huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
1
TPO 19 Listening Script
V3.1(Final)
This script is prepared by huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn.
Should you find any mistake in this script, please contact me here.
Check for the Latest Version.
Updated: 2010-11-30
目录
Conversation 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Lecture 1-Linguistics(Proto-Indo-European) ...................................................................................................... 5
Lecture 2-Astronomy(Radio Astronomy & Optical Astronomy) ......................................................................... 7
Conversation 2 ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Lecture 3-Marine Biology(Plant Life in Salt Marshes) ...................................................................................... 13
Lecture 4-Art History(Cecilia Beaux) ................................................................................................................ 15
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Conversation 1
Listen to a conversation between a student and the professor.
Student
Hi, professor Handerson. That was a really interesting lecture in class today.
Professor
Thanks, Tom. Yeah, animals’ use of deception, ways they play tricks on other animals, that’s a fascinating area.
One we are really just starting to understand.
Student
Yeah, you know, selective adaptations over time are one thing. Oh, like, non-poisonous butterflies, that have
come to look like poisonous ones. But the idea that animals of the same species intentionally deceive each other,
I have never heard that before.
Professor
Right, like, there are male frogs who lower their voices and end up sounding bigger than they really are.
Student
So they do that to keep other frogs from invading their territory ?
Professor
Right, bigger frogs have deeper voices, so if a smaller frog can imitate that deep voice. Well ...
Student
Yeah, I can see how that might do the trick. But, anyway, what I wanted to ask was, when you started talking
about game theory. Well, I know a little bit about it, but I am not clear about its use in biology.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Professor
Yeah, it is fairly new to biology. Basically, it uses math to predict what an individual would do under certain
circumstances. Um...For example, a buisness sells, oh, computer, say, and they want to sell their computers to a
big university. But there is another company bidding too. So, what should they do?
Student
Well, try to offer the lowest price so they can compete, but still make money.
Professor
Right, they are competing, like a game, like the frogs. There are risks with pricing too high, the other company
might get the sale, there is also the number and type of computers to consider. Each company has to find a
balance between the cost and benefits. Well, game theory creates mathematical models that analyze different
conditions like this to predict outcomes.
Student
Ok, I get that. But how does it apply to animals ?
Professor
Well, you know, if you are interested in this topic, it would be perfect for your term paper.
Student
The literature review ?
Professor
Yeah, find three journal articles about this or another topic that interests you and discuss them. If there is a
confict in the conclusions or something, that would be important to discuss.
Student
Well, from what I have looked at dealing with game theory, I can’t say I understand much of the statistics end.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Professor
Well, I can point you to some that present fairly basic studies, that don’t assume much background knowledge.
You’ll just need to answer a few specific questions: What was the researchers’ hypothesis? What did they want
to find out? And how did they conduct their research? An then the conclusions they came to. Learning to
interpret these statistics will come later.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Lecture 1-Linguistics(Proto-Indo-European)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a linguistics class.
Professor
All right, so far we have been looking at some of the core areas of linguistics, like syntax, phonology, semantics,
and these are things that we can study by looking at one language at a time, how sounds, and words, and
sentences work in a given language. But the branch of historical linguistics, involves the comparison of several
different languages, or the comparison of different stages of a single language.
Now, if you are comparing different languages, and you notice that they have a lot in common. Maybe they have
similar sounds and words that correspond to one another, that have the same meaning and that sound similar.
Let’s use a real-world example. In the 18th century, scholars who have studied the ancient languages, Sanskrit,
Latin and Greek, noticed that these three languages had many similarities. And there might be several reasons
why languages such as these had so much in common. Maybe it happened by chance, maybe one language was
heavily influenced by borrowed words from the other. Or maybe, maybe the languages developed from the same
source language long ago, that is, maybe they are genetically related, that was what happened with Sanskrit,
Latin and Greek. These languages had so many similarities that it was concluded that they must have all come
from the same source. And talk about important discoveries in linguistics, this was certainly one of them.
The scholars referred to that source language as Proto-Indo-European. Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed
language. Meaning, it is what linguists concluded a parent language of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek would have to
be like. And Proto-Indo-European branched out into other languages, which evolved into others, so in the end,
many languages spoken all over the world today can trace their ancestry back to one language,
Proto-Indo-European, which was spoken several thousand years ago.
Now, one way of representing the evolution of languages, showing the way languages are related to each other,
is with the family tree model. Like a family tree that you might use to trace back through generations of
ancestors, only it’s showing a family of geneticall related languages instead of people. A tree model for a
language family starts with one language, which we call a mother language, for example, Proto-Indo-European.
The mother language is the line on the top of this diagram, over time, it branches off into new daughter
languages, which branch into daughter languages of their own. And languages that have the same source, the
same mother, are called sisters, they share a lot of characteristics, and this went on until we are looking at a big
upside down tree languages like this. It is incomplete of course, just to give you an idea. So that’s the family tree
model, basically.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Now, the tree model is a convenient way of representing the development of a language family and of showing
how closely related two of more languages are. But it is obviously very simplified, having a whole language
represented by just one branch on a tree doesn’t really do justice to all the variation within that language. You
know, Spanish that’s spoken in Spain isn’t exactly the same as Spanish that is spoken in Mexico, for example.
Another issue is that languages evolve very gradually, but the tree model makes it look like they evolve over night,
like there was a distinct moment in time when a mother language clearly broke off into daughter languages. But
it seems to me it probably wasn’t quite like that.
Recommended Reading:
The Origin and Evolution of Sankrit
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
7
Lecture 2-Astronomy(Radio Astronomy & Optical Astronomy)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.
Professor
So how many of you have seen the ... the Milky Way, the Milky Galaxy in the sky? You, you have?
Student
Yeah, I was camping, and there was no moon that night, it was super dark.
Professor
Anybody else? Not too many. Isn’t that strange that the Milky Way is the galaxy that the planet earth is in, and
most of us have never seen it? Now, what’s the problem here?
Student
Light pollution, right? From street lights and stuff ...
Professor
Yes, especially unshielded street lights, you know, ones that aren’t pointed downward. Now, here’s an irony, the
buiding we are in now, the astronomy building not far from our observatory, has unshielded lights.
Student
So the problem is pretty widespread.
Professor
It is basically beyond control, as far as expecting to view the night sky anywhere near city, I mean. I have lived
around here my whole life. And I have never seen the Milky Way within city limits, and I probably never will.
There is a price for progress, eh?
But let’s think beyond light pullution, that’s only one kind of a technological advance that has interfered with
astronomical research. Can anyone think of another? No?
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Ok, let’s look at it this way, we don’t only gain information by looking at the stars, for the past 70 years or so, we
have also used radio astronomy1, which lets us study radio waves from the sky.
Student
How can you observe radio waves? I mean, tell anything about the stars from that.
Professor
Well, in optical astronomy, using a telescope and observing the stars that way, we rely on visible light waves.
What we are seeing from earth is actually electromagnetic radiation that’s coming from stars. And just one part
of it is visible light. But there are problems with that.
When photons2 and light waves hit objects in our atmosphere, water droplets, oxygen and nitrogen molecules,
dust particles and so on. These objects are illuminated, they are lit up, and those things are also being lit by all
our street lights, by the moon, all these ambient light. And on top of that, when that visible radiation bounces off
those molecules, it scatters in all directions. And well, light from stars, even nearby in our own galaxy, doesn’t
stand a chance against that. Basically the light bouncing off all these objects close to earth is brighter than what’s
coming from the stars.
Now, radio waves are electromagnetic radiation that we can’t see. Nearly all astronomical objects in space emit
radio waves, whether nearby stars, objects in far away galaxies, they all give off radio waves. And unlike visible
light waves, these radio waves can get through the various gases and dusts in space, and through our own earth’s
atmosphere comparatively easily.
Student
Ok, then we might as well give up on optical astronomy and go with radio astronomy.
Professor
Well, the thing is, with the radio astronomy, you can’t just set up a telescope in you backyard and observe stars.
One problem is that radio waves from these far away objects, even though they can get through, are extremely
faint. So we need to use radio telescopes, specially designed to receive these waves and then, well, we can use
computers to create pictures based on the information we receive.
Student
That sounds cool. So, how do they do that?
1
Radio astronomy is a branch of science in which radio telescopes are used to receive and analyse radio waves from space.
2
A photon is a particle of light.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
9
Professor
Well, it is kind of like the same way a satellite dish3 receives its signal, if you are familiar with that. But radio
telescopes are sometimes grouped together, it’s the same effect as having one really big telescope to increase
radio wave gathering power. And they use electronics, quite sophisticated. Yeah, it is neat how they do it, but for
now, why don’t we just stick with what we can learn from it.
Some very important discoveries have been made by this technology, especially if you consider that some objects
in space give off radio waves but don’t emit any light. We have trouble discovering those sorts of bodies, much
less studying them using just optical telescopes.
Student
Well, If the radio waves are so good at getting throught the universe, what’s the problem?
Professor
Well, answer this. How come people have to turn off their cell phones and all our electronic devices when an
airplane is about to take off?
Student
The phones interfere with the radio communication at the airport, right?
Student
Oh, so our radio waves here on earth interfere with the waves from space?
Professor
Yes, signal from radios, cell phones, TV stations, remote controls, you name it. All these things cause interference.
We don’t think about that as often as we think about light pollution. But all those electrical gadgets4 pollute the
skies, just in a different way.
3
A satellite dish is a piece of equipment which people need to have on their house in order to receive satellite television.
4
An often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
10
Conversation 2
Narrator
Listen to a conversation between a student and the director of the student cafeteria.
Student
Hi, I... I am sorry to interrupt, could I ask you a few questions?
Director
Sure, but if it is about you meal plan, you’ll need to go to Room 45, just down the hall.
Student
Um, no, I am OK with my meal plan. I am actually here about the food in the student cafeteria.
Director
Oh, we do feed a lot of students, so we can’t always honor individual requests. I am sure you understand.
Student
Of course. It is just that I am a little concerned, I mean, a lot of us are, that a lot of the food you serve isn’t really
that healthy. Like there are so many deep-fried foods.
Director
As a matter of fact, we recently changed the type of oil we use in our fryer. It is the healthiest available. And
would you believe that at least ten students have already complaint that their french fries and fried chicken don’t
taste as good since we switched?
Student
Oh, I try not to eat too many fried foods anyway. I am just aware that, um...You see, I used to work in a natural
food store. They had all these literature5 advising people to eat fresh organic growing food. Working there really
open my eyes.
5
Merriam Webster: printed matter (as leaflets or circulars);
Collins: Literature is written information produced by people who want to sell you something or give you advice.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Director
Did you come to the organic food festival we had to celebrate Earth Day?
Student
Oh, sorry, I must have missed that.
Director
We served only certified organic food, most of which was from local farms. It is not something we can afford to
do on a daily basis, and there aren’t too many organic farms around here. But sometimes the produce we offer is
organically grown. It depends on the season and the prices of course.
Student
That’s good to know. I like the fact that organic farms don’t use chemical pesticides or anything that can pollute
the soil or the water.
Director
I do too. But let me ask you this. Is it better for the environment to buy locally grown produce that is not certified
as organic or is it better to get organically grown fruits and vegetables that must be trucked in from California,
three thousand mile away. What about fossil fuels burned by the trucks’ engine. Plus the expense of shipping
food across long distances. And nutritionally speaking, an apple is an apple however it is grown.
Student
I see your point. It is not so clear-cut6.
Director
Why don’t you visit our cafeteria’s website? We list all our food suppliers. You know, where we buy the food that
we serve. And the site also suggests ways to make your overall diet a healthy one. You can also find some charts
listing fat and calorie content for different types of seafood, meats and the other major food groups.
6
Clear-cut=distinct, unambiguous
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
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Student
I didn’t realize you thought about all these things so carefully, I just noticed all the high-calorie food in the
cafeteria.
Director
Well, we have to give choices so everyone is satisfied. But if you wish to pursue this further, I suggest that you
talk to my boss.
Student
That’s OK, seems like you are doing what you can.
huangxiaohong@pku.edu.cn
13
Lecture 3-Marine Biology(Plant Life in Salt Marshes)
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a marine biology class.
Professor
Ok, today we are going to continue our discussion of plant life in coastal salt marshes7 of North America.
Salt marshes are among the least inviting environments for plants. The water is salty, there is little shade and the
ocean tide comes in and out, constantly flooding the marsh, so the variety of plants found in salt marshes is
limited, but there is a plant genus that thrives there, the Spartina.
In fact, the Spartina genus is the dominant plant found in salt marshes. You can find one type of the Spartina,
Saltmarsh Cordgrass, growing in low marsh areas. In higher marsh areas, you are likely to find a Spartina
commonly called Salt-meadow Hay. So how is the Spartina able to survive in an envrionment that would kill most
plants? well, it is because salt marsh grasses have found ways to adapt to the conditions there.
First of all, they are able to withstand highly saline conditions. One really interesting adaptation is the ability to
reverse the process of osmosis8. Typically, the process of osmosis works... Well, when water moves through the
wall of a plant cell, it will move from the side containing water with the lowest amount of salt into the side
containing the highest amount of salt. So imagine what would happen if a typical plant suddenly found itself in
salt water, the water contained in the plant cells, that’s water with very little salt, would be drawn out toward the
seawater, water with a lot of salt. So you can see the fresh water contained in the plant will be removed and the
plant will quickly lose all its water and dehydrate. But what about the Spartinas, well, they allow a certain
amount of salt to enter their cells, bringing the salt content of the water within the plant, to a slightly higher
concentration than that of the surrounding seawater. So instead of fresh water moving out of the plant cells, salt
from the seawater enters, reverse osmosis, and this actually strengthens the cells.
Another adaptation to the salty environment is the ability to excrete excess salt back to the environment. That’s
why you might see a Spartina shimmering in the sunlight. What’s reflecting the light is not salt from seawater
that has evaporated, although that’s a good guess. But it is actually the salt that came from within the plant.
Pretty cool, eh? You can really impress your friends and family with that little tidbit9 the next time you are in a
salt marsh.
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