Listening audioscript

THE WOMAN GIVES HER OPINION OF THE PROPOSED CHANGE TO THE 
FINALS SCHEDULE. STATE HER OPINION AND THE REASONS SHE GIVES FOR 
HER OPINION. 
 
Page 411
[ mp3 182-183]

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LPREP IBT 3 E AudioScript 
115
Question 3. 
Listen to the passage. Then respond to the question. 
(Professor)
: I’d like to talk today about some of the formal grammar rules in English, 
rules about what’s considered formally correct and incorrect. I’d like to 
talk in particular about rules that were formed in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries during the period of neoclassicism. 
Now during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe, there 
was a widely held view that the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome 
were superior to the culture of the day. This period in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth century is known as the neoclassic period. 
Now during the neoclassic period, academics held the view that the Latin 
language of the classic age of the Roman Empire was the purest 
language possible; as a result, there was an attempt to Latinize the 
English of the time to make it resemble what was considered the most 
perfect language, Latin. 
An example of a formal grammar rule that developed in English during 
the neoclassic revival is the rule against split infinitives. The infinitive is 
the form of the verb that includes the word “to” and the base form of the 
verb, such as “to go,” or “to walk,” or “to make.” There’s a formal rule 
today in English against splitting the infinitive, against saying something 
like “to never go,” or “to always work,” though many native speakers of 
English do break this formal rule all the time. 
Another supposed rule of English is the prohibition on ending a sentence 
in a preposition. So you’re supposed to say “Sam is the man to whom I 
spoke” or “From where are you?” instead of “Sam is the man I spoke to.” 
or “Where are you from?” 
The rule against split infinitives and the rule against prepositions at the 
end of sentences didn’t exist before the neoclassic period. Instead, they 
came about as seventeenth and eighteenth century academics during 
that period noted that it was impossible to split infinitives in Latin—the 
reason being that a Latin verb is one word rather than the two words—
and that in Latin prepositions never come before their objects. Because 
these two things – both natural features of English – because they never 
happened in so-called “perfect” Latin, rules against splitting infinitives or 
dangling prepositions were created. English speakers still, however, 
regularly violate both rules; the attempt by seventeenth and eighteenth 
century academics to impose rules in order to make English more like 
Latin did not succeed entirely. 
Now answer the following question. You have 20 seconds to prepare an answer and 60 
seconds to give your spoken response.