Part I Listening Comprehension(20 minutes)

Section A

1.  W: Carol told us on the phone not to worry about her. Her left leg doesn’t hurt as much as it did yesterday.

M: She’d better have it examined by a doctor anyway.  And I will call her about it this evening.

Q: What does the man think Carol should do?

2.  M: There is a non-stop train for Washington and it leaves at 2:30.

W: It’s faster than the 2 o’clock train. Besides, we can have something to eat before getting on the train.

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

3.  M: Hi, Melissa, how’s your project going? Have you thought about going to graduate school?　Perhaps you can get into Harvard.

W: Everything is coming along really well. I have been thinking about graduate school. But I’ll talk to my tutor Dr. Garcia first and see what she thinks.

Q: What do you learn about the woman from the conversation?

4.  W: Did you attend Alice’s presentation last night? It was the first time for her to give a speech to a large audience.

M: How she could be so calm in front of so many people is really beyond me!

Q: What do we learn from the conversation?

5.  W: You’ve been doing weather reports for neatly 30 years. Has the weather got any worse in all these years?

M: Well, not necessarily worse. But we are seeing more swings.

Q: What does the man say about the weather?

6. M: Excuse me, I am looking for the textbook by a Professor Jordon for the marketing course.

W: I am afraid it’s out of stock. You’ll have to order it. And it will take the publisher 3 weeks to send it to us.

Q: Where did this conversation most probably take place?

7. M: I am going to New York next week, but the hotel I booked is really expensive.

W: Why book a hotel? My brother has 2 spare rooms in his apartment.

Q: What does the woman mean?

8. W: In my opinion, watching the news on TV is a good way to learn English. What do you think?

M: It would be better if you could check the same information in English newspapers afterwards.

Q: What does the man say about learning English?

9. M: I hear a newly-invented drug can make people tell the truth and it may prove useful in questioning terrorists. Isn’t it incredible?

W: Simple solutions to complex problems rarely succeed. As far as I know, no such drugs are ever known to work.

Q: What does the woman think of the new drug?

10. M: You know the electronics company is coming to our campus to recruit graduate students next week.

W: Really? What day? I'd like to talk to them and hand in my resume.

Q: What does the woman want to do?

Section B

Passage one

A new study reports the common drug aspirin greatly reduces life threatening problems after an operation to replace blocked blood vessels to the heart. More than 800,000 people around the world have this heart surgery each year. The doctors who carried out the study say giving aspirin to patients soon after the operation could save thousands of lives. People usually take aspirin to control pain and reduce high body temperature. Doctors also advise some people to take aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. About 10-15 percent of these heart operations end in death or damage to the heart or other organs. The new study shows that even a small amount of aspirin reduced such threats. The doctors said the chance of death for patients who took aspirin would fall by 67%. They claimed this was true if the aspirin was given within 48 hours of the operation. The doctors believe aspirin helps heart surgery patients because it can prevent blood from thickening and blood vessels from being blocked. However, the doctors warned that people who have stomach bleeding or other bad reactions from aspirin should not take it after heart surgery.