Listening

Comprehension

Test

For 9^th form Students

Listening Tasks – 9th Form -           Lazy Susan

‘I want you to teach me how to shoot a gun, ’Susan Carpenter said to her husband at breakfast.

‘You want me to do what?’

Stan Carpenter stopped eating and stared at her.

‘Take me to a shooting range.’

Her husband’s amazement turned to delight. ‘I think that’s a wonderful idea. ’Ever since she’d been robbed the week before on a dark night in the parking-lot of the Mulberry Street Shopping Center, Stan had been telling her to learn how to protect herself, preferably with a gun.

Susan had been more angry than scared when she was robbed. The robber hadn’t hurt her much, just a little knock on the head with his gun. But she was so angry about it.

‘Fifty dollars!’ she shouted at the policeman. ‘One minute I had fifty dollars in my purse and then I had nothing!’

‘Good evening, ladies.’ The expert in self-defence stood beside a screen, and began by saying, ‘The victim of mugging usually looks like this ...’ A coloured picture appeared on the screen. It was a little old lady who was carrying a shopping bag in one hand and a purse in the other. ‘She’ll make it easy for the mugger to grab, push and run. He won’t usually choose a victim who looks as if she might fight back.’ Another picture appeared on the screen – a younger woman, who looked strong, and whose hands were empty.

‘If you want to avoid being mugged, walk confidently! Keep your head up. Pull your shoulders back. Let your arms swing, and don’t carry a lot of packages. Carry your handbag under your arm, or hold it tightly with both hands. Look as if you know where you’re going, even if you don’t. Make that mugger think you’re tough! Any questions?’

‘Is there any way to recognize a mugger?’ asked Susan.

‘Sure.’ The instructor smiled. ‘He’s the one in the dark clothes, hiding in the bushes.’

Everyone but Susan laughed.

Stan was amazed at how strong and confident his wife seemed after only three weeks of self-defence training.

The shops were closed when the last movie-goers came out into the large, dark, Mulberry Street Shopping Center parking-lot. It had been a Superman film. After two and a half hours of watching him bend iron and jump over tall buildings, Susan felt ready for anything.

A dark group of bushes stood between her and her car. She walked confidently through them, then turned and bent down a little to look carefully behind her.

She saw the man before he noticed her.

Everything she had learned about self-defence went through her mind: she examined his walk, the look on his shadowed face, and the object in his hands. She thought of those hours she’d had to work to earn fifty dollars, and of the man who had stolen it so easily. She took from the pocket the little gun that Stan had taught her to use. Then, just as the man stepped past the bushes, she jumped behind him so he couldn’t see her.

She put the gun against his head.

‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ Susan said in her confident new voice, which sounded lower than normal. ‘I just want your money.’

The little old man dropped his shopping bag beside one leg of Susan’s trousers.

‘There’s been another mugging at the shopping center! ’Stan folded back the local newspaper. The edges touched his fried egg. ‘That just proves what I’ve said. You should never go there alone at night. You won’t, will you, Susan?’

‘You’re getting egg on your trousers, dear.’

‘What? Oh! It’s all over the floor, too.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Susan. ‘I’ll clean it up. I have lots of extra time now.’

Stan smiled a little nervously. He was glad she had stopped doing that low paying job at the sales office, but he was afraid his lovely but lazy Susan might not try very hard to find another job. ‘You’ll have time to train for something better,’ he said, hopefully. ‘I’m sure you can find an easier way to make money.’

Lazily, Susan stirred her coffee.

‘Yes, dear.’ She smiled. ’I probably can.’