Vocal Talent

In the years that have passed since my last French class, I had almost forgotten the dreaded "listening comprehension" portion of foreign language exams. It's a shame too, because there were certainly some fun memories there--all of us laughing in Ms Burns' class to the absurd sound of a man imitating le chien barking or at the man who couldn't speak without making that horrible tslple noise between each word. "Get that man some water!" we'd yell. Donne l'homme un verre d'eau!

Then we'd ask if we could go buy cokes from the vending machine...Mais, j'ai trop soif, Madame Burns, apres ecoute l'homme parle sur la cassette!

Ahhh--but how the tables have now turned. The universities here take advantage of having native speakers and require us to record the listening comp. tapes for the midterm and final exams of all the English classes. There are two tests for each grade--one for the English majors and one for the non-English majors. Plus there are several for the Masters and PhD students.

All this to say....I have been and will be spending several days in the recording studio with Jeremy recording test after test after test for the students. These scripts are pretty hilarious. Often, the grammer isn't totally correct--but we've learned not to correct them anymore--it doesn't change anything. I 'stole' the script for the last recording so that I could share some of it with you--I just try to make sure I have plenty of water before each recording:

Short Dialogue Comprehension: listen to the conversation and answer the question that follows:
M: I'm late for my bike was broken on the way here.
W: It doesn't matter.
M: When does the film begin?
W: It has been on for 5 minutes.
M: I'm very sorry for it.
W: It's OK. Things like that happen sometimes.
M: Now, let's get in.
QUESTION: What are the two speakers going to do?

Long Dialogue Comprehension:
W: I miss my folks. I wish we could see them.
M: Well, if they lived closer, we would see them more often.
W: If we owned a bigger house, they could live with us.
M: You know they would never do that. They would feel that they were intruding.
W: You're right. But I wish I were with them now. Let's go to visit them.
M: All the way to Florida? We could if we didn't have to work and if the kids didn't have school.
W: Maybe they will come to visit us when it gets warmer.
M: I'm sure they will. Maybe we can go there to see them this summer on vacation. Meanwhile, why don't you call them on the phone?
W: I just did. That's why I miss them so much right now.
QUESTIONS:
1. What does the woman miss?
2. Why didn't the woman live closer to the kids?
3. When will the kids come to visit them?

(We tried to correct that one to "folks" instead of "kids"...but they wouldn't let us!)

Passage Comprehension: (These tend to have little 'lessons' in them, but sometimes we're not sure what the lesson actually is...they also often claim to 'teach' something about English/American culture--you can be the judge of how authentic it is)

Test 1
Jack worked in a factory. At the end of last month he got his money in a paper bag. He opened the bag and found it was wrong. He got fifty more dollars. He put the money carefully in his pocket and said nothing to others. A month later, he got his money again. He found it was wrong again this time. There was not enough money in his paper bag. Then he went to see the manager."That's right," said the manager after Jack told his story. "I made a mistake last month. For one mistake, I can close my eyes. But for two, I can't. Thank you, Jack. I've known you already. I have to choose another man. I think you should know what to do in the future."

Test 4
In England, people don't usually talk too much. You can go on a bus, or in a train, and everyone sits looking out of the window. Often they read. They read books and newspapers. But they don't talk much.When you meet English people, they often talk about one thing, the weather.
So when you meet someone in England, you can say, "Nice weather." So when you meet someone in England, you can say, "Nice weather for this time of year!"
"But it was a little colder yesterday," someone might say. "But it will get a little warmer later!" you can say. Talk like this and the English people will think, "How
friendly you are!"

Test 5
Farmers keep animals for meat, milk, eggs and other food. Some farmers keep many different animals, for example, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and pigs, but some keep just one kind of animal or bird. There are cattle farms, pig farms,sheep farms and chickens farms.Farmers keep chickens for their eggs and their meat.
Some chickens live out side in the day time. The farmer feeds them, but they find things to eat themselves too. At night they sleep in chicken huts.
In some farms chickens never go outside. They live in batteries. Their eggs and meat are cheap because it only takes a few people to look after thousands of chickens in batteries. We call these chickens battery hens.
Have you seen cowboys on television? Cowboys work on cattle farms. Long time ago, cowboys used to wear big hats to keep the sun out of their eyes. They used to ride horses and catch cattle with ropes. They used to carry guns too, because there were a lot of cattle thieves.
Today cowboys still wear big hats, some still ride horses but many of them ride motor cycles or drive trucks. Now they do not usually carry guns but they carry radios to talk to other cowboys.

Test 6
Perhaps more than any other people, Americans love cars. The family car has become more and more important since the early twentieth century, and it has changed Americans' life. Many people have moved outside the large cities. Americans spend two hours a day or more in their going to work and home again. They cannot live without cars in their life. Americans have bought a large number of cars. They have bought cars from several other countries as well.