Section One Tactics for listening
Part 1 Spot Dictation
Dangers in Your Garage
Imagine that your home contained a small factory with high explosives, dangerous industrial tools and potentially lethal* (1) energy sources. Sound far-fetched? Not really, because this "factory" is your (2) garage.
The National Safety Council (NSC) says that each year (3) household accidents kill about 20,000 Americans and injure another (4) three million. The culprits* in many of these mishaps* are the modem (5) equipment and supplies we keep casually in our garages and tend to (6) take for granted.
Last November, in a suburb of Chicago, three toddlers* (7) spilled a can of gasoline stored in a garage. One of the children dropped a tool that (8) struck a spark when it landed on the concrete floor.
Violet flames flashed in a loud (9) blast. Two of the children were hideously (10) burned and later died. The other child needed (11) extensive skin grafts* and plastic (12) surgery*.
A Wisconsin man was (13) cutting wood last fall. To move a (14) log, he set his chain saw down on the ground but (15) left it running. When he returned for the saw, he (16) stepped on a branch that flipped the spinning (17) saw blade up toward his head. The cutting bits ripped his face from mouth to ear, (18) knocked out four teeth and left his lower lip hanging. It took more than (19) 180 stitches to close the wounds, and later he required neurosurgery* and extensive (20) dental work.
Part 2 Listening for Gist
What is love? And what causes it? An American professor, Charles Zastrow, offers an interesting answer, particularly to the second question. He argues that there are many kinds of love and that particularly in one kind, which he calls "romantic love", we are strongly influenced not so much by what we actually feel but by what we tell ourselves about the way we feel. He calls this "self-talk" .
For example, say a woman is strongly attracted to a man. (It could just as easily happen to a man attracted to a woman.) She tells herself things like "He is all I have ever wanted in a man! He is warm, kind and affectionate and will understand all my needs." But when she discovers that he is, like all of us, just an ordinary human being with both strong and weak points, she is bitterly disappointed.
He points out that this kind of love often begins to fade and die as soon as the problems and obstacles which separate the two people are removed and a normal relationship begins.
He contrasts romantic love with what he calls "rational love". This is based on such things as: an accurate, objective idea of the other person's strengths as well as their weaknesses, the ability to communicate with each other openly and honestly, so that you can deal with problems as they arise, the ability to show affection openly to each other and to give as well as receive, a clear knowledge of your own goals in life, realistic and rational "self-talk", so that your feelings are not based on fantasy.
This kind of love is far more likely to lead to a lasting, satisfying relationship. But it is much more difficult to achieve, and is not as frequent as romantic love.
Exercise
Directions: Listen to the passage and write down the gist and the key words that help you decide.
1.This passage is about two kinds of love - romantic love and rational love.
2.The key words are "romantic love", influenced, "self-talk", fade and die, problems and obstacles, removed, normal relationship: "rational love", accurate, objective, strengths, weaknesses, communicate, show affection openly, a clear knowledge, goals in life, realistic and rational, lasting, satisfying relationship, difficult. achieve.
Section Two Listening Compression
Part 1 Dialogue
The Teacher
Interviewer: I recently read an article which said that in primary schools in particular chances of promotion of women teachers are less than men, that men generally get promoted far quicker than women in primary education. Is this something you've noticed or is this something you feel?
Mary: No, this is something that is so. And we come back full circle really because it's not just teaching. I mean it's everything that men are getting promotion more quickly than women. In the primary sector there are far more women teachers than men but there are more headmasters than headmistresses.
Interviewer: So where does that leave someone like you? I mean what, what are the possibilities of your promotion in primary education? At the moment you're in charge of a section of the school,
Mary: Yes, I'm ... I'm in charge of the infant department which goes from the children who are three to the children who are seven. And they transfer when they are seven to higher up the school which is called the junior department. So I'm in charge of the Lower School if you like.
Interviewer: And do you have ambition in that sense? I mean would you like to be a headmistress?
Mary: No, I would not. I would not like to be a headmistress at all. I mean this is the next stage of my career were I ambitious urn ... but I basically enjoy being a classroom teacher. Now perhaps this gives a clue to why there are not more women heads. I don't know I mean in the past it may have been that, and it may still be, that because boys are brought up to be more ambitious, that they're the ones who are going for promotion and quick promotion, I mean, rapid promotion so that they are heads by the time they're thirty and they start out in their career thinking that whereas I enjoy being a class teacher and urn ... I was a deputy head before I got this post but I prefer to be in the classroom with the children than sitting at a desk doing administration which is what being a head means if you're a head of a largish* school.
Interviewer: Are you pleased that you chose primary teaching as a career and, and if someone came up to you at school-leaving age and was wondering about what they were going to do would you advise them to follow in your footsteps?
Mary: I'm very pleased that I did - well I'm pleased most of the time. Monday mornings I'm not pleased; some mornings during the week and the end of the holidays I'm not pleased I'm a primary teacher at all but I mean basically I am, 'cos I left teaching once and then went back into it. So I think that shows that I am committed to be a primary teacher.
Exercise
Directions: Listen to the dialogue and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
l. F 2. T 3.T 4.T 5.F 6 T 7.F 8.F
Part 2 Passage
Voice
1.To sing with a choir or to hear a choir singing can be deeply moving. Voices go deeper into us than other things.
2.Early attempts at language are praised and encouraged, then, on growing up, voice and talking take a practical place as we learn from, and respond to, those around us.
3.Talking is central to our existence. As human beings we talk with friends and family and at work.
4.Many teachers and professionals, such as lawyers, managers, marketing salesmen, who depend on their voices for work, rarely consider their voices until they lose them.
5.There are many factors that affect our voices, such as home environment and culture, physical build and well-being, thought and emotion, social stance, experience and occupation.
Allowing voice to ring with joy creates joy in the listener. To sing with a choir or to hear a choir singing can be deeply moving. George Eliot* said that she thought voices go deeper into us than other things. Thomas Hardy* in his poem The Voice describes the depth of feeling experienced in recalling the voice of his late wife.
When all is well our voices cry out at birth, and develop without effort. Parents respond to happy sounds and interpret the cries. Early attempts at language are praised and encouraged, then, on growing up, voice and talking take a practical place as we learn from, and respond to, those around us. /
Talking is central to our existence, with telephone, radio, television, video conferences, videophones and computers to process and print what the owners say, but as human beings we talk with friends and family and at work. Voice becomes our unique sound. As the most portable and one of the most subtle instruments it is rarely fully exercised or explored, and loss of voice can be seen by other people as merely irritating.
An infant teacher was the first of several teachers in the 1990s to appeal to a Social Security Tribunal about loss of work (the last 10 years of teaching in primary school) caused by loss of voice at work. She told me how it affected her. Shopkeepers asked her husband what she needed rather than try to make out what she said. At social gatherings it was impossible for her to talk over the hubbub* of voices. Severe restrictions like this diminish a person, and their social identity.
The onset of voice problems can be gradual or sudden. Teachers have been known to open their mouths to talk and find no sound came. Many voice difficulties arise from unknowing misuse of the vocal mechanism. It is easy to take our voices for granted. Many teachers and professionals such as lawyers, managers, marketing and salesmen; preachers and call centre agents who depend on their voices for work, rarely consider their voices until they lose them.
There are many factors that affect our voices, such as home environment and culture, physical build and well-being, thought and emotion, social stance, experience and occupation.
Actors in training explore all aspects of a character they play, especially those affecting body and voice. Teaching is also a form of performance to be explored and researched. What kind of teacher are you? What kind of teaching will the pupils respond to? The inadequacy of a young teacher, who is timid and self-conscious, is immediately recognized by the class, while the stress and demands of challenging pupils can stimulate a teacher to negative reactions of anger and shouting. Using a strong "teacher voice", raising the pitch or voice to top noise, or to deepen it unnaturally to demonstrate authority can become a habit.
Exercise A Pre-listening Question
What do you know about the human voice?
Voice, or phonation, is the sound produced by the expiration of air through vibrating vocal cords. Voice is defined in terms of pitch, quality, and intensity, or loudness.
In the frequency domain we can define voice as a series of harmonically related sine waves, starting with a fundamental frequency of about 100 hz for males and about 200 hz for females and extending throughout the 3,000 hz or so frequency range.
Exercise B Sentence Dictation
Directions: Listening to some sentences and write them down. You will hear each sentence three times.
Exercise C Detailed Listening
Directions: Listen to the passage and choose the best answer to each of the following questions.
1 .D 2.A 3.C 4.B 5.B 6.C 7.A 8.C
Exercise D After-listening Discussion
Directions: Listen to the passage again and discuss the following questions.
1.Allowing your voice to ring with joy creates joy in the listener. Loss of voice may lead to the loss of work, and may diminish a person, and their social identity. Actors in training explore all aspects of a character they play, especially those affecting body and voice. Teaching is also a form of performance to be explored and researched.
2. (Open)
Section Three News
News Item 1
White House Easter Eqq Roll
On the day of the Easter Egg Roll, the White House south lawn is transformed into a giant playground filled with the sounds of music and children.
Since 1878, American presidents have welcomed children to the White House on Easter Monday for a day of games and entertainment. President Bush opened this year's event from a large balcony, where he was able to look out at the crowd.
The event has long featured races in which children roll decorated Easter eggs with spoons.
Over the years, other games have been added and these days it is a rather elaborate affair with bands, and entertainers.
This year, there is an emphasis on books and reading, with special areas where small children can listen to stories.
Exercise A
Directions: Listening to the news item and complete the summary.
This news item is about the annual White House Easter Egg Roll entertainment for children hosted by President Bush.
Exercise B
Directions: Listen to the news again and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or / false (F)
1 F 2.T 3.F 4.T 5.T
News Item 2
Children Authors
Over 100 first-time authors are writing books for elementary school students in North Platte, Nebraska, a small town in the middle of the USA. These authors know what interests kids, because they're only 13 years old themselves. Rachael Anderson is a typical student at Adams Middle School in North Platte. The slender red head takes math and science classes, hangs out with her friends, and writes books. "My book is Polar Bullies and Snow Bears. In the very cold, very icy Arctic, Nan the smallest polar bear of all was building a snow bear," she says.
Rachael is one of 104 eighth graders taking language arts this semester. As part of the class, students create their own hardback books.
Allison Davis started the project nine years ago. The teacher says initially, it was just a way to give kids something fun to do before the school year ended.
Exercise A
Directions: Listen to the news item and complete the summary.
This news item is about the educational value of children s book-writing proiect.
Exercise B
Directions: Listen to the news again and choose the best answer to complete each of the following sentences.
1.B 2.A 3.D 4.B
News Item 3
Family Time
US working parents spend more time with their kids than they did 20 years ago, according to University of Michigan sociologists. Linda Cashdan reports the findings came as a surprise to the many working parents. Study co-author John Sandberg says children in two-parent households spent, on average, four to six more hours per week with their parents in 1997 than youngsters did two decades ago. The increase occurred across the board in both dual income and single income households.
He says the study differentiated between "engaged time", in which parents and child actively do something together, and time when they are physically together, but not interacting:
"Children with stay-at-home moms spend more time with their moms than children with working mothers. However, all of that time is not directly engaged. Children's engaged time with working mothers was only three hours less a week than their time with non-working mothers. And children are spending more time with their fathers when their mothers are working."
Exercise A
Directions: Listening to the news item and complete the summary.
This news item is about a comparison of the time US working parents spend with their kids now and that they did 20 years ago.
Exercise B
Directions: Explain the meaning of the following phrase.
Engaged time: the time in which parents and child actively do something together
Exercise C
Directions: Listen to the news again and complete the following sentences, using comparative degree.
Time that Children Spend with Their Parents
1.US working parents spend 4-6 more hours with their kids per week than they did 20 years ago.
2.Children with stay-at-home moms spend more time with their moms than children with working mothers.
3.Children's engaged time with working mothers a week is 3 hours less than their time with non-working mothers.
4.Children are spending more time with their fathers when their mothers are working.
Section Four Supplementary Exercises
Part 1 Feature Report
Life in a Nursing Home
Life in a nursing home or an assisted living facility has improved tremendously over the years. However, loneliness and boredom are rampant among some nursing home residents. In her third and final dateline report on this topic, Nina Keck looks at life in a long-term care facility in the northeastern state of Vermont.
NK: Mountain View Center in Rutland, Vermont, looks like a lot of American nursing homes. There are long hallways with clusters of people in wheelchairs. Staff members hustle from one room to the next and there's lots of background noise, moaning, talking, shouting, snoring. Seventy-two-year-old Dolores King sits in her bed with the television on but the sound turned off. Her ninety-two-year-old roommate is sound asleep.
"The days I feel good I get up in my chair and watch television ... I just don't have the ambition to do anything. I just sit and I watch television. I've got a roster of programs that I watch, and that's my day and night."
NK: Ms King has advanced multiple sclerosis*, which has paralyzed much of her body. A heart attack and cancer treatments have left her too weak to remain at her home and she's been in a nursing home since November.
NK: Eighty-six-year-old Ruth Helm is one of those people who finds happiness no matter where she is. She savors* the positives. At her last nursing home, for instance, she wrote personal histories of some of her fellow residents.
"People in that home had such interesting backgrounds, just like the people here have all got something to be memorized, so I asked each one if they would mind if I'd write their history up ... One was a navy man who'd been all over the world. Another was a mountain man that had cut wood and it's just almost unbelievable. It's so interesting."
NK: Ms Helm would probably like to meet eight-nine-year-old Chet Eaton another one of those people who seizes the day.
NK: Industry experts say there will be big changes in long-term care over the next twenty years.
More people will opt for home-based care or assisted living facilities so traditional nursing homes will be filled with much sicker and older patients. Long-term care facilities will also better address the psycho-social needs of residents so that feelings of loneliness and boredom will, finally be addressed. Someone at the Vermont Council on Aging pointed out another big change that will likely take effect as more baby boomers enter nursing homes.
Exercise A
Directions: Listen to the news report and complete the summer
This news report is about life in a US nursing home.
Exercise B
Directions: Listen to the news again and fill in the blanks fill with details of the nursing home.
General feeling about the nursing homes:
lonely and boring
Scene at Mountain View Center:
It looks like a lot of American nursing homes. There are long hallways with clusters of people in wheelchairs. Staff members hustle from one room to the next and there's lots of background noise, moaning. talking. shouting. snoring.
Two people staying at a nursing home:
Dolores King: 72 years old, with advanced multiple sclerosis, which has paralyzed much of her body. A heart attack and cancer treatments have left her too weak to remain at her home and she's been in a nursing home since November.
Ruth Helm: 86 years old, one of those people who finds happiness no matter where she is. She savors the positives. At her last nursing home, she wrote personal histories of some of her fellow residents.
Chet Eaton: years old
Future: There will be big changes in long-term care over the next twenty years. More people will opt for home-based care or assisted living facilities so traditional nursing homes will be filled with much sicker and older patients. Long-term care facilities will also better address the psycho-social needs of residents so that feelings of loneliness and boredom will finally be addressed
Part 2 Passage
Family Life Education
1.Couples and families can learn to improve understanding and teamwork between spouses, to guide their children to reach their fullest potential.
2.An important outcome of the CFLE program has been its influence on the content of the university programs that prepare family life educators.
3.It is likely that these technologies will enhance rather than replace more traditional family life education approaches.
4.School boards and community interest groups may place restriction on the content taught in schools, thereby failing to meet some important needs of this age group.
5.Through educational programs, family life education makes an important contribution toward/ strengthening families to fulfill their significant role as the basic unit of society.
Family Life Education builds upon the strengths that families already have. Couples and families can learn to improve understanding and teamwork between spouses, to guide their children to reach their fullest potential, and survive the challenges of family life.
Qualified educators are central to the success of family life education, as it is these individuals who bear major responsibility for shaping the educational experience and interacting with participants. Despite their importance, however, few guidelines are available to help prepare family educators. In 1985, the National Council on Family Relations established a certificate program to help improve the training and qualifications of family life educators. Through this program, recognition is given to individuals who hold a baccalaureate* or advanced degree in specified fields of study, have a minimum level of postsecondary education in the content areas of the Framework for Family Life Education, and have completed a specified level of related work experience. The Certificate in Family Life Education (CFLE) is a voluntary credential*, and has been granted to individuals in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico*, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Singapore. An important outcome of the CFLE program has been its influence on the content of the college/university programs that prepare family life educators.
The Internet and the World Wide Web present new challenges for family life education.
Information technologies make it possible to provide family-related information twenty-four hours a day, every day,. and may help facilitate the preparation of professionals through on-l1ne courses and chat rooms. Although it is likely that these technologies will enhance rather than replace more traditional family life education approaches, important issues that will require attention include the reliability and validity* of the information available and the effectiveness of this form of family education. As well, the emergence of such things as computer-mediated relationships (cyber-relationships) and sexualized Internet use requires rethinking the content and strategies of family life education.
Family life education is an important means to help ameliorate family issues and problems, but in many situations these programs by themselves may not be sufficient unless their development and implementation are supported by social and educational policies and political decisions. School boards and community interest groups may place restrictions on the content taught in schools, thereby failing to meet some important needs of this age group. Inadequate financial support often means that programs are available primarily to those who can afford to pay registration fees. Not necessarily to those who may want or need the programs the most.
Underlying the practice of family life education is a basic belief in the importance of family living and a basic respect for persons that recognizes their ability to take charge of their own lives in satisfying ways. Through educational programs, family life education makes an important contribution toward strengthening families to fulfill their significant role as the basic unit of society.
Exercise A Pre-listening Question
Family life education provides skills and knowledge to enrich individual and family life. It includes knowledge about how families work; the interrelationship of families and society; human growth and development throughout the life span; the physiological and psychological aspects of human sexuality; the impact of money and time management on daily family life; the importance and value of parent education; the effects of policy and legislation on families, etc.
Exercise B Sentence Dictation
Directions: Listen to some sentences and write them down. You will hear each sentence three times.
Directions: Listen to the passage and choose the best answer to complete each of the following sentences
Exercise C Detailed Listening
1.B 2.C 3.A 4.A 5.C 6.D 7.A 8.D
Exercise D After-listening Discussion
Directions: Listen to the passage again and discuss the following questions.
1.Family life education is an important means to help ameliorate family issues and problems. Qualified educators are central to the success of family life education, as it is these individuals who bear major responsibility for shaping the educational experience and interacting with participants. In 1985, the National Council on Family Relations established a certificate program to help improve the training and qualifications of family life educator. Family life educators share information related to family life with families, couples, parents, youth, or students by teaching, writing, coordinating, speaking or creating products.
2.(Open)
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