W: You’ve been doing weather reports for neatly 30 years. Has the weather got any worse in all these years?
M: Well, not necessarily worse. But we are seeing more swings.
Q: What does the man say about the weather?
6. M: Excuse me, I am looking for the textbook by a Professor Jordon for the marketing course.
W: I am afraid it’s out of stock. You’ll have to order it. And it will take the publisher 3 weeks to send it to us.
Q: Where did this conversation most probably take place?
7. M: I am going to New York next week, but the hotel I booked is really expensive.
W: Why book a hotel? My brother has 2 spare rooms in his apartment.
Q: What does the woman mean?
8. W: In my opinion, watching the news on TV is a good way to learn English. What do you think?
M: It would be better if you could check the same information in English newspapers afterwards.
Q: What does the man say about learning English?
9. M: I hear a newly-invented drug can make people tell the truth and it may prove useful in questioning terrorists. Isn’t it incredible?
W: Simple solutions to complex problems rarely succeed. As far as I know, no such drugs are ever known to work.
Q: What does the woman think of the new drug?
10. M: You know the electronics company is coming to our campus to recruit graduate students next week.
W: Really? What day? I'd like to talk to them and hand in my resume.
Q: What does the woman want to do?
Section B
Passage one
A new study reports the common drug aspirin greatly reduces life threatening problems after an operation to replace blocked blood vessels to the heart. More than 800,000 people around the world have this heart surgery each year. The doctors who carried out the study say giving aspirin to patients soon after the operation could save thousands of lives. People usually take aspirin to control pain and reduce high body temperature. Doctors also advise some people to take aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. About 10-15 percent of these heart operations end in death or damage to the heart or other organs. The new study shows that even a small amount of aspirin reduced such threats. The doctors said the chance of death for patients who took aspirin would fall by 67%. They claimed this was true if the aspirin was given within 48 hours of the operation. The doctors believe aspirin helps heart surgery patients because it can prevent blood from thickening and blood vessels from being blocked. However, the doctors warned that people who have stomach bleeding or other bad reactions from aspirin should not take it after heart surgery.
Q11. What is the finding of the new study of aspirin?
Q12. In what way can aspirin help heart surgery patients according to the doctors?
Q13. What warning did the doctors give about the use of aspirin?
Passage Two
Were you the first or the last child in you family? Or were you a middle or an only child? Some people think it matters where you were born in you family. But there are different ideas about what birth order means. Some people say that oldest children are smart and strong-willed. They are very likely to be successful. The reason for this is simple. Parents have a lot of time for their first child, they give him or her a lot of attention. So this child is very likely to do well. An only child will succeed for the same reason. What happens to the other children in the family? Middle children don’t get so much attention, so they don’t feel that important. If a family has many children, the middle one sometimes gets lost in the crowd. The youngest child, though, often gets special treatment. He or she is the baby. Often this child grows up to be funny and charming. Do you believe these ideas of birth order too? A recent study saw things quite differently. The study found that first children believed in family rules. They didn’t take many chances in their lives. They usually followed orders. Rules didn’t mean as much to later children in the family. They went out and followed their own ideas. They took chances and they often did better in life.
Q14. According to common belief, in what way are the first child and the only child alike?
Q15. What do people usually say about middle children?
Q16. what do we learn about later children in a family from a recent study of birth order?
Passage Three
When my interest shifted from space to the sea, I never expected it would cause such confusion among my friends, yet I can understand their feelings. As I have been writing and talking about space flight for the best part of 20 years, a sudden switch of interest to the depth of the sea doer seem peculiar. To explain, I’d like to share my reasons behind this unusual change of mind. The first excuse I give is an economic one. Underwater exploration is so much cheaper than space flight. The first round-trip ticket to the moon is going to cost at least 10 billion dollars if you include research and development. By the end of this century, the cost will be down to a few million. On the other hand, the diving suit and a set of basic tools needed for skin-diving can be bought for 20 dollars. My second argument is more philosophical. The ocean, surprisingly enough, has many things in common with space. In their different ways, both sea and space are equally hostile. If we wish to survive in either for any length of time, we need to have mechanical aids. The diving suit helped the design of the space suit. The feelings and the emotions of a man beneath the sea will be much like those of a man beyond the atmosphere.
Q17. How did the speaker’s friends respond to his change of interest?
Q18. What is one of the reasons for the speaker to switch his interest to underwater exploration?
Q19. In what way does the speaker think diving is similar to space travel?
Q20. What is the speaker’s purpose in giving this talk?
