Listening exercise
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Toronto
Richardson's Roundup with Bill Richardson

Interview with Robert Sullivan, author of

Rats
: Observations on the history and habitat
of the city's most unwanted inhabitants

Listen to the RealPlayer file:

http://www.cbc.ca/roundup/media/20040430Sullivan.ram

Vocabulary:
palindrome
"Able was I, ere I saw Elba"
"Madam, I'm Adam"
garden variety ones
likewise
"Rats live on no evil star"
apparently
for instance
situation
imagine
relaxed
to raze (a house)
foundation
corpse
studio
prevalence
urban places
New York City
of any city
within spitting distance
a pair of rats
dirty stuff
to get s.t. out of the way
rapacious sex lives
statistic
to title
jealous
pregnant
litter
next thing you know
rodent problem
huge
lice
history
Hans Zinsser
to equate
reproduction rate
species
to make a nest
to disperse
trails
byways
resources
to stick around
in the 40s
food supplies
Marshall Plan
bioterrorism
area
neighborhood
to run out of
to get/run low
to kill off
to push out
to migrate out
to utilize
war
fighting
-phobic
-philic
rodentologist
city dweller
to walk along
alley
to hug close to
along the wall
neophobic
trash
excellent
natural habitat
bar food
colony
to eat from
trap
to bait a trap with
peanut butter
Vienna sausages
sardines
regular stuff
to go near
to suggest
plentiful
to be situated in
Wall Street
City Hall
commons
to scream
to jump up and down
sea ports
for generations
off the main street
two blocks off of
Broadway
no one around
to be skilled in the ways of
to recommend s.t. to s.o.
printing shop
to be plowed over
kind of
layers and layers of
a million times
photographer
to cover the city
decades
Geez!
to miss
it's the kind of place
crook
exterminators
Derrick
part-time
to spend a lot of time
to figure out
scientific paper
from the 40s
to become an expert in
surely
the better part of a year
colonies of
to be togged out with
night vision gear
to come up on one
to get confused
to buy stuff
to be flipped around
Thoreau
nature writing
sects
hopefully
big camping trip
goggles
side place
field of
shiny eyes
initial
forays
smell
pungent
dross
to be hosed down
to get kinda used to s.t.
to carry disease
at the edge of
to lay (lie) down
alley floor
to point out
"absolute disgustingness"
mirror species
wildlife studies program
to hang out with
entomologist
bugs
cockroaches
section
to say a lot about
to regard
academy
our trash, filth
live and prosper
to skitter through
a guilded ballroom
to be divorced from
to dare say
to be creeped out by
poet
painter
due today
video practice
to practice it up
video skills
to film
to stress
rugged
rough
paws
to dig holes
Norway rat
to hit the curb
to bash into the boards
to crunch up
curb
mysteriously
intensely
straight
to run on gyroscopes
close up
teeth
hissing
to call from
yacht
to settle on a topic
to be tied up with
human history
more particularly
rat-ridden
Eden Alley
metaphorical
fascinating
rat pets
gangs
Martin Scorsese
the exact
front page
sports section
papers
Philadelphia
London
all around
rat fights
the deal was
pit
saloon
cage of rats
to collect
to scurry out
competing
promoters
pretty gross
Sid Vicious
to bite heads of
for instance
Irish immigrants
to gather together
vermin
to bet on
lower than
to come out (a book)
to smell
"Rats over America" tour
reporter
Chicago
the opposite of
San Francisco
to check into a hotel
to shop
Saks Fifth Avenue (a posh department store)
to write a postcard
café
real close to
the old Blue Skies Club
"a whole nother" kind of thing
the Tenderloin (an eight-block area that is home to many elderly and immigrant residents, and most of San Franciscoˇ¦s SROˇ¦s (single room occupancy) hotels and homeless population)
Isadora Duncan
women's rights
future
poster
rally
surplus housing
homeless
ratting
talk radio
constantly
to call in
Republican legislators
favorite
financial district
nicely-dressed
guys
to be stuck in
grate of a sewer
handkerchief
puddle
to cool its brow
to turn s.o. loose into
rat-ridden world
to hang onto
for one's own reference
in exchange for
the obvious thing
to stand a chance to win
my pleasure
Roundup
information update
mystery project

Listening comprehension questions:
1. Why does Richardson introduce the program by talking about palindromes?
2. Why did a woman visitor once make Richardson uncomfortable?
3. What did Sullivan wish he could have used as the book title, and why?
4. What do rats do if the food supply gets low?
5. What word does Sullivan use to mean 'liking to be touched'? How can you find the spelling of this word if you don't know it (I didn't!)?
6. Why may rats avoid traps baited with good food?
7. Who was Derrick, and what did he have to offer the author?
8. What was the disadvantage of the night vision gear that the author used at first? Why did he buy it?

http://www.msmosquito.com/ratident.html
9. What does the author mean when he says rats are a kind of 'mirror species'? Why does this idea bother us humans?
10. What body part of the rat seems to bother people most, and why?
11. What practice did even the rat fight promoters of the 1840s and 1850s find disgusting?
12. What does the author say is a nice thing about looking for rats instead of staying at a nice hotel and shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue?
13. Summarize the author's favorite rat story.
14. How could you have had a chance at winning a copy of Sullivan's book when this program was first broadcast?
15.
Why do you think this book has attracted so much interest?


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