Practice these TOEFL iBT listening tests to help you score high in the TOEFL Listening Section. Check the correct answers and audio transcripts below. This video is in the series of NEW TOEFL iBT Preparation: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2jvSGmpWX1UMjbc8Onae7i-R6Z8VcPbU.
Questions 29 through 34. Listen to part of a talk in a business management class.
What do we mean when we talk about leadership? First, it's important not to confuse leadership with power. It’s true that— by definition—leaders always have some degree of power. Leaders have power because of their ability to influence other people. However, many power holders do not have the qualities of leadership. Consider the headwaiter in your favorite restaurant. The headwaiter has power to some degree—for example, the power to scat you at the best table by the window-—but he doesn't necessarily have the qualities we associate with leadership.
We have to distinguish between leaders and power holders. There are a lot of powerful people who lack leadership skills.
A military dictator has power. So does the robber who sticks a gun in your face and demands your wallet. Leadership is something else.
Leadership and power arc not the same thing, although they are similar in this one way. Both leadership and power involve the ability to ... bring about the results you want, and to ... prevent the results that you don’t want to happen.
Here's another way to think of it. In sociological terms, ... uh ... power is simply the ability to bring about certain behavior in other people. For example, parents have power over their children, and they use it to get their children to behave in acceptable ways. Teachers have power, and so do mid-level managers—all as a result of their position.
Where does power come from? The sources are varied. Probably the oldest source of power is the ability to use physical force—a source available to both the military and the biggest kid on the playground. The power that comes from physical might is not the same as leadership. Just think of the military dictator... or the school bully. We don’t usually think of these power holders as leaders—despite the brute force they use to control others.
Wealth, position, the ability to motivate—all of these are sources of power. Being close to others with power is a source of power. That’s why people gravitate toward political leaders. Some power comes from qualities people were born with -like physical beauty, or the ability to influence friends. Science and technology are also sources of power. Corporations understand this and spend huge amounts of money on research, information systems, and consultants.
Although leadership and power arc different things, they're related in important ways. Consider, for example, a chief executive officer who has the ability to motivate people, a CEO with vision, who can lift the spirit of his or her employees and bring about a rise in productivity—that is leadership. But consider this scenario. The company realizes they're sort of falling behind in the technology race, so the CEO responds by increasing the amount of money available to the company’s research division. That is the exercise of power. Authorizing a spending increase could have been made only by a chief executive with the power to do so. Remember, both leadership and power involve the ability to accomplish the results you want, and successful managers understand how the two work together to make this happen.
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Correct Answers:
29. C
30. A
31. B
32. D
33. B & C
34. A
