SECTION 2: LISTENING TEST (30 minutes)

Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, (A), (B), (C)or (D), to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.

Questions 1-5 http://tr.hjenglish.com/
      Here's a tag you don't see much, but should: "Made in Outer Space." Thanks to the commercial minds inside NASA, many of Earth's consumer goods have distant origins in the U.S. space program. There's Zen perfume from Shiseido, derived from a 1998 shuttle experiment that found that a rose's scent changes outside' the atmosphere. There are shock-resistant shoes - made by Modellista — that use a special foam of NASA origin. And Berlei's Shock Absorber sports bra claimed (accurately) in an ad featuring tennis bombshell Anna Kournikova that it was made with NASA technology.

      All good fun. But in the aftermath of the Columbia disaster, the value of commercial research on missions has come into question. STS-107 - the final flight of the Columbia - had 80 experiments on board, including five that were conducted by the astronauts for private companies, funded almost entirely by NASA. One was for International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), which extracted the smell of a rose in space and was back seeking new scents. The other commercial experiments involved studies of ways to fight fire using fine Water mist, grow proteins with greater resilience to disease, manufacture crystals for such uses as hydrogen fuel storage and advance cancer-cell research. Is all this worth pursuing in space? The Bush administration doesn't think so: even before the Columbia went down, it had announced unspecified cuts in NASA's product-development program, even as it raised the agency's overall budget to $15.5 billion.The 2004 proposal deemed the commercial program purely "promotional." http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      NASA cites the societal benefits of commercial spinoffs when justifying the cost of manned space flight, now about $550 million per shuttle mission. The idea of searching for profit in space originally came from Congress, which created a program to trarrsfer NASA technology to the private sector back in 1962. That evolved into NASA's Space Product Development Program, which now works with more than 160 companies, including the likes of Ford and Hewlett-Packard. Since 1976 NASA has heralded more than 1,300 examples of "successfully commercialized technology" in an' annual magazine called Spinoff. Space enthusiasts claim spinoffs earn a six fold return on the cost of shuttle flights, a claim even a NASA spokesperson says he could not confirm.

      The truth is that the economic boost from spinoffs is untraceable.The Berlei bra, for instance, uses a DuPont material called CoolMax, which was derived from a fabric developed to improve thermal clothing by Outlast Technologies in collaboration with NASA's Johnson Space Center. The proportion of Berlei bra sales accurately described as a NASA "spinoff" is anyone's guess, but critics say returns can't even come close to covering the cost of a shuttle flight.

      It is easy enough to spoof manned missions that explore space perfume or the insulation used in race cars on the NASCAR circuit. It's harder to dismiss space-based innovations like the MicroMed DeBakey VAD heart pump, or the Lifesaving Light, a novel treatment for brain tumors. Lance Bush, NASA's International Space Station commercial development manager, says this "isn't about NASA" or promoting its missions - the point is simply to make its resources "available to the broadest part of the public." Industry now pays $50 million of the $5 billion annual cost of the manned program. Let the private sector "worry about the profits," he says. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      The problem is that companies don't worry about profits either, if NASA foots nearly all the costs. IFF declines to discuss its costs for the space rose experiments. Micro-Cool general manager Mike Lemche says its share of the costs to study firefighting mist on the Columbia was "too little to count." And this is a $2 million company that isn't even in the firefighting business yet. Lemche admits the lure of entering the billion-dollar fire-prevention industry through NASA-funded research was too good to pass up. Who wouldn't take a free ride in space? The question for NASA is whetherthese space ventures make sense ifthey don't make money. The answer is probably not, when there are lives at risk.

1. The author invented the tag "Made in Outer Space" ironically so as ________.
    (A) to introduce the theme of the article
    (B) to explain the value of commercial research in NASA's practice
    (C) to criticize NASA's product development program
    (D) to display the achievements of NASA's commercial development
2. According to the passage, after the Columbia disaster, NASA's product-development program ________.
    (A) has been given new momentum
    (B) has been under heavy fire
    (C) has been producing more societal benefits
    (D) has been put aside
3. When the author mentions 80 experiments on board the final flight of the Columbia, he implies that ________.      (A) commercial experiments are most successful on space missions
    (B) the resources of space missions should be made available to the public
    (C) these experiments are of great significance to technological progress
    (D) the value of such experiments can not be compared with that of the astronauts' lives
4. It can be concluded that the tone of the passage is ________.
    (A) complimentary http://tr.hjenglish.com/
    (B) encouraging
    (C) critical
    (D) pessimistic
5. Which of the following can NOT be true according to the passage?
    (A) Opinions differ over the returns on the cost of shuttle flights.
    (B) Economic promotion from space-based innovations is not confirmed.
    (C) Neither NASA nor companies worry about profits from shuttle experiments.
    (D) The experiments on space missions were largely funded by companies.

Questions 6-10
      David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, has been accused of confusing the public over crime by scrapping police league tables in favour of a series of complicated "spidergrams" measuring performance.The indicators are intended to provide a clearer picture of the achievements of chief constables by grouping and comparing police forces of similar size and population. But the new approach was immediately denounced for being selective in its use of performance indicators and for further clouding the debate on crime. Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said the system had been "built by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats". He said: "They don't do much for the public's understanding of policing." Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, described the approach as confusing. He said: "This will not aid the fight against crime, it will merely multiply bureaucracy." The Police Federation said the five key policing areas in the spidergrams gave an incomplete picture.Jan Berry, who chairs the federation, said: "There is a whole range of activity that has not been measured but which will impact on operational policing."

      Other than the Home Office, the only group of people that appeared happy with the new arrangements were the 43 chief constables of England and Wales, who had previously been concerned at the proposals to analyse their performance. Mr. Blunkett created anxiety among senior officers when, shortly after he became Home Secretary, he announced at a police summit in July 2001 that he was setting up a standards unit to identify failing forces and sweep away arcane practices. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      But the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) appeared relaxed yesterday when John Denham, the minister responsible for crime reduction, unveiled the new Policing Performance Assessment Framework, as drawn up by the Home Office's policing standards unit. Backing the performance monitors, Denis O'Connor, Acpo's vice-president, said they were "yet another method of keeping the public more informed on matters of local force performance." The crystal-shaped spider grams are designed to give citizens a visible indicator of how well the police force in their area is performing. In almost all cases, they showed that forces in "similar" areas did have similar records.

      Chief constables had disapproved of the use of league tables. They complained that they provoked unfair criticism because they did not compare like with like. Mr. Denham said the graphs were easier to comprehend than tables. "As people get familiar "with this type of graphical presentation they will realise it contains a lot of data that can be understood afteran initial glance."The spidergrams are based on five indicators: reducing crime, investigating crime, public safety, deployment of resources and the view of a focus group of local citizens. West Yorkshire had the highest rate of burglaries with 39 per 1,000 households and the Metropolitan Police had the worst clear-up rate at 12 per cent of offences. The Met and the City of London Police both had low levels of public safety with 32 per cent of residents concerned over disorder and Gwent police had the poorest use of resources - 15.6 days lost per officer each year. Cleveland had the worst public rating. Only 39 per cent of the region's citizens thought their force was doing a good job.

      The Welsh forces in Dyfed-Powys and Gwent both had impressively shaped spidergrams thanks to comparatively good records on reducing and investigating crime.The force with the most damning graph was Avon and Somerset, which was once regarded as a metropolitan force but had been grouped under the new scheme with areas including Northampton shire and West Mercia which have much lower crime levels. Avon and Somerset, which includes Bristol, pointed out that the graph reflected the fact that the force had suffered from a wave of street crime that had subsequently been greatly reduced.

6. Which of the following can serve as the best title of the passage? http://tr.hjenglish.com/
    (A) Home Secretary defends his "standard" police spidergrams
    (B) Blunkett's police spidergrams leave web of confusion
    (C) The five key policing areas compose the spidergrams
    (D) The policing standards unit proposes spidergrams for measuring performances
7. Which of the following in NOT true about the police spidergrams according to the passage?
    (A) It is a graphical presentation of police performance.
    (B) It is to replace the original police league tables.
    (C) It is to display performance of different police forces in the UK.
    (D) It is based on the five areas of policing performance.
8. All of the following are against the proposal of police spidergrams EXCEPT ________.
    (A) the Liberal Democrat Party
    (B) the Home Secretary of the shadow cabinet
    (C) the Police Federation
    (D) the Association of Chief Police Officers
9. The author introduces the performance of some local police forces at the end of the passage ________.
    (A) to demonstrate the differences in performance which can be shown with the spidergrams
    (B) to show why the five performance indicators have been chosen
    (C) to reveal differences in function between league tables and spidergrams
    (D) to illustrate the wider differences between local forces and their possible causes
10. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
    (A) topic introduction—listing of opposing views—illustration
    (B) narration—background introduction—illustration
    (C) introduction—definition—conclusion
    (D) description—exemplification—nclusion

Questions 11-15
      Who is Daredevil? As a kid he was blinded by biomedical waste. He later discovered that his other senses were heightened and began developing them into superhuman abilities. He's been a second-tier hero for decades, but on Friday, BenAffieck, in Daredevil's crimson outfit, will try to put the hero in the big leagues. As it happens, Daredevil is also a handy metaphor for Marvel Enterprises, the public company that owns Daredevil and 4,700 other comic-book characters. In the '90s, Marvel was blinded by explosive sales of its comic books to speculators who believed they were a can't-miss investment.When that bubble burst, Marvel was forced to develop its other abilities -winning back readers and reaching out to new fans through the big screen. It paid off, and now Marvel seems on top of the world, leaping between rooftops like the mysterious Daredevil. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      There's more to come, too, with two other big-budget Marvel movies hitting theaters by summer. "X-Men 2," the sequel to the surprise 2000 hit, arrives in May, followed by "The Hulk" in June. Both films are expected to build on the success of "Spider-Man," which grossed $822 million and sparked sales of nearly 2 million Spidey videogames. "Things are fantastic," crows Marvel Enterprises CEO Allen Lipson. "I don't think they could get much better." Lipson can be forgiven for sounding like Peter Parker after a hot date with Mary Jane. Marvel's mid-'90s collapse was so spectacular, you'd think its rivals at DC Comics had slipped it some kryptonite. Under Ron Perelman, who bought the company in 1989, Marvel tried to become a hulking corporate titan, expanding into businesses like trading cards, toys and stickers. It even explored funding its own movies. For a time, the strategy worked. But after the comic-book craze ended, the company bled red ink. Its best creators left in droves, and loyal fans were furious that their beloved icons were sliding into lame soap-opera story lines. After a protracted battle between Perelman and corporate rider Carl Icahn, Toy Biz owner Ike Perlmutter managed to take Marvel out of bankruptcy in 1998.And Perlmutter assembled his own Fantastic Four to run Marvel: the then CEO Peter Cuneo, 58, chief operating officer Bill Jemas, 45, Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, 41, and Avi Arad, 55, who would head the film and TV division, Marvel Studios. Their first job was to fix the core publishing division. Marvel cut the number of titles in half to focus on quality. And it lured back top writers and artists to modernize characters like Spider-Man, making him a teenager once more and ratcheting up the emotional realism.

      With significant advances in visual effects and 3-D graphics, moviemaking and videogame technology were able to do real justice to the superheroes' abilities, too. In1998, "Blade," starring Wesley Snipes, grossed $70 million. Two years later, "X-Men" hauled in $157 million at the box office, proving the success of "Blade"; wasn't a fluke. As "X-Men" arrived in theaters, videogame publisher Activision released its first 3-D X-Men and Spider-Man games for the original PlayStation, and both were hits, erasing a string of superhero videogames that failed because of lackluster 2-D graphics. "We discovered that hard-core garners were also comic-book fans," says Kathy Vrabeck, an executive VP at Activision.

      The Daredevil character is known as The Man Without Fear, and Marvel is also plunging ahead, seemingly fearless of superhero saturation. But "X-Men" producer Lauren Shuler Donner says she is concerned that the sheer number of Marvel projects -12 new movie franchises and TV shows have been announced - might be too much for even the biggest comic geeks.And Gale Anne Hurd, a producer of "The Hulk," points to the Batman franchise as an example of how a couple of bad movies can hurt a genre. "When a couple of them fail, they say that the genre doesn't work anymore," she says. But Marvel Studios chief Arad sees his deep bench of characters as an inexhaustible resource, with action, horror, espionage, sci-fi and other genres ready to be tapped. "The world is realizing that comics are good literature," says Arad. "We at Marvel have characters that have endured 60 years. That's hard to do." True, but one thing faster than a superhero is the life cycle of movie fad. http://tr.hjenglish.com/

11. The author introduces Daredevil at the beginning of the passage ________
    (A) to show its relation with other comic-book characters
    (B) to explain how comic-book craze started and ended
    (C) to illustrate Marvel Enterprises' efforts to win more readers
    (D) to give a vivid comparison of Marvel's tortuous road to success
12.The expression "bled red ink" in the sentence "But after the comic-book craze ended, the company bled red ink." (para.3) most probably means ________
    (A) went bankrupt
    (B) sold its stocks
    (C) lost a lot of money
    (D) owed a large debt
13. The expression "to do real justice to" in the statement "moviemaking and videogame technology were able to do real justice to the superheroes' abilities, too" (para.6) can be paraphrased as ________.
    (A) to bring justice to
    (B) to bring into full play
    (C) to give much help to http://tr.hjenglish.com/
    (D) to take advantage of
14. Which of the following gives the correct time order of the films released?
    (A) Blade, X-Men, X-Men 2, and the Hulk
    (B) X-Men, X-Men 2, Blade and the Hulk
    (C) The Hulk, Blade, X-Men, and X-Men 2
    (D) The Hulk, X-Men, X-Men 2, and Blade
15. Which of the following is NOT true about Marvel Enterprises according to the passage?
    (A) It changed hands for a number of times in the 1990s.
    (B) It achieved great success in publishing comic books in early 1990s.
    (C) It met enormous setbacks in mid-1990's owing to market changes.
    (D) It owed its success to changes in business strategies.

Questions 16-20
      Congress can pass laws, regulators can beef up enforcement, and shareholders can demand more accountability. But when it comes right down to it, making sure a company is operating well is really an inside job. That's where internal auditing comes in. It doesn't sound glamorous, but it's an expanding field beckoning to people with a lot of pent up we-can-do-better energy. Internal auditors keep an eye on a company's "controls" - not just financial systems, but all sorts of functions designed to make the business run smoothly and protect the interests of shareholders.

      The recent string of corporate scandals provided a rude awakening to the importance of these internal checks. In the case of WorldCom, it was internal auditorCynthia Cooper who blew the whistle on the company for inflating profits by $3.8 billion. She didn't intend to be a hero, she said to Time magazine when it named her one of its Persons of the Year. She was just doing her job.

      A lot more of those jobs are opening up as companies turn to internal auditors for help in complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Top executives of publicly held companies now have to sign off on their financial statements and vouch for the effectiveness of internal controls. "Up until now, CEOs and CFOs have been going to bed and sleeping well at night, knowing that they've got good controls or financial reporting because they've got good people But what's missing is the documentation that really supports that gut feel," says Trent Gazzaway, the national director of corporate governance advisory services for Grant Thornton, an accounting and business consultancy firm. "I cannot think of a time in history when there's been a greater opportunity to enter the internal-audit field," he adds. Job postings on the website of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) in Altamonte Springs, Fla., have more than doubled in the past year, says IIA president William Bishop III. And in the organization's survey for 2002, halfthe internal-audit directors said they planned to make one or more new hires that year. People who can assess computerized systems are especially in demand.

      Privately held companies are voluntarily adding more scrutiny, as well. In a recent survey that drew responses from 1,400 CFOs in such businesses, 58 percent said they are responding to new corporate-governance standards. Of those, 36 percent are creating or expanding internal auditing, according to Robert Half Management Resources. An American company with $3 billion to $4 billion in revenue typically has about 16 internal auditors.The job is often a training ground for future management positions, but those who stay in the field and become directors earn an average of just under $100,000. The IIA offers certification for internal auditors, but many firms do not require it.

      Assessing "the tone at the top"—the culture and the ethical environment of a company is one of the key charges for internal auditors, Mr. Bishop says. But their effectiveness depends on the resources and independence senior managers give them. As auditors have a perspective that encompasses every aspect of the company, executives sometimes want to hear their recommendations for improving systems. But their main goal is to make sure the systems already in place are working properly.

      The balancing act can be tricky. "If I make a recommendation ...and then I come and evaluate it, I'm not going to be criticizing it," says Parveen Gupta, who teaches corporate governance and accounting at Lehigh University. Ideally, the internal auditor should be an extra set of eyes, a consultant who knows the company well but has enough independence to give honest feedback. Regulations "are pushing internal auditors to become a bit more policeman-oriented," he says, "but if employees perceive it as someone second-guessing them, that is very dangerous." http://tr.hjenglish.com/

      One tool designed to avoid that adversarial feeling is "control self-assessment." The auditor sets up discussions among employees to find out, for instance, if a written ethics policy is being implemented, or if workers are feeling such intense pressures that they might be prompted to push ethical boundaries. The power of the new laws can go only so far. "This entire issue of corporate governance - trying to run the company as if you were managing your own money—is a matter of heart and soul," Dr. Gupta says. And guts. Anyone considering a career in internal auditing, he says, "should have the guts to speak out, to tell the truth."

16. According to the passage, the main goal of internal auditing is ________.
    (A) to make recommendation for improving enterprise's organizational systems
    (B) to help build a profit-making system in a company
    (C) to make sure the system of an enterprise is operating well
    (D) to help establish an enterprise culture                                                                                
17. When Parveen Gupta says, "If I make a recommendation...and then I come and evaluate it, I'm not going to be criticizing it," (para.7) he implies that ________.
    (A) the balancing between recommendation and criticism is most important:
    (B) no one will take a negative attitude towards his/her own suggestion
    (C) corporate governance should be combined with accounting
    (D) the internal auditor should play the role of an independent consultant
18. The expression "to push ethical boundaries" in the sentence "or if workers are feeling such intense pressures that they might be prompted to push ethical boundaries" (para.8) can be paraphrased as________. 
    (A) to follow ethical norms http://tr.hjenglish.com/
    (B) to revise ethical definitions
    (C) to break ethical restrictions
    (D) to promote ethical standards
19. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
    (A) Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed after the exposure of corporate scandals.
    (B) The demand for internal auditing has been rising rapidly since last year.
    (C) Not many companies require certification for internal auditors.
    (D) The operation of financial system is the only concern of internal auditors.
20. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
    (A) Internal auditors can play a major role in eliminating corporate scandals and creating corporate culture.
    (B) Internal auditors can help their bosses comply with regulations and supply feedback on ethical issues.
    (C) Regulators and internal auditors should play a major role in corporate governance.
    (D) Regulators, shareholders and internal auditors can all contribute to the sound operation of a company.