Q2e

SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

Unit 7: Anthropology Teacher: How would you answer the question,

Marcus? How can accidental discoveries affect
The Q Classroom
our lives?
Activity B, page 133
Marcus: I think it’s clear they can affect just
Teacher: The question is: “How can accidental
about everything in your life. That’s why it’s
discoveries affect our lives?” Yuna, what do you
important to keep learning and having new
think? Has an accidental discovery ever affected
experiences.
your life?

Yuna: Yes. I learned about this school by
LISTENING 1: The Power of Serendipity
accident. I was at a cafe back home, and I ran
Activity A, C, pages 134–135
into an old acquaintance from high school. She
David Tanner: Nothing like starting off with a
told me about this school, so I went home and
bang. In 1867 Alfred Nobel accidentally
looked it up on the Internet.
discovered dynamite after putting a popular but
Teacher: So if you hadn’t run into your friend,
flammable salve on a cut finger. Call it
you might not be in this class today.
serendipity.
Yuna: That’s right.
Rubber, indispensable today. Before Charles
Teacher: Well, I’m glad you made that
Goodyear mixed it with sulfur and accidentally
discovery! So an accidental discovery can affect
dropped it on a hot stove, it was a smelly,
where you go to school. How else can these
unreliable mess. Again, serendipity.
discoveries affect our lives? Sophy?
The list of serendipity stories is as long as the
Sophy: They can also affect your career. My
history of discovery.
brother happened to sit next to a man on an
Dr. Martin Mays: Serendipity refers to looking
airplane who owned an import/export
for one thing and stumbling over something
company.
else that proves to be of greater value.
The man and my brother got along really well—
Tanner: Radiologist Dr. Martin Mays
they spent the whole flight talking and getting
accidentally figured out how stomach cancer
to know each other. Now my brother works at
metastasizes by watching where dye he injected
the man’s company.
for X-rays would spread and then collect. He has
Teacher: Another accidental meeting! Felix, do
written Happy Accidents about serendipity in
you have any other examples of how an
medicine.
accidental discovery can affect our lives? Maybe
Dr. Mays: What serendipity means is
a discovery that doesn’t involve meeting
misadventure, an inadvertent observation that
someone?
a sharp, open mind can exploit to find its true
Felix: Well, I discovered soccer by accident. I
benefit.
was in this shopping mall with my parents when
Mr. Adrian Jones: So, the story goes that Caldi,
I was a kid, and I wandered off into a sports
who happened to be a goat-herder, stood back
store. They were looking all over for me, and
and watched his goats eating coffee in—coffee
when they found me I was playing with a soccer
beans in Ethiopia. Wild coffee beans. And he
ball. Pretty soon after I joined the local soccer
team. It’s been a big part of my life ever since. sound—saw that they really engaged in some
strange behavior afterwards, because of the
caffeine.

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Q2e SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

Tanner: Animals, according to food historian Professor: Many people use a microwave oven
Adrian Jones, played an important role in early every day. How many of you know that the
food serendipity. You like cheese? Think dead microwave oven was the result of an accident?
camel stomachs. Nomads filled them with milk During World War II, scientists invented the
and hung them like sacks from live camels’ magnetron, which is a kind of electronic tube
saddles. that produces microwaves. We’re all familiar
Mr. Jones: …so you got the shaking motion of with microwave ovens, but what is a
the camels…you got the rennet of the stomach, microwave? Well, it’s a very short
you got the milk in the stomach, and that really electromagnetic wave.
is the beginning of cheese. Anyway, in 1946, an engineer named Dr. Percy
Tanner: My favorite serendipity story, for Spencer was standing close to a magnetron he
obvious reasons? Post-It Notes. In 1968, a was testing. He suddenly noticed something
scientist at 3M made an adhesive that wasn’t unusual. He felt something warm in his shirt
sticky enough. A thousand Post-It products pocket. He reached in and discovered that the
later, a world without them seems candy bar in his pocket was a hot, chocolaty
inconceivable. After the fact, serendipity seems mess. In other words, the candy bar had
so obvious. If there ever was a place literally in melted. Dr. Spencer was so excited because he
the serendipity business, the MIT Media Lab is realized that microwaves could raise the
it. internal temperature of food. In other words,
Mr. Steven Wells: The whole idea is to bring microwaves were able to cook food from the
together people with vastly different inside out! And do it very quickly. Dr. Spencer
backgrounds—scientists, engineers, designers, saw the possibilities here. His next step was to
biologists—and have them interact in open, build a metal box into which he fed microwave
play-like environments, to experiment, not to power that couldn’t escape. He put various
be afraid of failure, and to build. foods inside the metal box and tested cooking
Mr. Wells: I think serendipity is mandatory. It’s them. In time, he invented something that
not—it’s not a luxury. would revolutionize cooking—the ubiquitous
Tanner: But it can be fun. During World War II, microwave oven. By that I mean that we see
GE tried to make synthetic rubber. It failed. microwave ovens just about everywhere.
Nobody could figure out what to do with it until
a marketing genius put it in a little plastic egg NOTE-TAKING SKILL: Taking notes on details
and sold it as a novelty toy. More than 300 Activity A, pages 140–141
million little eggs have been sold. Here’s the M: A Walk to Remember
best part: When Silly Putty turned 50 in the year The year was 1940, and Marcel Ravidat was a
2000, it got the white glove treatment as it was French 18-year-old. One day he did what he
solemnly installed in the Smithsonian often liked to do. He went for a walk in the
Institution. woods near his home. He was with two friends
and his dog, Robot. They had strolled along
LISTENING SKILL: Listening for signal words and those same trails many times, but this day
phrases would be different. Marcel would stumble upon
Activity A, pages 139–140 something amazing.

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Q2e SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

Actually, you could say that Robot literally Emma Smith: Her sense of loss was just so big,
stumbled upon it. Some say that as the group and she was just so afraid to be alone. And at
was walking through the woods, the little dog first I thought it was because in the orphanage
ran off. Marcel and his friends ran after it, trying she wasn’t alone, but it—it seemed bigger than
to keep up. When they finally caught up to that.
Robot, they found him digging down into a hole Stern: Meanwhile, just outside Philadelphia,
that had been left by a collapsed tree. And for Kate Bern, also eight, loves her new home a
some reason Marcel began to help Robot dig. world away from the orphanage in China. Her
He didn’t realize that he was about to make a parents, Amy and Carl, remember their
huge archaeological discovery. daughter as a bright little girl.
The hole he was digging turned out to lead to a Amy White: She was very alert and bright. She
system of caves. Marcel climbed down into the was very aware—she was looking around, and
cave through the widened whole, and there he she was very aware of what was going on.
found a series of pre-historic wall paintings. Stern: But Kate also seemed very deprived,
There were many of them, and they depicted because they noticed she ate as if she’d never
animals—bulls, horses, and deer—in bright eat again.
colors. Amy White: She wouldn’t want to leave the
The discovery became a major news event. table. All the other kids seemed to eat and be
Researchers were amazed by it, and tourists satisfied, but all this food was around her and
flocked to the site from around the world. In she wasn’t stopping.
fact, so many people visited the cave that in Stern: Amy sought help from a support group
1963 it had to be closed off again to protect the on the Internet, and one of the many who
paintings. responded was a mom named Emma.
Marcel’s discovery was as historic as it was Amy White: Her answer was the best answer,
unexpected. When he headed out into those which was to try sharing a plate in the middle of
familiar woods that morning, he had no idea the table, and we’d both eat from the same
that he would find a passage way to another plate. It was incredible. It was—it stopped it
time, to another world. immediately.
Stern: These two moms, who lived 1,000 miles
LISTENING 2: Twin Girls Reunited apart, noticed their daughters were from the
Activity A, C, pages 143–144 same orphanage and decided to exchange
Harriet Stern: To see Ruby Smith now, a happy pictures.
eight-year-old who loves gymnastics, you would So, when you opened up her email, do you
never know she was once a sad and scared remember that moment of what that was like
orphan in China. when you saw her daughter’s picture?
Emma Smith: She was crying so hard she turned Amy White: I—I—I—I was shocked.
all red. She was very scared. She’d never seen Stern: The girls had the same hairline, same
anyone who looked like us. nose, same chin, same mouth. After exchanging
Stern: Emma and her husband, Dan, brought more pictures, they just had to bring their two-
Ruby back to their home in Florida to shower year-olds face to face.
her with love. But they could tell her heart still Emma Smith: It was… it was…
ached.

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Q2e SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

Amazing. That’s the word, yeah. Stern: The DNA results: the girls are almost
Stern: What did you think? certainly sisters, which means, because they’re
Emma Smith: I thought they were twins. Yeah. the same age, Ruby and Kate, in all probability,
Stern: Amy didn’t believe it, but she did notice are fraternal twins.
the girls seemed to have a special connection. Emma Smith: Ruby, she just started jumping up
Amy White: We have pictures where Ruby has and down and squealing, “Yes, we’re sisters,
her hand on Kate’s stroller, and Kate would we’re sisters. Yeah, we’re sisters!”
never let even us, like tou—touch the rim of her Stern: Finally, Emma and Dan understood why
stroller, but she seemed like there was some their daughter Ruby never liked to be alone.
kind of comfort level there. Emma Smith: She was never alone, not even in
Stern: But it would be four more years before the womb. So for her, she needed Kate. Since
Ruby and Kate saw each other again, in July it’s important to Ruby, I think it’s important to
2004, at a reunion of families who had adopted all of us.
children from the same orphanage. Stern: OK, you tell me why—why you love Ruby.
Emma Smith: When Ruby came back to the Kate Bern: Because we hardly ever fight and we
room she would say things like, “Please don’t agree on a lot of things.
tell my best friend at home, but Kate’s my best Stern: And why do you love Kate?
friend.” Ruby Smith: Because she’s my sister, and I just
Kate Bern: Best, best friends. love her.
Ruby Smith: Sisters! Emma Smith: My daughter has—has not asked
Stern: Since the reunion, the families have met me a single question about her birth family or
three more times. We brought them together searching for them since she’s got Kate in her
again for another visit. life.
Ruby Smith: Sometimes me and Kate trade
places. VOCABULARY SKILL: Collocations with
Stern: What? You play tricks on people? prepositions
Kate Bern: Yeah. Activity A, pages 147–148
Ruby Smith: Sometimes I say I’m Kate, and 1. She was looking around and she was very
sometimes Kate says I’m Ruby. aware of what was
Stern: Do you wish you guys lived closer going on.
together? 2. Since it’s important to Ruby, I think it’s
Kate Bern: Yeah. I would like to live next door important to all of us.
to her too—to play together, like—or have play 3. Because we hardly ever fight, and we agree
dates, like, right after school. on a lot of things.
Stern: Four months ago the families tested their 4. My daughter has not asked me a single
daughters’ DNA. question about her birth family or searching for
Amy White: They were really beginning to them since she’s got Kate in her life.
consider themselves to be sisters, and I didn’t
want them to have false hopes that this was, GRAMMAR: Indirect speech
you know, a relationship that had a biological Activity A, page 150
root and it didn’t. 1. Ellen said she was excited about the reunion.

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Q2e SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

2. She said, “I can’t wait to get there.” What’s the main reason this invention is so
3. Tonya shouted, “I haven’t seen you in so important? It changed the way we live today.
long!” 2. Why did Henri Becquerel leave dangerous
4. She told me she was glad I could come. chemicals in his desk drawer? Well, he didn’t
5. Ray called to tell me he would be late. know they were dangerous. But that helped
6. He said he had missed his bus. him to discover what we call radioactivity.
7. I told Teresa I was bringing dessert. 3. Teacher: Does anyone know who invented
8. She said, “I hope it has chocolate in it.” the first plastic? Over there, in the front.
Student: Leo Baekeland, right?
PRONUNCIATION: Linked words with vowels Teacher: That’s right. Mr. Baekeland was
Examples 1, 2, page 151 looking for a new kind of material to use on
She always wants to say it. wires and he accidentally created the first
Tell me why it’s important to be early plastic.
Can she go out with us? 4. Teacher: William Perkin accidentally created
Please show us your new invention. the first artificial color for clothing. What was
Activity A, page 152 he really trying to make? Yes, Colin?
1. early age Student: I think it was a medicine.
2. very alert Teacher: Correct. Mr. Perkin was trying to
3. stay awake create an artificial medicine that people
4. fly out needed.
5. you opened Activity B, page 154
6. know about Speaker: The PopsicleTM is a popular
7. go over summertime treat in the United States. Kids
8. how interesting have been enjoying them for decades. But most
Activity B, page 152 people don’t know that the PopsicleTM was
1. Kate also seemed very deprived, because invented by an 11-year-old.
they noticed she ate as if In 1905, Frank Epperson filled a cup with water
she’d never eat again. and fruit-flavored “soda powder,” a mix that
2. After the fact, serendipity always seems so was used to make a popular drink. Frank left his
obvious. drink outside on his porch with a stir stick in it.
3. Because we hardly ever fight, we agree on a He forgot all about it, and went to bed. That
lot of things. night, the temperature dropped to below
4. Try and spot the next big thing. freezing in San Francisco, where Frank lived.
5. So after you opened the file, can you recall When he woke up the next morning, he
how it felt? discovered that his fruit drink had frozen to the
stir stick. He pulled the frozen mixture out of
SPEAKING SKILL: Using questions to maintain the cup by the stick, creating a fruit-flavored ice
listener interest treat.
Activity A, page 153 In 1923, Frank Epperson began making and
1. And in 1879, Thomas Edison finally created a selling his ice treats in different flavors. By
working light bulb. 1928, Frank had sold over 60 million
PopsiclesTM, and his business had made him

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Q2e SE Listening & Speaking 4: Audio Script Unit 7

very wealthy. Nowadays, over three million

PopsiclesTM are sold each year.
PopsiclesTM aren’t the only invention made by
accident. But they might be the tastiest.

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