English Recordings

Plagiarism

Topic: Plagiarism in academics has become a pressing problem in many countries today. What are the causes of this problem? What are some possible solutions?

Model answer:

Plagiarism has become a serious issue in academic circles in recent decades. The main causes of this center around the dissemination of information to countries with varying attitudes to intellectual property rights and the solutions are strict censures of plagiarised works.

In many countries, plagiarism is not considered an offence or treated very lightly. For example, students in Vietnam grow up in an environment where copyright is largely just for show. It is common practice for photocopy shops to print or copy entire books with no legal repercussions. In school, many students are instructed to memorise and reproduce the works of others and prohibited from coming up with their own ideas. The rise of Facebook, which hardly polices IP rights, has led to further lawlessness. Altogether, theft is culturally permitted if not encouraged. Countries around the world all have differing standards based on their history, culture, and legal frameworks.

The best solutions for plagiarism are to implement degrees of punishments. Those who outright copy and paste works and pass them off as their own for commercial purposes should be subject to full criminal and civil prosecution. This will limit the most extreme cases. Sharing and posting materials on the internet is a thornier issue because the perpetrators do not always receive direct financial benefit and can be difficult to track down. In these cases, it is the websites, such as Facebook, that must police members and initiate warnings and bans to repeat offenders.

In conclusion, the pertinent threat of plagiarism means both companies and countries must work in tandem to limit any potential damage. In the future, this issue will only become more difficult to extricate so it is advisable that preventive measures be put in place now.

Roads in Major Cities

Topic: The roads in major cities today are often difficult to travel on. What are the causes of this? What are some possible solutions?

Model answer:

As world populations transition from rural to urban settings, there has been a resultant degradation of travel conditions within cities. The main causes of this are all related to overpopulation and the solution is for governments to incentivise living outside city limits.

The clearest source of crowded roads and degrading infrastructure is surging urban populations. Research has shown that now more than half the world is densely packed into cities built hundreds of years ago. Take Boston as an example. Boston was built for a population of under 100,000 people, who mainly travelled by walking or riding horses and carriages. Today the population is nearly a million and that means the narrow roads are gridlocked with traffic during rush hour. The relentless pounding of an overpopulated city also means that the roads suffer from greater wear and tear, which necessitates constant maintenance and exacerbates the average citizen’s daily commute.

In order to mitigate these issues, governments could encourage people to move outside cities. One half measure would be to lower taxes in neighboring districts. Many people could still commute to work from nearby suburbs, as is the case in most major cities already. Governments could also give special tax breaks and dispensations to companies that allow workers to work remotely. This would free people up to live outside of cities or, if they opt to remain in the city, they at least would not contribute to rush hour traffic.

In conclusion, worsening travel conditions for urban dwellers can be curbed through government intervention. The nations that take up this cause will be well placed to compete in a rapidly evolving 21st century.

Entertainers & Politicians

Topic: Nowadays, entertainers get paid more than politicians. What are the reasons for this? Is this a negative or positive development?

Model answer:

These days entertainers invariably earn higher wages than politicians. In my opinion, this is the result of technological growth in the entertainment industry and it is a positive development because politics should not be a means to amass a fortune.

Entertainment is one of the most lucrative industries today largely due to developments in media distribution. Vaudeville actors and musicians in the early 20th century were looked down on and earned little. The birth of cinema in the 1920s and the rise of television in the 1950s allowed entertainers to reach a wider audience. From there the rise has continued not only with the diversification of television but also the invention of CDs, portable music players, the internet, and streaming websites like Netflix and YouTube. All this new media reaches the majority of the world’s population who then pay for the content by subscribing or watching paid advertisements.

This is a positive development because politics should not be a profit driven profession. A good example of this would be the early American founding founders, including Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, both of whom sacrificed private wealth for public service. Hamilton was the leading lawyer in New York and when he enthusiastically joined Washington’s cabinet he took a drastic cut in salary. By the end of his term, he was mired in debt but had no regrets as he viewed public political action as far more valuable than private capital. Politicians ought to earn a good salary but this should never subvert their chief motive in serving their country.

In conclusion, entertainers make more money due to the advent of the media age and politicians should not be jealous of their wealth. Unfortunately, many politicians are selfishly compelled by economic gain when they ought to be more self-interested in terms of their role in public life.

The Space race
The USA and the Soviet Union competed in exploring space from 1957 to 1969, a period called the Cold War. They aimed at sending humans into space and landing on the Moon. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, was the first human to see the earth from space in April 1961. But the Moon landing race was won by the Americans on July 20th, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon while Michael Collins stayed in the Apollo 11 spacecraft; Space exploration led to technical progress resulting in many practical inventions.

AUNT: Up ! Get up ! Now !

DUDLEY : Wake up, cousin! We’re going to the zoo!

AUNT : Oh ! Here he comes, the birthday boy.

UNCLE : Happy birthday, son.

AUNT : Cook breakfast and try not to burn anything.

HARRY : Yes, Aunt Petunia.

AUNT : I want everything to be perfect … for my Dudley’s special day!

UNCLE: Hurry up ! Bring my coffee, boy.

HARRY : Yes, Uncle Vernon.

AUNT : Aren’t they wonderful, darling ?

DUDLEY : How many are there ?

UNCLE : 36. Counted them myself.

DUDLEY : 36 ! But last year … last year I had 37 !

UNCLE : Yeah, but some are bigger than last year’s.

DUDLEY : I don’t care !

AUNT : Oh ! oh ! oh ! This is what we’re going to do. When we go out we’re
going to buy two new presents. How’s that, pumpkin ?

Enter the maze, turn left and go straight on until you must turn right.
Then, go up, past the obstacle and until the end of the path.
Turn right. Go straight ahead until the end of the path and go down.
Turn right and go straight on until the end of the path.
Go down and walk around the obstacle until the end of the path.
Then, go left. Go straight ahead until you reach the end of the path.
Go up, turn right to go past the green sign. Go up, turn left and go up.
Turn right and take the first turning on the left.
Go straight ahead, go down and go straight ahead.
You have reached your destination!

Stadiums: past, present and future

Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the public could watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back as the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great medieval cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th century railway stations which dominated urban skylines in later eras.

Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair.

But this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban development and adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and planners are finding new ways to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which became emblematic of modernization during the 20th century.

The amphitheatre of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, is perhaps the best example ofjust how versatile stadiums can be. Built by the Romans in 90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century, and was then transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses. With the growing interest in conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use as a venue for public spectacles.

Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for 30,000 spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40 years before Rome’s famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is currently considered one of the world’s prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics.

The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza dell’ Anfiteatro, is yet another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming absorbed into the fabric of the city. The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was progressively filled with buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison. But rather than reverting to an arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops and residences surrounding the public square.

There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres intended for games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and reinforced concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches.

Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only and surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as accessible to the general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat.

But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help improve the city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular success: the stadium as an urban hub, and as a power plant.

There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services that serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres, restaurants and bars, children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making more efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces.

This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of catering only to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of this in the UK: the mixed-use facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a blueprint for many other stadiums in the world.

The phenomenon of stadiums as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy problems can be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a smart grid, which is an electricity supply network that uses digital communications technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, without significant energy losses. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 40 metres) to make use of micro wind turbines.

Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as power plants, which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium. The latter, inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14 GWh of electricity annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660 tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in use. This is proof that a stadium can serve its city, and have a decidedly positive impact in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions.

Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every era, the stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to residential village, public space to theatre and most recently a field for experimentation in advanced engineering. The stadium of today now brings together multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a sustainable future.

The development of the London underground railway

In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to resolve these problems, but few succeeded.

Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time. His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work. Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.

The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August 1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at Farringdon Street – a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and his partners persisted.

The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-year period, £lm was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to minimise the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be completed in 21 months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It was built just below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily held up with timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was added to create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the road above rebuilt.

The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried between Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the end of the Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made.

Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line were being authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east of London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that were fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.

Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the existing underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended to the suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of construction was not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to tunnel deep underground.

Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that the world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became possible. The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the River Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric engines. The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof because it was thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel walls. The line was not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power supply. Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical achievement, it did not make a profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway, known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’, began operation using new electric locomotives. It was very popular and soon afterwards new railways and extensions were added to the growing tube network. By 1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in place.

Unit 3: A TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE | *READ:

Van, a student from Ho Chi Minh City, is an exchange student in the USA. He is now living with the Parker family on a farm 100 kilometers outside Columbus, Ohio. He will stay there till the beginning of October.

Mr. Parker grows maize on his farm, while Mrs. Parker works part-time at a grocery store in a nearby town. They have two children. Peter is the same age as Van, and Sam is still in primary school.

Since Van arrived, he has been learning a lot about life on a farm. In the afternoon, as soon as he completes his homework, he feeds the chickens and collects their eggs. On weekends, if Mr. Parker is busy, the three boys help him on the farm.

On Saturday afternoons Peter plays baseball. The Parker family and Van eat hamburgers or hot dogs while they watch Peter play. The Parkers are nice so Van feels like a member of their family.

Unit 3: A TRIP TO THE COUNTRYSIDE | *LISTEN AND READ:

On Sunday, Ba invited Liz to join his family on a day trip to his home village about 60 kilometers to the north of Hanoi. The village lies near the foot of a mountain and by a river. Many people go there on weekends to have a rest after a hard-working week.

The journey to the village is very interesting. People have the chance to travel between the green paddy fields and cross a small bamboo forest before they reach a big old banyan tree at the entrance to the village.

Liz met Ba’s family at his house early in the morning; and after two hours traveling by bus, they reached the big old tree. Everyone felt tired and hungry, so they sat down under the tree and had a snack.

After the meal, they started to walk into the village for about thirty minutes to visit Ba’s uncle. Then, they walked up the mountain to visit the shrine of a Vietnamese hero and enjoyed the fresh air there. In the afternoon, they went boating in the river and had a picnic on the river bank before going home late in the evening. It was an enjoyable day. Liz took a lot of photos to show the trip to her parents.

“I wish I could visit your village again some day,” Liz told Ba.

“You’ll always be welcome here, Liz,” Ba replied.