[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Known as Tor Hidden Services, where URLs are a string of meaningless numbers and letters that end in .onion, and which you access with a special browser called the Tor browser.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, the Tor browser was originally a US naval intelligence project. It then became open source, and it allows anybody to browse the net without giving away their location.


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[Assistant] And it does this by encrypting your IP address and then routing it via several other computers around the world that use the same software. You can use it on the normal internet, but it's also your key to the darknet.


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[Assistant] And because of this fiendishly clever encryption system, the 20 or 30, we don't know exactly, thousand sites ...


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[Assistant] That operate there are incredibly difficult to shut down.


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[Assistant] It is a censorship-free world visited by anonymous users.


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[Assistant] Little wonder, then, that it's a natural place to go for anybody with something to hide. And that something, of course, need not be illegal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the dark net, you will find whistleblower sites, the New Yorker. You will find political activism blogs. You will find libraries of pirated books. But you'll also find ...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The drugs markets, illegal pornography, commercial hacking services, and much more besides. Now.


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[Assistant] The darknet is one of the most interesting. Exciting.


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[Assistant] Places anywhere on the net. And the reason is because although innovation, of course, takes place in big businesses, takes place in world-class universities, it also takes place in the fringes. Because those on the fringes, the pariahs, the outcasts, they're often the most creative because they have to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In this part of the internet, you will not find a single lolcat, a single pop-up advert anywhere.


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[Assistant] And that's one of the reasons why I think many of you here will be on the dark net fairly soon.


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[Assistant] Not that I'm suggesting anyone in this audience would use it to go and procure high-quality narcotics. But let's say for a moment that you were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thousands of products has a glossy, high-res image, a detailed product description, a price, there's a proceed to checkout icon. There is even, most beautifully of all, a report this item button.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You browse through the site, you make your choice, you pay with the cryptocurrency bitcoin, you enter an address, preferably not your home address, and you wait for your product to arrive in the post. Which it nearly always does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the reason it does is not because of the clever encryption, that's important, something far simpler than that. It's the user reviews.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, every single vendor on these sites


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uses a pseudonym naturally enough, but they keep the same pseudonym to build up a reputation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Prices tend to go down. Product quality tends to go up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the vendors are attentive, they're polite, they're consumer-centric, offering you all manner of special deals, one-offs, buy one, get one, freeze, free delivery to keep you happy. I, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Spoke to Drugs Heaven. Drugs Heaven was offering


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Excellent and consistent marijuana at a reasonable price. He had a very generous refund policy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Detailed T's and C's and good shipping times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dear drugs heaven, I wrote via the internal emailing system that's also encrypted, of course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm new here, do you mind if I buy just one gram of marijuana?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Couple of hours later, I get a reply. They always reply. Hi there, thanks for your email.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So no problem if you'd like to start with just one gram. I do hope we can do business together. Best wishes, drugs heaven.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now this kind of consumer-centric attitude is the reason why when I reviewed 120,000 pieces of feedback that had been left on one of these sites over a three-month period, 95 percent of them were five out of five. The customer you see is king.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what does that mean? Well, on the one hand, that means there are more drugs, more available, more easily to more people. And by my reckoning, that is not a good thing. But on the other hand,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are going to take drugs, you have a reasonably good way


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of guaranteeing a certain level of purity and quality, which is incredibly important if you're taking drugs. And you can do so from the comfort of your own home without the risks associated with buying on the streets. Now as I said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've got to be creative and innovative to survive in this marketplace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the 20 or so sites that are currently in operation, by the way, they don't always work, they're not always perfect. The site that I showed you was shut down 18 months ago, but not before. It had turned over over a billion dollars worth of trade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But these markets, because of the difficult conditions in which they are operating, the inhospitable conditions are always innovating. Always thinking of ways of getting smarter, more decentralized, harder to censor, and more customer friendly. Let's take the payment system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't pay with your credit card, of course. That would lead directly back to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you use the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which is easily exchanged for real-world currencies and gives quite a high degree of anonymity to its users.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at the beginning of these sites, people noticed a flaw. Some of the unscrupulous dealers were running away with people's bitcoin before they'd mailed the drugs out. The community came up with a solution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Called multi-signature escrow payments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The vendor who would see that I'd sent it would be confident that they could then send the product to me. And then when I received it, at least two of the three people engaged in the transaction, vendor, buyer, site administrator, would have to sign the transaction off with a unique digital signature, and then the money would be transferred. Brilliant. Elegant. It works. But then they realized there was a problem with Bitcoin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they came up with a tumbling service. Hundreds of people send their bitcoin into one address, they're tumbled and jumbled up, and then they're sent on, the right amount is sent on to the right recipients, but they're different bitcoins. Micro-laundering systems.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's incredible. Interested in what drugs are trending right now on the darknet markets? Check Grams, the search engine. You can even buy some advertising space.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you an ethical consumer, worried about what the drugs industry is doing? Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One vendor will offer you Fair Trade Organic Cocaine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's not being sourced from Colombian drug lords, but Guatemalan farmers. They even promised to reinvest 20 percent of any profits into local education programs. There's even a mystery shopper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, whatever you think about the morality of these sites, and I submit that it's not actually an easy question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The creation of functioning, competitive, anonymous markets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When nobody knows who anybody else is, constantly at risk of being shot down by the authorities is a staggering achievement. A phenomenal achievement. And it's that kind of innovation


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why those on the fringes are often the harbingers of what is to come. It's easy to forget


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the last 30 years or so. It started in the 70s as a military project, morphed in the 1980s to an academic network, co-opted by commercial companies in the 90s, and then invaded by all of us via social media in the noughties. But I think it's going to change again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think things like the darknet market, creative, secure, difficult to censor, I think that's the future. And the reason it's the future is because we're all worried about our privacy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surveys consistently show concerns about privacy. The more time we spend online, the more we worry about them and those surveys show our worries are growing. We're worried about what happens to our data. We're worried about who might be watching us. Since the revelations from Edward Snowden,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's been a huge increase in the number of people using various privacy-enhancing tools. There are now between two and three million daily users of the Tor browser, the majority of which are, the majority of use is perfectly legitimate, sometimes even mundane.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there are hundreds of activists around the world working on techniques and tools to keep you private online. Default encrypted messaging services. Ethereum, which is a project which tries to link up


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Connected but unused hard drives of millions of computers around the world to create a sort of distributed internet that no one really controls. Now, we've had distributed computing before, of course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We use it for everything, from Skype to the search for extraterrestrial life. But you add distributed computing and powerful encryption? That's very, very hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, uh, to censor and control. Another called made-safe works of similar principles. Another called twister. And so on and so on. And here's the thing. The more of us join, the more interesting those sites become. And then the more of us join. And so on. And I think that's what's going to happen. In fact, it's already happening. The dark net is no longer


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A den for dealers and a hideout for whistleblowers. It's already going mainstream.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every social media company, every major news outlet, and therefore, most of you in this audience will be using the darknet too. So the internet's about to get more interesting, more exciting, more innovative, more terrible, more destructive. That's good news if you care about liberty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good news if you care about freedom. Good news if you care about democracy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's also good news if you want to browse for illegal pornography and if you want to buy and sell drugs with impunity.


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[Assistant] Neither entirely dark nor entirely light. It's not one side or the other that's going to win out, but both. Thank you very much indeed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why do you think Hanukkah is called the Festival of Lights?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know where but I have the impression that we have met before. Example two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somehow Jim got the impression that I was gay. Did you tell him that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How are you? I'm going to mix some music.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kyrgyzstan's parliament has voted to name one of its mountains after the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The parliament said it would immortalize the Russian leader's name. Putin peak stands at 4,500 meters higher than Yeltsin peak named after the former Russian leader. However, both are dwarfed by the 7,000 meter Lenin peak named over 80 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The group of policemen is accused of forming a death squad, which killed more than 45 people over the last 10 years. Among those already in jail are several high ranking officers, including one Colonel, the highest rank in the country's military police.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The federal police investigation that led to the arrests began more than a year ago when the authorities noticed an increase in the number of deaths in the areas to where these policemen were assigned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kyrgyzstan's parliament has voted to name one of its mountains after the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The parliament said it would immortalize the Russian leader's name. Putin peak stands at 4,500 meters higher than Yeltsin peak named after the former Russian leader. However, both are dwarfed by the 7,000 meter Lenin peak named over 80 years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The group of policemen is accused of forming a death squad, which killed more than 45 people over the last 10 years. Among those already in jail are several high ranking officers, including one Colonel, the highest rank in the country's military police.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The federal police investigation that led to the arrests began more than a year ago when the authorities noticed an increase in the number of deaths in the areas to where these policemen were assigned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take a bite. Written by Harriet Rosenblum. Illustrated by Chad Libby. Focus question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What lesson does Manny learn in this story?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Manny took one bite of chicken.


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[Assistant] Draw a picture and tell why you dislike it. Social studies. Is having dessert a want or a need? Share your ideas with a partner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jenny was right when she told me she thought Rick was no good for me. I should have listened to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A court in Ecuador has fined the American oil giant Chevron a reported eight billion dollars for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they'd been awarded the sum after accusing the Texaco Oil Company, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, of damaging swaths of the northern jungle. Chevron said it intended to appeal. News item 46.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Swiss voters have decided in a referendum to retain the current system which allows army issue weapons to be kept at home. It means several million Swiss men won't have to deliver their weapons into army arsenals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A coalition of civil and religious groups and centre-left parties had wanted the system overturned, arguing that Switzerland has one of Europe's highest gun-related suicide rates.


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[Assistant] But traditionalists said banning the weapons would have broken the long-standing trust between the Swiss people and the army.


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[Assistant] Illustrated by Evica Stivanovic. Focus question.


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[Assistant] Let's get those boots on. You're gonna wanna make sure your boots fit snugly. That's right. Now snap them into your bindings.


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[Assistant] And you're also gonna want a good pair of goggles to protect your eyes. It's a bright day today, so there's gonna be a lot of glare out there on the slopes. We don't want you hitting any of those moguls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you're also gonna want a good pair of goggles to protect your eyes. It's a bright day today, so there's gonna be a lot of glare out there on the slopes. We don't want you hitting any of those moguls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Easy there, Rick. Well let's head over onto the chair lift and test your skills.


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[Assistant] I do have a few problems with the plan but don't get me wrong, I still think it's a good idea.


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[Assistant] Example one. Do you mind lending me a hundred bucks? Sure thing! Example two. Could you please send me the email by the end of the day?


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[Assistant] Example four. Can you get some milk on the way home?


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[Assistant] But as an organizational psychologist, I spend a lot of time in workplaces. And I find paranoia everywhere. Paranoia is caused by people that I call takers. Takers are self-serving in their interactions. It's all about what can you do for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The opposite is a giver. It's somebody who approaches most interactions by asking, what can I do for you?


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[Assistant] And I wanted to give you a chance to think about your own style. We all have moments of giving and taking. Your style is just how you treat most of the people most of the time. Your default. So I have a short test that you can take to figure out if you're more of a giver or a taker, and you can take it right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I am convinced the longer it takes you to laugh at this cartoon, the more worried we should be that you're a taker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, not all takers are narcissists. Some are just givers who got burned one too many times. And then there's another kind of taker that we won't be addressing today, and that's called a psychopath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was curious, though, about how common these extremes are, and so I surveyed over 30,000 people across industries, around the world's cultures, and I found that most people are right in the middle between giving and taking. They choose this third style called matching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're a matcher, you try to keep an even balance of give and take, quid pro quo. I'll do something for you if you do something for me. And that seems like a safe way to live your life. But is it the most effective and productive way to live your life? The answer to that question is a very definitive maybe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, I studied dozens of organizations, thousands of people. I had engineers measuring their productivity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And unexpectedly, the worst performers in each of these jobs were the givers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The engineers who got the least work done were the ones who did more favors than they got back. They were so busy doing other people's jobs, they literally ran out of time and energy to get their own work completed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In medical school, the lowest grades belong to the students who agree most strongly with statements like, I love helping others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which suggests the doctor you ought to trust is the one who came to med school with no desire to help anybody.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then in sales, too, the lowest revenue accrued in the most generous salespeople. And I actually reached out to one of those salespeople who had a very high giver score. And I asked him, why do you suck at your ... I didn't ask it that way, but ...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's the cost of generosity in sales? And he said, well, I just care so deeply about my customers that I would never sell them one of our crappy products.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So just out of curiosity, how many of you self-identify more as givers than takers or matchers? Raise your hands. Okay, it would have been more before we talked about these data. But ...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Actually, it turns out there's a twist here, because givers are often sacrificing themselves, but they make their organizations better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have a huge body of evidence, many, many studies, looking at the frequency of giving behavior that exists in a team or an organization, and the more often people are helping and sharing their knowledge and providing mentoring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The better organizations do on every metric we can measure. Higher profits, customer satisfaction, employee retention, even lower operating expenses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So givers spend a lot of time trying to help other people and improve the team, and then unfortunately they suffer along the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to talk about what it takes to build cultures where givers actually get to succeed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I wondered then, if givers are the worst performers, who are the best performers?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And let me start with the good news. It's not the takers. Takers tend to rise quickly but also fall quickly in most jobs. And they fall at the hands of matchers. If you're a matcher, you believe in an eye for an eye, a just world. And so when you meet a taker, you feel like it's your mission in life to just punish the hell out of that person. And that way, justice gets served. Well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most people are matchers, and that means if you're a taker, it tends to catch up with you eventually. What goes around will come around. And so the logical conclusion is it must be the matchers who are the best performers. But they're not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In every job, in every organization I've ever studied, the best results belong to the givers again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you can see is that the givers go to both extremes. They make up the majority of the people who bring in the lowest revenue but also the highest revenue. And the same patterns were true for engineers' productivity and medical students' grades. Givers are overrepresented at the bottom and at the top of every success metric that I can track.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which raises the question, how do we create a world where more of these givers get to excel? And I want to talk about how to do that, not just in businesses, but also in nonprofits, schools, even governments. Are you ready? Alright, I was going to do it anyway, but I appreciate the enthusiasm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first thing that's really critical is to recognize that givers are your most valuable people. But if they're not careful, they burn out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you have to protect the givers in your midst. And I learned a great lesson about this from Fortune's Best Net Worker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's a very successful serial entrepreneur who spends a huge amount of his time helping other people. And his secret weapon is the five-minute favor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Adam said, look, you don't have to be Mother Teresa or Gandhi to be a giver. You just have to find small ways to add large value to other people's lives. And that could be as simple as making an introduction between two people who could benefit from knowing each other. It could be sharing your knowledge or giving a little bit of feedback.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or it might be even something as basic as saying, you know, I'm going to try to figure out if I can recognize somebody whose work has gone unnoticed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the second thing that matters if you want to build a culture where givers succeed is you actually need a culture where help-seeking is the norm, where people ask a lot. This may hit a little too close to home for some of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you see with successful givers is they recognize that it's okay to be a receiver too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you run an organization, we can actually make this easier. We can make it easier for people to ask for help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Couple colleagues and I studied hospitals, and we found that on certain floors, nurses did a lot of help seeking, and on other floors they did very little of it. And the factor that stood out on the floors where help seeking was common, where it was the norm, was there was just one nurse whose sole job it was to help other nurses on the unit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, help seeking isn't important just for protecting the success and the well-being of givers. It's also critical to getting more people to act like givers. Because the data say that somewhere between 75 and 90 percent of all giving in organizations starts with a request.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But a lot of people don't ask. They don't want to look incompetent, they don't know where to turn, they don't want to burden others. And yet, if nobody ever asked for help, you have a lot of frustrated givers in your organization who would love to step up and contribute if they only knew who could benefit and how.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I think the most important thing, if you want to build a culture of successful givers, is to be thoughtful about who you let onto your team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I figured, you want to culture productive generosity, you should hire a bunch of givers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was surprised to discover, actually, that that was not right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That the negative impact of a taker on a culture is usually double to triple the positive impact of a giver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think about it this way, one bad apple can spoil a barrel, but one good egg just does not make a dozen. I don't know what that means.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I hope you do. No. Let even one taker into a team, and you will see that the givers will stop helping. They'll say, I'm surrounded by a bunch of snakes and sharks. Why should I contribute?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas if you let one giver into a team, you don't get an explosion of generosity. More often people are like, great, that person can do all our work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So effective hiring and screening and team building is not about bringing in the givers. It's about weeding out the takers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you can do that well, you will be left with givers and matchers. The givers will be generous because they don't have to worry about the consequences. And the beauty of the matchers is that they follow the norm. So how do you catch a taker before it's too late?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're actually pretty bad at figuring out who's a taker, especially on first impressions. And there's a personality trait that throws us off. It's called agreeableness, one of the major dimensions of personality across cultures. Agreeable people are warm and friendly, they're nice, they're polite. You find a lot of them in Canada.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where there was actually a national contest to come up with a new Canadian slogan and fill in the blank as Canadian as ... And I thought the winning entry was going to be as Canadian as maple syrup or ice hockey. But no, Canadians voted for their new national slogan to be, I kid you not, as Canadian as possible under the circumstances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now for those of you who are highly agreeable or maybe slightly Canadian, you get this right away. How could I ever say I'm any one thing when I'm constantly adapting to try to please other people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disagreeable people do less of it. They're more critical, skeptical, challenging and far more likely than their peers to go to law schools. That's not a joke, that's actually an empirical fact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I always assumed that agreeable people were givers and disagreeable people were takers. But then I gathered the data and I was stunned to find no correlation between those traits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it turns out that agreeableness disagreeableness is your outer veneer. How pleasant is it to interact with you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas giving and taking are more of your inner motives. What are your values? What are your intentions toward others? If you really want to judge people accurately, you have to get to the moment that every consultant in the room is waiting for and draw a two by two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The agreeable givers are easy to spot. They say yes to everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The disagreeable takers are also recognized quickly, although you might call them by a slightly different name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We forget about the other two combinations. There are disagreeable givers in our organizations.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are people who are gruff and tough on the surface, but underneath have others' best interests at heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or as an engineer put it, oh, disagreeable givers, like somebody with a bad user interface but a great operating system. If that helps you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disagreeable givers are the most undervalued people in our organizations because they're the ones who give the critical feedback that no one wants to hear, but everyone needs to hear. We need to do a much better job valuing these people as opposed to writing them off early and saying, eh, kind of prickly, must be a selfish taker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the person who's nice to your face and then will stab you right in the back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my favorite way to catch these people in the interview process is to ask the question, can you give me the names of four people whose careers you have fundamentally improved?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the takers will give you four names, and they will all be more influential than them. Because takers are great at kissing up and then kicking down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Givers are more likely to name people who are below them in a hierarchy, who don't have as much power, who can do them no good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And let's face it, you all know you can learn a lot about character by watching how someone treats their restaurant server or their Uber driver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if we do all this well, if we can weed takers out of organizations, if we can make it safe to ask for help.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If we can protect givers from burnout and make it OK for them to be ambitious in pursuing their own goals, as well as trying to help other people, we can actually change the way that people define success. Instead of saying it's all about winning a competition, people will realize success is really more about contribution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I believe that the most meaningful way to succeed is to help other people succeed.


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[Assistant] And if we can spread that belief, we can actually turn paranoia upside down. There's a name for that. It's called pronoia.


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[Assistant] Pronoia is the delusional belief that other people are plotting your well-being.


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[Assistant] That they're going around behind your back and saying exceptionally glowing things about you.


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[Assistant] And the great thing about a culture of givers is that's not a delusion, it's reality.


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[Assistant] Look, I want to live in a world where givers succeed, and I hope you will help me create that world. Thank you.


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[Assistant] Court in Ecuador has fined the American oil giant Chevron a reported eight billion dollars for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region.


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[Assistant] A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they'd been awarded the sum after accusing the Texaco Oil Company, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, of damaging swaths of the northern jungle. Chevron said it intended to appeal.


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[Assistant] Swiss voters have decided in a referendum to retain the current system which allows army issue weapons to be kept at home. It means several million Swiss men won't have to deliver their weapons into army arsenals.


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[Assistant] A coalition of civil and religious groups and centre left parties had wanted the system overturned, arguing that Switzerland has one of Europe's highest gun-related suicide rates.


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[Assistant] A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they'd been awarded the sum after accusing the Texaco Oil Company, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, of damaging swaths of the northern jungle. Chevron said it intended to appeal.


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[Assistant] Swiss voters have decided in a referendum to retain the current system which allows army issue weapons to be kept at home. It means several million Swiss men won't have to deliver their weapons into army arsenals.


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[Assistant] A coalition of civil and religious groups and centre-left parties had wanted the system overturned, arguing that Switzerland has one of Europe's highest gun-related suicide rates.


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[Assistant] But traditionalists said banning the weapons would have broken the long-standing trust between the Swiss people and the army.


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[Assistant] And today we're gonna be talking about one of our favorite topics as always. Food. Food. We're gonna be at a restaurant.


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[Assistant] Okay, so before we listen to what happens in this restaurant with this food, let's take a look very quickly at vocabulary preview.


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[Assistant] Very good. Alright, so now it's time for us to listen to our dialogue. We're gonna find out what's going on here. Apparently there is a very angry customer and we're gonna find out why.


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[Assistant] Alright, so, uh, we'll talk about that a little bit later on, but, uh, now I think we had some really interesting vocabulary of how to describe food that is not well prepared, and we can take a look at that now in Language Takeaway.


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[Assistant] But in this case it was runny. So when something is runny it's too liquid. Too liquid. And I think we can relate it to a runny nose, right? Exactly. Okay, so when liquid is coming out of your nose, a runny nose, in this case the soup is runny.


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[Assistant] You can eat it. So, we have this prefix inedible.


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[Assistant] Okay, so it's too hard to chew or to swallow.


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[Assistant] Alright. Apparently, the food was rubbery because it's completely overcooked. Overcooked. Alright, we have overcooked.


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[Assistant] So, also I guess we can say like chicken, sometimes if you overcook chicken it comes out too dry.


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[Assistant] Alright, now this word sliver is like a slice, right?


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[Assistant] Okay, so we can say, okay I just want a sliver of bacon for breakfast.


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[Assistant] And those are all the words we have for language takeaway. Now you have, so we've given you different adjectives of describing food that is not well prepared. So now let's move on to some other phrases that the customer used to complain in Fluency Builder.


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[Assistant] But if you want to give it a little bit more emphasis, you can say, I do apologize.


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[Assistant] And I might say, what? I did tell you about it last week.


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[Assistant] So this do, did, does becomes an auxiliary to make it more powerful, to give it more emphasis.


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[Assistant] Alright, now moving on to the next phrase. He was complaining about the food and it was terrible and he said, I'm shelling out my hard earned bucks.


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[Assistant] Alright, but this gives you the sensation that you are, that you don't really want to pay.


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[Assistant] Alright, so now that we understand shell out, let's move on to the second part of that sentence.


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[Assistant] So, I can also say, my heart earned money.


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[Assistant] So complaining at a restaurant and actually sending food back is not uncommon in the US.


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[Assistant] But maybe in other cultures, I think people would be a little bit more reluctant to do something like this.


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[Assistant] Well, usually if you order a big meal or, you know, half your steak is left over on your plate, uh, you would ask for a doggie bag and they would bring you a little box or a bag and you would take it to supposedly give it to your dog.


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[Assistant] Exactly. So a little bit of cultural differences, but we want to know what you think and how things are done maybe in your country with complaining or sending food back or even this whole doggy bag situation.


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[Assistant] Hello English learners, welcome back to another sports lesson with us here at EnglishPod. My name is Marco.


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[Assistant] And today we're gonna be talking about a very interesting and very difficult game to play, and it's golf.


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[Assistant] On vocabulary preview today we have three words and the first one is aficionado. Aficionado. An aficionado. A golf aficionado. Alright, so this basically is a very fancy word of, is a very fancy way of saying a fan.


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[Assistant] Okay, so you are an aficionado. I like golf.


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[Assistant] And now, our second word is not anywhere in the dialogue.


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[Assistant] Right, so it's a long tube basically that looks like a J, kind of.


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[Assistant] And now our third word is golf course. Golf course. A golf course. A course. So this is the area where you play golf.


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[Assistant] Exactly. So it's a very big green area where you play golf. So those are the three words we have for vocabulary preview. So now we could listen to our dialogue for the first time as we listen to our sports announcers, Rick Fields and Bob Copeland and see what happens on this occasion.


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[Assistant] Right, so we did learn a lot about golf because they used some very specific and technical words for golf, so let's look at these now in language takeaway.


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[Assistant] Exactly. So it's something very difficult to do.


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[Assistant] Okay, so sometimes it's also called an ace. So it can be a hole in one or called an ace.


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[Assistant] Now, for our second word, now once we get to the hole, to the ninth hole or the tenth hole, we have to tee off. To tee off. Tee off.


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[Assistant] Right, so it's the very first instance where you put the little ball on the tee.


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[Assistant] Exactly, so he carries your bag, your golf clubs, and basically helps you while you're playing golf.


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[Assistant] And now, the caddy, since he has to carry all the golf clubs, Tiger Woods asked him for his driver.


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[Assistant] Driver. A driver. Now a driver is a type of golf club.


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[Assistant] No, no. It's a type of golf club and it's a very big and heavy golf club that is used to tee off.


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[Assistant] Yes, that is called the driver.


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[Assistant] Okay, very good. So basically the par is the maximum number of swings or strokes you can make before putting the ball into the hole.


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[Assistant] Four times or less. Very good. Now, if you don't make par, there are some options.


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[Assistant] You can make a bogey. Alright, a bogey. A bogey. Now sometimes the golf course is very difficult.


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[Assistant] So instead of putting the ball in the hole, let's say in four turns,


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's bad because you get a point. So it's kind of strange because in golf, the more points you have,


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[Assistant] Birdie is the opposite if you hit one under par.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's good because you have minus one, one less than par.


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[Assistant] Alright, great. So I think it's clear now what type of rules they have in golf and how it works. So why don't we take a look now at some of the phrases that we heard in the dialogue in Fluency Builder.


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[Assistant] So, this usually goes in the beginning of a sentence.


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[Assistant] Okay, so maybe I'm showing you my house and I can say, as you can see, our living room is very spacious.


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[Assistant] As you can see, we recently remodeled our entire kitchen.


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[Assistant] As you can see, the hairstylist made a mistake when cutting my hair.


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[Assistant] Alright, great, so as you can see, now for our second phrase, well Tiger Woods wasn't doing very well, and the announcer said, it's not his day. It's not his day. It's not his day today.


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[Assistant] Right, maybe you're having difficulties or you're having bad luck that day.


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[Assistant] Great phrase and also very common and makes you sound very native.


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[Assistant] Okay, now it's not only related to golf, right?


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[Assistant] Okay, or, when I was in school, I had a hard time with math.


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[Assistant] So, great phrases, great words. Let's listen to this dialogue for the last time and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more about Go.


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[Assistant] Well, many times, you know, when you see in movies or the stereotype is that business is done on a golf course. Yeah. And yeah, it is true. Many times, you know, people will invite you out to a golf course and you'll be playing a game and, you know, talking business and relaxing at the same time.


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[Assistant] Exactly, and of course if you lose, it's a good thing because then the deal will pull through.


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[Assistant] Right, so not only golf lessons, like how to play golf, but also in English.


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[Assistant] Yeah, cause like in many other sports, golf has also its slang and its terms and stuff. So yeah, it's very interesting and it's one of those cultural things.


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[Assistant] Right, we're always there to answer any questions or doubts you might have, and until next time, we'll see you there.


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[Assistant] College life. American college and university students who live away from their families


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[Assistant] Are generally housed in dormitories at least for their first year.


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[Assistant] Men and women often live in the same building, though they may live on separate floors.


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[Assistant] Some dorms have a theme, like an international house, where students can learn about other cultures.


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[Assistant] Colleges and universities often have many clubs that students can join.


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[Assistant] These are for students who do not play for a school team but want organized sports with other students.


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[Assistant] religious names from the bible are also common.


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[Assistant] Americans are interested in the names that famous actors, entertainers, and athletes give their children.


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[Assistant] Some famous people, like names that have been around for many years.


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[Assistant] Last names as first names are also popular.


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[Assistant] Use their former last name as a middle name after they marry.


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[Assistant] Added to the tensions of what was known as the Cold War.


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[Assistant] An American astronaut followed less than a month later.


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[Assistant] The space race continued. The finish line was the moon.


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[Assistant] There is cooperation between the Russian and American space programs.


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[Assistant] Astronauts share duties on the International Space Station.


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[Assistant] College students spend their summers in many different ways. Many students work hard at summer jobs.


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[Assistant] They realize it can be difficult to balance college classes and a job during the school year. Summer is a good time to save up some money.


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[Assistant] Restaurants, swimming pools, stores, and other businesses are always looking for hardworking students.


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[Assistant] Some students get jobs in the field they hope to enter after college.


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[Assistant] The experience gives students a taste of the world outside of college.


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[Assistant] Other college students choose to take summer classes.


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[Assistant] Students usually do not take a full set of classes. Instead, they take just one or two. The extra classes can help students to get ahead in their studies. However, summers are not all work. Students spend time with friends, go to a movie or take a trip. A relaxing day under the summer sun


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[Assistant] We'll help students forget all about tests and studying.


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[Assistant] More people are trying to learn English in the world.


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[Assistant] Say passenger airplane pilots must speak English English is the major foreign language


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[Assistant] Taught in most schools in South America and Europe.


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[Assistant] School children in the Philippines and Japan begin learning English at an early age.


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[Assistant] English is the official language of more than 75 countries, including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and South Africa.


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[Assistant] English is often used as an official language to help people communicate. India is a good example. English is the common language in this country.


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[Assistant] Where at least 24 languages are spoken by more than 1 million people.


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[Assistant] The best young English language spellers from around the world


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[Assistant] Over two intense days of competition in a large hotel meeting room.


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[Assistant] The spellers sit together in front of several judges.


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[Assistant] Each speller stands when it is his or her turn.


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[Assistant] They can ask for the definition of the word or for it to be used in a sentence.


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[Assistant] This can often help them decide how it is spelled.


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[Assistant] Students who spell the word correctly remain in the competition.


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[Assistant] But if the speller makes a mistake, a bell rings and the child must leave the group.


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[Assistant] It is the most widely respected English language test in the world.


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[Assistant] Recognized by more than 8,000 colleges and universities in more than 130 countries.


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[Assistant] TOEFL is an important test for foreign students who want to study in America.


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[Assistant] Require students seeking admission to take the test.


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[Assistant] Nearly a million individuals of all ages take the TOPL test.


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[Assistant] It measures your ability to use and understand English at the university level. And it evaluates how well you combine your four skills. Listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills to perform academic tasks.


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[Assistant] There are two formats for the TOEFL test. The format you take depends on the location of your test center.


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[Assistant] Test centers that do not have internet access offer the paper-based test.


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[Assistant] Foreign Language Studies starts at a very young age for many students in America.


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[Assistant] Some students start language training at age six.


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[Assistant] States do not require foreign language training this early in education.


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[Assistant] But many students choose to study languages in elementary school.


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[Assistant] Almost 7 million students in public secondary schools in the United States are studying a foreign language.


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[Assistant] Each state sets its own requirements for foreign language study at the junior high and high school level.


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[Assistant] Graduate high school with at least two years of foreign language study.


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[Assistant] There are different foreign language requirements at colleges and universities.


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[Assistant] Some universities require students to have had several years of language education in high school.


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[Assistant] In addition, many colleges and universities


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[Assistant] Require students to complete at least two years of foreign language study before graduating.


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[Assistant] Foreign students at American colleges and universities


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[Assistant] May earn money after they successfully complete an entry-level study program.


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[Assistant] Usually works about 20 hours each week.


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[Assistant] To a large group of students one or two times a week.


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[Assistant] The teaching assistant meets with smaller groups of students during the week.


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[Assistant] Teaching assistants also meet with students who seek help. They attend teaching meetings and some working with science professors help to organize laboratory equipment. Most American colleges and universities


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[Assistant] Is that the TA must speak English well.


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[Assistant] Party time. Americans plan parties for many reasons, as in other cultures.


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[Assistant] But some parties are especially American. For example


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[Assistant] A group of neighbors may gather on their street to eat food, play music, and visit with one another. This is called a block party.


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[Assistant] A woman might invite a group of women to a party called a baby shower for a friend who is about to give birth.


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[Assistant] Organize a party for their child around a theme.


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[Assistant] Birthday parties usually include gifts and a birthday cake with candles.


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[Assistant] Some parents take their children's birthday parties very seriously.


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[Assistant] Even when the child is too young to fully understand the celebration.


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[Assistant] If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day.


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[Assistant] But no one knows what time itself is.


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[Assistant] For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time.


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[Assistant] Time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe.


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[Assistant] One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time.


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[Assistant] Could exist only as long as there were no changes, for time and change are linked.


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[Assistant] We know that time has passed when something changes. In the real world with time, however, changes never stop.


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[Assistant] Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun.


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[Assistant] Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves.


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[Assistant] When people began to count such events, they began to measure time.


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[Assistant] Central Park Central Park in New York City


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[Assistant] This is the first major city park in America.


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[Assistant] The designer's goal is to make a beautiful natural environment with lakes, woods, and open areas for all the people of New York to enjoy.


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[Assistant] About 25 million people visit Central Park each year. These include people from other areas of America and from foreign countries.


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[Assistant] Millions of people who live in New York love Central Park.


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[Assistant] Run or ride bicycles along the paths in Central Park.


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[Assistant] Others walk their dogs, play baseball, row a boat on the lake, or eat a meal on the grass.


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[Assistant] Some people choose one of the beautiful natural areas in the park as the perfect place to get married.


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[Assistant] Or even one person can hold a yard sale.


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[Assistant] People simply collect some things they no longer want and put them in the yard outside their home.


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[Assistant] They might also place hand-made signs on nearby streets to direct people to the sale.


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[Assistant] Yard sales are a good way for people without much money to find things for their family.


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[Assistant] But even people with a lot of money like to look around.


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[Assistant] Professional dealers might also go to yard sales.


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[Assistant] If they find something valuable at a low price, they can resell it for more.


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[Assistant] Still other people go to yard sales because they enjoy the hunt.


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[Assistant] They like to find beautiful or unusual things that are being sold for less than the value.


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[Assistant] For example, they may find a piece of old furniture


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[Assistant] That is worth a lot of money after it is repaired.


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[Assistant] The education system in the United States is controlled by state and local governments.


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[Assistant] But education laws are similar in each state.


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[Assistant] In all 50 states and 6 territories.


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[Assistant] All children must attend school from the age of 6 or 7 to the age of 16.


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[Assistant] Public schools are free of charge for grades 1 through 12. Private schools.


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[Assistant] Also operate in all states and territories.


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[Assistant] Some private schools are operated by churches and religious groups.


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[Assistant] Other private schools are not linked to any religious organization.


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[Assistant] Private schools must be approved by the state in which they operate.


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[Assistant] Most private schools do not receive government money.


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[Assistant] The parents of private school students pay the school.


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[Assistant] The school year usually begins in September and continues until June.


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[Assistant] And require students to attend school throughout the year.


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[Assistant] In the United States, summer school used to be seen mainly as a place for high school students to repeat classes they failed.


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[Assistant] Students often go to summer school so they can ease their class load during the school year.


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[Assistant] It might give them more freedom to choose the classes they want during the regular term.


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[Assistant] Another choice for many students is to take classes online. However,


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[Assistant] Some online classes require students to come to a classroom to take tests.


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[Assistant] Students may also have to take part in group discussions with the teacher online.


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[Assistant] Yet there may also be freedom to do the work anytime, day or night. American movies.


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[Assistant] represents the ideas of the person who wrote it, the people who acted in it and the person who directed it.


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[Assistant] Some Americans have tried to ban some kinds of movies. These include movies that are violent or show people having sexual relations.


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[Assistant] People have taken legal action to stop such movies.


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[Assistant] But court decisions have said that the right to make any kind of movie


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[Assistant] Is protected by the part of the United States Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech.


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[Assistant] In the United States, people have the right to produce a bad movie or write a bad book.


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[Assistant] Often have nothing to do with the real world.


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[Assistant] Library of Congress is America's National Library.


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[Assistant] It has more than 120 million books and other objects.


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[Assistant] It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest.


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[Assistant] It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings, and musical instruments.


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[Assistant] The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays.


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[Assistant] But no one is permitted to take books out of the building.


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[Assistant] Provides books and materials to the United States Congress.


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[Assistant] It also lends books to other American libraries, government agencies, and foreign libraries. It buys some of its books and gets others as gifts.


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[Assistant] It also gets materials through its copyright office.


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[Assistant] Anyone who wants copyright protection for a publication must send two copies to the library.


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[Assistant] This means the Library of Congress receives almost everything published in the United States.


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[Assistant] Leisure activities include things like watching television, seeing friends, or exercising.


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[Assistant] Spends almost two hours a day on household activities, like cooking, cleaning, and paying bills.


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[Assistant] Women spend more time on child care and housework than men do, even when the women are employed.


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[Assistant] Men also spend more time on leisure activities and sports. They average five hours, twenty minutes a day, half an hour more than women.


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[Assistant] Spent more of their leisure time watching TV and reading than younger people.


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[Assistant] Younger people reported spending more time with friends using the computer and playing sports.


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[Assistant] How do American schools use educational technology? There is not a simple answer.


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[Assistant] It depends on the subject and level of students, of course.


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[Assistant] But it also depends on the interest and training of the teachers and the goals and budgets of the schools.


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[Assistant] Schools are almost all connected to the internet.


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[Assistant] But some have more technology and use it more than others. For example,


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[Assistant] Some schools use computers for activities like video conferencing to bring the world into the classroom.


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[Assistant] They connect to a computer and can operate by touch. They can be used for documents or writing or to project video.


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[Assistant] Some teachers are trying creative new ways to teach with devices like mobile phones. But educators say the most important thing is the content.


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[Assistant] Which stands for the Test of English for International Communication.


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[Assistant] Measures the ability of people to communicate in the workplace using everyday English.


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[Assistant] More than 9,000 organizations use the test in more than 90 countries. Non-native English speakers


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[Assistant] Take the test to demonstrate their English skills when seeking a new job or a promotion.


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[Assistant] Some organizations use the TOEIC.


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[Assistant] To measure progress in English training programs and as a placement test.


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[Assistant] The cost of the test is set locally in each country.


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[Assistant] One is a paper and pencil test which measures listening and reading skills. The other test, given on a computer, measures speaking and writing skills.


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[Assistant] 11 questions on the computer test require speaking. For example,


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[Assistant] The test taker is asked to read out loud or describe a picture. Eight other questions.


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[Assistant] require written answers, including an opinion essay.


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[Assistant] Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they attempt to enter medical school.


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[Assistant] Students spend their first two years mainly in classroom study.


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[Assistant] They learn about the body and all its systems.


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[Assistant] They also begin studying how to recognize and treat disease.


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[Assistant] Students begin applying to programs in hospitals.


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[Assistant] For the additional training they will need after medical school.


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[Assistant] Competition to work at a top hospital can be fierce.


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[Assistant] The graduation ceremony. In American high schools and colleges,


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[Assistant] The last day of the school year is graduation day.


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[Assistant] The students who finish their last year in the school will graduate. The graduation ceremony is often in the school gymnasium. The people who come to watch the graduation are teachers, parents, and friends of the graduates.


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[Assistant] We'll wear long robes and caps with square tops.


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[Assistant] The graduate who has the best record in school will make a speech.


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[Assistant] The school principal and other officials will also make speeches.


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[Assistant] Then each graduate will receive a diploma or a degree which has his name and the name of the school.


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[Assistant] After the ceremony, students often chat with their teachers, friends and relatives who come to congratulate them.


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[Assistant] The International Student Exchange Program, or ISEP, was started in 1979.


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[Assistant] ISCP is a group of colleges and universities around the world.


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[Assistant] They cooperate to provide international educational experiences for their students.


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[Assistant] Students can study for up to one year in the United States or any of the other countries involved.


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[Assistant] And they pay only what they would have to pay for a term at their own school at home.


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[Assistant] Students must attend a member college or university.


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[Assistant] Each school has an ISEP coordinator.


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[Assistant] Who helps students apply to the ISEP office in Washington D.C. To be accepted


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[Assistant] They are asked to list up to ten choices of American schools they would like to attend.


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[Assistant] Then place students in the openings offered in colleges and universities.


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[Assistant] Most American colleges and universities use the grading system of A, B, C, D and F.


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[Assistant] A small number of colleges reject the traditional grading system.


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[Assistant] They are organized into programs taught by teams of professors.


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[Assistant] Each program brings together different subjects.


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[Assistant] And extends in length over two or three quarters.


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[Assistant] Students are required to do a major research project at the end of each


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[Assistant] The professors write detailed evaluations of the students.


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[Assistant] Say there is not enough time to write evaluations for each student in large classes.


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[Assistant] West Point is the four-year military school in New York State that educates future Army officers. The students are called cadets. They do not have to pay for their education. All student costs are paid by the United States Army.


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[Assistant] But the students do have to agree to serve on active duty in the Army for at least five years after they graduate.


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[Assistant] It is difficult to become a student at West Point.


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[Assistant] Only about 15% of students who apply are accepted.


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[Assistant] Usually by a federal or state lawmaker.


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[Assistant] Nominees also must satisfy the entrance requirements. These include excellent physical condition and high marks in school.


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[Assistant] West Point also accepts a limited number of international students nominated by their home government.


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[Assistant] They return to their home countries to serve in their country's army. On campus housing.


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[Assistant] Some schools have limited housing or none at all.


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[Assistant] Dormitory buildings might house a small number of students or many hundreds. Some dorms have suites.


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[Assistant] Other dorms have rooms along a common hallway.


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[Assistant] Two, three, or four students might share a room.


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[Assistant] Males and females often live on different floors of the same building.


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[Assistant] Different groups and organizations such as fraternities might have their own houses where their members live.


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[Assistant] Some dorms are nice, others are not so nice.


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[Assistant] But many students say they like the chance to make friends and be near their classes.


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[Assistant] International students are permitted to work for the college or university they attend or for a business at the school.


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[Assistant] But the business must directly provide a service to students.


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[Assistant] But not for a construction company that is building something on campus.


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[Assistant] Foreign students normally cannot take a job that has no connection to their school.


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[Assistant] If students are suddenly faced with a situation that is out of their control.


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[Assistant] Examples include large medical bills, the loss of financial aid,


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[Assistant] They must have attended their American school for at least one year.


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[Assistant] Government approval is given on a case by case basis.


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[Assistant] An American federal law approved in 1975.


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[Assistant] Guarantees blind students a free public education.


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[Assistant] Provide a free public education in the best environment.


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[Assistant] To children who suffer mental or physical problems.


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[Assistant] Schools are also required to provide special books published for the blind.


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[Assistant] Schools also provide other services and equipment to help blind people learn.


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[Assistant] Attend their local public schools with other children.


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[Assistant] They are taught the same subjects as other students their age.


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[Assistant] But they also receive special life skills training.


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[Assistant] It could also mean special training on equipment to make life easier.


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[Assistant] Some schools even have special vision instructors.


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[Assistant] There is a long history of vocational education in the U.S.


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[Assistant] The government has supported programs to train skilled workers.


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[Assistant] Is usually called Career and Technical Education, or CTE.


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[Assistant] Students in high schools and trade schools can earn degrees in many areas.


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[Assistant] They include nursing, engineering, accounting, biotechnologies, web design, and auto mechanics.


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[Assistant] Career and technical education is different from traditional school because it is much more hands-on.


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[Assistant] Instead of sitting in a crowded classroom taking notes,


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[Assistant] Students in CTE programs learn a trade.


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[Assistant] They are prepared to step out of the classroom right into the working world.


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[Assistant] Years before students who attend four-year colleges. Adult education.


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[Assistant] Millions of people are enrolled in evening adult education programs across America.


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[Assistant] Community colleges have become popular and their enrollments have increased rapidly.


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[Assistant] Adults taking courses like electrical repair.


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[Assistant] Have found that more education is needed to do their jobs well.


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[Assistant] Computers and business courses are taken by many adult students.


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[Assistant] Foreign languages, accounting, and communication courses are also popular.


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[Assistant] The lives of many people have been enriched because of adult education.


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[Assistant] They lead the crowd in cheering for the team it likes best.


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[Assistant] Most cheerleaders in the early years were men. That changed during WWII.


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[Assistant] When large numbers of young men left the country to fight.


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[Assistant] The cheerleaders must be in good physical condition. They must be able to jump high, turn circles in the air, and lift each other.


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[Assistant] Many girls attend cheerleading camps in the summer to improve their skills and learn new moves.


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[Assistant] Rules for competitions among cheerleading teams are different depending on the group organizing the contest. However,


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[Assistant] Cheerleading is an athletic activity requiring physical skill.


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[Assistant] And cheerleaders add to the excitement of an athletic event.


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[Assistant] One kind of vacation that many Americans enjoy is camping.


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[Assistant] Each summer, millions of Americans drive to the countryside where they find places to camp.


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[Assistant] The National Parks, many of which are in the mountains, are favorite camping places.


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[Assistant] Campers relax and enjoy a change from their busy lives in the city.


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[Assistant] Some campers have trailers which they drive or pull behind their cars to their campsites. Trailers are like houses on wheels.


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[Assistant] They have many conveniences which people have in their homes, such as electricity and hot water. But most campers don't have trailers. They camp in tents, which they set up in their camp sites. Tent campers enjoy a very simple life.


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[Assistant] US climate. The United States is one of the biggest countries in the world.


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[Assistant] From deserts to beaches, mountains to flatlands.


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[Assistant] These conditions help create all sorts of weather, mild, moderate, and extreme.


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[Assistant] In the summer, some areas get very hot and the air is very wet. But others have dry air, so the heat does not feel so bad. In the winter, parts of the country get cold and snowy, while others stay warm and sunny. This is the difference between, for example, the East Coast and the West Coast.


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[Assistant] The Pacific coast has smaller temperature changes and calmer conditions than along the Atlantic.


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[Assistant] Are ocean storms that strike mainly in the southeast.


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[Assistant] The hurricane season is officially June through November.


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[Assistant] These are locally severe wind storms in the spring and summer.


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[Assistant] We need to protect the environment. Therefore, there will be new policies governing corporate levels of pollution starting next month.


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[Assistant] For crying out loud, when I tell you to have the report done by Wednesday, that means I expect it to be on my desk by the end of the day. Example 2.


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[Assistant] For crying out loud, you just got your driving license and you already got in an accident? So it kind of reminds me of Oh My God.


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[Assistant] The close relatives of two opposition leaders detained in Belarus have written to European Union foreign ministers asking them to impose the strictest possible sanctions on the Belarusian government.


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[Assistant] One of the opposition figures, Vladimir Neklyaev, was freed on Saturday, but his daughter dismissed this as a ploy. The EU has condemned what it regards as the flawed re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko and his subsequent crackdown on the opposition.


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[Assistant] EU foreign ministers will discuss on Monday what measures to take in response.


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[Assistant] Reports from Iran said that Sara Barami had been convicted of drug smuggling. Her family says she was in fact detained for taking part in anti-government protests last year. The Dutch foreign minister, Uri Roosenthal, declared himself shocked by the hanging.


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[Assistant] I'm really sorry everyone, I know I'm late, but really it's not my fault. I was getting a coffee at Starbucks and the line was way, way too long. I was waiting for 20 minutes to get my coffee.


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[Assistant] I'm really sorry everyone, I know I'm late, but really it's not my fault. I was getting a coffee at Starbucks and the line was way too long. I was waiting for 20 minutes to get my coffee.


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[Assistant] I'm really sorry everyone, I know I'm late, but really it's not my fault. I was getting a coffee at Starbucks and the line was way, way too long. I was waiting for 20 minutes to get my coffee.


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[Assistant] By a recollection of a client of mine.


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[Assistant] About the death penalty in a way I've never done before.


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[Assistant] So what all of these death row inmates had to do was rely on volunteer lawyers to handle their legal proceedings.


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[Assistant] And eight out of ten times, the details of that biography will be more or less accurate.


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[Assistant] That's what we do for most problems in math and physics, even in social policy, we slice them into smaller, more manageable problems. But every once in a while, as Dwight Eisenhower said,


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[Assistant] The way we solve this problem is to make the issue of the death penalty bigger. We have to say, alright,


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[Assistant] You know, sometimes people say that something


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[Assistant] And he was talking first about his dad, who he hardly knew, who had died, and then about his mom, who he did know, who was still alive. And I said to him, I know the story. I've read the records. I know that she tried to kill you.


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[Assistant] I said, but I've always wondered whether you really actually remember that. I said, I don't remember anything from when I was five years old. Maybe you just remember somebody telling you.


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[Assistant] But when your mama picks up a butcher knife that looks bigger than you are,


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[Assistant] We're going to devote enormous social resources to punishing the people who commit those crimes and that's appropriate because we should punish people who do bad things. But three of those crimes are preventable. If we make the picture bigger,


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[Assistant] Then we're never going to write the first sentence that begins the death penalty story. Thank you.


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[Assistant] Hi honey. What's wrong? Why do you have that look on your face?


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[Assistant] No. I said I was gonna cut down, which is very different. You can't just expect me to go cold turkey overnight.


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[Assistant] I know, I know. I really am trying, but I don't have the willpower to just quit. I can't fight with the urge to reach for my pack of smokes in the morning with coffee or after lunch. Please understand.


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[Assistant] You should really cut down on the amount of salt you eat. It's not good for you. Example 3.


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[Assistant] Hi honey. What's wrong? Why do you have that look on your face?


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[Assistant] I said I was going to cut down, which is very different.


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[Assistant] You can't just expect me to go cold turkey overnight.


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[Assistant] I know, I know. I really am trying, but I don't have the willpower to just quit.


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[Assistant] I can't fight with the urge to reach for my pack of smokes in the morning with coffee or after lunch. Please understand.


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[Assistant] Hi honey. What's wrong? Why do you have that look on your face?


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[Assistant] No. I said I was gonna cut down, which is very different. You can't just expect me to go cold turkey overnight.


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[Assistant] I know, I know. I really am trying, but I don't have the willpower to just quit. I can't fight with the urge to reach for my pack of smokes in the morning with coffee or after lunch. Please understand.


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[Assistant] Well, I am pretty excited to find out, so why don't we go straight into the dialogue and catch up with Steven and Veronica.


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[Assistant] More realistic. Okay. Anyway, let's not debate that topic. Let's go straight into the language now, uh, with Language Takeaway.


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[Assistant] Okay, so we've got language about love and language about telling the truth. And the first one is a word about telling the truth. So, uhm, Stephen said, I've thought of coming clean.


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[Assistant] So, someone needs to come clean about who stole the chocolate out of the kitchen.


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[Assistant] You, when you deceive somebody, uhm, you make them believe something that is untrue.


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[Assistant] And you don't, so you don't like hide it or soften it or anything.


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[Assistant] So as a devoted husband, um, Stephen really, really would love his wife. He'd really look after her well and he would put all of his energy into that, into his marriage, right?


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[Assistant] Well, Steven also promises to cherish Veronica.


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[Assistant] Alright, so some nice honesty words, some nice love words, and I think now we can move on to some interesting phrases with Fluency Builder.


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[Assistant] But you want to talk about it for some time, to really talk about all of the problems and the issues and everything.


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[Assistant] Right, so time and again I've thought of quitting smoking, but never really have done it.


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[Assistant] I can't leave at the drop of a hat. I need time to prepare.


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[Assistant] Alright, now our final phrase here for this lesson. So, um, Veronica was saying, I can't go to India at the drop of a hat. And she also said, I just can't build a relationship on a foundation of lies.


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[Assistant] And the part that's in the ground that supports the house is the foundation.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and that's no way to start a strong relationship, is it?


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[Assistant] So Marco, I think I see a bit of a tear there in the corner of your eye.


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[Assistant] Well exotic, exotic getaway for the rest of her life.


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[Assistant] Who knows? Come to our website and tell us what you think will happen. So you can find us at EnglishPod.com.


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[Assistant] And it's a neighborhood with a large problem. Actually it has exactly the same problem which existed in all the neighborhoods where you grew up as well.


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[Assistant] And we then get an illusion of confidence where we believe that we are the best car drivers, eh, above the average. Everybody answered that question. Yeah, I drive cars better.


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[Assistant] You could probably answer better than the chimps, because the chimps cannot do this. They cannot generalize these kind of rules. Okay? And, hopefully, we can turn your world around, and we're gonna beat the chimps. Okay?


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[Assistant] So first let's look at the change up till today, 2014.


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[Assistant] Hello English learners. Welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco. And I'm Erica. And today we're gonna have a fun, funny lesson.


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[Assistant] Right, today we're gonna be looking at jokes, which is a very important part of English-speaking culture.


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[Assistant] Alright, so in order for us to understand a little bit better the jokes that we're going to be looking at, why don't we take a look at vocabulary preview.


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[Assistant] Alright, so the word that we're talking about is not really a word, it's a sound.


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[Assistant] So, moo is the sound that cows make. That's right, m-o-o. Right, they go moo. Very nice, Marco. I could do a good cow.


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[Assistant] Exactly, so it's gonna be important for the joke, you'll see why.


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[Assistant] A dam is a, is, is like a big wall, right?


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[Assistant] Okay, so usually you build dams in rivers and then the water can pass or not.


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[Assistant] Okay, so it's an interesting interjection and we'll also see it in one of our jokes. And now let's move on to our last word.


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[Assistant] Nostrils. Okay, nostrils. Nostrils. So a nostril or your nostrils. The two holes in your nose. Right. You breathe through your nostrils. Mhm. Alright, so now that we've taken a look at these three words, why don't we listen to our comedian for the first time and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more.


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[Assistant] Well, they were pretty funny, but I guess the crowd just didn't appreciate his sense of humor.


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[Assistant] On Language Takeaway, we're gonna be looking at six words today, so let's get started. The announcer welcomed everyone and said that, uh, it's open mic night.


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[Assistant] Right, amateurs. So it was open mic night and he said they had a lot of great comics there.


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[Assistant] So basically, a comic is a person that makes a living by making people laugh.


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[Assistant] Alright, so, a comic. And well, what comics do is they perform stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy.


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[Assistant] It's a very popular form of entertainment in the United States and the UK.


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[Assistant] Basically, a zinger is like a strong, maybe a little bit rude joke.


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[Assistant] And the people that were in the crowd and they were booing him, they were like, boo, those we call hecklers.


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[Assistant] So, let's listen to some hecklers in action.


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[Assistant] Right, they're very annoying. So now that we've finished looking at all the words that are related to comedy and performances, let's take a look at the jokes now in Fluency Builder.


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[Assistant] Yeah, they're pretty funny, but maybe sometimes they're kind of hard to understand. So why don't we start with the first joke. So you said, where do you find a one-legged dog?


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[Assistant] Alright, so then he said, what do you call a sheep with no legs?


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[Assistant] Basically because, you know, sheep are fluffy and they're white, so if you take away their legs, they look like a little cloud.


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[Assistant] Alright, let's look at the next one. He asked, what do cows do for entertainment?


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[Assistant] Exactly, so it's kind of funny because he's relating this word movies with what the, with the sound that cows make, which is moo.


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[Assistant] Alright, the last one was pretty good. Why do gorillas have big nostrils?


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[Assistant] Right. And basically it's because they have big fingers.


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[Assistant] Yeah, exactly. If the gorilla didn't have big nostrils, he wouldn't be able to pick his nose.


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[Assistant] So that's why those jokes are funny. They're very short jokes, some, of course, some of them are not actually really funny, but, uh, it's just a little bit of a taste of short American jokes.


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[Assistant] Right, come to EnglishPod.com. Share with us any jokes. Of course they have to be clean, eh? Don't come by me. No swears. No swearing in the jokes.


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[Assistant] The tourist is, uh, backpacking through the highlands of Scotland, and he stops at a pub to get a drink, and the only people in there is a bartender and an old man nursing a beer, and he orders a pint, and they sit in silence for a while, and suddenly the old man turns to him and goes, you see this bar?


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[Assistant] I built this bar with my bare hands, found the finest wood in the county, gave it more love and care than my own child, but do they call me McGregor the bar builder? No.


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[Assistant] Points out the window. You see that stone wall out there? I built that stone wall with my bare hands, found every stone, placed them just so through the rain and the cold, but do they call me MacGregor the stone wall builder? No.


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[Assistant] Knowing that everything you're saying from the first sentence to the last is leading to a singular goal.


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[Assistant] And ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings. We all love stories. We're born for them.


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[Assistant] Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present, and future.


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[Assistant] And allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.


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[Assistant] The children's television host, Mr. Rogers, always carried in his wallet a quote from a social worker that said, frankly, there isn't anyone you couldn't learn to love once you've heard their story.


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[Assistant] And the way I like to interpret that is probably the most greatest story commandment, which is make me care. Please, emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically, just make me care.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We all know what it's like to not care. You've gone through hundreds of TV channels, just switching channel after channel, and then suddenly you actually stop on one. It's already halfway over, but something's caught you, and you're drawn in, and you care. That's not by chance, that's by design.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I got me thinking, what if I told you my history of a story? How I was born for it? How I learned along the way this subject matter? And to make it more interesting, we'll start from the ending. And we'll go to the beginning. And so if I were to give you the ending of this story,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would go something like this. And that's what ultimately led me to speaking to you here at TED about story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the most current story lesson that I've had was completing a film I've just done this year in 2012.