Cracking the toefl ibt 2008 part 24

As societies grew more stable and trade flourished, gold, usually molded into small ingots, gradually replaced the system of bartering.. They started leaving their gold ingots with gold

3 Listen again to part of the lecture Then answer the question

So when biologists talk about the layers of the body, that’s what they mean: The outermost is the skin and nervous system, the middle is the muscles, and:the innermost is the stomach, basically It’s important to get that straight right from the beginning because most people—well, isn't it natural to think of the bones as the innermost layer?

What did the professor mean by this? GY

well, isn't it natural to think of the bones as the innermost layer?

(A) The layers of the body do not include the bones

_(B) Most people are familiar with the categories

(C) Scientists have recently changed their thinking

(D) The mistake is understandable

4 Which of the following are characteristics of an ectomorphic body?

(A) Lack of fat (B) Strong bones (C) Low muscle development (D) Enlarged stomach

5 What will the professor discuss next?

(A) Problems with Sheldon’‘s theory (B) The questions Sheldon used in his interviews (C) Anewer theory of personality types

(D) Studies that have tested Sheldon’s theory

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6, Based on the information in the lecture, indicate

whether the following are characteristics of the

mesomorphic or endomorphic personality type

Mesomorphic Endomorphic

Seeks ways to fulfill appetites

Friendly and

outgoing Reacts to situations

physically

Physically inactive

Attacks problems without planning

LISTEMING PRACTICE DRILLS Ml 245

DRILL #5: A LECTURE

Ask a few friends to read to you the following lecture and discussion from an anthropology class

The discussion is between a male professor (MP), a female student (FS), and a male student (MS) The lecture and discussion are similar to what you'll hear on the TOEFL Then answer the questions

that follow the transcript

pays

Male Professor: Since yesterday's brief introduction on the origin of banking confused

some of you, today | would like to review it a little bit Banking the way we know it today is a convenience The money used in banking represents a certain amount of value, but the money itself isn’t valuable; it's just paper

To see how we got here suppose we think about a society far, far back in history—what would it have used before the paper money we have today’?

Female Student: Didn't they trade with the goods themselves?

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MP: Sure The system of exchanging one good for another of equal value is called bartering Bartering was common in early societies, first with essential goods,

then with nonessential goods By nonessential, | mean, for example, art or

cultural objects You might trade a curtain that had been dyed in a decorative pattern for some wheat, The curtain's decorative value isn’t essential ta

survival the way the food value of the grain is That's the first step toward

a money economy: Recagnizing trade-worthy value in something that isn’t essential to survival

Of course, you may see a hitch Different cultures don’t value the same decorations, so something could be worth a lot to one tribe and nothing

to another With food, that’s not a problem—everyone has to eat—but with nonessential items, you're going to use something with cross-cultural value

Can anyone think of anything that would work?

Male Student: How about gold? It's durable easy to shape and it's beautiful Is that

why cultures started using it as money?

MP: Well, you can't refer to the earliest trade with galcl as a money ecanamy, but yes Gold is a perfect example As societies grew more stable and trade flourished, gold, usually molded into small ingots, gradually replaced the

system of bartering There were problems with gold, though

FS: Yeah, | was going to say, gold is heavy, isn't it? How did people carry enough

of it around to buy things? And wasn't it dangerous—ike, you'd get robbed if people knew you had money with you?

MP: Definitely Hauling all your gold around was a real risk in early societies, when there were bandits roaming around and no police to help you And as you say, gold is heavy and unwieldy, One advantage it has, though, is that, unlike

livestock or food, if doesn't go bad, so you don't have to use it up immediately

That combination of characteristics gave people an idea They started leaving

their gold ingots with gold specialists for safekeeping, The specialists stored

the gold for a small fee, and they gave their customers receipts, the way you'd get today, So you'd get something that said that, you know, you were the owner of such-and-such an amount of gold stored at this particular shop The quality of gold from different mines varies, so the purity and density of your

gold ingots—you know, how heavy they were for their size—determined their

value and would also be recorded

Then, when you wanted to use it, you just went back, gave the shopkeeper the receipt, and he gave you your gold

MS: So if you were storing 500 ounces of gold of whatever percent purity, you'd give the receipt back, and get your 500 ounces of gold back? They kept it for

you in your own little drawer or something?

MP: Whoops! | guess | did make it sound that way—thanks for catching that! No,

you'd get 500 ounces of gold of the sane purity back They would have equal value, but would nat necessarily be the exact same pile of ingois that you originally gave to the shopkeeper

LISTENING PRACTICE DRILLS I 247

FS: The shopkeeper would use the gold or lend it out while you were storing it?

MP: Sure, and you can see how that’s another of the beginnings of banking as we know it You wouldn't get back your very own pile of gold; you'd get back a pile of equal value It was the value itself that was important

MS: So how did it become like money? | mean, we're still talking about big, heavy stacks of things, and—

MP: Well, that’s the last point Eventually, people figured out that they could use their receipts from storing gold to trade with one another If they wanted to buy something, instead of running to the gold shop, withdrawing gold, and bringing it to another shop to pay for food or clay pots or whatever, they just gave the food merchant a receipt for the appropriate amount of gold The merchant could then cash it in for gold, and the trade would be complete And that’s the last major step: The receipts became the first real ancestor of the money we use today because they stood for value actually attached to goods somewhere else

1 According to the professor, why was trade with nonessential goods difficult?

(A)

(B) (C) (D)

Poor societies cannot devote resources to making nonessential goods

Nonessential goods are often large and heavy to carry

Different societies have different systems of value

The decorations used by early societies were too simple

to be valuable

2 Why did people begin relying on gold and gold specialists?

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)

Gold had to be imported over long distances

Travelers were in danger from thieves

Only specialists could determine its value

Gold doesn't spoil

Gold was difficult to transport

3 How did gold specialists indicate the value of the gold they received?

(A) (B) (C) (D)

248 ME CRACKING THE TOEFL

They recorded where it had been mined

They recorded its purity and density

They only lent out the highest-quality gold

They issued receipts in different colors

Now, ask one of your friends to repeat the following part of the lecture, which is what the actual

TOEFL will do |

MS: So if you were storing 500 ounces of gold of whatever percent purity, you'd

give the receipt back, and get your 500 ounces of gold back? They kept it for

you in your own little drawer or something?

MP: Whoops! | guess | did make itsound that way—thanks for catching that!

4 Listen again to part of the lecture Then answer the

question

What did the professor mean by this?

Whoops! | guess | did make it sound that way—thanks for catching that!

(A) He was not sure what the student said

(B) His statement was misleading

(C) He wanted to emphasize a different point

(D} The man's interpretation is correct,

5, Why did the professor say the receipts issued by

gold shops were the first ancestors of money?

(A) All gold shops used the same standard format

(B) They were written on small slips of paper,

(C) They represented the value of something else

(D) They were used in societies where bartering was still

practiced

6, What is an ingot?

(A) A piece of gold (B) A gold specialist's shop

‘ (CG) A receipt

(D) A cultural object

LISTENING PRACTICE DRILLS ME 249

Listening Practice

Answers and

Explanations

DRILL #1: A CONVERSATION

Here, again, is the transcript for Drill #1 Read through it and pay attention to the structure and purpose of the talk

Male Student:

Female Student:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

F6:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

FS:

MS:

| can't believe it! Professor Blake gave me aC on my biology test

Of course he did You only answered 80 percent of the questions right Next time, maybe you should consider studying without the television on

But [ wasn’t watching it! | really was paying attention to my notes and the book and stuff; I’m just the sort of person who needs white noise in the background in order to concentrate—| mean, |’m usually good at biology

Oh? My sister says she’s like that

Okay, so you know what | mean? If I’m in the middle of a quiet room, every little noise is distracting It's like it's magnified | mean, amplified whatever If the radiator starts making little noises—

Boy, how old is the heating system in these old dorm rooms, anyway, huh?

Yeah, really? Or someone's having a conversation in the hall and it comes in through the door | just start fixating on it

| get that, but is it a good idea to use the television for white noise? Don’t you get distracted if something funny comes on you know, or interesting?

Sometimes, | guess But most of the time, | can focus just fine | think

Uh, all right But, you know, though, um, you can use other things to drown out noises Like, my sister—|’m not making this up—she had an old fan, and it made kind of a hum when she ran it

Those old fans do

Right? A steady sound, rhythmic not loud and it turned out that if she put

it on, it was soft enough that she could think, and loud enough that the little distracting stuff in the background, like, she couldn't hear that

| just bought my fan new this year; it's the quiet kind

Well, sure was, you know, just giving an example In our psychology course last year, didn’t they say that tuning the radio in to static is okay too? For people who need white noise, | mean?

Static on the radio? You know the hissing sound that makes! I'll never get any work done!

That's if you have it at normal volume With trial and error, you might be able to make it softer so it doesn’t annoy you but loud enough to drown out other stuff— Uh-huh

—like my sister's fan

| guess

It has to be better than the television Just look at that biology score again

Don't make me, please Yeah, | mean, you may be right I'll see how it works studying without the television

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FS: Ooh, something.else l‹just thought Of

Ms; What?

FS: Well, you were talking about the radiator, and | think ! don’t remember which

class it was, but we were tald that people find it harder to concentrate when

they're in a warm room It helps if the temperature's a little on the cool side

Sharpens your concentration

MS: | do get drowsy when the radiator's on full blast, but the radiators in our rooms aren't very easy fo, uh, control It's not surprising after they've been used so many years, but—

FS; I'm with you there You could always try cracking the window, though Or maybe wearing fewer layers of clothing lt might be a little uncomfortable, but it's your grades we're talking about, after all

This conversation falls into the students discussing a problem category, a very typical pattern on

the TOEFL Our first goal with a conversation is to identify the purpose of the interaction Like the

main idea, the purpose appears early in the conversation In this case, the following lines reveal the

purpose:

MS: | can't believe it! Professor Blake gave me a.C on my biology test

FS: Of course he did You only answered 80'percent of the questions right Next

time, maybe you should consider studying without the television on

Once you identify a problem, your next goal is to try to listen for the solutions offered In many

cases, one listener will offer a solution, only to have the other speaker reject it The listener will then

advise another possible solution In this case, the listener offers the following advice:

“Next time, maybe-you should consider studying without the television on.”

After the speaker claims he needs the television on, the listener proposes two other solutions

“But, you know, though, um, you Gan use other things io drown out noises Like, my sister—I'm

not making this up—she had an old fan, and it made kind of a hum when she ran it.”

“In our psychology course last year, didn't they say that tuning the radio in to static is okay

too?"

After discussing these options, the woman offers one final solution

"| don’t remember which class it was, but we were told that people find it harder to concentrate

when they're in a warm room It helps if the ternperature’s a little on the cool side Sharpens

your concentration.”

It is also very important to pay attention to tone when listening to conversations Does the speaker

accept the solutions or reject them? Was the problem solved by the end of the conversation or will it

still be an issue? Paying attention to the tone will help you with POE

Look at some of the man’s responses What is his tone?

“Static on the radio? You know the hissing sound that makes! I'll never get any work done!”

"Yeah, | mean, you may be right I'll see_ how it works studying without the television,”

"| do get drowsy when the radiator's an- full blast, but the radiators in our rooms aren’t very easy

ta, uh, control.”

LISTENING PRACTICE ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS HI 253

It appears that the man is initially against listening to the zadio to solve his problem, but he then

offers to try the suggestion As for the radiator solution, he feels it might work, but he’s not sure he will be able to adjust the temperature Based on these lines, the man’s tone is not extremely positive

or extremely negative, but it doesn’t seem as if his problems are completely solved

Now let’s see how this understanding of the purpose and the tone helps us attack the questions

1 C This question asks about the purpose of the selection As we've seen, the conversation

involves solutions to the man’s studying problems Eliminate answer choice (A) because it focuses on the test, not the man’s studying habits Answer choice (B) is a trap answer; the student actually says he’s good at biology He received a low score on the test because of

his studying problems Answer choice (D) is obviously incorrect The issue is the student's academic performance

2 C This is a detail question Recall that in the beginning of the talk, the man and wotnan had the following exchange:

FS: .Next time, maybe you should consider studying without the television on MS: But | wasn't watching it! | really was paying attention to my notes and the book and stuff; I'm just the sort of person who needs white noise in the background in order to concentrate

However, if you missed that, you may have noticed that answers (A) and (D) are the solutions offered by the woman, so you can eliminate them The man says that the noises made by the

radiator are distracting, but he doesn’t use them for white noise so answer choice (B) is wrong

3 B For this question, we have to figure out what the woman is suggesting The following is stated:

MS: | just bought my fan new this year; it’s the quiet kind

FS; Well, sure ,| was, you know, just giving an example

Eliminate (A) The main purpose of the conversation is to solve a problem and the woman offered a few different solutions, so she did not misunderstand the problem Also, eliminate (D) The woman offers another solution Therefore, the fan doesn’t solve the problem This is a good example of how knowing the purpose and the structure can help you eliminate answers

After the man says he has a quiet fan, the woman suggests using a radio instead, which makes answer choice (B) the best option

4 D This is another suggestion/ inference question Once again, use the purpose to help you The answer should have something to do with studying and the problems the man is having Thus, eliminate answers (A) and (B) right away They have nothing to do with studying Answer choice (C) is the trap answer Although the woman suggests a number of solutions to help

the man, she doesn’t suggest using noise from the outside However, in her discussion of the radiator, she does mention that it’s easier to study in a cool room, making choice (D) the answer

5 B This final question asks for a detail from the passage There are two hints about the heating system, one in the beginning of the talk and one toward the end The first hint is when the woman says

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