Conversation 2

Narrator: Listen to a student talking to his professor.
Student: Uh, hi professor. Can I talk to you for a minute?
Professor: Sure, what’s up?
Student: Well, I noticed on the course outline, that you have a midterm scheduled for March 8th, but, the thing is that I’m going to have to be away that day.
Professor: Away?
Student: Yeah, yeah. I’m flying to England to get married, actually.
Professor: Oh, I see. Well, congratulations.
Student: Thanks. So I’m going to be away from the 7th to the 14th and I won’t be here for exam day. Is there any way I could write the exam before I leave—maybe on the 5th or the 6th?
Professor: No, I’m sorry, but there’s a university policy against giving the same exam at
different times because it jeopardizes the exam’s validity. We’ve had issues with students sharing questions, if you know what I mean.
Student: Oh, yeah, sure. I understand completely. What about, I mean…would you consider an additional research paper in place of the midterm?
Professor: Well, I really don’t think that a research paper could take the place of an exam on all of the content that we’ve covered in class, do you?
Student: Well, I guess not. Maybe I could do a summary of the course content up to that point. Do you think that might be an acceptable solution?
Professor: Well, I suppose, yeah that that might be acceptable. Of course, I would grade you on the quality of your summary and I’d expect a full integration of class lectures with the appropriate textbook chapters as well as handouts and supplementary readings. And you’d have to extract the relevant points from all sources and present them in some sort of coherent order—a summary though, no more than fifteen pages.
Student: Of course. And, and for me, I do believe it would be a totally useful exercise.
Professor: Oh and one more thing, I think it would be best if you complete the work before you leave. How does that sound?
Student: That sounds reasonable.
Professor: All right, then. It’s settled. So, you’ll write me a full summary of all course content including lectures and textbook coverage for the first half of the term and I also expect that you integrate the sources and give me an analysis of what you feel to be the most relevant points.
Student: Of course, professor.
Professor: Yes, and congratulations again. With all the excitement, I hope this won’t distract you from your studies.
Student: No, I’m totally on top of it. Thanks again, professor.
Professor: All right. So our next topic on the agenda is the parenting habits of emperor penguins.
I’m sure you’ve all seen the award-winning documentary. It’s called March of the Penguins, and it does a superb job at following the reproductive cycle of these Antarctic birds. So if you’ve seen it, I hope you won’t mind offering your input. Now, there’re a
number of reasons why the emperor penguin is interesting in terms of parental habits. Can anyone give me one?
Student 1: Well for me, I mean, what I find interesting is that the males play a major role in nurturing their offspring. For instance, as soon as the female lays the egg, the first thing she does is pass it to her partner who takes full responsibility for sheltering and protecting this egg for the next three months. The female, meanwhile, exhausted from giving birth, immediately takes off on something like a hundred-mile trek to the sea where she forages for food and rebuilds her strength. And then the male—it’s his job to keep the egg warm, at something like 95 degrees Fahrenheit, in his breeding pouch, just above his feet until it is ready to hatch. It’s really cute to watch how carefully the males waddle around, trying to keep those eggs safe from harm. And
they’re careful for a reason; exposure to the sub-zero temperatures of the Antarctic would mean almost certain death for the unborn chick.
Professor: Okay, so climate—and, how do the males manage as they care for the eggs?
Student 2: Well, by this time…we’re talking the dead of winter, with massive storms and winds gusting over 100 miles an hour and temperatures—they get as low as negative 130 degrees
Fahrenheit. So, to offset the elements, the males get together in a huddle, like some kind of football team, to protect themselves and their eggs from the bitter cold. And to make matters worse, they have to go without food—they’ve got absolutely nothing to eat—until their mates return in about three months’ time.
Professor: So let’s move on to when the female returns. What happens then?
Student 3: Well, she immediately takes over the nurturing responsibilities—feeding and protecting the newly hatched chick—so that the male can get back to the sea and to some food. The thing is that by this time, he’s lost over half his body weight. So some males, especially the older ones, do not survive the journey.
Professor: That’s right, and this brings me to an interesting lesson the emperor penguins can teach us. I mean think of it, these birds undergo extreme hardships to successfully bring new life into the world. I mean, it’s off-the-charts adversity. And to witness this hardship, it brings your own life into perspective somehow. Your problems seem almost insignificant when you compare them to what the emperor penguins have to go through. I mean, they have to suffer the freezing cold…go without food for months on end…and travel hundreds of miles, for the most part on foot…all in order to produce and protect a single egg. So, the next time you catch yourself complaining about mid-terms and finals, think for a moment about the emperor penguin, and count yourself lucky.