Understanding an explanation
Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
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?
done
It's been a very long time since my last university lecture; I graduated in 2020. However, if you're referring to informal study, I took a graphic design course in late December 2026. The Trainer explained clearly and well, supporting his explanations with examples and videos.
The last class was about neuroscience. Yes, the professor explained it clearly.
I really like the British Council because I learn English and other things too. For example, in this lesson we had a short class about Fibonacci! I don’t remember studying him at school. Thanks everyone for this. That’s the way to go.
Done
The transcript is a bit wrong: it says that Student says, "I'm not sure", while Student actually says, "Not sure", on 1:14.
Hello Katja,
It's quite hard to hear but I think the transcript is correct. Sometimes certain parts of the sentence are pronounced so weakly that they almost disappear, and here it sounds like 'Mmm not sure'. You could interpret it either way, I guess, as Not sure and I'm not sure are both fine responses here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
my last lecture was one week ago at my university, the doctor explained it very well.
The last lecture was about user authentication, and how there are many ways to verify and authenticate users, it was in cybersecurity context, it was very easy but there are a lot of information and theoretical things to study.
I still remember a very important and good point, that the most secure and accrate ways to authenticate users are biometric ways, especially iris resignation, and it's very important to enable MFA (Multi Factor Authentication) among your accounts.
l learned the Bernouili equation when I went to university. The professor said "just think and practise" and l kept practicing later l learned it