Agent: 36782901. Furniture Insurance Agency. How can I help you?
Ariel: Good morning. I'd like to get some information about insurance for the furniture of my house.
Agent: Yes. You need to fill in the application form firstly. Can you come to our office?
Ariel: I'm afraid I can't. May I fill in the form by phone?
Agent: Sure. Are you ready?
Ariel: Yes. Let's begin.
Agent: OK. Let's start with the name. Could you tell me your full name?
Ariel: Ariel Smiley.
Agent: Could you spell your last name?
Ariel: Yes. It is S-M-I-L-E-Y.
Agent: Well, how old are you?
Ariel: I'm 27 years old.
Agent: OK, 27. And your nationality?
Ariel: I come from Europe.
Agent: Which country?
Ariel: Italy.
Agent: So your nationality is Italian?
Ariel: Right.
Agent: The next item is your present address.
Ariel: Well, I live in Flat 21C, Willow Road on North-West Hill.
Agent: Fine. 21C Willow Road, and do you know your postcode?
Ariel: Of course. It is 3GJ7K.
Agent: Right. Ariel, do you have a job or are you a student now?
Ariel: I worked as a dentist but now I am studying for doctoral degree in the University of Chicago.
Agent: So should I write doctoral student?
Ariel: Yes.
Agent: What's your major?
Ariel: My major is accounting.
Agent: A good choice.
Ariel: Thank you.
Agent: The next one item is contact number. Do you leave your home number or mobile?
Ariel: Which one is more convenient for you?
Agent: Mobile number, of course.
Ariel: My number is 3856 943 232.
Agent: OK.
Ariel: But...
Agent: What's the matter?
Ariel: I have a whole day class on Saturday and Sunday.
Agent: OK, I know. How long do you want to insure your contents?
Ariel: I'm not sure. How about one year?
Agent: Fine.
Agent: What furniture do you want to insure?
Ariel: Well, I've bought a new laptop last week. It is worth about 800 dollars.
Agent: Right. A laptop for 800 dollars.
Ariel: And I got a birthday gift yesterday from my father. It is a new digital camera.
Agent: How much does that cost?
Ariel: The receipt said it was 760 dollars.
Agent: 716 dollars.
Ariel: No. Not 16 but 60.
Agent: Oh, I'm sorry.
Ariel: That's OK.
Agent: Anything else?
Ariel: And a big colour TV and a new fridge.
Agent: For both of them?
Ariel: Yes.
Agent: How much do you think they are worth?
Ariel: Let me see... at least 1,950 dollars together.
Agent: Do you have their receipts now?
Ariel: Of course.
Agent: That's OK. Anything else?
Ariel: Yes. The last one thing is my jewelry. I've taken some from my country.
Agent: Yes. What are they?
Ariel: Such as jade bracelet and diamond necklace, some things like that.
Agent: So how much are they?
Ariel: In my mind they are worth at least 3,500 dollars.
Agent: Sure.
Ariel: So how much will the insurance cost?
Agent: Let me see. The total cost is about 7,000 dollars. And then divided by... plus 13%... right, so the insurance, mm, it comes to 900 dollars for a twelve-month period.
Ariel: Do you have any discount now?
Agent: Mm... I can help you cut down 50 dollars.
Ariel: So it is 850 dollars for one year insurance?
Agent: That's right.
Ariel: OK. I will take that policy. Thank you.
Agent: You are welcome. Could you give your credit card number?
Ariel: Yes. It is 3349 3267
Saleswoman: Good morning. How can I help you?
Customer: Well, I need like some advice about private car.
Saleswoman: Fine. Do you have any particular manufacturer in your mind?
Customer: My present car is Toyota. Of course, I think it is not bad, but I'm more interested in BMW.
Saleswoman: Sure. What will you use the car for?
Customer: What do you mean?
Saleswoman: I mean it is better to choose the model depending on the use. Such as for social use.
Customer: Well... I think mainly for travel and work. I like traveling. I often drive to some tour places on weekends.
Saleswoman: Fine. What size of the engine do you prefer to?
Customer: I am not sure. Could you give me some advice?
Saleswoman: How about 2800ccs?
Customer: I don't think I need a 2800ccs. The one I've got at the moment is a 2000ccs engine but I find it is a bit slow on long journeys.
Saleswoman: So how about 2600ccs?
Customer: Fine. I think it is the best one for me.
Saleswoman: What kind of gear do you want? I mean manual or automatic?
Customer: I'd want automatic - my wife has never driven a car with manual gear.
Saleswoman: OK. Well, now, here's the colour. How about yellow? It is very popular at the moment in recently.
Customer: My wife hopes to buy a bright colour, but...
Saleswoman: Yeah...
Customer: I'd like to get a grey, a metallic grey.
Saleswoman: Right. Do you have any other requirement of the car?
Customer: Yes. I hope to get a very good breaking system.
Saleswoman: Sure. Nearly each model of BMW has a good breaking system so don't worry about it.
Customer: Fine.
Saleswoman: Before taking you to have a look at the car, I'll take down your details first.
Customer: Sure.
Saleswoman: What's your full name?
Customer: Gavin Foster.
Saleswoman: Could you spell your first name?
Customer: Of course. It is G-A-V-I-N.
Saleswoman: Fine. Are you an American?
Customer: Yes. I was born in New York.
Saleswoman: And your present address?
Customer: I live in Madel House.
Saleswoman: Do you know the postcode?
Customer: Yes. It is TK2I8.
Saleswoman: A-8?
Customer: No. It is I-8.
Saleswoman: Are you married?
Customer: Yes. I have been married for three years.
Saleswoman: Do you have children?
Customer: Yes. I have twin girls.
Saleswoman: Great. OK. What's your occupation?
Customer: I am a doctor of the General Hospital. A surgeon.
Saleswoman: OK. And when would you like to start the car insurance?
Customer: I am not sure about the insurance company, factually. Do you have any recommendation?
Saleswoman: How about Bright Sky? It is an insurance company with a good reputation.
Customer: Fine.
Saleswoman: And the date of insurance?
Customer: May I drive the car today?
Saleswoman: Of course you can.
Customer: So I want to begin the insurance from next Monday, OK?
Saleswoman: Right. Let me see. It is the first of November.
Customer: Yes. Oh, how about the annual insurance fee?
Saleswoman: Let me see...
Customer: Do you have any discount now?
Saleswoman: Sorry. You know it is a peak season for us now.
Customer: OK.
Saleswoman: The insurance cost for one year is 450 dollars.
Customer: Fine.
Saleswoman: The last thing is the payment.
Customer: Oh, right.
Saleswoman: How would you like to pay the cost? By credit card?
Customer: May I pay by check?
Saleswoman: Definitely. Let's go outside and have a good look at the car.
Customer: OK.
Note-taking is an important skill for successful study. Today I'm going to introduce some effective skills for taking notes. Before making suggestions I'd like to analyse some factors that can affect note-taking. Of course the first one is your vocabulary. A instructor cannot spell all words in class. So it is necessary to master a massive vocabulary for students, especially for non-native students of English language. Good psychology is also important for note-taking. Some students are very nervous in class and cannot follow instructor in time although they have a good ability to take notes. Well, what skills can help you improve the ability and speed of note-taking?
Let's begin with the first one of five steps. As usual, students can get course handouts in advance, so preparing for them will help you know about what the instructor will talk about in a class and then to help with your note-taking. A good suggestion is to use a loose-leaf binder for notes and the instructor's handout may be taken out of it. Separating notebooks for each class can help students think clearly about different classes' notes.
Now, that's the work for preparation. The second step is to put a date and title on the first page. This will help you make sure about the lecture topic and the class in which the instructor happens. Some students think this is very important for your studies later. And then I advise you to use a divider which can set aside different parts in one notebook, for example drawing a line in the middle of the notebook and then write main points on the left and some extra information (e.g. reference books recommended by instructor on class) on the right. According to some students' experiences it is a good idea to use different colour ball-point pens to make different marks of lecture in class. And now for the third step. In class a good note-taker should only write key points, not all information. Some students cannot know what they write on notebook after class. So how to master key points is what's so important. These points are usually nouns, adjectives, verbs and numbers. Writing only one or two points on each line can help you to understand the notes when you read them later.
The most difficult part for nearly all students is, of course, to have enough time to write the notes. So the next step is coming. In order to save time and speed up writing I advise you to use abbreviation and symbols instead of words, such as: info for information, unit for university, dept. for department and even use "+" instead of "and". When your instructor speaks loudly or repeats some contents or has a short pause you should pay attention to the important points. The last suggestion is that you should review your notes after class when the information is still fresh in your mind. Try to summarise the key points and check notes with your classmates after class. That's some of easy methods you can use to take notes. I hope this can help you with your note-taking in class. If you want to know more about the topic please contact the study consultant in the...
Good afternoon. I am Stefan Rahmstorf, a professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University. Today I'd like to talk about the extreme weather events in recent years. During the last ten years a number of stunning extreme weather events have taken place. In 2003, the most severe heat wave which broke previous temperature records and caused 70,000 deaths in Europe. Two years later, the most severe hurricane season ever witnessed in the Atlantic destroyed New Orleans and broke records in terms of the number and intensity of storms. In 2007, unprecedented wildfires raged across Greece, nearly devastating the ancient site of Olympia. In the Arctic the north-west passage became ice-free for the first time in our living memory. After record-breaking drought and heat, in 2009 over a hundred people were killed in bush fires in Australia.
There are lots of extreme weather events in 2010. For example that summer central Russia had been in the grips of its worst ever heat wave, which has caused nearly thousands of deaths. Owing to drought and heat, more than 500 wildfires had raged out of control, smothering Moscow in smoke and threatening several nuclear facilities. Another result by heat wave was the soaring grain prices since Russian government has banned wheat exports. In 2010, flooding had seemed to be a main actor in the world. In China, flash floods had killed more than a thousand people and destroyed more than a million buildings. Meanwhile, Pakistan was struggling with unprecedented flooding which has killed more than a thousand people and affected millions more. On a smaller scale, the European countries such as Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic have also suffered serious flooding. At the same time global temperatures in recent years have been at their highest levels in records that go back 130 years. Sea-ice cover in the Arctic got to its lowest point the recorded average level for the month of June ever. Two huge chunks of ice broke off in July and August in Greenland.
Are these events connected? Does this have anything to do with global warming and are human activities to blame? Although we cannot scientifically prove or disprove that global warming caused any particular extreme events we can say that global warming very likely makes many kinds of extreme weather both more frequent and more severe. All weather is driven by energy, and the sun ultimately supplies this energy. But the biggest change in Earth's energy budget by far over the past hundred years is due to the accumulation in our atmosphere of greenhouse gases, which limit the exit of heat into space. As a result of fossil-fuel emissions, there is now one-third more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in at least a million years, as the latest ice drilling in Antarctica has revealed.
The changes in the earth energy budget caused by solar variations are at least ten times smaller in comparison. And these changes go in the wrong direction: in recent years, the sun has been at its dimmest according to satellite measurements since 1970s. Therefore, when unprecedented extreme weather events occur, the prime suspect is naturally the biggest atmospheric change that has happened over the past hundred years - one that has been caused by human emission.
It is not difficult to understand the fact that heat waves like the one in Russia become more frequent and extreme in a warmer world. Extreme rainfall events will also become more frequent and intense in a warmer climate. According to a simple fact of physics, as usual, warm air can hold more moisture. For each degree Celsius of warming, 7% more water is available to rain down from saturated air masses. And the warming climate can also be a factor of drought risk, even where rainfall does not fall but increased evaporation rate dries out the soils.
One pattern can change atmospheric circulation is the carbon-dioxide effect which can cause more extremes of heat, drought, or rainfall in some regions, while reducing them in others. The problem is that a decrease in those extremes to which human are already well adapted supplies only modest advantages, whereas the new extremes to which we are not adapted can be devastating, as extreme events in recent years show. The extreme events in this summer indicate how vulnerable our societies are to weather-related extremes. These conditions of global warming occur after 0.8°C change. With swift and efficient decisive action, we can still limit global warming to a total of 2°C or a bit less. But even that much warming would need a lot of effort to adapt to weather extremes and even rising sea levels.
With weak action and results, like those promised by governments in Copenhagen conference in 2009, we will be on a course to 3-4°C change of global warming. Many societies and ecosystems do not adapt to the warming. If we do nothing the earth could even heat up by 5-7°C by the end of this century and more thereafter.
We have to face the facts: our emissions of greenhouse gases probably are at least mainly to blame for this summer of extremes. We do really hope that extreme weather events in this summer are a last-minute wake-up call to policy makers, the corporate world, and all citizens.