M: It’s actually even worse, believe it or not.
Q: What did the man say about the course?
Passage One
My father woke me up early one morning when I was fourteen and announced “Get
up. You are going with me to cut grass.” I felt proud and excited because my father
thought I was responsible enough to help him in his business. Still, that first day was very
hard. From sunrise to sunset, my father, my younger brother and I cut and t very large
yards in well-to-do part of the city. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I felt
good. I put out a hard day’s labor and earned six dollars. One day, my father spotted
some weeds I have miss cutting and pulled me inside. “Cut that section again!” he said
firmly “and don’t make me have to tell you again.” The message was very clear. Today I
stress the importance of doing the job right the first time. Every job I have held from
cutting lawns to wash dishes to working a machine on the construction site. I have
learned something that help me in my next job. If you work hard enough, you can learn
from any job you do.
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.
11. How did the speaker feel when his father asked him to help cut grass?
12. What did his father do when the speaker missed cutting some leaves?
13. What did the speaker want to tell us in this passage?
Passage Two
I am living in a small village in the country. My wife and I run a village shop. We
have a very peaceful live, boring some my say. But we love it. We know all the people in
the village. They have plenty of time to stop and chat. I have plenty of time for my
hobbies too--gardening, fishing, and walking in the country side. I love the outdoor life.
It wasn’t always like this though I used to have a really stressful job, working so late in
the office every evening. I often bring work home at the weekends. The advertising
world is very competitive. And when I look back, I can’t imagine how I stood it. I have
no private life at all. No time for the really important things in life. Because of the
pressure of the job, I used to smoke and drink too much. The crisis came when my wife
left me. She complaint that she never saw me and I had no time for family life. This made
me realize what is really important to me. I talked things through with her and decided to
get back together and started a new and better life together. I gave up tobacco and
alcohol and searched for new hobbies. Now I am afraid of looking back since the past
life seemed like a horrible dream.
Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
14. What did the speaker do for a living?
15. What do we know about the speaker’s life in the past?
16. What made the speaker change his life style?
Passage Three
“Where is the university?” is the question many visitors to Cambridge ask. But no
one could point at any one direction because there is no campus. The university consists
of 31 self-governing colleges. It has lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, museums and
offices throughout the city. Individual colleges choose their own students who have to
meet their minimum entrance requirements set by the university. And the graduates
usually live and study in their colleges but they are taught in very full groups. Lectures
and laboratories and practical work are organized by the university and held in university
buildings. There are over ten thousand undergraduates and three thousand five hundred
post-graduates. About 40% of them are women and some 8% from overseas. As well as
teaching, research is of major importance. Since the beginning of the twentieth century,
more than sixty university members have won Nobel prizes. The university has a huge
number of buildings for teaching and research. It has more than 60 specialist subject
libraries as well as the university library, which as the copy-right libraries, is entitled to a
copy of every book published in Britain. Examinations are held and degrees are awarded
by the university. It allowed women to take the university exams in the 1881, but it was
the not until 1941 that they were awarded degrees.
Questions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
17. Why is it difficult to located Cambridge University?