after-sales services, but they would usually walk away at the end of their inquiry.

The other day a young couple came into his store. They asked him all the usual questions and he answered all of them patiently. But when he suggested an order at the end, they replied firmly, “We’ll have to look around places first.”

Although feeling a bit disappointed, Mr. Stevenson did not show it. Instead, he smiled, moved closer and said, “I know you will go to Discount Dan to look at the price tags. That’s perfectly understandable. I do the same. In fact, they sell the same stuff as we do. But if you buy things there, there is something you will not get, and that is me. I come with everything I sell. I’ve been in the business for thirty years and in a few years’ time I’m going to give my store to my daughter and son-in-law. I hope they will carry on the family business. I stand behind everything I sell and I will make sure that you will never regret buying things from me.”

After this short speech Mr. Stevenson offered the young couple some ice cream to thank them for their interest.

Impressed by his honesty and sincerity, the young couple decided to place an order.

Unit 7 Fashion

Part C

Test Your Listening

A Compound Dictation

Listen to the passage three times and supply the missing information.

Vera Wang has become a 1) significant figure in the American fashion industry in a 2) relatively short period of time. She has no formal design training because her father wouldn’t let her go to art school and wanted her to 3) concentrate on more “practical subjects”. After earning a degree in 4) liberal arts, Vera worked as an 5) editor at Vogue for 17 years and as a design director of Ralph Lauren for two years. In 1990 she opened her first boutique on Madison Avenue in New York, in a less expensive line of 6) ready-to-wear bridal and evening dresses. She chose bridal wear for she wanted to build a fashion company starting with one market and then 7) expand into others. She became a household name in 1994 when she designed stylish costumes for figure skater Nancy Kerrigan to wear in the Winter Olympics.

8) Vera Wang herself is a very good skater and she had Olympic dreams too. But that dream was crushed when she did not win at the National Figure Skating Championships in 1968. 9) However her love for the sport never ceased. “I wanted to make an artistic contribution to the sport,” she

said. 10) “I don’t know if designing costumes for Nancy has been good in terms of actual sales, but it has been tremendous for name recognition.” Part C

Test Your Listening

A Passage

Listen to the story and choose the right answers to the questions. 1. When and where was a newborn baby found? a. In a deserted park yesterday.

b. In a rock garden early yesterday morning. c. On a rock in Central Park early yesterday morning. d. In lower Manhattan before dawn yesterday. 2. How did the police feel when they found the baby? a. Sorry.

b. Surprised. d. Relieved.

Unit 8 Society

c. Unhappy.

3. Who might be the woman that had abandoned her baby?

a. A young homeless woman who called the head of Hope Foundation. b. A woman who called a fire station early yesterday. c. A homeless woman who called a hospital hotline.

d. A homeless woman who called a baby rescue hotline early yesterday. 4. Which of the following can be learned from the passage? a. The Hope Foundation couldn’t help the woman. b. The police are determined to find the mother.

c. The mother gave up her baby because she was homeless. d. The mother was eager to hide her identity. Script:

A healthy newborn girl was discovered in Central Park yesterday morning. The baby was abandoned on the top of a rock shortly before dawn after the mother gave birth to her there. The police said that the baby was healthy and weighed 7 pounds. Now they were searching for the mother. A policeman said that they had never had anything like this before. They really didn’t get babies left in the park. But they were just happy the baby was all right. The police rushed the baby to a nearby hospital. Fortunately she was OK. The police believed the baby was born less than half an hour before she was discovered. They also believed, judging from the amount of blood found on the rock, that the mother might have given birth there. It was 70 degrees when the baby was found. Detectives were investigating whether the mother was a homeless woman who called a baby rescue hotline early yesterday. The head of Hope Foundation said that his hotline received a call about 5:30 a.m. from a