Audio Scripts - Practice Test 2.pdf - Complete Guide - lulubulu

Practice Test 2 79

more tolerant view of many types of risk-taking than psy-

chologists did then.

Sure, some people are natural risk-takers. And others are

risk-averse. But I can’t go along with this article when it

says there’s a . . . a “universal risk-taking personality.” Some

people take risks in one part of their lives but not in others.

An investment banker might always buy safe stocks, but

then he might race motorcycles on weekends.

The article discusses the connection between risk-taking

and suicidal tendencies. Well, I’d argue that most risk-

takers tend to be pretty confident that nothing bad will

happen to them. They recognize that their activities are

dangerous, sure, but because of their skill, their . . . their

positive attitude . . . their experience, they will succeed.

Motorcycle racers don’t think they will have accidents, no

matter how fast they drive.

The article suggests that there’s no reward for people

who take unnecessary risks. Actually, there are rewards. For

one thing, there’s a physical reward, a chemical reward.

What I mean is, when people take risks, when skydivers, say,

jump from airplanes, their bodies pump chemicals like

adrenaline into their bloodstreams. For some people, this is

pleasurable, something to repeat over and over. There are

also psychological benefits. Studies have shown that risk-

takers have higher self-esteem, higher levels of confidence,

more, uh, social and financial success than those who don’t.

Now, I don’t want to make any blanket statements about

taking risks. There are some risks that people shouldn’t

take. Smoking is a health risk, one that’s just foolish to take.

But we psychologists have changed our opinion since this

article was written. We realize that sometimes it’s impor-

tant to take risks, and that risk-takers aren’t mentally ill.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the question.

Remember, you may turn the page and look back at the

reading passage. You may also use your notes to help you.

You have twenty minutes to prepare and write your

response.

Question: Summarize the main points made in the lec-

ture that you just heard, discussing how they cast doubt on

the main points of the reading. You can refer to the reading

passage as you write.

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A: Hey, Allen, have you decided who you’re going to

vote for tomorrow? In the student government election?

Student B: Oh, that’s tomorrow?

Student A: Yeah, haven’t you seen the posters all over

campus?

Student B: Tell you the truth, there’re always a lot of posters

around campus, and I never pay much attention to any of

them. So are you running for office again, Janet?

Student A: As a matter of fact, yeah, I am, I’m running for

re-election for the seat on the Student Council that belongs

to the School of Business. But you can’t vote for me,

because you’re in the School of Engineering.

Student B: Oh, that’s how it works? You can only vote for

someone from your own school?

Student A: Right. Each of the ten schools on campus—the

Engineering School, the Law School, the School of Arts and

Sciences, the Business School, all ten of them—has one

representative on the Student Council, and you can only

vote for someone from your own school. Except for the

Student Council President and Vice President. All the stu-

dents at the university get to vote for those two offices. So

you’ll be voting for council member, president, and V.P.

tomorrow.

Student B: Oh, I thought I read somewhere that first the

council was elected and that then they voted for president

and vice president.

Student A: Uh, well, you’re right, it used to be that way. But

last year the Student Council voted to change the student

government charter. We decided it was more . . . well, more

democratic if all the students could directly elect the presi-

dent and vice president.

Student B: Why didn’t you run for president then? Almost

everyone on campus knows you, and . . .

Student A: I want to serve one more year on the council . . .

and then, well, I’m thinking that next year, I’ll try to get

elected president.

Student B: Well, if I can’t vote for you tomorrow, Janet, I

don’t think there’s much point in voting. I don’t know any-

thing about any of the other candidates.

Student A: You should vote anyway, Allen. You may not

think so, but student government’s important.

Student B: Why? Why should it matter to me who’s on the

Student Council?

Student A: Well, the most important thing is—the Council

gets to decide how to spend your money. Fifteen dollars

from each student’s fees goes into the Student Council’s

general fund. That’s a budget of, like, a hundred and fifty

thousand dollars. The Council decides how much each

campus organization can spend, it decides what concerts

we’re going to have.

Student B: Tell you the truth, Janet, I’m too busy to join any

organizations or go to any concerts—most engineering stu-

dents are. Besides, everyone knows that student govern-

ment doesn’t have any real power. Real power on this

campus belongs to the Board of Trustees.

Student A: Yeah, but the president of the Student Council

goes to the Trustees’ Meetings. Now it’s true, he or she

doesn’t get to vote, but that doesn’t mean that the Trustees

don’t listen to the Council President’s concerns sometimes.

Just last year . . .

Student B: Well, I have my doubts—I think the Trustees do

what they want to do. But I’ll tell you what, Janet—since

you asked me, I’ll vote in the election tomorrow.

Student A: Great! Then you should also go to the debate

tonight, to figure out who’s the best candidate for you to

vote for.

Narrator: This is the end of the Integrated Skills Writing

Section and of the Audio Program for Practice Test 1.

[CD 13 Track 1]

Practice Test 2

Listening Section

Narrator: Directions: This section tests your understanding

of conversations and lectures. You will hear each conversa-

tion or lecture only once. Your answers should be based on

what is stated or implied in the conversations and lectures.

You are allowed to take notes as you listen, and you can use

these notes to help you answer the questions. In some ques-

tions, you will see a headphones icon. This icon tells you

that you will hear, but not read, part of the lecture again.

Then you will answer a question about the part of the lecture

that you heard. Some questions have special directions that

are highlighted. During an actual listening test, you will not

be able to skip items and come back to them later, so try to

answer every question that you hear on this practice test.

This test includes two conversations and four lectures. Most

questions are separated by a ten-second pause.

80 Practice Test 2

Student B: Don’t push your luck! I have a quiz tomorrow

that I have to study for.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer some questions about

the conversation. You may use your notes to help you.

Narrator: Question 1: Why can’t Allen vote for Janet?

Narrator: Question 2: How many members of the council is

each student allowed to vote for?

Narrator: Question 3: What is learned about Janet from this

conversation?

Narrator: Question 4: According to Janet, what is the most

important responsibility of the Student Council?

Narrator: Listen again to part of the conversation.

Student B: Well, I have my doubts—I think the Trustees do

what they want to do. But I’ll tell you what, Janet—since

you asked me, I’ll vote in the election tomorrow.

Student A: Great! Then you should also go to the debate

tonight, to figure out who’s the best candidate for you to

vote for.

Student B: Don’t push your luck! I have a quiz tomorrow

that I have to study for.

Narrator: Question 5: What does Allen imply when he

says this?

Student B: Don’t push your luck!

ferent ending. The focus group watches them all and then

says which one they like best.

Student B: So, what product will the groups in your class be

testing?

Student A: Well, different teams will have different prod-

ucts. My team, the three students I’m working with, we’re

. . . uh, pretending that a client company, an imaginary

food company came to our marketing agency and said,

“We’re thinking about adding a new flavor of ice cream to

our product mix, and we’ve come up with a half-dozen

recipes for this ice cream flavor, and we want you to help us

figure out which of these we should market.”

Student B: Ice cream, huh. So where are you getting the ice

cream?

Student A: We’re just gonna buy different brands of the

same flavor of ice cream at the supermarket.

Student B: So, you get a grade for this project?

Student A: Yeah, and it’s actually a fairly important part of

our total grade. Professor Marquez says that . . . that the

chemistry, the uh, interaction between the moderator and

the focus group, is key in making sure a focus group goes

well. You have to be sure that the people in the group feel

free to give their opinions, but you have to keep them on

topic. And you want to help the group develop a . . . a

group identity, a group spirit, you know? But at the same

time you don’t want them to fall into the “group think” trap,

where the members say things just to be going along with

the group . . . being a moderator’s not all that easy, I guess.

Student B: Well, I’m pretty sure I’m free tomorrow after-

noon. Oh, and . . . uh, what flavor ice cream are we going to

be tasting?

Student A: Umm, mint chocolate chip.

Student B: Okay, that settles it . . . I’m in!

Narrator: Now get ready to answer some questions about

the conversation. You may use your notes to help you.

Narrator: Question 6: What subject does Professor Marquez

probably teach?

Narrator: Question 7: What will Professor Marquez give the

man if he comes to her class the next day?

Narrator: Question 8: What does the woman imply about

focus groups that test Hollywood films?

Narrator: Question 9: What will Professor Marquez proba-

bly pay most attention to during the focus group activity?

Narrator: Listen again to part of the conversation.

Student B: Well, I’m pretty sure I’m free tomorrow after-

noon. Oh, and . . . uh, what flavor ice cream are we going to

be tasting?

Student A: Umm, mint chocolate chip.

Student B: Okay, that settles it . . . I’m in!

Narrator: Question 10: What does Tony imply when he

says this?

Student B: Okay, that settles it . . . I’m in!

Narrator: Listen to a lecture in an American Literature

class.

Professor: Today I’d like to continue our discussion of

nineteenth-century literature by talking about the novelist

Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was born Harriet Beecher in

Connecticut in 1811. When she was 21, she moved to

Cincinnati, Ohio. Now, Cincinnati’s on the border between

the Northern states and the Southern states. In those days,

before the Civil War, Ohio was one of the free states—slav-

ery wasn’t permitted there—but right across the river is

Kentucky, where slavery was permitted. Stowe said that

when she lived in Cincinnati, she met people who gave her

ideas and she heard stories that she used in her book.

However, she never really lived in the South, and that’s one

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A: Hi, Tony. Hey . . . I wonder if you could . . . uh, do

me a little favor tomorrow afternoon?

Student B: Oh, hi, Alison. Well . . . depends on what the

favor is.

Student A: Okay, you know that class I’m taking with

Professor Marquez? Well, she’s asked us to try to find some

volunteers to . . . uh, well, to take part in a role play . . .

Student B: And so what sort of a role would I have to play?

Student A: Well, you won’t find out until tomorrow. See,

we’re learning about focus groups and how they work and

how to be a moderator of a focus group. You and the other

volunteers from outside our class will be members of the

focus groups. The students in my class will take turns being

moderators. In real life, there’s only one moderator for each

focus group, usually, but Professor Marquez wants every-

one to have a chance to play the role of moderator. Now,

since a good focus group has people from different back-

grounds, uh, when you come in the classroom tomorrow,

Professor Marquez will give you a little card that tells you

your vital information: your age, your occupation, how

much education you have, that sort of thing . . . and that’s

the role you play when you’re pretending to be in this focus

group.

Student B: Tell me a little about focus groups. I mean, I’ve

heard of them, but . . .

Student A: All right. Well, according to Professor Marquez,

there are two basic types. There’s . . . uh, the exploratory

group . . . the moderator asks the focus group if a company

should market a new product at all, if there would be any

demand for it. Then there’s the experiential group—you’ll

be in an experiential group tomorrow. Experiential groups,

they try out several versions of a product. People in the

group tell the moderator which version of the product they

like better. This helps the company decide which one of

these versions of the product to market.

Student B: Don’t they use focus groups a lot in Hollywood?

To make movies?

Student A: Yeah, they do. I mean, a movie’s a product, too,

and film companies want to know which version of a movie

to market. So a lot of times, a director will make several dif-

ferent versions of a movie. Usually each version has a dif-

Practice Test 2 81

of the criticisms that Southerners directed at her—that she

had no firsthand knowledge of slavery, of life in the South,

because she’d never spent time there.

Okay, Harriet Beecher was what we call an Abolitionist—

a person who was utterly opposed to slavery . . . uh, to the

whole idea of owning slaves. In Cincinnati, she met another

Abolitionist, a man named Calvin Stowe. They got married,

and she became Harriet Beecher Stowe. After a while,

Stowe and her husband moved back to New England, to

Brunswick, Maine. He encouraged her to write a book that

showed the evils of slavery. So, Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s

Cabin, by far her most famous work. This novel was first

published in an Abolitionist newspaper, the National Era,

in 1851. It didn’t attract a lot of attention at first. Then in

1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in book form. It

became extremely popular in the United States—at least in

the Northern half of the United States—and also in Britain.

Harriet Stowe became a celebrity and gave readings all over

the North. If she were writing today, no doubt we’d see her

all the time as a guest on television talk shows.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s true historical impact has been

debated. Southerners hated it and said it presented an

unfair, overly negative view of slavery. On the other hand,

some Northern Abolitionists thought that it didn’t go far

enough, that it painted too soft a picture of slavery. But

there’s no doubt that it, uh, stirred up lots of opposition to

slavery and played a role in causing the Civil War.

Supposedly, when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe during the

Civil War, he said to her, “So you’re the little lady whose

book started this great war.”

Basically, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the story of a group of

slaves. When the book opens, they’re owned by a fairly

humane, kind farmer, but for business reasons, he has to

sell them to new masters. Some—like the character Eliza—

escape and, even though they are chased by hired slave

hunters, they make their way with the help of Abolitionists

to Canada, where they’re safe. Other slaves from this

group—including kindly old Uncle Tom, whom the book is

named for—are taken to the Deep South and are treated

miserably, horribly, and come to tragic endings.

One strange thing about Uncle Tom’s Cabin is that some

of the most famous scenes aren’t in the original book. Soon

after the book was published, it began to inspire theatrical

versions, little dramatic plays called “Tom Shows.” These

were mostly of pretty bad quality and didn’t follow the plot

of the book very carefully. Anyway, one of most famous of

these Tom Shows was directed by George Aiken. It featured

a scene where the slave Eliza is chased by men with dogs,

with bloodhounds, across the ice of a frozen river. This

scene was also featured in the movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin,

which was made later, in, like 1927. That’s probably why

this scene sticks in people’s minds, but it wasn’t in the

book at all.

Now, uh, the novel has come in for its share of criticism

since it was written. I’ve already mentioned a few of these

criticisms. Another criticism is that Stowe’s treatment of her

characters is overly sentimental, overly emotional. But

remember, Stowe lived in a sentimental age. Even some

great writers of the time, like the British author Charles

Dickens, treated his characters sentimentally—think about

Little Nell in his book The Old Curiosity Shop.

Anyway, sentimental or not, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is still

an important book. I don’t think you can understand the

pre–Civil War era in the U.S. without reading it. Now, our

textbook has some short selections from the novel, but I

really suggest you go to the library and get a copy and read

it cover to cover.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer some questions about

the lecture. You may use your notes to help you.

Narrator: Question 11: Where did Harriet Stowe live when

she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Narrator: Question 12: The professor mentions a number of

versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. List these in the order in

which they were produced, beginning with the earliest.

Narrator: Question 13: Why does the professor mention

Charles Dickens?

Narrator: Question 14: What does the professor say about

the scene in which Eliza is chased across the icy river by

men with dogs?

Narrator: Question 15: In this lecture, the professor men-

tions a number of criticisms of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s

novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Indicate whether each of the fol-

lowing is a criticism that was mentioned in the lecture.

Narrator: Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor: Anyway, sentimental or not, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is

still an important book. I don’t think you can understand

the pre–Civil War era in the U.S. without reading it. Now,

our textbook has some short selections from the novel, but

I really suggest you go to the library and get a copy and

read it cover to cover.

Narrator: Question 16: What does the professor suggest to

the students when she says this?

Professor: But, I really suggest you go to the library and get

a copy and read it cover to cover.

Narrator: Listen to a lecture in a geology class.

Professor: Morning, everyone. Everyone have a good week-

end? As I said on Friday, I want to talk some about glaciers

today. Now, glaciers just start with ordinary snow, but in

some parts of the world—in . . . uh, polar and mountainous

regions—snow builds up, it accumulates faster than it is

removed by melting in the summer. Now, ordinary snow is

about 80% air and about 20% solids. This snow melts and

refreezes several times, and becomes a dense, more com-

pact form of snow. There’s less air and more solids. It’s then

called névé. Now, um, when névé doesn’t melt for a whole

year, when it goes all summer without melting, it becomes

what’s called firn. Firn is a type of ice, a granular ice that

looks a lot like wet sugar. It’s even more compressed, even

denser than névé. Then, every year, more and more snow

falls, and the most deeply buried firn becomes even more

tightly compressed, it becomes about 90% solid. This type

of ice is called glacial ice. As the weight of accumulated

snow and ice builds, the ice on the underside becomes pli-

able, it becomes elastic enough to flow, and a glacier is

born. The glacier flows just like a river, but a glacier moves

only about three centimeters a day.

There are two main types of glaciers, the valley glacier

and the continental glacier, plus a couple of minor types.

Valley glaciers usually form near the top of a mountain.

They flow down the mountainside. Valley glaciers follow a

V-shaped valley carved by an old stream of water or else

they, um, well, they cut their own path. The glacier is

gonna pick up rocks as it moves downhill, and carry them

along with it. These rocks that the glacier drags along

round out the bottom of the valley, and the V-shaped

stream bed becomes U-shaped. Because they’re rigid, gla-

ciers don’t take sharp corners very well, so their downhill

paths are generally gonna be a series of gentle curves. In

some cases, valley glaciers are fed by little glaciers, called

82 Practice Test 2

tributary glaciers, that form in smaller valleys that lead

into the main valley. And sometimes, you get one or more

valley glaciers that flow together, forming what are called

piedmont glaciers.

Now, uh, the second major type of glacier is called the

continental glacier. It’s a lot larger than a valley glacier. The

average continental glacier is about the size of the state of

West Virginia. Today, continental glaciers are found only on

the island of Greenland and on the continent of Antarctica,

but still, they cover almost 10% of the world’s land area.

During the Ice Ages—and remember, we said the last

one of those was only about eleven thousand years ago—

an additional 20% of the world was buried under these

giant continental glaciers. Most of North America—most of

the northern hemisphere, for that matter—was covered by

continental glaciers.

Now, a continental glacier moves, too, but not down a

slope the way a valley glacier does. In fact, most continen-

tal glaciers were on relatively flat land. Still, they move at a

. . . uh—well, you can measure their movement. As ice piles

up to a greater and greater thickness—it can be 1,000

meters deep or more—you get a tremendous amount of

pressure inside the ice sheet. This force is so powerful that

it causes the interior ice to practically liquefy, and so a con-

tinental glacier moves out in all directions from the glac-

ier’s central point.

At some point, glaciers, all types of glaciers, become sta-

tionary. In other words, they appear to stop growing. That’s

because they’re melting at the same rate at which new ice

is being added. Then they begin to recede. When they

recede, valley glaciers seem to be moving uphill.

Continental glaciers seem to be retreating towards their

central point. What’s really happening is that they are melt-

ing faster than they are adding new materials.

A lot of glaciers around the world these days are

receding—the glaciers in the high mountains of Africa,

Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro, for example, are noticeably

smaller every year. A lot of scientists are afraid that the

reason behind this is global warming. If glaciers melt—

especially the continental glaciers in Greenland and

Antarctica—the level of the sea will rise. A lot of great

beaches around the world will disappear, some cities will

be underwater—some low-lying island nations like those in

the Indian Ocean may completely disappear.

Now, I’m gonna talk about the effects of glaciers on the

landscape, about some of the geological features that are a

result of glaciers, but first, questions or comments, anyone?

Narrator: Now get ready to answer some questions about

the lecture. You may use your notes to help you.

Narrator: Question 17: The professor discusses four types of

materials involved in the formation of a glacier. Give the

order in which these materials appear.

Narrator: Question 18: Where can continental glaciers be

found today?

Narrator: Question 19: Which of the following describe a

valley formed by a valley glacier?

Narrator: Question 20: It can be inferred from the lecture

that which of the following is the smallest type of glacier?

Narrator: Question 21: In this lecture, the professor gives a

number of characteristics of valley glaciers and continental

glaciers. Indicate which type of glacier each of the following

is typical of.

Narrator: Question 22: What danger does the professor

mention?

Narrator: Listen to a discussion in an economics class.

Student A: Professor Martin, you said that there would be

an essay question on the mid-term exam about the busi-

ness cycle. I wonder if we can go over the . . . ah, well, the

whole concept of the business cycle again . . .

Professor: Umm, well, Donald, we only have a few minutes

left, but we can do a quick review, sure. Let’s see what you

remember from that lecture. Who knows what the names of

the four stages of the business cycle are?

Student B: Umm, let’s see . . . I think it’s . . . expansion,

downturn, contraction, upturn, right?

Professor: Yes, those are the most common names for the

four stages these days. And the highest point of the expan-

sion is . . .

Student A: The peak. And, uh, the lowest part, the lowest

point of the, uh, contraction is called the trough, I believe.

Professor: Yes, you’re right. And as I said, we measure a

cycle from the peak of one cycle to the peak of the next.

Now, what’s going on during the expansion phase of the

business cycle?

Student B: Uh, that’s when things are going pretty good,

when the economy is just humming along.

Professor: Exactly. Business profits are up . . . wages are

high . . . economic output is growing . . . then what

happens?

Student A: Well, you have a downturn . . . there are eco-

nomic problems . . . uh, the economy stops growing.

Professor: Right, and eventually the economy enters a con-

traction. Usually, during a contraction, you have a reces-

sion. Demand for goods is down, and . . . well, you know

what a recession is like. Businesses close, people are laid

off. It’s a painful period for many people. After a while,

though, things start to improve. Sometimes the govern-

ment steps in. Or sometimes this just happens on its own.

Demand picks up again, and businesses’ inventories

shrink, so manufacturers have to hire people to produce

more goods . . .

Student A: Professor? What can a government do to stop a

recession?

Professor: Well, there may not be anything a government

can do to completely prevent recessions. What they usually

do is, the government . . . the Central Bank, really . . .

manipulates the money supply. This doesn’t really stop

recessions from occurring, but it may make these dips in

business activity less severe. Anyway, as I said, after a while,

the economy starts to improve. The recovery is usually slow

at first, then it picks up speed, it improves, and you have an

upturn. Pretty soon the economy is back in the expansion

phase and the cycle starts all over.

Student B: Professor, what I’d like to know is . . . is this over-

simplified? I mean, is the business cycle really this regular?

Professor: That’s a good question. It’s a useful model, but

you’re right, no business cycle is exactly the same. They

vary in length, for example. In fact, they are so irregular in

length that some economists prefer to talk about business

fluctuations rather than a business cycle.

Student A: So how long does the typical cycle last?

Professor: Well, since the end of World War II, there’ve been

ten cycles. That averages out to six years a cycle. But some

were quite a bit longer than others. For example, the U.S.

economy was in an expansion phase throughout most of

the 1990’s. Some economists even said that, because of

globalization, recessions were a thing of the past. Then,

sadly, along came the recession of 2001 to prove them

wrong.

Practice Test 2 83

Student A: Don’t they also vary by . . . uh, how bad they are?

How bad the recession is?

Professor: That’s right, they do vary in intensity. For exam-

ple, the downturn in the early 90’s was quite mild, but some

recessions have been so serious that they were called

depressions. We haven’t had a depression recently, though.

The last one was in the 1930’s—that one was so bad we call

it the Great Depression. There was another one in the 1870’s.

Student B: Professor Martin, I never really understood—

what causes business cycles anyway?

Professor: Well, if I could answer that, I’d probably win a

Nobel Prize in economics. There are a lot of theories—there

are several in your book. I always thought one of the most

interesting theories was the one that the economist William

Jevons came up with back in the nineteenth century. The

way he explained it, business cycles were caused by

sunspots.

Student B: Sunspots? How could something happening on

the sun cause business cycles?

Professor: Well, he thought that sunspots affected the cli-

mate. A lot of sunspots cause the weather to be cooler, and

this affects both the quality and the quantity of agricultural

production, and this in turn causes a drop in economic

activity.

Student A: And this theory . . . a lot of people believed it?

Professor: Yeah, at the time, it was widely accepted. And as

a matter of fact, there were a lot of statistics that seemed to

back it up. Today, though, it’s no longer considered a valid

theory. Still, you have to admit, it’s an interesting one!

Narrator: Now get ready to answer some questions about

the discussion. You may use your notes to help you.

Narrator: Question 23: What is the main topic of this

discussion?

Narrator: Listen again to part of the discussion.

Professor: Who knows what the names of the four stages of

the business cycle are?

Student B: Umm, let’s see . . . I think it’s . . . expansion,

downturn, contraction, upturn, right?

Professor: Yes, those are the most common names for the

four stages these days.

Narrator: Question 24: What does Professor Martin imply

when he says this?

Professor: Yes, those are the most common names for the

four stages these days.

Narrator: Question 25: In this lecture, the professor

describes the business cycle. Indicate whether each of the

following is a characteristic of the cycle mentioned by the

professor.

Narrator: Question 26: In which of these decades did eco-

nomic depressions occur?

Narrator: Question 27: In what ways do governments usu-

ally try to affect business cycles?

Narrator: Question 28: Which of the following statements

about William Jevons’s theory would Professor Martin

probably agree with?

about robots. They’re often set in the future—sometimes

the far future, sometime the near future, but sometimes

they’re set in the present and sometimes even in the distant

past—like the Star Wars films.

Now, most people think of sci-fi as being a fairly recent

phenomenon, a contemporary kind of film, but . . . uh, in

fact, some of the very first movies ever made were science

fiction films. The very first one was probably Voyage to the

Moon, made way back in 1902 by the pioneering French

director Georges Méliès—who, by the way, was also a magi-

cian. It’s . . . uh, it’s loosely based on a novel by the French

science fiction novelist Jules Verne, and given that it was

made over a hundred years ago, it has some pretty amazing

special effects. There . . . uh, there’s this bullet-shaped

rocket that’s shot to the moon by a giant cannon. In fact, it

hits the Man in the Moon right in the eye!

Probably the first really great science fiction film was the

1926 film Metropolis. It involves a sinister, industrialized

city of the future—it was set a hundred years in the future,

in the year 2026. It features a beautiful but evil robot

named Maria—the first robot to ever appear in a movie. It

has these wonderful futuristic sets. The themes this movie

explores—well, they seem as up-to-date now as they did

then. In fact—this is kinda interesting—it was re-released

in 1984 with a rock-and-roll music soundtrack.

The 1950’s—that’s the . . . the so-called Golden Age of

sci-fi movies. Hundreds, maybe thousands of sci-fi movies

were made then. Most of them, frankly, were pretty awful.

About the only reason to watch them today is that they can

be unintentionally funny because of their terrible dialogue,

bad acting, and really low-budget special effects. Now, the

1950’s was the height of the Cold War between the Soviet

Union and the United States. It was a really anxious time,

there was the danger of nuclear war, and both the U.S. and

the Soviet Union were testing nuclear weapons. So, uh,

Hollywood responded to this fear of atomic energy by mak-

ing a lot of movies about the, about . . . ummm, about the

mutations atomic energy could cause. One of the first of

these was the movie Them!, which was about ordinary ants

that are exposed to atomic radiation during a test in the

desert. These ants grow into giant ants and they attack the

city of Los Angeles. There were movies about lots of big

bugs—about giant scorpions, about huge spiders, crabs,

grasshoppers. The famous Japanese movie Godzilla was

about a bad-tempered, prehistoric lizard who’s brought

back to life by an atom bomb test.

Of course, there were a few good sci-fi movies made dur-

ing the Golden Age. My favorite science fiction movie of all

time is Forbidden Planet, which is, interestingly enough,

based on William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. It also

makes use of ideas from the theories of the famous psy-

chologist Sigmund Freud.

Now, most sci-fi movies of the 50’s were seen by small

audiences and were either ignored or attacked by critics.

The first science fiction movie that was a hit with both the

public and with critics came along in 1969. It was the bril-

liant movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then, in 1977, came the

most popular science fiction movie of all time, the first Star

Wars movie—eventually there would be a series of six of

these. The director got his ideas for this film from . . . from

everywhere: from western movies, Japanese samurai

movies, 1930’s serials, Greek mythology, you name it. This

first Star Wars movie had awesome special effects, and peo-

ple fell in love with the characters, like Luke Skywalker, the

evil Darth Vader . . . and especially those robots.

Narrator: Listen to a lecture in a film studies class.

Professor: OK, settle down, everyone, let’s get started, lots

to do today. If you remember, in our last class, we were dis-

cussing movies about the American West, and we saw some

scenes from some classic westerns. Today we’re going to

shift our attention to another genre of film, science fiction,

or “sci-fi” as a lot of people call it. Sci-fi movies are about

aliens from outer space, they’re about people from Earth

traveling to other planets, they can be about time travel,

Audio Scripts - Practice Test 2.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: