[00:05.98]Practice One Are You a Litter Lout?
[00:10.66]Words You Need to Know
[00:12.89]litter lout core
[00:22.10]volunteer package recycle
[00:35.57]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which sentences have been mentioned.
[00:44.71]If the sentence is mentioned, write "Y" (Yes). If not, write "N" (No).
[00:53.35]Have you ever left an apple core on a bench or wall, or an empty drink bottle sitting by a lamp-post?
[01:00.12]And have you ever left your newspaper behind on a train seat when you've finished reading it?
[01:05.45]If you answered "Yes" to just one of these questions, then you are a litter lout, according to the Tidy Britain Group.
[01:12.90]Litter is a big problem in Britain. This organization is trying to deal with about 6 million tons of litter left on the streets each year.
[01:22.40]The aim is "Getting away from litter". Last year 1.6 million volunteers got involved in thousands of events-cleaning up rivers, streets and other areas.
[01:34.18]In one place 150 people collected 20 tons of litter in only one morning!
[01:40.40]Packaging makes up 60 per cent of litter dropped, and one way of dealing with this is to recycle it.
[01:46.96]Bottle banks and litter centers are appearing all over the country, but Tidy Britain says that more are needed and that not enough people use them.
[01:56.14]By the way, it appears that more men than women are litter louts.
[02:00.67]In 1990, over 2000 men were punished for dropping litter against around 200 women! (203 words)
[02:07.58]1)If you answered "Yes" to just one of these questions then you are a litter lout.
[02:16.04]2)The country is not going to think about the problem of litter.
[02:21.88]3)Six million volunteers got involved in thousands of events-cleaning up rivers, streets and other areas.
[02:31.74]4)If you want to recycle the litter, you'll have to have a large bank.
[02:38.80]5)Bottle banks and litter centers are appearing all over the country.
[02:46.36]6)More louts are needed and not enough people belong to that kind of louts.
[02:54.06]7)In comparison, over 2000 men were punished for dropping litter against around 200 women.
[03:03.78]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and decide which of the following are mentioned as litter.
[03:13.46]Put a tick ( ) beside it.
[03:15.88]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and answer the following questions briefly.
[03:26.14]1)What are you called if you have left litter around?
[03:31.32]2)What is the organization of "The Tidy Britain Group" trying to do?
[03:39.31]3)How many volunteers joined in the events?
[03:43.74]4)What did the volunteers do in the event?
[03:48.06]Practice Two Does Anyone Care?
[03:53.17]Words You Need to Know
[03:55.40]psychology incident metro
[04:10.63]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which choice is the best answer to each of the questions.
[04:22.04]In 1985 a French television company sent its reporters to the Paris Metro.
[04:29.71]They took cameras to see what passengers would do if they saw someone attacked on the platform or trains.
[04:37.60]The incidents looked real but they were all done with the help of actors.
[04:42.64]However, very few people tried to help,and most passengers pretended not to notice.
[04:49.98]In one incident, a foreigner was attacked by three men.
[04:54.88]The attack was on a train which was quite full, and although one man tried to get the other passengers to help,
[05:02.29]they all refused. This is not only a French problem.
[05:08.16]A British newspaper reported in 1991 that a professor of Social Psychology in New York had sent his students out to rob their own cars.
[05:21.52]The students didn't try to hide what they were doing.
[05:25.51]About 800 people watched 250 car thefts, and only twelve people tried to stop the student robbers
[05:34.84]In a typical incident, one man stopped, looked, and then put his hands over his eyes and shouted "I didn't see that!"
[05:44.84]About forty people offered to help the thieves, and two people actually sat down next to the car and waited to buy a camera and television set a student was taking from the back seat of his own car.
[06:00.54]The professor wonders whether it's a problem of big cities, or would the same thing happen anywhere. (234 words)
[06:08.71]1)Who carried out the experiment on the platform and trains?
[06:13.90]2)How could the incidents be described?
[06:19.08]3)Why didn't passengers help those being attacked?
[06:24.01]4)What did 40 people do when the cars were robbed?
[06:28.87]5)What is the conclusion we can get from the passage?
[06:33.84]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again. Fill in the numbers to show whether the following expressions are mentioned in the first experiment ( ) or the second experiment ( ) .
[06:49.21]Practice Three Changes in the World
[06:54.18]Words You Need to Know
[06:56.12]terrorist hostage hijack violate starve
[07:19.92]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
[07:31.66]Many people say the world is becoming a more dangerous place.
[07:36.37]In almost every area of the world, something bad is happening.
[07:40.87]Many countries are having political problems. Some are fighting wars with their neighbors.
[07:47.17]In others, people are making trouble against their own government and fighting wars.
[07:53.62]Terrorists are taking hostages and hijacking planes to make demands on their government or on the government of another country.
[08:02.29]Some countries are violating the human rights of some of their citizens.
[08:06.76]People in those countries as well as in other countries are against the government.
[08:12.26]Besides political problems, there are also economic problems.
[08:17.41]In some countries, there is not enough food, and people are starving.
[08:22.67]In others, such as the US, unskilled workers are losing their jobs as technology keeps increasing.
[08:30.41]There are also many social problems. In the US, for example, more and more people are getting divorced,
[08:38.72]and children are growing up in single-parent families.
[08:42.61]Many young women are having babies without getting married.
[08:46.32]More and more young people are using drugs. (172 words)
[08:49.74]1)Some countries are fighting against their neighbors.
[08:55.07]2)There are no wars in any countries so far.
[09:00.58]3)Some terrorists are threatening the governments.
[09:05.87]4)In advanced countries, technology is taking away some people's jobs.
[09:12.64]5)The US divorce problem causes many children to live in single-parent families.
[09:20.81]6)Some people take drugs because they are having more babies.
[09:26.64]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and answer the following questions briefly.
[09:36.65]1)How many general kinds of problems are mentioned in the passage?
[09:42.98]2)In some countries, what are people doing to their own government?
[09:49.32]3)Under economic problems, how many phenomena have been mentioned?
[09:56.63]4)In social problems, who have more troubles, middle-aged people or young people?
[10:04.69]Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and write down the summary of the passage.
[10:15.85]Lesson Two Theft
[10:19.52]Pracitice One Types and Characteristics of Shoplifters Words You Need to Know
[10:27.26]shoplifter kleptomaniac impulse
[10:42.28]disturb cosmetics journalist
[11:00.10]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the interview and answer the following questions briefly.
[11:09.89]I:Is there such a thing as a typical shoplifter?
[11:12.98]D:Uh, not really... But there are certain types most shoplifters fall into
[11:18.49]Three types, I would say.
[11:20.51]I:Tell me more about these three types.
[11:22.88]D:Well... uh... people in the first type are what I call "the sudden impulse type".
[11:29.00]Doctors and psychologists call such people kleptomaniacs.
[11:33.54]They see something and just can't... uh... help stealing it.
[11:37.86]The strange thing about this first type is that the people in it are often well off and could easily afford to buy the thing.
[11:46.50]Sometimes they don't even need it... and often they're emotionally disturbed in some way... middle-aged women,
[11:53.52]for example, whose husbands have left them, or perhaps older men whose wives have recently died.
[11:59.96]I:What about the second type?
[12:01.76]D:Well, those are people who are really... uh... "little thieves".
[12:06.52]They work alone, and know exactly what they want before they go into the store.
[12:12.02]These days a lot of them, but by no means all, are teenagers who steal things they can't afford.
[12:19.04]Leather jackets. Watches. Expensive cosmetics. Things like that.
[12:23.83]I:And the third type? What kind of people do you find in the third type?
[12:28.19]D:Ah, yes, they're what I call "the experts".
[12:32.72]I:Why?
[12:33.77]D:Well, first of all, because they're highly organized.
[12:37.73]And secondly because they do it for a living.
[12:41.44]They usually operate in groups of three or sometimes four, and they're extremely difficult to catch.
[12:49.14]I:Can they make a lot of money that way?
[12:51.26]D:Oh, yes. Yes, they're very well off, believe me... much better off than a store detective... or even a journalist! (274 words)
[12:59.80]1)How many types of shoplifters are mentioned in the conversation?
[13:05.66]2)Among the three types of shoplifters, who can be found out least easily?
[13:12.68]3)Among the three types of the shoplifters, who are most probably the youngest?
[13:19.74]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen closely to the interview again and fill in the diagram below with the information from it.
[13:31.01]Practice Two An Unlucky Robber
[13:35.18]Words You Need to Know
[13:37.09]cashier slide crawl
[13:48.79]get to one's feet Milan
[13:59.48]Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and put a tick ( ) to the sentences that have been mentioned in the passage.
[14:11.08]In September 1979, Carlo Colodi parked his car outside a bank in Milan, Italy,
[14:19.18]and then rushed inside with a big handkerchief hiding his face and a gun in his hand.
[14:25.15]Hitting his foot on the corner of the carpet, he sild across the smooth floor.
[14:30.80]His handkerchief dropped off, showing his face, and as he fell, he by chance fired his gun, which hit no one.
[14:40.20]Getting to his feet in a hurry, he ran to the cashier's desk,
[14:44.84]started to fall again, and seized a counter to keep his balance.
[14:50.39]At that time he dropped his gun, and the whole bank rocked with laughter.
[14:56.11]Annoyed, the man turned, ran, slipped again, and finally crawled out of the bank.
[15:04.07]Outside he found a police officer writing out a ticket for his car, which was parked in a noparking area. (140 words)
[15:12.96]1)Carlo Colodi rushed inside with a handkerchief hiding his fact.
[15:19.51]2)He jumped into the car and drove away.
[15:24.41]3)He took up the money and fell.
[15:28.80]4)The robber by chance fired his gun.
[15:33.30]5)He rocked the whole bank.
[15:37.84]6)He crawled out of the bank.
[15:41.98]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and put serial numbers in brackets, according to the order of the content in the recording.
[15:54.58]Practice Three The Magnificent Powder
[15:58.68]Words You Need to Know
[16:00.77]powder paralyze boast figure
[16:16.18]Ibadan Nigeria Tommy Lucas
[16:28.67]Exercise 1:Listen to the passage and decide which choice is the best answer to each of the questions
[16:39.50]My father old me this story. It happened at a place called Ibadan, in Nigeria.
[16:48.94]Nowadays Ibadan is a big, important city, but at that time it was still quite small.
[16:55.38]The few Europeans working there lived in houses built close together in a suburb of the town.
[17:02.65]In the evening the Europeans used to meet for a talk or a game of tennis at the club.
[17:09.82]It so happened that during the three or four months before a number of robberies had taken place,
[17:17.09]All the people robbed were white and in each case they told a similar tale.
[17:22.78]They had woken during the night and seen silent, dark figures moving about, but they were unable to move or give the alarm.
[17:31.88]In the morning when they awoke, they found that valuable things had disappeared.
[17:38.08]All kinds of suggestions were put forward, and the most popular theory was that the thieves were using some form of African drug,
[17:47.29]which had the effect of paralyzing the people for some time, so that they were aware of things happening,
[17:54.82]but unable to move or speak. It was thought that this drug was blown into the bedroom through a tube in the form of a fine powder which the sleeper breathed in.
[18:05.15]A young man called Tommy Lucas listened carefully to the conversation.
[18:09.94]He had only recently arrived from England, while my father and some of the older members had been living in Africa for 20 years or more.
[18:19.98]"I'd like to see any African drug paralyze me with magnificent power," boasted Tommy Lucas.
[18:26.93]"I always sleep with a loaded gun on my bedside table and I wouldn't hesitate to use it, I can tell you."
[18:33.66]There was a moment of silence. Everyone looked at him.
[18:38.02]"You haven't been in Africa very long, have you, Tommy?" asked one of the older members, quietly.
[18:45.18]On Saturday evening there was a party at the club and everyone went home rather late.
[18:51.12]So my father was surprised to be woken about 8 o'clock on Sunday morning by a gentle knock at his bedroom door.
[18:59.08]Ade, his African servant, stood there with an amused smile on his face.
[19:06.17]He asked my father to follow him out into the morning sunshine. There, in the middle of the road,
[19:12.97]was Tommy Lucas, fast asleep in his bed. Beside him, on his bedside table, lay his gun. (402 words)
[19:28.13]1)What do we know about the city of Ibadan when the story happened?
[19:34.36]2)What happened in the story?
[19:38.53]3)What was true about the incidents?
[19:43.10]4)What do you know about the young man Tommy Lucas?
[19:48.54]5)Who proved that Tommy Lucas was wrong?
[19:53.58]Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
[20:05.71]1)The Africans liked to tell a similar tale.
[20:10.25]2)The Africans disliked the Europeans.
[20:14.14]3)The speaker's father had lived in Africa for at least 20 years.
[20:20.11]4)On that Sunday morning the weather was fine.
[20:24.83]5)Tommy Lucas was carried out of his bedroom.
[20:29.62]6)Ade turned out to be the thief |