朗文英语听说(3)听力原文

朗文英语听说(3)听力原文 Now, if you ask college students why they use slang, they'll tell Unit 1 Slang: Talking Cool you it's cool, and that's true in several different ways. First, it's cool because it's in style, in fashion. Using current slang shows TEACHER: OK, let's get started . . . Today we're going to be looking that the speaker is in tune with the times . . . you know, that he or at a really interesting phenomenon, slang. We'll be looking at where she knows what's in fashion and is pan of that fashion. slang comes from, who uses it and why. We all use it more often Second, slang is cool in the sense of showing that the speaker is than you might think—every day of our lives, in fact. And we use it knowledgeable . . . the speaker is "in the know," the speaker knows for a reason. when slang is acceptable. People don't use slang all the time, only You know, most of us are fascinated with slang. We continually in situations and with people who accept the use of slang—a point hear new words and phrases enter the language and replace old, and I'll return to later. Research tells us that although young people we see familiar words take on new meanings. We feel a need to often deny that they use slang intentionally, in fact they clearly keep in touch with these changes, to be aware of the latest street choose whether or not to use it depending on the situation they're talk. Fact is, we love slang. But what is it exactly? What is slang? in. As we've already said, slang's typically used in informal rather Anyone like to suggest a definition? than formal settings, and this is certainly true among college STUDENT 1: Isn't it basically kind of casual talk? students: They usually avoid using it in the class-room or a work environment, for example. Anyone like to suggest why? TEACHER: Can you say a bit more? STUDENT 1: People won't understand them. STUDENT 1: You know, the sort of words we use with friends ... in relaxed situations. STUDENT 2: Yeah, so it's like a waste of time. TEACHER: Good. You're pretty much there with your idea of TEACHER: Well, that may be true, but it's not the main reason. casual language. We can say that slang is language that's found only They don't use it simply because it could make them look bad. in the very informal speech of particular groups of people. It can And everyone hates looking bad, right? help to identify the communities, the groups of people, who use it. So, to review, we've said that students use slang only in certain And this brings me to the first important point of the lecture—why situations. But they also only use it with certain people, usually people use slang. friends. When they use slang, they are showing that they share A lot of slang comes from not wanting to be understood by social and emotional experiences—so slang reinforces their outsiders, people outside your circle. In other words, people exploit relationships. But ... it also gives special meaning to what they say. slang to give their group an identity, by making their language For instance, to say "That party was the bomb" is more than merely exclusive, or at least private. Through this private language, they saying it was a very good party. It shares an emotional experience can tease one another, enjoy shared experiences, and keep everyone that might otherwise take several sentences to explain. In other else at a distance. All cultures contain groups or subcultures with words, it's a kind of. . . shorthand. different interests and priorities, and each group tries to establish a The third and final way slang's cool is that it's fun; it's very separate identity. They want people to know who they are, what creative in the same way that poetry is, and it's often humorous. In they stand for—and slang helps to construct and cement that other words, it's a form of play, a way of entertaining. identity. We can say, then, that slang reflects the experiences, So . . . uh, let me repeat: I've said that slang's cool for three beliefs, and values of its speakers. reasons: One, it shows the user's fashionable and in tune with the Now let's look more closely at this relationship between slang times; two, it's a way of reinforcing relationships and and community, slang and identity. A nice example of this is, uh, communicating efficiently; and three, it's fun and entertaining. Got student language, sometimes called "youth-speak." Young people that? use a lot of slang, and many of the words they use are used by both All right then, let's now take a look at different kinds of slang, in sexes, often metaphorically rather than literally. That is to say, the particular three types of slang words: those that are currently most conventional meaning of the words change. For example, words used, those that linger year after year, and those that have become that have traditionally had strong negative literal meanings that are unfashionable. used as insults have taken on, uh, gentler, and in many cases even So . . . now what is the most used slang? Well, research tells us positive meanings in conversation. We'll look at some examples that over the past few years, in the number one position is "dope," later. which basically means very good, great, - 102 - might consider taboo. Students are actually very good at excellent, attractive, or nice. So somebody might say, for code-switching; that is, they're very good at using different example, that his friend's new motorbike is really dope; in styles or codes of communication in different situations. Do other words, it's very good. Other words that feature in the you agree? Do you use slang in your essays or when you top twenty include "chill out" (to calm down or relax), "the speak with a teacher? bomb" (meaning the best or most excellent), "whack" (which means bad, unfair, crazy, or foolish), and "dude" (meaning STUDENT 3: Personally I never use slang in essays. It just person—usually a man, actually). Any other examples? Yes? doesn't feel right. It's true, you know, most students know when to use slang, and when not to. STUDENT 1: Hella. STUDENT 2: I agree. I sometimes use it with teachers, TEACHER: Meaning? though; it just depends on who the teacher is. STUDENT 1: Very, a lot. TEACHER: Why, I imagine most people do the same. Here's something you may find surprising: A recent study on stu-TEACHER: OK, yep. Luis? dent conversation suggests that students don't in fact use slang that often but instead they choose more ordinary col-STUDENT 3: "Kick it," which means, like, to hang out, uh, loquial vocabulary. relax, you know, sit around doing nothing. OK, to finish up, now let me say something about the TEACHER: Right. And it's interesting, isn't it, how most history of slang. Many years ago, slang was closely associ-slang terms indicate approval or disapproval; they show what ated with underground, criminal organizations, groups that we feel positive or negative about. So, like "dope" and "the deviate from mainstream society . . . uh . . . with notions of bomb," we have "sweet," "phat"—spelled P-H-A-T, not outcasts and socially unacceptable behaviors. A look back in F-A-T—"cool," and "tight"—all meaning good, excellent, time shows, for example, that in the seventeenth century nice, or attractive. more than twenty words were used to refer to vagrants, that And then you have words like "bad" which really mean is, to someone who has no home or job. Today, of course, good; so "That new CD is bad" actually means it's good! So these associations are much weaker and slang's used much you see, slang does strange things with language. Like I said more widely. As underground culture has become more earlier, it's certainly creative. As a matter of fact, some slang mainstream, there's not the same need for the kind of secret words have many different meanings, sometimes as many as code that slang offered. Today, most of us use slang and nine or ten. For instance, the word "trip" or "tripping" has aren't ashamed of using it. It may still have negative various meanings, but they all reflect the idea of unusual, connotations, but like it or not it's here to stay, and strange, or extreme. When a word's used a lot or has a num-increasingly it's become the subject of serious academic ber of different meanings like this, we sometimes say it study. And why not? As I've tried to show, it's a fascinating "works hard." The word "trip," then, is a word that works social as well as linguistic phenomenon. So, any hard. questions? . . . Uh . . . now, the second type of slang consists of words that linger from decade to decade and never seem to go out of fashion—and these words also work hard, that is, they have a lot of meanings. A great example is the word cool— Unit 2 Murphy's Law forever popular, it seems! Other terms in this category are TEACHER: Good afternoon, everyone. More than 200 years "nerd," "cheesy," "chick," "the man," "toasted," "wasted," ago, the Scottish poet Robert Burns said that "the best laid "what's up," "blow away," and "gross." And once again, most plans of mice and men often go awry." I'm sure we all have of these show approval or disapproval. firsthand experience with what Burns means; no matter how And . . . now, finally, there are slang terms that come and carefully we plan a project and no matter how carefully we go; they disappear almost as quickly as they appear. try to, uh, anticipate problems, we're likely to, uh encounter Examples include "gimme five," "how's it hanging," and something unexpected and unwelcome that will throw our "core." Words like these often disappear because they're plan off course. closely associated with famous personalities who similarly Well, class today we'll be looking at how plans can go right come and go—they're popular, in the spotlight for a while, or wrong... and, uh, how we can make sense of this. Are you and then seem almost to disappear. And when they disappear, all familiar with Murphy's Law? Well, according to Murphy's the slang associated with them tends to disappear as well. Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So we'll be Now, today, public tolerance of slang is at an all-time looking at everyday examples of Murphy's Law—uh, things high—just look at how widely it's used in newspapers. But like why toast falls buttered-side down, why it always seems how do college teachers and academics view slang? Well, like we choose slow lines at the supermarket, and why it is so some persist with the idea that its use will degrade . . . uh, difficult to win when we gamble. you might even say "pollute" academic discourse. However, As you may know, we now have many different versions among themselves students tolerate words their teachers of Murphy's Law, and today I'd like to look at the science behind three of them. I'll try to show you that some things - 103 - STUDENT 2: One divided by five is one-fifth or . . . uh . . . 20 which have happened to you, and which you may have thought were simply bad luck, had nothing to do with luck at all. What I'm percent. saying is that there are some very good scientific reasons for many TEACHER: Right. Twenty percent. There's only a 20 percent of the things that happen to us, and we're not victims of bad luck as chance that we have chosen the fastest of the five lines. Now even often as we might think. When we consider some basic science and if we reduce that to three lines, our line and the lines on each side probability theory, we can more clearly understand why some of us, the chances we've chosen the fastest line are still only what? "bad" things happen the way they do. All right. Let's begin with a very commonplace situation. Let's STUDENT 2: Uh, 33 percent. One out of three. say you've just gotten up. You're still sleepy, and you make your TEACHER: Sure. One divided by three is 33 percent, so it's not just way to the breakfast table. In your half-awake state, you your imagination that one line near you almost always moves faster accidentally hit your piece of toast, which has butter on one side. than yours. Simple probability theory shows that the odds are The toast begins to fall to the floor. Now what are the chances that against you. If there are very many lines, the chances that you'll you'll be lucky and the toast will land buttered-side up? Well, the choose the fastest one is quite low. So, you see, it has little to do toast has only two sides, so most people think that the answer is with luck, but we perceive that it does. fifty-fifty. Fifty percent. Right? Do you think that there's a 50 All right. Now let's look at a final situation that shows how we percent chance that the toast will land with the buttered-side up? commonly misunderstand the laws of probability. We've come to Murphy's Law of Gambling that says simply: "You will lose." Now STUDENT 1: Well, this sounds like a trick question, but, uh, yeah. in the case of the supermarket lines that we've just talked about, Logically, 50 percent sounds about right. probability theory applied very nicely. And actually, as we go through life, most things are fairly predictable because they follow TEACHER: Yes, 50 percent does seem right, but, in this case, the basic laws of probability. Weather is an example. Let's say that Murphy's Law of Falling Toast says: "Toast which falls from a table it's been raining for a week, and a friend says to you "I think it's will land buttered-side down." Actually, the probability of this going to be sunny tomorrow." Is that an unreasonable statement? happening is extremely high. It's close to 100 percent. Now, here's Well, no. Clouds move, and they are of limited size, so if it's been why. When something like a piece of toast falls from a table, its raining for a week, it's likely that the rain and clouds will end soon. behavior is not random. The rate of spin is controlled by the laws of In other words, the next sunny day is more likely to occur after the physics. This is the problem. The rate of spin, that is, how fast the seventh day of rain than after the first, because the storm front has toast spins, is too low for the toast to make a complete revolution. what is called a life history. Now this is important, so let me explain It's too slow to turn completely around and hit the floor that term. Events with a life history have changing probabilities of buttered-side up. The rate of spin is determined by the force of certain events occurring over time. For instance, uh, if you plant gravity. So in a very real sense, the laws of physics, and specifically flower seeds, you can predict with reasonable accuracy when the the rate of spin, make sure that our toast lands buttered-side down plants will come up, when they will bloom, and how long they will almost all the time. So the point is that simple probabilities—for bloom. For instance, with some types of flowers, there's a 90 percent example, the probability that toast has a fifty-fifty chance of landing chance that they will come up fifteen to twenty days after the seeds buttered-side up—can be greatly affected by other more have been planted. In short, the growth of a flower follows a clear fundamental factors, such as the laws of physics. So, in this case, we predictable pattern, and we call this pattern a life history. But this is believe that we have bad luck because we don't understand that the the trick with many gambling games. The casino owners want us to natural laws of physics are in effect. The toast should land believe that dice also have a life history and that we can therefore buttered-side down. OK? Let's look at the next point. estimate the probability of events related to the dice. However, Now we come to one of my most frustrating situations in gambling devices like dice are different because they don't have life life—the supermarket line. In this case, Murphy's Law of histories. Now . . . what do you think that means? Supermarket Lines says: "The line next to you will move faster than yours." Now everybody wants to get into the fastest line when they STUDENT 1: There aren't any reliable patterns? Um, just because I go to the supermarket, right? OK, so let's say that you're at your rolled a seven last time doesn't tell me anything about the next roll. local supermarket and there are five lines, but each of the five lines TEACHER: Right. You can't look at the past rolls of the dice and looks pretty much equal in length. Now, of course, you want to try predict what the next roll will be. Now many people, especially to anticipate which one of the five lines will move the fastest. Well, gamblers, think that they can, but this is what's called the gambler's this is where simple probability theory enters the picture. The fallacy. The gambler's fallacy is expecting to roll a seven with a pair chances that you have chosen the fastest of the five lines is one of dice because a seven hasn't come up recently. So, in other words, divided by the number of lines, which is five in this case. So there's a widespread belief among gamblers that dice have a life mathematically, the formula is one divided by N where N is the history. In the total number of lines. So in this example, one divided by five gives us what? - 104 - phenomenon concerning visual sensory memory that I'm sure you've real world, that's not a bad way to reason, but in a casino, it's the all experienced. Imagine that you're holding up a flashlight on a path to financial loss. Dice have no memory, no life history. Now dark night. You start to move it in circles slowly, watching it you can predict that if you roll one dice many, many times, the carefully the whole time. Pretty soon you aren't just seeing the number five will come up about 16 percent of the time. That's one flashlight... you can see a full circle of light! Of course, it's actually divided by six. But that's not what we're concerned with here. We're just one point of light being moved around, but your memory of the concerned with the next roll of the dice. As a result, the element of visual sensation of the light fills in the rest of the circle. That's one arbitrariness or randomness makes prediction of the next roll example of sensory memory. So remember, you can hold something impossible. Statisticians who work with probability theory call the in your sensory memory for just a fraction of a second, up to around roll of a pair of dice a single-event probability, and many of these half a second, then it fades away. same statisticians believe that the probability of a single event can't Now if you want to keep the information for longer than a second, even be computed mathematically. So, the same probability theory you have to put it into your working memory. Working memory, the that works well with supermarket lines won't help you win a million second type of memory, allows us to hold on to things for as long as dollars in a dice game in Las Vegas. It could, in fact, lead to a we think about them, that is, as long as we're paying attention to catastrophe! So, to sum up, we have looked at three cases involving Murphy's them. It's something like a kind of temporary storage place. Let me Law and our perception of "bad luck." The first case was the toast, give you a simple math problem. Are you ready? Here goes ... 18 right? Our toast lands buttered-side down far more often than we plus 44 plus 9 plus 19. . . I'll say that one more time. OK? 18 plus would predict because the basic laws of physics have a strong effect 44 plus 9 plus 19. ... All right? . . . Do you all have the answer? on normal probabilities. The second case was the supermarket line, Maya? remember? Another line moves faster than ours because the laws of STUDENT 1: Uh, I think it's 90. Yeah, 90. probability are behaving normally, even though we might perceive them as behaving unfairly. And the third case was the dice game. TEACHER: Let's see . . . 18 plus 44 is 62 . .. plus 9 is 71 .. . plus 19 is People lose at gambling games like dice because the laws of "life 90. Ninety is the answer. Now, to figure out this problem, you had history probability" simply don't apply in those situations, even to use your working memory. As you did the problem, you had to though gamblers think they do. continue holding the numbers in your memory until you got the So, as you can see, in some cases, Murphy's Law is not just some final answer. If you stopped concentrating on the numbers, that is, form of bad luck. There are some very real, scientific explanations you stopped saying them to yourself, or stopped visualizing them, for these events. OK, that's about it for today. For next class I'd like you would have forgotten them and then you wouldn't have been you to take a look at Chapter 7 and be ready to talk about the able to solve the problem. Do you see how that works? discussion questions on page 255. See you then. Here's one more example of working memory involving reading. Look at the sentence: "Honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life." It's written down in your textbook. Why, you may wonder, do we need working memory to Unit 3 Types of Memory understand such a simple sentence? Well, the answer is because TEACHER: Good morning everyone. Um . . . today, I have the working memory holds the first part of the sentence, "Honey is the pleasure of introducing you to the basics of what I think is one of only natural food ..." while our eyes move on to the last part, that is, the most fascinating topics in the field of psychology—memory. "made without destroying any kind of life." Without our working What is memory? How does memory work? The research in this memory, we would forget the first part of the sentence before we field is fascinating and dates back to the late 1800s, so it's been got to the end. So reading even short or simple passages would be going on for more than a century. I'll begin today by saying a few impossible without our working memory. things about three types of memory that we all have, and then we'll OK, I think you can see how important working memory is, but look at how memory is measured. our working memory is very limited, and it can only hold All right. First of all, let's begin by looking at types of memory. information temporarily. It usually lasts only one and one half to One of the most common ways to classify memory is based on two seconds and then it begins to fade. So if working memory were time . . . based on time and duration of use. So typically, memory is all we had, we would be very limited. Essentially, working memory divided into three types: sensory memory, working memory (which mediates between how we experience the environment and our is also referred to as short-term memory), and long-term memory. long-term memory. This brings us to the third type of memory that Again, that's sensory memory, working memory, and long-term we'll talk about today, long-term memory. memory. Now, long-term memory is involved with information that's Let's talk about sensory memory for a minute. Sensory memory stored for considerable lengths of time. For example, do you holds information for only an instant, say, less than half a second. remember the name of your best friend when you were ten years This is just long enough to register an impression on one or more old? I bet you do, because this information is certainly in your of our five senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste. Let me long-term memory. Actually, memory that's tested after about one give you an example of a minute behaves in a very simi- - 105 - recognition is a lot easier for most of us than recall. In other words, lar way to memory tested after a day, a week, or even years, so asking yourself "Have I seen this before?" is easier than many scientists believe that any memories more than one minute remembering everything you saw. old are part of our long-term memory. Interestingly, these Now the third basic method used to measure memory is memories seem to change over time in the sense that we tend to add relearning. Let me give you an example of a relearning test. First, information to them. In a sense, our memories become somewhat you try to memorize a list of words. Then you don't look at the list distorted. The reason behind these changes is that our memory is for a period of time, maybe a week. If you're like most people, you designed to keep or preserve meaning, not to keep impressions or won't be able to remember all of the words. After a week, you then images, but to keep meaning. For example, try to remember a look at the list a second time and try to relearn it. As you would conversation you had yesterday with a friend. Now if you're like guess, most people relearn information somewhat faster than they most people, you can't remember the exact words that you or your learn it the first time. By measuring the time people need to relearn friend said, but you can remember the ideas that you discussed. information, we can calculate how much information they have Your memories of the points that were most important to you will stored in their long-term memories the first time. be the clearest. So the essential feature of long-term memory is that So, let's stop there for today. Uh ... I hope that you'll put today's it specializes in holding meaning. OK, are there any questions material in your long-term memory ... or you're going to have a about that? Yes? hard time with the test. See you next week. STUDENT 1: Yeah. Can you explain why we don't remember all of the details of our past conversations? TEACHER: So the question is, "Why do we forget?" Well, most Unit 4 Actions Speak Louder experts believe that if we remembered all of the details of our past than Words experiences, our memory system would be filled with a lot of trivial information, a lot of trivial and generally useless information. Secondly, it is conceivable that we would find it extremely difficult TEACHER: OK, class, OK . . . let's begin. What do we mean when to sift through such a . .. a mass of detailed information and find the we say that actions speak louder than words? really important information that we need. Um ... in other words, STUDENT 1: Uh . . . that means we believe people's actions more memory searches would proceed a lot more slowly. than we believe their words. STUDENT 1: OK, I see. Thank you. TEACHER: Yes, exactly right—and, uh, in a sense, actions are more important than words. That's because we usually judge TEACHER: OK, let's move on to ways of measuring memory. Just speakers' intentions by the nonverbal signals they send us. And as we distinguished three types of memory, there are three main that's what our subject today's all about, nonverbal com-ways of measuring how much a person remembers. The first of munication—how we communicate through our actions— facial these methods is called recall. You use recall many times every day. expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, uh, body movement, and so Here's what I mean. . . . Take out a sheet of paper. . . . OK, now look on. And if any of you doubt the importance of these things, you at the word list in your text: drum, band, studio, and so on. . . . Read might like to consider a couple of statistics I've got here in front of it silently to yourself. . . . OK? . . . Have you looked at all of the me. Some communication specialists estimate we spend about 75 words? . . . OK, you should be finished by now. Now, close your percent of our waking hours communicating. And, more to the point, book. Write down the words you saw, as many as you can, on your words account for only, mm, 10 to 30 percent of that paper. . .. Go ahead.. .. OK, that's a simple recall test. Now, most of communication—the bulk's nonverbal. That's food for thought, uh? you probably remembered most of the words, but not all of them. Now although people clearly understand its importance, Our memories, of course, are not perfect, and of course forgetting is nonverbal communication—I'll call it N.V.C. for short—is actually natural. a rather recent field of study and owes a lot to an American The second method of measuring memory is recognition. OK, for anthropologist named Raymond Birdwhistle— spelled this you need another piece of paper, or just turn that one over. . . . B-I-R-D-W-H-I-S-T-L-E. Easy name to remember, right? All right. Number the page from one to eight. . . . Now look at the Birdwhistle began studying nonverbal communication in the 1950s word list again. OK, now close your book. I'm going to say eight and, um ... one of his main ideas was that the meaning of nonverbal words. You have to write "yes" or "no"—"yes" if the word I say behavior depended on the context in which it was used.... Uh, it was on the list, "no" if the word I say was not on the list. Ready? depends on the context. So, he looked at the whole context of Here I go. 1. studio. 2. guitar. 3. stage. 4. recorder. 5. wiring. 6. nonverbal behavior— how and, uh, where certain types of song 7. vocalist. 8. drum. . . . OK, everybody finished? The answers nonverbal behavior appeared—and not just one particular behavior are 1. yes, 2. no, 3. yes, 4. no, 5. yes, 6. no, 7. yes, and 8. yes. . . . in isolation. Facial expressions, for example—frowns, smiles, raised How did you do? Anyone get all eight correct? . . . Good! That's eyebrows, and, uh, so on—we all use these to convey many dif-what we call a recognition test. In contrast to the recall test, ferent meanings. But those meanings are largely determined by the recognition is more receptive and doesn't require you to produce situations we're in and the relationships that we have with the anything. For this reason, people we're communicating with. So, the same - 106 - or we're standing or sitting straight. You know: Are our legs expression can have different meanings, right? Take a smile, crossed, our arms folded? That sort of tiling. These convey for example, what does it mean?... Uh, Mike? the level of formality or relaxation in the same situation. STUDENT 2: Uh .. . uh, agreement, I guess. "I like you." Then comes physical contact, and here we're talking about TEACHER: OK. Yes, it could mean "I like you," but it could touching, holding, hugging, and so on. These convey or also mean "I'm trying to make you feel comfortable," or show messages—particularly how intimate we feel—and maybe, uh, "I think you said something funny." Hmm? The their meaning can vary a lot between cultures. Hands point is, the situation or the relationship between the people touching in one culture may be an act of great intimacy, involved gives a particular meaning to the smile. All right. whereas in another . . . simply a sign of friendship. The fact Now although today I want to focus on physical nonverbal is, though, that touching and physical intimacy can send a communication—uh, often called body language or kinesics, more direct yet subtle message than dozens of words. Be that's K-I-N-E-S-I-C-S—you should know that there are careful though: This kind of communication can easily other types of nonverbal communication. G. W. Porter, for invade someone's personal space, and that can .. . lead, uh . . . example, divides nonverbal communication into four cause mistrust, lead to problems—and actually shut down categories, which I'd like to look at just briefly. There's the the communication. Physical N.V.C. I just mentioned. That includes facial So those are Porter's static features. Let's now look at his expressions, tone of voice, sense of touch and smell, and dynamic features. These are basically things like facial body movement. Secondly, there's Aesthetic N.V.C.— that's expressions, gestures, eye contact, and uh, body movements. A-E-S-T-H-E-T-I-C, meaning related to beauty. And Facial expressions, then .. . these continually change during Aesthetic N.V.C. takes place through creative expressions, a conversation, and participants constantly watch and like playing instrumental music, dancing or painting, respond to each others' expressions. These expressions sculpting. And we certainly know that we can communicate usually communicate the emotions and attitude of the with people through creative expressions like these. speaker. Take eyes for example; they. . . . Well, let me ask Now, next is Signs, which is a mechanical type of com-you, what do you think they reveal? Yes? munication. Now, it includes the use of things like signal STUDENT 2: Um ... happiness and sadness? flags used at airports, the twenty-one gun salute used in the military, and police sirens used on public streets. And last is TEACHER: Fear? Fright? Symbolic N.V.C, which uses religious, status, or ego-build-STUDENT 3: Friendliness. ing symbols—you know, things like wearing crosses in the Christian religion or special pins to show membership in a TEACHER: Yes, some of these things are revealed in the eyes, particular club, like a fraternity. So, again, you've got physi-happiness and sadness yes . . . also fright and surprise. Think cal, aesthetic, signs, and symbolic nonverbal communication. about it. Think about how your eyes respond when you hear Got that? something surprising, or frightening, or sad, or cheerful. Now, But let's go back to Porter's first type, Physical N.V.C, or the lower face—the mouth and jaw—also reveals happiness body language .... Um, it's divided into two main types— or surprise, especially the smile, as we've said. The upper static features and dynamic features. Static features include face, eyebrows, and forehead can also reveal anger. In some distance, orientation, posture, and physical contact. Let's look communication studies, it's been estimated that facial at distance first. The distance a person stands from another expressions provide 55 percent of the meaning of a message; often sends a nonverbal message. In some situations it's a vocal cues, such as pitch and volume, provide 38 percent; sign of attraction; in others it's a reflection of social status; in and verbal cues only 7 percent. So, a person's expressions others it shows the intensity of the exchange. Distance has to seem to be a better indicator of his meaning than words, do with personal space and what an invasion of someone's which play a minimal part. personal space signifies, what it means. Britney? OK, now where are we? Oh. We're looking at Porter's dynamic features of communication. Next we come to ges-STUDENT 1: Yes, what is personal space exactly? Could you tures. You know, one of the most important parts of gestur-explain it a bit more, please? ing, hand movements, is one of those least understood by TEACHER: Ah, well, good question. Well, it's kind of like a scientists. Most are not universal, and as we all know, the bubble each of us places between ourself and others—an same gesture can have different meanings in different coun-invisible border or limit. Now this affects how close we tries. Here in the U.S. we make a circle with our thumb and stand to others, where we sit in a room, at a meeting, and uh, first finger and it means "OK." In Japan, however, it means so on—things which affect how comfortable we feel. "money," and in South America it has a sexual meaning. The Generally speaking, the higher your status, the more space story goes that former President Richard Nixon made a huge you'll have and the easier it'll be to invade other people's mistake on a trip to South America when he held up both space. Uh, I hope that's clearer. hands using this "OK." gesture. Needless to say, the people Now, orientation's different from distance and has to do in the audience were quite shocked! The fact is, we have to with the way we position ourselves in relation to others. For be very careful about what our bodies are saying . .. example, people cooperating are likely to sit side-by-side, especially when in a different culture. while competitors are likely to sit face to face ... right? And Now let's move on to eye contact. Eye contact is a very posture's different again; it concerns whether we're slouched powerful form of nonverbal communication. One thing - 107 - race for thousands of years. And, although some would say that the about eye contact that is generally agreed on is that someone with institution of marriage has come under attack in recent decades, higher status usually maintains eye contact longer if he's talking to marriage isn't going to disappear anytime soon. We're going to someone of lower status. In other words, he stares. Anything else start today by looking at some definitions of marriage. Then, we'll you think a direct stare indicates? consider the selection of a marriage partner, a critical decision STUDENT 1: Determination . . . uh . . . openness. that—you will see—has been handled very differently by different cultures. We'll see that how societies handle this question has TEACHER: Exactly, and it creates a feeling of trust. And looking changed in recent decades, and this change is having a strong downward? impact on marriage in today's world. STUDENT 1: That shows dishonesty, guilt,... uh .. . OK. So what is marriage? This may seem like a simple question, but not every society answers it in the same way. Generally, we can TEACHER: Yes, it does, but also modesty, in some cases. And describe marriage as a more or less durable union between one or eyes rolled upwards suggest tiredness. I don't see any of that right more men and one or more women that is sanctioned by society. I now, I'm glad to say! know that's long, so let me repeat it. Marriage is a more or less And the last, the fourth item on Porter's list is body movement. durable union . . . between one or more men .. . and one or more You know, it's interesting that a lot of the work on non-verbal women . . . that is sanctioned by, that is accepted by, society. All communication has been done for corporations. They want to right? Now the words "sanctioned by society" are an important part improve their employees' performance. So for example, if you lean of this definition because social approval is what distinguishes forward in an interview, this suggests you're energetic, somebody marriage from other relationships between adults. A second prepared to make major changes. If you hold yourself at your tallest, important point is that the obligations between partners—or the uh, this suggests you're probably a presenter, and good at selling responsibilities that the partners have toward each other—are yourself or the organization. And with side-to-side movements, if specified in marriages. Now what do you think might be an you take up a lot of space while talking by moving your arms a lot, example of a marriage obligation? What are married people you're seen as a good informer and listener, so you're desirable to expected to do? Yes, Monica. the company. See? So to finish up, I'm going to list five things that differentiate STUDENT 1: To take care of your marriage partner... . verbal and nonverbal communication. I'd like you to note them down. First, while spoken languages differ from country to country, TEACHER: Good. Anything else? emotions are communicated in much the same nonverbal way STUDENT 2: Uh ... to take care of the children. . . . throughout the world. Second, although we know a lot about the grammar of spoken language, we still don't know very much about TEACHER: Absolutely. Those are the main ones. So one obli-the "grammar" of N.V.C. Third, we don't have any dictionaries for gation is to provide care for the children and provide them with an N.V.C. If you go to a foreign country and somebody makes a hand acceptable position in society. Now this definition of marriage says gesture you don't understand, there's no dictionary to help you. And that marriage is a licensing of parenthood. OK, just what do we fourth, we can ask for repetition or clarification of what somebody mean by that? A licensing of parenthood means it allows people to has said, but it's practically impossible to ask, "Could you repeat become parents. Now in most societies, the key has traditionally that smile?" or "What does that facial expression mean?" We have been having acceptable social fatherhood. This is called "social to understand nonverbal communication the first time around. And fatherhood" because traditionally the father is supposed to be finally, we can hide our true feelings with spoken language, but it's responsible for ensuring the, uh . . . the social development of the more difficult with N.V.C. We can't just stop ourselves from turn-child. Some people say, though, that this task has more often fallen ing red, or slow down our heartbeat, right? So whether we like it or to the mother. In addition, nowadays, some people prefer to use a not, body language can't lie—although I'll bet there are times we all term such as "social parenthood" and do away with the gender bias wish it could. of the traditional term. ... I, I see a question. Go ahead. So in conclusion then, nonverbal communication is an integral part of communication. OK, now let's quickly get into groups and STUDENT 3: I'm a little confused by what you mean by social talk about some of the differences I've just mentioned. This is what fatherhood or social parenthood. Could you explain more about I want you to do. Just pull your chairs around. .. . that? TEACHER: Sure. How about an example? Maybe that would make Unit 5 Marriage: Traditions the idea clearer. In many countries, children can be adopted. Now in those cases, the adoptive parents are not the actual birth mother and Trends and father. TEACHER: Good afternoon, class. Today I'd like to talk about a STUDENT 3: OK, so the people who adopt the child become the subject which is probably going to be very important in your future, social mother and social father. for many of you at least—marriage. Marriage, as you probably know, has been with the human - 108 - Obviously, there's no dating or romance before the wedding in this TEACHER: Exactly. So if you remember that the social mother or situation. Now, depending where you come from, you may be very father isn't necessarily the birth mother or father, you'll have the familiar with arranged marriages because they're still common in idea. the Middle East, Africa, and ... uh, some countries in Asia. STUDENT 3: OK. Arranged marriages are found in cultures in which the extended TEACHER: All right. So those are a couple of ideas about family is common. That is, the family is made up not only of marriage and how marriage can be defined. Now let's move on to parents and children, but also grandparents, grandchildren, and take a look at how marriage partners are selected. The first ideas perhaps even aunts and uncles and so on. In extended families, that are important are exogamy and endogamy. Exogamy. That's marriage is a family affair, and individuals are expected to conform E-X-O-G-A-M-Y. And endogamy is spelled E-N-D-O-G-A-M-Y. to the overall wishes of the group. In other words, the people getting Do you have that? OK ... so exogamy is the idea that marriage married have little or no independence in terms of choosing their should take place with someone from outside of our group and, marriage partner. uh . . . endogamy is the opposite . . . the idea that marriage should Now, in contrast to arranged marriages, people in many places take place with someone inside our group. around the world have a great deal of freedom in deciding who Now this sounds quite simple, but if you think about it, any they'll marry in what some call "love marriages." However, the individual belongs to many different groups. For instance, we can notion that marriage is a private decision between two people is not belong to a racial group, a national group, a socioeconomic group, a traditional idea. Typically, marriage has been the business of the or a religious group, to name a few. So one idea of marriage might whole family or even the whole tribe. This has been the norm be that you should marry within your religious group. For instance, throughout most of the world, and the idea that men and women the parents of a Muslim child might want their child to marry could marry freely is relatively modern. In ancient societies, the another Muslim, parents of a Catholic another Catholic, and so on. tribe had to approve of the match, and the idea of a couple choosing What would that be? Exogamy or endogamy? each other freely would have been extremely shocking—and in many cases, against the law of the group. In other words, the wishes STUDENT 1: Endogamy. Uh . . . because that's inside a group. It's of the individual were subordinate to the wishes of the group. Even the same religion. in the societies upon which modern western civilization is based, TEACHER: Right. Right. That's endogamy. However, those same meaning the Romans and the Greeks, marrying for love was parents would almost certainly demand that their child marry virtually unknown. The fact is, love has not been the point of mar-someone who was not a member of their immediate family. In other riage in much of human history. Having children and cementing ties words, you can't marry your brother or sister. That's illegal in many between families, tribes, and other groups have been considered far societies. That's a fairly universal example of exogamy. Rules more important. Actually, this all makes sense when you consider against marrying someone within one's own immediate family are that marriage laws are essentially attempts to preserve the type of thousands of years old. family unit that is valued in that culture and to protect traditional If you think about your country, your culture, or your parents for cultural values. a few minutes, you'll realize that endogamy is an extremely Now, let's fast-forward to the present. As we're all aware, the powerful idea in most societies. However, this concept is changing. situation surrounding marriage has changed. The world has been Take my brother as an example, or I guess I should say a undergoing rapid changes in the past century, and one of those counter-example. What I mean is that his marriage is a good changes has been a general eroding of the extended family in many example of exogamy. He's married to a woman who is a different parts of the world. The extended family is gradually being replaced race and different nationality. They speak different native with the smaller nuclear family, in which parents and children live languages. Although our family has been understanding and separately from other members of the family. In the nuclear family, supportive of his marriage, he's the only person in the entire family individual choice is very important. The idea is that mature indi- who has married outside of our national, cultural, and language viduals should make their own choices regarding marriage, and that group, so his marriage is far from the cultural norm. In many other love and romance are necessary conditions for a successful parts of the world, the cultural norm as well is to marry within the marriage. The couple is also expected to set up an independent national, racial, and linguistic group. This is interesting to think household of their own. So, for better or worse, the world seems to about, and I'll give you chances to discuss this later. be moving much more strongly toward freedom of choice where Now let's move on to the second point . . . about how marriage marriage is concerned. I think that it's interesting to speculate about partners are selected. Who chooses the marriage partner. If we the possible results of this trend. For instance, what do you think look at different cultures throughout the world, the decision is might happen where endogamy and exogamy are concerned? Do made either by the family—usually the parents—or by the couple you think we may see a breakdown of endogamy? Will traditional who is getting married. The first case is called an arranged institutions such as arranged marriages begin to erode? Do you marriage. In an arranged marriage, the family restricts or controls think we'll see more interracial and international marriages? If so, the choice of marriage partner. In extreme cases, the individuals how will this affect our world? Well, getting married don't meet each other until the wedding ceremony itself. - 109 - TEACHER: Yes, Sergio; you're absolutely right. In the case of a I'd like to hear what you think about these ideas, so take a look at large star, there's more mass, and therefore the gravitational force is the discussion questions 2 through 5 at the end of Chapter 6, and be stronger. And, as the gravitational force becomes stronger and prepared to discuss those next class. All right. Any questions?. .. stronger, the star gets smaller and smaller until all its energy and OK. Get out your homework and let's break into groups. . .. mass is compressed into one tiny point called the "singularity"—that's "singularity." Got that? The singularity then sucks or pulls in everything near it—even light—because its Unit 6 Black Holes, White Holes, gravitational force is so strong. So, we get a black hole. In other and Wormholes words, the powerful gravitational force of a black hole is caused by an extremely large mass being forced into—drawn into--a tiny space ... the singularity. It's a bit like taking an orange and TEACHER: Are there any questions before we begin?... No? ... This squeezing it so hard that it becomes as small as the head of a pin . . . afternoon I'm going to introduce you to three mysterious but its weight doesn't change. When a large mass is forced into a phenomena that have been puzzling astronomers since the early tiny space like this, we say it's very dense. So, the tiny point called twentieth century—phenomena which promise to tell us a good the singularity is an extremely dense object. deal about the origins of our universe and the nature of space and Now, here's an interesting question: How small does a star need time. I'm talking about black holes, white holes, and wormholes. to become in order to create the huge gravitational force of a black Are you familiar with these? I'm sure most of you have heard of hole? Well, just consider this: We're told that if the sun were the these things—maybe through movies—but if you're like most size of a large mountain, it would need to shrink to the size of a people, you probably really don't understand them very well, right? small butterfly. Think about that—from a mountain to a small What I'd like to talk about today—in pretty simple terms—is what butterfly. Yet, it would still weigh the same as the original these things are and what evidence we have that they exist. mountain. It would, as we've said, be extremely dense! Let me start, then, with black holes, which is probably the most Now, most of their lives, stars remain a constant size because familiar term for most people. The term "black hole" was first used they have a balance of forces. On one side you've got heat—which back in 1969 by an American physicist named John Archibald is made because the star burns fuel, which helps push the star out. Wheeler. He used it to describe the final stage in the life of very On the other side there's the effect of gravity, which pulls the star large stars. Black holes have incredibly strong gravitational in. Heat versus gravity—see? So you get a balance. However, after force—so strong, in fact, that nothing can escape their gravity, not billions of years, the star uses up all its fuel. Then, there's an even light. And since no light can escape from them, and since we imbalance—there's no more heat. Gravity wins the battle, and the need light to see, we cannot see black holes,... which is precisely star collapses. why we call them "black holes," right? ... I see a question. Yes? Now, students often ask me what it would be like to be sucked STUDENT 1: If they can't see them, how do scientists know black into a black hole. The truth is we can't really be sure. However, holes exist? scientists have tried to imagine this event, and it doesn't sound very appealing. Let me explain. The area immediately surrounding a TEACHER: Excellent question. Scientists know they exist because black hole is called the "event horizon." Once you cross this area, they can see their effect on nearby objects. For example, black the event horizon, you can't go back The gravity there is so strong holes pull gases off the surface of nearby stars. Scientists are able that you wouldn't be able to escape the black hole. The to see these gases being sucked into the black hole. gravitational force pulling on your legs would be greater than the STUDENT 1:I see... gravitational force pulling on your head, and the difference between the two forces would stretch you. Each and every atom of TEACHER: So . . . what causes black holes? . . . Well, to answer your body would be torn apart from the others and pulled toward that question it's helpful to first consider small and medium-sized the singularity at the black hole's center. There, they'd be squeezed stars. In the last stage of their lives, small and medium-sized stars until they ceased to exist. Not very nice! become what we call white dwarfs. Now, a white dwarf is a small, OK, enough about what getting sucked into a black hole would very hot mass which is formed when the star's gravity collapses the be like. Now I'm going to move on to different types of black holes. star. All its heat, energy, and mass are compressed into a smaller Basically, there are two kinds of black holes: rotating and and smaller space. This makes the star hotter and gives it a stronger nonrotating. Let me explain the difference. If you cross the event gravitational pull. So that's what happens with small and horizon of a nonrotating black hole, it's certain you'll die. However, medium-sized stars. As I've said, though, a black hole is the final some scientists believe that this might not happen if you cross the stage in the life of a very large star, and this means its gravity's event horizon of a rotating black hole. Because the hole rotates, much stronger. Anyone like to suggest why? Sergio? you may be able to somehow avoid entering the singularity, and STUDENT 2: It's larger, so it has more mass, and that makes its you may even be transported to another part of the universe and gravitational pull stronger. forced out of a white hole—although only as millions of particles probably. ... Your body would have been torn apart, I'm afraid. - 110 - Now this brings us to our second and third phenomena: white start, scientists believe they wouldn't be stable. Therefore, even a holes and wormholes . . . things we know much less about and small disturbance, like a person traveling through it, could cause which are far more controversial. Basically, a white hole's the the wormhole to collapse. In fact, some argue that, in order to travel opposite of a black hole. Instead of matter being pulled into it, through a wormhole, the black hole (the entry hole) and white hole matter is pushed out of it. The idea is that if matter falls into a (the exit hole) would have to be identical, and any small difference black hole, it comes out of a white hole at the other end—and between them could destroy the wormhole. So that's problem matter in this case includes light, by the way. Light which enters a number one. The second problem's this: Even if wormholes exist black hole exits via a white hole. This causes that white hole to and are stable, chances are you'd be killed by the radiation inside appear as a bright white object—that's where it gets its name. Now, them. So you see, although these are interesting concepts, right now the actual tunnel through which the matter passes—from the black it's difficult to know how real they are or how useful they might be hole to the white hole—is called a "wormhole" . . . like a tunnel to us. made by a worm. So you can see how the three phenomena are All right, that's all 1 want to talk about today. I've tried to give connected, right?you a simple introduction to three mysterious phenomena that Now like I said, the idea of white holes and wormholes is still astronomers are still trying to understand. Let me just recap some of very uncertain. What I mean is there's no empirical evidence of my main points. I've said that black holes have incredibly strong their existence, it's all only theoretical. However, if a white hole gravity. That gravitational force pulls everything near a black hole and a black hole could be linked somehow, then whatever falls into into the tiny center of the hole called the singularity. When objects, a black hole could—in theory at least—suddenly appear out of a including light, get squeezed into the singularity, they're destroyed. white hole some other place in the universe. Yes, Kristy? You have However, I made a distinction between rotating and nonrotating a question? black holes. In the case of rotating black holes, if the object crosses the event horizon—the area just on the edge of a black hole—it may STUDENT 1: Uh, yeah ... yeah, I do. avoid the singularity and exit from a white hole in another part of the universe. This might, in theory, make time travel possible. TEACHER: OK . . . You'll remember that a white hole is the opposite of a black hole; STUDENT 1: I once read a science-fiction novel about people instead of sucking matter in, it forces matter out. And a wormhole is using wormholes to travel through time. Is that right? I mean, is it like a tunnel that connects the black hole and the white hole. possible to travel through time using wormholes? To wrap it up, I'll just say once again that there is evidence that black holes exist, even if we're not clear about how they work. TEACHER: Good question Kristy. The simple answer is . . . we We're much less certain, though, that white holes and wormholes don't know. You're right though; in science fiction, wormholes do exist—and if they do, what value they might be to mankind. One allow people to travel across large amounts of space and time very more thing to consider is this: If time travel is possible, then quickly. If you want to understand how, just imagine an insect on a shouldn't we now be meeting people from the future? OK, that's it large piece of paper. It would take the insect a long time to walk for today. Any questions? across the paper, right? But if you folded the paper, the distance for the insect to cross would be much smaller, so it would cross the paper faster. Now wormholes bend space in the same way that you fold a piece of paper. This means that just as the insect never Unit 7 Animal Talk crosses most of the paper, someone traveling through a wormhole never passes through the space between the entrance and the exit. TEACHER: OK, let's get started . . . um, on today's topic of animal He um ... he basically takes a shortcut, not just through communication. I'm just wondering . . . how many of you have pets? space—what we call the third dimension—but also through Dogs, cats, birds, . . . any kind of pet. Quite a few, I see. In my case, time—what we call the fourth dimension. And the exit point—the I have a golden retriever. I'd certainly like to think that I'm able to white hole—may be somewhere far away, possibly in a different communicate with him, but what kind of communication are we universe . . . uh, linked to our own universe only via the wormhole. really engaging in? Actually, this is a very interesting and And if the exit to the wormhole is in the past, then you could travel controversial question because, in many ways, it's difficult to back in time by going through. But, I repeat, this is more science compare animals and humans. Humans are one species, and there fiction than reality, and many people deny the existence of are many species of animals. And each species has its own way of wormholes. It's . . . yes? communicating, and some of those forms of communication are completely different from what we use. For instance, some types of STUDENT I: But wait a minute. I thought wormholes had been fish use electrical currents to communicate, some insects use proven mathematically. vibrations, and bats use ultrasonic signals. And then there's the TEACHER: True, it's been proven mathematically that they could sense of smell. Even though humans try to cover natural body odors exist. But that doesn't mean they actually exist in nature. And even with soap and deodorant and perfume, odor is a common method of if, one day, white holes and wormholes were shown to exist in communicating for many animals. reality, not just in theory, there'd still be at least two problems with traveling through them. For a - 111 - runs for a particular type of tree that leopards can't climb easily. So . . . you see, animal communication is really not very When the monkeys hear an eagle alarm call, they immediately stop straightforward, so today I would like to simplify matters. what they're doing and begin scanning the sky. When they hear the Although we acknowledge the fact that animals communicate in snake call, they stand up straight and scan the ground in the many different ways, today we're only going to consider whether immediate area. animals can use language as we know it—in other words, language Now in addition to alarm calls, animals such as monkeys and that is composed of words and that has a grammar. Today, now I'd birds use food calls. Now these calls not only let others know that like to consider three questions. First, what do animal sounds mean? food has been found, but they can also sometimes give information Second, do animals intend to communicate? And third, do animals about how much and what quality of food has been found. Now speak in sentences? another interesting point, which is not well understood, is that All right. The first question that I just mentioned was what animal some animals such as chickens seem to use food calls deceptively. sounds mean. Now to understand this, we need to take a close look In other words, sometimes chickens will use a call to indicate that at different types of communication. These can be divided into two they have found food even when they haven't. So what does this types: affective communication and symbolic communication. mean? Do chickens lie? Are they intentionally deceitful. This is a Affective communication involves the communication of emotion. sophisticated use of communication, but few scientists are willing Humans use affective communication when we laugh, uh, when we to admit that chickens are consciously trying to deceive other cry . . . and, um, much of our nonverbal communication is this chickens, because they don't appear to have the intelligence for that affective communication. We show a great deal of feeling with our kind of thinking. facial expressions, gestures, and so on. Of course, animals can also The second question concerns whether animals actually intend to express emotion, and this is one of the reasons why we love our pets communicate. In other words, do animals care if there is another so much—they're expressive in many ways. Dogs, in particular, are animal nearby who will hear their call? Well, the answer is "yes." It popular in many cultures because they're so good at appearing appears that animals do care about this. Wild birds call out when happy, pained, and sad. They even seem to mirror human feelings. they spot something important like food or an enemy, but they only For instance, when I'm feeling down or I've had a hard day, my dog do this when other birds are present. On the other hand, they're becomes quiet and actually looks a little sad or tired himself. Well, frequently silent in the same situations when no other birds of their that's my experience, but, in any case, almost all scientists agree that species are around. So birds are apparently aware of their own most higher order animals like dogs and cats can use affective species. Gender is also a factor here. For example, male chickens communication. So one answer to our first question is that many will call out more often when female chickens are nearby, and animal sounds communicate what we can call an emotional state. there's even a difference depending on whether the chicken is Now, remember that I said there is a second type of com- known or unknown. The male chickens will use food calls most munication—symbolic. Symbolic communication is information frequently when unknown female chickens are nearby. Uh, I guess about a specific referent that can be encoded by a signaler and I should also mention that this phenomenon is not just limited to decoded by a receiver. Now that's rather complicated, so let me give birds or chickens. Chimpanzees also communicate far more when you an example. If I say the word "Brazil," the referent in this case other chimps or, in some cases, when humans are present. So the is the actual country, Brazil, because I'm referring to the country. I general answer to the second question is "yes." It does appear that encode this referent with a set of sounds. If you understand that at least some types of animals are sensitive to the presence of an referent and the set of sounds, then you'll be able to decode or trans-audience and that they do intend to communicate. late the sounds and understand the referent. That is, you'll Now I've told you we believe that some animals, such as certain understand that I'm talking about a country in South America. Now monkeys, can use something like words—in a limited way. You'll can animals do that? Well, the answer appears to be "yes." But remember, I mentioned it appears that they can say something like because their vocabularies are so limited, it's probably safe to say "eagle," "leopard," or "snake." But humans can use grammar, so we that they can use very little symbolic communication. For instance, communicate different meanings by using words in different scientists have confirmed that one type of monkey in Africa, the sequences. So for instance, I can say "The dog bit the man" and that vervet monkey, clearly makes different alarm calls. One type of call has one meaning. But if I use the same words and change the is very general and seems to communicate the idea of "Watch out!" sequence and say "The man bit the dog," now I have communicated or "Stay alert!" Monkeys that hear this call begin to look around a very different meaning. Well, this last question , is about whether more and act more careful. They're less tranquil, less relaxed than animals can do this too. In other words, can they use some form of usual, and they're less willing to leave the safety of nearby trees. grammar? What do you think? Well, the answer is that mere is no Other calls, now, are quite specific. There's a call that monkeys use recorded natural example of animals making anything like a when they see a leopard, a different call for eagles, and yet a sentence or using the order of a sequence of sounds to communicate different call for snakes. Now the interesting thing is that there's symbolic meaning. The monkeys and birds we've been talking about every indication that monkeys use these calls in a symbolic way. can make alarm calls or food calls quickly or slowly, loudly or For instance, when a vervet monkey hears a leopard call, it often softly, but they never seem to manipulate the sequence. - 112 - Even the birds that seem to be saying "a lot of good food" are that theme today and focus on male and female communication communicating that idea with one identical call that doesn't change. styles—the differences between the way men and women They're not using grammar as far as anyone can tell.communicate. Let me start by saying the issue of gender differences Now, one group of animals that is able to manipulate their in communication seems to be an interesting one for most language is songbirds. As you are probably aware, many wild birds people—certainly for most students. Anyone like to suggest why? sing rather complex birdsongs. And these songs are created by combining a variety of notes in many different patterns. Some birds STUDENT 1: I think because most of us are looking for partners, a have hundreds of phrases that they use in thousands of different long-term love relationship . . . you know? So it helps to understand combinations. However, contrary to what you might believe, there the opposite sex, so we can communicate with them better. is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that birds can communicate any symbolic meaning by manipulating these musical notes and TEACHER: Well, that probably is one major reason—so we can phrases. Instead, they seem to use their songs just as a way of get along better. The truth is, gender differences have fascinated advertising themselves, attracting a mate, or maybe even mankind for as long as people have been writing down their expressing some type of emotion. thoughts, from as far back as the story of Adam and Eve to Well, now today we began with three questions, and I'd like to contemporary books. And although numerous books and articles return to those questions once again. First, what do animal sounds have been written on the subject, almost all of them draw the same mean? In most cases, we think they communicate what we would conclusion: Men and women speak different languages. I'll bet most call emotion, or affective meaning; but in some cases, they stand for of us here have read or at least heard of some book that talks about specific things in the environment such as food and the presence of why men and women can't talk to each other, or how they can danger. Second, do animals consciously intend to communicate? improve communication with the opposite sex. Of course, this isn't Well, generally I suppose the answer is "yes," though having an really surprising. Most of us want to relate better to the opposite sex, audience that understands the message is an important factor. And and most of us have a sense that there are differences in third, do animals use grammar? Here the answer seems to be "no." communication style, even if they're simply based on stereotypes. If animals use some type of grammar, it's nothing that scientists As a matter of fact, research based on transcribed speech—that is, have been able to identify and confirm. One reason for this is that speech which has been recorded and written down exactly as it was using grammar requires far more mental processing and far more spoken-—shows that both sexes can generally tell whether a sophisticated memory than using a simple vocabulary with no speaker is male or female. So clearly, gender differences in grammar, and this may be the obstacle for animals—they don't have language really do exist. After all, let's face it, men and women the brainpower. Some animals do have the brainpower to use a very have been misunderstanding each other for generations, and that limited number of individual words in a rigid, inflexible way, but leads to problems in love relationships, challenges in professional they can't acquire thousands and thousands of words like human life . . . uh . . . the workplace, and so on. Just think about this for a beings and then manipulate those words using grammar. minute, if you will: Researchers claim we spend 70 percent of our The thing that really sets humans apart from animals is our working hours communicating and 30 percent of that is talking. So incredible ability to use language symbolically, produce the same you can see it's essential that we learn how to communicate with words in many different combinations, and assign different each other. There are more complex reasons, though, why studying meanings to those combinations. In short, grammar is an communication is important. The fact is . . . the fact . . . you need to innovation that only humans have been able to develop. So, realize that communication's not simply a matter of saying what although I might prefer to believe that when I get home tonight my you mean and being understood. How we say what we mean is dog will say something like "Nice to see you; let's go outside and equally crucial because it influences the way people perceive and play Frisbee," he's probably really communicating something more respond to us. And how we express ourselves, our style, says a lot like "happy, happy" or "hungry, hungry." But I'll settle for that about how we see our own status—our power, our authority, if you because we communicate pretty well with each other. All right. like—in relation to our listeners. We adjust... we change the way Now that's it for today. Are there any questions? No? OK. Will you we talk depending on who we're talking to and the impression we please read Chapters 6 and 7 before next class, and I'll see you want to give them. In other words, our communicative style is then. socially conditioned. Think about that. Our communication style is socially conditioned. How we use language with others is a learned behavior, and how we talk and listen are deeply influenced by Unit 8 Gender Differences in cultural expectations. Problems arise because women and men are like people who have grown up in two different subcultures. They Language have two broadly different styles of speaking and establishing social status based on how they've grown up. What I'd like to do TEACHER: Morning, everyone. You'll recall we began looking at now is look at how these different styles develop. gender differences last week, and I'd like to continue - 113 - But what are these differences? Well, at a general level, there arc There have been many attempts to explain gender differences in differences in the purpose of communication— why they talk. We communication styles, with genetics and the environment both at could say that generally men talk to give information or to the top of the list. In the case of inherent genetic factors, some report—they're "goal-oriented." They focus on solving problems suggest that differences in men and women's brain structure and and are less likely to ask for help or directions—maybe because hormone production contribute to differences in thought processes, traditional social roles demand that men behave like leaders, as and these in turn contribute to different behavior between the sexes. being in control— whether they feel that way or not. As a general Precisely how much influence genetic factors have on rule, men try to establish status, their level of authority in a situation, communication compared to the environment—that's to say, how but women try to establish and support intimacy, or close rela-much communication style is a product of nature as opposed to tionships with others. This might well be because, until recently, it nurture—is not yet clear. Uh . .. nevertheless, evidence suggests that was the man who was typically in the more competitive nature's responsible for only 1 percent of the difference in environment—both at work and at play—and therefore who may communication style between the sexes. Think about it—only 1 have been more concerned about establishing, maintaining, and percent! That means the environment plays a far bigger role. Now increasing status. Today, of course, that's changing, and this can be let's stop and consider just what that means. Generally speaking, seen in the type of topics men and women discuss. Let's consider boys and girls tend to participate in different kinds of activities as that next as we look at some slightly more detailed observations children. These activities reflect the everyday activities of adult men about gender differences in communication. and women. Girls dress baby dolls and boys build things, for At the risk of stereotyping, I'll say that women have tended to example. Toy stores know this very well. Now this is a discuss topics related to relationships, such as the home, clothes, generalization, of course—there are girls who love building block and so on. Men, on the other hand, have tended to discuss money or sets like LEGO, for example—but just look at how toy stores business. However, that trend appears to be changing, with women arrange their toys according to activities for girls and activities for talking more about work and money—no doubt due to changing boys. And as a result of their different activities, boys and girls social roles and the fact that more women are working. Actually, develop different communication styles. Girls traditionally practice one study found that the percentage of women's conversations more intimacy-related skills, and learn how to relate to others. That devoted to work and money rose from 3.7 percent in 1922 to 37.5 is, they use language to establish intimacy, as a basis of friendship. percent in 1990. That's more than a 33 percent jump. That speaks Their style is what some writers call "collaboration-oriented." When volumes, doesn't it? girls play house, for instance, this type of play naturally produces Given the collaboration/competition distinction I mentioned more collaborative communication—discussions based on earlier, you probably won't be surprised to learn that men tend to be relationships, and so on. Boys, on the other hand, tend to be more more aggressive and argumentative than women, and use more goal-driven or task-oriented, and practice work-related skills. They expletives—strong language, in other words. They want to get their might discuss, for example, how to build a castle or lay out a track, point across. Also as you might expect, women are more successful and how to get the job done. They're encouraged more to compete with interpersonal tasks, it seems—in particular, comforting, with others and generally use language to establish their status in the persuading, and justifying decisions. They also tend to be better group. You could say that their communication style is listeners than men. One aspect of this is how they listen; according "competition-oriented" rather than collaboration-oriented. to various studies, in conversations women use more "mm-hmm," Evidence suggests that these patterns are reinforced when "rights," and so on, to show they're listening. children socialize with their peers. Of course, parents, teachers, and And what about nonverbal communication? Well, women show others help establish these patterns of communication in boys and greater skills in sending and understanding nonverbal messages. girls by directing children's activities. They buy boys Also, they're less likely to signal dominance. Typical male body construction-type gifts and girls domestic gifts, for instance. But language, on the other hand— wide gestures, sitting with knees they also do it subconsciously by talking to boys and girls in apart, and so on—often displays status and dominance by different ways. For example, if their children have problems, increasing personal space. Finally, men tend to stammer more than mothers tend to regulate or guide their children more than fathers . . . women and use more "ums" and "uhs" when they speak. They're and they tend to be more controlling with their daughters than with more restless, use more hand gestures in conversation, and tend to their sons. Fathers, in contrast, tend to be more concerned with speak too loudly. identifying the problem quickly and demanding a solution—and Now, before I finish, a few final thoughts for you to go away they tend to do this more with their sons than with their daughters. with. As I've said, male/female communication styles are mainly a So the mothers tend to be more controlling and have more rules, social phenomenon. Given that society's constantly changing, we and the fathers tend to be more demanding of solutions. So as a can also expect communication styles to change to reflect the result, when they are adults, men and women tend to exhibit changing roles of men and women. More women, for example, are differences in their styles of communication. working and rising to positions of power and authority in business, and this is changing how they communicate. Likewise, as men take on more - 114 - domestic duties—take more responsibility for things like raising word "conspicuous" a lot today—conspicuous basically means children, for example—their styles also changing. I've heard it said deliberately attracting attention. that language has prevented women from taking on new roles in If you look at fashion today, things haven't really changed much, society and achieving true equality with men. One way to deal with have they? Even though people these days don't dress in silver or this may be for parents to change—or at least vary the kinds of gold lace, clothes are still very much a sign of status. In fact, you activities they encourage their children to engage in. This will could say that nowadays many people believe clothes tell us about change the way parents talk to their children and therefore children's the personality—the honesty, talent, and intelligence of the person own ideas about how they should speak. Perhaps we also need to wearing them. In some social circles, there's often a feeling that reduce gender segregation—get boys and girls playing together someone who's not well dressed is probably dishonest or stupid, more—so they develop more similar styles. In other words, the way and without talent. Now that's sad but true, I'm afraid. Many of us we bring up and educate our children is important. In fact, the make these judgments very quickly and unconsciously,... which, of changes could be quite dramatic! I'd like to close by adding two course, is why people read and write books with titles like Dress final words of caution. Firstly, when we talk about male and female for Success. The idea is if you dress well, people will judge you differences of any kind, it's easy to fall into the trap of stereotyping positively even before you open your mouth, right? I'd say that men and women. Stereotypes are based on generalizations— which, people have very definite ideas about dress and character. of course, do not apply to everyone. What's more, even if But today I'm going to look in detail at this idea of conspicuous generalizations are accurate enough at one point in time, society consumption. So just to recap, let me repeat that conspicuous changes, as we've seen, and it may take some time for the ideas consumption is about the different ways we spend money in order behind the generalizations to reflect those changes. And secondly, to show people our wealth. Mmm? And one of the most obvious please bear in mind that when we talk about male and female ways we do this is by wearing more clothes than other people. This communication styles, we have to understand that these vary from is sometimes called conspicuous addition. Whatever the occasion, culture to culture—not surprising given the role of socialization. the well-to-do normally wear more clothes. In North America, for Therefore, most of the things I've been saying apply to North instance, men are more likely to wear jackets and vests, and women, American culture but might not apply to all cultures. OK, that's it pantyhose, scarves, and unnecessary but expensive wraps—even in for today.mid-summer. And on the beach, even though their swimsuits may be like everyone else's, just watch the wealthy put on their silk beach kimonos when they come out of the water ... or maybe a shirt, Unit 9 Fashion and Status hat, and bag that matches their swimsuit. And people notice, right? Of course, they're supposed to notice; that's the point. TEACHER: Today, everyone, as part of our look at fashion and Of course, people also show off their status by wearing a lot of design, we're going to take a look at fashion and social status, that clothes consecutively rather than simultaneously. In other words, as is, how we use fashion to make statements about our social we've seen, people wear more clothes, but they also like to show off, status—who we are, how wealthy we are, and so on. We do this to display as many different outfits as possible. Basically, the more with the kinds of cars we buy, the style of our houses, and of course outfits you wear, the higher your status; it's as simple as that. Now the clothes we wear, which is the subject of today's discussion. how do people do this? Well, they divide daily life into different Now, the idea of using special clothes to signal social status has sorts of activities—what's been called conspicuous division—and a long history, dating back to ancient Egypt. In very hierarchical each of these activities, such as going to work or going out to societies like ancient Egypt, for example, only those in high dinner, requires a different kind of clothing. Now, this isn't positions could wear sandals. Also, the Greeks and Romans had anything new. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was laws which controlled the type, the color and number of garments common for the wealthier classes to have different clothing for that could be worn, as well as the kind of embroidery used. These different parts of the day. Men would wear a morning suit, a dress were known as sumptuary laws ... that's S-U-M-P-T-U-A-R-Y... coat, um, a dinner jacket, and women, morning clothes, walking sumptuary laws. . . . However, as barriers between social classes clothes, tea gowns, um, motoring outfits, evening dresses. ... You became weaker, these so-called sumptuary laws became name it, there was a costume for it. increasingly difficult to enforce and were eventually abandoned. Now today, we have the same tradition, but the emphasis is on Instead, high status was indicated by the cost of a person's sports rather than social life. Fashionable people will have different clothing—you know, rich and exotic materials, expensive and often outfits for different sports, whether it's jogging, hiking, cycling, unnecessary accessories . . . and, um, difficult-to-care-for styles. golf, or aerobics—and to wear the wrong outfit can cause a loss of This kind of expensive and often unnecessary clothing was prestige. . . . This, by the way, is what enables manufacturers of designed to attract attention; it was an example of what's called sports equipment to make so much money. And it's not just having conspicuous consumption—that's conspicuous consumption. And separate clothing that's important, it's also having the right equip- of course, people thought the type of clothes you wore reflected ment; that also has to be high prestige.... It's important to have the what you could afford; in other words, your clothes reflected your correct brand names. wealth. I'm going to be using this - 115 - in, say, London's Saville Row or Paris. Today, though, thanks to Now another way of indicating high status is to own many similar sophisticated manufacturing methods and artificial materials that garments so that you rarely wear the same thing. This is what's look like the real thing, it's become very difficult to tell simply by known as conspicuous multiplication. For instance, some very looking whether a suit, jacket, or whatever has been handmade wealthy men wear a brand new shirt every day; they'll never use the using the finest natural materials, and therefore whether it has cost same shirt twice. Having a large, up-to-date wardrobe is especially far more than your average, off-the-rack equivalent. In addition, important for men and women who want to establish themselves more people than ever are wealthy. Together, these two things socially and professionally . . . uh, you know, who, um, . . . who create a problem. It's almost impossible to distinguish the rich from want to make an impression. Once people know them . . . have the very rich simply by looking at what they're wearing. So how do made a decision about their status, it usually becomes less important. the very rich show their status? Well, one way is by using labels to Teenagers in particular feel very strongly about showing variety in show expensive brands. Designers realized that high-status their dress. For example, teenage girls often feel so embarrassed garments didn't need to be recognizably of better quality or more about wearing the same outfit twice in the same week, that even if difficult to produce than other garments; they only needed to be they only own a few clothes, they'll try hard to make them seem recognizably more expensive. So, they had to somehow include the new by combining them in different ways and with different price of each garment in the basic design. How did they do that? accessories. They feel so strongly about this, in fact, that they'll The answer is they moved the designer's name from the inside to often prefer quantity to quality. Now, uh, let's move on to another form of conspicuous the outside of the garment. Simple! Then they aggressively pro-consumption, and I'm talking about the use of expensive materials, moted these names and trademarks until they became household conspicuous materials. Now, in the past, materials such as satin and names. Now the prices of these designer garments were not high velvet were prestigious because they were handwoven and required because they were better quality, but because of the huge cost of a lot of time and labor. But today, modern machinery's changed all advertising them. And people wearing these clothes would be that. The result is that natural materials which are often more scarce sending out the message, "I can afford to buy clothes made by this are now more prestigious. I'm talking about materials like silk, designer." In fact, people will happily buy inferior quality clothes if leather, wool. In today's world, natural is best. Artificial materials, they're clearly labeled and everyone knows they arc highly such as nylon and polyester, were expensive and very fashionable priced . . . and cotton T-shirts are a great example of this. They may when they first appeared, but as they became cheaper to produce, fade quickly and shrink out of shape after just a few washings, but "polyester" became a dirty word, and now it's seen as the poor man's it doesn't matter. If they have the right designer name printed on silk. You can also see a similar pattern with animal skins and pelts. them, people prefer them to better-made T-shirts. Apparently, they Today because wildlife's becoming scarcer, these things have gotten make the people who wear them feel "secure"; at least, that's what more expensive and therefore more prestigious, particularly the research indicates. Conspicuous labeling, then, was a radical but hides of animals like the alligator. In centuries past, however, when very effective solution to a rather difficult problem. Do you see how things were different, skins and pelts of more common animals were this works? associated with peasants and shepherds and hunters-—even outlaws. Now to wrap up, I'd like to mention two other kinds of To show their status, merchants wore robes trimmed with less conspicuous consumption in clothing, to bring our total to eight common fur such as beaver, noblemen preferred sable, and kings different types. One of these is conspicuous outrage—in other and queens wore ermine—all, again, relatively rare materials, and words, dressing which leads people to feel outrage . . . shock, if you therefore indicators of status. As you know though, even though like. Here, people purposely wear clothes that aren't in good taste, skins of wild animals are often prestigious in the sense of being rare that others won't approve of .. . that don't conform. These clothes and therefore expensive, today they're also seen as showing a attract negative attention, but they get attention nonetheless. Now disregard for the environment and wildlife. the teenage punks of the 1980s were a good example of this, as are OK. Now another way people display their wealth is by wearing pop stars who turn up at formal events in, you know, torn or faded jewelry . . . high-priced stones and metals—particularly those like T-shirts with, uh, offensive language printed on them. gold and diamonds whose market price is generally known to be Now this brings me to the last type: what I call associative high. Gemstones such as rubies or emeralds, whose market price is consumption, in which people wear items of clothing because less well known or which are more easily imitated, are less popular. they've acquired prestige through association with high-status Instant identification's desirable, you see. In other words, people individuals—such as royalty like Princess Diana or film stars. A need to be able to understand, just by looking, that something's good example of this is, um, John Lennon's round glasses. These expensive. And that's why platinum never really became very became a fashion icon, and even today people refer to round popular. Even though it's more expensive than gold, the problem glasses as John Lennon glasses. Associative consumption also was people couldn't easily tell it from silver or aluminum. Anyway, includes high-status activities. Just think of the clothing associated we call this display of expensive items conspicuous wealth. with horseback riding— checked suits, glossy high-heeled boots, Next, we come to conspicuous labeling. Not long ago, you could polo shirts, and waisted jackets. These items have the power of recognize a high-quality hand-tailored suit made association. We may assume that the people wearing them ride and own - 116 - horses and therefore have the money associated with these that've had few changes in equipment, such as running sports. How activities. The same's true of fashion goods associated with golfing can we account for this? Well, if innate talent were a strongly and yachting. They all send out strong signals.limiting factor, we wouldn't expect such rapid improvements in OK ... so let's quickly review. We've said that conspicuous world record performances, unless you happen to believe that consumption's a way of signaling how wealthy we are, what status innate talent has increased in the past century. Of course, no one we have, and clothing's one way we do this . . . it's one way we believes this to be the case. Instead, we believe that external factors, consume conspicuously. I've mentioned conspicuous addition, such as better training methods and better diets, have had an meaning people wear more clothes to show their status. And then enormous effect. Now this phenomenon isn't just limited to we looked at conspicuous division, where people wear different athletics. We can find the same situation in the world of music. outfits at different times of the day or for different activities. And There are pieces of music that used to be thought of as being then there was conspicuous multiplication, where people have virtually unplayable. For instance, in the nineteenth century some many garments of the same type. And then we considered people thought that the violinist Niccolo Paganini had magical conspicuous materials, in which people wear rare or expensive powers because of the difficult techniques he had mastered. materials to show wealth, followed by conspicuous wealth, where However, today many of his pieces are regularly played by adult people wear high-priced materials such as gold and diamonds, and even by outstanding child musicians, so once again the general usually as accessories. And after that, we looked at conspicuous conclusion is that innate talent hasn't limited human performance labeling, where garments are worn with their designer labels on the to this point in history. If that's right, then it's reasonable to expect outside for everyone to see—not too subtle, but it works. It says that better practice and training will allow skill levels to continue to something. And finally, we looked at conspicuous outrage—where rise. . . . Yeah? Do you have a question? clothing is used to attract negative attention, where the intent is to STUDENT: I have a comment. I mean, what you're saying makes shock people—and associative consumption, where clothing is sense to me because every year new world records are broken. I associated with a celebrity or lifestyle. don't think we really know what our limitations are. So you see, fashion really is a vehicle for self-expression, for saying, "This is me and this is the kind of lifestyle I have. Can you TEACHER: I agree. We're getting closer to human limitations match it?" All right everyone, let's take a break there and we'll start every time a new world record is set, but you're right—we're not our seminar in fifteen minutes, OK? there yet. Now . . . um . . . another reason to believe that practice is extremely important is because general intelligence and memory abilities and specific—I mean, specific—abilities are not strongly Unit 10 The Making of Genius related. I see a question. STUDENT: Sorry to interrupt again, but I'm not sure what you mean TEACHER: Hello, everyone. Today we'll, uh . . . begin our next by ''not strongly related." unit, and the topic is one that I think you'll find interesting. One of the most noteworthy aspects of human beings is our remarkable TEACHER: OK. Here's an example. World chess masters are ability to learn a wide variety of skills, and to learn some skills very intelligent, but they're not any more intelligent than many people well. I'm sure you'll agree that great athletes, musicians, and singers who can't play chess at all. When world-class chess players have are often the objects of our respect and admiration, and one reason been tested for general memory skills, their memories are no better for this is that many of us believe these individuals are special, that than many nonexperts, but when they're tested for their memory of is, we believe that they have special talents provided by their DNA. board positions in chess, they have an extremely well-developed They are gifted. But do you think it is really true? Could you or I memory of chess board positions that they've seen in the past. This become another Mozart, another Einstein, or another Van Gogh? allows them to make decisions more rapidly and accurately than Today we'll look at this question by discussing expert performance, ordinary people. that is, performances that are at a world-class level. First, I'd like to focus on the importance of practice and some reasons why many STUDENT: OK, so experts have a ... a ... a kind of specialized scientists doubt that innate talent is particularly important in skill type of knowledge ... or a specialized memory. development. Second, we'll look at the contribution which innate talent might make, and finally, I'll try to tie these two ideas together TEACHER: Well, specialized knowledge. In the case of chess, a by proposing that it's the interaction of practice and talent that major part of that specialized knowledge is their specialized produces great musicians, scientists, and so on. memory for chess board positions. OK? And it all comes from OK, so let's begin . . . let's begin with the notion of practice. enormous amounts of practice and experience in their area. Now a First of all, let's consider the fact that there've been historical third point is that success is based on a variety of motivational, increases in performance in many areas, particularly in the past 1 personality, and social factors. Important personality factors are . . . to 200 years. For instance, Olympic records in many sports have let's see . . . perseverance, or you might say patience in the face of been broken repeatedly, even in sports failure, the ability to concentrate for long periods of time, self-confidence, optimism, . . . uh . . . competitiveness, a high energy level, and ... um ... the ability to control anxiety. Now related to - 117 - beginning careers as concert pianists. Generally, the signs of special this is the idea of social support. Remember that I just mentioned skill followed a combination of good opportunities and strong the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. Well, research encouragement from parents and teachers. Signs of greatness has shown that very few people have the ability to practice intensely couldn't be seen until they had practiced intensely for at least six for long periods of time when they have no social support. An years. The same results were found for professional tennis players example might help here. We know that sustained support from an in Germany, and that's a country that has produced top players such adult is needed for young musicians to become successful, because as Steffi Graf. Signs of innate talent usually only come out after without a lot of support and encouragement, young people won't do long-term parental encouragement and a considerable amount of the long hours of practice necessary to excel. In other words, training. parental support seems to come first, and this is followed by intense Notwithstanding the difficulties involved with trying to detect practice, which then sometimes results in great skill development. innate talent, many child psychologists believe that some children Now I've mentioned that in order to become an exceptional are born with talent that allows them to learn specific skills very performer in a complex skill like playing the violin, a person has to rapidly. An example of a skill that can clearly be inherited is work hard for a long period of time. Now what do you think I might working memory capacity, that is, a person's ability to process and mean by that? Is a long period of time one year? Three years? Five hold information in the memory when solving problems. This type years? What do you think? . . . Yes, Greg? of ability seems to be important in young people who are especially STUDENT: Well, I would say a lot longer than five years. I've read good at mathematics. In addition, some degree of general intelli-about the lives of several famous musicians and athletes and writers, gence, such as the capacity to analyze problems, is clearly inherited. and . . . uh, I don't know, they have to practice maybe eight or ten So some aspects of intelligence do seem to be innate. years or so. Now, another way in which innate talents may play a role is TEACHER: Ten years is the answer. The truth is that even the most related to what I said earlier about personality factors such as talented people need to begin to study or practice before the age of self-confidence, persistence, and competitiveness. Many six, and then put in more than ten years of intensive, high-quality researchers believe that these qualities are at least partially innate. practice. Let's look at the classic example of a genius, Wolfgang For instance, some children seem to have a natural ability to Amadeus Mozart. Behind the original, creative music that he wrote concentrate intensely for long periods. Others seem to be naturally was years of hard work. Mozart practiced intensely. He wrote his daring and confident. Some seem to be born with the physical, first seven works for the piano and orchestra when he was between mental, and emotional energy necessary to achieve greatness. That the ages of eleven and sixteen. Now that's impressive, but they were may be a fundamental part of innate talent. actually arrangements of works by other composers, so his early A further point is that most researchers have partly defined innate works were a kind of practice, not creative or original. Mozart didn't ability as the ability for someone to perform a skill well before produce an original masterpiece for piano and orchestra until he was getting the opportunity for much practice. For example, now if you twenty-one. But think about that. By the time he was twenty-one, he find that a child is good at playing the piano right away, without had been playing music for sixteen years and had been writing any practice, you might assume that the child has innate skills. music for piano and orchestra for ten years—so even in Mozart's However, this may not be the case. What we should perhaps be case, a long period of practice preceded his works of creative looking at in young people is not great ability when they begin their genius. training, but rather ease of learning. Ease of learning may be the All right. So far I've suggested that three things are necessary to most important sign that a child is gifted. I'm sure you noticed in become great: practice, strong personal characteristics such as school that some children seemed to learn to play a sport, play a self-confidence, and strong social support. But let's consider musical instrument, or do mathematics more easily than others. It another factor—innate talent. This is the idea that our genetic seems reasonable that this is a sign of innate talent. qualities are important, that we inherit talent from our parents. OK, to summarize, what does all this mean? Well, it looks like Right away, I'd like to point out that the effects of innate talent are becoming great at something involves a fairly predictable process. extremely difficult to measure and separate from environmental First, the person is born with certain personality characteristics. factors. Even in cases in which young children are very skilled, it's These characteristics are then probably nurtured by the child's not clear that innate talent is the main cause, because researchers parents. Next, when the child begins to show interest in some area, have almost always discovered that the child's parents had created a the parents react supportively—that is, they encourage and perhaps powerful supportive environment for the child from infancy, so even push the child to work hard and to practice intensively. Then social support and encouragement probably played important roles. the child goes on to achieve increasingly higher levels of skill. As Now something that may surprise you is that most people who the child becomes more skilled, he or she becomes more motivated become highly skilled as adults don't show signs of greatness when to excel, and parents and teachers provide support. This can result they're young children. In one study, a researcher looked at in a long-term commitment to practice. Finally, if the child twenty-one Americans who were continues to work hard for around - 118 - make people human regardless of culture. Now think about it. Many ten years, he or she will probably become very highly skilled in of us in this room have, I'm sure, traveled to pans of the world our the area chosen. Now I'd like to remind you that scientific research rarely allows parents or grandparents never dreamed of visiting. And, as a us to understand how to separate genetic and external factors in consequence of air travel, commercial links, overseas businesses, human learning. What I'd like to suggest, though, is that these two and so on have become far easier to establish, so now goods, accounts of skill development are not incompatible. To quote a technologies, and fads are entering new markets faster than ever line on page 343 of your textbook: "It's quite likely that the before. Can anybody think of a good example of something—say, a interaction of innate capacities and opportunities for engaging in technology or fad—that's spread quickly? intense training result in high levels of performance." I think those STUDENT: How about cell phones? Everybody's got them now. words sum up the situation quite accurately. In closing, I'd like to ask you a final question. Were the works TEACHER: Great example, Adam. OK, Let's take the cell phone for of Mozart brought into this world only through practice and study? instance. You could go to any country in the world today, Can anyone make the scientific break-throughs of Einstein or play developed or otherwise, and I'd bet you could find a cell phone. basketball like Michael Jordan if they work hard enough? In my You might have to search a bit, but I'm sure you could find one. Yet opinion, they cannot. Innate talent is also needed, but we just these haven't been around very long, relatively speaking, right? haven't learned how to measure it yet. All right, now I'd like you Same with computers. That's to say, because people from diverse to get into groups. Look at page 349, and there ... cultures are able to interact today in a way they never could before, commodities, ideas, and attitudes all get disseminated with unprecedented speed. The latest fads—whether we're talking about Unit 11 The New Global electronic technology, clothing, perfume, fast foods, whatever—they now frequently become not just national but Superculture international, global phenomena. That's one influence, air travel. Now another and maybe equally TEACHER: Morning. I'd like to begin today's lecture with a question, important influence has been the communications industries . . . and the question's this: We are now in an age where powerful um . . . which . . . and I'm going to include the Internet in that social, political, and technological forces are changing our world category, along with the media —TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and rapidly creating a homogeneous global society where people and film. We can't really discuss the subject of a global culture think and behave in similar ways. Do you think it's possible, in this without considering the powerful influence of these things. Today, kind of global society, for individual cultures to survive? Or will as we all know, film and television are multimillion, even their unique traditions gradually disappear? And if these unique billion-dollar industries. 'Films, documentaries, news and current traditions were to disappear, would it really matter? Would it, as affairs programs, quiz shows, even soap operas are usually made in many believe, really be a tragedy if we were to lose those things the hope that they'll be bought and shown around the world. As a that make societies, communities, different? The fact is, the world case in point, take shows such as Friends or ER. They're watched on is losing cultures quicker than you might think. Language is the every continent and have universal appeal, as they're based on best measure of cultural diversity, and it's estimated that one universal human problems, on personal relationships and emotions. language is dying every two weeks, and with it unique ways of But these programs also present and promote ideas and attitudes. life . . . ways of thinking, communicating, and living. They enable viewers to see with their own eyes other ways of life. So that's today's theme—the issue, if you will—that's at the And, of course, an important element in all this is advertising. Let's heart of everything I'm going to say. First, I'll try to identify . . . not forget that the media receives most of its money from um . . . describe the forces that are pushing us, driving us toward a advertising—which means that advertisings a major feature of homogeneous global society, a world superculture. Then, we'll go television, magazines, etc. Advertising works through the media, so on to consider the disadvantages of a homogeneous society, and we're constantly exposed to it and influenced by it. That's to say, the I'll . . . um . . . offer some thoughts as to why we should think very global spread of fads I mentioned earlier owes a lot to the power of seriously about preserving individual cultures and their traditions. advertising. So, just as, say, in the U.S. commercials proclaim that So . . . why is a global superculture emerging? What factors can it's cool to wear Reebok trainers, that Kellogg's cereals are the we say have contributed? Well, to start with, there's flight. You healthiest way to start the day, that Colgate toothpaste gives your often hear people say the world has become smaller, and without teeth the best protection, and so on . . . well, they're probably getting doubt, flight—particularly affordable air travel—has had the the same message in scores of other countries, with the result that, greatest influence here. This means the airplane caused not just a globally speaking, people's habits are changing; they're converging. technological but also a social revolution. Suddenly, large What's an example of converging habits? . . . Oh, here's one. Many numbers of ordinary people were able to interact with people from Japanese today eat cereal for breakfast rather than traditional rice other cultures thousands of miles away and see with their own and soup, or, uh, maybe have a hamburger at McDonald's for lunch. eyes the differences and the similarities between them, the things And, likewise, Ameri- that - 119 - idea that we're all members of one human race, despite surface cans or Canadians might choose sushi, tacos, or Chinese food. In differences. As a result, I think we have a new global superculture fact, today most people, at least in large cities, expect to get almost that's both richer and more diverse than any one single culture. any kind of ethnic food. The fact is that the media spreads ideas Now, communications lie at the heart of most of the things I've incredibly widely, quickly, and effectively—Whether it's cell been talking about. Even though air travel and the media have phones, eating habits, fashion, whatever—and that's what makes it allowed us glimpses of each other's cultures, people could not such a powerful marketing tool. To understand just how powerful, convey their ideas, beliefs, and attitudes if they couldn't think for a minute about the music industry. Consider how communicate them. So, what I want... what I'm trying to say is that television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet have I'd like to acknowledge the role English has played as the world's been used to promote music and pop stars internationally. Stars like unofficial international language. If you want an example, just look Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, at the Internet. In 1990 there were just a few hundred Internet sites; uh . . . the Spice Girls . . . these and other stars have acquired world today there are tens of millions, and the vast majority of these are in fame, thanks mainly to the media. And the same is true of sports English. teams and stars. These celebrities are internationally famous, and All right. Although I've only touched on a few very broad ideas, people in different corners of the world want to imitate them, have I'd like now to finish talking about the forces that are shaping a similar lifestyles; indeed, that's why companies use celebrities to global superculture and end by briefly sharing a few thoughts on advertise their products. The idea is that if Ronaldo uses, say, Nike where this trend's going. I should first say that I think a global soccer shoes, then you'll want to do likewise, whether you're superculture's inevitable. And, in my opinion, in many ways that's a American, Argentinian, Korean, whatever. That's the message. And good thing, perhaps even an ideal. It emphasizes the oneness of the result? Youth around the world end up using the same brands.mankind, promotes unity, and, I would argue, helps prepare the way OK. The media, then, clearly plays a major role in spreading for a fairer world where the earth's resources benefit everyone and trends across the globe and highlighting our similarities. But there wealth is evenly distributed. However, that is not to say that these are other forces at work too, and world politics is surely one of things must be at the expense of cultural traditions, cultural diversity. these. Although political divisions and ideologies continue to Today, for example, we see the Ainu of Japan, the Chipaya of separate nations, it is, I think, true to say that, generally speaking, Bolivia, and the Penan of Malaysia on the list of endangered that prejudice is diminishing and people are increasingly open to societies. If these and other cultures were to disappear, we'd lose the other cultures and ideas. To some extent this is no doubt the result wonderful variety and richness of human life, whether we're talking of political and therefore social convergences, of unions such as the about philosophies, clothes, or food. To some extent we'd lose part European Union which represents a group of countries with quite of what has made us what we are today, lose touch with our roots, different traditions in many cases, but where, nevertheless, there perhaps even the variety and individuality that makes us unique as a exists a spirit of unity ... or at least cooperation. Europeans are species. What's more, there'd be practical. . . possibly very beginning to feel that they're members of a larger culture that's significant practical implications. For instance, we may lose the more than simply a political convenience. Heads of government benefits of alternative approaches to . . . to . . . medicine, social increasingly appear to be consulting and acting together on issues systems, farming techniques, not to mention spiritual insight and the that affect the world at large, such as the environment and like. People in the developed world not only have a lot to give, but third-world poverty. Because these things are reported in the media also a lot to learn from other societies about these and other things. on news shows like CNN and are seen by millions, they create a We're already learning that technology doesn't necessarily bring sense of pulling in the same direction ... a feeling that there's a advancement; it can also bring destruction, materialism, and a "culture of humanity," if you like. decrease in morality and social cohesion. And what about the purely There's another way in which politics can affect the spread of aesthetic representations of human civilizations; what of art forms? ideas across the globe, and that is through controlling the Do we really want to lose the rich variety of art traditions, the many movement of people across national borders— immigration and different cultural expressions of human existence. Perspectives on emigration. Political circumstances—as well as more accessible problem-solving too—dealing with environmental issues, say, creat-international transportation—have brought an increase in the ing a balance with nature—may be lost to us. Wouldn't these losses number who choose to emigrate to another country. And when be tragic? I, for one, believe that future generations need to people move, so do their ideas and beliefs. Immigrants introduce incorporate insights from a multitude of cultures. This would things from their own cultures into their new communities .. . from perhaps go some way toward preserving those cultures and traditions sports to food, house decor, games, you name it. Again, in many which very simply make human society richer and more colorful. countries, from Australia to England, we're seeing cultures mixing together as never before. This increase in cross-cultural OK, well I could say a lot more but, as always, time doesn't contact—along with the decrease in prejudice I mentioned permit. So, to summarize then, we've looked at some of the main earlier—has led to many interracial marriages, which in turn have factors that are contributing to an emerging global culture. They produced children who are familiar with more than one culture. include, at least, cheap available air travel, the This again reinforces similarity, the - 120 - enormous power and influence of the media, changes in the Now you may be interested to know that between l and 3 billion political scenery— exemplified by the European Union, dollars are lost each year in the U.S. through computer crime, and perhaps—and the role of English as an international language. I 40 percent of large American companies suffered at least one major started by asking whether these developments will mean that instance of computer fraud in the last ten years. Can you imagine? individual cultural traditions will inevitably disappear. The answer, Forty percent! We can see from these figures how serious a I think, is that, sadly, many already have, but it's possible for problem this is. I call the people who commit these crimes others to survive. For this to happen, we need to think more computer criminals rather than hackers, because hackers may not carefully about the potential dangers of globalization, as well as its be motivated by financial gain. benefits, and we need to appreciate the value of these traditions, Now this is how a typical scenario might go. A computer for only then will we think twice about carelessly losing them. criminal—um, let's call the criminal a "he"—figures out how to get Let's just hope enough of us realize that before it's too late.into a bank network. He changes account names and numbers and OK. In preparation for your essay, I'd like you to think about puts money into a bank account that he has already opened. He then ways in which we can ensure the survival of cultural traditions in a withdraws the money from the account, which is of course not in world where a superculture is rapidly emerging. Are there any his real name. His crime has just made him rich. questions? In case you were wondering, this has actually happened many times in the past. In companies, goods can be stolen and inventory, that is the list of goods, and sales figures can be changed to cover Unit 12 Computer Security up the problem. Mailing addresses can also be. temporarily changed so that expensive or valuable items are sent to the criminal's address. TEACHER: All right, why don't we get started here. I'm quite sure The accounts can then be changed back to the original addresses. that everyone in the class uses a computer regularly. For instance, Sometimes they don't detect this type of robbery for months or uh, who uses e-mail every day? Right, just about everyone. Uh, years, so it's impossible to find the criminal because the records how many of you use the Internet, say, at least five times a week? have been changed back. Now remember—these things are not just The same, just about everyone in the room. I think we would all stories; they have really happened. agree that our lives have been changed and in many ways improved All right. Let's consider the third reason for computer crime, by the computer and the Internet; however, there are real dangers which involves hacking, that is, breaking into someone else's here. The fact is, computers and computer networks have created private computer network, often that of a company or agency. Now opportunities for crime that never existed before. As a result, the hacking can take place for various reasons, but it tends to be done police and justice departments are becoming increasingly by individuals, not organized groups, and those individuals are concerned about the growing number of computer users who are typically young men in their teens or twenties. Some apparently do accessing private or secret information. Now this problem is on the it for the challenge, while others feel angry at society or feel increase worldwide. Statistics are showing a trend toward more powerless in their everyday lives. Hacking provides such people computer crime every year. In fact, recent studies have shown that with something they can't get elsewhere—an exciting and complex around 70 percent of all companies that are online have experi-challenge, an opportunity to show how much they know, and a enced some type of attack. We can say that there are three reasons sense of importance. for these dangers. Now that we've considered some of the causes of hacking and Now first, personal computers hold huge amounts of computer crime, let's consider the effects. Well, the events that have information, and some of it's quite sensitive. Companies have occurred in the past twenty years are astonishing. On more than one sensitive business information, new products, and financial records occasion, computers all over the world have been shut down as a to protect. Governments have defense secrets, federal banks, and computer virus has raced around the planet. In less than twenty-four records for millions of citizens. We've found that the theft of hours, billions of dollars in work hours have been lost. Computers information is usually financially motivated. Some companies try in major companies, and even major software companies, have been to get information from their competitors by accessing information shut down completely. In one case, approximately 70 percent of the from computers. Computer criminals also access and steal computers in several European countries were shut down. Even information in order to sell it to other people or competing compa-government computers were affected. How can this happen? nies. Again, their purpose is usually financial gain. Easy—the transmission of a simple virus program. Even beginning OK. In the first case, the criminal steals information and then students of computer science can make powerful viruses that can do possibly sells it. The second reason for computer crime is to steal everything I've just mentioned. They can write a virus program and money directly. Banking, insurance, and business organizations send it via the Internet to hundreds of computer users. The virus use computers for most of their transactions, making them the enters the user's computer's operating system, replaces good files hardest hit by computer criminals. Now think about this for a with a copy of itself, and then sends itself to other computers via the moment. The American banking system alone transfers over 400 computer user's e-mail address book. Soon millions of computers billion dollars every day. With this amount being transferred daily, can be infected. it's no wonder that experts fear that a major financial disaster could occur. - 121 - Now there's a whole other side to this problem that is more eventually find out what it is and then be able to get into your closely related to your life. Imagine that a computer criminal is system. The most difficult passwords to guess are a combination of able to get, um, let's say, your credit card number. In the best case small and capital letters, numbers and punctuation marks, such as scenario, this will cause you a great deal of inconvenience, and in "capital Y, zero, three, exclamation point, small M." Try finding the worst case scenario, it will cause you financial loss. Another that with a password guesser. In addition, passwords should be told possibility is that someone may get your social security number; to the minimum number of people. then they can impersonate you. This can lead to serious problems OK, a fourth method concerns access-control software— and huge costs in terms of time spent solving the problem and the something which has become quite common. Now this software stress involved. The more powerful a technology is, the more limits the user's access to information as well as the operations he potential there is for problems.can perform. So for example, access-control software might only let Well, I've tried to give you some background about the people read certain files or programs but not input data, and it may seriousness of the problem, but now I'd like to briefly talk about the keep them out of other files entirely. Many universities use this type battle between hackers and computer criminals on the one side and of software. Computer system administrators at the school can the people and companies interested in preventing these problems access the entire system; teachers can access a great deal of it, but on the other. What's being done to stop computer crime? First, the not as much as the system administrators; and finally, students can courts are getting much tougher with hackers—the people who access fewer areas than the teachers. It works on a "need to know" illegally enter a computer network—even if they claim not to be or "need to use" basis. Encryption software has also been developed stealing anything. The courts are also now punishing computer to scramble data so that hackers can't understand it even if they do criminals more severely in order to give potential criminals a strong steal it. The data can be read and used only if the user knows the message that computer crime is serious, and if you're caught doing key. Now this is a very effective way of protecting information. it, you'll be punished. Some of these criminals have gone to federal Encryption has developed rapidly since the 1980s, so now all of us prison for several years and been fined large sums of money. This can have access to fast, affordable, and powerful encryption is seen as a way to discourage people from experimenting with this systems. These systems are already resistant to the average hacker, new type of crime. and in a few years only government or military supercomputers will Now within a company or other organization, firewalls are the be able to break most codes. first line of defense—the first way to deter computer crime. A And finally, audit trails—that's A-U-D-I-T trails—are also firewall is a software program that acts as a gatekeeper between the available. Audit trails monitor the use of a computer and alert Internet and a company's intranet— that's I-N-T-R-A-N-E-T—the owners to any attempts to enter their computer system. It's usually network of computers used by the company's employees. Now one possible to identify any user who gains access to the system and type of firewall examines the source address and destination when the access occurred, making it possible to trace the hacker. address of all of the data going in or out of the network. It can stop Although this isn't simple to do, it can be done, particularly if the some data from entering the network and other data from leaving. hacker persists and returns for repeated attacks on the system. One However, firewalls can't protect networks from all attacks. In the way that some hackers have been caught has been when the system past, hackers have often gotten around a firewall by accessing the administrator has what is called a "jail ready." Valuable-looking but network from a modem that an employee has brought in on his or false information is put in the jail. This might be something like her own without talking to the system administrator. Such credit card numbers or other sensitive financial data. When the employees are also trying to find an easy route around the firewall, hacker tries to get the false data, the administrator uses software to usually because they want to access data on their work computer determine where the hacker is. The software follows the line of data from home. These paths must also be closed, so if you have a col-back to the hacker's computer. league who is doing this sort of thing, you should definitely talk to Well, those are some of the major things that are happening at them because they're opening a door for potential hacking. present to decrease computer crime. None of them are completely And another way to increase security is through the use of less satisfactory, but together they're certainly helping to maintain the obvious and less easily remembered passwords. For instance, integrity of personal and corporate computer systems and employees are often advised to never use a person's name, such as communications. And these changes, as well as the improvements "Nancy." Here's why. Many hackers use programs that are called that are certain to come, should influence people to stop hacking by password guessers. These programs check every word in a large making it less profitable and more risky. And this will help ensure dictionary, all of the names in an encyclopedia, and then they use confidentiality when communicating via computer. Well, let's stop each entry in a local telephone book. As you can guess, if you have here for today, and get started with your presentations. Our first used almost any word in your local language, the hacker will speakers, uh, Carlos and Yumi, are scheduled to talk about encryption. - 122 -