Test 5.

Introduction
You are going to hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer
questions on what you hear.
There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions.
And you will have a chance to check your work.
All the recordings will be played once only.
The test is in four sections.
At the end of the test, you will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to
the answer sheet.
Now turn to section one.
Section one.
You are going to listen to two university students talking about libraries in
Australia.
First, look at questions one to four.
You will see that there is an example already done for you.
For this question only, the conversation relating to the example will be played
first.
What's wrong? John, you look very serious.
Oh, hi Marianne. I've just been given the assessment guide for law, my major.
And there are lots of assignments.
You'll be spending a lot of time in the library then.
That's my problem. I don't know anything about libraries in Australia.
Well, don't worry about that John.
Librarians here are really friendly and most of them are extremely helpful.
John said he doesn't know anything about libraries in Australia.
So B is the correct answer.
Now we shall begin.
You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the
recording a second time.
Now listen carefully and answer questions one to four.
What's wrong? John, you look very serious.
Oh, hi Marianne. I've just been given the assessment guide for law, my major.
And there are lots of assignments.
You'll be spending a lot of time in the library then.
That's my problem. I don't know anything about libraries in Australia.
Well, don't worry about that John. Librarians here are really friendly.
And most of them are extremely helpful.
That's good to hear. My flatmates said I should join the local library.
Do you think that I need to?
Well, I think it'd be a good idea.
They probably won't have many law books in the library.
But you'll be surprised at what they do have.
Australian libraries are generally very well resourced.
And hey, if nothing else, you can get free internet access.
Is it easy for international students to join?
Yes, Lee Yun has just joined.
All you need is your student card or some other ID
and an account or bill that has your Australian address on it.
Like a phone bill or an electricity bill? Would that be okay?
Yeah, that's all. It's very easy.
They encourage people to join the library and you can borrow lots of books
as well as video and audio tapes or CDs.
The newspaper is available too if you've got time to stay at the library and read
it.
Would it cost much to join the library?
Joining libraries here doesn't cost anything, but you'll have to pay a fine
if you return your books after the due date.
It's about 10 cents per book per day.
How long can I keep books for?
The loan period for books is about a month,
but you can easily extend the time for another month if you want to.
You can even do it over the phone, but it has to be arranged before the due date.
What about the university library?
Haven't you been there yet?
No, not yet. I was sick for the orientation week and I missed out on the campus
tour.
Well, John, I've got an hour before my next lecture.
Why don't we walk up together and have a look around?
Oh, that'd be great, Marianne. I'd really appreciate it.
John and Marianne arrive at the main entrance to the university library.
As you listen to the rest of the conversation, answer questions five to ten.
Before the conversation continues, read questions five to ten.
This is the main entrance. Let's go in.
It's very big, isn't it?
Yes, but here's a map which will help you.
Can you see?
That it's a kind of L shape?
Oh, yes. Is that the circulation's desk in front of us?
Yes, that's where all of the incoming and outgoing loans are registered.
When you return a book, just put it in the large box over there.
See? It's marked returns, just to the right of the desk.
Yes, I see. Can I use the computers behind the desk to access the Internet?
Those computers are for the library's database search system only.
There are computers in the IT block which we passed on our way here to the library.
Anyway, you can search for a book by typing in the title, author, topic or a
keyword.
Are the computers easy to use?
Yes, very easy. Even I can use them.
Does it give a catalogue number after you do the search?
Yes, it does. It'll also tell you in which section of the library to find the book.
The library is divided into two sections. Straight ahead, behind the photocopiers,
is for all of the serial publications.
That means journals and magazines and newspapers, of course.
And the most important section for us is the reference section. You'll use it a
lot.
Unfortunately, the books in this section can't be borrowed.
You have to use them in the library. It's over there. Pass the quiet study area.
I see. So do I need to join or register here?
Or do I have automatic borrowing rights as a student?
As long as you have your student card, you can borrow books from the monograph
collection.
Anyone else can access the rest of the library.
What if I can't find a particular book?
That's what the staff are here for, John. Just go to the advisor's desk, take a
request card, and fill in the details of what you are looking for.
Where's the advisor's desk?
It's just over there. The desk at the entrance to the quiet study area.
Right, well. I think I'll have a look now to see if I can find any of the
recommended texts for my first law assignment.
Yes, good idea. Texts on the recommended lists from lecturers are very popular, and
you should try to borrow them from the library as soon as you get your list.
That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section two. You will hear two students talking about a seminar paper that one of
them is going to give.
Before you start listening, you have 30 seconds to look at questions 11 to 15.
Hey, did you see that show on TV last night about people downloading music from the
internet?
No, I was busy with my research into students cheating at university.
What do you mean by cheating?
Play-durism.
What's that?
Basically, it's when you use someone else's ideas or work and pretend it's your own
work. There's nothing wrong with using other people's ideas or research, but you
have to say where you got the ideas or information.
There was a famous case last year of a university dean who had to resign when it
came out that in a few books he'd written over 20 years ago, there were some
instances of plagiarism.
Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that. I thought they were being a bit tough on
him. I mean, it was a long time ago.
Well, it's a pretty serious thing to do in academic circles. It's intellectual
theft. It's nothing new, but it seems to have become much more common recently.
How can you tell?
Oh, a few surveys have been done on it. One survey in the US found that back in
1969, 58% of school students let others copy their work, but this had risen to 97%
in 1989.
It's that bad, isn't it? Well, anyway, you know what school kids are like.
Well, the trouble is it doesn't stop there. They take their bad habits with them
when they go on to uni.
A more recent survey in another country showed that more cheating happens now among
undergraduate students than high school students.
That's disappointing.
Yeah, there are even instances of postgraduate students doing it.
Though it involves a much smaller proportion of them. So why is more cheating
happening now?
Well, the internet has made it easier. You can use a search engine to find what you
need to know, then cut and paste.
Before the internet, you had to go to books and copy the information by hand, so it
took a lot longer.
Students often used to write their essays by hand too.
Yeah, I don't do much writing anymore, but I do plenty of typing.
Well, your handwriting is pretty terrible, so that's probably not a bad thing.
Anyway, what it really comes down to is that the internet is so huge.
There are just so many more sources than they used to be.
In the older days, if a teacher thought a student had cheated, they could look up
the relevant book to check.
The internet is far too big for that. I know teachers are always complaining about
being too busy,
but it's beyond the capacity of anyone to have an overview of the internet.
Yeah, there are billions of pages out there. So does that mean it's impossible to
stop it?
Not exactly.
There is this new software programme being used now to check the work of almost 5
million students in about 60 countries.
They find that there's a plagiarism rate of about 30%.
Is it expensive?
No, it only comes to about 50 cents a student.
You now have 30 seconds to look at questions 16 to 20.
So, how does this computer programme work?
Well, when a student hands in a paper, they also have to submit it electronically.
This is then compared to other essays and to a database of journals and of all the
material that's on the internet.
What about if the students copied from books?
No, it only covers electronic material.
The programme then underlines any phrase, paragraph or page that's been copied from
an electronic source.
And this information is given to the teacher.
It analyses around 10,000 term papers a day.
It's in operation in all universities in Britain, but only at some of the big ones
in the United States.
And what happens if they find that the students cheated?
Well, in extreme cases the student can be expelled from the uni.
But expulsion can take a long time and give the uni bad publicity, so it doesn't
happen much.
An alternative is for the student to be failed for the whole course, but usually
they just failed that paper.
Yeah, I've never heard of anyone being expelled for cheating.
Oh, it does happen, but you don't always hear about it.
You know, the student involves embarrassed and the uni wants to protect its
reputation.
And what else can be done to reduce the amount of plagiarising happening?
Well, now some unis are putting less emphasis on papers done during term and going
back to written exams, where there's much less chance of cheating.
Oh, like those tests we used to do in high school, all that tension and watching
the clock.
Yeah, they thought about introducing oral exams, but they'd be too time consuming
and expensive for undergraduate courses.
Generally, unis take the attitude that prevention's better than cure, so they
explain to students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
That's the long term solution.
Anyway, it's not always easy to show for sure that someone's committed plagiarism
in an essay.
Even with this new software?
That's right.
That is the end of section two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section three.
You'll hear a company manager talking to staff about some day tours.
Before you start listening, you have 30 seconds to look at questions 21 to 25.
Good afternoon, everyone.
We've just called this short meeting to give you some good news.
As you know, our companies performed really well over the past 12 months, and
that's largely been due to the hard work you've all put in.
So, at its last meeting, senior management decided to show its gratitude by giving
you all a day off next Friday to go on a day trip paid for by the company.
We want to give you a choice. So what I'd like to do now is to give you a brief
overview of three tours, and then you can choose the one that you like best.
Right. Now first, there's what we call the Adventure Tour, which is skydiving.
Don't worry if you've never been skydiving before. You do it in tandem with
experienced trainers, but it's definitely not for you if you're afraid of heights.
Just one thing, though. You'll need to wear long pants because it's pretty cold
when you jump out of the plane.
For that trip, we leave here at half past 10 in the morning to go out to the
airfield.
Oh, by the way, with all these tours, a mini bus will pick you up at work in the
morning and then bring you back here afterwards.
The Adventure Tour gets back at 340. That's 20 to 4 in the afternoon.
Next, we have the Nature Tour, which is for those who like the outdoors, but prefer
walking on the solid ground rather than falling through the sky a few kilometres up
in the air.
This is going to be a trip to the mountains and lakes.
You all know how lovely the lakes are at this time of year, and because we'll be
there on a Friday, they won't be all these crowds of people you get on the
weekends.
And don't forget to bring along your walking shoes.
The bus will be leaving at half past 8 in the morning, and you'll be getting back
at 20 past 6.
The third and final choice of tours is the Historical Tour, which is going to be a
trip to Bombery Castle.
You may have been there before, but we've arranged for a very thorough tour of the
castle, including some rooms that usually aren't open to the public.
One thing though, they've told us that anyone who comes on that tour has to wear
shoes with leather soles.
Apparently, the reason for this is that some of the timber floors in the castle are
very old and can be easily damaged by other kinds of shoes.
Anyway, the bus will be leaving at 9.45, that's quarter to 10 in the morning, and
will bring you back here at half past 4.
You now have 30 seconds to look at questions 26 to 30.
Now, I'd like to tell you about a few things that are included in the tours.
Those of you who choose the Historical Tour will enjoy a delicious lunch in the
famous Castle Restaurant.
If you opt for the Nature or Adventure Tour, I'm afraid you'll have to take your
own lunch because there aren't any outlets in the mountains or at the Skydiving
section of the airfield.
However, we've arranged for afternoon tea to be provided for those on the Adventure
Tour.
You might need a hot drink to warm up after the jump.
Now, for those of you who've got children that you'd like to bring along for the
day, obviously Skydiving is out of the question.
They might be thrilled by the idea of jumping out of a plane with you, but you've
got to be 18 or older to do that.
We checked with the organizer of the Historical Tour, and they said that children
usually aren't interested in the historical buildings,
but they have no objections provided that any children are accompanied by their
parents.
When we talked to the person who's in charge of the Nature Tour, she said that
their insurance doesn't cover miners, so there's no kids allowed on the trip,
unfortunately.
However, it's quite alright if you want to bring along your partner to enjoy the
fresh air with you.
We thought it'd be nice to arrange for group photos to be taken on this special day
out.
In fact, if you're going on the Adventure Tour, they can video or photograph
individuals while you're Skydiving, but that's very costly,
so there's one extra expense you'll have to pay for yourself if you want it.
For those on the Historical Tour, the staff at the castle inform us that no
photography is allowed on the premises.
I think that might be because they prefer visitors to buy the postcards they sell
in the souvenir shop,
but if you're in the mountains on the Nature Tour, the guides also a professional
photographer,
and she'll be taking a few pictures of the group, no doubt with breathtaking
backgrounds.
Anyway, that's all from me for the moment. I've got some brochures here you might
like to have a look at,
and now I'd be happy to take any of your questions.
That is the end of section 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section 4, Obesity.
Christine Fowler is a nutritionist.
In the following talk, you'll hear her discuss the rise in the number of people who
are overweight.
Before you start listening, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
The past 20 years have witnessed a dramatic growth in the number of people in the
western world who are overweight.
This by-product of prosperity is so serious that it's become a major health issue.
In England, 53% of adult women are overweight, while the figure for men is about
63%.
Studies carried out in the 1980s showed much lower levels than this, and the
problem gets worse the older people get,
whereas just over a quarter of the young are overweight.
It afflicts an alarming 68% of women and 3 quarters of men among those aged 55 to
64.
The overall increase in the weight of the average person is partially the result of
changes in lifestyle,
and it has serious consequences for individuals and society.
A person's weight increases when their food intake is greater than their energy
output.
The body stores the extra energy in the form of fat, whereas many people today
would prefer to be slim than to have a more rounded figure.
Until fairly recently in human history, it was an advantage to have body fat.
Before humans started to grow their own crops and domesticate animals, food
supplies were far less reliable,
and famine was an unavoidable part of life.
When famine came along, those who had more body fat were more likely to overcome
the difficult period than slim people.
The thin ones would either die in the famine, or their health would be affected,
and they would have fewer children.
The ones who weren't underweight would then, in turn, be more likely to produce
children who shared this tendency to gain weight when times were good.
This genetic trait has been passed on through evolution, so that today many people
have a natural tendency to gain weight.
However, in the absence of recurrent famines, this is no longer such a good thing,
particularly when you consider that people today do far less physical work than
they used to.
The easy availability of food with a high sugar and fat content, coupled with
inadequate physical activity,
lies at the root of the general increase in weight in the population.
Most of those suffering from excess body weight would go a long way towards solving
their problem,
if they regularly did moderately vigorous exercise, for instance, 30 minutes per
day of swimming, cycling, or brisk walking.
So what exactly is the problem if a person weighs more than they should?
Firstly, this can put too much strain on the joints, such as knees and ankles.
For health consequences of having excess body fat depend on what part of the body
the fat is found on.
Fat on the abdominal area is often associated with diabetes and heart disease,
whereas there's no apparent connection between those conditions and having fat on
the thighs and hips.
Being overweight can also give rise to problems apart from those of physical
health.
In childhood, even more so than later life, people need to feel that they belong.
Children who are rejected and ostracised by their classmates because they are
overweight and not fit may develop low self-esteem.
Although scientists are still unsure why some people gain weight more easily than
others,
it's clear that the right food, together with regular exercise, is the only way to
lose weight and not put it back on.
To lose weight, a person should avoid certain foods, but also eat more fruit,
vegetables and cereal foods, such as bread, pasta and rice.
Rather than focusing on what people should not eat, the focus should be on healthy
food that people should eat.
Losing weight doesn't mean being on a monotonous diet.
In fact, it's recommended that everyone eats 30 different foods a day.
A problem with many diets and weight loss programs is that they tend to make
extravagant promises of rapid weight loss with very little exercise or no exercise
at all.
It is in fact not healthy to lose more than a kilo per month, but some losing
weight at that rate run the risk of losing muscle,
whereas a realistic healthy weight loss program needs to include regular exercise.
And for those who have repeatedly been unsuccessful in the attempt to reduce their
weight,
it's better to accept that they have a larger body than a fashion model, as well as
to make some changes in their diet and to do regular exercise.
They may not live longer, but at least they'll enjoy their time more.
That is the end of section 4. You now have 30 seconds to complete your answers.
That is the end of the test. You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers for
sections 1 to 4 onto the answer sheet.