Conversation 1
Narrator:
Listen to a conversation between a student and the librarian employee.
Student:
Hi, I am looking for this book---the American judicial system. And I can’t seem to find
it anywhere. I need to read a chapter for my political science class.
Librarian:
Let me check in the computer. Um… doesn’t seem to be checked out and it’s not on
reserve. You’ve checked the shelves I assume.
Student:
Yeah, I even checked other shelves and tables next to where the book should be.
Librarian:
Well, it’s still here in the library. So people must be using it. You know this seems to
be a very popular book tonight. We show six copies. None are checked out. And, yet
you didn’t even find one copy on the shelves. Is it a big class?
Student:
Maybe about Seventy Five?
Librarian:
Well, you should ask your professor to put some of the copies on reserve. You know
about the ‘Reserve system’, right?
Student:
I know that you have to read reserve books in the library and that you have time
limits. But I didn’t know that I could ask a professor to put a book on the reserve. I
mean I thought the professors make that kind of decisions at the beginning of the
semester.
Librarian:
Oh… they can put books on reserve at anytime during the semester.
Student:
You know reserving book seems a bit unfair. What if someone who is not in the class
wants to use the book?
Librarian:
That’s why I said some copies.
Student:
Ah, well, I’ll certainly talk to my professor about it tomorrow. But what I am gonna do
tonight?
Librarian:
I guess you could walk around the Poli-Sci ----- ‘Political Science’ section and look at
the books waiting to be re-shelved.
Student:
There are do seem to be more than normal.
Librarian:
We are a little short of staff right now. Someone quit recently, so things aren’t getting
re-shelved as quickly as usual. I don’t think they’ve hired replacement yet, so, yeah,
the un-shelved books can get a bit out of hand.
Student:
This may sound a bit weird. But I’ve been thinking about getting a job. Um… I’ve
never worked at the library before, But…..
Librarian:
That’s not a requirement. The job might still be open. At the beginning of the
semester we were swamped with applications, but I guess everyone who wants the
job has one by now.
Student:
What can you tell me about the job?
Librarian:
Well, we work between six and ten hours a week, so it’s a reasonable amount.
Usually we can pick the hours we want to work. But since you’d be starting so late in
the semester, I’m not sure how that would work for you. And… Oh… we get paid the
normal university rates for student employees.
Student:
So who do I talk to?
Librarian:
I guess you talk to Dr. Jenkins, the head librarian. She does the hiring.
TPO 14 Lecture 1 Psychology
Narrator:
Listen to part of a lecture in a psychology class
Professor:
We’ve said that the term “Cognition” refers to mental states like: knowing and
believing, and to mental processes that we use to arrive at those states. So for
example, reasoning is a cognitive process, so it’s perception. We use information that
we perceive through our senses to help us make decisions to arrive at beliefs and so
on. And then there are memory and imagination which relate to the knowledge of
things that happen in the past and may happen in the future. So perceiving,
remembering, imagining are all internal mental processes that lead to knowing or
believing. Yet, each of these processes has limitations, and can lead us to hold
mistaken believes or make false predictions. Take memory for example, maybe you
have heard of studies in which people hear a list of related words. Ah…, let`s say a list
of different kinds of fruit. After hearing this list, they are presented with several
additional words. In this case, we`ll say the additional words were “blanket” and
“cheery”. Neither of these words was on the original list, and, well, people will claim
correctly that “blanket” was not on the original list, they’ll also claim incorrectly that
the word “cheery” was on the list. Most people are convinced they heard the word
“cheery” on the original list. Why do they make such a simple mistake? Well, we
think because the words on the list were so closely related, the brain stored only the
gist of what they heard. For example, that all the items on the list were types of the
fruit. When we tap our memory, our brains often fill in details and quite often these
details are actually false. We also see this “fill-in” phenomenon with perception.
Perception is the faculty that allows us to process information in the present as we
take it via our senses. Again, studies have shown that people will fill in information
that they thought they perceived even when they didn`t. For example, experiments
have been done where a person hears a sentence, but it is missing the word, that
logically completes it. They’ll claim to hear that word even though it was never said.
So if I were to say…er…the sunrise is in the…and then fill to complete the sentence,
people will often claim to have heard the word “east”.
In cognitive psychology, we have a phrase for this kind of inaccurate “filling in of
details”--- it’s called: A Blind Spot. The term originally refers to the place in our eyes
where the optic nerve connects the back of the eye to the brain. There are no photo
receptors in the area where the nerve connects to the eye. So that particular area of
the eye is incapable of detecting images. It produces “A Blind Spot” in our field vision.
We are unaware of it, because the brain fills in what it thinks belongs in its image, so
the picture always appears complete to us. But the term “blind spot” has also taken
on a more general meaning--- it refers to people being unaware of a bias that may
affect their judgment about the subject. And the same “blind-spot phenomenon”
that affects memory and perception also affects imagination. Imagination is a faculty
that some people use to anticipate future events in their lives. But the ease with
which we imagine details can lead to unrealistic expectations and can bias our
decisions.
So…er…Peter, suppose I ask you to image a lunch salad, no problem, right? But I bet
you imagine specific ingredients. Did yours have tomatoes, Onion, Lettuce? mine did?
Our brains fill in all sorts of details that might not be part of other people’s image of a
salad, which could lead to disappointment for us. If the next time we order a salad in
a restaurant, we have our imagined salad in mind, that’s not necessarily what we’ll
get on our plate. The problem is not that we imagine things, but that we assume
what we’ve imagined is accurate. We should be aware that our imagination has this
built-in feature, the blind spot, which makes our predictions fall short of reality.
TPO 14 Lecture 2 Biology
Narrator:
Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.
Professor:
Almost all animals have some way of regulating their body temperature; otherwise
they wouldn’t survive extreme hot or cold conditions---sweating, panting, swimming
to cooler or warmer water; ducking into somewhere cool like a burrow or a hole
under a rock; these are just a few. And that’s body is colder or warmer than the
surrounding environment, because it’s a microclimate.
A microclimate is a group of climate conditions that affect the localized area, weather
features like temperature, wind, moisture and so on. And when I say localized, I
mean really localized, because microclimates can be, as the name suggests, pretty
small, even less than a square meter. And microclimates are affected by huge
number of other variables. Obviously weather conditions in the surrounding areas
are a factor. But other aspects of the location like, um… the elevation of the land, the
plant life nearby, and so on, have a substantial effect on microclimates. And of course
the human development in the area, eh, a road will affect a nearby microclimate. It’s
also interesting to know that microclimates thither or near each other can have very
different conditions. In the forest for example, there can be a number of very
different microclimates close to each other, because of all the variables I just
mentioned.
Student:
So how does a hole in the ground, a burrow, stay cool in a hot climate?
Professor:
Well, since cold air sinks, and these spots are shaded, they are usually much cooler
than the surrounding area. And these spots are so important because many animals
rely on microclimates to regulate their body temperature. Hmm, for instance, there is
a species of squirrel, in the Western part of the United States that can get really hot
when they were out foraging for food. So they need a way to cool down. So what’d
they do? They go back to their own burrow. Once they get there, their body
temperatures decrease very, very quickly. The trip to the burrow prevents the
squirrel from getting too hot.
Student:
But squirrels are mammals, right? I thought mammals regulate their temperature
internally.
Professor:
Mammals do have the ability to regulate their body temperature, but not all can do it
to the same degree, or even the same way. Like when you walk outside on a hot day,
you perspire, and your body cools itself down, a classic example of how mammal
regulates its own body temperature. But one challenge that squirrels face, well many
small mammals do, is that because of their size, sweating would make them lose too
much moisture. They dehydrate. But on the other hand, their small size allows them
to fit into very tiny spaces. So for small mammals, microclimates can make a big
difference. They rely on microclimates for survival.
Student:
So cold blood animals, like reptiles, they can’t control their own body temperature,
so I can image the effect of microclimate would have on them.
Professor:
Yes, many reptile insects rely on microclimates to control their body temperature. A
lot of reptiles use burrows or stay under rocks to cool down. Of course with reptiles,
it’s a balancing act. Staying in the heat for too long can lead to problems, but staying
in the cold can do the same. So reptiles have to be really precise about where they
spend their time, even how they position their bodies. And when I say they’re
precise, I mean it--- some snakes will search out a place under rocks of a specific
thickness, because too thin a rock doesn’t keep them cool enough, and too thick a
rock will cause them to get too cold. That level of precision is critical to the snake for
maintaining its body temperature. And even microscopic organisms rely on
microclimates for survival.
Think about this, decomposing leaves create heat that warms the soil; the warm soil
in turn affects the growth, the conditions of organisms there. And those organisms
then affect the rate of decomposition of the leaves. So a microclimate can be
something so small and so easily to disturbed that even a tiny change can have a big
impact. If someone on a hike knocks a couple of rocks over, they could be unwittingly
destroying a microclimate that an animal or organism relies on.
TPO 14 Conversation 2
Narrator:
Listen to a conversation between a student and his faculty adviser
Advisor:
Hi ，Steven I schedule this appointment, cause it has been a while since we touch
this.
Student:
I know I have been really busy--- a friend of my works on a school a paper. He asks
me if I would like to try to reporting so I did and I really love it.
Advisor:
Hey…that's sounds great!
Student:
Yeah… the first article I wrote it was profile of the chemistry professor---the one
whose name teacher the year. My article ran on the front page. When I saw my
name, I mean my byline in print, I was hooked. Now I know this is what I want to
do--- be a reporter.
Advisor:
Isn't it great to discover something that you really enjoy? And I read that the article
too? It was very good.
Student:
To be honest, the articles got a lot of editing. In fact I barely recognized a couple of
paragraphs. But the editor explained why the changes were made. I learned a lot and
my second article didn't meet nearly many changes.
Advisor:
Sound like you got a real neck for this.
Student:
Yeah… anyway, I am glad you schedule this meeting because I want to change my
major to journalism now.
Advisor:
Um，the university doesn't offer major in journalism.
Student:
Oh no…
Advisor:
But….
Student:
I… I mean… should I transfer to another school, or major in English?
Advisor:
Er… wait a minute. Let me explain why the major isn’t offered. Editors at the
newspaper… editors… um… I mean when you apply for a reporting job, editors look
at the two things--- they want to see clips, you know, some of your published articles,
though also want to try out, though give you an assignment like… covering a price of
conferences some other event, then see if you can craft the story about it, accurately,
on dead line.
Student:
So they don't even to look at my major?
Advisor:
It is not that they don't look at it… it is… well, having a degree in something other
than journalism should actually work to your advantage.
Student:
How?
Advisor:
Most journalism specialized these days. They only write about science or business or
technology for example. Is there a type of reporting you think you may like to
specialize then?
Student:
Well… I think it can be really cool to cover the Supreme Court. I mean… their decision
affects so many people.
Advisor:
That is really a goal worth striving for. So, why not continue major in political science?
And as elective, you could take some Pre-Law classes like Constitution Law, and as
for you work on the student newspaper paper, maybe they let you cover some local
court cases--- once that the student and professor here would want to read about.
Student:
Do you know of any?
Advisor:
I do. Actually, there is case involving this computer software program that one of our
professors wrote. The district courts decide in if the university entitle to any of our
professors' profits?
Student:
Wah…. I will definitely follow upon that!
TPO 14 Lecture 3 Astronomy
Narrator:
Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.
Professor:
OK, last time we talked about ancient agricultural civilizations that observed the stars
and then used those observations to keep track of the seasons. But today I want to
talk about the importance of stars for early seafarers, about how the fixed patterns
of stars were used as navigational aids.
OK, you’ve all heard about the Vikings and their impressive navigation skills, but the
seafaring people of the pacific islands, the Polynesians and the Micronesians, were
quite possibly the world’s greatest navigators. Long before the development of, uh,
advanced navigational tools in Europe, pacific islanders were travelling from New
Zealand to Hawaii and back again, using nothing but the stars as their navigational
instruments.
Um, the key to the pacific islanders’ success was probably their location near the
equator. What that meant was that the sky could be partitioned, divided up, much
more symmetrically than it could farther away from the equator. Unlike the Vikings,
early observers of the stars in Polynesia or really anywhere along the equator would
feel that they were at the very center of things, with the skies to the north and the
skies to the south behaving identically, they could see stars going straight up in the
east and straight down in the west. So it was easier to discern the order in the sky
than farther north or farther south, where everything would seem more chaotic.
Take the case of the Gilbert Islands, they are part of Polynesia, and lie very close to
the equator. And the people there were able to divide the sky into symmetrical boxes,
according to the main directions, north, east, south and west. And they could
precisely describe the location of a star by indicating its position in one of those
imaginary boxes. And they realized that you had to know the stars in order to
navigate. In fact there was only one word for both in the Gilbert Islands, when you
wanted to the star expert, you ask for a navigator.
Um, islanders from all over the pacific learned to use the stars for navigation, and
they passed this knowledge down from generation to generation. Some of them
utilized stone structures called stone canoes, ah, and these canoes were on land, of
course, and you can still see them on some islands today. They were positioned as if
they were heading in the direction of the points on the sea horizon where certain
stars would appear and disappear during the night, and, um, young would-be
navigators set by the stones at night and turned in different directions to memorize
the constellations they saw, so they could recognize them and navigate… by them
later on when they went out to sea.
One important way the Polynesians had for orienting themselves was by using zenith
stars. A zenith star was a really bright star that would pass directly overhead at
particular latitude…at a particular distance from the equator, often at a latitude
associate with some particular pacific island. So the Polynesians could estimate their
latitude just by looking straight up, by observing whether a certain zenith star passed
directly overhead at night, they’d know if they have rates the same latitude as a
particular island they were trying to get to. Um, another technique used by the
Polynesians was to look for a star pair, that’s two stars that rise at the same time, or
set at the same time, and navigators could use these pairs of stars as reference points,
because they rise or set together only at specific latitudes. So navigators might see
one star pair setting together. And, uh…would know how far north or south of the
equator they were. And if they kept on going, and the next night they saw the pairs
of stars setting separately, then they would know that they were at a different degree
of latitude. So looking at rising and setting star pairs is a good technique. Um…
actually it makes more sense with setting stars; they can be watched instead of trying
to guess when they’ll rise.
Uh, OK, I think all this shows that navigating doesn’t really require fancy navigational
instruments; the peoples of the pacific islands had such expert knowledge of
astronomy as well as navigation that they were able to navigate over vast stretches of
Open Ocean. Uh, it's even possible that Polynesian navigators had already sailed to
the Americas, centuries before Columbus.
TPO 14 Lecture 4 Archeology
Narrator:
Listen to part of the lecture in the archaeology class
Professor:
When we think of large monumental structures built by early societies and Egyptian
pyramid probably comes to mind. But there are some even earlier structures in the
British Isles also worth discussing, and besides the well-known circle of massive
stones of Stonehenge which don’t get me wrong is remarkable enough, well, other
impressive Neolithic structures are found there too. Oh, yes, we are talking about the
Neolithic period here, also called new Stone Age, which was the time before stone
tools began to be replaced by tools made by bronze and other metals.
It was about 5000 years ago, even before the first Egyptian pyramid that some of
amazing Neolithic monuments---tombs, were racketed at the very size around ironed
Great Britain and costal islands nearby.
I am referring particular to structures that in some cases, look like ordinary natural
hills. But we definitely build by humans, well-organized communities of human’s to
enclose a chamber or room within stone walls and sometimes with a high, cleverly
designed sealing of overlapping stones. These structures are called Passage Graves,
because in the chamber, sometime several chambers in fact, could only be entered
from the outside through a narrow passage way.
Michael:
Excuse me, professor, but you said Passage Graves. Was this just monument to honor
the dead buried there or were they designed to be used somehow by the living?
Professor:
Ah, yes! Good question, Michael. Besides being built as tombs, some of these
Passage Graves were definitely what we might call Astronomical Calendars, with
chambers they flooded with some light on the certain special days of the year, witch
must see miraculous and inspired good dealer of they really just wonder. But
research indicates that not just light but also the physics of sound help to enhance
this religious experience.
Michael:
How so?
Professor:
Well, first the echoes. When religious leaders started chanting with echoes bounced
off the stonewalls over and over again, it must seem like a whole chorus of other
voices, spirits of God maybe join in. But even more intriguing is what physicists called
Standing Waves. Basically, the phenomenon of Standing Waves occurs when sound
waves of the same frequency reflect off the walls and meet from opposite directions.
So, the volume seems to alternate between very loud and very soft. You can stand
quite near a man singing in loud voice and hardly hear him. Yet step little further
away and voice is almost defining. As you move around chamber, the volume of the
sound goes way up and way down, depending on where you are and these standing
waves. And often the acoustic makes it hard to identify where sounds are coming
from. It is powerful voices that are speaking to you or chanting from inside your own
head. This had to engender powerful sense of all Neolithic worshipers.
And another bit of physics I played here is something called Resonance. I know
physics, but well I imagine you have all below near of top empty bottles and heard
sounds it makes. And you probably notice that depending on its size--- each empty
bottle plays one particular music note. Or it is the physics might put it, each bottle
resonates at a particular frequency. Well, that’s true of these chambers too. If you
make a constant noise inside the chamber, maybe by steadily beating drum at certain
rate, a particular frequency of sound will resonate. We will ring out intensely,
depending on the size of chamber. In some of large chambers though, these
intensified sound may be too deep for us to hear, we can feel it. We are mysteriously
agitated by a….but it is not a sound our ears can hear. The psychological effects of all
these extraordinary sounds can be profound, especially when they seem so
disconnected from human doing drumming or chanting. And there can be observable
physical effects on people too. In fact, the sounds can cause headaches, feelings of
dizziness, increase heartache, that sort of thing, you see.
Anyway, what is we experience inside one of these Passage Graves clearly could be
far more intense than everyday reality outside which made them very special places.
But back to your question, Michael, as to whether these Graves were designed to be
used by the living. Well, certainly, we have got to ask economical or calendar
function. That seems pretty obvious, and I wanna go into more detail on that now.