专八听力预测试题二.doc

星期2 Tuesday预测试题二
预测试题
Section A Mini-Lecture
In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked, but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. When the lecture is over, you will be given two minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE. Some of the gaps may require a maximum of THREE words. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is(are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may refer to your notes while completing the task. Use the blank sheet for note-taking.

Group discussion skills
I. Importance of group discussion skills
A. Useful for everyday life, from (1)__________ to more serious discussions.
B. For job interviews and selection procedures.
C. For extended speaking and listening practice.
II. Types of discussions
A. Making decisions.
B. Sharing opinions on a given topic.
C. (2)__________.
D. Solving a problem.
III. Useful sub-skills for students and how to develop them.
A. To analyse.
1. Give each student a different topic and ask them to put down all the sub-topics.
2. Ask them to swap their notes and analyse the (3)__________ of each sub-topics.
3. Let them together draw up a new list and discuss the relevance of the sub-topics.
B. To persuade (eg. which candidate should get a job).
1. Students create a list of 7 adjectives to describe (4)__________.
2. Re-group and persuade the other group members that their selection is the best.
3. Make a second list out of (5)__________ and find who retain the most from their original lists.
C. To control emotions.
1. Ask students to give opinions on (6)__________.
2. Make notes on their main arguments.
D. To support.
1. Get students to make a list of when it is and isn’t appropriate to interrupt.
2. Give them phrases used to (7)__________. Practice using them in group discussions.
E. To use functional language.
IV. How teachers set up group discussions
A. Give some planning time to the students.
B. Get interesting topics, maybe from (8)_________.
C. Ensure a balance between input and practice.
D. Vary the styles.
E. Use a variety of (9)__________.
F. Encourage group discussions outside of class.
G. Give and encourage feedback.
H. Try (10)__________ and analyze them.
I. Monitor the groups and make notes for feedback on the performances.

(1)_______

(2)______
(3) ______

(4) ______

(5) ______

(6)______

(7) ______

(8) ______

(9) ______
(10) ______

Section B Interview
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.

Now listen to the interview.
1. Which of the following is CORRECT?
[A] The man is to advertise for his new book.
[B] The man specializes in communication.
[C] His talk is about communication techniques.
[D] His talk is actually an autobiography.
2. The man did all the following EXCEPT ______ to better his presentation performance.
[A] consulting some relevant books
[B] communicating with good speakers
[C] observing the preparation of good speakers
[D] doing performance comparison with good speakers
3. The man recommends the method of ______ to give a better presentation.
[A] practicing it before colleagues
[B] recording practice presentation rather than using colleagues
[C] asking colleagues to examine the recorded practice presentation
[D] learning from other real presentation videos
4. Which of the following is NOT what speakers tend to worry about when making a presentation
[A] Too much nervousness.
[B] Rude audience.
[C] Self diffidence.
[D] Equipment failure.
5. In the man’s view, the way of really overcoming nervousness is
[A] preparing well.
[B] relaxing face muscles.
[C] concentrating on your recent enjoyments.
[D] doing breathing exercises.

Section C News Broadcast
In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
Question 6 and 7 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
6. Which of the following in INCORRECT about the summit on Nuclear Security?
[A] It is the biggest international meeting since 1945.
[B] More than 50 countries have attended it.
[C] It is hosted by the US and called by President Obama.
[D] Ukraine has attended the summit.
7. The content of the summit is
[A] securing stocks of fissile material.
[B] highly enriched uranium.
[C] plutonium.
[D] material terrorists use to build nuclear bombs.
Question 8 and 9 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions.
Now listen to the news.
8. What is the news mainly talking about?
[A] A broken well leading to large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[B] The high cost of tackling oil spill.
[C] Large number of people and boats being sent to help with the oil spill.
[D] The high compensation claims the oil company is facing.
9. The initially calculated figure of everyday cost is
[A] $33m.
[B] more than $33m.
[C] more than $6.6m.
[D] less than $6.6m.
Question 10 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.
Now listen to the news.
10. Which of the following is NOT true about the explosion?
[A] It could be heard from more than 8 km away.
[B] It caused a woman injured.
[C] The bomb was placed next to the wall housing women prisoners.
[D] It exploded 20 minutes after the warning was received.

答疑解惑
Section A Mini-Lecture
【听力原文】
Hello, everyone! Today’s lecture is about group discussion skills. The first thing I have to explain is why to talk about group discussion skills.
Developing group discussion skills is useful for everyday life, as we regularly find ourselves having discussions amongst friends, family and colleagues. These may vary from very informal chats about day-to-day things, to more serious topics, for example a discussion about a recent news story or a problem that needs to be solved. Two more things:
Firstly, group discussions are increasingly being used in the job market during interviews and selection procedures. These can take a variety of formats, but the key skills remain very similar.
Secondly, group discussions offer an opportunity for extended speaking and listening practice by all of the contributors. Group discussion practice and skill development is therefore useful for all students.
Now that we know the importance of group discussion skills, let’s go step forward to know more about discussion.
There are a variety of different types of discussions. We can recreate them all naturally in the classroom. In different discussions, participants do the following different things.
No.1, make decisions, for example, decide who to invite to a party and where to seat them.
No.2, give and / or share their opinions on a given topic, for example, discuss beliefs about the effectiveness of capital punishment.
No.3, create something, for example, plan and make a poster as a medium for feedback on a language course.
No.4, solve a problem, for example, discuss the situations behind a series of logic problems.
Some discussion topics may fall into more than one of these categories, but it is useful to consider a variety of formats to which the students can apply the skills they are learning.
There are also a number of different sub-skills, which students will need to be able to successfully and effectively participate in a group discussion.
No.1, the ability to analyse
This skill can be developed by giving students the topic individually and asking them to brainstorm or mind-map all of the possible sub-topics they could speak about. The students can then swap their notes and assess or analyse the relevance of each of the sub-topics their partner has included. Together, the students then draw up a fresh list or mind-map and discuss how the sub-topics might be linked together, along with examples or reasons for any arguments they might have.
No. 2, the ability to persuade
This skill comes in useful when students need to make decisions on how to do something, for example, which candidate should get a job. A fun activity to develop this skill is to give groups of students this topic and ask them to decide on the profile of the perfect candidate, creating a list of 7 adjectives. The students are then re-grouped and asked to persuade the other members of the group that their selection is the best while compiling a second, negotiated list. The group members who retain the most from their original lists are the winners. Note down useful phrases that you hear the students using while doing this task and discuss these at the end for future reference.
No. 3, the ability to control emotions
This can be practised by giving the students a fairly controversial topic, such as ‘Friends are more important than family’ and asking the students to decide whether they agree, disagree or have no opinion, making notes on their main arguments to support their viewpoint. Divide the students into groups ensuring that there is a mix of views within each group. Explain that for this discussion, the aim is to keep their voices low and try to control their emotions as far as possible. Monitor and give feedback on these areas.
No. 4, the ability to support
One of the most important things for this skill is for students to learn when it is and isn’t appropriate to interrupt and how to do it. Very often students will talk over each other in an effort to get their point across and forget to listen.
To practise this, you can get your students to make a list in small groups of when it is and isn’t appropriate to interrupt other speakers. They should include things like “not appropriate during the middle of a point, if the speaker has not said very much previously, or when you are feeling angry and liable to say something you’ll regret. It is appropriate when the speaker has been dominating the discussion for too long, what the speaker is saying is completely irrelevant to the topic, or you don’t understand the point he / she has made”.
You can then give them or elicit a list of phrases which they might use to interrupt politely (e.g. ‘Can I just add something here?’, ‘Sorry I’d just like to clarify something,’ etc.) The students then write five of these on slips of paper (one per slip) and have a group discussion on a given topic. The aim is to use all of the language on their slips. When they have used a phrase, they put the slip in the middle of the table. The other students in the group judge whether the interruption was appropriate / polite. If not, they take the slip back and try again.
No.5, The ability to use functional language.
Depending on the types of group discussions that you plan to do with your class, it is useful to draw up a list of useful functional language for the students to refer to. This could include phrases for functions such as ‘Giving reasons’, ‘Giving your opinion’, ‘Agreeing and disagreeing’, etc. You can either make up the list yourself and distribute it or get the students to do this. For each group discussion, you can then refer them to the appropriate section of the list and give them a few moments to consider the language before beginning the discussion.
Then comes the question how we set up group discussions. To ensure that the discussions run successfully, there are several key things to consider.
No.1, give the students some planning time either individually or in small groups. Don’t just give them the topic and say ‘go’! It is often useful to discuss some associated vocabulary or functional language that they might find useful.
No.2, choose topics which you are confident your students will find interesting. Get them to brainstorm some ideas for discussions they would like to do and use this as a starting point
No.3, ensure a balance between input and practice.
No.4, use a variety of styles / types.
No.5, vary group size and procedure. Some companies do selection group discussions with very large groups of people – over ten in some cases. If your students will be facing these types of group discussions in the future, make sure they get some practice doing them. It can also be useful to mix classes of students so they have practice doing discussions with people they don’t know yet.
No.6 encourage group discussions outside class time. Give students some extra feedback forms to use to give each other input on how they perform in group discussions outside of class.
No.7, giving and encouraging feedback. Feedback can take several forms and it is a good idea to vary the way it is given. Students can observe each other doing group discussions and give each other feedback on the specific areas of input that you have covered (ideally using a feedback form that you have created). Additionally, students can do a ‘Reflective group feedback exercise’ where at the end of the group discussion they discuss how effective each of the participants was during the discussion. Again, giving them some focused questions to guide this stage will help them.
No.8, you could also try video-taping the group discussions and playing sections of these back to the class to analyse. Some students find this extremely useful.
No.9, finally, monitor the groups yourself and make notes for feedback on whole groups or individual performances. Keeping a record of these will help you and the students to see where they have improved.
As we have seen, group discussions can take a variety of formats and are useful for all types of students. They can be done in preparation for job interviews or as extended speaking practice simply to increase fluency.
It is important to consider the different sub-skills that are involved in participating in a group discussion and ensure that you do activities that address each of these. Additionally, structuring and varying the way that feedback is given will help the students to identify areas for improvement.
【答案解析】
1. very informal chats
【解析】本篇演讲的主题是group discussion skills，演讲者开门见山，指出第一个要说明的问题就是谈论这个话题的理由。本题针对演讲中提到的第一个理由进行设题。演讲中提到，提高小组谈话技巧对日常生活非常有用因为我们在不断地和朋友、家人和同事交谈，这些交谈可能是很不正式的，也可能是关于某些比较严肃的话题的（These may vary from very informal chats about day-to-day things, to more serious topics…）。根据题干的句子结构判断，此处应该填入very informal chats。
2. Creating something
【解析】演讲者在讲述过了小组谈话技巧的重要性以后，开始讲述其他问题，第一个就是谈话的几种类型。根据完成的工作的不同，谈话可以分为四种，本题是要求给出第三种（No.3, create somet