Accidents and disasters 2

Part A Micro-listening

Sentence structure

Comparative

Drill 1 You'll hear 10sentences, listen carefully, and choose the answer which is closest the meaningto each sentence here you hear.

1. More people attend theshow than we had expected.

2. I spent less time thanusual to finish my homework.

3. I can't go higher than200 dollars a month.

4. I've never read anovel as good as this one.

5. Nothing is moreenjoyable than watching TV.

6. I can es nothing worsethan laziness.

7. Jim runs the fastestof all.

8. There are fewer busesthan bicycle in the street.

9. I spent more time onchemistry assignments than on physics assignments.

10. It’s easier said thandone.

PartB Micro-listening

Dialogue

How did the accidenthappen?

Exercise 1 Listen to thedialogue, and choose the best answer to each question you hear.

George had an accident atwork and was taken to the hospital. His wife Maggy phoned Mac to tell him aboutthe accident. Mac hurried to the hospital soon after work and found Georgelooking better than he had expected.

"How are you feelingnow?"

"Not too well yet. Myribs still hurt every time I breathe."

"What about yourleg?"

"Actually, that doesn’thurt too much any more."

"Well, I'm glad youare OK. How did it happen anyway?"

"Oh, I was checkingsome work on the second storey and... Well, somehow I slipped and fell. Thenext thing, I was in the hospital."

"You're luck you weren'tkilled."

"Yeah, I know.But..."

"Have you talked to Momand daddy yet?"

"Maggy called themlast night. I only talked to them for a couple of minutes."

"What did theysay?"

"Well, they didn't seemtoo upset. They said I should have been more careful."

"That's forsure."

"Then I shouldn’t goto work too soon. I told them they didn’t need to worry about that, not the wayI’m feeling"

"I can imagine.Well, how long do you think you have to stay in the hospital?"

"I don't know yet.Not too long I hope. But I'm sure I will be on crutches for a while. The doctorsaid I’ll have to work cast for at least eight weeks. Anyway, what's the news withyou?"

Question No. 1 Whathappened to George?

Question No. 2 How wasGeorge feeling now?

Question No. 3 What isGeorge's trouble now?

Question No. 4 Who was Mac?

Question No. 5 How longwill George have to stay away from work?

Exercise 2 Listen to thedialogue again and use the information you get to reconstruct the story.

Passage

The two drivers

Exercise 1 Listen to thestory, and choose the best answer to each question you hear.

I am going to tell you astory about two drivers who wanted to park their cars in the same parkingspace.

The man who arrived atthe parking space first was rather old with gray hair. He was driving a largeRolls-Royce. The beautiful car stopped just in front of parking space. Then thedriver turned his head and very slowly began to reverse his car into the space.

Just he was doing this. Ayoung man in a Mini came up from behind. He noticed the space and drovestraight in. No first. The old driver in the Rolls-Royce stopped his carsuddenly. He was very angry and red in the face. He wound down his window andlooked at the young man. But the young wasn't sorry. He had got out of his carnow and he was laughing. "You have to be young to do that." He saidto the older driver and pointed at the Mini and at the space he just taken.

The old man said nothing.He just began to reverse the Rolls-Royce again and crashed into the Mini car veryhard. There wasn't much of Mini left when the older driver had finished. The youngman watched what was happening and couldn't believe his eyes. He was angry andvery red in the face. The older driver looked out of the window and smiled."You had to be rich to do that." He said.

Question No. 1 What isthe story about?

Question No. 2 What doyou know about the two drivers?

Question No. 3 What didthe older driver mean when he said: "you have to be rich to do that"?

Question No. 4 Which ofthe following statements about younger driver can not be inferred?

Question No. 5 Which ofthe following proverbs is not appropriate to the script of the story?

Exercise 2 Listen to thestory again, and fill in the blanks with information you get from the tape tocomplete the following.