【摘要】
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
11.
W: Look at the mess! And the guests will be here soon!
M: Oh, honey. Take it easy. I’ll make sure the house is spotless.
Q: What does the man mean?
12.
M: What’s that green badge you wear?
W: Oh, this. Teaching assistants in the psychology department had to have it on for the faculty orientation.
Q: What can be inferred about the woman?
13.
W: Excuse me. An egg fell out of the carton and broke on the floor.
M: Thanks for telling me. I’ll take care of it before someone slips on it.
Q: What is the man going to do?
14.
M: My roommate and I have decided to do our own cooking next semester.
W: Then, I hope you’ll have a lighter schedule than this term.
Q: What problem does the woman think the man may have?
15.
M: It’s so hot and unbearable. If only we’d gone to the beach instead.
W: Why with the museums and restaurants in Washington. I’d be happy here no matter what the weather.
Q: What does the woman mean?
16.
W: I’ll be ready in a few minutes. I have to finish up this letter.
M: Ok, I’ll go down to the lobby for a paper.
Q: What will the man probably do?
17.
M: Hey, Julia, will you let me know when ten minutes have passed? I’m putting the spaghetti in now.
W: Sure. There’s nothing worse than soggy, overcooked spaghetti.
Q: What does the woman mean?
18.
W: John sure was surprised that he had a hard time assembling his new bike.
M: Well, that’s to be expected with no instruction manual.
Q: What does the man imply?
Now you will hear the two long conversations.
Conversation One:
M: Hi, Sarah. Look at what I have just found. Right here in the sand.
W: A piece of wood? Oh, driftwood. Interesting shape… almost like some sort of modern sculpture.
M: Yeah, and feel how smooth it is.
W: Hmm. It must have been in the water for a long time. It could have been drifting in the ocean currents for months, or even years.
M: In the currents? Doesn’t the wind just blow things around out there?
W: Well, sure. But the currents are always moving too. Almost like rivers, but underwater rivers, flowing through the ocean.
M: So how do they find out where these currents go? Stick a message in a bottle and throw it in the water?
W: Don’t laugh. In fact, I was reading in a science magazine that oceanographers have released huge numbers of bottles into the ocean over the years. They wanted to map out where the currents would carry them.
M: Say, I’ll bet—after they found out where all those bottles ended up—they could enter all that data into a computer and make a pretty detailed model to… to show where the currents go.
W: In fact, they did. And they also found a neat way to test that model. There was a freighter carrying sneakers from a factory in Asia. It was caught in a big storm and thousands of pairs of sneakers got dumped in the Pacific Ocean.
M: Really? What a waste!
W: Yeah, turns out, though, that hundreds of these shoes started washing up on beaches somewhere near Seattle, just about where the computer models had predicted the currents would carry them.
M: Gee. You mean all that stuff I find on the beaches might be part of some big scientific experiment? I thought it was all just trash!
Questions 19-22 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
19. What are the speakers mainly discussing?
20. What did the man find on the beach?
21. According to the magazine article, what did scientists put into the ocean?
22. What can be inferred from the story about the sneakers?