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　　Chapter Four

　　PART Two

　　UNIT 1

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

　　Questions 1 to 2 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now listen to the news.

　　U.S. military officials say the crash late Friday occurred during combat operations in Kunar province. The CH-47 Chinook went down about 240 kilometers east of the capital Kabul, not far from the Pakistan border. Military spokeswoman Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence says an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the crash. "But it is important to note that the crash was not due to any hostile action or enemy fire." She says the bodies of all ten soldiers have been recovered. More than 2,000 US and Afghan soldiers have been targeting Taliban insurgents in Kunar province since last month. It is one of the largest offensives since the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power in 2001.

　　Question 3 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　Before the Columbia disaster,NASA said 28 shuttle flights were needed to build the International Space Station. Now Dr. Griffin says it can be done in just 16 before the fleet has to be retired in 2010. So how to achieve this feat:Well, Dr. Griffin has adopted a'build now, use later'philosophy. Previously the plan was for astronauts to do scientific research as they constructed the station. Now there will be no time for science,all 16 missions will be geared to sending up and bolting on the various bits of the International Space Station. Many of which had been built at great expense by the Japanese,Russian and European space agencies.

　　Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　There are 350,000 billion particles in this tube.So nano technology is the science of the very small. But how small is small? Well imagine I was shrunk to a 1,000 times smaller. I'd be about as big as the eye of a fly, but nano is even smaller than that. In fact, much, much smaller. Imagine I was shrunk again, this time 10,000 times. I'd be about as big as a virus, but nano is even smaller than that. You'd have to shrink me another 100 times to get the nano version of me,a billion times smaller than the real me. Industry is already building devices on that scale. Here in Cambridge they're making very thin nano layers of a plastic that emits light when electrical current runs through it. The technology will soon be on the market,in mobile phones with very bright, energy-saving displays.

　　UNIT 2

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

　　Question 1 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　Police in Iraq say a British helicopter has crashed in the southern city of Basra,apparently after being hit by a rocket or missile. Officials say the helicopter went down in a residential area today,and the bodies of the four crew members were found in the wreckage. Iraqi police say four people were killed in a clash between British troops and a crowd of Iraqis at the crash site. The Iraqis cheered the crash,threw stones at the troops and set fire to British armored vehicles.

　　Question 2 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　Leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas have met the Russian foreign minister in Moscow for talks described by Hamas as open and constructive. The meeting was the first of its kind between Hamas and any of the group of countries mediating in the Middle East peace process. The Russian Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Hamas that following its recent election victory, it must transform itself into a purely political institution. Mr. Lavrov also urged the group to abide by previous agreements made between the Palestinian authority and Israel. But its overall response was positive.

　　Question 3 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　The United Nations food agency has warned that millions of Kenyans and Somalis are at grave risk of starvation if aid does not reach the region soon. On a visit to Northern Kenya, the head of the World Food Program said the situation there was as desperate as anything he had ever seen. There have been a few showers in Kenya in the past week,but hardly enough to even wet the ground in many areas. The head of the World Food Program has been the boarder with Somalia,where hundreds of cattle and goats have died, and the human population is struggling to survive. He said the world had not yet woken up to the crisis that is facing Kenya and the whole of Africa.

　　Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　Diplomats from nearly 30 countries have condemned a major campaign against the media in Kenya for which the Kenyan government has admitted responsibility.

　　The diplomats described the action as an unacceptable attack on the freedom of the press. Earlier the Kenyan government confirmed that it had ordered police to carry out an overnight armed raid on the offices of a leading newspaper and its sister television station. They burned thousands of copies of the newspaper,The Standard. Three journalists from the paper later have appeared in court charged with publishing a false statement intended to cause alarm. John Michuki, the Kenyan Minister of State Security,was the first to admit the government was behind the raid.

　　UNIT 3

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

　　Question 1 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　The right of women in the United States to have abortions is being challenged by the state of South Dakota. Governor Michael Rounds has signed a law that will ban almost all abortions even in cases of rape or incest, and provides for five-year jail sentences for doctors who perform them. The only exception would be if a pregnant woman's life was at risk. Supporters of the bill say it's intended as a direct assault on the US Supreme Court's landmark ruling of 1973 which guarantees American abortion rights. Pro-abortion campaigners are expected to challenge the ruling,but a leading anti-abortion campaigner welcomed it.

　　Question 2 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　Five percent of all school-age children in the United States have some form of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. A research team at Washington University in St.Louis is studying ADHD to identify the genes that seem to increase the risk of developing the disorder. Washington University child psychiatrists declare it is clear that ADHD runs in families. ADHD has always been shown in twin and family studies to be extremely heritable—on the order of 70-80 percent—just as heritable as height,intelligence and many other behaviors. They also mention that understanding how genetics influence risk may make it possible to develop better and more specific treatment for the disorder. The study appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

　　Question 3 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　Scientists have warned that Africa could be faced with 25 per cent less water by the end of the century because of global warming. The researchers, based at the University of Cape Town,say the reduction in rainfall may not be anywhere near as great as that, but the actual water available could be substantially reduced because of the way it gathers in rivers and streams. They say semiarid regions such as southern Africa and the Sahel are likely to be worst affected.

　　Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　Dana Buchman is a celebrated American fashion designer. Her line of women's clothing can be found in major department stores around the country. Now, Ms. Buchman is in the headlines,not because of her spring collection, but because of her new book, A Special Education: One Family's Journey Through the Maze of Learning Disabilities, revealing her difficult and transformative acceptance of her older daughter—Charlotte's serious learning disabilities.

　　In addition to difficulty in understanding written words,4-year-old Charlotte had trouble counting. She couldn't tell a story,moved awkwardly and had absolutely no sense of direction. Her mother feared those symptoms would affect not only her schoolwork,but her ability to function in the real world as well.

　　UNIT 4

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

　　Question 1 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　A U.S. judge has approved a plan that could resolve the U.S.Security and Exchange Commission's fraud case against the company WorldCom. Under the terms of the recently revised deal,the telecom giant will pay 750 million dollars, 500 million in cash and 250 million in stock to defrauded investors.

　　And that would be the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the SEC. Later this month a U.S. bankruptcy court is expected to decide whether to sign off on WorldCom's settlement.

　　Questions 2 and 3 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　A United Nations report into global water resources has said that more than 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. The report,released just before the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City later this month, says the problem is chiefly caused by poor governance and bad water management.

　　More than a billion people lack good water,but this is not because the water isn't there. The UN's second World Water Development Report concludes that the world still has enough fresh water, but it's failing to meet the challenge of managing its supplies and distributing water fairly and at affordable cost. Issues of governance it concludes are central. The management of a country's water sector is likely to reflect the overall state of its administration. It says a system which is open and transparent and devolves responsibility and resources to local communities is far more likely to meet its water supply goals.

　　Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO,held its two thousand and six international convention earlier this month in Chicago. It says attendance set a record with more than nineteen thousand people from sixty-two countries. BIO represents more than one thousand companies and other organizations.

　　Its members genetically engineer products in health care, agriculture and other areas. The convention included former President Bill Clinton and what the organizers called the world's largest indoor cornfield. Jose Manuel Pomar is a farmer from the Aragon area of Spain who attended the convention. Mister Pomar grows Bt maize.Bt maize contains a gene from a bacterium that produces a poison. This poison helps the plants resist insects, especially the maize borer. Some things do not change with biotech crops. Mister Pomar says he uses the same amount of fertilizer with Bt maize as he does with conventional corn.

　　The main difference, he says,is in the use of insecticide. Mister Pomar says he sprays his conventional maize with insect poisons three to four times a season. With Bt maize, he says,he might spray once if maize borers are present in large numbers.

　　UNIT 5

　　In this section, you will hear everything ONCE ONLY.Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow.

　　Questions 1 to 2 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　The United States has released for the first time the names and nationalities of hundreds of prisoners it's holding at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The information was divulged after the authorities lost a court case under the US Freedom of Information Act. The names are contained in transcripts of more than 300 military tribunals held at the base. It's thought that about 500 people are still detained at Guantanamo,Washington has classified them as enemy combatants. Most of them were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan after American-led forces overthrew the Taliban,

　　and many had been held for up to 4 years without trial. Human Rights groups say the release of this new information is a significant blow to US government's secrecy.

　　Question 3 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.

　　A dead cat found on the German island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea has been confirmed as having the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. More than a hundred infected birds have been found dead on the island,but it's the first apparently natural occurrence of the virus in a mammal in Europe. The Chief Veterinary Officer of the UN said that the infection of cats was a very rare event. There had been previously documented cases of H5N1 infection killing tigers fed on chicken carcasses at a zoo in Thailand.

　　Questions 4 and 5 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item,you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions.Now listen to the news.

　　For years, companies have used stock options as a form of pay. At first, only top officers in companies got them. The value of a stock option rises or falls with the price of a company stock. So this gave the people at the top a strong reason to do their jobs well. During the nineteen nineties,technology companies started to offer stock options to skilled workers. Many of these businesses were newly formed Internet companies. Soon stock options became a common form of pay in American businesses. Since options are linked to stock market prices, estimating their value can be difficult. Most companies did not report them as an expense, a cost of doing business.As a result, shareholders were not getting a true picture of a company's financial condition. New rules from the Financial Accounting Standards Board are meant to change that. The board is a private organization that establishes how financial reports should be prepared. Its work is officially recognized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

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