Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

Omitting Unnecessary Words

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Tips for Note-Taking
1. Focus on the content words.
2. Omit function words.
3. Don’t write down every word you hear.
4. Do not use full sentences.
5. Use your own words when possible, but try not to change the meaning.
6. Keep descriptions and examples simple and brief.
7. Avoid writing down the speaker’s personal stories or comments unless they are
important for understanding the topic.

Practice A: Sound Effects Quiz

Sound Effects Movie Actions

1. pouring water from a glass bottle into soft a. filling a glass with ice cubes
ˋ

cotton paddling c b. someone being hit in the

2. waving a pair of gloves f stomach
3. blowing through a straw into water e c. drinking water quickly
4. carefully dropping small light bulbs into d. opening/closing a window
a glass a. e. boiling water
l

5. rolling a roller skate back f.

l bird wings in flight

and forth on a table d

6. softly hitting a full water bottle b

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 Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

Practice B: Look at these sentences from a lecture about the history

of movie sound effects. Cross out any unnecessary words. Then
compare with a partner.

The history ˋ
1. ˋ of film can’t be accurately understood unless 、
⼀
it is
connected to the major sound practices of each era.
2. Two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, are actually

三
credited with the first public screening of film in 1895.
3. The Lumiere brothers’ first film screening in Paris consisted of
10 short silent films lasting about 20 minutes.
4. Early films were silent. Actors and actresses had to use
exaggerated gestures_ -_-
and facial expressions to communicate
emotion.
5. Before the invention of films with sound, known as “talkies,”
-
realistic.
⼀ ㄧ⼀
people didn’t think sound was necessary to make films more
mne
_

6. Silent films, films without sounds, allowed each member of the

_

audience _ _
to interpret the action on the screen in his or her own
_

way.
7. However, movie theaters ˋ
that sometimes hired live musicians ˋ
or
_
pianists to provide background music for the silent films were
common.
8. In _
the early 20th century, they also sometimes
thee employed groups
-_-

of actors who had carefully matching their spoken words to the

E
images on the screen.
9. If the theater couldn’t afford to pay these groups, a single person
-

-_-
was brought in to tell the audience the story of what was
happening on the screen.
10. Modern movie sound effects first became possible in the late
-

1800s

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𦸇
Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

11. They were created by using rather simple technology based on

r thr re n
Tr

Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph, an early “talking”

三
machine which could record and play back sounds.

-
12. It wasn’t long until technicians in the 1920s figured out a way to
put the phonograph together with film cameras, which allowed
⼀

the first “talking” movies to be made.

Practice C: Read this excerpt from the same lecture. Underline the
most important information.

In New York City on October 6, 1927, the audience heard the

first voice spoken in a feature film called The Jazz Singer. Talking
pictures quickly became very popular in the 1920s, but the introduction
of sound had some serious consequences. First, the careers of many
actors were affected. Some of their careers ended because their voices
didn’t match their screen image.
The movie industry was also affected because it had to invest
large amounts of money to create the new technologies needed for
talking films. The early recording equipment did not always work very
well, so they needed creative ways to reproduce certain sounds. To do
this, movies borrowed sounds from early radio dramas, which had
relied heavily on sound effects during live broadcasts. For example, to
make the sound of horses running, two coconuts were knocked
together.
Today, there is a large variety of complex sound effects in movies.
One category of sound effects is called “designed sounds,” which are
the sounds of things that don’t actually exist in real life, such as a
spaceship from another planet landing on Earth. Another category of
sound effects is “creature sounds,” which are used to create the speech

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

of strange aliens, monsters, or other imaginary animals. Finally,

“ambient” sounds that surround you are also produced for background
noises: trees blowing in the wind, birds singing, or traffic noises.

Practice D: Look back at the underlined information. Write the

important information as notes by choosing the outline or the
column format.

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

Practice E: Listen to the first half of the lecture about Foley artists.
Complete the notes. Remember to omit any unimportant or
unnecessary words.

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

Practice F: Listen to the second half of the lecture. Complete the

notes. Remember to omit any unimportant and unnecessary
information.

Practice G: Listen and check your notes from practices E and F.

Add any information you missed or change any incorrect
information.

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

Script

1 When you are watching a movie, how much do you really think
about the background sounds you’re hearing? The music? Birds singing?
A door closing? Footsteps in the distance? Like most people, you
probably don’t focus on the sounds in movies, but, if they were not here,
you would notice. Sound effects are an integral part of the movie-
6 watching experience. They help to reinforce the emotional impact of a
movie and actually tell the movie’s story.
Today, sound effects are usually produced using computers and
powerful sound-processing software. However, there are some sounds
that even the most advanced equipment cannot adequately record or
11 reproduce—sounds, such as the soft movements of clothing or footsteps
in the snow. For these less obvious sounds, another kind of expert is
needed—the sound technician—who is often referred to as a Foley artist.
The term Foley comes from one of the earliest and most famous
Hollywood sound effects experts, Jack Foley. Foley became well-known
16 for being able to produce innovative, synchronized sound effects—
sounds that exactly matched the action in the movie.
Foley sound effects are created manually by the Foley artist at the
same time he or she watches a film being projected. They are generally
created to go along with the noises caused by the movement of the actors
21 in real time. In order for Foley artists to realistically match the live
sounds they make with the action on the screen, they must watch and
carefully follow the movements of the actors. For example, if an actor
opens a door, the Foley artist must make the sound of the door opening
at exactly the same time the actor does. This requires an incredible
26 amount of concentration and physical coordination. In fact, mastering
the art of Foley requires studying the way people walk and move.
The job of Foley artists requires them to spend a lot of time
creating natural, everyday sound effects, such as the sound of breaking

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

eggs or of someone drinking water quickly. However, they do not

31 actually use real eggs or record someone drinking water. Instead, the
Foley artists collect a large variety of objects to create live sounds that
simulate the sound of an action or object. The most successful Foley
artists are the ones who, by simply looking at an object, can imagine
what kind of noise it might be able to make. These inventive noisemakers
36 know how to bring sound to life with hundreds of everyday items.
If you walked into a Foley recording studio, it might look like a
place where someone threw out a lot of garbage—all kinds of useless
things—everything from old pie plates, knives, forks, to light bulbs and
car doors is used for one kind of sound effect or another. Food items—
41 bunches of crisp celery or dried spaghetti noodles—are also effective
noisemakers in the hands of an expert. For example, breaking celery or
twisting a large handful of long spaghetti noodles can effectively be used
to simulate the sound of breaking bones during a fight scene. And, oh,
yeah, the sound of a fire burning in the fireplace can be produced by
46 twisting a certain kind of plastic bag.
When existing or found objects are not effective in making just
the right noise, Foley artists build their own unique and interesting
devices. For example, to create the sound of wind, a piece of cloth is
stretched tightly over a round drum made up of small, separated wooden
51 boards. The drum is designed so that it can go around and around and as
it spins against the cloth, it produces a very realistic sound of the wind
blowing. Umm … other handmade devices are used to produce the sound
of thunder, trains, and car crashes. And any professional Foley artist has
at least a dozen or more boxes with different kinds of door attached to
56 them. The sound of doors opening and closing is one of the sound effects
frequently called for in many films.
In addition to a variety of doors, you will also usually find a stage
built into the floor of the Foley artist’s studio. This stage has a number
of different walking surfaces—stone, wood, metal—that help produce

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Listening Practice: Omitting Unnecessary Words

61 all kinds of footsteps—another sound effect commonly needed in

movies. Of course, with all these different kinds of floors, many different
kinds of shoes are needed to simulate the sound of the footsteps of an
actor wearing a particular pair of shoes on a specific surface.
The realistic quality of well-done Foley sound effects can bring a
66 film to life. So, next time you go to a movie, remember that there was
probably a person involved in making it who had to run around, handle
objects or break things, all while watching the screen to bring you the
richest and smoothest sound experience possible. Then, listen carefully.
If you don’t notice anything unnatural or strange, then the Foley artists
71 have done a very good job.