📘 Part 3: Science

This episode's vocabulary

• To conduct (verb) - organize and carry out.
• Time-consuming (adj.) - taking a lot of or too much time.
• Attention span (noun) - the length of time for which a person is able to concentrate on a particular activity or subject.
• Dreadful (adj.) - causing or involving great suffering, fear, or unhappiness; extremely bad or serious.
• Fundamental (noun) - a central or primary rule or principle on which something is based.
• To keep abreast of something (phrase) - to make sure you know all the most recent facts about a subject or situation.
• In-depth (adj.) - comprehensive and thorough.
• On a par (with someone/something) (phrase) - the same as or equal to someone or something.
• Broad (adj.) - covering a large number and wide scope of subjects.
• Appeal (noun) - the quality of being interesting or attractive.
• Species (noun) - a set of animals or plants in which the members have similar characteristics to each other and can breed with each other.
• To confine (verb) - to limit an activity, person, or problem in some way.
• Stray (adj.) - stray things have moved apart from similar things and are not in their expected or intended place.
• Hazard (noun) - something that is dangerous and likely to cause damage.
• Extinction-level event (noun) - a catastrophe resulting in the extinction of the majority of species on the planet.
• To hinge on/upon something (phrasal verb) - if one thing hinges on another, the first thing depends on the second thing or is very influenced by it.

Questions and Answers

M: Why do some children dislike learning science at school?

R: Oh, lots of reasons. Science is fascinating, but the process of conducting it can be quite time-consuming, and you actually have to know a fair amount to do it properly. So that can be quite taxing, especially for children who have short attention spans. Some teachers are pretty dreadful as well, not to mention the difficulties of trying to learn in a class with other people who might have different needs or expectations.

M: Is it important to study science at school?

R: Well, it's always good to know things, but science is quite a broad field, and things are always changing and being updated, so it would be impossible to know everything about it. So I'd say it's good to understand the fundamentals and know what's going on in simple terms. And then, if you want to work in that field, you can build up from there.

M: Which science subject is the most important for children to learn?

R: Oh, that's a good question, actually. I mean, I suppose, given the state of people's health in general, and what I said about physiology, probably biology or anything connected to human biology. People really need to know more about how their bodies work and how to maintain them properly. Or at least, it seems that way.

M: Should people continue to study science after finishing school?

R: If it's their chosen career path, it certainly makes sense. But if not, then it might be important to keep abreast of major developments, but in-depth knowledge on par with an expert probably isn't required.

M: How do people usually get to know about scientific news?

R: Most major breakthroughs and developments get published in the media, like the general media, so most people probably just have to pick up a newspaper or read news articles online. There could be some specialist newspapers or scientific journals that you can sign up for as well, but I doubt those things will have broad appeal.

M: Do you think space exploration is important for humanity?

R: I can definitely see how it might be. If our species is confined to the one planet, then the risk of us being wiped out by a stray asteroid or something is pretty high. In fact, it's like 100% if we're still here when that happens. So by exploring space, we can find new places to live and identify hazards before they become these sort of extinction-level events. That's on a species level. Individually, I doubt it matters much. I mean, our personal survival hinges on a lot more than being able to go into space.

Discussion

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers.

R: Oh, thank you, Maria, for being so interested in science and how the world works. You will note that I did not yawn when I, when I was talking about hats, and when Maria was talking about hats.

M: I was cracking jokes. You were assessing... You were assessing jokes like IELTS style. It was fun, you know? Right, dear listener, how are you doing? Are you okay? Are you into science? Yes? Super. This is your favourite episode?

R: If you're not into science, then you will be by the time we're finished.

M: Yeah. No, science is cool. Yeah, I should read some scientific books. Life isn't only about hats and ice cream and shoes.

R: There's more to life than hats. You've heard it here first.

M: I'm going to create my own podcast, science with Maria, and I'm going to be explaining, you know, like, something stupid, like people do every day, from a scientific perspective. Like you kind of you make tea, like, what science things are there? Kind of you go and buy new hats and shoes and, like, what, what science is in there. Oh, it's gonna go viral. Okay. So we say science and we mean different science subjects. Chemistry, biology, robotics, mathematics. What else we do at school?

R: Oh, so much. Um, thinks like the elements of geology might be in there as well. So there's lots of things.

M: At school? Really? No...

R: Yeah, if you take geography lessons, then understanding geology will be part of that.

M: So chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, biochemistry. So these are like, um, ordinary subjects,. Not ordinary subjects is like animal husbandry. What is that? Animal husbandry?

R: Animal husbandry? That's like the process of looking after domesticated animals like cows and horses.

M: Is it a science?

R: Well, it must be, because you have to know about the animals in order to look after them properly.

M: Wow. Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerning with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk or other products. So agriculture is a science, right?

R: I think it's probably the application of the science. So yes and no.

M: Agricultural science is a broad discipline, field of biology. Wow. Agricultural sciences. Interesting, dear listener. You see? So if you are tired of biology, chemistry, you just say, ooh, yeah, at school, I used to learn about, what was it, animal husbandry. And then band nine vocabulary, you know? Like cattle is raised... You know? Wow. So children dislike, so they don't like science at school for lots of reasons.

R: Because it's time-consuming and you have to learn lots of things. So if it's time-consuming, it takes a lot of time. And if something takes a lot of time and you have to work very hard, it could be quite taxing, which means it drains your energy.

M: Yeah, taxing, like difficult or needing a lot of thought, a lot of effort. So all this, you know, agriculture... It's really taxing. The children have short attention spans. So they can focus for a short period of time. But in science classes, they need to read long texts about biology and agriculture. Teachers could be pretty dreadful. So teachers could be pretty awful, terrible and...

R: Boring. Are you going from, like, really nice things to... Really nice vocabulary to just really standard vocabulary.

M: Yeah, or just children just may not understand anything because of the dull teachers. And the way the classes are conducted. So teachers teach classes, or band nine, teachers conduct classes. So children may not like the way the classes are conducted, are taught. Science is a broad field. So science kind of contains a lot of different subjects, like we've just seen, from animal husbandry to something very similar as mathematics...

R: Which Maria just discovered.

M: Ooh, yeah, it's my favourite subject now. Animal husbandry. Dear listener, it's amazing. Yeah, how cows and sheep are raised. Amazing. Animal husbandry. And actually, you can use this word anywhere. Like, oh, like, um, tell me about your daily routine. Well, every day I read books on animal husbandry, or like, oh, like, what did you do last weekend? Oh, I read an interesting article about animal husbandry, you know? So there you go, dear listener. You can just use this phrase, this name anywhere. So it's important to be updated in the world of science.

R: Or to stay up to date.

M: To stay up to date? To learn about the recent trends. And it's good to understand the fundamentals.

R: But these are like the basic concepts of anything. So... I'm trying to think about what the basic concepts of... Well, physics would be something like what an atom is made up of. And in biology, it would be understanding the different parts of a cell. Those would be the fundamentals. Without understanding them, you can't really understand how the rest of life works, or the rest of the subject works.

M: So you can say that it's essential for children to be taught the fundamentals of science. The most essential subject, science subject for children. And here you can say like, hmm, you know, like, hmm, well, that's a good question. Here, like you react to the question naturally, because, well, that is a good question. Like, what is the most important science subject for children, for children? So you can say, then, like, biology or chemistry, mathematics, and then like, explain, Rory chose biology. So you can say, I guess biology is the most essential one, because it's connected to human biology, so how our bodies work, and because today, everybody is sick, you know, everybody is depressed and has health problems. Biology and human biology is super important. And children need to know more about how their bodies work and how to maintain their bodies properly. So how to maintain our body means how to kind of take care of our body, how to make it healthy. What to do, what not to do. Actually, it's not taught at school at all.

R: Really?

M: How to take care of your body? Nothing. It's like, oh, you read about ants and different butterflies and freaking cows and different countries... No, no, that's geography. Biology. Okay, so different plants and all this, you know. Yeah, you learn about different organs and how, like, what do you have inside our body, but it's like in anatomy, which is, I think, half a year or something, or a year, anatomy. But it's not okay about like the basics, how to be healthy. No, they don't tell you such stuff.

R: Wow. Okay. They should.

M: They should.

R: It's possible they're thinking that it's obvious what you should do. However, what people think is obvious and what actually works are two very different things.

M: Children finish school and then they should continue studying. All right? If science is their chosen career path, then they continue studying science. So chosen career path. Like science is my career. So it's my career path.

R: But that just means, if it's what they choose to spend the rest of their life doing, I suppose.

M: What does it mean to keep abreast of? That's my favourite phrase.

R: Just to stay updated with things, or to keep up to date with things.

M: Keep abreast of something - to make sure you know all the most recent facts about a subject or a situation. For example, I try to keep abreast of any developments. Or I try to keep abreast of the recent scientific trends, or to keep abreast of the news, to keep abreast of new treatment methods. When you keep abreast of major developments in science, you have in-depth knowledge, like deep knowledge.

R: That's where the word comes from.

M: We learn about major breakthroughs from the media. So we talk about breakthroughs, like different discoveries, developments. And another word for you is like breakthrough. An important discovery. So we learn about them in the media or from the media, and also we pick up a newspaper, we choose, we take a newspaper, or read news online, or read news articles online. Or people learn about it from specialist newsletter. For example, you are subscribed to a scientific journal which sends you a special newsletter. So they email you the science news. Some people usually sign up for specialist newsletters. Some questions could be about space exploration.

R: That was a bit of a random one. We went from talking about science news to space exploration.

M: Yeah, could be a topic in essays as well and in speaking sometimes, yes. Like it's when people go into space and explore things. So Rory tells us that, yes, it's useful because there is a risk of people being wiped out. So if something is wiped out, it disappears completely. Like dinosaurs.

R: It is destroyed.

M: Destroyed, yeah. Dinosaurs? You know this, the dinosaurs, were wiped out, destroyed. And people could be destroyed by a stray asteroid. Okay? Like in films. Asteroid. This piece of rock, you know, from space. Bam, into our garden. That's all. So by exploring space, people can find new places to live, and a very good structure. By exploring space, people do something. We can identify hazards. So hazards? Like asteroids.

R: Well, risks.

M: A hazard is actually a C1 word, something that is dangerous.

R: Is it?

M: Yeah. For example, a health hazard or a fire hazard. Hazard. Something that is dangerous and likely to cause damage. All right? So people, by exploring space, people can identify hazards. Another good verb is hinges on our personal survival. Hinges on people being able to go into space. Okay? So to avoid these, you know, like asteroids falling.

R: So if something hinges on something, it is crucial for it to work.

M: Yeah, hinge on something. And now Rory is showtime. Rory's vocabulary quiz.

R: So let's go back to the very top, Maria, and let us recall. What was the word that I used to describe something that? Oh, actually, no, I should explain what this is actually. Yes, it's that time when I ask Maria some questions about the grammar and the vocabulary, and Maria tries to remember what I said. You can join in, so we'll leave a small pause for you, and then you'll find out the answer. So Maria, what was the word that I used to describe something that made people quite tired or demanded a lot of energy?

M: It's time-consuming.

R: No, Maria. You have fallen at the first hurdle. It's taxing.

M: Oh, sorry, it's taxing.

R: That's a word. Time-consuming is a collocation. Let's see if you can recover, though. In the second question, which was, is it important to study science at school, I used a word to describe the basic concepts of certain subjects. But what was that word? It wasn't basic concepts.

M: The fundamentals.

R: Yes, perfect. And then in that question about which science subject is the most important for children to learn. What were two of the three sciences I mentioned? Can you remember any of them or two of them?

M: Biology, human biology. And animal husbandry.

R: No, no, you got two of them. The other one was physiology. But yes.

M: Animal husbandry is the key one.

R: Animal husbandry is your key one. It's not mine. Then in the next question about finishing school and what to do afterwards, I used a special word or a special phrase to describe the idea of staying up to date with things. But what was that word or phrase? It was your favourite one.

M: To keep abreast of something.

R: Yes. Now we will move swiftly on from there, because the next question was about, how do people usually get to know about scientific news? And I mentioned a specific kind of thing that people read. Often they are scientists. But what would that be?

M: Major breakthroughs.

R: People don't read major breakthroughs, they read scientific journals. Oh, Maria, this is not going well for you today. And then in the last question about space exploration, I used another collocation to describe a special kind of time when an entire species might be wiped out by something.

M: Astray asteroid.

R: No, Maria, come on. Extinction level event. Oh... Science is not your strong suit. Oh, dear.

M: No.

R: Oh, well. But hopefully, our listeners managed to get some of them, and if you didn't, then don't worry. You can review them in the transcript online, you'll find the links to that in the description of this episode.

M: Thank you very much for listening!

R: Bye!

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