CONEVERSATION 1
-Tonight, we have a very special guest, Mrs. Ana Sanchez is a threetime Olympic champion and author of the new book To the Edge.Mrs, Sanchez, thank you for joining us.
-Thank you for having me.
- Let’s start with your book. What does the title to the Edge mean?What are you referring to? -The book is about how science and technology has helped push humans to the edge of their physical abilities. I argue that in the past 20 years we have had the best athletes the world has ever seen. But is this a fair comparison?How do you know how, say, a football player from 50 years ago would compare to one today?-Well, you are right.
-That comparison would be perhaps impossible to make. But thepoint is more about our knowledge today of human biochemistry,nutrition and mechanics. I believe that while our b odies have notchanged in thousands of years, what has changed is the scientificknowledge. This has allowed athletes to push th
e limits of whatwas previously thought possible.
-That’s interesting. Please tell us more about these perceived limits.
-The world has seen sports records being broken. That could only be broken with the aid of technology, whether this be the speedof a tennis serve or the fastest time in 100 meter dash or 200 meter swimming race.
-ls there any concern that technology is giving some athletes anunfair advantage over others?
-That is an interesting question and one that has to be considered very carefully. Skis ,for example, went from being made of wood to a metal alloy, which allows for better control and faster speed.There is no stopping technological progress. But as I said, each sit-uation should be considered carefully on a case by case basis.
Questions one to four are based on the conversation you have just heard.
1.W h a t do w e l e a r n a bou t A nn a S a n c h e z?
2.W h a t i s t h e w o m a n&a po s;s boo k m a i n l y a bou t?
3.W h a t h a s c h a n g e d i n t h e p a s t t hou s a nd s o f y e a r s?
4.W h a t i s t h e m a n&a po s;s c on c e r n a bou t t h e u s e o f t e c hno l o g y i n s po r t s c o m p e t i t i on s? CONEVERSATION 2
-l’ve worked in international trade all my life. My father did so tobefore me. So I guess you could say it runs in the f amily.
-What products have you worked with?
-All sorts, really. l've imported textiles, machinery, toys, solar panels, all kinds of things.Over the years, trends in demand comeand go. So what needs to be very flexible to succeed in this indus-try?
-I s ee. W h at good s ar e y o u tra d i n g n o w?
-I n o w i m po rt f u r n i t u r e f r o m C h i n a i n t o I ta l y a n d f ood s f r o m I ta l y i n t o C h i n a.I e v e n u s e t h e same container. It’s a very efficient wayof conducting trade.
-The same container. You mean you own a 40 foot cargo container?-Yeah, that’s right. I have a warehouse in Genoa, Italy, and another in Shanghai. I source mid century modern furniture from differ
ent factories in China. It’s a very good value for money, I collect it allin my warehouse and then dispatch it to my other warehouse inItaly over there. I do the same, but with Italian foods instead offurniture, things like pasta, cheese, wine, chocolate. And I send allthat to my warehouse in China in the same freight container I usefor the furniture. -So I presume you sell both lines of products wholesale in each re-spective country?
-Of course, I possess a network of clients and partners in bothcountries. That’s the main benefit of having done this for So long.I’ve made great business contacts over time.
-How many times do you ship?
-I d i d12s h i p m e n t s l a s t y e ar,18t h i s y e ar,a n d I h op e t o g r o w t o ar o un d25n e x t y e ar.T h at’s both ways. There and back again.Demand for authentic Italian food in China is growing rapidly. And similarly, sales of affordable, yet stylish wooden furniture are also increasing in Italy. Furniture is marginally more profitable, mostlybecause it enjoys lower customs duties. Questions five to eight are based on the conversation you havejust heard.
5.W h a t do e s t h e w o m a n t h i n k i s r e qu i r e d t o b e s u cc e ss f u l i n t h e i n t e r n a t i on a l t r a d e?
6.W h a t do e s t h e w o m a n s a y i s s p e c i a l a bou t h e r w a y o f do i n g c h a n g e?
7.W h a t do e s t h e w o m a n h a v e i n bo t h I t a l y a nd C h i n a?
8.W h a t do e s t h e w o m a n s a y m a k e s f u r n i t u r e m a r g i n a ll y m o r e
ListeningLE
LECTURE 1
Qualities of a relationship such as openness, compassion and mental stimulation are of concern to most of us regardless of sex,but-judging from the questionnaire response-they are more important to women than to men. Asked to consider the ingredients of close friendship, women rated these qualities above all others. Men assigned a lower priority
to them in favor of similarity in interests, selected by 77 percent of men, and responsivenes in a crisis, chosen by 61 percent of male respondents. Mental stimulation, ranked third in popularity by men as well as women, was the only area of overlap. Among men, only 28 percent named open-ness as an importan quality; caring was picked by just 23 per-cent. It is evident by their selections that when women speak of close friendships, they are referring to emotional factors, whilemen emphasize the ple
asure they find in a friend’s company. That is, when a man speaks of "a friend" he is likely to be talking about someone he does things
with- a teammate, a fellow hobbyist, adrinking buddy. These activities are the fabric of the friendship;itis a "doing" relationship in which similarity in interests is the keybond. This factor was a consideration of less than 11 percent of women.
Women opt for a warm, emotional atmosphere where communication flows freely; activity is mere background. Lastly, men, aswe have seen, have serious questions about each other’s loyalty.Perhaps this is why they placed such strong emphasis on responsiveness in a crisis. Someone I can call on for help, Women, as their testimonies indi-cate, are generally more secure with each other and consequently are more likely to treat this issue lightly. In follow-up interviewsthis was confirmed numerous times as woman after woman indicated that "being there when needed was taken for granted." As for the hazards of friendship, more than a few relationships havebeen shattered because of cutthroat competition and feelings of betrayal. This applies to both men and women, but unequally. Incomparison, nearly twice as many men complained about theseissues as women. Further, while competition and betrayal are the main thorns to female friendship, men are plagued in almostequal amounts by two additional issues, lack of frankness and a fear of appearing unmanly. Obviously, for a
man, a good friend-ship is hard to find.
Question 16 to 18. Based on the recording you have just heard
16.W h a t qu a li t y do m e n v a l u e m o s t c on c e r n i n g f r i e nd s h i p a cc o r d i n g t o a qu e s t i onn a i r e response?
17.W h a t do w o m e n r e f e r t o w h e n s p e a k i n g o f c l o s e f r i e nd s h i p s?
18.W h a t m a y t h r e a t e n a f r i e nd s h i p f o r bo t h m e n a nd w o m e n?
LECTURE 2
Recording to the partial skeletons of more than 20 dinosaurs andthe scattered bones of about 300 more have been discovered in Utah and Colorado. At what is now theDinosaur National Monu-ment. Many of the best specimens may be seen today at museumsof natural history in the largest cities of the United States and Canada. This dinosaur pit is
the largest and best preserved deposit of dinosaurs known today. Many people get the idea from themassive bones and the pit bull that some disaster, such as a volcanic explosion or a sudden flood,
killed a whole herd of dinosaursin this area. This could have happened, but it probably did not.The main reasons for thinking otherwise are the scattered bonesand the thickness of the deposit.In other deposits where the ani-mals were thought to have died together, the skeletons were usually complete and often all the bones were in their proper places.Rounded pieces of fossil bones have been found here. These fragments got their smooth round shape, though, rolling along thestream bottom.In a mass killing, the bones would have been lefton the stream or lake bottom together at the same level. But in this deposit, the bones occur throughout a zone of sandstone about 12 feet thick. The mixture of swamp dwellers and dry landtypes also seems to indicate that the deposit is a mixture from dif-ferent places. The pit area is a large dinosaur graveyard, not a place where they died. Most of the remains probably floated downon eastward flowing river until they were left on a shallow sandbar. Some of them may have come from far away dry land areas to
the west. Perhaps they drowned trying to cross a small stream orwashed away during floods. Some of the swamp dwellers mayhave got stuck in the very sandbar that became their grave.Others may have floated for miles before being stranded. Even today, similar events take place when floods come in the spring.Sheep, castling, deer are often trapped by rising waters and often drown. Their dead bodies float downstream until the flood recedes
and leaves them stranded on a bar or shore where they lie half buried in the sand until they decay. Early travelers on the Mis-souri River reported that shores and bars were often lined with the decaying bodies of Buffalo that had died during spring floods.
Questions 19 to 21 are based on the recording you have just heard.
19.W h e r e c a n m a n y o f t h e b e s t d i no s a u r s p e c i m e n s b e f ound i n N o r t h A m e r i c a?
20.W h a t o cc u r s t o m a n y p e op l e w h e n t h e y s ee t h e m a ss i v e bon e s i n t h e p i t w a ll?
21.W h a t do e s t h e s p e a k e r s u gg e s t a bou t t h e l a r g e nu m b e r o f d i-no s a u r bon e s f ound i n t h e p e t?
LECTURE 3
I would like particularly to talk about the need to develop a newstyle of aging in our own society. Young people in this country have been accused of not caring for their parents the way they would have in the old country.And this is true. But it is also true that old people have been influenced by an American ide
al of independence and autonomy. So we live alone, perhaps on theverge of starvation in time without friends. But we are independent. This standard American style has been forced on every ethnic group, although there are many groups for whom the idealis not practical. It is a poor ideal in pursuing it do es a great deal ofharm. This ideal of independence also contains a tremendous amount of unselfishness. In talking to today’s young mothers. I have asked them what kind of grandmothers they think they aregoing to be. I hear devoted, loving mothers say that when they are through raising their children, they have no intention of becoming grandmothers. They were astonished to hear that in most of the world, throughout most of its history, families have been three orfour generation families living under the same roof. We have over-emphasized the small family unit, father, mother, small children.We think it is wonderful if grandma and grandpa, if they’re stillalive, can live alone. We have reached the point where we think the only thing we can do for our children is to stay out of their way. And the only thing we can do for our daughter in law is to see as lttle of her as possible.All peoples nursing homes. Eventhe best run are flled with older people who believe the only thing they can do for their children is to look cheerful when they come to visit. So in the end, older people have to devote all their energies to not being a burden. We are beginning to see what atremendous price we’ve paid for emphasis on independence andautonomy. We’ve isolated old people and we’ve cut off the children from their grandparents. One of the reasons we have as bada generation gap today as we do is that grandparent
s have stepped out. Young people are being deprived of the thing theyneed most perspective to know why their parents behave So peculiarly and why their grandparents say the things they do. Questions 22 to 25 based on recording you have just heard.
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