Dialogs Involving Contradictions, Assumptions, and Questions

These involve the second speaker correcting what the first speaker says. 

You will hear:

  • F1: Amy didn't work overtime last week. 
  • M1: As a matter of fact, she did. 

What does the man mean?

You will read:

  1. She is always late for work. 
  2. She never works overtime. 
  3. She worked extra hours last week. 
  4. She hadn't had her job very long. 

The man's emphatic use of the auxiliary verb did shows that he is contradicting what the woman said. 

You will hear:

M1: Martin always talks about how he loves to dance. 
F1: Yes, but you don't see him out on the dance floor very often, do you?

What does the woman say about Martin?

You will read:

  1. He is an excellent dancer. 
  2. He doesn't like dancing very much. 
  3. He doesn't talk about dancing very often. 
  4. He goes dancing four times a week. 

The woman's use of the word but and the tag question ("....do you?") suggests that she doesn't believe that Martin really loves to dance. 

You will hear:

F1: All of the students voted for the proposal to expand the Student Council. 
M1: Well, most of them did, anyway. 

What does the man mean?

You will read:
  1. All of the students voted. 
  2. Some of the students opposed the proposal. 
  3. The proposal was defeated. 
  4. The Student Council voted. 

The man says that most of the students voted for the proposal, contradicting the idea that all of them did. Therefore, some of the students must have opposed the proposal. 

Assumptions


These are the beliefs that one speaker has until he or she receives information from a second speaker. You will generally hear dialogs involving assumptions near the end of Part A. These questions are considered difficult, but once you understand how they work and practice answering them, you should find them no more difficult than any other type of question. In this type of dialog, the first speaker makes a statement. The second speaker is surprised because the first statement contradicts what he or she believes to be true. The second speaker's response often begins with the word "oh" and ends with the phrase"....after all." The answer to assumption questions is the reverse of what the second speaker thinks, and so what is "true" according to the first speaker, is not the correct answer choice. 

You will hear:
F1: No, Judy's not here right now. She's at her economics class. 
M1: Oh, so she decided to take that course after all. 

What had the man assumed about Judy?

  1. She wouldn't take the course. 
  2. She had already completed that course. 
  3. she was busy studying economics. 
  4. she wouldn't find economics difficult.

The man is surprised that Judy is in economics class because he thought that she had decided not to take the course. Therefore, he had obviously assumed that Judy was not going to take the course before he spoke to the woman. 

Questions


You will hear:
F1: Professor Peters said that Mark Twins was his favorite writer. 
M1: When did he say that?

You will read:

  1. When Mark Twain Lived.
  2. What the professor said about Mark Twain. 
  3. When the professor made his remark. 
  4. What books Mark Twain wrote. 

The man asks when Professor Peters called Mark Twain his favorite other. 
7 Lessons