NarratorListen to part of a conversation between a student and an advisor.Now

Narrator
Listen to part of a conversation between a student and an advisor.
Advisor Hi, Quan, how are you doing?
Quan I’m doing great. How about you, Dr. Smith?
Advisor Great! Pretty busy with students’ papers.
Quan It’s about the end of the semester. You must have a lot of papers to read.
Advisor Yes. You are right. Thanks for coming in, Quan.
Quan Dr. Smith. You wanted to see me? Is there some sort of problem? I’m a bit worried.
Advisor Well, not exactly a problem. Don’t worry.
Quan Is it about my paper?
Advisor No, but there is something we need to discuss. I asked you to come here because I want to talk with you about your schedule.
Quan My schedule? Is there anything wrong with my schedule?
Advisor Eh...yes. About the courses you’ve already taken and the courses you’ve signed up to take next semester.
Quan What about it?
Advisor It’s not exactly wrong, but it’s something we need to deal with. Let me lay it out for you...here it is...you see...
Quan Yeah.
Advisor Well, in your plan of study you’ve declared that you want to finish your master’s degree in two and half years.
Quan That’s right.
Advisor It’s been a year since your enrollment. But, you haven’t taken any core courses yet. I’m just afraid that you may not be able to graduate in two and half years if you don’t take any core courses from this semester on.
Quan Dr. Smith. Actually, I don’t know anything about core courses. How do they affect my graduation?
Advisor You really don’t know anything about core courses? Didn’t anyone tell you anything about them? That’s weird.
Quan No, I don’t know.
Advisor You should have been told about them the very first day you were enrolled. Core courses are the required courses you must take so as to obtain your master’s degree and graduate. There are a total of five core courses you must take. Since they are not offered every semester, you have to make a plan about when to take them. Otherwise, I’m afraid, you may not be able to graduate on time.
Quan It sounds very serious. Thank you very much for reminding me.
Advisor My pleasure.
Quan In my case, I have to take as many core courses as possible every semester from now on. Is that right?
Advisor That’s right. By the way, another important thing is that the department cannot offer you an assistantship for the next year and half because of the tight budget. You know, there are more and more students applying right now, but there aren’t many assistantships to be offered. I’m sorry to tell you this.
Quan That’s too bad. But thank you for telling me this. It’s really important to me.
Advisor And, as you told me before, you cannot afford the tuition to study here by yourself.
Quan No, if I have no assistantship, there is no way for me to study here. So, I have to graduate on time. Dr. Smith, can you give me some suggestions on which courses I should take this semester? I have no idea which ones are easy and which ones are difficult.
Advisor Well, the core courses such as Grammar and Socio-psycho Linguistics are relatively easy, because they are the most basic courses. The courses like Testing and Descriptive Linguistics are comparatively difficult. But, if you can first finish Grammar and Socio-psycho Linguistics, Testing and Descriptive Linguistics will become easier because you will have some background knowledge about them.
Quan Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help.
Advisor You are welcome.
Now get ready to answer the questions. You may use your notes to help you answer.
30. What is the talk mainly about?
31. According to the talk, what are core courses?
32. According to the talk, what is the student’s problem?
33. According to the talk, what will happen to the student if he has no assistantship?
34. What does the advisor mean when he says this?
Advisor
You really don’t know anything about core courses? Didn’t anyone tell you anything about them? That’s weird.