SECTION A CONVERSATIONS In this section you will hear three conversations. Each will be read only once. At the end of the conversation you Will be given 10 seconds to choose the answer which is the closest in the meaning to the conversation you have just heard. Now listen to the conversations. Questions 1-4 are based on the following conversation. What will happen if the teachers’ salaries are raised

reported

understood

caught

helped

An Indian boy ran swiftly from a village in Mexico. In his hand he carried a basket of fish. Only a few moments before, the fish had been pulled from the cold water of the lake. Farther on, another runner was waiting to take the basket from the tired boy and to race on. And so from one swift runner to another, fresh fish were rushed from the lake to the dinner table of Montezuma, ruler of the Aztecs.

Speed is important in transporting fish and many other fresh foods. Foods that spoil easily must reach the market and the dinner table as quickly as possible. But now planes, trucks, trains, and ships have replaced runners.

Planes are the fastest way to transport food. They are especially useful in carrying food to people and animals that could not be reached otherwise. Suppose there were a flood or an earthquake and the people could not be reached by trains or trucks. Unless packages of food could be dropped from planes, the people might starve.

Trucks have many advantages. A truck can start as soon as it is loaded, and it can deliver goods directly to the market. Many modern trucks have their own refrigeration system. Today the tank truck that carries milk is a familiar sight on many country roads. The modern dairy farmer makes use of tank tracks that keep the milk fresh until it is delivered to stores and homes.

Trains cannot always carry food as quickly as trucks. Many freight cars must be loaded before a train can start on a trip. And when the freight train arrives in the city, the food must be unloaded from the cars onto trucks to be taken to the market. All of this takes time. When railroad companies wanted to move perishable foods faster, they developed a plan that run on the rails.

Some perishable foods can be transported by refrigerator ships. Bananas can be shipped in this way. They are loaded in the refrigerated hold of the ship while they are still green during the trip. As the green bananas are loaded, a man watches carefully for signs of yellow on them. If even one ripe banana is loaded, a whole shipload of fruit might be spoiled.

But not all food needs to be moved as quickly or as carefully as perishable fresh food. Grains can make a slower trip without danger of spoiling. Transportation by water is usually a cheap way of sending such foods.

Trucks, trains, planes, and refrigerator ships are modern ways of transporting food. But a great deal of food is still carried on the heads of women and on the backs of animals. Over the desert sands, camels carry loads of salt, dates, and cheese.

costs very little money

helps any people in need

teaches first aid if necessary

gets into trouble

Greg’s mobile phone.

Greg’s home phone.

Greg’s office phone.

She doesn’t call him back.

A gray-haired woman walks carefully (1) a windswept field. She holds a Yshaped tree branch in front of her, one fork of the Y in each hand and the free end, (2) straight ahead. Suddenly she (3) . Then she goes no further. Something seems to be pulling the free end of the branch downward so that it points (4) the earth. "This is it!" shouts the woman, and beckons to the driver of a well-digging machine waiting at the roadside. Soon, excavating thirty feet (5) , the well-digger strikes water.

How can this woman know where there is (6) underground She is a dowser-one who believes that a forked stick or similar instrument will move (7) when the person holding it is standing above underground water, oil, or certain metal ores.

Is dowsing (8) It has been (9) around the world for centuries. Though many scoff at it as mere superstition, it has an impressive record of (10) . In Europe, it is most common in England. German tin miners brought dowsing to Cornwall, England, almost 400 years ago, and some Cornish miners (11) dowse today.

Eyewitness reports seem to (12) the dowser’s claims. Recently in Plymouth, England, repair workers were able to locate the entire length of a winding underground gas main by dowsing, using a "branch" (13) copper wires. A British army major, O. A. Pogson, was named official water diviner (dowser) in India. He (14) water at 128 of 130 sites. Later, back in England, he water-dowsed for years with over ninety percent (15) . Dowsers found much of the water that irrigates the once-arid California farmlands. An Australian woman, Evelyn Penrose, has been able to divine many valuable oil deposits.

Some scientists (16) that dowsing is just a matter of luck or of the dowser’s knowledge of geology (dowsers may recognize land features that usually occur over water or ore deposits ). Other (17) feel that they possess extra-sensory perception (ESP). Still others say that dowsers, like some animals, are unusually (18) to certain radiations from the earth. Who are right—the (19) or their critics One way to find out is to get yourself a forked tree branch and start (20) .

According to Crevecoeur, (26) settled in Pennsylvania in the 18th century, the American in those days had the mixed blood of Europeans or their descendants without (27) into consideration other nationalities (28) as American Indians and blacks. Today, the picture of an American is more complex. In American families, there may be sons-in-law or daughters-in-law with European descend ants or Afro-Americans or Asian immigrants although these mixed blood families of whites with other blacks or Asians are (29) the minority. To understand this American, let us go back to American past.

The American continents were peopled (30) a result of two long continuing immigration movements, the first from Asia, and the second from Europe and Africa. The first movement began probably 25,000 years ago when Siberian tribes, in (31) of new hunting grounds or of refuge from pursuing enemies, crossed over the Bering Strait to Alaska. By 1492, over 10 -20 million people, mistakenly (32) Indians by Christopher Columbus, inhabited the Americas. They developed their own aboriginal cultures, which ranged from the simple (33) the complex, from those of the primitive tribes to the brilliant civilizations of the Aztecs, the Incas and the Mayas. But their technological development had lagged (34) that of Europe and Asia.

The (35) migration to the Americas began with the expansion of Europe at the start of the modern period from the 16th century. In 1492, Columbus persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance his voyage. He believed that by sailing west from Europe, he could reach the Far East. He never succeeded, but instead he landed on one of the Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea and "dis covered" the New World. Based (36) Columbus’s discovery, the Spanish king could claim the territory in the Americas and later Spain conquered the new land and established a huge empire and grabbed enormous wealth from the Indians. In 1497, another Italian sailor, John Cabot who was in the service of the English king, arrived (37) today’s Canada and the English king (38) that the whole of the territory of North America (39) to England. Enforcing this claim, the Englishmen be gan to (40) permanent settlements in North America by the beginning of the 17th century.

Some seven or eight hundred years ago, Hangzhou, known as Ling’ an then, was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, watching the tidal bore was already a grand occasion in town when the whole population would turn out for the spectacle. The best time to do this was from the 15th to the 18th of the eighth month of each year. But beginning from about the tenth day of the month, that part of the river bank that offered the best vantage point for tide watching would already be a busy gathering place for little open-air booths anti stalls where vendors piled colourful wares on their carts or boxes. There would be all kinds of snacks and cooked meats in shining pots and pans. The taverns and restaurants would put up multi-coloured lanterns and flags or pennants, displaying meanwhile an attractive array of meat and vegetable dishes with a lot more exotic delicacies on the menu. In the tea-houses would be hung painting scrolls and calligraphy scrolls by famous artists while the antique vases would be filled with fresh flowers. In addition, there would be vendors displaying plasters and medicinal herbs for sale on the ground, roving artists with their monkeys for variety shows or folk artists ready to entertain the crowds. Even before the days of the tidal bore, these peo ple would be gathered on the river bank doing whatever they could to attract pleasure-seekers. Mean while, tens of thousands of people, visitors from other towns as well as local residents of Ling’ an, would be hustling and bustling about, clogging up the way and making traffic impossible. In the large riverside mansions that lined the banks, there would be opulently dressed men and women, some leaning against the windows or the balconies looking into the distance and some looking down gazing fixedly at something going on down below.