Listening and speaking

Peter is a technician at a large college. On the tape he describes his work.

Task 1 As you listen, decide whether these statements are true or false. Then compare answers with your partner.

1 Electronics was Peter's main hobby at school.

2 His father forced him to take up a career in electronics.

3 His first employer did not provide him with training in electronics.

4 Owners can clean their own VCR heads.

5 The rewind motors wear out because the VCR is not being used properly.

6 Sticking broken tapes together with Sellotape is not a good idea.

7 In his present job, Peter finds that operator errors are more common than machine faults.

8 Students sometimes put sandwiches in the VCR machines.

9 Professional cameras allow broadcast-quality tape to be produced.

10 The loss of quality when editing videos is significant.

11 He would like to work for the BBC as a technician.

Task 2 Now listen again to each section of the tape. This time, listen for detail.

Compare answers with your partner.

Part 1

1 What sort of things did Peter make at school?

2 Which company does his father work for?

3 What did the first company that Peter worked for sell?

4 When do rewinding mechanisms start to go wrong?

5 What happens when the plastic drives slip?

Part 2

6 When did he come to the college?

7 What equipment does he maintain?

8 What do students sometimes do with equipment left in the classrooms?

Part3

9 What equipment does he use to film course material?

10 How is the professional camera different from the domestic camcorder?

11 What do they normally work to when they film a scene?

12 In addition to a recorder and player, what piece of equipment does he use when editing?

13 What quality of tape does he use?

14 What part of his work does he enjoy most?

Search reading

In a number of units you have practiced searching a text for specific detail. This involved matching the topic of your search with words in the text. In the task which follows you are asked to find examples of a category: equipment for fault-finding. Before you start your search, think of the kind of examples you may find - tools, instruments, etc. This will help you locate the items more quickly.

Task 3 Now search this text for further differences to add to your list.

In Europe, the USA, and Japan, the race is on to produce a new generation of television sets. These new sets will be larger than today's models, possibly with 100-centimetre flat screens. Picture quality will be excellent, crisp, and without flicker, as good as those we are used to seeing in the cinema. Sound quality too will be superb, thanks to digital multitrack transmissions. By the turn of the century such sets may be offering programmes in a choice of languages as they will be equipped with eight sound tracks.

In Europe, the term HDTV is used. In the USA, the more generic term ATV, Advanced Television, has been adopted. The Japanese, who were the first to start work on the new technology, in 1974, called their system Hi-Vision. Whatever name is used, these new sets share certain features.

The picture is displayed using more lines per frame. This means that they provide clearer, more detailed, high quality images. The picture can be displayed on large, wide screens which are flicker-free. They also provide very high quality three-dimensional sound output.

A wider range of frequencies can be used to transmit each HDTV channel. This is because they can be transmitted at high frequencies which are virtually unused at present. These wide frequency ranges make it possible to transmit digital, rather than analogue signals. Digital processing can then be used in the receivers to provide almost perfect pictures even when the strength of the input signal is low. A computer could also be used to produce special effects.

Since not everyone is convinced of the need for such high quality TV systems, the move towards HDTV is likely to be very gradual. The first HDTV receivers will need to be able to process both the old and the new transmissions and, throughout the world, agreement will have to be reached on new transmission standards.

Language study. Certainty.

The text describes possible future developments in television. The writer is confident about some developments and less confident about others. What difference can you see between these statements?

1 By the turn of the century such sets may be offering programmes in a choice of languages.

2 Picture quality will be excellent.

3 The move towards HDTV is likely to be very gradual.

We cannot measure certainty in language with precision, but the following table provides a guide to how certain a writer is about a future development.

Certainty (%) Verb Adjective Adverb

100 will certain certainly

85 likely unlikely

75 probable, improbable probably

50 could/may possible possibly

Task 4 Listen to this expert on audio systems, recorded in 1992. Note his predictions for each format and the certainty expressions he uses. Do you share his views? Has the situation changed today? Discuss in groups.

Prediction Certainty expressions

LPs

Cassettes

MDs

CDs

Task 5 How likely are these developments in the next five years? Make statements about each development using the certainty expressions in the table. For example:

Most houses in your country will be cleaned by electronic robots.

I think it's unlikely that most houses in my country will be cleaned by electronic robots. It's possible that some houses will use them.

1 Vinyl records will not be made.

2 Ordinary audio cassettes will not be made.

3 Most families in your country will have CD players.

4 Most families in your country will have MD players.

5 Most families in your country will have DCC players.

6 Computers will understand and respond to your spoken language.

7 Cars will be electronically guided through cities.

8 Most teaching will be done by computers.

9 No manual labour will be done in factories in your country.

10 Most families in your country will have HDTVs.