Q2e Listening & Speaking 5: Audio Script Unit 7

Unit 7: Cultural Studies They probably have neighbors they like and a
shopping market they like and a home they’re
The Q Classroom
comfortable in. What someone on the outside
Activity B., Page 171
might see as a good opportunity might not
Teacher: Class, the Unit Question is, “How do
really be a good deal for them.
people react to change?” What about you,
Teacher: Well put, Felix!
Felix? How do you react to change?
Felix: Badly. [laughs] I’m kidding. But it does
LISTENING 1 The Reindeer People
take me a while to adjust when I move or go to
Activity A., C., Pages 175, 176
a new school or get a new job. I like the feeling
Narrator: We were all once nomads; but in the
when I know where everything is and when I
central Asian nation of Mongolia, many of the
know the people around me, so I’m happiest
people still are. Herders are constantly on the
when I get settled into a place. I tend to be kind
move, finding fresh grasses for their animals.
of uncomfortable at first after a big change.
Mongolia’s geography, a boundless wilderness
Marcus: Not me. To me, change is exciting. I
with soil that can’t sustain agriculture, forces
love it when I’m starting something new and
people to embrace the nomadic life. Sanjeem is
have new people to meet and new places to
a nomadic reindeer herder. He and his people
explore. I kind of get bored if everything stays
are caught between two worlds. Theirs, and one
the same.
in which Mongolia’s urban elite calls on nomads
Teacher: What about people in general? How
to settle.
do most people react to change? Are they like
Sanjeem sits, mounted on one reindeer, and
Felix or like Marcus? What do you think, Sophy?
drives about 50 others with coats of white and
Sophy: My guess is that more people are like
mottled charcoal up a rock-strewn grassy slope.
Felix—they find it hard to change. And when
Sanjeem (via interpreter): Our ancestors have
they get older, it gets even more difficult. My
herded reindeer here in mountains of Mongolia
parents wouldn’t want to move even if they had
for generations. We keep our animals here, and
a good opportunity in a different area. They’re
we actually follow our reindeer where they
too comfortable where they are.
want to go because the environment and the
Teacher: What do you think, Yuna? How do
climate are perfectly suited to our reindeer.
people react to change?
This is the basis of our culture.
Yuna: I agree with Sophy. I think most people
Narrator: Sanjeem’s an elder within a group of
don’t like change. At my job, they put in a new
207 people, 44 families. Every few weeks he
computer program. It was really good, but a lot
moves camp in the Taiga, a vast expanse of
of people hated it for a long time because it was
mountains, forest, and ice straddling Mongolia’s
different.
border with Siberia. Today, though, Sanjeem is
Felix: Well, I can accept change perfectly well if
worried. When Mongolia’s communist
it’s for a good reason. I don’t think I would be
government was toppled by a democratic
like Yuna’s co-workers, complaining about
revolution in the 1990s, his state salary was
something good just because it’s new.
withdrawn.
However, I do think change for its own sake can
Sanjeem (via interpreter): Under communism,
be overrated these days. Look at Sophy’s
there was a policy of taking care of everyone.
parents—why should they ever want to move?
There was less poverty there. Personally, I

© Copyright Oxford University Press Page 1 of 5

Q2e Listening & Speaking 5: Audio Script
prefer democracy, but we are a young
democracy, and some of us are not managing to
make a living.
Narrator: Herders and their families are trying
to cope. With the end of state subsidies, free
veterinary care ended. A reindeer is milked on a
flat patch of frozen ground beside a teepee.
Reindeer milk, cheese, and yogurt are staples of
the Taiga diet.
Smoke from a wood stove escapes through the
open top of the tent. The sweet aroma of
juniper incense fuses with the smell of musky
canvas. Yudoon, a wind-burnt reindeer herder
in his mid-30s, watches the fire. He and his wife,
Uyumbottom, have a decision to make.
Yudoon (via interpreter): Honestly, I’m not sure
our reindeer and our reindeer culture will
continue to exist. I really don’t know what will
happen to us. The number of families trying to
leave the taiga is increasing, while the size of
our reindeer herd is decreasing, due to disease
and attacks by wolves. So I’m not sure we can
expand our herd to the point it would support
the families.
Narrator: But Yudoon’s wife, Uyumbottom, isn’t
willing to give up. She’s just returned from the
capital, Ulaanbaatar. She went to parliament
and met government bureaucrats. She pleaded
for financial and veterinary support. The
economic advisor to Mongolia’s president did
not have encouraging words. Uyumbottom
received nothing of substance. Only a pledge
that the government will hold a seminar on
herders’ issues at some time in the future. Still,
she called the trip a success.
Uyumbottom (via interpreter): We were at
least listened to. We were able to speak for
ourselves in our own voice. I’m encouraged by
this.
Narrator: There are Mongolians working to help
the herders. Marnagansarma is a government
veterinarian who’s made the trek—three days
© Copyright Oxford University Press
Unit 7
by jeep then eight hours by horse—from the
capital to visit Sanjeem and his herd. She’s here
on vacation, working with two American NGOs.
Biologist Morgan Kay of Colorado heads the
NGO Itgel, the Mongolian word for hope.
Morgan Kay: Modernity has many faces, and if
we learn nothing from encountering these
people, at least let us remember that the way
we choose to live in the West is only one way,
and it’s still possible for people even in the
twenty-first century to be living a subsistence,
balanced lifestyle that leaves them at the mercy
of natural forces that we’ve become totally
separate from.
Narrator: Herder Sanjeem still has hope.
Sanjeem (via interpreter): As long as we can
continue earning our living by ways of reindeer,
our culture will survive. Myself and other elders
always tell the young people how to herd the
reindeer properly. That is the obligation the
older generation must fulfill to the younger
generation.
Narrator: Herders know they’re at a critical
moment. They can settle. But Sanjeem says that
would be the end of who they are as a people,
and that’s a thought he can’t even
contemplate.
LISTENING SKILL Recognizing attitudes
Examples, Page 180
1. Sadness or regret
The future of the reindeer herders sounds
pretty uncertain.
2. Excitement or interest
The female nomads have a lot to say about this
issue.
3. Disbelief or surprise
The number of reindeer is decreasing?
4. Disagreement or denial
Personally, I think the herders are going to
survive.
Activity A., Page 181
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Q2e Listening & Speaking 5: Audio Script
1. He’s not going to lose his job if he doesn’t
agree to move.
2. My routine is the same every day: get up, go
to work, come home, go to bed.
3. They don’t have time to adjust to the new
situation.
4. She really thinks she can just move to a new
city and find a job in one day.
5. Those who can’t cope with the lack of
permanence are just not cut out for the life of a
nomad.
6. We’re moving today.
7. You’re moving today?
8. My brother and I are traveling to Mongolia
this summer, and we’re going to stay with some
nomads.
Activity B., Page 181
1. Morgan Kay: At least let us remember that
the way we choose to live in the West is only
one way, and it’s still possible for people even
in the 21st century to be living a subsistence,
balanced lifestyle that leaves them at the mercy
of natural forces that we’ve become totally
separate from.
2. Garreau: Well, you know, I thought I traveled
a lot, but then I discovered that there were
some people who were traveling way, way past
anything that I had ever dreamed possible. They
basically didn’t have homes anymore.
LISTENING 2 High-Tech Nomads
Activity A., B., Page 183
Rudy Maxa: Like that intrepid group of
American tourists, most of us choose to travel
because we want to. We’ve come a long way
from times when we had to wander through
different lands without homes living as nomads.
Or have we? Even today when we can easily
interact with someone by picking up a phone or
logging onto a computer, some people still
make their living constantly traveling from place
to place. Their only addresses exist as email or
© Copyright Oxford University Press
Unit 7
cell phone numbers. Welcome to the world of
the high-tech nomad. Writer Joel Garreau
investigated this unique breed of traveler for
The Washington Post, and he sat down with us
recently to tell us what he learned.
Joel Garreau: Well, you know, I thought I
traveled a lot, but then I discovered that there
were some people who were traveling way, way
past anything that I had ever dreamed possible.
They basically didn’t have homes anymore. The
road was their home.
Maxa: Tell me, what are the characteristics of a
high-tech nomad? Do they generally have one
kind of occupation? Are they generally men or
women?
Garreau: I was surprised at how many women I
found. I thought it would have been an awful lot
of cranky males. The breakthrough is that these
nomads are not marginal by any means.
They’re making 6- and 7- and 8- and 9-digit
incomes. These are people who have to be
completely wired to the global economy all the
time. They’re like nomads of 10,000 years ago
in that they’re kind of browsing the savannahs
of the Fortune 500.
Maxa: And they do what for a living?
Garreau: These guys have jobs that we don’t
really have names for yet. There’s, uh, one guy
who’s kind of a one-man multimedia mini-
conglomerate with a social conscience. He has
one place in Barcelona and another in Boston.
Um, there are some of these guys who do have
apartments in five or six different places, but
when you talk to them, you realize that they’re
basically cargo dumps with a view.
Maxa: What other high-tech, besides the
obvious laptop and your PalmPilot, are there
any other high-tech devices these folks carry?
Garreau: Well, it’s only been in the last ten
years that we’ve had enough wired technology
to make this barely possible. It just drives them
nuts how many cell phones they have to carry.
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Q2e Listening & Speaking 5: Audio Script
And of course, this is their lifeline. They’re
always looking for somebody to talk to in a
different time zone. [laughter]
Maxa: How do these high-tech nomads
accomplish the mundane things of life like
laundry and picking up mail, and where do they
keep all the stuff I can’t even find a place in my
apartment to keep? You know, receipts and
family photos and tax returns. Where do they
keep all this stuff?
Garreau: Oh, it’s a huge problem. I mean, like,
what do you do with your shirts, you know, if
you’re never in a place for two nights? How do
you get your laundry done? One guy I talked to
says that he has his shirts Federal-Expressed to
his next location. Where do you get your, your
Visa bill? Well it turns out that these guys have
all of their affairs mailed to their lawyer or to
their accountant or something. But still, you
need some kind of rootedness even if it’s inside
yourself. Esther Dyson, for example, who’s an
investor and a kind of a technology pundit, has
a ritual every morning. No matter how crazy the
day is, she swims with her eyes closed for an
hour, no matter what city she’s in, because that
is her time for herself and that’s how she stays
connected to her own brain.
Maxa: Most people need some sense of
stability and connection and a sense of routine.
What is it about the psyche of a high-tech
nomad that seems to allow him or her to put
that in abeyance?
Garreau: That’s where I part company with
these guys. I mean, I do need a base and some
roots, and they don’t have that, and I was
wondering just how crazy that makes you.
Maxa: Give me an example of a specific high-
tech nomad and what his or her life might be
like in an average week or so.
Garreau: Well, for example, there’s this one
venture capitalist named Jim Woodhill, and he’s
© Copyright Oxford University Press
Unit 7
got a wife and an 18-month-old son, and that
18-month-old has got elite frequent flyer status.
Maxa: Which means he’s flown over 25–50,000
miles—
Garreau: Just all the time.
Maxa: —in a year.
Garreau: He’s got apartments in St. Louis,
Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, New York,
and Washington, and he moves his entire
entourage: his family, his in-laws—[laughter]
Maxa: What is the payoff? Is there a thrill? Is it
being a world citizen?
Garreau: Well, the thrill is really the idea of
feeling completely plugged in. These guys tend
to have very short attention spans on average.
And their payoff is that it’s the idea of never
being bored. One of the great ironies of this
lifestyle is that, you know, you ask yourself, well
if these guys are so plugged in, and they can
communicate from anywhere, why bother
travel at all?
Maxa: Exactly. Why do you even move?
Garreau: And the great irony is that the reason
they are nomads is for face-to-face contact.
They feel that there’s something that we get as
a result of being face-to-face that is absolutely
un-reproducible no matter how evolved the
technology is ever going to be. And that’s why
they’re nomads.
Maxa: Joel, thank you so much for joining.
Garreau: It’s fun, Rudy.
PRONUNCIATION Consonant variations
Examples, Page 192
poor
appeal
tech
return
cope
account
leader
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Q2e Listening & Speaking 5: Audio Script Unit 7

matter Activity C., Page 194

subsidy Welcome to the world of the high-tech nomad.
Writer Joel Garreau investigated this unique
question breed of traveler for The Washington Post, and
nature he sat down with us recently to tell us what he
situate learned.
gradual
SPEAKING SKILL Paraphrasing
Activity A., Page 193 Examples, Page 194
1. Garreau: One of the great ironies of this
open – opinion lifestyle is that, you know, you ask yourself, well
atom – atomic if these guys are so plugged in, and they can
intern – turn communicate from anywhere, why bother
2. travel at all?
master – matter Maxa: Exactly. Why do you even move?
lender – leader Original sentence: Discovering the nomads was
invitation – invited a surprising experience for us.
3. Paraphrase: The reporter said that finding the
grader – gradual nomads was an astonishing experience.
native – natural Paraphrase: The discovery of the nomadic
captive – capture group surprised them.
Paraphrase: The discovery of the nomads was
Activity B., Page 193 not expected.
1. aspirated
cope expand payoff policy
2. aspirated
connection crazy accomplish cycle
3. aspirated
routine elite attention tourist
4. flap
critical material ability letter
5. flap
media pleaded nomadic advisor
6. palatalized
century future fifty culture
7. palatalized
gradual reindeer schedule individual

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