Listening Comprehension Test. For 11th Form Students. Listening Comprehension Test for 11th Form Students

 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

Donetsk Regional State Administration

Donetsk Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education

Stage IІІ regional Students Olympiad in the English Language

 

ROUND I

Teacher’s Booklet

Listening Comprehension Test

For 11th Form Students

Listening Comprehension Test for 11th Form Students

 

WORK AND LABOR

 

There are many opinions about the quotation, "Why don't people work?" Aesop's famous fable clearly illustrates what the result of not working is. The ant and grasshopper are opposites in that one of them doesn't want to work. People of many generations have accepted the moral of Aesop's fable as the rule. According to Aesop's moral, the ant was right, and the grasshopper was not because it did not work during the summer. It was singing and dancing all the time and didn't anticipate what would happen in the winter. That is a simple moral. It is also too idealistic. For Aesop, the world is divided into two groups - the ants and the grasshoppers. However, people in real life are more varied and complex than the ant and the grasshopper. Maugham tried to depict the world in more realistic colors. He showed two brothers, one of whom didn't work but was still rewarded. It is the way life is. So, Aesop defined a rule and Maugham showed that people don't always want to live by the rules. Why? Life is more complicated than an Aesop's fable because there is a big difference between labor and work.

Most people consider labor as a way to exist, to provide themselves with the necessities of life. They work in order to live - even if they hate their jobs - and they would not work if they could manage not to. Political orientation does not matter; in any case, society will create conditions that require people to work hard. In his book "The Work Ethic Is Underemployed", Daniel Yankelovich considers three conceptions of work: first, as labor, as a way to exist; second, as a way to improve one's level of life; and third, as a moral necessity. Some people accept these rules. They work hard and consider this way of living as the only right one. They believe that their labor will eventually be rewarded. They are obvious characters of Aesop's fable. They are ants. And they do labor, not work.

There is another reason that people work. It doesn't fit into any of Yankelovich's definitions of work. There are some people who work not for money, not for the best possible material life, not because of a moral necessity or society's rules - but because they cannot live without working. For them work is a natural necessity that has nothing to do with either morals or money.

 There are three good examples of people who illustrate that work is different from labor. A good example of someone who could not live without working was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the great Viennese musician and composer. He could not accept life without making music. To live without creating music was meaningless to him. Jack London, a great American writer, spent his entire life in an effort to describe people with strong personalities and willpower, people who were trying to realize the truth about life. Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian explorer, sacrificed his life for the work of exploration. He was the first person to reach the South Pole.

The people I have been talking about lived in order to work. They considered work something very interesting. It made existence more exciting; it gave meaning to their lives. Life and work were the same for them. However, they don't fit into the characters of Aesop's ant or Yankelovich's workers. The three of them spent long periods of time without working. These were times of terrible depression, stress, and even the threat of madness. Mozart was under a depression after his mother's death. The last years of his life, he drank heavily, and he died in poverty. Jack London wasn't more successful: alcoholism and financial problems led him to commit suicide at the age of 40. Roald Amundsen was killed during the air search for an Italian explorer, Umberto Nobile. It would be very simple to say that these people didn't do any real work because they were lazy or because they could not handle problems due to a weak will. However, like a glowworm, which does nothing at all, they made a beautiful light through their work. The light they made illuminated whole generations.

I believe that the difference between work and labor can explain a lot of things. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize the difference between them, but it is important to do so. Since earliest times humans have created. Their creativity has brought the greatest advances and inventions into the world. Uncreative work, or labor, leaves no trace in history. The majestic pyramids of Egypt, built through the labor of thousands of slaves but the work of only a few architects, still stand today as a monument to creative work. They are a combination of work and labor. So, why are we trying to differentiate the two terms? First, it is important to understand the difference between work and labor. Second, it is important to work rather than labor in order to create rather than merely produce.

 

ROUND I

 

 

Student’s Booklet

 

Listening Comprehension Test

For 11^th Form Student

 

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL ADVISED BY THE TEACHER

 

DICTIONARIES ARE NOT ALLOWED

 

 

STUDENT NUMBER: ____________

Listening Comprehension Test for ^11h Form Students

 

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS BOOKLET.

Statements 1 through 10 (on your answer sheet circle + if the statement is true, - if it is false).

1.    Aesop believes the man should somehow be able to foresee the future.

2.    The author of the article shows consent with Aesop's idea.

3.    People sometimes wish to go beyond regulations.

4.    The majority of people share the same views on work.

5.    The social aspects of work ethic are secondary.

6.    Work and labor are more the same than different issues.

7.    The ideas on work of a modern author absolutely disagree with Aesop's.

8.    Some people fall out of the suggested categories.

9.    It is not unusual that some people may idle for some time.

10.  The difference between work and labor lies in creativity.

 

STOP. WAIT FOR THE SECOND READING OF THE TEXT.

 

Questions 11 through 20 (on your answer sheet circle the correct letter A, B, C or D).

 

11.      The grasshopper in the famous fable is a symbol of:

A)   indifference

B)   intolerance

C)   idleness

D)   restlessness

 

12.  Aesop's moral may be regarded to be:

A)   truly unexpected

B)   far from reality

C)   the only possible

D)   rather complicated

 

 

13.  In his book, an English writer tried to be more:

A)   colorful

B)   cheerful

C)   plausible

D)   surrealistic

 

14.  The community can always find the way to:

A)   sacrifice workers

B)   sympathize with workers

C)   idealize the class

D)   organize labor

 

15.  One of the following conceptions is not considered by Daniel Yankelovich:

A)   greed

B)   toil

C)   source

D)   need

 

16.  One can make an inference that the number of people out of Yankelovich's scheme

is:

A)   rather big

B)   fairly small

C)   enormous

D)   not to be taken into consideration

 

17.      The story does NOT bring this person as an example:

A)   a famous Austrian

B)   a famous Italian

C)   a famous Norwegian

D)   a famous American

 

18.  It is clear that there are people that work:

A)   to forget

B)   to understand

C)   to survive

D)   to constrain

 

19.  This issue was NOT mentioned about the three famous people:

A)   extremely low spirit

B)   lack of funds

C)   drinking hard D)poor willpower

 

20. One can infer from the text that labor should require:

A)       less sensitivity

B)   less capability

C)   less fertility

D)   less productivity

 

ROUND II