English Weekly CET-6 Listening Practice Test Ⅳ
Part III Listening Comprehension
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
11. W: Look at the mess! And the guests will be here soon!
M: Oh, honey. Take it easy. I’ll make sure the house is spotless.
Q: What does the man mean?
12. M: What’s that green badge you wear?
W: Oh, this. Teaching assistants in the psychology department had to have it on for the faculty orientation.
Q: What can be inferred about the woman?
13. W: Excuse me. An egg fell out of the carton and broke on the floor.
M: Thanks for telling me. I’ll take care of it before someone slips on it.
Q: What is the man going to do?
14. M: My roommate and I have decided to do our own cooking next semester.
W: Then, I hope you’ll have a lighter schedule than this term.
Q: What problem does the woman think the man may have?
15. M: It’s so hot and unbearable. If only we’d gone to the beach instead.
W: Why with the museums and restaurants in Washington. I’d be happy here no matter what the weather.
Q: What does the woman mean?
16. W: I’ll be ready in a few minutes. I have to finish up this letter.
M: Ok, I’ll go down to the lobby for a paper.
Q: What will the man probably do?
17. M: Hey, Julia, will you let me know when ten minutes have passed? I’m putting the spaghetti in now.
W: Sure. There’s nothing worse than soggy, overcooked spaghetti.
Q: What does the woman mean?
18. W: John sure was surprised that he had a hard time assembling his new bike.
M: Well, that’s to be expected with no instruction manual.
Q: What does the man imply?
Now you will hear the two long conversations.
Conversation One:
M: Hi, Sarah. Look at what I have just found. Right here in the sand.
W: A piece of wood? Oh, driftwood. Interesting shape… almost like some sort of modern sculpture.
M: Yeah, and feel how smooth it is.
W: Hmm. It must have been in the water for a long time. It could have been drifting in the ocean currents for months, or even years.
M: In the currents? Doesn’t the wind just blow things around out there?
W: Well, sure. But the currents are always moving too. Almost like rivers, but underwater rivers, flowing through the ocean.
M: So how do they find out where these currents go? Stick a message in a bottle and throw it in the water?
W: Don’t laugh. In fact, I was reading in a science magazine that oceanographers have released huge numbers of bottles into the ocean over the years. They wanted to map out where the currents would carry them.
M: Say, I’ll bet—after they found out where all those bottles ended up—they could enter all that data into a computer and make a pretty detailed model to… to show where the currents go.
W: In fact, they did. And they also found a neat way to test that model. There was a freighter carrying sneakers from a factory in Asia. It was caught in a big storm and thousands of pairs of sneakers got dumped in the Pacific Ocean.
M: Really? What a waste!
W: Yeah, turns out, though, that hundreds of these shoes started washing up on beaches somewhere near Seattle, just about where the computer models had predicted the currents would carry them.
M: Gee. You mean all that stuff I find on the beaches might be part of some big scientific experiment? I thought it was all just trash!
Questions 19-22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. What are the speakers mainly discussing?
20. What did the man find on the beach?
21. According to the magazine article, what did scientists put into the ocean?
22. What can be inferred from the story about the sneakers?
Conversation Two:
M: I really appreciate your filling me in on yesterday’s lecture.
W: No problem. I thought you might want to go over it together. And anyway, it helps me review. Hope you’re feeling better now.
M: I am. Thanks. So, you said she talked about squid? Sounds a little strange.
W：Well, actually, it was about the evolution of sea life—a continuation from last week. The octopus and the squid descended from earlier creatures with shells. They made surprising change by shedding their shells—somewhere between 200 and 500 million years ago.
M: That’s a pretty long span of time.
W: I know. That’s what she said, though. To be precise: “exactly when they emerged is uncertain…and why is still unexplained.”
M: Some squid are really huge. Can you imagine something that big if it still had a shell?
W: Actually, it’s because they lost their shells that they could evolve to bigger sizes.
M: Makes sense. But some are really huge. I’ve read about fishermen that caught squid that weighed over a ton. Did she talk about how that happened?
W: Not really. But she did mention some unusual cases. In 1933 in New Zealand they caught a squid…let’s see here… it was twenty-two yards long. Its eyes were eighteen inches across. Can you imagine?
M: Reminds me of all those stories of sea monsters.
W: Dr. Simpson thinks there are probably even larger ones that haven’t been found because squid are intelligent and fast—so they can easily get away from humans. Maybe some of those monster stories are true.
Questions 23-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. What topic are the man and woman discussing?
24. Why does the man need to talk to the woman about the class?
25. What does the woman imply about sea monsters?
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Of all the varieties of music which fill our concert halls, theatres, and nightclubs, only jazz is original American music. Symphonies and concertos, the ancestors of movie and television scores as well as “serious” or “l(fā)egitimate” electronic music, were first composed in Germany. Musical comedies are descended from opera, which was first performed in Italy. And our ever-popular nightclub singers are the musical heirs of the French singers.
The one form of music which did not originate in Europe and which is popular today worldwide is jazz. Jazz was born in New Orleans, the child of the black Americans. It drew on the rhythms as well as the emotions of the African music of their ancestors, which had been transformed into ragtime and blues. From ragtime, jazz took syncopated rhythms while from blues it adopted melodic and harmonic elements such as mournful tunes once sung by slaves and barbershop-type chromatic chord progressions.
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. Where did symphonies and concertos originate?
27. What is the origin of musical comedies performed now?
28. Who first created the music of jazz in New Orleans?
29. What kind of music is jazz based on?
Passage Two
Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak English as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purposes for which English is learned and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to define and still more difficult to assess what constitutes an adequate working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the infinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of the most important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communication, international conferences, and the dissemination of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commercial industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for access to scientific and technological development in the West.
Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
30. Why is it difficult to estimate the number of people who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English?
31. According to the passage, which one of the following purposes of English has not been mentioned?
32. Why is a common language necessary for some multi-lingual countries?
Passage Three
There are various ways to lose weight. First of all, start small. Small changes are much easier to maintain than drastic ones. Try reducing the size of the portions you eat and giving up excessive soda for a week. Once you have that down, gradually start introducing healthier foods and exercise into your life.
Second, stop eating when you’re full. Lots of people eat when they’re bored, lonely, or stressed, or keep eating long after they’re full out of habit. Try to pay attention as you eat and stop when you’re full. Slowing down can help because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to recognize how much is in your stomach. Sometimes taking a break before going for seconds can keep you from eating another serving.
Avoid eating when you feel upset or bored. Instead, try to find something else to do (a walk around the block or a trip to the gym are good alternatives). Many people find it’s helpful to keep a diary of what they eat and when. Reviewing the diary later can help them identify the emotions they have when they overeat or whether they have unhealthy habits. A registered dietitian can give you pointers on how to do this.
Third, eat less more often. Many people find that eating a couple of small snacks throughout the day helps them to make healthy choices at meals. Stick a couple of healthy snacks in your backpack so that you can have one or two snacks during the day. Adding healthy snacks to your three square meals and eating smaller portions when you sit down for dinner can help you cut calories without feeling deprived.
Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
33. Why is slowing down while eating helpful for losing weight?
34. While in which mood are you suggested not to eat?
35. How many times should someone eat in a day if he/she is trying to lose weight?
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
Although Beethoven could sit down and make up music easily, his really great (36)compositions did not come easily at all. They took him a great deal of hard work. We can tell how often he rewrote and (37) corrected his work from his notebooks kept in museums and libraries.
When he was 28, the worst difficulty of all came to him. He began to notice a strange humming in his ears. After (38) consulting the doctor, he got the worst news any musician can hear: he was gradually going (39) deaf. Beethoven was in despair. He went away to the country. In his long farewell letter to his brothers, he expressed how (40) depressed and lonely his deafness had made him. He longed to die.
However, Beethoven did something braver than dying. He (41) gathered his courage and went on writing music. Instead of the (42) elegant and (43) stately music that earlier musicians had written for their wealthy listeners, (44) Beethoven wrote stormy, exciting, revolutionary music, which reminds us of his troubled and courageous life. He called one of his symphonies the “Eroica” or heroic symphony, “to celebrate the memory of a great man.” (45) Describing the dramatic opening notes of his famous Fifth Symphony, he said, “Thus fate knocks on the door.”
Later, Beethoven went completely deaf, so deaf that he could not hear even the stormiest parts of his exciting music. In those years, he wrote more gloriously than ever. He could “hear” his music with his mind, if not with his ears. In his last symphony, the Ninth, a choir sings a wonderful hymn, “Ode to Joy.” (46) Because of his courage and determination to overcome his terrible disaster, his music has given joy and inspiration to millions of people.
Part III Listening Comprehension
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
11. W: Look at the mess! And the guests will be here soon!
M: Oh, honey. Take it easy. I’ll make sure the house is spotless.
Q: What does the man mean?
12. M: What’s that green badge you wear?
W: Oh, this. Teaching assistants in the psychology department had to have it on for the faculty orientation.
Q: What can be inferred about the woman?
13. W: Excuse me. An egg fell out of the carton and broke on the floor.
M: Thanks for telling me. I’ll take care of it before someone slips on it.
Q: What is the man going to do?
14. M: My roommate and I have decided to do our own cooking next semester.
W: Then, I hope you’ll have a lighter schedule than this term.
Q: What problem does the woman think the man may have?
15. M: It’s so hot and unbearable. If only we’d gone to the beach instead.
W: Why with the museums and restaurants in Washington. I’d be happy here no matter what the weather.
Q: What does the woman mean?
16. W: I’ll be ready in a few minutes. I have to finish up this letter.
M: Ok, I’ll go down to the lobby for a paper.
Q: What will the man probably do?
17. M: Hey, Julia, will you let me know when ten minutes have passed? I’m putting the spaghetti in now.
W: Sure. There’s nothing worse than soggy, overcooked spaghetti.
Q: What does the woman mean?
18. W: John sure was surprised that he had a hard time assembling his new bike.
M: Well, that’s to be expected with no instruction manual.
Q: What does the man imply?
Now you will hear the two long conversations.
Conversation One:
M: Hi, Sarah. Look at what I have just found. Right here in the sand.
W: A piece of wood? Oh, driftwood. Interesting shape… almost like some sort of modern sculpture.
M: Yeah, and feel how smooth it is.
W: Hmm. It must have been in the water for a long time. It could have been drifting in the ocean currents for months, or even years.
M: In the currents? Doesn’t the wind just blow things around out there?
W: Well, sure. But the currents are always moving too. Almost like rivers, but underwater rivers, flowing through the ocean.
M: So how do they find out where these currents go? Stick a message in a bottle and throw it in the water?
W: Don’t laugh. In fact, I was reading in a science magazine that oceanographers have released huge numbers of bottles into the ocean over the years. They wanted to map out where the currents would carry them.
M: Say, I’ll bet—after they found out where all those bottles ended up—they could enter all that data into a computer and make a pretty detailed model to… to show where the currents go.
W: In fact, they did. And they also found a neat way to test that model. There was a freighter carrying sneakers from a factory in Asia. It was caught in a big storm and thousands of pairs of sneakers got dumped in the Pacific Ocean.
M: Really? What a waste!
W: Yeah, turns out, though, that hundreds of these shoes started washing up on beaches somewhere near Seattle, just about where the computer models had predicted the currents would carry them.
M: Gee. You mean all that stuff I find on the beaches might be part of some big scientific experiment? I thought it was all just trash!
Questions 19-22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. What are the speakers mainly discussing?
20. What did the man find on the beach?
21. According to the magazine article, what did scientists put into the ocean?
22. What can be inferred from the story about the sneakers?
Conversation Two:
M: I really appreciate your filling me in on yesterday’s lecture.
W: No problem. I thought you might want to go over it together. And anyway, it helps me review. Hope you’re feeling better now.
M: I am. Thanks. So, you said she talked about squid? Sounds a little strange.
W：Well, actually, it was about the evolution of sea life—a continuation from last week. The octopus and the squid descended from earlier creatures with shells. They made surprising change by shedding their shells—somewhere between 200 and 500 million years ago.
M: That’s a pretty long span of time.
W: I know. That’s what she said, though. To be precise: “exactly when they emerged is uncertain…and why is still unexplained.”
M: Some squid are really huge. Can you imagine something that big if it still had a shell?
W: Actually, it’s because they lost their shells that they could evolve to bigger sizes.
M: Makes sense. But some are really huge. I’ve read about fishermen that caught squid that weighed over a ton. Did she talk about how that happened?
W: Not really. But she did mention some unusual cases. In 1933 in New Zealand they caught a squid…let’s see here… it was twenty-two yards long. Its eyes were eighteen inches across. Can you imagine?
M: Reminds me of all those stories of sea monsters.
W: Dr. Simpson thinks there are probably even larger ones that haven’t been found because squid are intelligent and fast—so they can easily get away from humans. Maybe some of those monster stories are true.
Questions 23-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
23. What topic are the man and woman discussing?
24. Why does the man need to talk to the woman about the class?
25. What does the woman imply about sea monsters?
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Of all the varieties of music which fill our concert halls, theatres, and nightclubs, only jazz is original American music. Symphonies and concertos, the ancestors of movie and television scores as well as “serious” or “l(fā)egitimate” electronic music, were first composed in Germany. Musical comedies are descended from opera, which was first performed in Italy. And our ever-popular nightclub singers are the musical heirs of the French singers.
The one form of music which did not originate in Europe and which is popular today worldwide is jazz. Jazz was born in New Orleans, the child of the black Americans. It drew on the rhythms as well as the emotions of the African music of their ancestors, which had been transformed into ragtime and blues. From ragtime, jazz took syncopated rhythms while from blues it adopted melodic and harmonic elements such as mournful tunes once sung by slaves and barbershop-type chromatic chord progressions.
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. Where did symphonies and concertos originate?
27. What is the origin of musical comedies performed now?
28. Who first created the music of jazz in New Orleans?
29. What kind of music is jazz based on?
Passage Two
Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak English as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purposes for which English is learned and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to define and still more difficult to assess what constitutes an adequate working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the infinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of the most important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communication, international conferences, and the dissemination of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commercial industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for access to scientific and technological development in the West.
Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
30. Why is it difficult to estimate the number of people who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English?
31. According to the passage, which one of the following purposes of English has not been mentioned?
32. Why is a common language necessary for some multi-lingual countries?
Passage Three
There are various ways to lose weight. First of all, start small. Small changes are much easier to maintain than drastic ones. Try reducing the size of the portions you eat and giving up excessive soda for a week. Once you have that down, gradually start introducing healthier foods and exercise into your life.
Second, stop eating when you’re full. Lots of people eat when they’re bored, lonely, or stressed, or keep eating long after they’re full out of habit. Try to pay attention as you eat and stop when you’re full. Slowing down can help because it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to recognize how much is in your stomach. Sometimes taking a break before going for seconds can keep you from eating another serving.
Avoid eating when you feel upset or bored. Instead, try to find something else to do (a walk around the block or a trip to the gym are good alternatives). Many people find it’s helpful to keep a diary of what they eat and when. Reviewing the diary later can help them identify the emotions they have when they overeat or whether they have unhealthy habits. A registered dietitian can give you pointers on how to do this.
Third, eat less more often. Many people find that eating a couple of small snacks throughout the day helps them to make healthy choices at meals. Stick a couple of healthy snacks in your backpack so that you can have one or two snacks during the day. Adding healthy snacks to your three square meals and eating smaller portions when you sit down for dinner can help you cut calories without feeling deprived.
Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
33. Why is slowing down while eating helpful for losing weight?
34. While in which mood are you suggested not to eat?
35. How many times should someone eat in a day if he/she is trying to lose weight?
Section C
Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from 36 to 43 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered from 44 to 46 you are required to fill in the missing information. For these blanks, you can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.
Although Beethoven could sit down and make up music easily, his really great (36)compositions did not come easily at all. They took him a great deal of hard work. We can tell how often he rewrote and (37) corrected his work from his notebooks kept in museums and libraries.
When he was 28, the worst difficulty of all came to him. He began to notice a strange humming in his ears. After (38) consulting the doctor, he got the worst news any musician can hear: he was gradually going (39) deaf. Beethoven was in despair. He went away to the country. In his long farewell letter to his brothers, he expressed how (40) depressed and lonely his deafness had made him. He longed to die.
However, Beethoven did something braver than dying. He (41) gathered his courage and went on writing music. Instead of the (42) elegant and (43) stately music that earlier musicians had written for their wealthy listeners, (44) Beethoven wrote stormy, exciting, revolutionary music, which reminds us of his troubled and courageous life. He called one of his symphonies the “Eroica” or heroic symphony, “to celebrate the memory of a great man.” (45) Describing the dramatic opening notes of his famous Fifth Symphony, he said, “Thus fate knocks on the door.”
Later, Beethoven went completely deaf, so deaf that he could not hear even the stormiest parts of his exciting music. In those years, he wrote more gloriously than ever. He could “hear” his music with his mind, if not with his ears. In his last symphony, the Ninth, a choir sings a wonderful hymn, “Ode to Joy.” (46) Because of his courage and determination to overcome his terrible disaster, his music has given joy and inspiration to millions of people.