[00:39.30]Test for English Majors 1998
[00:43.26]-Grade Eight-
[00:45.01]PART I
[00:46.15]LISTENING COMPREHENSION
[00:49.18]SECTION A NOTE-TAKING AND GAP-FILLING
[00:54.17]People in Britain speak English with different accents,
[00:58.30]according to where they come from and what kind of social status they have
[01:02.86]or what kind of education they received, etc.
[01:06.25]Among the various accents, there is one that has achieved a certain eminence.
[01:11.00] It’s called Received Pronunciation, RP.
[01:15.87] And this accent is also generally preferred for teaching English as a foreign language
[01:21.98]and for reading BBC news bulletins.
[01:25.59] Why is it so?
[01:28.02] Let’s take a look at how it evolved over the years, its features, its present status and so forth.
[01:36.11] Received Pronunciation, RP had its historical origins in the dialect of English spoken
[01:42.00]particularly in the region stretching southeast from the midland
[01:46.19]which is in the central part of England down towards London, the capital city.
[01:51.64]The two historical university cities of Cambridge and Oxford, though outside this region,
[01:57.25]are also considered as the place of origin for the dialect.
[02:01.37]The dialect survived because of its association with centers of power and influence.
[02:07.05] It was spoken by the merchant classes of London in the 14th century,
[02:12.58] for example, and would had been familiar to students
[02:16.11]attending the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the Middle Ages.
[02:21.44] Its status as an important dialect was enhanced
[02:24.76]by its use in government and official documents from about 1430 onwards.
[02:31.08] More recently, its association since the 19th century with public schools
[02:36.77] helped to achieve special pre-eminence for its distinctive patterns of pronunciation.
[02:42.66] So we can see, in the United Kingdom at least,
[02:46.48]this accent is usually associated with a higher social or educational background,
[02:51.97] with the BBC and certain professions
[02:55.56]and it’s most commonly taught to students learning English as a foreign language.
[03:00.70] For many such students,
[03:02.82]it is the only accent they are prepared to learn
[03:05.78]and the teacher who does not use it may have difficulty
[03:08.88]in finding a position as a teacher of English in certain non-English speaking countries.
[03:15.69] Other names for this accent are the Queen’s English, Oxford English, and BBC English.
[03:23.46] As the accent has lost its former regional affiliations,
[03:27.62] it is now the most widely understood and spoken of all the accents within the British Isles.
[03:34.38] So what are the most interesting characteristics of RP?
[03:39.54] Firstly, the relatively very small number of speakers
[03:45.08]who use it do not identify themselves as coming from any particular geographical region.
[03:51.99] Secondly, RP is largely confined to England and there it is a non-localized accent.
[04:00.92] Thirdly, RP is a class accent.
[04:05.04] In England the higher the social class of the speaker ,
[04:08.67]the less the regional accent and also the use of local words and grammatical forms.
[04:15.75] As we have seen, RP, a non-regional accent, based on the speech of the great public schools,
[04:23.00] has been accepted as a standard inside England for well over a century.
[04:28.87]Increasingly, however,
[04:32.16]there has been a tendency for the accent of educated people in Southeastern England
[04:37.62]to replace strict RP as the standard.
[04:41.87]RP has lost some of its prestige as people educated at public schools
[04:47.89]have lost their monopoly of power in education.
[04:51.72] A considerable part has been played by the great post-war expansion of higher education.
[04:57.60] Today the majority of university students are not speakers of RP.
[05:02.73] Most school teachers too, do not use RP, but an educated regional accent.
[05:08.74] This is not to say that RP has lost all its magic.
[05:13.33] It still has a prestige for example in the financial and banking sectors,
[05:18.59] among senior government officials and officers of the Arm Forces.
[05:23.94]Moreover, since it has been so fully described,
[05:27.45]it is the accent usually taught to foreigners learning British English.
[05:32.15] But the public schools are no longer felt to have a monopoly of correct speech
[05:37.70] and the prestige of educated regional speech has risen enormously during the past half century.
[05:44.29] Since an educated southeastern accent is fairly similar to RP,
[05:49.44] there is a tendency nowadays for this to be regarded as a standard.
[05:54.90]It is the accent used, for example, by many radio and television announcers and presenters.
[06:01.25] On the other hand, there has been a rise in the prestige of all regional accents in Britain.
[06:07.81] And it is probable that we are moving towards the American position
[06:13.46] in which it is normal and acceptable for a speaker to use an educated regional accent,
[06:19.87] and there is no supra-regional class accent.
[08:27.31]SECTION B
[08:28.49]INTERVIEW
[08:30.79]M: Thanks very much for coming down here to the station, Mrs. Harrison.I,
[08:34.73] I know you’ve been to a terrible situation yesterday,I,
[08:37.98] I just like to go over some of the things you told Surgeon Clark at the bank.
[08:42.25]W: All right.
[08:43.43]M: Ah, ah. Would you like a cup of tea?
[08:45.59]W: No, no, I’m fine.
[08:47.20]M: All right.
[08:48.57]W: Thanks.
[08:49.70]M: Well,could you describe the two people who robbed the bank for this report we're filling out here?
[08:54.78] Now anything at all you could remember would be extremely helpful to us.
[08:59.06] W: Well, just, I can only remember basically what I said before.
[09:03.62] M: That’s all right.
[09:04.72]W: The man was tall, about six feet, and he had dark hair.
[09:10.95]M: Dark hair.
[09:12.04]W: And he had mustache.
[09:14.45]M: Very good. All right.
[09:16.42]Did he have any other distinguishing marks, I mean scars, for example, anything like that?
[09:20.86] W: Scars, no, none of that I can remember.
[09:25.76] M: Do you remember how old he was by any chance?
[09:28.89]W: Eh, well, I, I guess around thirty.
[09:32.50]M: Around thirty.
[09:33.52]W: Maybe younger, give or take a few years.
[09:37.94] M: All right. Do you remember anything about what he might be wearing?
[09:42.42]W: Yes, he, he had on a dark sweater, solid color.
[09:46.60]You know, the kind of color young people fancy nowadays
[09:50.69]M: Anything else that strikes you at the moment?
[09:53.86] W: I, I remember he was wearing a light shirt under the sweater,
[09:58.91]a cotton one with dark, I think, dark stripes. It looks like a good brand.
[10:05.77] M: Ah, very good.
[10:06.92]W: Yes.
[10:08.34]M: Mm, now, all right, now. Can you tell us anything about the woman robber, Mrs. Harrison?
[10:14.25]W: Well, I remember that she did most of the talking.
[10:17.65]She had a gun pointed at us and she told us to lie down on the floor and not to move
[10:22.85] if we knew what was good for us.
[10:25.45]I, I remember I’ve just thought like she was pointing the gun right at me
[10:31.47] and my little daughter was right next to me and she, she was just so frightened.
[10:36.94] M: Um, Mrs. Harrison, could you describe her for us?
[10:39.89]W: She was wearing a wool sweater.
[10:42.17] M: Ah, very good.
[10:43.47]W: I remember it was a dark color, navy blue or dark gray.
[10:48.52]M: Dark gray?
[10:49.77]W: And I guess she was in her late twenties. Her hair was short, very short and curly.
[10:56.70]M: Do you emember how tall she was?
[10:58.54] W: Ah, about the same as myself, around five four.
[11:02.86]M: Five four. All right. Do you, uh, remember anything else about this woman?
[11:08.00]W: Yes, I remember the woman was wearing a pendant or a lock around her neck.
[11:14.15]I remember it specifically because I was then near the counter next to the bank manager
[11:20.24]and my little daughter started to cry.
[11:22.90]M: Ah.
[11:24.24]W: And this woman came up to me and said:“ Shut your damn kid up, lady!”
[11:29.14] So I got a good look at her and she was sort of pulling on the chain and playing with it.
[11:35.81]W: A pendant.
[11:37.59] M: Oh? It was gold, well, anyway, look like gold. And it had a strange shape.
[11:48.00]M: Ah, ah, now, did either of them have any other noticeable characteristics, Mrs. Harrison?
[11:52.96] Now,now ,just take a minute.
[11:54.81]W: Eh, no, I don’t.
[11:56.21]M: Think about this.
[11:57.33] W: No, no, this is really all I can remember.
[12:01.71]M: Well, did either of them wear glasses?
[12:04.35]W: No, no, I’m sure of that.
[12:07.08]M: All right, Mrs. Harrison. I really appreciate what you’ve been through today.
[12:11.25] I’m just going to ask you tolook at some photographs before you leave if you don’t mind.
[12:15.51] It won’t take very long. Can you do that for me?
[12:18.27]W: Ah, all right.
[12:19.98]M: Would you like to step this way with me, please?
[12:22.49] W: Ok, sure.
[12:24.99]M: Thank you.
[13:16.73]SECTION C
[13:18.36]NEWS BROADCAST
[13:20.54]Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news.
[13:25.17]The UN Agency, the World Food Program says Iraq is facing a food crisis
[13:30.56]which is causing enormous damage to its population, especially its children.
[13:35.06] The agency said more and more Iraqis
[13:37.43]were spending their whole days struggling to find food for survival
[13:41.97]and the social fabric of the nation was disintegrating.
[13:45.26]It said that an entire generation of children was being harmed irreparably
[13:49.86]and the country was at a point of no return.
[13:52.37] WFP says that 60% of Iraq’s population,
[13:57.29]that’s 12 million people, are struggling to survive because of food shortages.
[14:01.78]Food for the average family cost the equivalent of $26 a month.
[14:06.03] The devaluation of the Iraqi Dinar means that few can afford this.
[14:10.52]Levels of severe malnutrition among children under five now compare with the Sub-Sahara in Africa.
[14:17.07] The infant mortality rate has risen by more than 700% compared with before the Gulf War.
[14:22.92]Many donor states say the Baghdad government should take the blame for this
[14:27.75] because it refuses to raise money for food by selling oil through the UN as he sanction rules allow.
[14:34.66] WFP is asking for 120 million dollars to help feed 2 million people,
[14:40.13]mostly those under five or over seventy.
[14:43.39]That’s double the size of last year’s program
[14:46.02] although the agency says it’s still a fraction of the real need.
[14:49.91] WFP also acknowledges that it’s unlikely
[14:53.77] that the governments around the world will respond fully to this appeal.
[15:18.00]Question 8 is based on the following news.
[15:21.68]France and US have signed in accord to share sensitive information on nuclear weapons.
[15:28.19]US and French officials say the agreement is aimed at maintaining
[15:32.12]the reliability and safety of the two countries? nuclear stockpiles.
[15:37.76] As part of the accord,
[15:39.73]the US will share with France its computer data on simulated nuclear explosions.
[15:44.99] Until now, the US data was shared only with Britain.
[15:50.24] Officials say the agreement will help the two countries maintain their arsenals
[15:54.99] after they sign a global treaty expected later this year that bans all nuclear testing.
[16:12.08]Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news.
[16:16.99]The University of Michigan carries out a survey of the drug habits among young people every year.
[16:22.92] And this year it concluded that the teenage drug use is rapidly getting worse.
[16:28.47] 25% of the teenagers surveyed said they used an illegal drug at sometime in their lives,
[16:34.86] an increased of 3% from the figures for 1993.
[16:39.75] Marijuana use is climbing back towards levels not thin since the late 1970's
[16:44.94]And today Marijuana is up to ten times more potent than in the past.
[16:49.76] Cocaine use, which leveled off in the early 1990’s
[16:53.77] is also making a comeback among thirteen to fifteen-year-olds.
[16:57.87]And LSD, which had dropped considerably in the 1980’s is also on the rise.
[17:03.73] Officials involved in the survey say the results indicate that
[17:07.79] young people no longer see drugs as dangerous.
[17:10.61]Instead the researchers say they are viewed as glamorous or trendy.
[17:15.10] The health secretaries said it was time to sound the alarm
[17:18.01]and the secretary calls for a powerful anti-drug message
[17:21.54]to be sent to children with parents leading the way.

[17:43.82]This is the end of Part One.