Last tea-and-conversation hour this year: Wednesday, May 25

This time we plan to meet for MORNING tea, at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Look on bulletin board for location.

Institute students, please come and say goodbye before we all scatter for last exams, graduation, and summer.

Group 401 Online Exam

This year, we are using an online exam to save classroom time.

There are advantages in taking the test in the classroom -- for example, if students do not understand something, we teachers are able to answer questions within reason. Here you will not have the same help. On the other hand, you have fewer limits on time, and perhaps less stress. I hope the different circumstances compensate for each other. In any case, please be honorable and take the test as if you were being watched by me and the other students!)) Time limit: 90 minutes.

First, here are the four audio clips for the four sections of the test. After the audio clips you will find the test itself. (Please contact me right away if you have trouble with any of the audio clips; I can send you the clips as e-mail attachments or messaging files, or give you access to the audio some other way.)

Listen to each clip TWICE. Of course you should feel free to take notes while listening.

Part one: Richard Branson, "Life at 30,000 Feet"
TED's Chris Anderson interviews businessman Richard Branson (founder of the Virgin Group of companies). In this part of the interview, Anderson asks about education and bringing up children.




Part two: "Ain't Scared of Your Jails"
Two Freedom Riders, John Lewis and Frederick Leonard, describe the arrival of their bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 20, 1961. Leonard then describes what happened at the bus station and the office below. Finally, Federal representative John Siegenthaler describes the violence in front of the station, and tells what happened to him.




Part three: Ray
This recording is from the end of the film. We are in the rehabilitation clinic where Ray Charles is undergoing court-ordered treatment for his drug addiction. Dr. Hacker and Ray Charles are playing chess, and Hacker is talking to Ray. After the doctor leaves, Ray gets angry, throws over the chess table, and accidentally falls on the floor. Suddenly he is dreaming – the scene is the front yard of his childhood home, and we hear the sound of Ray splashing in water. We hear three voices – his own, his mother Aretha’s voice, and his brother George’s voice. (I have amplified George’s voice a bit so that you can hear it more clearly.)




Part four: Einstein and Eddington
The first part of this recording is the lecture that Arthur Eddington gives at Sir Oliver Lodge’s request, summarizing Albert Einstein’s 1905 monograph on Special Relativity. In the film, this scene is followed by the anti-German riot, in which Eddington is slightly injured. In the second part of today’s recording, his sister Winnifred is helping him with his injuries from the riot. As she cleans his wounds, he tells her about his lecture on Einstein.




Please finish this test by Tuesday evening, May 10.

1. Remember to listen to the audio files twice before answering the questions.
2. You may make notes while you listen.
3. When answering the questions, you may answer with simple phrases or complete sentences. Some answers may only require a few words.
4. Be honest. Do your own work, don't consult with others. However, you may use a dictionary.
5. Please end after 90 minutes.
6. Be sure to push the "next" button after each section and push the "submit" button when you have finished the fourth section (Einstein and Eddington).
7. UPDATE! If you need to stop before you have finished, simply go to the end of the exam and push "submit." That will send me your partly-finished exam. Then, when you are ready to continue, go back to this blog page and take the same exam again, skipping past the parts you have already finished and only finishing the parts you were not able to do the first time. (But you must enter your name again so we will be able to connect the two exams.)

Thank you!

Here is the test form.