TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 31 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution

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TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 31 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution Transcripts

 

TRACK 86 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to a conversation between a student and an admissions officer at City College.

Student

Hi. Can I ask you a few questions about starting classes during your summer session?

Admissions officer

Sure. Ask away! It starts next week, you know.

Student

Yeah, and I want to get some required courses out of the way so I can … maybe I can graduate one term earlier and get out into the job market sooner.

Admissions officer

That sounds like a good idea. Let me pull up the summer school database on my computer here…

Student

OK.

Admissions officer

OK, there it is. What’s your student ID number?

Student

Oh, well, the thing is … I’m not actually admitted here. I’ll be starting school upstate at Hooper University in the fall. But I’m down here for the summer, staying with my grandparents, ’cause I have a summer job near here.

Admissions officer

Oh, I see, well…

Student

So I’m outta luck?

Admissions officer

Well, you would be if you were starting anywhere but Hooper. But City College has a sort of special relationship with Hooper… a full exchange agreement… so our students can take classes at Hooper and vice versa. So if you can show me proof um, your admissions letter from Hooper, then I can get you into our system here and give you an ID number.

Student

Oh, cool. So … um … I wanna take a math course and a science course—preferably biology. And I was also hoping to get my English composition course out of the way, too.

Admissions officer

Well all three of those courses are offered in the summer, but you’ve gotta understand that summer courses are condensed—you meet longer hours and all the assignments are doubled up because … it’s the same amount of information presented and tested as in a regular term, but it’s only six weeks long. Two courses are considered full time in summer term. Even if you weren’t working, I couldn’t let you register for more than that.

Student

Yeah, I was half expecting that. What about the schedule? Are classes only offered during the day?

Admissions officer

Well, during the week, we have some classes in the daytime and some at night, and on the weekends, we have some classes all day Saturday or all day Sunday for the six weeks.

Student

My job is pretty flexible, so one on a weekday and one on a weekend shouldn’t be any problem. OK, so after I bring you my admissions letter, how do I sign up for the classes?

Admissions officer

Well, as soon as your student ID number is assigned and your information is in our admissions system, you can register by phone almost immediately.

Student

What about financial aid? Is it possible to get it for the summer?

Admissions officer

Sorry, but that’s something you would’ve had to work out long before now. But the good news is that the tuition for our courses is about half of what you’re going to be paying at Hooper.

Student

Oh, well that helps! Thank you so much for answering all my questions. I’ll be back tomorrow with my letter.

Admissions officer

I won’t be here then, but do you see that lady sitting at that desk over there? That’s Ms. Brinker. I’ll leave her a note about what we discussed, and she’ll get you started.

Student

Cool.

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TRACK 88 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in a world history class.

Professor

In any introductory course, I think it’s always a good idea to step back and ask ourselves “What are we studying in this class, and why are we studying it?”

So, for example, when you looked at the title of this course in the catalog     “Introduction to World History”—what did you think you were getting into .. . what made you sign up for it—besides filling the social-science requirement?

Anyone…?

Male student

Well . . . just the—the history—of everything . . . you know, starting at the beginning .. . with … I guess, the Greeks and Romans … the Middle Ages, the Renaissance . .. you know, that kinda stuff… like what we did in high school.

Professor

OK … Now, what you’re describing is one approach to world history.

In fact, there are several approaches—basic “models” or “conceptual frameworks” of what we study when we “do” history. And what you studied in high school—what I call the “Western-Heritage Model,” this used to be the most common approach in U.S. high schools and colleges … in fact, it’s the model I learned w.th, when I was growing up back—oh, about a hundred years ago …

Uh … at Middletown High School, up in Maine … I guess it made sense to my teachers back then—since, well, the history of western Europe was the cultural heritage of everyone in my class … and this remained the dominant approach in most U.S. schools till … oh, maybe … 30, 40 years ago … But it doesn’t take more than a quick look around campus—even just this classroom today—to see that the student body in the U.S. is much more diverse than my little class in Middletown High .. . and this Western-Heritage Model was eventually replaced by—or sometimes combined Wjth_one or more of the newer approaches … and I wanna take a minute to describe these to you today, so you can see where this course fits in.

OK … so … up until the mid-twentieth century, the basic purpose of most world- history courses was to learn about a set of values … institutions … ideas … which were considered the “heritage” of the people of Europe—things like … democracy … legal systems … types of social organization … artistic achievements …

Now as I said, this model gives us a rather limited view of history. So, in the 1960s and 70s it was combined with-or replaced by-what I call the “Different-Cultures Model.” The ’60s were a period in which people were demanding more relevance in the curriculum, and there was criticism of the European focus that you were likely to find in all the academic disciplines. For the most part, the Different-Cultures Model didn’t challenge the basic assumptions of the Western-Heritage Model. What it did was insist on representing other civilizations and cultural categories, in addition to those of western Europe …

In other words, the heritage of all people: not just what goes back to the Greeks and Romans, but also the origins of African . .. Asian … Native American civilizations. Though more inclusive, it’s still, basically, a “heritage model” … which brings us to a third approach, what I call the “Patterns-of-Change Model.”

Like the Different-Cultures Model, this model presents a wide cultural perspective. But, with this model, we’re no longer limited by notions of fixed cultural or geographical boundaries. So, then, studying world history is not so much a question of how a particular nation or ethnic group developed, but rather it’s a look at common themes—conflicts … trends—that cut across modern-day borders of nations or ethnic groups. In my opinion, this is the best way of studying history, to better understand current-day trends and conflicts.

For example, let’s take the study of the Islamic world. Well, when I first learned about Islamic civilization, it was from the perspective of Europeans. Now, with the Patterns-of-Change Model, we’re looking at the past through a wider lens. So we would be more interested, say, in how interactions with Islamic civilization—the religion … art… literature—affected cultures in Africa … India … Spain … and so on.

Or… let’s take another example. Instead of looking at each cultural group as having a separate, linear development from some ancient origin, in this course we’ll be looking for the common themes that go beyond cultural or regional distinctions. So . . . instead of studying … a particular succession of British kings … or a dynasty of Chinese emperors … in this course, we’ll be looking at the broader concepts of monarchy, imperialism … and political transformation.

TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 30 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution

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TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 30 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution Transcripts

 

TRACK 63 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the campus computer center.

Computer center employee

Hi, what can I help you with today?

Student

Hi, um, I wanted to—you see, the thing is, I don’t know much about computers, so I was wondering if, uh, if there’s a class or something … so I can learn how to use computers, like to write papers for my classes.

Computer center employee

Oh, I see … um, we don’t really offer a course for beginners, since most students already have computing experience. But all the computers in our labs have a general tutorial installed on them. You could just go there and run it.

Student

And the tutorial explains everything? I mean, it might sound strange but I’ve never used a computer.

Computer center employee

Well, all the computer labs on campus are staffed with student assistants, and I’m sure that any one of them would be more than willing to get you started.

Student

Yeah? That sounds good. But is it expensive?

Computer center employee

No, in fact, it won’t cost anything; it’s one of the services of the computer center.

Student

That’s great. How do they—I mean, how do I get in touch with the student assistants? Should I just go to a computer lab and ask whoever’s there?

Computer center employee

Sure, you could do that, or I can let you have a list of names of the students who are assistants in the labs. You might know one of them.

Student

Actually, I think I’d prefer someone I don’t know, um, so I can ask dumb questions .

Is there anyone you’d recommend?

Computer center employee

All of our student assistants are really knowledgeable about computers. I mean, they have to be, in order to work in the computer labs … It doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily good at teaching beginners … but you probably won’t be a beginner for very long.

Student

Hope not.

Computer center employee

And I just thought of something else. The bookstore has a lot of books on computers—there might be one for people like you, I mean, people who don’t have a lot of experience with computers. I actually bought one for my father so he could learn how to use e-mail, basic word processing, that sort of thing—and it worked pretty well for him.

Student

OK, I’ll try that, too. And if the bookstore doesn’t have it, they can just order it for me?

Computer center employee

Right. Now is there anything else I can help you with today?

Student

Uh, just the list of names and the times they’re working. I’d like to get going on this as soon as possible.

Computer center employee

Right. Good luck.

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TRACK 64 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in an economics class.

Professor

When attempting to understand international trade, some things seem so obvious that they can hardly be controverted, and other points that are important are invisible unless you’ve thought about the subject carefully.

Consider the following: if there’s an increase in imports, let’s say, um, let’s say imports of furniture, and the domestic producers of furniture find this new competition very difficult and are cutting production and employment, then it seems obvious and easy to understand and many people conclude from this that increasing imports will cause generally greater unemployment at home.

What is not so obvious is that how much we import and how much we export… those are interdependent and you can’t understand the one without the other. But the exports that are generated are not easily discernable, so most people don’t see them. They see only the imports of furniture rising and employment in domestic furniture production falling.

So as a result, many people argue that we ought to protect jobs by limiting imports— either by tariffs, quotas, regulations, or whatever—without realizing that this also has the effect of reducing potential future exports to the rest of the world, things that we can produce very, very … cost effectively and therefore profitably.

The fundamental proposition in international economics is that it makes sense to import those things that we … that can be produced more economically abroad than at home and export things to the rest of the world that we can produce more cost effectively than produced elsewhere in the world. Therefore, if we limit imports we put ourselves in danger of not being able to export.

The details of this relationship will take much longer to explain than I can fully go into now but the point of the matter is that gains—the benefits of gains—from international trade result from being able to get things cheaper by buying them abroad than you can make them at home. Now there’re some things that we can make at home that are .. . that we can do more economically than they can do abroad.

In the case of the United States, typically high-technology products, uh . .. are things that Americans have innovated in and started firms doing that sort of thing at which they do very well. Whereas goods that produce … that use a lot of relatively low skill labor, like furniture production, cotton production, sugar production … those are things that are frequently made more inexpensively in places where wage rates are low and the cost of using capital is very high.

However, in Florida they produce a lot of sugar, but the costs are so high, if we didn’t have extensive restrictions on imports of sugar, the output of sugar would decline dramatically. But the sugar industry in the U.S. doesn’t produce high-paying jobs, it uses resources in ineffective ways and it blocks the import of more cost-effectively produced sugar. It, it’s a very bad bargain for the people in the United States to want to protect low-paying jobs thereby halting the growth of world trading and international… uh, more international specialization. It would be better to remove restrictions on imports and allow other countries in the world … countries that can produce them more cheaply … let them specialize in producing those products.

Now, I agree that people who are directly affected by imports, what they focus on … is, is that their prospects … their job prospects are being reduced, and their economic circumstances are getting worse. And that’s a relevant problem and an important problem; what isn’t so obvious is … that by retraining and relocating people to places and industries where jobs are expanding rather than contracting, we can make the whole economy function more effectively and productively than by trying to block imports.

Um, what is interesting to note is that, even if there were no international trade issues, like imports, any changes that occur in a country’s economy—any new technology, change in preferences, change in regulations or whatever—will lead to “adjustments” that lead some sectors of the economy to decline and others to expand.

And that’s what we have to figure out, and that’s a hard problem to deal with in detail, is howto facilitate people adjusting from sectors where their job prospects are not so good, and in particular where real wages aren’t so high, to acquire skills that will permit them to move into higher-paying jobs in other parts of the economy either by retraining or relocating. Helping pay for the relocation of these people would be very helpful, but trying to block the changes is really counterproductive. It makes people in our country poorer, and it makes people elsewhere in the world poorer as well.

TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 29 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution

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TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 29 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution Transcripts

TRACK 42 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to a conversation between a student and an employee in the university’s career services office.

Student

Hi. Do you have a minute?

Administrator

Sure. How can I help you?

Student

I have a couple of questions about the career fair next week.

Administrator

OK, shoot.

Student

Um, well, are seniors the only ones who can go? I mean, you know they’re finishing school this year and getting their degrees and everything … and, well i, seems ,like businesses would want to talk to them and not first-year students like me …

Administrator

No, no. The career fair is open to all our students and we encourage anyone who’s interested to go check it out.

Student

Well, that’s good to know.

Administrator

You’ve seen the flyers and the posters around campus, I assume.

Student

Sure! Can’t miss ’em. I mean, they all say where and when the fair is … just no, wo should attend.

Administrator

Actually, they do. But it’s in the small print. We should probably make that part easier to read, shouldn’t we? I’ll make a notre of that right now. So, do you have any other questions?

Student

Yes, actually I do now. Um, since I’d only be going to familiarize myself with the process you now, “check it out”—I was wondering if there’s anything you’d recommend that I do to prepare.

Administrator

That’s actually a very good question. As you know, the career fair is generally an opportunity for local businesses to recruit new employees and for soon-to-be gradu-ates to have mterv.ews with several companies they might be interested in working for. Now, in your case, even though you wouldn’t be looking for employment right now, it still wouldn’t hurt for you to prepare much like you would if you were looking for a job.

Student

You mean like get my resume together and wear a suit?

Administrator

That’s a given. I was thinking more along the lines of doing some research. The fivers and posters list all the businesses that are sending representatives to the career fair. Um, what s your major, or do you have one yet?

Student

Well, I haven’t declared a major yet but I’m strongly considering accounting. See, that’s part of the reason I want to go to the fair… to help me decide if that’s what I really want to study …

Administrator

That’s very wise. Well, I suggest that you get on the computer and learn more about the accounting companies, in particular, that will be attending. You can learn a lot about companies from their Internet Web sites. Then prepare a list of questions.

Student

Questions … hmm. So in a way I’ll be interviewing them?

Administrator

That’s one way of looking at it. Think about it for a second. What do you want to know about working for an accounting firm?

Student            .

Well, there’s the job itself… and salary, of course … and, urn, working conditions …

I mean, would I have an office or would I work in a big room with a zillion other employees? And … um … and maybe about opportunities for advancement. ..

Administrator

See? Those are all important things to know. After you do some research you II be able to tailor your questions to the particular company you re talking to.

Student

Wow, I’m glad I came by here! So, it looks like I’ve got some work to do. Administrator

And if you plan on attending future career fairs, I recommend you sign up for one of our interview workshops.

Student

I’ll do that.

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TRACK 43 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Why does the student say this:

Student

So, it looks like I’ve got some work to do.

TRACK 44 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in an economics class.

Professor

Now, when I mention the terms “boom” and “bust,” whet does that bring to mind?

Male student

The dot-com crash of the ’90s!

Professor

1. The boom in the late 1990s when all those new Internet companies sprang up and were then sold for huge amounts of money. Then the bust around 2000 … 2001 when many of those same Internet companies went out of business. Of course booms aren t always followed by busts-we’ve certainly seen times when local economies expanded rapidly for a while then went back to a normal pace of growth. But there’s a type of rapid expansion, what might be called a “hysterical” or irrational boom that pretty much always leads to a bust. See, people often create and intensify a boom when they get carried away by some new industry that seems like it’ll make ’em lots of money, fast. You’d think that by the ’90s, people would’ve learned from the past. If they did—well, look at tulips.

Male student

Tulips …? You mean, like, the flower?

Professor

Exactly. For instance, do you have any idea where tulips are from? Originally, I mean.

Male student

Well, the Netherlands, right?

Professor

That’s what most people think—but no, they’re not native to the Netherlands, or even Europe. Tulips actually hail from an area the Chinese call the “Celestial Mountains” in central Asia—a very remote mountainous region.

It was Turkish nomads who first discovered tulips and spread them slowly westward. Now, around the sixteenth century, Europeans were traveling to Istanbul in Turkey as merchants and diplomats. And the Turks often gave the Europeans tulip bulbs as gifts, which they would carry home with them. For the Europeans, tulips were totally unheard of, a great novelty. The first bulbs to show up in the Netherlands, the merchant who received them roasted and ate them—he thought they were a kind of onion.

It turns out that the Netherlands was an ideal country for growing tulips. It had the right kind of sandy soil, for one thing, but also it was a wealthy nation with a growing economy, willing to spend lots of money on new, exotic things—plus the Dutch had a history of gardening. Wealthy people would compete, spending enormous amounts of money to buy the rarest flowers for their gardens.

Soon tulips were beginning to show up in different colors as growers tried to breed them specifically for colors which would make them even more valuable, but they were never completely sure what they would get. Some of the most prized tulips were white with purple streaks or red with yellow streaks on the petals—even a dark purple tulip that was very much prized. What happened then was a craze for these specialized tulips. We call that craze “tulip mania.”

So—here we’ve got all the conditions for an-an irrational boom: a prospering economy, so more people had more disposable income—money to spend on luxuries—w they weren’t experienced at investing their new wealth. Then along comes a thrilling new commodity—sure, the first specimens were just plain old red tulips but they could be bred into some extraordinary variations-like that dark purple tulip And finally, you have an unregulated marketplace—no government constraints—where prices could explode. And explode they did, starting in the 1630s.

There was always much more demand for tulips than supply. Tulips didn’t bloom fre-quently like roses; tulips bloomed once in the early spring and that was it for the year. Eventually, specially bred, multicolored tulips became so valuable … Well, accordina to records, one tulip bulb was worth 24 tons of wheat or a thousand pounds of cheese. One particular tulip bulb was sold in exchange for a small ship! In other words, tulips were literally worth their weight in gold.

As demand grew, people began selling promissory notes guaranteeing the future delivery of prized tulip bulbs. The buyers of these pieces of paper would resell the notes at marked-up prices. These promissory notes kept changing hands-from buyer to buyer—until the tulip was ready for delivery. But it was all pure speculation because as I said, there was no way to know if the bulb was really going to produce the variety the color, that was promised. But that didn’t matter to the owner of the note, the owner only cared about having that piece of paper, so it could be traded later at a profit And people were borrowing-mortgaging their homes, in many cases-to obtain those bits of paper because they were sure they’d found an easy way to make money.

So now you’ve got all the ingredients for a huge bust-and bust it did, when one cold February morning in 1637, a group of bulb traders got together and discovered that suddenly there were no bidders-nobody wanted to buy. Panic spread like wildfire and the tulip market collapsed totally.

TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 28 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution

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TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 28 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution Transcripts

TRACK 22 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to a conversation between a student and a counselor at the university counseling center.

Student

Hi, thanks for seeing me on such short notice.

Counselor

No problem. How can I help?

Student

Well, I think I might’ve made a mistake coming to this school.

Counselor

What makes you say that?

Student

I m a little overwhelmed by the size of this place. I come from a small town. There were only 75 of us in my high school graduating class. Everyone knew everyone; we all grew up together.

Counselor

So it’s a bit of a culture shock for you, being one of 15,000 students on a big campus in an unfamiliar city.

Student

That’s an understatement. I just can’t get comfortable in class, or in the dorms, you know, socially.

Counselor

Hmm, well—let’s start with your academics. Tell me about your classes.

Student

I’m taking mostly introductory courses, and some are taught in these huge lecture halls.

Counselor

And you’re having trouble keeping pace with the material?

Student

No, in fact, I got an A on my first economics paper. It’s just that, it’s so impersonal. I’m not used to it.

Counselor

Are all your classes impersonal?

Student

Nah … It’s just that, for example, in sociology yesterday, the professor asked a question. So I raised my hand … several of us raised our hands … and I kept my hand up because I did the reading and knew the answer. But the professor just answered his own question and continued with the lecture.

Counselor

Well, in a big room, it’s possible he didn’t notice you. Maybe he was trying to save time. In either case, 1 wouldn’t take it personally.

Student

I suppose. But I just don’t know how to, you know, distinguish myself.

Counselor

Why not stop by his office during office hours?

Student

That wouldn’t seem right, y’know … taking time from other students who need help.

Counselor

Don’t say that. That’s what office hours are for. There’s no reason you couldn t pop in to say hi, to, uh, to make yourself known. If you’re learning a lot in class, let the professor know. Wouldn’t you appreciate positive feedback if you were a professor?

Student

You’re right. That’s a good idea.

Counselor

OK, uh, let’s turn to your social life. How’s it going in the dorms?

Student

I don’t have much in common with my roommate or anyone else I’ve met so far. Everyone’s into sports, and I’m more artsy, you know, into music. I play the cello.

Counselor

Ahhh. Have you been playing long?

Student

Since age 10. It’s a big part of my life. At home, I was the youngest member of our community orchestra.

Counselor

You’re not going to believe this! There’s a string quartet on campus—all students. And it so happens the cellist graduated last year. They’ve been searching high and low for a replacement, someone with experience. Would you be interested in auditioning?

Student

Absolutely! I wanted to get my academic work settled before pursuing my music here, but I think this would be a good thing for me. I guess if I really want to fit in here, I should find people who love music as much as I do. Thank you!

Counselor

My pleasure.

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TRACK23 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in a sociology class.

Professor

Have you ever heard the one about alligators living in New York sewers? The story goes like this: a family went on vacation in Florida, and bought a couple of baby alligators as presents for their children, then returned from vacation to New York, bringing the alligators home with them as pets. But the alligators would escape and find their way into the New York sewer system where they started reproducing, grew to huge sizes and now strike fear into sewer workers. Have you heard this story? Well, it isn’t true and it never happened, but despite that, the story’s been around since the 1930s.

Or how about the song “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”? You know “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are ..Well, we’ve all heard this song. Where am I going with this? Well, both the song and the story are examples of memes, and that’s what we’ll talk about, the theory of memes.

A meme is defined as a piece of information copied from person to person. By this definition, most of what you know … ideas, skills, stories, songs … are memes. All the words you know, all the scientific theories you’ve learned, the rules your parents taught you to observe … all are memes that have been passed on from person to person.

So what? … you may say. Passing on ideas from one person to another is nothing new … Well, the whole point of defining this familiar process as transmission of memes is so that we can explore its analogy with the transmission of genes.

As you know, all living organisms pass on biological information through the genes. What’s a gene? A gene is a piece of biological information that gets copied, or replicated, and the copy, or replica, is passed on to the new generation. So genes are defined as replicators …

Genes are replicators that pass on information about properties and characteristics of organisms. By analogy, memes also get replicated and in the process pass on cultural information from person to person, generation to generation. So memes are also replicators. To be a successful replicator, there are three key characteristics: longevity fecundity, and fidelity. Let’s take a closer look…

First, longevity. A replicator must exist long enough to be able to get copied and transfer its information. Clearly, the longer a replicator survives, the better its chances of getting its message copied and passed on. So longevity is a key characteristic of a replicator. If you take the alligator story, it can exist for a long time in individual memory let’s say my memory. I can tell you the story now, or ten years from now. The same with the “Twinkle, twinkle” song. So these memes have longevity, because they’re memorable, for one reason or another.

Next, fecundity. Fecundity is the ability to reproduce in large numbers. For example, the common housefly reproduces by laying several thousand eggs. So each fly gene gets copied thousands of times. Memes? Well, they can be reproduced in large numbers as well. How many times have you sung the “Twinkle, twinkle song to someone? Each time you replicated the song-and maybe passed it along to someone who didn’t know it yet, a small child maybe.

And finally, fidelity. Fidelity means accuracy of the copying process. We know fidelity is an essential principle of genetic transmission. If a copy of a gene is a bn different from the original, that’s called a genetic mutation, and mutations are usually bad news. An organism often cannot survive with a mutated gene—and so a gene usually cannot be passed on unless it’s an exact copy. For memes, however, fidelity is not always so important. For example, if you tell someone the alligator story I told you today, it probably won’t be word for word exactly as I said it. Still, it will be basically the same story, and the person who hears the story will be able to pass it along. Other memes are replicated with higher fidelity, though-like the “Twinkle, twinkle song. It had the exact same words twenty years ago as it does now. Well, that s because we see songs as something that has to be performed accurately each time. If you change a word, the others will usually bring you in line. They’ll say, “That’s not how you sing it,” right?

So, you can see how looking at pieces of cultural information as replicators; memes, and analyzing them in terms of longevity, fecundity, and fidelity, We can some insight about how they spread, persist, or change.

 

TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 27 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution

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TOEFL IBT Listening Practice Test 27 from Official TOEFL iBT Test with Audio Volume 1 Solution Transcripts

TASK II: GAP-FILLING

TRACK 1 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to a conversation between a student and a librarian.

Librarian

Can I help you?

Student

Yeah, I need to find a review. It’s for my English class. We have to find reviews of the play we’re reading. But they have to be from when the play was first performed – so I need to know when that was… and I suppose I should start with newspaper reviews…

Librarian

Contemporary reviews.

Student

Sorry?

Librarian

You want contemporary reviews. What’s the name of the play?

Student

It’s Happy Strangers. It was written In ,962 and we’re supposed to write about Its influence on American theater-show why It’s been so important.

Librarian

Well, that certainly explains why your professor wants you to read some of those old reviews. The critics really tore the play to pieces when it opened. It was just so controversial—nobody’d ever seen anything like it on the stage.

Student

Really? It was that big a deal?

Librarian

Oh sure. Of course, the critics’ reaction made some people kinda curious about it; they wanted to see what was causing all the fuss. In fact, we were on vacation in New York – I had to be, oh around sixteen or so—and my parents took me to see it. That would’ve been about 1965.

Student

So that was the year it premiered? Great! But… newspapers from back then aren’t online, so how do I…

Librarian

Well, we have copies of old newspapers in the basement, and all the major papers publish reference guides to their articles, reviews, etc. You’ll find them in the reference stacks in back. But I’d start with 1964. I think the play’d been running for a little while when I saw it.

Student

Oh, how’d you like it? I mean it’s just two characters onstage hanging around and basically doing nothing.

Librarian

Well, I was impressed: the actors were famous and, besides, it was my first time in a real theater. But you’re right—it was definitely different from any plays that we’d read in high school. Of course, in a small town, the assignments are pretty traditional.

Student

I’ve only read it, but it doesn’t seem like it’d be much fun to watch. The story doesn’t progress in a, in any sort of logical manner. It doesn’t have any real ending either. It just stops. Honestly, y’know, I thought it was kinda slow and boring.

Librarian

Well, I guess you might think that, but when I saw it back then it was anything but boring! Some parts were really funny—but I remember crying, too. But I m not sure just reading it… You know, they’ve done this play at least once on campus. I’m sure there’s a tape of the play in our video library. You might want to borrow it.

Student

That’s a good idea. I’ll have a better idea of what I really think of it—before I read those reviews.

Librarian

I’m sure you’ll be surprised that anyone ever found it radical—but you’ll see why it’s still powerful—dramatically speaking.

Student

Well, there must be something about it or the professor wouldn’t have assigned it. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

 ——————————————————————————-

TRACK 3 TRANSCRIPT

Narrator

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. The class is discussing animal behavior.

Professor         ..

OK, the next kind of animal behavior 1 want to talk about might be familiar to you.

You may have seen, for example, a bird that’s in the middle of a mating ritual. And, and suddenly it stops and preens—you know, it takes a few moments to straighten its feathers—and then returns to the mating ritual. This kind of behavior—this doing something that seems completely out of place—is what we call a displacement activity.

Displacement activities are activities that animals engage in when they have conflicting drives—if, if we take our example from a minute ago—if the bird is afraid of its mate, it’s conflicted, it wants to mate, but it’s also afraid and wants to run away, so instead it starts grooming itself. So the displacement activity, the, the grooming, the straightening of its feathers seems to be an irrelevant behavior.

So what do you think another example of a displacement activity might be?

Male student

How about an animal that, urn, instead of fighting its enemy or running awav it attacks a plant or a bush?

Professor

That’s a really good suggestion, Carl, but that’s called redirecting. The animal is redirecting its behavior to another object, in this case, the plant or the bush. But that’s not an irrelevant or inappropriate behavior—the behavior makes sense—it’s appropriate under the circumstances, but what doesn’t make sense is the object the behavior’s directed towards. OK, who else? Carol?

Female student

I think I read in another class about an experiment, um, where an object that the animal was afraid of was put next to its food-next to the animal’s food—and the animal it was conflicted between confronting the object, and eating the food, so instead it just fell asleep. Like that?

Professor

That’s exactly what I mean. Displacement occurs because the animal’s got two conflicting drives, two competing urges, in this case, fear and hunger—and what happens is they inhibit each other—they cancel each other out in a way, and a third, seemingly irrelevant behavior surfaces … through a process that we call disinhibition.

Now, in disinhibition, the basic idea is that two drives that seem to inhibit, to hold back a third drive, well, well, they get in the way of each other in a, in a conflict situation, and somehow lose control, lose their inhibiting effect on that third behavior… wh-which means that the third drive surfaces … it-it’s expressed in the animal’s behavior.         .

Now, these displacement activities can include feeding, drinking, grooming, even sleeping. These are what we call “comfort behaviors.” So why do you think displacement activities are so often comfort behaviors, such as grooming?

Male student

Maybe because it’s easy for them to do—I mean, grooming is like one of the most accessible things an animal can do—it’s something they do all the time, and they have the-the stimulus right there, on the outside of their bodies in order to do the groom- ing—or if food is right in front of them. Basically, they don’t have to think very much about those behaviors.

Female student

Professor, isn’t it possible that animals groom because they’ve gotten messed up a little from fighting or mating? I mean, if a bird’s feathers get ruffled, or an animal’s fur – maybe it’s not so strange for them to stop and tidy themselves up at that point.

Professor

That’s another possible reason, although it doesn’t necessarily explain other behaviors such as eating, drinking, or sleeping. What’s interesting is that studies have been done that suggest that the animal’s environment may play a part in determining what kind of behavior it displays. For example, there’s a bird—the wood thrush, anyway when the wood thrush is in an attack-escape conflict—that is, it’s caught between the two urges to escape from or to attack an enemy—if it’s sitting on a horizontal branch, it’ll wipe its beak on its perch. If it’s sitting on a vertical branch, it II groom its breast feathers. The immediate environment of the bird—its immediate, um, its relationship to its immediate environment seems to play a part in which behavior it will display.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 26 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR SOLUTION

KEY

1. C

2. A

3. B

4. D

5. B

6. B

7. B

8. A, C

9. A

10. B

11. B

12. B

13. D

14. B

15. B

16. C

17. B

18. B

19. D

20. B, C

21. C

22. C

23. C

24. C

25.

	Yes	No
Light and dark areas	X
Several colors used	X
Signature near the paintings		X
Mix of Magdal&nian and Solutrean styles		X
Frequent appearance of wiki animals In the paintings	X

26. A

27. B

28. D

29. C

30. A

31. D

32. A

33.

 

	Scattering	Passivity	Aggression	Camouflage
Chameleon				X
Dog		X
Gorilla			X
Deer	X

34. B

——————————————————————————-

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 26 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR TRANSCRIPTS

N Listen to a conversation between a student and her professor.

S: Professor Keyes? May I come In?

P: Jessica, sure, have a seat. What can I do for you?

S: It’s the lab experiments, professor. I’m getting different results from everyone else, so I thought better ask for your advice or else I’ll fall the class.

P: Not everyone gets the right results but … well, the only reason I didn’t talk to you about this is I thought you might’ve discovered on your own what you were doing wrong.

S: Well. I’ve gone over every step of every experiment we did in the lab, and I haven’t been able to figure out where I went wrong In any of them.

P: OK, I think you probably study the steps carefully and you’ve probably even memorized what to do …

S: Yes, that’s what I do before every experiment.

P: But I’ve observed something in my classes ever since I started teaching chemistry. Some students know the steps Involved In an experiment but they don’t understand the purpose and the objectives of the experiment.

S: Well…

P: Do you actually read through the reference and the handouts I give?

S: Um, not really. I just find It very difficult reading … so I thought that If I just did the experiment right, I mean, you know, the steps, I’d be able to understand what It was I was doing.

P: Well, think about It this way, Jessica. Knowing what the steps are will help you when you write up a lab report, but would you be able to write a conclusion about the results If you didn’t understand what you were doing?

S: No, I guess not.

P: So … why not spend just half an hour going through the material … and If It Isn’t clear to you, you can either ask me … or you can go over to the Chemistry Club … there are a lot of really helpful students there who’d be willing to explain It to you.

S: OK, I’ll do that.

P: There’s something else. I’ve noticed that you aren’t always precise in your measurements. You’re not going to get the results you’re looking for If you don’t measure things right… or heat an Ingredient at the right heat … or heat it for the exact amount of time required.

S: Does it really have to be that precise?

P: Sure It doesl And this is something you would’ve learned if you had read the textbook and my handouts.

S: OK, Professor… I see what I’m doing wrong. Well,

I better go and read the textbook now … and 1*11 take your advice about asking for help If I don’t understand what I’m reading.

——————————————————————————-

N Listen to part of a lecture from a neuroscience class.

S: OK class, I have an interesting statistic for you today. According to current research on sleep disorders in this country, at least 33% of the population suffers from one form of sleep disorder or another. So, uh … that’s roughly 20 people in this class alone, right? Now, if I asked for a show of hands, we probably wouldn’t get an accurate result. This Is because many people go through life undiagnosed. How so? Well, one of the reasons sleep disorders go untreated Is because people who suffer from poor sleep blame things such as tension at work or problems at home, not realizing that there is a medical condition that better explains their tiredness.

Besides insomnia, the most common form of sleep disorder is sleep apnea. Do we have anyone from Greece here? No. OK, well apnea is a Greek word meaning “without breath.” People with sleep apnea actually stop breathing hundreds of times for about ten to twenty seconds at a time in the night. According to the National Institute of Health, sleep apnea affects more than twelve million Americans. To put that number into perspective, um, let’s see … that number Is comparable to the amount of people in our country who suffer from diabetes. In fact, the risk factors are actually similar to diabetes as well. Your chances of having sleep apnea rise if you are male, over forty, or overweight. Now, even though these risk factors don’t seem to apply to any of you In here,

I should note that sleep apnea can affect anyone, even children.

Obstructive sleep apnea, often referred to as OSA, is the most common of the three types of apnea. Approximately 90% of those who suffer from sleep apnea have OSA. The cause of OSA Is a blockage of the airway. Uh … sorry, those of you who haven’t had first-aid training may not be familiar with the term “airway.” What I should say Is that air is blocked from entering the trachea, otherwise known as the windpipe. This is the passage that brings air into your body. There are a number of different things In your mouth that could cause this blockage. One is the uvula, or uh … the small thing that hangs at the back of your throat. The tissues and muscles In your throat can also cause this blockage If they are overly strained. In some cases of OSA, the tongue is found to be the culprit. The other two types of sleep apnea are central and mixed apnea. Central apnea is caused by a brain malfunction that forgets to signal muscles to breath. And I’m sure I don’t need to mention that mixed apnea Is a combination of the two.

I know what you are probably thinking now. If sleep disorders go undiagnosed so often, how will you know If you’ve got sleep apnea? Well, unfortunately, many people who suffer from sleep apnea do not recognize the symptoms of the condition because they don’t notice themselves gasping for air, It Is usually a partner that first notices strange breathing and waking In the night. Loud snoring is usually accompanied by frequent arousals caused by the brain signaling for the sleeper to wake up and breathe. People who sleep alone might not realize they are waking in the night, but will notice tiredness during the day. Headaches, memory loss, and lack of concentration are early signs of a sleep disorder. Sleep apnea can make it dangerous to operate a vehicle and can affect one’s job performance. Need I mention falling asleep In class? All kidding aside, severe sleep disorders, such as OSA can cause high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease if left untreated.

So, what can be done for those who are diagnosed? Well, as It turns out, there are plenty of simple and non-intruslve solutions. For starters, sleep experts usually suggest avoiding alcohol, sleeping on one’s side Instead of one’s back, and losing weight. Elderly people who use sleeping pills are asked to put away their medication for an experimental period to see if the apnea disappears. Ironically, sleep medication can relax the muscles too much, causing the air to get blocked. In cases where symptoms do not Improve, patients are sometimes treated with CPAP, which means wearing something similar to an oxygen mask to bed at night. Sorry, I should mention that CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Passage. In very extreme cases, routine surgery Is used to eliminate the problem.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 25 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR SOLUTION

KEY

1.B

2. C

3. A

4. D

5. C

6. D

7. A

8. D

9. B

10. A

11. B

12. D

13. C

14. B

15. A

16. C

17. C

18. D

19. C

20. A

21. D

22. B

23. D

24. C

25. A

26. A, B, D

27. C

28. B

29. B

30. B, C

31. D

32. A

33. B

34. B

 

——————————————————————————-

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 25 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR TRANSCRIPTS || Gap-Filling

 

N: Listen to the following conversation between a student and a professor.

P: Yes, hello? Don’t be shy. Please come in.

S: HI. Are you Dr. Johnson? Dr. Claire Johnson?

P: Yup. That’s me. How can I help you?

S: Well, we’ve never met before, because I’m not in the history department. But, my name is Marc Singer. I’m actually a drama student.

P: Hi, Marc. Are you here about taking a class In the history department? We have a number of very good introductory classes for people who are only casually Interested In history. A lot of the drama and language students really enjoy them, and the classes can count towards your science requirements. It’s easier to take a history class than introductory calculus.

S: Thank you. But, I was really hoping to do something a little more advanced. There Is a class, actually one that I believe you teach, called “War and Television’1 that I would really love to take,

P: That might be a problem, Marc. You see, that class is a requirement for the fourth-year honor students. A lot of people need to take It, so It’s really rare for us to allow a student from another department In. There just isn’t enough space. I’m sorry,

S: Well… I see. Dr. Johnson, I have more than just a passing knowledge of history. You see, my father Is a real history buff. Even the bedtime stories he read me were related to history,

P: I can appreciate your interest. But, what if I allowed you Into the course and then a fourth-year student was unable to graduate? I wouldn’t be very popular with the students. Besides that, there are a lot of requirements one has to fulfill prior to getting Into my class.

S: Can I ask what they are?

P: Sure, There is a list of five classes. Let’s see, there’re Writing History, The Economics of War, Europe: An Overview and two others that I can’t remember. Students need to have completed at least three of those classes, and they need to have attained at least a B average.

S: Well … I’ve taken two of those classes, and I received A’s in both. Are there other requirements?

P: I wish that I could say that a keen Interest In the relationship between war and television was a requirement, but then I guess a lot fewer students would be allowed Into the class.

S: I wish it were required, too. You see, I’ve read all your papers on the topic. I really liked how you explained how television shows could change how people think about wars. Like, support for the Second World War peaked twenty years after the war because of the television shows about it that appeared during the sixties.

P: I have to say, Marc, I really wish I could let you into the class. You say that your interest In history comes from your father?

S: Right. I spent my entire childhood visiting museums and reading about history with my father. He loves It. I guess that’s why he became a history professor.

P: Wait. Singer. You aren’t John Singer’s kid, are you? Professor John Singer from State University?

S: Yeah. That’s my dad. But he’s not at State University anymore. He retired last year. Now he spends all his time working on a book about Alexander the Great.

P: OK. I’ll tell you what. I can’t let you Into the class next term because you’re short one required class. But, If you take one more history class next term, then I’ll do my best to get you Into my class two terms from now. How does that sound?

S: Sounds great. Thanks for your help.

P: Don’t thank me yet, Marc because although I’ll try my hardest to get you into the class, I can’t make any promises, ok?

S: Sure. Should I tell my dad you said hello?

P: Please do. And come back next term sometime. We can talk more then.

——————————————————————————-

N Listen to part of a lecture from a biology class.

P: OK, uh, today we’re going to look at a very special insect. Its class is Insects, and Its order Is Hymenoptera, which means It has a winged membrane. Can any one guess what it is? No? OK. One more hint: Its genus and species is Apis melilfera scutellata. Anyone? Well … I guess you likely know its more common name, killer bee. Now, today we’re going to try to decide if this little bug deserves the name It has. The first question we should ask Is where did these bees come from. Actually, they exist because of a mistake that scientists made while trying to

crossbreed North American honeybees with more aggressive bees from Africa. Specifically, the African bees are from south of the Sahara Desert. The hope was that the new bee would be as safe as an average honeybee but be able to produce a lot of honey, like the African bee. But, In 1956, Brazilian scientists lost control of their new “Africanized” bees, which started to spread throughout South and Central America. By October of 1990, the killer bees were found In America, south of Texas.

So, what’s life like for the average killer bee? Well, there are four main stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Let me check my notes here … yes … an egg only needs twenty-one days to become an adult female worker, sixteen for It to become a queen, or about twenty-five days for It to become a drone. Remember, the drones are the male bees and it’s their Job to mate with the queen and defend the hive, but the females can attack, too. The hives can spread quickly, for a number of reasons. One, the queen can lay about 1,500 eggs In a day. When there are too many bees In the hive, they will swarm. Swarming means that a large number of them will fly away from the hive to form a new one. Now, the average honeybee hive will do the same thing. But, there are some important differences. One, honeybees will swarm only when they are overpopulated. Killer bees can swarm for the same reason, but also If the temperature is too warm or too cold. Also, and this is part of what makes them so dangerous, killer bees are much more aggressive when they swarm. If you are In the path of a swarm of them, you’ve got a seventy-five percent chance of a deadly attack.

1. So, they’re dangerous. They attack when they swarm and If they feel the hive is in danger and even If they hear a loud high-pitched noise. Even worse, they will follow you for as much as a quarter mile to get you. Here’s something even stranger. If they are after you, don’t try to jump Into water thinking you’ll be safe. Killer bees may be slow fliers, but they’re not dumb. They’ll just wait above the water for you to come up for air. But, they are more dangerous to other bees than to us. Because they can spread so quickly and are much more aggressive, they can dominate an area, basically, uh, killing all the honeybees already there. OK. Think of it this way. Honeybees produce honey, which we eat, and wax, which we use for everything from candles to shoe polish. Most importantly, honeybees pollinate crops and flowers, which Is a big help to American agriculture. Killer bees produce a little honey and some wax, but It’s too dangerous to harvest. As they destroy native bee populations, killer bees affect our economy negatively.

What can we do? Well … some say we shouldn’t worry too much. But, others fear that the bees will adapt to colder cilmates and continue to spread north, wiping out honeybees as they go along. There have been attempts to Inject honeybee sperm into killer bee queens, In the hopes that they will produce less aggressive offspring. Yet, it hasn’t been done enough to know if it will really make any kind of difference. OK. So, killer bees do deserve their name, but mostly because they kill other bees. The problem Is that if they manage to kill enough of them, it’ll destroy our agricultural businesses.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 24 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR SOLUTION

KEY

1.D

2. A

3. A

4. C

5. D

6. C

7. C

8. NO/ YES / NO/ YES/ YES

9. D

10. C

11. C

12. B

13. D

14. C

15. B

16. D

17. B

18. B

19. A

20.

	Practical	Academic
Understand the dynamics of a small staff		X
Support his personal needs	X
Satisfy a requirement for his class		X
Save time on travel	X
Not Interfere with his class schedule	X

21. C

22. D

23. B

24. A, D

25.

Step
1	E. Snow covers the surface and melts and freezes.
2	A. Ice becomes grainy.
3	D. Granular ice turns into a thick glacial ice.
4	B. Force of upper layers of ice makes lower layers move.

26. C

27. B

28.

 

	Yes	No
Drying out of lakes that are filled by runoff	X
Fomnation of new lakes from melting glaciers		X
Bursting of dams and reservoirs from excess runoff		X
Reduction of meltwater for agricultural purposes	X
Dying out of plants and animals dependent on glacieMed water	X

29. C

30. B

31. C

32. B

33. A, D

34. A

——————————————————————————-

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 24 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR TRANSCRIPTS || Gap-Filling

N: NARRATOR              M: MALE STUDENT               F: FEMALE STUDENT

N: Listen to a conversation between two students.

M: So have you thought of an […………………………] to do a report on?

F: I was hoping you had one In mind.

M: As a matter of fact, I do, but I thought I’d give you the first shot. I was thinking of doing Aldo Rossi.

F: Aldo Rossi? The name sounds […………………………].

M: He Is Itaflan. He studied at the […………………………]University in Milan.

F: Weil, does he meet the […………………………]that the professor gave? I mean, he has to be an […………………………]architect. I’ve never even heard of him.

M: Well, maybe a lot of people have never heard of him, but he’s actually one of the most influential architects in the world, especially during the period […………………………] to […………………………].

F: Is that right? Well, what exactly did he […………………………]?

M: Um, It wasn’t |ust what he […………………………]as an architect, but his theory about how cities should be designed. Well, have you ever heard of 1he Carlo Felloe Theater in Genoa?

F: Uh, no.

M: The old Carlo Felice Theater was bombed in […………………………]. so Rossi was given the task of […………………………]the theater. Well, what he did was, he didn’t actually replace it. He kept the old […………………………], but he added new space and […………………………]to the theater. What I really like about this Is It shows his […………………………]for cities, for the history of a city and, um, keeping its memories […………………………],

F: Is this something that you see in a lot of his works—this respect for city?

M: Yes, that’s why I thought he’d make a good topic for our report. Since the professor wants us to highlight something special about the architect, I thought Aldo Rossi would be perfect. Actually, his […………………………]about cities is really beautiful.

F: OK, well, maybe we ought to start off our report by talking about this theory.

M: Yes, exactly, So why don’t we divide up the work now? I was thinking of […………………………]on the theory.

F: Is there enough Information about this theory for you to do a […………………………]report?

M: Sure! He even wrote a book on It. It’s called “The Architecture of a City,”

F: Well, It looks like you’ve been doing a lot of […………………………].

M: Actually, I had a couple of other architects in mind, but Rossi’s book made such good reading that I knew I wanted to do a report on him.

F: OK, great! So I guess you expect me to talk about some of his […………………………]works that support his theory?

M: Yes, and I’ve got some really wonderful buildings in mind. 

 

N: NARRATOR                 P: PROFESSOR

N: Listen to a talk on city planning In the United States.

P: Let’s start. OK, I’d like to talk about city planning in America. Uh … city planning is from […………………………] times. There Is evidence of street systems and neatly laid-out water […………………………]in […………………………]ancient cities. Well, what we want to learn is what affected […………………………] century American city planning.

When the […………………………]arrived in the New World, their big concern was […………………………]. Many of them had come from lands with severe economic problems, so the colonizers planned their cities […………………………]to support business. No one was assigned to do the planning. […………………………]of a town were designed by a family or even an Individual. So, city planning at the time was fairly […………………………], with the Spanish, French, Dutch and English […………………………] […………………………]their own plans In whatever […………………………]they had claimed. Obviously, these colonizers being European […………………………], the cities of Europe had a bearing on early city planning In America. Basically, European cities were designed for […………………………]and to allow for free movement of the […………………………]. You’ll find the same ideas In the cities of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York. The colonizers used a […………………………]pian. This is a type of plan where the streets run at right […………………………]to each other, going north-south and east-west, Hence, grid. It’s […………………………]a very ancient plan … it was used In Babylon and In the […………………………]Peruvian city known as Chan Chan.

But uh … there came a point when change made it necessary for the colonizers to […………………………]the space available to them. You know, rapid development always […………………………]change. The Industrial Revolution, for example. Factories and plants […………………………]people living in rural areas … so when the population of the cities in the north […………………………], well, it became the city planners’ goal to keep the city from becoming […………………………]and dirty.

Now you remember the […………………………]layout? Well, that layout may have served Its purpose at the start when there were […………………………]people, but It caused problems in New York. It was a […………………………]that Ignored the natural […………………………]of the area, And It forced the direction of Manhattan’s growth to move […………………………]. Well, this  resulted in more […………………………]. And, In fact, the […………………………]layout was repeated in communities all over the nation with the […………………………]that cities In America were crowded and had health problems. So … city planners had to make […………………………]to prevent further […………………………]of the landscape. Sanitation became the primary focus. That made a new profession— […………………………]. Well, that was one change.

Another change … which was on the […………………………]side, cities had more […………………………]and gardens. Frederick Law Oimsted, a landscape architect, made city plans that Included a system of public parks. He designed parks for New York City, Buffaio, Niagara Falls, Boston, Louisville, Kentucky, and Chicago. His designs were a big […………………………]on American cities, which all have parks or some places for people to enjoy the […………………………]. Then there was the Frenchman Georges¬Eugene Haussmann. In his plans for the city of Paris, he designed wide avenues, parks and […………………………], and he saw to it that housing and sanitation, and water supply and […………………………]disposal … that these met the standards set by the government. Perhaps what stood out about Haussmann’s plan Is that he, he placed the […………………………]stations in a circle outside the old Paris and made very broad streets from the stations to the center of […………………………]. This allowed for better traffic flow. It was a plan that was meant to take social equity into […………………………], Haussmann Implemented zoning regulations that became a sort of […………………………]for city planners in America.

Well, let me just say that Haussmann wasn’t the […………………………]of those Ideas. The Homans had a […………………………]plan that incorporated proper drainage and clean water supplies. Rome as well as some cities In England had zoning laws. But the city planning of the past […………………………]the poor, who were […………………………]into less space … and when security was an Issue, this resulted in very […………………………]streets. The Renaissance brought […………………………]streets, but this wasn’t being Implemented on the whole—It was just certain […………………………]of European cities that enjoyed special […………………………].

New York City adopted zoning laws in […………………………]and these were constantly being […………………………]until It became the Regional Survey of New York and Environs of […………………………], which took Into consideration factors such as legal, social, economic … not Just […………………………]. You know, previously, if a local government wanted to […………………………]the design of a city, they simply replaced the older buildings with new ones geared for low and middle-lncome […………………………]. But, uh, with the Influx of people from the south, this […………………………]approach didn’t do anything to solve the problem of […………………………]and the consequences of overcrowding—slum areas. So the city planners learned that If you want a beautiful, functional city, you’re going to have to take the […………………………]aspect Into consideration. And it involves the planning of the whole city, not just a part of It. And to be able to do this, there has to be […………………………]between agencies and local governments.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 23 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR SOLUTION

KEY

1.C

2. B

3. D

4. A

5. A

6. A

7. D

8. A

9. A

10. C

11. D

12. B

13. D

14. A, B

15. C

16.

	YES	NO
Increased morbidity from toxic alcohol	X
Thriving sales in illegally made alcoholic beverages	X
Growing protests to ratification of 18th Amendment		X
Formulation of new laws to permit weaker alcohols		X
Loss of governmental income	X

17. B

18. C

19. C

20.

	Allowed	Not Allowed
Dropping a class any time	X
Adding a class any time		X
Taking a free class later	X
Faxing the form		X

21. D

22. B

23. B

24. A

25. B, C

26. D

27. A

28. B

29. D

30. B

31. A, C

32. D

33. A

34. D

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TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 23 FROM TOEFL IBT NAVIGATOR TRANSCRIPTS

N: Narrator               P: Professor               S: Student

N: Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

P: Hey, Barry, come on in.

S: Hi, professor Singh. Thanks for seeing me so close to the exam.

P: Sure. Have a seat. So … what can I do for you?

S: Well, I’m a little worried about the test. Um, I’m estimating that I need a C to at least get credit for the course, but I wanted to make sure how much the group project will count for the final grade.

P: Well, all of that was outlined.  In your syllabus, Barry.

S: Well, yes, I know, but I think I got a bad copy. It’s not really clear. Plus, I wanted to find out If the essay question on the test will cover just the most recent chapters or everything we’ve covered so far.

P: OK. Let’s see … the group project will count for twenty-five percent of your grade, just like the tests and your term paper. As for the essay, well, the entire test will apply only to the material we’ve covered since the last test. Ah, you should know that, Barry. I think I mentioned It in class.

S: Oh, I’m sorry. I must have missed that. Um. what about the supplemental reading? Will it be Included on the test?

P: Oh, well, yes. You will have to understand how all of that relates to the text material. Um, yes, you Should pay, ah, particular attention to those articles.

S: Hmm, OK. I see. Professor, could I ask how I’m doing with class participation?

P: Right, wall, I think you’re fine, Barry. Your participation and attendance have been pretty good so far, Don’t forget, though, that your contribution to your group project will be considered for your participation.

S: I see. Oh, that reminds me. Our project Includes a survey. Do we need to get approval for our questionnaire before we use It In public?

P: Yes, absolutely. I want to take a look at anything that will be used off campus. You understand.

S: I got it. No problem there.

P: Barry, I don’t think there’s much cause for concern here. If you’ve taken good notes and stayed on top of ail the reading, everything on the test should make sense to you. As far as the project is concerned, you know, just make sure you do your fair share and check in with me from time to time.

S: Right. I will. I guess I’m Just a little nervous, that’s all.

P: That’s natural, but I think you’re In pretty good shape overall, Barry. Mmm, was there anything else you wanted to ask me?

S: Um, no, I think that covers It. Thanks so much for talking to me, professor Singh.

P: Sure, Barry, and don’t forget to bring that questionnaire to me when It’s ready.

OK, professor. Thanks again!

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N: Narrator          P: Professor            F: Female Student           M: Male Student

N: Lister to a discussion on astronomy. The professor is discussing Jupiter’s atmosphere.

P: May I begin? I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter. Maybe a few of you have tried looking at the planet through a telescope. Well, what you are looking at is not the surface of the planet. It’s the atmosphere. So this Is what we’re going to discuss today … and I hope you did the readings because I’d like as many of you as possible to participate in the discussion.

Now Just from a cursory look at the planet, we can see alternating bands of light and dark regions that are parallel to the equator of the planet. Can anyone tell me the difference between the light and dark regions… besides the color, of course.

F: Um … the light region is called a zone and the dark region Is called a belt You have aitemating zones and belts. The zones are actually higher In altitude than the belts, which means they’re cooler. And the belts are areas of low pressure.

P: Very good, Emma. And It’s these alternating zones and belts that have helped astronomers learn some-thing about Jupiter’s constitution. They were able to make certain contrasts between Earth and Jupiter. How did they do that? Well… every part of the Earth rotates at the same speed. That’s because it’s a solid. But what is Jupiter’s rotation like?

M:  It’s not all the same. Some parts are faster, The poles are faster. The equator area is slower.

P:  And this means?

F:  It means Jupiter is not solid.

P: Correct And one more thing. The speed of the rotation lends Jupiter’s atmosphere its characteristic bands. Now … In between these bands, jet streams develop. Jet streams are high-speed hlgh-altltude air streams flowing from west to east. On Earth, jet streams can affect the overall weather in a given area. Weil, we see this happening on Jupiter, too. Some jet streams last thousands of years. Perhaps one of you can describe to the class a result of Jupiter’s jet streams.

M: Yeah, the, uh, Infamous Red Spot. It’s an enormous storm that’s about 14,000 kilometers wide and 40,000 kilometers long. That’s probably big enough to fit two pianets the size of the Earth,

F: Old you say infamous? It’s like any other storm only bigger, stronger and colored red.

P: Right. Well, actually, It’s a bit smaller now. Its size keeps changing since It was first observed by English astronomer Robert Hooke In 1630. But, but let’s move away from the Spot and look at the atmosphere of Jupiter as a whoie. Can anyone here tell me what heavenly body within the Solar System has more or less the same constitution as Jupiter besides Saturn?

F: Uh … It can only be the Sun. Both Jupiter and Saturn are made of helium and hydrogen … just as the Sun Is.

P: Yes … the percentages are different, though, Saturn has 75% hydrogen and 25% helium, the Sun Is 94% hydrogen and 6% helium and Jupiter is somewhere In-between with 82% hydrogen and 18% helium, There are also trace amounts of cartoon, ethane, ammonia, and methane. At the top of the, uh. lighter bands, you’ll have ammonia ice crystals, and Just beneath, liquid ammonia.

F: I have a question, professor. You just now mentioned liquid ammonia … but the, uh, recent Galileo probe mission Into Jupiter’s atmosphere revealed that Jupiter is drier than scientists beileved. So … just how much water Is there on Jupiter?

P: Good question. I’m glad you brought that up. Yes, the Galileo probe mission did discover some very startling things about Jupiter … but the Information I’ve chosen to give you Is what’s still In the textbooks only because the new data has yet to be confirmed. But for those of you who are curious … maybe we can just sum up what the Galileo mission discovered- They found that the helium on the planet was half what they expected it to be … so we might be looking at a configuration that’s closer to the Sun’s own percentages. There was less neon, carbon, oxygen and sulfur. And the probe aiso discovered that the three–tiered cloud structure they had been expecting was not there. It’s absence, along with the lower amounts of oxygen, seems to tie In with a Jupiter that has a dry atmosphere. Why Is this so surprising? Well, clouds form when a compound of chemicals condenses from a vapor Into a liquid … or Into Ice. So scientists believed that there were three layers of clouds-one made of ammonia, the second of ammonia hydrosulfide and the third of water, But … as the Galileo reported, the three tiers weren’t there and the water wasn’t there. Puzzling, huh? So … just how much water is there on Jupiter? Well, that has yet to be determined … and there will probably be a readjustment of our existing views of Jupiter. Is that OK?

F: Yes, thanks.

P: So let’s go back to the atmospheric structure. The atmospiie’e Is about a thousand kilometers thick, which is tfio same thickness as the Earth’s atmosphere, but Jupiter being a gas giant, ttie atmosphere simply gets more and more dense as you go down until it reaches what scientists believe to be a total liquid state. Well, let’s stop here, and I’ll give you the readings for the next class.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 22 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Solution

Listening 1

1. B

2. C

3. D

4. YES : B, D / NO: A, C

5. D

6. A

Listening 2

7. C

8. A

9. A, C

10. A

11. D

12. C

Listening 3

13. C

14. D

15. YES: B, C / NO: A, D

16. A

17. D

18. C

Listening 4

1. B

2. C

3. C

4. C

5. B

6. B

Listening 5

7. D

8. A

9. D

10. Yes: A, B / NO: C,D

11. A

12. C

Listening 6

13. C

14. B

15. A

16. C

17. B

18. B

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TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 22 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Transcripts

Listening 1

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

M: so to day we are going to spend the first part of class talking about Wallaces, a very unique zoogeographic region. You may have noticed that your textbook mentions zoogeographic regions; these are areas of distinctive animal life, or fauna. The book discusses the examples of the Neotropical and Ethiopian regions, among others. Um, er, all of these zoogeographic regions are characterized by having a diversity of species that make up a giant gene pool.

You may remember from our last dass that a gene pool refers to the total genetic material available for a population or species at a given time… the bigger the gene pool for a species, the more genetic material available for that species to evolve and adapt to their environment. And, out of this gene pool and the forces of natural selection, we see the evolution of a variety of related speaes. These species have evolved in relationship to each other but are different from species in other zoogeographic regions. Move to a different region, and the gene pool, the diversity of species living there, well that gene pool would be different.

Now, Wallacea is such a zoogeographic region, and especially interesting for the huge diversity in a relatively small area. It’s located between the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia and the continental shelf of Australia, and it covers a total land area of 347,000 km2. It’s named after Alfred Russel Wallace, the father of animal geography, and whose other claim to fame is that he was developing the theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin. However, um, Darwin was a little more established and managed to publish it first. The moral of this story: publish or perish. Right, well, uh, back to our point, Wallacea.

OK, so, Alfred Russel Wallace spent a lot of time traveling the East Indies, or what is today called Indonesia, where he was, umm, studying the biology of the region. Aside from this being a part of the world that is rich in biological diversity, both animal and plant We on land, terrestrial, as well as marine life see, what was unusual to this pioneering biologist—and this is important—what was unusual was the sudden difference in species. Wallace was sailing between the islands of Bali and Lombok, a distance of merely fifteen miles, when he discovered a significant and drastic change between the bird families living on the two islands. On the one hand, there were Asian bird species found on Bali Yet, just a short distance away, on Lombok, he found no Asian birds. What he found, on the other hand, were several distinctly Australian species. It was as if there was a line, and not a very thick one, that the birds refused to cross. But it was not only birds, take mammals for instance East of the line, there are placental mammals such as tigers, rhinoceros, and apes, similar to those of the Asian mainland In contrast, to the west, he found marsupials. Now these . . . these, uh, marsupials are distinct from placental mammals in that female marsupials typically have a pouch in which they rear their young.

Well, true explorer and scientist that he was, Wallace was not content to study the birds of Bali and Lombok, but sailed to nearby islands in the East Indies . . he marked the channel between the two islands of Bali and Lombok and followed it north, observing species on other islands and discovering what was in fact a distinctive line between zoogeographic regions. What he discovered has been called the “Wallace Line” in his honor, a dividing line between the species of two large zoogeographic provinces, those of Asia and Australia.

In his enthusiasm. Wallace mav have exaggerated the distinctness of this line. Other biologists have since adjusted the boundary between the Asian and the Australian regions. As with otfier zoogeographic regions—now this is important—the core areas of a region, their centers, are most distinct, and as you go out from the center, it’s fuzzier on the periphery, the edges. We now know that some Asian species have crossed the Wallace line, these may not be the birds of Bali or the Asian mammals, but other species such as insects. What we see along the line is more of a Wending of species as one zoogeographic region meets another Moving westward from the Wallace line, there is a gradual reduction in Asian species and an increase in Australian species. So, this area, this transition region, between the Asian and Australian regions, well, it has subsequently been named Wallacea. a particularly interesting zoogeographic transitional region.

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Listening 2

Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a clerk at the student union.

M: I’d like to buy some tickets, please.

W: Um, OK . . . but if it’s for the Phobos Quartet tomorrow, you’re too late. That performance is already sold out.

M: No, no, it’s not for that. I want five tickets to the game next weekend.

W: Football tickets. I’m sorry, but the Student Union doesn’t sell tickets for football games or any other sporting events. You’ll have to go to the athletic office for that. Do you know where it is?

M: Yes, thanks. Sorry about the mistake I guess I’ll go over there now.

W: Umm, before you go, can I ask you something?

M: Sure.

W: Is this the first time you’ve bought tickets for an athletic event?

M: Yes it is. Why?

W: Well, I can probably save you some time. First of all, you can’t buy more than one student ticket for an athletic event. Every student is limited to one. You only pay half-price for it, though

M: Why is that? I wanted to bring the rest of my family to the game. How are they supposed to go?

W: Well, student tickets are limited to one each, but your family can always buy general admission tickets, if any are available.

M: So … I can’t get a discount for them?

W: No, unfortunately not Student tickets only. And a certain number of seats for each game are reserved just for students. You can imagine what would happen otherwise. No one would ever buy a full- price ticket, and students would get squeezed out of the games.

M: What if some of my friends who don’t plan on going to the game give their tickets to my family? You know—my family uses their tickets?

W: Yes. you could probably do that. But your friends would have to actually go to the ticket office, show ID, and buy the tickets personally.

M: OK. but would someone at the stadium say to my dad, “Hey. This is a student ticket and you don’t look like a student”?

W: I’m not really sure. I suppose than possible. You just have to deade whether you want to take that chance.

M: Hmm. Yeah. I’ll have to think about that

W: But I don’t want to give you wrong information. Maybe there wouldn’t be a problem. You’d really better check it out with the athletic ticket office. I don’t know all their rules. If you’re embarrassed to do it in person, give them a call. Their extension is 5-3010.

M: Five three zero one zero. I’ll do that. Thanks for all your help.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 21 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Solution

 

Part 1

1. C

2. D

3. A, C

4. B

5. C

6. Temperature: B/Humidity: D/ Sand: C/ Rock: A

7. C

8. C

9. A

10. D

11. A

12. B

13. A

14. A

15. C

16. D

17. India: C/ Australia: D/ South America: B/ U.S: A

Part 2

18. B

19. A

20. A

21. C

22. D

23. B – A – E – C

24. D

25. B

26. B

27. B

28. A

29. B

30. A , D

31. C

32. B

33. South America native: B/ Tibet, Mongolia, Inuit : C / Muslim World and India: D / Native Americans : A

34. A

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TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 21 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Transcripts

Listen to part of a lecture in a geography class.

Professor: So the Sahara is the biggest desert in the world, with almost all the other deserts able to fit inside its territory. The funny thing is that a lot of people think the Sahara and other deserts are, uh, just all sand and those long sand dunes like you see in travel documentaries or movies like Lawrence of Arabia. Not so. In fact, there are many types of deserts and desert formations, and that is going to be the topic for the rest of our class today.

Now, you may have the impression that all deserts are very hot, but we classify deserts into two types, hot and cold, and also based on their moisture content. I bet you didn’t know that. Hot deserts like the Sahara have moisture or humidity levels of almost zero percent and a temperature range from just below zero degrees Celsius to almost 60 degrees. Right here in California, we have one of the hottest deserts on Earth, with Death Valley having temperatures around 57 degrees Celsius and where moisture evaporates instantly. It’s a tough place, and whenever we do research out there, we bake like a bun in the oven. It’s not for the weak of heart or mind.

Now cold deserts are those that are also extremely dry but have temperatures that can plunge to minus 30 degrees Celsius and don’t go much above 25 degrees on the high side. The Gobi Desert in Mongolia is a perfect example of a cold desert. These deserts do get much more precipitation, especially snow in winter months, but they are still relatively dry and cloud-free compared to other temperate zones. The farther one goes into the interior of a continent away from the oceans, there is much less cloud cover and much lower humidity. For example, Europe has a humidity index of 80 to 100 percent, and Japan and Korea have long, hot, muggy spells in summertime. In contrast, the interiors of Russia and Canada are noted for their extreme dryness and bone numbing cold.

In the desert, there are many types of formations that are created by wind and occasional flash floods. Sand dunes are the most familiar, with several different types. They are formed by the wind blowing sand against an obstacle such as a cliff or a pile of rocks. Sometimes the dunes form in the open and wander across the landscape, being blown in the direction of the, uh, prevailing winds. Now the most common dune is the crescent shaped, with a long, gentle slope on the wind side and a steep slope on the lee side, or the side away from the wind. They can be up to 120 feet high and as much as 400 meters long. Other dune types are formed by the wind moving in two different directions. This forms very long parallel dunes. Still others can be shaped like a pyramid.

Now, there is a lot of sand in deserts compared to other areas, but, in fact, most deserts have very little sand as a percentage of their total area. In the Sahara, only one seventh of the total desert area is sand dunes. The rest is rock, as the sand has been mostly, well, blown away. If you just used humidity as a gauge of what a desert is, you could call the Arctic and Antarctic deserts also, although you’ll never see a grain of sand there. So sand does not a desert make.

Now the wind and water also create many beautiful desert formations. Deserts record extreme tempera-tures between day and night. Any moisture in rocks is turned to frost at night and can break rocks easily. Also, great rivers have carved steep canyons in desert areas, such as the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon here in the Southwest. Mesas are another formation, uh, desert formation, that most Americans recognize from our own deserts. A high plateau of rock is worn down by centuries of wind and water, creating many formations. Deep water channels called wadis are formed, which isolates different parts of the plateau, which become buttes and the larger mesas. The mesas have hard central rock that was once surrounded by softer rock that has been eroded and which falls around the base of the mesa to form a surrounding slope. The rock material that falls is called scree. Buttes are like mesas but smaller.

Mushroom-type rock formations are created by the wind blowing sand at ground level. This wears away the rock near the ground so that it is much thinner than the rock higher up, giving a mushroom-like appearance. Other bizarre formations like Elephant Rock in Nevada are the result of the wind and sand acting in eroding away the softer rock and making some of nature’s most beautiful sculptures.

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Listen to part of a conversation between a student and a librarian.

Stude Hello. I’m trying to find a couple of books in the reference section, but I seem to be having some trouble locating them. You’re the reference librarian, right? Do you think that you could help me, please?

Librarian: Sure, it would be my pleasure. Could you let me know what books you’re looking for?

Student: Oh, yes. I have the titles and call numbers written down here on this paper. Here you are. Take a look, please.

Librarian: Hmm… I know these two books. Doing a report for a psychology class, aren’t you?

Student: Oh, yeah, I am. You know, I’m normally pretty good at finding books in the library—I work at the engineering library here on campus—but the main library here is so big that it can get a little overwhelming sometimes.

Librarian: Yeah, I hear that one a lot. Ever since we expanded last year, we pretty much doubled the available shelf space. We’re still in the process of moving around books, so things do tend to get lost on occasion. Okay, here we are. The books should be right here.

Student: But they’re not! I was just here myself. At least I wasn’t looking for them in the wrong place.

Librarian: No, no, you definitely weren’t doing that. Okay, let me think about this for a second. Well, there is always the chance that someone put the books on the wrong shelf. We usually have people do shelf reading once a day, but it’s entirely possible that the person made a mistake.

Student: Okay, so why don’t I look at the books on this shelf and you take a look at the ones there? I mean, the person couldn’t have messed up that badly and put the books too far away.

Librarian: Right you are. Okay, let’s take a look and see what we can dig up.

Student: Hey, here’s the first book on my list! I’ve got it. It was just one shelf over from where it was supposed to be.

Librarian: Well, that’s a relief that you found the book. But what about the other one? What was the title of it again?

Student: It’s called A Student’s Handbook of Basic Psychology. Actually, that book is the one most crucial to my report. Without it, I’m sunk.

Librarian: Don’t worry. We’re going to find that book. Since it’s a reference book, no one can check it out, so it’s got to be somewhere here in the library.

Student: Are you positive about that? It doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to sneak a book out of here.

Librarian: Oh, no. Reference books have extra pro¬tection due to their high cost, and we’ve never lost a reference book yet.

Student: Well, that’s a relief to hear.

Librarian: You know… I’ve got a couple of ideas. One, someone could actually be using that book right now.

Student: Yeah, I thought about that as well. What’s the other idea?

Librarian: Someone could have shelved the book in the circulating book section. Let’s trot over there and see if my hunch is correct.

TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 20 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Solution

Part 1

1. C

2. B

3. C

4. B

5. Irukandji: A, C/ Portuguese man-o-war: B, D

6. D

7. D

8. C

9. D

10.B

11. B

12. C

13. A

14. B

15. Sensory: C, D  /  Motor: A, B

16. C

17. A

Part 2

18. B

19. B

20. D

21. A

22. B

23. Crane: C,D / Ramp: A, B

24. B

25. C

26. D

27. C

28. B

29. A

30. D

31. C

32. A

33. D

34. Europeans: B, D / People of the New World: A/ C

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TOEFL IBT LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 20 FROM SHARPENING SKILLS FOR THE TOEFL IBT Transcripts

Listen to part of a lecture in a marine biology class.

Remember that there are many different types of jellyfish, and. well, despite its name, it isn’t exactly a fish. It actually belongs to the phylum cnidaria, as do corals, sea anemones, sea sponges, and the like. Jellyfish are really a type of plankton, not fish, which means they are, for the most part, controlled by the currents of the ocean. They are about 98% water. They have no brain and no bones, and they even lack a heart. The body of the jellyfish is gelatinous and therefore transparent, meaning you can see through it. Its gelatinous body is one of its main defense mechanisms against its many predators because it makes the jellyfish transparent or nearly invisible in the water. Pretty good protection device. There’s something else you need to know about the Jellyfish in relation to its body: it is what we call polymorphic. If you break the word down, you’ll get its meaning. Can anyone tell me what polymorphic might mean?

Well, the poly means more than one, and morphic would be body or something like that, so polymorphic means more than one body… I think.

Good work. That’s exactly what it means, and, in the case of some types of jellyfish, it can exist as two different species in its lifetime: the polyp and the medusa. The jellyfish really starts out simply as a polyp, a cylindrical body with a mouth. This is the earliest form of its development. With time, it may develop into the latter stage, called the medusa, which is basically a network of tentacles extending down from the polyp body. Now. the medusa is the second type of defense mechanism for the jellyfish, but this isn’t all. When it feels threatened or under attack from predators, it uses its tentacles as a weapon. Lining the external wall of each tentacle are cnidoblasts. These are the poisonous stingers of the medusa. By the way, have any of you ever been stung by a jellyfish at the beach?

Student 3: I was when I was young. I just remember that it really burned.

Professor: Well, yep, that was the poison from the jellyfish’s cnidoblasts. You probably were just unfortunate enough to get in its way or run into it. They don’t attack, class. Remember they float around for the most part and have no real locomotion at all. They can use their tentacles for some propulsion, but they are used more for direction and guidance. Anyways, back to the cnidoblasts. Besides stinging us at the beach now and then, they are really the jellyfish’s second form of defense as well as a means of capturing food. The poisonous stingers contain a neurotoxin, which paralyzes the prey, arvd then the tentacles are used to pull the prey into its mouth.

But, Professor Keyes, aren’t some jellyfish a serious threat to humans? I mean, I read about a guy getting stung and dying in Australia or somewhere last year.

Professor: Good point. And he’s right, class. There are some that can be fatal. The most dangerous jellyfish to humans is the box jellyfish, also known as the Irukandji jellyfish. It’s the type that stung the unfortunate fellow down under last year. Interestingly enough, they are only found in the waters off of Australia. They like cooler water temperatures. And, they are quite small, actually, about the size of a coin, and have four main tentacles extending away from the main polyp. Their cnidoblasts are highly toxic and are even located on their main bodies. Once a person is stung, symptoms such as cramps, nausea, and high blood pressure can occur. Now, you might think that because of cramps, the victim might drown. This is unfounded. Let’s remember though, class, that most of the stings of the box jellyfish do not prove to be fatal, especially if medical attention is sought quickly. Actually, I believe most people who end up dying have some type of pre-existing medical condition.

Student A; Wow, that’s kind of scary, Professor Keyes. But what about the man-o’-war? Isn’t that a kind of jellyfish, too?

Professor Sure is. Actually, the Portuguese man-o’ -war is a specialized colony of different types of polyps, four to be exact, which kind of latch on to each other. Each one is dependent on the other for survival. It realty is a miraculous organism. It is highly developed for a jellyfish. Most commonly, the man-o’-war is found in warm waters, especially off the east coast of the U.S. The four types of polyps are for flotation, locomotion, digestion, and reproduction. The pneumatophore is the polyp that controls flotation and depth. Its color is usually blue or purple. Sometimes, you can even see them floating up on the surface of the water with their many tentacles called dactylozooids floating under-neath them.

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Listen to part of a conversation between a professor and student.

Professor: Yes? Please come in.

Student: Oh, hi, Professor Duncan.

Professor: Cindy Stephens! Welcome, welcome. What brings you in? Please, have a seat over here.

Student: Thank you. If you have a second, I wanted to ask you about my homework assignment.

Professor. Sure, sure! I have all the time in the world. Did you bring it with you? You know, just to refresh my memory.

Student: Of course… Here you go. I mean… I get your comments. I see how I missed the point of the assign-ment.

Professor: Let’s see here… Oh, yes. I remember now. The assignment was to compare two poems by Keats, correct?

Student: Yes, Professor. We were to compare two, which I did. Still, I’d like to know why my grade is so low.

Professor: Okay, Cindy. Let’s back up for a moment. Was the assignment simply to compare any two poems by Mr. Keats? Are you sure about that? Or, was there a little more to it?

Student: Professor, it was my understanding, as it was to a number of other students, that we were to… let me check my notes, compare two poems by Keats using specific examples from the text to support our arguments. That’s exactly what you said in class. Oh, and the paper length was to be a thousand words maximum. I believe my paper was just over that number.

Professor: Really? Well, as I recall, Cindy, the assign-ment was for a comparison for two poems by Keats, but one was to be from his early work, that is, when he first began writing, and the other was to be a poem he wrote closer to the end of his life, around the time of his tragic death. I remember making the assignment very clear on that point.

Student: Are you sure, Professor? I don’t mean to question you, but… I just can’t remember you mentioning that in class.

Professor: Cindy, I’m sure I did. But, even if I didn’t, I believe it states so in your syllabus. You know, as I get older, I can’t rely on my memory all the time, especially in class, where time is of the essence. This is why I always include specific directions for homework and papers and what not in the syllabus. Did you happen to refer to your syllabus for this assignment?

Student: Actually, no, sir. I usually do, but this time I just went by my notes of what you said in class. Let me check real quickly. I have a syllabus right here… Well, I stand corrected, Professor. Your syllabus states very clearly what you expect from our first homework assignment. How dumb of me! I feel so embarrassed. I’m so sorry for coming in here and basically accusing you…

Professor: No, Cindy, don’t feel that way. It could happen to anyone. Look on the, well, bright side. Your writing is excellent. You simply missed the point of the topic. I’m sure that with next week’s assignment you’ll hit the mark. Just, um, be sure to, uh, check your syllabus.

Student: Well, thank you for your time, sir. And, yes, I will nail it next week.

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