2011年ESL之餐饮娱乐 02 Judging a Contest_在线英语听力室

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02 Judging a Contest

contest – a competition where people or submissions³ are judged and the onethat is best is the winner

* You sing so well. Have you ever entered a singing contest?

entry – submission²; something that one prepares and then officially gives tosomeone to participate in a contest or competition

* All contest entries are due by Friday at 5:00 p.m.

impartial⁴ – objective; fair; without a preference for a particular person or thing

* Sometimes teachers cover the students’ names when they grade essays andtests so that they can be impartial.

panel of judges – a group of people who evaluate how good something is andthen compare their evaluations⁶ to create one evaluation⁵ for the entire group

* If the judges all have similar information and experience, there shouldn’t be toomuch disagreement when the panel of judges meets and makes its decision.

criterion – one factor used when evaluating the quality of something

* Your course grade will be based on three criteria⁷: your attendance, your gradeon the written essays, and your performance on the oral exam.

to score – to assign a number or letter to something to evaluate the quality of itand compare it to other things

* Why did you score the ice skater’s performance so low?

scale – a range of values that can be assigned to evaluate the quality ofsomething

* Please evaluate the workshop on a 5-point scale: 1 means you thought it washorrible and 5 means you thought it was fantastic.

to average out – to add a group of numbers and then divide that result by thenumber of items in the group

* Hei ate 5 candies, Seunjin ate 14, and Poi ate 2, which averages out to 7candies per person.

clear winner – a person who has obviously won a contest or competition, beingmuch better than the next person; a person who has won something with a muchhigher score than other people

* Vicky was the clear winner of the race. All the other runners were severalminutes behind her.

scorer – a person or entry that has been assigned a certain value or rating in acompetition or contest

* Shamus is very intelligent, but he has always been a low scorer onstandardized tests.

to vote on – for many people to each say which thing they prefer, and for thething with the most supporters to win

* How many people voted on the ballot⁸ measure?

majority rules – a phrase used to mean that the person/thing receiving the mostvotes wins, or that the person/thing receiving more than 50% of the votes wins

* I wanted to have Thai food, but my wife and daughter wanted pizza, so we wentto a pizza restaurant. Majority rules.

to disqualify – to determine that someone or something cannot participate in acontest or competition because it does not meet all the requirements

* Several swimmers were disqualified from the race for using steroids.

guideline – recommendations, rules, or instructions about how something shouldbe done

* Read the guidelines in the owners manually carefully before you try to changethe oil in your car.

to cull¹¹ – to reduce the size of a group of things by taking away the weakest,poorest, or least appropriate things

* We received hundreds of applications for the job, but we culled¹² them toeliminate the ones that had typos.

eligible¹³ – meeting the minimum requirements to have, do, or participate insomething

* If a family of four in Wisconsin makes less than $28,665, the children areeligible for free school lunches.

to have (one’s) work cut out for (one) – to have a lot of work that one needs todo; to need to do a large project or a lot of work

* This garage hasn’t been cleaned out in more than 10 years! We really have ourwork cut out for us.

you’ve got that right – a phrase use to show that one fully¹⁰ agrees with whatanother person has said

* - New homes are really expensive!

* - You’ve got that right.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Who would be part of an impartial panel of judges?

a) Powerful attorneys with experience in the courtroom.

b) Judges who are very well educated and experienced.

c) People who are objective and unbiased.

2. What did Adelia do with the entries that didn’t meet the requirements?

a) She sent them back to the contest participants.

b) She separated them from the other entries.

c) She revised them as needed to make the eligible.

______________

WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

contest

The word “contest,” in this podcast, means a competition where people orsubmissions are judged and the one that is best is the winner: “Are youparticipating in the website design contest?” A “popularity contest” is a situationwhere people vote for someone because they like him or her, but not necessarilybecause he or she is most qualified⁹ for the position: “Elections for studentgovernment in junior high school are really just a popularity contest.” As a verb,“to contest” means to disagree and argue against something: “They’ve decided¹⁴ togo to court to contest their landlord’s decision.” The phrase “to plead no contest”

means that one will not try to defend oneself against an accusation¹⁵ in court:

“When Joao got a parking ticket, he decided to plead no contest and just pay thefine.”

scale

In this podcast, the word “scale” means a range of values that can be assigned toevaluate the quality of something: “Reya and her girlfriends play a game wherethey decide how handsome men are on a ten-point scale.” A “scale” also refersto the size of something: “The scale of the problem is much more serious that weoriginally thought.” A “kitchen/bathroom scale” is a device used to determinehow much something weighs: “I need a kitchen scale to weigh out 200 grams ofsugar for this recipe.” Finally, when talking about a map, the “scale” is the ratiobetween the actual size of something and how big it is on the map: “This maphas a 1:1200 scale.”

CULTURE NOTE

Publishers Clearing House is a “direct marketing¹⁶ company” (a company that sellsother companies’ products and services to individuals) that sells “discounted”

(offered at a lower-than-usual price) magazine subscriptions¹⁸ to American“households” (groups of people living together in one home). Founded in 1953, itmails “offers” (opportunities to buy something) to households and, more recently,it also uses the Internet.

In 1967, Publishers Clearing House began organizing “sweepstakes,” which arecontests where the winner is “selected randomly” (with all people having an equallikelihood of being chosen) from a large group of entries. The direct marketingoffers informed people that they could enter the sweepstakes by “completing”

(filling out) and returning a form in the envelope. Most people thought they alsohad to pay for a magazine subscription¹⁷ in order to be eligible, so thesweepstakes helped Publishers Clearing House increase sales.

In the United States, it is illegal to require someone to buy a product or service inorder to participate in a sweepstakes. Publishers Clearing House got into troublefor “misleading” (not being clear, leading someone to the wrong idea orconclusion) and in 1994 it had to agree to change the ways it “promotes”

(advertises; raises awareness¹⁹ about) its sweepstakes. Today, its materialscontain statements like, “Buying Won’t Help You Win,” and “You Have Not YetWon.”

The “top” (largest) prize is $10 million, but the “odds” (likelihood; chance) ofwinning are currently 1 in 1.75 million. For the people who do win thesweepstakes, the Publishers Clearing House “Prize Patrol” (a group of peoplewho award prizes) comes to their home and lets them know they have won. Thisis “captured” (filmed; recorded) by video cameras and shown on TV to promotePublishers Clearing House.

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – c; 2 – b

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT²⁰

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 658: Judging aContest.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 658. I’m your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development inbeautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is eslpod.com. Go there to download a Learning Guide for thisepisode that will help you improve your English – and make your teeth just a littlebit whiter!

This episode is a dialogue between Omar and Adelia about judging a “contest,”

or a competition. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Adelia: When I created this writing contest, I had no idea that we would get somany entries.

Omar: Good thing you have an impartial panel of judges to help you select thewinner.

Adelia: Yes, good thing. I’m really grateful to all of you for giving up your time tohelp.

Omar: What criteria are we using to score each of the entries?

Adelia: We’re using a 10-point scale. Each of us will read an entry and give it ascore. When we’re all done, we’ll average out those scores. Hopefully, there’llbe a clear winner.

Omar: And if not?

Adelia: If there isn’t, then we’ll take the top scorers and vote on which is best.

Majority rules.

Omar: Okay, but are there reasons for disqualifying an entry? For instance,what if somebody didn’t follow the entry guidelines?

Adelia: I’ve already culled the entries for the ones that don’t meet therequirements. These are all eligible.

Omar: Okay, let’s get started. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

Adelia: You’ve got that right.

[end of dialogue]

Adelia begins by saying to Omar, “When I created this writing contest, I had noidea that we would get so many entries.” A “contest,” as you probably know, is acompetition where you have different people trying to become the winner – to getthe top place. This word can be used in a number of different ways, some ofwhich are found your Learning Guide for this episode. An “entry” (entry) issomething that you prepare and then give to someone to be part of a contest; it’spart of the competition. It can also be called a “submission,” when you givesomething – “submit” something to someone.

Adelia says that she had no idea, meaning she didn’t know; she was surprisedthat they got so many entries. This is, of course, people writing something forthis writing contest. Omar said, “Good thing you have an impartial panel ofjudges to help you select the winner.” “Good thing” is short for “it is a good thing(that you have an impartial panel of judges).” “To be impartial” (impartial) meansto be fair, to be objective, not to favor this person over that person. The oppositeof “impartial” is “partial.” “I am partial to her and not to him.” You want a “judge,”

someone making the decision about who is best, to be impartial, to be fair. A“panel of judges” is a group of people who decide how good something is, andthen decide who is the best person.

Adelia says, “Yes, good thing (meaning yes, it is a good thing). I’m really gratefulto all of you for giving up your time to help.” She’s thanking the panel of judges.

Omar says, “What criteria are we using to score each of the entries?” “Criteria” isthe plural²¹ of “criterion” (criterion). “Criterion” is a factor; it is one quality orcharacteristic that you use to judge the quality of something. “Criteria” (ending in“ia”) is the plural and it refers to the qualities or characteristics that you use tojudge something. So for example, your professor at the university might havedifferent criteria for getting an A, a high score in his or her class. It might includecoming to class every week, writing a paper, doing well on the exam, and soforth. “Score,” here, is used as a verb, “to score,” which in this context means toassign a number or letter to something to evaluate the quality of it. If you watchthe Olympics you know that they give scores for the performances. In gymnastics, for example, you could get a 8.5 or a 9.6. These are scores; thejudges are scoring each of the contestants²² – each of the athletes.

Adelia says, “We’re using a 10-point scale.” A “scale” is a range of numbers – ofvalues that can be assigned to evaluate the quality of something. So forexample, your teacher might judge you on a five-point scale. Five is excellent;four is, hmm, very good; three is not great; two is poor; and one is very poor.

That would be a scale. This is a 10-point scale, 10 being the highest and 1 beingthe lowest, or 0. Adelia says, “Each of us will read an entry (read one of theessays, whatever was written), and give it a score. When we’re all done, we’llaverage out each of these scores.” “To average out” means to add a group ofnumbers and then divide by the number of items in the group. So, if I givesomeone an 8 and you give them a 9 and the third judge gives them a 10, youcan add those up and get 27, you divide that by 3 because there are 3 judges,and that gives you the average score of 9. That’s how you average out thescores. You could hear – just say “to average the scores,” but we tend toprepositions and other words to verbs in order to make it more difficult for otherpeople to learn English! “Hopefully,” Adelia says, “there’ll be a clear winner.” A“clear” winner is someone who obviously won, it wasn’t even close; this persongot the highest score and it was much higher than anyone else. That would be aclear winner.

Adelia hopes they’ll have a clear winner, but Omar says, “And if not?” meaning ifthere isn’t a clear winner. Adelia says, “If there isn’t, then we’ll take the topscorers (the people who got the highest scores) and vote on which is best.” “Tovote on” means everyone says who they think should be the winner, and theperson with the most votes wins. Adelia says, “Majority rules.” “Majority rules”

means that anyone who gets 50 percent plus 1 wins the contest. Omar says,“Okay, but are there reasons for disqualifying an entry?” “To disqualify” is todetermine that this person cannot participate in the contest because theyperhaps did something wrong; they didn’t follow the rules. There’s some reasonwhy they didn’t meet the requirements we might say, they would be disqualified.

If you use certain drugs in…I don’t know…bowling – because you know thosebowlers are all taking drugs, right? – then you may be disqualified if you’retaking, like, steroids or something. That’s to disqualify.

Omar says, “For instance, what if somebody didn’t follow the entry guidelines?”

The “guidelines” are the rules, the instructions. Adelia says, “I’ve already culledthe entries,” meaning I’ve already looked through them and got rid of the weakones or the ones that don’t qualify. “I’ve already culled (culled) the entries for theones that don’t meet the requirements (that are disqualified). These (the onesthat she has) are all eligible.” “To be eligible” means that you have met the minimum requirements; you followed the rules; you are able to participate insomething. There’s an old expression, “an eligible bachelor.” A “bachelor” is anunmarried man. “To be eligible” means that he is available to be someone youcould marry; someone who doesn’t have any other romantic relationships forexample.

Omar says, “Okay, let’s get started. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” Thisexpression, “to have your work cut out for you,” means that you have a lot ofwork; you have many things you have to do, it’s a big project. Some girlfriendstry to change their boyfriends, try to change the way they look, dress, act, and soforth. We could say they have their work cut out for them; that’s a very long job!

Adelia says, “You’ve got that right.” The expression here, said with that particularpronunciation – that intonation²³, “you got that right” – is used to show you agreewith someone completely. You fully agree with that person, and that’s whatAdelia is saying to Omar.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.