Universidad de Concepcin

Departamento de Idiomas Extranjeros

Listening Activity:
Before Time and Space

Students: - Doris Palma Garrido

- Pa Pedreros Yez
Professor: Juan Pablo Cerda
Date: September 25th, 2014.

LISTENING STRATEGY
There are various listening strategies. These can be classified by how the listener processes the
input. We will use in this particular activity the Bottom-up strategies are based on what is heard,
which is the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that helps to identify meaning even when
there is no previous knowledge of it. Bottom-up strategies include:
- listening for specific details
- recognizing cognates
- recognizing word-order patterns
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the early development of the
universe. The key idea is that the universe is expanding.
The framework for the Big Bang model relies on Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity and
on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity and isotropy of space.
English astronomer Fred Hoyle is credited with coining the term "Big Bang" during a 1949 BBC
radio broadcast. It is popularly reported that Hoyle, who favored an alternative "steady state"
cosmological model, intended this to be pejorative, but Hoyle explicitly denied this and said it was
just a striking image meant to highlight the difference between the two models.
LISTENING ACTIVITY
Before Time and Space: The Big Bang
Read the sentences below about the Big Bang theory. As you read think about what sort of
information is missing. No more than 3 words will be necessary for each gap. You will hear
the recording twice.
1) There are powerful forces at work in the universe, like _______________, apocalyptic asteroid
impacts and invisible jets of radiation streaming across the universe.
2) The cosmos is a place of ____________ danger.
3) Nothing is more powerful in the entire universe than the colossal explosion called
________________.
4) The universe used to be as small as a _____________.
5) The universe was born some _____________ years ago.
6) The colossal blast created everything without even making a ___________.
7) It is silly when The Big Bang is portrayed in films with a huge noise because sound
__________________ in space.
8) The Big Bang was the explosion of _______________________ into existence.

ANSWERS
1) exploding stars
2) ever-present
3) The Big Bang
4) proton
5) 13.7 billion
6) sound
7) doesnt propagate
8) space and time

VOCABULARY
WORD/PHRASE
Devastating
Blast
Lurking
Peril
Jet
Streaming
To wrap your
brain around

Proton
Nugget
Triggering
Colossal

PHONETIC
TRANSCRIPTION
/devstet/
/ blst/ (BrE)
/blst/ (AmE)
/l(r)k/
/perl/
/det/
/strim/

/prtn/ (BrE)
/protn/ (AmE)
/nt/
/trr/
/klsl/ (BrE)
/klsl/ (AmE)
/mt(r)/

Matter
Portrayed
Propagate
Overlook
Trips up
Void

/p(r)tre /
/prpet/ (BrE)
/prpet/ (AmE)
/vlk/ (BrE)
/ovrlk /
/trp/
/vd/

DEFINITION
Causing a lot of damage and destruction
An explosion or a powerful movement of air
caused by an explosion
To wait somewhere secretly, especially because
you are going to do something bad or illegal
Serious danger
A high-velocity fluid stream forced under
pressure
To flow continuously
To completely understand something
A very small piece of matter (= a substance) with
a positive electric charge that forms part of
the nucleus (= central part) of an atom
A small lump of a valuable metal or mineral,
especially gold, that is found in the earth
Something that is the cause of a particular
reaction or development, especially a bad one
Extremely large
Everything that is solid and you can see and
touch (more or less), as opposed to spiritual
things or energy.
To act a particular role in a film/movie or play
Transmits, extends
To see something wrong or bad but decide to
ignore it
To make a mistake; to deliberately make
somebody do this
A large empty space

TRANSCRIPT
There are powerful forces at work in the universe, from man-made explosions to Mother Nature's
devastating, destruction, to epic blasts of unbelievable cosmic power. All of them reveal a universe
of lurking perils, like exploding stars, apocalyptic asteroid impacts and invisible jets of
radiation streaming across the universe.
The cosmos is a place of ever-present danger. But what's amazing is that in the entire universe,
nothing is more powerful than the colossal explosion that created it all: The Big Bang.
The Big Bang is an amazingly difficult thing to wrap your brain around, which isn't surprising when
you're trying to think about the universe being smaller than the head of a pin; actually, smaller than
an atom, about as small as the proton at the centre of an atom.
Whatever the universe was at the very beginning, some 13.7 billion years ago, we think it was tiny,
an infinitesimal nugget of space. And then something happened, triggering the most colossal
explosion in history.
In a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second, the universe grew from the size of that tiny
point to something billions of miles across. This colossal blast created everything. All the matter we
see in the universe today. And it did all this, without even making a sound.
When one sees the Big Bang portrayed in a film, there's always a big bang, a noise. Of course
that's silly because sound doesn't propagate in space. But what's often overlooked is that the Big
Bang is not just an explosion that happened at some moment in time at some point in space. It was
not just an explosion of material into an empty universe that was sitting there waiting to be filled. It
was the explosion of space and time into existence, to begin with.
And that's what trips most of us up. Before the Big Bang, there was nothing, literally nothing. And
the black void of space is something. So is time. They ask what's before the Big Bang. What's
before there is time, is really a meaningless question. And likewise, to ask where the Big
Bang occurred, is meaningless, because there was no space.
SOURCES
http://eff.cls.utk.edu/toolkit/support_listening_strategies.htm
http://www.multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/before-time-and-space-the-big-bang-3355
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVsHjnY-o9s