Part III Listening Comprehension

Conversation 1

W: One of the most interesting experiments with dolphins must be one done by Doctor Jarvis Bastian. What he tried to do was to teach a male dolphin called Bass and a female called Doris to communicate with each other across a solid barrier.

M: So how did he do it exactly?

W: Well, first of all, he kept the two dolphins together in the same tank and taught them to press levers whenever they saw a light. The levers were fitted to the side of the tank next to each other. If the light flashed on and off several times, the dolphins were supposed to press the left-hand lever followed by the right-hand one. If the light was kept steady, the dolphins were supposed to press the levers in reverse order. Whenever they responded correctly, they were rewarded with fish.

M: Sounds terribly complicated.

W: Well, that was the first stage. In the second stage, Doctor Bastian separated the dolphins into two tanks. They could still hear one another, but they couldn’t actually see each other. The levers and light were set up in exactly the same way except that this time it was only Doris who could see the light indicating which lever to press first. But in order to get their fish, both dolphins had to press the levers in the correct order. This meant of course that Doris had to tell Bass whether it was a flashing light or whether it was a steady light.
M: So did it work?

W: Well, amazingly enough, the dolphins achieved a 100 % success rate.

Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Q19. What is the purpose of Doctor Jarvis Bastian’s experiment?

Q20. What were the dolphins supposed to do when they saw a steady light?

Q21. How did the second stage of the experiment differ from the first stage?

Conversation 2

W: This week’s program Up Your Street takes you to Harrogate, a small town in Yorkshire. Harrogate became a fashionable resort during Victorian times, when people came to take a bath in the mineral waters. Today, few people come to visit the town for its mineral waters. Instead, Harrogate has become a popular town for people to retire to. Its clean air, attractive parks, and the absence of any industry, make this an ideal spot for people looking for a quiet life. Now, to tell us more about Harrogate, I have with me Tom Percival, President of the Chamber of Commerce. Tom, one of the things visitor notices about Harrogate is the large area of open park land right down into the middle of the town. Can you tell us more about it?

M: Yes, certainly. The area is called the Stray.

W: Why the Stray?

M: It’s called that because in the old days, people let their cattles stray on the area, which was common land.

W: Oh, I see.

M: Then, we’ve changes in farming and in land ownership. The Stray became part of the land owned by Harrogate.

W: And is it protected?

M: Oh, yes, indeed. As a special law, no one can build anything on the stray. It’s protected forever.

W: So it will always be park land?

M: That’s right. As you can see, some of the Stray is used for sports fields.

W: I believe it looks lovely in the spring.

M: Yes, it does. There’re spring flowers on the old trees, and people visit the town just to see the flowers.

Question 22-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Q22. Where does this conversation most probably take place?

Q23. What do we learn about modern Harrogate?

Q24. What does the man say about the area called the Stray?

Q25. What attracts people most in the Stray during the spring time?