1. The professor describes two of the more popular theories on why the dinosaurs became extinct.
2. After an object from space hit Earth, lots of dirt and debris were thrown into the air, which decreased the amount of sunlight getting through to Earth.
3. Because there was less sunlight, plants died, so herbivorous dinosaurs no longer had a food source and died, and then the carnivores died soon afterwards.
4. After a super volcano erupted, it spewed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which caused global warming to occur rapidly.
5. The dinosaur eggs reacted badly to the heat, so more males were born, which meant that the dinosaurs could not reproduce.
STEP 3 |Response 解答| Make your response using the organized ideas.
The professor states that dinosaurs once ____________________ _
STEP 6 | Compare 比較 | Listen to a sample response, and compare it with yours.
Sample Response 模範解答
The professor states that dinosaurs once ruled Earth but suddenly became extinct. She gives two different theories to explain their disappearance. The first is that a meteor or asteroid struck Earth. She even says that some scientists know where it hit. The strike sent dirt up into the”atmosphere, which hid the planet from the sun. It got colder, and there was no sunlight, so all the plants died. Without food sources, the dinosaurs all died. The second theory is that there was an eruption of a super volcano. This filled the air with carbon dioxide, which caused the greenhouse effect to start on Earth. When subjected to heat, lizard and dinosaur eggs change. Females in eggs become males. So there were no more females being born, which meant that the dinosaurs couldn’t reproduce.
STEP 1 | Listening & Note Taking | Listen to a lecture , and take notes.
スクリプト
Have you heard about the positive externality effect? The positive externality effect is kind of a difficult theory to explain. Basically, it means that certain actions in society can help society as well as the individual. Let’s see. A common example is the flu shot. People can help themselves by getting a flu shot and keeping healthy. They might save some money by not missing work, avoiding the doctor and not having to pay for medicine. They also help society as a whole by not getting others sick. This is the positive externality effect. Of course, sometimes people don’t care about society and don’t get their shots. This hurts all of society, not just the individual. The government can help by reducing the costs of the shots or forcing people to get their shots.
STEP 6 | Compare 比較 | Listen to a sample response, and compare it with yours.
Sample Response 模範解答
The positive externality effect is a theory that when one person or a group of people is helped by something, the effect that it has on them will positively affect society as a whole. When a person gets a flu shot for example, it helps the person who won’t get the flu and it also helps everyone else that the person might have infected to.
STEP 1 | Reading 読解| Read the following an academic subject.
Creative Categorization
Marketing experts do their utmost to induce customers to purchase their products. Often, when faced with a product that, for whatever reason, does not appeal to a large segment of the population,marketers merely change the category it is in. This process is called creative categorization. By doing this, marketers can increase the appeal of a product. The two most common methods of creative categorization are to change the cost or design of a product. By doing so, products may go from being ones purchased by a small number of people to ones with mass appeal.
STEP 2 | Comprehending 読解力テスト | Answer the following questions to make sure you understand the reading
1. What do marketers attempt to do?
2 What do some marketers do when their products do not appeal to many people?
3 What is creative categorization?
4 What are the two most common ways marketers use creative categorization?
5 According to the passage, what is often the end result of creative categorization?
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5 ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
Comprehending 解答例
1. Marketers attempt to get people to buy their products.
2. Marketers change the category of their products in these cases.
3. Creative categorization is making a product more appealing by changing the category in which it is included.
4. Marketers often alter either the price of design of a product to change its category.
5. The end result of creative categorization is that the product often develops mass appeal.
▮ Listen
STEP 3 | Listening & Note Taking | Listen to a lecture about the same topic, and take notes.
スクリプト
Imagine you’re a marketing executive and you have some products to sell. There may even be a huge section of society which doesn’t purchase your products. Well, there are a couple of ways to break into that market.You might try changing the price of your product. Did you know, for example, that watches were once regarded as expensive pieces of jewelry? Timepieces used to cost too much for most people. But most of you have watches, right? What happened? Well, one brilliant marketer started touting watches as fashion accessories. Sales of watches leaped dramatically. You can get watches for less than ten dollars nowadays, and they come in all kinds of styles. By changing the category into which watches fell, they began appealing to a greater number of people. Here’s another. Think about cell phones. At first, their use was limited, and only rich people or businessmen used them. However, companies began marketing them to the masses. Now you’ve got kids and grandparents with cell phones these days. Does a six-year-old kid need a phone? Not at all. But marketers have made it so that phones are no longer outrageously expensive. Likewise, they aren’t considered tools only for the rich or for businessmen anymore. They’re fashion devices now, almost like accessories for many people.
The professor describes how two different products began to appeal to a greater number of people. Explain how they are related to creative categorization.
STEP 4 | Organizing 解答の組み立て | Ask yourself the following questions and organize your ideas.
1 What does the professor say about a problem marketing executives may have?
2 According to the professor, what used to be true about watches?
3 How have people’s perceptions of watches changed today?
4 At first, who used to use cell phones?
5 What is true about cell phone usage today?
1 ___________________________________________
2 _________________________________________
3 _______________________________________________
4 _______________________________________
5 _______________________________________________
解答例
1. According to the professor, people often need an explanation when they do not understand something
2. The professor wanted to save some numbers on his cell phone but did not know how.
3. The professor’s friend showed him how to save numbers on his phone step by step.
4. The show .talked about cell phones; however, ultimately, the professor still had no idea how to use his phone.
5. He knew the theory behind how cell phones work but could not put it into practice.
STEP 5 | Response 解答作成| Make your response using the above information.
The subject of the talk is ____________________________________
STEP 6 | Speaking 解答| Now say your response out loud, and record your time. While you are speaking, do not look at the written response.
Response time 45 seconds Your speaking time seconds
STEP 7 | Compare 比較 | Listen to a sample response, and compare it with yours.
Sample Response 模範解答
The subject of the talk is how marketing executives can transform a product with low appeal to one that has mass appeal. The professor states that watches actually used to be very expensive and were considered jewelry. However, this changed when marketers began promoting them as fashion accessories, so now they’re both cheap and prevalent. The second example given is that of cell phones. The professor declares that they were once expensive and used exclusively by rich people and businessmen. However, once companies began marketing them to the masses, now even young children and the elderly have them, often as fashion accessories. As described in the reading, these are both examples of creative categorization. The reading mentions that this is putting an existing product into a new category, often by changing its price or design, in order to make it attractive to more people.
STEP 8 自己採点
Delivery
1 How clearly did you speak your response?
Language Use
2 How well did you control language structures to convey your ideas?
3 How appropriately did you use vocabulary to convey your ideas?
STEP 1 | Reading | Read the following an academic subject.
Keystone Species
Some animals have disproportionate, yet positive, effects upon their environments for a number of reasons. These animals are referred to by scientists as keystone species. They receive this moniker because, just like the keystone is the crucial stone in an arch that keeps it from falling, without the presence of a keystone species, a particular habitat would be changed considerably, often for the worse. Animals can be keystone species for many reasons. The most prominent keystone species are predators, but other animals can positively change their habitats in other ways like changing the environment or spreading nutrients through their habitats.
STEP 2 | Comprehending 読解力テスト | Answer the following questions to make sure you understand the reading
1 What is a keystone species?
2 What is the importance of the word “keystone”?
3 What would happen to a habitat without the presence of a keystone species?
4 What is the main way in which animals serve as keystone species?
5 What are some other ways in which animals can be keystone species?
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5 ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
Comprehending 解答例
1. A keystone species is an animal that has a greater than normal effect on its environment.
2. The keystone is the most important stone in an arch, so a keystone species is the most important animal in its environment.
3. A habitat would change in a negative way without its keystone species.
4. The major way animals serve as keystone species is as predators.
5. Other ways animals can be keystone species are by changing their environments and spreading nutrients in their areas.
▮ Listen
STEP 3 | Listening & Note Taking | Listen to a lecture about the same topic, and take notes.
スクリプト
We’ve talked about some of the animals in Africa and the roles they play in their environments, but let me tell you about the most important one. Are you ready? It’s … the elephant. Really. I’m serious. Actually, the elephant is a keystone species in its part of Africa. Here, let me explain it. First, elephants have prodigious appetites. Do you know how much they eat daily? They chow down about 500 pounds of vegetation. Wow. Thanks to elephants, the areas in which they live don’t get overrun with plants. Why is this important? Well, if elephants weren’t there, their habitat would be filled with vegetation, which would cause most other animal species either to migrate or simply become extinct. They wouldn’t be able to handle the resulting new environment. Since they eat lots, elephants also defecate a lot. Because elephants are somewhat nomadic, they spread nutrients for the soil to absorb, and, through their waste, they essentially plant seeds, which will grow up to be plants that other animals can feed upon. Clearly, then, elephants are crucial to their environment.
Q The professor describes the importance of elephants to their habitats. Explain how the elephant’s importance relates to keystone species.
STEP 4 | Organizing 解答の組み立て | Ask yourself the following questions and organize your ideas.
1 What is the keystone species in Africa?
2 What is the importance of elephants eating so much vegetation daily?
3 What is the importance of elephants defecating in various places?
4 How do keystone species relate to elephants?
▮ Speak
STEP 5 | Response 解答| Make your response using the above information
The professor begins by telling__________________________________ _________________________________ According to the lecturer,____ ____________In the reading, ___________________________________
___________________________This represents the idea of___________
Something else to remember is ___________________________________
解答例
1. Elephants are the keystone species in Africa.
2. Elephants eat vegetation and keep plants from overrunning the region, which makes for a comfortable environment for many animals.
3. When elephants defecate in different places, they provide the soil with nutrients, and they spread different plants’ seeds, which will grow and then feed other animals.
4. Without elephants, Africa would be a drastically different place, so this makes them a keystone species.
STEP 6 | Compare 比較 | Listen to a sample response, and compare it with yours.
Sample Response 模範解答
The professor begins by telling the students that the keystone species in Africa is the elephant. He states that a keystone species is defined as an animal that has an incredibly large effect on its environment. While the most common keystone species are predators, there are other ways in which animals can serve as a keystone species. This is the case of the elephant. To begin with, elephants eat around 500 pounds of vegetation a day. This keeps the forest from expanding too much, something which would inconvenience other animals to the point that they would either migrate from the region or merely die off. Also, when elephants wander and defecate, they enrich the soil and plant seeds that will become other plants and trees. Animals can then use these new plants as food sources.
