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II. Basic Listening Practice

Keys: 1.C 2.A3.B 4.C 5.D

III. Listening In

Task1: Reasons for a Divorce

After thirteen years marriage, the woman wants to divorce her husband, claiming he is irresponsible. When asked for the specific grounds for divorce, she gives these reasons: First, he keeps changing jobs, and the family has had to move four times in thirteen years, but she wants stability for her children and herself. Second, although he is paying the bills, they just live around the poverty line. Her children are being teased by other children for not dressing good clothes. Also, they had to live in a small apartment and drive an old car, though it still runs. Worse still, the husband yells at her, though she admits she also yell at him and calls him names. As for the divorce arrangements, the woman will give the husband only visitation rights instead of joint custody. Moreover, the woman will demand half of all they have and large support payments.

Task 2: What four-letter words?

Keys: FTFFT

Task3: A Woman Who Chose Not to Remarry

Kes: 1C 2.A3. B 4.B 5.BIV. Speaking Out

MODEL 1 Is youth wasted on the young?

Amy:I’d like to talk to you, so stop what you’re doing for a minute.

Bill:What is it, Amy? I’m having a hectic time worki ng on this report for tomorrow’s meeting.

Amy: Well, you’re always pretty busy, and it’s been more five years, almost six, since we were married.

Bill:Yes, time has gone so fast, but they’ve been good years.

Amy:I know, but I want to have a baby—I want us to have a baby.

Bill:I know you do. But remember, we said we’d wait until we could afford it.

Amy:But five years is a long time to wait. Anyway, it’s long enough. Bill:I’m this close to getting a promotion.

Amy:What has that got to do with it? We could wait forever if we wait for the “perfect” moment. Soon we’ll be too old to enjoying having a baby.

Bill:You know,you have a good point. This report can wait. I’ll do it tomorrow morning. Let’s open a bottle of wine and enjoy ourselves.

MODEL2 So many people in the United States get divorced! Script

Kim:Hi Amy.

Amy: Hi! Look at this headline, Kim.

Kim: Wow!So many people in the United States get divorced!

Amy:But this is not uncommon in west. In some places,the divorce rate can be as high as 50 percent.

Kim: It seems strange to me that Westerners fall head heels in love quickly,if not at first sight; but they also leave each other quickly.

Amy:Is it the same in your country?

Kim: I don’t think so. In my country, some marriages break up, but mostcouples stay together.

Amy:Do people get married young?

Kim: Not really. Not many people get married before the age of 20.

Amy:Hmm.Do woman usually work after they get married?

Kim:No, a lot of women stay home to take care of their families. But more women work now.

MODEL3 Why not have both our parents here for Christmas? Script

Amy: You know, Christmas is coming. And I haven’t seen Dad for ages—he always has such great stories to tell.

Bill: I know we went t my folks’ last year, but my Mom’s been pretty sick. This might be her last Christmas.

Amy:She’s been ill, but don’t exaggerate. You just don’t like my mother. That’s why you don’t want to go to my parents

Bill:She’s never liked me. Never thought I was good enough for you.

Amy: Well, you’re not… But seriously, Mom’s not s o sad. She’s just got a thick skin and likes to hide her feelings

Bill:I don’t think so.

Amy:Why not have our both families here for Christmas?

Bill: That would make twenty-two of us if we invited everybody.

Amy: Why not just have our parents here for Christmas?

Bill: Good idea. Just don’t sit me next to your mother.

V. Let’s Talk

Changes in the Speaker’s Attitude

Reasons or Detailed Description

to RemarriageFor two years after my divorce, remarriage was the last word I’d consider.1.High rate of remarriage failure.

2.Remarriage would affect my son.

①He drew a picture of the three of us.

②My parents married and divorced eight times and I hope my son would have no such pain.

③My primary focus was my son, not a wife.

I ignored my son’s suggestion that I consider dating.He grew up and became conscious of my loneliness and anxiety.

I reconsidered m reservation about dating

and began to date Maria

The second time he brought the issue up.

I was concerned about my son’s respond to her.At first his affection for her was lukewarm:his hug was mechanica l; but several months later he warmed up to her.

I asked Maria to marry me and she accepted.Seeing time was ripe.

Our family of two became a family of three.I believe my remarrying was the right

choice.

VI. Further Listening and Speaking

Task1: Early Marriage

Keys: 1.B 2.D3.A 4.D 5.C

Task 2: Nuclear Family Living Patterns

Script

A nuclear family is typical in high-industrialized societies. Beginning in the early 20th century, the two-parent family known as the nuclear family was the predominant American family type. Generally children live with their parents until they go away to a college or university, or until they acquir e their own jobs and move into their own apartment or home.

In the early mid-20th century, the family typically was the sole wage earner, and the mother was the children’s principle care giver. Today,often both parents hold jobs. Dual-earner families are the predominant type for families with children in the United States.Increasingly, one of the parents has a non-standard shift; that is, a shift that does not start in the morning and end in later afternoon. In these families, one of the parents manages the children while the other works.

Prior to school, adequate day care of children is necessary for dual-earner families. In recent years, many private companies and home-based day care centers have sprung up fulfill this need. Increasingly, a company’s arrangement

of day care as well as government assistance to parents requiring day care is occurring.

Task3: They are coming for Christmas,

News Report

Prince More Precious Than the Diamond

Script

People have long known the saying “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” But this may be changing. There’s a new stone on the gem market, tanzanite, and it is giving diamonds some serious competition.

Tanzanite was one of a number of gems discovered in East Africa in the 1960s. The new colors and varieties changed the gem market. But the real gem among these stones was tanzanite, discovered in 1967 in Tanzania. The stone was named after its country of origin by New York’s Tiffany and Co. which introduced it to the world. It draws one’s attention quickly with its color—blue, purple or bronze, depending on the direction it is viewed from.

More important for its value, though, is its rarity. Tanzanite has been found in only one small area, near Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania. And its supply will probably be fully mined in the next two decades.

As one mining official puts it, “It should never have really occurred in the first place. It did occur. And only this one deposit on this entire planet that is known…makes it more than a thousand times rarer than diamonds. And certainly within the next 15 to 20 years, there will be no more tanzanite to be mined.”

The current value of the tanzanite market, at U.S. $10 billion, is equivalent to

that of diamonds. And so another saying “Diamonds are forever” may lose some

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