NGHE VÀ ĐIỀN TỪ VÀO CHỖ TRỐNG

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Good evening everyone. My name’s Phil Sutton, and I’m chairman of the Highways Committee. We’ve called this meeting to inform members of the public about the new regulations for traffic and parking we’re proposing for Granford. I’ll start by summarising these changes before we open the meeting to questions.

So, why do we need to make these changes to traffic systems in Granford? Well, we’re very aware that traffic is becoming an increasing problem. It’s been especially noticeable with the increase in heavy traffic while they’ve been building the new hospital. But it’s the (1) of all kinds that’s concerning us. To date there’s not been any increase in traffic accidents, but that’s not something we want to see happen, obviously.

We recently carried out a survey of local residents, and their responses were interesting. People were very concerned about the (2) on some roads due to (3) . We’d expected complaints about the congestion near the school when parents are dropping off their children or picking them up, but this wasn’t top of the list, and nor were noise and fumes from trucks and lorries, though they were mentioned by some people.

We think these new traffic regulations would make a lot of difference. But we still have a long way to go. We’ve managed to keep our proposals within budget, just, so they can be covered by the Council. But, of course, (4) if we don’t have a way of making sure that (5) , and that’s an area we’re still working on with the help of representatives from the police force.

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OK, so this slide shows a map of the central area of Granford, with the High Street in the middle and School Road on the right. Now, we already have (6) in the High Street at the junction with Station Road, but we’re planning to (7) , at the School Road junction, to regulate the flow or traffic along the High Street.

We’re decided we definitely need a pedestrian crossing. We considered putting this on School Road, just outside the school, but in the end we decided that could lead to a lot of traffic congestion so we decided to locate it on the High Street, (8) . That’s a very busy area, so it should help things there.

We’re proposing some changes to parking. At present, parking isn’t allowed on the High Street outside the library, but (9) , and allow parking there, but not at the other end of the High Street near School Road.

There’ll be a new ‘No Parking’ sign on School Road, just by the entrance to the school, (10) for 25 metres. This should improve visibility for drivers and pedestrians, especially on the bend just to the north of the school.

As far as disabled drivers are concerned, at present they have parking outside the supermarket, but lorries also use those spaces, so we’ve got two (11) on the side road up (12) . It’s not ideal, but probably better than the present arrangement.

We also plan to (13) on School Road. We think we can manage to get an extra half-metre on the bend just before you get to the school, on the (14) .

Finally, we’ve introduced (15) on loading and unloading for the supermarket, so (16) to stop there (17) . That’s the supermarket on School Road – we kept to the (18) with the High Street supermarket.

OK. So that’s about it. Now, would anyone …

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EMMA: We’ve got to choose a topic for our experiment, haven’t we, Jack? Were you thinking of something to do with seeds?

JACK: That’s right. I thought we could look at seed germination – how a seed begins to grow.

EMMA: OK. Any particular reason? I know you’re hoping to work in plant science eventually …

JACK: Yeah, but practically everything we do is going to feed into that. No, there’s an (1) in the third year that I might do, so I thought it might be useful for that. If I choose that option, I don’t have to do a dissertation module.

EMMA: Good idea.

JACK: Well, I thought for this experiment we could look at the relationship between seed size and the way the seeds are planted. So, we could plant different sized seeds in different ways, and see which grow best.

EMMA: OK. We’d need to (2) .

JACK: That should be fine if (3) . A lot of the other possible experiments need quite a bit longer.

EMMA: So that’d make it (4) . And I don’t suppose it’d need much equipment; we’re not doing chemical analysis or anything. Though that’s not really an issue, we’ve got plenty of equipment in the laboratory.

JACK: Yeah. We need to have a word with the tutor if we’re going to go ahead with it though. I’m sure our aim’s OK. It’s not very ambitious but the assignment’s only ten percent of our final mark, isn’t it? But we need to be sure (5) .

EMMA: Yeah, it’s only five percent actually, but it’d be a bit boring if everyone was doing it.

JACK: Did you read that book on seed germination on our reading list?

EMMA: The one by Graves? I looked through it for my last experiment, though it wasn’t all that relevant there. It would be for this experiment, though. I found it quite hard to follow – (6) , which I hadn’t expected.

JACK: Yes, I’d been hoping for something more practical. It does include references to the recent findings on genetically-modified seeds, though.

EMMA: Yes, that was interesting.

JACK: I read an article about seed germination by Lee Hall

EMMA: About seeds that lie in the ground for ages and only germinate after a fire?

JACK: That’s the one. I knew a bit about it already, but not about this research. His analysis of figures (7) that germinated was done in a lot of detail – very impressive.

EMMA: Was that the article with the illustrations of early stages of plant development? They were very clear.

JACK: I think those diagrams were in another article.

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EMMA: Anyway, shall we have a look at the procedure for our experiment? We’ll need to get going with it quite soon.

JACK: Right. So the first thing we have to do is find our seeds. I think vegetable seeds would be best. And obviously they mustn’t all be the same size. So, how many sorts do we need? (8) ?

EMMA: I think that would be enough. There’ll be quite a large number of seeds for each one.

JACK: Then, for each seed we need to find out (9) , and also measure its dimensions, and we need to keep a careful record of all that.

EMMA: That’ll be quite time-consuming. And we also need to decide (10) – right on the surface, a few millimetres down, or several centimetres.

JACK: OK. So then we get planting. Do you think we can plant (11) ?

EMMA: No, I think we need a different one for each seed.

JACK: Right. And we’ll need to label them – we can use different coloured labels. Then we wait for the seeds to germinate – I reckon that’ll be about three weeks, depending on what the weather’s like. Then we see if our plants have come up, and (12) . 

EMMA: Then all we have to do is look at our numbers, and see if there’s any relation between them.

JACK: That’s right. So …

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Hi. Today we’re going to be looking at animals in urban environments and I’m going to be telling you about some research on how they’re affected by these environments.

Now, in evolutionary terms, urban environments represent huge upheavals, the sorts of massive changes that usually happen over millions of years. And we used to think that only a few species could adapt to this new environment. One species which is well known as (1) is the crow, and there’ve been various studies about (2) . Another successful species is the (3) , because they’re able to (4) on the walls of city buildings, just like they once perched on cliffs by the sea.

But in fact, we’re now finding that these early immigrants were just the start of a more general movement of animals into cities, and of adaptation by these animals to city life. And one thing that (5) is the speed with which they’re doing this – we’re not talking about (6) here – these animals are (7) . 

Let me tell you about some of the studies that have been carried out in this area. So, in the University of Minnesota, a biologist called Emilie Snell-Rood and her colleagues looked at specimens of urbanised small mammals such as mice and gophers that had been collected in Minnesota, and that are now kept in museums there. And she looked at specimens that had been collected over the last hundred years, which is a very short time in evolutionary terms. And she found that during that time, these (8) had experienced (9) when compared to rural mammals. Now, we can’t be sure this means they’re more intelligent, but since the sizes of other parts of the body didn’t change, it does suggest that something cognitive was going on. And Snell-Rood thinks that this change might (10)  to city life – having to look in different places to find food, for example, and (11) a whole new (12) .

Then over in Germany at the Max Planck Institute, there’s another biologist called Catarina Miranda who’s done some experiments with blackbirds living in urban and rural areas. And she’s been looking (13) . So as you might expect, she’s found that the urban blackbirds tend to be quite bold – they’re prepared to face up to a lot of threats that would frighten away their country counterparts. But there’s one type of situation that does seem to (14) , and that’s (15) – anything they haven’t experienced before. And if you think about it, that’s quite sensible for a bird living in the city.

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Jonathan Atwell, in Indiana University, is looking at how a range of animals respond to urban environments. He’s found that when they’re (16) , their endocrine systems (17) the amount of hormones such as corticosterone into their blood. It’s a sensible-seeming adaptation. A rat that gets scared every time a subway train rolls past won’t be very successful.

There’s just one more study I’d like to mention which is by Sarah Partan and her team, and they’ve been looking at (18) , and they’ve found that a routine part of their communication is carried out by (19) . You do also see this in the country, but it’s much more prevalent in cities, possibly because it’s effective in a noisy environment.

So what are the long-term implications of this? One possibility is that we may see completely new species developing in cities. But on the other hand, it’s possible that (20) . Once the animal’s got accustomed to its new environment, it may no longer need the features it’s developed.

So, now we’ve had a look…