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Passage One
The piano and violin are girls' instruments. Drums and trumpets are for boys. According to psychologists Susan Onco and Michael Balton, children have very clear ideas about which musical instruments they should play. They find that despite the best efforts of teachers, these ideas have changed very little over the past decade. They interviewed 153 children aged between 9 and 11 from schools in northwest England. They asked them to identify 4 musical instruments and then to say which they would like to play most and which they would least like to play. They also asked the children for their views on whether boys or girls should not play any of the 4 instruments. The piano and the violin were both ranked more favorably by girls than by boys, while boys prefer the drums and trumpets. There was broad agreement between boys and girls on which instruments each sex should play and the reasons vary. And while almost half of all boys said they avoid certain instruments because they were too difficult to play, only 15% of girls gave that as a reason. Earlier studies indicated that very young school children aged between 5 and 7 showed no bias in choosing musical instruments, but their tastes become more clear between the ages of 8 and 10. One survey of 78 teachers suggested that after that age both boys and girls begin to restrict themselves to the so-called male or female instruments.
Questions 11 to 13 are based on the passage you have just heard.
11. Why did Susan and Michael interview children aged between 9 and 11?
12. Why do many of the boys avoid certain instruments?
13. Which group of children have a bias when choosing musical instruments?
Passage Two
In the 1970s, the famous Brazilian football player Pele retired from the national team of Brazil and became a professional player for a team in New York. Football, or soccer, wasn't very popular in the United States at the time. Few North Americans knew anything about this fast-moving sport. There was no money to pay professional players and there was little interest in football in high schools and colleges. When Pele and other international stars began playing in various US cities, people saw how interesting the game was and began to go to the matches. It is now common for important games to have fifty to sixty thousand fans. Support from the fans is important to the football. The fans cheer enthusiastically for their favorite players and teams, who respond by playing better than before. In most World Cups, the home team, or the team from the host country usually plays better than most people expect. In 1966, 1974 and 1978, the home teams of England, West Germany and Argentina all won the World Cup. The World Cup is called that because teams from every continent have played in it. However, since the Cup began, all of the winning teams have been from Europe or South America. Teams from Asia or Africa always do well but they haven's yet won. Mexico played surprisingly well in the 1970 Cup, which a hosted, but it wasn't among the 4 final teams.
Questions 14 to 16 are based on the passage you have just heard.
14. Why wasn't football a popular sport in the U.S. in the 1970s?
15. When does a football team have the best chance to win the World Cup?
16. How did Mexcio do in the 1970 World Cup?
Passage Three
The world's smartest adolescence in mathematics and science are Singapore, according to a global survery of educational achievement. In the 3rd International Mathematics and Science Study, 13-year-olds from Singapore achieved the best scores in standardized tests of maths and science that were administered to 287,896 students in 41 countries in 1994 and 1995. The survey suggests that science and maths education is especially strong in the Far East. While well behined those top scores, students from Australia earned higher marks in maths than their counterparts in England, who in turn did better than American students. The study collected information on the students' teachers and homes. Not surprisingly, the highest-scoring students had well-educated parents or came from homes containing study-aids such as computers, dictionaries or even such elemental facilities as desks. The study shows that boys generally did better than girls in science, but there was little difference between them in maths. Boys scored better than girls in physics and chemistry. There were no sex differences in the life and environmental sciences. In addition to being tested, students in the project were asked how proficient they thought they were in maths and science. Students in some countries, such as Columbia and Kuwait, had an overly optimistic view of their sills. Meanwhile, some of the best students from Japan and Korea for example were needlessly pessimistic even though they did far better in maths than almost all of other students.
Questions 17 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
17. Of the 4 groups of students, who scored the lowest in maths according to the survey?
18. What kind of students are most likely to become top scorers?
19. In what way do Columbian students differ from Japanese students?
20. In which subject did boys score higher than girls?
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