王迈迈英语

Passage 1

Time. I think a lot about time and not just because it's the name of the news organization I work for. Like most working people, I find time, or the lack of it, and never-ending frustration and an unwinnable battle. My every day is a race against the clock that I never ever seem to win. This is hardly a lonesome complaint. According to the families and work institutes, national study of the changing workforce, 55 percent of employees say they don't have enough time for themselves, 63 percent don't have enough time for their spouses or partners, and 67 percent don't have enough time for their children. It's also not a new complaint. I bet our ancestors returned home from hunting wild animals and gathering nuts and complained about how little time they had to paint battle scenes on their cave walls. The difference is that the boss of animal hunting and the head of nut gathering probably told them to shut up or no survival for you. Today's workers are still demanding control over their time. The difference is today's bosses are listening. I've been reading a report issued today called "when work works" produced jointly by three organizations. They set up to find and warn the employers who employ the most creative and most effective ways to give their workers flexibility. I found this report worth reading and suggest every boss should read it for ideas.

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 26. What is the speaker complaining about?

Question 27. What does the speaker say about our ancestors?

Question 28. Why does the speaker suggest all bosses read the report by the three organizations?

Passage 2

Loving a child is a circular business. The more you give, the more you get, the more you want to give, *** said. What she said proves to be true of my blended family. I was born in 1931. As the youngest of six children, I learned to share my parents' love. Raising six children during the difficult times of the Great Depression took its toll on my parents' relationship and resulted in their divorce when I was 18 years old. Daddy never had very close relationships with his children and drifted even farther away from us after the divorce. Several years later, a wonderful woman came into his life and they were married. She had two sons, one of them still at home. Under her influence, we became a blended family and a good relationship developed between the two families. She always treated us as if we were her own children. It was because of our other mother, Daddy's second wife, that he became closer to his own children. They shared over 25 years together before our father passed away. At the time of his death, the question came up of my mother, Daddy's first wife, attending his funeral. I will never forget the unconditional love shown by my step mother. When I asked her if she would object to mother attending Daddy's funeral, without giving it a second thought, she immediately replied. "Of course not, honey. She is the mother of my children."

Questions 29 to 31 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 29. According to the speaker, what contributed to her parents' divorce?

Question 30. What brought the father closer to his own children?

Question 31. What message does the speaker want to convey in this talk?

Passage 3

In February last year, my wife lost her job. Just as suddenly, the owner of the Green House where I worked as manager died of a heart attack. His family announced that they were going to close the business because no one in the family wanted to run it. Things looked pretty gloomy. My wife and I read the want ads each day. Then one morning, as I was hanging a "going out of business" sign at the green house, the door opened and in walked a customer. She was an office manager whose company had just moved into the new office park on the edge of the town. She was looking for potted plants to place in the reception areas in offices. "I don't know anything about plants", she said, "I am sure in a few weeks, they'll all be dead.” While I was helping her select her purchases, my mind was racing. Perhaps as many as a dozen firms that recently opened offices in the new office park and there were several hundred more acres with construction under way. That afternoon, I drove up to the office park. By 6 o'clock that evening, I had signed contacts with 7 companies to rent plants from me and pay me a fee to maintain them. Within a week, I had worked down to an agreement to lease the Green House from the owner's family. Business is now increasing rapidly. And one day we hope to be the proud owners of the Green House.

Questions 32 to 35 are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question 32. What do we learn about the green house?

Question 33. What was the speaker doing when the customer walked in one morning?

Question 34. What did the speaker think of when serving the office manager?

Question 35. When was the speaker's hope for the future?