Listening audioscript

1. WHY DOES THE STUDENT GO TO SEE THE PROFESSOR?
2. LISTEN AGAIN TO PART OF THE PASSAGE. THEN ANSWER THE QUESTION. 
 (Professor) 
Ah. Well, do you have a strategy for taking better notes? 
(Student 1) 
Yeah, I think so. I’ll have to write down more details. 
(Professor)
OK, then. . . now, . . . uh . . . as to your original question about retaking 
the exam . . . 
WHY DOES THE PROFESSOR SAY THIS? 
 (Professor) 

now, . . . uh . . . as to your original question about retaking the exam . 
. . 
3. WHAT ARE THE PROFESSOR’S GRADES BASED ON?
4. WHAT IS A CUMULATIVE EXAM? 
5. WHAT SOLUTION DOES THE PROFESSOR OFFER TO THE STUDENT? 
 
Page 420
[ mp3 188-189]
 
 
Questions 6 through 11. 
Listen to a lecture in a geography class. 
(Professor)
Today, we’ll be discussing the formation of four major mountain ranges 
around the world. So, can you tell me what the big ones are that I’ll be 
discussing? 
(Student) 
The Rockies and the Himalayas . . . 
(Professor) 
Mmhm. What about in Europe? 
(Student) 
The Alps... 
(Professor) 
And in South America? 
(Student) 
Uh . . . I know it . . . uh . . . it’s the Andes. 
(Professor)
That’s right. You got it. The major mountain chains are the Himalayas, 
the Rockies, the Alps, and the Andes, and we’ll be discussing them 
today. These ranges provide examples of the . . . um . . . of different 
ways that mountain ranges can come to be. 
Look at the world map showing the mountain ranges of the world. 
The tall mountain ranges of today’s world were all formed within the last 
hundred million years. The Rocky Mountains began forming about a 
hundred million years ago and today comprise a 3,300-mile range. The 
Andes began forming about 65 million years ago, through volcanic 
activity, and are part of the volcanically active Ring of Fire that encircles 
the Pacific Ocean. The Alps and Himalayas are actually part of the same 
7,000-mile mountain system. They began forming about 80 million years 
ago from the crashing action of major tectonic plates, which are pieces of 
the earth’s outer crust that bump and jar against each other as they 
slowly move around. 
So let’s start with the big east-west ranges…uh, or the 7,000-mile 
range of Alps-to-Himalayas, if you want to think of it as a kind of nearly 
continuous line along southern Eurasia. Both the Alps and the 
Himalayas have formed by other continents crashing into Eurasia and 

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LPREP IBT 3 E AudioScript 
119
forcing the mountains higher and higher as the continents collide. In the 
case of the Alps, it is Africa that is crashing into Eurasia, and India’s 
collision into Eurasia is pushing up the Himalayas, and far beyond into 
Asia. I say “is pushing” because this is happening as we speak. It’s at 
the rate of a few centimeters a year, but both mountain ranges are rising 
ever skyward, getting taller and taller as India and Africa continue to 
push north. 
So, you can see that not only are these mountains relatively young, but 
they are still growing.
Now, let’s compare this to the great north-south mountain ranges of 
America. The Rockies of North America at 100 million years old, and the 
Andes of South America – um, they’re only 65 million years old – these 
ranges are also created by the collision of great pieces of the earth’s 
outer crust, but there are some added complexities. The Rockies were 
caused by the North American plate colliding with and eventually riding 
up and over another tectonic plate to the west. One of the first things 
you might wonder, though, is why the Rocky Mountains are so far from 
the edge of the North American continental plate. You can see how this 
might happen if you picture a stiff doormat. You know, the stiff kind in 
front of your door, um, a welcome mat. Now imagine pushing on the 
edge of that doormat, and think of how, because it’s stiff, the whole mat 
lifts off the floor a bit. Well the same thing happened as North America 
collided with the plate to the west. It lifted the entire western part of 
North America, and the mountains formed hundreds of miles from the 
actual collision site. In contrast to the Alps and Himalayas, though, this 
action is not still underway. So now the Rocky Mountains are no longer 
growing, but only being torn down by the forces of erosion.
Moving south, the Andes have also been pushed up as South 
America crashes into the plates to its west. Here, as with the rest of the 
Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean, one tectonic plate is sliding under 
another and diving down into the hotter layer underneath the crust in a 
process called subduction. And just like in the rest of the Ring of Fire, as 
this plate…uh, this is the Pacific Plate, by the way…as the Pacific Plate 
slides down into the molten lower layers of the earth, more volatile 
compounds…uh, most importantly water, come surging up through the 
crust of the plate on top, causing the melting of rock as it goes. As these 
compounds reach the surface, they create lava and volcanoes, building 
up a whole range of volcanoes. Because of the fact that one plate dives 
so deeply under the other, subduction zones generally produce chains of 
volcanic mountains or islands. Oh, and for the Andes…um, like with the 
Himalayas and Alps, this is a process that is continuing, so the Andes will 
also continue to get higher and higher, albeit at the rate of centimeters a 
year. 
OK, then just from looking at the big mountain ranges you can tell 
that although there are some similarities among various mountain 
ranges, each range has its own individual characteristics and 
complexities that makes studying them really fascinating, at least for me.