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1 Objectives
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2 I. Listening...
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3 II. Listenin...

1. To become familiar with the diagrams presented as a listening focus;
2. To improve listening comprehension through specific exercises.

A diagram is a graphic design you use to explain something. It helps make your thought visible. A diagram can take many forms, such as a table, a pie diagram, a bar diagram, etc., all of which are widely used in scientific papers and editorials.
Below is a bar diagram. Obviously the presenter is trying to tell us something. As you listen carefully to the following short talk, complete the diagram with the corresponding figures:

* Script:
Sales of New & Second-hand Autos in China
In the past five years, China has witnessed a great increase in the sales of automobiles, especially in the sales of new ones.
In 2001, 2.36 million new cars were purchased, and 0.37 million secondhand autos were sold in the market. Obviously, people preferred new automobiles when they had enough purchasing power.
Since then, sales have never stopped picking up. In 2002, 3.27 million new autos found owners; in 2003, 4.39 million; in 2004, 5.07 million; and in 2005, 5.76 million. It is the same case with sales of second-hand autos. In 2002, 0.71 million second-hand autos found new owners; in 2003, 0.87 million; in 2004, 1.34 million; and in 2005, 1.45 million.
In the past five years, sales of new autos in China have increased by 244%, and sales of second-hand ones by 392%. But the former are almost four times more than the latter. In the final analysis, the majority of people prefer new cars.


A. News Item One
● Listen to the following news item and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
Lord of the Rings | 《指环王》(美国电影名) |
Lord of the Flies | 《蝇王》(小说名) |
don | vt. 穿上 |
hazmat suits | 保护外套 |
mound | n. 堆 |
toss away | 扔掉 |
massive | a. 厚重的 |
trap | vt. 埋入 |
refuse | n. 垃圾 |
divert | vt. 使……转向 |
due to | 指定 |
landfill | n. 垃圾填埋地 |
predicament | n. 窘况 |
transfer station | 垃圾站 |
1)
a. The recycling of domestic waste.
b. The biggest diamond in the world.
c. A newly-wed couple’s loving story.
d. A diamond wedding ring lost and found.
2)
a. Within eight tons of garbage.
b. In their garbage collector.
c. At the garbage company.
d. At the garbage landfill.
* Script:
Lord of the rings? Bernie Squitieri was more like a lord of the flies as he and his wife, Carla, donned hazmat suits to dig through mounds of garbage as they searched for their missing wedding rings.
One of the rings, accidently tossed away by Bernie, had a 12.5-carat diamond, FOX2 reported.
But the massive gem and its partner band were trapped somewhere under eight tons of garbage, the refuse of more than 900 customers. The rings were valued at nearly $500,000.
Lucky for Bernie, the couple recovered the rings, just a bit smellier than before.
The man who actually found the rings? Joe Evans of Meridian Waste. The garbage company diverted its trucks just before they were due to hit the landfill after hearing about the Squitieri’s predicament. Instead, the trucks dropped the garbage at a transfer station.
Q1: What is the news report mainly about?
Q2: Where did the couple find the lost ring?
B. News Item Two
● Listen to the following news item and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
chirp | vi. 啁啾,唧唧叫 |
soothing | a. 使人宽心的 |
jump start the day | 立刻起床开始新的一天 |
immune system | 免疫系统 |
make total sense | 非常有意义 |
trash day | 收垃圾日 |
cognitive test | 认知测验 |
adorable | a. 可爱的 |
bullfinch | n. 加勒比鹀;红腹灰雀 |
Barbados | 巴巴多斯(拉丁美洲国家) |
temperament | n. 性格 |
be on verge of | 濒临 |
scary | a. 可怕的 |
Jurassic Park | 《侏罗纪公园》(电影名) |
scenario | n. 剧本 |
3)
a. Size.
b. Beauty.
c. Chirping.
d. Immunity.
4)
a. Scarcity.
b. Location.
c. Intelligence.
d. Food choice.
5)
a. A real Jurassic Park is being developed.
b. Biological evolution is fast.
c. Birds evolve by location.
d. Animals can be trained.
* Script:
Birds chirping in the countryside can be soothing and help jump start the day, but birds in the city can open drawers.
A recent study suggests city birds are not just smarter than rural birds but also have stronger immune systems — which makes total sense if you’ve ever been in NYC on trash day.
Another key difference was their problem-solving ability. City birds performed better in the cognitive tests as shown in this adorable video of a bird moving and opening the lid of a container to get its food.
Researchers studied 53 bullfinches from the Barbados and found that birds from the more developed areas of the Caribbean island were able to open drawers to access food faster and had bolder temperaments.
Luckily these were just little birds or we could have be on the verge of a scary Jurassic Park scenario.
Q3: What advantage, according to the recent study, do the city birds have over the rural ones?
Q4: What is the other key difference between the city and rural birds?
Q5: What does the study suggest?

A. Conversation One
● Listen to the following long conversation and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
1)
a. A mechanical drawing.
b. A handicraft(手工艺品).
c. A novel of love.
d. A car.
2)
a. He enjoys having things done.
b. He went to the vocational school.
c. He always loves working with his hands.
d. He could fix a car when he was a little kid.
3)
a. He’s a good car dealer(经销商).
b. He’s found of the woman.
c. He shows off his car.
d. He loves his job.
* Script:
M: Mm, look at this. This carburetor is just no good. It’s going to have to be replaced.
W: You really know all about cars, don’t you, Robert? Hey, how did you get to be an automobile mechanic anyway?
M: Well, when I was a little kid, I was always taking things apart and putting them back together again. I always love working with my hands. And I always love cars, too.
W: So you really knew what you were going to be, even when you were little?
M: No. I never really thought of it that way. But, but I guess you are right, Elise.
W: Gee, there’re so many things inside the car. You know, I don’t know what…
Q1: What is the man working on?
Q2: How did the man get to be an automobile mechanic?
Q3: What can we learn about the man?
B. Conversation Two
● Listen to the following long conversation and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
4)
a. To go to college.
b. To see the family.
c. To visit a place of interest.
d. To have a vacation at the beach.
5)
a. Better than expected.
b. Wonderful.
c. Terrible.
d. Not bad.
6)
a. Canceled so that she was rerouted.
b. Accompanied by awful weather.
c. Provided with poor service.
d. Delayed for six hours.
7)
a. She paid for the overweight.
b. She had one piece of her luggage lost.
c. She got it back six days after her arrival.
d. She had to pick up her luggage at Oakland.
8)
a. She’s aggressive.
b. She’s pleased.
c. She’s excited.
d. She’s angry.
* Script:
M: Hi, Judy. Good to see you again.
W: Hi. Good to be back.
M: So, how was your trip?
W: Oh, well… it was good to see the family… but I had a really terrible week.
M: Oh no.
W: Yes, all kinds of problems.
M: Oh dear. Nothing too serious, I hope.
W: Well, my flight was cancelled and I was rerouted via Oakland.
M: Oh…
W: Yes, there was a delay of nine hours.
M: How awful!
W: Yes. When I got to Seattle, my luggage didn’t arrive.
M: That’s terrible. Did you get it back?
W: Yes… after six days.
Q4: What did the woman plan to do?
Q5: How was the woman’s trip according to the conversation?
Q6: What can we learn about the woman’s flight?
Q7: What does the woman say about her luggage?
Q8: Which of the following can most probably describe the woman?

A. Passage One
● Listen to the following passage and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
1)
a. Easy to get alone with.
b. Not good at saying “no.”
c. Good at making friends.
d. A very emotional person.
2)
a. Losing a job.
b. Becoming alone.
c. Hurting others’ feelings.
d. Spending much time and energy.
3)
a. The importance of teamwork.
b. A need to learn to say “no.”
c. The work efficiency.
d. The value of time.
* Script:
Do you have difficulty saying “no”? Are you always trying to be nice to others at the expense of(以…为代价) yourself?
Well, you’re not alone. In the past, I was not good at saying “no,” because I didn’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings.
For example, whenever I get requests for help, I would attend to(致力于) them even though I had important work to do. Sometimes the requests would drag to(拖至) 2-3 hours or even beyond. At the end of the day, I would give up sleep to catch up on my work. This problem of not knowing how to say “no” also extended to my clients, business associates and even sales people.
After a while, I realized all these times of not saying “no,” when I should, were not helping me at all. I was spending a lot of time and energy for other people and not spending nearly as much time for myself. It was frustrating especially since I brought it upon myself. I slowly realized if I wanted personal time, I needed to learn to say “no.”
Q1: What can we learn about the speaker in the past?
Q2: What does not saying “no” mean to the speaker?
Q3: What did the speaker learn from the frustrating experience?
B. Passage Two
● Listen to the following passage and then, for each question, select the best answer from among the four choices given.
4)
a. Offering a good reason.
b. Having one project at a time.
c. Explaining your reasons thoroughly.
d. Giving your boss ample warning(足够的警告).
5)
a.To ask your boss to allow you more time.
b. To work on the new one instead of the other projects.
c. To prepare a list of the other projects you’re working on.
d. To delegate(委托) the other assignments to your co-workers.
6)
a. Productivity.
b. Efficiency.
c. Difficulty.
d. Honesty.
7)
a. Interviewees.
b. Employees.
c. Managers.
d. Students.
* Script:
If you decide to turn down an assignment, be prepared to offer a good reason for doing so. You will have to explain your reasons thoroughly, so your boss realizes you considered the situation carefully. Give your boss ample warning(足够的警告), so he or she has enough time to assign the work to someone else or can help you delegate some of your other projects to one of your co-workers.
If your reason for saying no to your boss is that you don’t have enough time to work on the project, prepare a list of the other projects on which you’re working. If he didn’t delegate the other assignments to you, he may not even be aware of them. If he did assign the other projects, he may want you to work on the new one instead.
If you don’t have the necessary skills to complete this assignment, admit this to your boss. It would be worse to pretend you can do something you can’t.
Ask him if future assignments will require this skill. If his answer is “yes,” let him know you will work to attain(获得) it.
Q4: Which of the following is NOT mentioned by the speaker for your decision to turn down an assignment?
Q5: What are you supposed to do when your reason for saying no to your boss is that you don’t have enough time to work on the project?
Q6: Speaking of skill, what does the speaker imply?
Q7: Who is the speaker most probably talking to?

