TOEFL · Section 2
TOEFL Conversation 8
Ah, Michelle. I thought I'd find you here. Hello, Henry.
Level: B2 · 81 sentences
Transcript
- Ah, Michelle. I thought I'd find you here.
- Hello, Henry.
- Yes, I'm afraid the smoker's lounge is about the only place I can relax in around here.
- Can I do something for you, or are you just slumming?
- Well, I was wondering...
- You teach the afternoon section of Modern Social Systems, don't you?
- Yes, that's me. Why?
- Have you got a student in there by the name of Steiger, Sara Steiger?
- Sara? Yes, you know her?
- I sure do.
- She's in my undergrad psychology seminar.
- She's beginning to be a real problem for the class,
- and I was just wondering how you were handling her.
- Or is she OK in your class?
- OK? Uh... Yes.
- Well, not really,
- but she's just eager to learn, I think, don't you?
- You think so?
- That's why she never stops asking questions?
- I'll tell you what I think,
- I think she already knows the answers before she asks.
- Or she's just asking for the sake of asking.
- Huh? Why's that?
- Well, half the time she wants to know about something we've already discussed in some detail,
- and half the time she has questions that are off-topic or, well, just, uh, mindless.
- I suppose you could be right about that.
- Sara can certainly be irritating sometimes.
- Sometimes I feel I'm cheating the rest of the students by spending so much time explaining things to her.
- Exactly. And I can see them all rolling their eyes.
- The rest of my class is a little irritated with her, too.
- Maybe we should just give her the benefit of the doubt.
- Maybe she's just trying too hard, I dunno, to learn maybe,
- or maybe just to make an impression on us.
- I don't know what her motives could be.
- Yeah, well. She's making an impression, all right, but it isn't a good one.
- Any ideas?
- Pro-active ones, I mean.
- Well, I guess we should have a talk with her.
- A talk? A private one, you mean?
- Yeah. It's either that, or just give her the cold shoulder.
- I'm afraid I've already been giving her a bit of that.
- I thought maybe she'd take the hint and sit back, listen and take notes for a change.
- She doesn't, doesn't take any notes?
- She does in my class, voluminous ones!
- Are you sure, Michelle?
- Sure, I'm sure, she's always scribbling away.
- But have you seen Sara's notes?
- Well, no, but...
- I have. I took a peek over her shoulder a couple of times.
- She's a doodler.
- A what?! She doodles?
- All over her notebook.
- I don't think she's keeping any kind of notes or paying attention at all to what I'm saying or what anyone else says in class.
- She's just daydreaming, or dreaming up something irrelevant to inquire into.
- This morning we'd been talking about Jung's theory of archetypes,
- and she suddenly blurted out "What's an archtype?"
- Well, we'd been discussing archtypes for half an hour by then,
- and it was like she'd just realized she'd heard a strange word,
- when the conversation was almost over.
- Heh! That's Sara, all right.
- OK then, who's going to talk to her, you or me?
- Umm..
- OK, OK, I'll see if I can get her to come in and talk to me later this week.
- I'll be seeing her in class tomorrow afternoon, I guess.
- Maybe I can get her to settle down a little...
- She doodles?
- Yes! Pretty good, really.
- Complex, architectural, rococo things.
- Maybe she could go to art school instead of majoring in sociology.
- That's Sara's major, is it?
- I think so, I think she mentioned that once.
- Anyway, yes, if you could have a little talk with her, that would be great.
- And let me know what happens, what you find out, will you?
- Of course. I'll let you know how it goes.
- Thanks, Michelle, very much. I owe you one.
- Now, I've got to run before all this secondhand smoke does me in.
- Haha... Now don't start that!
- Haha, all right, but you know you should really try to,-
- Henry!
- OK. Thanks. See you.
- Talk to you soon.