Now, some biologists are maintaining that the programs in the Avida project are alive. The programs live, die, reproduce, compete, coopGrate. and evolve—activities that many biologists consider the hallmarks of life. One prominent biologist says, "They don't have a metabolism— at least not yet. But otherwise, they're alive." | 2. Don t take too many notes. One easy way to get sidetracked on the Listening section is to try to write down too many notes. Writing requires your concentration and if you re concentrating on writing you re probably not concentrating on listening. Focus on listening in fact if you are not comfortable taking notes don t take any at all. Bask Principle 1 Find the Main Idea or Purpose We ve spent a lot of time doing this with reading passages. Now we ve got to apply our understanding to a listening task. Fortunately the patterns in the Listening section are very similar to the patterns in the Reading section. Lectures will be designed around a main idea whereas conversations will center on a purpose. For lectures the speaker will typically introduce the main idea at the very beginning of the talk. Listen for phrases similar to the ones that follow Okay today 1 want to talk about. What we re going to talk about today is. Today we re going to look at. Tonight I wanted to look at. The professor will then follow with the topic of discussion. If you re taking notes you should write the topic down. Once you have the main topic you can expect the lecturer to provide a purpose or an explanation for the topic or information on it. During a conversation the beginning of the conversation will reveal the speaker s purpose. Listen for the purpose to appear after an initial greeting as in the following examples Hi what can I do for you Hello how can I help you What can I do for you today Is there something I can do for you After this initial question the other speaker will state his or her purpose. Usually this involves asking for some sort of help or assistance. If you are taking notes you should write down what the purpose of the conversation is. Bask Principle 2 Focus on the Structure After finding the main idea or purpose focus on the structure of the talk. Lectures and conversations each have standard structures. Listen for them as you take the TOEFL. Types of Lecture .
