(Question type: Task 2)
You will now read a short passage and then listen to a conversation on the same topic. You will then be asked a question about them. After you read the question, you will have 30 seconds to prepare your response and 60 seconds to speak.
The university is hosting a talk given by a guest speaker. Read the school’s announcement about the opportunity. You will have 45 seconds to read the announcement. Begin reading now.
Seats Available to Hear Secretary of State
The university is pleased to announce that the Secretary of State will be making a one-hour speech on the future of modern warfare in the Kincaid Auditorium on Friday, May 14th, at 3:00 pm. Admission is guaranteed to all students in the Political Science and Government departments. Applications are now open for one hundred additional seats in the audience. Applicants should fill out the accompanying form and include a 1000 word essay explaining why attendance would be important for them. A committee of professors from the Political Science and Government departments will evaluate the applications.
The female student expresses her opinion about why she disagrees with the university’s new policy. State her opinion and explain the reasons she gives for holding that opinion.
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Response time: 60 seconds
In order to structure your response well and talk for enough time, it’s important that you hear the two details the students gives that explain her opinion: the students in other departments might deserve seats and the professors reading essays will be biased.
Based only on the text that you see before the recording, you can guess that the student might have opinions like those, because the most important parts of the text are the parts that say who has guaranteed seats and the description of the essay. You cannot know the specific details about what the student will say before listening, but if you predict that it will be about departments and the essay, then you’ll be more comfortable listening to the conversation.
Text
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Recording
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She, uhh, she’s unhappy with the university’s decision to guarantee seats to Political Science and Government students…seats to hear a special, political guest speaker…and not to students in some other departments. She says that the school can’t just assume the speech will be more…more relevant to some students, and not, for example, history students. And the essay option…the essay students can write to get admission is also flawed because it’s gonna be graded by the professors from those same departments—Political Science and Government—who’ll have biases. Those biases mean the professors judging essays won’t be able to recognize when a…like, a poet, for example, has a good reason to get a seat and listen to the talk.