Conversation Two
M: Hi, Maggie. Have you made up your mind?
W: What?
M: I mean, have you decided to study abroad or to find a job after graduation?
W: I haven’t made my decision yet. It’s a hard decision.
M: Why’s that? Just a couple of days ago, you were telling me how much you wanted to go overseas to study.
W: Yes, but a vacancy just opened up in the English Department.
M: So?
W: They offered me a position teaching English. So now I don’t know what to do.
M: What a great opportunity! I see what you mean though, a tough choice.
W: I’ve been preparing and studying to go abroad. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy, and I hate to see it all go to waste.
M: Don’t think about it too much. The job sounds like an excellent opportunity. You should grab it when you have the chance.
W: I’d like to, but I still feel like I should think about it some more.
M: If you can’t make your decision on your own, I suppose you could ask your parents for advice.
W: Come on! My parents don’t want me too far away from them. I don’t think they would allow me to go to America.
M: Oh, too bad! But you should keep your parents’ feelings in mind.
W: Maybe you are right. Being a teacher isn’t bad, right?
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
22. Why can’t the woman make up her mind?
23. What does the man think of the woman’s job offer?
24. What is the man’s advice to the woman?
25. What will the woman most probably do?
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D).
Passage One
Hollywood is increasingly looking outside America’s borders for stars and profit.
Jonathan Taplin is a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He says that today, about 54 percent of the ticket sales for Hollywood studios now come from outside the United States.
For the last three months of 2007, foreign sales totaled about 880 million dollars. But there is fierce competition for each movie dollar.
Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries. For example, in the mid 1980s, American films had 80 percent of the market in South Korea. Today that share is about 40 percent.
Hollywood also faces competition from illegally copied movies, a major issue to the Motion Picture Association of America. The trade group estimated more than 18 billion dollars in worldwide losses from piracy in 2005.
Hollywood reporter Alan Silverman says piracy has influenced how American movies are released. In the past, Hollywood studios waited months after the American release of a film to release it in foreign markets. Now, many aim to release films at the same time around the world.
Foreign markets may also influence how people get their movies. Different nations have different levels of technology.
Efforts to settle on the next-generation DVD got a lot of attention recently. Sony’s Blu-ray technology for high-definition televisions won the competition with Toshiba’s HD DVD format.
Yet DVD sales have dropped in recent years. This may be a sign that people are increasingly getting their movies off the Internet. The Internet is another front in Hollywood’s war on piracy. But more than that, it presents complex business questions for an industry now built mostly on DVD and ticket sales.
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. What percentage of ticket sales for Hollywood studios come from inside the United States?
27. Why has Hollywood lost market share in South Korea?
28. What are American movie companies doing to fight against piracy?
29. Why have DVD sales dropped in recent years?
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