听力考试的第二节考察考生理解具体或者总体信息的能力。考生根据听到的一段280-320词的独白或对话，补全考题中所给的句子或简要回答给出的问题。该小节录音材料将播放两遍。问题在提干中给出，不再在录音中播放。本小节一共五道题，播放录音前有25秒的答题时间，第一遍录音放完后有50秒答题时间，第二遍录音播放完后有30秒完成答案和检查答案时间。
本节考试中仍以细节题为主，考查考生对给定范围细节的定位和获取事实性具体信息的能力。出题点集中在时间、地点、天气、人物、数字、电话号码和价格等细节信息上。由于考题中已给出所要求细节内容，因此考生只需要听懂原文并进行合理定位即可。主题题型比较简单，考察能力也与第一节相似。相对第一小节来说，听力考试第二小节加入了考查考生把握全文总体信息能力的题型，如主观题，态度题，推断总结题等，因此加大了考试难度。要求考生对材料中涉及的细节内容以及材料中涉及的某个方面的具体内容进行总结和概括，比如某个事件发生的背景，某种条件等;要求考生对对话或者独白的主要内容，主要目的，讲话者的态度，立场能够做出一定推断。关键还是考生能不能在第一次听后能否对材料有个大概的理解。如果可以的话，则第二次就能有的放矢。在该段材料的题目设计中大都是特殊疑问句。题目多关于材料的细节、情节和主题等。有时也要求考生对材料所给予的线索做出推断。录音材料一般以记叙文为主，素材广泛。
经典例题：
Part B
Direction:
For Question 6-10, you will hear a talk by a well-known U.S. journalist. While you listen, complete the sentences and answer the questions. Use not more than 3 words for each answer. You will hear the recording twice. You now have 25 seconds to read the sentences and questions below. (5 points)
Besides reporters, who else were camped out for days outside the speaker’s home?6.
One reporter got to the speakers apartment pretending to pay7.
The speaker believed the reporter wanted a picture of her looking8.
Where a correction to a false story is usually placed?9.
According to the speaker, the press will lose readers unless the editors and the news directors10.
[听力原文]
W: When I was getting divorced in 1975,reporters and cameramen were camped out for days in the lobby and on the sidewalk outside. They came from all over the country. Foreign reporters too. It was terrible. My neighbors could barely get in and out of the building. One reporter, who had been a friend of mine, got up to my apartment after persuading the doorman into believing that he was there on a personal visit. I wouldn’t let him in .He just wanted to talk, he said. I was certain that he had a camera and wanted a picture of me looking depressed. I just couldn’t believe this attempt to invade my privacy. TV is the worst. TV reporters present themselves as shavings the perfect right to be anywhere, to ask any question. It doesn’t matter how personal the matter may be. People don’t trust the press the way they used to. In most cases, stories are sensationalized in groups to attract more public attention. Some papers print things that simply are not true. In many papers, if a correction has to be made, it is usually buried among advertisements. I have received hundreds of letters from people asking me how do you know what is true in the press these days. I find it difficult to respond sometimes. I tell them that there are good newspapers and serious, responsible and honest reporters. Don’t judge all of us by the standards of the bad ones. Unless the guys at the top—the editors and the news directors-take firm action, pretty soon no one is going to believe anything they read in the papers of see on television news.
