EOIDNA/NI/Listening

LISTENING COMPREHENSION PART 1 You are going to listen to five short news items. For questions 1-5, match each piece of news with one of the statements, as in the example (0-A). There are two extra statements. You will hear the recording TWICE.

NEWS

Headings A B C D E F G H Computer Security failure (Example) Policeman killed in strike Mild, rainy weather Irish companies doing well Workers in protest Fire-fighters funeral Many soldiers desert army It will be very cold and dry 0 1 2 3 4 5 A

NPR and RT (Irish Radio and Television) Recorded between 15 October and 15 November 2007

Example 0 A 1 2 3 4 5

EOIDNA/NI/Listening

KEY 0 A 1 D 2 E 3 F 4 C 5 G

NEWS Extract 1 Its 9 oclock. Good morning. Im Eva Cunningham. AIRCOM says it will be getting in touch with up to 250,000 of its customers following concerns about security on its wireless modems. The security flaw means hackers could access wireless connections without the knowledge of the account holder. Paul Bradley, head of communication at AIRCOM says they are dealing with the situation: Ahm, weve inmediately communicated or are in the process of communicating with all our broadband customers at the moment, er, and all new modems, er, will be distributed with information on how customers can cahnge, er, their security code. Extract 2 Companies upbeat and the job market still booms. Theres a lot the doom and gloom merchants wont be interested in reading this because it says were still pretty hot. Irish companies are still producing record numbers of jobs despite growing concerns about an economic slowdown. One in three firms took on new people over the past three months, according to a survey published yesterday. Extract 3 In France, teachers, postal workers and other civil servants today began a one-day strike to join forces with striking transport workers in challenging Nicholas Sarkotzys plan to reform the economy. The nationwide protest is over issues ranging from pension reform to the cost of living. They have disrupted schools, trains, postal services and airports. Theyre the biggest threat to Sarkotzys plan to reform since he was elected President. Extract 4 Now the Irish Times and the tragic and compelling image that first catches your attention on the front page: Final Tribute, Thousands attend firefighters funeral, The Helmets in uniform. These small gestures when you take them out of context sometimes, well, theyre meaningless, they dont really say anything -. Pop them in the context that you see them this morning on the front page of the Irish Times, then they speak volumes. Its the helmet-in-uniform of firefighter Mark OShaugnessy being carried ahead of its coffin as it leaves the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Bray, county Wicklow yesterday. Extract 5 RTE2 FM Weather with LadyStar, car insurance for Eaglestar. Im so glad my friends recommended them. Hazy and sunshine in places and rather cloudy overall with scattered outbreaks of rain, some of them really heavy. Itll be mild with top temperatures 15 to 18. - How many of them are gonna be heavy? - Some of them - Good. Extract 6 A growing number of American soldiers are deserting their posts. The Army says close to 5,000 soldiers deserted in the past year, thats an 80% jab since the US went to war in Irak. Nancy Maleyne reports: Last year 19-year-old Brian Seymore was one of the Armys 80,000 newest recruits. Seymore was part of the Armys success story. They met their recruiting goals last year but today Seymore is another kind of statistics: hes one of the 4, 689 soldiers who deserted last year.