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Core English 1

Listening Task – p 153 Speaker’s Attitude

Questions

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Attitude questions ask about a speaker's emotional state, level of certainty, confidence, or agreement/disagreement. Because attitude depends on intonation, emphasis, and word choice, they may replay excerpts from the conversation or lecture. However, not all attitude questions replay parts of the passage, so active listening and good notes are important.

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Strategy 1: Be prepared to infer a speaker's attitude.It is highly unlikely that a speaker will express his attitude explicitly in a statement like "I am unhappy about ... " or "I have a different opinion than you." Instead, you have to understand attitude through inference.

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Strategy 2: Use context as a clue to inference.

Context includes the identity of the speakers, and the time, place, reason, main topic, and details of the conversation or lecture.

Any inference must logically fit the context.

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- If a student visits a professor to complain about a noisy, lazy roommate, she is annoyed or frustrated, not happy or satisfied.- If two students argue about what a painting means, you can infer that they have different interpretations and see the painting differently.

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Strategy 3: Listen for keywords of attitude and connect them to infer a speaker's feelings or opinion.If a professor gives a lecture on Isaac Newton and uses words such as brilliant, amazing, genius, and revolutionary, he has a positive attitude toward Isaac Newton.

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Keywords may be any part of speech, and some, but not all, include the following:Adjectives / AdverbsPossibility: possible/possibly, maybe, potential/potentially, etc.Assumption: likely, probably, etc.Certainty: clear/clearly, certain/certainly, definite/definitely, absolute/absolutely, etc.Positive: beautiful, smart, helpful, kind, etc.Negative: ugly, ignorant, hurtful, mean, etc.

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Modals

Possibility: may, might, could

Assumption: should, must

Certainty: will

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VerbsPossibility: guess, estimate, approximate, thinkAssumption: assumeCertainty: know (for sure), be positive thatPositive: like, enjoy, agree with, support, appreciate, etc.Negative: dislike, disagree with, object to, oppose, fear, etc.

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Strategy 4: Listen for intonation and emphasis.

Rising intonation positive feeling, interest, acceptance, surprise, or a question.

Falling intonation negativity, sarcasm, disinterest, rejection, or disapproval.

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Strategy 5: Be familiar with possible answer choices and their subtle differences in meaning and degree.Attitude questions test your vocabulary. Adjectives in English can be very specific; so many answer choices may be close in meaning but not exactly the same.

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Consult a dictionary or thesaurus about the following, identify synonyms and differences of degree, and create a list of others:

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Happy: pleased, glad, enthusiastic, thrilled, joyful, jubilant, ecstatic

Thankful: appreciative, relieved

Neutral: objective, apathetic, uninvolved, uncaring, cold, dismissive

Sad: unhappy, despondent, depressed, bleak, hopeless

Disappointed: let down, devastated

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Anxious: concerned, worried

Uncomfortable: awkward, stiff

Inappropriate: rude, impolite, disrespectful, insulting, demeaning

Surprised: shocked, staggered

Afraid: fearful, terrified, petrified

Annoyed: bothered, frustrated

Upset: angry, furious, incensed

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Strategy 6: Pay attention to changes in attitude.A speaker's attitude could improve or worsen during a conversation or lecture. A student might be frustrated at first, but at the end of the conversation, the same student could be satisfied. Or, a student could hold one opinion at the beginning of an academic discussion, and then change that opinion by the end. Use active listening and key words.

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Attitude Question FormsWhat is the student's attitude toward ... ?

What is the student's opinion of. .. ?

What is the professor's attitude toward ... ?

What is the professor's opinion of ?

What does the student imply about ?

What does the professor imply about ?

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Listen again to part of the conversation/lecture. Then answer the question

[An excerpt is heard]

What does the student/professor mean when s/he says this:

[A specific part of the excerpt is repeated]

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Distracter 1: Answer choice is too extreme.Many adjectives are close in meaning but can be weaker (happy) or stronger (ecstatic). This distracter refers to an emotion that is too strong. Strong emotions are possible, but these passages don't include excessive or threatening attitudes, such as fury.

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Distracter 2:Answer choice is out of context.

The distracter is easy to see if the attitude is obviously inappropriate.

Eg. a student complains about his noisy, rude roommate, the student is obviously not happy or comfortable.

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However, many adjectives are close in meaning but each may refer to a specific situation.

Eg, the adjectives "satisfied" and "relieved" are both positive, but the former describes a person who gets what he or she wants and the latter describes a person who no longer has to worry about something.

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Practice p156

CD I, Track 7, q 11

CD I, Track 8, q 12

CD I, Track 9, q 13

CD I, Track 10, q 14

CD I, Track 11, q 15