Section I Listening Comprehension,Part AYou will hear a recording of a conversation between Mary and John about the Hilton Hotel and the Hotel Rossiya. Listen to it and fill out the table with the information you've heard for questions 1-5. Some of the information has been completed for you. Write not more than 3 words in each numbered box. You will hear the recording twice. You now have 25 seconds to read the table below.
Information about the Hilton Hotel and the Hotel Rossiya
Tapescript:
M: Hi, Mary. How's everything?W: Fine. You know, John, I'm planning to go to Las Vegas for a holiday and would like to stay in a large hotel. Anything to recommend?M: Er? the Hilton Hotel there is quite a large one. It has ? er ? 3,174 bedrooms. It also has 12 restaurants and about 125,000 square feet of convention space. There're a 10-acre recreation deck and a stage show dining hall. Over 3,600 people now work for it.W: Oh, great! Is it the largest hotel in the U.S.?M: Yes, it is. But it may not be the largest in the world. Er ? as far as I know, the Hotel Rossiya in Moscow is larger than Hilton. It is a 12-story building that has 3,200 rooms. It can provide accommodation for 6,000 guests. It takes nearly 8 years and a half to spend one night in each room. Besides, there's a 21-story "Presidential tower" in the central courtyard. It has 15 restaurants and 93 elevators. And it employs about 3,000 people. The ballroom is known as the world's largest. Russians are not allowed to live in that hotel. And foreigners are charged 16 times more than the very low rate charged Russian officials.W: It's unbelievable ?[fade out]
Now you will hear the recording again. (The recording is repeated.)
That is the end of Part A.
Part BYou will hear a radio weather forecast. Answer questions 6-10 while listening. Use not more than 5 words for each answer. You will hear the recording twice. You now have 40 seconds to read the questions.
Tapescript
W: Hello. It's been another warm and fine day for most of us. Temperatures in south-east England reached twenty-six degrees Centigrade by mid-afternoon, and Brighton had fifteen hours of lovely sunshine. But already the weather is beginning to change, I'm afraid, and during the night showers will slowly move in from the Atlantic to reach south-west England and the southern coast of Wales by early morning.The rest of the country will have a very mild, dry night with minimum temperatures no lower than fifteen degrees in the south, a little cooler ? eleven degrees or so ? in the north. Any remaining showers in northwest Scotland will pass quickly, to leave a mild, dry night there too.And now, the outlook for Friday and the weekend. Well, southern Europe will once again get the best of the weekend weather, and if your holiday starts this weekend, then southern Spain is the place to go, with temperatures of thirty-four degrees along the Mediterranean coast. At the eastern end of the Med, too, you can expect uninterrupted sunshine and temperatures of up to thirty-two degrees Centigrade in Greece and south-east Italy, but further north the weather's not so settled. Much of France, Belgium and the Netherlands will be cloudy with occasional rain and maximum temperatures will be around twenty-two degrees ? very disappointing for this time of the year.Scotland and Northern Ireland will have heavy rain for much of the weekend and temperatures will drop to a cool seventeen degrees. Across most of England the weather will be cloudy but mainly dry with sunny periods. And when the sun does come out temperatures could rise to a maximum of twenty-three degrees.
Now you will hear the recording again. (The recording is repeated.)
That is the end of Part B.
Part CYou will hear three dialogues or monologues. Before listening to each one, you will have time to read the questions related to it. While listening, answer each question by choosing A, B, C or D. After listening, you will have time to check your answer. You will hear each piece once only.Questions 11-13 are based on the following talk introducing Emily Dickinson, a well-known American poet. You now have 30 seconds to read questions 11-13.
11. How long did Emily Dickinson live in the house where she was born?
[A] almost all her life[B] less than half her life[C] until 1830[D] before 1872
12. Which of the following is true of Emily Dickinson?
[A] She was not a productive poet.[B] She saw many of her poems published.[C] She was not a sociable person.[D] She had contact only with a few poets.
13. When was Emily Dickinson widely recognized?
[A] after Henry James referred highly to her[B] after seven of her poems were published[C] after her poems became known to others[D] after she was dead for many years
Tapescript:
M: Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets. She was born in a typical New England village in Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. She was the second child of the family. She died in the same house fifty-six years later. During her life time she never left her native land. She left her home state only once. She left her village very few times. And after 1872 she rarely left her house and yard. In the last years of her life she retreated to a smaller and smaller circle of family and friends. In those later years she dressed in white, avoided strangers, and communicated chiefly through notes and poems even with intimates. The doctor who attended her illness was allowed to "examine" her in another room, seeing her walk by an opened door. She was thought of as a "strange" figure in her home village. When she died on May 15, 1886, she was unknown to the rest of the world. Only seven of her poems had appeared in print.But to think Emily Dickinson only as a strange figure is a serious mistake. She lived simply and deliberately. She faced the essential facts of life. According to Henry James, a famous American novelist, she was one of those on whom nothing was lost. Only by thus living could Dickinson manage both to fulfill her obligations as a daughter, a sister, and a housekeeper and to write on the average one poem a day.She read only a few books but knew them deeply. Her poems are simple but remarkably rich. Not until 1950s was she recognized as one of the greatest American poets.
