Part VI. Cracking types of listening questions
Skill I Basic Comprehension
1. Type I: Gist Question
Ø What is gist question: requires the listener to understand critical vocabulary phrases or facts from several points in a text and to interpret to identify the key points of the text. Questions that test understanding the gist may require you to generalize or synthesize information in what you hear.
Ø How to recognize this question:
What are the students mainly discussing? ETS
What is the main topic of the talk? ETS
What is the lecture mainly about?
What is the talk mainly about?
What is the main purpose of the lecture?
What is the professor mainly discussing?
Ø Revelation of gist:
l Topic sentence: today we are going to be talking about…/ I’d like to begin my lecture by introducing…/ let’s focus on…/ let’s now take a look at…
l Question and answer: how are companies typically structured? Do you remember what they are? How can you understand it? Why does human being consider it important?
l Conclude from the material
Ø Points of correct answer:
history, view, development, background information, growth, origin, features,characteristics, invention, creation, innovation, theory, view, talk about, evolution, era, trend, comparison, classification, etc.
Ø Points of wrong answer:
l Too general
l Too specific
l Inaccurate
l Irrelevant
Ø Example 1: The Golden Age of American Agriculture
What are the main reasons that made the early 20th century the golden age of
American agriculture? (Click on 2 answers)
A The improvement of farming methods due to advanced technology.
B The governmental involvement with pesticide control.
C The introduction of newly-developed seeds.
D The increase of the female labor in farming.
P: We call the first two decades of the 20th century the golden age of American agriculture. What were the factors that made the period the golden age of American agriculture? Who can offer some reasons?
S: New strains of crops, improved farming methods, and what about greater use of pesticides and fertilizers?
P: Absolutely. Technical advances continued to improve productivity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture set up demonstration farms to show how new techniques could improve crop yields. In 1914, Congress created the Agricultural Extension Service, to advise farmers and their families about everything from crop fertilizers to home sewing projects. The Department of Agriculture undertook new research , developing hogs that were fattened faster on less grain as well as fertilizers that increased grain production, New hybrid seeds that developed into healthier plants, treatments that prevented or cured plant and animal diseases, and various methods for controlling pests were all introduced around this time. Anything else?
S: Wasn’t there also some kind of population boom around then?
P: Good! Farm prices were high as demand for goods increased, and land values rose. However, the good years of the early 20th century ended following World War I. What was happening then?
S: Maybe a lot of people, women especially, were moving from the farm to the cities.
2. Type II: Detail Question
Ø What is detail question: require the listener to understand and remember explicit details or facts that are important as an explanation or an example of the main idea. These details are typically related, directly or indirectly, to the gist of the text, by providing elaboration, examples or other support.
Ø How to recognize this question:
What problem does the man have? ETS
According to the conversation, what are two ways in which bacteria cells get resistance genes?
Why does the professor talk about Plato’s description of society?
Ø Two tips:
l Pay attention to the order and sequence of details. For example: the first, the other.
l Pay attention to the adjectives and other modifier of details.
Ø Example 1: Pluto
1. When was Pluto officially declared to be found?
A The date when Percival Lowell was born.
B On March 13, 1930.
C On May 1, 1330.
D On the birthday of Venetia Burney.
2. Who originally named the newly found planet as Pluto?
A Percival Lowell.
B Clyde Tombaugh.
C V.M. Slipher.
D Venetia Burnye.
P: Where is Pluto?
S: Pluto is in Mickey’s doghouse.
P: Very funny. I mean the planet, Pluto.
S: It’s the last one, isn’t it? The ninth one.
P: Right. And do you know how it got its name? And no, it wasn’t named after Mickey’s dog. Nobody? Okay. Does anybody know when Pluto was discovered? Hmmm…The history of it is a little long, but here goes.
In 1905, Percival Lowell started to search for the elusive ninth planet after opening the Lowell Observatory in 1894 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Observatory announced the discovery on Percival Lowell’s birthday, March 13, 1930. The honor of naming the newly discovered planet belonged to Lowell Observatory. Clyde Tombaugh, the first person to notice Pluto images, urged the director, V.M.Slipher to give it a name before someone else did. Suggestions came from all quarters: Cronus, Odin, Persephone, Erebos, Atlas, Prometheus… the list seemed to go on forever like the universe. One young couple even wrote to Tombaugh asking him to name the planet after their newborn child!
However, an 11-year old English girl named of Venetia Burney suggested Pluto, a Roman god of the underworld, to her grandfather, who sent the suggestion to a professor of astronomy at Oxford. Slipher made the official announcement on May 1, 1930 and gave full credit to little Venetia. He also suggested interlocking the letters P and L as the official symbol for Pluto. Not only do they stand for the first two letters of the planet, but they’re also the initials of Percival Lowell.