GUIDE TO LISTENING 3PROFESSOR
Professor:
Usually in groups of four or five. That’s the
Professor:
Oh, no, no, no. I mean . . . it may seem new to
beauty of this method. It teaches teamwork and
you, but, no, in fact, a professor named Christopher
Longdell introduced this system at Harvard University back
cooperation.
. . . around the 1870’s. And he always insisted that it was
Student A:
And then what? How are we . . . how do you
based on a system used by Chinese philosophers thou-
decide on a grade for us?
sands of years ago.
Professor:
You give a presentation, an oral presentation, I
Student B:
So then, they’ve . . . it’s been used in business
mean, and you explain to the whole class what decision
schools ever since the . . . when did you say, the 1870’s?
you made and . . . what recommendations you’d make . . .
AUDIOS
CRIPTand then you write a report as well. You get a grade, a group
Professor:
Well, you see, Professor Longdell, he . . . he in
grade, on the presentation and the report.
fact taught in the law school at Harvard, not in the business
Student B:
Professor, is this the only way we’ll be studying
school. So the case method first . . . it was first used to train
law students. Then, a couple of years after that, they started
business, by using cases?
Professor:
Oh, no, it’s just one important way. Some classes
using it at Columbia University, at the law school there. It
are lecture classes and some are a combination of lectures
wasn’t until . . . When was it? Uh, probably about 1910,
and case studies and some . . . in some classes you’ll also
1912, something like that, that it was used . . . first used at
Harvard Business School.
use computer simulations. We have this software called
World Marketplace, and using this program, your group
Student B:
Then, it’s used in other fields? Besides law and
starts up your own global corporation and tries to make a
business?
profit . . . it’s actually a lot of fun.
Professor:
Oh sure, over the years, it’s been used in all sorts
Narrator:
Now get ready to answer the questions. You may
of disciplines. For example, my wife . . . she teaches over at
the School of Education . . . she uses cases to train teachers.
use your notes to help you.
Student A:
Professor Speed, I get that case study has been
Narrator:
Question 12: Professor Speed mentions several
stages in the history of the case method. Put these steps in
around awhile, but I still don’t quite understand why we’re
the proper order.
. . . well, why do we study cases, exactly?
Professor:
Okay, before the case method was introduced,
Narrator:
Question 13: What does Professor Speed say
about exhibits?
the study of law and business was very . . . abstract . . . the-
Narrator:
Question 14: What does the professor mean when
oretical. It was just, just lectures about theory. Professor
he says this:
Longdell thought—and a lot of educators think—that really,
Professor:
It wasn’t until . . . when was it? Probably about
the best way to learn law, business, any discipline you can
think of, is by studying actual situations and analyzing
1910, 1912, something like that, that it was used . . . first
used at Harvard Business School.
these situations . . . and learning to make decisions.
Narrator:
Question 15: Why does Professor Speed mention
Student A:
That makes sense, but . . . I mean, what does a
his wife?
case look like, exactly . . . I mean, what does it . . . ?
Narrator:
Question 16: In this lecture, the professor
Professor:
What does a case look like? Well, cases are basi-
cally descriptions of actual—let me stress that—of real
describes the process of the case study method. Indicate
business situations, chunks of reality from the business
whether each of the following is a step in the process.
world. So, you get typically ten to twenty pages of text that
Narrator:
Question 17: Which of the following reasons does
the professor give for using the case study method?
describe the problem, some problem that a real business
actually faced. And then there will be another five to ten
pages of what are called exhibits.
Narrator:
Listen to a student giving a presentation in an
astronomy class.
Student B:
Exhibits? What are those?
Student Presenter:
Well, uh, hi, everyone . . . Monday, we
Professor:
Exhibits . . . those are documents, statistical doc-
heard Don tell us about the Sun, and, uh, Lisa talk about
uments, that explain the situation. They might be oh,
spreadsheets, sales reports, umm, marketing projections,
Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. My . . . my, uh,
anything like that. But as I said, at the center of every case,
report, what I’m talking about is the next planet, the sec-
at the core of every case, is a problem that you have to
ond planet, Venus. Okay, to start off, I’m going to tell you
solve. So, you have to analyze the situation, the data—and
what people, well, what they used to think about Venus.
First off, back in the really . . . in the really ancient days,
sometimes, you’ll see you don’t have enough data to work
people thought Venus was a star, not a planet, and . . . well,
with, and you might have to collect more—say, from the
Internet. Then, you have to make decisions about how to
actually, you know how you can see Venus in the early
solve these problems.
morning and in the evening? Well, so they thought it was
two stars, Phosphorus—that was the morning star . . . and,
Student B:
So that’s why we study cases? I mean, because
uh, let’s see, Hesperus, the evening star. And then, once
managers need to be able to make decisions . . . and solve
they figured out it was just one planet, they named it Venus
problems?
after the goddess of love—I don’t really know why, though.
Professor:
Exactly . . . well, that’s a big part of it, anyway.
And then later, people started studying Venus through a
And doing this, solving the problem, usually involves role-
playing, taking on the roles of decision-makers at the firm.
telescope, and they found out it was covered by clouds. Not
One member of the group might play the Chief Executive
partly covered by clouds, like Earth, but completely
Officer, one the Chief Financial Officer, and so on. And you
wrapped up in clouds. And since it was closer to the Sun
than Earth, people imagined it was warm there, like it is in
. . . you might have a business meeting to decide how your
the tropics. In the nineteenth century, there was this belief,
business should solve its problem. Your company might,
say, be facing a cash shortage and thinking about selling off
a lot of people believed, for some reason, that there were
one division of the company. So your group has to decide if
these creatures on Venus who were superior to us, almost
perfect beings, like angels or something. Then, uh, in the
this is the best way to handle the problem.
Student B:
So we work in groups, then?
early part of the twentieth century, people imagined that,
uh, under the clouds there were swamps and jungles and
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4 Section 2 Guide to ListeningStudent Presenter:
Yes, Professor?
monsters. There was this guy, this author, um, Edgar Rice
Professor:
First, I just want to say . . . good job on your
Burroughs, he also wrote the Tarzan books, and, uh, he
wrote books in the 1930’s about . . . well, the series was
presentation, Charlie; it was very interesting, and then . . .
called “Carson of Venus,” and it was about some explorer
well, I just want to add this. You said you weren’t sure why
the planet Venus was named after the goddess of love. It’s
from Earth having wild adventures and fighting monsters
in the jungles. This idea of a “warm” Venus lasted until
true Venus was the goddess of love, but she was also the
the 1950’s.
goddess of beauty and . . . well, anyone who’s ever seen
Okay, so . . . Venus is the brightest object in the sky,
Venus early in the morning or in the evening knows it’s a
beautiful sight.
except for the Sun and the moon, and except for the moon
Student Presenter:
Okay, so, there you have it, everyone—a
it comes closer to the Earth than any other planet, a lot
mystery solved. Thanks, Professor. Well, I don’t have any-
closer than Mars, the, uh, fourth planet. One of the articles
I read about Venus said that Venus is Earth’s sister . . .
thing to add, so unless anyone has any questions . . . no?
Well, Caroline will be giving the next report, which is about
Earth’s twin, I guess it said. That’s because Venus is about
the same size as Earth . . . and uh, it’s made out of the same
the third planet, and since we all live here, that should be
basic materials. And Earth and Venus are about the same
pretty interesting.
age; they, uh, were formed about the same time.
But really, we know nowadays that Earth and Venus are
Narrator:
Question 18: How does the speaker introduce the
not really much like twins. For one thing, the air, the
topic of Venus?
atmosphere of Venus is made out of carbon dioxide and
Narrator:
Question 19: According to the speaker, which of
sulfuric acid—not very nice stuff to breathe. And it’s really
the following were once common beliefs about Venus?
thick, the atmosphere is. It’s so thick, it’s like being at the
Narrator:
Question 20: In this presentation, the speaker dis-
bottom of an ocean on Earth, so if astronauts ever went
there, they’d have to have a . . . something like a diving bell
cusses some similarities between Earth and Venus and
some of the differences between the two planets. Indicate
to keep from getting crushed. And they’d need really good
air conditioning, too, because it’s really hot down there, not
which of the following is a similarity and which is a
warm the way people used to think. All those clouds hold
difference.
in the Sun’s heat, you see. It’s hotter than an oven, hot
Narrator:
Question 21: Which of the following is not true
enough to melt lead, too hot to have any liquid water. So,
about the length of a day on Venus?
Narrator:
Question 22: In what order were these space
guess what that means—no jungles, no swamps, and no
probes sent to Venus?
weird creatures!
Okay, now here’s a really strange fact about Venus. It
Narrator:
Question 23: It can be inferred that the topic of
takes Venus only 225 Earth days to go around the Sun, as
the next student presentation will be about which of the
following?
opposed to the Earth, which of course takes 365 days—
what we call a year. But Venus turns around on its axis
Narrator:
This is the end of the Listening Preview Test.
really slowly. Really slowly. It takes 243 Earth days to spin
around completely. The Earth takes—you guessed it—24
[CD 1 Track 3]hours. This means that a day on Venus is longer than a year
on Venus! In fact, a day on Venus is longer than . . . well,
than on any planet in the solar system, longer even than on
Lesson 9: Main-Topic and Main-Purpose Questionsthose big gas planets like Jupiter. And here’s something else
weird. All the planets of the solar system turn on their axis
Sample Itemin the same direction as they orbit the Sun. All except
Narrator:
Listen to a conversation between a student and a
Venus, of course! It has what’s called a . . . wait, let’s see . . .
professor.
okay, a “retrograde” spin.
Student:
Professor Dixon? I’m Brenda Pierce. From your
Now, there have been quite a few space probes that have
Geology 210 class . . . ?
gone to Venus, so I’m only going to mention a few of them,
Professor:
Yes. I know. That’s a big class, but I do recognize
the most important ones. I guess, umm, one of the most
you. As a matter of fact, I noticed you weren’t in class yes-
important was called Magellan. Magellan was launched in
terday morning. Did you oversleep? That’s one of the prob-
1990 and spent four years in orbit around Venus. It used,
lems with an 8:00 class. I almost overslept myself a couple
uh, radar, I guess, to map the planet, and it found out that
of times.
there are all these volcanoes on Venus, just like there are on
Student:
Oh, uh, no, I didn’t oversleep. In fact, I was up at
Earth. The first one to go there, the first probe to go there
5:00—one of my roommates had an early flight and I took
successfully, was Mariner 2 in, uh, 1962. Mariner 1 was sup-
her to the airport. I thought I’d make it back here in time,
posed to go there, but it blew up. There was one, it was
but, uh, well, you know . . . you know how traffic can be out
launched by the Soviet Union back in the, uh, let’s see . . .
on Airport Road at that time of day. Anyway, uh, I know you
let me find it . . . hang on, no, here it is, Venera 4 in 1967 . . .
were going to tell us . . . give us some information about
and it dropped instruments onto the surface. They only
our research paper in class today. Do you have a few min-
lasted a few seconds, because of the conditions, the heat
utes to fill me in?
and all, but this probe showed us how really hot it was.
Professor:
Well, umm, a few minutes, I guess. This isn’t my
Then, there was one called Venus Pioneer 2, in 1978. That
regular office hour. I actually just came by my office to pick
was the one that found out that the atmosphere of Venus is
up a few papers before the faculty meeting.
made of carbon dioxide, mostly. And, uh, well, as I said . . .
Student:
Okay, well . . . about the research paper . . . how
there were a lot of other ones too.
long does it have to be?
Well, that’s pretty much it—that’s about all I have to say
Professor:
Well, as I told the class, the paper counts for 30%
about Venus, unless you have some questions.
of your grade. It should be at least twelve pages . . . but no
Professor:
Charlie?
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