Scripts

Question 11. Listen to part of a talk given to first-year university students.

The place to go for parking permits is the Safety and Security Office on the first floor of the University Services Building. Parking permits are required for all on-campus parking. Special permits are available for students who carpool. You can also get passes for the Fourth Avenue Garage, bus passes, and maps there. The hours are 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and 8:00 to 4:00 on Fridays.

Safety and Security also provides special services 24 hours a day. These include escort service to and from your car, criminal incident reporting and investigation, lost and found, and battery jumper service.

Question 12. Listen to part of a lecture in an American studies class.

Although the original American Indian cultures were highly diverse, they were similar in many of their traditions. Religious beliefs and rituals permeated every aspect of Indian life. Southwest tribes such as the Hopi and the Apaches had a rich and elaborate year-round sequence of ceremonies including songs, dances, and poetry. The Hopi performed dances to bring rain. The Apaches engaged in special dances and ceremonies to gain the support of the spirits before undertaking raids or going into war. The Plains tribes often sought contact with the spirits by going on a vision quest.

Question 13. Listen to part of a talk in a business class.

Each kind of insurance protects its policyholder against possible financial loss. Life insurance pays your family a certain sum upon your death. The purpose of life insurance is to provide your family with financial security, an immediate estate that will allow them to maintain the household after you die. Health insurance protects you against large medical expenses. When you pay premiums to your insurance company, you can ensure payment of your medical bills. Another kind, property-liability insurance, is sometimes called casualty insurance because it covers the cost of accidents — like automobile accidents, fire, and theft. If you’re like most people, your home is the largest single investment you make in your life. This is why most homeowners have some type of property-liability insurance.

Question 14. Listen to part of a lecture in a geography class.

The dunes called Spirit Sands make up the Manitoba Desert — Canada’s only desert. These five kilometers of dunes were formed 10,000 years ago, when an ancient river dumped billions of tons of sand and gravel at the edge of a glacial lake.

The dunes of Spirit Sands are constantly changing. They are truly “rolling” dunes. Here’s how it works. The sand in each dune becomes progressively finer toward the top. The heavier particles tend to settle at the base on the windward side. The wind blows the finer particles up the slope, and eventually they kind of trickle down the other side. Thus, the dune sort of walks downwind. It will reverse direction when the wind changes. Each dune is covered with tiny, rolling waves, and each wave itself is a tiny dune.

Question 15. Listen to part of a lecture in a biochemistry class.

There’ve been several influential studies in pain management. Some of the most interesting of these study endorphins, the body’s own natural painkillers. For example, we now know that exercise stimulates the production of endorphins. Lack of exercise, on the other hand, not only shuts down endorphin production, but can also lead to muscle deterioration. This is why you see a lot of pain specialists prescribing exercise for patients with chronic pain.

Another interesting area involves the power of the placebo effect. We’ve known for some time that a sugar pill or other inactive placebo can sometimes make a sick person feel better. Somehow, the power of suggestion — or faith in the doctor, or the drug — will start a process of healing. We now think a neurochemical component — what may actually happen is the placebo effect allows some people to sort of tap into the supply of endorphins in their own brains.

Explanations

11(1). B. The speaker mainly discusses services of the Safety and Security Office. Key phrases: “The place to go for... is the Safety and Security Office”; “Safety and Security also provides...”

12(2). A. The speaker mainly discusses traditions of American Indian cultures. The key sentence is: “Although the original American Indian cultures were highly diverse, they were similar in many of their traditions.” The speaker then gives examples of traditions.

13(3). C. The speaker mainly gives a classification of insurance. Key phrases: “Each kind of insurance...”; “Life insurance...”; “Health insurance...”; “Another kind, property-liability insurance...”

14(4). D. The speaker mainly discusses how sand dunes shift position. Key phrases: “The dunes of Spirit Sands are constantly changing”; “Here’s how it works”; “the dune sort of walks downwind”; “It will reverse direction...”

15(5). A. The speaker mainly discusses research in pain management. The key sentence is: “There’ve been several influential studies in pain management.” The speaker then gives examples of research studies.