Unit 1 Starting outListening inPassage 1Interviewer Can you tell me something about the Ivy League? Youre a professor at Harvard, is that right?Professor Thats right, yes.Interviewer Tell me how many universities are there? How many institutions?Professor In total there are eight institutions: Theres Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania.Interviewer Ah, OK. And whats the sporting . I believe theres some link with sports.Professor There certainly is, yes. Originally the Ivy League referred to the sports teams from the universities which competed against each other, especially in football, basketball and ice hockey. Now sometimes these universities, institutions, chose their students on the basis of their skills at these particular sports. But in the last 50 years, Ivy League schools have accepted a wider range of students because it wasnt possible to be both world-famous for research and also top class in sport.Interviewer And what about their academic importance? I gather theyre academically very, very important, theyre very well-known.Professor Absolutely at the top. Theyre near or at the top of the USA colleges and university rankings. And theyre almost always in the top one per cent of the worlds academic institutions for financial resources.Interviewer And what does it mean socially to go to an Ivy League university?Professor Certainly if youve been to one of these institutions, you are presumed or assumed to be at the top end of the scale. The Ivy League institutions have a reputation for social elitism, many of the students are rich, intellectual, white Anglo-Saxon, protestants. Not all of them of course, but quite a lot of them.Interviewer And do you know . whys it called the Ivy League, whats the origin of the name?Professor There are a number of stories, derivations, but possibly its based on four universities, and IV, the letters IV, thats the Roman numeral for four. Another more likely story is that ivy plants, which are symbolic of the age of the universities, you know, would be grown at the walls of these universities, these institutions, they cover the walls of the buildings. The term was created by a sports journalist, I think in the 1930s.Interviewer Right, OK. And which is the oldest university?Professor The oldest goes back to the 17th century, thats Harvard which was founded in 1636. And the youngest of the institutions is Cornell which was founded in 1865.Interviewer And which has the largest number of undergraduates?Professor Cornell has the largest number, about 13,000, 13,500 undergraduates. The institution with the smallest number is Dartmouth College with a little over 4,000.Interviewer And what about the acceptance rate? Is it hard to get into?Professor That ranges from about seven per cent to 20 per cent.Interviewer And any famous alumni? Famous old boys?Professor Hundreds! Hundreds of them. But I suppose worldwide, the two that would be definitely known all over the world would certainly be George Bush who went to Yale, and John F Kennedy, President Kennedy, who was at Harvard.Interviewer Thank you.Passage2Andy Did you see the film on television last night?Jane No, I was out. What was it?Andy A Beautiful Mind. Its about John Forbes Nash, the mathematician who won the Nobel Prize.Jane Ive heard about that film, yes. Hes played by Russell Crowe, isnt he? I like Russell Crowe, hes great.Andy Thats the one, yes.Jane Whats it about?Andy Well, the story begins in the early years of Nashs life at Princeton University as a graduate student.Jane Thats one of the Ivy League schools, isnt it?Andy Yes, its all set in New England, lovely old buildings, beautiful autumn colours. Its lovely to look at. Anyway, Nash meets his roommate Charles, a literature student, who soon becomes his best friend. Nash admits to Charles that he is better with numbers than people, and the main thing hes looking for is a truly original idea for his thesis paper.Jane So hes not interested in having fun?Andy Well, yes, but hes not very good with people or successful with women, thats all. But, you know, its one of these bad experiences with people which ultimately inspires his brilliant work in mathematics.Jane No good at relationships, so he becomes a genius at maths?Andy Thats about right, yes. So when he finishes his studies at Princeton, he accepts a job at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Five years later, he meets Alicia, a student who he falls in love with and eventually marries.Jane Ah! At last, the love interest!Andy Yes, but wait a moment. Nash believes that hes been asked to work by William Parcher for the US Department of Defense on breaking Soviet codes. At one point hes chased by the Russians, and its after this that he becomes mentally ill.Jane I think Ive seen this in the trailer to the film.Andy So when hes