text: Understanding an explanation
  
  Listen to a professor's explanation to practise and improve your listening skills.
  
  Instructions
  
  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?
  
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  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.
  
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  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