LISTENING CHALLENGE 2:

PRACTICE 4:
Questions 1-2
Choose the appropriate letter A,B,C or D.
1 The speaker works within the Faculty of

A Science and Technology.

B Arts and Social Sciences.

C Architecture.

D Law.

2 The Faculty consists firstly of

A subjects.

B degrees.

C divisions.

D departments.

Questions 3-5
Complete the notes write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

The subjects taken in the first semester in this course are psychology, sociology, history
and 3 .
Students may have problems with 4 and 5 .

Questions 6-10
Choose the appropriate letter.
6 The speaker says students can visit her

A every morning.

B some mornings.
C mornings only.

D Friday morning.

7 According to the speaker, a tutorial

A is a type of lecture.

B is less important than a lecture.

C provides a chance to share views.

D provides an alternative to groupwork.

8 When writing essays, the speaker advises the students to

A research their work well.

B name the books they have read.

C share work with their friends.

D avoid using other writers’ ideas.

9 The speaker thinks that plagiarism is

A a common problem.

B an acceptable risk.

C a minor concern.

D a serious offence.

10 The speaker’s aims are to

A introduce students to university expectations.

B introduce students to the members of staff.

C warn students about the difficulties of studying.

D guide students round the university.

PRACTICE 5:
Questions 1-6
Choose the correct letter; A, B or C.
1 Why is Matthew considering a student work placement?

A He was informed about an interesting vacancy.

B He needs some extra income.

C He wants to try out a career option.

2 Which part of the application process did Linda find most interesting?

A The psychometric test.

B The group activity.

C The individual task.

3 During her work placement, Linda helped find ways to

A speed up car assembly.

B process waste materials.

C calculate the cost of design faults.

4 Why did Linda find her work placement tiring?

A She wasn’t used to full-time work.

B The working hours were very long.

C She felt she had to prove her worth.

5 What did Linda’s employers give her formal feedback on?

A engineering ability

B organisational skills

C team working

6 What was the main benefit of Linda’s work placement?

A Improved academic skills.

B An offer of work.

C The opportunity to use new software.

Questions 7-10
What does Linda think about the books on Matthew’s reading list?
Choose FOUR answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-F, next to questions 7-10.
Books

7 The Science of Materials

8 Materials Engineering

9 Engineering Basics

10 Evolution of Materials
Opinions
A helpful illustrations
B easy to understand
C up-to-date
D comprehensive
E specialised
F useful case studies

PRACTICE 4:

1. B 6. B

2. C 7. C

3. economics 8. B

4. (meeting) deadlines (for essays) 9. D

5. attendance 10. A
Lecturer:
Good morning and welcome to the University of Westlands. My name is Marcia Mayhew and
I’m the co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Social Science degree. This morning I’d like to tell you
about the structure of the university and about some of the requirements of the degree that you’re
about to enter. The Bachelor of Social Science is in one faculty within the university, that is the
faculty where I work, known as Arts and Social Sciences. Here on this campus we also have
the faculties of Architecture, Law and Science and Technology among others. It’s important to
know something about the structure of the faculty because, as you go through your course, you
may need to call on members of the staff to help you.

At the top of the faculty we have a dean and below the dean we have three divisions; each
division has a divisional head and your degree is located in the Division of Social Sciences.
Within each of the divisions, there are the departments and each of these offers the different
degrees. For instance two of the departments which offer the major subjects for your award are
Sociology and Psychology. Each has a departmental head but for practical purposes the people
you are going to see the most of are myself as co-ordinator of the social sciences degree and
the actual lecturers who are teaching the subjects that you are taking. For instance in the first
semester you’ll be doing four subjects psychology sociology history and economics.
If you have any problems or difficulties, not that I’m anticipating you will, but you never know,
then you should go and see your lecturers. For instance, you may find that you can’t meet a
deadline for an essay or perhaps you're having problems with attendance. These seem to be the
two most common problems that students face.
If your lecturers are unavailable, you can always come and see me in my office. I’m available on
Wednesday and Thursday mornings and on Friday afternoons. Outside these hours, perhaps you
could ring the secretary and make an appointment.
Now you’ll note that all of the subjects which you undertake in the first year are composed of
lectures and tutorials. A lecture is about an hour long and a tutorial usually runs for about two
hours. A lecture is rather like what I am doing now where one person will talk to all of you
together on a subject. We do ask you to try to attend the lectures.
A tutorial is perhaps where most of the learning occurs at a university. You will be divided into
groups of between 12 and 15 students and each week one of you will have to present a piece of
work to the group as a whole and then the group will discuss what you’ve said. It’s this
discussion, this exchange of ideas, which really constitutes the basis of university learning, in my
view. Listening to lectures in many ways is just giving you information that you could access for
yourself in the library but the discussion at the tutorial is very important. This doesn’t mean that
you shouldn’t go to the lectures though!
Other factors to be particularly concerned about are the structure of essays and delivery of
written material and in particular I would like to mention the question of plagiarism. Plagiarism
is taking other people’s work without acknowledging it, that is, without saying where it comes
from. Of course all essays are based on research done by other people but, you must, remember
to attribute the work to the original writer. And while it’s a good idea to work with other people
don’t hand in work which is exactly the same as your friend’s work because we will notice!
If you don’t acknowledge the source of your information then you run the risk of failing the
subject, or in very serious cases you might, be denied entry to the university.
Last but not least, stay in touch with us. If things are getting you down, don’t go and hide. Come
and talk to us about it. That’s what we are here for. Right,
thank you very much for coming along today.

PRACTICE 5:

1. A 6. B

2. B 7. B

3. A 8. A

4. C 9. D

5. B 10. C
You will hear two engineering students, a woman in her sixth year called Linda and a man in his
fifth year called Matthew, discussing the benefits of student work placements.
Hi Linda. Can you spare a few minutes?
Hello Matthew, no problem.
I just wanted to talk to you about temporary work placements ... I’ve never really thought there
was a good reason for doing one. I’ve got some savings, so I don’t really need the money at the
moment. But I’ve had an email from the university about a vacancy that looks quite interesting.
You did a placement last year didn’t you?
I did, yes. In my case I wanted to find out if I was making the right career choice before I began
applying for permanent jobs. I thought I wanted to work in car manufacturing but I wasn’t sure.
So I applied to Toyota.
What was the application process like?
Lengthy. There were a lot of different parts to it. The dullest one was a psychometric test - you
know, when you have to answer loads of questions about yourself.
And you’re trying to guess what’s the best thing to say!
Yes. Then there was an activity that we did in groups, which I found really fascinating.
Engineers are renowned for being a bit unsociable, but I thought we made a great team.
And we had an individual task too. We had to sort through various business documents and
prioritise them. It was just like what you have to do as a student really, just with different
content.
What exactly were you doing on the placement?
I was helping to design some diagnostic software to identify any waste in the car assembly
process
Do you mean waste of materials?
No, time. Anything that can speed the process up helps to cut costs.
How did the work placement compare to being a student? Was it hard work?
Yes, it was. I’d had full-time work before - I’ve done various unskilled jobs during university
holidays, and some of those involved long hours - so I thought I’d find it easy. I was wrong
though. I think when you’re on placement you’re always trying to prove yourself ...
So you push yourself hard to succeed?
Yes. But I got a lot of support from my employers. They were always helpful. And then at the
end of the placement I was given formal feedback.
Do you mean on your engineering ability?
Well, no, I didn’t really need that because we had team meetings every other day, and so I had
the chance to discuss technical issues and ask about anything that wasn’t clear. The evaluation
was about general workplace things, like organisational ability, initiative ... That sort of thing ...
I get the impression you think you benefited from the placement ... ?
Well the best thing is that they’ve offered me a job for next year! Depending on my exam results
of course, but still ...
A permanent one?
Yes! But apart from that I learned so much . The industrial environment was much more
demanding than the academic one, so my general skills improved. Like time Management ...
meeting deadlines ... And on the technical side I learned new software packages like MS Project.
Well, I think you’ve convinced me that work placements are worthwhile ... But while
you’re here can you give me advice on something else?
I’m about to make a start on the Engineering Materials module, and I’ve got a booklist here - can
you have a quick look and tell me what you would recommend - that’s if you can remember?
Let’s see ... I do remember some of them ... Yes, this one ... The Science of Materials. I found
the subject quite hard generally, but this book is very accessible so it suited me. It doesn’t cover
everything though ...
What about this one then . Materials Engineering?
Oh yes, I do remember that. But it’s a bit out-of-date now isn’t it, unless it’s a new edition?
I don’t think so ...
But what I liked about it were the pictures. They really helped to understand the descriptions. It’s
useful just from that point of view ... Let’s see ... What else? Oh yes ... That one there
- Engineering Basics - I think out of all these that’s got the widest coverage ...
But I’ve looked at the contents page, and it hardly mentions nanotechnology.
Yes, you’re right. The Evolution of Materials does though. It’s a recent publication so it covers
all the latest developments. It’s a bit thin on the nineteen sixties though, and that decade was
quite important.
Well it sounds as if they all complement each other in some ways. I don’t suppose you can lend
me .