TPO 16 Script Conversation1
Narrator:
Listen to a conversation between a Student and a facilities Manager at the university.
Student:
Hi. I'm Melanie, the one who's been calling.
Manager:
From the singing group, right?
Student:
From the choir.
Manager:
Right, the choir. It's nice to finally meet you in person. So, you are having problems with...
Student:
Noise. Like I explained on the phone we've always had our rehearsals in the Lincoln Auditorium every day at 3 o'clock and it's always worked just great. But the past few weeks with the noise, it's been a total nightmare since constructions started next door on the science hall.
Manager:
Oh, that's right. They're building that addition for new laboratories.
Student:
Exactly. Anyway, ever since they started working on it, it's been so noisy we can barely hear ourselves sing.
Manager:
Let alone sing.
Student:
Forget about singing. I mean, we keep the windows down and everything, but once those bulldozers get going, I mean those machines are loud. We've already had to cut short two rehearsals and we've got a concert in 6 weeks.
Manager:
Well, that's not good. I'm assuming you've tried to reschedule your rehearsals. They don't do construction work at night.
Student:
I ran that by the group, but there were just too many. I mean evenings are really hard. It seems like everyone in the choir already has plans and some even have classes at night.
Manager:
And what about the music building?
Student:
You know, originally we were booked in one of the rehearsal rooms in the music building, but then we switched with the jazz ensemble. They're a much smaller group and they said the acoustics, the sound in that room, was better for them. So having us moved to a bigger space like the Lincoln Auditorium seemed like a reasonable idea.
Manager:
But now...
Student:
All that noise. I don't know. I just wonder if the jazz ensemble knew what was going to happen.
Manager:
Well, that wouldn't be very nice.
Student:
No. But it really was quite a coincidence. Anyway, now the music building's fully booked, mornings, afternoons, everything, we just need a quiet space. And it has to have a piano.
Manager:
A piano. Of course some of the other auditoriums have pianos, but that's not going to be easy.
Student:
You think they're pretty booked up?
Manager:
Probably. But it can't hurt to check. What about Bradford Hall? I remember a piano in the old Student center there.
Student:
At this point, we'd be grateful for any quiet place.
Manager:
Can you... How flexible can you be on times? You said no evenings, but what ill(if) can't find something open at 3 o'clock? Can you move earlier or later?
Student:
I wish I could say another time would be okay, but you know how it is, everybody's already got commitments for the whole semester 2:30 or 3:30 would probably be okay, but I don't think we could go much outside that
Manager:
Well, check with me tomorrow morning. I should've found something by then. It might not be ideal...
Student:
As long as it's got a piano and nobody's putting up a building next door, we'll be happy.
TPO 16 Script Lecture 1
Narrator:
Listen to a part of lecturer in a geology class.
Professor:
Now there are some pretty interesting caves in parts of the western United States, especially in national parks. There is one part that has over a hundred caves, including some of the largest ones in the world. One of the more interesting ones is called Lechuguilla Cave. Lechuguilla has been explored a lot in recent decades. It's a pretty exciting place I think. It was mentioned only briefly in your books. So can anyone remember what it said? Ellen?
Male Student:
It's the deepest limestone cave in the U.S.?
Professor:
That's right. It's one of the longest and deepest limestone caves not just in the country but in the world. Now, what else?
Male Student:
Well, it was formed because of sulfuric acid, righht?
Professor:
That's it. Yeah, what happens is you have deep underground oil deposits and there are bacteria. Here let me draw a diagram. Part of the limestone rock layer is permeated by water from below. Those curly lines are supposed to be cracks in the rock. Below the water table and rock is oil. Bacteria feed on this oil and release hydrogen sulfide gas. This gas is hydrogen sulfide, rises up and mixes with oxygen in the underground water that sits in the cracks and fissures in the limestone. And when hydrogen sulfide reacts with the oxygen in the water, the result of that is sulfuric acid, Ok? Sulfuric acid eats away at limestone very aggressively. So you get bigger cracks and then passageway is being formed along the openings in the rock and it's all underground. Ah yes, Paul?
Male Student:
So that water... It's not flowing, right? It's still?
Professor:
Yes, so there are two kinds of limestone caves. In about 90 percent of them, you have water from the surface, streams, waterfall or whatever - moving water that flows through cracks found in limestone. It's the moving water itself that wears away at the rock and makes passageways. Also, in surface water, there is a weak acid, carbonic acid, not sulfuric acid but carbonic acid that helps dissolve the rock. With a little help from this carbonic acid, moving water forms most of the world's limestone caves. When I was researching this for a study a few years ago, I visited a couple of these typical limestone caves, and they were all very wet, you know, from streams and rivers. This flowing water carved out the caves and the structures inside them.
Male Student:
But not Lechuguilla?
Professor:
Dry as a bone. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But it's safe to say that it's sulfuric acid and not moving water that formed Lechuguilla cave and those few other ones like it. In fact, there is no evidence that flowing water has even gone in or out of the cave. So, it's like a maze. You have passageways all around. There are wide passages, narrow ones at all different depths, like underground tunnels in the limestone. And, since they were created underground and not from flowing surface water, not all these passageways have an opening to the outside world. And.. .and there is other evidence that flowing water wasn't involved in Lechuguilla. We've said that sulfuric acid dissolves limestone, right, and forms the passageways? What else does sulfuric acid do? Paul?
Male Student:
Ah, leaves a chemical residue and...
FeMale Student:
Gypsum, right?
Professor:
Yep, you'll find lots of gypsum deposited at Lechuguilla. And, as we know, gypsum is soluble in water. So if there were flowing water in the cave, it would dissolve the gypsum. This is part of what led us to the realization that Lechuguilla is in that small group of waterless caves. And Lechuguilla is pretty much dormant now. It's not really forming any more. But, there is other ones like it, for example, in Mexico, that are forming. And when cave researchers go to explore them, they see and smell, the sulfuric acid and gases of...er...phew...now, something else, think of rotten eggs. And, it's not just the smell.Explorers even need to wear special masks to protect themselves from the gases in thesecaves. OK? Paul.
Male Student:
Yeah, how about what these caves look like on the inside?
Professor:
Well, the formations.. .there is really something. There's such variety there like nothing anywhere else in the world, some of them are elaborate looking, like decorations. And alot of them are made of gypsum and could be up to 20 feet long. It's pretty impressive.
