Agent Good morning. City House Services.

Agent How may I help you?

Customer Good morning.

Customer I’d like to arrange to have my house cleaned.

Agent Certainly.

Agent I just need to ask a few questions.

Agent First, could I take your name?

Customer Yes, it’s Barbara Hill. Example

Agent Thank you.

Agent Next, is your house in London?

Customer Yes, it’s in Kingston in Southwest London.

Agent OK, Southwest London and… er, what’s the postcode?

Customer SW105.

Agent And what is the square footage and what rooms will we be cleaning?

Customer The whole house is 268 square feet, and there is no need to clean all the rooms.

Customer I only want to have my bedrooms cleaned.

Agent OK, how many bedrooms does the house have?

Customer Three bedrooms.

Customer Oh no, sorry, we used to have three bedrooms, but we only have two bedrooms now.

Agent Are those single bedrooms or doubles?

Customer Doubles.

Agent Fine, two doubles…

Customer There is one more room which needs cleaning.

Customer It was used as a bedroom before, and now we have converted it into an office.

Agent I understand.

Agent Three rooms have got to be cleaned, and are all of those rooms upstairs?

Customer Yes.

Customer Then, downstairs we have a kitchen-diner, conservatory, and lounge.

Customer The kitchen-diner is quite large and has the usual equipment – cooker with oven, refrigerator, cupboards, and worktops.

Customer The conservatory has a lot of plants, but there’s no need to take care of them.

Customer The lounge has a leather three-piece suite and a large coffee table.

Agent Thank you.

Agent And do you keep any pets?

Customer Yeah, I really love keeping them.

Customer I’ve got two dogs and three cats.

Agent OK, then if our staff come over to offer the service, please take your pets away.

Agent Have you looked at our services packages?

Customer Yes, I have one in front of me.

Agent Excellent.

Agent Any extra services you need – switching bed linen, working in the garden, cleaning the glass in the conservatory, that kind of thing?

Customer Err… no… err… actually, replacing the bed linen… yes… that would be good.

Agent No problem.

Agent I’ll just make a note of that.

Agent How about curtains, mats, and carpets?

Agent What would you like us to do with those items?

Customer The curtains…

Customer I’ll have to think about that.

Customer I think we should have the carpets cleaned really well every quarter.

Customer Mats can just be done with the laundry.

Agent Of course. How about clothes?

Agent We can have our staff wash and iron them, or we can have them taken to a dry cleaner’s.

Customer Washing and ironing. No, just ironing. That’ll be OK.

Agent OK, fine.

Agent I know quite a bit about what you want now.

Agent I should let you know that we locate on 12 Amyes Road, that’s A-M-Y-E-S.

Customer Em.

Agent And we work from Monday to Sunday except Tuesday and Wednesday.

Agent Could you let me know when is convenient for you?

Customer Next Friday… err… no, that’s no good.

Customer My son invites his friends over in the afternoon that day.

Customer Perhaps next Thursday or next Saturday.

Customer Let me check, OK, next Thursday.

Agent When is it convenient for us to come over and provide the service?

Agent Is it OK if we come in the morning?

Agent Or we may come in the afternoon?

Agent It depends on your schedule.

Customer I’m OK with any time.

Customer Just give me a call to let me know you’re coming before you arrive.

Agent Sure, we will.

Customer By the way, how long would it take for the service?

Agent We usually work 1-3 hours for house cleaning, and the work will take three hours at most.

Agent And of course, if it takes more than three hours, you should pay extra for it.

Customer Er… fine.

Agent So, let me just do some calculations…

Speaker Hi everyone, and welcome to Sydney Airport.

Speaker Today, I’ll be giving you the inside information on the day-to-day operations of the Australian Quarantine Service here.

Speaker We hope to provide you with a better understanding of why such heavy security regulations are necessary by educating you on how we operate and why we do the things we do.

Speaker We’re not here to try to persuade you to fly through Sydney Airport, though we hope you’ll find your experience relatively stress-free and comfortable.

Speaker First things first, our personnel.

Speaker Can anyone guess how many people work at Sydney Airport?

Speaker We have 200 alone working in Terminal 2, so can you guess how many in the whole airport?

Speaker I heard someone say 360, that’s getting closer… What?

Speaker Did someone say 2,000?

Speaker That’s way too high.

Speaker Sydney Airport actually employs 440 people. A lot, right?

Speaker And about half of those employees work in security-related matters.

Speaker Moving on to our not-so-human employees, let’s come and see our favourite pooch, Milton.

Speaker Milton is our best drug-sniffing dog on the force.

Speaker He’s friendly to most people – you can even come pet him at the end of our tour.

Speaker Burnouts beware, though, he’ll find everything.

Speaker Notice that even though there are so many of us around him, Milton stays quite calm.

Speaker This is the precise reason he was chosen for the job.

Speaker Dogs that are chosen are not predisposed to sniff out different narcotics – that’s something we teach them already.

Speaker So here’s a part of the airport most people never notice – the cargo transport terminal.

Speaker This is where packages are shipped to and from.

Speaker Normally we ship around 4,400 packages per month.

Speaker In this airport alone, over 52,000 packages were shipped in and out over the past year.

Speaker We ship to and from 170 different countries. Not bad, eh?

Speaker Probably it will go up to over 72,000 packages this year.

Speaker And despite over 100 flights in and out of here daily, the number of lost or delayed packages is impressively low.

Speaker If you send your package through here, rest assured we’ll get it where it’s going.

Speaker Let’s move on to the area most of us are familiar with, the passenger terminals.

Speaker In order to be allowed into this area, you must pass through security with your ticket and if you’re travelling internationally, your passport.

Speaker If you’re travelling domestically, you just need a legal form of ID.

Speaker If you don’t have those, you will not be allowed to pass through security and board your flight.

Speaker During the security scan, your carry-on items will be checked for dangerous items such as weapons, sharp objects, and liquids that exceed our specified limit.

Speaker If you attempt to pass any of the prohibited items on this list posted at the entrance, you are still allowed to board the plane, but you’ll be given a warning and your item will be confiscated.

Speaker Don’t worry, we will not arrest you for having too much shampoo in your bag, or anything like that.

Speaker We also search your carry-ons and parcels for any perishable items.

Speaker We prohibit the transportation of local vegetation and prohibit parcels containing any insects in them.

Speaker You may or may not have learned about this in Biology class, but when some plants are introduced to a new environment, they spread wildly and wipe out the current species around it.

Speaker It is important to control the introduction of new plants into an ecosystem, so we must prohibit the transport of any fertile seeds.

Speaker So what happens to parcels containing possibly suspicious items?

Speaker It’s of course something we do not take lightly here.

Speaker If an object passes through the scanner that appears suspicious in any way, it is separated out for manual search by a member of our trained security personnel.

Speaker If an illegal plant or simple sharp object like a pocket knife is found, it is simply disposed of in our biohazard waste containers, and the package itself is returned to the sender (or passenger, if it is for a passenger flight).

Speaker More serious weapons are reported to higher authorities for investigation.

Speaker As far as parcel security, the material of the parcel is important.

Speaker For shipped goods, the most common material used (and the most widely accepted) is paper.

Speaker Make sure it is packed sturdy enough, with no rips or tears.

Speaker We’ve definitely had packages rip open before due to haphazard packing.

Speaker A more common problem, though, is the package labels.

Speaker When an item does not make it to the right place, this is the most common reason.

Speaker The label may not be in the right place or marked clearly enough.

Speaker If you’re receiving any items from abroad that must be declared, please remember our guidelines in order to ensure the timely delivery of your item.

Speaker Make sure it is packed correctly, and we ask that you notify customs between 2 and 10 days within the item’s scheduled arrival date.

Speaker Okay, before we move on, are there any questions?

Mr Smith Welcome!

Mr Smith Please come in and gather over here around the tables.

Mr Smith My name is Adam Smith, and I’m the librarian here.

Mr Smith I’ll show you around today and explain how to use these facilities.

Mr Smith Hopefully when I’m done with it, you’ll know the ropes, and please feel free to let me know of any questions or concerns that you may have.

Mr Smith Now, we’re at the gate of the library.

Mr Smith Upon entering into the door, you’ll find that the restrooms are on your left-hand side, and opposite them is a Photocopy Room.

Mr Smith Many of you are wondering about the check-in and check-out process.

Mr Smith What you have to do is go to the Circulation Desk, which is to the east of the Photocopy Room.

Mr Smith The Reading Room is a really large area in the centre of the library, just to the north of the Circulation Desk.

Mr Smith I’m sure you won’t miss it.

Mr Smith If you’re here to do research, this is where you should bring books to look through.

Mr Smith However, if you’re here to do any group projects or other interactive activities, I advise you to use one of the study rooms, which are just to the east of the Reading Room.

Mr Smith Moving on to the southeast corner, we have the Periodicals Section, just next to the study rooms.

Mr Smith We have a collection of different newspapers and magazines in this section.

Mr Smith You can get last week’s weather reports, or all the top stories five years ago – our periodicals can be traced back 20 years to the time when our school library was built.

Mr Smith Ah, our first question! Yes?

Student Can we check out magazines from the library?

Mr Smith I’m sorry, but you cannot take any periodicals out of the library.

Mr Smith You’re welcome to read them for as long as you want while you’re here, but you cannot check them out.

Student I wonder if there is any place where we can get some food in the library.

Student Do we have a store here?

Mr Smith Of course.

Mr Smith The Food Service Centre is just metres away from the study rooms.

Mr Smith It’s on the northeast corner as you look at the map.

Mr Smith The Food Service Centre offers different kinds of snacks though it’s not big.

Mr Smith Well, moving on along to the west, you will find the Video Resource Centre on your right hand.

Mr Smith We have educational videos and documentaries, as well as major motion pictures.

Mr Smith We ask that you pay attention to the tag on the video that you pick up, as many of our documentaries are for on-site viewing only and may not be taken out of the library.

Mr Smith To the west of the Video Resource Centre is our Satellite TV Station.

Mr Smith Here we stream the news from Channel 19 for most of the day.

Student How many channels does it have?

Mr Smith (laughs) It does have nearly 200 channels, but we generally will give top priority to channels with some big events, like presidential addresses or other breaking news.

Mr Smith During the coverage of the presidential debate, students will take a break from studying and flock to watch it.

Mr Smith Last but perhaps most important is the Enquiry Desk.

Mr Smith It’s just on the left-hand side when you walk into the library, so it’s impossible to miss.

Mr Smith If you have any questions about how to use equipment or where to find something, come and ask the assistant.

Mr Smith Don’t be shy, because that’s what they’re here for!

Mr Smith Speaking of questions, one of the questions we get asked is how to actually check out a book once a student has picked one out.

Mr Smith If it’s a fiction or non-fiction book, look for the pink and yellow check-out card inside the back cover of the book.

Mr Smith You can also find information about the book on these cards, including its publishing date, genre, ISBN, and a log of dates it’s been checked out before.

Mr Smith Present this card to me or any library assistant, and we’ll stamp it and then the book can be kept for three weeks.

Mr Smith You can find general information on a field of study by using one of our subject guides.

Mr Smith We have them on paper here, but any of our computers will allow you to search within fields as well.

Student What if the library doesn’t have a resource we’re looking for?

Mr Smith Great question, I’m going to address that.

Mr Smith Our library is in a network with a number of other universities in the area, so if there is something you’re looking for and it’s available somewhere in the area, we’ll be able to get it for you.

Mr Smith However, there are universities which are not part of the network, so we do not share resources with them.

Mr Smith If you want more information about the library and its resources, you’ll find it in a labelled blue folder on my desk in the enquiry section.

Mr Smith Okay, so that’s a lot of information all at once, and I don’t expect you to remember it all.

Mr Smith The most important thing is, please be respectful of the staff and if you need help with anything at all, come and ask me or one of the assistants. Alright, any questions?

Speaker Good morning.

Speaker Today, we will continue our study of Crocodylus niloticus by talking about its living habits.

Speaker We’ve already discussed the evolutionary attributes that set it apart from its crocodile relatives.

Speaker Does everyone remember that?

Speaker Yes, it has an extremely narrow snout, and three or four rows of protective scales on its back, as compared to two rows on other members of the Crocodylus genus.

Speaker Let’s take a look at how these carnivorous man-eaters live, where they live, and finally, whether they really deserve their vicious reputation.

Speaker To start, I’d like to address a great question posed to me by a student during yesterday’s office hours.

Speaker We talked about the distribution of crocodiles in Africa and saw that they are highly concentrated in the South and West of the continent.

Speaker This student noticed that on the map displaying the distribution of crocodiles across Africa, there were no crocodiles in the Northern Region, and found no mention in the literature of the existence of crocodiles in the North of Africa.

Speaker Why might there be no crocodiles in North Africa?

Speaker Let’s save this question for later in the lecture.

Speaker To find out more about the social habits of the African crocodile, one researcher named Tara Shine of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland conducted a survey of the wetlands in Mauritania and received reports of 46 crocodiles living in one group, or float as we say when referring to crocodiles, though the usual number is a little less than half of that.

Speaker In general, crocodiles are more highly concentrated in wet, subtropical environments near bodies of water and rich vegetation.

Speaker While South American crocodiles thrive in cool rainforests, the African crocodile is more equipped for heat.

Speaker Though they can survive at the hot temperatures found in some deserts, they are not equipped to handle dry climates and thus cannot survive in places like the Sahara Desert of North Africa.

Speaker As cold-blooded animals, crocodiles’ core temperatures fluctuate from their average of 38 degrees Celsius as external conditions change, thus they need to avoid extreme temperatures.

Speaker Others live an underwater life, keeping a body temperature close to that of the water.

Speaker As their own unique method of regulating their body temperatures, some African crocodiles have made dens by digging holes in the ground to provide themselves with a cool, dark place to retreat from the hot African sun.

Speaker Speaking of the hot African sun, let’s go back to the question asked at the beginning of the lecture.

Speaker We know that there used to be crocodiles in Northern Africa, yet today there are none.

Speaker What are some possible explanations for this?

Speaker Some students have suggested that the African crocodile has evolved from a desert creature into a wetland creature, thus causing them to migrate south for more appropriate condition.

Speaker Others presume that the crocodile was hunted out of Northern Africa by a fiercer predator.

Speaker While these are intelligent guesses, the real story is a little bit different.

Speaker The key to this migration is that the Sahara Desert did not always cover the North of Africa.

Speaker About 8,000 years ago, the land was fertile wetlands perfect for breeding crocodiles.

Speaker Over time, though, the area dried out and the wetland slowly turned to desert, leading the African crocodile to migrate south to the marshlands they call home today.

Speaker Some crocodiles did, however, adapt to living in dry conditions.

Speaker In Mauritania, some crocodiles have learned to survive in an area where they can go up to 8 months with no water by spending the driest of times in what’s called a torpor, or short period of hibernation.

Speaker To utilise every bit of rainfall, these desert crocodiles dig underground caves that collect runoff, thus staying cool and hydrated.

Speaker During the mating period in November and December, males attract females to their viciously protected territory through a number of behaviours that range from snapping their jaws all the way to sending infrasonic pulses through the water.

Speaker Afterwards, the female digs a hole up to 60cm in depth to store the eggs for an 80-day incubation period.

Speaker The female protects these eggs during the period, and sometimes even helps crack the eggs with her snout at the end.

Speaker These teeth-gnashing carnivores are softer than we think.

Speaker Although these vicious creatures have attacked humans on a few occasions, the residents are not afraid of them.

Speaker In fact, they show a great deal of reverence towards these wondrous creatures.

Speaker Some say that crocodiles bring water to their habitat, so if they leave, they will bring the water with them.

Speaker Obviously this is not true, but it demonstrates the admiration the inhabiting people have for crocodiles.

Speaker Generally, crocodiles do not predate on humans.

Speaker They attack when humans populate the crocodiles’ habitat, instilling fear and uneasiness in the crocs.

Speaker Like any other species, crocodiles are known to attack when feeling fear.

Speaker There’s still a lot more to be discovered about the African crocodile.

Speaker Researchers want to know more about the population size, how many crocodiles inhabit Africa in all, how they form separate floats, etc.

Speaker There is still also much to learn about migration patterns, and relations to other populations of crocodiles now found in other parts of the world.

Speaker Next time, we’ll examine a few specific case studies of crocodile populations in Southern Africa.