Understanding an explanation

Listen to a professor's explanation to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Professor: OK, before we continue, does anybody have a question? Oh, lots of questions, I see. OK, we'll go one at a time. Yes?

Student: Thank you. You talked about Fibonacci numbers in the lecture. Sorry, I don't understand. Can you explain?

Professor: Of course. What do you want to know?

Student: OK … I hope this isn't a silly question, but what does Fibonacci actually mean?

Professor: No question is ever silly – it's always good to ask. OK, it's the name of a person. Fibonacci was a European mathematician in the Middle Ages.

Student: Ah, OK. Thanks. So, we know he was a person, but what are the Fibonacci numbers? I don't get it.

Professor: The Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers. They go 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on. Do you see the sequence? Do you see how it works?

Student: I'm not sure.

Professor: OK. This is how it works. The first number is 1, then 1 again, then 2. The third number is the first number plus the second number. The fourth number is the second number plus the third number: 1 plus 2 is 3. The fifth number is the third number, 2, plus the fourth number, 3. So the fifth number in a Fibonacci sequence is 5.

Student: Ah! I think I understand now. But what about their importance? You said these were very important.

Professor: Yes, let me explain. This sequence of numbers is important because we see it in many things. Fibonacci numbers are common in geometry, they are common in nature, for example in plants. We see the sequence everywhere.

Student: Could you give us some more examples?

Professor: OK ... well, we don't have time right now but I can bring more examples in for next class, OK?

Task 1

MultipleChoice_MjMzMzI=.xml

Task 2

ReorderingHorizontal_MjMzMzM=.xml

Discussion

What was the last lecture you went to about? Did the professor explain it clearly?

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Language level

A2 Pre-intermediate

The last lecture I attended was about the brand of car that I work with . It was a technical training . The explanation was not clear because the trainer could not speak English well , he was chicness.

I'm Italian and I know who was Fibonacci. He was a famous mathematician in the Middle Age. The his sequence originates from a problem proposed by the emperor Federico II. Fibonacci solved the problem faster the others.

It was a machine learning course in computer science. I was not satisfied because the professor was not dominant. I think some simple topics such as the Fibonacci numbers can be well explained, but a difficult subject requires a very specialist, clever and experienced teacher.

Yes, i think she's explained how it works to the student. However, it would be nice, it had taken place to give some exercises. I had known this sequence.It was reminding for me. Thanks a lot.