مکالمه ی اول

Conversation 1 - The campus newspaper’s reporter position

Narrator: Listen to a conversation between a student and the faculty adviser of the campus newspaper.

Man: Hi, I talked to someone on the phone a couple of weeks ago. Anna, I think it was?

Woman: I am Anna, the faculty adviser.

Man: Oh, great! I’m Peter Murphy. You probably don’t remember me, but …

Woman: No, no, I remember you. You were interested in working for the paper.

Man: Yeah, as a reporter.

Woman: That’s right. Uh, you’re taking a journalism class and you’ve done some reporting before in high school, right?

Man: Wow, you have a good memory.

Woman: Well, we haven’t had many students applying lately. So, anyway, you still want to do some reporting for us?

Man: Yeah, if you have room for me on the staff.

Woman: Well, we always need more reporters, but you know we don’t pay anything, right?

Man: Yeah, I know. But I, uh, I’d like the experience. It will look good on my resume.

Woman: Absolutely! Let’s see. I think I told you that we ask prospective reporters to turn in some outlines for possible articles?

Ma: Yeah, I sent them in about a week ago. But I haven’t heard anything back yet, so, so I thought I’d stop by and see, but I guess you haven’t looked at them yet.

Woman: Oh, Max, the news editor, he looks at all the submissions.

Man: Oh, so he hasn’t made any decision about me yet?

Woman: Well, I just got here a few minutes ago, haven’t been in for a couple of days. Uh, just give me a second to check my email. Uh, here’s a message from Max. Let’ see. Well, it seems you’ve really impressed him. He says it’d be wonderful if you could join our staff.

Man: Oh, great! When can I start?

Woman: Well, you turned in an outline on something to do with the Physics Department?

Man: Yeah. They’re trying to come up with ways to get more students to take their introductory courses.

Woman: Right. Well, apparently nobody else is covering that story so he wants you to follow up on it.

Man: OK. Uh, what about the other outline I sent in? About the proposed increase in tuition fee?

Woman: Oh, it looks like we’ve got that covered.

Man: So, I’m starting with an article about the Physics Department. I guess I’d better get to work. Do you have any advice on how I should cover the story?

Woman: Well, Max wanted to talk to you, but, I’m sure he’ll tell you to find out things like why the Physics Department worried about enrollment. Has the number of students been getting smaller in recent years? By how much? What kinds of plans they’re considering to address this problem?

Man: Right. Some of those issues are already in what I proposed.

Woman: And you want to do some interviews: you know, what the professors think of the plans, what the students think. You get the idea, but…

Man: But wait till I talk to Max before proceeding?

Woman: Right, he’ll cover everything you need to know to be a reporter for us.

Can you come back this afternoon? He’ll be here until five o’clock.