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

What was the last lecture you went to about? Did the professor explain it clearly? Yes, it was incredible and the teacher explains clearly.

My last lecture was about listening but I didn't get it because of the teacher had poor techniques to explain her ideas.

I also want to know some example for the lecture because I was Mathematics student. I didn't know about Math that is important in everywhere. Teachers in my country didn't explain like that. So, I want to know about Math that is useful in everywhere.

I think it was a linguistic aspect in the field of technical documentation. It has been asked about how works it the functional elements in the text? the professor has explained the circumstance of my question and has given me some book.

it was an English lecture about skimming and scanning i didn't get it very well

The last lecture that I attended, was one year ago when I was a student. I can remember one case when I had difficulty understand the payable and receivable accounts, and I couldn't know the difference between them. I asked my professor to found time to explain it with more examples, and he did it. He was satisfied with my question and interest to learn, so he approached me and explained it in detail. I still remember his advice and lectures about accounting.

My last lecture was 3 years ago when I studied Master about Chemistry. At that time, I didn't know how to use the chemical equipment so my professor gave me some instructions. She explained it to me step by step, clearly, slowly. Then, I could do it right away.

There's a missing number in Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3,5... in the question

Hello kbravoz,

The question asks about a particular sequence ('in this Fibonacci sequence'), so it is not intended to be complete.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team