Listening: The 4:15 or 4:45 Bus
At 3:40 p.m., the school broadcast announces: 'The science club meets in Room 203 from 4:00 to 4:30. City buses leave the front gate at 4:15 and 4:45. Students going to the sports park should take the 4:45 bus, not the 4:15 bus, because the 4:15 bus stops at the station for ten minutes. The school library closes at 5:00, and the sports park gate closes at 5:30.' A student in the science club wants to return a library book and then go to the sports park. She hears 'four fifteen' and 'four forty-five' clearly but misses the reason for the change. She has 90 seconds to write a note to herself before the broadcast ends. She also knows that the walk from Room 203 to the front gate takes five minutes, and that the library is an eight-minute walk from the front gate.
1. Which bus can she realistically take, and what must she decide about the library? Write the note she should make.
Read the worked answer
Club ends at 4:30. Room 203 to the gate takes 5 minutes, so she reaches the gate at 4:35. The 4:15 bus has already left, so the only announced option is the 4:45. The library is 8 minutes from the gate: if she goes there at 4:35, she returns to the gate at about 4:51 (8 minutes each way), missing the 4:45 bus. The note should say: 'Take the 4:45 bus. I cannot return the book first; either skip the library or ask whether a later bus exists.' The decisive comparison is 4:35 + 8 + 8 = 4:51 > 4:45.
2. The broadcast gives a reason for taking the 4:45 bus. Why is that reason not the only thing she should rely on?
Read the worked answer
The broadcast says the 4:15 stops at the station for ten minutes, which sounds like the main reason. But the 4:15 is impossible before that reason matters: she cannot reach the gate until 4:35. A listener who catches only '4:15' and 'station' may write the wrong bus and miss that the club end time alone eliminates 4:15. She should note the club end time and the 5-minute walk, because those facts decide the answer independently of the station detail.