Listening audioscript

THE WOMAN GIVES HER OPINION OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING 
 
THE SOUTH PARKING GARAGE. STATE HER OPINION AND THE 
REASONS SHE GIVES FOR HOLDING THAT OPINION. 
 
Page 464 
[ mp3 218-219]
Question 3. 
Listen to the passage. Then respond to the question. 
(Professor) 
When governments want to construct facilities of some kind, particularly 
those with some sort of, uh, potentially negative effect on their 
surroundings, they commonly encounter a problem that’s now called, 
simply, NIMBY. That’s N-I-M-B-Y, NIMBY. It stands for not-in-my-
backyard. So, governments encounter the NIMBY response when they 
want to construct a facility that might have a negative impact on the 
community where it’s built, uh… a facility such as a prison, a landfill, a 
psychiatric hospital, or a uh a power plant in a community. The public 
wants these facilities somewhere, but not in their own communities, or 
NIMBY. When a government announces, for example, that planning for a 
new prison in a certain area is underway, a strong NIMBY reaction to the 
news can be expected. This um, “NIMBYism” might take the form of 
neighborhood meetings, demonstrations, uh picketing, letters to 
newspapers, letter-writing campaigns directed at decision-making 
officials, or uh… confrontational meetings with these officials. 
The term NIMBY is often used negatively to describe people who have 
the sort of view I just talked about. What I mean is that NIMBYism can 
describe people who want unpleasant things to be located somewhere 

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LPREP IBT 3 E AudioScript 
139
else, uh… for someone else to bear the burden of living next to an 
airport, or, worst of all, a nuclear plant or waste site.
In its extreme form it can be selfish and absurd, but it all comes from a 
natural urge to…uh… not to pay an unfair price. What I mean is, the 
benefit of a nuclear power plant or airport is shared by a great number of 
people. It’s the same with a prison, but on a smaller scale. But a much 
smaller number of people face the real danger or inconvenience of living 
near the plant, or prison, or airport. It means that your house is worth 
less after the new facility is built. So, is it fair that you and your neighbors 
should pay the steep price of the facility while so many others share in 
the benefit? 
Now answer the following question. You have 20 seconds to prepare an answer and 60 
seconds to give your spoken response.