NARRATOR：

Listen to a conversation between a student and a professor.

MALE STUDENT：

Hi, Professor Mason, do you have a minute?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Yes, of course, Eric, [thinking aloud] I think there was something I wanted to talk to you about too.

MALE STUDENT：

Probably my late essay.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Ah, that must be it, I thought maybe [upspeak] I'd lost it.

MALE STUDENT：

No, I'm sorry. Actually it was my computer that lost it, the first draft of it.

And, well, anyway, I finally put it in your mail box yesterday.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Oh, I haven't checked the mail box yet today. Well, I'm glad it's there. I will read it this weekend.

MALE STUDENT：

Well, sorry again. Say, I can send it to you by email too if you like.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Great. I'll be interested to see how it all came out.

MALE STUDENT：

Right. Now, ah, [questioning] I just have overheard some graduates students talking... something about a party for Dean Adams?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Retirement party, yes, all students are invited.

Wasn't there notice on the Anthropology Department's bulletin board?

MALE STUDENT：

Ah, I don't know. But I want to offer to help out with it. You know whatever you need.

Dean Adams, well, I took a few anthropology classes with her and they were great, inspiring.

That's why I want to pitch in.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Oh, that's very thoughtful of you, Eric, but it will be pretty low-key, nothing flashy. That's not her style.

MALE STUDENT：

So there's nothing?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

No, we'll have coffee and cookies, maybe a cake.

But actually a couple of the administrative assistants are working on that.

You could ask them but I think they've got it covered.

MALE STUDENT：

OK.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

[a bit hesitantly, new idea] Actually [changes mind]… no, never mind…

MALE STUDENT：

[anxious to help] What's it?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Well, it's nothing to do with the party and I'm sure there are more exciting ways you could spend your time, but we do need some help with something.

We‘re compiling a database of articles the anthropology faculty has published.

There is not much glory in it , but we are looking for someone with some knowledge of anthropology who can enter the articles.

[asking MALE STUDENT to do it, though with hesitation] I hesitate to mention it, but I don't suppose it's something you would...

MALE STUDENT：

[enthusiastic, accepting] No, that sounds kinda cool. I would like to see what they are writing about.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Wonderful. And there are also some unpublished studies.

Did you know Dean Adams did a lot of field research in Indonesia? Most of it hasn't been published yet.

MALE STUDENT：

No, like what?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Well, she is really versatile.

She just spent several months studying social interactions in Indonesia and she's been influential in ethnology.

[remembering, excited] Oh, and she's also done work in south of America, this is closer to biology—especially with speciation.

MALE STUDENT：

Ah, not to seem uninformed.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Well, how's species form? You know, how two distinct species form from one—like when populations of the same species are isolated from each other and then developed into two different directions and ended up with two distinct species.

MALE STUDENT：

Interesting.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Yes, and while she was there in the south of America, she collected a lot of linguistic information and songs, really fascinating.

MALE STUDENT：

Well. I hate to see her leave.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Don't worry. She'll still be around. She's got lots of projects that she's still in the middle of.