L2 037 Listening Exam

TASK ONE

Text 1

What do you usually look for on YouTube?

Interviews with the most famous and attractive?
Well, it turns out that not only celebrities receive
viewers’ attention and a good example of it is
Lizzie Velasquez, a 23-year-old student from Texas.
She looks nothing like popular stars, but she
certainly has an important message to send across.

Lizzie has a syndrome that doctors know little

about. She shows some signs of progeria, a disease
in which patients get old very fast. Lizzie’s skin
does look old , but on the other hand, her bones or
internal organs are in good shape. Another
problem is that there is no fat in her body, even
though she eats every 15 minutes. She needs to
eat at least 6000 calories a day. That’s why she
gets really angry when people call her anorexic.

Unlike anorexic girls, Lizzie isn’t happy about

her very small size. She weighs herself regularly
and if she gains even half a kilo she gets really
excited. She was born four weeks early and
weighed 1.5kg. This is more than 2 kg below the
average birth weight. In fact, she has never
weighed more than 27kg in her entire life. She
needs to be extra careful and put on many layers
of clothes when the temperatures drop.

When Lizzie was a child, she wasn’t really

aware of her condition. First, her parents had only
her to take care of and, together with the family’s
close friends, they made sure she felt accepted and
loved. Soon, Lizzie’s brother and sister were born
and when they grew up they looked after her, too.
In fact, even though she was the eldest, her
younger siblings protected her as if she was the
youngest. And she needed a lot of support after
she went to school and found out other kids didn’t
want to play with her or sit next to her.

In high school, life was getting better for

Lizzie until she found a video on YouTube showing
her as the ugliest woman in the world. The video
received four million hits. Lizzie was shocked at
first, but then she decided not to fight back in the
same way as her bullies did. She understood that
the best way to teach them a lesson would be
through her work. She set some goals, most of
which she has already achieved. The first thing she
did was going to college. In fact, she is graduating
in just a few months. In the meantime she became
a motivational speaker and she managed to have
her two books published. She also plans to have
her own family one day. Now most people she
meets wish her luck in her future career.

Text 2

Good evening! Welcome to another episode

of “the icons of the 80s” series. Today we’re talking
about Patrick Swayze. You probably know him
from the blockbusters like “Dirty Dancing” or
“Ghost”, but there’s much more to his life than
these roles.

Patrick hit the dance floor when he was three

years old. Later, he attended ballet classes in his
mother’s school. She was a choreographer and
Patrick naturally began to share her passion for
dancing.

In high school, he was a talented football

player and gymnast. His final results were so good
that he won an athletic scholarship to college. His
dream was to become a professional football
player, but when in college he had constant knee
problems. As a result, he needed to find another
occupation, so when an opportunity came up, he
chose to become an actor. It turned out to be the
right decision, as later he had an operation on his
knee and couldn’t come back to football.

He made his film debut in “Skate town” in

1979. However, it wasn’t the role that Patrick
really wanted. He thought he was perfect for the
role in “Urban Cowboy”, which was given to John
Travolta. It’s true that John could dance well, but
he wasn’t a better dancer than Patrick was.
Ironically, Patrick’s wife, Lisa, who’s also a dancer,
was teaching Travolta some steps. At one point
Patrick joined them and even gave John some
helpful tips.

In the late 80s and early 90s, he enjoyed

great successes. Thanks to “North and South” TV
series, “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost” his position in
Hollywood became really strong. Unfortunately,
this wonderful time didn’t last too long. Later, for
many years he received no important roles. The
worst problem, however, came in 2008 when
Patrick was diagnosed with cancer. When he
learned the diagnosis from his doctor, he couldn’t
even tell his mother, who had

eye surgery at that

time. He asked his friends not to tell her anything,
either, as she was not supposed to cry for two
weeks after her operation. She finally found out
from a journalist who came to interview her, which
was even worse.

Well, we’re waiting for your memories of

Patrick. Please write your comments on our
webpage. We’ll quote them all.
TASK TWO

Good morning. I’m Maj Borusewicz. Welcome

to our weekly briefing. Today I’m going to tell you

about a new centre which was recently established
by our unit. It’s called the Mining Information
Centre. I’ll inform you about its tasks and people
behind this project. Our unit has to closely
cooperate with the Centre. I’d also like to welcome
Maj. Smith and Capt. Rogers who advised us on the
formation of the Centre.

Let me start by introducing a person who is

responsible for the Centre – it’s Maj. Kowalski. He
‘s an experienced mine clearance expert who
attended demining courses home and abroad. Two
years ago Major got an idea to build a team of
specialists that would train soldiers how to clear
mines.

Major Kowalski invited a few engineers from

Military University of Technology in Warsaw to
form the team. They agreed and have been co-
operating with us for 2 years now. Interestingly,
next year the minister of National Defense will
create four jobs in our unit for the engineers. Of
course, they are interested in this offer.

Now let’s move on to the Center’s activities.

For the past 2 years the team has been collecting
specialist information about mine clearance. They
have a lot of articles, scripts and instructions on
the subject. At the beginning they got specialist
materials from NATO countries. Nowadays most of
them come from the UK and USA. The Centre also
gets models of fake mines used by armies outside
NATO.

As our unit must support the Centre

logistically, you must know how the Centre is
organized. It has 3 sections. The first section is in
charge of contact with similar centres abroad and
Section 2 is responsible for analyzing all
information collected. The 3

rd

section has the most

important task – they will have to train soldiers in
mine clearance. That’s why Polish bomb disposal
units will be better prepared for their missions and
deployments.

As you know our unit will be deployed in 6

months. That’s why we will undergo demining
training prepared by Section 3. It will go on for 2
weeks and it’s going to start in 3 weeks’ time. It
will consist of 2 parts: a theoretical and practical
phase. Capt. Robak is responsible for cooperation
between the Center and our unit.

I’m glad that the Center is located here. We

have a chance to get specialist knowledge and
equipment to clear mines. Earlier, when our
soldiers found a roadside bomb while on a mission,
they had to cooperate with the Americans as
they’re more experienced. I believe that Polish
bomb disposal units have a chance to become
independent in the near future.

Thank you for your attention. Now Maj.

Kowalski himself will brief you on tasks the Centre
is going to undertake in the next quarter.

TASK THREE

Text 1



The infamous 18-year-old Washington State
burglar, Kurt Harris, has avoided arrest for
over a year now. And he has become pretty
famous for it. Our reporter, Ron Murdoch, has
got in touch with Kurt’s mother, Alicia, who
says her son regularly sends her text
messages. Ron, Alicia is the only person who
stays in contact with Kurt, isn’t she?



That’s right. She told me that her son does get
in touch with her through his cell phone. She
says he told her about his life on the run and
his plans for the future.



What is Kurt Harris accused of?



The police suspect he’s responsible for over
fifty burglaries. They also say he stole 4
airplanes. What’s interesting - he escaped in
them although he’s never had a single flying
lesson. He was able to navigate them after
reading a flight manual which he bought on-
line. He has never taken a flying course. Such
amazing facts have turned Kurt into a folk
hero. 20,000 fans follow him on Facebook and
T-shirts are made up in his honour. There’s
even a song about him on YouTube.



Which doesn’t change the fact that he’s a
criminal, does it?



Of course not. Yet, deep down in their hearts,
people need a hero, someone like Jesse James.



Has Kurt ever been arrested?



He was arrested for a burglary and sent to
prison for three years. He escaped after a year.



And what does Kurt’s mother think about her
son’s actions?



Alicia says she’s going to do everything to help
him. We know that Kurt was camping out in
the woods, but right now his mom says he’s
living with his girlfriend’s wealthy family. It
may be the fantasy of the Internet, because
many girls are creating stories about him on-
line, but he has his I-Pod, his computer, and
Alicia tells me he’s working for the family
doing computer work by night. She says Kurt
knows the police might shoot him one day, but
he has no intention of changing his way of life.
Instead, he’s told her he is planning something
big. So the police must stay on their guard.

Text 2

The most dangerous Pakistani terrorist, Hafiz

Saeed, has informed the US government that he
would like to help victims of hurricane Sandy. In his
announcement on the Internet, Saeed says he’s
ready to send food, medicines and doctors to the
U.S. for the people affected by the storm. He adds

that it is his duty to follow the teachings of Prophet
Mohammed and help people in need.

Hafiz Saeed’s organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba,

was responsible for acts of terror in Mumbai in
2008. More than 160 people died then. Yet, apart
from its terrorist activity, the organization supports
charity. It gave millions of dollars of to the tsunami
victims in Indonesia in 2004.

The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan reacted to

Saeed’s offer via Twitter. "We respect the Islamic
tradition of helping the needy," said the tweet,
"but we can't take Hafiz Saeed's offer seriously."
Earlier this year the U.S. offered $10 million to
anyone who can help arrest Hafiz Saeed.