1、Unit 1 Starting outListening inPassage 1Interviewer Can you tell me something about the Ivy League? Youre a professor at Harvard, is that right?Professor Thats right, yes.Interviewer Tell me how many universities are there? How many institutions?Professor In total there are eight institutions: There
2、s Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.Interviewer Ah, OK. And whats the sporting . I believe theres some link with sports.Professor There certainly is, yes. Originally the Ivy League referred to the sports teams from the universities whic
3、h competed against each other, especially in football, basketball and ice hockey. Now sometimes these universities, institutions, chose their students on the basis of their skills at these particular sports. But in the last 50 years, Ivy League schools have accepted a wider range of students because
4、 it wasnt possible to be both world-famous for research and also top class in sport.Interviewer And what about their academic importance? I gather theyre academically very, very important, theyre very well-known.Professor Absolutely at the top. Theyre near or at the top of the USA colleges and unive
5、rsity rankings. And theyre almost always in the top one per cent of the worlds academic institutions for financial resources.Interviewer And what does it mean socially to go to an Ivy League university?Professor Certainly if youve been to one of these institutions, you are presumed or assumed to be
6、at the top end of the scale. The Ivy League institutions have a reputation for social elitism, many of the students are rich, intellectual, white Anglo-Saxon, protestants. Not all of them of course, but quite a lot of them.Interviewer And do you know . whys it called the Ivy League, whats the origin
7、 of the name?Professor There are a number of stories, derivations, but possibly its based on four universities, and IV, the letters IV, thats the Roman numeral for four. Another more likely story is that ivy plants, which are symbolic of the age of the universities, you know, would be grown at the w
8、alls of these universities, these institutions, they cover the walls of the buildings. The term was created by a sports journalist, I think in the 1930s.Interviewer Right, OK. And which is the oldest university?Professor The oldest goes back to the 17th century, thats Harvard which was founded in 16
9、36. And the youngest of the institutions is Cornell which was founded in 1865.Interviewer And which has the largest number of undergraduates?Professor Cornell has the largest number, about 13,000, 13,500 undergraduates. The institution with the smallest number is Dartmouth College with a little over
10、 4,000.Interviewer And what about the acceptance rate? Is it hard to get into?Professor That ranges from about seven per cent to 20 per cent.Interviewer And any famous alumni? Famous old boys?Professor Hundreds! Hundreds of them. But I suppose worldwide, the two that would be definitely known all ov
11、er the world would certainly be George Bush who went to Yale, and John F Kennedy, President Kennedy, who was at Harvard.Interviewer Thank you.Passage2Andy Did you see the film on television last night?Jane No, I was out. What was it?Andy A Beautiful Mind. Its about John Forbes Nash, the mathematicia
12、n who won the Nobel Prize.Jane Ive heard about that film, yes. Hes played by Russell Crowe, isnt he? I like Russell Crowe, hes great.Andy Thats the one, yes.Jane Whats it about?Andy Well, the story begins in the early years of Nashs life at Princeton University as a graduate student.Jane Thats one o
13、f the Ivy League schools, isnt it?Andy Yes, its all set in New England, lovely old buildings, beautiful autumn colours. Its lovely to look at. Anyway, Nash meets his roommate Charles, a literature student, who soon becomes his best friend. Nash admits to Charles that he is better with numbers than p
14、eople, and the main thing hes looking for is a truly original idea for his thesis paper.Jane So hes not interested in having fun?Andy Well, yes, but hes not very good with people or successful with women, thats all. But, you know, its one of these bad experiences with people which ultimately inspire
15、s his brilliant work in mathematics.Jane No good at relationships, so he becomes a genius at maths?Andy Thats about right, yes. So when he finishes his studies at Princeton, he accepts a job at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Five years later, he meets Alicia, a student who he falls in love w
16、ith and eventually marries.Jane Ah! At last, the love interest!Andy Yes, but wait a moment. Nash believes that hes been asked to work by William Parcher for the US Department of Defense on breaking Soviet codes. At one point hes chased by the Russians, and its after this that he becomes mentally ill
17、.Jane I think Ive seen this in the trailer to the film.Andy So when hes put in a psychiatric hospital, he thinks the Soviets have captured him. Hes given this painful treatment which affects his relationship with his wife. And his intellectual skills. So he stops taking the medicine.Jane It sounds q
18、uite hard to watch.Andy Well, it is, but its well acted and directed, and so, you know, theres a-bit of distance between the audience and whats happening on film.Jane So what happens next?Andy Well, then his illness returns, so he and his wife decide to try and live with it. It all gets a bit compli
19、cated, because were no longer sure if Charles, you know, his old friend, or even Parcher were real, or if they were just people that existed only in Nashs mind.Jane That sounds awful. He must have been so ill,Andy Actually, Im kind of giving away the twist in the story. Anyway, later in his life, wh
20、ile hes using the library at Princeton again, he asks his rival Martin Hansen if he can start teaching again. And so the story ends when he goes on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.Jane Well, it sounds like a great film.Andy Yes, you should see it sometime.Unit 3 Learning to thinkListening inPass
21、age 1Interviewer With us today is Martin Downes, a carpenter, whos 51. A year ago, Martin had a stroke. But hes been lucky enough to make a full recovery from it. Can you tell us how it all began, Martin?Martin Im very happy to - not that I remember much at all. I was at a customers house, building
22、a cupboard, and the next thing I knew, I woke up in hospital with people in white coats bending over me.Interviewer It must have been very frightening.Martin It was. But what was really frightening was that I couldnt speak. I couldnt say a word. And I couldnt understand much that people said to me.I
23、nterviewer How awful!Martin Yeah! I dont know what would have happened to me if I hadnt had my family. But they were there for me, they really were. I had something called aphasia, where the part of your brain gets damaged that affects your speech and language. But they started treatment for the con
24、dition almost immediately. This speech and language therapist came to see me every day for 12 weeks. They made me do all these exercises.Interviewer What kind of exercises?Martin I had to match words and pictures and say their names. You see, Id also forgotten the names of a lot of things. She had t
25、his thing called a word board and I could point to words and phrases on it that I wanted to say. I had to repeat words up to 20 times - boy, it was hard, so hard.Interviewer Could you say anything to begin with?Martin I could say three words. Hi, Yes and No. That was all. And there were a lot of wor
26、ds I couldnt understand -1 had to learn their meanings all over again.Interviewer It must have been very frustrating.Martin It was, but I was determined to get better. I was in hospital for three and a half months. When I got home I got a special computer programme that I worked with every day. And
27、slowly my language came back to me. It was a struggle, a big struggle. I had to learn to read and write again too.Interviewer Why do you think that you were able to recover completely? Its not that common, is it?Martin I was lucky. I was given the right drug at the right time. And I had 12 weeks of
28、therapy, five days a week. Thats very important, apparently.Interviewer And now that youre better how do you feel about your life?Martin What can I say? Im just grateful to have my life back.Passage 2Interviewer In 1907 an Italian educator called Maria Montessori opened a school in Rome that taught
29、young children using methods that were very different from traditional teaching. Today, the Montessori method, as its known, is used in nursery schools in countries such as America, Canada, Britain and Germany. Recent research shows that children educated at a Montessori nursery do better later on a
30、t school than other children in all subjects. We asked two Montessori teachers, Claudia Rosella and Sarah Harrington, to explain what makes their nursery school different. Sarah.Sarah I think the first thing to say is that a Montessori classroom is very quiet, very clean. Everything stays in the sam
31、e place. So the children are calm and quiet as a result.Interviewer So theyre not encouraged to be noisy.Sarah No, definitely not.Interviewer Claudia?Claudia Yes, the classrooms very important. Another important principle is that children direct their own learning. They choose what they want to do.I
32、nterviewer So the teacher doesnt tell the child what to do?Sarah Not at all. While a child is doing an activity we observe them. Then we work with the child for a short time and then leave them to work on their own.Interviewer That sounds excellent. And what about your equipment? Its often made of w
33、ood, isnt it?Sarah Yes, and a piece of equipment is often designed for one activity only.Claudia Right. Its so that the child can see if theyre getting something right or wrong.Interviewer So they dont need the teacher so much?Sarah Thats right. Another Montessori principle is the importance of phys
34、ical activity. Children learn by doing, so when theyre learning to read, for example, the letters are made of sandpaper so that children can feel the shape of the letter.Interviewer Do you think there are disadvantages with Montessori methods?Claudia Yes, there are. Maria Montessori didnt understand
35、 how important it is for children to use their imagination. If she was alive today, she would recognize that. But still, the fact is, her methods are very successful.Unit 4 Person to personListening inPassage 1John Are you packed?Mike Yup. Everythings there.John Sure youve packed your mobile?Mike Il
36、l look again, John . yes.John Well, weve got another ten minutes before we need to leave, so we might as well relax. You know someone told me an amazing story yesterday about these Australians who got completely lost in some national park.Mike And dont tell me, they used their mobile to get help?Joh
37、n Thats right!Mike So what happened?John Well, it was this guy with his son and niece -I think she was about 14 - and they were hiking in this really rugged country and they got completely lost - no idea where they were at all.Mike Thats not going to happen to us.John No, it isnt. Anyway, the guy ha
38、d his mobile and he phoned the emergency services it wasnt dark yet - and they sent out a search party, but they couldnt find them. And then -this is the interesting bit - the guy sent photos of the place where they were.Mike Id have thought of that.John Yes, well its pretty obvious, really. And in
39、the photos there were mountains in the background, and the staff at the emergency service centre were able to identify exactly which mountains they were. And they used the photos to pinpoint their location, you know, to get the exact location.Mike How did they do that?John They used mapping software
40、.Mike Right.John Anyway, by then it had got dark and really freezing. So they slept behind this ridge and covered themselves with leaves. And you know what the young girl said afterwards? She said, It was quite fun.Mike Really, wasnt she frightened?John I dont think so.Mike So - is there a happy end
41、ing?John Yes, well they sent out helicopters as soon as it was daylight and the helicopter hovered over the area, and the man kept talking to them till they were able to pinpoint his location. And when they finally found them they were only 400 metres away from where theyd expected them to be.Mike A
42、mazing!John And thats because theyd moved 400 metres away from where theyd taken their photos because the ground was too rough to sleep on.Mike Incredible!John And the moral of the story is-Mike Always take your mobile phone with you when you go hiking.John And take one that has a camera.Mike Hey, I
43、 think we should go, John.John Yes, OK. You think were going to get lost?Mike No chance, mate!Passage2Social networking - its the 21st century way of having fun - online. And if youre under 40, you probably use a social networking site - maybe when you should be working. Its well-known that -. offic
44、e workers spend up to two hours a day on a site, exchanging messages and photos. And do students ever do anything else? Different social networking sites are used by different age groups.For people in their 20s, the most popular site is Facebook, the online phenomenon started by an American student
45、in 2004. Its taken only four years to make Facebook a huge success - and the websites made its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a very rich man indeed.Whats extraordinary about Zuckerburg is that he started Facebook when he was only 18. He was a student at Harvard, one of Americas top universities, when he
46、 launched the Facebook website, working from his college room. In only two weeks, more than two-thirds of his college had signed up and in a year, thousands of colleges were using it. Today, Facebook has millions of users. More than half of them visit the site at least once a day.So what makes Faceb
47、ook so special? Like other networking sites, you create a profile with photos, you list your interests, you exchange messages and join groups of friends. But where Facebook is different is that it gives you a privacy that you just dont get on other sites. Unlike other sites, you have a lot of contro
48、l over what users can see about you. As a result, one-third of Facebook users give out their mobile numbers - they know its safe to do so.But you still need to be careful about what you think is safe to show people. One reason is that more and more employers are using Facebook to check out potential employees. Is the person youve just interviewed as good as he seems? Facebook can provide the answer. If a 26-year-old man says on Facebook that hes been travelling round the world for the last three years, and in his
