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CHAPTER 10B 4 Listening Practice B Listening for Main Ideas (p. 88)

Speaker 1: Tom

I guess you could say I was a late developer! My grades weren’t good enough for a four-year college. I didn’t
work hard enough in high school. So I wound up at the community college, and I didn’t study very hard there
either, at least not for the first year. I just really wasn’t interested in anything. But in my second year there . . . one
day I had to do a project on the computer. Of course, computers were quite new in those days. And I got
interested, really interested. It was fun messing around on computers, trying to figure things out. Eventually
I changed my major to computer science. It was a new field but it was growing fast and it was obvious there
was a huge future there. I started working . . . transferred to a four-year college and graduated with honors. After
I graduated, my friend got me a job at a software company . I worked there for a few years and, eventually, I went
out on my own. Now I have a very stable business with more than twenty employees and I guess you could say
I’m quite successful. So I don’t think it makes a bit of difference which school you go to or how much you
pay for it . It’s what you do with it that’s important.

Speaker 2: Tracy

I got an undergraduate degree from the local state university. My family didn’t have a lot of money so that was
my only option at that point, really. My dream had always been to go to an Ivy League school, like Harvard or
Yale, but we just couldn’t afford it. I had to work part-time while I was studying, and then I worked two jobs
during the summer to pay for school. I was pretty happy at the state school . . . I got good grades, and I felt
like I was getting a good education. But I still wished I could have gone to a school like Harvard. Then, one of
my professors suggested that I think about going to grad school and getting a master’s degree. I’d never really
considered it before, but I decided to apply anyway. My professor suggested different schools to apply to,
including Harvard, and I thought, well, it’s worth a try .I didn’t know if I’d get accepted, and I really didn’t
know how I’d pay for it, but I decided to try anyway . Well, I was accepted and it was very hard. . . hard in terms
of studying, and hard financially . But, I did it. I honestly don’t know if doing my master’s at an Ivy League
school made all that much difference in the end . . . in what I learned or the jobs I’ve gotten, but I’m glad I did it .

Speaker 3: Ed

I went to a very small state college, but it was kind of unusual. There was a big emphasis on hands-on learning,
group work, seminars, debates, discussions . It was really active and you were expected to participate.
I don’t think it would be for everyone, but I really loved it. Like, you couldn’t just sit there and take notes. You
were expected to engage with the information and ask questions. I was always getting in trouble in regular
school for asking questions, so I loved it. You might think it was easier, but I think they asked more of you
than they do in a regular university. You had to write your own academic plan at the beginning of every year
and discuss it with the teachers, and this is the part that really is different: you wrote your own self-evaluation at
the end of every semester. They didn’t give grades. They gave narrative evaluations, like each professor wrote a
paragraph about your strengths and weaknesses. You know, it’s amazing. Those evaluations meant a lot more to
us than grades would have, and they were a lot more informative, actually. Some people didn’t like them at all.
They wanted an A or a B or whatever . . . But that wasn’t the way they did it .
Speaker 4: Alicia

My parents and my grandparents immigrated to this country from Mexico when I was twelve, and they
never had much education. But that was the big thing they wanted for me—the most important thing was
education. They were pushing me all through school, always checking my homework, putting me in summer
school and things like that. They were so happy when I got accepted to college. But college was tough for me.
High school was pretty easy, but you’re expected to be a lot more independent in college, to study and work on
your own, and I didn’t really understand that at the beginning. And I felt really insecure because English isn’t
my first language and I had to write a lot of papers in English. It was really hard at first and my grades weren’t
always so good . But I made it in the end. Nobody in our family had ever graduated from college before, so it was a
big deal—for the whole family.

5 Pronunciation Exercise 2 (p. 89)

1 . I went back to school because I wanted to do something for myself.

2 . I’ve made your coffee. Do you want it now or later?

3 . You can have my cake. I don’t want it.

4 . My mother always wanted a large house.

Exercise 3 (p. 90)

1 . I’ve enrolled in a swim class, and I’m going to start it next week.

2 . The class has already started.

3 . The professor predicted that I’d get an A.

4 . You might get an A, but I really can’t predict it.

5 . I didn’t hear the announcement. Could you please repeat it?

6 . My daughter repeated third grade.

7 . Wish me good luck! I’ll need it!

8 . I needed better grades to get into that school.

9 . My teacher suggested that I take a math class.

10 . I think Ben should drop physics, but I didn’t suggest it.

6 Speaking Skills Exercise 1 (p. 90)

1 . And I got interested, really interested.

2 . I was pretty happy at the state school. I got good grades and I felt like I was getting a good education.

3 . Well, I was accepted and it was very hard . . . hard in terms of studying and hard financially.