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
