Preview of Vocabulary

Fill in each blank with one of the words listed below. Use your dic­tionary to check the meaning of an item you are not familiar with.

Survey toll fame

1. Money that is paid for the privilege of using a highway, bridge, or a canal is a ________.
2. The Panama Canal is not famous because it is so large; the ____________ of the Panama Canal is not in its size, but in its engineering excellence.
3. The king ordered his engineers to make a careful examination of the Panama area to learn whether or not a canal could be built there. He ordered a _________ of the area.

Concession to abandon the undertaking lock

1. An enclosed area in a canal which has gates at each end and which is used to raise and lower ships from one level to another is a _____________.
2. To stop working on a project is ____________.
3. When a government or controlling authority grants a privilege or right to a company, it grants a _____________.

Dispute Inca Empire strategic

1. The South American civilization established in Peru in the 1400s before the Spanish Conquest began is known as the ___________.
2. A __________________ involves a disagreement, quarrel, or fight.
3. That which is especially important to the national defense or economy of a country is ______________ for that country.

Preview of Sentences

These are some of the sentences that you will hear in the lecture.

1. Let me say that the fame of the Panama Canal is not in its size.
2. The early Spaniards needed a more efficient way to ship the treasures of the Inca Empire and their other South American colonies back to Spain.
3. King Charles I of Spain ordered a survey of the Panama area to determine whether or not it was possible to construct a canal in the area.
4. Disease and what some have called mismanagement forced the French company to abandon the undertaking.
5. In June of 1902, the United States bought the French company's concession.
6. I might add that this certainly was a very profitable investment for the United States because recent figures show that the Panama Canal Company collected $ 134 million in tolls on the Canal in one year alone.
7. As for the actual working of the Panama Canal, it has three sets of water-filled chambers or what are more commonly called locks.
8. Before I finish up, I'll say a word or two about the dispute that arose in the 1960s concerning the control of both the Canal and the Canal Zone.
9. The treaty provided for Panama to gain full control of the strategic waterway by the year 2000.

B. Listening Activities

Note-Taking Exercise

Now listen to the lecture, take your notes on the information you hear. Check the Word Guide before the lecture begins.

Word Guide

the Atlantic Ocean / the Pacific Ocean / North and South America / King Charles I of Spain / the Inca Empire / the Suez Canal / Ferdinand de Lesseps / Dr. William Gorgas / Colonel George Goethals

C. Post-listening Activity

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 759