GUIDE TO LISTENING 9NARRATOR

Section 2 Guide to Listening 9

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

Professor:

Good question. I’m going to let you all think

use your notes to help you.

about it for just a minute—talk it over with the person sit-

ting next to you, if you want—and then . . . then you’re

Narrator:

Question 5: What is the main topic of this

going to tell me.

discussion?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an advertising class.

Narrator:

Question 4: What is the main purpose of this

Professor:

Morning, class. In our last class, we were talking

about regulation, about regulation in the advertising indus-

AUDIO

S

CRIPT

try. In fact, you may remember I said that, in the United

States, in some European countries, too, advertising is one

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an art class.

of the most heavily regulated industries there is. What did,

Professor:

Hello, everyone . . . today I’m going to be show-

um, what example did I give of regulation, government reg-

ing you some slides of . . . well, I’m just going to project a

ulation of advertising?

slide on the screen and see if you can tell me who the artist

is and what the name of the painting is. This is his most

Student A:

Well, you . . . you gave the example of . . . that the

United States banned cigarette advertising back in the

famous painting. Here we go. Anyone know?

1960’s . . .

Student A:

Yeah, I’ve seen that painting before . . . I don’t

Professor:

The early 1970’s, actually. That’s right. Up until

remember the name of the artist, but I think the painting is

called Nighthawks at the Diner.

then, tobacco companies and their advertising agencies

would portray smoking as part of this . . . oh, this carefree,

Professor:

Yeah, that’s . . . well, a lot of people call it that,

this oh-so-glamorous lifestyle. And then it came out in

but the real name of the painting is just Nighthawks.

these scientific studies done by the government that

Anyone know the artist? Anyone? No? The painter is

tobacco smoking was really dangerous, really unsafe, and

Edward Hopper. Now tell me . . . what sort of a reaction do

so . . . no more tobacco advertisements. At least, not on

you have when you see it?

television or radio. You could still advertise in magazines,

Student B:

It’s kind of . . . lonely . . . kind of depressing, and,

on billboards, and so on, for a long time after that—don’t

uh, bleak. It’s so dark outside, and inside there are these

bright lights but . . . but they’re kinda harsh, the lights are,

ask me why, but you could. And some studies showed that

. . . the studies seemed to indicate that the advertising ban

and the people in the diner seem . . . well, to me, they look

. . . oh, and I might mention, there was also negative adver-

really lonely.

Professor:

A lot of Hopper’s works show . . . loneliness, iso-

tising by the government and anti-smoking groups telling

people not to smoke . . . anyway, these studies showed

lation. He was a very realistic painter. One of the reasons he

that smoking, that the use of tobacco actually went down.

was so realistic, maybe, is that he started off as an illustra-

tor, a commercial artist, and you know, of course, a com-

Okay, there were also some examples in the article I asked

you to read for today, other examples of government

mercial artist has to be able to paint and draw realistically.

regulation . . .

In fact, Hopper spent most of his early career doing illus-

trations and just traveling around. He didn’t develop his

Student:

There was the example from Sweden, about how

Sweden completely banned advertisements for children.

characteristic style, his mature style, until, I’d say, not until

he was in his forties or maybe fifties. Anyway, most of his

Professor:

Right, for children under twelve. That happened

back in 1991. Now . . . not to get too far off track here, but

paintings show empty city streets, country roads, railroad

since that article was written, there was a European Court

tracks. There are paintings of storefronts, restaurants, and

of Justice ruling, and it said that Sweden still has to accept

. . . let me show you another, this is the first one of his

. . . that it has no control over advertisements that target

mature paintings, and the first one that really made him

Swedish children, advertisements that come from neigh-

famous. It’s called The House by the Railroad. It’s pretty

bleak, too, isn’t it? You’ll notice as we look at more slides

boring countries . . . or from satellite. So this undercuts to a

certain extent what the Swedes were trying to do, but still

that, uh, well, there aren’t many people in the paintings,

and the ones that you do see, they look . . . you could

. . . you can see their intent to . . . to protect their children

almost say impersonal. Melancholy. That’s the . . . mood he

from, uh, from the effects of advertising.

tried to convey. Wait, let me back up just a second. He,

Student A:

Don’t you think that law was . . . a little extreme,

Hopper, always said he was just painting what he saw, that

maybe?

Professor:

In my opinion? As a matter of fact, yes, yes, I do.

he wasn’t trying to show isolation and loneliness but . . .

one look at his paintings tells you he wasn’t being com-

Personally, I think advertisements meant for children

pletely honest about this.

should be controlled—maybe controlled more carefully

than at present—but not necessarily eliminated. And I . . .

Student A:

Some of these paintings remind me of . . . of

speaking for myself still, I think they should be controlled

those old black-and-white movies from, like, the thirties

and forties.

by a combination of government regulation and self-

regulation. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about

Professor:

Yeah, I agree. That type of movie, that style of

today. Sometimes self-regulation works well enough, but,

moviemaking is called film noir. And yeah, it does have that

but if the idea of self-regulation is to create nothing but

same feel, doesn’t it? And it’s interesting that you should say

that, because Hopper did have an influence on some

honest advertisements, advertisements that are in good

taste . . . well, you only have to turn on your TV and you’ll

moviemakers. On the other hand, he did not have much of

an influence on his own generation of painters. Nobody

see that this system of self-regulation has its faults, right?

else painted the way Hopper did, at least not until . . . well,

until the photorealistic painters in the sixties and seventies.

But his contemporaries weren’t interested in realism. They

Narrator:

Question 6: What is the class mainly discussing?

were . . . well, we’ll see some of their works next week when

we talk about abstract expressionism.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a world literature class.

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 10

10 Section 2 Guide to Listening

. . . oh, and Jan Smuts of South Africa, and, well, there were

Professor:

So, for the rest of the class today, we’re gonna

others too . . . they recognized the need for an international

talk about the two most important poems, epic poems, in

Greek literature. And really, not just in Greek literature, but

organization, an organization to keep the peace. So when

in any literature, anywhere in the world. These are the Iliad

the agreement that ended the war, the Treaty of Versailles, it

and the Odyssey, written by the blind Greek poet Homer—

was called, was signed, it included a provision that . . . that

at least, we think he was blind. Now, if you happen to have

included formation of the League of Nations. Its headquar-

a copy of the syllabus that I gave you last week, you’ll

ters were in Geneva, Switzerland.

But, the problem with the League from the beginning

notice that we’re not gonna be able to . . . we just don’t have

was that some of the most powerful nations of the time

time to read all of these two poems and talk about them.

never joined. As I said, the, ah, the main drive, the main

An epic poem . . . I probably don’t have to tell you this—is a

impetus for forming the League came from Woodrow

narrative poem, a really long narrative poem. So we’re

going to read a few passages from the Iliad, and we’ll read a

Wilson, president of the United States. But during the

1920’s, the United States went through a period of isola-

bit more from the Odyssey. What I want to talk about today

tionism. In other words, it just basically withdrew from

are some of the . . . the ways these two long poems, espe-

international affairs. Wilson worked and worked to get the

cially their main characters, how they’re different.

Some people have said that the Iliad is the world’s great-

U.S. Senate to agree to join the League, but he never could.

Other powerful nations joined but then quit—or were

est war story, and the Odyssey, that it’s the world’s greatest

travel story. The Iliad tells about the Trojan War, the war

kicked out. This included Brazil, Japan, Germany, the Soviet

Union . . . The other problem was, ah . . . the League of

between Troy and the various Greek kingdoms. The Odyssey

Nations never had any power, really, no power to enforce

tells about a Greek warrior’s trip home, and all the amazing

its decisions. It had no armed forces. It could only apply

adventures he has on the way—and he has some wild ones,

economic sanctions, boycotts, and these were pretty easy

too. The warrior’s name is Odysseus, hence the name for

to get around.

the poem. I think the reason that I prefer the Odyssey to the

Iliad, myself, is that . . . well, I guess you could say, I just

The League of Nations did have a few successes early

on. It helped prevent wars between Bulgaria and Greece,

like the main character of the Odyssey better than the main

Iraq and Turkey, and Poland and Lithuania in the 1920’s.

characters of the Iliad. As I said, the Iliad is the story of the

And the League also had some success in refugee work and

Trojan War and about the clash, the personality conflict,

famine relief and so on. Oh, and it brokered some deals,

between the main characters. The conflict isn’t just

between warriors from either side—a lot of the story deals

some treaties to get countries to reduce the size of their

with an argument between the two strongest Greek war-

navies. But . . . the League was completely, totally powerless

to stop the buildup to the Second World War in the 1930’s.

riors, Achilles and Agamemnon. Anyway, the main charac-

So, ah, during the war, during World War II, I mean, the

ters in the Iliad, they’re strong, they’re great warriors, but

League didn’t meet. Then, after the war, it was replaced by

you know . . . they’re not as clever, not as smart as

the United Nations, which, of course, was headquartered in

Odysseus. He’s the one who thinks up the plan to end the

New York City.

war—after ten long years—and defeat the Trojans. He’s the

Still, the League of Nations was, ah . . . well, I think it

. . . the mastermind behind the scheme to build the Trojan

served an important role. It developed a new model of

Horse—you probably know something about that already,

the Trojan Horse has been in lots of movies and so on . . .

Internationalism. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth

anyway, he helps end the ten-year war, and then he sets off

century, “Internationalism” really just meant alliances of

powerful nations, and these alliances often dragged other

for home and his family. It takes him another ten years to

get home, where his wife has been waiting faithfully for

countries into conflict—that’s what happened, really, that’s

him for twenty years, but . . . but like I said, he has plenty of

what led to World War I. But the League was at least an

attempt to bring all the nations of the world together to

adventures on the way.

work for peace. True, it didn’t work, not really, but at least

Oh, and the other thing about Odysseus that I like is that

. . . well, the characters in the Iliad are pretty static . . . you

there was an effort made. Oh, and another thing I meant to

add, the structure of the League of Nations, the, ah, admin-

know what I mean? They are . . . they don’t change much.

This is true of most of Homer’s characters, in fact. But it’s

istrative structure, the “government,” if you will—was very

similar to that of the United Nations. The secretary-general,

not true of Odysseus. During the course of the epic, on

the secretariat, the general assembly, the security council,

account of the long war and all the, the bizarre experiences

these are all fixtures of the United Nations that came from

he has on the way home . . . he changes. He evolves as a

character, just like characters in most modern novels do.

the League of Nations.

Okay, we’re going to have to wait until next class to dis-

Okay, then, before we go on . . . does anyone have any

cuss the United Nations, but . . . I just wanted you to be

comments? Comments or questions?

aware of the League of Nations because of its role, its, ah

. . . place in history, which I think has often been

misunderstood . . .

Narrator:

Question 7: What is the main point of this lecture?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a modern history class.

Professor:

All right, then, I want to talk about the founding

Narrator:

Question 8: What is the main subject of this

lecture?

of the United Nations, but before I do, I want to just men-

tion the League of Nations, which was the predecessor of

the United Nations. Last week, we talked about the end of

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an environmental studies

class.

the First World War—it ended in 1918, if you remember.

Well, right after the war, several leaders of the countries

Professor:

Let’s go ahead and get started. I’d like to finish up

our discussion of alternative energy sources this week

that had won the war, including Wilson of the United

. . . Remember our definition of an alternative energy

States, and Lloyd George of Britain, Clemenceau of France