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Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class. The professor will discuss comets.

Comets are small bodies in space that are characterized by gaseous emissions, and consist of a solid nucleus, a cloudy atmosphere which is called the coma, and a tail. This is an example of a comet.
As you can see, the nucleus is made of ice with rocks and dust particles encrusted in it. As a comet approaches the sun, some of the ice on the surface vaporizes, and the gas and dust particles that were embedded in the ice of the nucleus are released and blown back by the solar wind, forming a hydrogen atmosphere and the tail of the comet. The tails of comets always point away from the sun because the solar wind pushes them back.
Most comets have a nucleus that is less than ten miles in diameter, but the comas can extend out nearly one million miles. Some tails have been known to trail 100 million miles behind their comets.
We classify comets as either short-period comets or long-period comets, depending on how long they take to orbit the sun. Short-period comets require fewer than 200 years, whereas long-period comets need more than 200 years. As far as we can tell, the short-period comets have their origin in a belt of comets that lies just beyond the orbit of Pluto. The long-period comets come from a cloud of comets one thousand times farther away than Pluto. Most comets travel in elongated orbits that cross the circular orbits of the planets. Thus, the possibility of collision does exist at the points where the orbits intersect. Look at this drawing which shows the orbit of four planets with several comets intersecting them. See what I mean?
Oh yes, another interesting point. Some of the craters on the satellites of the outer planets are probably evidence of past cometary collisions. And even the craters on the Earth's moon could have been caused by comets.

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class. The professor is talking about water fowl.

Almost all of the fourteen varieties of geese are found in the Northern Hemisphere. Like ducks, they make long migrations in the winter, although they do not travel as far as most ducks do. Geese are usually larger than ducks and smaller than swans, but there is a great variation within the family of geese. Some varieties weigh as little as two pounds, while others weigh as much as twenty pounds.
Unlike the case of ducks, it is difficult to distinguish between the female, called a goose, and the male, called a gander, because their coloring is so similar. The males and females do not mate until they are three years old, but when they do, they mate for life. The offspring, called goslings, remain with their parents for one year. Then the young ganders establish their own nesting territory and begin to defend it from intruders. These territories are often located in the grassy shorelines that provide the materials for their nests, including grass, twigs, and reeds. The gander stays with the female to protect and raise the young goslings, especially urgent during the first forty to eighty-five days that it takes for the young to master flight.
Many species of geese fly in a vee formation. The group has a leader, and the movement of air by the wings of each bird in the formation makes the task of flying easier for the bird behind it. On long migrations, several geese will take turns leading the group.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the questions.

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a botany class. The professor will discuss cacti.

The cactus is one example of the way that plants adapt to extreme conditions of climate. A cactus like this one has the same basic structure as all other plants, but the function of leaves is carried out by the stems and branches of the plant.
Here are some more examples of the most familiar cacti — the barrel, the Saguaro, and the prickly pear. As you see, they all have stems, branches, or spines, but no leaves. In spring, they may have beautiful blossoms.
It is assumed that the predecessors of the modern cactus had leaves, but that during millions of years of changes in the climate, resulting in desert conditions, the cactus gradually adapted to the hotter, drier environment. The roots spread out and began to grow closer to the surface so that water could be absorbed more quickly. The roots and spongy or hollow stem of the cactus began to serve as a storage container for water, and the outer layer of the plant developed thick, waxy walls to prevent the water from draining out. Some varieties of cactus actually have ribbed folds that expand and contract depending on the volume of water stored inside the stem.
Although there are a very few members of the cactus family that retain their leaves, in most cacti, they have evolved into spines, needles, or hairs to protect the plant in areas where little green vegetation is available for foraging animals. In cacti without leaves, the stems and branches carry out the nutritive functions that usually take place in the thin leafed surfaces of other plants.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the questions.

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an education class. The professor will talk about the history of the college and university system in the United States.

In 1857, Justin Smith Morrill introduced a bill in Congress to provide the states with public lands for the purpose of establishing colleges to train students in agriculture and mechanical arts. Twenty thousand acres were to be proportioned for each Senator and Representative that the state had in Congress. Proceeds from the sale of the land were to be used in the state as a perpetual fund, the interest on which was to be used to support the state college. Within a period of five years, a college had to be established. Although the bill passed both houses by narrow margins, President Buchanan vetoed it, and the vote in the House was insufficient to override the veto. Four years later, Morrill introduced a similar bill, increasing the acreage to thirty thousand for each Representative and Senator, and President Abraham Lincoln signed it into law.
From their inception, land grant institutions have played an important role in the development of agriculture, veterinary medicine, home economics, and engineering. Seventy-five percent of all bachelor's degrees conferred in the United States and two-fifths of all engineering degrees are awarded by land grant colleges. Earle Ross has called these institutions democracy's colleges because the tuition and other fees paid by students have traditionally been kept low, with forty-one percent of the funding appropriated by the state government, and another thirty percent by the federal government. For this reason, the children of many middle class families in the United States have found their opportunity for higher education at the land grant schools in their states.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the questions.

Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an introduction to engineering.

In an earlier age, there was a great distinction in the public mind between science and engineering. Whereas the scientist was thought of as an intellectual, motivated by desire for knowledge and order, the engineer was thought of as a busy, practical person, involved in producing something for which the public was willing to pay. The scientist might discover the laws of nature, but the engineer would be the one to exploit them for use and profit.
Historically, however, the distinction has not been valid. In every century, noted theoretical scholars were deeply involved in the practical application of their own work. For example, in the seventeenth century, Christian Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who developed theorems on centrifugal force and wave motion, also developed the first accurate timepiece. In the eighteenth century, the British mathematician and philosopher Sir Isaac Newton was credited not only with advancing theories of mechanics and optics, but also with inventing the reflecting telescope, a direct application of his theory. In the nineteenth century, the French chemist and bacteriologist Louis Pasteur first proposed theories of disease, and then set about the discovery of vaccines for anthrax and rabies, as well as the process for purification that bears his name to this day.
I propose that the popular detachment of science from engineering has not provided us with a useful model for comparison, and perhaps not even an historically correct one.

Narrator: Now get ready to answer the questions.

In the lecture the professor made several points about the benefits of earthworms. The professor argues that earthworms aren’t at all beneficial in fact, they are causing damage to forests, plants and even to animals. On the other hand, the reading contends that earthworms are extremely beneficial for every living being in this world. This way the professor’s lecture cast doubt on the reading by using several points that are contrary to the beliefs of the author of the passage.

The first point that the professor uses to cast doubt on the reading is the damage the earthworms are causing to the fauna. According to the professor, the new researchers have found that the worms are destroying the forest soil. This differs from the reading which states that earthworms actually help improve the water drainage and change the structure of the soil.

Next the professor discusses the reading’s point about the benefits plants have from earthworms. The professor claims that the earthworms are cleaning the duff, the organic matter that helps and improves the growth of plaints. He says that earthworms are causing the wildflowers to disappear which used to attract tourists and photographers, because the earthworms are taking all the nutrients from the land. However, the reading states that these insects are helping plant growing because their bodies are full of minerals and proteins which they release into the soil.

Another reason why the lecture is different from the reading is that the earthworms are causing the disappearance of not only plaints but also of animals and other insects. This opposes the reading which asserts that earthworms have a positive impact on ecosystem. These points demonstrate why the reading passage is in doubt.
I had to write this in 20 minutes.