Understanding an explanation

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?

Discussion

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Average: 4.5 (30 votes)
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Submitted by zo_fia on Wed, 28/09/2022 - 05:12

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The last lecture I went to was about making a date. My tr is so expert at explaining lessons that I don't need to read again. I'm feeling well on my English learning journey.

Submitted by Nandar Su Hlaing on Sat, 03/09/2022 - 03:17

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The last lecture I attend was how to read passages and reuse words in our own sentences.Yes, the professor explain the lesson clearly
and I understand well.

Submitted by Siana_if on Sun, 14/08/2022 - 23:52

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I always listen different lectures on webinars. I don't remember about what was the last one (I shoud listen less). Psyhology or marketing.

Submitted by mamalirezaenglish on Mon, 08/08/2022 - 14:54

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The last lecture that I went to was about retention marketing.It's the process of of how to retain customers after we acquired them. Our teacher was so good at explaining the topic, because she was a co-founder of retention marketing platform.

Submitted by ICM2 on Wed, 20/04/2022 - 02:50

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Y had a hard time remembering, a long time ago I was a lecturer. I think it was from an English Architect. He was describing his feeling about a project of his that was being built in the city.

Submitted by Ehsan on Tue, 29/03/2022 - 08:20

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Our company had a seminar at the field of IT( Computer networking and security). It was the last lecture that I was in that. I think it was good but we were the host and I didn't listen to it well because we were doing some tasks.

Submitted by jmajo on Tue, 15/03/2022 - 14:18

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I think the last lecture I went to was about the most common issues related to MacOS systems, it was a bit confusing at first but at the first break all the students had the opportunity to make some questions and I get some really good answers from the lecturer, so at the end it was more clear for me and I could understand most of the lecture.

Thanks for the lesson.
Great site!

Submitted by azharbgskr on Thu, 25/11/2021 - 15:04

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My last lecture I attended was Discrete Mathematics. It was about recursive function. My professor explained it properly. I can easily understand the material.

Submitted by vuhoap on Tue, 09/11/2021 - 00:17

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The last lecture I went to about Japanese language about one year ago today. Yes, my teacher explained the usage of Japanese words very well. Until now, I still remember these words.

Submitted by Thais Gomes Ribeiro on Fri, 15/10/2021 - 16:34

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The last lecture I went to was about Algebra and yes, the professor explained well.