Listening Part 2 You will hear 5 conversations. Listen to the conversations and answer the questions. Choose the correct answer. You will hear each conversation twice. Conversation 1 You hear a student talking to a university accommodation officer. Hi, are you the accommodation officer? One of them, yes. How can I help? I'm finding it really difficult to live with the other students in my apartment. My course is really full on, like I've got so much work to do and I don't know whether they've got less to do or what, but I just can't concentrate on my work. They're quite noisy. I've asked them to keep the noise down at least during the day, but it doesn't seem to make any difference and I'm struggling. I don't really want to get mad or fall out with them, but my grades are starting to suffer and I can't afford that. I see. Have you pointed out the quiet times policy to them? I don't want to sound like I'm ordering them about. And anyway, those times are mainly at night and it's not so much of a problem then because I'm having my own downtime. I've tried going to the library, but it's hard to find an empty desk sometimes. Is there a chance of a room somewhere else? Or maybe someone would be willing to swap. I guess you could talk to the others on my behalf. It'd be so embarrassing though. I understand. Conversation one. Hi, are you the accommodation officer? One of them, yes. How can I help? I'm finding it really difficult to live with the other students in my apartment. My course is really full on, like I've got so much work to do and I don't know whether they've got less to do or what, but I just can't concentrate on my work. They're quite noisy. I've asked them to keep the noise down at least during the day, but it doesn't seem to make any difference and I'm struggling. I don't really want to get mad or fall out with them, but my grades are starting to suffer and I can't afford that. I see. Have you pointed out the quiet times policy to them? I don't want to sound like I'm ordering them about. And anyway, those times are mainly at night, and it's not so much of a problem then, because I'm having my own downtime. I've tried going to the library, but it's hard to find an empty desk sometimes. Is there a chance of a room somewhere else? Or maybe someone would be willing to swap? I guess you could talk to the others on my behalf. It'd be so embarrassing though. I understand. Conversation 2. You hear two students talking about a presentation they've just given. How do you think that went? I was surprised by how many people from the department attended. Perhaps we should have given more thought to what they'd want to know more about at the end. I found myself struggling to deal with what they came up with. I had expected some of it and we didn't do too badly. We ought to have adjusted the screens in advance though. It meant people towards the back couldn't see properly. That's frustrating. We really should have thought about that. No doubt it'll affect our grade. But good thinking on adding in that extra slide with the graphs on. I'd totally overlooked that. It was very last minute, but we needed it. Anyway, we've got to find a time that suits both of us for writing up our report. Sure. Did we finalise who's doing what? I know we went backwards and forwards last time we discussed it. I sent a list by e-mail, if you remember. We hadn't completely made our minds up, though. OK, so we should finalise that. Are we still aiming for the 31st for the rough version? Fine by me. And we're making it fairly informal, right? Semi-formal is what we agreed, actually. Conversation 2 How do you think that went? I was surprised by how many people from the department attended. Perhaps we should have given more thought to what they'd want to know more about at the end. I found myself struggling to deal with what they came up with. I had expected some of it and we didn't do too badly. We ought to have adjusted the screens in advance though. It meant people towards the back couldn't see properly. That's frustrating. We really should have thought about that. No doubt it'll affect our grade. But good thinking on adding in that extra slide with the graphs on. I'd totally overlooked that. It was very last minute, but we needed it. Anyway, we've got to find a time that suits both of us for writing up our report. Sure. Did we finalise who's doing what? I know we went backwards and forwards last time we discussed it. I sent a list by e-mail, if you remember. We hadn't completely made our minds up, though. OK, so we should finalise that. Are we still aiming for the 31st for the rough version? Fine by me. And we're making it fairly informal, right? Semi-formal is what we agreed, actually. Conversation 3 You hear a student talking to his course tutor about his latest essay. Hi, you wanted to talk to me? Yes, about your essay. I can see that you made efforts to answer the question that was asked, and that wasn't unsuccessful on the whole. However, I noticed that you'd relied heavily on one particular source. rather than following up on the reading list as I suggested. Were you unsure about what was expected of you? I know all of this is still fairly new, but we do need to get it sorted out now because it will affect your grades. Oh, right, OK. Well, I found this article that just said everything I wanted to include. I did look at other stuff. But it either seemed to say more or less the same thing as the historian whose article I read, or even stuff I really didn't agree with. I mean, I put it all into my own words, like we were told to, and when I did include direct quotes, I put the acknowledgments in brackets and everything. Right. Well, it's important to consider different angles to a topic and find ways to support your own arguments. Can I send you a referencing guide that might help explain things in a different way? Hi, you wanted to talk to me? Yes, about your essay. I can see that you made efforts to answer the question that was asked, and that wasn't unsuccessful on the whole. However, I noticed that you'd relied heavily on one particular source rather than following up on the reading list, as I suggested. Were you unsure about what was expected of you? I know all of this is still fairly new, but we do need to get it sorted out now, because it will affect your grades. Oh, right, OK. Well, I found this article that just said everything I wanted to include. I did look at other stuff, but it either seemed to say more or less the same thing as the historian whose article I read, or even stuff I really didn't agree with. I mean, I put it all into my own words, like we were told to, and when I did include direct quotes, I put the acknowledgments in brackets and everything. Right. Well, it's important to consider different angles to a topic and find ways to support your own arguments. Can I send you a referencing guide that might help explain things in a different way? Yes, please. Conversation 4 You hear two students talking about an essay they're doing. How are you getting on with your essay about language? Okay, I'm still doing the background reading and trying to fully get my head around the various theories that linguists have put forward historically. I know we've been over it in the seminar, but I'm trying to keep up with so many conflicting theories. Anyway, I've just been looking at Skinner's behaviorist theory, you know, that kids mimic speech and learn language when they get positive reinforcement from parents? The one that was criticized by other linguists. Yeah, it couldn't account for the fast pace of language acquisition or the fact kids construct sentences they've never heard anyone say. And then there was Chomsky's idea of the language acquisition device that everyone has. Which was... remind me? Kids have a biological ability that enables them to acquire language rules and structures effortlessly. Right. But that ignored the impact of social interaction, didn't it? Yeah. It's incredible to think that those theories are decades old, and linguists are still arguing about the developmental processes that lead to language acquisition. It's still unsettled. That's weird. Yeah, and there's so much to get to grips with. Like most unresolved arguments, it swings one way, then the other, and back again, trying to get to the truth. Conversation 4. How are you getting on with your essay about language? Okay, I'm still doing the background reading and trying to fully get my head around the various theories that linguists have put forward historically. I know we've been over it in the seminar, but I'm trying to keep up with so many conflicting theories. Anyway, I've just been looking at Skinner's behaviorist theory, you know, that kids mimic speech and learn language when they get positive reinforcement from parents? The one that was criticized by other linguists. Yeah, it couldn't account for the fast pace of language acquisition or the fact kids construct sentences they've never heard anyone say. And then there was Chomsky's idea of the language acquisition device that everyone has. Which was... remind me? Kids have a biological ability that enables them to acquire language rules and structures effortlessly. Right. But that ignored the impact of social interaction, didn't it? Yeah. It's incredible to think that those theories are decades old. And linguists are still arguing about the developmental processes that lead to language acquisition. It's still unsettled. That's weird. Yeah, and there's so much to get to grips with. Like most unresolved arguments, it swings one way, then the other, and back again, trying to get to the truth. Conversation 5. You hear two students talking about free time activities. Did you try out for the university football team in the end? Not yet. I've got a dilemma. I want to participate in activities outside my studies. I'm already a fully-fledged member of the Amateur Dramatic Society. Plus, I work out each morning ahead of lectures. I thought I might be spreading myself too thinly at first, though I reckon I can squeeze practice in if I'm organized on the work front. It's going to get trickier as time goes on, balancing our study and social lives. As long as you meet expectations study-wise, where's the harm in doing whatever makes you happy? If we don't do that now, when will we ever? I know some people are overly cautious about what they take on. If you're worried, Why don't you take a step back and consider where your priorities lie? I mean, I do want to join the football team and I can see it would boost my fitness and stuff. The thing that's holding me back is that I'm not entirely confident of my abilities. I was successful in my college team. University level, though. How does that compare, I wonder? Well, there's only one way to find out. Did you try out for the university football team in the end? Not yet. I've got a dilemma. I want to participate in activities outside my studies. I'm already a fully-fledged member of the Amateur Dramatic Society. Plus, I work out each morning ahead of lectures. I thought I might be spreading myself too thinly at first. though I reckon I can squeeze practice in if I'm organized on the work front. It's going to get trickier as time goes on, balancing our study and social lives. As long as you meet expectations study-wise, where's the harm in doing whatever makes you happy? If we don't do that now, when will we ever? I know some people are overly cautious about what they take on. If you're worried, Why don't you take a step back and consider where your priorities lie? I mean, I do want to join the football team and I can see it would boost my fitness and stuff. The thing that's holding me back is that I'm not entirely confident of my abilities. I was successful in my college team. University level, though. How does that compare, I wonder? Well, there's only one way to find out.