NARRATOR:
You will hear two students, Rosie and Colin, talking about an assignment for their Human Geography course.
NARRATOR:
First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.
NARRATOR:
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.
ROSIE:
Colin, I can't seem to settle on a subject for our Human Geography assignment.
COLIN:
I'm having the same problem.
COLIN:
Why don't we go through the different areas of the subject?
COLIN:
That might help us reduce the options and choose one.
ROSIE:
Population is one possibility.
ROSIE:
We'd cover things such as where people are concentrated and how they move between places.
ROSIE:
There'd be a lot of numerical information.
ROSIE:
It doesn't sound especially exciting though.
COLIN:
True, but we shouldn't have any trouble getting the material online.
ROSIE:
What about health?
ROSIE:
I hadn't realized geography was connected with it until Professor Lee's session on cholera.
ROSIE:
She explained how a 19th century doctor compared street maps with diagrams of the water network to trace an outbreak back to its source.
COLIN:
I found that really absorbing too.
COLIN:
Another option would be a broader topic such as economics.
ROSIE:
You mean the relationship between finance, business, and the physical surroundings?
ROSIE:
I thought it had been removed from this year's course program.
ROSIE:
I'm not completely certain, but perhaps we shouldn't choose it.
COLIN:
Culture's another possibility.
COLIN:
We had a class on cultural geography last week.
ROSIE:
It wasn't much help to me.
ROSIE:
Everything stayed at such a broad level and the lecturer didn't use any concrete examples.
COLIN:
I hardly wrote anything down because there didn't seem much point.
COLIN:
We might concentrate on poverty.
COLIN:
It's an issue affecting the whole world.
ROSIE:
The difficulty, as Dr. Lee pointed out, is that some poverty statistics need to be treated cautiously.
ROSIE:
At times, the figures are altered on purpose.
COLIN:
For political motives, you mean?
ROSIE:
Yes, things like that.
NARRATOR:
Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.
NARRATOR:
Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.
ROSIE:
So, which topic shall we actually use for the assignment?
ROSIE:
Wait, there's one area we haven't considered.
ROSIE:
More than half of the world's population now live in cities, so it's a major issue.
COLIN:
That works for me.
COLIN:
Good suggestion, Rosie.
COLIN:
Let's choose that.
ROSIE:
I enjoy living in a large city, although there are obviously difficulties.
COLIN:
You mean things like burglary and street crime?
ROSIE:
Yes, but in my city that's connected with a more serious concern.
ROSIE:
There simply aren't enough employment opportunities.
ROSIE:
And the situation is continuing to deteriorate.
ROSIE:
We still have plenty of people without somewhere to live as well, although that problem has eased a little.
COLIN:
We should include some encouraging changes too, perhaps the new facilities being built beyond city centers.
ROSIE:
Several enormous retail complexes have opened outside my city.
COLIN:
Mine too, though they've caused many central shops to go out of business.
COLIN:
The edge of a city is useful for buildings that require a great deal of land, such as large conference venues.
COLIN:
Two have opened near me.
ROSIE:
We've got some of those as well, and they've been a real improvement.
ROSIE:
I'd also welcome more places for sports like football, but none are being added where I live.
COLIN:
It's the same in my area.
ROSIE:
What about mentioning the redevelopment of abandoned industrial land?
ROSIE:
It seems sensible because it avoids disturbing untouched, natural areas.
COLIN:
But couldn't the old buildings have architectural value?
ROSIE:
Most of them don't.
ROSIE:
A bigger concern is that factories often left hazardous substances behind, and these may never have been removed properly.
ROSIE:
The land then has to be cleaned up before anyone can use it.
COLIN:
That must cost a fortune.
COLIN:
And developers probably don't always allow for it in their original budgets.
COLIN:
Have you come across Masdar City?
ROSIE:
The project in Abu Dhabi?
ROSIE:
It was planned as an environmentally responsible city, wasn't it?
ROSIE:
It would be a useful example of a place intended to operate entirely on renewable power.
COLIN:
We should include that.
COLIN:
The original plan also kept cars off the streets with transport running below ground.
ROSIE:
Yes, and there were ambitious recycling proposals designed to minimize waste.
ROSIE:
But for our assignment, let's limit the Masdar example to its energy supply.
COLIN:
Then there's Greenhill Abbots, the proposed ecotown in England.
COLIN:
Its aims followed the usual ideas about sustainability.
COLIN:
It attracted a lot of criticism at the beginning because people thought the plans couldn't be achieved.
COLIN:
What I don't know is how much of the development has actually been completed.
ROSIE:
It sounds as though we've got the basis of our plan now.
NARRATOR:
That is the end of Part 3.
NARRATOR:
You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to Part 3.
