Section A

11. B 12.D 13.B 14.A 15.C 16.B 17.D 18.B

11. M: I forgot to bring my pencil and paper to take notes with in class.

W: That’s all right. I have enough for both of us.

Q: What will the woman most probably do next?

12. W: When is Jason coming?

M: Well, he said he’d be here at seven-thirty, but if you know him, it will be at least eight o’clock.

Q: What do we know about Jason?

13. M: Are you ready to check out?

W: Yes. I’ll pay the bill and you’ll call the desk and have our baggage taken out to the taxi.

Q: Where does this conversation most probably take place?

14. M: Remember, you promised to help me with my homework for English class.

W: But I want to watch this program first. It is almost over. Wait a moment, please.

Q: What does the woman mean?

15. M: I was terribly embarrassed when some of the audience got up and left in the middle of the performance.

W: Well, some people just can’t seem to appreciate real-life drama.

Q: What are they talking about?

16. W: Professor Hook was so strange today.

M: I noticed that too. He was talking so quietly and then not giving us any homework at all. Can you believe that?

Q: What can be inferred about Professor Hook?

17. M: This room is so crowded. I can hardly breathe and I can’t see anything.

W: I don’t understand why they didn’t have this show in a bigger place. Do you?

Q: What is the woman complaining about?

18. M: The newspaper says that it’ll be raining today. What do you think?

W: I don’t believe it. Look, the sun’s shining.

Q: What does the woman mean?

19.C 20.A 21.B 22.C 23.B 24.D 25.B

Passage one

W: Sit down please, Mr. Johnson.

M: Introduce you, ma’am

W: I have read your letter here. You seem to have done very well in school. Can you tell me something about your schoolwork?

M: As you can see, my strongest subjects were art subjects. My best subject was history, and my second best was geography. However, my favorite subject was math, and the results I got in the math paper were quite reasonable..

W: That’ s true. Now, can you tell me why you think these subjects will help you in this job?

M: Well, ms’ am, I understand that you manufacture computers, prepare software, and advise diets on how to use them. Is that right?

W: What’s right.

M: And I’ve been told that working with computers needs a logical mind rather than great skills in mathematics. That’ s especially true, I believe, when it comes to writing programs. So I think my results show that I have some ability in logic and in mathematics, as well.

W: So, you would like to write material for computers, would you?

M: Yes, ma’am. That’s what interests me most about computers, writing programs. But I think the computer industry itself is still expanding enormously. I’ m sure that career prospects in the industry would be very good.

W: I see. Well, thank you. I’ve enjoyed our talk. We’ll be writing to you.

M: 1lmdc you, ms’ am. Good-bye.

Q1: According to the conversation, Mr. Johnson is NOT very strong in which subject?

Q2: Mr. Johnson thinks what can help him a lot in the job?

Q3: What would Mr. Johnson like to work as?

Passage two

M: Well, Cynthia, our first semester at university is almost over. I can’t wait for the holidays.

W: Me, too, Edward! Why don’ t we go somewhere far away and forget about lectures and essays and all that hard work.

M: Sounds good to me. Now, how long will we have before we have to be back here on campus for the next semester?

W: We’ve got about six weeks, I think.

M: How about if we go to the coast? It would be great to do some swimming and surfing.

W: The coast would be good, but let’s look at our other options. There are the mountains. They’re nice and cool at this time of year. And we can do some bush-walking. There’s also the desert, which I really enjoyed last year.

M: What about going to Sydney? I’ve never been there and they say it’s a great city to visit. Lots of things to do there, I’ve heard.

W: I agree Sydney would be good but there are too many tourists there at this time of year. And I’d rather get away from buildings and cars. There are enough of those around here. I vote for mountains.

M: All right, then, let’s do that. Now we have to decide where we’re going to stay and how we’re going to get there.

Q1: Where did the woman go for holiday last year?

Q2: Who are the two speakers?

Q3: Why does the man vote for Sydney?

Q4: What will the two speakers probably do next?

Section B

36-35 D D B C A A B D D C

Passage One

An elderly woman yesterday made a legal claim against a department store because it had wrongly accused her of stealing a Christmas card. Ms. Doss white, 72 years old, is claiming $3,000 damages from the store for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Ms. White visited the store while doing Christmas shopping, but did not buy anything. She was followed though the town by a store manager. He had been told that a customer saw her take a card and put it in her shopping bag. He stopped her at a bookstore as she was reading a book. Ms. White said, “This man, a total stranger, suddenly grasped my bag and asked if he could look in it.” She was taken back to the store and shut in a small room in full view of shopper for 20 minutes until the police arrived. At the police station she was body-searched and nothing was found. Her lawyer said the department store sent an insincere apology and they insisted that she may have been stealing. The hearing continues today.

Q1. What does the story tell us about the old woman?

Q2. What was said to have been stolen?

Q3. What happened to Ms. White after she was taken back to the store?

Q4. What was now the attitude of the department store in this legal case?

Passage Two

My friend, Vemon Davies kept birds. One day he phoned and told me he was going away for a week. He asked me to feed the birds for him and said that he would leave the key to his front door in my mailbox.

Unfortunately, I forgot all about the birds until the night before Vemon was going to return. What was worse, it was already dark when I arrived at his house. I soon found the key Vernon gave me could not unlock either the front door or the back door. I was getting desperate. I kept thinking of what Vemon would say when he came back.

I was just going to give up when I noticed that one bedroom window was slightly open. I found a barrel and pushed it under the window. As the barrel was very heavy, I made a lot of noise. But in the end, I managed to climb up and open the window.

I actually had one leg inside the bedroom when I suddenly realized that someone was shining a torch up at me. I looked down and saw a policeman and an old lady, one of Vemon’s neighbours. “What are you doing up there?” said the policeman. Feeling like a complete fool, I replied, “I was just going to feed Mr. Davies’s birds.”

Q1. Why couldn’t the man open the door?

Q2. Why did the man feel desperate?

Q3. Why did the man feel like a fool?

Passage Three

When Iraq troops blew up hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells at the end of the Gulf War, Scientists feared environmental disaster. Would black powder in the smoke from the fires circle the globe and block out the sun?

Many said, “No way; rain would wash the black power from the atmosphere. But in America, air sampling balloons have detected high concentrations of particles similar to those collected in Kuwait that didn’t catch fire. It has formed huge lakes in the Kuwaiti desert. They trap insects and birds, and poison a variety of other desert animals and plants.

The only good news is that the oil lakes have not affected the underground water resources. So far, the oil has not been absorbed because of the hard sand just below the surface.

Nothing, however, stops the oil from evaporating. The resulting poisonous gases are choking nearby residents.

Officials are trying to organize a quick cleanup, but they are not sure how to do it. One possibility is to burn the oil. Get those black-powder detectors ready.

Q1. What were the scientists worried about soon after the Gulf War?

Q2. What was the good news for scientists?

Q3. What are the officials trying to do at the moment?

Section C

These days people who do manual work often receive far more money than people who work in offices. People who work in offices are frequently referred to as “white-collar workers” for the simple reason that they usually wear a collar and tie to go to work. Such is human nature, that a great many people are often willing to sacrifice higher pay for the privilege of becoming white-collar workers. This can give rise to curious situations, as it did in the case of Alfred Bloggs who worked as a dustman for the Ellesmere Corporation.

When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed to say anything to his wife about his job. He simply told her that he worked for the Corporation. Every morning, he left home dressed in a smart black suit. He then changed into overalls and spent the next eight hours as a dustman. Before returning home at night, he took a shower and changed back into his suit. Alf did this for over two years and his fellow dustman kept his secret. Alf’s wife has never discovered that she married a dustman and she never will for Alf has just found another job. He will soon be working in an office. He will be earning only half as much as he used to, but he feels that his rise in status is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he will wear a suit all day and others will call him “Mr. Bloggs”, not “Alf”.