VSTEP Listening: VSTEP Collection 5 — Listening

Q.1: Good morning, everyone. Please remember, we have a meeting today in the large meeting hall on the second floor at 10 o'clock this morning. All staff must attend. We will talk about the move to our new office building. We will move next Monday. So, you need to know what to do, and where you need to be on Monday. So please make sure that you are on time for today's meeting.

Q.2: Thank you for calling the law offices of Jones and Leung. If you are looking for a lawyer to help you with a problem, please press '1'. If you are a lawyer from another company, please press '2'. If you are a journalist, please press '3' to speak with our office manager. For all other questions, press '0' and someone will be with you soon. To hear this message again, press '9'.

Q.3: Remember. Everyone needs to attend the Sales Training this Wednesday. The first class will start at 9 o'clock. At 10:30 we'll have a short coffee break. The second class will start at 10:45. We'll have lunch from 12:15. The third class will start at 1:30 pm, then a short break. The last class will start at 3:15 and finish at 4:45. That's the day after tomorrow. Don't forget.

Q.4: Hi, everyone. Meet Jen, she'll be joining our team starting today. Jen worked in the head office for five years, but from today, she'll be working with us. Please note that Jen's email address is her home address because she doesn't have her new office email address yet. When Jen gets her new office email address tomorrow, she'll give her new address to everyone.

Q.5: May I have your attention? Because of the weather, flight number 446 is going to be a bit late leaving. It's just too dangerous to take off in this high wind. As soon as this thunderstorm passes, we will take off. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Q.6: Thank you for coming to see the Pacific Art Museum's exhibition of eighteenth century landscape paintings. The museum will be closing in fifteen minutes. Please begin moving to the museum exits.

Q.7: Hi, this is Gary Reynolds, from Skyline Airlines. You recently bought a ticket for February 16th on flight number 681 from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Unfortunately, there was an error on our website. That flight actually takes off at 9:40 am, not 10:40 as it said on the website. If that is a problem, please call me at the customer service line, 334-445-9284, and we will reschedule you to another flight. I'm sorry for the confusion.

Q.8: Ladies and Gentlemen. I'm very sorry we woke you up in the middle of the night. There was a small fire in the hotel's kitchen, but everything is okay now. The Fire Department has put out the fire. You can return to your rooms. It's completely safe. We're very sorry for the trouble.

Questions 9-12:

M: Hi, Professor Smith. Do you have a few minutes?

W: Sure. How can I help?

M: I want to know how to write a good essay.

W: I see. What exactly is the problem?

M: Well, I'm not sure. I mean I take many notes, and I understand the lessons. It's just that my essays aren't very good.

W: Ah, yes. A good essay needs organization. Let's go over the format for an essay.

M: That'd be great.

W: So there are the three parts to an essay. First, there's the introduction. You need a strong introduction. This gives the main idea for your whole essay. OK?

M: That makes sense.

W: Next, there are the body paragraphs. They provide evidence or details for your main idea.

M: OK. [Slowly] I think I should write this down.

W: Yes, that is a good idea.

M: OK. [Quickly] Can you tell me about body paragraphs again?

W: Sure. The body paragraphs provide evidence or details.

M: Ahhh right.

W: And then there's your conclusion. The conclusion is just a summary of your main idea.

M: Wow! I've never thought of it that way.

W: Yes, it can make a big difference. Good organization is important for essay writing.

Questions 13-16:

M: Hi. Are you in charge of the Student Tutoring Center?

W: No, but I do tutor here.

M: Well, I need help with my mathematics class work. Can you help me?

W: That's fine. I'm actually a math major. I can help you. But, before we begin, I need to clarify the rules.

M: Rules? What rules?

W: Well, there are some things I can help you with, and some things I can't help you with. Let me explain.

M: OK.

W: First of all, our school has rules about cheating. It's pretty standard for schools nowadays. Anyway, according to the rules, if you cheat, then you can get kicked out of school.

M: That makes sense. I don't want them to punish either one of us because of tutoring.

W: Exactly. OK, so I can help you with things like learning strategies for studying, and studying from your notes. I can even help you take notes. However, when it comes to class work and homework, you're on your own. Are we all clear?

M: I think that's fair.

W: Good. OK, let's get started.

Questions 17-20:

M: Hi. Can I help you with anything?

W: Hi, Professor. Well, it's about our project that's due next week. I was wondering if I could get an extension. Can I get an extra week to do it?

M: Why are you asking?

W: I normally wouldn't, but I've been really sick and I was absent for a few of your lectures.

M: Well, I'm sorry but I can't give you an extension. However, I can suggest a couple of ways to make up for lost time.

W: I hope so. I really need a good grade or I could lose my scholarship. Then I wouldn't be able to pay my tuition.

M: You'll be fine. Here's what you can do: borrow one of your classmate's notes from the lectures that you missed. Ask if he or she can help explain them to you.

W: OK.

M: Or you can go to the library and do the research yourself. I can give you an outline of the lectures that you missed. You can look up the main information. Either way, you should be fine.

W: Yeah, I guess you're right. I should get started. Thanks.

Questions 21-25:

M: So I really appreciate your talking with me about this.

W: Well, I was concerned. Generally I think students should get a grade based on your overall work-but I could see that you didn't do as well on the last test ... and you had done very well on the first two exams.

M: I know. I was right in the middle of moving out of my dorm at the end of the semester and that was my last exam. Normally, I wouldn't ask to take an incomplete, but I just didn't feel that a lower grade really represented my work.

W: I agree. But, again, I don't usually like to do change-of grade forms.

M: OK. I understand

W: So ... well, I was thinking. Perhaps if you want to do an extra credit project ... Let's say, something that will help you pull your grade back up to an A minus?

M: I can do that. Look ... it's so important that I maintain very good grades. My financial aid package requires that I do ...

W: I can understand that.

M: So what should I do?

W: OK, here's the deal: You write a five-page paper on Shakespeare's worst play-and I mean, you have to read all of them to decide what his worst play was. And tell me why you think so.

M: Uh, wow ... that's ...

W: You want to get that change of grade, right?

M: Right, yeah. Of course.

W: Fine, so you'll have two weeks to write this paper shouldn't take you too long if you have done your reading.

M: Oh, I have. I've read all the plays. And I think I know which one I'm going to choose.

W: Fine. Don't tell me ... surprise me.

M: I will. So, what happens if I do a good job on the paper?

W: Then I will fill out the forms for a change of grade. It takes a few weeks after that, but the new grade should go on your transcript afterwards.

M: OK ... I guess I will have to go to the library over semester break ... thanks for your understanding.

Questions 26-30:

W: Hi. I really need your help. I've got to prepare for a presentation and I haven't got a clue about how to do a visual slide show ...

M: Well, that's why we're here. We have tutors who know all the word-processing and presentation programs. Uh, do you know what presentation viewer program you want to use?

W: I have no idea. Which is best?

M: That depends on what you want to do. Is your presentation just text or do you want to use visuals with all the bells and whistles?

W: Um, you mean like images and graphics, and things that move around on the screen?

M: Exactly. You can include sounds or video too ...

W: Yes, absolutely ... the better it looks, the better I hope my grade will be.

M: Oh I think it is important that a presentation looks good-but you have to have the substance too.

W: I guess so ... uh ...

M: You know what I mean ... if you have a good foundation for your presentation, you'll be fine.

W: Oh, right.

M: Anyway, I would advise you to use this presentation viewer program because it's pretty intuitive-you can figure it out as you go along.

W: I've never really tried it.

M: After your tutorial, I think you'll find it is pretty simple. Speaking of which, uh, when do you want to schedule your tutoring session?

W: As soon as possible! My presentation is next week and I'm nervous about speaking in front of other people anyway. It would be bad if I had no time to practice using the program.

M: That's true. So ... then, how about tomorrow at 2 p.m.? Bring your outline.

W: Great. I'll do that. Can I bring my laptop with me?

M: Sure ... see you then.

Questions 31-35:

With unemployment rampant in the economic depression of the 1930s, the government established a program to put people to work. It was called the Works Progress Administration, or WPA. The WPA funded the construction and maintenance of schools, parks and highways. A small subdivision of the WPA, uh the Federal Arts Project, or FAP, was dedicated to employing artists. The reasoning behind the FAP was that the arts, as much as schools and bridges, contributed to the public welfare. And of course artists at the time of the Depression were extremely vulnerable. Photographers were uniquely suited to the requirements of the FAP, not least because much of their work constituted documenting the achievements of the WPA. But documentation in the larger sense of capturing the reality of an entire country was the mission of many of the FAP photographers. One of the photographers funded by the FAP beginning in 1935 was Berenice Abbott. It was perfect timing for Berenice Abbott-she'd been photographing New York City since her return from Paris in 1929.

Long before the FAP came into being, her stated purpose was to document and interpret America with love, but without sentimentality. And she felt that New York represented the essence of the changing nature of American society. I want to just go back to that word, sentimentality. Because it relates to how we can define Abbott's approach to her art. As we talked about last week, photography in its initial stages had been used in a very painterly fashion. People like Abbott realized early on that photography's strengths had not been recognized or utilized. Abbott and her contemporaries rebelled against the widespread painterly use of soft focus in favor of the sharpness and clarity naturally inherent in photography. And they also rejected the sentimentality of typical pastoral scenes and landscapes in favor of a realistic depiction of fast-paced, modern urban life.

It was this sensibility that she brought with her to New York from Paris, where she had been living for eight years. Abbott's project was, simply put, to photograph New York City. She called her project "Changing New York." And the way she approached this project was to try to depict, through photography, the uh, interaction between human beings and solid architectural constructs. Or something like that ... I don't have the exact quote. See, she was trying to find a balance between buildings and activity. So she decided to use more than just a hand-held camera ... which was perfect for, you know, capturing the hustle and bustle of the city, but would not have done justice to the giant buildings that also define the city. At the same time, she didn't want to just overshadow everything with those buildings. So she began to use a large format camera.

One of those rather bulky cameras you have to put on a tripod and then you have to view the image under a black hood ... difficult to carry around, but it widened her vision. It allowed her to capture the size of massive modern buildings and also to juxtapose them in a shot with older, humbler ones. And to keep the life in her shots she would often wait until someone passed by and make sure they were in the frame. Or she would ask people to walk through or stand in the frame. So, she ended up using the large view camera for most of the work. Well, this "Changing New York" collection of 305 photographs is really a remarkable achievement. Its images are so powerful that Abbott is considered by many to be one of the twentieth century's greatest photographers.

In fact, one more contemporary photographer-Douglas Levere-was so inspired by her work that in the 1990s he decided to re-photograph Abbott's New York photos. Imagine this: Levere went to the same locations, on the same day and same time with the identical camera that Abbott had used. He reframed Abbott's shots as exactly as possible. Why would someone do that? I have to admit; when I first heard about this I was skeptical of one artist copying another so completely. But then I saw the photographs. And the amazing thing about them is that if you put them side by side with Abbott's, you see that they are a logical extension of her work. They take you even deeper into the contrast between the old and the new that Abbott so expertly revealed in the 1930s.