Exercise
You will hear a series of short passages. Each is the body of a larger listening. Open the Exercise link and while each is being played, write key words you hear for each question. Don't write any grammar or connectors and don't worry about the organization of the words. Focus on the main ideas you hear only and write those down. The first one has been done as an example.
Listening
Number 1
Transcript
Number one. An additional aspect that sets a fad apart from a trend is its scope within a given industry. Trends seem to cross over into a number of industries whereas a fad tends to influence only one.
For example, in the 1950s there was a huge fad, some say the biggest of all time, which revolutionized marketing in the toy industry. In the late 1950s over 25 million hula hoops were sold within only a few months. You know those plastic circles you spin around your waist? Those are hula hoops.
Well, people thought this would continue forever and many people put a lot of money into their development and promotion. Unfortunately for them, and here's the lesson learned by marketers, a year later sales were practically non-existent. Why did this happen?
Well, people were incredibly interested in the hula hoop but it was a toy that had a single purpose and once people had their fun with it they put it away. That's a fad. Mobile phones are different in this regard as they serve several purposes, even as a fashion accessory, and when they are popular they are a trend, not a fad.
Number 2
Transcript
It's still not totally clear to people, and this includes the experts, as what the actual differences are between nuts and seeds. Is a nut a seed? If you look in different sources, you'll find contradictory information. So what's the easy distinction? Well nuts are in fact seeds, however not all seeds can be classified as nuts, and that's more confusing. The scientists that study this kind of thing, they're called botanists, define a seed as part of a plant that, if placed in the ground, will eventually grow into a new plant. Kind of like an egg, except chickens don't bury those. Now some seeds become easily detached from their outer fruit, like taking seeds out of a watermelon, but these types of seeds cannot be separated further without damaging them. Now nuts, like the typical almond, walnut, or hazelnut, are seeds that have a separable inner kernel, that's K-E-R-N-E-L, which is a part that we eat. But this gets even more confusing when we look at sunflower seeds, which, although they are cracked open to be eaten, are not nuts.
Number 3
Transcript
Number three, luckily many signals that someone may have Internet Addiction Disorder or IAD have been identified by psychologists. The key one is how much time the person spends or wants to spend on the Internet. It's not really how many hours but rather the fact that it's never enough. They always want to be online longer and longer and when they are not on the Internet, this is another symptom, they think about it all the time, even dream about it. Even when doing other activities, they can be agitated and nervous because of their desire to be surfing the Net and when they do get online, there's this tremendous sense of relief, just like a drug addict getting their drugs after being denied them for too long. Like other addictions, IAD can also disrupt people's social lives and both personal and professional relationships. Internet time can take importance over time with friends and family. Cyber relationships become more real and more important than actual face-to-face meetings with others. As a result, relationships break and those with IAD become even more isolated and dependent on the Internet.
Number 4
Transcript
The process by which this happens, how many species go from one island to the next, all relates to the equilibrium that needs to be maintained between pre-existing and new immigrant species, as well as the number of species an island can support.
If one island has no species at all, the possibilities for new species migrating there are high.
If another island has 100 species, and one migrates to the new island, now there are only 99 more species that could set up on the new island.
Remember, this is the number of species, not the number of animals.
Of course, there is another process that could result from this migration, now that there is a new species on the island, and that is extinction.
That new species now has the possibility of becoming extinct on the new island.
This process of migration and extinction of species will continue until a certain balance is reached.
First, only species that are suited for life on the new island, they can eat what's there and can endure the climate, can remain.
Also, the island will have a limit as to how many species can coexist on the island in terms of competition for resources and living space.
Number 5
Transcript
What was most amazing about NASA's Mariner missions was the ground floor images they beamed back to Earth.
Unlike the smooth surface astronomers expected to see, Mars was full of craters much like our moon.
Even more surprising, the atmosphere on the red planet turned out to be only 1% as dense as Earth's, and this was nearly 100% carbon dioxide, as were the frozen north and south polar caps.
This definitely questioned the idea that Mars may support Earth-like life forms.
Some of the more lush looking areas some thought might be plant life was actually just dust storms raging across the Martian surface.
Some people on Earth may have been extremely disappointed by this new discovery, but there were some equally interesting new discoveries that could not be seen from Earth.
Mars had huge volcanoes, much bigger than any on Earth, ever.
And there were valleys and canyons that spread across the surface that were sure evidence that water had, at some point in the past at least, been flowing in great quantities on the planet.
This was good news for those hoping life existed at any time in Mars' history, because where there is water anywhere on Earth, even in the most desolate and miserable conditions, there is inevitably life.
Maybe microscopic and unintelligent, but still life.
So scientists shifted their focus and search.
They started to dig holes and collect rocks.