Listening Comprehension Test for 11th Form Students Text

 

“Why We Believe” (by Sharon Begley)

 

The pervasiveness of belief in the supernatural and paranormal may seem odd in an age of science. But ours is also an age of anxiety, a time of economic distress and social anomie, as denizens of a mobile society are repeatedly uprooted from family and friends. Historically, such times have been marked by a surge in belief in astrology, ESP and other paranormal phenomena, spurred in part by a desperate yearning to feel a sense of control in a world spinning out of control. A study reported in the journal Science found that people asked to recall a time when they felt a loss of control saw more patterns in random noise, perceived more conspiracies in stories they read and imagined illusory correlations in financial markets than people who were not reminded that events are sometimes beyond their control. ”In the absence of perceived control, people become susceptible to detecting patterns in an effort to regain some sense of organization,” says psychology researcher Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol, whose upcoming book “Supersence: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable” explores the mental processes behind belief in the paranormal. “No wonder those stock market traders are clutching their rabbit’s feet” – or that psychics seem to be rivaling reality stars for TV hegemony (“Medium”, “Psychic Kids”, “Lost” and the new “Fringe” and “Eleven Hour”). Just as great religious awakenings have coincided with tumultuous eras, so belief in the paranormal also becomes much more prevalent during social and political turmoil. Such events, “lead the mind to look for explanations,” says Michael Shermer, president of the Skeptics Society and author of the 1997 book “Why People Believe Weird Things.” “The mind often takes a turn toward the supernatural and paranormal,” which offer the comfort that benign beings are watching over you (angels), or that you will always be connected to a larger reality beyond the woes of this world (ghosts).

As science replaces the supernatural with the natural, explaining everything from thunder and lightning to the formation of planets, many people seek another source of mystery and wonder in the world. People can get that from belief in several paranormal phenomena, but none more so than thinking they were abducted by aliens. When Susan Clancy was a graduate student in psychology at Harvard University, she was struck by how ordinary the “abductees” she was studying seemed. They were respectable, job-holding, functioning members of society, normal except for their belief that short beings with big eyes once scooped them up and took them to a spaceship.

Some 40 percent of Americans believe it is possible that aliens have grabbed some of us, polls show, compared with 20 percent in the 1980s. What makes abductees stand out is something so common, it is a wonder there are not more of them: an inability to think scientifically. The scientific principle that the simplest explanation is most likely to be right is, well, alien to abductees. But again, an inability to think scientifically is exceedingly common. We are more irrational than we are rational” emotions drive voting behavior more strongly than analysis of candidates’ records and position does. The universal human need to find meaning and purpose in life is stronger and more basic than any attachment to empiricism, logic or objective reality.

Listening Comprehension Test for 11th Form Students

 

Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.

• During difficult times people believe less strongly in paranormal events.

• Loss of control is one of the reasons people believe in paranormal events.

• The study referenced in the text was published in the journal Paranormal Events.

• Researcher Bruce Hood tries to explore the mental processes behind belief in the paranormal.

• The article references stock market traders clutching fox feet for good luck.

• Ghosts offer some people comfort that benevolent beings are watching over them.

• Michael Sherner authored his book in 1996.

• The inability to think scientifically is rare.

• We are more rational than we are irrational.

• According to the text, humans do not need to find meaning or purpose in life.

 

Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D

11. Which of the following words is a synonym for paranormal?

A. supernatural B. comprehensible C. irrational D. unclear

12. Times of economic distress are marked by an increase in...

A. financial security B. organization C. astrology D. none of the above

13. People who have felt a loss of control in their lives tend to...

A. see more patterns in random noise.

B. perceive more conspiracies in stories.

C. imagine odd connections in financial markets

D. all of the above.

14. Researcher Bruce Hood’s upcoming book is called...

A. Medium

B. ‘Why People Believe Weird Things.”

C. Fringe

D. “Supersence: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable”

15. Which of the following are described as benign beings?

A. ghosts B. demons C. angels D. aliens

16. Which of the following words is an antonym for susceptible?

A. naive B. resistant C. persuadable D. moveable

17. Television psychics are rivaling reality TV stars for all of the following EXCEPT:

A. screen time B. power C. accountability D. popularity

18. The author most likely thinks the supernatural is...

A. irrelevant in today’s world

B. an important part of society.

C. a psychological response to unsetting times.

D. a conspiracy theory.

19. The reading described all of the following EXCEPT:

A. belief in the paranormal

B. TV shows about the paranormal.

C. a connection between times of economic distress and the paranormal.

D. alien abductions.

20. The main idea of this text is...

A. angels and ghosts have not been confirmed as existent phenomena.

B. economic distress leads to increased acceptance for supernatural occurrences.

C. many people seek other sources of mystery and wonder in the world.

D. All of the above.

 

Listening Comprehension Test for 10th Form Students Text

 

G.I – Government Issue рядовий солдат

G.I Bill of Rights - пільги демобілізованим

timberland - лісисте місце

 

The USA in the 50s: Houses, Kids, Cars and Fast Food (from “A History of Us”)

 

Couples had put off having children during the war years – and now they were making up for that. We were having a “baby boom.” The war veterans had gone to college under the G.I Bill of Rights, and the government paid for their tuition. By the ‘50s, most of those veterans were out of school, married, and having children. .Their college degrees helped them find good jobs, usually better jobs than their fathers had ever had (most women – at least middle-class women – did not work).

Those new families needed places to live, and, in America, every family dreamed of a home of its own. But there was a big housing shortage. What to do? Use some American ingenuity.

William Levitt had it. Before the war, an average builder might build two or three or, at most, five houses a year. Bill Levitt was soon finishing 36 houses a day, which added up to 180 in every five-day week! How did he do it? By analyzing the building process, dividing it into 27 steps, and putting teams of people to work on each step. It was Henry Ford’s mass-production idea applied to housing. A team did the same task, over and over, moving from house to house. There were framers and roofers, tile men and floor men, painters who did all the white painting and others who painted all the green. If anyone slowed down, it fouled up the whole production process. Bill Levitt made sure that did not happen.. he began producing his own nails and making his own cement. He even bought timberland in Oregon and cut his own lumber. By doing all that, he kept his house prices very low.

He had thought all this out while he was in the navy, where he was assigned to the Seabees. (They were the navy’s builders). Levitt was commissioned to build air-fields, practically overnight. Lives depended on his speed. He analyzed, planned, brainstormed with other Seabees, and built the airfields. Later, he said the navy gave him a chance to experiment and learn how to get things done.

Levitt knew that a lot of veterans like himself would be looking for homes after the war. So he bought a huge tract of land on Long Island (near New York City). It was mainly potato fields. Those fields soon became a community called Levittown. Most of Levitt’s houses had four and a half rooms and were exactly alike. They were sturdy, available, and a great value – like Ford’s Model T. When the first advertisement for the first Levittown ran in the New York Times, people began lining up. In one day alone, Levitt sold more than 1,400 houses. Bill Levitt’s ideas were soon copied by other builders. The communities they built were part of something that was about to boom: suburbia. Suburbs – on the outskirts of the cities – were springing up around the country. Some had low-cost houses, but others were for the affluent. As people moved out of the cities, new people – often poor people- moved in. Cities began loosing some of their most productive taxpayers just when they needed rebuilding. But that is the other story of American ingenuity.

Listening Comprehension Test for 10th Form Students

The USA in the 50s: Houses, Kids, Cars and Fast Food

(from “A History of Us”)

 

Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.

1. It was the Government that paid for the war veterans’ education

2. In the fifties a private house was difficult to buy

3. William Levitt could build 36 houses a year instead of 5

4. Levitt used Ford’s idea of mass-production

5. The shortage of lumber could slow down the building process

6. Levitt’s navy service taught him how to get things done well

7. Levitt’s houses were too expensive for the less affluent to buy

8. No company except Levitt’s was allowed to build in the suburbs

9. The houses of Levittown were of great variety both for cost and size

10. Building airfields, Levitt preferred to keep his ideas to himself

 

Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D

11. Why could the war veterans find better jobs than their fathers?

A. They were better educated C. They were given more rights

B. They were married D. They had many children

12. The Government Issue Bill of rights provided

A. rights for free education C. rights for going to college

B. rights for better jobs D rights for getting married

13. According to the text William Levitt was

A. an average builder C. a white painter

B. an ingenious constructor D. a navy officer

14. The navy builders were called

A. Sea bears B. Seabees C. Seabirds D. Sea -builders

15. How did Levitt manage to speed up the building process?

A. by publishing an advertisement in the newspaper

B. by keeping the house prices very low

C. by providing his own nails, cement and lumber

D. by dividing it into steps and using a special team for each step

16. Levittown was on the outskirts of

A. Long Island B. New York C. Oregon D. timberland

17. Levitt built everything EXCEPT:

A. airfields B. communities C. city centers D. private houses

18. What was the result of the affluent moving into the suburbs?

A. The new communities spring up around the country

B. Cities got less money for rebuilding

C. The poor moved houses.

D. The cost of housing got lower.

19. How many rooms did Levitt’s houses have?

A. five and a half B. four and a half C. forty and a half D. fifteen and a half

20. According to the text what might slow down the building process?

A. A shortage of workers

B. A shortage of cement

C. A shortage of land

D A shortage of ingenuity

 

 

Listening Comprehension Test for 9th Form Students Text

 

“The Box of Robbers” by L. Frank Baum

 

No one intended to leave Martha alone that afternoon, but it happened that everyone was called away, for one reason or another. Mrs. McFarland was attending the weekly card party held by the Women’s Anti-Gambling League. Sister Neil’s young man had called quite unexpectedly to take her for a long drive. Papa was at the office, as usual. It was Mary Ann’s day out. as for Emeline, she certainly should have stayed in the house and looked after the little girl; but Emeline had a restless nature.

“Would you mind, miss, if I just crossed the alley to speak a word to Mrs. Carleton’s girl?” she asked Martha.

“Course not,” replied the child. “You’d better lock the back door, though, and take the key, for I shall be upstairs.”

“Oh, I’ll do that, of course, miss,” said the delighted maid, and ran away to spend the afternoon with her friend, leaving Martha quite alone in the big house and locked in.

The little girl read a few pages in her new book, sewed a few stitches in her embroidery

and started to “play visiting” with her four favorite dolls. Then she remembered that in the attic was a doll’s playhouse that had not been used for months, so she decided she would dust it and put it in order.

Filled with this idea, the girl climbed the winding stairs to the big room under the roof. It was well lit by three dormer windows and was warm amd pleasant. Around the walls were rows of boxes and trunks, piles of old carpeting, pieces of damaged furniture, bundles of discarded clothing and other odds and ends of more or less value. Every well-regulated house has an attic of this sort, so I need not describe it.

The dolls house had been moved, but after a search Martha found it away over in a corner near the big chimney.

She drew it out and noticed that behind it was a black wooden chest which Uncle Walter had sent over from Italy years and years ago – before Martha was born, in fact. Mama had told her about it one day; how there was no key to it, because Uncle Walter wished it to remain unopened until he returned home; and how this wandering uncle who was a mighty hunter, had gone into Africa to hunt elephants and had never been heard from afterwards. The little girl looked at the chest curiously, now that it had by accident attached her attention.

It was quite big – bigger even than mama’s traveling trunk – and was studded all over with tarnished brass headed nails. It was heavy, too, for when Martha tried to lift one end of it she found she could not stir it a bit. But there was a place in the side of the cover for a key. She stooped to examine the lock, and saw that it would take a rather big key to open it.

Then, as you may suspect, the little girl longed to open Uncle Walter’s big box and see what was in it. For we are all curious, and little girls are just as curious as the rest of us.

“I do not believe Uncle Walter will ever come back,” she thought. “Papa said once that some elephant must have killed him. If I only had a key –“. She stopped and clapped her little hands together gaily as she remembered a big basket of keys on the shelf in the linen closet. They were of all sorts and sizes; perhaps one of them would unlock the mysterious chest!

She flew down the stairs, found the basket and returned with it to the attic. Then she sat down before the brass-studded box and began trying one key after another in the curious old lock. Some were too large, but most were too small. One would go into the lock but would not turn; another stuck so fast that she feared for a time that she would never get it out again. but at last, when the basket was almost empty, an oddly-shaped, ancient brass key slipped easily into the lock.. With a cry of joy Martha turned the key with both hands; then she heard a sharp “click” and the next moment the heavy lid flew up of its own accord!

The little girl leaned over the edge of the chest an instant, and the sight that met her eyes caused her to start back in amazement.

Slowly and carefully a man unpacked himself from the chest, stepped out upon the floor, stretched his limbs and then took off his hat and bowed politely to the astonished child.. He was tall and thin and his face seemed badly tanned or sun burnt.

Then another man emerged from the chest, yawning and rubbing his eyes like a sleepy schoolboy. He was of middle size and his skin seemed as badly tanned as that of the first.

While Martha stared open-mouthed at the remarkable sight a third man crawled from the chest. He had the same complexion as his fellows, but was short and fat.

All three were dressed in a curious manner. They wore short jackets of red velvet braided with gold, and knee trousers of sky-blue satin with silver buttons. Over their stockings were laced wide ribbons of red and yellow and blue, while their hats had broad brims with high, picked crowns, from which fluttered yards of bright colored ribbons.

They had big gold rings in their ears and rows of knives and pistols in their belts. Their eyes were black and glittering and they wore long, fierce mustaches, curling at the ends like a pig’s tail.

 

Listening Comprehension Test for 9th Form Students

“The Box of Robbers” by L. Frank Baum

Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.

• Martha’s father does not work a lot.

• Martha did not want to be left alone in the house.

• Martha first went to the attic to find a doll’s play house.

• The author thought that Martha’s attic was very typical.

• The dolls house was in front of a black wooden chest.

• Martha moved the chest before she opened it.

• Most of the keys Martha tried in the lock were too big.

• The first man to step out of the chest did so politely.

• The second man to step out of the chest was the fattest.

• The men had weapons.

 

Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D

11. Mrs. McFarland...

A. was gambling B. was working C. was playing cards D. had the day off

 

12. Emeline was Martha’s...

A. sister B. mother C. friend D. maid

 

13. All of these were in the attic EXCEPT...

A. rows of boxes B. windows C. odds and ends D. a basket of keys

 

14. The chest...

A. had never been in the attic before C. had been in the attic for many years.

B. had recently been sent from Italy. D. had come from Africa many years ago.

 

15. According to the text, Uncle Walter was many things EXCEPT...

A. a mighty hunter C. an alligator wrestler

B. a world traveler D. a victim of a horrible elephant attack

 

16. Judging by the lock on the trunk, the key would have to be...

A. brass B. oddly-shaped C. long D. big

 

17. The key that opened the chest was...

A. the first key Martha took out of the basket.

B. one of the first keys Martha took out of the basket.

C. one of the last keys left in the basket.

D. the last key in the basket.

 

18. The men had...

A. dark complexions and earring C. brown eyes and pig-tails

B. short moustaches and rings on their fingers .D. plain clothes and swords.

 

19. The men’s clothing included...

A. red velvet trousers C. golden stockings

B. sky-blue jackets. D. hats with ribbons.

 

20. In this story, Martha is everything EXCEPT...

A. curious B. illogical C. independent D. amazed

 

Answer Keys for Listening

9th Form “The Box of Robbers”

Task 1

1F 2F 3F 4T 5T 6F 7F 8T 9F 10T

Task 2

11C 12D 13D 14C 15B 16D 17C 18A 19D 20C

 

10th Form “USA in the ‘50s”

Task 1

1T 2T 3T 4T 5T 6T 7F 8F 9F 10F

Task 2

11A 12A 13B 14B 15D 16B 17C 18B 19B 20B

 

11th Form “Why We Believe”

Task 1

1F 2T 3F 4T 5F 6T 7F 8F 9F 10F

Task 2

11A 12C 13D 14D 15C 16B 17C 18C 19B 20C