Conversation Two

　　W: Sir, you’ve been using the online catalogue for quite a while , Is there anything I can do to help you?

　　M: Well, I’ve got to write a paper about Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, and I’m really struggling. There are hundreds of books, and I just don’t know where to begin.

　　W: Your topic sounds pretty big. Why don’t you narrow it down to something like…uh… the history of the studios during that time?

　　M: You know, I was thinking about doing that, but more that 30 books came up when I typed in “movie studios.”

　　W: You could cut that down even further by listing the specific years you want. Try adding “1930s” or “1940s” or maybe “Golden Age.”

　　M: “Golden Age” is a good idea. Let me type that in … Hey, look, just 6 books this time. That’s a lot better.

　　W: Oh… another thin you might consider… have you tried looking for any magazine or newspaper articles?

　　M: No, I’ve only been searching for books.

　　W: Well, you can look up magazine articles in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. And we do have the Los Angeles. Times available over there. You might go through their indexes to see if there’s anything you want.

　　M: Okay, I think I’ll get started with these books and then I’ll go over the magazines.

　　W: If you need any help, I’ll be over at the Reference Desk.

　　M: Great, thanks a lot.

　　Questions 23 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

　　23. What is the man doing?

　　24. What does the librarian think of the topic the man is working on?

　　25. Where can the man find the relevant magazine articles?

　　从划线出我们再次发现，惊人的相似！问答式的考点，分层次的考察，建议请求的运用。特别明显的是对话的开头部分一直在纠缠如何narrow down topic, 所以只考察了一道题目，第二道题目直到对话的中后部才出现，因为两个人直到那时才从book转到magazine这个话题上来。此外，这两则对话还秉承了passage的一个重要的考场方式，就是在对话的开头部分一定会出题目。这一点的考察利用的是考生往往很难在一个段落刚开始的时候集中注意力，所以这时候考察的题目难度就显得很高。