11.   W: Jim, you are on the net again? When are you going to get off? It’s the time for the talk show.

M: Just a minute, dear. I’m looking at a new jewelry site. I want to make sure I get the right gift for Mum’s birthday.

Q: What is the man doing right now?

12.   W: I’ve never seen you have such confidence before an exam.

M: It’s more than confidence. Right now I feel that if I get less than an A, it’ll be the fault of the exam itself.

Q: What does the man mean?

13.   W: Just look at this newspaper, nothing but murder, death and war! Do you still believe people are basically good?

M: Of course I do. But newspapers hardly ever report stories about peace and generosity. They are not news.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

14.   M: Tom must be joking when he said he plans to sell his shop and go to medical school.

W: You are quite right. He is just kidding. He’s also told me time and time again he wished he’d studied for some profession instead of going into business.

Q: What will Tom probably do according to the conversation?

15.   W: I hear your boss has a real good impression of you and he is thinking about giving you two more days off each month.

M: I hope not. I’d rather get more work hours so I can get enough bucks to help out my two kids at college.

Q: What does the man truly want?

16.   M: I heard you took a trip to Mexico last month. How did you like it?

W: Oh, I got sick and tired of hotels and hotel food. So now I understand the saying, “East, west, home’s best”.

Q: What does the woman mean?

17.   W: I’m worried about Anna. She is really been depressed lately. All she does is staying in her room all day.

M: That sounds serious. She’d better see a psychiatrist at the consoling center.

Q: What does the man suggest Anna do?

18.   M: I could hardly recognize Sam after he got that new job. He’s always in a suit and a tie now.

W: Yeah, he was never like that at college. Back then he would’ve run in an old T-shirt and jeans.

Q: What do the speakers say about Sam?

Conversation One

M: Hi, Ann, welcome back. How’s your trip to the states?

W: Very busy. I had a lot of meetings. So, of course, I didn’t have much time to see New York.

M: What a pity. Actually I have a trip there myself next week.

W: Do you? Then take my advice. Do the well-being in the air program. It really works.

M: Oh, I read about that in a magazine. You say it works?

W: Yes. I did the program on the flight to the States. And when I arrived in New York, I didn’t have any problem. No jet leg at all. On the way back I didn’t do it, and I felt terrible.

M: You are joking.

W: Not at all. It really made a lot of difference.

M: Hmm…So, what did you do?

W: Well, I didn’t drink any alcohol or coffee and I didn’t eat any meat or rich food. I drink a lot of water and fruit juice and I eat the meals on the well-being menu. They are lighter. They have fish, vegetables and noodles, for example. And I did some of the exercises in the program.

M: Exercises? On a plane?

W: Yes. I didn’t do many, of course. There isn’t much space on the plane.

M: How many passengers did the exercises?

W: Not many.

M: And how much champagne did they drink?

W: A lot. It was more popular than mineral water.

M: So, basically it’s a choice. Mineral water and exercises or champagne and jet lag.

W: That’s right. It’s a difficult choice.

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

19.   Why did the woman go to New York?

20.   What does the woman say about the well-being in the air program?

21.   What did the woman do to follow the well-being menu?

22.   What did the woman say about other passengers?

Conversation Two

W: Morning. Can I help you?

M: Well, I’m not really sure. I’m just looking.

W: I see. Well, there’s plenty to look at again this year. I’m sure you’d have to walk miles to see each stand.

M: That’s true.

W: Would you like a coffee? Come and sit down for a minute. No obligation.

M: Well, that’s very kind of you. But…

W: No, please, is this the first year you’ve been to the fair, Mr. …?

M: Yes. Johnson. James Johnson.

W: My name’s Susan Carter. Are you looking for anything in particular or are you just interested in computers in general?

M: Well, actually, I have some specific jobs in mind. I own a small company. We’ve grown quite dramatically over the past 12 months and we really need some technological help to enable us to keep on top of everything.

W: What’s your line of business, Mr. Johnson?

M: We are a training consultancy.

W: I see. And what do you need to keep on top?

M: The first thing is correspondence. We have a lot f standard letters and forms. So I suppose we need some kind of word processor.

W: Right. Well, that’s no problem. But it may be possible for you to get a system that does a lot of other things in addition to word processing. What might suit you is the MR5000. That’s over there. It’s IBM compatible.

M: What about the price?

W: Well, the MR5000 costs 1,050 pounds. Software comes free with the hardware.

M: Well, I’ll think about it. Thank you.

W: Here’s my card. Please feel free to contact me.

Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

23.   Where did the conversation take place?

24.   What are the speakers talking about?

25.   What is the man’s line of business?

Passage One

The New Year always brings with it a cultural tradition of new possibilities. We see it as a chance for renewal. We begin to dream of new possible selves. We design our ideal self or an image that is quite different from what we are now. For some of us, we roll that dreamy film in our heads just because it is the beginning of the New Year, but we are serious about making changes. We just make some half hard resolution and it evaporates after a week or two. The experience makes us less successful and leads us to discount ability to change in the future. It’s not the changes impossible, but it won’t last unless our resolutions are supported with plans for implementation. We have to make our intensions manageable by detailing the specific steps that will carry us to our goal.

Say your goal is to lose weight by dieting and cutting off sweets. But one night you just have to have a cookie and you know there is a bag of your favorites in the cupboard. You want one, you eat two, you check the bag and find out that you’ve just shot 132 calories. You say to yourself, “What the hell. I’ll polish off the whole bag.” Then you begin to draw all kinds of unpleasant conclusions about yourself. To protect your sense of yourself, you begin to discount the goal. You may think, “Well, dieting wasn’t that important to me and I wouldn’t make it anyhow.” So you’ll abandon the goal and return to your bad habits.

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you’ve just heard.

26.   What do people usually wish to do at the beginning of the New Year?

27.   How can people turn their New Year’s resolutions into reality?

28.   Why does the speaker mention the example of sweets and cookies?

Passage Two

25 years ago, Ray Anderson, a single parent with a one-year-old son, witnessed a terrible accident, which took place when the driver of a truck ran a red light and collided it with the car of Sandra Drinkens. The impact of the collision killed Sandra instantly, but her three-month-old daughter was left trapped in the burning car. While others looked on in horror, Anderson jumped out of his vehicle and crawled into the car through the shattered rear window to try to free the infant. Seconds later, the car was enclosed in flames, but to everyone’s amazement, Anderson was able to pull the baby to safety. While the baby was all right, Anderson was seriously injured. Two days later, he died. But his heroic act was published widely in the media. His son was soon adopted by relatives.

The most remarkable part of this story unfolded only last week. Karen and her boyfriend Michael were looking through some old boxes when they came across some old newspaper clippings. “This is me when I was a new born baby. I was rescued from a burning car but my mother died in the accident,’’ explained Karen. Although Michael knew Karen’s mother had died years earlier, he never fully understood the circumstances until he skimmed over the news paper article. To Karen’s surprise, Michael was absorbed in the details of the accident and he began to cry uncontrollably. Then he revealed that the man that pulled Karen from the flames was the father he never knew. The two embraced and shed many tears, recounting stories told to them about their parents.

Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you’ve just heard.

29.   What happened 25 years ago?

30.   What does the speaker say about Michael’s father?

31.   Why did Michael cry uncontrollably when he skimmed over the newspaper article?

Passage Three

Americans suffer from an overdose of work. Regardless of who they are or what they do, Americans spend more time at work than at any time since World War II. In 1950, the US had fewer working hours than any other industrialized country. Today it exceeds any country but Japan, where industrial employees log 2,155 hours a year, compared with 1,951 in the US, and 1,603 in the former West Germany. Between 1969 and 1989 employed Americans added an average of 138 hours to their yearly work schedules. The work week has remained at about 40 hours, but people are working more weeks each year. Specifically, paid time off, holidays, vacations, sick leave shrank by 50% in the 1980’s. As co-operations have experienced stiff competition and slower growth productivity, they have pressed employees to work longer. Cost cutting lay-offs in the 1980’s reduced the professional and managerial ranks leaving fewer people to get the job done. In lower paid occupations, when wages have been reduced, workers have added hours in overtime or extra jobs to preserve their living standards. The government estimates that more than 7 million people hold a second job. For the first time, large numbers of people say they want to cut back on working hours even if it means earning less money. But most employers are unwilling to let them to do so. The government, which has stepped back from its traditional role as a regulator of work time should take steps to make shorter hours possible.

Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

32.   In which country do the employees work the longest hours?

33.   How do employed Americans manage to work more hours?

34.   Why do corporations press the employees to work longer hours according to the speaker?

35.   What does the speaker say many Americans prefer to do?

Compound Dictation

Nursing, as a typically female profession, must deal constantly with the false impression that nurses are there to wait on the position. As nurses, we are licensed to provide nursing care only. We do not have any legal or moral obligation to any physician. We provide health teaching, assess physical as well as emotional problems, coordinate patient-related services and make all of our nursing decisions based upon what is best or suitable for the patient. If, in any circumstance, we feel that the physician’s order is inappropriate or unsafe, we have a legal responsibility to question that order or refuse to carry it out. Nursing is not a nine-to-five job with every weekend off. All nurses are aware of that before they enter the profession. The emotional and physical stress, however, that occurs due to hard working hours is a prime reason for a lot of the career for dissatisfaction. It is sometimes required that we work overtime and that we change shifts four or five times a month. That disturbs our personal lives, disrupts our sleeping and eating habits, and isolates us from everything except job-related friends and activities. The quality of nursing care is being affected dramatically by these situations. Most hospitals are now staffed by new graduates as experienced nurses finally give up trying to change the system. Consumers of medically-related services have evidently not been affected enough yet to demand changes in our medical system. But if trends continue as predicted, they will find that most critical hospital care will be provided by new, inexperienced and sometimes inadequately-trained nurses.