loadingAfrican villages, the ugly animals eat ten, twenty, even thirty percent of the food supply. Rats will eat almost any kind of grain, fruit, grass, vegetable and meat. And they will live in any place they can get into—homes, shops, farm buildings and farm and home storage areas.
Rats spread disease directly by polluting food with their waste. They often bite people, specially babies. The bites sometimes kill. The animals also spread disease indirectly by carrying fleas, mites and other organisms that cause sickness. Some diseases spread by rats to people include the plague, trichinosis, marine typhus and infectious jaundice.
Questions 14 to 16 are based on Mini-talk Two: Mini-talk Two
The U.S. Postal Service handles billions of pieces of mail a year, including letters, magazines, and parcels. Close to a million workers are required to process and deliver this mail. The vast majority of Postal Service jobs are open to workers with four years of high school or less.
An applicant for a postal service job must pass an examination and meet minimum age requirements. Generally, the minimum age is 18, but a high school graduate may begin work at 16 if the job is not hazardous and does not require use of a motor vehicle. Many postal Service jobs do not require formal education or special training. Applicants for these jobs are hired on the basis of their examination scores. Some postal jobs do have special education or experience requirements, and some are open only to veterans. Any special requirements will be stated on the announcement of examination.
Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, unless for some reason they are exempt, must be registered with the Selective Service System.
Full-time employees work an 8-hour day, 5 days a week. Both full-time and part-time employees who work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week receive overtime pay of one and a half times their hourly rate. In addition, pay is higher for those on the night shift.
Postal employees earn 13 days of annual leave during each of their first 3 years of service, including prior federal civilian and military service; 20 days each year for 3 to 15 years of service; and 26 days after 15 years. In addition they earn 13 days of paid sick leave a year regardless of length of service.
Other benefits include retirement support, free group life insurance, and optional participation in health insurance programs supported in part by the Postal Service.
Most post office buildings are clean and well lit, but some of the older ones are not. The postal Service is in the process of replacing and remodeling its outmoded buildings, and conditions are expected to improve.
Most postal workers are members of unions and are covered by a national agreement between the Postal Service and the unions.
Questions 17 to 20 are based on Mini-talk Three: Mini-talk Three
17
Art is sometimes divided into two kinds, high art and popular art. High art appeals to a much smaller proportion of the population than popular art, but the number is large and growing. People who enjoy high art go to the opera and symphony concerts; they read serious books; they go to serious plays; they keep up with the art exhibitions at museums and galleries. Popular art is primarily entertainment. Some TV programs are meant to be watched today and forgotten tomorrow. Many popular songs are hits for a few weeks; then they disappear. Other songs remain popular for such a long time that they became classics. The line between high and popular art is not always clear, however. Many movies are also taken seriously, while others are dismissed as nothing more than entertainment.
Another distinction in art is between the professional and the amateur. A professional tries to make a living by working in art, while an amateur paints, makes pottery, or plays the piano just for pleasure. Museums, adult education centers, and private teachers offer a large variety of courses for amateur artists.
Successful movies and TV programs make huge amounts of money, and so do the performers who appear in them. A few big hits can make a rock musician a millionaire in a very short time. High art, however, has serious financial problems. It costs more to put on an opera, concert or ballet than the sale of tickets can bring in. Men and women interested in high art are always being asked to give money to make future performances possible. Small government subsidies have also helped to support the arts in the last few years.
THIS IS THE END OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION.
18