托福听力文本-Test 3(上)

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　　Students on Campus

　　Man: I wish I were as sure about my future as you seem to be. I . . . I really don’t know what I want to do after I graduate.

　　$ Woman: Well, have you talked with a counselor over at the Office of Career Development?

　　$ Man: No. . . . I talked to my academic advisor, though.

　　$ Woman: That’s good, but it’s really better to see someone who specializes in helping people make career decisions. You see, an academic advisor is there to help you work out your academic program. You know, figure out what your major is going to be and which courses to take and all that. But a career counselor has a lot of experience and resources to help you decide what you want to do in the work world.

　　$ Man: Did you see a career counselor?

　　$ Woman: I sure did. Last semester. I was . . . well, I didn’t even know what I would be good at, for a career, I mean. So I made an appointment at the Office of Career Development, and I talked with a counselor.

　　$ Man: Do you remember who it was?

　　$ Woman: Sure. It was Ruth Jackson.

　　$ Man: Oh, but since I’m interested in careers for math majors, probably I should see someone else.

　　$ Woman: Not really. Any of the counselors can help you. Look, first I took some aptitude tests and something called a . . . uh . . . I think it was called a career inventory. Anyway, I took several tests, and then the counselor gave me some ideas about different careers. I even went to some group sessions with some other students for a few weeks. Mrs. Jackson was the group leader, so, um, that’s how I met her, and then I just sort of naturally started making my appointments with her when I needed some advice.

　　$ Man: It sounds like it took a lot of time. I’m so busy already.

　　$ Woman: Well, it did take time. Probably three hours for the tests, and I think I went to maybe four group sessions, and then I saw Ruth a couple of times. I guess about nine or ten hours probably. But it was worth it.

　　$ Man: So, is that why you decided to go into library science? Because of the tests and everything?

　　$ Woman: In part. But, mostly it was because of the internship. You see, I also got my internship through the Office of Career Development. And when I was working as an intern in the public library, it all sort of came together for me. I really liked what I was doing, and I realized that I didn’t want the internship to end.

　　$ Man: And you get paid for working there in the library too, don’t you?

　　$ Woman: I get paid, and I get credit toward my degree. But even better, I have a job offer from the library where I’m doing my internship.

　　$ Man: Wow! Are you going to take it?

　　$ Woman: I think so. I have to let them know next week. If I do take the job, I’ll have to go to graduate school to get a degree in library science, but I can do that part-time while I’m working, and I had thought about graduate school anyway. So, I’m leaning toward taking the job.

　　$ Man: That’s great, Anne. I’m glad for you. So, uh, I guess I’d better make an appointment with Ruth Jackson. Maybe she can find me an internship.

　　$ Woman: Maybe.

　　Sociology Class

　　Professor: Social influence involves the changes in behavior influenced by the actions of other people. Social influence can come about for a variety of reasons, on a continuum from mere suggestion to, in the more severe form, well, to torture. How does social influence work? Well, first we must become aware of a difference between ourselves and the values or behaviors of other people. There are a great many studies of social influence that demonstrate how the presence of others can cause us to change our attitudes or actions. Studies show that people eat more when dining with others than, and I’m talking about dining out here, so they eat more in the company of others than they do when they’re alone. They also run faster when others are running with them. There’s even some interesting research on social influence among animals with similar results to . . . to those of human studies.

　　Probably one of the most interesting aspects of social influence is the pressure for conformity. Conformity is a process by which an individual’s opinion or behavior moves toward the norms of the group. In a classic study by Solomon Asch, seven people were shown cards with three lines drawn on them. Here’s an example:

　　So, they were shown the lines, and then they were asked to select the line among the three that matched the, uh . . . the . . . standard line. Here’s the standard. So there’s no question as to the comparison. This has to be easy, right? Wrong. You see, Asch enlisted the cooperation of six of the seven participants in the experiment. On the first card, the six respond correctly—they . . . they identify the lines of the same length—so the seventh person, who is the only real subject in the experiment, well, the seventh person answers correctly, in agreement with the others. But on the next card, four of the cooperating participants choose an incorrect answer, but they’re in agreement, so the problem for the subject is whether to conform to the opinion of the peer group, even though the answer, uh, is in conflict with the answer that the subject knows to be correct.

　　So what do you think happened? Well, subjects who were tested alone made errors in answers fewer than 1 percent of the time. This was the control group. But of those tested in groups of seven, let’s see, uh, 75 percent yielded at least once to conform to a group answer that was clearly incorrect, and on average, subjects conformed to the group in about 37 percent of the critical trials. This means that they were bringing their behavior into agreement with group norms in . . . in spite of what they were seeing.

　　Later Asch manipulated the size of the control group . . . I’m sorry, the experimental group . . . to see whether group size would affect pressure, and it did, but probably less than you might expect. Um . . . groups of four demonstrated about the same results as groups of eight. Interestingly enough, a unanimous agreement by the group was more important than the number. In other words, a unanimous opinion by three exerted more pressure to conform than a majority of seven with a dissenting opinion in a group of eight.

　　Similar experiments have been performed in various countries, among diverse cultural groups, with, um, comparable results. Of course, people in cultures that emphasize group cooperation tended to be more willing to conform, but remember that many of the original studies were done in the United States where there’s a high value placed on individualism. In an interesting variation on the study, Abrams found that conformity is especially strong when the group is selected from among those people that the subject clearly identifies with, either because, um . . . they have characteristics in common or . . . or they know each other and interact in a peer group outside of the experimental situation.

　　So what does all of this mean in the real world? Well, since group members can influence one another to conform to the opinion of the group, the group . . . decisions of a group, uh, may be called into question. What about decisions by political committees or parliaments? What about juries who are charged with convicting or acquitting an accused defendant? Clearly, social influence will play a part in these critical group decisions.

　　Also interesting is the fact that after a decision is made by a group, there’s a tendency to solidify, and by that I mean that the group becomes even more convinced of the validity of the group opinion. Um . . . this may happen because individual group members who strongly support the group tend to be more popular with the group members.

　　Art History Class

　　Professor:

　　$ We know that the Chinese had been aware of basic photographic principles as early as the fifth century B.C., and Leonardo da Vinci had experimented with a dark room in the 1500s, but it was a number of discoveries in chemistry during the eighteenth century that, uh, accelerated the development of modern photography. The discovery that silver salts were light sensitive led to . . . experimentation with images of light on a . . . a surface that had been coated with silver. Often glass was used in the early images. But the problem was that these images were ephemeral—fading after only a short time. Some of the chemists who worked with them called them fairy pictures, and considered them, uh, that they were only momentary creations, uh, that they would disappear.

　　Okay. How to fix the image permanently was one of the most important, uh, challenges . . . of the early photographer chemists. In France, in about 1820, Nicephore Niepce discovered a method for fixing the image after a long exposure time, oh, probably eight hours. So, although his work was considered interesting, it was, uh, uh, largely dismissed for . . . as impractical. Nevertheless, one of his associates, Louis Daguerre, managed to find a way to, uh, reduce . . . the exposure time to less than twenty minutes. So the story goes, in 1835, Daguerre was experimenting with some exposed plates, and he put a couple of them into his chemical cupboard, so a few days later, he opened the cupboard, and, uh, to his surprise, the latent images on the plates had developed. At first, he couldn’t figure out why, but eventually, he concluded that this must have occurred as a result of mercury vapor . . . from a broken thermometer that was also in the, uh, enclosed in the cupboard. Supposedly, from this fortunate accident, he was able to invent a process for developing latent images on . . . on exposed plates.

　　The process itself was somewhat complicated. First, he exposed copper plates to iodine which

　　released fumes of, uh, of light-sensitive silver iodide. These copper plates were used to capture the image, and by the way, they had to be used almost immediately after their exposure to the iodine. So, the image on the plate was then exposed to light for ten to twenty minutes. The plate was developed over mercury heated to about 75 degrees centigrade, which . . . that caused the mercury to amalgamate with the silver. Now here’s the ingenious part—he then fixed the image in a warm solution of common salt, but later he began using sodium sulphite. Anyway, after he rinsed the plate in hot distilled water, a white image was left permanently on the plate. And the quality was really quite amazing.

　　But, um . . . the process had its limitations. First, the images couldn’t be reproduced, so each one was a unique piece, and that, uh, greatly increased the cost of photography. Second, the image was reversed, so the subjects would actually see themselves as though they were looking in a mirror, although, uh, in the case of portraits, the fact that people were accustomed to seeing themselves in a mirror made this less . . . this problem less urgent than some of the others. Nevertheless, some photographers did point their cameras at a mirrored reflection of the image that they wanted to capture so that the reflection would be reversed, and a true image could be produced. Okay. Third, the chemicals and the fumes that they released were highly toxic, so photography was a very dangerous occupation. Fourth, the surface of the image was extremely fragile and . . . had to be protected, often under glass, so they didn’t disintegrate from being . . . from handling. The beautiful cases that were made to hold the early images became popular not only for aesthetic purposes but, uh, but also for very practical reasons. And finally, although the exposure time had been radically reduced, it was still . . . inconveniently long . . . at twenty minutes, especially for portraits, since people would have to sit still in the sun for that length of time. Elaborate headrests were constructed to keep the subjects from moving so that the image wouldn’t be ruined, and, uh, many people simply didn’t want to endure the discomfort.

　　But, by the mid 1800s, improvements in chemistry and optics had resolved most of these issues. Bromide as well as iodine sensitized the plates, and some photographers were even using chlorine in an effort to decrease exposure time. The . . . the portrait lens was also improved by reducing the size of the opening, and limiting the amount of light that could enter, so the exposure time was about twenty seconds instead of twenty minutes. And negative film had been introduced in France, sorry, in England, and negatives permitted the production of multiple copies from a single image. So, photography was on its way to becoming a popular profession and pastime.

　　Admissions Office

　　Student: Excuse me, but the secretary referred me to your office.

　　$ Assistant: Yes?

　　$ Student: I’m a new student . . . well, actually, I’m not enrolled yet, but I’m trying to get all my admissions applications turned in today.

　　$ Assistant: What’s your name?

　　$ Student: Robert Franklin.

　　$ Assistant: Middle initial?

　　$ Student: T.

　　$ Assistant: Oh, I see. Wait a minute and we’ll find out what you have to do. . . . Well, according to the records here, you have your admissions form, a financial aid application, three letters of recommendation, transcripts from Regional College . . . so that’s everything you need except a transcript from County Community College.

　　$ Student: That’s what I thought. You see, I took a couple of courses there during the summer because it’s close to my parent’s house. Anyway, almost all of my first two years is from Regional College, and, uh, that’s where I’m transferring from. In fact, the credit for the community college courses appears on the transcript from Regional College as transfer credit, but, uh, it doesn’t show my final grades in the courses.

　　$ Assistant: Oh, and you haven’t been able to register for your courses here at State University because the computer shows that you are missing some of your application materials. Is that it?

　　$ Student: Exactly. What I was wondering is whether you have, like a policy for this kind of situation so I could go ahead and register for this first semester while we wait for the transcript to get here. It should be here now. I requested it the same time that I requested a transcript from Regional College, but they’re just slow at County Community.

　　$ Assistant: That happens sometimes. . . . Do you have a copy of your transcript from County Community College?

　　$ Student: Yes, I do. It’s right here. Of course, it isn’t an official copy. It’s stamped “unofficial copy.”

　　$ Assistant: But I can use this one until the official copy gets here. Here’s the best way to handle this. We can give you a provisional admission. That means that you’re admitted contingent upon the receipt of your official transcript. That will allow you to register for your courses this semester. When County Community College sends us your official transcript, then I can change your status from provisional admission to regular admission.

　　$ Student: Oh, that’s great!

　　$ Assistant: Is this the only copy you have of your transcript?

　　$ Student: No. I have another one.

　　$ Assistant: Good. Then I’ll just keep this in your file.

　　$ Student: Okay.

　　$ Assistant: Now the only problem is you can’t register for next semester without regular admission status, and you need the official transcript for me to do that, so you still need to keep after them to get everything sent to us as soon as possible.

　　$ Student: Right. Well, I’ll do that. But at least I have some time to get it done. . . . Um . . . what do I need to do now . . . to get registered, I mean.

　　$ Assistant: Just wait here while I enter everything into the computer, and then you can take a copy of your provisional admission along with you to the office for transfer students. They’ll assign you an advisor and help you get registered later today.

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