Section 2

You will hear a student union officer explaining about the union’s functions and services to a group of new university students.

Hello everyone. Now, here you all are, new university students, and the first question you probably have is ‘What is a student union?’ Another question is ‘Do I have to join?’ Well, regarding this second question, let me say that membership used to be compulsory in the past, but that did cause some controversy, particularly from students who wanted to remain free and unaffiliated, and this university responded. So, joining up is no longer compulsory. It’s totally up to you, although I’ll admit there is a fairly strong obligation to join, since all students benefit from the large variety of services that we offer. We do understand, however, that many might be unwilling to join because of a supposed political slant to the union. Traditionally, student unions have been seen as being dominated by the left, and I suppose that’s still true to a large extent. Mere, however, at this university, our union discourages such one-sided viewpoints, and students across the whole political spectrum are welcome. Thus, if you feel that you are a conservative type in other words, leaning to the right, you are particularly urged to join, to provide a more balanced representation,

Now, let me move back to the first question, ‘What are we?’ We are a formal organisation, but totally independent of the educational body. We make our own rules, rent our own premises, and organise ourselves as we wish, and our mission is basically to help you. For example, do you remember how you all arrived in late February, to have an Orientation Week? That gave you an invaluable induction into life here, right? Well, the student union organised all the festivities at the end of that the BBQs, partying and drinking, and even the musical entertainment as well. We’ll do that again on occasions, and as always, those events take place on the football ground. Now, do you have any questions before I move on?

Now, let me tell you move about the student union, and its basic functions. In general, there are three: social, organisational, and representational. Let’s look at the first one. Basically, the union provides many social outlets for you to relax and have a better life at university. If you go to our union office, you’ll find a list of the many clubs and societies we have, where you can make many friends with people who share a common interest. So, after class, sit with them in the cafeteria, and discuss whatever takes your fancy. We also maintain sporting facilities, and even our own gym, allowing you to relieve some of that pressure and worry after a particularly hard session in the classroom. And we have some small shops, and other places where you can buy clothes and sporting gear - in other words, some retail outlets, and if you flash your student union card, you’ll get up to 20% discount at the bookshop, but, unfortunately, there are no discounts at the union cafeteria. Sorry, no cheap cappuccinos! Finally, there’s a student union newspaper, and you’re welcome to contribute, or put in advertisements if you’re buying and selling goods or textbooks. You can also place notices of a more personal nature on the noticeboard of the union office itself.

Alright, let’s move on to our more serious functions, which are helping you get through life here, as well as representing you in times of trouble. Regarding the second issue, if you have a problem, or a grievance, or if you feel under pressure or depressed for reasons both inside and outside the university - for example, perhaps a dispute with your landlord or the people in your local gym - then come to us. We have a range of counselors and helpers, and even some lawyers who you can meet in the conference room. So, just sip a cup of tea or coffee with them, and tell them your troubles, and they’ll be all ears.

Basically, there’s every reason to join the student union, since whatever you need, whether it be social or representational, we will help you.

Section 3

You will hear two teachers talking about the work experience program for their students.

Tch. A Okay, we’ve got to arrange this program.

Tch. B Work experience. I believe quite strongly in this myself. Studies are often just too theoretical, and the best learning can be on-site.

Tch. A Sure, in principle, but you’ve got to find the right companies. For business students, it’s so easy with all the commercial enterprises around here, but for our lot of engineering students, it’s not so easy at all. Last year’s education students were easy, too. We just put them all into schools.

Tch. B Well, there are a few companies that will accept our students. Building sites are the main avenue to explore, but the trouble is that not many of these places want inexperienced learners around.

Tch. A Why not?

Tch. B Last year, when I did this, I think these companies were worried about accidents. Now, it’s more a time issue. They just don’t want to train people.

Tch. A But these people work for free.

Tch. B But training takes time, and in the economic recession, few companies want their personnel diverted for such purposes. But I did find some companies; enough for us, at least. But they all insist on one thing.

Tch. A Minimum work time of one month, right?

Tch. B No, that the students are appropriately insured! Remember, these are building sites, and there are quite a lew hazards there, and we’re putting untrained students, not trained students, right amongst them. So, these companies want financial coverage in case of accidents.

Tch. A Gee. is that going to be expensive?

Tch. B Yes, I’m afraid so, since we live in quite a litigious society. Consequently, insurance rates are sky high, almost unaffordable.

Tch. A I see. Can our budget meet this? Last year, we couldn’t pay for the program.

Tch. B This year, we can, since we have fewer students to deal with, but we’ll nevertheless have to cut comers in certain areas.

Tch. A Hmmm. I never like it when that happens.

Tch. B Neither do I.

Tch. A In which areas do we need to economise?

Tch. B Well, the payment to students is not going to change. After all, they won’t do this work unless they can get some money. We’ll also continue to subsidise their travel, as we did last year.

Tch. A Last year we gave them a completion bonus, too. It was a big success. Made them go through the whole month.

Tch. B But not this year. We’ll impress upon the students that possible failure could result if they don’t finish the whole term.

Tch. A Okay, I trust that will work.

Tch. A The most important issue for me about this work experience program is which companies are getting involved, and that was your job. What companies did you find?

Tch. B Right! Four companies are prepared to help out. Hepplewhite Distilleries, AJ and Sons Engineering, Johnson Demolition, and Sansoni Security.

Tch. A How many students can they take?

Tch. B Hepplewhite can take... five,... no, six...

Tch. A Six?

Tch. B Sorry, sorry, five! It’s limited at the moment by the winter, since beer drinking is lower around this time. As for AJ and Sons, that would be seven.

Tch. A Last year it was 17!

Tch. B Not this year, I’m afraid. Ah, the other two places are six and six, which makes up everyone. 24 of them.

Tch. A Right. What about... starting dates?

Tch. B Ah, that’s the problem. They cannot all start and finish on the same date, which makes this a little hard to dovetail with the academic semester. Hepplewhite can accept its cohort around... August 15^th. A.J are a little later, starting... five days later in fact.

Tch. A The 20^th?

Tch. B Actually, the 21st is what they said.

Tch. A And the other two?

Tch. B The demolition company can start earlier - the start of the month, the first; and the security firm will start three days later, on the fourth.

Tch. A Okay, that sounds good. And will all our students work for one month?

Tch. B Well, remember, it doesn’t have to be a full month, but just long enough to meet syllabus

requirements.

Tch. A So, how long is Hepplewhite going to use these students?

Tch. B They said three weeks, maybe four weeks if we want it.

Tch. A We want it. Tell them the longer option is necessary.

Tch. B Sure. Sure. I think they’ll accept that. The students will probably buy some of their product, which

will make the owners happy. Ah, as for the engineering company, it’s giving 24 days.

Tch. A That’s fine. And the demolition company?

Tch, B Ah, they’re saying two weeks - 14 days.

Tch. A Impossible! The students can’t complete their projects in such a short time. You’ll have to be stronger. Tell them minimum 18 days.

Tch. B Alright. The owner seems reasonable. He’ll probably accommodate us, if I throw in a few incentives.

That leaves the Security Company, which is offering...

Tch. A Let me guess. Ah, three weeks: 21 days?

Tch. B Almost. 22.

Tch. A Ha! I was close with my guess of 21.

Tch. B Just one day off.

Section 4

You will hear a lecturer talking about the process of fossilisation.

The foremost exhibition in any great natural history museum is almost invariably a skeleton of a large dinosaur ..... often the famous Tyrannosaurus Rex, or T-Rex, as it’s usually known. Thus, one would think that these skeletons are plentiful one for each museum, and more to spare in the basement. Well, here’s an interesting fact: almost every one of those T-Rex skeletons are just copies of the original fossils, and we only have 20 sets of these in the whole world, and the most complete is still missing one fifth of its bones, and the rest are missing a lot mots. And given that these dinosaurs once numbered in the thousands, and existed on this Earth for perhaps three million years, you can realise an obvious fact - fossilisation is actually an extremely rare occurrence.

Fossilisation can only occur when, after an animal dies, it is buried in soft mud or silt relatively quickly, before the body completely rots or is torn to pieces by scavengers. Given this fact, the overwhelming majority of fossils are in marine sediment, where former marine life sank to the sea bottom, where sediment was being continually deposited. This means that we have a fairly good idea of the life in Earth’s ancient oceans, but a much sketchier view of the land-based life-forms. Fossilisation on land needs water and mud, meaning that it is most often near ancient river sites and lakes, but it is still so rare that there are, in fact, large stretches of geological time about which we don’t quite know what was happening at all.

So, given that fossilisation is so rare, the natural question is, what can increase its odds? Well, fossilisation mostly occurs with organisms which meet three basic criteria. One, they must have hard body parts - for example: shells, plates, bones, and teeth. Unfortunately, the soft parts just rot away far too quickly to be fossilised, and I say unfortunately because it is often the soft fleshy features that most interest us. An elephant’s trunk, for example, would not fossilise, and from the skeleton alone, we would never know the trunk was there.

The second criterion for more likely fossilisation is that the organism in question must have existed in considerable numbers, and be spread over a wide geographical range. This simply increases the statistical probability that one of them will one day be fossilised, and hopefully found. Finally, and by the same logic, the species needs to have existed on the Earth for a long time, and the longer the better.

So, these are the three main criteria, but there are others. Being a large size, for example, helps us lo notice and discover them as fossils more easily, and being a marine organism, as mentioned, helps also, Trilobites a strange sort of ancient crab are a perfect example. Their body structure was one of hard plates; they existed over virtually lire whole world of their time, and over a huge span of geological history - over 250 million years in fact one of the longest ranges of any creature ever. Added to this, some species could grow to relatively large sizes, and they lived in the sea. Perfect! These creatures meet all the criteria, and as a result, museums all over the world are spilling over with trilobite fossils, of all shapes and sizes. As far as fossils go, they are common.

So, let’s think about T-Rex once again. It too basically meets all the criteria that we mentioned. It has hard parts, being the bones, had some dispersion, and had been around for a long time, although it cannot compare to trilobites in this respect. However, it does have one important advantage over trilobites - it is large, very large, which means we can discover it far more easily than many other fossils. And here’s another advantage. Dinosaur hunters are a dedicated and fanatical breed, continually at work in all the likely sites of the world. Basically, us human beings are fascinated by these creatures, so much that we are always searching for them, probably more than any other types of fossil, meaning that more T-Rexes will inevitably spring up in the future, and one is certainly glad for this.