Expert on Cambridge IELTS 09 Academic Listening Test 2 (Online Test)

Sunwalk Charity

I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to tell you something about the Sunwalk Charity. I'll give a brief overview of what we do, and I hope it will be helpful to you. Sunwalk came into being 13 years ago when just 13 women walked the New York City Marathon to raise money and awareness for cancer. What started out as a one-off fundraising event has blossomed into a thriving multi-million pound charity, raising to date in excess of $55 million for vital cancer causes. The charity was founded by Nina Barough in 1996. By 1997, the runs were being filmed by local TV and today they appear on international TV every year. All the funds collected by Sunwalk go to the hospital; with the idea those fit enough to run use their energy to assist the provision of people who are unwell for whatever reasons. Now, if you want to race, let me explain a couple of basics. You can choose to complete a Half Marathon, 10km or 5km distance. After receiving your entry form we will then send you all the information you need to start power walking and getting fit. You will also receive a sponsor form to start your fundraising and a safety guide - everything you need to get going! A few weeks before the event you will receive your hat, T-shirt and walker number. On the day there will be great music, plenty of fun and a warm-up before the start. Toilets and water are provided on the route and a team of smiling faces giving out medals to welcome you home! Small steps make BIG changes... no matter how small! By aiming to raise a minimum sponsorship of $100 you could be helping us to raise over $1/2 million on this one day. Sunwalk will be granting these funds to where we know it will make the most difference to vital cancer causes. Our benefiting charities in the South West include Penny Brohn Cancer Care, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre and Weston Area Health. We also ask for your commitment to get into training and prepare for the BIG day. What an exchange: you get fitter and many, many people who suffer from cancer will benefit from Sunwalk funds.

OK, that's the big race, but I know there are many people who don't feel they are up to running a Half Marathon race, but who would nevertheless like to raise money for Sunwalk. Over the years, we've had experience of many different ways to collect money, some proved to be very successful. Now, of course, 20km is too much for children, but there was a sponsored dancing performance at the local school last year, and that did very well. People have also tried to organise food-based events, such as selling homemade cookies and jam at the open market, and there was a large barbecue arranged in City Gardens. Although these events failed to justify the efforts put into them, they were very delicious. These days, so many people are full-time workers, so door-to-door collection isn't very effective, but it's viable to raise funds by selling small promotional items, such as T-shirts with Sunwalk motif and slogan on them. We're currently checking to see if postcards, perhaps showing the race's spectacular scene each year might also be a good idea or not. We do appreciate the efforts that have gone into selling old bikes, but to be frank, the return has not been very high on this. One very dedicated group organised a prize draw recently, which went very well, and it would be good to see more such activities. There's also been talk of a concert, but we'll see how plans for that progress. Now, are there any questions at this stage?

Professor: Water is essential for life, and in parts of the world, it's a precious commodity. The distribution of water, however, is quite varied; many locations have plenty of it while others have very little. Water exists on earth as a solid, liquid or gas. Oceans, rivers, clouds, and rain, all of which contain water, are in a frequent state of change - surface water evaporates, cloud water precipitates, rainfall infiltrates the ground, etc. However, the total amount of the earth's water does not change. The circulation and conservation of earth's water is called the "hydrologic cycle" - balances the amount of water in the ocean, in the atmosphere, and on the land. We get our understanding of how the cycle operates from research in climatology and hydrology. So... who can tell me what climatology is?

John: It's the study of climate...and...uh...the causes and effects of different climates.

Professor: That's right. And what is hydrology? Sarah?

Sarah: Well, "hydro" means "water", so it's something to do with water... like the study of water.

Professor: Yes, the prefix "hydro" does refer to water. The hydrologic cycle is the water cycle. And hydrology is the study of the water - the distribution and effect of the water on the earth's surface and in the soil and layers of rock. Think of climatology as the atmospheric phase, and hydrology as the land phase of the water cycle. Climatologists study the role of solar energy in the cycle. They're mainly concerned with the atmospheric phase of the cycle, how solar energy drives the cycle through the...uh...processes of evaporation, atmospheric circulation, and precipitation. Water is continuously absorbed into the atmosphere as vapor - evaporation, then water vapor is transported through the atmosphere - atmospheric circulation, and returns to the earth as rain, hail, or snow - precipitation. The amount of water evaporating from oceans exceeds precipitation over oceans, and excess water vapor is moved by wind to the land.

Sarah: What about the land phase?

Professor: The land phase of the cycle is the concern of hydrologists. Hydrologists study the vast quantities of water in the land phase of the cycle, how water moves over and through the land, and how it's stored on or within the earth. Of the over land surfaces of the precipitation that falls over land, small amounts evaporate while still in the air and...uh...re-enter the atmosphere directly. The rest of it reaches the surface of the land. The water that falls to earth is stored on the surface of lakes, or it penetrates the surface, or it runs off over the surface and flows in rivers to the ocean. Some of the water is stored temporarily in the upper soil layers and used later by trees and plants. When it rains... yes?

Sarah: So, the transfer of land water to the oceans is called Runoff, right?

Professor: Exactly! Runoff is the movement of land water to the oceans, chiefly in the form of rivers, lakes, and streams. Runoff consists of precipitation that neither evaporates, transpires nor penetrates the surface to become groundwater. Even the smallest streams are connected to larger rivers that carry billions of gallons of water into oceans worldwide.

John: I was... um... I wondered if that makes trees and plants part of the hydrologic cycle. I mean, they take in water, and the water moves through them, and then later on... um... the water evaporates from their leaves.

Professor: I'm glad you mentioned that, John. Plants do play an important role in the land phase of the cycle and are therefore part of the cycle. Trees and plants circulate and store water, they draw it up through their roots and return it to the atmosphere through their leaves during evapotranspiration. When it rains, if the soil is already saturated, water will seep downward through the upper soil layers, and possibly reach the water table. When it reaches the water table, it passes into groundwater storage. Most of the groundwater later return to the surface, either as springs or as stream flow, supplying water to plants. Eventually, all of the water falling on land makes its way back to the ocean. The movement of water from land to the ocean is called runoff. Runoff and groundwater together balance the amount of water that moves from the ocean to the land. Every molecule of water in the natural system eventually circulates through the hydrologic cycle. Tremendous quantities of water are cycled annually. And, as John pointed out, living organisms - plants and animals as well - are also part of the cycle, since water is a large part of the mass of most organisms. Living organisms store and use water, since water is the... uh... solvent for most biological reactions.

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, cinema established itself as a powerful mass medium. Movies were a popular entertainment for working people, but they were more than just entertainment. Movies were also regarded as high art by the intellectuals of the day. Many people believed that cinema or film would be the defining art form of the new century.

Even in its earliest years, film was developing its own style, a style that was distinct from that of the theater. But what do we mean when we speak of film style? To put it simply, style is the texture of a film's images and sounds. It's the filmmaker's systematic use of the techniques of the medium for example, staging, lighting, performance, camera framing and focus. Editing and sound also contribute to style.

A few filmmakers of the silent era were already developing film style, most notably in the editing technique is cutting. Cutting is when the action is broken up into separate shots, or pieces of film, and then the shots are recombined to tell the story in a coherent way. Before cutting, the action in films was like it was in the theater. The action took place far away from us. And it was continuous. It wasn't interrupted by any closer views of the actors.

Early film critics didn't like films that looked too much like theatre. Theatre was a well recognised art form with its own traditions and methods. However, film was something new, and well, it was an art form that owed its birth to the technology of the moving picture camera. The critics preferred to see stylistic editing, the technique that set film apart from theater. A lot of critics felt that editing was the most important film technique. Cutting - the change from shot to shot - was regarded as the key to film artistry.

Another film technique - called cross-cutting - made it possible to tell two stories at the same time. Cross-cutting is also called parallel action. It involves showing segments from two different sequences, moving back and forth from one to the other so the two stories appear to be taking place at the same time. Cross-cutting was used in the film The Great Train Robbery, which was made in 1903. The film shows bandits escaping from the scene of their crime, and then it cross-cuts to a scene where the townspeople are dancing at a party, unaware the robbery has taken place. The audience easily understands that the two scenes are going on at the same time.

The person who usually receives the credit for inventing most film techniques is D.W. Griffith. D.W. Griffith was an American filmmaker who is considered by many to be the most influential figure in the history of cinema. He began his career as a stage actor and writer in the first part of the 20th century. He took his stories to the early movie studios, landing at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1908. Until 1913 Griffith oversaw the production of almost all of Biograph's movies, more than 450 films. The quality of Griffith's productions was generally considered superior to his contemporaries, and his projects became more ambitious than the standard one-reel films. His three-hour feature - The Birth of a Nation - is a stunning success and is considered the most important film in the development of cinema as an art.

While Griffith didn't invent everything about film, actually he defined and redefined the innovations of other filmmakers, he created movies that critics and audiences recognised as a unique narrative form. This is because he perfected the elements of film "grammar" and the art of the story film which includes cross-cutting, close-ups, parallel narratives, camera movement and more restrained acting.

Instead of having one camera shoot a scene from one position, D.W Griffith filled each scene from many angles, and then he pieced together the sequences in the editing room. He used editing to heighten and control the dramatic impact of a scene. He introduced analytical editing, that is, breaking down a scene into shots that show closer views of people's faces or gestures. These closely framed shots are known as close-ups. The close-up conveys a character's emotions through subtle changes in the eyes, mouth, and brow. After D.W Griffith, the close-up becomes a standard tool in the language of film.