PART A Micro-Listening
Integrative Skills' Training
I.
One of the main complaints of the city residents in the United States is the number of homeless cats and dogs. It has been estimated by Friends of Animals Incorporation that more than 30 million cats and dogs are wandering through the streets of the cities. Each year, about a fifth of these animals are destroyed. A survey of 41 cities reports that as much as 15 million dollars is spent to capture and kill those animals every year. One city alone, Chicago, spends$1,000,000 a year to control its animal population. On the other hand, though you can find quite a lot of cats and dogs wandering in New York, the city government doesn't spend any money on animal control.
1. What is the complaint mentioned in the passage?
2. What is the estimated number of these animals?
3. What is the source of the statistics given in the passage?
4. Where will you find no control of the animal population?
5. Which of the following can best serve as a title of the passage?
II.
What do you know about the sea? Most of us have seen it. Many of us have swum in it. We know that it looks very pretty when the sun is shining on it. And we also know that the sea is full of waves. Waves are beautiful to look at, but they can destroy ships at sea, as well as houses and buildings near the shore. What causes waves? Most waves are caused by winds blowing over the surface of the water. The sun heats the earth, causing the air to rise and the winds to blow. The winds blow across the sea, pushing little waves into enormous ones.
The size of a wave depends on how strong the wind is, how long it blows and how large the body of water is. In a small bay waves will never build up. But at sea the wind can build up giant, powerful waves. When the wind is blowing at 120 kilometers per hour, most waves will be about 12 meters high. In1933 the United States reported the largest measured wave in history. It rose in the Pacific Ocean to a height of 34 meters.
1. Which of the following directly causes waves?
2. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
3. When was the largest measured wave in history reported?
4. How high was the largest measured wave?
5. Which of the following may be the most appropriate title for this passage?
PART B Macro-Listening
Passage
Do Dreams Save Lives?
Tapeacript
Do dreams save lives? Yes, they do sometimes save the lives of friends and other people.
Merna was a Polish girl, who was in love with a Polish soldier. During World War I the soldier left her to fight on the battlefield. Later on Merna began to dream about him.
The first dream came in October, 1918, about a month before the end of the war. In the dream she saw him in a dark place among some rocks or stones. He was trying to move some of them, but he could not do so. So he stopped trying and sat down on the ground alone in the dark.
She had this dream several times, but then in the following summer it changed. In the new dream she saw a castle on a hill. Part of the castle had fallen down and there was a lot of stones on the ground below the broken part. She went towards these stones in her dream, and then she heard the voice of her boyfriend. The voice came from under the stones, and so she tried to lift some of them. But she was too weak to do this, and she had to go away sadly.
This dream took the place of the older one, and she saw the same stones several times in her sleep on other nights. She told her mother about it, and a lot of other people in the city heard about the dream. But they didn't care very much. A girl's dreams were not important to other people.
Merna decided that she ought to find that castle. She was quite sure that it was a real one, but there were a lot of old castles in that part of Poland. There was little hope of finding a special one among so many. But the dream continued, and one day Merna could not bear it any longer. She had to find that castle. So she began a long journey on foot.
Day after day she went onwards, looking for the castle. She slept on the ground beside the road, and sometimes farmers gave her something to eat. For them it was only another sad story of the war, but they had kind hearts.
One day in April, 1920, she came to the little village of a small town. There on the top of a hill stood the castle, as she had seen it so often in her dreams! She ran into the village and fell down on the ground.
Of course, a crowd of people arrived and looked down at her. A police- man arrived, too, and Merna told everyone about her dreams.
'There's the castle!' she cried wildly, pointing to it. 'That's the castle that I've seen in my dreams!' But the people saw the castle everyday and did not care much.
She got up and went towards the fallen stones at the bottom of the castle wall, and some of the villagers went with her. She asked the men to lift up the stones, and they laughingly did so. They did not believe that her story had any meaning, but it was not difficult to lift a few stones. They found nothing on the first day, but after working for two days they heard a man's voice calling from below.
Merna knew that voice. It was the voice of her boyfriend. The men quickly made the hole bigger and soon brought him out. He had been in the dark- ness for two years, and at first the strong light of the day hurt his eyes. But soon he was looking around with surprise at the people who were standing there.
He had lived on the food that he had found in the castle. He had entered
the castle during the war; then part of the castle was hit and destroyed, and his way out was closed by falling stones. So he could not get out and he had to remain there until Merna brought him help.
What caused her to dream like that? How did her mind know anything about a castle which she had never seen? Do you know?
1. Which of the following did Merna see in her first dream?
2. When did Merna begin to have her new dream ?
3. Which of the following did NOT happen in her new dream?
4. How did people respond when Merna told them about her dreams?
5. What did Merna decide to do?
6. How was Merna's journey?
7. How long did it take Merna to solve the mystery of her dreams?
8. Why didn't the villagers care much when Merna pointed out the castle to them?
9. What did Merna and the villagers hear when they were moving the stones?
10. How did Merna's boyfriend get into that situation? |