This text has been developed to cultivate the listening skills required for presentations and lectures at Japanese universities. The book does not merely focus on listening skills, but also has exercises to enable the learner to grasp the general themes of a lecture or presentation and be able to summarize what he/she is hearing. With such topics as Mt. Fuji, hidden Christians, gorilla 'food,' learning from failure, Tokyo hot springs, Tsugaru shamisen, etc., the book is packed with themes related to Japanese culture and history, as well as topics related to natural science, that will be of interest to the overseas student.