Jenny:
Hi Tim, how's everything going on?
Tim:
Not bad, but I'm really nervous about our geography assessment next week. Have you done any work on it yet?
Jenny:
I've just gone over some of the slides where there are a few difficult terms, but I think it would be helpful if someone else can discuss it together. Would you like to talk about it with me?
Tim:
It sounds great! Have you got any information about the requirements for the assessment?
Jenny:
For our test last semester, all of us tried our best to collect raw data to meet the requirements so as to achieve a pass. But according to what the tutor has said, this term there won't be any need for us to do so.
Tim:
I read through the notes and they said that we are all going to be given a set of instructions that we can choose to follow if we wish, but it's not mandatory and we can complete the exam as we wish.
Jenny:
I don't think that it would be hard for us to pass the assessment. As long as we don't copy the answers from anyone else's exam paper, I think we'll be sure to pass.
Tim:
Definitely, I agree. Shall we put on a slide show presentation with information of all kinds of volcanoes? I think it will really help us to revise the recognition.
Jenny:
Ok, great. First, let's look at Pompeii, which is regarded as the most famous one among all the volcanoes; therefore we might find much easier to search a large amount of information about it on the Net.
Tim:
I think I should exclude some of the pictures in the presentation, since many people were killed and some of them can be quite disturbing. It is so lucky that there is going to be a double free break today, so we will have a couple of time to modify this together.
Jenny:
Well, the next one to mention is Mount Fago. This is an ancient, mythical volcano, whose site is still ambiguous. In Mexico as well as the USA, there are mountainous regions, both of which are rumoured to be the location of this volcano.
Tim:
It's not that reasonable to list two unrelated locations for one volcano, but since no one has been capable of figuring out which is the correct one, there has been no choice left for us yet. It's amazing that we cannot find any other example of a volcano in existence today that is haunted by so much mystery.
Jenny:
Definitely yes. I suggest we'd better surf some information online about Mount Etna in Sicily, which is well known for the stunning panoramas that one can appreciate from its peak.
Jenny:
According to Google, it's a relatively new volcano compared to others in the nearby region. That's the reason why it has very few of the features found in older volcanoes.
Jenny:
Might we present any information on Mount Herton? Because I don't think that any of the other students have carried out much survey into it, even though it has several unique traits.
Tim:
Well, then I think we can just ignore it, since it's a man-made volcano and not that closely linked to our syllabus and probably won't be tested in the exam questions.
Tim:
Have you gotten feedback from your tutor on your presentation last week?
Jenny:
Yes, but I don't think he was satisfied with the work. He was impressed by the amount of research that I had carried out before I started, but he criticized that I was just mostly writing a summary of the facts instead of giving my own opinion.
Jenny:
It was depressing that my work is not appreciated, but in the end I learned a lot from my tutor's feedback.
Jenny:
He suggested me that next time I should present my work as a short documentary film, which he thinks will help me to strengthen my arguments. What topic was your presentation based on?
Tim:
I opt to discuss about the lack of knowledge that most people have about volcanoes and the awareness that they look at them in such a negative way.
Tim:
During documentaries and lectures, the scientific experts often neglect to mention the positive features that volcanoes possess.
Jenny:
That sounds really interesting. Well done!
Tim:
I think everyone had a really good time, but I was really nervous about speaking in front of the audience.
Tim:
Also, I felt very under-prepared, since I didn't fulfil the presentation until the night before and therefore there had been no time for rehearsal.
Jenny:
I'm sure it was great! Is there any other information that you think we should include in our slide show for revision?
Tim:
Yes, I think it's important that we list all of the differences between active and extinct volcanoes as there will definitely be a question on this topic.
Tim:
There are no documentaries on the subject, but there's a very informative website that discusses the geological structure of each volcano type.
Jenny:
Ok, well I'll continue collecting images and you can carry on with the online research...
