Transcription
Now look at part one. Part one, you will hear a student and an adviser talking about facilities at a college. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.
Now we shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.
Hi, I wonder if you could help me. I'm starting a course at Glenfield in a few weeks. I was just a bit worried about what facilities there will be and what I'll have to do. I'm especially interested in health and welfare stuff.
Certainly. We normally send out a copy of our leaflet, Staying Healthy at Glenfield. I'm not sure why you haven't had it.
Well, could you answer a few questions for me? Firstly, I'm wondering about how I get a doctor when I arrive.
Well, you can register with the University Health Center on North Campus.
And do I have to pay for that?
Not to register, but if you have to get medicines, there's a prescription charge of £6.50.
Okay. Well, I'm not planning to get ill. That's only going to arise if I have any problems. So, should I just go along when I arrive?
That's what we recommend for peace of mind, but it's not compulsory. And if you don't live inside the catchment area, you can't in fact register there. Where do you live?
Well, at the moment I'm staying at the backpacker's hostel in Hill Street, but I will be moving from there shortly somewhere nearer.
Well, there's a map at the center which shows you the area that the university practice can accept people from. It's what we call the yellow zone. If you live outside that area, you have to find another medical center to register with.
It sounds like I'll only qualify after I move.
I think you might be right. Then in addition to the health center, there's a free counseling service for all students situated on the north campus. You don't have to register. They also have drop-in sessions. I say it's free, but that's only for up to eight sessions. Beyond that, they normally refer people elsewhere.
Sounds serious.
Well, it's not just for big problems. People go there for advice on housing, workload, whatever really. They can even arrange financial help.
Is it confidential?
Absolutely. Then again, a lot of students prefer to phone the night line service, which is run from an office on the central campus. They don't really encourage people to drop in.
I see. So, it's basically a free phone line. The number, if you want to make a note, is 09007625913. I'll say it again. 09007625913.
Fine. Well, I hope I won't need any of these. What I will want is access to some gym facilities.
Right. Well, you'll find those on the south campus in the sports center. It's great, but it's not free. You have to present your student card and pay a fee of £22 to get a pass, but that will last you for the whole year.
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.
Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.
Is this information on the website?
I'm afraid not. I can send you some leaflets or even resend the whole information pack if you give me your details.
Uh, could you send the whole information pack, please?
Yes, that's fine. I'll have to take down some details. Could you tell me your full name?
Sonia Ore.
S O N Y.
Uh, no. I'll spell it S O N I A. And then Orr is O R R.
Orr. Okay. And you said you were on Hills Road.
Yes. But don't send it there as I'm about to move. I'll give you my new address, which is 22 Winter Gardens. That's Glenfield.
And the postcode?
Oh, yeah. That's GF23 9BQ.
Fine. Now, we're doing a bit of data collection about who uses our services at the moment. Can I just ask a few more questions?
Yes, that's fine.
Okay. If you're an international student, what country are you from?
I'm from Switzerland.
And how old are you?
I'm 24. And finally, which course are you enrolled on?
Right. Well, that's a bit complicated since I'm hoping to switch to Economics and History, but at the moment I'm down to do Economics and Sociology. It's a joint degree.
Okay, I'll put that. Great. Well, I'll pop the information pack in the post and you should get it soon.
That is the end of part one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now turns to part two. Part two. You will hear a talk about keeping children safe on the internet. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
Listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
Thank you for coming. It's good to see so many of you interested in keeping your children safe on the internet. What's in store? Well, firstly, I'm going to talk in general about some common sense ideas and rules for young ones using the computer. Then I'll give you some information on free educational websites. Finally, we'll finish with question time. I'm sure most of you think that the internet can be a frightening place in which to let your children roam loose. But let me remind you that it can also be a fountain of knowledge and education. The trick is to avoid the former and utilize the latter. There are programs available both in your local electronics supply shop and free to download that will keep your child safe to a certain degree on the worldwide web. A popular one is Online Family Norris, which bars things like military and social websites. I wouldn't advise you to rely solely on a program to protect your family though. As good as it is, you cannot abdicate your responsibility as a parent. I'm sure you all know that, or you wouldn't be here. When all is said and done, the best way to keep children safe is to educate them and keep an eye on them. For this reason, you should make sure the computer which your child uses is kept in a communal space where you can look over their shoulder from time to time. It is paramount that you teach them never to divulge their proper or full name and to never provide personal information such as where they live or what their phone number is. Tell them that online friends must remain just that, online, unless they are supervised. It is difficult, I know, to teach children about the dangers of the world when they are so naive, so trusting and innocent. But without going into great detail, you must alert them to the possibility that the people they are chatting with may not be who they say they are. It's also sensible not to give them their own email address until they are old enough to use the internet safely. So all communication from websites will go through you. When they are old enough to use social sites like Facebook and MySpace, teenagers need to know that whatever postings they put on the web will remain accessible forever. Nothing is ever really deleted there. And embarrassing pictures or remarks may come back to haunt them one day. For instance, when they apply for a job, they could jeopardize their chances as the employer or human resources staff will look on the web to find out more about their potential employee and they may be shocked by what they find there. It's not the sort of stuff an applicant would want on his or her CV. It can also make them more vulnerable to bullying. Unfortunately, bullying on social sites is another thing to look out for, and I have to tell you, it's on the increase. It's a very difficult issue to deal with, but something that is more easily detected if the computer is kept in a family space. If we can put these negative issues aside, let's not forget that the internet is also a wonderful place for children of all ages. Teenagers may be mostly networking on social sites or completing research that they've been asked to do as part of their homework assignments. But younger children can get assistance with mathematics, spelling, and reading on a variety of free and paid for sites.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
Now listen and answer questions 17 to 20.
A good way for children to learn and have fun at the same time is the website mathtutor.com. They can practice mathematics on this site, no matter what their level, while they compete against other children from all over the world. And here's a fun way for primary school children to learn the spelling words for the week. It can be such a chore for some children. They just type them in and play games to learn them. What's that? The website? Oh, sorry. Yes, you'll need to go to spellcity.com for that. The one I'm going to tell you about now is one of the most practical sites that's popular with people of all ages. Children or parents, for that matter, can learn to touch type as they sing along with songs. And there's a variety of funny characters to help you enjoy yourself as you learn. In this day and age, typing is essential. Everyone should be able to type fast and accurately. So, go to bb.co/typing and try it out. Don't just leave it up to the kids. Here's a site that parents can use to download worksheets to extend their children by giving them further practice. It's called core resources.com and I can really recommend it, particularly for middle school students. Now, are there any questions?
That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now turns to part three. Part three. Here an interview conducted by an interviewer, special with the scientist Peter Pott, who discovered Ebola, a dangerous disease. Both of them are conversing about the disease and its origin. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.
Professor P, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. Can you tell how did it happen?
I still remember one day in September, a pilot from Sabina Airlines brought us a shiny blue thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire in the thermos. He wrote, "There was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had recently fallen ill from a mysterious sickness in Yambuku, a remote village in the northern part of the country. He asked us to test the sample for yellow fever." These days, Ebola may only be researched in high security laboratories. How did you protect yourself back then?
We had no idea how dangerous the virus that we were dealing with was. And there were no high security labs in Belgium back then. We just wore our white lab coats and protective gloves. When we opened the thermos, the ice inside had largely melted, and one of the vials had broken. Blood and glass shards were floating in ice water. We fished the other intact test tube out of the slop and began examining the blood for pathogens using the methods that was standard at the time.
But the yellow fever virus apparently had nothing to do with the nun's illness.
No. And the tests for Lassa fever and typhoid fever were also negative. What then could it be? Our hopes were dependent on being able to isolate the virus from the sample. To do so, we injected it into mice and other lab animals. At first, nothing happened for several days. We thought that perhaps the pathogen had been damaged from insufficient refrigeration in the thermos, but then one animal after the next begun to die. We began to realize that the sample contained something quite deadly.
But you continued?
Other samples from the nun who had just died arrived from Kinshasa when we were just about able to begin examining the virus under the electron microscope. The World Health Organization entrusted us to send all of our samples to a high security lab in England. But my boss at the time wanted to bring our work to a conclusion, no matter what. He grabbed a vial containing virus material to examine it, but his hand was shaking and he dropped it on a colleague's foot. The vial shattered. My only thought was, "Oh, shit." We immediately disinfected everything and luckily our colleague was wearing thick leather shoes. Nothing happened to any of us.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.
Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.
We're finally able to create an image of the virus using the electron microscope.
Yes. And our first thought was, "What the hell is that?" The virus that we'd spent so much time searching for was very big, long, and wormlike. It had no similarities with yellow fever. Rather, it looked like the extremely dangerous Marburg virus, which, like Ebola, causes a hemorrhagic fever. In the 1960s, the virus killed several laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany.
Were you afraid at that point?
I knew almost nothing about the Marburg virus at the time. When I tell my students about it today, they think I must be from the Stone Age. But I actually had to go to the library and look it up in the Atlas of Biology. It was the American Center for Disease Control, which determined a short time later that it wasn't the Marburg virus, but a related unknown virus. Hundreds of people had already succumbed to the virus in Yambuku and the area around it.
You were also the one who gave the virus its name. Why Ebola?
On that day, our team sat together till late into the night. We had a couple of drinks discussing the question. We definitely didn't want to name the new pathogen Yambuku virus because that would have stigmatized the place forever. There was a map hanging on the wall and our American team leader suggested looking at the nearest river and giving the virus its name. It was the Ebola River. So, by around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, we had found a name, but the map was small and inaccurate. We only learned later that the nearest river was actually a different one. But Ebola is a nice name, isn't it?
That is the end of part three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now it turns to part four. Part four. You will hear a talk from a series of lectures on the survival of our planet. Professor Samson talks about endangered species of flora and fauna. First, you'll have half a minute to look at questions 31 to 40.
Now listen carefully to the talk and answer questions 31 to 40.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today's topic in this series of lectures on our planet is about ensuring the survival of our very important plant and animal species. In this lecture, I want to discuss one way that we can do this. No one will ever see a huge dinosaur thundering through the forest. No one will ever see a paradise parrot flash its rainbow colors across the sky. The fact is that many animals and plants have been wiped out. Sadly, they are extinct. It is too late for them. Extinction is forever. We can't do anything about the species that have already disappeared. But today, there are many animals and plants that could still become extinct in the future if we do not act now. They are endangered. The African elephant and rhinoceros have become endangered because of the value of their tusks. Australian parrots and reptiles are smuggled onto planes because certain people in other countries are prepared to pay thousands of dollars for them. And there are many other species around the world that are endangered because they no longer have a place in which to live and reproduce safely. The main cause of extinction is the destruction of habitats. A habitat contains all that a living thing needs to survive: space, light, water, food, shelter, and opportunities for reproduction. The population of the world is growing rapidly, and this is placing great demands on land and resources for housing and for growing food. When vegetation is cleared and swamps are drained for agriculture, mining, and suburbs, or when rivers are dammed to store water, plants are destroyed and animal life is threatened. In other words, humans are changing and destroying the habitats of animals and plants, which is in turn reducing their chances of survival. So, how can we conserve habitats and help save endangered species? Well, one way is to protect their habitats permanently in national parks or nature reserves. National parks have been created in many countries. They encourage people to enjoy the beauty and diversity of the animals and plants that live there without harming them. By supporting and visiting these parks, people can become more aware of the species that live there and how the parks work to protect them. It is very important that when visiting a national park, we keep them safe for future generations of plants and animals by obeying a few rules. Firstly, follow the fire regulations. Don't throw cigarettes or build fires except at certain times of the year in especially allocated areas and facilities. Secondly, remember to leave pets at home. Pets such as cats or dogs can hunt birds or other small animals. Some pets might even escape and become a serious threat. Thirdly, place all rubbish in a bin or take it home. Plastic bags or leftover food are dangerous to the animals and harm the environment. Don't pick the flowers or damage the plants. Flowers create the next generation of the plant. Also, for the same reason, birds' eggs must be left in their nests. The loss of species in the past is sad. However, there is hope for the future. Despite the demands of our increasing population, we can work to protect the plant and animal species we still have. So, I would like to conclude by saying that I believe that with strong public awareness and support of these national parks and reserves, the future of endangered species can be ensured.
That is the end of part four. You now have half a minute to check your answers.