TPO 9 Conversation 1
Listen to a conversation between a student and her professor.
P: Before we get started, I...I just wanted to say I’m glad you chose food
science for your major courses study.
S: Yeah, it seems like a great industry to get involved with. I mean with the
four-year degree in food science, I'll always be able to find a job.
P: You're absolutely right. Before entering academia, I worked as a scientist for
several food manufacturers and for the US Food and Drug Administration. I
even worked on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska a couple of summers
while I was an undergraduate. We bring in the day's catch to a floating
processor boat where the fish got cleaned, packaged and frozen right at sea.
S: That's amazing! As a matter of fact, I'm sort of interested in food packaging.
P: Well, for that, you'll need a strong background in physics, math and
chemistry.
S: Those are my best subjects. For a long time, I was leading towards getting
my degree in engineering.
P: Well, then you should have a problem. And fortunately, at this university, the
department of food science offers a program in food packaging. Elsewhere,
you might have to hammer courses together on your own.
S: I guess I like it a lot then. I am… so since my appointment today is to
discuss my term paper topic, I wanted to ask, could I write about food
packaging? I realize we're supposed to research food-born bacteria, but food
packaging must play a role in all of that, right?
P: Absolutely! Maybe you should do some preliminary research on that.
S: I have! That's the problem. I'm overwhelmed.
P: Well, in your reading, did anything interest you in particular? I mean
something you’d like to investigate.
S: well, I was surprised about the different types of packaging used for milk.
You know, clear plastic bottles, opaque bottles, carton board containers...
P: True! In fact, the type of packaging has something to do with the way milk's
treated against bacteria.
S: Yeah, and I read a study that showed how light can give milk a funny flavor
and decrease the nutritional value. And yet most milk bottles are unclear.
What's up about that?
P: Well consumers like being able to visually examine the color of the milk.
That might be one reason that opaque bottles haven't really called on. But that
study... I'm sure there is more study on the subject. You shouldn't base your
paper on only one study.
S: Maybe I should write about those opaque plastic bottles. Find out if there
are any scientific reasons they aren't used more widely? Maybe opaque
bottles aren't as good at keeping bacteria from growing in milk after the bottle
has been opened for something… but where to begin researching this? I don't
have a...
P: You know, there is a dairy not far from here in Chelsea. It was one of the
first diaries to bottle milk in opaque plastic, but now they're using clear plastic
began. And they're always very supportive of the university and our students,
and if you want it...
S: Yeah, I like that idea.
TPO 9 Lecture 1
Theater
Listen to part of a lecture in a theater class
Pro: As we have seen, the second half of the 18th century was an exciting
time in Europe: it was not only an age of great invention, but social changes
also led to a rise in all sorts of entertainment, from reading to museums, to
travel. And finding himself in the middle of this excitement was an
accomplished French painter named Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg.
Loutherbourg arrived in England in 1771, and immediately went to work as a
site designer at the famous Drury Lane Theater in London. From his first
shows, Loutherbourg showed a knack for imagination and stage design, all in
the interest of creating illusions that allowed the audience to suspend disbelief
completely. He accomplished this by giving the stage a greater feeling of depth,
which he did by cutting up some of the rigid background scenery, and placing it
at various angles and distances from the audience. Another realistic touch was
using three-dimensional objects on the set, like rocks and bushes as opposed
to two-dimensional painted scenery. He also paid much more attention to
lighting and sound than had been done before.
Now, these sets were so elaborate that many people attended the theater
more for them than for the actors or the stories. At the time, people were wild
for travel and for experiencing new places; but not everyone could afford it.
Loutherbourg outdid himself however, with a show that he set up in his own
home. He called it the "Eidophusikon".
"Eidophusikon" means something like representation of nature, and that's
exactly what he intended to do: create realistic moving scenes that change
before the audiences' eyes. In this, he synthesized all his tricks from Drury
Lane: mechanical motions, sound, light, other special effects to create, if you
will, an early ** production.
The "Eidophusikon" was Loutherbourg's attempt to release painting from the
constraints of the picture frame. After all, even the most action field exciting
painting can represent only one moment in time; and any illusion of movement
is gone after the first glance. But Loutherbourg, like other contemporary
painters, wanted to add the dimension of time to his paintings. You know, the
popular thinking is that Loutherbourg was influenced by landscape painting.
But why can't we say that the "Eidophusikon" actually influenced the painters?
At the very least we have to consider that it was more ... it was more of a
mutual thing. We know, for example, that the important English landscape
painter Thomas Gainsborough attended almost all of the yearly performances,
and his later paintings are notable for their increased color and dynamic use of
light. Loutherbourg's influence on the theater though, he was incredibly
influential: the way he brought together design and lighting and sound as a
unified feature of the stage, can easily be seen in English theater's subsequent
emphasis on lighting and motion.
Now, the "Eidophusikon" stage was actually a box: a few meters wide, a
couple meters tall and a couple meters deep. That is, the action took place
within this box. This was much smaller of course than the usual stage. But, it
also allowed Loutherbourg to concentrate the lighting to better effect. Also, the
audience was in the dark, which wouldn't be a common feature of the theater
until a hundred years later. The show consisted of a series of scenes, for
example, a view of London from sunrise that changes as the day moves on;
mechanical figures, such as cattle, moved across the scene, and ships sailed
along the river. But what really got people was the attention to detail, much like
his work in Drury Lane. So, for example, he painted very realistic ships, and
varied their size depending on their distance from the audience. Small boats
moved more quickly across the foreground than larger ones did that were
closer to the horizon. Other effects, like waves, were also very convincing.
They reflected sunlight or moonlight depending on the time of day or night.
Even the colors changed as they would in nature. Sound and light were
important in ** his productions realistic. He used a great number of lights,
and he was able to change colors of light by using variously colored pieces of
glass, to create effects like passing clouds that suddenly change in color.
Furthermore, he used effects to make patterns of shadow and light, rather than
using the uniform lighting that was common at the time. And many of the
sound effects he pioneered are still in use today, like creating thunder by
pulling on one of the corners of a thin copper sheet. One of his most popular
scenes was of a storm. And there is a story that on one occasion, an actual
storm passed over head during the show. And some people went outside, and
they claimed Loutherbourg's thunder was actually better than the real thunder.
