01_TOEFL® Listening- Lecture 1 - free practice test
    Today we're gonna look at the life and some of the works of one of America's finest modern female poets, Sylvia Plath.    At the time of her death in 1963 Sylvia Plath was on the verge of the critical success and recognition that she had sought for most of her life. Her first novel 'The Bell Jar' had just been published and the publication of her collection of poems 'Ariel' had just been agreed.    These poems, which were mostly written during the last year of her life, chronicle the traumatic developments taking place in her personal life and were to make for her a reputation as a first rate poet. But it wasn't until 1982, almost twenty years after her death, that her posthumously published 'Collected poems' won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Since this time the fascination and intrigue with her work has continued to grow. Very few modern poets have captured the popular imagination as much as Plath, even to the extent that in 2003 a movie was made about her life and her intense relationship with husband and fellow poet Ted Huges.    To understand the continued growth in interest in her work, we have to look at the issues which her life and work address. As Susan Bassnett writes in her book on women writers.    'Dying as she did in 1963, Sylvia Plath never knew that so soon afterwards the problems of what and how women write was to become such a crucial matter and was to be debated by so many other women'    So, Sylvia Plath was a woman writing about women's issues before they were recognised as being of any importance.     Sylvia Plath was born at Robinson memorial Hospital in Boston on 27th October 1932. She was the first born child of Otto and Aurelia Plath, both highly educated academic people. Her father Otto was a professor of biology at Boston University, but her mother had been subjugated into a domestic role as housewife despite her level of education. Her father was not too pleased with the birth of his daughter and demanded that his wife have a son within the next two years. Amazingly enough his wife obliged by giving birth to a son almost exactly two years later.    This domineering father figure became a common theme that recurred throughout Plath's writing. With the birth of her brother, Sylvia had to work much harder to win her father's attention and approval. When in 1936 Plath's father became ill, access to him became even more restricted, and Plath's main means of getting attention from her father was by achieving academic success. This meant that from an early age she began to equate love with success.    In 1940 Plath's father died and this left the family in a very difficult financial situation. They were forced to move away from the seaside home that Plath had enjoyed so much and into a suburb of Boston and her mother had to take a part time job to support the family.    In 1950 Plath graduated from Bradford High school and won a scholarship to Smith College. In the same year she published a short story entitled 'And summer will not come again' and a poem called 'Bitter strawberries'.    Plath's time at Smith was difficult as she had very high expectations of herself. She wanted to achieve immaculate grades, but she also wanted to be accepted by her peers and an important part of being accepted was being popular and dating lots of boys. This was difficult because as a scholarship girl she had only a very small allowance to spend on clothes and going out, and each year's continued scholarship was dependent on the level of her grades.    In 1953 Plath won a fiction contest sponsored by Madamouselle magazine and was offered the opportunity to go to New York as a guest editor. She relished this opportunity to spend a month working in a professional publishing environment, but Plath returned from New York feeling exhausted and after hearing news that her application to a creative writing course had been rejected, she fell into what was to become one of many depressions.

02_TOEFL® Listening- Lecture 2 - free practice test
    Professor:  Good morning everyone, now in today’s lesson I’d like to talk about Population Growth, and in particular, fertility rate.  Now, can anyone here define fertility rate?    Charlene:   Er, is it the number of births in a population, measured per thousand people per year?    Professor:  Oh, er no, that’s what we call the birth rate.  The number of children born in a year, per thousand people.  No, the fertility rate is the average number of children born per woman in her lifetime, that is, if she lives beyond her child-bearing years.  Now, do you think the British fertility level is higher or lower than it was ... say twenty years ago?    Charlene:   I think it’s lower, because these days women are far more focused on their careers than they used to be.    Professor:  Well, that point is certainly true, but actually, fertility levels in Britain are relatively high at the moment.  In 2008, it was 1.96; that means that on average, each woman gives birth to 1.96 children, and in 2009 it was only slightly lower, at 1.94.  The last time fertility rates were this high was back in 1973.  In the UK currently, the highest rate of fertility is in Northern Ireland, where the rate is 2.04, and the lowest is in Scotland, where the rate is just 1.77.    Charlene:   I don’t understand.  How come fertility rate is going up?  Women are just as career-driven these days as they were thirty years ago.    Professor:  Well, the reason is that during the 1990s women really started to delay having families, and that was the reason for the decrease in birth rate then.  Now those women are in their thirties and early forties, and they are starting to have families.  So that’s why the birth rate is going up.    Charlene:   Oh, I see, so it’s not actually as if people are actively choosing to have more children than they used to.    Professor:  Yes, that’s right Charlene.  The number of children per family is continuing to fall.  Women who are currently in their 70s had an average of 2.4 children.  Those in their sixties had 2.2, those in their fifties had 2.0, and the current figure is 1.9.  Actually, this figure isn’t due to more families choosing to have only one child, although that certainly is occurring, it’s mainly because of the increasing number of women who have no children at all.  This figure was 1 in 10 among the age group who are now 65, but now 1 in 4 women in their mid-40s are childless.      Charlene:   I heard that the fertility rate in Europe is, like, really low.  1.3 or something.    Professor:  That’s right, Charlene. It is. It’s far below the replacement level.  Can you tell me what replacement level means?  No?  It’s the number of births you need to keep the population constant.    Charlene:   Yes, I heard that in France they’re trying to get people to have more children.  They even give out gold medals if you have eight!    Professor:  That’s right.  So, we’ve already mentioned that women are waiting before having children because of their careers.  Why else is fertility rate generally decreasing?    Charlene:  I think they have fewer children because they’re so expensive.  I mean, I heard one report that said it costs £200, 000 a year to raise a child here.  But I find that difficult to believe.  People’s standard of living is far higher now than it used to be a hundred years ago when families had eight or nine kids.    Professor:  That’s very true, but these days people’s expectations tend to be higher.  Parents want their children to have the best opportunities in life, so they’re prepared to pay to develop their children’s talents.    Charlene:  Yes, I heard that in China, where they’re easing off some of the rules of the one child policy and allowing some couples to have two, many parents are still choosing to have one.  They say it’s just too expensive.  But, you know, I reckon that, with all this parental micromanagement that’s going on these days, parents only have the time to manage one or two children.    Professor:  That’s a good point.  So, now I’d like to look at some different organisations, and examine what they believe about the current population issues...

03_TOEFL® Listening- Lecture 3 - free practice test
    Lecturer: Hello class, so today we’re going to be looking at facial recognition, and to the different sorts of technology that go into facial recognition.  Now before we start, can any of you tell me where we can see facial recognition in action? yes, you at the back?    Student: In the TV show Las Vegas?    Lecturer: Yes, well you’re right.  In this popular TV show, the security team pull images of the individuals from their surveillance system and run the image through a data base to identify the person. In that way, all the card counters and blacklisted gamblers can be escorted from the poker tables.  It looks easy on TV, but in the real world, facial recognition is a tricky business.  So let’s start with the more traditional methods of facial recognition.   Every face has peaks and valleys, and these can be translated into what is termed as nodal points.  Each face has about 80 of these, and they include distance between the eyes, the length of the jaw, the width of the nose, things like that.  These measurements can be used to create a numerical code, and this is called a faceprint.  This system is good, because it can compare two dimensional images, such as photographs.  The problem is that the images have to be controlled.  The person has to be staring straight at the camera, there must be no variance in facial expression or lighting, because any variance in these parameters reduces the effectiveness of the system.  So they had to come up with another way.    So the new way of recognising faces is by using a 3D model.  It has better accuracy, allegedly.  3D imagery detects distinctive features in the face, such as the curves of the eyes, nose and chin – features which do not change over time.  These are measured at the sub-millimetre level.  Interestingly, a 3D image can be taken not only from a live scan but also from a 2D photograph.  And another good thing about the 3D system is that it can recognise a person from a range of angles, the person doesn’t have to be directly facing the camera, as in 2D technology.  Once again, the system gives each individual a unique code – a set of numbers that represents the face.    It’s easy to match a 3D image to another 3D image, if you already have a 3D image in your database.  It’s less easy to match 3D images to 2D images.  But what they can do is pull certain measurements from the 3D image, such as size of the eye and so forth, and use this to convert the 3D image into a 2D image, and this image can be more easily compared to the 2D images in the database.    But it’s not just the measurements which can be used to recognise faces.  There’s also a new development called Skin Biometrics.  This uses the uniqueness of skin texture to get its results.  The process takes a picture of a patch of skin, and the system will then identify any pores, lines, moles, blemishes and other features of skin texture.  This method can be used to identify identical twins, something that cannot be done with the 3D technology.  Its other advantages over 3D imagery are that it’s insensitive to changes in expression, blinking, smiling and so forth, and can compensate for changes in facial features – such as the growth of a beard, or wearing glasses.  It’s not perfect, though, as it is sensitive to lighting conditions and poor camera resolution, and if there is glare from the sun.    So, now we’ve covered the main types of facial recognition, we’ll move on to its uses.  Now, has anybody here ... 

04_TOEFL® Listening- Lecture 4 - free practice test
    Professor:  Morning everyone.  Now, in today’s talk, I’m going to talk about tunnels, and I’m going to talk about the main ways in which tunnels are constructed.     Now, I’m sure you know what a tunnel is, but I’ll give you a definition anyway.  It’s an underground passageway, and it’s completely enclosed, except for exits, usually one at each end.      Before you can start building any tunnel, it’s necessary to perform a comprehensive geotechnical investigation of ground conditions.  This is done by taking samples from boreholes; that means drilling a narrow shaft into the ground and analysing the rock.  After this has been done, engineers can choose the most appropriate method for excavating the tunnel and supporting the ground.  If these samples don’t reveal enough information – maybe it’s difficult to detect the exact location of faults for example, then a pilot tunnel will be drilled.  Pilot tunnels have a smaller diameter than the main tunnel, and so it will be easier to support, should any problems arise.  This smaller tunnel can be incorporated into the final tunnel later on.  Another alternative is to drill horizontal boreholes ahead of the advancing tunnel face.  Now, are there any questions before I go on to construction methods?  No?  Good.    So, the type of construction you choose will depend on a wide range of things: the type of rock, the ground water conditions, how long and how wide your tunnel is going to be, how far underground it is and the final use of the tunnel.  There are three main types of tunnel.  The cut and cover technique; this is when a trench is dug up and then covered over; the bored tunnel, which is constructed without removing the ground above it, and the immersed tube tunnel, which is used underwater.    Let’s look at these in more detail, starting with the cut and cover method.  As I said, this is done by digging a trench and roofing it with an overhead support system strong enough to carry whatever is to built over the tunnel.  There are two types of cut and cover method.  In the bottom-up method, a trench is built, with ground support as necessary, and the tunnel is constructed in the trench, using concrete or arches, or even brickwork.  Then the trench is filled in again.  But there’s another method – the top-down method, in which the roof beams and the side walls are put into place before any of the ground is dug out.  Only when the roof and the walls are in place does excavation take place.  The advantage of this system is that it allows minimal disturbance to surface features such as roads and buildings.  The cut and cover tunnel type is obviously better for tunnels which are quite shallow.  London underground stations are good examples.  Not the tunnels themselves, but the area where the ticket halls are located.  The underground tunnels were created using the boring method.    Bored tunnels are preferable in most cases, because they eliminate the need to buy up the land on the surface.  As a result, it’s quicker, and there is no need for long planning enquiries.  Bored tunnels are created using boring tunnels, and there are a variety of these available which can operate in different conditions, from hard rock to soft ground with a high water content.  Another important thing that the engineer needs to know is the stand-up time.  This denotes how long the tunnel will stay up by itself before support is needed.  Obviously hard rock and certain clays will have a longer stand-up time than sand and fine soils.  It’s also important to know the groundwater levels, because, if there is any water leaking into the tunnel, the stand-up time will be reduced.  Groundwater levels, however can be reduced by ground freezing.  Pipes are inserted into the ground surrounding the tunnel and cooled.  This surrounds the tunnel in frozen soil which keeps water out.  Another way to reduce groundwater levels is to pump the water out.  Tunnel shape also affects the stand-up time.  If a tunnel is wider than it is high, it is more difficult to support, whereas if a tunnel is higher than is is wide, the project is easier.  Furthermore, rectangular or square tunnels are more difficult to support than circular ones.    Now let’s go on to the immersed tunnel....
教授：みなさん、おはようございます。今日の講義では、トンネルについて話します。そして、トンネルが建設される主な方法について話します。トンネルが何かはわかると思いますが、とにかく定義をしておきます。トンネルは地下の通路であり、出口を除いて完全に閉じられています。通常、両端に1つずつあります。どのトンネルを建設するにも、地盤状況の包括的な地質調査が必要です。これはボーリングによって行われます。地中に狭いシャフトを掘削し、岩を分析します。これが完了すると、エンジニアはトンネルの掘削方法と地盤の支持方法を選択できます。これらのサンプルが十分な情報を提供しない場合（例えば、断層の正確な位置を検出するのが難しい場合など）、パイロットトンネルが掘削されます。パイロットトンネルは主トンネルよりも直径が小さく、問題が発生した場合に支持しやすくなります。この小さなトンネルは後で最終的なトンネルに組み込むことができます。別の選択肢は、進行中のトンネルの前方に水平ボーリングを行うことです。では、建設方法に進む前に質問はありますか？ いいえ？ では、よろしいです。
では、選択する建設方法は、様々な要因に依存します。岩の種類、地下水の状況、トンネルの長さと幅、地下の深さ、そしてトンネルの最終的な使用法などがあります。トンネルの主な種類は3つあります。カットアンドカバーテクニック；これは溝を掘り、その上に覆いをかける方法です。掘削されたトンネルはその上の地盤を取り除かずに構築され、水没管トンネルは水中に使用されます。
これらを詳しく見ていきましょう。ますは、カットアンドカバー法から始めましょう。先ほど述べたように、これは溝を掘ってその上に屋根を作り、トンネルの上に建設されるものを支える強力な支持システムを持つ方法です。カットアンドカバー法には2つのタイプがあります。ボトムアップ法では、必要に応じて地盤支持が行われた溝が建設され、トンネルが溝内にコンクリートやアーチ、またはレンガなどを使用して構築されます。その後、溝が埋め戻されます。しかし、もう一つの方法があります−トップダウン法です。この方法では、地面を掘り出す前に屋根梁と側壁が設置されます。屋根と壁が設置されてから掘削が行われます。このシステムの利点は、道路や建物などの地表の特徴に最小限の影響を与えることができる点です。カットアンドカバートンネルタイプは、浅いトンネルに適しています。ロンドンの地下鉄駅が良い例です。トンネル自体ではなく、券売所があるエリアです。地下のトンネルは掘削法を使用して作られました。
ほとんどの場合、掘削トンネルが好ましいです。なぜなら、地表の土地を買収する必要がなくなるためです。その結果、速くなり、長期の計画的調査も不要です。掘削トンネルは掘削トンネルを使用して作られ、様々な条件下で動作するこれらのトンネルが利用可能です。岩から柔らかい地盤まで、水分含有量の高い地盤まで対応できます。エンジニアが知る必要があるもう1つの重要なことは、立ち上がり時間です。これはトンネルが自立している時間を示します。明らかに、硬い岩や特定の粘土は、砂や細かい土壌よりも長い立ち上がり時間を持ちます。地下水位も重要です。トンネルに水が漏れ込むと、立ち上がり時間が短くなります。ただし、地下水位は地盤凍結によって低減できます。トンネルを囲む地面にパイプを挿入し、冷却します。これにより、トンネルを水から守る凍結土壁が形成されます。地下水位を低減する別の方法は、水をポンプで排出することです。トンネルの形状も立ち上がり時間に影響します。トンネルが幅よりも高い場合、支持が困難になりますが、トンネルが幅よりも高い場合、プロジェクトは簡単になります。さらに、四角形や正方形のトンネルは、円形のものよりも支持が難しいです。
それでは、沈下式トンネルに移りましょう...

05_TOEFL® Listening- Conversation 1 - free practice test
    Student: Hello, er... is this the accommodation office?    Officer: Yes, how can I help you?    Student: Well, I’ve got a bit of a problem.  I’m staying in the Godfrey White Dorm, and on Monday, the warden came and told me that I have to move out this Thursday.    Officer:  Really?  How long have you been staying in the Godfrey White Dorm?    Student: For the last ten weeks.    Officer:   Oh, have you been doing one of the summer courses here then?    Student: Yes, I’ve been doing the Academic Language course since the beginning of July.    Officer:  And didn’t you realise that your accommodation was temporary?    Student: No, I thought I would be able to stay there for the whole year.  I didn’t read the small print on the document.  The warden went through it with me, and now I see my mistake.    Officer:  Oh dear.  So, you’re looking for somewhere to stay then.Student: Yes.    Officer:   Well, I’m afraid all the places in the dorms are full.  I mean, there may be some students who don’t show up when term starts, but we won’t know that for the next couple of weeks.  The best thing you can do is look for a private house.  You’ll have to share with three or four other students.  Meals aren’t included in the price of course, as they are in the university dorms, and you’ll have to contribute to the electricity bills.    Student: Where can I find out about these houses?    Officer:    I’ve got a list here, but it’s not up to date.  Rooms are taken up every day, so it’s hard to know whether a house has a free place or not.  I can give you a photocopy of this list and you can ring round.    Student: Can I use the phone here?    Officer:   I’m afraid not!  If we let everyone who asked do that, there’d be someone here all day!    Student: Do you have a map?  It’d be useful to know where these places are.    Officer:  Yes, I can give you a map.  This one’s got the bus routes on it too, so you can find out how easy it is to get from the house to the university.    Student: Great.  And what if I can’t find a place before Thursday?    Officer:  Well, the YMCA offers cheap beds.  It’s located halfway between here and the city centre.  You can get a bed in a shared room there, and you can also buy cheap meals.  But you should phone up and book a bed in advance.  It’s very busy this time of year.  I’ll give you the number.  Do you need a pen?    Student: No, don’t worry, I’ve got one.    Officer:   So, the number’s 482 5903.    Student: 482 5903.    Officer:   That’s right.  Anything else I can help you with?    Student: No, that’s  everything thanks.  Bye.

06_TOEFL® Listening- Conversation 2 - free practice test
    Kitty: Right, so shall we discuss what we have to do for this project then?    Li:  Yes, it says we have to ‘Investigate some aspect of the university facilities’.    Paul: Yeah, we have to design a questionnaire don’t we?    Li: Yes.  And we have to write an essay and do a presentation.    Kitty: Is it an essay?  I thought it was a report.    Li:  Let me check.  Yes, you’re right, Kitty, it’s a report.    Paul: How long does it have to be?  1000 words, isn’t it?    Li: Let me see.  The report has to be between 1000 and 1500 words, and we have to do that on our own, but we do the presentation and the investigation as a group.    Li:  So, have you got any ideas about what we can investigate?    Kitty: I know one of the other groups is looking at the university library and whether it’s adequate for student needs.    Paul: Yes, and one group’s doing the sports centre.    Kitty: Does it matter if we do the same thing as another group?    Li: I don’t think so.  But I was wondering about investigating transport.    Kitty: Transport?    Li:  Yes, we could look at whether people think the bus service is regular enough, and we could also look at car parking facilities.    Paul: We could look at the cycling facilities too.  There’s never enough space for all the bikes in the bike sheds.  I’m sure the university could afford to build more, what with all the fees we pay.    Kitty: OK, I’m happy with that idea.  So, how should we go about the investigation then?    Li:  Well, we could make some questionnaires.  I can ask the people who travel on buses, and Paul, you can ask cyclists, and Kitty, you do a questionnaire for car drivers.     Kitty: Shouldn’t we write the questions together, rather than individually?    Li:  Yes, that’s what I meant, we can write the questionnaires together, but each of us can be responsible for carrying out the questionnaires individually.  Does that sound okay?     Kitty: Sure    Paul: We should get some quantitative data too.  You could count how many people get on and off the buses at different times, and I can count how many bikes there are in the bike sheds, that sort of thing.    Kitty: And we should take some photos while we’re doing the questionnaires.  They’ll be useful for the presentation.    Li:  It sounds good.  Okay, well, let’s think about these questions then.

07_TOEFL® Listening- Conversation 3 - free practice test
    Amir: Hi, er, can you help me?    Librarian: Sure, what's the problem?    Amir: I've got to write an essay on electrical distribution and transmission systems, but I can't find any suitable books in the engineering section on level three.    Librarian: Have you used the library search engine?    Amir: You mean where you type the keywords into the computer?  Yes, I've done that.  A couple of books come up but they're not on the shelves, someone's taken them out.    Librarian: Well, I can put a reserve on them so that when the person brings them back to the library, we can put them on one side for you.  Do you want to do that?    Amir: Mmm, I don't know.  I suppose so, but ideally, I'd like to get started on my essay sooner rather than later.    Librarian: Well, there are some other options.  Have you used the journal database?    Amir: No, what's that?    Librarian: Didn't you go on a library induction tour in the first week of term?  They were running five days a week, morning and afternoon.    Amir: No, I was, er, I was ill that week.    Librarian: Well, we still do two library inductions a week on Wednesdays, and I recommend you go on one of them.  You'll learn a lot of useful things.  You can sign up at the desk on level two.      Amir: Yes, I probably should do that then.    Librarian: Well, I'll just quickly show you how you can use the journal database.  If you go onto the library homepage on the computer, look, and click on databases, here in the top right hand corner, it takes you to all the e-journals that we have access to here at the university library.  You can use the search engine to find journals that are related to your keywords.  See, if I type in electrical transmission, you get over five thousand articles.    Amir: Wow.    Librarian: So, that's a good place to start.  Meanwhile, you can always go and talk to your subject librarian.  The person for Electrical Engineering is Mark Taylor.  His office is on level four.    Amir: Will he be there now?    Librarian: Let me see.  What's the time?  Twelve fifteen.  He'll probably be on lunch, or if not, he'll be going at twelve thirty.  You'd be best to wait and come back at two-ish.  Then you'll be more likely to catch him.    Amir: Okay, thank you.