Chapter 2. Skill D

1 Campus Life
M: Hey Jill. You’re looking down. What’s wrong?
W: Hey Mike. Man, my whole academic career is in jeopardy . I don’t
know what to do anymore about my studies.
M: What do you mean? I thought you were skating through your
classes and enjoying it.
W: That’s the disheartening part. I was really enjoying my classes. I
really thought social work was the vocation for me and that I had an aptitude for it.
M: So, what went wrong?
W: I just got my statement of grades back from last semester. I got
a C- in one of my core classes. That means I can’t take the next
level. I don’t know what to do.
M: How did you do in your other classes?
W: Fine --- mostly A’s and B’s. I don’t know how I ended up with a C-!
M: What do you mean? You didn’t expect that grade?
W: No way! I had been doing quite well up until the final exam and
term paper. In fact, it had been my best class.
M: Do you know the grade you earned on your exam and paper?
W: No, but I must have bombed them to drop my grade down to a C-.
M: Well, how did you feel about them? I mean, did you work hard
on the paper? Did you find the exam really tough?
W: I worked really hard on that paper. Man, I did tons of research
on it, but I guess I didn’t write it that well. The exam was tough,
but I didn’t think I’d done so badly afterwards. I don’t want to
have to take that class again.
M: Well, retaking that class is one option if you really want to continue
with social work, but there are other options. Have you spoken
to your professor about your grade yet?
W: No, do you think she’ll be willing to change it?
M: Well, first you make sure your grade isn’t a mistake. I mean if
you were doing so well and you felt your paper and exam went
well, it could just be a simple mathematical slip by the prof. I
mean they do have a ton of work to do with their own research
and then grading exams and term papers and adding them up
and entering them into the university computer system. I’m sure
they make mistakes all the time. In fact, that very thing happened
to a friend of mine last year.
W: Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that. I’d just assumed that I screwed
up.
M: Another thing you can do is ask the professor to reevaluate
your paper, if it did indeed receive a low grade. You said you
worked hard on it, and if you really want to continue with your
studies, the prof might give you a break on it.
W: Good idea. I hadn’t thought of that, either.
M: As a last resort, you could appeal the grade with the department
head, but you have to be really sure the professor has intentionally
given you a lower grade than you deserve.
W: Wow, I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but I’m definitely going
to see my professor and ask her some questions about my
grade. Thanks for the advice.
M: No problem. Good luck.

2 Business Administration
W: Good afternoon, class. Today, we’ll be discussing an aspect of
business that is becoming more and more popular these days.
We talked a little bit about this last class, and you should have
read about it in your textbook, so you know that there is a lot
of hype about franchising. Why do you think that is?
M: It’s safe.
W: Exactly! When businesspeople buy a franchise, they are buying
a business model that is tried and tested. People know that it
works. When starting a new business from scratch, it takes a
long time to learn that business, and it takes a significant amount
of capital. What’s more, it’s potentially quite risky. With a franchise,
on the other hand, someone else has done the learning already.
A franchisee just has to apply that proven business model to
garner success. Another thing, a franchisee is buying a product
to sell that people not only recognize, but have an established
brand loyalty to. Thus, the demand is already established. The
most obvious example would be McDonald’s restaurants. Everyone
knows McDonald’s. A new McDonald’s franchisee doesn’t have
to convince consumers to buy the product because they already
do. There is a ready-made, established market. Furthermore,
franchises involve less start-up capital. The franchisee doesn’t
need to invest as much money in a franchise as he or she would
to open up an independent business. Sounds pretty good,
doesn’t it? But what would you say if I told you that new
franchises are actually less likely to survive than new independent
businesses? Not only that, but they’re less profitable as well.
M: If you weren’t my business professor, I wouldn’t believe you.
So, with all of these benefits of franchises you just mentioned
--- the established brand recognition and demand, and lower
start-up costs --- why are they less likely to survive or turn a profit?
W: Well, like I said, franchising is great for some industries, like fast
food. Now, the practice has become so successful that people
are trying to apply it to other industries in which it just doesn’t
work. I’m talking, in particular, about service businesses. An
example would be a chain of auto repair shops. Could anyone
guess why it might be more difficult to run a repair shop franchise
than a fast food restaurant?
M: Umm. Well, I used to work in a fast food joint. Flipping burgers is
easy; anyone could do it. However, I don’t even know how to
change the oil in my car, let alone fix anything on it.
W: Excellent. Good reasoning there! So, in a service business, the
business model itself is not as important as the business owner’s
knowledge and ability. So what you often have is substandard
service providers relying on the expertise of the franchiser. Another
problem is that franchisers earn their profits from franchising,
while franchisees profit from the actual business. What I mean
is that it is in the interest of the franchiser to sell more franchises.
What do you suppose this means for the individual franchisees?
M: More competition?
W: Right on. The market may become diluted. What would happen
if they opened ten new McDonald’s restaurants here in town?
The demand wouldn’t increase; people would just have more
options of where to go. So, let’s say 500 people are going to
eat at McDonald’s today, here in town. Today, that means that
the local McDonald’s will have 500 customers. Open 10 more
McDonald’s, and each restaurant would only have about 50
customers each.
M: So you’d be better off opening your own restaurant?
W: That may be the case. Franchises do still have all the benefits I
mentioned earlier. The potential franchisee has to look closely
at the franchiser and analyze the potential demand for that
proven product in the marketplace. He or she would also have
to carefully analyze his or her own skills and acumen in business
as well as the particular service being offered to the consumer.
Of course, there are many factors involved. The nice thing
about running your own business is that you have freedom.
With a franchise, you are tied down by rules set by the franchiser.
When running your own business, on the other hand, you can
be creative in the ways you generate profit.

3 Geography
M: I’m sure many of you have experienced jetlag. You know, that
tired, off feeling you get after traveling across time zones. Today,
we’re going to look a little more closely at time zones. You all
know, from the readings and our previous lectures, about the
lines of latitude and longitude, and how they help us locate a
given location on a map. Just to review, we’ve got the equator at
0º latitude. Now, how does the equator divide the Earth again?
Is it north-south or east-west?
W: The equator? It divides the Earth into northern and southern
hemispheres.
M: Right you are. So, all of the lines of latitude run parallel to the
equator all the way up or down to each of the poles. The equator
is at 0º, and the poles are located at 90º north and south. Then,
there are the lines of longitude, and the big one is the Prime
Meridian. It runs from the North Pole, through Greenwich, England,
to the South Pole, and is designated as 0º. On the other side, it
goes back up to the North Pole at 180º. Each line of longitude
measures the angle from the Prime Meridian going east or west
to 180º. So, for example, let’s take a point on the map --- I don’t
know, how about New York City? New York City lies at 41º-north
latitude and 74º-west longitude, but lines of latitude and longitude
have more uses than just finding places on maps. Who can tell
me another use?
W: Well, they act as borders sometimes, right?
M: Good point. Can you give us an example?
W: Umm. Well, most of the border between Canada and the US
follows the 49th parallel, right? That’s the latitude line of 49º
north, and isn’t the 38th parallel the border between North and
South Korea?
M: Excellent. Those are some good examples of another way in
which people use lines of latitude or longitude. There’s another
important use, though. Remember, I talked about jetlag and
time zones? Let’s look more at that.
Consider this: One day involves one revolution of the Earth on
its axis or pole, right? So, one revolution is, naturally, 360º. OK,
and a day is 24 hours. So, we can divide 360 by 24 to discover
that the Earth spins at a rate of 15º per hour. How is this useful?
Time zones, of course. Every 15º of longitude represents a one-hour
time zone, more or less. Of course, this isn’t exact. If you happened
to live in a place with a time zone line running through it, you
wouldn’t want one side of town being in one time zone while
you were in the other. Nonetheless, the lines of latitude give us
a pretty good idea of how the time zones break down. This is
how it works: When the sun is directly over a line of longitude,
it is noon. East of this line, it is afternoon. West, it’s morning. So,
for example, if the sun is directly over Thailand, it is noon there.
Go about 15º east to the Philippines, and it’s 1:00 in the afternoon.
Go west about 15º from Thailand to Sri Lanka and it’s 11:00 a.m.
So, let’s say we are in Greenwich, England, and we want to call
New York. Remember, Greenwich is at 0º longitude and New York
is 74º west longitude. So, here in Greenwich it’s 7:00 in the
morning. So, what time is it in New York? Just divide 74º by 15. We

divide by fifteen, remember, because that’s how fast the Earth
spins --- 15º per hour. OK, so 74 divided by 15 is just about five.
So, we are going five time zones west of Greenwich, which means
we are going five hours back. Seven minus five is two. So, it’s 2:00
in the morning in New York--- probably not a good time to call.
OK, just to reiterate, time zones are calculated based on the lines
of longitude and the spin of the Earth. After doing the math
work, we can see that one hour of time is the equivalent of 15º
traveled by the Earth. You can use this 15º figure to calculate
the time difference between two places, which can help you
predict how bad your jetlag is going to be on a long trip!



4 Campus Life.
M: Hey Nancy. Have you heard about the university’s new alcohol
policies? Man, it really ticks me off!
W: I haven’t heard anything. What’s going on?
M: They’ve decided to make it a dry campus!
W: Wow. That’s a big step. I’m not so sure it’s a bad idea, though.
Why are you so mad about it?
M: What! Come on, we’re all adults here. At least, the vast majority of
students here are old enough to drink legally.
W: That’s true. But they’re not all mature enough to drink responsibly.
M: Well, who are you or even the university president to judge
that? The law says it’s OK for them to drink.
W: Yes, but I’ve seen enough people drink too much and get
themselves in trouble. What is their plan to go dry anyway?
M: Well, they’re not going to serve beer in the Bullpen anymore.
They’re also forbidding students to bring alcohol into their dorm
rooms, and they’re even assigning extra security guards to the
fraternity houses to stop students from drinking.
W: Those are pretty extreme measures. Have they given their rationale 

for implementing them?
M: Yeah. Do you remember last spring? One student died of alcohol
poisoning. I think his parents sued the university. These measures
must be a reaction to that. They cite statistics on assaults, unruly
behavior, and academic performance.
W: Those all sound like pretty compelling reasons to me. In fact, a
friend of mine had some trouble last year after coming home
from the Bullpen one Friday night. Now, she never walks alone
on campus at night.
M: Well, those are good reasons, but it’s still disrespectful to those
of us who can drink responsibly. In fact, one of the big reasons
I decided to live on campus was for the social life. Now, the
school is killing that. I’ve got a good mind to sue them for my
dorm fees back and get an apartment in a more exciting area
off campus.
W: Hey, Derrick, I sympathize with you and all, but you’re not really
making any sense now.
M: (laughs) Yeah, I guess I was going overboard a little there. OK,
I’m not about to sue the school, but I really might move off
campus, and I probably won’t be the only one.
W: All right, that’s your choice. I think I’ll still stay in the dorms. It’ll
still be a convenient place for attending classes, consulting with
professors, and doing research in the library. I don’t want to
spend too much time commuting every day when I could be
studying instead.
M: Yeah, you’ve got some good points there. Still, if we can’t drink
on campus, then a lot of students will be going to other areas
of the city to drink and have fun. This means we’ll likely see an
increase in drunk driving charges, maybe even injuries and deaths.
In the end, I’m not sure if they’re improving the health of the
student body or just sweeping the problem under the carpet so
to speak.
W: That’s a pretty strong argument. I think you should take it up
with the president.
M: I just might write him a letter.

5 Music.
W: What comes to mind when you think of “Romantic” music?
M: Love songs? Ballads?
W: Ah-ha, yes the term “romantic” now calls to mind images such
as roses, candles, and flowers, but this is not the meaning of
romantic music. It was not specifically music to listen to on a date.
Remember, there are three periods of pre-20th century European
classical music.
The first is Baroque, which occurred between the years 1600
and 1760. Baroque music is typified by Johan Sebastian Bach.
Musical performances became larger and more complex during this
period. Also, opera became established in the Baroque period.
The second is the Classical period, typified by Mozart. It took
place between the years 1730 and 1820. In general terms,
Classical period music focused more on clarity and simplicity
than Baroque period works.
The third period, which we’ll be focusing on today, ran from
about 1800 to 1900 and is called the Romantic period. The
name implies that the expression of feeling or emotion through
the music became more important than the structure, rules, or
formal systems of the music. This trend actually continued into
the 20th century in many respects as well.
So, how did they achieve this greater expressive power in the
music? Well, we see many new chord forms appearing in the
19th century. These forms would have been regarded as dissonant,
cacophonous, or simply as the incorrect form of a similar chord in
previous times. However, as romantic composers proved, a strange
chord in an appropriate context can be extremely expressive.
Romantic composers also made much greater use of key changes,
and they played around with the format of musical pieces. For
example, the traditional third movement in a symphony is a
sonata, a very soft relaxing piece. Many Romantic composers
replaced this with the scherzo, a much more intense piece, in
order to gain greater power of expression.
The sheer size of orchestras and the lengths of pieces saw a
significant increase in the Romantic period. In fact, Gustav Mahler’s
8th Symphony is also known as the “Symphony of a Thousand,”
because it took so many people to play it. Also, in the Classical
period, a symphony lasted about 25 minutes. A Romantic
symphony, however, often lasts up to 45 minutes. We also saw
new instruments such as the piccolo become popular during
this period.
Another major difference between the Romantic period and
the Classical period that preceded it was the motivation behind
the work. Nearly all Romantic pieces have a program, or theme,
often based on a book, painting, myth, or folktale. For instance,
Hector Berlioz created the theme of his Symphonie Fantastique
himself. Through the symphony, Berlioz tells the story of how a
young artist falls in love with a woman who doesn’t return his love.
You can probably guess the tragic end to this story told through
music. “Character pieces” also came into being during the Romantic
period. These are short pieces dedicated to a particular mood or
feeling. They are usually played only on the piano. Composers
such as Chopin and Schumann favored this approach. Opera
was also affected. Many of the distinct movements began to
blend together into a continuous flow of music.
To recap, then, the Romantic period of music had little to do
with love, as we now associate with the word “romantic.” It
was a period of musical work that followed the Classical period
and the Baroque period before that. Romantic period music
stressed the importance of expressing emotion over careful
attention to form and musical structure. New chords were
added, and the arrangements of symphonies were altered. In
addition, the length of symphonies and the number of instruments
needed to play them both increased dramatically. Finally,
Romantic pieces tended to have a theme or story expressed
through the music. All in all, Romantic composers opened music
up to a wide range of new possibilities, eventually leading to
the atonal or serial movements of the 20th century.

6 Literature.
M: OK, class. Today, we’re going to continue our series of lectures
looking at influential British authors. Today’s topic is someone
I’m sure you are all familiar with in one way or another. Who
can tell me a bit about Robert Louis Stevenson?
W1: Wasn’t he the guy that wrote The Ugly Duckling, and several
other short stories?
M: No, you’re thinking of the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen.
The names are pretty similar, but Robert Louis Stevenson was
from Scotland. He was also a famous author, though.
W2: That name is really familiar. I’m sure I read one of his books as
a kid. Did he write children’s books?
M: You’re getting closer. He didn’t specifically write children’s books,
but one of his books became a famous tale that many children
the world over have read. It’s about pirates.
W2: Oh! I know. He wrote Treasure Island, right?
M: Yes, that’s right. You probably know him best for Treasure Island
and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but these are
not his only works. In his time, he was known as a great author
of travel books, short stories, and literary articles, in addition to
fictional novels. Born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Mr. Stevenson had
poor health right from his childhood. He suffered from tuberculosis,
a disease affecting the lungs. This sickness would greatly affect
the course of Stevenson’s life as he moved from place to place
trying to find a climate suitable for his condition. He first went to
school to study engineering but later changed to law. He passed
the Scottish Bar Exam in 1875 at the age of 25, but he never
actually got around to practicing much law. Instead, he spent his
time writing essays, short stories, and travel pieces. He published
a book called An Inland Voyage based on his canoe tour of
Belgium and France in 1878. On this trip, he also met his wife,
Fanny Osbourne. They got married in 1880 and moved to California
for a while. Then, they went back to Scotland but never really
permanently settled there. They kept moving around in search
of better climates for the rest of Stevenson’s life.
Stevenson became famous with his pirate adventure novel,
Treasure Island, published in 1883 when he was 33 years old.
Three years later, he published Kidnapped as well as his most
famous work, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Who can tell me about this story? I’m sure you’ve all seen it in
one form or another. There was even a version featuring Bugs
Bunny and Porky Pig, if I recall correctly.
W1: Sure, I know that one. That’s the story of the scientist who drinks
some chemical formula and becomes a big, mean monster...
something like the Hulk, right?
M: Well, you’re on the right track for sure. The Hulk is somewhat
of a derivative of Stevenson’s Hyde character. I find it interesting
to note though, that in the book, the evil Hyde is actually physically
smaller than the good Dr. Jekyll. Hyde’s monstrosity was not in
his muscular build, but in his selfish character.
In fact, Jekyll and Hyde was actually based on a nightmare
Stevenson had. His wife woke him up from the dream, and he
was angry that she had interrupted the story. He later wrote a
draft of it and read it to his wife. She suggested expanding the
idea into a novel. Originally, he was reluctant but finally agreed.
Stevenson actually burned the first draft. He rewrote it in a mere
three days, and after it was published, it soon became a sweeping
success. Its main point was to criticize the two-facedness of people
in society, especially upper-class Londoners. That is, the emphasis
of appearances over substance and character.
Stevenson was also busy at this time writing a lot of articles for
publication in various literary journals. The most famous one, “A
Humble Remonstrance,” first appeared in 1884, the year after the
publication of Jekyll and Hyde. Stevenson’s article was a response
to “The Art of Fiction,” an article published by his friend, the
American philosopher, Henry James.
Stevenson spent the latter part of his life living on the South Pacific
island of Samoa, where he wrote several works featuring aspects
of Polynesian culture and criticizing European colonialism. In fact,
his collection of essays on life on various Pacific islands is quite
fascinating. It’s called In the South Seas in case anyone is interested
in it.

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