GUIDE TO LISTENING 7SPACECRAFT, AND IT TURNED OUT THAT THE M...

Section 2 Guide to Listening 7

spacecraft, and it turned out that the models they designed

phy class. You wouldn’t need the instructor’s permission to

do that.

could be adapted quite nicely to dancers’ bodies. So any-

way, I’ve reserved the computer lab down the hall for the

Student B:

No, I . . . I don’t consider myself a . . . well, not a

complete beginner, anyway. I took photos for my school

rest of this class. We’re going to spend the rest of our time

newspaper when I was in high school . . . not just news

today playing around with some of this choreography soft-

ware, okay? So let’s walk over there . . .

photos but kind of artistic photos too, you know . . . I could

show her those. I’d really like to take her class. From what

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

you said about her, I think I could learn a lot.

use your notes to help you.

AUDIO

S

CRIPT

Narrator:

Question 1: What is the main point of this lecture?

Narrator:

Question 5: What is the main topic of this

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a psychology class.

conversation?

Student A:

Excuse me . . . excuse me, Professor Mitchie, but

. . . I’m a little confused about what you just said.

[CD 2 Track 2]

Professor:

You’re confused? Why is that, Deborah?

Student A:

Well, you said that you don’t . . . well, that most

Exercise 9.2

scientists don’t think that ESP really exists.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a dance class.

Professor:

Okay, now you’re clear what I’m talking about

Professor:

Okay, today we’re talking a bit about recording

when I say ESP . . .

choreography. Let me start with a question for you. Do you

Student B:

It’s mind-reading, that kind of stuff. Extrasensory

know what steps dancers used during the first productions

perception.

of . . . oh, say, of Swan Lake, or, for that matter, any of the

Professor:

Well, that’s a pretty good definition. It’s . . . well,

most famous ballets? . . . That’s really a trick question

it can be telepathy . . . that’s communicating mind to mind.

because . . . well, in most cases, no one knows, not really.

Or telekinesis . . . that’s moving things with your mind . . . .

Believe it or not, no written choreography exists for the

precognition, which is knowing the future, or seeing the

early performances of most of the world’s most famous

future. Other phenomena, too. And the study of ESP is

classical ballets, or, for that matter, even for a lot of modern

sometimes called parapsychology.

ballet. So, how did choreographers teach dancers how to

Student A:

But you think . . . well, you think all that is non-

perform their dances? Mostly, they demonstrated the steps

sense, I guess, right?

themselves, or they had one of the dancers model the steps

Professor:

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t people who have

for the other dancers. Sure, systems of written choreogra-

. . . well, remarkable senses of intuition. But I think that’s

phy have been around for a long while. Some systems use

because they’re just very sensitive, very tuned in to their

numbers, some use abstract symbols, some use letters and

environments, to the people around them. I don’t think they

words, oh, and musical notation, some systems use musi-

have any . . . abnormal mental powers beyond that, no.

cal notes. The two most common systems in use are called

Student A:

Well, I was just reading an article about ESP, and

Labanotation, and, uh, the Benesh system, Benesh

it said that there were scientific experiments done at some

Movement Notation it’s called. But here’s the thing—chore-

university, I don’t remember where, but the experiments

ographers don’t use these systems all that often. Why not,

were done with cards, and that they proved that some peo-

you ask. Well, because of the time it takes, because . . . Well,

ple could read minds.

because recording three-dimensional dance movements,

Student B:

She’s probably thinking of those experiments at

it’s very difficult, very complex, and especially it’s very

Duke University . . .

time-consuming. A single minute of dance can take up to

Student A:

Right, it was at Duke.

maybe, maybe six hours to get down on paper. You can

Professor:

Well, yes, there were a series of experiments at

imagine how long recording an entire ballet would take!

Duke about seventy years ago. Professor J. P. Rhine—who

And choreographers tend to be very busy people. But com-

was, interestingly enough, a botanist, not a psychologist—

puter experts came to the choreographers’ rescue.

he founded the Department of Parapsychology at Duke,

Computers have been used since the sixties to record cho-

and he and his wife did a lot of experiments, especially

reography. The first one—well, the first one I know about,

involving telepathy.

anyway, was a program written by Michael Noll . . . and it

Student B:

He used those cards, didn’t he, the ones with,

was . . . oh, I guess by today’s standards you’d say it was

like, stars and crosses?

pretty primitive. The dancers looked like stick figures in a

Professor:

Yes. Well, at first he used ordinary playing cards,

child’s drawing. But, uh, since the 1980’s, sophisticated pro-

but then he started using a deck of twenty-five cards. There

grams have been around, programs that . . . uh . . . well, uh,

were five symbols on these cards: a star, a cross, some wavy

they let choreographers record the dancers’ steps and

lines, a circle and, ummm, maybe a square?

movements quite easily. The only problem with these,

Student A:

So how did the experiments work?

these software programs, was that they required very pow-

Professor:

Well, basically it went like this. One person

erful computers to run them . . . and as you no doubt know,

turned over the card and looked at it carefully, really trying

not all dance companies have the kind of money you need

to focus on it, to . . . to picture it in his mind. This person

to buy a mainframe computer. But because personal com-

was called the sender. The other person, called the percipi-

puters now have more memory, more power, well, now you

ent, had to guess what symbol the sender was looking at. So

can choreograph a whole ballet on a good laptop.

. . . if it was just a matter of chance guessing, how many

Oh, and I meant to mention earlier, we owe a lot of the

times should the percipient guess correctly?

credit for these improvements in the software for dance

Student B:

Five, I guess? I mean, since there are five types of

choreography to the space program. Back in the sixties and

symbols and . . .

seventies, engineers at NASA needed computerized models

Professor:

And twenty-five cards, yes, that’s right, the law of

. . . three-dimensional, moving models of astronauts’ bod-

averages says that you should get 20% right even if you

ies so that the engineers could design spacesuits and

have absolutely no ESP talent. So if someone—and they

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8 Section 2 Guide to Listening

archaeologists have learned from them. There have been

tested thousands of people at their lab—if someone on

plenty of shipwrecks in this area. Over the years, fog and

average got more than 20%, they’d get tested more, and

some of these individuals went on to get remarkably high

storms and rocks and accidents and sometimes even war

scores.

have sunk a lot of ships around New England. I’m going to

Student A:

So, huh, doesn’t this prove that some people can

be showing you some slides of shipwrecks from trading

. . . that they have powers?

ships that sank in Colonial days, in the 1600’s, to the Andrea

Professor:

Well, after Rhine did his experiments at Duke, a

Doria, which went down in the 1950’s. The Andrea Doria,

that’s, uh, I suppose that’s the most famous shipwreck in

lot of similar experiments have been done—at Stanford

the area, the Italian ocean liner, the Andrea Doria, and it’s a

University, in Scotland, and elsewhere, and the conclusion

deep, dangerous dive to get to it, I’ll tell you. Oh, and after

. . . most researchers have decided that Rhine’s results were

that we’re going to play a little game. I’m going to show you

. . . I guess the kindest word I could use is questionable.

More recent experiments have been done under more care-

some slides of artifacts that were found on board ship-

wrecks, show them just the way they looked when they

fully controlled conditions, and those, uh, remarkable

were found, and you have to guess what they are.

results, those really high scores that Rhine got have been

rare . . . practically nonexistent. And in science, the trend

should be the opposite.

Narrator:

Question 3: What does this lecture mainly

Student B:

What do you mean, Professor?

concern?

Professor:

Well, you know . . . if the phenomenon you’re

studying is real, and the experiments are improved, are

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an economics class.

more reliable, then the results you get should be more cer-

Professor:

Okay, good morning, everyone, I trust everyone

tain, not less certain.

had a good weekend and that you managed to read

Student A:

So that’s why you don’t believe in ESP?

Chapter . . . Chapter 7, on taxation. Friday we talked about

Professor:

To put it in a nutshell—I’ve just never seen any

experimental proof for ESP that stood up to careful

the difference between progressive and regressive taxes . . .

and, today, we’re going to talk about two other types of tax-

examination.

ation: direct and indirect. What did the text say about direct

taxation? Yes, Troy?

Student A:

Well, the book . . . according to the chapter that

Narrator:

Question 2: What are the speakers mainly

discussing?

we read, it’s, ummm, that’s when the person who’s being

taxed . . .

Professor:

Well, it could be a person or it could be an

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an archaeology class.

organization.

Guest Speaker:

Good afternoon, everyone, I’m Robert Wolf,

Student A:

Right. The person or organization who’s being

and I’m president . . . well, I should say past president of

taxed pays the government directly. Is that it?

the State Archaeological Society. I’d like to thank Professor

Professor:

That’s great. Now, can you provide an example

Kingsly for asking me to, to come in and talk to you all

for us?

about a subject I’m pretty passionate about: shipwrecks.

You see, I’m also a diver, and I’m a member of the

Student A:

Yeah, uh, how about income tax?

Professor:

Why would you consider income tax a form of

International Underwater Archaeology Society, and I’ve

direct taxation?

been on a lot of underwater expeditions to investigate

shipwrecks.

Student A:

Well, because, um, the person who earns the

income pays the taxes directly to the government, right?

A lot of times, when someone mentions shipwrecks, you

think of pirates and treasures buried under the sea. And in

Professor:

Yes, good, Troy. Okay, so, someone else, what is

reality, many divers—the ones we call treasure hunters—do

indirect taxation? Cheryl?

Student B:

Well, if I understand the book correctly, it’s when

try to find shipwrecks with valuables still aboard them. In

the cost of taxes, of taxation, is paid by someone other than

fact, that’s one of the problems we face in this field. Some

the, uh, the person . . . or organization . . . that is responsi-

shipwrecks have literally been torn apart by treasure

ble for paying the taxes.

hunters searching for gold coins or jewelry, even if there

Professor:

I’d say you understood the book perfectly—that’s

wasn’t any there, and underwater archaeologists weren’t

a good definition. Now, Cheryl, we need an example of

able to get much information from these ships. But, ship-

indirect taxation.

wrecks are . . . they can be a lot more than just places to

look for treasure. A shipwreck is a time capsule, if you know

Student B:

Okay, let’s see . . . what if someone . . . some

company . . . brings, oh, say, perfume into the country from

what I mean, a photograph, a snapshot of what life was like

France. And let’s say there’s an import tax on the perfume

at the moment the ship sank. And unlike sites on land, a

shipwreck . . . it’s . . . uncontaminated . . . it’s not disturbed

that the government collects from the company, and then

by the generations of people who live on the site later.

. . . well, the importer just turns around and charges cus-

tomers more money for the perfume, to, umm, just to pay

Unless, of course, treasure hunters or someone like that has

gotten there first. And so, they’re valuable tools for archae-

the import tax.

Professor:

Good example! Anyone think of another one?

ologists, for historians. For example, the world’s oldest

known shipwreck—it sank in about, ummm, 1400

B

.

C

., off

Student A:

How about this: last year, my landlady raised my

the coast of Turkey—the artifacts on that ship completely

rent, and when I asked her why, she said it was because the

changed the way we think of Bronze Age civilizations in the

city raised her property taxes . . . is that an example?

Professor:

It certainly is. It . . . yes, Cheryl, you have a

Mediterranean.

So, I’m mostly going to stick to shipwrecks that occurred

question?

Student B:

Yes, Professor, what about sales taxes . . . direct

here, that happened off the coast of New England, and I’m

or indirect?

going to talk about what we’ve learned from them, what

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