#15 Starbucks

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Starbucks Script

Right. Good morning everybody. How are you today? Before we start, as usual I’d just like to say that if you go to my homepage, stevenaskew.com, you can download the MP3, script, some listening questions and sample answers for this talk and all of my talks. Also, if you have any topics you’d like me to talk about, put them in the comments section below here. Thank you.

Well, a few weeks ago, I talked to you about coffee. I don’t know if you remember, but I kind of like coffee. In fact, I had rather a large coffee this morning, so I might be a little bit jittery, a little bit shaky. So, today, I thought I’d try and talk a little bit about Starbucks. Now, in the city I live in, there are approximately fifteen Starbucks. This city has a population of about 1.9 million people, so fifteen Starbucks is probably not that high. I don’t know. Continue reading →

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#14 The Titanic

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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The Titanic Script

Hi. Good morning. Before we start, as usual, don’t forget if you go to my site stevenaskew.com you can download the MP3, the script, some listening questions and sample answers for this whole talk and all of my other talks. Also, if there are any topics you’d like me to talk about, please put them in the comments section below here.

Right, today, we’re going to talk about the Titanic. Now, I’m pretty sure you all know of the Titanic. You’ve probably seen the movie. James Cameron’s almost four-hour movie. The director cut I think is over four hours. And that covers a lot of the story. Anyway, let’s go into it in a little more detail today. Continue reading →

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#13 The Fermi Paradox

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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The Fermi Paradox Script

Hi. Good morning everybody. Before we start today don’t forget that you can find the script for this talk on my home page, stevenaskew.com. You can also find listening questions, sample answers, and you can download the mp3 if you want to practice at home, offline, or use it in your class. Also, if you have any topics you want me to talk about, please put them in the comments section below here.

Right. Today, I want to talk to you about something called the Fermi paradox. Before we talk about that though, we have to do a little bit of background. Now, where are we? We are on Earth, obviously. Why are we here? Well, what does life need? Life basically needs three things: we need water, we need a mix of chemicals, and we need a source of energy. Earth has all of those. The energy, of course, is the Sun. Now, why is there life on Earth? Is Earth special? Earth is in what’s called the Goldilocks zone. If you know the Goldilocks story, it’s about a young girl who finds a house in the forest and inside the forest there are three bowls of porridge left by the three bears. Continue reading →

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#12 Chocolate

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Chocolate Script

Hi. Good morning everybody. Thanks for coming. Before we start today don’t forget that if you go to my home page, stevenaskew.com, the link’s in the description below, you can download the script for this talk, an MP3 of the audio and some listening questions and sample answers for all of them. Give it a go. See how you do.

Today I want to talk to you about chocolate. Who likes chocolate? Everyone that likes chocolate raise your hands. I love chocolate. Where does chocolate come from? Well, first, where does the word chocolate come from, the etymology of chocolate. Chocolate, the word in English, comes originally from the Spanish language. In about sixteen hundred it came into English. But how did it come into the Spanish language? Well, of course, it came from South America. It came into Spanish from the Aztec people. The Aztecs used to call chocolate chicolati. Not sure if that’s the right pronunciation. It’s probably not. Chicolati means beaten drink, and the word chicoli refers to a stick, a specially carved and shaped stick that was almost like a wooden whisk, and this whisk was used for beating the chocolate drink. So, beaten drink, chicoli, became chicolati which became chocolate, which is what we have today. Continue reading →

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#11 Coincidence

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Coincidence Script

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for coming. Today, I want to talk to you about coincidences. Or, rather, why humans see and think there are coincidences. I want to talk to you about four different things. The law of large numbers, how humans don’t understand odds, something called the gambler’s fallacy, and something called selective recall or cherry picking. Ok?

I’m going to start with the law of large numbers. Now, lots of things happen in this world that are unusual or surprising. For example, you might have seen a photo floating around the Internet. What it is, it’s a picture of some people at Disneyland in about the 1970s, maybe. The story behind it is … erm … a man and a wife were getting married and they were looking through some family photographs and the woman pulled out a photo of herself at Disneyland when she was a child. The guy looked at the photo and said, “Woah! Hang on! That’s my father!” And in the background, behind the young girl is a man pushing a stroller. And in the stroller is, of course, a baby. And that baby, of course, is the man that then goes on to marry the girl who is in the photo. Wow! An amazing coincidence! Yeah? Very very unusual. Well, it is, unless you think about it. If you apply a little bit of logic, then it’s not quite so surprising. Continue reading →

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#10 Halloween

Posted on March 28, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Halloween Script

Aaaaaargggghhhh! Right. Good morning everybody. Today, I want to talk to you about Halloween. Phew, it’s hot under there. When is Halloween? Halloween is obviously October the 31st. Why is it October the 31st? Well, to understand that first we have to talk about what Halloween actually is.

What does the word “Halloween” mean? Well, “hallow” and “een” are two separate words. “Een” is a shortened form of “evening”. We can also call it “eve”. Christmas, Christmas Eve. Hallow, Hallow Eve. Halloween. So, Halloween is the day that comes before Hallow. And what’s Hallow? Well, November the 1st is All Hallows’ Day, or Saints’ Day, it’s sometimes called. It’s a Christian celebration. It’s basically a celebration for the dead people … the dead saints basically. It’s a day when people can worship and be thankful and appreciate and pray for all of the dead people. This is a Christian festival and it started in about the 8th century. Continue reading →

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#9 The Tulip Bubble

Posted on March 22, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Tulip Bubble Script

Hi everyone. Today’s topic is tulip bulbs. Or, to be more precise, tulip bubbles, the tulip bulb mania. I want to try and explain to you today how the first real economic bubble happened.

Right, tulip bulbs. I’m sure you all know what a tulip is. A tulip is a beautiful flower. Tulips come from a bulb. Well, actually they come from a seed, but it takes seven years for the seed to turn into a flower. So, once the seed has become a flower, it produces a bulb at the bottom of it, which is this shape, we call them lightbulbs because they look like tulip bulbs, is this shape and once you have a bulb, you can produce a plant every year. You can produce a flower every year. So, tulips are always sold as a bulb. Because if you buy the seeds, you have to wait seven years for the flower. Continue reading →

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#8 Coffee

Posted on March 22, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Coffee Script

Good morning everybody. Oh, that’s good. Do you know what this is? This is a cup of coffee. I love coffee. I drink maybe a little bit too much, I have about four cups a day. Could be too much. I don’t know. But, I really like it. Anyway, today I want to talk to you a little bit about coffee. There are many different ways of drinking coffee. I have a cup of coffee with milk. Café au lait. Café au lait comes from the French, of course. “Café” is coffee, “au” is with and “lait” is milk. There’s café latte. Which comes from the Italian. “Café”, again, is coffee. “Latte” is milk. Café Americano. That comes from the Second World War, I believe. The American soldiers that were living in Italy … stationed in Italy, the coffee there was much too strong for them so they used to water it down with some boiling water. That’s why strong coffee with water is called a Café Americano, or an Americano. Continue reading →

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#7 The Extinction of the Dinosaurs

Posted on March 22, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Extinction of the Dinosaurs Script

Hi. Good morning. I want to talk to you about the extinction of the dinosaurs today. Dinosaurs lived a long time ago. They died out about sixty-five million years (65,000,000) before humans, before we, arrived on the scene. Dinosaurs were actually here for a very long time. From the very beginning of the dinosaurs to their extinction is about a hundred and eighty million years (180,000,000). So, there is more distance between the more recent dinosaurs and the very early dinosaurs than there is between the last dinosaurs and humans. People don’t usually think about that. Continue reading →

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#6 The Psychology of Disneyland

Posted on March 22, 2018 by threeyzmonkeys

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Disneyland Psychology Script

Good morning everybody. Today, I want to talk to you about Disneyland. Or, more precisely, I want to talk to you about the psychology involved in Disneyland.

I live in Japan. Last January, I went to Tokyo Disneyland with my wife and my daughter. We had a great time. It was absolutely wonderful. It was a little bit cold, but we still had a good time. While we were there, walking around, we were standing in line, as you do, you spend a large percentage of all your time at Disneyland standing in line, and I started to think about the psychology behind the line. We were standing there, but we didn’t seem to mind. And that got me thinking. And I realized there are quite a lot of psychological factors involved in your trip to a Disneyland park. Continue reading →

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