新标准大学英语视听说教程1听力原文

Unit 1 Starting out

Outside view

Julie My name's Julie Dearden, and I'm the Director of International Programmes here at Hertford College. Eugene My name's Eugene Berger, I studied here in Oxford for four years er, studying modern languages at Somerville College.

Julie Oh, there are many Oxford traditions. Oxford is a very old university, the oldest English-speaking university in the, in the world. And so there are many traditions which are associated with the colleges, with the times of the year, and with sport, and with eating, for example.

Eugene Each college is very different um, from um, the others, and it has its own character. Some colleges are very conservative, and some are much more liberal and have a tradition of um, kind of liberal politics. But there are also some specific traditions.

Julie Formal Hall is when we all eat together here in college, the professors and the students. Usually it takes places at seven o'clock in the evening, and the professors sit on high table which is the table over here, and the students sit on common table, which are the tables here. But everybody eats together. It's a very beautiful evening because there are, there's a special meal and we eat by candlelight.

Eugene I think er, the traditions that make Oxford so unique are firstly the Oxford Union and er, secondly, May Day. The Oxford Union being a debating society where speakers come from all around the world to address the students and even allow themselves to be questioned by the students, making it a very interesting forum.

Julie My favourite is er, May Day. And May Day is the first day of May, and we have a tradition called May Morning, and on May Morning everybody gets up very early and the students have a celebration.

There is a choir which sings on top of the tower at Magdalen College and all the people of the town and all the students go to listen to the singing. So it's very nice.

Eugene The tradition that er, was most important to me was probably Summer Eights. I was a rower. And Summer Eights is a rowing competition, held in May in the summer term. And in this competition, each college is trying to improve its place which it won the previous year and gradually work its way up the river.

Julie When the students take exams, they must go to a special building and it's called Examination Schools.

And also they must wear a special uniform, so they wear E.gown like mine, a black gown, and they wear a white shirt, arid the men wear a white tie and black trousers. The women wear a white shirt and a black skirt or black trousers. And they must wear this uniform, which has a Latin name - sub fuse — and they must wear this uniform in order to take their examinations.

Eugene I think the Oxford traditions lend character to the place and it's such an old institution, it should have traditions, but they can be very inconvenient. For example, sub fuse. This is the uniform that we are required according to the university rules, to wear.

Julie They also wear flowers in their buttonholes, and those flowers are carnations. And they wear different colours, the students wear different coloured flowers for different examinations. So when you take your first exam you wear a white flower, and when you take your second exam you wear a pink flower, and when you take your final examination you wear a red carnation.

Eugene So we have to dress up in a full black suit, starched collar, white bow tie and carry a mortarboard.

And to write an exam in the summer heat whilst wearing all that which you're not allowed to take off is um, uncomfortable.

Julie I really like the Oxford traditions, I think it's part of our history, and part of um, being a student or a teacher here at Oxford University.

Listening in

Passage 1

Interviewer Can you tell me something about the Ivy League? You're a professor at Harvard, is that right?