1 LCE
Comprehension teacher
copy TOTAL / 50
Semester 1
September resit 2004
This exam tests
your listening comprehension of English.
The exam will last one hour; once the test has begun, no-one may enter
or leave the exam room. You will hear
three separate recordings. Each
recording will be played one or two times.
You will answer the questions on your paper, making notes on the
separate sheet provided. Read the
instructions for each part carefully: note especially that there is only ONE
correct answer for multiple-choice questions.
Marks may also be deducted for incorrect responses in this section, as
in all other sections of the test.
PART
1 Dolly’s creator http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1487506
NPR investigates
the possibility of cloning human beings
You will hear this recording ONCE only. This is a multiple-choice section. Circle the correct answer. There is only one correct answer per
question. Points may be deducted for
incorrect responses.
Teachers stop the
tape for 2 minutes to allow students to prepare.
Here is the
recording.
That is the end of
the listening.
Teachers stop the
tape for 5 minutes to allow students to answer.
PART
2
Halfpennies http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/1/newsid_2828000/2828819.stm
The BBC looks back
at various opinions about the old half penny
You will hear this recording twice. Decide whether the following statements are
true (T) or false (F). Circle the
correct answer and justify your response in a few words.
Teachers stop the
tape for two minutes to allow students to prepare.
Here is the first
listening.
That is the end of
the first listening. Teachers stop the
tape for 2 minutes to allow the students time to
reflect.
Here is the second
listening.
That is the end of
the second listening. Teachers stop the tape for 5 minutes to allow students to
answer.
PART 3
Riviera Radio is
reporting the
You will hear this
recording TWICE. Make notes on a
separate sheet, then answer the questions as fully as possible. Points will be deducted for missing
information and language errors.
Teachers stop the
tape for two minutes to allow the students to prepare.
Here is the first
listening.
That is the end of
the first listening. Teachers stop the
tape for 2 minutes to allow the students time to
reflect.
Here is the second
listening.
That is the end of
the second listening. Teachers stop the
tape and give the students the remainder of the hour to complete the test.
Remember that
no-one may leave the room until the test has ended and all papers have been
turned in to the teacher.
PART 1
Now that farm
animals can be cloned successfully, a nagging question hangs over scientists:
Will cloning ever be safe enough to try in humans? Well, the next month’s issue of the journal,
Nature Reviews Genetics, Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut tries to answer that
question (he led the team that produced Dolly the sheep, the world’s first
cloned mammal). NPR’s Joe Palca has more:
Ian Wilmut knew he
was being provocative when he titled his upcoming paper, “Human Cloning: Can it
be Made Safe?”
“The provocative
title does serve the purpose of catching the eye, not just of people like yourselves, but also of the scientific community.”
The
process of cloning is pretty much the same for any species. Take the genes from an adult animal, put them
into an egg, coax the egg to start dividing, and put the resulting embryo into
a surrogate mother. Wilmut
says when you consider the safety of cloning, the first thing to know is that
most of the time, it doesn’t work.
“The overall
efficiency is something between 1 and 5 percent in all of the different
species. The precise pattern of failure
in abnormalities may vary from one species to another, but the overall impact
is very similar.”
Wilmut says even
in the clones that are born, the scientific literature is full of articles
detailing the health problems: obesity, diabetes, lung problems, heart
problems, limb deformities, and the list goes on. Wilmut says anyone who says cloning is
perfectly safe hasn’t read the literature.
Randall Praither
agrees. He is a pig cloner at the
To find out why
some clones have health problems and others don’t, Ian Wilmut has a suggestion:
Do a systematic study of cloning, starting with the embryo, and going all the
way to birth, and beyond: “We would
imagine using a well-established cloning procedure in the mouse and looking at
developments sequentially at different stages.”
Wilmut says that would provide clues about how to change the cloning
process to make it safer.
But mass cloner
Keith Laithem of
And there’s always
the question of whether what works in animals will work the same in
people: “My personal philosophy is, you
know, before I was going to use cloning, certainly for anything related to
clinical application, you know, I would want to be working with a method that’s
got a whole lot better success than 2 percent.”
For his part, Ian
Wilmut says even animal cloners should proceed with
caution. Wilmut says his team will only
use cloning when it’s absolutely essential to make a genetic copy of an animal
with unique traits. “But we probably
wouldn’t support the idea of using the technique as it stands at the present
time, just simply to increase our agricultural productivity because we would
feel that the benefits that are gained don’t justify the risk of distress to
the animals concerned.” And certainly,
Wilmut says, the risks of cloning don’t justify the potential benefit of a
genetically related child.
Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
ANSWERS: 12 points
2 points for
correct answer, -1 for incorrect, 0 for several answers, minimum total 0
1.E 2.A 3.B 4.C 5.D 6. A
1.E 2.C 3.D 4.D 5.B 6. C
PART 2 20 points
Journalist:
Born in the new dawn of decimalization the tiny half-penny coin has always been
something of a waif and stray. The Chancellor says it no longer fulfils a
useful function. Increasingly, people simply store it away to exchange at a
bank or donate to charity. It ends up in ashtrays, nondescript little boxes, or
in a convenient milk or spirits bottle. Three thousand five hundred million
half-pennies have circulated in thirteen years but many traders simply ignore
it, even when it rings up on the tills or petrol pumps. The half-penny’s
departure, by the end of this year, will clearly be unlamented.
Woman:
People walk away without…if anything comes to half-pence; they never wait for
their change.
Elderly
man: [completely unintelligible to a Canadian]…can’t do anything with
them at all.
2 points for correct answer
with justification, no points for T/F without justification, no points if T/F
wrong
1. The Chancellor thinks the
half-penny coin is useful.
F no longer useful function
2. People save up their
half-penny coins.
T exchange at bank or donate to charity
3. 350, 000, 000 half-penny
coins were made.
T three hundred and fifty milllion
4. The half-penny coin has
existed for 30 years.
F 13
5. The coin is to be taken out
of circulation next year.
F by the end of the year
6. Most people will be sorry
to see the half-penny go.
F unlamented
7. The woman is probably a
shopkeeper.
T people never wait for their change
8. The man will probably
welcome the half-penny's departure.
T can't do anything with them
1. The Chancellor thinks the
half-penny coin is useless.
T no longer useful function
2. People simply throw their
half-penny coins away.
F store it away
3.3, 500, 000 half-penny coins
were made.
F three hundred and fifty million
4. The half-penny coin has
existed for 13 years.
T circulated in 13 years
5. The coin is to be taken out
of circulation this year.
T departure by the end of the year
6. Most people will not be
sorry to see the half-penny go.
T unlamented
7. The woman is probably a
customer.
F people never wait for their change
8. The man will probably
regret the half-penny's departure.
F can't do anything with them
PART 3 20 points
The 56th
Bonjour!
Bonjour Bob!
Have
you picked a winner yet?
Well, its hard to pick a
winner, I mean, some of the films that are most anticipated haven’t been
screened yet, but there are two films that people are talking about in the
competition, one is a Canadian film by a man named Denis Arcand,
who 15 years ago made a film named ‘The Decline of the American Empire,’ that
was the most successful Canadian film ever, and he’s got a sequel to this film
called ‘The Barbarian Invasion,’ and we like it it’s a warm film, it’s a human
film, and you know this festival has been so lacklustre, that people are just
embracing it.
I
thought everything was a Canadian movie because they all shoot in
This film was shot in
But
how does this stack up against the others?
For me so far it’s the
best. The other one that people are
talking about a lot which is a very, very strange film, even for Cannes which
is kind of the home of strange films is Lars von Trier’s
film called Dogville. Von
Trier is a Danish director he made Dancer in the Dark a few years ago which won the palme
d’or. He’s a very
cinematic director, he moves the camera a lot, but this is a film which is
supposed to be a town but there are no props there are no sets where there are
houses, there are rectangles drawn on the stage and it’s a three-hour movie
about how a town really first embraces than rejects a woman who’s in trouble.
This
is, uh, Nicole Kidman isn’t it?
Nicole Kidman’s in it and
she’s quite good in it, but uh, she can’t really do enough to make this film
something you want to see.
Did,
uh, you go to their news conference?
Yes I did go to the news
conference, I did.
And
what happened there?
Well, hahaha,
you never know what’s gonna cause a fuss at
Wait
a minute the French smoke.
I know the French smoke, they
weren’t upset ha ha ha .
I
think they’re lacking for something going on.
It’s really true this has been
one of the quietest festivals in years, everyone from critics to the people
that are here to buy films to the people who are here to sell films, everyone
says that it’s been quiet. There have
been one or two small films, not in competition, but films that I really
enjoyed that were different that are offbeat, that are kind of the things that
you really go to Cannes for. One of
them, astonishingly enough is a feature-length animated film, by a Frenchman
living in
1. Why
does the reporter say that it is hard to pick a winner at the
some
of the films haven’t been screened yet 2
2. What
does he say is good about the film The Barbarian Invasion?
warm,
human film
2
3. What
is said about the director von
Danish,
1
made
Dancer in the Dark 1
very
cinematic, 1
moves
the camera a lot 1
4. What
is odd about the film Dogville?
No
props 1
no
sets 1
houses are rectangles drawn on stage 2
5. What
did Nicole Kidman do at the news conference?
Why?
started smoking 2
to
get the attention of Lars von Trier, who doesn’t like it 2
6. What
is the film
The
kidnapping of a tour de
and
about his rescue by his grandmother 2