Practice One Richard Is Author at 16 Words You Need to Know
pay off version agent publisher
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following questions briefly.
At weekends and during the holidays,there aren't many who would willingly stay indoors working away on a word processor.
But that's exactly what 16-year-old Richard Hayes does and it's paid off.
For his first book The Secret Army has just been published, his second one is coming out in the autumn and he's in the middle of writing the third.
Here's how hard Richard, who lives in London, has to work.
"I try to write for an hour every weekday evening after I've done my homework and had supper and perhaps watched some television,"he says.
"Then on Sundays I'll try to do about five or six hours and I might produce about 10 to 15 pages of the book from that."
"I've written The Secret Army at least three times and while I was finishing the final version I was spending about 12 hours a day on it.
But I really enjoyed it-the book almost wrote itself."
"I'm studying at the moment at Holland Park School, London, so homework has to come before everything else.
I'll be glad when the summer holidays come; then I can get on with my third book."
He always wanted to be an author and also felt very confident about the book.
"I knew The Secret Army would be published some time. I met a literary agent at a party last summer and he offered to read it.
Then he told Macmillans publishers about it and they seemed quite keen."
"But I had to do a fantastic amount of cutting down and editing out words and characters and some rewriting, too."
"I've lived with the story now for about four years, as I wrote the very first version when I was 12 years old.
It's a great thrill to see it finally in print." (310 words)
1)How old is Richard?
2)What is he busy doing now?
3)How many books has he published?
4)Has he been working hard?
5)How did he feel about his book before it was published?
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in the following blanks with the information you get from the tape.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and write down the sentences from the passage that mean the following.
Practice Two Princess Diana
Words You Need to Know
aristocratic earl the royal line compassion
humanity hemorrhage cerebral palsy
reveal heir to the throne charity
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide which of the sentences can properly describe Diana.
Put a tick ( )before each statement.
Born in 1961, Princess Diana was the Princess of Wales from 1981 when she married Prince Charles,
heir to the British throne and Prince of Wales, until they were divorced in 1996 and she lost this title of Princess of Wales.
The 1981 wedding was a heavily publicized ceremony which was televised all over the world.
She came from a wealthy aristocratic family. Her father was Earl of Spencer, or Earl Spencer.
The press showed her as a blonde, pretty woman of average intelligence.
She provided two sons to continue the royal line.
She was very famous and very popular in Britain. Her clothes, her jewelry and activities were reported every day in the papers and television.
In some ways she was more like a film or pop star than a traditional royal figure
Her marriage with Prince Charles lasted 15 years. After divorcing Charles, she became deeply involved in charity work.
She did a lot of work for AIDS, cerebral palsy, breast cancer and other charities.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that she touched the lives of so many others with joy and with comfort in Britain and throughout the world.
She revealed to all of us the depth of her compassion and her humanity to the sick, the dying, children and the needy.
In August, 1997, she died of chest hemorrhaging after a car accident in Paris when she was only 36.
The whole country mourned her death.
Princess Diana would never have become Queen, but she became the Queen in people's hearts.
After her death, a fund named after her was established to continue her charity work. (255 words)
1)Diana was the former wife of Charles and had been the Princess of Wales.
2)She died in London at the age of 35.
3)Her father was the Earl of Sandwich.
4)She was also a film and pop star.
5)She succeeded in winning people's hearts by her devotion to charity work and her compassion and humanity.
6)She had become the Queen of England before she died.
7)She will live in people's hearts forever.
8)Her charity work will be continued through the fund named after her.
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and complete the three coulumns in note form with the information about Diana.
Practice Three Connecting the Dots and a Mind Awakens
Words You Need to Know
dot evenhanded secretary general
executive unison curriculum copious
aspect challenge Ghana Yale
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and choose the best answer to each of the questions:
In his 35 years with the United Nations system, Kofi Annan came to be known as an evenhanded man with an ability to see the parts and the whole at the same time.
It is this quality that makes the new secretary general perhaps the most popular executive in the United Nations today.
He recalls an unforgettable lesson learned in Ghana at age 17:
One day our headmaster walked into the classroom and put up a broad white sheet of paper with a small black dot in the corner.
"Boys," he asked, "What do you see?" all of us shouted in unison, "A black dot!"
Then he said, "So not a single one of you saw the broad white sheet of paper? Don't go through life with that attitude."
Former Congressman Garry Franks recalls one thing he learned in college that was not on the curriculum:
I remember taking copious notes and listening to everything the teacher had to say in preparation for my first test at Yale.
I looked at the exam and saw it was everything I had studied.
I wrote the answers to the three questions, thinking, Boy, this is easy.
As we waited to get our tests back, I was positive I'd get an A. Instead my grade was a C.
Under it, in big red letters, was written, "I know what I said. What do you think?"
It was a valuable awakening. I realized that Yale did not simply want you to absorb ideas but to think about them and challenge them.
It forced me to explore things from every possible angle, looking for aspects that might not be obvious at first but were helpful in developing a dialogue on an issue. (292 words)
1)What kind of man is Kofi Annan known as?
2)What event changed Kofi Annan's attitude toward going through life at age 17?
3)How did the Yale professor actually want Garry Franks to answer the questions on the exam
4)What grade did Garry Franks get?
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and complete the table in note form with the information you get from the recording.
Happy Minute
Listen to the song by Elton John sung at Diana's funeral and find out how the British people feel about losing Diana.
grace spell out fade legend torch
Good-bye, England's Rose
Good-bye, England's rose;
May you ever grow in our hearts.
You were the grace that placed itself
where lives were torn apart.
You called out to our country,
and you whispered to those in pain.
Now you belong to heaven,
and the stars spell out your name.
And it seems to me you lived your life,
like a candle in the wind,
never fading with the sunset
when the rain set in.
And your footsteps will always fall
here along England's greenest hills;
your candle's burned out long before,
your legend ever will.
Loveliness we've lost,
these empty days without your smile.
This torch we'll always carry
for our nation's golden child.
And even though we try,
the truth brings us to tears,
all our words cannot express the joy
you brought us through the years.
Good-bye, England's rose,
from a country lost without your soul,
who'll miss the wings of your compassion
more than you'll ever know.
Lesson Two Noble People
Practice One Is Honesty Going out of Style? Words You Need to Know
shampoo lottery ticket counter
Exercise 1:Directions:A student wrote these notes while she was listening to the tape.
Unfortunately, she made a few mistakes. Listen to the passage and underline her mistakes.
Therese Costabile is a cashier at a big drug store in Cupertino, California.
People buy medicine, makeup, shampoo, garden tools, watches, and toys at the drug store.
They pay Ms Costabile. They also pay her for their lottery tickets.
At the drug store people buy tickets for the California State Lottery.
They pay one dollar for a lottery ticket. Then they look at the pictures in the ticket.
Some pictures are winning pictures. Some pictures are losing pictures.
Most people win nothing. Some people win two dollars. A few lucky people win thousands of dollars.
One day Ms Costabile was working at the drug store. She sold three lottery tickets to a woman.
The woman looked at the pictures on the tickets. Then she threw the tickets on the counter and walked away.
Ms Costabile picked up the woman's tickets. One ticket was a winning ticket for $50,000.
"Excuse me," Ms Costabile called to the woman. "You won $50,000."
The woman walked back to the counter. "I thought they were all losing tickets," she said.
She took the winning ticket and looked at it. "Thanks," she said.
Slowly she walked away.
Why did Ms Costabile give the woman the ticket? Why didn't she keep the ticket?
Didn't she want the $50,000?
"Of course I wnated the money," Ms Costabile said. "But it was her ticket. It wasn't my ticket."
Ms Costabile telephoned her mother. She told her mother about the ticket.
"Well, I'm sorry that you aren't rich," her mother said. "But I'm happy that you're honest." (262 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and fill in each blank with the information you get from the recording.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and answer the following questions.
1)What is the California State Lottery
2)Which sentences in the passage show that Ms Costabile hurried to tell the woman the good news?
3)What did Ms Costabile say that shows she was honest?
Exercise 4:Directions:Listen to the definitions of the words and phrases listed below and match them.
All of them are related to money. The first items has been done for you.
1)Money which is made of paper.
2)Money which is made of metal.
3)What you get if a shirt costs $17.99 and you give the shop assistant $20.
4)A printed piece of paper which you write on. You can buy things with this.
You can also get money for it at a bank.
5)A plastic card you can use to buy things. You pay the money for what you bought after one or two months.
6)Coins and paper money.
7)A numbered ticket for raising money for the state or a charity.
You may win prizes by buying a winning ticket and win nothing by buying a losing ticket.
8)The amount of money which the company has through selling shares to people.
You can buy it as an inverstment.
Practice Two I Ran for Everybody
Words You Need to Know
artificial disabled
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and decide whether the following statements are tru (T)or false (F).
Jeff Keith has only one leg. When he was twelve years old, Jeff had cancer.
Doctors had to cut off most of Jeff's right leg.
Every day Jeff puts on an artificial leg. The leg is plastic.
With the plastic leg Jeff can ski, ride a bicycle, swim, and play soccer. He can also run.
Jeff often ran with some young men. They had plastic legs, too. They wore special T-shirts.
The shirts said, "Run, Jeff, Run. Jeff Keith's Run Across America."
In the summer of 1984 Jeff Keith began to run across the United States.
He started running in Boston, Massachusetts. He stopped running in Los Angeles, California in February, 1985.
He ran 32,000 miles in seven months. That's about 16 miles each day.
Jeff wore out 36 pairs of running shoes and five plastic legs.
Jeff stopped in cities on the way to Los Angeles. In every city people gave Jeff money.
The money is not for Jeff. It is for the American Cancer Society.
The American Cancer Society will use the money to learn about cancer.
On the way to Los Angeles Jeff talked to people about cancer.
He also talked about being disabled. Jeff is disabled, but he can do many things.
He finished college and is studying to be a lawyer. Jeff says, "People can do anything they want to do. I want people to know that I ran not only for disabled people. I ran for everybody." (251 words)
1)Jeff was 12 years old when he had cancer.
2)His left leg had to be cut off.
3)He walked with an artificial leg.
4)He ran across the United States from the West to the East.
5)People gave Jeff money for treating his leg.
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and complete the table about the remarkable things that Jeff did.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and answer the following questions briefly.
1)Why were the T-shirts Jeff and his friends wore special?
2)Why did Jeff run to raise money?
3)What did Jeff want to prove to people by his running?
Practice Three Thanks a Million
Words You Need to Know
column hearing aid
Exercise 1:Directions:A student wrote these notes while she was listening to the tape.
Unfortunately, she made a few mistakes. Listen to the passage and underline her mistakes.
Do you need money? Write a letter to Mr Percy Ross. Maybe he will give you some money.
Mr Ross is a rich man, and he likes to give people money. He has a newspaper column
His column is called "Thanks a Million." It is in 200 newspapers. Every week about 7,000 people write letters to Mr Ross at the newspapers.
Mr Ross reads the letters. Then he sends money to some of the people.
Every week Mr Ross answers three of four letters in his newspaper column.
Who gets money from Mr Ross? Mr Ross usually sends money to old people, sick people, and poor children.
A mother wrote to Mr Ross, "I have two daughters, ages one and eight.
I give the baby one bottle of milk every day. I want to give her two bottles of milk every day,
but I don't have enough money. I also want to give my older daughter ice cream sometimes.
Can you help me?" Mr Ross sent the woman a check. "This check will buy much more than milk and ice cream," he wrote.
Sometimes Mr Ross doesn't send people money. He sends people the things they need-shoes,
a smoke alarm, a hearing aid, new pots and pans, or a sewing machine.
Who doesn't get money from Mr Ross? Mr Ross usually doesn't send money to young, healthy people.
A 16-year-old boy wrote, "I need $900 to buy a good used car. I really need it because I like a girl.
She doesn't like me because I don't have a car." Mr Ross wrote the boy,
"You don't need a car. You need a different girlfriend."
Why does Percy Ross give people money? When Mr Ross was a boy, he was very poor.
He worked hard, and now he is a successful businessman. But Mr Ross remembers when he was poor.
He wants to help poor people. And Mr Ross is getting older. He wants to give all of his money away before he dies.
He says, "Who will get my money? I want to decide." (348 words)
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and decide whether the following statements are true (T)or false (F).
1)Mr Ross is rich and generous.
2)Every week about 7,000 people write letters to Mr Ross at the newspapers.
3)Mr Ross answers every letter in his newspaper column.
4)A mother who wanted to buy milk and ice cream for herself wrote to Mr Ross.
5)Mr Ross sent a woman a check. "This check will buy much more than milk and ice cream," he wrote.
6)Mr Ross gave money and the things people need to every person who wrote to him.
7)A 16-year-old boy who needs $900 to buy a good used car got a check from Mr Ross.
8)Working very hard, Mr Ryoss became a successful businessman.
Practice Four A Kindness Beyond Price-a Hero for Today
Words You Need to Know
shiver cab pull up
Exercise 1:Directions:Listen to the passage and answer the following questions briefly.
For reasons long forgotten, a 14-year-old girl in Cleveland got so angry with her parents that she ran away to New York City.
Cold, hungry and friendless, she was shivering on a street corner when a cab pulled up.
As some party-goers got out, a man in the group noticed the girl and, asking if she needed help,
insisted that she join them for dinner in a nearby restaurant.
After hearing her story, the man took the teenager to the train station and bought her a ticket back to Cleveland.
"Whatever your desire," he told her, "if you want it enough, you can make it happen."
Then he gave her $20 and his address and telephone number. If she ever needed anything, she was to call him.
The teenager returned to her family, but she could not find the paper with his name and phone number.
Twenty-five years after the two met, she found the lost paper in a diary.
Ralph Burke received a letter and a check for $300. The woman asked that he accept it with the love and spirit in which it was sent.
The idea, she said, wasn't to repay a "kindness that has no price"; rather, she hoped he would come to meet her family
Accepting the invitation, Burke was welcomed like a long-lost uncle.
Today he insists that one should perform those "simple acts of kindness" whenever one can.
"Sometime, some way," Burke says, "they always come back to you." (251 words)
1)How old was the girl when she ran away from home?
2)Where did she run away to?
3)Why did she run away?
4)Who helped her?
5)When did they meet again?
Exercise 2:Directions:Listen to the passage again and rearrange the following sentences in the correct order according to the passage.
The first one has been found for you.
Exercise 3:Directions:Listen to the passage for the third time and answer the following questions.
1)Which facts can show the nam's kindness to the girl ?Write down at least two facts.
2)Which facts can show the woman's gratefulness to the man?Write down at least two facts.
3)Which sentence in the passage can best show the man's noble thoughts?
Happy Minute
Listen to the following two riddles and try to guess what they describe.
1)I don't come up. You say I do. I don't go down. You say that, too.
I shine like nothing else can, Or won't. Even when you say I don't (What am I?)
2)Come follow me though I can't move. Still, I will lead you through the tress.
Come follow me though I've no voice . To call you on the breeze.
These woods are wild as they can be. I know them well. Come, follow me. (What am I?)
Quiz Four
Part A:Directions:In this part you will hear eight short conversations between two speakers.
At the end of each conversation, you will hear a question about what was said.
Listen carefully and decide which of the four choices is the best answer to the question you have heard.
1.W:What a wonderful museum!
M:Yeah, but you should see ours in New York.
Q:What do we learn about the man?
2.W:John, how are you ? I heard you were sick.
M:They must have confused me with somebody else. I've never felt better.
Q:How does John feel?
3.M:Your new dresses are beautiful. Where did you find them?
W:Well, I bought three of them while I was on vacation in Chicago, but I made one myself.
Q:What can we conclude from the conversation?
4.M:I thought Nancy and Mike were getting married in June.
W:No, that's when his cousin's wedding is. They're getting married the following month.
Q:When are Nancy and Mike getting married?
5.W:I can't decide whether to buy a new car or try to find a second-hand one.
M:If you buy a new one, you'll probably save money in the long run.
Q:What is the man's suggestion?
6.W:I heard you had a car accident six months ago, David, and you're still on crutches?
M:Well, my doctor says I could get along without them... but my lawyer says I can't.
Q:What do we learn from the man?
7.M:Gee, Nora, a 3.89. That's a pretty good grade-point average!
W:That's not my GPA. It's my bank balance.
Q:What is true about Nora?
8.W:Dad, Tom and I decided to get a divorce.
M:But I can't help with your divorce expenses until I finish paying for your wedding!
Q:What can we infer from the conversation?
Part B:Directions:In this part you will hear four short statements.
Each statement will be read just once.
Listen carefully and decide which of the four choices is the closest in meaning to the statement you heard.
9.Mary brought a bicycle to the repair shop.
10.Gill drinks only well water because she thinks it tastes good.
11.If I had known you were in the hospital, I would have visited you.
12.Regretting past failures will not help us to prepare for future examinations
Part C:Directions:In this part you will hear three short passages.
Each passage will be read twice. After each passage you should pause the recorder and try to write down its main points in your own words.
Tim met Susan at a dance about six months ago. They get along well together since they like music,
dancing, swimming, and tennis. But whenever Tim starts to get serious about their relationship and tries to discuss with her how she feels about him or whether they might consider marriage, she gets angry and refuses to talk about it.
The history of plastics is longer than you might expect. In fact the first man-made plastic ever to appear on the market was made over a hundred years ago.
It was discovered both by an Englishman and by an American in the same year.
But it was the American who first manufactured it on a large scale during the 1860s.
Health is more important than wealth. Those who are rich but poor in health are no more fortunate than those who are poor,
but healthy in body. If you want your wish to come true, health is the most important component of your success.
Part D:Directions:In this part you will hear two passages. Each passage will be read twice.
At the end of each passage you will hear some questions. After you hear a question, you should either decide which of the four choices is the best answer to the question you heard,
or answer the question in your own words according to the passage.
The questions you should answer are also printed in your book, but you should read them only after you hear them from the tape.
W1:Where are you going for your holidays this year, Ann? Spain again?
W2:Well, I don't actually know yet. It's going to depend on how much time we have off and how much cash we can manage to save by next July.
W1:John doesn't want to be away too long this year.
W2:Business not so good then?
W1:Well, he says he'd prefer not to go abroad, just in case something crops up at work and he has to deal with it.
W2:You hear so much about unemployment and redundancies nowadays,
it makes me wonder whether I'm wasting my time training for secretarial work.
W1:I'm sure you're not. Do you still smoke, Ann? I know you're trying to give it up.
W2:That's right, and I'm still trying! So no thanks! I must be strong.
W1:Good for you. I wish I could give it up. It's such an expensive habit and it doesn't do you any good.
Do you mind if I smoke?
W2:No, no. Go ahead.
W1:No, business isn't exactly booming at the moment.
It must be the first time in ages that we aren't planning a holiday abroad.
How's your secretarial course going?
There must be lots of jobs around for well-trained secretaries, surely?
W2:It's not that easy to find a job.
W1:John's always saying they need at least one more secretary at the office.
The one he's got now is retiring, I think.
W2:In that case, don't forget me.
W1:No, of course not. Look, why don't you jot down your qualifications on a piece of paper and then I can...
Oh, here's John. I don't think you two know each other, so let me introduce you.
John, this is Ann.
W2:Hello, John, pleased to meet you. (303 words)
Q13.Which of the following is probably true about John according to the conversation?
Q14.Which of the following is true about the two speakers?
Q15.What are the three main topics the speakers deal with?
Q16.How is the general economic situation, judging from the conversation? And Why?
In all economic systems today, most businesses of any size rely on one system of organization: the division of labor.
This means that the workers are specialized. Each worker has a particular duty to perform as one part of the whole operation
A good example of the division of labor is an assembly line in an automobile factory.
One worker may install a door while another is installing the hood.
The others add lights, windshield wipers, and so on. Normally, workers stay in one place,
and a conveyor belt moves the product to them. If one worker had the responsibility of producing an entire car,
he or she might be able to complete one each year.
By comparison, factories with assembly lines may produce an average of about thirty-five cars a year perworker.
The division of labor permits mass production, but it does have some disadvantages.
For one thing, few people know or understand all aspects of an operation.
In addition, mass production may be more efficient, but many workers complain that they get little job satisfaction from working on one small duty,
day after day. To them, there is much more satisfaction in doing a job from start to finish. (202 words)
Q17.How many cars would one worker produce in 10 years if he should be responsible for assembling entire cars on his own?
Q18.What would workers get from their job without division of labor according to the passage?
Q19.What does the division of labor make factory workers do?
Q20.What does the passage mainly tell us about the division of labor