Section B Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each conversation, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must read the four choices marked A), B), C) and D), and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Passage One
An elderly woman yesterday made a legal claim against a department store because it had wrongly accused her of stealing a Christmas card. Ms. Doss white, 72 years old, is claiming $3,000 damages from the store for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Ms. White visited the store while doing Christmas shopping, but did not buy anything. She was followed though the town by a store manager. He had been told that a customer saw her take a card and put it in her shopping bag. He stopped her at a bookstore as she was reading a book. Ms. White said, “This man, a total stranger, suddenly grasped my bag and asked if he could look in it.” She was taken back to the store and shut in a small room in full view 20 minutes until the police arrived. At the police station she was body-searched and nothing was found. Her lawyer said the department store sent an insincere apology and they insisted that she may have been stealing. The hearing continues today.
Q1. What does the story tell us about the old woman? Q2. What was said to have been stolen? Q3. What happened to Ms. White after she was taken back to the store? Q4. What was now the attitude of the department store in this legal case?
26. A) She was found stealing in a bookstore. B) She caught someone in the art of stealing. C) She admitted having stolen something. D) She said she was wrongly accused of stealing.
27. A) A book. B) $ 3,000. C) A handbag. D) A Christmas card.
28. A) She was questioned by the police. B) She was shut in a small room for 20 minutes. C) She was insulted by the shopper around her. D) She was body searched by the store manager.
29. A) They refused to apologize for having followed her though the town. B) They regretted having wrongly accused her of stealing. C) They still suspected that she was a thief. D) They agreed to pay her $ 3,000 damages.
Passage Two Questions 30 to 32 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Passage Two
My friend, Vemon Davies kept birds. One day he phoned and told me he was going away for a week. He asked me to feed the birds for him and said that he would leave the key to his front door in my mailbox.
Unfortunately, I forgot all about the birds until the night before Vemon was going to return. What was worse, it was already dark when I arrived at his house. I soon found the key Vernon gave me could not unlock either the front door or the back door. I was getting desperate. I kept thinking of what Vemon would say when he came back.
I was just going to give up when I noticed that one bedroom window was slightly open. I found a barrel and pushed it under the window. As the barrel was very heavy, I made a lot of noise. But in the end, I managed to climb up and open the window.
I actually had one leg inside the bedroom when I suddenly realized that someone was shining a torch up at me. I looked down and saw a policeman and an old lady, one of Vemon’s neighbours. “What are you doing up there?” said the policeman. Feeling like a complete fool, I replied, “I was just going to feed Mr. Davies’s birds.”
Q1. Why couldn’t the man open the door? Q2. Why did the man feel desperate? Q3. Why did the man feel like a fool?
30. A) His friend gave him the wrong key. B) He didn’t know where the back door was. C) He couldn’t find the key to his mailbox. D) It was too dark to put the key in the lock.
31. A) It was getting dark. B) He was afraid of being blamed by his friend. C) The birds might have flown away. D) His friend would arrive any time.
32. A) He looked silly with only one leg inside the window. B) He knew the policeman wouldn’t believe him. C) The torch light made him look very foolish. D) He realized that he had made a mistake.
Passage Three Questions 33 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.
Passage Three
When Iraq troops blew up hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells at the end of the Gulf War, Scientists feared environmental disaster. Would black powder in the smoke from the fires circle the globe and block out the sun?
Many said, “No way; rain would wash the black power from the atmosphere. But in America, air sampling balloons have detected high concentrations of particles similar to those collected in Kuwait that didn’t catch fire. It has formed huge lakes in the Kuwaiti desert. They trap insects and birds, and poison a variety of other desert animals and plants.
The only good news is that the oil lakes have not affected the underground water resources. So far, the oil has not been absorbed because of the hard sand just below the surface.
Nothing, however, stops the oil from evaporating. The resulting poisonous gases are choking nearby residents.
Officials are trying to organize a quick cleanup, but they are not sure how to do it. One possibility is to burn the oil. Get those black-powder detectors ready.
Q1. What were the scientists worried about soon after the Gulf War? Q2. What was the good news for scientists? Q3. What are the officials trying to do at the moment?
33. A) The threat of poisonous desert animals and plants. B) The exhaustion of energy resources. C) The destruction of energy resources. D) The spread of the black powder from the fires.
34. A) The underground oil resources have not been affected. B) Most of the desert animals and plants have managed to survive. C) The oil lakes soon dried up and stooped evaporating. D) The underground water resources have not of oil wells.
35. A) To restore the normal production of the oil wells. B) To estimate the losses caused by the fire. C) To remove the oil left in the desert. D) To use the oil left in the oil lakes.
20 minutes until the police arrived. At the police station she was body-searched and nothing was found. Her lawyer said the department store sent an insincere apology and they insisted that she may have been stealing. The hearing continues today. 
