Section A
Question 1
W: Raise your head a little bit and hold the saddle and smile a little.
You look wonderful posing like that. Shall I press the shutter?
M: Wait a minute. Let me put on a cowboy hat.
What are the speakers doing?
Question 2
M: I'm still waiting for my sister to come back and type the application letter for me.
W: Why bother her. I'll show you how to use the computer. It's quite easy.
What does the woman mean?
Question 3
M: Hey, where did you find the journal? I need it, too.
W: Right here on the shelf. Don t worry, John.
I'll take it out on my card for both of us.
What does the woman mean?
Question 4
M: Thank you for your helpful assistance.
Otherwise, I'd surely have missed it.The place is so out of the way.
W: It was a pleasure meeting you. Good bye!
Why did the man thank the woman?
Question 5
W: We are informed that the eleven thirty train is late again.
M: Why did the railway company even bother to print a schedule?
What do we learn from the conversation?
Question 6
M: Maybe I ought to subscribe to the Engineering Quarterly.
It contains a lot of useful information.
W: Why not read it in the library and save some money?
What is the woman s advice to the man?
Question 7
M: I've been waiting all week for this concert.
The performance is said to be excellent and with a student's discount,
the tickets will be really cheap.
W: Ah-huh. I'm afraid I left my Student ID card in the dorm.
What does the woman imply?
Question 8
M: Mr.Smith,our history professor,announced we would be doing two papersand three exams this semester.
I wonder how I m going to pull through when two other courses have similar requirements.
W: Well, can't you drop one course and pick it up next semester?
What does the woman suggest the man do?
Question 9
W: Renting a Conference Room at the hotel will cost us too much.
We are already running in the red.
M: How about using our dining room for the meeting?
What's worrying the woman?
Question 10
W: Jerry, can you pick me up after work today? I left my car at the garage.
M: I'm afraid I can't. I have scheduled an appointment with a client at dinner time.
What is the man going to do?
Setion B
Passage One
A few months ago, millions of people in London heard alarms all over the town.
Emergency services, the Fire Departments, the Police, hospitals,
and ambulances stood by, ready to go into action.
In railway underground stations, people read notices and maps ,
which told them where to go and what to do in the emergency.
This was Exercise Flood Call, to prepare people for a flood emergency.
London wasn't flooded yet, but it is possible that it would be.
In 1236 and in 1663, London was badly flooded.
In 1928, people living in Westminster, the heart of London, drowned in floods.
And in 1953, one hundred people, living on the eastern edge of the London suburbs were killed,
again, in the floods.
At last, Greater London Counciltook actions to prevent this disaster from happening again.
Though a flood wall ias built in the 1960s,
Londoners still must be prepared for the possible disaster.
If it happens, 50 underground stations will be under water.
Electricity, gas and phone services will be out of action.
Roads will be drowned.
It will be impossible to cross any of the bridges between north and south London.
Imagine: London will be like the famous Italian city, Venice.
But this Exercise Flood Call didn't cause panic among Londoners.
Most people knew it was just a warning.
One lady said,
"Its a flood warning, isn t it? The water doesn t look high to me."
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 11: What happened in London a few months ago?
Question 12: What measure was taken against floods in London in the 1960s?
Question 13: What can we learnt from the lady s comment?
Passage Two
America's national symbol, the bald eagle, almost went extinct twenty years ago,
but it did made a comeback.
In fact, the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service is considering the possibility
of taking it off the Endangered Species List.
Once,more than fifty hundred pairs of bald eagles nested across the country,
but by 1960 that number had fallen below four hundred.
The chief killer was the widely used DDT.
Fish, soaked up DDT, died, and were washed up on shores,
where bald eagles feasted on them.
DDT prevented eagle egg shells from thickening.
The shells became so thin that they shattered before the babies hatched.
Fortunately, in 1972,a law was passed to ban DDT,
which saved the bald eagle from total wipeout.
And since then wild life biologists had reintroduced bald eagles from Canada to America.
The result was that last year U.S. bird watchers
counted eleven thousand six hundred and ten bald eagles in the country.
If it were dropped from the Endangered Species List,
the bald eagle would still be a threatened species.
That means the bird would continue to get the same protection.
No hunting allowed, and no disturbing of nests.
But bald eagles still face tough times.
The destruction ctheir natural homes could be the next DDT causing eagle numbers to drop quickly.
Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 14: What was the main harmful effect of the pests killer DDT on baldeagles?
Question 15: What measure did the wild life biologist take to increase the number of bald eagles?
Question 16: According to the speaker, what is the possible danger facing baldeagles?
Passage Three
If the earth gets hotter in the new century,
what will harm animals and the plants which animals depend on for survival?
The question offers another way of looking at the "Greenhouse Effect".
People have talked about the general problem of "Global Warming" for some time.
But they were usually worried about things like whether to buy a home on the coast.
Biologists and other scientists turn their attention to plants
and animals at an important meeting that took place last October.
They reviewed evidence that plants and animals are sensitive to climate.
Since the Ice Age ended ten thousand years ago
and warmer temperatures returned to the northern latitudes,
many species have migrated north.
If the predictions about the Greenhouse are correct,
temperatures will rise by the same amount in the next one hundred years
as they did in the past ten thousand.
Will animals and plants beable to adapt that quickly to change in the environment?
Many won't.
Certain species will probably become very rare.
Experts say plants under climate stress will be very open to disease and fire.
Forest fires may become more common.
That,in turn, may harm animals that depend on the trees for food or shelter.
Any preserves we set up to protect endangered species may become useless
as the species are forced to migrate along with their natural homes.
Change is a part of life, but rapid change, says scientist George Woodwell, is the enemy of life.
Questions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Question 17: What is the concern of ordinary people about the "GreenhouseEffect"?
Question 18: What has happened since the end of the ICE AGE?
Question 19: What will be a possible threat to plants in the future?
Question 20: According to the passage, what will probably happen to the endangered species?