The Hedged Lecture: Note-Taking When the Speaker Revises Herself
Independent written-language classroom exercise. The stated times, task format and marking priorities are hypothetical practice constraints, not current Czech official rules. No audio is supplied. The candidate is rereading a supplied written lecture script about urban beekeeping, in which the speaker argues that the honeybee is a livestock species rather than wildlife. Her notes read: 'HB = livestock, not wildlife → bad for wild bees?' The supplied script reads: 'The honeybee - and this is the point people miss - is an agricultural animal. It's not wildlife. Now, wild pollinators, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies: they're the ones under pressure. ... Though I should say, the picture is less clear than it was - some of the declines we reported in the nineties have flattened, even reversed, in parts of Europe.' Question 7 asks about the speaker's attitude to campaigns encouraging city residents to keep hives. Option B reads: 'She believes urban hives are a significant cause of wild pollinator decline.' The candidate has underlined the contrastive wording 'not wildlife' and is inclined to choose B, though she has a vague memory of the hedge.
1. Is option B a defensible reading of the extract? Justify your answer with reference to what the speaker actually commits to.
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Option B is not established by the supplied extract. Calling honeybees agricultural animals rather than wildlife is a classification claim, and reporting pressure on wild pollinators does not by itself attribute that pressure to urban hives. The later qualification says some reported declines flattened or reversed in some places. It neither proves nor disproves a causal hive effect. The extract also does not by itself establish a particular policy or funding recommendation. An answer must separate what the speaker says from a stronger causal or policy conclusion not supplied.
2. The candidate's notes contain a question mark ('bad for wild bees?'). What should she have written instead, and why does the hedge matter more than the stressed proposition?
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Suggested notes: honeybee classified as agricultural; wild pollinators described as under pressure; some historical declines reported as flattening or reversing in parts of Europe. Add: causal effect of urban hives not established in the supplied text. A question mark can appropriately mark an unresolved inference. The qualifying words restrict the strength of the reported decline claim; they do not prove an unspoken belief. Without audio, do not infer contrastive stress from this page.
3. On the second listening, what should the candidate listen for to settle the item, and in what order?
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First, the end of the extract, not the beginning. The restatement or qualification frequently arrives near the end, where speakers place the position they are willing to defend. She should listen specifically for a final evaluative sentence about hives or campaigns, as distinct from honeybees.
Second, the verb. 'Encourages', 'distracts from', 'competes with', 'causes' - the answer options differ most sharply in their verbs, and the audio resolves them with one word. She should hold the verb of each option in mind rather than the whole sentence.
Third, the discourse marker after the pause. The audible pause before 'Though I should say' is a structural cue: what follows revises what preceded.
What not to do: do not re-listen to confirm a remembered phrase. Re-listening to verify a memory produces confirmation, not correction. She should listen for the sentence she does not already have in her notes.