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 a psychology class.
Professor: People have been trying to figure out the ways and extent to which our personalities are determined by our bodies since ancient times, but the personality typology—the categorization—that you see used most frequently now was developed by a psychologist in the 1940s. His name was William Sheldon and what he did was study photographs of college-aged men, then interview them. He was trying to figure out whether body shape somehow indicated something about personality, so he started looking at the layers of the body.
I know from experience that when I say “layers of the body,” only a few of you will really know what I’m talking about, so let me just explain quickly: The way a biologist divides the body into layers is according to how cells in each tissue are first formed when you’re an embryo. There’s one type of cell that turns into the skin and nervous system—including the brain and spinal cord and the rest of the nerves. Then you have another type of cell that turns into the muscles and bones. And there’s a third kind that becomes the lining of the digestive system. So when biologists talk about the layers of the body, that’s what they mean: The outermost is the skin and nervous system, the middle is the muscles, and the innermost is the stomach, basically. It’s important to get that straight right from the beginning because most people—well, isn’t it natural to think of the bones as the innermost layer?
So here’s what Sheldon did. He categorized his subjects’ body types according to which biological layer was dominant—you know, which was most highly developed. That gave him three separate categories, with one for each layer: I’ll write them down for you because they’re kind of a mouthful.
An ectomorphic body type is dominated by the skin and nerves of the outer layer. The muscles and the stomach are less emphasized, so you end up with a body that has relatively little muscle and fat. In other words, an ectomorphic body tends to be skinny. If you’re ectomorphic, you may not be all that tall, but your body is narrow for your height. You can kind of get a sense of the connection Sheldon was trying to make to personality here, can’t you? If you have little fat, and muscles that don’t develop easily—but on the other hand, your nerves are very active, very easily stimulated—well, it’s kind of like, you have little insulation against the world around you. That could make you feel
sort of vulnerable; you might be more likely to like reading and writing, exercise for the mind rather than the body. And that’s what Sheldon concluded: The ectomorphic body type is associated with people who do a lot of thinking but aren’t physically very aggressive.
The mesomorphic body type is the next one, and its focus is the next layer down. That was the muscles. A mesomorphic body has powerful, well- developed bones and muscles that are easy to strengthen through training and exercise. What kind of personality does that suggest to you—a body type in which the muscles take on strength easily, but the sensitive nervous system and the stomach are less dominant? It’s the type of person who’s physically active and takes a positive...a kind of can-do approach to things.
A mesomorphic person likes physical exercise and will tend to try to solve problems by getting into gear right away, rather than sitting back and thinking for a while about the best plan.
The endomorphic body type is dominated by the very innermost layer of the body. That layer is, of course, the digestive tract, including the stomach. Endomorphs do tend to have rounder bodies and to go for...uh, not just food but sensuality and enjoyment in general. They look for ways to fulfill their appetites, which is why I said a few minutes back that you could think of them as being oriented toward the stomach. Endomorphs tend to be jolly and outgoing and sociable, and they also tend to be less physically active. They like to sit back and enjoy life. They’re laid-back. Unlike mesomorphs, who are always ready for action—go, go, go!—endomorphs have a tendency to sit still and see what happens. But they don’t overthink things the way ectomorphs do.
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Correct Answers:
1. B
2. B
3. D
4. A&C
5. D
6. Seeks ways to fulfill appetites : Endomorphic
Friendly and outgoing : Endomorphic
Reacts to situations physically : Mesomorphic
Physically inactive : Endomorphic
Attacks problems without planning : Mesomorphic
