Vocabulary Task
Script and Answers
1. A: Oh, my gosh. Michael had another accident.
B: What happened?
A: Last night his car hydroplaned and rolled off the road. Fortunately he was wearing the seatbelt.
B: That was a close call.
2. A: My goodness! The number of overweight children has doubled in the last 20 years.
B: That’s no surprise. Don’t you see children are having too much junk food, more television and video games?
A: Yes, you are right. And they are not getting enough exercise.
B: This must have something to do with our economy and society in general.
3. A: Hey, do you know this? Women tend to have less success than men in quitting smoking.
B: You are not serious, are you?
A: This is the latest finding. What’s even worse is that women may suffer greater risks of smoking-related diseases than men do.
B: That’s downright depressing. Lots of people are shrugging this off and consider smoking in vogue.
4. A: Look at this. Each year, almost 1 million teenage girls become pregnant and more than half end in having births.
B: That’s incredible. They should be studying in school. Why don’t their parents prevent this?
A: Yes, their parents should be responsible. But many just seem so incapable.
B: It really gets me. Parents should learn to build strong and close relationships with their kids so as to exercise influence on their behavior.
5. A: Oh, no, another two people were killed in a suicide bombing attack!
B: My goodness! These people are crazy. Didn’t the two sides agreed to a ceasefire?
A: Yes, they did. Now look, there will be greater tension in the area.
B: Of course. But what indeed is it that could inspire so many suicide bombers?
Listening Task
2. Listening Activity
1) First Listening
Answers
1. The speaker was reporting on a school shooting.
2. The speaker was a journalist new to her job.
3. The speaker was reporting something that happened in her city.
2) Second Listening
Answers
1. The casualties of the shooting were four dead and at least 10 more wounded.
2. The speaker stopped before she reached a student witness because she couldn’t stand having her recollect the shooting.
3. The speaker wept because her job conflicted with her emotion.
4. Finally she realized the value of her job.
Script
A journalist’s first journey
The bulletin announced there had been a shooting at a Jonesboro middle school. Four children were dead and at least 10 more wounded. I stared at the screen. “Jonesboro?” I thought. “I didn’t know there was another Jonesboro ... But it says ‘Arkansas’. That doesn’t make sense.”
Finally it began to sink in. Something has happened here. “What school?” I screamed at the television. I turned to our local station. Nothing, only some talk show about teen romances.
I rushed out the door, and made my way across town. Everything seemed fairly normal. People seemed to be going about their business as they always did in this quiet little city. But something hung in the air. I looked closer at the faces and saw masks of shock.
The next day I was sent to the school to report on the shooting. I found a student and walked to her, but about five feet away, I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Oh my God!” I thought. “I can’t do this! These are my own people. I can’t go up to her and ask how she felt seeing her classmates shot up, or how she felt seeing the blood of her best friend pool around her feet as it sought cracks in the concrete. And I can’t explain to her that I’m only asking because the rest of the world wants to read about it.”
I panicked. I wanted to scream to everyone to get the hell out of here. If they would all just go away, things would be okay, and we would realize that none of this really happened! I looked around wildly, expecting someone to slap me and curse me for even thinking about bothering that little girl. But no one noticed me. Everyone was still rushing back and forth. I wondered what God was thinking as He watched this. A small-framed woman was to my right, walking in circles as she talked on a cell phone, “Beautiful, that’s beautiful! Go with it!” The arm not holding the phone was waving in the air like a politician pledging promises.
I turned toward the brick wall and wept. Feeling as if I had cleansed some of the horrible, greedy filth from my soul, I regrouped. I was here to tell a story, to document evils done to our children, to possibly find some shred of reason why two young boys felt so violent that they gunned down their classmates. I would do my best to help bring to light the forces that destroyed lives.
Hiding behind my camera, I wandered around the grounds and soon blended with the rest of the people, scurrying back and forth, intensely focused on the job at hand.
Real World Listening
1. Predict
Answer
□ Traffic lights were turned off.
2. Get the Main Ideas
Answers
1. Because she had a dog to take care of at home.
2. He had to walk down 86 flights of stairs.
3. No, it was just an extraordinary electrical blackout.
4. By pay phones.
5. No, he was relaxed because he said that it was interesting to see what happened to a city when there was no power.
Script and Answers to Self-study
Blackout
Broadcaster: Pedestrians swarmed the streets of New York City Thursday afternoon as a blackout halted subways and buses, turned off traffic signals and flushed workers out of businesses where the air conditioning and elevators had suddenly stopped working. Throngs of people, smiling and laughing for the most part, walked alongside cars across the bridges out of the city. Our cameras showed dozens of people in the back of a van, apparently hitching a ride. The people smiled and talked on cell phones as the van pulled away from an intersection. Other people licked ice cream put at risk because of the lack of power for freezers on a day where the temperature topped 90 degrees. Our reporter talked to some of them.
Carol: I work in Jersey City and live in New York. I’m waiting for a ferry ride back home. This might be a mistake. But I have a dog, and there’s no way I’m staying in Jersey while my dog sweats to death.
James: I was on top of the Empire State Building when the power went out. We had to walk down 86 flights of stairs. I kept thinking about the Twin Towers and how I would get down. But everybody was calm. We want to see the lights tonight. We hope it doesn’t last too long.
Jessica: I’m scared. It’s that unknown “what’s going on” feeling. Everyone’s panicking. The city’s shutting down. People that would normally be inside are outside because they are baking in their buildings. The temperature is 91 degrees.
Rachel: I’ve done this before--this is just like Sept. 11th. I don’t know where I’m going tonight, but I can’t drive home. I ended up staying with a nice guy in Jersey City whose family took me in. I’m worried about my elderly mother. In times like this, you want to be with your family. I thought the chaos was caused by terrorism, but they say it’s nothing more than an extraordinary electrical blackout.
Cathy: There seems to be problems getting cell lines out. People walking by are asking, “You have a cell phone line?” and for the first time there are lines at pay phones here. But the streets are more crowded now than I’ve seen in a long time. There’s no air conditioning inside. It looks like a lot places have given up and closed up for the day.
Kevin: I don’t know what’s happened yet. It’s just interesting to see what happens to a city when they have no power. I’m going to hang out here for a while, and maybe the subway will start working again. Otherwise it’s a long walk home. |