206 / 210
enough to my home town without actually being my hometown so it was
only about an hour away, so I could go home at weekends if I wanted to.
I went to Sussex University in the 1970s, and I chose Sussex above other
universities, because it had an excellent reputation in biology which was the
subject I studied.
Alice: So Kate is like me. She chose somewhere that was not too far from
home. She could go home at weekends.
Rob: And the university in Edinburgh had a good reputation. And what
about Kaz?
Alice: For him, it had an excellent reputation for teaching biology. So it
seems reputation does actually count.
Rob: OK Alice, it’s time to tell you what was the top university in the
London Times Higher Education List. You thought it was….?
Alice: Cambridge? Am I right?
Rob: Well Cambridge and Oxford in the UK are in the top ten, but the
number one university is…Harvard in the USA.
Alice: Of course! Harvard was going to be my second choice.
Rob: I think you need to go back to university to do some more learning!
But before you do Alice, could you tell us some of the words we have learnt
today?
Unit V
Tapescript
Penicillin was the world’s first antibiotic. Antibiotics are drugs that can
cure illnesses caused by bacteria. Before penicillin, people could die from
a small wound in their skin if bacteria made the wound become infected!
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but two other scientists,
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, tested penicillin to find out if it was safe
to use. They also made penicillin that they could inject. Penicillin helped
thousands of wounded soldiers during World War II, between 1939 and
1945. Since that time, penicillin has saved the lives of millions of people.