Bài 5 (Listening Section 4)

Questions 1 — 10

Complete the summary below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

The history of soap

In ancient times soap was used to clean . Soap was not seen as a means of personal hygiene until  times. Ancient people had little technology but many  so were probably able to discover soap by chance. Soap was probably only used in  societies. There is no evidence that tribespeople at the time of the British  used soap. 

The history of soap has mostly been discovered from . The earliest known use of soap in 2500 BC was to wash . The Egyptians made soap by mixing salts with oil taken from . The Romans saw washing themselves as a social activity. They removed dirt using steam and a . When Pompeii was excavated, they discovered a  for making soap.

Test tip: Read through the information in the summary carefully before you listen and try to predict what type of information you need to hear. Pay careful attention to the word limit and check your spelling at the end.

Listen to the first part of the recording again and fill in the gaps with a modal and the verb in brackets in the correct form.

1. While you  (find) some information on the origins of soap, it is not a substance which has excited a great deal of study so far.

2. We can only assume that other activities  (provide) the basis from which this key concept arose.

3. So, how is it that these primitive people from over two thousand years ago  (discover) soap?

4. I carried out some experiments using basic techniques to try to find out what people without any chemical knowledge  (observe).

5. I was able to demonstrate that they would indeed  (make) a soap that is not dissimilar to the one we know today.

Decide whether the modals are used to show ability or possibility in these sentences.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.