Section B

Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passages and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A), B), C) and D). Then mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 1 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! As instructed in our previous meeting, the subcommittee on building development has now drawn up a brief to submit to the firm's architect. In short, the building would consist of two floors. There would be a storage area in the basement to be used by the research center as well as by other departments. We are, as you know, short of storage base, so the availability of a large basement would be a considerable advantage. The ground floor would be occupied by laboratories. Altogether there would be six labs. In addition, there would be six offices for the technicians, plus a general secretarial office and reception area. The first floor would be occupied by the offices of Research and Development staff. There would be a suite of offices for the Research and Development director as well as a general office for secretarial staff. It's proposed to have a staff room with a small kitchen. This would serve both floors. There would also be a library for research documents and reference material. In addition, there would be a resource room in which audio visual equipment and other equipment of that sort could be stored. Finally, there would be a seminar room with closed circuit television. This room could also be used to present displays and demonstrations to visitors to the center. The building would be of brick construction so it's to conform to the general style of construction on the site. There would be a pitched roof. Wall and ceiling spaces would be insulated to conform to new building regulations.

Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you've just heard.

16. What is said about the planned basement of the new building?

17. Where would be the Research and Development director's office?

18. Why would the building be of brick construction?

Passage Two

Huang Yi works for a company that sells financial software to small and medium size businesses. His job is to show customers how to use the new software. He spends two weeks with each client, demonstrating the features and functions of the software. The first few months in the job were difficult. He often left the client feeling that even after two weeks he hadn't been able to show the employees everything they needed to know. It's not that they weren't interested; they obviously appreciated his instruction and showed a desire to learn. Huang couldn't figure it out the software was difficult for them to understand, or if he was not doing a good job of teaching. During the next few months, Huang started to see some patterns. He would get to a new client site and spend the first week going over the software with the employees. He usually did this in ships, with different groups of employees listening to him lecture. Then he would spend the next week in installing the program and helping individuals trouble-shoot. Huang realized that during the week of trouble shooting and answering questions, he ended up addressing the same issues over and over. He was annoyed because most of the individuals with whom he worked seem to have retained very little information from the first week. They asked very basic questions and often needed prompting from beginning to end. At first, he wondered if these people were just a little slow, but then he began to get the distinct feeling that part of the problem might be his style presenting information.

Questions 19 to 22 are based on the passage you've just heard.

19. What does Huang Yi do in his company?

20. What did Huang Yi think of his work?

21. What did Huang Yi do in addition to lecturing?

22. What did Huang Yi realize in the end?