考试指导:中级口译考试技巧(十二)

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Directions: In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken only once. Now listen carefidly and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Now let's begin Part B with Listening Comprehension.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following conversation

F: Er …… roughly, Mr. Andrew Simpson, when did you begin collecting badges?

M: At my primary school, I think. The teachers used to give out badges to pupils who were.

particularly good at certain things. So I got a little blue badge with the word "swimming" on

it, and then another one I remember——it was green——which had the word "Tidy" on it! Ha!

F: And have you still got those badges in your collection?

M: No . . . well, I've got the swimming badge, but I think I was so untidy that I must have lost the tidy badge years ago!

F: And you started collecting badges, then, from that, the age of about nine7

M: Er, yeah, I guess so …… eight or nine or so. That's right. In those days——we're talking about the early fifties——there weren't so many cars around as there are today. So filling stations didn't have so many customers. So the petrol companies used to give out badges. I suppose they thought that kids whose parents had a car would keep asking them to go to a particular filling station so that they could get another free badge. My dad bought our first car in 1954. I think it was——a black Ford Popular——and every time I went out with him in it I used to ask him to go to a different petrol station so that I could add more to my growing badge collection. Actually, he was a very shy man, my father, and I'm sure he didn't like asking for free things ……

F: SO petrol company badges were the first ones in your collection, weren't they?

M: After "swimming" and "tidy", yeah…… But soon all sorts of companies started making badges to advertise their products, even cigarette companies. I've got one in my collection for Wills's Woodbines——they were the cheapest cigarettes in those days——and on the badge, at the bottom, it says, "Smoked by Millions"——no health warnings in those days……

F: How did you start collecting foreign badges?

M: I started travelling! Actually, I have to say that as a teenager I rather lost interest in badges and in fact I threw away a lot …… or, er lost quite a lot …… ones which would be rather valuable today. But when I left university I got a job in Austria and whenever I had a holiday, I used to take cheap trips to countries in Eastern Europe. Badges are very popular there and I soon started collecting again. I've got some really beautiful badges from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, and some lovely ones from Yugoslavia, too.

F: Do people in Eastern Europe wear badges or do they just collect them?

M: Oh, they wear them just like we do.

F: Why do you think people do wear badges?

M: Well, I think there are probably three main reasons. I 'think some people wear them to show that they belong to something. You know, like a group or a club or an association of some sort …… like the Rotary Club or a trade union. And then I think people wear badges for they have something to say to the world. To tell people what they think——political or religious badges—— which show what kind of person the wearer is, what he or she believes in, what they want to me" communicate …… or badges which say things like, er, "Please don't smoke near or "I'm a vegetarian". I think that sort of badge is very popular these days.

F: You said you thought there were three main reasons why people wear badges ……

M: Oh, yes. Well, the third reason, I think, is to show everyone else where you've been …… you know, badges which say things like "I've been to Disneyland". A lot of people put stickers like that on their cars, too. There are other reasons, of course but I think they're the main ones.

Question No. 1 What colour was the "Tidy" badge?

Question No. 2 Which badge does Andrew Simpson think he has lost?

Question No. 3 When do you think Andrew Simpson was born?

Question No. 4 What is the slogan on the Wills's Woodbines badge?

Question No. 5 How many main reasons are given by Andrew Simpson for people to wear badges?