# Understanding an explanation

Listen to a professor's explanation to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

### Transcript

Professor: OK, before we continue, does anybody have a question? Oh, lots of questions, I see. OK, we'll go one at a time. Yes?

Student: Thank you. You talked about Fibonacci numbers in the lecture. Sorry, I don't understand. Can you explain?

Professor: Of course. What do you want to know?

Student: OK … I hope this isn't a silly question, but what does Fibonacci actually mean?

Professor: No question is ever silly – it's always good to ask. OK, it's the name of a person. Fibonacci was a European mathematician in the Middle Ages.

Student: Ah, OK. Thanks. So, we know he was a person, but what are the Fibonacci numbers? I don't get it.

Professor: The Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers. They go 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and so on. Do you see the sequence? Do you see how it works?

Student: I'm not sure.

Professor: OK. This is how it works. The first number is 1, then 1 again, then 2. The third number is the first number plus the second number. The fourth number is the second number plus the third number: 1 plus 2 is 3. The fifth number is the third number, 2, plus the fourth number, 3. So the fifth number in a Fibonacci sequence is 5.

Student: Ah! I think I understand now. But what about their importance? You said these were very important.

Professor: Yes, let me explain. This sequence of numbers is important because we see it in many things. Fibonacci numbers are common in geometry, they are common in nature, for example in plants. We see the sequence everywhere.

Student: Could you give us some more examples?

Professor: OK ... well, we don't have time right now but I can bring more examples in for next class, OK?

### Language level

Submitted by azharbgskr on Thu, 25/11/2021 - 15:04

My last lecture I attended was Discrete Mathematics. It was about recursive function. My professor explained it properly. I can easily understand the material.

Submitted by vuhoap on Tue, 09/11/2021 - 00:17

The last lecture I went to about Japanese language about one year ago today. Yes, my teacher explained the usage of Japanese words very well. Until now, I still remember these words.

Submitted by Thais Gomes Ribeiro on Fri, 15/10/2021 - 16:34

The last lecture I went to was about Algebra and yes, the professor explained well.

Submitted by Suraj paliwal on Wed, 14/04/2021 - 03:31

Yes, my last lecture was held two days before. It was about economics it was held online due to virus. Teacher can't explain well because network issues. He was seem bad academicians He had no experience to how to teach students very well.

Submitted by vespinosa10 on Tue, 02/03/2021 - 18:08

Submitted by fariba on Tue, 16/02/2021 - 10:53

it was about labor organization and ILO. IT WAS USEFULL. AND MANY LECTURR EXPLAIN.

Submitted by Sara Kalafat on Mon, 08/02/2021 - 20:06

Submitted by Minh on Thu, 07/01/2021 - 22:52

Well, if I remembered clearly, when I was in the university that we had a trouble with many subjects, so these professors were willing to explain all of things for students. However, some subjects were difficult understand that the one of reason was made a number of students to fail the final exam.

Submitted by Suraj paliwal on Tue, 05/01/2021 - 05:47

My last lecture is on public finance. Public finance is a branch of economics. Lecture was held offline. We obey the government regulations. We made a social distancing each other. Teacher explain about canons of public expenditure. Teacher had explained very well. There was no doubt.

Submitted by Pola on Fri, 25/12/2020 - 16:52

Really, I didn't remember the last lecture, I had took, but I'm not sure the last one was lecture on design thinking, oh, that was 12 years ago.

Submitted by fatfat on Sun, 20/12/2020 - 21:30

I dont remember it. But usually the lectures were boring because academics were so bad.

Submitted by Augusto Hidalgo on Wed, 09/12/2020 - 19:56

And my last lecture is about english.

Submitted by Augusto Hidalgo on Wed, 09/12/2020 - 19:44

What was the last lecture you went to about? Did the professor explain it clearly? Yes, it was incredible and the teacher explains clearly.

Submitted by DJ Singh on Wed, 25/11/2020 - 07:01

My last lecture was about listening but I didn't get it because of the teacher had poor techniques to explain her ideas.

Submitted by Moon Wathan on Fri, 23/10/2020 - 17:09

I also want to know some example for the lecture because I was Mathematics student. I didn't know about Math that is important in everywhere. Teachers in my country didn't explain like that. So, I want to know about Math that is useful in everywhere.

Submitted by Ugulhan on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 22:55

I think it was a linguistic aspect in the field of technical documentation. It has been asked about how works it the functional elements in the text? the professor has explained the circumstance of my question and has given me some book.

Submitted by habibao.medo on Wed, 07/10/2020 - 14:32

it was an English lecture about skimming and scanning i didn't get it very well

Submitted by Rinaa on Fri, 14/08/2020 - 00:11

The last lecture that I attended, was one year ago when I was a student. I can remember one case when I had difficulty understand the payable and receivable accounts, and I couldn't know the difference between them. I asked my professor to found time to explain it with more examples, and he did it. He was satisfied with my question and interest to learn, so he approached me and explained it in detail. I still remember his advice and lectures about accounting.

Submitted by Phan Bao Dung on Fri, 31/07/2020 - 18:22

My last lecture was 3 years ago when I studied Master about Chemistry. At that time, I didn't know how to use the chemical equipment so my professor gave me some instructions. She explained it to me step by step, clearly, slowly. Then, I could do it right away.

Submitted by kbravoz on Mon, 20/07/2020 - 17:36

There's a missing number in Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3,5... in the question

Hello kbravoz,

The question asks about a particular sequence ('in this Fibonacci sequence'), so it is not intended to be complete.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Soe Thuya on Wed, 15/07/2020 - 16:02

I can't listen to all audio in these days.what happen to me?

Hello Soe Thuya,

I'm afraid our audio content is not working due to a temporary technical problem. We are working to resolve it as quickly as we can, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Please check again in a few hours or tomorrow.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Dastenova Firuza on Sat, 11/07/2020 - 20:06

The last lecture was on ecological problems delivered by prof. Hanns Moschamer from Austria where I was an interpreter. It was very clear, intersting and useful.

Submitted by Hennadii on Sat, 11/07/2020 - 17:59

My last lecture at the university was over 15 years ago so it's quite difficult to remember what it was about )) Honestly, it's not difficult - it's impossible. But I think it was something special, you know. After those five long years with so many lectures, so many subjects to learn, so many exams to pass, and you finally got the very last lecture. I think we were happy and sad at the same time. Happy because no more lectures and sad because that was the end of our funny and careless students life.

Submitted by Suellen Esteves on Mon, 06/07/2020 - 20:13

The last lecture i went to was at the university, and there were professors who explained very well and also there were professors who did not explain well.

Submitted by LarisaAlp on Fri, 03/07/2020 - 18:36

I am a professor at the university. I hope my lectures are interesting and my explanations are clear. Maybe I am right. But I had to remove my few last lectures to next year due to coronavirus pandemic.

Submitted by abudo93 on Thu, 02/07/2020 - 11:43

The last lecture was about 5 years before when I was unversity student and the professor was good when he explained his lesson.

Submitted by Dr.Mohamed A. Zein on Mon, 29/06/2020 - 12:49

The last lecture that I had was online lecture with professor Mostafa elsaid from egypt about keeping safe against Co19 virus. he explained it clearly and the meeting was so helpful and informative for me.

Submitted by Dr Doaa Mahmoud on Mon, 29/06/2020 - 12:49

The last lecture that I went was on-line course about clinical Pharmacotherapy 2 months ago. The professor explained It cleverly and I enjoyed It so much.

Submitted by Asni on Fri, 26/06/2020 - 21:49

Sorry, I can't even remember when it was the last lecture I went to. That took place long ago, too long that I started to miss classes, I'd really like to sign up for some presential course to refresh memory and impove my skills. Also, classes are a good way to communicate with people and make new relationships.

Submitted by Diemquynh9101 on Sat, 13/06/2020 - 10:00

The last lecture i went to about a new life outside society. It taught me a lot of things, taught me how to live healthily and live better in a new environment

Submitted by Sharif Tayyebi on Thu, 04/06/2020 - 13:26

I didn't have any lectures recently, but it was last year that we had a nice conference and a person who works for Afghan Electoral Commission, explained us some important points about the importance of justice and equity in electoral process. He also precisely demonstrated the ways of cheating in the process of election. Some examples and statistics were from USA and many other countries. I learned a lot in that day. Best wishes, Tayyebi
Respected Sharif, oh your poor land...wishin' ya good studies and continuing ya studies in Mumbai/more excellent place! :))

Hello Pevelchinsky Alexander Alexandrovich

Could you please put your username in Roman letters (i.e. the alphabet used in English and Spanish)? Some users are able to read Cyrillic, but many cannot.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by amal.araia on Sat, 30/05/2020 - 23:02

The last lecture that I went to was before three months. It was about teachers provisional development. Well, it was so boring, everybody was sleepy.

Submitted by Fatemeh.Najafzadeh on Sat, 23/05/2020 - 01:32

The last lecture that I had was online lecture with my lovely English tutor about keeping safe against coronavirus. she explained it clearly and the meeting was so helpful and informative for me.

Submitted by mouna99 on Mon, 18/05/2020 - 16:46

The last lecture I went to was about mass spectrometry, and unfortunately my professor did'nt explain it clearly

Submitted by Mann Mann on Tue, 12/05/2020 - 06:15

My last lecture was awesome.It’s Great. I learned about microeconomics.Our professor explained clearly.But it is not sure to attend the class due to Corona virus. I wish my class was opened early .

Submitted by S.S on Mon, 20/04/2020 - 17:02

The last lecture that is online is Japanese history lesson today.My teacher explained old burial mound.

Submitted by Lauracastanos on Thu, 16/04/2020 - 01:09

Yes, last time was in my university.

Submitted by OlaIELTS on Fri, 10/04/2020 - 16:52

The last lecture I attended was in form of seminar, its about 'Career'. Yes, he did.

Submitted by ademyonet on Thu, 09/04/2020 - 17:22

The last lecture I went about was history of Islam. The lecturer explained it very fluency. I learned that I don't know many things about history of Islam. The Islam wasn't like that Europeans told us.

Submitted by Moath AlHithami on Tue, 07/04/2020 - 18:07

The last lecture I went to about the marketing by Dr. W.H, it was clearly.

Submitted by Daudau0601 on Sat, 04/04/2020 - 03:18

the last lecture you went to about is solutions subject. I think is not clear because of covid19, we have to learning on online. We sometimes don't hear what teacher says

Submitted by Austin on Mon, 23/03/2020 - 16:30
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