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Section C
Directions: In this section, you will heara passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you shouldlisten carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the secondtime, you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you have justheard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should checkwhat you have written.
Now listen to the passage.
Among the kinds of social gestures most significant for second-language teachers are those which are __identical__ in form but different in meaning in the two cultures. For example, a Colombian who wants someone to __approach__ him often signals with a hand movement in which all the fingers of one hand, cupped, point downward as they move rapidly __back and forth__. Speakers of English have a similar gesture though the hand may not be cupped and the fingers may be held more loosely, but for them the gesture means goodbye or go away, quite the __opposite__ of the Colombian gesture. Again, in Colombia, a speaker of English would have to know that when he __indicates__ height he must choose between different gestures depending on whether he is __referring to__ a human being or an animal. If he keeps the palm of the hand __parallel to__ the floor, as he would in his own culture when making known the height of a child, for example, he will very likely be greeted by laughter; in Colombia this gesture is __reserved__ for the description of animals. In order to describe human beings he should keep the palm of his hand __at a right angle__ to the floor. Substitutions of one gesture for the other often create not only humorous but also __embarrassing__ moments. In both of the examples above, speakers from two different cultures have the same gesture, physically, but its meaning differs sharply.
