LISTENING A2

(Authentic Source)
Task 1: Listen to part of a radio program about online dating and decide whether the statements
are True (T) or False (F).
1. There are nearly 395 million online dating service users worldwide.
2. The dating service app named Momo has the greatest number of subscribers in China.
3. 70% of interracial marriages in the US result from online dating services.
4. The app Bumble is unconventional in that women can take a proactive role there.
5. Britain has witnessed a great increase in the number of sexual predator.
(NEC 2019)
Task 2: Listen to part of a news report about a natural disaster in Venice and answer the
questions. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken from the recording for each answer.
1. In addition to people’s residences, what were damaged by the three record-high tides?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2. Except for the sidewalks, what parts of St. Mark’s Basilica were also soaked in saltwater?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3. What are put between the wet book pages to absorb the water?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
4. What does the Moses project construct to hold back the tide?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
5. What factor besides human incapability has accounted for the delays in the Moses project?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
(NEC 2019)
Task 3: Listen to a piece of news about people’s employment prospects in the modern era and fill
in the missing information with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
America has lost more than 7 million (1) __________factory jobs___________ since the late
1970s, and yet the amount of stuff the US produces is at an all-time high.
Michael Hicks, an economist, says (2) ________automation_____________ is responsible for the
loss of these jobs. Indiana has been in the (3) ________crosshairs_____________ of this recently
because of the Carrier plant and now the interviewer wants to know how Professor Hicks fathoms

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President- elect Trump’s representation that hundreds of jobs were saved.
As the plant probably goes through an automation period, we just don’t know how many of the
workers that are there are going to be able to fit into the new, highly (4) __________technical
automatic factory________ of 2020.
The interviewer asks Professor Hicks whether he believes people that talk about our (5)
__________sources___________ haven’t accounted for the powerful impact of automation in
industry.
Professor Hicks thinks that there is a real disconnect between what they talk about, which is jobs
floating overseas to Mexico and China and Vietnam, and the reality, which is that automation and
(6) ____________technological improvements_________ have really accounted for the vast
majority of job losses in Indiana nationwide.
(7) _________Robotics and digitisation_________ of a production process is going to make
things quicker and more efficient so we don’t need as many autoworkers as we did a generation and
a half ago.
There are certain new jobs being created, but they are harder to see. Between the time that
manufacturing peaked in 1977 and today, we’re down about 7 and a half million manufacturing jobs,
but we’re up about 9 and a half million (8) __________legistic jobs___________.
It’s difficult to ask a 56-year-old guy who hasn’t been around middle school math since the early
‘70s to jump into a training program at our community technical college or with our (9)
___________workforce development__________ board and get retooled for a technology job or to
work in a health care setting.
2015 is a year of (10) __________record agricultural production__________ in the United States.

Task 4: For questions 1-10, listen to a recorded material about the anti-vaccination movement
and fill in the gaps to complete the summary below.

Vaccines date back to the research of Edward Jenner, a doctor working in Britain in 1700s. Upon
observation, Edward noticed that with the exception of the (1) _____milkmaids____________,
everyone else got smallpox in a similar manner. Thus, he proceeded to (2) _____scraping
pus___________ from sick cows into the skin of his family members. Miraculously, they did not get
sick. This discovery led to the smallpox vaccine. Edward Jenner’s experiment later led to his being

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(3) ___________ostracized___________ from his community because people considered it
disgusting that he would inject his own family with (4) ________pathogens______________ from
sick animals. The same kinds of concern continue in today’s world. Doctors have to ask new parents
to give otherwise healthy babies dozens of needles established upon the promise that some (5)
____________diseases__________ will be avoided. One (6) __________discredited
paper____________ even made many parents think that there is a connection between the Measles,
Mumps and Rubella vaccine and autism. Additionally, we have many people who object to
vaccination whose only concerns are not autism. There are also (7)
________deniers______________ of all kinds, Orthodox Jews and the parents of children with
medical conditions who have to drop out, and even (8) __________unvaccinated____________
kids visiting Disneyland. The typical outbreaks of numerous (9) _________vaccine-preventable
diseases____________ happen very simply. An unimmunized person travels to a place where a
disease is circulating and then returns to a community with similarly unvaccinated people and then
the disease takes its course. Viruses and bacteria know no borders, all it takes is a (10) _____single
traveler_____ to spark an outbreak, even in the happiest place in the world.

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