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 Tests 2015.
Listen to part of a lecture in an Art History class. The professor has been talking about colossal statues.
Professor
We’ve been looking at colossal statues—works of exceptionally huge size—and their
essentially public role, in commemorating a political or religious figure. We’ve seen
how some of these statues date back thousands of years . . . like the statues of the
Pharaohs of ancient Egypt—which you can still visit today . . . and how others, though
surviving only in legend, have fired the imagination of writers and artists right up to
our own time, such as the Colossus of Rhodes, that 110-foot statue of the Greek god
Helios [HEE-lee-us]. Remember, this same word, “colossus”—which means a giant or
larger-than-life-size statue—is what today’s term “colossal” derives from.
Now, it was one thing to build such statues, at an equally colossal cost, when the
funds were being allocated by ancient kings and pharaohs. But if we’re going to think
about modern-day colossal statues, we need to reexamine more closely their role as
social and political symbols—in order to understand why a society today—a society of
free, tax-paying citizens—would agree to allocate so much of its resources to erecting
them. A good example to start out with would be Mount Rushmore.
Now, many of you have probably seen pictures of Mount Rushmore; perhaps
you’ve actually visited the place. Mount Rushmore, in South Dakota, is a colossal representation
of the faces of four U.S. Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, carved directly into a mountain.
Imagine: Each of those faces in the rock is over sixty feet high! Now, carving their
faces took over six and a half years, and cost almost a million dollars. And this was in
the 1930’s, during the worst economic depression in U.S. history! Does that strike any
of you as odd?
Well, I personally think that the Great Depression of the 1930’s actually makes this
more understandable, not less so. Often it’s the case that, precisely at times of hardship—
when the very fabric of society seems to be unraveling and confidence is eroding—
uh, that people clamor for some public expression of strength and optimism,
perhaps as a way of symbolizing its endurance in the face of difficulty.
So, with that in mind, let’s go back to Mount Rushmore. Actually, the original motivation
for a colossal monument in South Dakota had very little to do with all this
symbolism . . . and everything to do with money: you see, it was first conceived of basically
as a tourist attraction, and it was supposed to feature the images of legendary
figures of the American West, like the explorers Lewis and Clark. The government of
South Dakota thought it would bring lots of money into the state.
It was only later on that the sculptor—the artist who designed and oversaw the
project, a man named Gutzon Borglum—decided the project should be a monument
honoring four of the most-respected Presidents in U.S. history—much more than
a tourist attraction . . . its very prominence and permanence became perceived as a
symbol of the endurance of U.S. ideals and the greatness of the country’s early leaders.
So, you see, what began as a tourist attraction became something far loftier.
Let’s look at another example of this phenomenon.
The Statue of Liberty is another colossal statue—[indicating by his tone of voice
that his assumption is a near certainty] one that I assume a number of you are familiar
with. But, umm, I would guess that—like many people today—you don’t realize
that, when it was designed, over a century ago—by a French sculptor—it was intended
to symbolize the long friendship between the people of France and the people of the
United States—one which dated back to France’s support of the American colonies’
war for independence from the British.
But the shift in the statue’s meaning started soon after it was built. Back in 1883,
Emma Lazarus wrote that famous poem—you know, the one that goes: “Give me your
tired, your poor . . . .” [pause] and so on and so forth. That poem describes the Statue
of Liberty as a beacon of welcome for the entire world. Well, in the early 1900’s, it was
put on a plaque on the pedestal that the Statue of Liberty stands on.
From that point on, the Statue of Liberty was no longer perceived as just a gift
between friendly republics. It now became a tribute to the United States’ history of
immigration and openness.
...
Correct Answers:
1. C
2. A
3. C
4. A
5. B
6. C
