W: Why do you think you are the right candidate for this position?
M: As a head broker, I have a lot of experiences in the stock market, I deal with the clients on the daily bases, and I enjoy working with people.
W: Well, you might just be the person we’ve been looking for. Do you have any questions?
M: Aha, if I were hired, how many accounts would I be handling?
W: you will be working with two other head brokers, in another words, you will be handling about a third of our clients.
M: And who would I report to?
W: Directly to me.
M: I see. What kind of benefits package do you offer?
W: Two weeks of paid vacation in your first year employment, you are also been entitled to medical and dental insurance, but this is something you should discuss with our Personnel Department. Do you have any other questions?
M: No not at the moment.
W: Well, I have to discuss you application with my colleagues and we’ll get back to you early next week.
M: OK, thanks, it’s been nice meeting you!
W: Nice meeting you too! And thanks for coming in today.
19. What’s the purpose of Mr. Saunders’ visit?
20. What is Mr. Saunders’ current job?
21. What can we conclude from the conversation?
Conversation 2
M: Hey, Karen, you are not really reading it, are you?
W: Pardon?
M: The book! You haven’t turned the page in the last ten minutes.
W: No, Jim, I suppose I haven’t. I need to get through it, though, but I keep drifting away.
M: So it doesn’t really hold your interest?
W: No, not really. I wouldn’t bother with it, to be honest, but I have to read it for a seminar. I’m at a university.
M: It’s a labor of labor then rather than a labor of love.
W: I should say, I don’t like Dickens at all really, the author, indeed, I am starting to like the whole course less and less.
M: It’s not just the book,, it’s the curse as well?
W: Yeah, in a way, although the curse itself isn’t really that bad, a lot of it is pretty good, in fact, and the lecturer is fine, as to me, I suppose, you see, I want to do philosophy rather than English, but my parents took me out of it.
M: So the courses are OK as such, it’s just that had if been left to you, you would choose a different one.
W: Oh, they had my best interest and heart of course, my parents, they always do, don’t they? They believe that my job prospect would be pretty limited with the degree of philosophy. Plus, they give me a really generous allowance, but I am beginning to feel that I’m wasting my time and their money. They would be so disappointed though if I told them I was quitting.
22. Why can’t Karen concentrate on the book?
23. Why is Karen starting to like the course less and less?
24. Who thinks Philosophy graduates have limited job opportunities?
25. What is Karen thinking of doing?
Section B
Passage One
In Greece, only rich people will rest in peace for ever when they die. Most of the population, however, will be undisturbed for only three years, then they will be dug up, washed, compressed into a small tin box, and placed in a bone room. If the body has only partially decayed, it is reburied in a smaller cheaper grave, but not for long, the body will be dug up again some time later when it has fully decayed. Buying a piece of land for a grave is the only way to avoid this process. The cost of the grave is so great that most p0eople choose to rent the grave for three years and even after it has been dug up, lasting peace is still not guaranteed. If no one pays for renting space in the bone room, the skeleton is removed and stored in a building in a poor part of the town. Lack of space in Athens is the main reason why the dead are dug up after the three years. The city is so overcrowded that sometimes dead bodies are kept in the hospitals for over a week until a grave is found. Athens’ city council wants to introduce cremation, that is burning dead bodies as a means of dealing with the problems. But the Greek church resists this practice, they believe the only place where people burn is hell, so burning dead bodies is against the Greek concept of life after death. To save space, the church suggested burying the bodies standing up instead of lying down. Some people proposed building multi-storey underground grave yards. |
