Listening B1

1st part:
Listening 1

2nd part:
Listening 2

3rd part:
Listening 3

4th part:
Listening 4


More exams:
CEFR/B1

Listening: Alcoholics Anonymous (Medium)

1. What is one effect of Dave's alcoholism?
A. He is in danger of losing his job.
B. He gets his friends drunk.
C. He might lose his girlfriend.


2. Lisa thinks that Dave's friends .....
A. are buying him alcohol illegally
B. are driving while drunk
C. are getting him to attend parties

3. According to Dave's sister, a good friend is a person who .....
A. spends time with you in their free time
B. gives you money and other things you need
C. openly shares their opinions and thoughts


4. One of things that Dave can accomplish by attending Alcoholics Anonymous is to .....
A. meet people dealing with similar problems
B. undergo free drug testing to check his progress
C. get professional medical advice


5. At the end of the conversation, Dave decides to ......
A. seek professional help
B. continue his drinking habits
C. ignore his sister's advice

***Mp3***

Listening: A Healthy Lifestyle (Medium)

***MP3 and source***

1. What does the man want to do?

A. play basketball with friends from work
B. try out for the company baseball team
C. get in shape and compete in a cycling race

2. What is the woman's main concern?
A. She is worried her husband will spend too much time away from home.
B. She is afraid her husband will become a fitness freak.
C. She is concerned about her husband's health.

3. What is the woman's first suggestion to her husband?
A. He should see a doctor.
B. Her husband should start with a light workout.
C. Her husband needs to visit a fitness trainer.

4. What does the woman advise about the man's diet?
A. He should consume less salt.
B. He should eat less fatty foods.
C. He should add more protein products to his diet.

5. Why does the man's wife recommend cycling?
A. It is good for improving muscle tone.
B. It helps strengthen the heart.
C. It helps develop mental toughness.

Listening: 'Summer Work/Travel' Brings Many Students to US

MP3

Topic: Last year, 150,000 foreign college students took part in this J-1 visa exchange program during their summer vacations. Transcript of radio broadcast. Source: VOA

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

This week, we answer a question from a student in Odessa, Ukraine. Marushka wants to know about a program that lets foreign students work in the United States during their summer .

The program is called Summer Work/Travel. The State Department administers it for full-time  or university students who speak English well.

Students come on a J-one exchange visa. They can work for up to four during their school break. They generally work in service jobs in stores, resorts, , restaurants and amusement parks. But summer internships are also permitted.

"Summer" in this case means summer in the student's country. Those from south of the equator come to the United States during the northern .

Students cannot work as housekeepers in private  or be involved in patient care. And they are supposed to be paid the same as Americans.

Congress created this popular program under a nineteen sixty-one law, the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act. Last year, one hundred fifty thousand students came to the United States this way.

Students can do the Summer Work/Travel program  than once.

Sally Lawrence heads the State Department office responsible for the program. She says students should begin to gather information a year before they want to .

More than fifty organizations are approved to act as sponsors. Sally Lawrence advises students to avoid unapproved groups offering , and to research a few different sponsors.

Sponsors must confirm the English language ability of students and make sure they are currently in school. But sponsors do not all charge the same  for their services.

Another difference: some sponsors arrange employment and housing for students  they leave home. Others permit students to find their own jobs  they arrive.

Sally Lawrence says the first thing to do is to find the  of sponsors on the Web page for J visa exchange programs.

The address is a little long, but here it is: exchanges.state.gov/education/jexchanges. Click on Designated Sponsor List, then choose Summer Work/Travel under Category Description. For more information about the program, go to the main page and click on Private Sector Programs.

To make it easier, we'll post a link at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

***Source***

Listening: Roof Top Gardening is a Growing Trend in New York City

Video

Roof Top Gardening is a Growing Trend in New York City

Topic: New York is a city notoriously short on space, but also one whose residents are big on innovation. In the Big Apple, the latest trend is rooftop farming. Individuals and restaurants are beginning to grow some of their own food in the only space available to them - their roofs. While the practice is currently an environmental rather than a financial trend, some companies hope it can become a money-making business model, providing a cheaper alternative to store-bought produce, especially in low income neighborhoods where fresh vegetables are expensive and scarce. Source: VOA

Visualiza el video y elige la opción correcta.

Click aquí para ver el video

1. What started as an interest in sustainability has become a rooftop oasis, complete with tomatoes, cucumbers, ________ and herbs.
apples.
lettuce.
carrots.

2. The couple learned how to make soil, grow plants, capture __________, and trap urban heat.
air.
rainwater.
clients.

3. "Also, with so many people on the planet, we can't all have ____ acres," Kusmenko says.
10.
100.
1000.

4. Roberta's Pizzeria bought two old railway cars and planted vegetables on top of them.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

5. Rooftop farms can provide ________ produce.
cheaper.
faster.
more expensive.

***Source***

Listening: Schools Look to Save Money With Four-Day Week

MP3

Schools Look to Save Money With Four-Day Week

Topic: But longer days are not always a good move. Second of two reports on the effects of high fuel prices on American education. Transcript of radio broadcast. Source: VOA

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

As we said last week, American schools are looking for ways to save money on bus transportation because of high  prices. More children may have to walk,  their bikes or find other ways to get to school.

But, as another effect of the high prices, they may not have to go to school as .

Some schools, especially in rural areas, are changing to a four-day week. That means  days instead of the traditional Monday through Friday schedule.

Beginning in the , students in the Maccray school district in Minnesota will be in school Tuesday through Friday. Each school day will be sixty-five minutes longer.

Superintendent Greg Schmidt says the district expects to save about sixty-five thousand dollars a year in transportation costs. The district has about seven hundred students living in an area of nine hundred square kilometers.

State officials have approved the plan for three years. They may change their mind before then if  suffers.

In Custer, South Dakota, students have been going to school Monday through Thursday since nineteen ninety-five. Superintendent Tim Creal says the change has saved an estimated one million dollars over just the past eight years.

But he sees other benefits, too. Students get more instructional time. And activities that used to  with classes are now  on non-school days.

He says that in the future, the growth of online classes could make it possible to require even fewer days in school. High fuel prices are driving college students to take more online classes. And in some states, high school students can take them, too.

A four-day school week sounds like a great  for students and teachers. But working parents may have to pay for child  for that fifth day. In agricultural areas, though, it can mean an extra day of helping on the family ranch.

In New Mexico, the first school district changed to a four-day week in nineteen seventy-four because of the Arab oil . Now, seventeen out of eighty-nine districts use it.

The Lake Arthur School District has just one hundred sixty students. Lake Arthur used a four-day  for twelve years. But a few years ago it went back to five days.

Michael Grossman heads the district. He says two studies there failed to show any real educational  using the four-day week. And he says not much instruction was taking place during the last hour of school, because teachers and students were too .

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

***Source***

Listening: Researchers Finding Babies Smarter Than Previously Thought

Video

Topic: What babies know fascinates doctors, researchers and parents. With technology that can measure brain waves and other indicators, what researchers are finding is that babies know more than we suspect. Source: VOA

1. At Northwestern University, researchers recently concluded that well before babies start to ______, they recognize words and can link them to the things they represent.
walk.
cry.
speak.

2. The Northwestern study indicates that one of the best things parents can do is _____________________.
talk to their babies.
sing to their babies.
play with their babies.

3. Researchers think babies begin developing language skills while they are in the _____.
bed.
crib.
womb.

4. Even before they are born, babies pick up the _________ of language.
words.
phrases.
melodies.

5. Babies who are frequently talked to will be more intelligent.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

***Source***