[00:28.49]Test Two
[00:29.81]SECTION A  MINI-LECTURE
[00:33.05]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY.
[00:38.05]While listening,take notes on the important points. Your notes will not be marked,
[00:43.74]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture.
[00:47.56]When the lecture is over,you¡¯ll be given two minutes to check your notes,
[00:52.49]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task.
[00:55.66]Now listen to the mini-lecture.
[00:58.18]In this lecture, we¡¯ll discuss English vocabulary. First, let¡¯s define the term ¡°vocabulary¡±.
[01:05.06]What is vocabulary? It usually refers to a complete inventory of the words in a language.
[01:10.98]But it may also refer to the words and phrases used in the variants of a language, such as dialect, register,
[01:17.64]terminology, etc. The vocabulary can be divided into active vocabulary and passive vocabulary.
[01:24.43]The active vocabulary refers to lexical items which a person uses.
[01:28.80]The passive vocabulary refers to the words which he understands.
[01:33.06]The English vocabulary is characterized by a mixture of native words and borrowed words.
[01:38.21]First, about the native words. Most of the native words are of Anglo-Saxon origin.
[01:43.56]They form the basic word stock of the English language. In the native stock,
[01:48.38]we find words denoting the commonest things necessary for life,
[01:52.05]such as those words denoting natural phenomena,divisions of the year, parts of the body,
[01:57.96]animals, foodstuffs, trees, fruits, human activity.
[02:02.23]And also other words denoting the most indispensable things.
[02:05.68]The native stock also includes auxiliary and modal verbs,
[02:09.61]pronouns, most numerals, prepositions and conjunctions. Though they are small in number,
[02:17.38]these words play no small part in linguistic performance and communication.
[02:20.77]Next, we come to borrowed words. Borrowed words are also known as loan-words.
[02:27.00]They refer to linguistic forms taken over by one language or dialect from another.
[02:31.93]The English vocabulary has replenished itself by continually
[02:36.08]taking over words from other languages over the centuries.
[02:39.04]The adoption of foreign words into the English language began even before the English came to England.
[02:45.27]We know that the Angles and Saxons formed a part of the Germanic people.
[02:49.21]Long before the Anglo-Saxons came to England,
[02:52.38]the Germanic people had been in contact with the civilization of Rome.
[02:55.98]Thus, Words of Latin origin denoting objects belonging to
[03:00.60]the Roman civilization gradually found their way into the English language.
[03:04.22]For example, wine, butter, cheese, inch, mile, mint, etc.
[03:11.88]When the English, or the Anglo-Saxons, were settled in England, they continued to borrow words from Latin,
[03:18.10]especially after Roman Christianity was introduced into the island in the sixth and seventh centuries.
[03:23.90]A considerable number of Latin words were adopted into the English language.
[03:28.06]These words chiefly signify things connected with religion or the services of the church,
[03:33.53]such as bishop, candle, creed, monk, priest, and a great many others.
[03:40.20]The English vocabulary also owes a great deal to the Danes and Northmen.
[03:46.55]From these settlers, English adopted a surprising number of words of
[03:50.04]Scandinavian origin that belong to the core-vocabulary today.
[03:53.87]Such as they, them, their, both, ill, die, egg, knife, low, skill, take, till, though, want, etc.
[04:08.53]The Norman Conquest in 1066 introduced a large number of French words into the English vocabulary.
[04:15.53]French adoptions were found in almost every section of the vocabulary.
[04:19.24]For example, in the section of law, there are such words as justice, evidence, pardon;
[04:25.48]in the section of warfare, there are conquer, victory; in religion, there are grace, repent, sacrifice;
[04:33.69]in architecture, there are castle, pillar, tower; in finance, there are pay, rent, ransom;
[04:42.65]in rank, there are prince, princess; in clothing, there are collar, mantlet; in food,
[04:51.29]there are dinner, feast, sauce, etc. In the first 43 lines of the Prologue to Chaucer¡¯s Canterbury Tales,
[04:59.99]there are 39 words of French origin. We can see the English vocabulary takes in so many words from French.
[05:06.98]And in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Renaissance swept Europe.
[05:12.56]It was a revival of art and literature based on ancient Greek learning.
[05:16.39]The Renaissance opened up a new source for the English vocabulary to enrich itself.
[05:21.09]And English borrowed many words from Greek through the medium of Latin, such as crisis, topic, coma, etc.
[05:29.30]a wide range of learned affixes are also from Greek, such as
[05:34.22]bio-, geo-, hydro-, auto-, homo-, para-, -ism, -logy, -graph, -meter, -gram and many others.
[05:45.92]From the sixteenth century forward, there was a great increase in the number of languages,
[05:50.73]and English borrowed many words from these languages.
[05:53.26]French continued to provide a considerable number of new words, for example,
[05:58.29]trophy, vase, moustache, unique, soup. English borrowed a lot of words from Italian in the field of art,
[06:06.28]music and literature, for example, model, sonnet, opera, quartet, etc.
[06:11.96]there was also a Spanish element in English,
[06:15.32]for example, potato, cargo, parade, cigar.
[06:19.81]Besides, German, Portuguese and Dutch were also fertile sources of loan words,
[06:24.62]for example, dock, zinc and plunder are from German; cobra, buffalo and pagoda are from Portuguese;
[06:32.72]tackle, buoy and skipper are from Dutch.
[06:36.11]At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a growth of international
[06:40.91]trade and the urge to colonize the known world,
[06:43.87]English made a number of direct adoptions from languages spoken outside Europe.
[06:48.36]Some examples are: sultan and ghoul from Arabic, lichi and typhoon from Chinese,
[06:55.14]shah and shawl from Persian, yoghurt from Turkish, czar from Russian.
[07:02.14]Since the end of the Second World War, still more loan words have been incorporated into the English vocabulary
[07:09.07]For example, cuisine from French, sushi from Japanese, mao tai from Chinese, and many others.
[07:16.39]In the twentieth century,
[07:17.98]it should be observed that English has created many words out of Latin and Greek elements,
[07:22.36]especially in the field of science and technology,
[07:25.09]such as antibiotic, astronaut, auto-visual, autolysis, etc.
[07:32.52]Although all these Latin and Greek derived words are distinctly learned or technical, they do not seem
[07:39.75]and, in this respect, they are very different from the recent loanwords from living languages,
[07:44.56]such as cappuccino, angst, and sputnik.
[07:48.27]Thus, for the Modern English period a distinction must be made
[07:52.09]between the adoptions from living languages
[07:54.29]and the formations derived from the two classical languages.
[07:57.34]That¡¯s the end of today¡¯s lecture. Next time we¡¯ll concentrate on English word formation.
[08:02.49]Thank you for your attention!
[10:08.00]Section B  INTERVIEW
[10:12.27]In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.
[10:16.09]Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
[10:19.70]Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview,
[10:24.51]you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following 5 questions.
[10:29.32]Now listen to the interview.
[10:31.62]Interviewer(M): Mrs. Hobson, would you please describe some of the things you do with
[10:36.12]aggressive children in this special school?
[10:38.43]Mrs. Hobson(W): Well, you must realize that when he comes here he is meeting other aggressive children,
[10:43.89]and aggressive children all together usually gum each other up.
[10:48.13]M: Umm.
[10:50.21]W: And they find that aggressive here doesn't pay off because you can be
[10:54.15]jolly sure there's one tougher and worse than he is.
[10:57.42]M: Umm.
[10:59.06]W: So I usually have ohm... Sometimes have organized fights.
[11:03.65]M: Organized fights? You actually...
[11:06.06]W: Yes.
[11:06.73]M: You actually encourage the children to.
[11:09.35]W: We have a ring and we have a bell.
[11:11.56]M: A boxing ring?
[11:12.65]W: Yes! They must conform, they must keep to the rules, and when they have either lost or won,
[11:18.33]we discuss what it is to be the winner and what it is like to lose.
[11:22.49]And we carry on with our discussion and go on to what it is like in life.
[11:27.63]M: Umm.
[11:29.06]W: We must win or lose and we must do each very gracefully.
[11:32.77]M: Would you please describe some children you have had problems with?
[11:37.04]W: I had one boy who cut off his dog's ears.
[11:40.42]M: Cut off his dog's ears? Good lord!
[11:43.49]W: Yes. And put a stone around his neck and drowned him.
[11:46.77]M: The dog?
[11:47.90]W: Yes. Then there was another boy that used to attack me.
[11:51.61]M: Attack you?
[11:53.44]W: Yes. Umm...with anything at hand. I hid scissors. Umm...he tried to cut my hair once. And...
[12:02.09]M: When you weren't looking?
[12:03.63]W: Yes. You have to be strong. And of course...er...
[12:07.57]M: By strong you mean...
[12:08.99]W: Physically strong and mentally.
[12:10.41]M: So that you can shove them away?
[12:13.14]W: Well, so that you can defend yourself. I always say to them I'm going to win.
[12:18.54]And once I've established that, we're all right.
[12:21.27]M: Mrs. Hobson, why do you think some children are aggressive?
[12:25.54]W: If a child is one of six or seven children in a family,
[12:29.69]it's pretty sure that he is naughty and aggressive because he is crying out for attention
[12:35.38]and in this large family he's found that a jolly good way of getting attention is to shout,
[12:40.96]be naughty. At least mummy turns round and says, "Be quiet, be a good boy, or you'll get this or that."
[12:47.63]M: So some children are aggressive simply in order...
[12:50.80]W: To gain attention! Aggressiveness usually is that.
[12:55.72]It's really the children crying out and saying, "Look at me, please."
[12:59.55]M: Umm.
[13:00.77]W: I'm not saying it's the answer in all circumstances but it usually is.
[13:05.58]M: What are the advantages of your school, as compared with ordinary school?
[13:10.29]W: The classes are smaller for one thing.
[13:13.24]M: How small?
[13:14.00]W: Er...we only have groups up to five or six.
[13:17.27]M: And in a normal school?
[13:19.46]W: Oh. that varies of course but it could be thirty to forty.
[13:22.86]M: Umm.
[13:24.38]W: Here he does have individual attention every day.
[13:27.66]M: Do you think the work is important?
[13:30.06]W: I do. Without our unit or something similar.
[13:32.80]M: The unit is the school?
[13:34.33]W: Yes, the whole unit. I think a lot of children would be left and then perhaps at the age of
[13:40.25]sixteen we would have our juvenile delinquent. I'm not saying we're curing them all,
[13:45.15]but I think at least with the unit available to these children, they have had a chance to make good.
[13:50.95]M: Umm.
[13:51.90]W: I'm not saying it always pays off, but they have had a chance.
[14:47.15]Section C  NEWS BROADCAST
[14:51.41]In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.
[14:54.47]Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.
[14:57.97]Questions 6 to 7 are based on the following news.
[15:02.13]At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[15:09.24]Now listen to the news.
[15:11.77]Now that the U.S. space shuttle Discovery is back on Earth, future shuttle missions are
[15:18.56]postponed until the space agency NASA solves the problem of launch debris endangering the orbiters.
[15:25.56]Whenever missions resume, they will continue building the International Space Station,
[15:31.13]which the United States operates with Russia and the support of Europe, Canada, and Japan.
[15:37.04]But there is a legal obstacle that may keep the U.S. astronauts off the Space Station.
[15:42.94]The issue dates back to 1996, when the two countries agreed that Russia would provide the United States
[15:50.82]free crew and cargo transportation to the station until next April.
[15:55.19]This provision proved crucial during the long ban on shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster in 2003,
[16:03.18]for the United States had no other way to get its astronauts and supplies to the station.
[16:28.57]Question 8 is based on the following news.
[16:33.60]At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.
[16:40.37]Now listen to the news.
[16:43.22]Malaysian President Abdullah Badawi says the Muslim world should do
[16:48.47]more to improve the economic standing of all Muslims.
[16:51.09]He told business leaders gathered in Hong Kong Monday
[16:55.25]that the Islamic world must do all it can to end poverty among all Muslims.
[16:59.85]Mr. Abdullah, who currently chairs the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference,
[17:06.19]says the time has come for the OIC to emphasize the economic development of its members.
[17:11.88]He says Muslim populations must not only strive for peace, but also for economic vitality.
[17:18.00]Many of the OIC's members are developing countries in Africa and the Middle East.
[17:23.69]Malaysia has recently been taking steps to promote Islamic banking and finance.
[17:28.61]Next week, senior officials from the Islamic Development Bank, the funding agency of the OIC,
[17:34.62]will meet in Kuala Lumpur to discuss and formulate economic programs
[17:39.11]for the organization's poorer members.
[17:51.86]Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news.
[17:57.00]At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.
[18:03.90]Now listen to the news.)
[18:06.30]This is the 59th annual Tony awards ceremony broadcast nationwide from Radio City Music Hall.
[18:14.84]Monty Python's Spamalot has been a sold-out hit since it opened on Broadway in March.
[18:21.40]It won the Antoinette Perry Awards, the Tonys, for best musical,
[18:26.21]and for director and featured actress in the musical category.
[18:30.36]A new musical, The Light in the Piazza, won the largest number of awards, six.
[18:36.81]Broadway's top dramatic honors went to the much-acclaimed play, Doubt, A Parable.
[18:42.62]The story of a nun's suspicion of child abuse at a parochial school
[18:47.21]won the Pulitzer Prize earlier this year after switching to Broadway
[18:52.02]from a successful off-Broadway run.
[18:54.54]Veteran actress Cherry Jones and director Doug Hughes also took home the top honors in the dramatic category.
[19:02.08]Playwright Edward Albee, the author of Broadway classics, such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,
[19:09.08]A Delicate Balance and The Zoo Story, was presented with a special Lifetime Achievement Award.