test1_section1
M: Good morning!
W: Good morning! How can I help you?
M: I understand that the school organizes … umm, trips to different…
W: Yes. We run five every month, three during weekends and two Wednesday afternoon trips. M: What sort of places?
W: Well. Obviously, it varies, but always places of historical interest and also which offers a variety of shopping, because our students always ask about that. And then we go for ones where we know there are guided tours because this gives a good focus for the visit. M: Do you travel far?
W: Well, we are lucky here obviously because we are able to say that all our visits are less than three hours drive.
M: How much do they cost?
W: Again it varies, between 5 and 15 pounds a head, depending on distance. M: Ah ha
W: Oh and we do offer to arrange special trips if, you know, there are more than 12 people. M: Oh right. I’ll keep that in mind. And what are the times normally?
W: We try to keep it pretty fixed so that the students get to know the pattern. We leave at 8.30 a.m. and return at 6 p.m. We figure it’s best to keep the day fairly short. M: Oh yes and then how do we reserve a place?
W: You sign your name on the notice board. Do you know where it is? M: Ah ha. I saw it this morning.
W: And we do ask that you sign up three days in advance so we know we’ve got enough people interested to run it and we can cancel if necessary with full refund of course. M: That’s fine. Thanks.
M: And what visit sub plan for this term?
W: Right. Well. I’m afraid the schedule hasn’t been printed out yet. But we have confirmed the dates and planed the optional extra visits, which you can also book in advance if you want to.
M: Oh that’s all right. And if you can just give some ideas of the weekend ones so I can, you know, work out then to see friends and such I…
W: Oh sure. Well, err the first one is St. Ives. That’s on the 13th of February and we will have only 16 places available because we’re going by mini bus. And that’s the day in town with the optional extra of visiting the Hepworth Museum.
M: All right. Yes ah. That sounds good.
W: And then there’s a London trip on the 16th of February. And we will be taking a medium size coach so there will be 45 places on that. And let’s see the optional extra is the Tower of London. M: Oh, I’ve already been there.
W: Yam. After that is Bristol on the 3rd of March. M: Where?
W: Bristol. B-R-I-S-T-O-L. M: Okay.
W: That’s in a different mini bus with 18 places available. Oh and the optional extra is visit to the S.S. Great Britain.
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M: Okay.
W: We’re going to Salisbury on the 18th of March. And that’s always the popular one because the optional extra is Stonehenge. So we’re taking the large coach with 50 seats. M: Oh good.
W: And then the last one is to Bath on the 23rd of March. M: Oh yes, is Bath the Roman city?
W: Yes, that’s right. And that’s in the 16 seats mini bus. M: And where’s the optional visit?
W: It’s to the American Museum, well worth visit. M: Okay, that’s great. And thanks all that.
W: My pleasure. Oh by the way, if you want more information about any of the trips, have a look in the student newspaper. M: Ok.
W: Or have a word with my assistant. Her name is Jane Yentob. That’s Y-E-N-T-O-B. M: All right. I’ve got that. Thank you very much for all your help. W: You’re welcome. I hope you’ll enjoy the trips.
test1_section2
Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Riverside Industrial Village. To start your visit, I'm just going to give you a brief account of the history of the museum before letting you roam about on your own. I won't keep you long. OK?
Now from where we're standing you've got a good view of the river over there. And it was because of this fast flowing water that this site was a natural place for manufacturing works. The water and the availability of raw materials in the area, like minerals and iron ore, and also the abundance of local fuels, like coal and firewood, all made this site suitable for industry from a very early time.
Water was the main source of power for the early industries and some of the water wells were first established in the twelfth century, would you believe? At that time, local craftsmen first built an iron forge just behind the village here on the bank near the river. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the region's rivers supported more than 160 water mills and many of these continued to operate well into the nineteenth century. But then the steam engine was invented and then the railways came and the centres of industry were able to move away from the rivers and the countryside and into the towns. So industrial villages like this one became very rare.
So that's the history for you. If you'd like any more information, you can ask me some questions, or you can read further in our excellent guidebook.
Now I’m going to give you a plan of the site and I’d just like to point out where everything is and then you can take a look at everything for yourself. I’ve already pointed out the river, which is on the left. And of course running along the bottom is Woodside Road. Got it? Ok, now, we are standing at the entrance. See at the bottom, and immediately to our right is the ticket office. You won’t need that because you’ve got your group booking, but just pass it are the toilets, always could to know where they are. In front of us is the car park as you can see. And to the left by the entry gate is the gift shop
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that is where you can get copies of the guide like this one here. Now beyond the car park, all the buildings are arranged in a half circle with a yard in the middle. The big stone building at the top is the main workshop. That’s where the firm is and where all the metal was melted and tools were cut as you will be able to see. Now in the top right hand corner, that building with bigger windows is the show room where samples of all the tools that were made through the ages were on display. In the top left corner is the grinding shop where the tools were sharpened and finished. And on one side of that you can see the engine room and on the other is the café, which isn’t too antique you would be pleased to know though they do serve very nice old fashion teas. The lower buildings you can see on the left are the cottages. These were built for the works towards the end of the eighteenth century and they are still furnished from that period so you can get a good idea of ordinary people living conditions. Across the yard from them, you can see the Stables where the horses were kept for transporting the products. And the separate building in front of them is the Works Office and that still has some of the old accounts on display. Right. If any one wants a guided tour, then I am starting at the engine room. If you’d like to, come along this way please, ladies and gentlemen.
test1_section3
W: Excuse me, Dr. Johnson. May I speak to you for a minute? M: Sure. Come in.
W: I’m Melanie Griffin. I’m taking your course in population studies. M: Right, so, well, Melanie, how can I help you?
W: I’m having a bit trouble with the second assignment and it’s due in 12 days.
M: What’s the sort of trouble are you having? Is the assignment question a problem?
W: Well, that’s part of the problem. I’m also having… been having trouble getting hold of the books. I’ve been to the library several times and all the books were out. M: It sounds like you should start borrowing the books a bit earlier.
W: Well I have really a big assignment due for another course and I have been spending all my time on that and I thought…
M: And you might get an extension of time to finish your assignment for me? W: If that’s possible. But I don’t know…
M: Well. Yes it’s possible. But extensions are normally given only for medical or compassionate reasons. Otherwise, that’s really a question of organizing your study and we don’t like giving an extension to a student who simply didn’t plan the work properly. What did you get for your first assignment?
W: I got 87 percent.
M: Umm. Yes, you did very well indeed. So obviously you can produce good work.
W: I don’t think I need too much extra time, as long as I can get hold of some important references. M: Well, since you did so well in your first assignment, I’m prepared to give you an extra two weeks for this one. So, that will mean you need to submit it about a month from now. W: Oh thank you.
M: Now what about the reading materials? So you check out the journal articles in the list?
W: Oh, no, not yet. There were about twenty of them I wasn’t sure which ones should be most useful or all important.
M: Well they’re all useful, but I don’t expect anyone to read them all because a number of them deal with the same issues. And let me give you some suggestions. The article by Anderson and Hawker is
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really worth reading.
W: Right. I’ll read that one.
M: You should also read the article by Jackson but just look at the part at the research methodology how they did it.
W: Ok, Jackson, I got that.
M: And if you have time the one by Roberts says very a lot of things although it’s not essential. W: Ok. If it’s useful I’ll try with that one.
M: Now the one by Morris. I wouldn’t borrow with that at this stage if I were you.
W: Ok, I won’t borrow with Morris. Oh now, someone told me that the article by Cooper is important. M: Oh yes, but just look at the last part where it discusses the research result.
W: And last there’s Forster. I can’t think why I included that one. That’s not bad and could be some help but not that much.
M: Now let’s deal with the assignment question. What’s the problem there? W: It’s graph from page 2.
M: It seems to be the problem is just about the bar graph showing reasons why peoples change where they live.
W: Well I’ve got a photocopy but the reasons at the bottom are missing.
M: Ok. Look at the first bar on the graph. Now that indicates the number of people who move because they want more space.
W: Oh, I see. Bar one. Ok, now what’s about the next bar?
M: Bar two is to do with the people who live nearby disturbing them so they chose to move away to somewhere quieter. Now let’s look at bar No.3. Another reason people change their places of living is because they want to be closer to the city. W: Ok. Proximity to the city is the issue.
M: Now bar No.4 refers to problems when the owner of the property won’t help fix things go wrong. In other words, the owner is not helpful and so the tenants move out. W: Ok, now what about Bar 5.
M: Bar 5 is about those people who move because they need a bus or train to get among the city or to go to work.
W: Ok, and Bar 6?
M: Bar No.6 is mid-resting. That reason was given quite a lot. People move in because they wanted to be in a more attractive neighbourhood. W: Oh yes. Thank you very much.
test1_section4
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I've been asked today to talk to you about the urban landscape. There're two major areas that I'll focus on in my talk: how vegetation can have a significant effect on urban climate and how we can better plan our cities using trees to provide a more comfortable environment for us to living.
Trees can have a significant impact on our cities. They can make our cities, as a whole, a bit less windy or a bit more windy as that what you want. They can make it a bit cooler if it's a hot summer day in an Australian city or they can make it a bit more humid if it's a dry inland city. On the local scale, that is a particular area within the city, trees can make the local area more shady, cooler, more
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humid and much less windy. In fact, trees and plantings of various of kinds can be used to make city streets actually less dangerous in particular areas.
How do trees do that, you'll ask? Well, the main difference between a tree and a building is a tree has got an internal mechanism to keep the temperature regulated. It evaporates water through its leaves. And that means the temperature of the leaves is never very far from our own body temperature. The temperature of a building surface on a hot sunny day can easily be 20 degrees more than our temperature. Trees, on the other hand, remain cooler than buildings because they sweat. This means they can humidify the air and cool it, a property which can be exploited to improve the local climate.
Trees can also help break the force of the winds. The reason that high buildings may keep windier at ground level is that as the wind goes higher and higher, it goes faster and faster. When the wind hits the building, it has to go somewhere. Some of it goes over the top and some goes around the sides of the building, forcing those high level winds down to ground level. That doesn't happen when you have trees. Trees filter the wind and considerably reduce it preventing those very large strong gusts that you so often find around tall buildings.
Another problem in built-up areas is the traffic noise is intensified by tall buildings. By planting a belt of trees at the side of the road, you can make things a little quieter but much of the vehicle noise still goes through the trees. Trees can also help reduce the amount of noise in the surroundings, although the effect is not as large as people would like to think. Low frequency noise, in particular, just goes through the trees as that they aren't there.
Although trees can significantly improve the local climate, they do, however, take up a lot of space. There're route system to consider and branches blocking the windows and so on. It may therefore be difficult to fit trees into the local landscape. There's not a great deal you can do if you have what we call a street canyon, a whole set of high-rises enclosed in the narrow street. Trees need water to grow. They also need some sunlight to grow and you need room to put them. If you have the chance of knocking buildings down and replacing them, then suddenly you can start looking at different ways to design the streets and to introduce...(End)
test2_section1
W: Oh, Peter, there you're. It's been ages. What catches so long? M: Sorry, I'm so late, Sally. Have you been waiting long?
W: Half an hour. But it doesn't matter. I had a coffee and I had been reading this guidebook for tourists. Sit down. M: Umm.
W: You look very hot and tired. What would you like to drink?
M: I'd love really chill mineral water or something. Would you have another coffee?
W: Yes, I'll. The waitress will be back in a moment. Why are you so late. Did something happen?
M: Yes. You know I went to the bank to cash something traveller's cheques. Well the exchange rate was looking very healthy but I went to the teller they told me that the computer system was temporarily down. So they couldn't do any transactions. They said the problem would be fixed in a few minutes so I waited. And then I started talking to another guy in the bank and I forgot the time.
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