AUDIOSCRIPT MultilevelMaster Listening

Multilevel Master Listening
Audioscripts
Contents
Part 1..................................................................................................................................................................................1
Part 2..................................................................................................................................................................................8
Part 3................................................................................................................................................................................33
Part 4................................................................................................................................................................................70
Part 5 | 2023 ....................................................................................................................................................................91
Part 5 | 2024 ..................................................................................................................................................................151
Part 6..............................................................................................................................................................................200
Part 1
Part 1
EXERCISE 1 5. – How many times have you been in South
1. - How are you? Africa?
2. - Did you do your homework? 6. – Will you cook sumalak this year?
3. - How can I go to the train station? 7. - Mary is out now.
4. - Would you like a cup of tea? 8. – I think Nick will let us go to the park.
5. - What is the time now?
6. – Shall I retell the text? EXERCISE 3
7. – What did you think of the film? 1. - May I watch what you are doing?
8. – We went to Berlin last weekend. 2. - Oh, I must water the plants.
3. – I’m sorry for keeping you waiting for such a
EXERCISE 2 long time.
1. - Is 'copying someone's homework' cheating? 4. – Where is the smoking room?
2. – Why, Ann! Are you reading without light? 5. - Have you got any books by Furqat?
Turn on the lamp, please. 6. – Bread is not taken with fork, is it?
3. – Look, Gill, the rain has stopped. 7. – Who had an exam last week?
4. – I was told an interesting story yesterday. 8. – Where did you stay when you went to the
Fergana?
MULTILEVEL MASTER KITOBLARIGA BUYURTMA BERISH TELEGRAM: @MULTILEVEL_BUYURTMA

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3. - Do you like Jane’s new flat?
EXERCISE 4 4. – How did you go to Madrid?
1. – Who fell ill? 5. – I really must go now!
2. - My parents want to speak to you. 6. – Is Mike still doing this homework?
3. – Excuse me, sir. 7. – I can’t understand this letter.
4. - Could you pass me the salt, please? 8. Are you sure the film starts at 10?
5. – Coffee, sir?
6. - How long has she been with you? EXERCISE 9
7. – You go in for sports, don’t you? 1. – I don’t think I can come to the concert.
8. – Can I borrow your map of Khiva? 2. - Let’s have supper now.
3. - Have you shut the windows?
EXERCISE 5 4. – My street is too noisy.
1. - Do you think we’ll have good weather? 5. - Can I speak to John, please?
2. - Who is a sailor? 6. - $500 is too expensive.
3. - It’s time for lunch. 7. – I’ve got an appointment with my doctor
4. - Would you like a drink? today.
5. - How much was your new shirt? 8. - Would you like anything else?
6. – I’m very sorry.
7. - Do you speak English? EXERCISE 10
8. – John’s broken this plate. 1. - When is your mother’s birthday?
2. - Shall we go to the shops now?
EXERCISE 6 3. – It’s my sister’s birthday tomorrow!
1. - Is this your watch? 4. - Mary will help the teacher.
2. - Can I have a sandwich? 5. - I would like to see the doctor.
3. - How many people were in the café? 6. - Shall we leave now?
4. - We’re from London. 7. – Anything else?
5. - Who’s that man with the green sweater? 8. – When will lunch be ready?
6. - Where’s Amanda gone?
7. - I hate shopping. EXERCISE 11
8. - How long did the journey take? 1. - It’s very hot in here.
2. - Have you met Henry before?
EXERCISE 7 3. - Do you like visiting museums?
1. - The room costs $55 a night. 4. – I’ve broken my glasses.
2. – Are you sure the match starts at two? 5. -John’s going to London.
3. – I saw the new Spielberg film last night. 6. -When do you study?
4. - How did the accident happen? 7. - Do you like my new shoes?
5. - Hello, I’d like to speak to Mr Green, please. 8. - Be careful.
6. - May I leave now?
7. – Let’s listen to this new CD.
8. – I’d like two tickets for tonight. EXERCISE 12
1. - I hate basketball.
EXERCISE 8 2. – Can you give me some money?
1. - What time did the meeting end? 3. – Let’s walk to the park.
2. – I can’t do this maths problem. 4. - When did you arrive?

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5. – Shall I open the door?
6. – I got a letter from Paul this morning. EXERCISE 16
7. - How’s your sister? 1. Where are you from?
8. - How far is it to Manchester? 2. What brings you to London?
3. My parents don't give me enough pocket
money.
EXERCISE 13 4. When did you last go to a football match?
1. - Could you give me the butter? 5. There were a big chocolate cake at Jack's
birthday.
2. – John hates shopping.
6. Do you have to wear school uniform?
3. – I’ve already done my homework.
7. What will you wear for the party tonight?
4. - What’s the date today? 8. How did you find the computer you bought
5. - Nick, have you got anything special for last week?
tonight?
6. - "Doctor, do you think she is better, ?"
7. - Shall we have a snack lunch in a pub for a EXERCISE 17
change? 1. Why are you studying english?
8. - Would you like a cup of tea? 2. What do you do in your free time?
3. What’s the weather like?
4. How are you feeling?
EXERCISE 14 5. Can you give me a hand?
1. - Can I have tickets for the early morning train 6. What have you been up to lately?
to Michigan tomorrow? 7. Are you ready to order?
2.- I will tell you a story. 8. What line of work are you in?
3. - Could you tell me how to get to
Independence square? EXERCISE 18
4.- Father, please let me go skiing with my 1. What kinds of films do you like?
friends. 2. What do you want to do after you graduate?
5. - I'm sorry for keeping you waiting for such a 3. Will you join me for coffee tonight?
long time. 4. Is it close to the subway station?
6. - What do you usually do at your schoolyard? 5. Could you tell me how to get to the police
7. - Where did you see The New Year in? station?
8. - Oh, it's raining heavily. 6. How long have you been working here?
7. May I have your passport, please?
EXERCISE 15 8. Could you tell me where the meat is?
1. - Who will you go to the country with?
2. - She goes in for sports. She is a very good EXERCISE 19
swimmer and very pretty at that. 1. - Do you like sharing a bedroom with your
3. - Your dress is so nice. sister?
4. - I see you are talking again. What do the 2. - When can we practice together for the
women always talk about? concert?
5. - Why did the team not win the game? 3. - We’d like some chips with our burgers,
6. - Would you like some more cake? please.
7. - Who is the best reader in your class? 4. - Are you coming to Tennis Club with us on
8.- What can I help you with? Friday?

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5. - Let’s go swimming as soon as we get to the 7. - Would you like to go to the theatre?
lake. 8. - When is the office open in the evening?
6. - What’s the matter?
7. - Has she seen the doctor? EXERCISE 24
8. - I have got a temperature and a headache. 1. - Good morning. Can I help you?
EXERCISE 20 2. - What’s the matter with Julie?

1. - How did Kate break her arm? 3. - I’ve already made dinner.
4. - That’s $68, please. How are you paying?
2. - Thanks for looking after me when I was ill. 5. - What’s your new jacket like?
3. - Do you like taking photos? 6. - How is your mother?
4. - I would like to join the music club. 7. - Tom, this is my wife, Penny.
5. - Do you ever draw pictures? 8. - When can we go shopping?
6. - I love making friends.
7. - Would you like to go camping this weekend? EXERCISE 25
8. - Would you like to go to the cinema? 1. - Let’s have a cup of coffee.
2. - Do you like jazz music?
EXERCISE 21 3. - I’m sorry I’m late.
1. - Have you got another pencil? 4. - Will the plane arrive soon?
2. - What’s the new student like? 5. - That’s really kind of you.
3. - I can’t open the window. 6. - What does that mean?
4. - I like playing tennis at the weekend. 7. - I can’t lend you any money.
5. - Be careful on that skateboard! 8. - Did you enjoy the film?
6. - Have you washed your hands?
7. - I’ve just burnt my foot. EXERCISE 26
8. - Can I drink this water? 1. - Nice to see you again.
2. - Hurry up or we’ll be late.
EXERCISE 22 3. - Dinner is ready.
1. - We’ve already cleaned the kitchen. 4. - I’ve lost my wallet.
2. - Where are the coffee mugs? 5. - Hello. This is 245-6780.
3. - How much is it? 6. - I’m going to have a party on Saturday.
4. - It’s warm today, isn’t it? 7. - What do I do at the traffic lights?
5. - I’ve got a bad headache. 8. - I’ll take these grapes, please.
6. - When are you coming back?
7. - Let’s meet at the cinema at half past seven. EXERCISE 27
8. - How will you get there? 1. - What colour will you paint the room?
2. - Please answer the phone.
EXERCISE 23 3. - Would you prefer lemonade or orange juice?
1. - What do you do on Sundays? 4. - The 9.15 train’s late again.
2. - These shoes are too big. 5. - Can you help me with my homework?
3. - How do you turn on this calculator? 6. - I thought the play was very boring.
4. - How often do you do the shopping? 7. - Whose CD are they playing?
5. - Why do you want to learn German? 8. - Did you enjoy that pizza?
6. - Can I use your pen?

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EXERCISE 28 EXERCISE 32
1. - Who’s that boy over there? 1. Did all children take part in the competition?
2. - Those girls are very good at dancing! 2. What is your plan for tonight?
3. - When’s Monica arriving? 3. Would you like cake?
4. - What was the dinosaur film like? 4.- Who is the best reader in your class?
5. - I don’t know your email address? 5. I'm sorry for keeping you waiting for such a
6. - Why don’t we go windsurfing today? long time.
7. - Shall we buy these earrings for Mum? 6. – Susan, why didn't you go to the cinema
8. - Sorry! I can’t play volleyball with you. with us?
7. - When are you leaving?
8.- I'm flying to New-York tomorrow.
EXERCISE 29
1. - It’s June 20th today.
2. - The film was so funny! EXERCISE 33
3. - What’s in Lisa’s hand? 1. What are John and Mary like?
4. - What’s happened to Martin? 2. Why are you learning English?
3. Why is he always late for the first lesson?
5. - Can we go fishing this weekend?
4. Here is your pen. Thank you.
6. - Did you enjoy doing the school quiz?
5. Do you think we'll have good weather?
7. - Let’s buy this pink purse for Mum! 6. How did you find the play?
8. - How much are those socks, please? 7. - Can I borrow your map of London?
8. He passed his exam with excellent marks,
didn't he?
EXERCISE 30
1. - What was Irene’s party like? EXERCISE 34
2. - Send me a text message tomorrow. 1. – Are selling a computer? I would like one.
3. - Whose pencil case is this? 2. – Can I speak to Mary ?
4. - Have you ever been to America? 3. – What will we have for dinner?
5. - I’ve got to tidy up my room. 4. – Would you like anything more, sir?
6. - I’m very interested in motorbikes. 5. – What is her favourite desert?
7. - Can I watch my new laptop now? 6. – How old is your father?
8. - We have to go home now. 7. – It is nice of you to help me. Thank you very
much.
8. – Shall I carry your bag to your room?
EXERCISE 31
1. - I’m sorry for saying that, Mick. EXERCISE 35
2. - Would you like to walk down to the river? 1. – Will we meet John at the party tonight?
3. - What do you think about the new science 2. – I like jazz music!
teacher? 3. – You see. Mary is putting on her coat.
4. - Look at this picture of an electric guitar! 4. - What was the dinosaur like?
5. - What did you think of the film? 5. – Where do your parents live?
6. - Have you got another pencil? 6. – Shall I give you a lift?
7. What’s the new student like? 7. – I work at weekends?
8. I can’t open the window. 8. – Finally, you have arrived.

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EXERCISE 36 1. Hello, Mrs. Collins. It is Amy. Is Joe there,
1. – How often do you visit your grandparents? please?
2. – Do you remember that I lent you money last 2. Hi, did you sleep well? You look much better
week? now.
3. – Shall we go to stadium or watch the football 3. Sorry It will cost more than 20 pounds to mend
match on TV? that.
4. - How can I get to the city centre?
4. Do you think you can finish by Monday, Mrs.
5. – I will keep my promise and bring you
Marven?
chocolate.
5. So why would you like a job with our
6. – Do you have anything to sign with?
company?
7. – Do you like chocolate cake?
8. - When is the office open in the evening? 6. I think you should something stylish and
comfortable.
EXERCISE 37 7. Excuse me, do you have this in another color?
1. That is your favorite restaurant, isn’t it?
2. No, this isn’t my book. EXERCISE 41
3. Two cups of coffee, please. 1. That was a lovely meal, thank you.
4. This is my teacher, Mrs. Jones. 2. Are you certain she is not coming?
5. Did you say he is your neighbor? 3. I’m afraid I can’t stay any longer.
6. So six pounds and three pounds. That is nine 4. Could you help me with this table?
altogether. 5. Can I give you a lift?
7. Excuse me, is this train going to London? 6. I’ve got that new job that I went for.
7. How would you like your tea?
EXERCISE 38
1. Your new bag is better than mine. EXERCISE 42
2. When is the party?
1. Could you come back a little later?
3. Oh, I just can’t understand this homework.
2. These are DVD s I borrowed from you.
4. May I speak to Mr. Smith?
3. What did you think about a film?
5. You’ve got a new job, well done.
4. You don’t know where I can get batteries, do
6. Errr, what did you say?
7. What does Peter look like? you?
5. I’m so glad that we finally met in person.
EXERCISE 39 6. How did your Masters go?
1. Would you mind looking after my suitcase? 7. I am so sorry I didn’t call you last night.
2. What’s your new teacher like?
3. I’m busy at the moment. So can you call back EXERCISE 43
later? 1. Can you pass that chair please?
4. Please, let me know when you’re on the train. 2. I’m very tired today.
5. When was the last time you saw her? 3. Do you know where Mr Bale is?
6. You don’t know where I can buy a bus ticket, 4. shall we discuss this some other time?
do you? 5. Nelly’s work is getting much better, isn’t it?
7. I’m so sorry I couldn’t come to your party. 6. That coffee is too strong for me.
EXERCISE 40 EXERCISE 44
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1. What do you think of Pete? - Okay, in that case, I will maybe try someone
2. Excuse me, is this a sales office? else.
3. Is it too late if I tell you tomorrow? 9. - Do you know who is taking Dorex’s place at
4. I’ve asked Done to help with my report. the conference?
5. Can I have my pen back when you’ve finished - I’m pretty sure it is Linda but I’m maybe
with it? wrong.
- She won’t’ have easy task standing in front
EXERCISE 45 of Derek.
1. - Jeff seems to be happy this morning. 10. – Here you are Jim, Your visitors are waiting
- Well, he is moving to the Sales department for you at reception.
next week. - Ok, thanks it is Martin Farrow He is our
- Really, he’s been with us for seven years. Extol Consultant on GTO project team.
2. - I’m not sure what to do with old paper files. - I told them you were probably on your way
- Can’t you just put them into the recycling down to pick him up.
bin?
- But won’t they still be needed? EXERCISE 46
3. - Did you contact IT about that software issue? 1. Have you got that book I lent you last week?
- Yes, they gave me instructions on how to fix 2. Did you enjoy the play?
it. 3. You don’t know where the bus stop is, do you?
- Can you tell me what they said? 4. How did your lunch with your grandparents
4. - My contract for work with PRP has arrived. go?
- Are you going to show your lawyer friend? 5. I’m sorry you didn’t pass your driving test.
- I’m not sure I need to. What do you think? 6. Could you say that number again, please?
7. I’m glad to see you again after such a long
5. – There are some seats left for 1720 flight to
time.
Dublin.
- Hmm, I prefer a later one if possible.
EXERCISE 47
- I’ll have another check but I don’t think there
1.What a pity the party is over so soon!
was anything. 2.Could I possibly use your computer to check
6. – I hope you’re not still worried about giving my flight?
your presentation. 3.What was her name again?
- I’m feeling better now because I’ve done a 4.This is my favorite song of all time.
lot of preparation. 5.So what are you doing these days?
-That’s good. I’m sure you’ll do a great job. 6.Why is he leaving? Why is he leaving?
7. - Do you think John will make a good team
EXERCISE 48
leader?
1. What will you do?
- Well, I’m very pleased for him that he’s been
2.I don't want much to eat, thanks
made one. 3.I can't come to the meeting
-I’m not convinced that he is what it takes 4.It's not a very nice day, is it?
though. 5.What did the email say?
8. – Do you know if Jane is in a meeting or 6.I'll tell John when I see him.
something?
- No, he is out on a dental appointment.
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EXERCISE 49. 1. I’m fed up with mosquitoes.
1.What would you like for your leaving present? 2. What do you think of going to dentists?
2.We can meet after lunch. 3. Is it faster to take a taxi or walk to school?
3.Can you call me as soon as he becomes 4. Did you finish the test quickly?
available? 5. Do you think Tom stole the money?
4.Do you have many business contacts in the 6. Buying expensive books is not good idea, is it?
area? 7. I am very nervous. I don’t know what to do?
5.Let me know what you think of the report. 8. I’m going to leave school and start working in
a shop.
EXERCISE 50
Part 2
Part 2
EXERCISE 1
Hi everyone. I’m going to tell you about a new video game that I’ve played a lot recently, called Sky Jam.
It’s produced by the same company that made Road Jam a few years ago, which was set in a city of
course. Instead of streets and huge buildings, though, you’ll find yourself living in a rainforest in this
game.
It’s an unusual game because you have to answer questions in order to make progress, as well as by
moving through the environment. You’ll be asked all sorts of things regarding insects, which you have to
learn on the way from the many helpful creatures you meet, such as butterflies and bats.
There are 30 levels in the whole game, which are supposed to become more and more challenging as
you go on. I found the one called ‘the money’ almost impossible, even though it comes well before the
last level, called ‘the frog’, which didn’t seem so difficult.
There are lots of things to love about this game. The story you learn about as you continue through the
game is fantastic, second only to the characters you can play, who are lovely, and extremely interesting
too. Learning to play the game is easy and fun, too.
Unfortunately, unlike the eight players who could play against each other in Road Jam, six people at the
most can join in this game at any one time. I found this to be a few too many, though, and preferred
playing in a group of four.
You can find out more about the game online. If you’re interested, visit the company’s
website www.lombardio.com. I’ll spell that for you: it’s L-O-M-B-A-R-D-I-O.
Thank you for listening.
EXERCISE 2
Listen, everyone! I’ve got some information about this year’s school photography competition. As you’ll
probably remember, last year’s competition asked you to focus on the topic of travel, but photos should
have something to do with the environment this time.

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As in previous years, there are certain things that we want the photographs to include. We want all the
pictures to have wildlife in them, so we’re not looking for photos that only show landscapes or people.
The head teacher has decided to ask someone from outside the school to judge the competition this
year. She was hoping that local artist Sally Graves would be able to judge the entries, but she’s actually
away at that time. Writer James McKay has agreed to help us instead. I’m sure many of you have heard
of him, as he’s quite famous and was born not far away from here, too.
It was felt that most keen photographers already have the photography books or equipment they need,
so the organisers have decided that the winner will receive a photography course run by Central College
instead. The College was also hoping to have a small photography exhibition for winners of all the school
photography competitions in the area, but their gallery’s too busy putting on other shows, I’m afraid.
The winner of the competition will be announced on 11th March. If you wish to enter, please make sure
we receive your photos by 15th February, as the judging will take place on 19th February.
So if you’re interested, send your entry to the school secretary, Mrs Mitchell, not to me or the head
teacher. I’ll give you her email address – it’s k dot Mitchell, that’s spelt M-I-T-C-H-E-double-L at school
dot com. Good luck!
EXERCISE 3
Hello everyone. I'd like to tell you about this wonderful acting club I joined recently. The best thing about
it is the teacher. We're really lucky to have someone who's actually quite famous.
Her name's Alice Fisher and she's appearing in a play at the big theatre in town at the moment.
She plays a policewoman in that, but you'll probably know her better as the farmer in the series Green
Valley that was on last year.
She's worked as a professional theatre actor for about 10 years, as well as having 3 years experience of
appearing in serious drama.
She's also spent 7 years working in comedy productions, so she has lots of different talents. The sessions
are always fun and are split into two sections. In the first section, Alice will be playing a character who's a
member of a club.
In the first part, rather than practising anything to do with movement of the body, we focus instead on
improving how to control the voice as an actor.
In the second part, we practise our performance skills. If you're interested in coming to the drama club,
you'll need to know where to come, of course.
The club actually hires a room from the university to run the classes. It's much cheaper to do it there than
at the college or the acting school. The sessions are on Wednesdays.
At the moment, we're practising for a play which will be on at the town theatre soon.
Its name is The Passenger, and we're hoping that this latest one will be as popular as the last production
the club did, which was called Reality. It was a big success, apparently.
We've got our last practice for the new play on the 13th of July, with audiences able to come and see it
from the 20th of July for one week. Thanks for listening.
EXERCISE 4
Hi everyone. I'm going to tell you about my trip to the new science museum last week. I went with my
family and we looked around the whole museum. There are loads of different rooms and each one
contains displays about a particular topic. We spent ages looking around the room that was all about
space. And even longer in the one with loads of stuff on energy, which I thought was the best bit.
The museum's free, but there are also two special exhibitions that you have to pay for. You can't go into
the one on health yet because it doesn't open for another couple of weeks.
I'd like to go back and see that. The other exhibition on computers was good though. As well as the display
of the science museum, there's also the museum's exhibition on the computer. There are lots of things
you can actually do there too. My brother made this fantastic car that went quite fast using only power

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from the sun, while I created a rocket that used gas to fly. It went really high! As well as the interesting
things to see and do, there's a nice shop. My mum and dad let me get something because it was my
birthday.
As I said, not all sets to choose from, it took me ages to decide which one I wanted. They have the usual
toys and games – and a few nice books there too.
You can also take a tour of the museum with a guide. When we arrived, they said we'd have to wait at
least sixty minutes for the 80-minute tour because it's so popular, so we decided against it. If you want to
go, the entrance is on Lockhart Road. I'll spell it for you. I was soon told it was an open-air museum. And
out for you. It's L-O-C-K-H-A-R-T Road. Thanks for listening.
EXERCISE 5
Good morning everyone. I’m going to tell you about the school trip to the farm tomorrow. As I told you
last week, you need to wait for the bus by the school gate, so don’t go to the bus stop or come straight
into the playground like you usually do.
The farm is providing us all with a nice packed lunch, so there’s no need to bring one yourself. It’d be
great if you could make sure you’ve got a drink, though, as it can get quite hot on the bus.
There are lots of different animals on the farm. You’re all going to have a go at brushing the horses just
after we arrive there at about 9 a.m. Shortly after this, you’ll learn what farmers give lambs to eat, and
you’ll be able to give them their breakfast, too.
As well as the animals, the farm has lots of activities students can take part in. We’re going to do
some climbing on the special wall they have there after lunch, and maybe next time we can try one of
the other activities like fishing or playing baseball.
We’ll be setting off back to school at about 3.30 p.m., and will be back here at 4.15, so 45 minutes after
the usual school finish time of 3.30. Please could you let your parents know, especially if they usually
come to the school to pick you up.
If you or your parents want to find out more about the farm before we go, you can visit their website
and there’s loads of information about it on there. I’ll give you the website address: it’s www dot
caffertys dot farm dot com. I’ll spell that for you: it’s C-A-double F-E-R-T-Y-S dot farm dot com.
OK, see you all tomorrow.
EXERCISE 6
Listen, everyone. I know some of you are interested in learning to play a musical instrument so I have
some information about Saturday morning music classes that are starting this week.
There are many classes to choose from for a range of different instruments. You can learn anything from
the drums to the guitar. The violin teacher the school usually uses can’t make it on Saturdays, but why
not have a go at the flute if you prefer classical music.
When you arrive at the school, you’ll need to collect your instruments. You probably know that these
are normally kept in the large cupboard next to the technology room but we’ll make sure they’re all
ready for you in the drama room so go straight there, please.
You’ll need to tell your parents about the cost, of course. They can pay in two different ways: if they
decide to pay for each individual class, it’ll be £7.75, or they can pay per term, in which case it works out
a little cheaper at £72.
There’ll be an end of term concert for all students, which will take place on 24th June, and not on 7th
July as it says on the school website. You’ll be able to play solo, that’s by yourself, or with others. Last
year, there were several students who joined together in a band and they played together at the
concert. This year, though, we’d like to include more people and have an orchestra that students can
play in. Family and friends are welcome to come and listen.
If you or your parents want more information, you’ll need to email Mr Driscoll, the music teacher on
driscoll at school dot net. I’ll spell that for you: it’s D-R-I-S-C-O-double-L at school dot net.

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EXERCISE 7
This morning we’re continuing to look at environmental problems to see what we can do to help. And
we can make a difference if we try. We often forget that as people who go shopping, we have a lot of
power. If one company does something we don’t like we can always shop somewhere else.
Then there’s the amount of plastic that comes with the goods we buy. Try buying things that aren’t
wrapped in it. And if you’re offered a bag and you don’t need one, just say ‘no thanks’. And any plastic
bags you have at home, don’t throw them away. Put them away somewhere until your next shopping
trip and use them then. On the subject of throwing stuff away, I try to keep things that other people
might be able to use. There are always charity shops which are very happy to help you recycle your old
clothes or things in the house. Knowing that someone else is getting pleasure from something you no
longer need is a lovely feeling. Pollution is of course a big problem, and we often feel that as individuals
we have no power to make any difference. But that’s not true. Find out what some of the local
environmental problems are and see how you can help. Get together with friends and help to clear the
rubbish from local rivers or collect litter from the streets around your home to keep the area looking
tidy. Finally, let’s turn to energy. Cars are here to stay for the moment, and it would be difficult to ask
people not to use them at all. But we should all try to avoid making unnecessary car journeys. Go by bike
or public transport sometimes or, if you work in the same area as your neighbour, try car-sharing. Take it
in turns to drive to work.
EXERCISE 8
Before tonight's news, let me tell you about some of the shows we have for you this week, so you can
make a note of them in your diary. There are a few changes to our regular programmes, so listen carefully
to make sure you don't miss any of your favourites. Tonight at 8.30, John Seymour will present this week's
wildlife documentary. John entertained us all previously with his trip to the safari park when he went
along to meet the elephants. This time, John will be telling us about how we can recognise the wildflowers
in our gardens. Then, our first change of schedule.
Apologies to listeners. Looking forward to Writer's World and our interview with Frances Sellhurst on how
to get ideas for your next novel. We've had to rearrange this interview for next week as Frances is
attending a conference. Instead, we'll be talking with an expert about how you can make use of the
internet to get your next book published. On Thursday at 8, we have Sports Night. Sports Night, as usual,
with a look at next weekend's football. Most of the games from last Saturday were cancelled due to the
terrible weather, so there are no reports on those matches. But our experts will be looking forward to
seeing some action this Saturday and will be trying to predict results, as usual. Join our team at 8.
And finally, our reporters. Reporter Sally Williams will be in town next Friday morning. She'll be
interviewing people for our weekly programme, Money Matters, starting from 10, not the usual 9.
If you'd like the chance to speak to her and share your views of your experiences and any problems you
may have, meet Sally at the main door of the library, not the normal meeting place at the town hall. Which
is closed due to building work.
EXERCISE 9
Can I just say something about the training day next week. You should all receive your programme by
email shortly. We’ve had to make changes to rooms and even now some of the training sessions may
have to be held in a different building. But we’ll let you know if this happens.
Some of you have asked about changing to a different session than the one you signed up for. We’ve
tried to do this when it’s been possible but as some training sessions are full it will sometimes not be
possible. We will let you know by email on 13 September the full list of names of people going to each
session. The trainers will email you the materials they’ll be using during the sessions for you to have a
look at before the training day. There are some tasks for you to complete in preparation for your
session. Please make sure you print out these materials and complete the EXERCISEs before you attend.

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At the end of the training day you will all be given a questionnaire for your comments on each of the
sessions you attended. Could you please make sure you complete this and give it to the training
manager? We are using a new company for this event and are keen to see how well the day goes.
Because staff in the company restaurant will also be attending training sessions, the restaurant will not
be open. We are arranging cold food, teas and coffee for everyone. Could you email the restaurant
manager before the end of this week and let him know if you have any special dietary requirements.
Finally, can I remind you to check the noticeboard outside room 134 for any last-minute changes. Yes,
we’ll email you all important information but several of you have complained that you haven’t received
our messages, so to be absolutely sure you’re up to date, check the noticeboard.
EXERCISE 10
Russell: And finally, news of an interesting club that started recently and meets here every week. The
Speakers· Club is aimed at anyone who needs to develop their public speaking skills. Perhaps you have
to give talks to colleagues at work or need to practise a presentation you have prepared for a job
interview. The Speakers· Club offers a weekly meeting in the main hall, where members can learn from
each other as well as through talks given by highly experienced speakers from the world of business or
entertainment. We look at everything from body language and eye contact to storytelling and delivery.
A typical session starts at 7.00 with tea, coffee and biscuits before we listen to the speaker and start
looking at a particular topic. Members are then given the chance to change a presentation they’ve
prepared before the session so that it includes the ideas presented by the speaker. We also invite you to
enter one of our speech competitions each year. We understand that clubs like ours might not suit
everyone and we like to give you the chance to see for yourself how we operate before you join. So, we
invite anyone to attend their first session for free. However, in order for us to manage the numbers of
people attending, please make sure you reserve a place first or you may not be able to attend.
If you do decide to join us, annual membership is £170 per year. Arrangements can be made to pay the
membership fee once a month. Membership allows you to attend all sessions during the year and gives
you access to private areas of the website and the chance to take part in our social events.
EXERCISE 11
William: I had a great time away on holiday and one of the things I did was go on a two-day
photography course about taking photos of people. It was for beginners and I was given quite a few tips,
some of which I think are really useful. For example, getting your position correct is really important.
They said a common mistake is to stand too far away from the person. You get a much better result if
you get close to them as they take up more of the photo. It’s also important to make sure the camera is
at the same height as the person, especially if you’re taking one of a child. A really useful tip was to pay
attention to the background. The person will stand out much more if the background is as plain as
possible. This will help you to focus on the subject of your photo.
Although most smartphones come with a flash to provide extra light, they suggested we try to make as
much use as possible of daylight. Doing this will make the colours more accurate and the photo will
appear more natural. We’re all used to asking someone to ‘say cheese’ when we’re about to take their
photo. To get a more interesting picture, they recommended taking a photo of the person when they
don’t know you’re about to do it. Perhaps they’re reading or looking out of the window.
Finally, they told us to take plenty of photos so we can practise our skills. They said we should aim to
take at least three photos of people every day. These can be of friends and family or even strangers, if
you ask their permission.
EXERCISE 12
Ellen: If you’re looking for things to do over the summer, there’s lots going on in the area. I’ll give you
an idea of what you can do now, but for a full programme of events text 1576 and we’ll send you a link
to all the information you need. To give you a taste of what’s on offer, the Activity Centre is running a
wide range of activities for all the family. There’s climbing for beginners. This is indoors and will be led

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by experienced teachers. The centre has also organised a walk along the coast path for a look at some of
the creatures you can find there. The centre is open seven days a week, with a special open day on the
thirteenth of June to give you an idea of what else is on offer.
As you know, our town has a very long history, and those with an interest in the past can sign up for one
of the guided walks the History Group has organised. Find out where a very well-known celebrity was
born and learn about local industry in the past. You can find out more at the History Centre, which is
located in the central library. For film lovers, the Arts Centre has a full programme of films running
throughout the summer months. And the Book Festival, which starts on the fourteenth of August, has
several speakers on its programme and book readings by some well-known authors. This year they’ll be
organising a question and answer session for anyone interested in writing poetry. The Arts Centre
expects this to be quite popular, so you should call them first to book a place.
EXERCISE 13
Woman: Welcome to Milburn’s. If you’re looking for a sale or for something unusual, don’t forget our
Thursday ‘Special Buy’ day where you’ll find some great offers. These change every week and are
removed from the shelves at the end of the day. This Thursday you’ll be able to buy a special gift for
your pet with lots of items at low. low prices. Come early and don’t miss our offers.
Are you interested in a career with Milburn’s? we’re looking for new staff in various areas of the
business. There are now opportunities to join our trainee manager programme and several jobs for
cleaners. We are proud of our staff and like to think they’re proud to be part of the Milburn family. Why
not speak to our manager today if you’re interested in joining us? Or pick up our magazine at the exit for
details about how to apply. As the New Year approaches we know you’ll need to get your shopping done
ready for all the celebrations. We’ll be opening until 10.30 on Friday evening to give you time to get
ready for the big day. Don’t forget we’ll be closed on the first but open again on the second, when we
return to normal opening hours. We value our local community and are always looking for the chance to
help out where we can. This month we’re supporting the local Arts Project and the Children’s Theatre
Group. When you pay for your shopping you’ll be given a ticket. To show your support, choose which of
the organisations you would like to give this to by putting it in the box by the exit. We’ll turn these into
cash when they are counted up at the end of the month.
EXERCISE 14
This will be a very exciting time for you. You've got the grades you needed and you're off to university.
For many of you, this will be the first time away from home. Write a list of things you should take with
you, for example, your passport, if you're planning to go travelling. You'll certainly need all the
documentation the university has sent you about your course or accommodation. Don't bring too many
household items with you. You'll be able to buy a lot of things at university. When you arrive and go to
your room, check that everything is as it should be and engaged. Report anything that looks damaged.
You don't want to be blamed for this and be asked to pay any costs involved. This is also the time to get
to meet new people. Don't lock yourself away in your room, but go to the kitchen, as this is always the
first place to introduce yourself to other students. During your first week, you can enjoy Freshers' Week.
This is the time to find out what you need to do. 18. Learn about all the clubs and societies you can join
at university. These are great ways to get to know students doing different subjects. These people will
help you forget about your studies when you need to relax and not talk about work. It's sensible to limit
yourself to signing up to a maximum of five groups, or you'll be receiving emails for weeks to come.
Don't forget the important things you need to do. Things like registering with the local doctor as soon as
you can. And think about your weekly shopping list. Don't spend too much, but at the same time, make
sure you don't go hungry. And remember to put your name on your food. A shared fridge sometimes
leads to arguments.
EXERCISE 15

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Hello everybody and welcome to the class. I'm pleased to see so many of you here today. But don't
worry, there won't be any more of you. There's always a maximum of 15 in the class and a minimum of
8. Before we start, I'd like to tell you about the course. Some of the information you'll probably know
already, but some of it has changed. Your class will still be on Tuesday evenings, but it won't start at 7
o'clock. It will start at the later time of 7.30 and will end at 9.30, not 9 o'clock. I hope that change is OK
for everyone. Unfortunately, I can't be here any earlier than that. Another change is the room. Next
week we need to move to the second floor, to the room on the right. Opposite the art room. That's
room 26. Today is the only time we'll be here in room 12. The course book will be the same as before,
that is, starting French. I see some of you have already bought it. That's good. However, if you want to
buy it from us, it costs £8. You can order it today, but it takes two weeks, so you won't have it until the
1st of October. One more thing. During the last week of term, there is an international evening at the
college. There will be traditional dancing from different countries, and every class is asked to provide
some food. I thought we could take some French cheese, but any other suggestions are welcome. And
finally, let me remind you that most of your lessons will be completely in French, so let's begin now,
shall we?
EXERCISE 16
Woman: I love being a travel writer, and I love talking about my trips, so thank you for inviting me into
the studio today! Right, I’m going to tell you about three different holidays that I can recommend to
everyone. The first is a good, year-round sun destination: The Canary Islands. These islands are known
for their big busy seaside hotels in Tenerife and Lanzarote, but there are less well-known islands, like La
Gomera. If you want a quieter experience, you can stay in traditional villages there and try out the
excellent walking routes in the hills. Johnson’s Travel currently has two-week holidays in La Gomera
from as little as £600 per person, or £900 with an extra week. Another island you might like to try is
Sardinia, in the Mediterranean. And if you and your family want a little more adventure, then a water
sports holiday could be the one for you. Water skiing and sailing are always popular, and you could even
try for a diving qualification while you’re there on one of the specially organized activity weeks offered
by SunWorld!
SunWorld designs fantastic holidays, and the peak season for families begins in July. It’s important to
remember, however, that the month of June is reserved for adults only.
Finally, if you’re not interested in lying on the beach, why not try something completely different? On a
trip to Iceland, you and your family could first visit all the main attractions of Reykjavik on a special
guided bus tour. Then take a traditional Icelandic trip on the back of a horse to the Blue Lagoon, before
flying off to the lovely snow-covered mountains of the Askja region. A week with Travel the World costs
£1,200 per adult for accommodation and return flights to Reykjavik and on to Askja. Rates for children
are lower.
EXERCISE 17
Woman: Good morning and welcome to our seminar on the toy industry. I’d like to start by saying a
few words about what you can expect from this seminar, since some of the details on the original plan
have changed. After the introduction by Sally Connor, Kenji Nakamura will give a talk. That’s from 10
a.m. to 11 a.m. He will tell you about the most recent developments in the toy industry in Japan and will
show a short film. This will be followed by half an hour of questions. Then at 12.00, we’ll have a break
for lunch. This will be a buffet meal, served in Victoria Hall, which is on the opposite side of the building,
next to the library. After lunch, we’ll return here for Toys in Britain: Success and Failure. This talk will be
given by Robert Price who, as you know, is the owner of a chain of over 200 toy shops in the UK. The
next talk What’s Next for Toys? will take place immediately after this, at 3.30. This will be given by Sarah
Smith, who is, of course, our Sales Manager. Sarah’s talk will finish at 5 p.m. After that, tea and juice will
be served in the Green Room, which is on the first floor. Please join us there as will be a chance for
everyone to chat and …

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EXERCISE 18
Man: Are you wondering what to do over the summer holidays? The international sports festival starts
on the 30th of June, lasts for two weeks and ends on the 13th of July with prize giving and fireworks. It’s
well worth attending. Here’s why. The fun starts on day one with a huge event in Prospect Park.
Organizers will arrive early to set up, but the event for the public begins at 12 p.m. and lasts all day until
6.00. Throughout the day, many different clubs and companies will be giving free workshops, which
means you’ll be able to try sports that you may never have tried before.
Some of the highlights at the opening even include skateboarding and break-dancing workshops. You
might also like to bring your bike and try some extreme cycling. Before you start, an expert will check
over your bike to make sure it’s safe. There will also be a bike race. To find out more information about
exact times of each workshop, look on our website. You’ll also be able to download a map which shows
where everything will be in the park on the day. For the remaining two weeks of the festival, you’ll be
able to enjoy further workshops and sessions in the area. Locations and events include water sports at
River Swimming Complex, track events at the Athletics Stadium and you can also take part in indoor
team games at Central Leisure. This festival is the first of its kind in our town and I really recommend
you see what it’s all about.
EXERCISE 19
This is the information line for the Dorset Chocolate Museum, the home of chocolate lovers and the
ideal place to spend an afternoon. Do you know who used cocoa beans as money in the 16th century?
Or where chocolate was drunk as a medicine? At the Dorset Chocolate Museum you'll find out about all
this and more. Our fascinating displays will guide you through the history of chocolate making from its
earliest use in South America to the modern day. Then move on to the demonstration area of our small
family run factory. Here you can watch our skilled chocolate makers making a variety of chocolate bars
as well as other sweets and you can even have a try at making your own. We open 7 days a week from
12 midday till 6pm, except in July and August when we are open until 8pm. From September to
December, we are open weekends only. We are closed throughout January, but open again from 1
February. Admission is £10 for adults and £5 for children up to the age of 16, while children under 5 are
free. Students pay £2 less so that's £8, but only if they have a student ID card. Special reduced entrance
fees are available for groups of 10 or more people. We can also make special arrangements for schools
on weekdays between 12 and 4pm. All groups will be provided with a private tour guide and at the end
each member of the group will receive a bag of lovely handmade chocolates. Our special range of
chocolate boxes and bars is always available to buy in our gift shop. For more details, phone the gift
shop on 01632 960 054.
EXERCISE 20
Woman: Good afternoon, families! It’s lovely to see you all at our wonderful resort. You’ve certainly
got some great weather for your holiday! Now, in a moment you’ll be shown up to your rooms. Then in
about an hour’s time, at about one o’clock, a light lunch will be served in the dining room. The dining
room is at the front of the hotel, next to the fitness centre. For your information, breakfast is served
between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., lunch is from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner is served in the evening between
8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Traditional music is played by local musicians twice a week during dinner.
Now a few words about activities. There are family trips most mornings which you can join, if you like.
These include visits to local places of interest, including the ruins and various monuments. I’ll give you
more details about those later. You can also visit an outdoor market where you’ll be able to find
souvenirs to take home. That’s only on Thursdays, so don’t miss it. In the afternoons, you can either
walk to the beach, which is just five minutes away, or you can relax by the hotel swimming pool.
That’s it for now, I think. I hope you like your rooms. Please stay behind if you have any questions.
Otherwise, I’ll see you in the dining room in about an hour. Thank you very much.
EXERCISE 21

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Girl: Hi everyone. I have chosen to tell you about my father’s job for the project we had for today. I
chose the first project which focuses on jobs. I found the other topic on the environment a bit difficult.
My father is a pilot for an international airline company. He’s been flying people around the world for
the last sixteen years and he loves his job. After he graduated from university, he became a teacher. He
taught in a primary school and he really enjoyed it. However, he’d always had a dream that one day he
would fly, so he decided to go for an important career change and train as a pilot. He will never forget
his first flight when he was responsible for a plane with 80 happy holiday-makers on their way to Italy.
Six more people were working on the plane. He was very nervous. Everything went well though and he
was so pleased when his first flight was behind him. He often gets nervous people asking him questions
about how dangerous flying really is. He tells them that it is the safest way to travel. However,
sometimes unexpected things happen during a flight, such as bad weather or difficult passengers, but he
says that the most important thing a pilot can do is to always stay calm. My father believes that what
nervous passengers have in common is that they need to be in control of their life and when they get on
a plane they have to give up that control. He always does his best to make passengers feel relaxed on
the flight. Once he has taken off and he is cruising in the sky, he always has a coffee to make him feel
extra awake and ready for anything.
EXERCISE 22
Man: Good morning everyone. I want to tell you about the school trip to the castle next week. The
coach will be leaving the school at 9.10 so you all need to be there at 8.40 and no later. If anyone is late
we will not wait for you. We will be doing all sorts of activities during the day but don’t forget that you
will be doing a project on the castle so you need to bring a book, I mean a notebook with you. Don’t
worry about bringing a camera as on the last trip two people lost their cameras. You can always use your
phones if you want to take pictures. We should arrive at the castle by 9.45. We won’t be going on a
guided tour because I know how bored you all get, so, instead, we will go to the gardens where we will
have a special painting class; the gardens are very beautiful. All your paintings will be exhibited in the
school hall next week. After lunch you can have a look around the castle for an hour which will be
followed by a special treat. No that doesn’t mean you will go and eat cake, we will be going on
a boat down the river. I know that this is a trip that you will really enjoy. Now those projects I mentioned
earlier will be marked by Friday afternoon so they all need to be handed in by Tuesday afternoon. Not
Wednesday morning! Us poor teachers have lots to do so you must hand your projects in on time.
If you want more information to help you write your projects, you can look on the castle website which
is www dot Arundel dot castle dot com. I’ll spell that for you, that A-R-U-N-D-E-L.
OK, you can go to your lessons now.
EXERCISE 23
Girl: Hi everyone. I’m going to tell you all about my wonderful trip to Venice last week. I went with my
family. We arrived on Saturday morning at about 10 a.m. It’s very easy to get from the airport to Venice
as you can either go by train or bus from the airport or you can do it the more romantic way which is by
boat.
The boats are called vaporetti and they are very long and narrow so that they can sail down the canals
easily. The wonderful thing about going by boat is that you can see a lot of the city before you’ve even
checked in to your hotel. We stayed in an area of Venice called Arsenale. We were on the boat for over
an hour before we got to our stop. We set off at 10:15 and we arrived there at 11:30. On the way we
cruised past most of the outside of the city.
The cheapest way of travelling around Venice is of course on foot but after a while you will probably get
very tired. You can buy a three-day ticket to use on the vaporetti which only costs 20 pounds. We also
bought a Museum Card for 30 pounds which we could use to go into the museums, art galleries and
churches. That saved us a lot of money.
Apart from its fantastic buildings and squares, Venice is most famous for its canals. The thing I enjoyed
most was walking over the many beautiful bridges and watching the boats beneath us.

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Now I’d like to mention the food in Venice. There are plenty of restaurants all over the city. As you
would expect there are plenty of pizza and pasta restaurants but the nicest thing to eat in Venice is fish.
On the last day we sat and drank fresh juice on the Grand Canal. I took many photos for my friends and
bought lots of Italian sweets. My parents bought some toy boats for our cousins. It was the perfect city
holiday.
EXERCISE 24
Hi everyone. Today I will tell you about my typical day filming. It sounds like a great job, but it really is
very tiring.Every day I get up at 4 in the morning and I have to be ready by 4.30 to get in the car to the
studio. In the winter, it's still dark and as the studio is only half an hour away, I'm there at 5 and I don't
get a chance to have a quick sleep. As soon as I get to the studio, I go to the hairdresser who brushes my
hair into the hairstyle of the character I am playing. This usually takes about half an hour. When she
finishes doing my hair, I don't have to move from the chair because the makeup lady comes to me and
prepares me for filming. At the moment, I'm playing a polygamer. I'm a police officer, so I don't need a
lot of makeup. In my last film, I played the part of a big monster and I needed a lot of makeup, which
took 5 hours to do. It wasn't comfortable sitting in the same chair for such a long time. After makeup, I
am given my costume to put on. At this point, I am now ready to act, but it is never like that. The film
director is either late or the engineers haven't finished with the scenery or lights. We don't usually start
on time. When they are ready, I go into the studio and we act out the different scenes. This takes all day
until about 5pm when they remove my makeup and I get changed back into my normal clothes. A car
then takes me home, where I have dinner and go to bed, usually about 10pm. Then the same happens
the next day and every day during filming. And that's my typical day.
EXERCISE 25
Man: Good morning, thanks for inviting me to come and talk to you all today. I have been a radio
presenter for ten years now. I started doing DJ work for the university radio station. Strangely I wasn’t
studying music or art, in fact I was a history student but I’ve always loved music.
I do the breakfast show Monday to Friday. I start at 6 am and I’m not much of a breakfast person so I
don’t eat before the show. Everyone eats and drinks loads of strong coffee but I’m a tea man myself.
One big cup and then I’m ready to start. Once I finish the show at ten I have my breakfast then and a
glass of juice. I love my job because I get to play great music. The best thing of all is when I get to
do interviews. I’ve met some amazing people, some of them famous and some of them just ordinary
people who have done wonderful things. Unfortunately I have made myself look silly a few times. My
memory isn’t that good. It’s not that I forget dates or times or anything like that but once in the middle
of talking to a politician I forgot their name. That was not good! I had never thought that I would have a
successful career as a radio presenter when I was at university. I was always interested in teaching or
acting but if I changed careers now I would definitely be a reporter of some kind as I love talking to
people. Well, that’s a little bit about me. If any of you are free this weekend and aren’t too busy
studying or going to clubs, why not come and see me at a charity event I am doing at Hatfield House? If
you want to make a note of that it’s spelt, H-A-T-F-I-E-L-D House. I hope to see some of you there.
EXERCISE 26
Woman: OK everyone, listen carefully as I need to give you some information about the geography trip.
First of all it is no longer on Monday 13th June, it is on Wednesday 14th, sorry I mean Wednesday 15th
June. So please make sure you have the new date in your diary.
As you know we will be walking up quite a high mountain. Well, actually it’s not really a mountain, it’s a
very high hill. You will be put into groups. You need to work together as a team to find your way to the
meeting point at the end of the walk. There will be no technology for you to use. You will have to use
the map that each group will be given.
As I mentioned before, it’s quite a difficult walk. The coach will drive you to the bottom of the hill which
is about 12 kilometres from our school and then you will have to walk the four kilometres to the top.

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Don’t worry there is actually a car park near the top so you won’t have to walk all the way back down
again. We wouldn’t make you walk 8 kilometres in one day.
There will be a doctor with you at all times to help anyone who might feel unwell. It’ll be easy to see him
as he will be walking with Mrs Jackson and he will be wearing a bright orange coat. His name is Mr
Walsh, that’s W-A-L-S-H. Don’t forget to drink lots of water during the walk.
Now on the subject of keeping safe and well, it’s a good idea to wear a sun hat but most important of all
you need to make sure that you are wearing comfortable boots as you won’t be walking on easy paths.
No sandals or beach shoes.
We will have a packed lunch half way through the walk and drinks and cake at the end in the cafe. The
coach will collect us at about 6 p.m., so if there’s no heavy traffic, we should be back at school at 7
p.m. Now are there any questions?
EXERCISE 27
Boy: Well, London has many surprises waiting to be discovered. So imagine my surprise when I
discovered the amazing Chiswick Park in West London, hidden amongst the houses, right next to the
main station. In fact, just where you would not expect to find a beautiful park, with a restaurant and an
example of amazing architecture! Chiswick House was built in 1729. It was designed by its owner Lord
Burlington. The interior of the building is important, not only because of its beauty but because there
are important paintings and furniture in it. You can join group tours of Chiswick House which take place
every weekend. They last an hour and cost eighteen pounds per person. There are also family tickets
that cost 38 pounds. I went on one of these tours, and I can tell you, it was well worth every penny!
Now if being outside is more your thing, Chiswick Park, the huge garden which the house was built in,
will inspire you. You can go on the garden tour with a guide. You will see the greenhouses filled with
flowers and beautiful gardens full of whatever flowers are in season. There is also a flower shop where
you can buy plants and souvenirs. The garden tour is 6 pounds per person or 50 for a group of ten. It
takes an hour and a half, after which you will be ready for a meal or a coffee at the restaurant. There is a
wide selection of cakes and snacks from as little as £2.00 for coffee and a piece of cake.
Oh, and if you’re in London from the 7th of June, there is a music week. You can sit on the grass and
listen to music from six in the afternoon to ten, every evening. The music week ends on the 13th of June
with an amazing teenagers’ song competition.
EXERCISE 28
Man: Well, today I want to share with you some amazing ideas for our school trip next month. I’ve
been looking into a new holiday company called Exodus which promises the traveller an unforgettable
experience. So let’s start with their walking holiday on The Great Wall of China! It took over two
thousand years to build and is five thousand and five hundred miles long…! Okay, you won’t walk all of
that, but it will take you far away from the crowds and the amazing views really make it worth it!
There is also another extreme walking and climbing experience on Everest! This is a ten-day extreme
holiday only for experienced walkers. You join a group and climb to the base camp of the highest
mountain on Earth! However, this does not happen in the summer months due to the rainy season, so
the last one leaves on the 15th of April. Until last year there was another one on the 25th of April, but
there isn’t anymore.
But, if walking is not your thing, how about a food holiday on a Vietnam or China Food Adventure Tour!
Both holidays have cookery classes and you will get a chance to shop for ingredients at the food
markets which are an amazing experience!
For me the best part is going to the Panda Rescue Centre … you know … those lovely black and white
bears that you only find in China. You can have a cookery class there and learn to make panda rice
balls … great for kids’ parties!
By the way, if you are chocolate mad, then the Mexico Food Adventure is the one for you. You get to go
to the chocolate museum and see how it is produced, plus lots of chocolate cookery classes!

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If you want I’ll give you the website address to have a look at all the amazing experiences they offer
both you and your parents. It’s www dot exodus dot holiday dot com. I’ll spell that for you: it’s E-X-O-D-
U-S.
EXERCISE 29
M: Good morning everyone and welcome to Stonebridge House. My name is David and I’m your tour
guide. This morning I’m going to show you around this wonderful 19th century house which was the
home of the Reynold family for more than 150 years, until 1975, when it became a national museum.
We are now standing in the main lobby of the house where you can see the magnificent wooden
staircase that leads up to the bedrooms. The house servants used to sleep in the attic but they would
have used a different staircase to this one. Now, if we go through to the dining room, you will be able to
see a fine collection of paintings. George Reynold was a big fan of traditional art as we can see here
today. George came from a military family. Surprisingly, however, he became a lawyer even though his
father had wanted him to be an officer in the army. His younger brother also rebelled and became a
teacher. Now the Reynold family is famous for many things, but probably most of all for the many family
tragedies. The family has had more than its fair share of early deaths. George’s son Michael died from
cancer, his wife died while giving birth to their daughter Emily and George’s brother had a fatal horse
riding accident. George himself always suffered from a weak heart and he died of a heart attack at the
age of 52.
EXERCISE 30
F: Good afternoon. My name is Sally, and I will be your tour guide on tomorrow’s excursion to Brighton.
It’s going to be a very full day with many things to see and do. The coach will be outside the Town Hall at
eight o’clock. Please make sure you are on time and ready to board the coach when it arrives as it is a
busy road and the driver can’t stop for long. We will be in Brighton at ten o’clock and you’ll be dropped
off at the Pool Valley Coach Station, which is very close to the seafront.
We’ll start our guided walking tour at 10.15 and we’ll have a leisurely wander around the famous
Brighton Lanes for half an hour. The Lanes are the original part of Brighton. They used to be narrow
streets lined with fishermen’s cottages but now they are more famous for boutiques and jewellers. At
eleven, we’ll go to the Royal Pavilion, which was once a Royal Palace. You’ll probably all fancy a quick
drink before the tour at 11.30. You can either sit inside the Palace Cafe or sit outside at the Pavilion
Gardens cafe. Lunch will be at 12.45 till 2 o’clock at the local Italian Restaurant. There is a set menu on
offer for us tomorrow. The two-course meal costs only £8.95. The afternoon will be busy with a trip to
the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. This has recently been refurbished and it’s worth a visit. From 3
to 5 in the afternoon you are free to explore Brighton seafront. Particularly worth visiting are the artists’
studios on the beach, the Aquarium, the i360 tower, where visitors can admire views across Brighton
and the south coast, and of course Brighton Pier. Finally, to round off the day, we will be going for
cream tea at the Grand Hotel. Then it’s a five-minute walk to the Coach Station for a 6 pm departure.
Are there any questions?
EXERCISE 31
F: Travelling by taxi or private hire is one of the most flexible ways to travel around London. Services
operate across the capital, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year subject to local availability. (14) All taxis and
private hire operators take cash, and some accept credit and debit cards.
Historically, taxis have been referred to as ‘black cabs’ even though many are not black. (15) These are
the only vehicles that should be stopped on the street or picked up at cab ranks, although taxis can also
be booked in advance through a telephone service.
Taxis fares have been simplified. Fares depend on three things: the time of day, the distance travelled
and time taken. There are three different tariffs for the time of day. One mile would cost you about 4
pounds on tariff 1, 4 pounds sixty pence on tariff 2, and about 5 pounds twenty pence on tariff 3. The
first applies from Monday to Friday, from 6am to 8pm. (16) The second tariff is from Monday to Friday

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between 8pm and 10pm, as well as Saturday and Sunday 6am to 10pm. (17) The third comes into effect
every night between 10pm and 6am, and on public holidays. In London there are over 24,000 licensed
taxi drivers, all of whom have to pass certain tests. (18) Complete background criminal record checks are
carried out, as well as a full medical examination, and an exam-style test of their knowledge of London’s
streets. They must know all of London’s major roads, and the quickest ways to certain destinations.
(19) Private hire vehicles include both limousines and chauffer services, or, minicabs, as they are often
called, and have to be booked in advance, either by visiting a licensed operator’s office, or by telephone.
EXERCISE 32
Good afternoon. I’m going to tell you about the three tours we are currently organising to historic
houses in southern England. Mystery surrounds the exact origins of South Elmham House, although it is
known to date back to the 13th century when it was built by the bishops of Norwich, but was
remodelled by several rich Lords in the 16th century. It also contains some of the oldest wall paintings in
the country, which suggests a very wealthy family once lived here. On the grounds there is also the ruins
of a small Norman church. Tours include walking through the deer park to the church, and start at 2 pm.
They cost 12 pounds, including tea, coffee and cakes. A midday meal can also be booked.
Haughley Hall was built in the late 14th century, just outside a ruined Norman castle. It was updated and
added to in the 18th century. King Henry II once owned the house, and its current owner is a Lord. It
includes secret hiding places in the walls, and two tunnels, which are now bricked up, and a three-acre
garden. Tours start at both 11.30 and 2 pm, and cost either 15 pounds with a traditional lunch, or 12
pounds with tea. Groups are also welcome. 12th century Bedfield House is deep in the countryside and
used to belong to the church until the mid 15th century, when the modern house was built. It was
surrounded by a river, or ‘moat’, and inside the building the painted surfaces and plastered ceilings have
anti-witchcraft symbols. Five bridges connect the beautiful five-acre gardens. Tours take place at 10.30
and 2.30, and cost 13 pounds fifty, which includes tea, coffee and cakes. Groups are welcome.
EXERCISE 33
Good morning everyone, welcome to fitness week at our special health centre. I can promise you three
things if you sign up for this course. Firstly, you will become healthier; number two, you will learn lots of
new EXERCISE techniques; and number three, you will work very hard. Our gyms and swimming pools
are all new and fully equipped, so all you need to take with you is a good pair of trainers, a tracksuit,
shorts and T-shirts for the gym. Don’t forget also to take a swimming costume.
We start on a Sunday, and the first day is an introduction. Each person will be weighed and fill in a quick
health questionnaire. Then we will work out a plan with specific targets for each person based on their
individual needs. For the rest of the week, we will have morning EXERCISE sessions in the gym, where a
personal trainer will ensure you are exercising correctly. After a healthy snack, the afternoon will consist
of EXERCISEs in the pool, and then relaxation in the spa. On the last day you will all be individually
weighed and assessed to determine how much progress you have made. Then, there will be a talk about
fitness strategies and how you can maintain your progress in everyday life.
Book your place in the next two days, and you will get a 25% discount. You will pay only 15 pounds a
day, which works out at one hundred pounds. No, I’m sorry; that’s one hundred and five pounds for the
whole week.
EXERCISE 34
Good morning, everyone. After a good night's sleep, I hope you have all recovered from your long
journey and are now ready to begin the holiday of a lifetime at the Oasis Hotel. My name is Stephen,
and I am your Sunny Tours rep for the week. You can usually find me chatting to holiday makers
somewhere in the hotel, or you can leave a message for me in my office next to the bar, and I'll get back
to you. I'm always in the office between 10 and 11 in the morning, or 6 and 7 in the evening. Now, I'd
like to tell you about the mid-week excursion to the volcano. This is always a very popular excursion, so
I'd advise you to book soon to avoid disappointment. The cost is £20 per person, and this includes a free

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ticket to the hotel. This includes the coach trip to the harbour, the boat to the volcano, and a welcome
drink when you board the boat. You need to take a packed lunch, and the hotel can provide one for you
at a very reasonable rate, if you ask them the night before. The coach leaves at 9 o'clock sharp from
outside the main entrance and will return at 5pm, just in time for dinner. Children over the age of 12 are
welcome. Unfortunately, the excursion is not suitable, and the hotel is not suitable for younger children.
The hotel has a creche and toddler club, which opens at 7.30am for 4 hours, and then again in the early
evening between 6 and 8. You may already have seen that the hotel has a fantastic state-of-the-art gym.
This is free to all hotel guests. A massage facility, hair styling, aerobics classes and yoga classes are on
offer. The first cost is £10 per person, and the hotel is free to all hotel guests. The second cost is £5 per
hour, and yoga is offered for £4.50 an hour. On Sunday morning, the fitness instructors offer water
aerobics at 10am, followed by circuit training back in the gym at 11.15. Well, that's all for now. Are there
any questions? Now listen again. Good morning, everyone. After a good night's sleep, I hope you have
all recovered from your long journey, and are now ready to begin the holiday of a lifetime at the Oasis
Hotel. My name is Stephen, and I am your Sunny Tours rep for the week. You can usually find me
chatting to holidaymakers somewhere in the hotel, or you can leave a message for me in my office next
to the bar, and I'll get back to you. I'm always in the office between 10 and 11 in the morning, or 6 and 7
in the evening. Now, I'd like to tell you about the midweek... ... and the midweek excursion to the
volcano. This is always a very popular excursion, so I'd advise you to book soon to avoid disappointment.
The cost is £20 per person, and this includes the coach trip to the harbour, the boat to the volcano, and
a welcome drink when you board the boat. You need to take a packed lunch, and the hotel can provide
one for you at a very reasonable rate, if you ask them the night before. The coach leaves at 10am, and
the hotel leaves at 10pm. The coach leaves at 9pm sharp from outside the main entrance, and will
return at 5pm, just in time for dinner. Children over the age of 12 are welcome. Unfortunately, the
excursion is not suitable for younger children. The hotel has a creche and toddler club, which opens at
7.30am for 4 hours, and then again in the early evening between 6 and 8. You may already have seen
that the hotel is open from 7am to 7.30pm, but the hotel has a fantastic state-of-the-art gym. This is free
to all hotel guests. A massage facility, hairstyling, aerobics classes and yoga classes are on offer. The first
costs £5 an hour, and yoga is offered for £4.50 an hour. On Sunday morning, the fitness instructors offer
water aerobics at 10am, followed by circuit training back in the gym at 11.30am. The implementation is
based on the Well that's all for now. Are there any questions?
EXERCISE 35
We meet at the entrance to the hotel and walk to our painting location. This will always be about half an
hour away, certainly no further than expected. Once we arrive, I'll give you all a demonstration of
landscape painting or drawing. We'll be exploring a variety of materials, such as pencil and charcoal, and
watercolour and acrylic paint. We won't be using oil paint as it takes too long to dry and will be very
difficult to handle. Then, you get the chance to see a painting. You'll be asked to show what you're made
of and I'll be walking around, giving advice and encouragement. Please feel free to ask me any question
during this time. That's what I'm here for. We will have a picnic lunch at 12.30. Don't forget to collect
your packed lunch in the morning from reception. After an afternoon of painting and drawing, we'll all
get together for a group tutorial. Now don't be nervous about this, it's just a chance to share our
thoughts and experiences and see what every one of you has to say. We'll be back at the hotel at about
5 o'clock, so you have plenty of time to freshen up before dinner at 6.30. Now any questions? Now listen
again. Hello everyone, I hope you're all settled in and are looking forward to your first day of
landscaping painting tomorrow. I just want to run through the daily programme with you, so that we are
all in the right place at the right time. Now breakfast will be served on the patio between 8 and 9 in the
morning. I'll be back in a few minutes. It's a buffet breakfast and self-service, so you can help yourself to
as much as you like. I suggest you fill up as you'll get hungry in all that fresh air and walking. At 9.30
prompt, we'll meet at the entrance to the hotel and walk to our painting location. This will always be
about half an hour away, certainly no further than expected. Once we arrive, I'll give you all a
demonstration of landscape painting or drawing. We'll be exploring a variety of materials. The most

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common ones will be pencils and charcoal, and watercolour and acrylic paint. We won't be using oil
paint as it takes too long to dry and would be very difficult to handle. Then, you get the chance to show
what you're made of and I'll be walking around, giving advice and encouragement. Please feel free to
ask me any question during this time. That's what I'm here for! We will have a picnic lunch at 12.30.
Don't forget to collect your packed lunch in the morning from Restart. After an afternoon of painting
and drawing, we'll all get together for a group tutorial. Now, don't be nervous about this, it's just a
chance to share our thoughts and experiences and see what everyone has produced. We'll be back at
the hotel at about 5 o'clock, so you have plenty of time to freshen up before dinner at 6.30. Now, any
questions? Let me know in the comments below.
EXERCISE 36
Of course, polo is normally played on horses, and it’s a very fast game. Well, we don’t claim that
elephant polo is the fastest game in the world, but we always maintain it’s the biggest. The elephants do
actually enjoy polo. Definitely. It’s a lot of fun for them because they’re social animals, and a polo
tournament is a week when dozens of elephants meet up, many from the same family, like a reunion.
And of course they get fed extremely well – better than in their normal life. I hey use up a lot of energy
and get through masses of sugar cane, especially at half-time. The players sit on elephants and hit a
white wooden ball, using a long bamboo stick that has a polo mallet head on the end of it. The pitch is
about three-quarters the length of a football pitch, and the goals are the same width as football goals.
There’s a basic saddle and the players are strapped onto the elephants. We’ve never had a serious
accident. A mahout – an elephant handler – sits behind each player and guides the elephant.
Sometimes the mahouts have their own games, guiding the elephant and hitting the ball as well. That
takes incredible skill. During a game, if the ball hits an elephant, that’s fine. Their legs are quite thick
and they do get in the way. Quite often they will kick the ball so that they can run after it. They’re not
allowed to pick up the ball with their trunks, though they sometimes try. That would be a free hit to the
other side. There are four elephants per team in a tournament, plus the referee’s elephant – that’s nine
on the pitch at any one time. We usually have sixteen animals available on any given day, in four teams.
There are two halves, called chukkas, in a game of elephant polo, the same as in normal polo. We play
ten minutes of actual play. Whenever the whistle blows, the clock stops. A novice team might score one
or two goals, if they’re lucky, while an advanced team might score about ten. The polo rules are that a
man can only hold the stick with his right arm, even if he is left-handed. Women can use both hands.
Using the stick is hard work, because it’s long and the head is heavy. By the end of the game, your arm
will be aching. But it’s an easy game to pick up with a little practice. During the game, you chase after
the ball on your elephant, going quite quickly, and you can easily miss it, though the elephant will often
help you out with his foot. The elephants usually supply the entertainment. They might decide to lie
down across the goal for fun but that’s an absolute no-no. Ultimately, it’s about elephants charging up
and down the pitch, scoring great goals themselves and having a lot of fun. If the elephants didn’t enjoy
it, or if there was any form of misbehaving, they would be removed from the game – sent off, if you like.
It’s not worth risking an elephant with an attitude problem. You get all sorts. You get big elephants that
are a bit older and wiser, and we use a lot of small ones that can be exceptionally quick. We try to
remove what you might call the elephant factor by swapping elephants and mahouts with the other
team at half-time. If you’ve got elephants that don’t normally live together, there can be some tension.
The sport always uses Indian elephants. The problem with African ones is that their ears get in the way.
And they’re much taller.
EXERCISE 37
OK, now we come to our regular spot on extreme sports, and this week our fearless reporter Tom
Walker has been trying out something called indoor skydiving. And he’s with me now. Tom, what’s this
all about?
Reporter: Well, it’s the same as skydiving – jumping from an aeroplane and freefalling through the air
without opening your parachute for some time – except that you do it in an indoor wind tunnel. And

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there’s no plane, and no parachute, and, so I was told, no danger! So it gives you a taste of doing an
extreme sport, but it isn’t quite so extreme.
Presenter: Right, now where did you do it?
Reporter: I did it in a vertical wind tunnel at an adventure sports centre called Runway.
Presenter: What exactly is a vertical wind tunnel?
Reporter: Well, it’s a tunnel that gets filled with air. The air is provided by four enormous industrial fans
of a kind that usually provide air for underground systems [9]. These fans produce a column of air that
rushes through the tunnel from below at more than 160 kilometres per hour. When you’re in the tunnel,
you float on this air. The machine has been described as being like an enormous hairdryer [10]. It allows
you to fly as if you had fallen from a plane, but you are only two metres off the ground.
Presenter: And it’s completely safe is it?
Reporter: Yes. There are bars across the top of the tunnel to stop you flying off up and out of the tunnel.
The tunnel is four metres wide and has glass walls . The only small problem you might have is that you
keep bashing into these walls. But you’re not really going to hurt yourself a lot by doing this – the only
injuries you are likely to get are sore elbows and knees. In fact, it’s so safe that the centre is open to
anyone over the age of four. In America, where the idea was invented by the military in 1994,
pensioners in their eighties regularly have a go.
Presenter: Wow! So how did you get on when you went there?
Reporter: Well, when I got there I watched the training instructors running through their routine. They
were doing all sorts of moves in the tunnel, such as ‘barrel rolls’, something they call ‘helicopters’ –
spinning on their heads in mid-air, and back flips. Watching them do all that before I went into the
tunnel left me feeling a little anxious. even though I knew the tunnel was safe. And the roar of the
electric motors that power the fans, like a plane taking off and so loud you need ear-plugs, added to my
fear.
Presenter: What happened when you went into the tunnel?
Reporter: Like all beginners, I was given a couple of two-minute sessions in the tunnel, which seems
short, but since the average freefall from a plane lasts only one minute, you realise it is more than
plenty. Held down by my instructor, I floated in the position I was told to keep to, with my hands out in
front of me as if I was ‘holding a ball of air’, for the whole session. The only time he had to correct me
was on the occasions I threatened to fly out of reach or, as if by instinct, disappear out of the entry-exit
door.
Presenter: Sounds exciting.
Reporter: Yeah, it’s great fun. In fact the person who came up with the idea and set up the centre calls it
a ‘smile machine’, because nobody can go into the tunnel without smiling.
Presenter: So you recommend it?
Reporter: Yes, it’s just like real skydiving, except that you don’t have the view – or the expense! And it’s
good both for beginners and extreme skydivers. In fact, in some places it has developed into its own
sport, known as ‘body flying’. There are already competitions in that sport.
Presenter: Thanks, Tom, If you want to find out more about the wind tunnel.
EXERCISE 38
Interviewer: OK, now I understand that the Park is involved in one or two projects at the moment.
Wildlife park representative: That’s right. Since 1994, we’ve been working with various partners to
raise money and help co-ordinate something called Project Life Lion. This project involves sending teams
to villages which border the Serengeti National Park in East Africa to vaccinate domestic dogs against
canine distemper virus (CDV) and rabies. In 1994 over one third of the Serengeti lions died as a result of
CDV, which had passed from domestic dogs to the wild animal population. In addition to that, we are
currently taking part in the Atlantic Rainforest Project and supporting the Community Conservation
Project.
Interviewer: So you’re obviously concerned about environmental issues.

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Wildlife park representative: Yes, the Park continuously monitors its environmental impact. To do that,
we have our own independently-written Environmental Management System, which is now being used
as a model by other organizations across the UK so that they can establish their own.
Interviewer: Now, apart from the day-to-day business of visitors to the Park, you also put on events,
don’t you?
Wildlife park representative: Yes, the Park is a venue for all manner of corporate events, such as
product launches, team-building, special events, barbecues – the list is endless. And we play host to
many charity and fund-raising events each year. For them, we are happy to help with discounted tickets
and competition prizes.
Interviewer: Now, tell me about the Centre for Television and Radio Training. I gather you’re connected
with that.
Wildlife park representative: Yes, it’s our sister company. If you’ve always dreamed of being a radio
presenter, we offer you the opportunity to take the first steps. The Centre has a range of courses from a
one-day experience to a five-day full-time course which leads to your own two-hour show on our own
station, Paradise FM. The courses take place at our studio complex.
Interviewer: Wow, that sounds great. Now, back to animals, which is after all what the Park is really all
about. One thing that I see you run is something called Adopt an Animal. Tell me about that.
Wildlife park representative: Yes, adopting an animal is a great way to mark a special occasion, for
yourself or for a friend or loved one. All our animals are available for adoption, and to ensure that
they’re all affordable, whatever their size, adoptions are available in shared units of £50 and last for 12
months. If you adopt an animal, you receive a certificate, a photograph of and information about your
chosen animal, and a complimentary ticket for two people to the Park.
Interviewer: Now, talking of tickets, people can get season tickets for the Park, can’t they?
Wildlife park representative: That’s right. Our season tickets are very popular and extremely good
value for money. If you visit us more than five times during the year, you will be saving money. Season
tickets are valid for 12 months and allow unlimited access to the Park. And we can even take people’s
passport sized photographs for them for the season ticket – free of charge.
Interviewer: But are you open all year?
Wildlife park representative: Yes, we’re open 365 days a year. With our heated indoor play area, there
is still lots of fun to be had even when the weather is a bit chilly.
Interviewer: Now people can also take part in what you call Experience Days, can’t they?
Wildlife park representative: Yes, the Experience Days are great to give someone who is 12 or over as a
gift. One of them is called Feed the Big Cats, and gives people the opportunity to hand-feed the big cats
for half an hour. Another is called Walk With Our Wolves, during which people take a walk in the woods
with these impressive animals. And the other is called Shadow a Keeper, and gives people a chance to
become an animal keeper for a full day.
Interviewer: Finally, if I wanted to work in the Park, what chance would I have?
Wildlife park representative: Pretty good, right now! We have a number of jobs available for
enthusiastic people who are interested in customer-service work, and we employ people from the ages
of 16 to 60. And we also welcome applications from adults seeking voluntary work.
Interviewer: I might apply. Thanks for talking to me today.
Wildlife park representative: You’re welcome.
EXERCISE 39
Woman: So, are you thinking about that idea again? That absolute money-spinner, the ultimate
business brainchild that could change your fortunes and transform your life forever? No, you think, it’s
impossible. People like you should stick to dreaming. But what if you were given a real chance to change
your life and achieve that goal? How would you react if the support you need suddenly landed in your
lap? Not in the form of a loan – but free. Well, now’s your chance. In this competition, we’re offering
£100,000 to a budding entrepreneur, and there are no obligations other than that you have to use the

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money to follow through your idea. All you have to do is convince us that your plan is worth backing.
The £100,000 prize is to help pay for your financial commitments while you pursue your goal.
The competition is open to a variety of ideas and people. Perhaps you have a particular skill that you
know could be put to more effective use in a different sector or country. Perhaps, given the right
backing, you could change hundreds of lives. Are you an engineer with an idea that could transform
sanitation and bring clean water to Africa? Or an architect with a vision that could solve the problems in
Britain’s inner cities? Or are you a farmer who could teach the world’s poorest people how to grow
crops in the worst conditions? If you are any of these, you could win the competition and the prize
money.
Here are the details for entering. If you phone, after leaving your name and address, you will have up to
one minute to pitch your idea. If you choose to email, you will have to pitch your idea in no more than
100 words. There are three categories of entry, and you will have to choose one of them. The first
category is for those with an innovative idea for a business offering a new product or service. The
second is for those who plan to learn new skills by taking a course such as an MBA. The third is for those
who want to use their skills to support a socially-responsible project. The winner will be chosen from
across all three categories.
Now, there are some other very important details if you are thinking of going in for the competition.
Only one entry per person is allowed – multiple entries are not permitted. If you make a mistake while
delivering your pitch, you will not be allowed to call back and leave another entry. We suggest that you
practise delivering your pitch before phoning. If it helps, write down a script and read that. And
remember, you can’t go over the time limit.
Our judges will be looking for a number of qualities when they make their decision. The best idea will
have big potential and demonstrate a great deal of innovation. The judges will want to be sure that the
idea, if it was carried out, would change the life of the entrant, and preferably the lives of others.
Entrants must be able to demonstrate great passion for their project, with thought having been given to
how it could be put into practice. The top 100 will then be whittled down to 10, who will be invited to
present their ideas in person to a panel of judges. The winner will then be announced.
EXERCISE 40
Thanks for inviting me tonight. As you know, my main interest is in conservation and I’m lucky enough to
work with lots of different organisations looking after animals both in captivity and in the wild. I’d been
fascinated by all kinds of bears for a long time before I started working in this field. But it was the
spectacled bear that really attracted me – some people find it appealing because of its size and shape,
and it’s less well known than other types of bear, but for me I thought it was such a great name! It
comes from the patches of yellowish fur around the bear’s eyes which grow in a sort of circle shape, like
glasses, although these golden markings vary greatly from one bear to another and may not be limited
to the eyes – they can extend as far as the bear’s cheeks or even chest. I’d like to explain what we know
about this bear, and why I find it so fascinating. It’s the only survivor of a type of bear that once ranged
across America during the last Ice Age. We thought that it was only found in certain places in Venezuela
and Chile, but I was thrilled to read some reports that suggested it might also be living in northern parts
of Argentina and eastern Panama.
It’s quite difficult to find spectacled bears in the wild because they are quite shy animals, and tend to
live in a wide variety of habitats, which can range from dry coastal deserts to high mountain areas above
4,000 meters. They are most commonly found in forests, though. Being such timid animals they tend to
come out at night, which is another thing that makes them difficult to see, though, like me, you may be
surprised to learn that they don’t sleep all through the winter as many other types of bear do. We’re not
sure about the actual number of spectacled bears that remain in the wild, but it’s been estimated that
there are only about 2,400 still around. The bears are endangered not so much because they are hunted
by other animals, but what I find really sad is the fact that humans destroy their habitat. Spectacled
bears are quite small compared with other bears, and of course they do have other enemies – these
mostly include mountain lions and jaguars – but they remain a smaller threat. The bears are primarily

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vegetarian, and their normal diet is tree bark and berries. On rare occasions though they eat honey,
which I thought was just something in children’s books. I was interested to find that they are incredibly
good climbers, and one thing I found really funny is that they’ve been known to sit up a tree for days –
they make a platform – why? – I couldn’t guess, but they’re waiting for fruit to ripen so they can eat it!
It’s quite surprising that although they rarely eat meat they have extremely strong jaws and wide, flat
teeth. Very occasionally they do eat meat – something like birds or insects though they like small mice
best if they can get them! We’re really trying to make people more aware of the bears, and we’ve made
a television series about one man’s efforts to make people understand the dangers facing the animals.
He spent a long time in Peru studying them, and has published a very funny diary of his time there. I
hope everyone will read it, and support our efforts to help these fascinating creatures!
EXERCISE 41
Hello everyone. My name is Chris Graham and I spent my last vacation working in Australia. The place I
was in is a popular tourist spot so there are lots of student jobs advertised in the newspaper – from
hotel work to being a tour guide. I saw my job, for a bus driver, on the Internet, and so I applied. I’d
recommend you do that too. The whole idea of getting to know another country really appealed to me
and I’m really pleased I had the opportunity to go. I worked for a company which tries to help tourists
understand what life used to be like before Europeans arrived – a time before clothes, cars and
electricity. Many of the local people, the Aborigines, work for the company. Studying tourism at
university wasn’t essential to get the job – in fact, my subject’s history. What I did do was a short
training course when I first arrived, though, to learn about the local plants and animals. At first, I was
given a room in a hotel in town but I found that I felt quite lonely so I moved into a caravan on the
outskirts. Lots of other staff lived on the site and I got to meet lots of the local people there too.
Everyone was really friendly and, as there wasn’t a cinema or restaurant nearby, people frequently had
a party on Saturday night and I was always invited. I worked six days a week, and I had to get up really
early in the morning when most people, and even the birds and animals, are asleep. This is so the
tourists can get to take photos of the sunrise. I used to pick them up from their hotels around 5 AM and
then head out of town and into the desert. The tourists were from all over the world and often had no
experience of the heat. They knew, of course, about covering their head and neck with a hat but often
left their shoulders uncovered, which wasn’t very sensible, especially if they hadn’t been in the country
for long and weren’t used to the sun. After we had been into the desert, I would take the tourists to the
local cultural centre, where they had the opportunity to ask questions. The tourists were especially keen
to find out how to distinguish the tracks of kangaroos from wallabies and wild dogs. After the morning
session I usually went back home, had a shower and a rest, then started again around two in the
afternoon. I used to take the afternoon group to a water hole, where they were shown which plants
could be eaten and which were also used to make weapons for hunting. At one time, there were very
few tourists in the particular area I worked in, because you needed to get a coach from the small railway
station in the nearest large town, a good 200 kilometres away. There’s now an airport but the local
government is keen to get one built which can take more flights, especially from abroad. [17] I’m not
sure about that, as I think it’s busy enough as it is, but it would be good for the local economy, no doubt
about it. Anyway, I really recommend working in Australia during your vacation. The busy tourist season
in the area where I worked is from May to October, so you need to make sure your application is in by
the January of the year you are hoping to work. You might not hear until March as it takes a while to
process the applications and get references, but make sure you don’t leave it too late.
EXERCISE 42
Hi there. My name’s Tim Tanner, and I usually sing with my twin brother, Sam Tanner. I’m going to tell
you about our career. Sam and I’ve been pretty famous as the singing twin brothers for about three
years and we’ve appeared on lots of TV shows including Summer Holiday Special and Funtime, which is
the talent show where we were voted best act – you probably saw it. It’s the one where the people in

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the acts had to be related to each other. After that we had four hit singles in a row and I guess the rest is
history really.
People often ask us what it’s like to be twins who’ve grown up looking so alike. Sam and I’ve shared
almost every experience, and we’re never usually apart for more than an hour at a time. I was born ten
minutes before Sam so officially I’m the older brother, although we do actually have a real older
brother, Ken, who’s a year older than us.
We were born premature, you know – earlier than we were supposed to be. Mum says it was hard
carrying both of us when she was pregnant, and she was quite relieved when we suddenly appeared in
October rather than January, over two months earlier than expected. Our big brother Ken’s birthday’s in
December – so we’re pretty close in age – it must have been tough for our parents with three young
boys.
Sam and I aren’t completely identical, but most people can’t tell us apart. It’s only mum who never
mixes us up. Even our dad makes a mistake sometimes calling me ‘Sam’ and my brother ‘Tim’, because
there’s hardly any difference in our hair, and we’re the same height and build. But as soon as we open
our mouths, he’ll know which one it is by the voice. Sam’s is a bit deeper than mine, but most people
don’t even notice that.
In character we’re quite similar – we’ve both always loved music, and since we were five we’ve wanted
to be pop stars. We’ve always had a real interest in going out, and being sociable too. I’m a bit shyer
though – people that know us say I’m not as confident as Sam is, which is probably true. Although I’m
not exactly shy, you know. After all, you can’t appear on TV if you are!
At school we used to pretend to be each other sometimes for a laugh. Sometimes we’d swap places for
spelling tests but nobody noticed because we got the same marks, which were pretty low – we were
better at sports, and both played in the school football team. I was also good at basketball, but Sam
wasn’t as keen, preferring volleyball for some reason.
We were both much more interested in music. I began learning the guitar and he started proper singing
lessons with a private teacher when we were about thirteen, but a year or so later we both got into
dancing in a big way and then we went to a special school where we could do loads of stuff that’s turned
out to be useful – things like drama.
We share everything, and have one phone and computer between us and we get on well almost 100
percent of the time, but of course occasionally we have a row, usually about shoes because we share
them too, but if we both want to wear the same ones for a show then we’ll argue for about 20 seconds
and then one of us’ll give in and it’ll all be over. We manage to share the computer pretty well without
fighting over it, which some people might find surprising.
Our image is based on being twins and looking alike and because we both have poor eyesight we enjoy
choosing different styles of glasses for performances, you know, maybe green ones, to go with green
suits, or dark ones with T-shirts and jeans. So the glasses are a major aspect of the way people see us on
stage.
And look out for some new looks on our next tour, to promote the new album which is called Time
Dance and comes out in a few weeks. It’s got some exciting new songs on it, quite different from our
first album Soul Brothers. Sam and I wrote all the new songs together.
EXERCISE 43
Hi there. My name’s Grace Connolly and I’m just back from a fantastic trip to New Zealand. It really was
the trip of a lifetime, and I’d like to tell you all about it. New Zealand has two main islands – the North
Island and the South Island. I went to the South Island and it’s even more beautiful than I’d expected.
There are many ways to see it − you can hire a car and drive, or some people go around by motorbike −
you can even see the island by boat, but I went on what’s known as the green bus. Our driver was so
helpful and really helped to make it a memorable journey. So, what route did we take? Well, we started
in Nelson, in the northwest of the island. Then we headed off down the west coast stopping at various
places and then inland up to our final destination, Christchurch on the east coast, the second largest
city in New Zealand. I also went on a day tour to a place called Kaikoura, which is a hundred and fifty

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kilometres north of there. It’s on the coast and is famous for its sea life and also for being one of the
most exciting places in the world to see ocean birds. To really experience the day you have to opt for
one of these trips. It was dolphins I was keenest to see, but there are whales too. It was an absolutely
amazing day. I made so many new friends on the trip, which was always fun. There were people from all
over the world, Korea, Russia, North America … I’ve stayed in regular contact with a girl I met from
Japan. Most of us were quite young, but there was one guy from Germany in his sixties. New Zealand’s
famous for the sports you can do, but it can work out expensive to hire the equipment you need to do
things. You had to pay rental charges and so on for everything. I actually took my own bike along with
me, and did a fair bit of cycling around. I rented a surfboard for a day or half day, and though it was
more expensive, I also went out on a quad bike one day. But the highlight of the trip for me was jet
boating at place called Buller River. I’d strongly recommend Adventure Tours, the company I did it with –
nothing was too much trouble and they really made it fun and exciting. I didn’t try the other company,
which was called Great Days, but friends said it was OK too. Every trip has some problems – I fell and
hurt my shoulder horse-riding on a beach. Luckily the sand was soft enough to prevent it being anything
serious, and I didn’t need treatment. But then I actually had to go to Christchurch Hospital after doing
something to my foot – climbing over some rocks. Anyway, it was nothing major and was fine after a
couple of days. There are interesting things to buy on the South Island. Nelson Saturday Market’s
brilliant. There are stalls selling food – honey, bread and fruit − all sorts of things. I got a fantastic
wooden mask as a souvenir, but there were also paintings and jewellery and stuff that would’ve been
nice to bring home too. The accommodation was great the whole way – the hostels we stayed in were
all good. Like The Fairway in Christchurch, or my favourite The Lakeside in Nelson. That’s the place I’d
advise anyone to stay. If you go, say Grace told you about it! I’m already planning a return visit to New
Zealand – to North Island this time. It’s got famous mud pools and hot springs, which I might get to visit,
but sightseeing’s not my main aim. In fact the reason I’m going is that some friends have offered to take
me walking with them round all the best places. I’m really looking forward to it.
EXERCISE 44
Hi there. My name’s Carl Halford and I work at the local museum, where I’m the director. The museum’s
recently re-opened its antiquities section which has been closed for over a year. Let me tell you all about
it. Firstly, we wanted to give it a complete new look. As you know, the Museum was founded in 1902
and remained unchanged, barring the extension in 1958, until our last renovation project in 1973, so it
was high time we freshened things up a little. We’ve made a lot of changes and not only to the exhibits
themselves. Like, we’ve replaced the display cabinets and so on. People notice new cabinets and signs,
but often not the fact that the lighting has been improved, although it can change the whole way they
see an object. And it’s an area in which great technical progress has been made in the last few years.
So, what about the exhibits themselves? We’ve altered the selection on show. Part of our collection of
around 650 objects is actually still stored underground, and so we’ve got 429 out on display, compared
to 390 previously. A significant change we’ve made is in the organisation of the exhibits, so that where
before they were grouped according to their place of origin, we’ve now created a pathway through the
museum that allows you to view them in order of age, starting with the oldest as you enter the gallery.
We’ve also provided more information on the signs, such as who first discovered them, how we think
they were used, and so on.
I’m often asked to talk about some of your favourite pieces. And it’s hard to choose. But there’s a
fascinating cup, just a simple cup, which is over four-and-a-half thousand years old. Round the side you
see this quite lovely flower pattern and then if you pick it up and look underneath you can see the shape
of a leaf there. It’s a sort of mystery as to why someone would have put that there. And it’s survived so
long. Another little mystery is a little set of figures. There’s a farmer with two cows. Although they’re
certainly not horses or oxen, they do seem to be ploughing a field. But it’s not 100 per cent clear,
because one’s pointing forward, the other’s pointing the opposite way, so how would that work? We’ll
probably never know. The exhibits attract all sorts of visitors – young and old. Though some of them are
a bit scary for younger children. Like there’s one statue that’s got a big head with lots of curly hair, and

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eyes that seem to follow you round the room. You notice kids looking back at them nervously. It’s
obviously a deliberate part of the design. And in fact, a lot of ancient art was about terrifying things.
Like there’s a special vase, which we’ve lovingly restored, that’s painted all the way round with this
amazing scene. You see this man, the hero, sailing with his soldiers and then battling with a monster,
and yet, we’re not told – we don’t know the outcome, who wins that fight!
But there’s a lot that’s interesting on a smaller scale too. We’ve included quite a few coins in the display,
because they’re such good tellers of historical tales. There’s one of a famous emperor that’s special
because the decoration on it is remarkably detailed, and you’d never think so much information could
be included in one small object, but you can see the shape of his ears, his nose, and so on. At the other
end of the artistic scale, we have a small rock, just a basic, natural thing, not a statue, but we like to
think about the young man – we assume he was a young man – out by the river, and how he carved, or
just scratched, the image of a fish onto it. Perhaps he caught an extra big one, and wanted to celebrate
the fact. Again, we’ll never know for sure, but I love the simplicity.
So before I go on …
EXERCISE 45
Interviewer: Why do perfectly sane, normal people pay up to a thousand pounds a week to make
themselves sick? Jane Seaworthy has been finding out.
Jane: Well, actually, the people attending the Thorndale clinic, situated on the outskirts of Bristol, all
have a problem and it’s a problem that has become increasingly common in the last two decades – that
of addiction. There are over fifty ‘addiction clinics’ operating in the United Kingdom but what makes
Thorndale so special is a new kind of treatment that they have been applying with remarkable success.
The new system being used here is called ‘Aversion Therapy’, although the idea itself is not new. And of
all the clinics treating addicts of various kinds worldwide, the Thorndale clinic has the highest success
rate in treating abusers of alcohol and tobacco. Addicts attending a 10-day course of treatment live, eat
and sleep in the same building and, unlike other systems, are encouraged to indulge in their addiction
instead of treating subjects with drugs that reduce their dependence, this course sets out to induce in its
patients a strong feeling of disgust directed towards the object of their addiction. For example, a one-
hour treatment session for smokers involves smoking rapidly without stopping well beyond the point
where they want no more.
In fact, they are not allowed to stop smoking until they have been physically sick. As you can imagine,
this is not a pleasant process. It has to be repeated three times a day for the entire ten day period in
order that the subjects develop a strong enough hatred for their earlier addiction. Unfortunately, many
people find the course too painful to complete, and those who do give up early are not considered
cured, as they will most likely return to their former habit. On the other hand, smokers who keep going
to the end of the course are most unlikely to want a cigarette again. The treatment for alcoholism has to
be somewhat different, mainly because alcohol abuse involves loss of memory. This problem is
overcome in a simple way. A group of ‘patients’ are encouraged to drink excessively in the setting of a
bar. During this stage they are carefully monitored by trained personnel. Their behaviour is also
recorded on video cassette and the following day they are shown their ‘drunken performance’ from the
night before. Nearly all subjects feel great embarrassment when faced with these forgotten scenes of
uncontrolled drunkenness. Usually, a ten-day course of treatment is all that is required to shift a
patient’s emotional attitude to drinking.
EXERCISE 46
Narrator: There is no escaping the fact that the media has become one of the most powerful influences
in our lives. TV, radio and newspapers are the three main forms of media that we have daily contact
with. Because of their importance it is inevitable that controversy will often go hand in hand with such a
powerful force.
The media is not always used wisely or responsibly and is often a source of gossip, scandal or
propaganda. Politicians use it in their political campaigns in order to gain support. Entertainers and

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celebrities use it to promote themselves and keep themselves in the public eye. This is of course to their
advantage but on the other hand they are also open to the disadvantages of publicity. Private lives are
brought out into the open and the word private no longer suits the situation. Celebrities find themselves
being followed and photographed at all times of day or night and in the most personal situations. A
survey has been carried out asking people what they thought of this invasion of privacy and a massive
85% thought that celebrities were asking for it, 11% believed they were still entitled to their privacy and
4% had no opinion either way. The survey also asked which form of media people felt they were most
influenced by. Over two thirds of the people asked said TV, rather than radio or newspapers.
This then leads us to the question of how reliable the information that we get from TV is. The belief that
if we can see through images what is happening we cannot be tricked or lied to, is a fallacy. Carefully
chosen or edited images can deceive us more than words. It is in fact the images that are not shown
which often speak the truth. Some channels have even been accused of showing scenes that were not
actually from the place being reported about. This kind of false information turns fact into fiction but
how is the viewer meant to distinguish between the two? That is the problem. Radio and newspapers,
on the other hand rely on words to get their story across and if they intentionally lie they run the risk of
being taken to court later. This of course happens regularly, particularly when a celebrity is involved.
One rock singer was recently awarded one million pounds when a tabloid paper said he was a
homosexual.Sometimes the papers are lucky and get away with making a public apology and
withdrawing what they have previously said about somebody. A distinction has to be made between
newspapers though as they do tend to fall into two groups; the tabloids and the so called “quality
newspapers”. The question is though, can we really trust anybody to tell us the facts objectively?
EXERCISE 47
Britt: Hi my name’s Britt Foxton, and I’m the founder of a website devoted to women’s basketball, and
I’ve also just written a book on the same subject. But first up, let me tell you how I got started with the
site. Although it really got going once I was at university, it actually started out as a high-school project –
you know a ‘design a website’ kind of thing – but it wasn’t like anyone expected it to become real or
anything. I designed a site about girls’ basketball, which I was passionate about, and called it
femalebasket.com – I knew the name wasn’t right, and before it got really successful I changed it to
matchgirl.com – and that was a really good move. And although it started with basketball, the site’s kind
of evolved to include other games as well. It features a variety of articles, reviews and editorials on
everything ranging from basketball to computer games, plus a smattering of more traditionally ‘girly’
material as well. But the coverage of team sports is at the heart of it – anything about make-up or
fashion is just peripheral. Then there’s my book – that was a quite different sort of challenge. It’s on the
subject of girls’ basketball and overall took about three months to do. I knew I wanted to write it late
last year and started to loosely plan it out in January of this year. It wasn’t until May that I had enough
time to get down to doing everything I’d envisioned. But it was all done by the end of July. And in
researching the book I came across some pretty interesting facts. Like, women actually began playing
basketball less than a year after the men’s game was invented, back in 1892. It didn’t become an
Olympic sport until 1976, however, whereas the men’s game was in there from 1936. And that tells you
a lot about how it developed. People ask me whether we’d recognise the game the way it started, or if
it’s changed. Well, the biggest difference is in clothing. Back then in the USA, women were required to
play in full-length dresses. The only body parts that could be exposed were fingers, necks and heads.
And it wasn’t only the discomfort they suffered, it led to a quite a few broken bones because players
tended to trip over their skirts and stuff. Of course no way did the men have these problems! Then, at
the end of a woman’s game, there’d be like handkerchiefs and hairpins scattered all over the court,
which of course wasn’t the case with the men either! So you can see how the two developed in quite
different ways – even with a differently sized court for many years. Of course, things did change – but
quite slowly really. Appropriate clothing came in gradually, but even well into the twentieth century
some other rules applied to women, but not to men. Not so much the equipment, but silly things like
chewing gum was specifically prohibited in the women’s game because it was considered unfeminine,

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not because it was dangerous or anything! And I’ve got some good stories from those years in the book,
I think. Like when in 1936, a team of women basketball players called The Red Heads toured the country
playing exhibitions against men’s teams. Strange thing was though, these girls not only had to wear the
same clothes, they all had to have red hair – most of them had to dye it specially! Isn’t that
unbelievable! But looking back on the writing of the book – If I did it again, I’d do it all differently. I know
I ought to be proud of what I’ve done, but I’m such a perfectionist. Given the chance, I’d add
significantly more information on the cultural traditions and really address the growing basketball fan
base.
But who knows – maybe there’s another book in there somewhere!
EXERCISE 48
Interviewer: Visitors to the small Devon village of Whimple might be forgiven for looking twice as they
pass the garden of Elizabeth Holmes. In the middle of the garden there stands a traditional African hut, a
reminder of the two years Elizabeth spent in Africa as a volunteer. Elizabeth, what persuaded you to
leave your secure job in a travel agent’s and go to Africa?
Elizabeth: Well, I’d been feeling restless for ages. I wanted to see the real world, not just tourist places.
Then, I was at the dentist’s one day, waiting to go in, and I’d read all the magazines in the waiting room,
so I started looking at a poster – it was all about volunteers working in Africa.
Interviewer: And it interested you?
Elizabeth: Yes, I took down the name and address and applied. I had an interview locally and did some
aptitude tests. Then just before I left for Africa, there was a training weekend in London, which they call
‘Changes’ and which gives you some idea of what you’re letting yourself in for.
Interviewer: What particular skills could you offer?
Elizabeth: I had a degree in economics and I had done some teaching at one time. What they wanted
to send me to Africa to do was to train local farmers in the marketing of their produce. I flew out with
fifteen other volunteers, all going to do different things, like nursing, teaching, and so on. When we got
there, we were supposed to have a four-week course at a training centre learning something about the
local culture and the basics of the language – you know, greetings and things like that. Anyway, there
was a problem and it only lasted three weeks in the end – not enough really.
Interviewer: Did it take a long time to get used to your new lifestyle?
Elizabeth: I found it quite difficult for the first few weeks, but after that I settled in very well. My area
covered 1200 square kilometres, and I had a truck for long-distance travel, but for more local trips I rode
a motorbike.
Interviewer: How did you get on with the local people?
Elizabeth: Very well. The men were very polite but they tended to keep their distance – unlike the
women, who were always inviting me to meals. They showed me how they wove and dyed material to
make clothes for themselves and their children. I used to get magazines sent from England and we’d
spend ages looking at them.
Interviewer: I expect you found it very different when you returned to England?
Elizabeth: Yes, I certainly did. After two years of living very simply, I found the supermarkets especially
overwhelming – just the enormous choice of food. Also, the traffic disturbed me. I had to move from my
flat in the city to a small cottage in the country just to get some of the peace and quiet I’d become
accustomed to in Africa.
Interviewer: And what are you working on at the moment?
Elizabeth: Well, I didn’t want to just go back to working in someone else’s office so I set up my own
business, which I run from home. I deal in African furniture. I brought some small pieces back with me as
souvenirs and everyone loved them in Britain. However, I’m still in touch with the organisation that sent
me to Africa as a volunteer. I organise events to raise funds and give talks about my experience to
encourage other people to go.
Interviewer: Has the experience in Africa changed you at all?

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Elizabeth: Oh yes, in many ways. I used to spend all my time working, but now I make sure I have more
time for gardening – my favourite hobby.
Interviewer: Well, I’d like to thank Elizabeth for coming into the studio today. If you’re interested in …
EXERCISE 49
And now a look at some of this evening’s programmes on Radio Pearl. At 7.30 we have Art Review, a
programme which has fast become a favourite among our listeners, with its mix of in-depth reports on
artistic events, and revealing interviews with the artists who regularly come into the studio. Today we’ll
be going to London to the National Museum, which holds approximately five events a year, and this
particular one is always popular because it features work by student artists.
This year is no exception as everything is the work of final-year art students from a local college. You’ll
be surprised at the variety of things you can see. Exhibits range from curtains to glass work, and I
understand there are a total of nearly 2,000 works on display. There is an excellent use of raw materials
and of course many exhibits demonstrate how industrial technology can be employed in art. If you want
to buy any of the exhibits, it will cost you anything from ?25 up to ?2,000. So for more information on
what can be seen, where and for how much, tune in to Radio Pearl tonight at 7.30. Then at 8.00, there’s
another in our series of classic plays and tonight it’s The Vanishing Lady, starring Margaret Louden.
Briefly, two young people become caught up in a thrilling adventure when they are walking through a
carriage on a train and suddenly hear a noise that sounds to them like a gun being fired. They rush into
the next carriage which is completely empty with its doors swinging backwards and forwards. Then in
the restaurant car they ask the first person they meet – who happens to be a waiter – if he also heard
the sound.
‘No’, he says, and goes on to tell them that an old lady is in the carriage – he just saw her going back in
there. But when they return, of course, she’s gone. Some say the lady never existed but others are sure
they saw her. Who’s telling the truth, or is everyone on the train lying? Find out at 8 o’clock tonight. It’s
a brilliant play by Porten and also his last before he moved on to writing for films.
Finally, for those of you who like sailing, Business Scenes at 9.30 p.m. brings you the ‘unsinkable’ boat
and a chance to meet its maker, Canadian businessman Peter Field. In 1995, Peter was a manager in a
computer company but he left that job to go on a world cruise. He had wanted a stress-free life but
ended up back in the rat race, building boats. His new company has many products including luxury
boats costing from $1-2 million, which Peter claims will suffer no serious damage even if they hit an
iceberg at full speed… It’s all in the type of metal you use, as he explains tonight.
And we also hear about Peter’s unusual collection. You would think that a man in his line of work would
collect model boats and ships, rather than the old maps which are his real passion! If you tune in this
evening, you’ll find out how he started his collection and how he hunts for items to add to it! Well, back
to this afternoon’s programmes…
EXERCISE 50
My job is model-making. I make small copies of large buildings and other structures. It might seem a
strange job, but I knew when I was at school that it was what I wanted to do. So I did a college course,
not in art or architecture as you might expect, but in woodwork. Because of the concentration on find
detail it requires, it was ideal for a model-maker. Although later, of course, I had to adapt my skills to
other materials as well. When I make a model of an old building, often original parts of the building have
been damaged or even completely demolished over the years, so I have to work hard to find out what
they must have been like. Actually, I think there’s quite a lot in common between what I do and what a
detective does … tracking down clues, working things out …
I’ve done quite a few jobs now. The toughest commission I’ve ever had was from Ireland. I was asked to
do a model of part of a large house which had burnt down years before. They just gave me a few old
photos to use, as there was no actual building to copy. I’ve done all sorts of buildings since, everything
from grand castles to the most ordinary farmhouse. The one I liked most, though, was where I had to
rebuild a theatre. The original building was gone, but this time there were detailed drawings to work

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from. My model was then shown in an exhibition called ‘All the World’s a Stage’ here in London. It was
fun because I could go and look at it every day if I wanted to; see how people were reacting to it.
Generally, though, I don’t see my models again after I’ve delivered them, as 80% of them are shipped
out to Japan or Canada, with the rest shared between England and France. I do try to give pretty careful
instructions, however, about how the models should be displayed. The height at which they should
stand, how large the space around them should be, and also about lighting, because the colours and
details come out most clearly if there’s electric light directly above them. Daylight’s too pale.
And that’s particularly true of my most recent project, a model of a very interesting old building called
Marney House. The owners decided to open it to the public and wanted a model to display for visitors.
The detail work was very challenging indeed, as I had to reduce the original to a model just one hundred
and forty centimetres high, which is seventy-six times smaller than the real building … that’s small, yet
everything has to be there. It actually took longer than any model I’ve ever done before, mainly because
I had to do all of the 150 windows … a real test of patience! There were times, to be honest, when I
found myself regretting the fact that I’d ever taken the project on in the first place. On top of that, I had
to make every single one of the thousands of roof tiles individually out of paper. Mind you, when I had
finished that process, I knew the hardest part was over, and that the rest would be quite fun. Doing
things like the statues along the front was enjoyable, because every one’s different … and I spent some
happy hours playing around with colours to get the exact reproduction of the original interior walls.
When I’d finished all that, the only remaining problem was that, of course, the whole thing looked like a
model of a new building. So I did what I usually do, which is to carefully wash the outside of the model
with watercolour, so that it looks as if, over the years, it’s been affected by wind and rain, and also
pollution, of course. The owners were very pleased with the result, and I’m glad I can go and see it from
time to time. Model-making is a great job, and I’d recommend it to anyone with patience and an eye for
detail.
Part 3
Part 3
EXERCISE 1
Speaker 1
It starts as soon as I get home in the early evening. I have a quick snack and then log onto one of my
favourite sites. Soon I’ve filled up my basket with all kinds of things – whether I actually need any of
them is irrelevant – and then head for the check-out. It’s all so quick and easy. Sometimes I’m watching
TV and there’s an ad for a tasty-looking ready meal and I’ll log back on for a minute and order that, too,
though when it’s actually delivered it usually turns out to be just junk food and it ends up in the bin.
Speaker 2
I first realised something wasn’t quite right when I kept falling asleep at all hours of the day. Getting up
around seven isn’t easy when you’ve been up till two the night before, but somehow I never manage to
log off until then. There are just so many great sites, particularly news and sports and also shopping,
though I rarely end up buying anything. According to a quiz I did, I do seem to have an addiction, though
compared to things like overeating I don’t think it’s a particularly harmful one. I mean, I’m quite ft and –
unlike some of my colleagues – I always get to the office on time.
Speaker 3
I always feel I have to be doing something. I just don’t feel right if I’m not working on my fitness level,
and the possible long-term effects of that are beginning to concern me. It also affects my life right now
in various ways. For instance, I always go to bed late and get up early. I also need bigger meals than less
active people, and although I always choose food that’s good for me, it can be rather expensive and
hard to find in the shops. At least, though, the fact that I go everywhere round town on foot means that
I’m never held up by traffic!
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It was on all the time in my parents’ home and it’s like that here in my own flat. Usually the same
channel, too, because to tell the truth I’m totally hooked on the same kinds of series. It’s odd in a way,
because most people of my generation spend all their time on the Internet, or, in the case of the fitter
ones, doing sport every evening and weekend. I know my own lifestyle isn’t particularly healthy, though
at least nowadays I’m up reasonably early, unlike back in my student days when I often had trouble
getting out of bed before noon.
Speaker 5
It’s always my intention to set off in plenty of time, but somehow there always seems to be something
that holds me up. It may be a job that needs finishing off, an email that has to be answered – or even a
TV programme that hasn’t quite ended. Then I end up literally running to wherever I’m going, always the
last to turn up and also often the most stressed one, too. I’ve tried getting up earlier in the morning so
that I have more hours in the day to get everything done, but the lack of sleep just makes me feel tired
later on and doesn’t help at all.
EXERCISE 2
Speaker 1
I’ve always been a keen swimmer and that keeps me in good shape, so when I made my mind up to do
badminton it was far more about socialising than exercising, especially as I’d only recently moved to this
part of town and I hardly knew anyone. I hadn’t realised, though, just how competitive badminton can be
– so much so that I’ve now been invited to take part in a local championship. I’ve got no chance of winning
it, or even coming close, and to be honest I’m not really bothered about that, but it might be fun so I think
I’ll give it a try.
Speaker 2
I work part-time in a petrol station, which in some ways is quite a pleasant job but last year I found that I
was increasingly getting into financial difficulties. So I began to study the way electronic devices work and
how to repair them. I found that fascinating, and eventually I felt confident enough to place an online ad
offering my services. I got loads of replies and I’ve now paid off nearly all my debts. I’ve thought of giving
up my job at the petrol station, but I think I’d miss meeting different people every day if I worked entirely
from home.
Speaker 3
For years I’d been so scared of heights that some people used to make fun of me, so one day I decided to
do something about it: go rock climbing. Feeling that if I could do that I’d be able to do anything, I joined
a local club. On my first day I was surprised to find there were two other people who’d joined for the same
reason, and we soon became friends. Together we got fitter and stronger, and encouraged each other to
keep going, until by the end of the year we felt unconcerned about tackling the most challenging of climbs.
Speaker 4
I never imagined that going horse riding could be such good EXERCISE until I’d spent a weekend trekking
in the mountains with friends. That was something of a bonus, really, because what’d initially attracted
me to it was that it offered a contrast in every respect to my day job as a cab driver in a noisy, polluted
city centre. And although it’s certainly not the cheapest of activities, I find it so relaxing that I always feel
it’s worth every penny.
Speaker 5
Gardening had always seemed to me as just a way of passing the time, of doing something completely
different from office work, or perhaps even – for the really keen – of winning a prize for the largest home-
grown vegetable. So it was only by chance that I became interested in it, when the old lady next door
asked me to look after her garden while she was away. On her return she was so delighted by my efforts
that I felt I’d done something really worthwhile, so I then offered to garden for other neighbours in their
80s and 90s. They sometimes offered me money, but I always refused to accept it.

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EXERCISE 3
Speaker 1
There was a storm blowing as I walked along the cliffs, and down below I noticed a rowing boat being
thrown about by the huge waves. I took out my phone to call the rescue services, or the police, but there
was no signal. If the boat had hit the rocks it would have been smashed to pieces, so I ran along the cliff
top until I came to a small bay. I ran back and shouted to the crew to row towards it as hard as they could,
and eventually they managed it. There the waves pushed their boat into the bay, where they were able
to take shelter.
Speaker 2
It was my first night out in that city, and when I saw the last bus home disappearing round the corner I
knew I had a problem. It was cold and I couldn’t afford a taxi, but I didn’t want to bother my host family
by asking them to pick me up so I set off on foot, telling myself it’d only take me an hour or so. Four hours
later I was still walking. I was soaked through and my hands were frozen. When I eventually reached the
house the family said how worried they’d been, and asked why I hadn’t phoned. By then I wished I had.
Speaker 3
I realised straight away I’d been overcharged, but it was only by a small amount and my first thought was
to forget about it as I was in a hurry. Then I noticed the assistant glance at me and somehow I knew it had
been deliberate. I gently pointed out the error, but he became quite aggressive. Not wanting to get into
a row about it, I asked to speak to the manager, and when she came over I explained that I hadn’t been
given the correct change. The assistant angrily denied this, but the manager pointed to a security camera
right above us. He immediately gave me my money.
Speaker 4
Carlos, Alfonso and I had been camping in the mountains, and it was time to leave. Just then a dense mist
descended and soon we realised we were completely lost. I was in favour of keeping going along the path,
while Carlos suggested heading downhill. Alfonso, though, wanted to phone Mountain Rescue for help.
The two of them had just started arguing when a shepherd appeared. I asked him which way we should
go and he said we’d taken a wrong turning at the bridge, so we headed back the way we’d come, turned
left by the river instead of right, and within twenty minutes we’d reached the village.
Speaker 5
I was doing a cross-country run when suddenly I tripped and fell, feeling a sharp pain in my ankle. As I lay
there I wondered whether I’d be able to stand on it, maybe even carry on running, but I remembered
what I’d been taught as a nurse so I kept it still, checking to see if it was broken. It didn’t seem to be so I
decided against calling an ambulance, but I didn’t want to take any chances so I phoned my sister. She
immediately offered to come and collect me, and within fifteen minutes she was able to help me to the
car and take me home.
EXERCISE 4
Speaker 1: The place is always on TV and in films and in magazines, and so you get a mental picture of
what it’s like even if you haven’t been there. You have this image of skyscrapers everywhere, streets full
of traffic and people, everyone rushing around, talking fast and leading busy lives. You think of it as
having a real buzz. And guess what? It was just like that. Everything I’d expected to find was there. In
fact, it all seemed so familiar that it was as if I’d actually been there before.
Speaker 2: I discovered after I’d been there that you need to be really careful about when you choose
to visit the place. There are very busy times and quieter times. Without realizing it, I chose one of the
busy times, and wow, was it busy! The place was packed, and of course with the narrow streets it is
famed for, that makes movement difficult. I just shuffled along with everyone else, going at their pace,
so I didn’t manage to see much. There’s a great atmosphere there, and of course it looks wonderful, but
I could have done with a bit more room to move. So I guess I didn’t see it at its best.

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Speaker 3: Everyone I’ve met who’s been there says what a fantastic place it is, and I was expecting
something really special. And I wasn’t disappointed, though I must say the picture I’d had of it in my
mind didn’t turn out to be totally accurate. In fact, it not only lived up to my expectations, it exceeded
them. People always associate it with its famous buildings, but it was the less well-known places that
struck me. In every little street, especially away from the tourist areas, there was something fascinating
to see. It’s those little streets that were really memorable for me.
Speaker 4: I’d been looking forward to going there for a long time and I finally managed it. I wasn’t
quite sure what to expect because people had told me that it wasn’t the same as it used to be.
Apparently, it’s become much more touristy recently, but I didn’t see any evidence of that. What did
strike me was how confusing it is. Half the time I didn’t know where I was and getting from A to B was
always problematic. I normally have a good sense of direction, but I was always getting lost there. Once I
did get to where I was trying to go, it was worth it, though.
Speaker 5: People always talk about what a marvellous place it is, and so eventually I decided to go and
see for myself. It has the reputation of being a place you never forget, and lots of people say it’s their
favourite city. But, having been there, I can’t see what all the fuss is about. Sure, the places that you see
pictures of all the time, or that you see in films, are impressive enough, but I’ve seen better. It’s a
pleasant enough place, and it’s certainly popular with tourists – there were plenty of them there – but I
don’t think it really deserves all the praise people give it.
EXERCISE 5
Speaker 1
I just fell into my television career really, there was no grand scheme. I guess it was all a case of simply
being in the right place at the right time. I got my first job by pure chance and then one job offer followed
another. I didn’t set out to get where I am today and I’m sure there are plenty of people who could do the
job as well as, if not better than, me. People tell me they like what I do, and that’s great, but I’d probably
be just as happy if the whole thing hadn’t happened.
Speaker 2
When I started the company, the market was wide open really and hardly anyone was doing what I was
doing. Actually, the product I was offering in the early days wasn’t all that good, but there wasn’t much
to compare it with, so it did OK. The fact is, it was a good idea and in business there’s no substitute for a
good idea. I’m not necessarily a brilliant businessman in terms of strategy and things like that and
sometimes I’m not sure what to do next. But I did have that great idea, so I’ve made my own luck.
Speaker 3
My personal feeling is that in show business, talent will always get its reward. Even if you have to struggle
on for years – which, thankfully I didn’t have to do – if you’ve got what it takes, you’ll make it. Someone
will spot you and give you a part if you’re good enough, and that’s exactly what happened to me. I’ve
never really had to work at it, it just seems to be something I was born with. I’ve never thought of doing
anything else, and fortunately I’ve never had to.
Speaker 4
There was no shortage of advice when I started my career as a singer. People told me how I should look,
what sort of songs I should sing, all sorts of things. But I ignored them all, and I’m glad I did because I’ve
been proved right. I had it all worked out from the very beginning, every detail of what I was going to do
and how I was going to do it and it’s all gone very smoothly. I knew what suited me and what would be
popular and I’ve followed my instincts on that. I haven’t had to struggle at all, everything’s gone very well.
Speaker 5
To get to the top in my sport I’ve had to make the most of what I’ve got. I may not be the
most talented player there’s ever been but I’ve put a tremendous amount of effort in to be as good as I
can be. All along there have been people making comments about how I’m not good enough, but that’s

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just made me try even harder. And I’ve exceeded my ambitions really – I only wanted to be a good club
player and I never imagined I’d make it into the national side.
EXERCISE 6
Speaker 1
What struck me most was just how arrogant the man is! I mean, he’s a fine actor and I really like
everything he’s been in – that’s why I bought the book. But that doesn’t mean that his opinions on politics
and the world really matter. He seems to think they do, and that because he’s been in a few successful
films, people should listen to his views on everything and take them seriously. Actually, he talks a lot of
rubbish about all that and that really irritated me. I wanted to read about his early life and struggles, how
he got to the top and all that, but he hardly mentions that, or anything about his private life. It’s really put
me off him.
Speaker 2
I got the book because a friend recommended it, not because I was particularly interested in the man. In
fact, from his public image on TV. I thought he was a ghastly person. Self-important, fiercely ambitious
and not at all likeable is how he appears to me. So I was very surprised to find that he isn’t actually like
that at all, that’s just for public consumption. In reality, he’s a decent person who puts family and
friendship first and he comes across as the sort of person you could have a pleasant chat with. He’s
certainly gone up in my estimation.
Speaker 3
His family seem to have played a very important part in his career, and he talks about how much help they
gave him in the early days, paying for coaches and taking him to tournaments all over the place. But he
admits that after he made it to the top, he didn’t treat them at all well. He talks about how much pressure
he was under once he became a champion and how he struggled to deal with all the attention from the
media and fans. We always saw him smiling in victory, but he says that he was really horrible to the people
who were closest to him. It just shows that appearances can be deceptive.
Speaker 4
Of course, people always say that comedians are actually very sad people but that doesn’t seem to be the
case here. With him it seems to be very much ‘what you see is what you get’. The book’s full of really
funny stories, and he makes fun of everything, from some of the things that happened during his
childhood to the big issues in the world today. He seems to have come from a very peculiar family and his
descriptions of them are really amusing. You get the impression that there is no difference between his
personality on stage and on screen and what he’s like when he’s not performing.
Speaker 5
It’s quite an uplifting story, really, a real ‘rags to riches’ one. Of course I knew all about his enormous
success as a businessman, but I didn’t know anything about his background. It certainly wasn’t a privileged
one, and he seems to have grown up in poverty with a family who didn’t really care about him at all. The
way he describes his childhood, it’s hard to imagine how it could have been any worse. So the fact that he
managed to go from that to such incredible success and wealth makes for a really interesting story. You
don’t get much of an idea of the real person, but the story is great.
EXERCISE 7
Speaker 1: When I won the Best Actor award it was an extraordinary moment. There had been so many
occasions when I’d thought I might win an award, only to find that someone else got it instead. So when
I finally got it I was thrilled. It was a fantastic personal achievement but in fact the main thing in my mind
was all the people who had helped me along the way. I thought about all of them and all the help they’d
given me. I knew that without them I would never have won it. And I mentioned as many of them as I
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Speaker 2: I guess that being voted Footballer of the Year went to my head. All I could think about was
how well I’d done. Me, the best! I thought back to the early years of my career, which weren’t so great
and I felt fantastic. And it was all thanks to my own efforts, not because anyone had handed me
anything on a plate. It had been a long, hard journey but I’d finally made it to the very top. I suppose it
made me a bit big-headed for a while, but I just felt so good about myself and what I’d managed to
achieve.
Speaker 3: Everybody was expecting me to win the Writer of the Year award – I don’t know why, there
were plenty of other good contenders on the shortlist. Because everyone was predicting I’d win, I felt
under pressure, as if it would be some kind of failure if I didn’t win. It was a silly way to feel, I know, but I
couldn’t help it. So when my name was announced I was just glad that it was over and I had in fact won
it. All the pressure came off me in a moment and I just felt like sitting down quietly rather than
celebrating.
Speaker 4: These awards mean a lot in the music business and so winning the Best Singer award was a
great honour. I’d worked so hard over the years and I’d spent so long getting nowhere that it was
amazing to have achieved this recognition. I thought I’d be absolutely overcome with joy, but in fact the
reverse happened. As I accented the award, I was wondering if it would be all downhill from there.
Would I be able to keep it up and stay at the top? Or would this be the high point, followed by a lot of
low points? I couldn’t put those thoughts out of my mind.
Speaker 5: I wasn’t totally surprised when I got the Best Student award, because to be honest I felt that
I deserved it. In fact, I’d put in so much effort to win it, doing far more work than anyone else, that I was
completely worn out. It had been so important to me to win it that I’d dedicated myself completely to
the task of winning it. So when I went up to collect it, I’d used up all my energy over the previous couple
of weeks and was totally drained. I could barely put a few sentences together for my acceptance speech,
though I managed to remember to thank a few people for their help.
EXERCISE 8
Speaker 1
We spent a day exploring the shops and markets in the city, and bought some souvenirs. Then we
wanted to see some of the area outside the city, and discovered it was easy to get to loads of places by
train, including the mountains, where we were told there were great hostels. You can do bushwalks out
there and apparently the scenery is stunning. But it can be dangerous – we were warned to have the
right gear and tell other people where we were going. So we decided to give it a miss. Anyway, we
weren’t short of things to do in the city! We were spoilt for choice.
Speaker 2
We were pretty tired when we first arrived so we were glad just to relax. We’d booked late and I have to
say that the room wasn’t the best I’ve stayed in. But we had a view of the lake, which was a real treat –
we were really impressed by the forests and mountains around the city. We made good use of the
swimming pool, though we were too lazy to go to the famous markets. We didn’t take advantage of all
the shows either. Lots of people told us how good they were so that was a pity. And the theatres
themselves were supposed to be impressive.
Speaker 3
One of my main ambitions was to see inside the big concert hall – and in fact we managed to get in to a
concert there, which was pretty special. The acoustics were amazing! The city was divided by a river, and
getting round had its problems, especially as we didn’t really understand the city plan. The best way was
the ferries – I was really impressed that they were always on time and provided good views in the city.
The trams were good too, and the local commuters seemed happy to chat to us and give us ideas for the
best things to do and see. We didn’t have time to do everything, though.
Speaker 4
Before we went we couldn’t decide where to stay – so many people recommended different places, and
there seemed to be loads of different and unusual possibilities, like old traditional farms converted into
guest houses – so we decided to move around and try something different every couple of nights. That

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worked out really well, and they were all excellent. Although we’d been told that getting round on the
buses was easy and cheap in the city, we decided to rent a car so that we could get out into the
countryside – we didn’t want to miss out on the views driving along by the ocean.
Speaker 5
Even though we had a city plan we got lost several times – especially in the old town where the buildings
were quite similar – though I know some people say getting lost is the best way to get to know a city!
We were never short of help, though – some people were even prepared to walk with us to show us the
way. That was something I’ll always remember! Our hotel was all right without being spectacular, and it
was a long walk in to the evening shows – we took a taxi most times. There was loads to do every day,
though, and we certainly weren’t bored.
EXERCISE 9
Speaker 1
What is happiness? From an early age happiness for me is sitting in a boat in the middle of a lake on a
summer’s day and doing some serious fishing … all alone just me and my thoughts. No stress, get away
from it all for an hour or so, but maybe not completely aimless – not just lying on a beach somewhere,
but having some task to do. Then, when it’s all over, it’s back to normal life and problems and hassle,
and having to fight to get what you want. But that brief moment of happiness helps me to reflect and
make sense of my life.
Speaker 2
I think to be happy, you do obviously need some financial security – not rich … I didn’t say that, ‘cos
there’s an important difference. Also I’d say you need humour in your life … that’s kind of obvious too.
Having lots of free time to do what you want? Not sure, there. I’d say quite the reverse, actually. For me,
you really appreciate your moments of leisure when you’ve done lots of hard work. If it’s all play and no
work in your life, then you don’t enjoy it. So for me, it’s all to do with … setting yourself a list of things to
get through and then you’ve completed them. Now you can be happy.
Speaker 3
I sometimes wonder if being happy is something to do with age. Very young children are happy most of
the time; very old people are happy when they think of fond memories, and also they’re happy when
they see their grandchildren happy. So happiness is not just specific to one age group. That’s certainly
the case with my family. But in my experience happy people get through life more easily – if you take
things seriously all the time, that’s when you get stressed or have health issues, maybe. And sometimes
life can be a real pain, let’s be honest.
Speaker 4
Happiness comes in many shapes and forms. Personally I’m happy when I’m active, doing my sports and
feeling all healthy. But maybe that’s a rather self-centred view. I also get moments when I’m just, say,
sitting on a train, and suddenly I think of my children’s smiling faces, and realise how lucky I am, how
happy they make me – and my husband too, of course. My life could’ve turned out much worse, as it
has for many people. Will I still be happy when they’ve all grown up and gone away? I’m sure when that
time comes, I’ll find a new form of happiness.
Speaker 5
It’s sometimes said that you make your own happiness, and I’ve got some sympathy for that view. But in
my experience, it’s something more than that. It might sound strange, but I honestly think it’s all about
your life not being too easy. If everything in your life is handed to you on a plate by rich parents then I
actually don’t think you’re as happy as someone who’s had to struggle a bit in their life. When you can
share your struggles with others and laugh about how you got through them, that’s when you’re truly
happy. That’s certainly how it’s worked out for me.
EXERCISE 10
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Classical music’s often seen as old-fashioned and though there’s people everywhere who go to concerts,
and some classical musicians are big-name stars, it doesn’t really excite young people that much; they
prefer pop music or more modern stuff. But the truth is, it’s hard to interpret complex music, even with
the best teacher in the world, unless you start training early on in life. Luckily for me, I came to this
conclusion myself when I was in my early teens, and when I said I wanted to become a classical guitarist,
my parents rather reluctantly went along with the idea and bought me some lessons. Since then, I’ve
played almost every day.
Speaker 2
I bought my first classical recording aged fourteen. It was a violin concerto by a Russian composer.
Although my school had a strong arts focus, I’d no particular interest in classical music till one day when
I heard a big rock star going on about ‘the most exciting piece of music ever written’. Being a fan of his
music, I felt I had to hear it. By the third listening, I was convinced he was right. What’s more, I found I
really had an urge to play the violin myself – and found myself a teacher. Despite my dad’s complaints
about the noise I produced, I practised every day at home. I’ve never looked back.
Speaker 3
At my school, I was made to learn the recorder, and I had to practise every day. The sound I produced
was so dreadful that whatever piece of music I was supposed to be playing was hard to recognise,
despite all the efforts made by our music teacher, who’d actually been quite a famous musician himself
when younger. It took a while, but I recovered from that, and got to know the work of some of the top
composers thanks to my uncle. That got me excited enough to beg to have piano lessons when I was
about twelve. After that, everything just took off. Now here I am getting quite well-known as a concert
pianist.
Speaker 4
At school, our music teacher tried to get us into classical music without much success – he just seemed
to go for the most unexciting pieces. It was me who noticed classical music turning up in movies,
cartoons and stuff. Like, I remember one day hearing a really famous classical piece being played on a
commercial trying to attract young kids to some fast food place. You’d think things like that’d be enough
to put anyone off classical music, but they had the opposite effect on me – encouraging me to want to
learn to play and seek out a good teacher, which is what I did, much to my mum’s amazement, I
remember.
Speaker 5
Although my dad had taught me to play the flute at an early age, I didn’t get interested in learning to
play classical music then. I wasn’t willing to try and understand it and didn’t realise you have to do that
in order to enjoy it. As a kid, I wanted something that made me jump and got me going – made me feel
happy or enthusiastic, so I resisted the efforts of my teacher to introduce me to classical music. She got
there in the end though, by sheer persistence, convincing me that there’s great excitement to be found
in the joy of playing something difficult, and doing it well.
EXERCISE 11
Speaker 1
The station I listen to has the right balance of talk, sport and news and a great mixture of presenters but
there are far too many advertisements. In the mornings I usually listen to a short news programme and
then a show about sports going on both locally and nationally which is presented by a well-known ex
sports star. The thing I like about the station is that it has stuff for all age groups. There are a lot of good
comedy shows and quizzes, but also stories about people and places in the area and it makes itself
accessible to even the youngest members of the community.
Speaker 2
It’s a locally operated radio station and it broadcasts some of the top nationally rated talk radio
programmes. There are live shows 24 hours a day and you can listen online if you prefer. I’ve enjoyed
listening to it for many years now. I especially like one very amusing comedy programme which is on
every weekday night and the Science Fantastic programme on Saturday evenings. I prefer this station to

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some of the national ones and I like the local news stories, although sometimes I’d rather it took more
notice of news and other subjects from overseas, rather than just the local area or the country as a
whole.
Speaker 3
I tend to listen to the radio a lot and I love the arts show – that’s the selling point for this station for me
− the presenter is very serious about the arts and his in-depth approach helps me keep up-to-date with
all the latest theatre, books and movies. Oh, and they don’t broadcast advertisements so you never get
interruptions when you’re enjoying a show. I’ve given up flipping through channels to avoid them now.
Another thing is they don’t have news every hour like so many stations. There are some really good
quality radio dramas – it’s an excellent way for young writers to get their work broadcast.
Speaker 4
Talk radio has grown in popularity in my area and there’s a huge demand for more and more talk-show
stars. My favourite station has a show called Viewpoint. It’s presented by a very entertaining guy and
sure, there’ll be those out there who may not agree with his opinions, but that doesn’t matter because
he makes fun of everything. So, even if you don’t agree with him, you can sit back and enjoy the humour
in his approach to local or national news events. I find I’m still one of the few younger listeners to this
station though − most of my school friends don’t really go for it.
Speaker 5
I even got a chance to go on this radio station myself. It was kind of embarrassing but quite fun because
not everyone gets to go on a radio show and meet the presenters. All the shows are really interesting.
They also play a lot of fun games − and talk about popular issues. The station’s known for sponsoring
charity organisations in this region, so it’s offering more than just entertainment. There’s one
programme where they’re training young newsreaders so they picked out about thirty kids from nearby
towns and are training them to be newsreaders and they get to do one short show each.
EXERCISE 12
Speaker 1
I fully accept that everyone’s different, so of course different teachers will suit different types of
children and teenagers. Throughout my education, though, the teachers I responded to best were the
ones that tried to push me along a bit by getting me to try a little bit harder. Because the problem for
me is that I’m naturally quite a lazy person, and I’ve always been more interested in life outside the
classroom than inside it. So I’m the kind of person that’s perhaps a bit of a headache for teachers, the
sort they’re not really thinking about when they’re studying for their teaching qualifications.
Speaker 2
Most of the time a teacher’s just doing his or her job, I guess. I mean, they’ve done their qualification,
they’re in the classroom, they’ve got to write your report at the end of term saying how you’ve done,
haven’t they? Sometimes, you might want to be able to ask your teacher something before or after
class, get some advice or extra information, or tell them about some problem. It’s the teachers who’re
there for you in those situations that are special, who take an individual approach. And I don’t think it’s
too hard for them to do that, give you a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3
Well, I’m a firm believer in the importance of the subject. If a teacher can get the kids absorbed by the
subject, be it maths or geography or cookery or whatever, then the job is basically done. The best
teachers are the ones who make it look easy, because they make it seem fun. Then the kids are
fascinated, even amused, by the subject, so they want to learn, and each and every one of them makes
progress. I think this often involves the teacher getting everyone to see the relevance of the subject in
the wide world, beyond the confines of the classroom.
Speaker 4
Fashions come and go in teaching, just as in everything else. We’re at a stage at the moment where
there’s a lot of focus on the individual, and getting every child to take responsibility for their own
learning, that kind of thing. But you can’t just tell kids to be better, to study harder, you also have to

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demonstrate what you mean by this. So the teacher needs to put in the hours, to mark the homework,
to prepare lessons carefully. If kids know the teacher’s doing it, then they’ll want to do their part too. I
think that’s the way to do it, never mind what’s in fashion.
Speaker 5
Perhaps the best thing is for teachers to reflect on how they themselves got to be teachers. How did
they achieve success in their qualifications? How did they manage to do well at school? It’s down to a
question of each and every student making his or her own way – and they only know if they’re doing
well if they’re told by their teacher that they’re doing well… or badly. You need to be told the facts
about how well you’re managing with your studies, in class and in your homework. The truth is that
learning’s not a game, not just fun, but hard effort.
EXERCISE 13
Speaker 1
Well, the last time I went to the hospital was because I needed a medical certificate. I’d just been
offered the job in Kuwait and they needed an official piece of paper from any qualified doctor saying
that I had healthy lungs, heart, liver and good eyesight. And well, I couldn’t go to my regular doctor
because I had already given his name as a reference. And well, I was a bit nervous because if the doctor
didn’t declare that I was perfectly healthy, I wouldn’t get the job.
Speaker 2
I’d always thought they’d give me something to put me to sleep and when I came round everything
would be over and all I would see would be a few stitches. But these days it’s all done with a local
anaesthetic so you stay awake through the whole thing and you can see everything they’re doing. Of
course, they tell you that you don’t have to look but you can’t really look anywhere else, can you? Of
course, you don’t feel anything, but it’s a bit scary.
Speaker 3
I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, when somebody has such a big operation nothing really prepares
you for… what happens afterwards. It’s not a bit like it is on telly. When at last I managed to find the
right room I almost didn’t recognise her. It really was a bit of a shock but the staff all seemed really
pleased with her progress and were even talking about… er… going home in just a few days. I don’t
know about these things and I believed what they said. If I’d known what was going to happen, I’d have
stayed there all night just to be with her, right up to the end.
Speaker 4
Well, the call on my answerphone said there was this leaking roof in one of the wards. ‘A drip’ they
called it. Well, it hadn’t been raining much so I suppose it didn’t seem too bad to them. But when I got
up there, the whole roof was in a shocking state. It’s a good thing I looked at it when I did because one
heavy rainstorm and all that lot was going to collapse, and with all the patients in their beds underneath.
I mean, I know the ‘National Health’ hasn’t got much cash these days but they should have had the
whole roof fixed. So, in the end, I told them to get someone else to do it. And I’ll tell you another thing –
I’m going private from now on.
Speaker 5
The address on the package says room 4J. Anyway, I’ve been to the hospital loads of times to visit my
gran. So I know the layout pretty well. Anyway, I find room 4H in no time – it says ‘check-ups’ on the
door so it can’t be the room I want but then there’s no room 4I or 4J and room 4K is the maintenance
office and they certainly don’t want a box of surgical knives. So, after I’ve been looking for a good ten
minutes, I ask someone and they tell me, as though everyone knows, ‘it’s on the next floor, of course’.
How was I to know? Anyway, I take it up there and then there’s nobody there to sign the documents to
say they’ve received it. So, I have to come all the way back to…
EXERCISE 14
Speaker 1

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Well, it really was a pity you couldn’t be there. Brian and Julia looked so wonderful and everything went
off perfectly. The vicar gave a beautiful address and the reception was gorgeous. Everyone commented
on the bridesmaids’ dresses. They wore pale yellow just like you wanted, oh, and I almost forgot, Brian
mentioned you in his speech. He said Julia’s got everything a wife could offer, but he still likes your
cooking best. I think he meant it, too. Of course, Dad was there with… er… but I don’t suppose you want
to hear about that.
Speaker 2
Brian’s not going to have an easy time of it. After all, Julia’s not going to coddle him like that mother of
his does. And it’s a good thing too if you ask me. It’s about time he learnt to be useful around the house.
Seventy years of feminism doesn’t seem to have done much for our family either. Still, when we get
married a few little things are going to change. There’ll be no more nights out with the lads – not when
I’m in charge – and I’ll tell you another thing, if I were Julia, I’d be keeping a good eye on one of those
bridesmaids, too.
Speaker 3
So you must have known Brian for quite some time now. Has he always been this handsome?… No,
don’t tell me, I can imagine. Well, anyway, I met him a couple of years ago when they moved our unit up
to head office and he was already working there as entertainment officer. You know, all the big firms
have them these days. He organises surprise parties and hires entertainers and kissagrams and then
comes round the office collecting money for them afterwards, but I suppose you know all this already.
Speaker 4
Did you take all these pictures yourself? You are clever. And look there’s one of me. I don’t remember
you taking that one. Oh, and here’s one of everybody outside the church. Your Auntie Julia would
probably like a copy of that one and so would your granny; mind you, it’s a pity it’s got your granddad in
with that Marjorie. Oh, could you be a darling and get some copies done? We could send them for
Christmas. They always send you something nice.
Speaker 5
It was really one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to. The service was short; the bride arrived on
time; the groom was sober; the food was excellent; the speakers were funny – not like my wedding at
all. They really must have put so much thought into it, and so much preparation. Which must show that
they’re serious about each other because so many young people aren’t these days. The only sad thing is
that they live so far away. I mean if you hadn’t given me the Friday off, I simply wouldn’t have been able
to get there on time.
EXERCISE 15
Speaker 1
I’m glad I took the job – if nothing else, it’s taught me that I never want to do it again! It was just what I
had expected, really, although maybe a bit harder. Packing things into boxes and boxes into crates – it’s
never going to be fascinating, is it? But actually, it wasn’t the actual tasks themselves that got to me –
because you can just go into a sort of dream world, do it on automatic while thinking about other, nicer
things – but the way everyone went for breaks and lunch at exactly the same time every day. The others
were OK, you know, I mean, not rude or anything, so I shouldn’t moan.
Speaker 2
It wasn’t at all easy, you know, but I’d thought it would be a breeze. I guess the thing with being on the
reception desk in a hotel – even a budget hotel… or maybe especially a budget hotel – is you never really
know what’s going to happen next. You might find yourself dealing with an incredibly rude guest – tell
yourself he’s very stressed – or someone who’s locked out of their room, or anything. Some days were
so busy you couldn’t catch your breath, and others dragged by. My manager was great, really positive,
but some of the other staff were just, well, dull.
Speaker 3
When I first finished the job, I thought I’ll never do that again, no way. But now that I’ve recovered a bit,
I think I might well try to do it again next summer. With tips, the money turned out to be quite good,

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and some of the other waiters were quite funny, so it kept me amused. Every day was pretty similar to
the last, and the next, and I found that quite reassuring. It was tiring, being on your feet all the time, and
having to smile and be nice and show an interest in everyone and laugh at some pretty terrible jokes –
all that was what took the energy … but, yeah, I’d do it again.
Speaker 4
Well, I was working in this shop. It sold small craft things, you know, models and little pictures and
things, mainly to tourists really. I didn’t exactly have a lot of responsibility – if anything interesting
happened, like a delivery, or a customer spending a lot of money – then I had to get the manager to
come and deal with it. She was rather a cold person, actually, though very polite. But it wasn’t very good
weather and there weren’t very many tourists, so most of the time I just sat about, to be honest, or did
a bit of gentle tidying of the stuff on sale.
Speaker 5
I didn’t understand what was involved when I got the job. I thought working on a campsite meant
helping people put up their tents, stuff like that, but I found I had to do cleaning, and also serving in the
little shop they had there. There were a couple of other guys working there, but they kept themselves to
themselves and the boss was nowhere to be seen, ever. So problems landed on my plate, and I got
shouted at or treated badly by families turning up late and finding we didn’t have any spaces, or that
their tent had a hole in it or something – but nothing was my fault so why blame me like that?
EXERCISE 16
Speaker 1
Man: Some people still think that leaders are born, not made. They say, no matter how hard you study
and how many diplomas you collect, at the end of the day, if you’ve got natural skills, such as a strong
character, that’s all you’ll need. I think that’s nonsense. Leadership is all about commanding respect. If a
boss says to me, for example, ‘Look, your computer skills need upgrading’, I’ll think, ‘Right, this person
has a degree in computing, I don’t, so he must be right’. But if it’s the other way round, then you feel,
well, maybe I should be boss!
Speaker 2
Woman: Well, the sort of leaders that I actually admire… are not the… top dogs in suits… with a degree
in management and a belief that nobody can do things as well as they can. One thing I’ve learned from
all my experience in different jobs is that, to be a really good boss, you have to be good at encouraging
the people under you to decide on important issues… creating a situation in which other people can
shine. Of course this does not mean the boss’s job is any easier; it’s still a challenge, but so much more
rewarding for everyone.
Speaker 3
Woman: Since I left school, I’ve done a number of short-term office jobs, and I must say I’m beginning to
realise how important it is to have the right sort of person directing your work. To develop all my
potential, I need to be told when I’m doing something well, and also the areas where I could improve… I
think the earlier you get formal and informal feedback, the better. Otherwise you develop bad habits…
some of my workmates don’t agree with me, when I say it’s good to meet regularly with your boss, they
think I’m trying to be better than them.
Speaker 4
Man: Of course we all want bosses who are knowledgeable and who bring energy to the job, and I must
say, in my opinion, most people who reach top job positions do possess these qualities. However, what
really matters is the ability to bring people together. Leaders often mistakenly encourage people to
work on their own, kind of, in isolation, because they are afraid of the strengths of groups, they think
maybe they’ll criticise, or even join forces against the leader… Such leaders need to go on management
courses, to look at good examples of leadership…
Speaker 5
Man: Well, in the organisation where I work, each department has a leader, a boss… and because I’ve
worked in six of these departments, I’ve had six different bosses! I must say there’s been very little to

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complain about… except that we are being asked to do an enormous amount of extra work and some of
the bosses don’t seem to be doing long hours, like the rest of us. [23] It is true that after work, they may
have to attend special management courses, or meet individual members of staff to discuss
performance, but this only happens occasionally…
EXERCISE 17
Speaker 1
Girl: I must say, I’ve never found it easy to study at home. I’ve tried all sorts of places. One of my friends
prefers to study outside, lying on a rug in the garden. I try that from time to time and it’s nice and airy,
though my concentration tends to wander a bit and I find I’m looking at the trees, or people passing by,
rather than at my notes. I think better in my bedroom, where it’s nice and quiet. I’ve got a large desk
there to put my computer on, and I set my alarm early and work with a fresh mind before everyone
else’s up.
Speaker 2
Boy: You know how sociable I am normally? Well, it’s strange but I find people talking really puts me off
when I’m trying to study, so I hardly ever work with a classmate, although it’s much more fun. You’d
think that the faculty library would be the best place for me then – an academic atmosphere and no
distractions. You always get a few people whispering and coughing though and that annoys me. What I
frequently do instead now is put on my personal stereo and have something blasting away, it doesn’t
matter what. That blocks out everything else and I get through the work in no time.
Speaker 3
Girl: When I do my homework I have to feel right. After sitting on a hard chair all day, I need to stretch
out with my head on a pillow. Mum says I cannot possibly concentrate like that, but actually I don’t fall
asleep as long as I don’t go on too late and I have the window open to get some fresh air. I’d love to
work with music on, a lot of my friends do, and they say it really helps them concentrate. The point is I
like music too much – it takes over from whatever I’m supposed to be doing.
Speaker 4
Boy: I’m hopeless at doing school projects. I make timetables so that I can complete the project well
before the deadline, but I don’t stick to them. I’ve tried everything – strong coffee, quiet rooms, fresh
air. Even though I’m wide awake and there’s nothing to disturb me, the work still doesn’t get done. I was
getting really worried last week, when Mary came round and asked if she could work in my room – hers
is too dark and stuffy. I’ve never worked with a friend before and so I said ‘No’, but she was desperate.
Eventually, I gave in and it really worked out for us both. I couldn’t believe it!
Speaker 5
Girl: I really like some of the subjects I’m doing this year, particularly maths and physics. I don’t mind
studying them at all, although some of the homework assignments we’re given are quite tricky, so I need
to be able to work undisturbed. That’s often a bit difficult in our house, unless I put it off until
everyone’s in bed. Did you know that my younger brother, Fred, plays the guitar in a band? I love some
of their music, it’s really cool, you’d love it too, but it’s pointless trying to work when he’s playing.
EXERCISE 18
Speaker 1
Woman: We chose this hotel because we knew that the owners had young children of their own. The
room could have been a bit bigger, but then it was quite inexpensive. They provided an early supper if
you told them in good time, so that the parents could eat in peace later in the cosy dining room. There
were hundreds of toys for the children to play with, a huge garden with a playground, ponds and a
playhouse. We hardly saw our two all week.
Speaker 2
Man: We always have difficulty finding hotels which welcome our children. This one was particularly
good because the bedroom had a separate sitting room so we weren’t all squashed together in one
room. Although it wasn’t the cheapest around, far from it in fact, it was worth it. Our teenage kids loved

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the outdoor heated swimming pool and the mountain bikes, which were provided free by the hotel.
Apparently, the owners’ kids, who’ve grown up and left home now, had been mad on mountain biking.
There was also an all-weather tennis court. Another thing we liked was the separate dining room for
people with young families.
Speaker 3
Woman: We’d had a bad experience the year before at a hotel which didn’t cater for children. But this
year we were very impressed by the hospitality of the hotel. The rooms were large enough to
accommodate four beds comfortably and there was an adventure playground in the garden for the
younger kids. You don’t have to pay for children under ten sharing the room – even meals were free for
them, so that was another bonus. There was lots to do including horse riding and tennis. But if you
wanted to swim you had to go to the local leisure centre, which the kids loved.
Speaker 4
Man: In the hotel we went to, we had a family suite which was very spacious. There was an outdoor
heated pool and large grounds so the kids spent most of the time in the pool. So long as your children
like swimming you’re alright ’cos there wasn’t much else for them to do. I did think that they could have
put in a playground too. Young children under ten aren’t allowed in the dining room but there was an
early supper for them. This meant that we could have a quiet dinner for two when they were in bed.
Speaker 5
Woman: What we liked about our hotel was its size. It was only a small hotel and we were looked after
like family. The room had loads of soft toys, wooden toys and books, which the children loved. The guest
lounge and conservatory was a child-free zone after seven thirty which suited us fine ’cos there was a
special children’s supper at six, which meant that they could go to bed early and get a good night’s
sleep. Older children aren’t really catered for and this hotel is probably better for those with younger
kids.
EXERCISE 19
Speaker 1
Woman: This was my first bike ride across the really difficult ground. When you ride at speed on rough
tracks, it’s hard to find an easy riding position, and as a result you get an unpleasant stiffness in your
back. You can stand up on the bike, and that sometimes helps. But it didn’t with me I found myself flying
over the handle bar a couple of times, landing on soft grass, luckily. If the bike had been damaged I’d
have stopped then and there, but it was OK. I carried on to the end but the slight pain in my back didn’t
get any better.
Speaker 2
Man: We cycled through towns and also through remote areas, and everything was fine until I came to a
hilly bit. I knew I had an advantage here, because I’m good at speeding up slopes. No aching muscles for
me! But at some point during the climb, I noticed one of the wheels needed adjusting. I’d been told
before the start that there’d be a support team, so even if your bike broke down they’d be there to help
you immediately. Well, they certainly weren’t capable of running things properly because I had to wait
far too long, and so was one of the last competitors to reach the finishing line.
Speaker 3
Man: I’d been involved in all the planning stages of the race, and so it seemed a good idea to take part.
However, halfway through, I realised my best option was to turn back. I hadn’t done enough training. In
a race like that, you need to keep a regular speed, even when you are going up what looks like a
mountainside. If you are not fit enough, your leg muscles may seem to refuse to keep on pedalling hard!
I saw other riders speeding past me – I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, I thought, this is silly, I may end up
with a torn muscle, so that was that.
Speaker 4
Woman: Well, I think I was just plain unlucky. I came up this village road and there were all these cars
moving slowly uphill. There had been an accident or something. Anyway, it was impossible to overtake
them, on such a narrow path, so they slowed me down. I’m content with what I’ve achieved, although I

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didn’t win any of the prizes. Basically, I managed all the difficult bits of the race, and I know that if it
hadn’t been for that problem, I would have had a good chance of winning. Also my bike was great, I’d
had it repaired recently and wasn’t sure it would stand this test.
Speaker 5
Man: I have lots of cycling experience, but I knew this was going to be a long race, and your muscles can
get very tired and strained. But I was ready for the challenge, after months of weightlifting to increase
my strength. In fact, I could almost say I overdid it, because I developed an elbow problem a couple of
months before the race, which fortunately was not serious. But I certainly wasn’t expecting my bike to
give me any trouble! But that’s what happened, unfortunately. I had started the race feeling fitter than
ever, so it was all the more disappointing that it had to end like this.
EXERCISE 20
Speaker 1
It came as a complete surprise. Right out of the blue she came home and told me she’d been made
redundant from work and said why didn’t we just take off for a year and travel around the world.Well, it
just all seemed to make sense. I wasn’t enjoying my work at the time and was thinking about doing
something else. Her company had given her quite a generous redundancy package and also we could
rent out our house for the year; that would give us enough to live on for the year as long as we were
careful with our money. And I’m pleased to say that we were, apart from the occasional few luxuries
here and there… you know, meals in expensive restaurants for special occasions like birthdays or
anniversaries, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2
It’s something I’d been looking into for some time. To tell you the truth, it’s something I’ve wanted to do
ever since I was a kid. It just never seemed that it would be something I could realistically do, so it just
remained a dream. But after somebody told me how cheap it was when you actually got there I started
to do some serious research. And really, although actually getting there is very expensive, the price of
the hotels, restaurants and travelling around the country is so low compared to places in Europe, it
means that in total you’re not paying much more than you would for a cheap holiday on the beach in
Greece or Spain. And it’s a lot more interesting than just lying around on a beach somewhere. It was
great. I’m going back there next year. I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that.
Speaker 3
It’s not every day you go on honeymoon, but if you ask me it was all a bit over the top. We had our own
private beach and the staff couldn’t do enough for us: they wouldn’t let us do a thing for ourselves. For
example if I tried to pour myself a drink, somebody would suddenly appear and take the bottle out of
my hand and finish pouring it. I know it’s all these luxuries that you’re paying for but it’s a bit much for
me and wasn’t something I was comfortable with. I suppose you must just get used to it after a while,
but all the time I kept thinking that it would have been a better idea if we’d used that money to buy a
washing machine and some new furniture instead of going to all that expense.
Speaker 4
To tell you the truth, the hotel was a bit of a letdown. The pictures in the brochure were flattering to say
the very least. The restaurant was supposed to be five star but I can honestly say I’ve had better food in
a motorway service station. It wasn’t all bad though, the area itself was lovely. The beach near the
village was lovely and had everything you could ask for… clean white sand, beautiful blue sea, palm
trees. And the locals were really friendly and really made a fuss of the kids. I think we’ll go back there
soon, but we’ll definitely stay in a different hotel, that one wasn’t good value for money at all.
Speaker 5
I’d really been looking forward to going there and I wasn’t disappointed. Not in the least. From the
moment you arrive there you feel immersed in its history. It’s the birthplace of civilisation after all, and
every street you walk down reminds you of this. I know some people wouldn’t find it much fun, to be
going from boring museum to boring museum, but it wasn’t like that. When you see some of the
collections they have in the museums, and you see it in context to the city itself, well, it’s an

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extraordinary feeling. The weather wasn’t great but I don’t think that spoiled it for us at all. It’s not like
you go to a place like that just to sit on the beach and get a tan. We had a week there, but really you’d
need a month just to see everything.
EXERCISE 21
Horoscope 1
Yours is an artistic and creative personality and you work best independently, achieving a great deal. But
those of you with a job which involves routine should beware. You will feel like being carefree and
irresponsible, and this may cause difficulties in your employment. In your personal life, however, you
can be less cautious and let your fun-loving imagination take over.
Horoscope 2
You have a powerful and forceful nature and the influence of the planet Mars at this time makes these
characteristics even stronger. So make sure you think carefully about your dealings with others, and
avoid upsetting them with your behaviour and attitude. You are naturally skilful in financial matters and
someone will ask you for a loan. Don’t do it! Instead, give them some good advice on how to budget.
Horoscope 3
Your sign is that of the romantic and the dreamer. You prefer to sit back and think about great ideas
rather than carry them out. But now you are under the influence of the planet Pluto and it’s time to take
decisions and be more positive. This will be especially helpful in your job, where advancement is a real
possibility and you could go further up the ladder of success. Beware, though, that this new-found
energy doesn’t threaten your usual good health. Get plenty of sleep.
Horoscope 4
For those of you born under this sign, partnership, either romantic or professional, will be most
important this year. You don’t naturally make decisions easily but this could be a good time to make up
your mind, especially where romance is concerned. For those of you thinking about choosing the right
partner to settle down with, go ahead and propose – there’ll never be a better time. Love is in the air!
Horoscope 5
You are a naturally shy person who finds it difficult meeting new people and forming relationships. But
things look more positive for you this year, and situations will arise where you feel more confident about
widening your social circle. Don’t be afraid to give it a try, and you’ll find your lonely days are at an end.
Go out and enjoy yourself.
EXERCISE 22
Speaker 1
This is one of my favourite desserts and it isn’t too difficult if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands. The
traditional recipe uses brown sugar but I have always preferred honey. You drip the honey over a thick
layer of yoghurt to form a thin covering. This can be quite tricky and you need a steady hand. Then press
the fruit into the honey and scatter chopped nuts over the top. Finally, to add that extra special
something, put a few pinches of ground cinnamon over it shortly before serving.
Speaker 2
Once you’ve assembled all your chopped fruit pieces in a bowl, you need to make the blancmange
mixture to pour over them. This is made by beating together cream, apple juice, honey and two
tablespoons of rum, and then heating the mixture before dissolving the gelatin. I must just mention that
gelatin is made from the hooves of cows so, unfortunately, some people won’t be too keen on this.
Anyway, once the mixture has cooled sufficiently, it can be poured over the fruit and left to set in the
refrigerator.
Speaker 3
Take the sponge cake base out of the oven and then turn it out to cool on a wire rack. Now, you can turn
your attention to the topping. The strawberries need to be fresh so you will only really be able to make
this recipe from May to early July; after that, raspberries can be used instead, up to late August. The
fruit should be halved and have the tough cores removed. You may need a good sharp knife for this.

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After that, arrange the halves in a symmetrical pattern around the top of the sponge and finally spread
fresh yoghurt over this and garnish with grated chocolate.
Speaker 4
Now, this one is always popular with youngsters. There is really no point nowadays in making your own
vanilla ice-cream since the quality in the shops is so good. But home-made chocolate sauce is another
matter and quite inexpensive to make. You just heat some cooking chocolate in a pan with a little water
and brown sugar and bring to the boil for a few minutes. When it has cooled, you’ll have a thick, dark,
sticky sauce that the kids will love … and indeed it’s such a simple method that they could even make it
themselves.
Speaker 5
Once again you leave the sponge cake to cool after baking and turn your attention to the marzipan. You
will need 250 grams of ground almonds. Now, these are about one pound fifty for a fifty gram packet, so
you’ll not want to waste any. Mix the ground almonds with 250 grams of castor sugar and, add a whole
egg that’s been thoroughly beaten and laced with dark rum and almond flavouring, knead the mixture
into a thick paste and then roll flat on a work-surface sprinkled with icing sugar. Brush the sponge cake
with a mixture of rum and almond flavouring before placing the marzipan around it.
EXERCISE 23
Speaker 1
It’s strange looking back because at the time you don’t always appreciate people and certainly I think
that’s true of your teachers and particularly a head teacher. I mean she was always encouraging us not
to drop litter and to think about things like preserving the countryside and so on, and she’d say, ‘Don’t
you want your children to live in a better world?’ But when you’re fifteen, you can’t imagine having a
family – all you care about is getting your homework done and going out with your friends!
Speaker 2
I don’t know if it’s the same in all countries, but where I live your head teacher usually teaches classes
too and we had our head for athletics. In one way it was exciting ’cos she was very good at it herself, like
she could out-run any of the boys in our class, but whatever we were doing she was always pushing us
to do it faster than anyone else or jump higher than our friends regardless of the talent or ability we had
[20] – and with some it was pointless.
Speaker 3
I think if it hadn’t been for our head teacher, I’d be doing something quite different now. She used to
assess our Art exams and although there were people in my class who were really talented artists… you
know, they could paint anything from real life and it looked brilliant… she always preferred the more
unusual stuff – she said it showed we had ideas of our own, and she really liked that, so, I did well. I
mean, now I make a living putting designs on greeting cards.
Speaker 4
I always felt that our head teacher was under-valued and that she might have done better in a different
environment… her own staff held her up a bit. They all seemed… oh, I don’t know… maybe they just
didn’t like the idea of change… but I remember she wanted to introduce a new teaching method for
French classes and the department head just dismissed the idea… and so many ideas she had which
were never taken up are being used in schools today. I sometimes wonder how she feels.
Speaker 5
I’ve got some friends who say they left school and they suddenly felt lost. They’d spent a long time
‘getting an education’ but didn’t know what to do once they’d got it. I think we were lucky because our
head teacher built up a good network of contacts with local people and so they didn’t mind giving us an
insight into what it might be like, say, working in a hospital or office. I know it wasn’t a new idea or
anything but I think she gave us a good sense of direction which I’ve valued all my life.
EXERCISE 24
Speaker 1

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I’ve got a brand-new rowing machine. I won it actually, about two months ago, and it’s still in its box. It’s
got an electric timer on it which tells you how much rowing you’ve done and all that. So anyone who’s
into EXERCISE can do lots of rowing and keep fit and healthy. It folds up really small, so, you know, it
won’t take up too much space in, like, a bedroom or anything. I mean, I’ll never use it because I was
after the holiday which was won by whoever came first in the competition. So I’m looking for around
forty-five pounds and my number is…
Speaker 2
I’ve got a kidney-shaped bath, colour soft cream, for sale. It’s still in its original packing case because I
ordered the wrong colour, you know, it didn’t go with the rest of the bathroom suite I’d got. So, I
contacted, you know, the suppliers who said they’ll send me a replacement, at a price, of course! But
I’ve now got to get rid of this one. It cost originally a hundred and seventy-five pounds and I’m letting it
go for fifty if anyone’s interested. OK? My number’s…
Speaker 3
I’ve got a real bargain. It’s a Lieberstein electric organ and it’s got two keyboards and a rhythm section.
It’s in good condition, plays quite well, and it’s not difficult to use or anything. But, what with us having a
baby on the way, it’s got to make way for more essential items, as we’ve only got a tiny flat at the
moment. So, as I say, if anyone wants it, they can make me an offer. The only problem is, anyone
interested would have to come and collect it. The number to ring is…
Speaker 4
Hello. I’ve got a lady’s cycle for sale. I’ve got back trouble and I’ve been advised not to ride it, so rather
than be tempted, I’ll get rid of it. I hate the idea, because we’re not well served with public transport out
here and I used it quite a lot, but as I daren’t ride it any more, I think it would be a mistake to hang on to
it, you know, in case I had second thoughts. So, it’s a Raleigh Chopper, pink, and I’d like thirty-five
pounds for it, please. I can be contacted on…
Speaker 5
I’ve got two frying pans, you know, the sort for cooking stir-fry in, and a seven-piece tool set to go with
them. All boxed and everything. Anyway, they’ve hardly been used because at one time I was intending
to do a lot of this type of cooking because I’ve only got a small kitchenette, like, no oven. But I’ve been
given a microwave instead now, so much easier to use. So, that’s ten pounds for both pans and the tools
and my number is…
EXERCISE 25
Speaker 1
I’ve been teaching Maths for thirty-five years, and naturally I’ve seen a lot of changes in that time. I’ve
attended a number of in-service training courses to make sure I’m up to date with new methods of
teaching Maths. It’s useful to hear about different ways to teach successfully. I think that’s important.
And, of course, it’s the computer age now, so that’s taken quite a lot of getting used to. I have to admit,
some of my students seem to know a lot more about computers than I do!
Speaker 2
I went to Cambridge University and trained to be a teacher, to get the best possible background for a
successful teaching career. I regularly take magazines like Modem English Teacher and English Teaching
Today, and I even write articles for them. I like to give new teachers some ideas to help them. I’d like to
think my own colleagues at school look to me for guidance on matters of methodology. I like to pass on
my experience to my department. Of course, I don’t want to dictate to my colleagues, but I always
appreciated the help I was given as a new teacher.
Speaker 3
I teach History, and I think most of my students find it an interesting subject. I hope we give the students
an overall view of the subject. The department believes in choosing a topic, for instance, the Romans,
and looking at it not just from a purely historical point of view – you know, names and dates – but the
geographical and sociological angle as well. The students do a lot of project-based work, and by doing
this, they get more involved in the topics. We also have a lot of trips to museums and other places of

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interest, and this motivates students enormously. It helps for them not only to read books, but to see
where historic events took place.
Speaker 4
Yes, the music department isn’t bad. We encourage all the pupils to play an instrument and sing in one
of the choirs. It’s very pleasing that most of them do. We had to create a third orchestra to cope with
the demand. The boys and girls like to take exams, too – that’s a change from when I came. We have a
pass rate of well over 90%, by far the best in the area. Oh, they’re so gifted, some of these children. We
always get five or six with music scholarships to university or music college. And one of our violinists
won the British Young Musician of the Year a couple of years ago.
Speaker 5
It’s so difficult with Science teaching to know if you’re doing it right. The pupils here are so clever and
they really deserve every chance I can give them. I try to take the syllabus and find new ways of
explaining the subjects, and I design experiments to illustrate them. I don’t know if they really work,
though. I get very nervous in front of the class and I think it shows. I’m sure the other teachers are
better. Still, the exam results were quite good last year and the pupils gave me a present at the end of
the last class before the summer holidays. It was really very nice of them.
EXERCISE 26
Speaker 1
Well, I suppose some of it was quite nice but it really could have been so much better. After all, I went to
a lot of effort this year to make it something special, but somehow it didn’t quite work. I mean
everybody had masses to eat, there were eight of us sitting down to dinner, and we must have spent a
fortune on presents this year, but looking around the room, you couldn’t see it in people’s faces. And
then there was all the quarrelling over what we were going to watch on TV, and I don’t seem to
remember a single person actually saying thank you and really meaning it.
Speaker 2
I was all set to have another unexciting Christmas in the bedsitter where I’m living now. Of course, I’d
sent my kids Christmas presents but I knew I wouldn’t be hearing from them. My ex-wife doesn’t allow
it. So I’d bought myself a two pound chicken from Dewhursts and a four-pack of Lion Brand Extra and I
got a stack of pound coins for the electric meter so that at least I could be warm and watch some telly.
And then, just as I was just putting the chicken into the oven, there was a knock at the door and it was
the father of the family just across the road saying they’d noticed that I was going to be alone that day
and would I like to join them. And of course, I had a wonderful time.
Speaker 3
It isn’t over yet. I mean, we’ve had the actual festivities on the 25th, but there’s so much more to
Christmas than that. Our parish church is putting on a festival of 9 lessons and carols on Sunday evening.
And if that’s not your cup of tea then there’s the Charitable Associa-tion Santa Claus pram-race on
Monday, although I won’t be taking part in that this year. And this Christmas it’s even been snowing so
I’ll be taking my grandchildren up to Connerston Hill for some tobogganing or they can build a snowman
if the snow’s good enough. That’s on Tuesday and then … FADE
Speaker 4
It wasn’t as good as it’s been in the past. For a start the telly was pretty disappointing, especially after
last year’s. I mean we had ‘Terminator’ last Christmas Eve, but all we got this year was ‘Robocop’ again.
And the weather, huh, the weather’s been really bad, so most of the football was cancelled and then to
top it all, our video machine broke down on Christmas day so there’s been nothing to watch all
Christmas. And then, just to finish off any last chance of a decent holiday, someone suggested we all
played Monopoly. Well, I went out to walk the dog in the snow.
Speaker 5
Well, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it. I spent the three days before the twenty-fifth standing outside
Fielding’s pet shop with a placard trying to stop people buying pets as presents. And did they listen?
People were going in and out of the pet shop all day and you should have seen the number of baby cats,

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dogs and rabbits that people were buying as presents. And you know what’s going to happen to them.
The same as every year. A week after Christmas they’ll be out on the streets fending for themselves in
temperatures well below zero. But what’s most distressing is the tropical birds. These beautiful animals
can die in a matter of hours if left outside.
EXERCISE 27
Speaker 1
Although at my age some people might expect me to be sitting in a comfortable chair knitting socks, I
like more than anything to get out and train. I’m in the middle of quite a vigorous training schedule, and
I would love to compete for Britain, maybe in the triathlon or something with a bit of variety. It seems a
bit crazy having all these ambitions at 70, but I’ve never really been your typical “stay-at-home”
grandmother. I’d rather go for a jog round the village than stay in the kitchen baking cakes. Maybe I’m
mad. What I’d love to do is get a group of all us old age pensioners together and start training them – a
sort of “keep fit for the aged”.
Speaker 2
I firmly believe that the body is a temple, so I actually regulate very carefully what goes into mine, and
what I do with it. Well, I swim two miles a day before work, and after I get home from the office, I work
out in the gym for about 2 or 3 hours. At weekends, when I have more time, I like nothing more than to
go for a long run; it really helps me to think and get all the week’s events and problems into perspective.
I guess EXERCISE can be a bit like a drug – it does give me a high. My friends sometimes complain that I
don’t have enough time for them because I’d rather be down at the gym… but if I want to stay looking
this good I think it’s a small price to pay.
Speaker 3
I’m out every weekend with the boys. We kick a ball round and we also organise games with some of the
other local clubs – I suppose we’ve got a mini-league going, really. It’s fun, ’cause we’re all mates; we’ve
known each other for years and so it means we get to see each other regularly. If we’re playing a match,
then all the wives and kids come along and cheer us on. None of us are really fit… I mean, look at me –
I’m hardly what you’d call in great shape. We just do it for a bit of a laugh. I don’t think we’d enjoy it so
much if it got serious and competitive; it’s just fun getting out and running round a pitch. It keeps us
feeling young, I suppose.
Speaker 4
Every day we’re sent outside – even when it’s freezing cold – to play hockey or football or whatever. For
two hours we’re made to stand there in our shorts or run up and down. I hate it. I’ve tried getting
doctors’ notes to say I can’t play, but it makes no difference. The teachers say that doing sport is
character-building, but I say it’s character-destroying. I’d so much rather be sitting somewhere warm,
reading or watching TV or, you know, exercising the mind. When I get into the sixth form, sports won’t
be compulsory any more, and on that day I’m going to celebrate. Yeah, okay, so some people actually
enjoy sport – but surely if you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have to do it.
Speaker 5
The doctor says I should try to get regular EXERCISE – y’know, a bit every day. That’s why I got the dog –
so I could take it for long walks. It gets me out of the house, really. My condition’s not serious – the
specialists say I could live for another 50 years. I didn’t really have an active life before the attack, but it
really scared me. And now I’m out and about walking, and sometimes I even do a bit of swimming. I
don’t watch TV so much any more. I suppose I’m worried I’ll slip back into bad habits.
EXERCISE 28
Speaker 1
It was risky at first, you know. I had been working for a big firm, on computers, but I wanted to do
something on my own and I’ve always loved collecting old things, so I thought, why not try it? I had to
learn to drive because you have to travel a lot, to sales and auctions – I never had a car before. What
makes it really special is when someone brings in something incredibly rare, some antique they’ve had

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tucked away at home somewhere for years. I love the look on their faces when you say, “Yes, well, that
old vase you have there is worth half a million pounds.”
Speaker 2
You might think it’s exciting and glamorous and all that, but in fact I hardly ever get out of the place. I
work pretty much alone, so there I sit in front of a computer, with customers in and out all the time and
the phones ringing, and it does get tiring. Of course, the Internet’s a great help – I don’t have to go
digging through brochures and calling airlines every two minutes like in the old days. It’s really so easy
nowadays – I mean, anyone can read all about where they want to go and book online if they want to.
Speaker 3
It’s a big responsibility, yeah. You have to make sure people get what they want out of their training or
they might just give up. I tell them that they should look after themselves as carefully as they look after
their car. Of course, I have to make sure the machines are in good order – you can have an accident if
they aren’t – but my main job is to design training programmes for the customers. I really like helping
them get into shape, you know, looking and feeling better…
Speaker 4
Well, I never dreamt it would get so big. I started out with just a small collection, mostly old stuff I’d had
for years. Fiction, poetry, biographies, cookery, travel – quite a lot of travel, because I went abroad a lot
when I was younger. Then people started coming in to trade what they’d already read, and the business
really took off. Nowadays, I sell a lot over the Internet, too. They say television is killing reading, but I
don’t think that’s true, not from the amount of orders we get.
Speaker 5
My dad started up the business. Of course it wasn’t the same then – it was just business machines, basic
manual stuff – but then he decided to retire, and all the stuff in the place started to look out-of-date. I
got interested in computers and all that – they were completely new then – and it grew from there. It’s
a good business, but the technology is changing so fast it’s impossible to keep up. And people – kids,
you know – use these things from a really early age. Makes you wonder, when a twelve-year-old can set
up a system faster than you can.
EXERCISE 29
Speaker 1
People tell me I should cash in on it, sell up and move out to the country. Prices have gone up so much
around here that I could get a lovely place somewhere rural. I don’t know though, it had never really
occurred to me before. I’ve lived half my life here and don’t really see much reason for a change. But
while you might say the area has gone upmarket and improved, with these new bistros and shops, well
it’s lost something too. A lot of the character it used to have… I mean, now I don’t even know my
neighbours’ names and they don’t know mine. So I’m not sure if I should stick around now. Moving…
well, it’s food for thought.
Speaker 2
There was a time around here that you could leave your front door open morning, noon and night. Kids
just played in the street unsupervised and only came home when it got dark or their dinner was on the
table. Everybody knew everybody else… and their business… so it wasn’t all great!… But over the last
few years it’s got worse and worse and I’ve no idea why, I really don’t. Mrs Peters at number 36, she
was mugged just last Thursday, 50 pounds and her mobile phone she lost.
Speaker 3
When we saw it we just fell in love with it. The old wooden floors, the heavy oak doors, the delightful
bay windows… and the garden… the garden’s going to be glorious in spring. We’ll have picnics, maybe
even barbecues. Of course there’s lots of work to be done before it’s perfect, if it ever will be… But we
seem to be settling in. Most of the local shopkeepers seem to know our names now and most people
say hello in the street. It’s such a change from living in the city. And when the kids go back to school
there’s a really good one at the other end of the village. I’ll probably have to walk them there though…
the high street is very busy with cars and I don’t want to risk them crossing a busy road on their own.

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Speaker 4
Well, with the kids now, there’s just not enough room for all of us. We had to do it really. Obviously, I
would have liked to have stayed here, but it’s for the best. It was just impractical really. And now we’ll
have a lovely place. I’ve lived here since I left home. I never imagined then how much my life would
change. Look out of the window, see that shop, that’s where I bought my first suit for my first day of
work, and there’s the café where I met Karen, my wife. The idea of moving was hard at first, leaving all
these memories behind. Still, it’s for the best and it’s not like we’re moving to the other side of the
world. It’s only a ten minute drive and I can pop back whenever I like.
Speaker 5
I realise now it wasn’t the right thing to do. We jumped in too quick; we just took one look at the
cottage and the village and we fell in love. We didn’t really think about the practicalities. It all seemed so
idyllic really. Country houses with beautiful gardens, cricket on the village green, the village fete, the
duck pond… it seemed like we were going back in time. But once you’re used to all that, spent a year or
so here… well… that’s when the realities kick in. There’s not really much to do. If we want to go to the
cinema it’s a half hour drive to the multiplex on the ring road. If we want to eat in a good restaurant or
see an exhibition we have to go into town, which with traffic can take over an hour and a half. And while
the kids don’t mind it now, I dread to think what they’ll be like when they’re a bit older… there’s literally
nothing for teenagers to do here. I guess we should have given it a bit more practical thought before we
dived in and moved.
EXERCISE 30
Speaker 1
It was only a summer job when I was at university; just a couple of months work and the pay was awful.
I suppose I was just young, I didn’t take it seriously… I think if I’m honest, I thought it was beneath me… I
was an academic after all… I thought I could do it with my eyes closed. Anyway, one day the boss came
over and told me that if I didn’t improve he would have no choice but to sack me. I think I was so
embarrassed that I began to take it seriously and everything turned out OK. I spent the money I’d
earned on a holiday in Greece.
Speaker 2
I suppose it was a bit of a silly thing to do really. I put it on my CV that I spoke fluent French. Rather
stretching the truth, to say the least. I could just about order a coffee if I had to. Well, I didn’t think
much about it, doubted I’d ever have to prove it, but one day the boss called me over and said he had an
important new client with a French wife who didn’t speak a word of English, and would I show her
around the city for the day while her husband was in a company meeting. There was nothing I could do
about it. I couldn’t just tell him the truth. So I spent the day with her. Luckily she didn’t let me get a
word in edgeways and I just smiled and nodded at appropriate moments. The next day I was sure my
boss would ask to see me and that would be it; I’d be history. But he never did – I don’t think the wife
even noticed I hardly spoke a word.
Speaker 3
It was a work placement really, but I’d still consider it my first job. I mean, I worked the same hours as
everybody else, mucked in with everybody else. I’d never really thought about the work they did before,
but that time really opened my eyes. By the time the placement ended and I had to leave, I’d made up
my mind. There was no way I was going into a boring 9 to 5 office job just for the money. I was going to
spend my life helping people. And that’s why I became a paramedic.
Speaker 4
Some friends and I went to France to spend the summer picking fruit, just moving from place to place
wherever the work was. I suppose we had an over-romantic idea about the whole thing. We had no idea
just how back breaking the work would be. The amount of different things we picked – strawberries,
grapes, apples, raspberries, pears – it didn’t matter what it was – at the end of the day you could hardly
move. Anyway we had to cut the whole thing short and come back to Scotland. I got a twig caught in my

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eye while we were picking pears and the pain was unbearable, there was no way I could carry on
working after that.
Speaker 5
A dogsbody, that’s the word! I suppose you have to expect it at that age and in your first job, but at the
time it really got to me. I don’t know if I expected to be doing more important things or what, but I’d
come home boiling with rage thinking ‘that’s it! Tomorrow I quit!’ ‘Cup of tea, Darren, fill up the
photocopier with paper, Darren, clean the shelves, Darren.’ It was non-stop and I’d never know from
one day to the next what I’d be spending my day doing.
EXERCISE 31
Speaker B
I've been here about five years. At first, I wasn't sure that I'd made the right choice because it was quite
a while before I got to know the neighbours. For me, it was a question of position. I work from home, so
it wasn't that I had to travel into work or anything, but I wanted to be able to pop to the post office and
get in a few basic provisions without wasting half my day. All the bigger flats I looked at were a bus ride
away from the shops. I don't have a car, and I didn't like the idea of being cut off, so I settled for less
space.
Speaker C
I'm so close to the station, you can hear the trains from my flat. I didn't realise that until I moved in, but
I've got used to it now. I came here when I retired. I used to have a much larger place, but no longer
needed the space. What attracted me was the fact that there's a man on the door downstairs who
checks who's coming in and what's going on. Being on your own at my age, that's a comfort. I thought
he'd also do little maintenance jobs for me, but that's not part of his job, apparently. Fortunately, I made
friends with a nice couple downstairs who help me out when anything needs doing.
Speaker A
I was looking for somewhere close to my work because I didn't want to waste time travelling back and
forth, so I wasn't really looking in this area at all. Then a colleague who lived in the block told me that
this place was free. I was surprised. I didn't know how much space you got for your money. I jumped at
the chance. I'd been looking at places with tiny rooms just because they were on good bus routes. It was
only after I'd moved in that I realised how good the local shops are and what a nice part of town it is.
You really feel safe walking round here, even late at night.
Speaker B
When I first saw this flat, I was put off by the fact that it's on a very busy road. It's the main commuter
route into the city centre. But actually, I bought it from a friend who introduced me to the people
upstairs. They were very welcoming and convinced me that it really wasn't a problem. I liked the idea of
being close to such nice people, so I decided that although I'd have liked bigger rooms, it was probably a
good buy. It was only later that I discovered how good the local shops are and that the block itself is well
maintained by the security guard who lives on the ground floor.
Speaker D
My last flat was very convenient, handy for the shops and well connected for public transport, but the
building itself was falling to pieces and I got fed up trying to get the owner to do something about it. So I
moved out to this place instead because there's a caretaker who's paid to keep the place in order.
I wasn't looking for much bigger rooms, but actually I've had no trouble using the space and the other
residents turned out to be really friendly. It gives you a nice feeling of security to know that if you have a
problem, you can always pop next door.
EXERCISE 32
Speaker 1 There's such a vast range of cookery schools, it's unbelievable. Before booking a course, it's
advisable to decide what you want from it. For me it was easy - I wanted to pick up some new ideas for
entertaining but didn't need any basic techniques, so the course at the Brandale cookery school suited
me well. There were some people there who didn't know how to boil an egg, but there was extra tuition
for them. The course is run by Sylvie Brandale, who's written cookbooks and appeared on TV, and

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subjects included 'Stress-free parties' and 'Sauces from around the world'. All great topics and all of the
ingredients were provided.
Speaker 2 I was very lucky, really. I was on holiday, and I happened to hear that there was a new
cookery school at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. They had four-hour classes every Saturday, starting at
7 am! The day I attended there was a group of ten enthusiastic participants, all eagerly awaiting
instructions - though I gathered from their conversations that, unlike me, they were all fairly
experienced cooks. You can imagine the look on our faces though when we were told we were going to
visit the open-air fish market down by the port. We all came back having selected freshly caught
seafood, and were then taught the art of preparing it. Great stuff!
Speaker 3 I'm a good cook, or so my sister says. So she thought I'd do an advanced course. But I was
keen to go through the basics again, and this time I was determined to enjoy it. I registered for Glyn
Harvey's cookery classes - only four people in a class. We watched while he prepared the dishes, making
it all seem so effortless! There wasn't much real cooking, although he did invite us to help slice the
potatoes and tomatoes. And we were given some tasty, easy-to-cook recipes to take home. I came away
bursting with ideas for giving a dinner party - something I hadn't felt like doing in a long time.
Speaker 4 The course I attended covered a range of techniques, from basic to advanced, and it gave you
lots of practical tips. I was there to make up for the fact that, sadly, as a youngster. I was hardly ever
allowed into the kitchen, which meant I'd turned into a chuck-it in- the-pan sort of cook. Claire, the
teacher, was very chatty and full of enthusiasm. She demonstrated several dishes in the morning while
we took notes, and then we were given some equipment and it was our turn to have a go. I made a
splendid vegetable tart, which we ate at lunch. Now I'm planning to go again and this time I'll
concentrate on the more demanding recipes.
Speaker 5 This weekend cookery course I did, had an emphasis on local ingredients, with hands-on
practice with the chefs. I wouldn't have been happy with taking notes and following demonstrations, no
matter how impressive the food produced. I wanted to get my hands dirty, just as I'd done as a little girl
in school cookery lessons. It was at a seaside resort, and you stay in a hotel which is very close to the
fishing port, and so get to cook the local seafood. It's really intensive and you cook two-course lunches
as well as four-course dinners! But you get enough free time to make it an enjoyable weekend too.
EXERCISE 33
Speaker 1 The concert went on for three hours and it featured a variety of bands. I'd have preferred
something shorter and of higher quality, to be honest. The first band to come on, The Beats, didn't seem
to have rehearsed their set very well. Nice catchy rhythms, but otherwise it was a mess. What made the
evening worthwhile for me was the fact that all profits from ticket sales were going to a charity devoted
to child care. There was a huge audience because you don't often get the chance to see so many bands
at one venue, and only for a few dollars.
Speaker 2 This was a concert by Brighton Club, a great rock band just back from a successful tour of
Latin America. But the first part was all new stuff - and a bit boring. And although everyone was shouting
out the titles of songs they wanted to hear, the band took no notice, which was a shame. I mean it's a
bit bad when you finally get the chance to see your favourite band live and then they refuse to play their
best songs. Anyway, after a while, we all started getting into the new material and by the end the
audience response was great. So I don't think anybody minded the forty dollars they'd paid.
Speaker 3 This was a concert by Celia Samson and her band, who play pop with some touches of jazz
and country. She's got a beautiful voice, but the rest of the band let her down rather. At times it felt a
bit like a high-school recital, with the audience clapping and cheering all the time when there was
nothing much to shout about. All fine and good, except I don't particularly enjoy paying thirty dollars for
a highschool performance where profits go to second-class musicians. Mind you, I've paid that kind of
money in the past for concerts to help research, or to fight world poverty, but that's a different thing
entirely.
Speaker 4 This was a concert by the Brenda Amis band. I wouldn't have wanted to miss the beginning - a
huge cloud of smoke swelled on the stage, and out of it emerged Brenda Amis, with jet-black hair piled

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up with a feather and a big flower on top. I know some people would've wanted her to include her latest
songs, but I was happy enough that the night was all about the old favourites I've listened to so many
times. At the end, she had a short exchange with the audience: 'Thanks so much, guys. You're so nice.',
and then she sang 'Only for Big Girls', and got a standing ovation
Speaker 5 This was a gig by the Sam Barnes Band. Sam's my favourite guitarist right now. His approach
to the instrument is the complete opposite to tradition - he'll hold the guitar upside down with the neck
touching the ground. The music's punk and he's got a great band, particularly the bass player and the
drummer. They've done some CDs, but they've never yet made a record that really captures what they
do on stage. You're less likely to be impressed by their recordings, but people were just stunned at the
gig, it blew everybody's mind. I only wished they'd played more of my favourite tracks, but you can't
have everything.
EXERCISE 34
Speaker 1 I decided to study history - I want to be a lecturer one day. When you want to do a degree,
say in pharmacy, there's little difference in content between universities, I think. But history at one
university can be very different to history at another, so I had to do some research about the three
colleges where I might've wanted to study. I'd heard good things about Dundee university, and they all
proved correct. I'm from Ireland and I got to study Irish history, plus a focus on the European Union. I've
been so busy, I've had no time to enjoy student parties, but that'll come, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 I'd always thought I wanted to study medicine, but the college I wanted to go to only had
twenty places and I didn't get a place. That was disappointing and I even thought I might take a year out,
but then I had second thoughts about my choice of subject and went for nursing. I'm now at Sheffield
Hallam college, which is linked to a variety of hospitals and isn't too far away from home - though far
enough for me to be independent. People who'd gone there told me it was really good and the tutors
had time for you. The course is brilliant and there's a friendly campus atmosphere.
Speaker 3 I'm studying for a degree in French at Sussex University. It's a part-time course, very few
students would want to study part-time for a first degree, of course. Part-time study is mainly for people
like me, who have other responsibilities - I work mornings in a school, and I'm keen to keep it that way.
I'm learning a lot, though it's been different to what I expected - I thought it was going to be easier!
Unlike me, full-time students live in accommodation on the campus, and I hear wonderful stories about
the great parties they organise. They say I don't know what I'm missing, but I don't mind, really.
Speaker 4 Psychology was always my choice of degree subject. I studied it at school and soon realised it
was what I wanted to do at university. My parents tried hard, but failed, to make me change my mind
- they said I was making the wrong choice and that I wouldn't be able to make a living. But I love it. I'm
interested in social psychology, how people interact - it's fascinating, and I know I'll be able to find work
easily. I'm at Coventry University, living in student accommodation, which is very convenient. Coventry
is really student-oriented and the teachers are very friendly. And my brother lives only twenty minutes
away, so I see him often.
Speaker 5 I'm studying geography at Swansea University, because I love this area. I came the first day
thinking, what if I find out the course isn't what I wanted? But it's amazing, the department is really
good and what really does it for me is that it's been brilliant in other ways - pretty much every weekend
there's a chance for students to go out. There's a group of us who knew each other from school and
we're all starting together. I'm still living at home, but I hope to be able to do some part-time work and
rent a small flat with a couple of friends next year.
EXERCISE 35
Speaker 1 Most people who are interested in starting craft businesses enjoy making or doing something,
whether it's making dolls, candles, or even cooking. But it's not as easy as it might seem. Some think a
good website and a few ads in the papers are all they need for their business to take off and provide a
regular income, but there's much more to it than that. I make silver jewellery, and you'll find my style
has changed over time, because I've kept doing research into the latest techniques. There's nothing

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worse than thinking you know it all. However much you advertise, your business will slow down.
Speaker 2 There's such a demand for handmade goods, because people are looking for the personal
touch. One day I had the idea of covering some jars and bottles with cloth, then putting a thin coat of
plaster on, and painting designs on the surface. I sold them so quickly that I decided to start a business.
There were bottles all over my house, in different stages of development, and I wished I'd given more
thought to setting up an area where I'd do the work. I lost time and money because I ended up getting
in such a mess. So beginners, take notice! I also sell online now, but most of my sales are from word-of-
mouth recommendations.
Speaker 3 Doing something you like to do and getting paid for it is great, and it doesn't have to be scary.
By the time you actually start selling things, though, it's essential to have a rough bookkeeping system in
place and to have worked out the profits you expect and deducted your expenditure and possible losses.
I started my own craft business two years ago - making baskets, filling them with things like fruit and
nuts, and decorating them with silk flowers. I wrapped them as gifts and sold them to friends at first, but
now I have lots of orders. I'm even thinking of employing a couple of people.
Speaker 4 When you're ready to launch your business, it pays to think carefully about how your
prospective customers will hear about you. There's little point in taking out ads in the national papers at
this stage, but it may well pay to invest in a colourful brochure and posters, which can be left in shops in
the area. That's how I started my business, which is designing and making greeting cards. Mind you,
friends and acquaintances gave me contradictory advice, and I ended up paying someone to design a
website for me when I wasn't ready for it. Anyway, my business is thriving and now takes up five rooms
in my house!
Speaker 5 I started making lampshades, and it just went from hobby to career. My home no longer
offers enough space, so I may rent some extra rooms from a friend. It was good to start small, though, I
wouldn't have been able to cope with lots of work then. I really knew nothing about marketing, and if
you're like me, don't worry; if your products sell, it'll sort itself out. I owe part of my success to my
brother who designed an amazing website for me, which attracted lots of buyers. It does mean you need
to organise a way to post things securely, but it's all worthwhile doing.
EXERCISE 36
Speaker 1
I'd never done any writing before, though I was a keen reader. This novel was inspired by my own
childhood experiences - I got to meet a lot of people as a child because my parents owned a large,
successful restaurant. I don't think I could've written it if I hadn't decided to take a degree in creative
writing a few years ago, though. It was a way of being serious about writing and it gave me a lot of
confidence. I began work on the novel halfway through the second year, and completed it after
graduating. It was very, very hard work, but it's all really been worthwhile.
Speaker 2
I'm only twenty-two years old, and I've been writing since I was thirteen - mainly short stories which
were published in teen magazines. When I started writing a novel I realised the way I'd written so far
wasn't so good really, not for real fiction. So I knew I had to look at my favourite writers - you learn a lot
by seeing how they do what they do. I knew very well what I wanted to write about, though. I get bored
with books where everyone is a bit like someone you know. I wanted to write about people who only
exist in fiction. That's what readers find attractive.
Speaker 3
My novel began life as a blog on my website. Within a week of starting it, I'd been offered a book deal by
a publisher. I remember sitting and looking at this offer on my computer screen. The sum was several
times bigger than my annual librarian's salary and I thought there must've been some mistake. The
novel is a fictional version of my blog, and it centres on a university librarian, his partner and their sons.
Writing it wasn't particularly hard because basically I was being asked to keep to the same style. And I'm
now adapting it for the screen. I'd always wanted a job that I could really enjoy.
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I used to watch a lot of TV, and I admit that the inspiration for my novel came from the dramas I
watched, or rather from my disappointment at how unrealistic and far-fetched they were. It was very
rarely that any of them attempted to get under the skin of the characters. So that's what I aimed to do -
tell it like it was. It wasn't easy, and when people say how wonderful it must be to be recognised in the
street and to be asked to sign autographs, I tell them about the long hours in front of the computer, and
about forgetting what it means to have a free weekend.
Speaker 5
I used to be a journalist on a national paper and I began work on my novel in 2001. It's a historical novel
and I spent months researching the history of the period - it's set in India in the 1920s. I then spent two
years writing it. Journalism wasn't a bad place to acquire useful skills. It taught me to be clear and edit
myself, not to write too much. My parents couldn't believe it when they heard my name on the news. I
hadn't told them anything because they never Thought very highly of anything I'd written previously,
and I didn't want to start having any doubts myself.
EXERCISE 37
Speaker 1
I was very unfit but determined to do some hill walking. The first time I went though, my companions
almost gave up on me. They had to keep stopping while I caught my breath or rested aching muscles.
Not surprising really as I'd never been one for sports or trips to the gym. So the walk was no fun for
them, even less so for me. But as I couldn't face the thought of going alone, I knew I had to get myself fit
enough to be accepted as a full member of the group. I decided hill walking would be my road to fitness,
and by persevering, I got there.
Speaker 2.
I'm a very fit person because I've been going to the gym and doing different sports for years. The
problem was that being a very competitive person, I found it difficult to really relax. After reading
interviews with hill walkers, I was convinced that this sport would give me a sense of achievement
without the pressure, that it was something I'd actually enjoy doing. It wasn't easy knowing where to
start though. Fortunately, I met an experienced walker who climbed the highest hills in Scotland. He
gave me some tips and then I just went for it. on my own, because I don't believe in walking in groups.
Speaker 3
For me, hill -walking's been a real challenge.
When I first started, I often wanted to turn back when I was only halfway up a hill. I would ask myself,
why am I doing this? But I knew the answer, really. I'd failed spectacularly when I'd tried to get fit
playing tennis or swimming, maybe because I wasn't making enough of an effort, but I couldn't see the
point. With hill -walking, I could feel it was strengthening my legs and the aerobic EXERCISE was just
wonderful. An unexpected bonus was making so many friends because you immediately have something
in common with people you meet on the hill.
Speaker 4
I used to have a personal trainer who believed conventional fitness tests were rubbish. He always said,
all you need to know is how fit you feel now and how fit you need to be to achieve your own goals. He
trained me in the gym, which improved my muscle tone and my strength in general. But my goal was to
one day climb Kilimanjaro, which is at a really high altitude. But to have a chance of reaching the
summit, I clearly needed to make a start by climbing some smaller hills. My trainer said I shouldn't give
up the gym, but you can't do everything, can you?
Speaker 5 I quite enjoy the hills these days, though it's still a real physical effort. But I think that's the
case for lots of people. When I get to the top, though, I'm totally buzzing with what I've achieved. I
played football regularly until I was 20. Then I discovered there was something wrong with one of my
knees, and I was advised to try hill walking, which was supposed to strengthen it. I liked it so much that
I've never looked back, though my knee is absolutely fine now. I'm now trying to organise a hill walking
group because the sport's so much more fun when you can share it. Now play the recording again.

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EXERCISE 38
Speaker D
I had a good lead coming up to the last hill climb. I thought I had the race in the bag. I was feeling great.
The bike was performing well after all the repairs it had this season. There must have been an accident
earlier for me to meet a traffic jam on such a small country road. Normally, I would have just sped past
the slow-moving traffic if the road had only been a little bit wider. My teammates still congratulated me.
Up to that point, I'd had a good race. I know it was not my fault, but still, it really is annoying. I'm so
competitive. That sort of thing can be really hard to take.
Speaker B
Two I had been planning to take part in this race all year. I thought I was well prepared. But I was only... I
was only halfway through it when my legs began to seize up. I soon realized that I hadn't done enough
mountain training. In my normal environment, I would have been fine. But it was the steep climbs in this
race that I wasn't used to. My muscles just began to tighten up, and I realized that if I pushed myself any
harder, I'd probably tear a muscle. Yes, it can be disappointing, but you have to learn from these
experiences, and it will make me a better cyclist in the long run. Three
Speaker C
This is the first time I've been off-road mountain biking. The track was quite difficult, and I fell off a
couple of times. I was wearing all the protective clothing, so I wasn't hurt. The most painful thing was
cycling down the bumpy tracks. I tried riding standing up, but that gave me a backache. When I fell the
second time, it was while cycling along a thin track. The bike just slipped from under me, and I tumbled
down a bank into a large pothole. I was in a puddle of mud. I got a bit dirty, but nothing was broken, and
I managed to make it to the end of the course very tired and in desperate need of a bath.
Speaker A
I am a keen competitor, and I like to enter as many cycle races as I can in any one year. I was really
looking forward to last week's race, because a large part of it is in the hills. One of my main strengths is
uphill cycling, so I really fancied my chances. Everything was going fine, and I was in a good position, and
I had just started to climb when I had a problem with my front wheel. If the support team would have
been doing their job properly, this should not have been a big issue. They took too long to get to me,
and then they fiddled about for far too long adjusting my front wheel. When I did finally get going again,
it was all too late. I ended up being one of the last to finish. This was disappointing for me. I thought it
was going to be my day.
Speaker C
I'd spent a lot of time on the bike, but I didn't feel like I was going to make it. I'd spent a lot of time
training this year. Not just on the bike, but a lot of hours in the gym. After I strained a muscle in training,
my trainer told me to take it a little easier. He didn't want me to burn out before I'd started racing. In
the end we got the balance right, and I went into the race feeling great. This was one of the toughest
races of the season. You're pushed to your limit in races like this. The training was paying off though. I
was feeling good, and I was well placed in the leading group. That's when I heard a crunching sound, and
then the gears just jammed. I jumped off and tried to fix it, but the race was over for me. The bike was in
a bad state. I was so angry and disappointed. I never expected the bike to let me down.
EXERCISE 39
Speaker C
People get into motorcycling for different reasons. For me, it was my family. I was around bikes from an
early age. If you want to ride a motorbike in the UK, you'll have to take a short course first. Even if
you've passed your test and have been driving for years, the police recommend that you go on an
advanced motorcycle handling course. They are excellent and could save your life one day. A course
shows you how to avoid accidents, how to drive on motorways and how to drive safely at high speeds,
plus loads of other things.
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I suppose you don't get many mums in full biker leathers. I get a lot of thumbs up from other women
drivers. It gives me plenty of street cred. Being a leather clad woman on a big motorbike. I don't do it for
the look though. It's more for the freedom. It's actually a very convenient way of travelling around the
city. Riding a bike is a lot different to driving a car, which I prefer. When I'm on the bike, it's just me and
the machine. I know it sounds a bit macho, but it's a great way to relieve stress and blow the cobwebs
off at the end of the day.
Speaker C
Motorbike and sidecar racing isn't a very popular sport, but I love it. It's all about speed and balance. It's
a lot harder racing when you've got a sidecar attached to your motorbike. There has to be a good
understanding between both rider and passenger. My first partner was my mum, which caused the
other riders to tease me a bit. Everybody knew her in the racing world because she was a real character,
and used to race bikes when she was younger. My mum bought me my first bike. We were a good team
and enjoyed racing together. Four. I don't know what our friends and families really thought. Probably
like most people, they saw it as dangerous, and the last thing a mother should be encouraging her son
to do.
Speaker B
The image of a motorcyclist is iconic in society. It represents freedom and rebellion, and not just the
freedom of the open road, but the biker is often seen to be on the edge of the law, free from moral
constraints, and free from having to be respectable. The ultimate freedom, a fusion of man and
machine, cutting through traffic, leaving everyone behind. The only trouble is that it happens to be quite
dangerous. A motorbike is more than a vehicle to get you from A to B. A biker is like a knight on
horseback, in a world which is a little different, and a little dangerous from everyone else's.
Speaker C
I've always been passionate about motorbikes, and was lucky to have had a career as a test rider, with a
company called Motorbikes. They were one of the best British motorcycle manufacturers, but they
closed down in 1978. It was a very sad moment in time for me. Their name BSA stood for British Small
Arms, which is a strange name for a motorcycle manufacturer, but they made other things as well.
When I joined BSA in Birmingham in 1955, British bikes were the best in the world. I'd answered a
newspaper advertisement for a test rider, and I got the job. I was only 18, and motorbike crazy as I'd
been riding since the age of 11. Being a test rider was great, because I got to take part in all sorts of
motorbike riding, like speedway, races, hill climbing, and reliability trials. When the company closed
down, I did some exhibition riding with my brother, and we called our show The Partners of Dare. There
were good times, and even though I'm getting a bit old now, I still go out for a ride every Sunday on my
BSA Gold Star.
EXERCISE 40
Speaker D
We like staying in this hotel because it is cheap and child-friendly. The rooms are a little small and basic,
but they're fine. The staff are great and there's lots of stuff for the kids to do. If the kids are happy, then
we are happy. You can book the kids in for an early child's meal and eat later yourself. Garden with a
treehouse and a playground. If the weather isn't good, there's a playroom inside and a ballpark which
the kids love. We'd definitely come here again.
Speaker E
This hotel is really good towards family holidays. It is not the cheapest, but you can get a small suite, a
bedroom with a separate sitting room for a reasonable price. It's good to be able to put the kids to bed
in their own room. Then we can stay up a little later and use the sofa bed to sleep on. It's very
comfortable. There is a heated outdoor swimming pool and the kids are in it all the time. The hotel also
had free mountain bikes, which was also great as we love cycling as a family. The staff and owners are all
great fun. They're very outdoorsy type people. They're into mountain biking themselves and know all
the good routes. They also have a tennis court. I'm not keen on tennis, but my partner is. He always
meets someone to play with. It's a very friendly place. We stay halfway. The food is very good and

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there's plenty of vegetarian options to choose from. Families with young children have their own dining
room.
Speaker C
Last year we stayed in a hotel which wasn't very child friendly. So this year I'm booked somewhere with
lots of things to keep the kids entertained. This place is perfect because there's a large adventure
playground and they have family rooms. The rooms are big and have four proper beds. Children under
10 go free. There are plenty of other activities nearby. There's horse riding, mini golf, paddle and a
public swimming pool. It's a really big pool with slides and a wave machine. The kids had a fabulous
time. Four.
Speaker A
The family suite was good. You had two decent sized rooms. But I did feel that they could have been a
few more things for the kids to do. A few board games for the kids to play, maybe. The outdoor
swimming pool was great. The outside garden was good but there was just one old swing which was a
bit disappointing. The saving grace was the outdoor heated pool which is where the kids spent the
entire holiday. Unfortunately children under the age of 10 were not allowed in the dining room after
9pm. So you had to eat at separate times. The kids having their meals first and then after putting them
down to bed, you could go down and have yours.
Speaker C
This is a really nice family run hotel. The kids love our room. It's really cheery with books, teddy bears
and some wooden toys. It would not be that good for older children but for us it is fine. We can put our
kids in bed at 8pm and then come down to dine. There are no kids in the lounge and dining room after
7.30pm. This seems a little early if you had older children. The children's dining time is at 6pm. We had a
super stay and were made to feel very welcome and the staff could not do enough for you.
EXERCISE 41
Speaker B
1.
This is my current favorite. It's like a soundtrack to my life now.
Speaker C
Ah, so you've bought it at last. I thought you might.
Speaker B
Yes, I know it's been on again and again on the radio, but I want it to own it.
Speaker C
You really should get into sharing. It's so much easier. I suppose so, but I still get a thrill having the hard
copy in my hand.
Speaker B
This is my current favorite. It's like a soundtrack to my life now.
Speaker C
You've bought it at last. I thought you might. Yes, I know it's been on again and again on the radio, but I
want it to own it. You really should get into sharing. It's so much easier.
I suppose so, but I still get a thrill having the hard copy in my hand.
2.
Speaker B
I'm so pleased we got this. It's so much quicker than doing everything by hand.
Speaker C
True, though it's more expensive, and I'm not sure it's environmentally friendly.
Speaker B
It's better, though. Everything comes out really clean and shiny. But I still wouldn't put our finest
crockery in.
Speaker C
OK, I've rinsed everything. I'll stack it all inside now.

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Speaker B
So we have to choose a program for the wash. What do you think?
Speaker C
This one will do. It's only 15 minutes.
Speaker B
I'm so pleased we got this. It's so much quicker than doing everything by hand.
Speaker C
True, though it's more expensive, and I'm not sure it's environmentally friendly.
Speaker B
It's better, though. Everything comes out really clean and shiny. But I still wouldn't put our finest
crockery in.
Speaker C
OK, I've rinsed everything. I'll stack it all inside now.
Speaker B
So we have to choose a program for the wash. What do you think?
Speaker C
This one will do. It's only 15 minutes.
Speaker B
3.
Speaker C
Why ever do we need new ones?
Speaker B
Well, I'm really sold on natural materials now. I wanted some filled with real feathers.
Speaker C
The old ones were comfortable enough, I thought.
Speaker B
You just try these, and you'll feel the difference. You just sink into them, and they smell crispy clean.
Speaker C
OK, I think I'm ready to lay my head down. It's been a long day. What do you think?
Why ever do we need new ones? Why ever do we need new ones? Well, I'm really sold on natural
materials now. I wanted some filled with real feathers. The old ones were comfortable enough, I
thought.
Speaker B
You just try these, and you'll feel the difference. You just sink into them, and they smell crispy clean.
Speaker C
OK. It's been a long day. What do you think?
Speaker B
4.
Speaker C
We must have loads of pairs, but however hard I search, I can never find them.
Speaker B
Look in the drawer over there. There'll be some amongst my sewing materials.
Speaker C
Are they suitable for the job, though? They've got to be sharp enough for the carpet.
Speaker B
Ah, maybe not. Use the ones in the toolbox, then.
Speaker C
Got them. Wow, they're sharp!
Other speaker

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5.Speaker C
We must have loads of pairs, but however hard I search, I can never find them.
Speaker B
Look in the drawer over there. There'll be some amongst my sewing materials.
Speaker C
Are they suitable for the job, though? They've got to be sharp enough for the carpet.
Speaker B
Ah, maybe not. Use the ones in the toolbox, then.
Speaker C
Got them. Wow, they're sharp! Are they suitable for the job, though? They've got to be sharp enough
for the carpet.
Other speaker
I think they're pretty sharp!
EXERCISE 42
Speaker 1. My first parachute jump was the scariest thing I'd ever done. Nothing prepares you for falling
out of a plane at 180 kilometers an hour. After all, you can't turn back if you change your mind, can you?
When it came to actually jumping, I got very nervous. I had no choice but to do it, the whole point was
to get people to give donations to a medical research organization. If I hadn't jumped, I wouldn't have
got any money for them. Once back on the ground, I realized I'd loved it, and that was the beginning of
my big hobby, much to the amazement of my friends and family.
Speaker 2. I grew up surrounded by water. You could see the Atlantic from my bedroom window, and
yet I'd never learned to swim. See, I...
Speaker 2. I grew up surrounded by water.
I just never fancied it, even though my parents and brother swam like fish. I finally signed up for a five-
week beginner's course at the age of 35. I mean, not because I'd changed my mind about wanting to
swim, but just so that I could see the expressions of amazement on my kids' faces. It was worth suffering
those awful lessons just for that. But I must admit that even now, I'd much rather relax at the poolside
and watch them splashing about.
Speaker 3. I took up skiing while I was living abroad. I absolutely loved it from the word go. The scenery,
of course, the sense of speed, and complete focus on the task. It's fantastic EXERCISE, too. I hadn't
expected to enjoy it, though. In fact, I had to be talked into doing it by my friends. They'd all skied since
they were very small and kept on at me until I agreed to give it a go. I'm much older now and obviously
not as fit as I used to be. But if I could find the money, I'd like to take the kids and see if I can still do it.
Speaker 4. I'm not really into risky sports, but I enjoyed snorkeling and quite fancied getting a closer
look at exotic fish. My main motive for taking up scuba diving, though, to be honest, is because my
boyfriend Tony said I wouldn't be able to do it. I tend to panic, you see, and in scuba diving you have to
remain totally calm or things can get very dangerous. It took me ages to gain the confidence to do it, but
I was determined to show Tony that he was wrong. So I persevered and I've now passed all my exams
and we're off on a diving holiday together soon.
Speaker 5.
I've always been into football. All my friends were, and it was something we could all share. But apart
from a few kickabouts in the garden, it tended to be very much a spectator sport. We'd watch Match of
the Day on the TV, play computer games like FIFA, and go to Liverpool home matches when we could
afford it. Funnily enough, it was only quite recently that I started playing it on a regular basis, and that
was because I wanted something to help me unwind after a stressful day at work. It's brilliant because it
means I have to think about something other than my job.
EXERCISE 43
Speaker 1

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During the week, when I'm at work, I tend to wear fitted jackets, high heels, straight skirts, you know,
quite stylish clothes. The first impression my clients get of me is fairly crucial, so I spend time looking for
clothes that are business -like. I can't afford to spend too much on them, though. I don't buy expensive
clothes. It's got to the point where I don't feel right in casual clothes, so even at the weekends, I'll still
wear the same kind of thing, but perhaps swap the jacket and heels for a sweater and flat shoes, erm,
pumps.
SPEAKER 2
I always wear the same things when I'm not at school. Tracksuit bottoms, a fleece, or a t -shirt, and
designer trainers. Nearly all my friends do. I've also got three different football kits. Man United,
England, and Barcelona. In the summer, I sometimes wear shorts instead of tracksuit bottoms, but it's
always sports stuff. There's no point in dressing up in smart clothes, anyway. They just get dirty. What
matters is feeling relaxed and not having to worry about what you look like.
SPEAKER 3
Well, I've always had a fairly clear idea of how I want to look. I want to be a designer when I leave
school, and I'm always flicking through magazines to pick up ideas. At the moment, either very short or
very long skirts are cool, worn with trainers or wedges, and nothing in between, and low -waisted
trousers. Strong patterns and crop tops in bright colours. Even colours that clash, like lime green and
pink, are popular too. wearing anything sort of frumpy or like my mum wears. I even try to adapt my
school uniform a bit to personalise it, so I might wear patterned or striped tights with it.
SPEAKER 4
I don't think about clothes very much. I suppose I wear what I've always worn. A shirt and a tie, with
trousers and maybe a sweater. I don't spend much money on clothes, so most of them are a few years
old. I sometimes go into charity shops and my son gives me things he's fed up with. I'll wear anything as
long as it's warm and not too scruffy. I'm certainly not trying to impress anyone.
SPEAKER 5
I like clothes. But I'm not a fashion victim, and I don't dress up. Now I've got kids, my clothes have to be
practical, so no high heels and tight skirts these days. Having said that, I don't want to end up living in
track suits, or jeans and baggy jumpers all the time, like some mums. I go for casual but well -cut clothes
in natural fabrics like silk or cotton. I do tend to spend quite a lot on my clothes, but then I can wear
them over and over again, and they don't drop to pieces.
EXERCISE 44
Speaker 1
about 4 years ago during a tube strike I was in a taxi I was running late for a meeting because as usual at
rush hour all the roads were jammed suddenly I saw this scooter in the window of a showroom and
that's when I had my flash of inspiration I jumped out of the cab did all the paperwork in 15 minutes and
still got to my meeting on time the bike can't go above 50 kilometres an hour, but it doesn't seem that
slow because you can overtake lines of cars. I must admit, it sometimes doesn t start, which is a pain,
and when it does go it has shrunk London for me and means I can fit in more business meetings than I
used to before.
Speaker 2
I love my bike. It s quite comfortable with lots of gears. I bought it second -hand from a colleague, so it
was quite cheap as well. I started cycling to work around the time of the terrorist attacks on the
underground. Like lots of other people I suddenly got very scared and anyway I'd always hated being
squashed in with all these other people during the rush hour. It's so much nicer being outside in the
fresh air apart from when it's freezing of course and motorists are quite considerate to cyclists these
days, although I wear a yellow jacket to be on the safe side. The only problem is all the pollution from
the traffic. Perhaps I should wear a mask.
Speaker 3
If I drove a car, people would probably try to contact me on my mobile. Riding a bike gives me a
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a demanding job like mine. I find I arrive at places in a a Kawasaki motorbike and I'm a passionate
enthusiast. It all began 20 years ago when I was a student and was looking for something cheaper to run
than a car. Now I use it every day for the same reason. When it's windy or pouring down with rain it is
not very pleasant but I still go out on it although my family never thought I would stick with it.
Speaker 4
I am aware that many colleagues and clients think that lawyers should drive flash cars rather than have a
bike, but the great thing about a bike is, there's always somewhere to leave it, and you don't have to
worry about getting a parking ticket. Mind you, I've had a couple of bikes stolen in the last few years,
despite having chained them up. People do often look really astonished when I turn up to important
meetings on my scooter, which is great. It's good to challenge people's expectations. Some probably
look down on this method of transport, but I don't care. The opinions of others don' t matter to me in
the least.
Speaker 5.
I began cycling again because I wanted to get fit, but jogging bores me, and I didn't like going to the gym.
I'm wary of the major roads, just from lack of experience. Cars seem to go so fast, and you feel very
vulnerable on a bike, but, I think this will pass eventually, and i've not had an accident yet, thank
goodness. I'm really glad I took it up again, because it's so convenient. You always know how long the
journey's going to take, whereas you can't depend on public transport. And also hopping on a bus or
tube is so expensive these days.
EXERCISE 45
1Barry
OK. Sit down and be quiet everyone. It’s good to see you all back after the Christmas holiday. Now, I
don’t want to worry you or anything but this is a really important part of the year. What you learn
between now and June will affect which university you go to, and that may determine your entire
future, so you are going to have to work really hard right from the start.
2Jack
As you all know, Tom and I go back a long way. Since we were students at university together, in fact.
We’ve had some great times together, lots of adventures, and experiences too. We’ve had our ups and
downs now as well. But more ups than downs, I have to say. So, it’s with great pleasure that I ask you all
to raise your glasses in a toast to Tom and Susie on the happiest day of their lives...
3Gordon
I’d just like to say a few words, everyone. Neil has been an important person in this company. He has
organized many excellent conferences and has run his department with enthusiasm and drive.
We may not always have agreed with all his ideas and initiatives, but I’m sure you’ll all agree when I say
we’ll all miss him, especiallyhis colleagues in marketing who ...
4Arthur
Ladies and gentleman. Thank you all for coming on this sad occasion. Diana would be so pleased to
know that she had so many good friends, and, indeed, so many kind relatives. I’d like to say a special
thank you to those who have made long journeys to be here, our nephews from Australia, and our
cousins from South Africa, who have made such an effort to be here today.
5Stan
OK. Well, I don’t usually make speeches, but as it’s such a special day today I thought I’d make the
effort. I can’t believe you’re so old, George. He doesn’t look 30, does look 30, does he, everyone? I
remember when we were kids, and our dad used to call you ‘tiny’. Who’d have believed you’d end up
being taller than me?! Anyway, it’s great everyone’s here, and we all wish you many happy returns of
the day.
EXERCISE 46
Speaker 1.

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I find it really useful to help me with school work, especially when we're doing geography or history
projects. I know people of my parents' generation used to spend hours in the school or the town library
finding the information they needed. My dad said the information was almost always out of date. The
internet is fantastic. I've always found what I'm looking for. The only problem is that sometimes there's
just too much stuff to get through. One of my friends said she'd once spent five hours looking for
information. You've just got to know when to stop.
Speaker 2.
I'm addicted to my computer, mainly as a way of keeping in touch with people. It's just so easy to talk to
your friends. At the moment, I'm chatting to my older brother who's in Thailand. He's told me incredible
stories about what he's getting up to. It's almost as good as the phone, and it doesn't cost anything. I've
started talking to a few people I don't know, but I haven't made any new friends like that. I think it's a bit
scary. The idea that you can get to know someone like this and then call them your friend. You don't
really know anything about these people. I mean, everything they say could be lies.
Speaker 3
I use it for various things. You know, the obvious ones like emailing, getting the latest news. But at the
moment, mostly for buying things. The thing is, I really don't enjoy going shopping in town anymore. It
takes me half an hour to get there on the bus and the shops are always really crowded. I buy all kinds of
things from websites. Like last week I bought a DVD, a new pair of jeans and some makeup. It's so quick
and easy. You just click on what you want, put it in your basket, go to the checkout and pay with your
card. And most things don't take long to arrive. I said I'd show my brother how to do it tomorrow.
Speaker 4
Music, definitely. It has to be music. That's about all I use it for really, apart from occasionally checking
the sports results. It's fantastic if you're into music of any kind. I go on some of the music sites and
download all kinds of music files straight from a smartphone. It's so easy these days. I can't afford to
pay, but I don't download anything that you're supposed to pay for. I know some people do. The music
industry is trying to crack down on the illegal downloading. They say they're losing sales because people
aren't buying CDs anymore or paying for downloads. I reckon they're fighting a losing battle.
Speaker 5
I use it for all kinds of stuff but at the moment, mainly catching up with programs I couldn't watch first
time round for some reason. It's incredibly useful to be able to do that. Most of them you can still get for
up to a week after their first broadcast. The quality is not quite as good on my laptop but at least you
don't have to wait for ages until they repeat the broadcast. And of course you can pause programs and
fast forward them so you can avoid the adverts.
EXERCISE 47
Speaker A
I hate cars. They are noisy, cause pollution, are expensive to maintain and cause problems for cyclists. I
think they should be banned from the city and town centres across the country. It's time the roads and
paths were given back to the pedestrians. It's also quite dangerous. Often, rush hour traffic passes
through major city and urban centres, causing accidents. Yes. Some of which have been fatal. Is there
anything we can do? Well, I am not sure. The car industry is very powerful, employs thousands of people
and it's very difficult to persuade people to leave their car at home.
Speaker B
I am terrified of cars. I don't drive and I won't even get into a car. There have been very few times in my
life when I have absolutely needed to use a car. I am very lucky though, because I live very comfortably. I
live very close to the local train station and it takes me 20 minutes to get into town. I also live in close
proximity to a major shopping centre that supplies me with all my needs. In fact, because I hate cars so
much, when I bought my house, I made sure that it was accessible to public transport and close to all
the essential things I need.
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I would never think of driving my car to work. The road to my office is choked with traffic. Every
morning, from Monday to Friday. In fairness though, I had to work last weekend, so I took the car and I
was at the office in less than 15 minutes. I got all my work done by noon and was home by 12.30.
Obviously, the car has its advantages, especially for the weekly visit to the shops, or a drive in the
country, or for that long weekend trip to somewhere nice. I think it's important to have a car. But you
don't need to use it every time you go out.
Speaker B
I couldn't exist without a car. It's a lifesaver for me. I need it for work as I am a district nurse. At the
weekends, I use it to take my sick mother out for a drive into town. She loves to get out, but she is not
good at walking because of an accident she had a few years ago. I find cars are safer these days. Most
people are civilised on the road and follow the rules. I think everyone has a car. At the weekends, it's a
pleasure to drive around Dublin city, especially on a Sunday morning when a lot of people are having a
well-deserved rest.
Speaker A
It's faster to walk down to my local shop on a Sunday morning to get the newspaper than drive down,
although my neighbour would probably disagree. I don't think I have ever seen him walk anywhere. Cars
can make people lazy. They can contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle and are not good if you are trying to
lose weight. One of the joys about Sunday mornings for me is walking the dog along the promenade,
dropping into my favourite café for a skinny latte and a slow read of the weekend newspapers. Walking
gives you a chance to think things out in a fresh environment. Driving doesn't.
EXERCISE 48
Speaker 1.
I'm awfully sorry. I left home in plenty of time and when I got to the bus stop there was a simply
enormous queue. Apparently, a bus had broken down earlier and some people had been waiting for up
to an hour. I couldn't contact you so I thought you'd just go in and not wait for me. It never occurred to
me you'd miss the first act. I could have left a message at the box office because I had to pick up my
ticket from there anyway.
Speaker 2.
The trouble is I'm using two diaries. One for a day-to-day business and the other one for anniversaries
and people's birthdays and so on. You know I've never forgotten before but when I went away on
holiday I was in such a hurry at the last minute that I took the wrong diary with me and I'm really sorry.
It just completely slipped my mind. Anyway, I'll make it up to you. And we'll go out to a concert or
something next week.
Speaker 3.
I don't understand this. I always make a note of everything. You know, bills, how much I've spent, how
much I can save. Every month without fail. And it's all recorded in the back of my large desk diary which I
look at every day. I do apologize. It must be the first time this has happened. I hate being in debt. I'll go
and get my checkbook. I'll be back in a very minute and pay you back now.
Speaker 4.
I know it was one of your favorites. I'm most terribly sorry. I'll try and find another one which is exactly
the same. I've no idea how it happened. It just seemed to slip out of my hands as I was filling it with
water. And I bought you these flowers especially to go in that vase. And now all I've done is upset you.
Please stop crying. I promise I'll get you another one.
Speaker 5.
I had no idea it was so late. And in any case, I did try and creep in very quietly. I even took my boots off
before opening the front door. I don't know what else I could have done. I didn't put on any lights. I
tiptoed up the stairs and went straight to bed. I'm extremely sorry you had a sleepless night. But as I say,
I did my best not to make the slightest noise.
EXERCISE 49

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Speaker 1.
To be honest, I don't remember being jealous of my brother and sister. I think I was expected to come
first, and I must have been in my late teens, around 17 or 18, before it occurred to me that my parents
had to divide their time amongst the three of us. And I suppose I felt irritated rather than jealous. I
remember arguments about having to wait my turn. But my sister wasn't born until I was almost six, so
for the first few years of my life, I had my parents all to myself, and I think that experience was very
special, and I'm really glad I was born first.
Speaker 2.
I know our parents tried to treat us all the same, but I remember my younger brother and sister
complaining, about having to wear my second-hand jeans or trainers. And of course, being the eldest,
there was nothing my parents could hand on to me and say, right, you don't need a new sweater or
whatever, you can wear John's old one. In that respect, I think the eldest child's very lucky.
Speaker 3.
I used to love those little privileges, you know, when you were allowed to stay up late and the younger
ones had to go to bed early, or if my parents had friends around for a meal and I was allowed to join
them. And looking back now, I imagine I must have been a horrible older brother. I don't think it ever
occurred to me to ask my parents to let my sisters share in some of the little treats. I was only too
pleased to have them all to myself. I must have been a very selfish child.
Speaker 4.
I clearly remember wanting to know if my parents liked me best. I used to look after my younger brother
and sister and hope that my parents would be pleased with me. I think I hoped that they would favour
me above the younger children. I enjoyed pleasing them and having that feeling of satisfaction. And this
early role of taking care of others is probably one of the reasons why I enjoy taking responsibility for
things that need doing and being a caring person generally.
Speaker 5.
I think my parents were so busy looking after my younger brothers and sisters that I was given quite a
lot of time to think about them. I was given quite a lot of freedom. So I became independent at a very
early age and went off at weekends and did my own thing. I used to disappear for the whole day with
my friends, cycling, camping, canoeing. And although I didn't realise it at the time, I developed a
confidence in being able to look after myself. So I wasn't the least bit worried about moving away from
home and living by myself.
EXERCISE 50
Speaker 1.
What really impressed me about him was the incredibly long hours that he was prepared to work. And it
wasn't as if he earned loads of money either. In fact, I think there were times when he had to struggle,
particularly when the children were young. It meant getting up very early in the morning, which in
winter must have been pretty disagreeable, and working quite late at night if there were any problems.
And then if the weather was awful, it could affect the crop so badly that, of course, your income
suffered. They may have spent three years at college, but they don't teach you what to do about
controlling the weather, do they?
Speaker 2.
I can see the attraction of not working for an employer and in being your own boss, but I wouldn't fancy
the insecurity, you know, waiting for the phone to ring, wondering if anyone's ever going to ask you to
do anything ever again, and then hoping your work will be noticed, and that someone will see
something that you've done hanging on a wall and say, oh, where did you get that? And so your name
gets mentioned. Or even worse, dragging your stuff around various galleries, watching the owners look
through it and finally say, no, sorry, not quite what our customers like.
Speaker 3.
I suppose years ago a university degree was a passport to almost any job, but I'm not so sure now. Most
employers want experience these days before you can get anything done. So I can understand why she's

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attracted to education, and there always seem to be plenty of jobs going. There'll always be kids. And
although I wish she'd gone on to study medicine, it's much better paid, if that's what she wants to do,
then who am I to say no? But it's going to be quite a tough life.
Speaker 4.
I remember being quite envious of people like her. I had friends whose parents were in the business and
got to travel all over the world. Seemed very glamorous. But I guess it must get quite exhausting.
Constantly packing and unpacking, loading up all your gear, and maybe staying every night in a different
place. If you want to get married and have a family, it must be really difficult. But then she's so good,
and audiences love her.
Speaker 5.
It's a good life if you're successful, but then that applies to most things. But I think it must be hard work
building up the business in the early years. You've got to be willing to give it your all. You've got to be
willing to work all hours and do whatever's necessary. I know someone whose staff were always letting
him down and never turning up on time. I think at one stage he almost gave up. He was doing
everything single-handed. It's very different now, of course. He's a big name, hardly ever goes near a hot
stove, although he's the brains behind some of the most imaginative dishes.
Part 4
Part 4
EXERCISE 1
Speaker A: But how do I find the main hall?
Speaker B: Right. If you look on the back of the booklet I gave you, you'll see a map of the school. Let me
show you. Look, you came in through the main entrance here, and now we're here at reception. Now, to
get to the main hall, you walk on to the end of this corridor in front of you, and then you turn left, walk
along past the language laboratory, and then past the library, which is next to the language lab on the
same side, and facing you is the main hall at the end of the corridor. You can't miss it.
Speaker A: So, it's next to the library, in fact?
Speaker B: Yes, that's right.
Speaker A: I should be able to find that. And do you have a computer laboratory?
Speaker B: Yes, we do.
Speaker A: Could you tell me where that is?
Speaker B: Certainly, yes. You go, down to the end of this corridor again, but this time, don't turn left,
turn right, away from the main hall. The computer lab is immediately on your right, OK?
Speaker A: Mm-hm. And where's the staff room, in case I need to find a teacher at some stage?
Speaker B: The staff room is near the main entrance, on the left over there, just opposite the reception
desk. In a day or two, I'm sure you'll find your way around very easily.
Speaker A: Oh, one last thing. Is there a student common room?

Speaker B: Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that. It's this area here, very close to where we are now, to the
right of the reception desk as you come in the main entrance. There's tea and coffee facilities there.
Speaker A: Great. Thank you very much.
Speaker B: You're welcome.
EXERCISE 2
So what exactly are the facilities? What sports can you play here? Well. This room we are in at the
moment is called the Main Hall and it is used mainly for team sports such as football, volleyball and
basketball but also for badminton and aerobics. On the other side of the reception area, there’s the

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dance studio. This provides a small or more intimate space which we use for ballet, modern dance and
martial arts. Not at the same time, of course. Then in a separate building, which you may have noticed
on your way here, it’s on the other side of the car park, there are the squash courts. Six of them. And at
the far end of the building, a fitness room. This is our newest facility only completed in the spring. But
it’s already proving to be one of the most popular. As well as all these facilities available here on the
campus, we also have an arrangement with the local tennis club, which is only two miles away entitling
our students to use their courts on weekday mornings, in the summer. So I think there should be
something here for everybody and I hope to see all of you at the centre making use of the facilities. If in
the course of the year you have any suggestions as to how the service we provide might be improved or
its appeal widened, I will be interested to hear from you.
EXERCISE 3
Now I'm going to give you a plan of the site and I'd just like to point out where everything is and then
you can take a look at everything for yourself. I've already pointed out the river, which is on the left.
And of course, running along the bottom is Woodside Road, got it? OK. Now we're standing at the
entrance, see it at the bottom, and immediately to our right is the Ticket Office. You won't need that
because you've got your group booking, but just past it are the toilets - always good to know where they
are. In (rant of us is the car park, as you can see, and to the left, by the entry gate is the Gift Shop. That's
where you can get copies of the guide, like this one here. Now, beyond the car park all the buildings are
arranged in a half circle with a yard in the middle. The big, stone building at the top is the main
Workshop. That's where the furnace is and where all the metal was smelted and the tools were cast, as
you'll be able to see. Now, in the top right-hand corner, that building with bigger windows is
the Showroom, where samples of all the tools that were made through the ages are on display. In the
top left corner is the Grinding Shop, where the tools were sharpened and finished. And on one side of
that you can see the Engine Room and on the other is the Cafe, which isn't an antique, you'll be pleased
to know, though they do serve very nice old-fashioned teas. The row of buildings you can see on the left
are the cottages. These were built for the workers towards the end of the eighteenth century and
they're still furnished from that period so you can get a good idea of ordinary people's living conditions.
Across the yard from them, you can see the stables where the horses were kept for transporting the
products. And the separate building in front of them is the Works Office and that still has some of the
old accounts on display. Right, if anyone wants a guided tour then I'm starting at the Engine Room. If
you'd like to come along, this way please, ladies and gentlemen.
EXERCISE 4
Now, please look at the map I’ve given you of the house and Gardens. We’re here at the information
center. Follow the path marked with the arrow and the first area you come to is the orchard on your
left, as you go further down the path goes the kitchen Garden on the right. And as you go round the first
sharp corner, you will find to your left an area where different types of pear trees are planted as well as
some lovely flowers and this is known as Pear Alley, designed by George himself. Next to this is the
greenhouse where some exotic plants and fruits are grown. Follow the path around the second corner,
and on your right, you will see the entrance to the Mulberry garden with its 500-year-old tree. Pass the
Mulberry garden, follow the path until you reach the front of the house. I suggest you spend a good
hour wandering around this lovely building. A guide takes visitor groups around every two hours. If you
would like to purchase any of George’s books or other souvenirs, then leave the house by the side
entrance where you will find our shop which is situated between the house and the garage which
contain a magnificent old Rolls-Royce car which used to belong to George. I expect by this time, you may
also be in need of a rest and some refreshment. Most visitors are. So, why don’t you visit the Tea Room,
on the far side of the garage? If you have time, there is a lovely walk down towards the river Dudwell for
me, this is the best part of the estate. This isn’t on the map but it is all clearly signposted. You cross the
field which spreads along the banks of the river. In Spring, this area is well worth a visit. Spend a minute
or two watching the water pass by underneath as you cross the Footbridge and then continue along the

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river walk through the Woodland. On a hot Summer’s Day, the trees along this path provide, welcome
shade. Eventually, you come to the water mill, which used to provide the electricity for the house only
about 4 hours every evening in George’s time. And finally, for those of you who would like to see
stunning views of the surrounding Countryside and who are a little bit more energetic, when you return
from the mill, take the first turning on your left and climb up to the Viewpoint. You won’t regret it. Enjoy
your visit.
EXERCISE 5
Well, here we are at the top of the tower, and we're going to look at the view from each direction. Out
to the east, the large buildings about a kilometer away are on the Olympic site. There's an indoor arena
for gymnastics, a stadium for track and field and a swimming pool for races and synchronised swimming
and also diving. If you look carefully down there, you can see the train lines. The Olympic site has its own
station to encourage the use of public transport. There is also a car park, but it only holds a limited
number of cars. The formal park has some specially-created water features. If you look out here to the
south, you can see a circular ornamental pond. And around to the west, you can relax and sit on a bench
to smell the flowers in the rose garden, and finally up to the north, if you look in front of you now,
there's a lake with a small island in the centre. You can hire rowing boats at the boat shed, which you
can't see from here, but if you look through the trees, you can see the cafe, which has lovely views
across the water. OK, let's climb down now.
EXERCISE 6
Welcome to Green Vale Agricultural Park. As you know, we have only been open a week so you are
amongst our first visitors. We have lots of fascinating indoor and outdoor exhibits on our huge complex,
spreading hundreds of hectares. Our remit is to give educational opportunities to the wider public as
well as to offer research sites for a wide variety of agriculturists and other scientists.
Let’s start by seeing what there is to do. As you can see here on our giant wall plan, we are now situated
in the Reception block…here. As you walk out of the main door into the park there is a path you can
follow. If you follow this route you will immediately come into the Rare Breeds section, where we keep a
wide variety of animals which I shall be telling you a little more about later. Next to this…moving east…is
the large grazing area for the rare breeds. Then further east…in the largest section of our Park is the
Forest Area. South of the grazing area and in fact just next to the Reception block is our Experimental
Crop Area. In the middle of the Park…this circular area is our lake…These two small rectangular shapes
here …are the Fish Farms where we rear fish for sale. To the east of those is the marsh, is our Market
Garden area, growing vegetables and flowers.
EXERCISE 7
GRAHAM: Now, we’ve also put together a map which we’ve sent out to all the residents in the area. And
on the map we’ve marked the proposed changes. Firstly, we’ll plant mature pine trees to improve
shelter and shade just to the right of the supermarket in Days Road. In order to address the traffic
problems, the pavements on the corner of Carberry and Thomas Street will be widened. This will help to
reduce the speed of vehicles entering Thomas Street. We think it’s very important to separate the local
residential streets from the main road. So the roadway at the entry to Thomas Street from Days Road
will be painted red. This should mark it move clearly and act as a signals for traffic to slow down. One
way of making sure that the pedestrians are safe is to increase signage at the intersections. A ‘keep
clear’ sign will be erected at the junction of Evelyn Street and Hill Street, to enable traffic to exit at all
time. Something we’re planning to do help control the flow of traffic in the area is to install traffic lights
half way down Hill Street where it crosses Days Road. Now, we haven’t only thought about the cars and
traffic, of course, there’s also something for the children. We’re going to get school children in the area
to the research a local story, the life of a local sports hero perhaps, and an artist will incorporate that
story into paintings on the wall of a building on the other side of Hill Street from the supermarket. And

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finally, we’ve agreed to build a new children’s playground which will be at the other end of Hill Street
close to the intersection with Carberry Street.
CAROL: Wonderful, now, what’s the next stage?
GRAHAM: Well, the final plan…
EXERCISE 8
And finally I'd like to tell you about our new wildlife area, Hinchingbrooke Park, which will be opened to
the public next month. This slide doesn't really indicate how big it is, but anyway, you can see the two
gates into the park, and the main paths. As you can see, there's a lake in the north west of the park, with
a bird hide to the west of it, at the end of a path. So it'll be a nice quiet place for watching the birds on
the lake. Fairly close to where refreshments are available, there's a dog-walking area in the southern
part of the park, leading off from the path. And if you just want to sit and relax, you can go to the flower
garden; that's the circular area on the map surrounded by paths.
And finally, there's a wooded area in the western section of the park, between two paths. Okay, that's
enough from me, so let's go on to...
EXERCISE 9
Now let me give you some idea of the layout of the farm. The building where you bought your tickets is
the New Barn, immediately to your right, and we’re now at the beginning of the main path to the
farmland - and of course the car park is on your left. The scarecrow you can see in the car park in the
corner, beside the main path, is a traditional figure for keeping the birds away from crops, but our
scarecrow is a permanent sculpture. It’s taller than a human being, so you can see it from quite a
distance.
If you look ahead of you. you’ll see a maze. It’s opposite the New Barn, beside the side path that
branches off to the right just over there. The maze is made out of hedges which are too tall for young
children to see over them, but it’s quite small, so you can’t get lost in it!
Now, can you see the bridge crossing the fish pool further up the main path? If you want to go to the
café, go towards the bridge and turn right just before it. Walk along the side path and the cafe’s on the
first bend you come to. The building was originally the schoolhouse, end it’s well over a hundred years
old.
As you may know, we run skills workshops here, where you can learn traditional crafts like woodwork
and basket-making. You can see examples of the work, and talk to someone about the courses, in the
Black Barn. If you take the side path to the right. here, just by the New Barn, you’ll come to the Black
Barn just where the path first bends.
Now I mustn’t forget to tell you about picnicking, as I can see some of you have brought your lunch with
you. You can picnic in the field, though do clear up behind you, of course. Or if you’d prefer a covered
picnic area, there’s one near the farmyard: just after you cross the bridge, there’s a covered picnic spot
on the right.
And the last thing to mention is Fiddy House itself. From here you can cross the bridge then walk along
the footpath through the field to the left of the farmyard. That goes to the house, and it’ll give you a
lovely view of it. It’s certainly worth a few photographs, but as it’s a private home, I’m afraid you can’t
go inside.
Right. Well, if you’re all ready, we’ll set off on our tour of the farm.
EXERCISE 10
Now, a word about the layout of the building. The auditorium, stage and dressing rooms for the actors
are all below ground level. Here on the ground floor we have most of the rooms that the public doesn’t
see. The majority are internal, so they have windows in the roof to light Standing here in the foyer,
you’re probably wondering why the box office isn't here, where the public would expect to find it. Well,
you might have noticed it on your way in - although it's part of this building, it’s next door, with a
separate entrance from the road. For the theatre manager's office, you go across the foyer and through

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the double doors, turn right, and it's the room at the end of the corridor, with the door on the left. The
lighting box is where the computerised stage lighting is operated, and it’s at the back of the building
When you’re through the double doors, turn left, turn right at the water cooler, and right again at the
end. It’s the second room along that corridor. The lighting box has a window into the auditorium, which
of course is below us. The artistic director’s office is through the double doors, turn right, and it’s the
first room you come to on the right-hand side. And finally, for the moment, the room where I’ll take you
next - the relaxation room. So if you’d like to come with me ...
EXERCISE 11
OK, that was something about the collections, and now here s some more practical information, in case
you need it. Most of the museum facilities are downstairs, in the basement, so you go down the stairs
here. When you reach the bottom of the stairs, you'll find yourself in a sitting area, with comfortable
chairs and sofas where you can have a rest before continuing your exploration of the museum. We have
a very good restaurant, which serves excellent food all day, in a relaxing atmosphere. To reach it, when
you get to the bottom of the stairs, go straight ahead to the far side of the sitting area, then turn right
into the corridor. You'll see the door of the restaurant facing you If you just want a snack, or if you'd like
to eat somewhere with facilities for children, we also have a café. When you reach the bottom of the
stairs, you'll need to go straight ahead, turn, right into the corridor, and the café is immediately on the
right. And talking about children, there are baby-changing facilities downstairs: cross the sitting area,
continue straight ahead along the corridor on the left, and you and your baby will find the facilities on
the left-hand side. The cloakroom, where you should leave coats, umbrellas and any large bags, is on the
left hand side of the sitting area. It's through the last door before you come to the corridor. There are
toilets on every floor, but in the basement they're the first rooms on the left when you get down there.
OK, now if you’ve got anything to leave in the cloakroom, please do that now, and then we’ll start our
tour.
EXERCISE 12
The Sheepmarket is one of the main centres for art and history in the whole of the country. If you look
at our map, you’ll see some of the main attractions there. Most visitors start from Crawley Road, at the
bottom of the map. The Reynolds House is one of the oldest houses in the city, and is open to the public.
It’s on the north side of Crawley Road, next to the footpath that leads to the public gardens. The area’s
particularly interested for its unusual sculptures. 'The Thumb’ is just what its name suggests. but it’s
about 10 metres high. You’ll see iron Hill Road, across the road from the Bank. The Museum’s got a
particularly fine collection of New Zealand landscapes. It’s on the east side of the Sheepmarket. on City
Road. It’s on the other side of the road from the public gardens. immediately facing the junction with
Hill Road. The Contemporary Art Gallery is on a little road that leads off Station Square. not far from the
public gardens. The road ends at the gallery - it doesn’t go anywhere else. That’s open every day except
Mondays. The Warner Gallery specialises in 19th-century art. It’s on City Road, near the junction with
Crawley Road, on the same side of the road as the public gardens. It’s open on weekdays from 9 to 5,
and entry is free. Finally, if you’re interested in purchasing high quality artwork, the place to ao is
Nucleus. You need to ao from Crawley Road up through Station Square and east along Hill Road until
you get to a small winding road turning off. Go up there and it’s on your right - if you get to city Road
you’ve gone too far.
EXERCISE 13
OK, so this slide shows a map of the central area of Granford, with the High Street in the middle and
School Road on the right. Now, we already have a set of traffic lights in the High Street at the junction
with Station Road, but we’re planning to have another set at the other end, at the School Road junction,
to regulate the flow or traffic along the High Street.
We’re decided we definitely need a pedestrian crossing. We considered putting this on School Road, just
outside the school, but in the end we decided that could lead to a lot of traffic congestion so we decided

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to locate it on the High Street, crossing the road in front of the supermarket. That’s a very busy area, so
it should help things there.
We’re proposing some changes to parking. At present, parking isn’t allowed on the High Street outside
the library, but we’re going to change that, and allow parking there, but not at the other end of the High
Street near School Road.
There’ll be a new ‘No Parking’ sign on School Road, just by the entrance to the school, forbidding
parking for 25 metres. This should improve visibility for drivers and pedestrians, especially on the bend
just to the north of the school.
As far as disabled drivers are concerned, at present they have parking outside the supermarket, but
lorries also use those spaces, so we’ve got two new disabled parking spaces on the side road up towards
the bank. It’s not ideal, but probably better than the present arrangement.
We also plan to widen the pavement on School Road. We think we can manage to get an extra half-
metre on the bend just before you get to the school, on the same side of the road.
Finally, we’ve introduced new restrictions on loading and unloading for the supermarket, so lorries will
only be allowed to stop there before 8 am. That’s the supermarket on School Road – we kept to the
existing arrangements with the High Street supermarket.
OK. So that’s about it. Now, would anyone …
EXERCISE 14
Now if you can take a look at your plans you’ll see Branley Castle has four towers, joined together by a
high wall, with the river on two sides. Don’t miss seeing the Great Hall. That’s near the river in the main
tower, the biggest one, which was extended and redesigned in the eighteenth century. If you want to
get a good view of the whole castle, you can walk around the walls. The starting point’s quite near the
main entrance – walk straight down the path until you get to the south gate, and it’s just there. Don’t go
on to the north gate – there’s no way up from there. There’ll shortly be a show in which you can see
archers displaying their skill with a bow and arrow. The quickest way to get there is to take the first left
after the main entrance and follow the path past the bridge, then you’ll see it in front of you at the end.
If you like animals there’s also a display of hunting birds – falcons and eagles and so on. If you go from
the main entrance in the direction of the south gate, but turn right before you get there instead of going
through it, you’ll see it on your right past the first tower. At 3 pm there’s a short performance of
traditional dancing on the outdoor stage. That’s right at the other side of the castle from the entrance,
and over the bridge. It’s about ten minutes’ walk or so. And finally the shop. It’s actually inside one of
the towers, but the way in is from the outside. Just take the first left after the main entrance, go down
the path and take the first right. It’s got some lovely gifts and souvenirs. Right, so we’re just arriving …
EXERCISE 15
OK, let me tell you about some of the changes that have been made – and some things that have been
retained. If you look at this map, you’ll see the familiar outline of the park, with the river forming the
northern boundary, and a gate in each of the other three walls. The statue of Diane Gosforth has been
moved: it used to be close to the south gate, but it’s now immediately to the north of the lily pond,
almost in the centre of the park, which makes it much more visible. There’s a new area of wooden
sculptures, which are on the river bank, where the path from the east gate makes a sharp bend. There
are two areas that are particularly intended for children. The playground has been enlarged and
improved, and that’s between the river and the path that leads from the pond to the river. Then there’s
a new maze, a circular series of paths, separated by low hedges. That’s near the west gate – you go
north from there towards the river and then turn left to reach it. There have been tennis courts in the
park for many years, and they’ve been doubled, from four to eight. They’re still in the south-west corner
of the park, where there’s a right-angle bend in the path. Something else I’d like to mention is the new
fitness area. This is right next to the lily pond on the same side as the west gate. Now, as you’re all
gardeners, I’m sure you’ll like to hear about the plants that have been chosen for the park.

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EXERCISE 16
As chair of the town council subcommittee on park facilities, I’d like to bring you up to date on some of
the changes that have been made recently to the Croft Valley Park. So if you could just take a look at the
map I handed out, let’s begin with a general overview. So the basic arrangement of the park hasn’t
changed – it still has two gates, north and south, and a lake in the middle. The café continues to serve an
assortment of drinks and snacks and is still in the same place, looking out over the lake and next to the
old museum. We’re hoping to change the location of the toilets, and bring them nearer to the centre of
the park as they’re a bit out of the way at present, near the adventure playground, in the corner of your
map. The formal gardens have been replanted and should be at their best in a month or two. They used
to be behind the old museum, but we’re now used the space near the south gate – between the park
boundary and the path that goes past the lake towards the old museum. We have a new outdoor gym
for adults and children, which is already proving very popular. It’s by the glass houses, just to the right of
the path from the south gate. You have to look for it as it’s a bit hidden in the trees. One very successful
introduction has been our skateboard ramp. It’s in constant use during the evenings and holidays. It’s
near the old museum, at the end of a little path that leads off from the main path between the lake and
the museum. We’ve also introduced a new area for wild flowers, to attract bees and butterflies. It’s on a
bend in the path that goes round the east side of the lake, just south of the adventure playground.
EXERCISE 17
OK, now I’ll briefly help you to orientate yourselves around the site. As you can see, we’re in the
reception area, which we try to make attractive and welcoming to visitors. There’s a corridor running
left from here, and if you go along that, the door facing you at the end is the entrance to the coffee
room. This looks out onto the main road on one side, and some trees on the other, and that’ll be where
you meet each morning. The factory is the very big room on the far side of the site. Next to it is the
warehouse, which can be accessed by lorries going up the road to the turning area at the end. You can
get to the warehouse by crossing to the far side of the courtyard, and then the door is on your right.
Somewhere you’ll be keen to find is the staff canteen. This is right next to reception. I can confidently
say that the food’s very good, but the view isn’t. The windows on one side look onto a corridor and
courtyard, which aren’t very attractive at all, and on the other onto the access road, which isn’t much
better. You’ll be using the meeting room quite often, and you’ll find it by walking along the corridor to
the left of the courtyard, and continuing along it to the end. The meeting room is the last one on the
right, and I’m afraid there’s no natural daylight in the room. Then you’ll need to know where some of
the offices are. The human resources department is all the front of this building, so you head to the left
along the corridor from reception, and it’s the second room you come to. It looks out onto the main
road. And finally, the boardroom, where you’ll be meeting sometimes. That has quite a pleasant view, as
it looks out on to the trees. Go along the corridor past the courtyard, right to the end. The boardroom is
on the left, next to the factory. OK, now are there any questions before we …
EXERCISE 18
Chairperson: So next on the agenda is ‘Proposals for improvements to the recreation ground’. Councillor
Thornton again.
Councillor Thornton: Well, since we managed to extend the recreation ground, we’ve spent some time
talking to local people about how it could be made a more attractive and useful space. If you have a look
at the map up on the screen, you can see the river up in the north, and the Community Hall near the
entrance from the road. At present, cars can park between the Community Hall and that line of trees to
the east, but this is quite dangerous for pedestrians so we’re suggesting a new car park on the opposite
side of the Community Hall, right next to it. We also have a new location for the cricket pitch. As we’ve
now purchased additional space to the east of the recreation ground, beyond the trees, we plan to
move it away from its current location, which is rather near the road, into this new area beyond the line
of trees. This means there’s less danger of stray balls hitting cars or pedestrians.

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We’ve got plans for a children’s playground which will be accessible by a footpath from the Community
Hall and will be alongside the river. We’d originally thought of having it close to the road, but we think
this will be a more attractive location. The skateboard ramp is very popular with both younger and older
children – we had considered moving this up towards the river, but in the end we decided to have it in
the southeast corner near the road. The pavilion is very well used at present by both football players
and cricketers. It will stay where it is now – to the left of the line of trees and near to the river – handy
for both the football and cricket pitches. And finally, we’ll be getting a new notice board for local
information, and that will be directly on people’s right as they go from the road into the recreation
ground.
EXERCISE 19
OK, let’s have a look at a map of the Athletics Centre. You can see Southgate Road along the bottom of
the map, going horizontally, and there’s Eastgate Road on the right-hand side – going from the bottom
up to the top of the map. And there’s the main entrance – also there at the bottom of the map on
Southgate Road.
So, first of all, you’ll need to know where to send other parents to park their cars. That’ll be car park 3.
Actually, there are several car parks at the centre, on both sides of the main entrance. See the large
square-shaped area on the map? Car park 3 is the top half of that square – just below the trees. So
please send parents over there.
Now, the changing rooms. You’ll need to know where to find them. I remember they used to be up near
the running track – you can see the running track is that large oval area on the map. But the changing
rooms are much more conveniently located now. All you have to do is come in through the main
entrance, immediately take the road that goes off left, and aim for the building that looks a bit like a
cross. That’s where the kids will be getting changed for this year’s sports day.
Right, the first-aid centre. Hopefully we won’t be taking too many children there but you do need to
know where it is. So, if you’re starting from the main entrance, the quickest route is to walk around the
hall – on the right-hand side. There’s no path so you’ll be walking on the grass. Keep straight on so
you’re walking between the main field and the oval running track, – and then you can see on the map
there – that the first-aid centre is just above those two locations, and right below that little bridge.
The café is a bit of a walk from the main entrance. It’s in that long, narrow building – the one that’s near
the northern end of Eastgate Road, and sort of above the oval running track. If you’re walking from the
hall, you’ll probably want to cut through that line of trees to get up there. Anyway, you can see that that
building is divided into two and you want the room with a view of the river, not of Eastgate Road.
Finally, when the kids go kayaking on the river, they’ll all have to be wearing lifejackets. The lifejackets
are kept in a small building near the boathouse. There’s no actual road to the lifejacket shed – but it’s
just a short walk from the boathouse – you can see it there – not far from Southgate Road. So make sure
no-one gets into a kayak without first getting themselves a lifejacket. So, the other ...
EXERCISE 20
It’s so nice to see so many people here on our Open Day – I hope you’ll be impressed by what you see
and that you’ll all decide to join up. We have tried to cover all aspects of sport and fitness here at the
Centre. Well, let’s start, shall we?
As we’re standing here at reception looking down the long corridor, you’ll notice the car park on your
left (where most of you have parked) asks you to reverse into the parking spaces (for safety reasons).
Also, this morning, a couple of keen potential members rode their bikes right in through the door
instead of leaving their bikes outside there, on your right, where the secure bike stands are. Um … you
may be wondering why there are so many mothers arriving with little children – as we proceed, you’ll
see that this first room on your right is a crèche, where you can leave your little ones for up to two hours
and they’ll be expertly supervised while you work out.
After the crèche, on the same side of the corridor, is the male locker room with showers, spa and sauna.
Opposite that, on your left, there’s a staircase leading to the mezzanine floor. You’ll not only get a great

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view out over the playing field, but you’ll also find a coffee shop and snack bar selling a range of
wholesome food and drinks – protein shakes, fruit smoothies … that kind of thing. We won’t go up the
stairs at this point – I’ll give you some time later when you can explore at your leisure. Most of you in
the group are women … so next, let me point out the women’s locker room (which has the same
facilities as the men’s – you know, things like showers, spa and sauna). It’s separated from the men’s
locker room by an office which the staff mainly use for administrative purposes.
As we move on, on the same side of the corridor as the stairs, you’ll see the entrance to the main hall,
where they hold yoga classes, aerobics, and so on. On the wall here there is a timetable of all group
classes and it is updated regularly. Now, opposite the hall is the gymnasium itself. Go ahead – have a
look. Impressive isn’t it? Very spacious, light and airy with all the most modern equipment.
As we continue down the corridor past the main hall, on the same side, there is a conference room. This
is mainly used when the centre is hosting a big sports event of some kind – it gives the officials a quiet
place to gather and have meetings and so on. You’ll have seen the 400 metre athletics track on your way
in, beside the car park … we have some pretty big athletics conventions here.
Well, after a strenuous workout, I bet there’s nothing you’d like more than a swim … in the aquatic
complex. But first, these rooms on our right are all part of the sports medicine clinic where you have
access to a doctor, physiotherapist, massage therapist, podiatrist and even a sports psychologist if you
need one. Of course you’ll need to make appointments, but if you have any questions, just pop in and
see the clinic receptionist and she’ll help you out.
Okay. Let’s go through the turnstile ahead of us … and here we are … in the aquatic centre … turn left,
past the pool shop where you can buy or hire goggles, swim caps and such like … and we’re outside …
poolside. Beautiful, isn’t it? Especially on a day like today … go on, dip your toes in the water – and if
that’s not warm enough for you, then I’ll take you to the indoor pool which is less than half the size but
heated to 32 degrees. Let’s go back past the pool shop and through the double doors to the indoor pool.
Well, that’s all I have time to show you. Let’s go back to the reception area and, if you like, we can run
through some details about opening hours, membership and so on.
EXERCISE 21
Thank you all for coming to our community meeting. As you know, we are excited to unveil our
improvement plan as we look forward to the influx of tourists in the summer months. I’ll start with a
quick overview of the main points of interest in the area for anyone who may not quite know his or her
way around yet, and then I’ll get into the improvements made.
First off is my favorite, the Science Museum, which is on the corner of Saint George Road. If you have
not visited it yet, I encourage you to go before the busy season. It is absolutely spectacular – there is
even a flight simulator you can try out!
Just west of the Science Museum is the National History Museum. It’s a site not to be missed as well,
with each floor devoted to a different era in our nation’s history. There are special exhibits for children
with interactive games and fun history lessons, too.If you’re looking for parking, it is available on the
intersection of Queen Street and South King Street in the Car Park. Standard hourly and daily rates do
apply.
The best place for souvenirs is the Shopping Mall, though it gets extremely busy during peak times. You
can get there from the tube, or the entrance on Timber Road, just south of Cornwell Road.
This area has students everywhere, usually from the Primary School across the street from the Shopping
Mall. Classes often take field trips and engage in guided tours through the area.
So that’s the overview of the main sites and hopefully by now I’ve given you a general idea of the area.
Now I’m going to outline the improvements we have made in our efforts to make the experience even
better for each and every one of our visitors. You probably noticed when you first drove into the Car
Park this morning, that there is now additional signage to help avoid confusion. The directions were not
entirely clear at first, so we have increased the number of one-way signs indicating the correct direction
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Not far from there, in line with our mission of giving back to the community, we constructed a brand
new playground for the Primary School. It is really something to be excited for – the equipment is state-
of-the-art and includes swings, a small climbing wall, and even an obstacle course.
Now we’ll head north and take a look at the Science Museum. In response to our feedback from past
visitors to the museum, there is now free information available outlining not only upcoming IMAX
showings, but also natural wonders like meteor showers, eclipses, and other cool natural events.
The Science Museum isn’t the only Museum improving the experience of its visitors. The National
History Museum has added an entire new wing to its facility to accommodate the large crowds of people
gathering to see the Civil War exhibit, inventions timeline exhibit, and other wonderful sections of the
museum. The increase in space will definitely give a more calm, comfortable experience for visitors.
And finally, remember when there was actually a line at the mall entrance from the Tube Station? It was
terrible trying to get anywhere from the Tube because foot traffic got so backed up sometimes. We have
addressed that by adding another entry point into the mall from the other end of the platform to
disperse the crowd.
So those are the major improvements we have made. Clearly having too many people that want to visit
and enjoy what our community has to offer the public is a good problem to have, and I am confident
that we have made the changes necessary to accommodate the growing interest in the area.
As always, we welcome any questions, comments, or concerns about the new improvement plan. In a
few minutes I will open up the floor for questions but you can also contact me or any other board
member by email or through the city website. Thank you for coming, and I now encourage you to stay
for the Questions and Answers panel occurring between now and 10.30…
EXERCISE 22
Now, if I can just show on this wall map here where they all are, you might like to go and have a look
round. If you come into the main university entrance, at the first junction you’ll find that Brown Hall is
on the corner opposite the theatre. So you’re nice and near the station here – though I think it can get a
bit noisy with traffic. The same applies to Blake Residence, which is directly facing the junction to the
university entrance. These Halls are often used by medical students and such like as they’re out all day
so don’t notice the noise. Anyway, if you then walk along Campus Road towards the main circle, you’ll
see the library on the corner and Queens Building is just past that as you head north. You will find that it
is quieter here, and you may get fewer visitors! By the way, the Circle is quite a feature of the campus as
it’s set into the hills and has a brand new sports centre in the middle – it’s worth going to look around it.
Now, the Parkway Flats are on the opposite corner to the library, facing the circle, as you head towards
the main buildings. The main buildings are only about a five-minute walk from here and places in these
Halls go quickly, so my advice is to reserve your place as soon as possible. Then Temple Rise is inside the
circle, next to the sports centre, but further from the main University buildings.
EXERCISE 23
Hello. My name is Marcus Lintmaker, and I am going to give a brief overview of the
layout of our town center. I see all of you have a copy of the map with you. As you can see, the town
center is spread on either side of Pound Lane, which goes from north to south,
here in the center of the map. First Avenue, which you can see at the southern side of the map, heads
off east towards the financial district. Let me first tell you about the water feature in
the town center. It is located inside a plaza, which is very popular among the residents of the town. It
gets really crowded during lunchtime and the evenings as people come here to hang out. There are
three stalls in the plaza near the water feature. The one in the middle is a pizzeria and its pizzas are
famous all over town. On First Avenue, there is the town's oldest gas station. Recently, they have
installed an electric vehicle charging station as many residents in the town now drive Teslas. When you
take a right from Pound Lane towards First Avenue, first you will see a sports shop. Just past the sports
shop is the charging station for electric vehicles before you get to the gas station. Our town hall is in the
northeastern section of the map. It is just behind the central library. The town council and several other

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public offices are located inside the town hall. Adjacent to it is a car park and it is the only one in the
town center. To reach it, you have to take the side road that goes towards east from Pound Lane in front
of the supermarket. Go straight ahead and the road ends at the parking garage. Last but not the least,
there is a lovely little diner in the town center which has been serving town folks for over 150 years
called Dick's Diner. When you move north along the Pound Lane, the diner is a little beyond the
supermarket. The place gets really busy on Sundays for its special brunch menu. Well, now that you
have a general idea of our town center, you can go ahead and explore it on your own. Remember if you
get lost, do not hesitate to ask any of the locals for directions, they are happy to help any visitor. Or you
can call me and I will come to pick you up.
EXERCISE 24
I know many of you have travelled quite a long way to join us to continue your studies here in Shipsbury.
So you'll want to get acquainted with our town, and find your way around, as Shipsbury will be your
home for the next few months. Here in the student centre, we're just across London Road from the
college's main campus, right on the corner of the High Street. If you haven't done so already, you'll need
to register with the police - be sure to take your passports and your letter from the college with you, and
present yourself at the police station, which is a block away from the college, at the corner of Park Lane
and Sheep Street. Be sure to check out Victoria Park, which is half a block east of the police station. The
park extends to the north, past London Road, and as far south as Church Lane. You're likely to spend
quite a bit of time in the public library, which is located on Park Lane, between the police station and the
park. Just north of the public library is the Park Hotel. This is the finest hotel for miles around, and does
a very tasty, very traditional English tea on Sunday afternoons. You'll need to book ahead, and it's well
worth the price.
EXERCISE 25
The slide we're looking at now shows Foster Park as it looks today, with the changes that have been
made. You'll notice, too, that a lot of the original facilities are still here, of course. We've kept all four
gates, but we've moved the information board. It used to be next to the tennis courts, but you'll find it
now immediately to your left when you enter at the south gate. Just like before, it has details about the
park opening hours, local wildlife, and a little bit about the history of the area. A brand new addition is
the children's playground. If you enter by the west gate, keep walking past the path to your left, and it's
just after the one to your right. Dogs are not permitted in that section, so children can play without any
worries. For you dog owners, never fear. We have allocated an off-leash dog zone. This is in a fenced-off
area to the south-west of the football field, basically in the centre of the park. You'll also find plastic
bags there to clean up after your pet. The tennis courts are in the same spot as always, but you'll notice
that we've moved to the fitness area. This used to be just inside the south gate, but you'll now find it
between the pond and the west gate. We think this is a much nicer spot to work out. One final thing I'd
like to point out is the new park. It's a new fountain, a spectacular addition, I'm sure you'll agree. From
the west gate, walk along until you reach the first path, and turn left there to reach it. As always, the
park is open to the public seven days a week, and we are...
EXERCISE 26
Now, I'll just give you a few directions before you leave, especially for those of you who are feeling a bit
hungry. When you leave the main building, you come to an area where the path divides. If you take the
right-hand path, you'll see the lake on your right, and exactly opposite the lake on your left is the gift
shop. Apart from selling gifts, it sells snacks, sandwiches and light drinks. If you walk on past the lake on
your right, you'll also see the penguins. Go past the penguins and you'll come to the restaurant, also on
your right. Don't go too far or you'll come to the aquarium. The aquarium is on your right at the
crossroad, and just over the crossroad, also on your right, is the lion enclosure. If you're thinking of
having a picnic, the best place to go is the picnic area. And for this, you need to turn left at the crossroad
and walk along a few metres. At the end of the path, you'll find the picnic area on your left. Now, if you

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have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them, and once again, I really hope you enjoy your visit.
Thank you.
EXERCISE 27
If we start here at the bottom, you can see Parkside Street where the main entrance to the park is on
the left of the entrance. In the bottom left-hand corner of the plan, there will be a block of 40 studio
flats, on the other side of the entrance, there will be some workshops for local businesses. There will
also be another entrance here on the top right, which leads into Pear Street. Here in the center of the
park, we will have an ornamental lake with paths radiating north south east and west, to the different
areas of the park. In the top right-hand corner just by the Pear Street entrance, there will be a large
sports area with two football pitches and four tennis and volleyball courts. Just here beside the pitches
on the same side of the path, will be an outdoor swimming pool. Now in the top left-hand corner, a
walled flower garden is planned with a rockery and a water feature with walkways seats and lots of
shady areas for the summer, next to this a sculpture garden is also planned. Now let's see just here
below the walled garden, there will be a grassy amphitheater with a permanent covered stage for open-
air concerts. We hope that local schools and colleges will use this theater to showcase student work. In
the bottom left-hand corner of the plan, you can see that above the block of flats there will be a play
area for children. And directly to the right of this just near the main entrance, there will be a wild area,
more trees will be planted here, and in the middle will be built an educational center for you by local
schools, to encourage children to take care of the wildlife and look after the trees and plants. And
finally, in the bottom right-hand corner of the park will be a cafe opening on to Pear Street. And now for
questions, if anyone would like to ask anything, I and my colleagues are only too happy to oblige, yes the
lady in the front row if I could have you...
EXERCISE 28
So, here's a plan of the park. As you can see, we're here at the main entrance and there's an information
centre to your right. Now, it's quite easy to get around the park. We have daily guided walkabout tours
which let you get up close to the animals. Or, if you prefer to be at a distance, you can take the safari
bus and drive around with a wildlife expert. If you decide to take the walkabout tour, it leaves at 10.45,
that's in just under an hour, from the meerkats enclosure next to us. From there, the walk passes the
adventure playground and the otters in the first enclosure and then arrives at the New Zealand birds
area in the next enclosure, just in time to see them being fed. Then you go on to the reptile house and
the tigers and the rest of the animals. Alternatively, you can wait until the afternoon to take the
moonwalk. There are plenty of other things to see in the morning. One of these is the African village.
Just turn to your right from the main entrance, walk past the first bus stop and it's just before the
African wild dogs enclosure. It's a wonderful, colourful experience. You can also go to the shop and buy
your souvenirs there. We have beautiful soft toys, giraffe and zebra, for children, and a whole range of
T-shirts, hats and skin care products with an African theme. After that, why not have lunch in the picnic
area on the far eastern side of the park? I'd recommend this because while you're eating, you might
catch sight of the ostriches on one side of you or buffalo on the other. For the afternoon walkabout
tour, you'll need to find your own way to the African lion habitat, which is on the west side of the park,
just past the conservation centre. To join the tour, you actually go past the lion habitat. You'll see two
bus stops, keep walking, and the meeting place is about half a kilometre after the second one. If you've
gone past the zebra, you've gone too far. For those of you who would prefer to travel on the safari bus,
this runs from 10.30 to 4pm. There are stations throughout the park, but the first one is at Jomo's Cafe,
which is directly opposite where we're standing. Go straight ahead and it's just in front of the giraffes.
There are various feeding times for the animals and the bus stops in time for all of these. So, let me just
give you some safety guidelines.
EXERCISE 29

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K, now, we’ve got some students here from Bardwell College who have joined us for today’s events.
Hello to you all, and welcome. Now, before our day begins, you’ll need to get a guest badge, which you’ll
have to wear while you’re on the college premises. You can get these from the administration office. To
get there from the main hall, leave the hall by the door opposite reception, turn left, and just follow the
corridor to the end. The administration office is on your right. Don’t go any further, or you’ll be in the
sports hall. If you show your guest badge in the café, by the way, you’ll get a 2O% discount on drinks and
sandwiches. To get there from the main hall, walk along the corridor between the main hall and
reception and turn right. The café is through the first door on your left. Directly opposite the café, on
the same corridor, is the student common room, where you can go to relax and perhaps meet some of
our own students. If you have any valuables that you don’t want to carry around with you, I suggest you
put these in a locker. These are next to the sports hall, opposite the administration office. You can get a
key for a locker when you get your guest badge from the administration office. And if you want to use
our library, leave the main hall by the door opposite the one you came in - that’s the door by the bicycle
parking area - and walk to the end of the corridor. The library is through the door straight ahead of you.
EXERCISE 30
Hi Jane, this is Tanya. I’m calling to make arrangements for the concert on Saturday. I can’t believe you’ve
never been to the Arena before. I often go at the weekend. There isn’t just the Arena concert venue, there
are also lots of other things to do: shopping, restaurants, exhibitions. I’m giving Melissa and Sarah a lift,
so shall we all meet up for a coffee before the concert? I’ll give you directions. OK, listen carefully. As you
walk through the main entrance, you come to a square with a big fountain in the middle. This is where
people usually arrange to meet up and sometimes they have live music here. Beyond the square, on Main
Avenue, on your right, there are several restaurants, and opposite these on your left is an exhibition
center. There used to be a cinema here, but they moved it when they finished building the Arena. So there
are several coffee shops to choose from, one near the fountain and one in the north end of the building,
but I suggest that we go to the one at the end of Main Avenue, because it’ll probably be less busy than
the others. It’s right at the end, after you pass the art gallery on the right. So shall we all meet there at
seven o’clock? Then, after we’ve had a coffee, to get into the Arena we just need to go through the
shopping center, which will be on our right once we go back down Main Avenue. It can be a bit tempting,
but there’s no other way to get there, as the Arena is the other side of it. Oh, and there are toilets beside
the entrance if you need them. And then after the concert, they open the door opposite and you can go
straight out into the car park, which is very convenient. Let me know if you can make it for seven. I’m
looking forward to seeing you, it’s been a while.
EXERCISE 31
Good morning.
I’d like to thank the council for agreeing to this meeting and for welcoming us here today to explain to
you our plans for Pine Woods Center. Our aim is to make Pine Woods a place where people of all ages can
come and enjoy their free time. The center will feature our Tree Tops Challenge. only for the brave and
fearless! For the less brave, and for families with children, there will be adventure playgrounds, indoor
and outdoor, and a feeding area for farm animals and we will also offer cycle trails through the woods. I’ll
give you an overview of Pine Woods first and then tell you more about each area in more detail. This first
slide shows the overall layout of the center and where all the activities will be situated. As you can see
from the map, the entrance to this attraction will be on the south side. As visitors enter from the car park,
they will walk along this path leading them to the cafe and gift shop. The gift shop will be where tickets
are on sale and therefore needs to be near the entrance. So this building here on the right will be the cafe
and the building on the left will be the gift shop. There will also be a picnic field behind the cafe for the
warmer months. It’s the area just to the right of the cafe as you look at the map. And in the bottom right-
hand corner of the picnic field we’re planning to have a barbecue area, where people can hire a barbecue
and bring their own food to cook. It’ll be great for parties. In summer we plan to have bands performing
here in the evenings. To the west of the gift shop is where the Tree Tops Challenge will take place. There’s

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a path here winding through the forest, and up in the trees there will be all sorts of high-level adventure
apparatus, rope swings, awesome rope bridges and tunnels, and zip wires where you can fly way above
the forest floor. This adventure experience will only be open to those aged 15 and over. Beyond the Tree
Tops Challenge there will be an adventure playground. To get to it, you go along this path from the
entrance until you reach the crossroads, then you turn left. The young children’s playground will have a
fence around it, making it safer and keeping them away from the lake. The indoor play area, only for the
very young, will be on the east side of the farm, near the cafe and just inside the picnic area. And finally,
let’s turn our attention back to this area here, where the paths meet and form a crossroads. This path
leading to the east end of the farm will take our visitors to the area which houses the farm animals.
Children will be able to watch the animals being fed and cared for, and in some instances they will be able
to feed the animals themselves. The sheep will be in this first area on the right here, directly opposite the
pigs, and the goats will go at the very end there. We haven’t quite decided on the other areas yet. So
those are our plans. We hope they will be approved, and we look forward to welcoming you back in the
not too distant future to see the final result.
EXERCISE 32
Now I'd just like to tell you some of the things to look out for as you go round the school site. At present,
we're standing just at the front entrance to the school, facing north, and as you can see, the ground slopes
up quite steeply behind the school. To our right, we have the car park, OK? And to our left, we have our
sports field. This is just for training and informal games. We use the village football field for our under-11
matches. At the far end of the car park is our recycling centre. This is for things like paper, glass and so on,
and everyone is very welcome to make use of it. Immediately behind the school, to the north, we have
the play area. Unfortunately, we had to remove the play equipment, the climbing frame and so on,
because it didn't conform to safety regulations. But we do have the... the treehouse in the middle of that
area. That's very popular. Then, at the top end of the play area, you'll find the entrance to the secret
garden. The vegetable patch is in the bottom corner, and beyond it, hidden in the trees, we have a pond.
The children love this, because it attracts all sorts of wildlife. Frogs, fish and lots of birds. I should just
mention the trees. There are over 30 different species, all planted by the children. In the middle of the
garden, we have what we call the storytellers' chair, and this is where the children come with their
teachers and sit on the grass to listen to stories. And finally, at the top end of the secret garden, to the
left, is our wind turbine. And as you go round the classrooms, you'll find lots of work done by the children,
explaining all about how it works and how proud they are of it. Right, now...
EXERCISE 33
Right, can everyone see the plan now? Good. Let's start at the Balfour Road entrance, since that's where
most of you come and go from. The Farley Road entrance and lower playground won't be affected at all.
Now, as you come in to the top playground, the two new classrooms will be on the right. There'll be a
new gate, and the steps down will be rebuilt. There'll be a ramp for disabled visitors too. On the plan
here, only the parts of the building affected by the plans are shown. I'll explain why the hall is marked on
later. So, as I said, the new classrooms will be to the right of the entrance, and, as you can see, will take
up very little space. We feel the Year 6 children need their own area, away from the younger children.
So, this one on the left of the two rooms will be the new Year 6 classroom. As you can see, there's no
direct entrance from the playground. The plan is to include a small entrance area here, from the
playground, for coats and boots and so on. Entrance to the classroom will be from that area. There'll
also be an additional entrance to the hall from this cloakroom, so children will be able to get to the hall
from two different directions, from inside the main building and from the new entrance area. I hope
that's clear. Now, as you all know, the hall doubles up as the cafeteria at lunchtime. One of the rumours
I heard was that the new entrance area will be to the left of the classroom. I hope that we're planning to
dispense with the cafeteria and open up a snack bar. I can categorically state that replacing healthy
school meals with a snack bar is not remotely in our thoughts. The other new classroom, that's the one
with the playground entrance here, is going to be an exciting new venture for us. That's because its

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principal use will be for the preschool and, after-school clubs. More and more parents want that facility
outside school hours, and we need a dedicated space to run these activities. I think there were also
worries about the nursery school, though I'm not really sure why, to be honest with you. I can tell you
now that the whole area on the other side of the main school building will be totally unaffected. The
nursery will continue operating as it does, as it does now. There will be a couple of smaller
constructions, modernisation work really, down here on the other side of the top playground. Cycling
into school is getting more and more popular, so we're replacing the old bike sheds with a brand new
bicycle bay. There'll be space for 60 bikes. The children's toilets will also be modernised, and the
children will be able to enter, from inside the school building, rather than from the playground, as they
do now. There'll be brand new staff toilets in that part of the building too, I'm pleased to say. So, I hope
that's at least started to allay a few fears. Take a few minutes to look at the plan, but I'll get out of the
way. Then I'll answer a few questions if you have any. Does that make sense to you?
EXERCISE 34
Speaker B: Jean Clark speaking.
Speaker A: Hello, Jean. It's Tom.
Speaker B: Hello, Tom. Nice to hear from you. I'm looking forward to your visit.
Speaker A: Me too. In fact, that's what I'm calling about. I've booked my flight, so I can give you my
arrival time now.
Speaker B: Good.
Speaker A: I'm due to land at 15.20 on June 7th, but I expect you'll be at work, so don't worry about
meeting me.
Speaker B: I can get to the airport a couple of hours later, so if you don't mind waiting, it won't be for
very long.
Speaker A: OK, that's fine.
Speaker B: You won't want to carry your suitcase around, so you might like to put it in a locker. When
you come out of the baggage claim area, you'll see a big clock just ahead of you. Turn right into Lobby
East, and you'll come to a sign to the car park on your left. There are some lockers just after that
passageway.
Speaker A: Good. I don't suppose there's much to do at the airport, but a cup of coffee would be nice.
Speaker B: Well, if you go from the clock into Lobby West, you'll see various shops and things on both
sides. The first two on the left are both cafes. The second one is more popular, but I prefer the coffee
house. The staff are much friendlier, and they serve better coffee. It's the first one you come to.
Speaker A: OK. I've got it. I've made a note of that.
Speaker B: Oh, but you'll need some local currency. Will you be bringing any with you?
Speaker A: I thought I'd draw some out when I arrive. I presume I can get some money at the airport.
Speaker B: Hmm, let me think. Erm, yes, there are several cash machines close together.
Imagine you're going from the clock into Lobby East, and they're immediately to the right, before the
hotel.
Speaker A: Oh, right.
Speaker B: You might like to go... to the exhibition space. It's only small, but there are usually some
interesting paintings by local artists. It's at the end of Lobby West. You can see the entrance facing you
as you walk along.
Speaker A: That sounds as though it's worth a visit. I'd also like to buy some CDs. Do you know if there's
a store in the terminal?
Speaker B: Yes, there are a couple. There's one more or less opposite the exit from the baggage claim,
on the corner of Lobby West.
Speaker A: Oh. Do they stock classical CDs?
Speaker B: Oh, no, I don't think they do. But there's another store that does. From the clock, go along
Lobby East, then turn right just after the hotel. You'll see the store. It's opposite the side of the hotel. It's
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Speaker A: That's great. I'm sure I can fill in the time before you arrive. Where shall we meet?
Speaker B: There's a quiet lounge. No mobile phones allowed. Would that be OK with you?
Speaker A: Perfect.
Speaker B: It's beside the main exit in Lobby East. I'll see you in there about 5.30 on the 7th.
Speaker A: Great. Look forward to seeing you, Jean. Bye.
Speaker B: Bye, Tom.
EXERCISE 35
Nowadays we have submersibles that can withstand the immense water pressure far below the surface.
One of these deep submergence vehicles, as they're called, is Alvin, which has been in use since 1964. A
typical dive lasts eight hours and descends to 4,500 meters below sea level. Alvin is used for various
scientific purposes, including, in 1985-86, surveying the wreck of the Titanic, the ocean liner that sank in
the Atlantic in 1912. The first thing you notice about Alvin is its bright red sail displaying the name of the
vessel. The sail is on top of the vehicle, at the front, and helps to maintain stability. Alvin is about seven
meters long and just over 3.5 meters high, but only a small portion of that space is available for people.
This is in the pressure sphere, which is located under the sail at the front of the vessel. With a diameter
of about two meters, there's room for three people, but it's a tight squeeze. Usually there's a pilot and
two sailors. From here, they can look out in various directions through four viewing ports. Alvin carries a
large number of instruments, including video and still cameras, mounted on the exterior at the front,
along with lights for illuminating the ocean, as of course sunlight doesn't penetrate this far down.
Usually there's a stowage basket mounted on a frame at the front, used to hold tools and scientific
equipment. Immediately under the sail is the hatch, which has a diameter of only 50 centimeters. This is
the way into the vessel. On top of the sail, there's a current meter to measure the movement of the
ocean. Propulsion is provided by six electric thrusters, which make Alvin very maneuverable. Three of
them are for forward and reverse movement, two for vertical motion, and a final thruster, right at the
back of the vessel, turns the submersible round.
EXERCISE 36
Speaker A: Now, we need to know what buildings were here 70 or 80 years ago, don't we?
Speaker B: Yes. So many old buildings were knocked down in the 1950s and 60s to make room for new
ones. It's such a shame.
Speaker A: Now, there was a 19th century school somewhere, wasn't there?
Speaker B: If you cross the river, turn left into South Street and continue along the road until just after it
curves round, the school was on the left.
Speaker A: Oh, I know where you mean. Then there's the old prison. You know where that was, don't
you?
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: One of the windows still exists, with bars across it, as part of a shop. It's on the bend in the
high street where it meets the market square.
Speaker B: OK. Then there's the George. An old coaching inn where coaches used to stop in the days
before railways existed.
Speaker A: Where was that?
Speaker B: The entrance was in South Street, and the building occupied the corner of the high street.
Speaker A: Aha. And someone mentioned some warehouses that I'd never heard of.
Speaker B: Warehouses?
Speaker A: Yes. They were quite close to the high street, on the opposite side from South Street. They
were used by merchants transporting goods by boat, so they're close to the river.
Speaker B: Well, I never knew that.
Speaker A: Right, the next thing...
EXERCISE 37

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Guide: Male guide: Welcome to Bestley Castle. It’s nice to see so many of you here today. Before we go
in, I’d like to tell you some information about the castle, the things to see and do and the facilities
available to you in the grounds. We’ll do our best to make this a truly memorable visit.
Now. the castle grounds are quite big, and we don’t want you to get lost, so I’m going to give you an
idea of the layout. At the moment we are at the entrance, and immediately to our left is the tourist
information office. Go here if you need any questions answered. They’ll be happy to help. And, of
course, behind the tourist office is the car park where the coach dropped you off and it’ll also pick you
up from the same spot, at 5 p.m. today. In front of us are the water gardens. If you stroll through you’ll
get to the North Bridge, which is the entrance to Bestley Castle. Take your time and enjoy looking
around the castle. There is a lot of history steeped in those walls. As you leave the castle via the South
Bridge, you’ll be greeted with the sight of roaming deer. During the day, there will be scheduled feeding
opportunities where visitors can get involved. However, we do request that you do not feed the deer
outside these times. To the right of the deer park is the castle museum and behind that is our award-
winning restaurant. It’s a relatively new addition to the castle grounds but is fast gaining a reputation for
its food. Alternatively, you can choose to dine in the picnic area on the other side of the deci paik. It’s
perfect fur the family as it’s next to the kid’s play area and home-made ice-cream hut. We hope that on
your way out, you’ll pop into the gift shop by the exit for something to remember us by.
EXERCISE 38
I thought it could be useful to try and get your bearings now, before we actually arrive, so I’ll give you a
few pointers on your maps. OK, first things first – the Park Hotel, because I assume you’ll want to
deposit your luggage before anything else. We’ll be driving into the town from the west, and stopping at
the bus station. To get to the hotel you must go straight down the High Street towards.the railway
bridge, and after the bridge, if you are on left you’ll soon see it on the right. As I say, it’s a nice place.
You can check in, see your rooms, relax a little. There are a couple of interesting little shops nearby.
There aren’t any Internet facilities at the hotel, I’m afraid, so if you want to send any emails, you’ll need
to get yourselves to the Internet cafe. In fact, if you want to do that first, it’s easy, because it’s near the
bus station, on the Corner towards the right. of Curtis Lane and Cramer Street. So, once you’ve done
that – if you do that – then I suppose you’ll be ready to do a bit of exploring. You’ve got your basic maps,
but you may want to get more information, and the Tourist Information Office is the place to do that.
It’s up around the train station area. From the bus station, you could go up any of the streets to the left
– Cadogan Road, Earl Street or Duke Street. The Office is directly facing the train station, ong_ei _comer
with Earl street. They’ve got all sorts of brochures and leaflets about local attractions, and tickets for
sale. They even sell some locally-produced jams and chocolates. And a last pointer at this stage is our
venue for dinner tonight the Royal House Restaurant. This is conveniently located in the very centre of
town. In fact, you’ll no doubt pass it as you’re walking around beforehand. In relation to the bus station,
it’s not far. Going down the High Street if you pass the corner with Cromwell Road, then the next
junction crossroads with Duke Street and Runton Road. and it’s there -you’ll be able to see its rather
grand entrance over on the left corner. The food and the service there are both excellent, so it promises
to be an enjoyable evening. Well, we’re just coming into the town now, so …
EXERCISE 39
Right, well, here we are, standing at the Meeting Point on the lower ground floor just to the right of the
Main Entrance. I’ve given you all a plan of the building so that we can orientate ourselves and get an
idea of where we’ll be going. Now outside the Main Entrance you’ll see the wide Piazza with the
stunning sculpture of Newton. The sculptor was Paolozzi, but it’s based on the famous image by William
Blake – and it’s definitely worth a closer look. On the other side of the Piazza from the statue is the
Conference Centre, which is used for all kinds of international conventions – we’ll take a quick look
inside at the end of our tour. Looking ahead of us now, you’ll see that we’re standing opposite the
staircase down to the basement where you’ll find the cloakroom, and to the left of that, we have the
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anything you need to know – if you don’t have a tour guide. As you can see, on this lower ground floor
we also have a bookshop – that’s the area over to the left of the main entrance. You’ll be free to browse
there when we get back to the ground floor. Now, opposite the main entrance on this floor we have the
open stairs leading up to the upper ground floor. And at the top of them, in the middle of the upper
ground floor, you can see a kind of glass-sided tower that rises all the way up through the ceiling and up
to the first floor. This is called the King’s Library – it’s really the heart of the building – it was built to
house the collection that was presented to the nation in 1823 by the King. You can see it from every
floor above ground. When we go up there, you’ll find the library’s Treasures Gallery on the left. Can you
find it on your plan? That’s the exciting one, so we’ll be visiting that first, but we’ll also take a look at the
stamp display situated behind it, on the way to the cafe – a lot of people miss that. The Cafeteria runs
along the back of the floor and, in the right hand corner, you’ll find the lifts and toilets… ha, always good
to locate them. The other main area on that floor is the Public Access Catalogue section and I’ll show
you how that operates when we get up there…
EXERCISE 40
Now many of the buildings that Manjiro Nakahama knew in Fairhaven are still standing today, and so if
you'd just like to hand round some copies of this map I'll suggest the best route to follow to see them.
OK, so if you look at the bottom of the map you can see the Millicent Library, and that's where we are
now Now to fellow the John Manjiro trail, you go out of here along Center Street, and then head up
Main Street until you get to Pilgrim Avenue. Go down there and turn right at the end, go straight on and
just on the corner with Oxford Street you’ll see a two- storey house This is the Whitfield family house,
and this is where Manjiro first stayed when he came to Fairhaven. It's still a private residence, so please
respect the owner's privacy. OK Now, if you carry on along Oxford Street, then turn left at the end, you'll
come to North Street, and about half-way down there is what's known as Old Oxford School . This was
the very same school that Manjiro attended when he lived here It was considered to be the best school
in town because of the quality of the building unusually, it was built of stone - and the quality of the
teaching. Nowadays it’s usually closed, except on special occasions. Go on to the end of North Street
and turn the corner onto Adams Street, if you follow the road down, back towards the library, you go
round a couple of sharp bends and on the second of these, you can see the School Of Navigation which
Manjiro also attended. And if you follow the road on, you'll soon find yourself back here at the library,
and I'd suggest you spend some time looking round that too. if you have any time left. Right, now, does
anyone have any questions ..
EXERCISE 41
Hello Eve, come in and sit down ... How’s it going? Fine thanks. I’m looking forward to my teaching
practice next week. Good. Now you’ve got two classes, haven’t you - Year 3 and Year 6. Have you done
your lesson plans? Well, I’ve decided to take the topic of renewable energy ... I haven’t done a lesson
plan for Year six yet, but I thought I’d base their lesson on an example of very simple technology.So I’ve
brought this diagram to show you ... I got it from the Internet. Let’s see ... A biogas plant ... So this is
equipment for producing fuel from organic waste? Yes. The smaller container on the left is where you
put the waste you’ve collected ... Right, and from there it’s piped into the larger tank? That’s right. And
that’s slurry on the base of the larger tank. Right ... and what exactly is slurry? It’s a mixture of organic
waste and water. So is that pipe at the bottom where the water comes in? Yes it is ... As the slurry
mixture digests it produces gas, and that rises to the top of the dome. Then when it’s needed it can be
piped off for use as fuel in homes or factories. It’s very simple. I suppose there’s some kind of safety
valve to prevent pressure build-up? That’s the overflow tank. That container on the right. As the slurry
expands some of it flows into that, and then once some of the gas has been piped off, the slurry level
goes down again and the overflow tank empties again. I see. Well I think that’s suitably simple for the
age level it’s for. I look forward to seeing the whole lesson plan. Thanks. And can I show you my ideas for
the Year three lesson? Of course. Let’s look.

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EXERCISE 42
At the centre of the Treloar Estuary area is the historic riverside village of Calton. The main road comes
into the village from the south, and for those of you who are arriving by bus, it turns left just before the
bridge and stops in the lay-by on the left hand side. From there it’s just a short walk to Calton’s various
attractions. If you’re arriving by car, you have to leave it in the main car park. Go over the bridge and
take the first turning on the right. Then go on until you come to the end of that road. It’s the only place
to park in Calton but there’s no charge. If you’re interested in local history, there’s a museum in Calton
with farming, fishing and household implements from the late nineteenth century. As you come in from
the south, cross the river and go straight on the same road until you reach the end. Also on the subject
of history, you can go and see the old mill which has recently been renovated and put back into use.
Turn left before you come to the bridge. Then go straight on and then take the first turning on the right.
This leads straight there. If you’re interested in arts and crafts, there’s a potter’s studio where you can
watch the artist at work. After crossing the bridge turn left and it’s the second building on the left.
Finally, when you feel in need of refreshments, there’s a cafe opposite the old boat house, and a picnic
area near the mill.
EXERCISE 43
Now before I finish today, I wanted to help you find your way around the museum. When you start next
Monday, the first thing you’ll need to do is sign in. Come through the main entrance and you’ll see the
main staircase straight ahead. To the right of this is the statue of the horse and just behind that is a door
- go through that and that’s the sign-in office. Now, on the first day you’ll be working in Gallery 1. You
find this as follows ... in the central courtyard area, close to the entrance, there’s a large chest where
visitors put donations for the museum. The door just behind that leads to Gallery 1. The workshop you’ll
be taking part in starts at eleven o’clock but if you want to go in earlier you can get the key and let
yourself in. The key box is quite hard to find. Walk behind Reception and it’s between the large gallery
and the bookshop. I haven’t mentioned breaks, lunch etc. Unfortunately our cafe’s closed at the
moment so your best bet is to bring a packed lunch. We tend to have our sandwiches in the kitchen area
... go round the reception desk and you’ll see a small circular cabinet - the door to the kitchen area is
just behind that. Now everyday, we put up notices about what’s happening in the museum. Your
supervisor will brief you but if you want to check up on details, look on our staff noticeboard. This is in
the corner of the play area - at the back, on the wall of Gallery 3.
If you have any questions, I’d be happy to ...
EXERCISE 44
Good evening, everyone!
I’m glad you could all make this planning meeting for what promises to be the biggest and most
colourful free rock festival ever held in the south-east! So whether you’re a performer, a craft exhibitor
or an artist, we all extend a big welcome to you. Could we turn first to the plan so I can familiarise you
with the layout of the site – which as you know is an old football stadium – we’re really lucky to have so
much space this year. You can see the main gate at the bottom of the plan – have you found it? – that’s
where most visitors will enter. It’s also the entrance for those taking part in the craft fair: we’ve set the
stalls just inside the gate on the left, in a circle.
If you walk straight ahead from the gate along the path without turning right, you’ll come to some steps
up to the football stadium. On the left of the steps is the Fringe Stage. This is for alternative artistes –
they include folk singers, poets and other acts which are more suited to a smaller stage – and they
should also enter by the main gate. On the opposite side of the steps is a restaurant, and adjoining that
is the main festival information point. Here you can get extra programmes and up-to-the-minute
information about events, and you can discuss any last-minute problems – although we hope everything
will be running smoothly when the festival opens.
EXERCISE 45

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Guide: OK, so if you take out your maps, I’ll just point out a few places you might like to visit. So right
now, we’re standing in the ticket office, at the bottom of your maps. So, one place I’d recommend is the
old bakery. This is a typical bakery from this area, from about 100 years ago. To get there from the ticket
office, walk up Stafford Street. And then turn into Rigby Road. Walk down Rigby Road, there are a few
interesting places along the way, and the old bakery is right next to the canal. Another interesting place
is the doctor’s surgery. This was moved here, brick by brick, and rebuilt on the museum site. Walk up
Stafford Street, until you reach the dock. You see the café. Walk past that, and the doctor’s surgery is
just there. Cooper’s Cottage is also fascinating – a worker’s cottage from the 19th century. Walk up
Stafford Street and take the first turning on the left. The road curves round to the west, then south, as it
climbs Jack’s Hill. You’ll pass a few little houses on the way up, and Cooper’s Cottage is right on the
summit of Jack’s hill. The stables are also great. This is where they kept all the horses. Again, walk up
Stafford Street to the dock, and turn right. Walk round the dock till you get to the canal. Then cross the
bridge over the canal to reach the stables. Also, be sure to visit the old school. So, walk north-east up
through the museum. And it’s not too far. The old school is right on the corner of Stafford Street and
Rigby Road. Now one other thing…
EXERCISE 46
The airport has three terminals which are joined together to form one large building shaped rather like
a crescent. If you're coming from the city by car, you'll see a big cargo building on your left as you
approach the airport, and then the car park is a rectangular building beyond this. You can park your car
there and then make your way back into the terminals using the pedestrian walkway. For those who
arrive from the city by bus, there are two bus stops at the airport. If you are flying to a city within
Australia, you should get off at the first bus stop opposite the first building on your right. This is the
domestic terminal, where all the flights to the major cities within Australia leave from. If you are going
overseas, you will need to go to the international terminal, which is in the centre of the complex, so get
off at the next bus stop. This terminal has a long, narrow concourse leading down to the departure
gates. When you walk into the international terminal through the main entrance, you'll find yourself in a
large hall where you check in for your flight. The toilets are on the left side of the concourse, and there
are lifts leading up to the next floor on the right. You'll find a variety of restaurants and bars on the first
floor, and shops selling clothes and souvenirs. But remember, there are strict hand-luggage limitations,
so don't buy more than you can carry in one bag. If you are flying to one of the small country towns, you
will need to go to the regional terminal at the north end of the airport. Facilities are limited in this
terminal, but there is a small cafe where you can buy sandwiches and wait for your flight. To hear this
information again, press 1 on your keyboard.
EXERCISE 47
As you know, Holloway Estate is one of the few surviving estates in this area that still retains many of
the farming features of the past. Let me quickly explain where you can find some of the key attractions.
If you take a look on your map, we are now standing at the foot of the steps to the manor house. Can
everyone see it marked with an arrow? Don't forget, this is our meeting point for when we leave. So,
directly behind us is the fountain. From here, heading left, the path takes you to a gate which leads into
the famous Holloway Orchards, where, for hundreds of years, the estate has been growing its highly
prized apples, cherries, and plums. Incidentally, if you fancy trying them, a range of delicious Holloway
jams and preserves are available in the gate. Speaking of which, the gift shop is to the right of the main
house. If you go through the gate, the left-hand path takes you to the apiary, that's to say, the beehives,
where Holloway honey has been collected for more than 250 years. And yes, before anyone asks, you
can also buy Holloway honey. If you take the right-hand path, you will come to some old farmers'
cottages, which have been renovated and are rented out as holiday cottages. Please feel free to admire
them from the outside, but as there may be guests staying in them right now, please respect their
privacy. From the back of the main house, crossing the car park, and just before you get to the cattle
fields, you will find a row of three buildings. The middle one is the old dairy. The dairy is actually

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working, producing butter, and cheeses using traditional methods. Next to that, on the left, are the
former cattle sheds, where the livestock was kept. Nowadays, it's used as a museum, so those of you
who are keen to explore Holloway's farming past should pay it a visit. The building furthest from the
manor house is the old ice house, which is no longer in use, and is due to be restored, hopefully next
year. Last but not least, you may have noticed on the way in that on either side of the main gates are
two small houses. This is a traditional feature of country houses of the period. On the right-hand side, as
you enter the estate, is what was known as the gatekeeper's lodge. This has now become the estate
office, and the estate manager runs the estate from there. OK, I think that just about covers everything.
EXERCISE 48
Let’s take a look at the equipment. The bows are fairly heavy – you might be surprised. We’ll spend a
moment practising holding the bow properly before we load one up. I’m holding it now in the position in
which you’ll hold it. The drawstring is here and again you might be surprising at the tension. You’ll need
to practise drawing back the string. Just above the middle of the bow here is the sight. You look through
this as you would with a rifle. Using a bow and arrow without a sight is perfectly possible – most master
archers do this – but having one will certainly help you to start off with. Now I’ll put the bow down and
show you an arrow. The shafts of our arrows are wooden but fibre glass arrow shafts are now common
too. Traditionally, as I’m sure you’ll know, the fletching at the top of the arrow – I mean not the tip end
of the arrow – was made of feathers. We have some arrows with feather fletching but we also have
some with what we call vanes. That means the fletching is made of solid plastic. All of you have a quiver
with six arrows in it. You should tie the strap of the quiver around your waist like this. As I’ve said, you
take an arrow from your quiver when I say so – when it’s your turn and not before. Oh, I nearly forgot –
protection. Everyone has a chest guard and hand guard like those that I’m wearing – I’ll show you how
to put the chest guard on in a moment – and a bracer. The bracer’s a smaller arm pad that protects the
inside of your arm from the string. For those of you in a T-shirt today that’s important but the bracer will
also stop the string catching on the sleeve of a jumper or jacket. Right, so before we pick up the bows,
let’s have a look at these chest Guards.
EXERCISE 49
The trumpet is quite a remarkable instrument. Take the B-flat type for instance, the kind of trumpet
most people use today. If we stretched one out in a straight line, it would measure nearly 140
centimetres in length. What we see in the diagram, then, is a very long brass tube wrapped around itself
in order to save space. To produce its characteristic sound, the musician blows continuously into the
small metal cup on the left called the mouthpiece, which is shaped to fit the lips. The air travels along
the lead pipe and round the tuning slide, which can be moved in or out to change the instrument's pitch.
The air then reaches the feature that distinguishes the trumpet from, for instance, a bugle: the three
valves that extend from above the top to below the bottom of the instrument. Each valve can send the
air flow one of two ways: either along the main pipe, the shortest route, or else into an extra length of
tube, thus lowering the pitch of the so und being played. The musician does this by pressing one of the
finger buttons at the top, diverting the air into the first tube if the first is pressed, into the second - and
shortest - by using the second, or into the longest one-the third - by pressing number three. The air then
continues its way round the bend in the lead pipe and along to the end at the widest part of the body,
known as the bell, which projects the powerful sound forwards. Incidentally, all this breath forced
through the metal.of the instrument does of course contain water vapour, and this will start to
condense and form droplets after a certain amount of playing. The result is a 'gurgling' sound from the
trumpet, so to avoid this there is a device on the tuning slide called the water key, which, when pressed,
lets the water drip out.
EXERCISE 50
Hello everyone, and I'd like to welcome you all to Rotorua, one of the most famous destinations in New
Zealand where we have a long history of welcoming visitors. I'd like to explain a bit about the geography

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of this amazing region, famous for its geothermal activity, and tell you what we've planned for your stay.
Well, if you'd like to have a look at the map of the region that's in your welcome pack, if you find Lake
Rotorua on the top left, the big triangular lake, we've just driven down along State Highway 5, SH5,
down the western side of the lake, and then we turned off through the town, and we're here at the
Lakes Motel, just around the southern tip of the lake. OK? Now tomorrow, we'll be heading off along
SH30 in the opposite direction from the town, towards Lake Rotoita, where we'll be visiting the Hell's
Gate Thermal Reserve. This is the area between the SH30 road and the lake, and I'll be telling you more
about this in a minute. We'll then be returning to the motel, and in the afternoon, we'll be visiting the
town of Rotorua itself, and also the Arts and Crafts Institute, which is just along the SH30 from the
motel, where it meets the SH5 outside the town. Now, if you look directly out of the motel towards the
southeast, in the opposite direction to Lake Rotorua, you can just see the peak of Mount Tarawira, and
the day after tomorrow, we'll be visiting the volcanic valley which was formed when this last erupted.
We'll drive down the SH5 and then head off towards Lake Rotomahana, the valleys on the opposite side
of the lake from the mountain, so you can see what a powerful effect the eruption had. There's also an
interesting archaeological site, a village buried by the same eruption on the western shores of Lake
Tarawira, just to the north, but I'm afraid we won't have time to visit that as a group, although you may
wish to go there on your own. However, on the way back towards Rotorua along the SH5, we'll be
stopping at... ...the Markey Village, which is on the main road about 12 kilometres outside town.
Part 5 | 2023
Part 5 | 2023
EXERCISE 1
Extract 1
Interviewer: So, Fiona, can you tell me about how you started in fashion retailing?
Fiona: Yes, of course. After I finished university, I took a job with a big high street chain – I
was an assistant manager. Every week you would see the sales figures for your product and then act on
that by placing repeat orders or putting a new style in. It was a good grounding. However, most of the
staff had been there years and I think I did make mistakes in my dealings with them – I blush now to
think of my time there. I then moved on, after five years, to my present job.
Interviewer: And now you’re thinking of moving up the ladder. How do you see yourself in ten
years’ time?
Fiona: I would eventually like to be in senior management.
Interviewer: Well, before you rush off to see your line manager, I think you need to work out skills you
can offer emphasising your selling points, showing them what you can do. Also have you been going the
extra mile to get things done or doing more than what is asked of you, recently?
Extract 2
Friend: So, what happened last weekend?
Woman: Well, we were taking our boat along the river, when we passed a pair of swans, with a nest
nearby. One swan just carried on feeding, but the other one – the male I think – decided to come and
investigate.
Friend: Oh, fantastic. I’ve never seen a swan’s nest close up. I expect he was hungry.
Woman: Well, actually it was immediately obvious from his body language that he had other things on
his mind. He was flapping his wings really hard, and approaching at incredible speed. And I guess we’d
gone too close to the nest. I’d never have done that if I’d known what would happen.
Friend: Gosh, amazing. I’ve never heard of swans behaving like that before. So what did you do? Row
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Woman: Well, we got out onto the bank, but he followed us up, and then stood between us and the
boat for about an hour! We just couldn’t frighten him away.
Friend: No, I suppose not. Still, I’m sure he wouldn’t have hurt you.
Woman: Are you kidding? You should have seen the way he moved – swans can be really aggressive at
nesting times.
Friend: Hmm.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Bruce, at school, you discovered you had a natural talent for art.
Bruce: Yes, I inherited my dad’s gift for drawing. I wanted to do representational art; paint portraits. But
every college I went to – and there were three who accepted me – all the college tutors said, ‘Forget
representational art, get a single lens reflex 33-millimetre camera, hit the shutter, crash, there’s your
picture. Not even Rembrandt could get that accuracy, so it’s not worth it.’
Interviewer: And you believed them?
Bruce: I did. That was my biggest mistake. I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since.
Interviewer: How did your father react, when you told him you weren’t going to art college?
Bruce: His face was white with rage. He said, ‘Right, that’s it. You could have made something of going
to college. You won’t get another chance. Now I’ve got a perfectly good job for you on the factory floor.
You start this week – take it or leave it.’ I said, ‘No, I’m going to start a business next.’ He said, ‘Well, at
your own expense, then.’
Interviewer: He refused to support you any more?
Bruce: That’s it, and so…
EXERCISE 2
Extract 1
John: So, Diane, have you finally decided to come to Hong Kong with us for a holiday? Your flight’s
reserved, we need to confirm by Wednesday.
Diane: Well, John, I’ve given it some thought and it’s pretty tempting, but it’s not that long since I last
had a break. I don’t know – I still haven’t come to any definite decision.
John: Oh, come on, what’s the problem? I know it may seem extravagant, but you told me you’d just
been given promotion and a rise, so that can’t be an issue, surely.
Diane: Well, it’s not so much that as my work situation. Taking another break so soon after my
promotion might send out the wrong message to my team, although I think my line manager would
understand.
John: Of course – she knows you’re a good worker.
Diane: Hmm. Well, I guess I could empty my in-tray in time – my workload’s not too heavy just now. It’s
just that I haven’t had much time to get the office organised, and to be honest, one of my colleagues
would probably be only too glad to use my absence to further his own position.
John: Hmm, sounds pretty nasty to me. Are you sure you want to carry on working there?
Extract 2
Man: I hear Joe Schultz’s new film The System isn’t going to be given the ‘12’ certificate he wanted.
Woman: So youngsters can’t see it? I’m not surprised. The reviewers say that watching the first few
minutes is pretty unpleasant – there’s a lot of aggression.
Man: That didn’t seem to worry the authorities. Nor did the strong language, although there’s quite a bit
of that, but they couldn’t take the little bursts of rather tense music – makes your hair stand on end,
apparently!
Woman: Interesting. Anyway, I don’t think the storyline’s really suitable for young
children – too much delving into people’s thoughts and motives.
Man: True. You’ve read the book?
Woman: Oh yeah. A great page-turner. I had no idea what the final outcome would be.
Man: Oh, I guessed. I loved the way the author uses dialect all the way through – a bit out of the
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Woman: Takes some getting used to, but it’s decidedly different. You can’t really believe the Prince is
based on a real person from the past, though, can you?
Man: I thought he did come over well, considering how little we know about people from that era.
Woman: We’ll go and see the film, won’t we?
Man: Definitely.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Ingrid Chapman, tell us about this new office block.
Ingrid: It has enormous glass walls, because transparency was paramount in the brief I received from my
clients – that gives it an airy, spacious feel inside. The three floors all open onto a cavernous central hall,
and this is what’s crucial for me – there are so many reasons for people to meet there: have a coffee,
gossip, discuss formal matters in an informal setting. I force them to do these things by locating most of
the services they need in this area – toilets,
photocopying, cafe, etc.
Interviewer: Forgive me, but there’ll be company executives listening who are saying,
‘That’s all very well if you’re able to design a brand new building from scratch.’ What would you say to
them?
Ingrid: Commission me to come up with a scheme for a replacement, for example? No, seriously, it
doesn’t require much, a little creativity, that’s all. Under-used areas can be refurbished, art hung on the
walls, that sort of thing. And a questionnaire can be sent to all personnel to get their reactions to any
changes you’ve made. Good morale facilitates productivity.
EXERCISE 3
Extract 1
Eva: So the thing is, you aren’t getting on with our new boss then, Colin?
Colin: She’s just so different from her predecessor. I mean, John used to get us all involved in the
decision-making process.
Eva: No chance of that with Sandra, you think?
Colin: No way! OK, I grant you, she’s got some good ideas – she moved pretty fast to get us all to agree
to individual job descriptions and a proper timetable, none of which we’ve had before and we should
have had. And she’s done her homework on the staff profile, our qualifications and past experience and
so on…
Eva: As you’d expect.
Colin: Yes. But she doesn’t seem aware of the atmosphere here – it’s the way we’ve always done things.
I just don’t feel I can work with her.
Eva: I’d say she’s just finding her feet in a new job, and she’ll soon get the hang of what we’re all about.
Let’s focus on how much she’s already achieved. I wouldn’t let anybody tell you it’s a trivial issue,
though. If she doesn’t settle in soon, and you still have issues with her, I think you should approach her
direct.
Colin: OK, thanks, Eva.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Show me how you do it. I see you’ve got trays and trays of pieces here.
Expert: Yes, you have to find the bits that match, so I’ve put all these tiny pieces into colour groups – red
here, blue over there. It’s a bit like doing a jigsaw, really. But at least there are no stains to remove. All
we have to be aware of is the enamel on the surface; that we have to lift all the dirt and grease off. If
you don’t, the pieces won’t go back together again, it’ll fall apart. If the cracks are going to show, they’ve
got to be really clean, otherwise they’ll look messy.
Interviewer: You want the cracks to show? Some people would say that’s terrible, for such a valuable
vase.
Expert: Well, yes, they probably would, but something that’s broken so extensively as this, if you cover
all the cracks up you’re really making a fake. Being broken is something that’s happened to it in its

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lifetime, which should be recorded, and as long as you can restore it so that aesthetically it still works, it
shouldn’t matter that the cracks show…
Extract 3
Woman: This is such an unusual place because there’s no public transport to the island – I came here in
your fishing boat. The result is a paradise – rich marine life, unspoilt countryside. Yet you want to let the
world in – you’ve campaigned to start up a ferry service from the mainland. Why?
Man: There isn’t enough work to support our population. If visitors come to the island – and we have a
lot to offer them – catering for them would create employment. Also our young people would be able to
commute to jobs on the mainland.
Woman: Don’t you think it’s risky? These beaches could be covered with holiday houses and hotels;
your visitors will complain because there are only a few shops. And a ferry service won’t be enough.
People will want to fly here, and you’ll have to build an airport. No more paradise!
Man: We can build a small airport without impacting on our quality of life [6] here, and it makes
economic sense. Our shops can cope with more people on the island – it’ll be seasonal anyway. And why
would we build on the beaches? It’d be crazy.
Woman: I hope you’re right.
EXERCISE 4
Extract 1
Woman: So is John Elliott a player you like to watch? I’m guessing he is.
Man: Yes, he’s excellent, very technical, clever with the ball; he’s good at passing the ball to the team’s
top goal scorers and setting them up to shoot. When he sees that final pass coming as he approaches
the goal area, you get a lot of players who get there but then freeze and get erratic, but he’s not one of
them. So if you can get him backing up the strikers, he can be the key player.
Woman: And what about their new man, Danny Martinez? Seven million they paid for him, they’ve
probably overpaid. Not very cautious given that they’ve paid out this kind of cash before and it all went
wrong, didn’t it? They’ll want to hang on to him come what may, at that price…
Man: Yes, well, it hasn’t broken the bank, but they were overcharged for him. They probably thought he
was a good investment – he’s young, they can sell him on if things go wrong, for more money. They got
their fingers burnt once over a similar deal, and they won’t want it to happen again.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Congratulations, Deanna!
Deanna: Thanks very much.
Interviewer: Were you surprised to win?
Deanna: Completely!
Interviewer: Now you’re trying to save a wildlife habitat that stretches 3,000 kilometres along the coast
of South America. Aren’t you daunted by that?
Deanna: It’s a huge task but we’re basically getting the message out: the local fish population – mainly
anchovies – are being forced into colder water because the sea’s warming up. Of those left, 85 per cent
are being scooped up by industrial fishing trawlers so predators like seals, penguins and dolphins – and
local fishermen – are left with very little. Now this is the richest ecosystem in the world. If it’s starting to
be affected, you know there must be a tremendous impact on other less robust systems.
Interviewer: So what’s your relationship like with local fishermen?
Deanna: They used to regard me as an enemy because I used to work for seals, and as you know,
fishermen and seals compete for the same fish – but now they see me as an ally trying to control
industrial fishing.
Interviewer: What – stopping them scooping up anchovies?
Deanna: Not stopping them, but getting them to catch less; which means the local fishermen can catch
more of the large fish that feed on the anchovies.
Extract 3

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Neil: Today we’re talking about books that have inspired us, books that have made a difference to our
lives. Each of my studio guests has chosen what for them was an important book and first off we’re
going to hear about Monica Naim’s choice. Monica.
Monica: Thanks, Neil. Well the thing about this book is that when I first discovered it in my late teens –
it was a birthday present, if I remember correctly – I’d never really read anything like it before. I’d heard
about it from a friend, and I’d got the idea it was something special and so I asked for it specifically. I
think I was about 17, so I was a fairly late developer as a reader. I hadn’t been particularly interested up
till then, but it suddenly sort of took a grip. I think it was the strangeness of that book; I mean it’s the
one I’d take with me to a desert island because it’s just got everything in it and it just opened me up to
what pleasures there are in description, in narrative, you know, in ideas.
Neil: Well, we’ll discover exactly which book my next guest has chosen…
EXERCISE 5
Extract 1
Gordon: Annabelle, you saw A Secret Place the other day, didn’t you?
Annabelle: I did. Interesting, but the action’s very patchy – it falls apart here and there.
Gordon: There isn’t a thread you can follow all the way through [1], is there? I can see what the
director…
Annabelle: Yoshiki Muto.

Gordon: Yeah. I can see what he’s trying to do – it’s a complex layering of detail, but it just doesn’t come
off.
Annabelle: Well, it’s a brave attempt. It works for me. Although I have to say, I still really prefer the
original novel with its very delicate touch.
Gordon: I think, though, the film version taps into our emotions more. But what about the ending?
Annabelle: I’d have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t been for that powerful, pounding rock music, which was
obviously supposed to emphasise what was happening on screen. But I did like the way I was on the
verge of laughing, then almost crying, for that final two or three minutes. Very well done [2].
Gordon: Not that it really appeared to sort anything out for our hero.
Annabelle: Presumably he’ll turn up in a sequel soon, with the same old dilemma!
Gordon: Look forward to that then!
Extract 2
Interviewer: So, Alan, what’s the best way to get good public architecture?
Alan: Well, people don’t want to be challenged by architecture, that’s understandable in a way; I’m not
one for saying necessarily that public buildings are an appropriate area where people should have a vote
to say that this building should go ahead or not. Many of our greatest and most glorious buildings
wouldn’t exist if that happened. Take St Paul’s Cathedral in London – at the time, people were very
antagonistic and hated its horrid foreign style. Now everyone adores it; it’s a landmark, a sort of emblem
of the city, that wouldn’t have existed if public opinion had had its way.
Interviewer: Do other countries do better than us – either in terms of imagination, or in terms of the
kind of decision-making we’ve been talking about?
Alan: Yes they do – in recent history anyway. The Netherlands is a prime example. A number of the
world’s leading architects happen to come from there, but the important thing is that the people are
very knowledgeable; they learn about architecture in school. They do have a good record for town-
planning as well, but that’s hardly the point.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Why did you decide to publicise climate change in this way?
Lorna: Well, I was really upset about some countries’ failure to sign up to pollution agreements; it felt
like the science wasn’t getting through to the politicians, so I decided to look into what I personally
could do. That led me to dream up a cartoon character called Mr Carbon – we all know somebody like
him – he’s climate-ignorant and makes no effort to save energy. Factories are the obvious villains, of
course, but I couldn’t do much about them.

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Interviewer: So are we going to see him in scenes like we get in disaster movies?
Lorna: That’s pretty unlikely – you need a lot of alarmist nonsense to make a box office success. But the
reality certainly gives cause for concern.
Interviewer: So you came up with the idea of another cartoon character, Mrs Green.
Lorna: Yes – now she pays attention to little things, uses low-energy light bulbs, doesn’t leave the TV on
standby, goes in for recycling. And, can you believe it, as well as making a huge difference to her climate
impact, she’ll save one hundred and fifty thousand dollars over her lifetime.
Interviewer: That’s incredible!
EXERCISE 6
Extract 1
Woman: Sorry to be late. This club’s a bit off the beaten track, isn’t it? Thought I’d never find it!
Secretary: You don’t have an in-car satellite navigation system, then?
Woman: A sat-nav? No I don’t, though I suppose I should invest in one. I often have this sort of trouble –
getting to a town’s a piece of cake, but after that… well. It’s not so much the cost – my friends all have
them and tell me the price is going down all the time. But electronic gadgets aren’t my favourite things.
Fine when they work; nightmare when they don’t. A little black box could hardly have been less useful
than my map today, though!
Secretary: I wouldn’t be without mine now. I won’t try and blind you with science, but I do know quite a
bit about satellites. The technology’s amazing – position can be pinpointed to within a metre. Of course,
accuracy’s down to the mapping companies who do the updating work, but new models come out all
the time. It’s entirely up to you of course, but imagine never having to ask for directions again!
Woman: That’d be good – I’ll certainly give it some thought!
Extract 2
Paula: We both grew up in a fairly rough part of the city, Mike, so I’m assuming you used comedy to
keep yourself safe – and popular in the long run!
Mike: Well, in school, as you know, if you could run fast or make people laugh, you had a very good
chance of surviving and emerging unscathed. I wasn’t a fast runner, so I exploited comedy to avoid
unwelcome attention. It seemed to come easy, and it worked.
Paula: Your type of comedy is less spontaneous than reflective. You see things from your own point of
view, don’t you, and create a world for other people to see. Whereas I explore the world that’s already
there, which most people don’t see.
Mike: Don’t you think that the key to achieving what you want in life is the realisation that it’s going to
be tough, and the sheer persistence that gets you there in the end?
Paula: What you have to have is massive self-confidence. With that you can do anything.
Mike: And being specific about what it is you want to do.
Paula: Ah well, that goes without saying.
Extract 3
Woman: If you’re English, a nice sad nineteenth-century romance is very useful if you’re on holiday and
you get attacked by homesickness because it conjures up dripping English autumn days perfectly.
Man: I always take something by this chap who’s written a number of books about the criminal
underworld of Boston, Massachusetts, which is hardly culturally or geographically a place that I know,
but I find it fascinating. There’s no doubt about it if you compile, as I do, dictionaries of slang for a living,
one is drawn inevitably not alas to the great classics, who are on the whole rather light on slang, but to
someone like this fellow who has this amazing ability, far beyond quoting, of writing 20 or 40 pages of
dialogue in almost incomprehensible slang, which I have the most wonderful time going through. I find it
very alluring.
EXERCISE 7
Extract 1
Woman: So, did you go to that play in the end?

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Man: I did, and it was an interesting experience.
Woman: Really? Why’s that?
Man: Well, for a start, the theatre was in Pelham Street. Now I’ve walked up and down that street many
times, but I never realised there was a theatre there.
Woman: No, nor had I. Has it always been there?
Man: Apparently. Anyway, it took a bit of finding; you go through a doorway, down a passage – you
know the sort of place. And when you do get inside, it’s really surprisingly intimate – I shouldn’t think it
holds more than about forty people.
Woman: And the play?
Man: Well, the show was a big success up in London last year – huge audiences – but unfortunately only
a handful of people turned up for last night’s performance. I’m not surprised though – it was rather
amateurish. They could have done with using at least a bit of make-up and learning their parts better.
They just about managed to cover up their mistakes by really throwing themselves into their characters.
Woman: Yes, I know what you mean.

Extract 2
Reporter: Excuse me, sir, could you spare a couple of minutes before the conference to answer some
questions?
Man: Well, if you could make it really brief.
Reporter: You’re always identified with ‘responsible’ tourism – how do you feel it’s different from
normal tourism?
Man: Our trips have unique themes including culinary, spa, angling, indigenous peoples – plus those
specially designed for groups with special needs. But it’s the tour organisation that really differentiates
them from others. Take the Himalayas: several of our outdoor staff work only six months of the season
but are well paid all year round. Then we always use solar powered equipment and make our
environmental commitment known to every tourist…
Reporter: Do you believe people are willing to pay more for your kind of tourism?
Man: Not in the main, but I think they will be once their thinking is revolutionised: they just become
aware of the global consequences of the choices they make. Then I think they’ll see that the future of
the world depends on justice in commerce and industry and they’ll dig deep in their pockets – I must
rush now, but come to my session!
Extract 3
Laura: So, Steve, what about next week’s all-important match in Melbourne – Australia versus Wales?
The teams are pretty evenly matched, aren’t they?
Steve: Australia are certainly the favourites, but whether they’ll pull it off and by what margin is
anybody’s guess.
Laura: A real cliff-hanger probably. And there’s huge interest in this match, but I understand the Welsh
supporters haven’t been allowed enough tickets.
Steve: As usual, the authorities have given priority to the home fans, but that seems eminently
reasonable to me.
Laura: There’s concern, isn’t there, about two of the Welsh players who are currently recovering from
injuries?
Steve: Yes, and there’s still doubt about whether they’ll play, but even if they don’t, I reckon it’ll be a
gripping match to watch. And to anybody listening who’s lucky enough to have tickets, Melbourne’s
filling up with school groups and junior teams because the Australians are very keen to encourage their
youngsters to take up rugby, so better make sure you book somewhere to stay right now. And, of
course, you could consider becoming a member of the Welsh team’s fan club, although it’s a bit late to
take advantage of their cheap flight deals.
Laura: Well, thanks for that, Steve.
EXERCISE 8
Extract 1

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Interviewer: Why did you decide to include a painting by a famous politician?
Man: I wanted to remind viewers that amateur painting has its own purpose, that scores and scores of
people paint for themselves as that politician did. And I liked his daughter’s explanation that it helped to
give him some respite from the pressures of public life. I thought that was important to focus on, so that
we weren’t just talking about painters as professionals who had really cracked it and who taught us
things about their technique.
Interviewer: You draw yourself, don’t you?
Man: Yes, I’ve always liked it though I’m afraid my attempts aren’t very good, so I keep them purely for
my own amusement. The intensity of drawing is always a great thrill, i can’t say it’s a relief, which it
obviously is for some people. You have to use your eyes to look more carefully at a scene than you
would if you were just out for a walk, or even if you were taking a photograph as an amateur. There’s
something about drawing that forces you to see things and think about them
Extract 2
Interviewer: I’ve only ever been up in a plane once where the pilot turned the plane over in an aerobatic
display and I’ve never been more scared or felt sicker. Do you get that sinking feeling too, Gina?
Gina: I’m very fortunate in that I don’t. This came as a pleasant surprise to me because I do get terribly
seasick. I find that what is routine and what I’m used to doing isn’t frightening. Learning some of the
new manoeuvres, though, can be quite daunting because this is a single-seater plane. So, the first time I
do anything new, I’m on my own except for the guidance of my coach, who’s on the ground.
Interviewer: What’s the real thrill for you of performing these difficult manoeuvres in competitions?
Gina: It’s exciting of course, but ultimately the reward comes from knowing that you’ve done it with
precision. It involves an unusual combination of mental preparation, physical preparation and skill. It’s
not as difficult as you might first think to fly the sequences of movements. What is difficult is doing it to
a high enough standard to avoid the faults the judges are looking out for.
Extract 3
Fran: I’m exhausted. It took an hour to drive five kilometres! George: You should do what I do and use a
motorbike.
Fran: Is it much quicker?
George: It is a bit, because you avoid some queues. The great thing is, when I put on my helmet, I’m
shut away, you know, in my own little world and that means I arrive feeling quite calm. I started riding a
motorbike where I grew up in the country because there weren’t any buses.
Fran: So is that your most prized possession? I was asked recently what my favourite thing at home was.
As a chef I imagine yours is something in the kitchen, your cooker perhaps.
George: The one at the restaurant is fantastic because it was specially designed for me. It’s hard to say
here. My family love the kitchen table, where they chat for hours. Given the late hours I work, I hardly
participate in that. No, my workplace is so hot and sticky that what I long for is a shower when I get
home. I feel the stresses of the day disappear with the water. Odd thing to choose, isn’t it?
EXERCISE 9
Extract 1
Man: As a kid, I was always messing around on computers, so ended up doing a degree in computer
science. Though strictly speaking it isn’t necessary for this job, it did mean I could walk straight into it.
What companies want is people who can come up with ideas. I get a buzz from that side of it [1], even
when it’s hard. It’s a fluid working environment, so hours aren’t fixed and can be long in relation to the
salary. I generally like to work on my own, but a web designer can’t produce stuff in a vacuum, because
by its very nature it’s a collaborative effort.
Woman: I didn’t go the university route but worked part-time with different companies and made loads
of contacts who’ve come in handy – got my foot in the door so to speak – then I got a full time job offer
that got me on the ladder. It wasn’t easy, and considering what you put in the job’s not the big earner
that people assume it is – at least not at the beginning! [2] I supplement it by writing reviews of other
people’s sites, but I enjoy the flexibility. I like working with other people, and that’s key.

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Extract 2
Woman: How long have you been cycling then?
Man: I started road cycling when I was six, and got hooked immediately. I’d practise sprinting between
two streetlights over and over. I’ve always been competitive, and I work harder than anyone else. If I
don’t win I need to know why. I copy the person who beat me. I won’t stop till I’m better than them. The
stiff competition in the cycling world is what drives me. You’ve been to the velodrome, haven’t you?
Woman: Yeah. The track itself is amazing – such a steep angle and the bikes have no brakes. If you stop
pedalling it stops! Although I’m not such an experienced cyclist as you, I jumped at the chance to try it
and, wow! From the position of the start line that steep slope looks like a mountain! I was told the faster
you go the safer you are, so I pedalled like mad, and managed one lap. I kept going and started to enjoy
it; so much so I forgot to pedal, and immediately fell off!
Man: So you’ll go be going back?
Woman: You try stopping me!
Extract 3
Interviewer: So, Roy, what do you want to talk about on the programme today?
Roy: I want to talk about bees. Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem, they’re friendly creatures and
they’re declining in numbers. For what it’s worth, my own experience is much like that of other callers
who’ve reported near normal numbers of bumble bees but virtually no honey bees. I think there’s a
distinct lack of wasps, too. I’m at a loss to know why, though I’ve read interesting articles about the
domestication of bees and poor practices of modern beekeepers, but it seems clear that we can’t
discount what others see as the number one culprit – the overuse of chemicals by gardeners.
Interviewer: So what do you suggest gardeners do, Roy?
Roy: Well, the best thing anyone lucky enough to have a garden can do is provide a ‘bee friendly’ area.
And the good news is bees prefer ‘lazy’ gardeners, which I suspect is most of us. A wild garden providing
a natural habitat is the way forward. Choose what you plant carefully. It doesn’t have to be hard work
but it could make a big difference! And buy your honey from local suppliers you know and trust.
EXERCISE 10
Extract 1
Girl: Hi Tom, so what d’you think of the concert?
Tom: Well, I’m not complaining because at the end of the day, I had a pretty good night out. But it’s just
as well that we got a hefty student discount on the tickets. I went with high hopes of seeing something
really spectacular from the headline band, and it just didn’t happen. I reckon I was taken in by all the
hype; you know, the big build-up in the media and everything.
I should know better than to take any notice of it, but you just get swept up by it, don’t you?
Girl: Well, you may but I don’t. I hadn’t actually read or heard much about the gig at all, so I didn’t go
with any preconceptions. If you ask me, you’re being rather hard on the main band. I mean, they were
way better than the support act. If the idea was to get us in the mood for what was coming later, then I
think they should’ve been presenting us with something a bit more exciting.
Tom: Well, who knows? Perhaps they were chosen because they wouldn’t upstage the stars.
Extract 2
Gary: There’s been lots of speculation in the press this week surrounding the fate of United manager
Tony Benson, with some people calling for his resignation after a run of poor results. Talking to people
at the club this week, I sense that there may actually be little substance to stories that his job’s on the
line. Indeed, a number of people I spoke to were keen to defend his record, feeling that he was
focussing the players on a more stylish, entertaining brand of football. They thought it would only be a
matter of time before we begin to see this reflected in the results. What’s your take on all this, Suzie?
Suzie: Well Gary, the club’s invested in promising players. The potential’s there, it’s just a question of
whether Benson’s the man to pull it all together and make it work; and time’s running out for him. I’ve
been talking to some of the players and I’d say there was a groundswell of support in the dressing room
for Benson’s general approach. But I think the results speak for themselves and, these days, if a top-

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flight football team isn’t getting points, then something’s got to change and that comes back to the
manager because that’s his responsibility – getting the results.
Extract 3
Man: So what did you think of it?
Woman: I could stand and look at his work all day long. I know it’s a strange thing to say about
sculpture, but it really makes you think, you know, about more than just the art – about aspects of life
itself [5].
Man: But this was a strange exhibition. They seemed to have gone for quite an eclectic selection [6].
Was it meant to be representative of something? I never read the notes they hand out because I prefer
to come to my own interpretation.
Woman: Yes, so do I. Actually, I think the unifying theme was the material. I mean, all these pieces were
made out of the same three raw materials – wire, glass and straw. Not all his work is, of course, but I
guess it’s a phase he went through; part of his development as an artist. I’d have been happy to have
seen some of his other stuff actually.
Man: Yeah, more of a range. Well you can’t fault the museum, can you? I mean, any exhibition they put
on is worth going to. It’s such a brilliant space and you never know how things are going to look because
the presentation’s so imaginative, isn’t it?
Woman: There’s nowhere quite like it really.
EXERCISE 11
Extract 1
Interviewer: Charles, you’re retired now, but you actually designed some 600 household products, and
all of them as an employee of a company. Did it ever frustrate you that you were making products
without your name on?
Charles: It was standard practice. Besides, I needed a weekly pay check before I needed recognition.
Nowadays, you can find designers’ names on products, but it tends to be high-profile people seeking
attention. And then there’s celebrity endorsement and all that. People think that if they buy a soccer
ball that has the name of some famous player on it, they’re going to score wonderful goals… a ploy to
get you to buy products.
Interviewer: What advice do you have for young designers?
Charles: What they do will affect so many people during the lifetime of that product. That’s serious
stuff. So the product should do what it’s supposed to do and be pleasing to have in your environment. I
tried to make things appear as if they just belong. They don’t need to scream. I don’t think a nutcracker
needs to look like an elephant.
Extract 2
Man: Well, what a one-sided interview that was – and with one of my favourite actresses. She hardly got
a look-in! Noone would’ve learned anything new about her, especially as it was the usual, tired stuff
being put to her. When she did try to steer things in a different direction, the interviewer just ignored
her and kept going on about himself.
Woman: There aren’t many really good interviewers, are there? The best ones really take on board
what’s being said and follow it up. This guy showed no imagination at all, just covering old ground, and
targeting obvious stuff. No wonder he couldn’t get interesting responses.
Man: And Celia could’ve told a few stories… she’s had a fascinating life. I know some film actors are
perhaps a bit tricky – some seem afraid to be themselves, like they’re desperate to keep up their public
image at all costs. And of course many actors are interviewed just after their last film’s been released,
and are understandably keen to publicise it, but interviewers often concentrate on other superficial
stuff. I love it when actors are challenged a bit, and the interviewer dares to deviate from the set script,
putting them on the spot!
Extract 3
Man: Hmm, I must get down to some work.
Woman: Is getting started tricky for you?

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Man: Well, it can take me a while to enter into a creative state, but once I’m there, I lose awareness of
absolutely anything but the ideas flowing – don’t even perceive my fingers typing.
Woman: Really?
Man: Hm, and I’m then extremely resistant to interruption, so I’ll shout at anyone who knocks at my
study door. My defensive reactions are subconscious, though, and usually I don’t even recall them. The
family’s used to it and I’m certainly not upholding it as a model of good behaviour, but sometimes it’s
necessary.
Woman: Yeah, once I’m immersed in creating something, I usually maintain that state until I complete
the work. And I don’t even feel as if I am working. But if I look at the task ahead of me, all I tend to see is
the effort involved!
Man: Right. And what about stuff you wrote ages back? Do you return to it for inspiration?
Woman: Well, I find I can’t always recreate the mindset I had during its creation, because inevitably I’ve
since broadened my perspective on it. I can see why I used the inspiration I did, but obviously
experience changes you.
Man: Yes… absolutely.
EXERCISE 12
Extract One
Man: You know, I think privacy as we used to understand it is a thing of the past.
Woman: Why do you say that? Not another scare story in the papers? They’re always full of fanciful
tales of doom and gloom…
Man: You may laugh, but after what happened yesterday…
Woman: What did happen?
Man: I was discussing the whole issue with an uncle of mine, who’s just turned 85. He proudly informed
me there couldn’t be any data relating to him on the internet because he’d never used a computer.
Woman: Well fair enough, surely?
Man: Well, I only spent a couple of minutes searching and was still able to come up with quite a bit of
stuff about him
Woman: Really? That’s a bit worrying. I bet he was taken aback, wasn’t he?
Man: He was stunned… speechless – asked me to remove it all from ‘cyberspace’. But it doesn’t work
like that, of course. What’s there, is there.
Woman: That does seem an erosion of privacy. Mind you, come to think of it, I suppose there’s also
been some information available on us all for a while, way before the days of the internet.
Man: But it wasn’t so easy to get at. And the situation’s not going to improve.
Woman: No… I guess not. Quite the opposite.
Extract Two
Woman: Did you know that over seven million tonnes of food is thrown away every year in the UK?
Man: Really? That’s one big garbage mountain.
Woman: Yeah – and it costs huge amounts to collect, not to mention clogging landfills and producing
vast amounts of C02 emissions.
Man: There’s not much we can do about it though, is there?
Woman: Well actually, restaurants are some of the worst offenders. That’s why we adopted responsible
practices in our kitchen a while back. We’ve only got one garbage bin now despite having 100 seats, but
two compost machines for food waste.
Man: Oh come on! We’ve got four or five bins and only 60 seats at our place.
Woman: Look, anything is possible. Our place is unrecognisable from what it was like last year, as is my
boss – can’t think what’s got into him! Thinking ahead for a change!
Man: Hmmm. OK – maybe I’d better talk to my head chef. Might be fighting an uphill battle though.

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Woman: There’re other things you can do too – my chef’s obsessive about portion control, keeping an
eye on how much food customers leave, and altering dishes accordingly.
Man: Don’t you get complaints about small servings?
Woman: Granted, we don’t do enormous portions – but if occasionally someone wants a little bit more,
we’ll give it to them. It works – honest!
Man: Don’t suppose we’d go far down that road.
Extract Three
Man: Do you know anything about that experiment the lecturer was referring to?
Woman: I’ve looked it up – it involved this Frenchman spending two months in a cave under a glacier –
in 1962 I think it was. He was 100m below ground, and because he had nothing to track the time – no
clock obviously, no sun either – he got disorientated. When he came back up, he thought he’d been
down there for just 34 days. Very revealing for the researchers, who’d anticipated it would go the other
way. Various stuntmen and entertainers have done similar things to push themselves to extremes – but
then of course they’ve always got an eye on the headlines they’ll create.
Man: That’s fascinating.
Woman: Yes, it’s all about temporal landmarks – they’re really important. If you build more of them into
your life, you’ll experience time differently. Days and years won’t be one undifferentiated mush.
Temporal landmarks help stop the feeling that time’s whizzing by. I bet, for example, you retain
memories of events that happen near the beginning or end of term – they’re kind of landmarks – better
than those that happened somewhere in between.
Man: So?
Woman: So establish a few landmarks – remember to mark special events like birthdays properly with
some sort of celebration.
Man: That advice I’m happy to follow.
EXERCISE 13
Extract One
Man: How are you finding the teaching course, Susanna? You seem to have been making good progress
so far.
Woman: Yeah, I’m feeling more confident in front of my students. But I worry about whether they’re
inspired by the activities I do with them sometimes. I guess this is a wake-up call for me – that it’s just
too much to expect them to be as excited about Maths as I am.
Man: I think when a teacher’s motivated, that can’t fail to make an impression. You can’t expect your
students to love a subject unless they can see you love it yourself. Sure, your students will think you’re
crazy if you talk about Maths as if it were a spectator sport, but in the end your attitude will rub off on
them.
Woman: I was reading about some techniques I could try in the classroom to keep their interest levels
up. I’ve been trying to get some more hands-on stuff into my classes – you know trying things out in a
practical sense rather than sticking to boring theory.
Man: Sounds like an excellent idea. Students always appreciate a teacher who goes the extra mile for
them.
Extract Two
Sam: So you decided against the concert then?
Ella: I thought about it, but I don’t really think it’s possible to get caught up in the atmosphere when all
you see is someone pressing buttons on a computer and tinkling the keys on a synthesiser. That’s all this
electronic music amounts to.
Sam: Admittedly the performer was dressed all in black and she looked like a scene shifter. And the
visuals were limited – there was a screen, but just with some sober animations on it – trees, castles,
rippling water – that sort of thing.
Ella: That says it all.
Sam: But does that matter, if the music’s brilliant? And it certainly was. But that’s just my opinion.

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Ella: Tell me something about her then.
Sam: Well – she’s a student – studying comparative literature I think. That seems to give a bit of
substance to her music, make it thoughtful and rigorous.
Ella: Sounds overly serious!
Sam: Well, it all paid off. When the audience got more lively towards the end, she kept it steady and
didn’t change pace to build excitement. And she didn’t seem to need the pyrotechnics and lasers that so
many techies rely on.
Extract Three
Man: I heard that people from your office were planting trees last week. What’s going on?
Woman: Sustainability’s the new watchword these days. Last year we concentrated on cutting down on
our use of paper, and providing raw material for more also seemed a good thing to do.
Man: And easier too – your office is next door to a big forest, isn’t it?
Woman: Yes – very convenient. We’re really keen on the idea that the company should be seen to
identify with a certain set of values – and I think we were doing just that out there in the woods. So
much internal conflict seemed forgotten too – which may not last, of course!
Man: What else have you done?
Woman: It’s not just the trees of course – we’ve cut down our carbon footprint and reduced staff travel
by encouraging remote working and flexible home working, so people have been understandably
pleased about that. And word seems to have got round because the last bunch of job applicants were a
very noticeably higher calibre than previously- and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just a coincidence, though
it wasn’t part of our original thinking. There are certainly plenty of happy clients, but they’ve always
been keen on the idea of supporting community projects through our efforts!
EXERCISE 14
Extract One
Woman: You’ve read this new book on competitiveness. Is it all about striving for success, or a defence
of the Olympic ideal? You know – taking part is more important than winning.
Man: Well, yes, that’s a view often ridiculed certainly, as some sort of excuse for underachievement. I
mean if you run a race, surely it’s because you want to win, and we’ve all got used to the belief that
competition is a necessary force for good in the modern world. It’s a deeply ingrained idea. It was a bit
of a shock to read that competition impoverishes people rather than enriching them. There’s the mind-
boggling range of convincing examples you’d expect in support of this theory, and the whole thing is so
engagingly written that the most hostile opponents would have trouble refuting it.
Woman: Well my experience of competition in the business world is nothing but negative. I’d say that if
you put competition at the heart of your strategy, far from achieving the desired outcome of boosting
efficiency by pitting staff against each other, the effect is rather to encourage people to focus exclusively
on immediate success… not on sustained growth . Let’s face it, the best businesses are the ones that
look ahead instead of limiting their perspective in this way.
Extract Two
Woman: You know how colours affect us, like red and yellow are often used in fast food restaurants… in
the decor I mean.
Man: Yeah, yeah – they say they excite the brain, which tells you you’re hungry – that was in the papers
years back.
Woman: Well, OK, but now there’s a suggestion colours may help us memorise better.
Man: Oh, come on. Influence appetites and emotions, maybe, but…
Woman: No, really – this teenager did some research.
Man: Teenager?
Woman: Yeah I know- but it does seem sound. She took a page of words and printed them in so-called
‘warm colours’…
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Woman: Well, reds, oranges, yellows, etc. – and gave people two minutes to memorise the words. She
followed that with pretty complicated maths equations to stop them reciting the words in their head.
Man: Hmm… OK, sounds good so far…
Woman: And they were given a minute to record how many words they could remember. And then the
same procedure with words printed in cool colours like green and blue.
Man: And?
Woman: Overall warm colours were memorised better and cool colours worse.
Man: She’s followed a thorough process, then. But is there any existing published data that backs up or
contradicts these claims?
Woman: Well, not as such, I grant you. Though it sounds like she’s onto something to me. But only time
will tell.
Extract Three
Woman: I watched ‘How Musical are you?’ on TV last night – they were saying how listening to music is
a really complicated process. The scientists were really going to town on it!
Man: I thought so-called musicality meant being able to play a musical instrument, but that seemed to
be just one aspect of the whole programme. It’s odd, people who’ve never set foot inside a music
classroom might still have a musical ‘ear’ without realising it!
Woman: You mean, everyone has an innate ability to make sense of music? I’m not sure but it brings an
enormous amount of pleasure.I really don’t know how, but it changes my mood when I’m down – which
never ceases to amaze me! But they missed a trick in not clarifying why some people are avid listeners
to music and others not.
Man: They seemed more interested in the possible effect of music on musicians’ brains. I didn’t know
that people who’ve had music training in childhood find long-term positive effects on their verbal
memory- who’d have thought it.
Woman: I don’t remember words whatever I do! You know that online quiz they mentioned – that might
be worth a go. It’s about how engaged you are with music, you know, whether it’s part of your identity
or not.
Man: So you might be more musical than you think!
EXERCISE 15
Extract One
Woman: I dread the experience. It’s the anticipation that gets me. Once I start I’m usually OK but
beforehand I panic. I think that my mind will go blank and everyone will stare at me. This happened
once. I was trying to speak and listen to my own voice at the same time but all I could hear was silence. I
seemed to have forgotten how to speak and I felt my face go red. I fumbled for my notes and simply
read out the rest of the speech.
Man: Well, fear of public speaking, or what is called ‘representational anxiety’, is normal. If you think
about it, public speaking is not a natural thing to do. You don’t want to humiliate yourself in front of
people. But with preparation and practice, even the most stressed public speakers can conquer their
fears. There are very few people who are quick, intelligent and extrovert enough to just get up and
deliver something spontaneously. If you’re giving a speech, you must carefully plan what you’re going to
say.
Woman: I find it also helps not to think of yourself the whole time. Once you shift the focus on to the
people you are speaking to, you feel the pressure lift.
Extract Two
Man: As part of a huge publicity drive in the 1920s and 1930s, London Transport launched a poster
campaign to persuade people to move into the suburbs and make use of the rapidly expanding
Underground network. Tell us about that, Zoe.
Woman: Well, the posters were used to encourage people to live in and enjoy the quiet and domestic
life of the suburbs and travel into London for work and leisure. They helped to shape people’s
perceptions and expectations of London and what it meant to live there in a period of great change. As

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well as persuading people to move out to the suburbs, there was a drive for people to make use of the
city at a time when the leisure industry was expanding.
Man: What kind of things did these posters show?
Woman: Well, despite the fact that many women worked in the 1920s and 1930s, the posters depicted a
domestic ideal, with pictures of women playing with their children in the park and preparing meals for
their husbands’ return. More and more people were becoming middle class and part of this ideal was
that the husband would go to work and the wife would stay at home, even though this was not the case
for many families.
Extract Three
Man: Of course, the cliche is ‘don’t believe everything you read in the papers’, and I guess there’s some
truth in that. But in many ways that’s not backed up by the evidence. Look at all the times when stories
would never have come out if it hadn’t been for the much maligned news media.
Woman: I don’t know about that. Personally I’m always pretty sceptical when it comes to all these
revelations. I mean, look at medical stories. It sometimes seems as if every day brings some new health
scare – you mustn’t eat that, you should drink that – and most of these things you never hear about
again. I think it’d be really interesting to find out how many of these stories actually turn out to be true. I
reckon they just write these things to create a stir. I mean, lots of them are in the entertainment
industry really, aren’t they? ‘Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story’ is the joke in the trade
isn’t it? I think lots of them live by that.
Man: I don’t think that’s really fair. There are lots of investigative journalists who’ve done the public a
great service by exposing things they otherwise would never have known about.
EXERCISE 16
Extract One
Jane: Well that was certainly original. I’ve seen quite a few of his plays and that one was completely
different to the others.
Bill: Yes, it was quite dark, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s because he’d become aware of his own mortality when
he wrote it.
Jane: That’s right. He’d been seriously ill, hadn’t he?
Bill: Apparently it was touch and go for a while.
Jane: Mind you, the main character was hilarious, in a sick kind of way. I think that kind of humour
would go right over most people’s heads.
Bill: Well, I don’t know how he’ll follow up that story. He really seems to be a different character to
when he first started to write.
Extract Two
Interviewer: The old mantra about the three most important factors for a shop’s success – location,
location, location – has been borne out by a new mathematical model. It could help retailers pinpoint
lucrative sites for their stores. Physicist Pablo Jenson is here with us today. Good morning Pablo.
Pablo: Good morning. We have analysed location records for more than 8500 retail outlets in Lyon,
France. We found that the shops formed clusters, with shops such as butchers and delicatessens in one
group, for example, and laundromats and bookstores in another. Stores of the same group seemed to
attract each other, while stores from different groups repelled each other.
Interviewer: You’ve created a theory haven’t you?
Pablo: Yes, that’s right. It’s a theory of magnetism to calculate a number, ‘Q’ for shops, based on the
proximity of attractive and repellent businesses in the area. ‘Q’ represents the suitability of a site for a
particular type of shop: the higher the number, the better the site. We tested this theory with all of the
bakeries in Lyon between 2003 and 2005. During that period, 19 bakeries shut down and their average
‘Q’ was lower than the average for all bakeries. Actually, the Lyon Chamber of Commerce is using the
model to help entrepreneurs identify promising new premises
Extract Three

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Speaker: For a beautiful alternative to the bigger Spanish coasts, try the Costa de la Cruz, ‘the coast of
light’. The government of Andalucia is taking care to protect this little known region, which has earned
the nickname, ‘the Spanish Algarve’ thanks to its charm and proximity to the Portuguese border. A
property in the area represents a sound investment because homes are cheaper than their Portuguese
equivalents, and land laws mean that it will never become so built up that it is spoiled. National parks,
farmland and beautiful beaches all abound, and Chris Mercer of spanishproperty.co.uk says that more
homes will be built soon. ‘More land will have to be made available for development soon because
demand is quite simply starting to outstrip supply’, he says. ‘The government is being careful to preserve
the natural beauty and character though, so your investment should stay strong.’
EXERCISE 17
Extract One
Man: One of my colleagues is always complaining about his job, or moaning about our boss, or the
company’s management. It’s making other team members dissatisfied because some of his complaints
are true and it’s created a very negative atmosphere. I’ve tried to speak to him about it, but now he just
thinks I’m trying to be the boss’ favourite.
Woman: Well, I’m not trying to question your analysis of the problem or your motives for trying to sort
it out, but I do suspect you’ve gone about trying to solve it in a way that casts you, however unjustly, as
a bit of a self-important bore. Why don’t two or three of you put your complaints to your boss in a fair
and constructive way? And, it might be a good idea to involve your unhappy colleague in that.
Extract Two
Janet: I’m glad you persuaded me to go to the recruitment fair. It was nothing like I thought it would be.
Paul: Yes, it was really interesting.
Janet: I was quite sure that I would become a translator before I went to the fair because I was just
about to finish my degree in modern languages. I wandered up to a stall that was promoting careers in
Public Relations, just to have a nose really. I was blown away. It seemed perfect to suit my skills and
interests.
Paul: Well, I’d been looking for a job in the papers and in employment agencies and I didn’t find
anything at the fair, but one of the employees I spoke to there passed on my CV to the marketing and
business development manager and a week later I was invited for an interview. I couldn’t believe my
luck when they offered me the position.
Extract Three
Man: It’s not just a job for men you know and it’s a career where you can achieve promotion very
quickly.
Woman: What’s the salary like?
Man: Typically, graduates who join can expect to earn? 28,000 within a year and achieve two
promotions within the first two years. Of course, you can join up straight from school but it will take you
longer to get to a higher position such as management.
Woman: To be honest, I didn’t think I could ever do your job. You’ve got to be out of your mind to want
to work with dangerous people like that, plus I wouldn’t have the courage to face violent criminals. You
never know what they are going to do next.
Man: Well, I just wanted to be sure of a career where I could do well without having to wait until I was a
lot older.
EXERCISE 18
Extract One
Man: Recently, a whole pile of my clothes got chucked out after a flatmate mistook them for rubbish. I
was so upset!
Woman: Oh no!
Man: Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that they held any particular significance for me or had any great
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Woman: Tell me about it! Even if there’s, like, something I need to get, my trick is to put it off till the last
possible moment, so I’ll have less chance to waste time on such a pointless activity. Maybe that’s why
people think our clothes are rubbish!Man: Yeah. But what gets me is that I reckon for a lot of people the
clothes aren’t the point. It’s more about the act of shopping. It’s heavily linked to wanting to be the
centre of attention, to clothes giving them a strong personal identity or whatever. It’s basically a way of
showing off. Too much importance is placed on clothes and appearance, but it’s not, like, a political
issue for me. It’s just a game I’m not prepared to play.
Extract Two
Woman: So was music in the blood, Max?
Man: Do you mean did my mum play the piano? Hardly! But I was well into the charts as a boy. In all
honesty, I didn’t think that being number one was something completely unattainable. I had a cockiness,
but kept it hidden from my peers. I’d hear a hit record and think: ‘I could do that.’ From the age of
fourteen I fired off loads of demo discs I made in my bedroom. I had a folder where I kept all the
rejection letters I got from record labels. It might’ve helped to share that with somebody – but I didn’t. I
just sulked, then had another go.
Woman: Then when you did get a contract …
Man: … I was vindicated. And it was a good deal in most respects too. Funny thing was though, if after
my first hit I thought I’d made it, I was soon disabused of that notion. If I was to add up everything I’d
done up till that point – school, working in a factory, learning the guitar, making the demos – it doesn’t
compare. I’ve had to put in a lot of effort to capitalise on that breakthrough, I can tell you.
Extract Three
Man: It’s really interesting because I didn’t dance when I was in Hong Kong. I didn’t pick up dance till I
went to high school in the US, and that was probably, like, when I was 16 years old. Again, I didn’t do it
consciously. It wasn’t, like, something that I was waiting to do. One time I danced in a culture show, and
the dance director at my school, she asked: ‘Are you interested in really training? Like, you seem to have
talent.’ And at that point, I was really not interested. I was an athlete, a three-season athlete. I was
more interested in, like, hanging with the guys and doing what I was used to. But when I saw her
perform, I was blown away and decided it was for me, and at college I majored in it. I trained classically.
Woman: That’s so unlike my experience. I mean, I was dancing almost before I could walk and, although
I wouldn’t say I was pressurised into it, my parents were like behind me every step of the way. So much
so, that I was on the point of rebellion on more than one occasion – though I’m happy to say that
particular storm never actually broke!
EXERCISE 19
Extract One
Woman: I’m always getting asked where I get the inspiration for my art. I find that a tough one to
answer, don’t you?
Man: Well, I think the answer’s got to be there. The real issue is whether you’re ready to open up to that
extent. Because whether you think in those terms yourself or not, it’s hardly an easy thing to articulate.
Woman: You seem to manage.
Man: Well, take my most recent work. In that, I’ve been looking at the idea of the annual holiday. I was
struck by the thought that it was just another thing that we interact with. In the various brochures and
pamphlets, destinations are similarly grouped together in digestible sections, making them objects of
desire that we use in our leisure time.
Woman: You mean, the gloss and the allure of the images, tempting us to make the visit?
Man: Not just that. It’s also that from there it’s a short step to believing that we’re leaving the pressures
of the everyday behind us, when in truth there’s a difference between the actual experience and the
sanitised reality printed on the page. And that’s what I want to look into.
Extract Two
Man: I started out working for a radio station as a studio assistant and because of my love of electronic
music, I tried to push it at the station. I pretty soon got my own show because I was pretty

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knowledgeable about the music scene. It wasn’t easy and I soon discovered that I wasn’t really cut out
to be an interviewer – so I wasn’t comfortable in the role. But once I started doing club DJing, I knew I’d
found my real niche.
Woman: Yeah. The connection with the crowd can sometimes be incredible, can’t it? I’d never have
thought that playing records could ever become my life. But here I am, making a living out of it.
Man: And not a bad one either. I play lots of different styles because I like them all in their own way. But
it really depends on the party and the crowd – you’ve got to give them what they want.
Woman: No two sets are ever the same in that respect and that’s the beauty of it. I’m all for being
flexible, but I don’t play tracks which I don’t like myself. I reckon that’d be selling out.
Man: Really? I’m happy to go with the flow actually.
Extract Three
Man: Now Teresa, you’ve just opened your own cake shop in town. Was it always your ambition to be a
cake-maker?
Woman: Hardly. I left school at seventeen with little idea of where I was heading. I took a job in an
Italian restaurant because there was little else available. I had no experience but I found I loved the buzz
of working in the kitchen, so I decided to go to catering college. Although I’d never actually done any
before, I focused on cake-making there because it’s quite artistic, but also scientific. Getting the right
ingredients in the right measures is not something you can leave to chance. I like that idea.
Man: So how’s the cake shop going?
Woman: Well, after the initial blaze of publicity, you get really worried about whether you’ve made the
right decision. People come and try your stuff because you’re the new shop on the block but do they
come back? I had lots of expert advice about pricing and the range of goods to offer, but most of it
turned out to be pretty wide of the mark. So I’ve learnt to follow my instincts, and fortunately we’re
beginning to see a firm customer base emerging as a result.
EXERCISE 20
Extract One
Man: Good flight?
Woman: Hardly. Air travel just goes from bad to worse. It wasn’t even a particularly cheap flight, but
there was precious little leg room, it left half-an-hour late and I wasn’t offered as much as a glass of
water.
Man: Well it was the national airline, so you always pay a bit over the odds, but there are actually fewer
seats, so it shouldn’t be cramped. But since the budget airlines started competing, nobody’s offering
free refreshments on these short routes anymore. Anyway, the pilot obviously made up time. I’d only
just turned up and there you were!
Woman: I expect you were late too! But there’s an inordinate amount of queuing up and hanging about
involved in air travel. I know you’re going to say that’s because of security and so it’s not the airline’s
fault.
Man: I wasn’t actually. The thing to do next time is steer clear of the big hubs. You could have flown into
the little airport down the coast even with this airline; lots less hanging about there. There’s not the
volume of passengers and despite the drive, it’d still be quicker than the train.
Woman: It’s not this airport I’m complaining about. It’s the one I’ve just come from!
Extract Two
Man: From what I remember of science at school, it was mostly a case of ‘listen and make notes’ with
the odd set-piece experiment.
Woman: That’s not science. I mean, all subjects are knowledge-based to a certain extent, but with the
internet, kids can access information directly without the mediation of the teacher. What they can’t
manage to do on their own is question it – have a critical view of its accuracy and usefulness. That’s
where the teacher comes in.
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Woman: And kids need to know how to use science in real life. So these days, it’s all about putting
information in context. Like, I did a lesson last week where they worked out how much energy is
expended to make, buy and watch a television. I mean, there’s an immediate relevance there.
Man: So do kids everywhere do that now?
Woman: Well it’ll be good if they could. I worked out this scheme of work with some colleagues from
other local schools. It had official backing, but only time will tell if it gets adopted on a wider scale. But
we had a meeting last week to see how it was going and nobody wanted to change anything!
Extract Three
Man: And Fiona, you’ve been listening to the first album from a new band, new to me at least, called
The Forerunners. Where did they come from?
Woman: Well, basically Tom, what you’ve got here is four young guys from rural England who debut
with a record that’s effectively home made – not a studio recording. That’s incredible in itself. But what
really blew me away was the fact that it’s unaffected in a way you’d scarcely think possible. They make a
gentle sound, and even when doing crescendos they never get harsh – never seem to fall in love with
their own vibe. Added to that, they seem to use a whole range of instruments without ever drawing
your attention to the fact.
Man: Yes I agree, and they keep the interest going from one little jewel to the next, there are almost no
duds here. And, although there are echoes of all sorts of people, it wouldn’t be fair to make
comparisons. I mean, what makes them kind of unique is that they don’t seem to be trying to sound like
anyone but themselves.
Woman: Quite. Highly recommended!
EXERCISE 21
Extract One
Juliet: Hi, Adam. How are you finding living in Montreal?
Adam: Hi, Juliet. It’s a great city and I’ve got some good buddies now, guys who live on our street and
work colleagues. Are you going to the street party to celebrate Canada Day?
Juliet: You bet. It’s a real important thing for me and my family; celebrating it is an annual ritual for us.
Adam: I’ll see you there then; it’s going to be a beautiful day. That sudden shift from biting cold gales to
beautifully balmy evenings when you can sit outside in a T-shirt until midnight is what drew me to
Montreal. It’s awesome!
Juliet: I know what you mean. So are you staying on in your apartment? I think you said you only leased
it for a year?
Adam: Yeah. It makes sense to rent in Montreal – you don’t have to fork out a fortune for a place
downtown.
Juliet: You can get a deal because there’s so much on the market.
Adam: And getting a place of my own is, well, financially out of the question. But quite a few people on
our street are moving out, right?
Juliet: Yeah, like my sister’s moving again. She wants to be more in the centre.
Adam: Oh, OK.
Extract Two
Halim: Hi, Soraya, how are you getting on with your essay on plastic?
Soraya: Hi, Halim. Well, the background reading’s fascinating. OK, there’s been a complete U-turn in the
views expressed in journals and even in the popular press in recent years. But actually, when I read
about the 1950s, I get that at that time plastic was seen as revolutionary. You could make anything from
it, from bottles to roofs; it was so strong and durable. What was not to like? Whereas now, it’s seen as a
real threat to the planet.
Halim: Yeah. I’ve read a couple of really thought-provoking articles and I watched the documentary our
tutor recommended, you know the one called Plastic Madness.
Soraya: Oh yeah, any good?

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Halim: Wildly over-dramatic at the end, in my view. To be fair, it did go into the pros and cons of the
uses of plastic, and it covered the main ideas we’d discussed in class, but to close with statements like
Most species of fish will be extinct within ten years was way over the top.
Soraya: And did it go into issues like plastic causing air pollution?
Halim: It did, yeah.
Extract Three
Ed: So, Jane, I’m the parent of a sixteen-year-old, Max, and my wife and I are constantly wondering if
we’re doing the right thing.
Jane: The teenage years are critical in human development, Ed. Parents are programmed to care for
their child, but in evolutionary terms, the infant must develop, mature and eventually separate from
them. And although the majority of parents cope admirably with their child becoming a monosyllabic
and at times difficult teenager, few know when to let go. At the same time, parents do generally adapt
well to having to provide more emotional support than physical support.
Ed: With Max, we’re going through things like, he seems reluctant to wake up before ten.
Jane: Some schools have changed their timetable to take into account the fact that teenagers perform
better later in the day.
Ed: Not his, unfortunately. The good thing is Max and I are both seriously into gaming and I’m fascinated
by how so many games promote universal values like hard work pays off, collaboration works better
than confrontation and thinking things through is to be admired. I encourage Max to invite his mates
round to our house because I want him to build up a circle of good friends who share common interests.
EXERCISE 22
Extract One
Nathalie: David, have you read this article about watching thriller movies?
David: No, is it good?
Nathalie: Yeah, well, I’d heard before that when we’re scared, our brains pump out the feel-good
chemical dopamine, like when we’re in love with someone. But look at this: it says that families who like
nothing better than sitting together on the sofa in front of a good thriller movie are the most contented.
That’s news to me! Most people I know who adore thriller movies, appreciate them for the really good
plot lines. You know, the stories are so rational in many ways that some otherwise very sensible people
are drawn into them.
David: For me, when I watch horror movies, it’s like going on a mini vacation.
Nathalie: Do you mean you can wander off into a fantasy world?
David: More that it gives me ideas, even about how to solve issues at work. And I’ve heard other people
say the same.
Nathalie: Really? I could understand it if you said something like it’s the suspense, the special effects or
the thrill you get from watching them.
David: Well, it may sound odd, but they leave me feeling more excited about possibilities to do with
daily life.
Extract Two
Woman: I’ve just been reading an article about building skyways in cities. Their effect on commerce,
particularly shopping, can be considerable because when they link the upper floors of buildings, shops at
ground level don’t get passing trade any more. Some even go bust.
Man: Absolutely. If people are walking about on the third or fourth floor, they won’t make a special trip
down to the ground level to buy something, and that’s why so many stores are having to close, even
when they’re in prime central locations.
Woman: I read they’re also struggling because people are buying online. And with online shopping,
deliveries are becoming more efficient. Plus centres are suffering because all those large shopping malls
on the outskirts of towns were built to attract people by offering a range of activities, like movie
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Man: I think the two things are different. But you know the arguments – skyways mean pedestrians can
enjoy walking through a city in any weather, and there’s less crime than at street level. But, to my mind,
getting people away from congested roads and sidewalks has to be the winning argument. Skyways have
the potential to bring life back to city centres. After all, the centre is where people not only want to shop
and work, but live too.
Extract Three
Sophie: So, Gary, you’re working on public information campaigns, aren’t you?
Gary: Yes, Sophie, I’m actually employed by the government and the thinking behind the public
awareness campaigns this year is all about encouraging participation in sports at school.
Sophie: Yes, I saw the very successful TV campaign showing the importance of doing sport for healthy
growth in primary-aged children. But isn’t that something that the public already knows?
Gary: Most people, yes, and that’s why we started with the health aspect. What’s less well understood,
and what I want to get across, is how sport helps children mature socially by teaching them about
teamwork and about fair play. I’d rather not focus on the discipline aspect – the idea that sports are all
about learning sets of rules and sticking to them.
Sophie: Interesting. I’m looking into the effect of sport on learning performance. My first study followed
a group of children from primary school right through to university level. I tracked various things like
how often they were absent through illness, and their grades, and what stood out was that those who
did sport were much keener to try to get good grades in maths, English, those kinds of subjects.
Gary: And did they achieve that?
Sophie: Not always, but the aspiration was there. And for me, that’s what really counts.
EXERCISE 23
Extract One
Lisa: So, Peter, how’s your work on generating electricity from the oceans going?
Peter: Good, thanks, Lisa. As you know, my interest is in generating energy from ocean tides. And it’s
easy to talk about the obvious benefits to potential investors, like there are always tides, twice a day, so
as an energy resource it won’t run out. But that’s not, as I see it, the main attraction – it’s the fact that
wherever there’s a large body of water, you can generate power. Energy won’t need to be imported
from abroad.
Lisa: That’s a really important point. And I think I’m right in saying that a whole range of new devices
have been developed to harness energy from the sea, like giant blades, and paddles to power turbines?
Peter: Yes, they’re the next big thing.
Lisa: But I’m still a firm believer in land-based wind turbines as a clean, renewable energy resource. The
company I work for doesn’t use off-shore wind turbines. To me, the possible damage to marine wildlife
that can occur with generating energy from the ocean, by whatever means, cancels out any benefits.
Extract Two
Man: Hey, Nancy, you know a lot about plants – what do you think about urban foraging?
Woman: You mean people going out and picking fruit and things from public areas in cities? Well, I can
understand the appeal. It’d barely make a difference to your weekly outlay on food, but I think people
are so fed up with mass produced processed food, they like the idea that it’s sure to be natural – free of
artificial chemicals. But I wonder how many people these days venture out into parks and forests. I
mean, loads of city kids have never been into the countryside.
Man: Mmm. You know there’s talk of letting people pick the fruit and nuts from the trees in the park on
Main Street? Just in the area where all the trees are, so the flowers and bushes don’t get trashed.
Woman: Well, as long as they offer classes so that people know what things are. Apparently, there are
some blueberry bushes in the park.
Man: Really? I didn’t know that. But good point – you also wouldn’t want anyone getting sick because
they’d eaten something poisonous! It’ll be interesting to see how many of my neighbours have heard
about foraging and might do it!
Extract Three

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Man: Freya, do you think it’s about time we did something about booking a summer holiday?
Woman: Absolutely! It seems ages since last year’s holiday. Are you happy to laze about on a beach
again?
Man: Perfect. Living in a city and having hectic jobs, that suits us, I think. And I’d rather not do anything
too energetic like a walking holiday. Remember when we went with your sister?
Woman: Yeah, exhausting! And we don’t want to book so late this year that we end up in a grotty hotel
like last year. We’d even saved enough to stay in a four-star hotel, but they were all booked.
Man: I know. Anyway, we’ve got those new suitcases, so packing will be easy. We always seem to take
more than we need, but I’d rather it was that way round than be short of things.
Woman: And you never know exactly what the weather’s going to be like, so you’ve got to cover every
eventuality! Have you still got that list you downloaded from the internet so that we don’t forget
anything?
Man: It’s saved on my laptop. Do you want to look at it now?
Woman: Why not? I love planning everything way ahead of time; it’s part of the fun.
EXERCISE 24
Extract One
Nina: My view on giving praise to children is simple: approach it in the same way you’d approach rock
climbing – with great caution! One false move or word can be disastrous. A child may get the wrong
message if you say, for example, that poor homework is wonderful, and as for a rock climber, well, if
they are led to believe that they are accomplished sportspeople when they aren’t, they may find
themselves in difficulty and their confidence in themselves and their instructor could be severely
damaged. However, unlike rock climbing, how to praise a child in an effective way takes only moments
to grasp.
Dan: I agree. And you hear so much what I call ‘empty praise’, when parents look absent-mindedly at
their child’s painting and just say ‘wonderful’. It should always be followed up with ‘because’, for
example, ‘it’s full of detail’. Children have very different personalities, but I’ve found this sort of praise is
always effective, no matter whether the child is naturally self-assured or not. And when children have
really worked hard at something, it’s up to adults to make the praise meaningful.
Nina: That’s very true.
Extract Two
Martha: Hi, Robert, are you still thinking about taking up golf?
Robert: Hi, Martha, yes, and the more I think about it, the keener I am on the idea. I know it gives you a
good workout and I really need that ’cos in my job I sit in front of a screen all day long, but I’d always
thought of golf as kind of dated, you know, not cool! My uncle used to play at a very exclusive golf club
and had to wear what I thought were ridiculous clothes to play in. Perhaps that’s where I got my
prejudiced ideas from.
Martha: Probably! Well, I’m up for it if you are. I don’t have a lot of extra cash to splash out, though.
Robert: You wouldn’t need to if we joined the city golf club. I know what you mean, though, some
private golf clubs can be pricey. I’ll ask a guy I know at work about the city club – he’s a golfer.
Martha: Actually, they’re having an Open Day when potential members can go along. I saw a poster
somewhere. We could check it out then. Interested?
Robert: You bet!
Extract Three
Man: That was the best festival ever. I mean the line-up of bands was awesome, sure, but it was the
organisation as well that was first class.
Woman: I’ve never been to a festival where the sound was so good. Do you think it was because they’d
invested in the best sound system?
Man: I think that’s a given at a music festival – well, the best they can afford. What I noticed was the
layout of the whole area. That had been landscaped to get the best acoustics. The importance of that

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often seems to be ignored or perhaps forgotten. I also liked the way the sound engineers checked
everything and wouldn’t let the band start until they were happy that everything was OK.
Woman: That local band held their own against some big international names.
Man: Yeah, I didn’t know anything about them until I heard someone chatting about them while I was
getting coffee.
Woman: And I only realised they were worth seeing when I went to the stage where they were playing
and a huge crowd was gathering. I was so pleased for them, especially when one of the big names later
said how great they were.
EXERCISE 25
Extract One
David: Hi, Jeanette. How’s your guitar practice going?
Jeanette: Hi, David. Well, I only started learning to play the guitar about six months ago and I’m making
progress, although it doesn’t always feel like that. I have good days and bad days. I wonder if great,
famous guitarists have the same problem getting motivated some days. My mum keeps telling me to
practise more, so I looked up on the internet what to do to spur myself into action and yes, there’s loads
of suggestions. But after a few futile hours browsing, I realised just reading about it wasn’t the solution!
David: Still, I really think playing the guitar’s a great pastime and it’s certainly doing what I hoped it
would for me. On my college course we were getting into some really complex work …
Jeanette: Oh, yeah, you’re doing maths, right?
David: … and I was finding it hard to keep focused when I was doing these really long calculations, and I
heard that learning a musical instrument can help with that.
Jeanette: And does it?
David: Without a doubt. Some of my classmates were getting a bit anxious about college work and I’ve
recommended learning an instrument to them.
Extract Two
Man: Our company’s working on some exciting new initiatives, all connected with roads – for example,
making a road surface that contains magnets so that electric cars can be charged as they’re driven along
the road. This means electric car drivers won’t have to stop and recharge their cars on long
journeys. Personally, I’m involved with harnessing the wind that cars generate as they go along. This can
be used to generate the required electricity for street lamps. A different department is looking at
painting road markings with special paint that gets energy from the sun during the day and then the
road markings light up at night.
Woman: We’ve been having some problems with getting the paint to shine to the same brightness along
all the roads. But what interests me is that we can even put solar panels on roads – yes, roads made of
glass! But don’t worry, they won’t be slippery. Drivers can still stop quickly, even when travelling at
around 125 kilometres an hour. These ‘glass roads’ would also be perfect for countries with cold
climates, as they can be used to melt snow and ice. That would be a real bonus!
Extract Three
Woman: I teach sociology and this week I’ve been talking about disagreeing. It’s fascinating because I
have students from all corners of the world in my classes and we’ve had some in-depth discussions
about who you can express disagreement with and when – you know, what do you do if you’re talking to
someone older than you, for example. And actually, that’s all quite straightforward: societies have
‘rules’ for that. But what makes it tricky is that disagreeing stirs up feelings, from anger to
embarrassment.
Man: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Like you, as a sociologist I’ve thought about
disagreeing from an academic perspective. Interestingly, though, when someone at work disagreed with
my proposal to introduce flexitime, I realised there’s a great difference between theory and practice. I
almost immediately started steering the conversation to something else. I didn’t do it in a rude way, I

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just kept redirecting the conversation. Afterwards, I had no idea why I’d done that because I’m sure my
colleague and I could have discussed it and come to a practical solution.
Woman: You were probably worried about being in an ‘awkward’ situation with a colleague.
Man: You’re right.
EXERCISE 26
Extract One
Lizzie: So, have you come to a decision about taking up the keyboard or the drums? I have and I’ve
bought a great keyboard!
Raphael: I’m still not 100% sure, to be honest. We’ve got a huge garage at home that’d be easy to
soundproof, so my parents don’t think the noise will be a problem whether I go for a keyboard or
drums.
Lizzie: Are they sure about that?
Raphael: Well, anyway, on keyboards and on an electronic drum kit there’s a knob to adjust the sound
level. But the deciding factor might be that I’d struggle to take drums anywhere. I don’t have my own
car. But going back to what I was saying, our garage would make a great rehearsal space for any
instrument. Why don’t you come over to see it?
Lizzie: Sounds fantastic! Listen, if you went for the drums, we’d be able to practise together at your
place. And my brother’s got a van, so if we got to the point where we played in a group, he’d be happy
to give us and our kit a lift. What do you think?
Raphael: Oh, I don’t know. I want to make sure I decide what’s best for me because neither instrument’s
cheap to buy.
Extract Two
Man: Hi. Are you meeting our new Mexican clients next week?
Woman: Yes, I’ve booked the main board room for the meeting and I’m taking them out to the Clayton
restaurant for lunch.
Man: Wow! That’ll make a great first impression. The atmosphere’s perfect for a formal lunch.
Woman: Yes, I always feel a bit tense when I meet clients for the first time, even when I don’t need to
put my best business suit on and I just meet them in my office – you know, a much more informal
meeting. I always feel as though I’ve got to watch what I say and I end up not being my usual candid self.
Man: But it’s interesting how relationships change over the years. Do you remember Lilly Douglas? We
all thought she was wonderful when we first met her, but when she became the chief accountant, she
became very distant …
Woman: Absolutely, to the point where she was almost unfriendly. That can happen. It just goes to
show that there’s a very clear line between business relationships and the genuine closeness you get
with your friends.
Extract Three
Woman: Nick, did you put that chocolate dessert on the menu of your restaurant – the one we often
had when we were kids?
Man: Oh yeah, we’d been talking about that, hadn’t we, and I thought: why not? I found the recipe and
did a trial run to see what it was like. The recipe’s quite complicated because there are several stages
you have to go through, but anyway, I managed it.
Woman: And?
Man: Well, the honey flavour came across well, but, apart from that, it was heavy, sticky and sickly.
After a couple of spoonfuls, I binned it. I didn’t even dare tell the other chefs it’d been a family favourite
– I just very quietly got rid of it and hoped no one would notice that I’d made something so foul.
Woman: Oh no! But it’s great that you have a job where you can do that, just decide to try something
out. And I think it’s funny that you didn’t want the others to know about it. I’m intrigued about that
sense of rivalry that seems to go through everything you do at the restaurant. And I think good chefs
need that drive so that they keep experimenting with new techniques and ingredients.

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EXERCISE 27
Extract 1.
Drivers will soon have to pay tolls to use Britain's roads or face sitting in endless traffic jams, it has been
claimed. A study by Bob Aldridge, a former British Airways chief executive, has suggested that the move
would cut congestion in half. Bob, is this true? Yes. Unless steps are taken, Britain will soon grind to a
halt, with 13% of traffic reduced to stop-start conditions by 2025, and there will certainly be more
overcrowding on trains.
So are you in favour of road pricing? Yes, good transport has a direct effect on the economy, but money
raised in any road pricing scheme must be ploughed back into transport network improvements. Air
travellers should pay the full environmental cost. I don't believe there is much evidence in favour of
building new high-speed rail lines. Longer trains would be more cost-efficient. Now you will hear the
recording again. Drivers will soon have to pay tolls to use Britain's roads or face sitting in endless traffic
jams, it has been claimed. A study by Bob Aldridge, a former British Airways chief executive, has
suggested that the move would cut congestion in half. Bob, is this true? Yes. Unless steps are taken,
Britain will soon grind to a halt, with 13% of traffic reduced to stop-start conditions by 2025, and there
will certainly be more overcrowding on trains. So are you in favour of road pricing? Yes, good transport
has a direct effect on the economy, but money raised in any road pricing scheme must be ploughed back
into transport network improvements. Air travellers should pay the full environmental cost. Oh, yes, I
think the senior travellers should pay the full environmental costs of their journey, to make the industry
sustainable. But I think there is still a case for expanding airport capacity. I don't, however, believe there
is much evidence in favour of building new high-speed rail lines. Longer trains would be more cost-
efficient.
Extract 2
Don't you worry about travellers' shipping? I lost count of the number of people who told me it was
dangerous for a woman to be travelling on her own. As someone whose only experience of crime was
being mugged outside my own home in London, I never felt that I was taking any extra risks. Then again,
I was always extremely careful. Plus, it seems that believing the best about a place and its people is
often the very thing that helps keep you safe. But what about what happened to you in Thailand with
the military coup? That must have been terrifying. Well, I know the media showed chaotic scenes with
both tourists and locals looking frightened and bewildered. But by the following morning, it became
clear that the coup had been bloodless and well-organised and as coups went, it almost wasn't exciting
enough. I was fascinated by the whole event, so I didn't really have time to freak out. You ought to go to
Thailand. It's a wonderful place. Now you'll hear the recording again. Don't you worry about travelling
on your own abroad? I lost count of the number of people who told me it was dangerous for a woman
to be mugged outside my home in London. I never felt that I was taking any extra risks. Then again, I was
always extremely careful. Plus, it seems that believing the best about a place and its people is often the
very thing that helps keep you safe. But what about what happened to you in Thailand with the military
coup? That must have been terrifying. Well, I know the media showed chaotic scenes with both tourists
and locals looking frightened and bewildered. But by the following morning, it became clear that the
coup had been bloodless and well-organised and as coups went, it almost wasn't exciting enough. I was
fascinated by the whole event, so I didn't really have time to freak out. You ought to go to Thailand. It's
a wonderful place.
Extract 3.
You're the camera expert. What kind of camera should I buy for my trip to Africa? Well, that depends
why you're taking photographs. But it's not simply to have something to laugh over in the pub after. And
I'm not bothered about creating the greetings cards that I used to do, although I suppose I might show
them somewhere one day. It's more important to me that I have images to keep that reflect my own
personal experience of the places. I'm not interested in taking typical pretty tourist shots. Well, you
probably need a good quality camera for what you want to do. There are so many on the market now, it
can be difficult to choose the most appropriate one. If you just wanted to take snaps, you'd only need

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one of the smaller size digital cameras. On the other hand, a good digital camera with all the extras will
satisfy your requirements. You don't need a big bulky film camera these days to get a professional
image. Now you will hear the recording again. You're the camera expert. What kind of camera should I
buy for my trip to Africa? Well, that depends why you're taking photographs. But it's not simply to have
something to laugh over in the pub after. And I'm not bothered about creating the greetings cards.
important to me that I have images to keep that reflect my own personal experience of the places. I'm
not interested in taking typical pretty tourist shots. Well, you probably need a good quality camera for
what you want to do. There are so many on the market now, it can be difficult to choose the most
appropriate one. If you just wanted to take snaps, you'd only need one of the smaller sized digital
cameras. On the other hand, a good digital camera with all the extras will satisfy your requirements. You
don't need a big bulky film camera these days to get a professional image.
EXERCISE 28
Extract One
Woman: So is the course living up to your expectations?
Man: Yes, I have no real issues with it really. I wasn’t sure initially whether I’d like the fact that there’s this
mixture of classes with the group and one-to-one sessions online with the tutors, but actually I’ve come
round to thinking it’s the real strength of the course, don’t you agree?
Woman: Undoubtedly. I mean, that’s why I went for it in the first place. It’s nice to meet the staff and
other students, but it’s the personal attention by email that you want. Although I must say, some of the
staff are more helpful than others.
Man: But the group lessons are useful too.
Woman: Oh yes. Some people complained about the fact that you get face-to-face feedback on project
work in them, that it wastes class time, but I have no problem with that. But the sessions are the only
chance we get to use some of the more sophisticated software. I mean, they did make it clear in the pre-
course information that we’d only have limited access to that, but I still think it’s a shame we can’t come
in and use it out of class time.
Man: Yes, I agree.
Extract Two
Woman: So basically, as a seasoned traveller, you must have got packing off to a fine art.
Man: I’m not that great at travelling light, simply because anything can – and often does – happen, and I
like to feel fully prepared. So I’m a complete sucker for gadgets and gizmos, and I have a bag-load of stuff
that I take with me. I’m still looking for the ideal rucksack or carry-on actually. And, of course, I’ve always
got my iPod for those long days on the road when you don’t know how long you might be hanging around
waiting for transport.
Woman: So what have you learnt from travelling?
Man: Well, I guess it’s a cliché, but the more you see of other cultures, the more you come to appreciate
your own. I don’t mean that I miss the comforts of home or anything like that. More that I’ve got the
opportunity to travel and see the world because I’ve got folks back home in a wealthy western culture to
pick up the tab if things go wrong. I mean, without that – and a lot of people you meet don’t have that –
would I ever have had the courage to do half the things I’ve done? I doubt it somehow.
Extract Three
Woman: Now, you’ve come in for a lot of stick, haven’t you, in response to your latest album?
Man: Everyone went nuts about the cover. We knew it might cause some controversy, but I didn’t think
it was that outrageous. We just had this slogan which read ‘No Cover Art;’ like the Beatles did the white
album all those years ago – the first one with no picture on the cover. But predictably, I guess, we got all
these irate bloggers going overboard in dismissing it and one newspaper included it in a list of the worst
album covers ever. Actually, I reckon it’s quite endearing the way it was done.
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Man: Well, there is a certain snobbery out there and I reckon these are people who don’t regard us as
cool or whatever. But I don’t think that’s what lies behind it actually. I reckon the problem stemmed from
the fact that we were misquoted in the first piece written about it. It said that I wanted to kill album
artwork, which is just so far off the mark. What we actually wanted to do was draw people’s attention to
it. For them to have a look round and see that it’s mostly rubbish.
EXERCISE 29
Extract One
Presenter: Tea at the Grand Hotel in London is served in the Green Room, a light, airy space with luxuriant
plants, fountains and a panoramic view over the city. Dress is strictly smart-casual. There are four sittings
for tea, the first at 11.30 in the morning and the last at 6.30 in the evening. Despite the high price tag,
tables are booked up months in advance. Tea includes a selection of sandwiches – crustless of course –
scones, cakes and pastries. There are 12 types of tea on offer, including the Grand’s own superior
afternoon brew. David James has been manager of the Green Room for 15 years. David, tea at the Grand
is very popular, isn’t it?
Manager: Yes, indeed. When I first started, we had 80 to 100 people a day. Now it’s twice that number.
Presenter: And are they all wealthy people?
Manager: Not at all. I can tell as soon as someone walks in what type of person they are, where they are
from, why they are here. Some people who come here have lots of money and some don’t. When
someone has saved to come here as a treat, I like to make a special effort to make them feel comfortable.
Extract Two
Woman: Possibly one of the most talked about pieces of research recently published has surprisingly little
to do with anything of particular importance. Entitled ‘The Case of the Disappearing Teaspoons’, the study
proves that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon with no apparent explanation.
Man: Yes, a research team in Australia placed 70 numbered teaspoons in various tea-rooms at their
Institute and tracked them over a period of five months. Eighty per cent disappeared for good. It was
calculated that they had a half-life – that is, the length of time it took for half of the teaspoons to disappear
– of 81 days. If this is a global phenomenon, then 600,000 teaspoons are disappearing each year.
Woman: So where have they all gone? Practical and mundane explanations include people taking them
home or losing them under piles of work. However, with such a large quantity of teaspoons being lost
each year, many people feel these explanations are simply not sufficient.
Extract Three
Woman: One thing that’s quite interesting about popular music is how derivative and imitative it is. You
see, most of the innovations that took place in it had happened by the end of the 1970s, and after that
it’s all been copies of what had already been and gone.
Man: That’s just not true. There’s lots of really innovative new music going on now and there always will
be. Every new generation develops its own styles and sounds that are unique to it.
Woman: No, they just think that’s what they’re doing. Actually, they’re just recycling old things. Granted,
they sometimes do that very well, but it’s all been done before. The truth is, it’s new for them but it’s not
actually new.
Man: But the fans, the public, they don’t see it that way do they?
Woman: No, they buy the music and they go to concerts by the latest successful or fashionable bands and
singers and they think it’s all being done for the first time. It’s only older people like me who spot the
similarities with music from the past. Like a lot of things, influences pass from one generation to another,
and it’s not always a conscious thing.
EXERCISE 30
Extract One

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Man: I’m a terrible ham when it comes to reading to my kids. I like to do all the voices so I look for books
with lots of dialogue and different characters. My kids are totally unimpressed and probably prefer having
their mother read to them. She reads in a very soothing voice, and she’s not trying to act or show off. It
reminds me of listening to my own mother read when I was a kid.
Woman: Yes, I always claim that I read aloud to our three children for their benefit. That it’s good for their
educational development to sit and listen last thing at night. That somehow, through hearing a story, their
creative juices will be stirred. But it is, of course, for me. Nothing can beat the delight of disappearing into
a new thrilling chapter. And I bet I’m not the only parent who, having turned out the light and said
goodnight to their grateful offspring, sits down on the stairs and reads on to find out what happens next.
Extract Two
Host: Lots of people set up their own businesses and in many cases they do so in partnership with a friend,
rather than going it alone. The reasons for this often aren’t purely practical, for example because of
complementary skills and experience. It often comes down to fear. Starting and running a business on
your own can be a daunting prospect. No wonder people often prefer to share the burden with a friend.
It doesn’t always go according to plan, though, as Dean Ransom discovered when he started a business
with a friend. What went wrong, Dean?
Man: Well, I’d known my partner for years and I felt we had a lot in common. What I hadn’t realized about
him was how indecisive he was, but I’d had no reason to notice that aspect of his personality before. He
just wasn’t prepared to take responsibility for any decisions at all. He just sat back and expected me to do
it all. I didn’t want to carry that burden alone. I wanted some sense of shared responsibility, but instead I
felt as if I was making all the big decisions on my own.
Extract Three
Man: Some people think there’s only one way to become a better runner – and that’s to run. But I’d argue
that by confining your sessions purely to running, you are missing out on lots of fitness attributes that
could contribute to improving your technique, your running economy – that’s your ability to run faster
without using up more energy – and your injury resistance.
Woman: Absolutely. Running is a perfectly natural activity but the body was designed to move in all
directions, using a variety of muscle groups, not just in a forward direction using only the lower body,
often on unforgiving, hard surfaces. If running is all you do, some muscle groups get flabby and lazy
through under-use, while others become tight and short through overuse. If you can strengthen the
neglected muscles, stretch the tight ones and make the most heavily used ones more resilient, you’ll be
on the way to a more balanced body and this will translate into better running. And by better, I don’t just
mean faster – I mean more comfortable, less strained and altogether more enjoyable.
EXERCISE 31
Extract One
Man: Well, I suppose it had to happen some time. I mean, however good-natured you are, there’s only so
much bad behaviour you can take.
Woman: Yeah, I mean we’ve known him all these years and we’ve put up with all sorts of terrible scenes
with him, and times when he’s been awful to both of us. I’m just amazed neither of us has had the guts to
say anything to him before.
Man: I’m not sure it was a lack of courage on my part. I think it was more a misplaced sense of loyalty. I
mean, we go back a long way…
Woman: I know, but it’s hard to come up with many good memories. Anyway, I guess it’s over now and
that’s the last we’ll see of him.
Man: Yeah, his reaction was typical. The minute we confronted him about this latest dreadful piece of
behaviour, he just totally lost it. He’s obviously never had any idea of the effect he has on people, even
people who are supposed to be his friends.

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Woman: Well, it was inevitable that it would come to this. We’ve said our piece, and frankly I’m glad to
see the back of him. So that’s that.
Man: Yeah, let’s forget all about it now.
Extract Two
Man: OK, we’ve had a letter here from Paul, who says that his friends are into all the latest trendy hobbies
and fashions, whereas he really likes trains. He’s a trainspotter – he likes looking at trains and reading
about them and collecting the numbers of ones he’s seen – and his friends make fun of him for it. He’s
worried that they’ll stop being his friends if he carries on with his hobby. What would you tell him, Esther?
Woman: Well, we usually end up choosing friends because we have something in common with them.
Perhaps he needs to look at why he wants to be friendly with these people when they make fun of what
he’s interested in. I’m sure there are plenty of potential friends out there who share his interest. With
them, he could enjoy that interest rather than having it used against him.
Extract Three
Woman: Well, of course, no single theory has yet been able to explain how jokes work. Even the great
comedians have been stuck for a proper analysis. Of course, many jokes are written backwards with the
punchline – the funny line at the end that gets the laugh – sorted out first. However, a line or a phrase
doesn’t necessarily need a narrative set-up to make us laugh. Witness comedy shows in which characters
get laughs simply from saying catchphrases. This is also how an ‘in-joke’ works among a group of friends.
Life itself provides the set-up, and a word or two, sometimes just a knowing look between two people
who are in on the joke, provides the ‘punchline’.
Man: Another thing about jokes is that a professional comedian’s routine may be based on personal
experience, but real experience doesn’t tend to come conveniently complete with a punchline. That’s why
most comics are outrageous liars. It’s also why some comics may even begin to provoke hilarious episodes
by deliberately forgetting their wedding anniversaries or leaving their children in the supermarket.
EXERCISE 32
Extract One
Announcer: So now we’re going over to Joanna who’s there where it’s all been happening. Joanna, how
are the police and other services coping?
Joanna: Well, things are difficult. Many people are still trapped in their homes unable to escape and
hoping that things will not get any worse. The fire service has been able to rescue some people from the
roofs of their homes but a couple of key roads are impassable because of the river Teal breaking its banks.
There’s still considerable uncertainty as to the numbers of people affected.
Announcer: A number of listeners have contacted us about how to provide financial or other help. What
can you tell us about that, Joanna?
Joanna: Not much at the moment, I’m afraid. But I’ve been assured that something will be in place by the
end of the day. I’ve been asked to emphasise however that, although things are dramatic now, the ground
should soon dry out if met office predictions of hot weather are accurate.
Extract Two
Man: Well, that was something of a change from the usual boredom of a Friday afternoon meeting, wasn’t
it!
Woman: Absolutely! I was dumbfounded when Pete announced his resignation. He’ll be a great loss to
the company.
Man: That’s right! I knew he was planning to leave but he’d asked me to keep it under my hat till he made
a public announcement. He said I was the only person he’d spoken to. I’m gonna miss him loads. He’s got
such a great sense of humour — and he’s really good at his job too.
Woman: I couldn’t agree more. He always really brightens he place up. What on earth will we do now to
keep ourselves going?

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Man: I’m sure you’ll think of something. I’ll be relying on you!
Woman: Oh! Well it’ll be a challenge.
Man: Yes, but don’t stress out! I couldn’t cope if you decided to leave too.
Woman: I don’t think there is much hope of that. Much as I’d like to do something a bit more exciting at
times, at least life here is not too demanding.
Extract Three
Photographer: Er, it’s Marina Kaye, isn’t it? What a pleasure to see you! Our paths crossed in Hollywood
once but I don’t suppose you remember that. You’re here for the premiere of Love in Hawaii, I presume?
You’re looking beautiful as always.
Marina: Thank you. You flatter me. But I don’t …
Photographer: I’m sorry but would you mind if I just quickly took your picture? Nothing formal. But just
you as you are now, walking across the hotel foyer. You’d look stunning against the backdrop of the marble
pillars here. We can have this vase of lilies in the foreground.
Marina: I’m act in rather I’ve t in half an hour and I’m already behind time.
Photographer: Oh, it won’t take a moment, I promise. I’ve got all my equipment here. And I can set it up
in a flash … if you’ll pardon he expression.
Marina: No, look, my driver’s beckoning to me. Call my agent if you want to arrange something for later.
I’ll give you his card. You can talk terms with him.
EXERCISE 33
Extract One
Man: Did you see that article in the paper saying that the Oxford English Dictionary may never again be
published as a set of books? They were saying that since 1989 a large team of lexicographers have been
working away on the new edition, trying to map what the article called the endlessly flowing river of the
English language. Only about a third of the work’s been done so far and it’s estimated there’s at least ten
years’ work still to do. I wonder how the researchers felt when they were told their work might never
actually appear in its traditional book form.
Woman: I didn’t read the article but I heard someone on the radio saying it’s a typical reflection of the
decline of culture, an increasing sloppiness with regard to words, all the usual stuff. But then someone
else said he thought it’s better to see the change as a a good thing and to celebrate it. He argues that the
Dictionary had no choice but to be published as a set of heavy and expensive volumes first — because no
better technology was available. But now, at last, we’re able to have it in a much more beautiful and
accessible form and don’t have to put up with old inconveniences like books any more. And I’d go along
with that. I’m sure there’ll be a tendency for lots of other books to go the same way soon.
Extract Two
Woman: So how did it go then? Was the traffic as dire as you’d expected?
Man: Worse if anything. But at least it made it easier to find where I had to get to. It was off a tiny little
side street and I could easily have missed it if I’d been going a bit faster.
Woman: Oh well. At least you saw it.
Man: Yeah but the street was so narrow with cars parked on either side. I only just managed to squeeze
into a really tight spot at the end. But the worst thing was when I came to leave. The street turned out to
be a dead end. There wasn’t enough room for a car the size of ours to turn, so I had to back all the way
out. I wished you’d been there to help guide me.
Woman: Well, I don’t suppose you’d have listened to me if I had been there. I get flustered and you get
cross.
Man: No, I don’t! Anyway, I really wondered if I was going to be able to make it.
Woman: Well, good for you, I hate having to reverse like that.
Extract Three

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Man: You wanted to see me?
Woman: Yes, it was just to talk about that report you did for me.
Man: Was it all right? Er, I didn’t have as much time to work through all the issues as I’d have liked.
Woman: No, I appreciate that. It was very good, considering the constraints you were under.
Man: Thank you. So …?
Woman: The thing is, the client has now come back to us with some changes to the specs.
Man: Oh, right. Anything major?
Woman: Well, you’re going to have to go away and study the fine print pretty thoroughly. I’ve only
skimmed his document as I’ve been so busy with that university project, but there do seem to be one or
two significant points.
Man: So I’ll need to start again from scratch?
Woman: I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Anyway, you do what you can on it for the rest of this week and
over the weekend and then we can get together again on Monday and check it through carefully. Oh, um,
if you have any questions about it before then, feel free to email me. I’ll be working from home for the
next few days.
Man: Oh, OK. Thank you.
EXERCISE 34
Extract One
Man: Here’s a good quiz question for you. What began with the mummy of Hornedjitet and a Tanzanian
chopping tool, and ended with a credit card and a solar-powered lamp?
Woman: I can answer that. It was that amazing radio series on the history of the world in 100 objects, I
didn’t hear all the programmes but I thought those I did catch were fantastic. They chose such interesting
things to talk about.
Man: Yes, didn’t they just! I did try to listen to most of the programmes and if I missed one then I caught
up with what it had been about on the website of the museum that all the selected objects came from.
That’s good too, though I’m not so keen on their constantly dancing graphics.
Woman: Oh, I rather liked those — they make it nice and lighthearted, I thought.
Man: Well, the series wasn’t heavy in any way, was it? Informative of course but entertaining as well, I
thought they interviewed some really interesting people.
Woman: Actually I thought some of those were much better than others. But generally I learnt so much
from the programmes. I hope they repeat them soon.
Man: Yes, they were fun, weren’t they?
Extract Two
Man: How many applicants do you tend to have for your undergraduate courses? We’ve got three
applicants for every place this year and it’s going to be very hard to pick who we should accept.
Woman: Yeah, we have that problem too. We sort all the application forms into two piles – er, noes and
maybes. Then we invite the maybes for interview. It seems to work pretty well for us though of course it’s
quite time-consuming.
Man: Hm, we interview too but it’s hard to be confident we’re picking the right people. Some people really
don’t show themselves at their best in an interview situation and we wondered whether it might not be
better just to set the most promising applicants an essay to write and see how they get along with that.
It’d surely be better for everyone if we didn’t have to spend time on interviews.
Woman: Yes, I’m sure my colleagues might welcome that but how could you be sure that the essays were
all their own work? Unless you could somehow make them do it under exam conditions, of course.
Man: I suppose you’re right but I still think it’d be fairer than the system we currently operate.
Extract Three

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Woman: They rang me today about the kitchen. Someone’s going to pop round tomorrow to discuss it
and they think they’ll start work on Thursday.
Man: Goodness, as soon as that. Do you think we’ll be ready by then? I’ve still got to empty the old
cupboards, take all the curtains down, all that sort of thing and I’d like to have done a bit of decorating
before they get going.
Woman: Well, It’d certainly be better to do it before rather than after and risk getting paint on the new
surfaces. Perhaps I could ask them to extend the schedule a bit and start next week?
Man: No, let’s leave things as they are. The sooner they start, the sooner they finish, after all. And I’m
quite looking forward to seeing how they do things.
Woman: Are you really? I’m going to try to be out most of the time. We’re going to have to eat out while
work’s in progress anyway.
Man: That’s a nuisance, isn’t it! I’m so busy at the moment I’d really prefer to be spending the evenings
quietly at home.
Woman: Absolutely! Still it’ll be great when all the work’s done.
Man: I hope so!
EXERCISE 35
Extract One
Man: There’s more in the papers about next year’s international athletics competition. It seems they’re
running into more problems. I’m beginning to wish they hadn’t decided to hold it in our area. It seems to
be causing endless problems.
Woman: I know. Not that it bothers me personally that much. I’ve certainly no intention of going along to
anything. I realised at once that I’d be away while it was on and I feel quite relieved about that now. The
town will probably be horribly crowded. But I don’t feel sorry it’s coming here though. Right from the start
I thought it would be really positive for the local economy and you can already see that happening.
Man: I guess so but I wish I could feel more confident it’d all be worth it in the end. It’s just one thing after
another. Now they’ve run into other problems with the foundations for the new stadium. They’re still
adamant it’ll be ready well before due date, but I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s beginning to feel like a real
possibility that it won’t be and how awful would that be. You’d think that with all that experience on the
planning committee and the huge budget they’ve been given, they’d be able to do things properly.
Woman: I know what you mean, but there’s no point in getting too worked up about it. There’s nothing
we can do to help, is there?
Extract Two
Woman: How’s your coursework coming along, Rick? My group’s meeting to finish ours off this afternoon.
We’ve been finding it really hard but I think I’ve probably learnt a lot from the experience of doing it.
Man: We’ve still got masses to do on ours. Mark said it’d be easy and there was no need to start it till
Saturday even though we thought it was due in first thing on Monday morning. Then he decided to go
away for the weekend leaving it all to Amy and me.
Woman: Sounds like it’s a good job the tutor extended the deadline till five o’clock tomorrow afternoon
then.
Man: I suppose so — though I’d rather have had it done by now. I’ve got another piece of work due in
later this week. Anyway, I’m afraid it’s going to be an all-nighter for me. Amy’s not much help. She said
she’d do one part of it, but she misunderstood the tutor’s instructions and has done the wrong thing. I
must admit he didn’t explain things ail that clearly, but even so ..
Woman: You poor thing. I always thought people were exaggerating when they complained about this
course, but now I’m beginning to feel they had a point.
Man: Absolutely!
Extract Three

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Woman: So what did you think of Silent Laughter?
Man: I was a bit disappointed. I didn’t think it was as good as it’s been hyped up to be.
Woman: Yeah, I thought it was weird. Bordering on the pretentious. But I suppose that might be how
things really are in the world of fashion.
Man: Mm, I’m not so sure. My cousin knows someone who’s a model and she says the storyline was totally
inauthentic. And my cousin and I both thought that absolutely the wrong people were cast in the main
roles.
Woman: Yeah, though some of the supporting actors were OK, I suppose.
Man: Maybe. Mind you, even though I wasn’t too impressed when I saw it, it has kept coming into my
mind since then. I start wondering just how much was the model’s dread and how much was reality. Or
about the relationship between the supermodel and the designer.
Woman: I know what you mean. It’s certainly It’s not not the kind of film you see and then instantly forget.
I think the one thing that made it a bit special for me was the way it was very visually interesting— plenty
of unusual and beautiful shots, particularly of the main characters. I quite enjoyed the music too.
Man: Absolutely.
EXERCISE 36
Extract One
Man: I hope Jeremy’s going to turn out OK as the new store supervisor. I’m beginning to have my doubts.
Woman: Well, he’s bound to take some time to settle into the role, I guess, but things aren’t looking that
promising. I’ve heard mutterings from several members of staff already.
Man: I know. And it used to be such a happy team. At least everything seems fine as far as customers are
concerned. I guess there’s no reason to take it up with our line manager at this stage. But perhaps we
should have a quiet word with him? You’re good at that sort of thing,
Woman: Well, I wouldn’t mind but I think I’d be more in favour of hanging on for a bit. It might just be a
matter of him getting used to our way of working with each other. He might just have been used to a less
collaborative atmosphere.
Man: OK, let’s give that a try then.
Extract Two
Man: Look at this. They’ve gone and sacked their manager. He’s only been in the post for a couple of
years.
Woman: Is that because they’ve had such poor results recently? When everyone had said the team was
on the verge of doing so much better than before.
Man: It must be. And they’ve terminated the coach’s contract too. But he’s no loss. I never thought he
was much good.
Woman: And you never thought much of the manager either did you? You were always saying he was in
out of his depth.
Man: Yes, in the long term it might be a good thing, but it’s still an odd time to do it. It’s going to be pretty
unsettling for the players. I wonder if there’s more to it than meets the eye. Some legal issue perhaps.
Woman: Maybe. But perhaps it’s a relief to see the back of them if something like that’s involved.
Man: I’d agree with you if it had happened at the beginning of the season but not…
Extract Three
Woman: The Monday afternoon optional course seems to be turning out OK, don’t you think? I thought
it was going to be tedious at first but it seems to get a bit better each time.
Man: Yes, I thought I might end up dropping it after the first week but I’m getting more used to the lecturer
and I think I quite like his style now. He’s got quite a dry sense of humour. And I suppose vibrations could
be an important topic, if we’re going to become hands-on engineers.

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Woman: I’m not so sure about that. Anyway, I’ve decided to stick with it for a bit longer. I wish he didn’t
speak so softly though. It’s hard to hear his voice from the back of that huge lecture hall. If he wasn’t so
witty I don’t think I’d make the effort. And his slides have far too much on them, I can’t read them when
I’m sitting at the back, It’s a good job he puts them up online for us.
Man: Mm, I know. And did you see he’s also put up a coursework assignment for us? We’ve got to get it
done by the end of next week.
EXERCISE 37
Extract One
Woman: I’d like to do something different this weekend. I feel as if I’m stuck in a rut. I need a break, a bit
of a challenge.
Man: Well, here’s a suggestion for you. I was planning to take my bike down to the south coast to see a
veteran car race. Why don’t you come with me?
Woman: On your motorbike? I’ve never been a passenger on a motorbike in my life. And I haven’t got a
helmet or anything.
Man: That’s OK. I’ve got a spare one and some leathers you could borrow. It’d be fun!
Woman: Well, I did say I wanted something challenging, I suppose. Let’s go for it. Then when we get back,
I’ll make something special for dinner. I’ve got a great new Thai recipe.
Man: Oh, I think you’ll be tired. Why don’t we just eat out?
Woman: No, it’ll be fine! The kids are going out to a gig – their friend’s band is playing at the College Club
this weekend — so we can just flake out in front of the telly with a takeaway if we’re really that worn out.
Man: Sounds good to me.
Extract Two
Woman: I got stopped in the street and asked some questions by some man doing an opinion poll today.
Man: Did you? Was it about what you watched on TV last night? I got asked about that by someone in the
street a few days ago.
Woman: Actually he wanted to know what I felt about the new shopping centre they’re thinking about
building near the railway station, whether I felt it would solve some of the town’s problems or actually
just cause more.
Man: Well, you’ve certainly got strong opinions about that! You’re always telling me what a rubbish idea
you think it is.
Woman: True! And I told him what I thought. But I don’t think he really had any interest in what I had to
say. I got the feeling the authorities just want to be able to tick a few boxes saying that consultation with
residents has taken place. I don’t think he wrote down my answers to any of his questions. But at least it
served the useful purpose of firing me up about it again. I’m going to sit down and write a letter to the
local paper now.
Extract Three
Man: Hi, Mel, I’m glad I bumped into you. I’ve been wanting to ask you a favour.
Woman: Right?
Man: As you know I’ve been working on this website idea of mine. It’s a portal for people interested in
this part of the country with lots of pages relating to its history, landscape, wildlife, local businesses, er,
study opportunities here, all that sort of thing.
Woman: Sounds interesting but I’m not sure how I can help. I’m pretty new to the area and don’t know
much about it!
Man: Well, you do know a lot about websites. I wondered if you could take a look at what’s online already
and tell me how user-friendly it is, that sort of thing. My idea is that it should be totally straightforward
to navigate.
Woman: Sounds interesting certainly, But when do you want it done for? I’m pretty busy at the moment.

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Man: It’s not too urgent, in fact.
Woman: OK, then, Email me the url and I’ll do what I can. My laptop’s been playing up a bit recently but
hopefully it won’t let me down.
Man: Mm, thanks.
EXERCISE 38
Extract One
Presenter: Tea at the Grand Hotel in London is served in the Green Room, a light, airy space with luxuriant
plants, fountains and a panoramic view over the city. Dress is strictly smart-casual. There are four sittings
for tea, the first at 11.30 in the morning and the last at 6.30 in the evening. Despite the high price tag,
tables are booked up months in advance. Tea includes a selection of sandwiches – crustless of course –
scones, cakes and pastries. There are 12 types of tea on offer, including the Grand’s own superior
afternoon brew. David James has been manager of the Green Room for 15 years. David, tea at the Grand
is very popular, isn’t it?
Manager: Yes, indeed. When I first started, we had 80 to 100 people a day. Now it’s twice that number.
Presenter: And are they all wealthy people?
Manager: Not at all. I can tell as soon as someone walks in what type of person they are, where they are
from, why they are here. Some people who come here have lots of money and some don’t. When
someone has saved to come here as a treat, I like to make a special effort to make them feel comfortable.
Extract Two
Woman: Possibly one of the most talked about pieces of research recently published has surprisingly little
to do with anything of particular importance. Entitled ‘The Case of the Disappearing Teaspoons’, the study
proves that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon with no apparent explanation.
Man: Yes, a research team in Australia placed 70 numbered teaspoons in various tea-rooms at their
Institute and tracked them over a period of five months. Eighty per cent disappeared for good. It was
calculated that they had a half-life – that is, the length of time it took for half of the teaspoons to disappear
– of 81 days. If this is a global phenomenon, then 600,000 teaspoons are disappearing each year.
Woman: So where have they all gone? Practical and mundane explanations include people taking them
home or losing them under piles of work. However, with such a large quantity of teaspoons being lost
each year, many people feel these explanations are simply not sufficient.
Extract Three
Woman: One thing that’s quite interesting about popular music is how derivative and imitative it is. You
see, most of the innovations that took place in it had happened by the end of the 1970s, and after that
it’s all been copies of what had already been and gone.
Man: That’s just not true. There’s lots of really innovative new music going on now and there always will
be. Every new generation develops its own styles and sounds that are unique to it.
Woman: No, they just think that’s what they’re doing. Actually, they’re just recycling old things. Granted,
they sometimes do that very well, but it’s all been done before. The truth is, it’s new for them but it’s not
actually new.
Man: But the fans, the public, they don’t see it that way do they?
Woman: No, they buy the music and they go to concerts by the latest successful or fashionable bands and
singers and they think it’s all being done for the first time. It’s only older people like me who spot the
similarities with music from the past. Like a lot of things, influences pass from one generation to another,
and it’s not always a conscious thing.
EXERCISE 39
Extract One

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Man: I’m a terrible ham when it comes to reading to my kids. I like to do all the voices so I look for books
with lots of dialogue and different characters. My kids are totally unimpressed and probably prefer having
their mother read to them. She reads in a very soothing voice, and she’s not trying to act or show off. It
reminds me of listening to my own mother read when I was a kid.
Woman: Yes, I always claim that I read aloud to our three children for their benefit. That it’s good for their
educational development to sit and listen last thing at night. That somehow, through hearing a story, their
creative juices will be stirred. But it is, of course, for me. Nothing can beat the delight of disappearing into
a new thrilling chapter. And I bet I’m not the only parent who, having turned out the light and said
goodnight to their grateful offspring, sits down on the stairs and reads on to find out what happens next.
Extract Two
Host: Lots of people set up their own businesses and in many cases they do so in partnership with a friend,
rather than going it alone. The reasons for this often aren’t purely practical, for example because of
complementary skills and experience. It often comes down to fear. Starting and running a business on
your own can be a daunting prospect. No wonder people often prefer to share the burden with a friend.
It doesn’t always go according to plan, though, as Dean Ransom discovered when he started a business
with a friend. What went wrong, Dean?
Man: Well, I’d known my partner for years and I felt we had a lot in common. What I hadn’t realized about
him was how indecisive he was, but I’d had no reason to notice that aspect of his personality before. He
just wasn’t prepared to take responsibility for any decisions at all. He just sat back and expected me to do
it all. I didn’t want to carry that burden alone. I wanted some sense of shared responsibility, but instead I
felt as if I was making all the big decisions on my own.
Extract Three
Man: Some people think there’s only one way to become a better runner – and that’s to run. But I’d argue
that by confining your sessions purely to running, you are missing out on lots of fitness attributes that
could contribute to improving your technique, your running economy – that’s your ability to run faster
without using up more energy – and your injury resistance.
Woman: Absolutely. Running is a perfectly natural activity but the body was designed to move in all
directions, using a variety of muscle groups, not just in a forward direction using only the lower body,
often on unforgiving, hard surfaces. If running is all you do, some muscle groups get flabby and lazy
through under-use, while others become tight and short through overuse. If you can strengthen the
neglected muscles, stretch the tight ones and make the most heavily used ones more resilient, you’ll be
on the way to a more balanced body and this will translate into better running. And by better, I don’t just
mean faster – I mean more comfortable, less strained and altogether more enjoyable.
EXERCISE 40
Extract One
Man: Well, I suppose it had to happen some time. I mean, however good-natured you are, there’s only so
much bad behaviour you can take.
Woman: Yeah, I mean we’ve known him all these years and we’ve put up with all sorts of terrible scenes
with him, and times when he’s been awful to both of us. I’m just amazed neither of us has had the guts to
say anything to him before.
Man: I’m not sure it was a lack of courage on my part. I think it was more a misplaced sense of loyalty. I
mean, we go back a long way…
Woman: I know, but it’s hard to come up with many good memories. Anyway, I guess it’s over now and
that’s the last we’ll see of him.
Man: Yeah, his reaction was typical. The minute we confronted him about this latest dreadful piece of
behaviour, he just totally lost it. He’s obviously never had any idea of the effect he has on people, even
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Woman: Well, it was inevitable that it would come to this. We’ve said our piece, and frankly I’m glad to
see the back of him. So that’s that.
Man: Yeah, let’s forget all about it now.
Extract Two
Man: OK, we’ve had a letter here from Paul, who says that his friends are into all the latest trendy hobbies
and fashions, whereas he really likes trains. He’s a trainspotter – he likes looking at trains and reading
about them and collecting the numbers of ones he’s seen – and his friends make fun of him for it. He’s
worried that they’ll stop being his friends if he carries on with his hobby. What would you tell him, Esther?
Woman: Well, we usually end up choosing friends because we have something in common with them.
Perhaps he needs to look at why he wants to be friendly with these people when they make fun of what
he’s interested in. I’m sure there are plenty of potential friends out there who share his interest. With
them, he could enjoy that interest rather than having it used against him.
Extract Three
Woman: Well, of course, no single theory has yet been able to explain how jokes work. Even the great
comedians have been stuck for a proper analysis. Of course, many jokes are written backwards with the
punchline – the funny line at the end that gets the laugh – sorted out first. However, a line or a phrase
doesn’t necessarily need a narrative set-up to make us laugh. Witness comedy shows in which characters
get laughs simply from saying catchphrases. This is also how an ‘in-joke’ works among a group of friends.
Life itself provides the set-up, and a word or two, sometimes just a knowing look between two people
who are in on the joke, provides the ‘punchline’.
Man: Another thing about jokes is that a professional comedian’s routine may be based on personal
experience, but real experience doesn’t tend to come conveniently complete with a punchline. That’s why
most comics are outrageous liars. It’s also why some comics may even begin to provoke hilarious episodes
by deliberately forgetting their wedding anniversaries or leaving their children in the supermarket.
EXERCISE 41
Extract One
was so upset!
Woman: Oh no!
people think our clothes are rubbish!
Man: Yeah. But what gets me is that I reckon for a lot of people the clothes aren’t the point. It’s more
about the act of shopping. It’s heavily linked to wanting to be the centre of attention, to clothes giving
them a strong personal identity or whatever. It’s basically a way of showing off. Too much importance is
placed on clothes and appearance, but it’s not, like, a political issue for me. It’s just a game I’m not
prepared to play.
Extract Two
but kept it hidden from my peers. I’d hear a hit record and think: ‘I could do that.’ From the age of fourteen
I fired off loads of demo discs I made in my bedroom. I had a folder where I kept all the rejection letters I
got from record labels. It might’ve helped to share that with somebody – but I didn’t. I just sulked, then
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Man: … I was vindicated. And it was a good deal in most respects too. Funny thing was though, if after my
first hit I thought I’d made it, I was soon disabused of that notion. If I was to add up everything I’d done
up till that point – school, working in a factory, learning the guitar, making the demos – it doesn’t compare.
I’ve had to put in a lot of effort to capitalise on that breakthrough, I can tell you.
Extract Three
talent.’ And at that point, I was really not interested. I was an athlete, a three-season athlete. I was more
interested in, like, hanging with the guys and doing what I was used to. But when I saw her perform, I was
blown away and decided it was for me, and at college I majored in it. I trained classically.
Woman: That’s so unlike my experience. I mean, I was dancing almost before I could walk and, although I
wouldn’t say I was pressurised into it, my parents were like behind me every step of the way. So much so,
that I was on the point of rebellion on more than one occasion – though I’m happy to say that particular
storm never actually broke!
EXERCISE 42
Extract 1.
Speaker E
Marion, is there ever an autobiographical element to your work?
Speaker A
Definitely not. But people seem desperate to believe it and look for anything that can connect you to
them. A woman came up to me recently while I was in Brighton and asked if I'd ever tried to make contact
with the child I'd given away for adoption.
I had to tell her I'd never had a child. And she looked at first astounded and then rather angry with me as
if I'd lied to her. And I realised she'd wanted to exchange stories that she'd given away a child
and thought I was someone who could relate to her.
Speaker E
There seems to be a growing interest in autobiographies of people who've had absolutely terrible lives.
Speaker A
That's true. And many of them are bestsellers. I think the world's become a rather depressing place for
many people. And it's comforting for them to read about the misfortunes of others.
Not that that's a good thing, mind you, but it's probably not a trend that's likely to go away. For once I
don't blame the publishers. They're only responding to a demand.
Speaker E
Marion, is there ever an autobiographical element to your work?
Speaker A
Definitely not. But people seem desperate to believe it and look for anything that can connect you to
them. A woman came up to me recently while I was in Brighton. and asked if I'd ever tried to make contact
with the child I'd given away for adoption.
I had to tell her I'd never had a child, and she looked at first astounded and then rather angry with me, as
if I'd lied to her.
And I realised she'd wanted to exchange stories, that she'd given away a child and thought I was someone
who could relate to her.
Speaker E
There seems to be a growing interest in autobiographies of people who've had absolutely terrible lives.

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Speaker A
True, and many of them are bestsellers. I think the world's become a rather depressing place for many
people, and it's comforting for them to read about the misfortunes of others.
Not that that's a good thing, mind you, but it's probably not a trend that's likely to go away. For once, I
don't blame the publishers. They're only responding to a demand.
Speaker D
Extract 2.
Speaker C
I think you'll laugh at this. I was shopping with my five-year-old. We were in a rush, as always, but of
course he insisted on looking at the toys.
Now I looked at toys when I was a kid, but I never thought my mum would actually buy anything. It was,
look, don't touch, and wait for your birthday.
Anyway, I can see my son pointing at this plastic truck in its big bright box, and he's going to scream if he
doesn't get it. He's not the only one I've seen using a toy. Anyway, you know what?
We get home and it's broken after ten minutes.
Speaker G
Yes, that sounds familiar. And I'm pretty sure, like most consumers, you didn't bother going back to the
store.
Speaker C
You're right. Why do people put up with substandard products nowadays?
Speaker G
Well, Paul, people are usually entitled to a refund if they want one, as long as they've got proof of
payment. But the simple fact of the matter is that we can't be bothered.
We can now buy a lot for little money. We've got used to buying inexpensive, easily replaceable things.
But that's an expensive way to do things in the long run.
Speaker C
I think you'll laugh at this. I was shopping with my five-year-old. We were in a rush, as always. But of
course he insisted on looking at the toys.
Now I looked at toys when I was a kid, but I never thought my mum would actually buy anything. It was,
look, don't touch, and wait for your birthday. Anyway, I can see my son pointing at this plastic truck in its
big bright box.
And he's going to scream if he doesn't get it. He's not the only one I've seen using that trick. Anyway, you
know what?
We get home and it's broken after ten minutes.
Speaker G
Yes, that sounds familiar. And I'm pretty sure, like most consumers, you didn't bother going back to the
store.
Speaker C
You're right. Why do people put up with substandard products nowadays?
Speaker G
Well, Paul, people are usually entitled to a refund if they want to buy something. As long as they've got
proof of payment. But the simple fact of the matter is that we can't be bothered.
We can now buy a lot for little money. We've got used to buying inexpensive, easily replaceable things.
But that's an expensive way to do things in the long run.
Speaker D
Extract 3.
You hear part of an interview with Keziah Tavola, the organiser of an exhibition of tapa, a kind of
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Now look at questions five and six.
Speaker F
Keziah, where do these beautiful cloths come from?
Speaker B
These here, from Hawaii. These from Fiji. And here, these ones, from Tonga and Samoa.
The pieces are quite old, but nicely preserved. One of the reasons why we don't see so many examples
from the more recent past is that the craft is still in use.
The craft of tapa making nearly died out in some of these places, especially in Hawaii, what with the arrival
of the Europeans and their effect on society.
You see, they brought cotton with them, and this was welcomed with a great deal of enthusiasm. It was
much easier to work with, see.
And, of course, the European missionaries did not like the way tapa cloth was worn in religious
ceremonies. Not at all.
Speaker F
But I believe there's a bit of a revival of this craft going on.
Speaker B
That's true to an extent. In Fiji, for example, some women I know are making tapa again.
They learnt the skill from their grandmothers, and now they're teaching their daughters. They rely on it
for survival. I mean, the income it brings in.
It can support a whole family. In the main, it's sold to local people rather than holidaymakers.
I'm glad that it's one cultural tradition that isn't going to die out.
Speaker F
Kasaya, where do these beautiful cloths come from?
Speaker B
These here from Hawaii, these from Fiji, and here these ones from Tonga and Samoa.
The pieces are quite old but nicely preserved. One of the reasons why we don't see so many examples
from the more recent past is that
the craft of tapa making nearly died out in some of these places, especially in Hawaii, what with the arrival
of the Europeans and their effect on society.
You see, they brought cotton with them, and this was welcomed with a great deal of enthusiasm. It was
much easier to work with, see.
And of course, the European missionaries did not like the way tapa cloth was worn in religious ceremonies.
Not at all.
Speaker F
But I believe there's a bit of a revival of this craft going on.
Speaker B
That's true to an extent. In Fiji, for example, some women I know are making tapa again.
They learnt the skill from their grandmothers, and now they're teaching their daughters. They rely on it
for survival. I mean, the income it brings in.
It can support a whole family. In the main, it's sold to local people rather than holiday makers.
I'm glad that it's one cultural tradition that isn't going to die out.
EXERCISE 43
Extract 1.
Speaker F
Richard, can you give us an example of what people in other countries are doing in terms of recycling?
Speaker A

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Absolutely. Well, 60 tons of plastic packaging are dumped on the streets of Accra, the capital city of Ghana,
every day.
But recently a businessman called Kwabena Osei-Bonsu set up a company called Trashy Bags to do
something about it.
He pays people to collect plastic bags and these are stitched together to make new ones. This kind of
venture should be sponsored by governments
and there are plenty of similar projects occurring in other countries if they need ideas. But Kwabena had
decided he wasn't going to wait around.
He says he wanted to come up with an idea that would sort out this awful situation in his lifetime.
Speaker F
That's fantastic. What about here, though? I suppose you'd like to stop the use of plastic bags in
supermarkets completely.
Speaker A
Well, yes. They are an absolute environmental disaster, but I can't see our government going as far as
banning them. I know that some supermarkets are charging customers five or ten pence for a plastic bag,
but I don't think that's the case.
But such a small charge doesn't put most people off. Actually, you can get bags made of bamboo or other
fabrics, but only a minority of people are using them.
So I'd say it's up to the supermarkets to start promoting them a bit more actively so that customers know
they're available to buy instead.
Speaker F
Richard, can you give us an example of what people in other countries are doing in terms of recycling?
Speaker A
Absolutely. Well, 60 tonnes of plastic bags are used to make plastic bags. Plastic packaging are dumped
on the streets of Accra, the capital city of Ghana, every day.
But recently, a businessman called Kwabena Osei-Bonsu set up a company called Trashy Bags to do
something about it. He pays people to collect plastic bags, and these are stitched together to make new
ones.
This kind of venture should be sponsored by governments, and there are plenty of similar projects
occurring in other countries if they need ideas. But Kwabena had decided he wasn't going to work with
them.
He says he wanted to come up with an idea that would sort out this awful situation in his lifetime.
Speaker F
That's fantastic. What about here, though? I suppose you'd like to stop the use of plastic bags in
supermarkets completely.
Speaker A
Well, yes. They are an absolute environmental disaster, but I can't see our government going as far as
banning them. I know that some supermarkets are charging customers five or ten pence per bag,
but such a small charge doesn't put them in a good place. It's not a good thing to get most people off.
Actually, you can get bags made of bamboo or other fabrics, but only a minority of people are using them.
So I'd say it's up to the supermarkets to start promoting them a bit more actively, so that customers know
they're available to buy instead.
Speaker D
Extract 2.
You hear two people on a radio programme talking about the subject of hypnotherapy. Now look at
questions 3 and 4.
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You've just had a few sessions of the programme. You've had a few sessions of hypnotherapy, haven't
you? I have to say, I didn't think you were into that kind of thing.
Speaker B
You thought I was the sceptical type. Well, I've never been a believer in most alternative therapies, but
I've always been fairly open-minded when it comes to hypnotherapy,
at least when it came to dealing with psychological problems. I mean, before I experienced hypnotism for
myself, I didn't think it would work for actual physical symptoms.
I went along because I wanted to quit smoking. But Dr Gray helped me overcome my back pain too.
Speaker G
I guess a lot of people see celebrity hypnotists on TV embarrassing people they've hypnotised, making
them do ridiculous things.
And I think the result of that is that people are put off going to see genuine hypnotherapists because they
think anyone who practices hypnotism is not trustworthy.
Speaker B
I think you're right. But people should know that hypnotherapy is a serious profession. And if the idea of
being under someone else's control makes you nervous,
I can tell you it's not like that. You're always aware of what's going on.
Speaker G
You've just had a few sessions of hypnotherapy, haven't you? I have to say, I didn't think you were into
that kind of thing.
Speaker B
You thought I was the sceptical type. Well, I've never been a believer in most alternative therapies, but
I've always been fairly open-minded when it comes to hypnotherapy,
at least when it came to dealing with psychological problems. I mean, before I experienced hypnotism for
myself, I didn't think it would work for actual physical symptoms.
I went along because I wanted to quit smoking. But Dr Gray helped me overcome my back pain too.
Speaker G
I guess a lot of people see celebrity hypnotists on TV embarrassing people they've hypnotised, making
them do ridiculous things. And I think the result of that...
is that people are put off going to see genuine hypnotherapists because they think anyone who practises
hypnotism is not trustworthy.
Speaker B
I think you're right. But people should know that hypnotherapy is a serious profession. And if the idea of
being under someone else's control makes you nervous,
I can tell you it's not like that. You're always aware of what's going on.
Speaker D
Extract 3
You hear part of an interview with a woman called Fiona, who works as a zoo tour guide. Now look at
questions 5 and 6.
Speaker E
Fiona, how is it working with visitors to the zoo?
Speaker C
The public? Generally they're fantastic. Maybe they're a little bit quiet to start with because they're not
sure what they're going to do.
But soon after we've met the rhinos or we've started doing the monkeys, they normally open up and
they're all, oh, this is fantastic. They start asking questions.
And they know a lot about the animals anyway because they've been going to the zoo for years. But the
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because even though you do warn people about them, they just don't realise what could happen. I mean,
even the cheetahs look so docile and so cuddly.
Speaker E
Have you ever had an incident yourself?
Speaker C
No, not exactly. But I did get a bit too close to the bars of the chimpanzee enclosure once. And the chimps
had branches with them to try and get food from beyond the bars.
And one of the male chimps basically just reaped through the bars with his branch and poked me in the
ribs. And it was basically a, get back, that's my food! And from that moment on,
I've always been doubly aware of how close I am to an animal and what tools it has to get to me as well.
He could have been a lot nastier though than he was. It was just a warning.
Speaker E
Fiona, how is it working with visitors to the zoo?
Speaker C
The public? Generally, they're fantastic. Maybe they're a little bit quiet to start with because they're not
sure what they're going to do. But soon after we've met the rhinos
or we've started doing the monkeys, they normally open up and they're all, oh, this is fantastic! They start
asking questions and they know a lot about the animals anyway
because they've been going to the zoo for years. But the hardest thing for them is being constantly alert
to the risks because even though you do warn people about them, they just don't realise what could
happen.
I mean, even the cheetahs look so docile and so cuddly.
Speaker E
Have you ever had an incident yourself?
Speaker C
No, not exactly. But I did get a bit too close to the bars of the chimpanzee enclosure once. And the chimps
had branches with them to try and get food from beyond the bars.
And one of the male chimps basically just reaped through the bars with his branch. And poked me in the
ribs. And it was basically a, get back, that's my food! And from that moment on, I've always been doubly
aware
of how close I am to an animal and what tools it has to get to me as well. He could have been a lot nastier
though than he was. It was just a warning.
Exerice 44
Extract 1.
Speaker A
TV is all about programming people to buy certain things, far more so than it used to be. And it makes us
become more materialistic, not a great value, I think.
And not having one lets me appreciate how addictive I did find it. Like, if I went to a house and the TV was
on, I'd find myself drawn to that and drawn out of the conversation.
Speaker F
Don't your friends find your lack of a television set a bit weird?
Speaker A
Honestly, a lot of my mates... don't have one either. I'd be willing to bet that TV is coming to the end of
its lifespan as the major form of entertainment.
Eventually, all digital media will go onto the Internet. So what'll be the point of having a TV?
That's not to say that everything on the net is or will be of superior quality to what we get now on the TV.
But at least you can ignore the advertising on the net.

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Speaker F
I recently heard you say that you never watch TV. Is that right? Yep.
Speaker A
I threw it out a while back. I'm not saying there aren't any good things about it, but the negatives outweigh
the positives in terms of what it does to society. It encourages us to be passive.
So although I haven't taken a particularly moral step to not have a TV, I'm happy to do without it.
TV's all about programming people to buy certain things, far more so than it used to be. And it makes us
become more materialistic. Not a great value, I think.
And not having one lets me appreciate how addictive I did find it. Like, if I went to a house and the TV was
on, I'd find myself drawn to that and drawn out of the conversation.
Speaker F
Don't your friends find your lack of a television set a bit weird?
Speaker A
Honestly, a lot of my mates don't have one either. I'd be willing to bet that TV is coming to the end of its
lifespan as the major form of entertainment.
Eventually, all digital media will go onto the internet. So what'll be the point of having a TV?
That's not to say that everything on the net is or will be of superior quality to what we get now on the TV.
But at least you can ignore the advertising on the net.
Speaker D
Extract 2.
Speaker G
Martin Greenwood, why do we need this campaign to get more male teachers into secondary schools?
Speaker B
Look at the ratios. For every ten female teachers, there's one male, and that's been the case for too long.
The government has made progress in offering better financial incentives,
but the number of young men currently enrolled on teacher training courses is still depressingly low. I
think the image of the teaching profession in our society is pretty poor.
No one wants to go to work and be disrespected. In the past, and still in some cultures, people look up to
teachers. But not here in the UK, not anymore.
Speaker G
But surely it's the quality of the teacher that counts, not the gender.
Speaker B
Look, let me give you an example. I was observing a playground recently, and a couple of young boys got
into a bit of a fight. Not too serious, just some pushing around.
One of the female staff went running over and told them both off for being violent. But a male teacher
said,
Speaker G
boys fight and then get on with things. Martin Greenwood, why do we need this campaign to get
Speaker B
more male teachers into secondary schools? Look at the ratios. For every 10 female teachers, there's one
male, and that's been the case for too long. The government has made progress in
offering better financial incentives, but the number of young men currently enrolled on teacher training
courses is still depressingly low. I think the image of the teaching profession in
our society is pretty poor. No one wants to go to work and be disrespected. In the past, and still in some
cultures, people look up to teachers, but not here in the UK, not anymore. But surely it's
Speaker G
the quality of the teacher that counts, not the gender. Look, let me give you an example. I was

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Speaker B
observing a playground recently, and a couple of young boys got into a bit of a fight. Not too serious, just
some pushing around. One of the female staff went running over and told them both off for being violent.
But a male teacher would have known they had to sort things out for themselves. They know that
Speaker D
boys fight and then get on with things.
Extract 3.
You hear part of an interview with a woman
called Shelley Sumner, who appeared on a TV reality show. Now look at questions 5 and 6.
Speaker E
It's been, what, two months since you won the show, Shelley? Have you spent all the prize money yet?
Speaker C
Yeah, that's soon. I put it all in the book, and the interview went, it wasn't a lot in the first place. That's
not why I did it. It was actually for a dare. I said I'd have a go at getting in if my friends, Sandra and
Jasmine did. You know, you have to send in a video, you talking about yourself, that kind of thing.
But I never thought I'd hear back. And then someone from the show rang me up, and I'd got an interview.
And when the others found out, even though they hadn't got on to the show, they wouldn't
let me quit. They like the idea of having a famous mate.
Speaker E
And are you still seeing those same people, or have you moved up in the world?
Speaker C
No, nothing's changed there. We still hang out together. But I do feel like a new member of the royal
family sometimes. Well, it's not like I'm getting into exclusive restaurants
for free, but it's the tabloids that get on my nerves. I could be out doing the shopping shopping, and
suddenly there's someone across the road taking your photo. Basically, it's
quite intrusive, but I guess that's what happens.
Speaker E
It's been, what, two months since you won the show, Shelley? Have you spent all the prize money yet?
Speaker C
Yeah, that soon went. It wasn't a lot in the first place. That's not why I did it. It was
actually for a dare. I said I'd have a go at getting in if my friends Sandra and Jasmine did. You know, you
have to send in a video, you talking about yourself, that kind of thing.
But I never thought I'd hear back. And then someone from the show rang me up, and I'd got an interview.
And when the others found out, even though they hadn't got onto the
show, they wouldn't let me quit. They like the idea of having a famous mate.
Speaker E
And are you still seeing those same people, or have you moved up in the world?
Speaker C
No, nothing's changed there. We still hang out together. But I do feel like a new member of the royal
family sometimes. Well, it's not like I'm getting into exclusive restaurants
for free, but it's the tabloids that get on my nerves. I could be out doing the shopping, and suddenly there's
someone across the road taking your photo. Basically, it's quite intrusive,
but I guess that's what happens.
EXERCISE 45
Extract 1.
You hear two people on a radio program discussing the effect of price on consumers. Now look at
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Speaker C
How did your anniversary weekend go, Jennifer?
Speaker A
Well, you know, Tom and I went to a hotel I found on the Internet, and we had a perfectly nice time there.
But when it was over and I went to pay, I realized I hadn't looked closely enough at the price. It wasn't for
the two of us. It was per person.
I went back to our suddenly twice as expensive room, and I had to confess to my husband.
But actually, he'd known the price all along and said not to worry and that we could afford it. But that
wasn't the point. I actually felt cheated. I was cheated out of a better experience.
My husband had been enjoying a really expensive weekend, and I hadn't.
Speaker C
Well, researchers at Stanford University wouldn't be surprised at that. They asked people to try a wine
marked with a $5 price tag and then one with a $45 price tag.
And, of course, they preferred the more expensive one, even though the wine came from the same $5
bottle. In a sense, I suppose people should buy... They should buy expensive wine if it really gives them
additional pleasure.
And they did the same experiment with painkillers with the same results.
Speaker A
Yes. I'd say people will pay more for anything, whether it's a fast car or a packet of potato chips, if they
think it's better quality.
And if paying $45 for wine makes you happy, why not? But don't you think some of these experiments are
misleading, though? I mean, the way they're set up.
Speaker C
How did your anniversary go?
Speaker A
Well, you know, Tom and I went to a hotel I found on the Internet, and we had a perfectly nice time there.
But when it was over and I went to pay, I realized I hadn't looked closely enough at the price. It wasn't for
the two of us. It was per person.
I went back to our suddenly twice as expensive room, and I had to confess to my husband. But actually,
he'd known the price all along, and he'd known the price.
And he said not to worry, and that we could afford it. But that wasn't the point. I actually felt cheated out
of a better experience.
My husband had been enjoying a really expensive weekend, and I hadn't.
Speaker C
Well, researchers at Stanford University wouldn't be surprised at that. They asked people to try a wine
marked with a $5 price tag, and then one with a $45 price tag.
And, of course, they preferred the more expensive one. Even though the wine came from the same $5
bottle. In a sense, I suppose people should buy expensive wine if it really gives them additional pleasure.
And they did the same experiment with painkillers with the same results.
Speaker A
Yes. I'd say people will pay more for anything, whether it's a fast car or a packet of potato chips, if they
think it's better quality.
And if paying $45 for wine makes you happy, why not? But don't you think some of these experiments are
misleading, though? I mean, the way they're set up.
Extract 2.
You hear part of an interview with a woman called Petra Davies, who is training for a marathon. Now look
at questions 3 and 4.
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Um, Petra, you've been in training for the marathon for 12 weeks now. What advice would you give would-
be runners?
Speaker B
Well, for a start, if you've never done a race before, like me, you have to go and get yourself a good fitness
trainer.
It helps keep up the motivation, and if you want to avoid painful blisters and swollen ankles and that kind
of thing,
you're best off finding someone who knows what they're doing and can work out the right training plan
for you.
Look, I'm the first to admit that I'm basically lazy, and that the idea of running five or six times a week
doesn't actually appeal. So I was more than pleased when I found out that I was going to be training for a
marathon. I didn't have to.
I suppose I wanted a shortcut to being a marathon runner.
Speaker F
Can you explain what you mean by that?
Speaker B
Yes. My fitness trainer, Sean Deacon, he's very much against people wearing themselves out before they
even get to the day of the marathon.
He encourages people to work on improving their overall strength before they go anywhere near an actual
long run. So I was doing tons of sit-ups and press-ups and weightlifting, that kind of thing,
before I did any kind of practice running at all. I've heard other runners say you've got to train the way
you feel best, by instinct almost, but that wouldn't have worked for me.
Speaker F
Petra, you've been in training for the marathon for 12 weeks now. What advice would you give would-be
runners?
Speaker B
Well, for a start, if you've never done a race before, like me, you have to go and get yourself a good fitness
trainer. It helps keep up the motivation.
And if you want to avoid painful blisters and swollen ankles and that kind of thing, you're best off finding
someone who knows what they're doing and can work out the right training plan for you.
Look, I'm the first to admit that I'm basically lazy and that the idea of running five or six times a week
doesn't actually appeal. So I was more than pleased when I found out I didn't have to.
I suppose I wanted a shortcut to being a marathon runner.
Speaker F
Can you explain what you mean by that?
Speaker B
Yes. My fitness trainer, Sean Deacon, he's very much against people wearing themselves out before they
even get to the day of the marathon.
He encourages people to work on improving their overall strength before they go anywhere near an actual
long run.
So I was doing tons of sit-ups and press-ups and weightlifting, that kind of thing, before I did any kind of
practice running at all.
I've heard other runners say you've got to train the way you feel best, by instinct almost, but that wouldn't
have worked for me.
Speaker E
Extract 3.
You hear two people on a radio programme talking about the idea of educating children at home.
Now look at questions five and six.

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Speaker D
What do you think of the idea of being educated at home, or unschooling as it's been called?
Other speaker
Yes.
Speaker A
I think unschooling was first used by the American educator John Holt. He rather saw schools as prisons,
where children were bored and weren't in charge of their own development.
Personally, I loved school. It was a traditional education, but we had the chance to be creative through
drama and story writing. And for me, it was beneficial.
I mean, of course, there are children who shouldn't be there. It just doesn't suit their learning style.
And I think employers are often just as impressed with personal skills as with actual qualifications
nowadays. So you don't need a formal education as much as you used to, but...
Speaker D
I can see the benefits. You get lots of individual attention and you get to interact with your family members
or others in the community.
I believe things like museum trips and studying things in your environment play a big part.
But it's a relatively recent trend as far as educational theory goes, and there's not been a proper study
into how successful it actually is.
Also, I can't imagine it'll really catch on with many parents.
Speaker A
No. A lot of us like some time away from the kids.
Speaker D
What do you think of the idea of being educated at home, or unschooling as it's been called?
Other speaker
Yes.
Speaker A
I think unschooling was first used by the American educator John Holt. He rather saw schools as prisons,
where children were bored and weren't in charge of their own development.
Personally, I loved school. It was a traditional education, but we had the chance to be creative through
drama and story writing. And for me, it was beneficial.
I mean, of course, there are children who shouldn't be there. It just doesn't suit their learning style. And I
think employers are often just as impressed with personal skills as with actual qualifications nowadays.
So you don't need a formal education as much as you used to, but...
Speaker D
I can see the benefits. You get lots of individual attention, and you get to interact with your family
members or others in the community.
I believe things like museum trips and studying things in your environment play a big part.
But it's a relatively recent trend as far as educational theory goes, and there's not been a proper study
into how successful it actually is. Also, I can't imagine it'll really catch on with many parents.
Speaker A
No. A lot of us like some time away from the kids.
EXERCISE 46
Extract 1.
You overhear a football fan talking to a friend about a new stadium he's just been to.
Now look at questions 1 and 2.

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So what did you think of the new stadium? You should go. I mean, it's the stadium of sporting dreams.
The design is obviously very high-tech. It's really impressive, though surprisingly subdued when it comes
to colour.
The architects deliberately worked with neutral tones because he reckons that the events themselves will
provide enough life and excitement. At night, a central tower lights up like a beacon,
so everyone can see not just where it is, but also how important it is, both to the local community and to
the sport of football itself. And what's it like inside?
It's like a kind of swooping, smooth, concrete arena wrapped around with five levels of atriums, walkways,
cafes, shops.
It's got the feel of an airport, not so much because of all those lofty interiors, but because absolutely no
expense has been spared in the choice of seating, washrooms and refreshment areas.
And they've got to be good, because they'll have to stand up to the wear and tear that 90,000 people will
impose.
So what did you think of the new stadium? You should go. I mean, it's the stadium of sporting dreams.
The design is obviously very high-tech. It's really impressive, though surprisingly subdued when it comes
to colour.
The architects deliberately worked with neutral tones because he reckons that the events themselves will
provide enough life and excitement. At night, a central tower lights up like a beacon,
so everyone can see not just where it is, but also how important it is, both to the local community and to
the sport of football itself. And what's it like inside?
It's like a kind of swooping, smooth, concrete arena wrapped around with five levels of atriums, walkways,
cafes, shops. It's got the feel of an airport,
not so much because of all those lofty interiors, but because absolutely no expense has been spared in
the choice of seating, washrooms and refreshment areas. And they've got to be good, because they'll have
to stand up to the wear and tear
that 90,000 people will impose.
Extract 2
You hear part of an interview with a presenter of a breakfast radio programme.
Now look at questions 3 and 4.
What amazes me about your radio programme, is that after all these years, you sound so cheerful and up
for it at 6.30 in the morning. And surely there must be mornings when you think, I don't want to do this.
Well, I'm a performer, aren't I?
I get a buzz out of it. I mean, on dark winter mornings, it can be a bit hard, but I still come in with a spring
in my step. So, provided I'm healthy enough to do it, I'll carry on. But I know they'll eventually find
someone younger to do the job.
I have no illusions about that. One of my colleagues, maybe. Well, if your colleague John took over, that
would be a huge change. You don't swear like he does for one thing. I rather thought you disapproved of
that.
Well, he's an incredible risk-taker. He's brave enough to open his mouth without knowing what he's going
to say. Yet, funnily enough, people rarely take offence at what comes out. You'd think they would, but in
fact they like him all the more for it.
I've heard him do stuff that I certainly wouldn't attempt.
What amazes me about your radio programme, is that after all these years, you sound so cheerful and up
for it at 6.30 in the morning. And surely there must be mornings when you think, I don't want to do this.
Well, I'm a performer, aren't I?
I get a buzz out of it. I mean, on dark winter mornings, it can be a bit hard, but I still come in with a spring
in my step. So, provided I'm healthy enough to do it, I'll carry on. But I know they'll eventually find
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I have no illusions about that. One of my colleagues, maybe. Well, if your colleague John took over, that
would be a huge change. You don't swear like he does for one thing. I rather thought you disapproved of
that.
Well, he's an incredible risk-taker. He's brave enough to open his mouth, without knowing what he's going
to say. Yet, funnily enough, people rarely take offence at what comes out. You'd think they would, but in
fact they like him all the more for it.
I've heard him do stuff that I certainly wouldn't attempt. No, yeah, a lot.
Interact 3.
You overhear two friends, called Greg and Tamsin,
discussing a newspaper article about something called a seed bank. Now look at questions 5 and 6.
Have you read this article, Greg, about the three million seed varieties they've stored in a vault near the
North Pole? I only glanced at it, really. What's the seed bank for, then? Do you know? Back up the whole
genetic diversity thing.
The article says that farmers these days prefer modern, higher-yield, disease-resistant species, so the
more traditional varieties might disappear completely one day. I see. Sounds like a pretty valuable
resource.
It'll probably have loads of cameras and barbed wire and stuff to protect it. Nothing about that here. It
says that people in charge are just going to find out and find someone to keep an eye on the place, pass
by once a week or so. I reckon they'll get caught out there.
Not that it'll be hard to find a suitable caretaker, if that's all you have to do. So, have they decided actually
how and when they'll supply the seeds? There's a whole paragraph on that. Here, you can read it. Right,
thanks.
Have you read this article, Greg, about the three million seed varieties they've stored in a vault near the
North Pole? I only glanced at it, really. What's the seed bank for, then? Do you know? No! You didn't.
Well, you're looking for a seed bank. I don't know! I'm a breed doctor.
Well, you'll write about it in the papers. I have no idea about that. I'm just not a naturalist. and have never
been taught how to release seed denials. how many seeds can you possibly produce a day?
Well, um, I've got an idea. I have a kind of a problem with getting very good I can kind of think of a better
method for it. Oh, I see. that it'll be hard to find a suitable caretaker if that's all you have to do. So, have
they decided actually how and when they'll supply the seeds?
There's a whole paragraph on that. Here, you can read it. Right, thanks.
EXERCISE 47
Listening, part 1. You will hear three different extracts. For questions 1 to 6,
choose the answer A, B or C which fits best according to what you hear. There are two
questions for each extract.
Extract 1.
You hear two people on a radio program discussing music
Speaker C
education for children. Research shows that the optimum time to start music education is between the
ages of three and four. As well as improving manual dexterity and concentration, it seems that
it may help emotional development too. And starting young on understanding musical notation lays down
an excellent foundation for later on. The piano is the instrument that many parents want their
children to start learning and I think three years old is the right time to start. Starting
Speaker E
early is vital but less demanding instruments would be my choice. Things like the recorder or a half-sized
guitar. Personally, I don't think the piano is the best instrument for

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children to start with so early. Children have to show the mental, physical and emotional readiness to
learn an instrument like the piano, which obviously takes a lot of effort and
commitment. In my experience, very few children under six are able to take on that kind of
Speaker C
challenge. Well, I think children of that age can learn to play simple tunes on the piano and they soon
progress to more complicated pieces if they can read music. But a rather academic approach
Speaker E
will turn children off for life if they're not ready for it. And if they're not ready for it,
Speaker C
be the priority. Well, enjoyment is certainly important, but if you... Research shows that the
optimum time to start music education is between the ages of three and four. As well as improving manual
dexterity and concentration, it seems that it may help emotional development too,
and starting young on understanding musical notation lays down an excellent foundation for later on. The
piano is the instrument that many parents want their children to start learning,
and I think three years old is the right time to start. Starting early is vital, but less demanding
Speaker E
instruments would be my choice. Things like the recorder or a half-size guitar. Personally, I don't think the
piano is the best instrument to start with so early. Children have to show the mental,
physical, and emotional readiness to learn an instrument like the piano, which obviously takes a lot of
effort and commitment. In my experience, very few children under six are able to take on that kind of
challenge.
Other speaker
Well,
Speaker C
I think children of that age can learn to play simple tunes on the piano, and they soon progress to more
complicated pieces if they can read music. But a rather academic approach will turn children
Speaker E
off for life if they're not ready for it. Enjoyment has got to be the priority. Well,
Speaker D
enjoyment is certainly important, but if you...
Extract 2.
You hear part of an interview with
Speaker F
a rock climber called Ben. So, Ben, you're well known in the climbing world as a bit of a loner. You prefer...
Climbing without other people. Is that true?
Speaker B
Well, to some extent. I've always talked to other climbers about the technical side of things, training,
equipment, and things like that. But at the end of the day, you've got to learn
independently, through trial and error. If you're climbing in a group, you'll always compare yourself to
others, and that doesn't always help you to improve. It's good to admire other climbers,
but different things work best for different people.
Speaker F
So, you never climb with other people?
Speaker B
As far as possible, I climb alone, but occasionally I look to others for support. When I was younger, I used
to do most of my climbing during the summer holidays,
and I haven't done much winter climbing, so I still feel out of my depth climbing alone on rock faces
covered in ice. When it's dangerous like that, you need people who've been brought

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up with it. It's good to have people around to advise you on what's a safe manoeuvre to make in the
circumstances.
Speaker F
So, Ben, you're well known in the climbing world as a bit of a loner. You're well known in the climbing
world as a bit of a loner. You prefer climbing without other people. Is that true?
Speaker B
Well, to some extent. I've always talked to other climbers about the technical side of things, training,
equipment, and things like that. But at the end of the day, you've got to learn
independently, through trial and error. If you're climbing in a group, you'll always compare yourself to
others, and that doesn't always help you to improve. It's good to admire other climbers,
but different things work best for different people.
Speaker F
So, you never climb with other people?
Speaker B
As far as possible, I climb alone, but occasionally I look to others for support. When I was younger, I used
to do most of my climbing during the summer holidays, and I haven't done much winter climbing,
so I still feel out of my depth climbing alone on rock faces covered in ice. When it's dangerous like that,
you need people who've been brought up with it. It's good to have people around
to advise you on what's a safe manoeuvre to make in the circumstances.
Speaker G
You're such a household name, it must be terrifying for staff when you go into a restaurant. How do they
react?
Speaker A
It's true that a lot of people know me, at least in the restaurant world, so I always eat with a friend and
they'll make the booking.
Often, though, I get recognised, and when that happens, it's inevitable, I suppose, that they take a bit
more care over serving the food,
and some seem a bit nervous. I've never been given a complimentary meal, though, or anything like that.
That would be just too obvious, and of course it could be considered unethical to accept a gift like that.
Speaker G
And what makes a good restaurant?
Speaker A
A good restaurant is one where the management and waiting staff have given some thought to why their
customers are there. Most restaurant owners believe that the main reason people go to restaurants is for
the food, for that's completely wrong.
The main reason people go to restaurants is for the food, for that's completely wrong. The main reason
people go to restaurants is to have a good time, not because they're hungry. So there might be a big
difference between the priorities of a restaurant and the priorities of diners.
For example, one thing that a restaurant gets judged on is the quality of service. What restaurant owners
think is good is service that is efficient, but what customers have as their priority is friendly service.
Speaker G
You're such a household name, it must be terrifying for staff when you go into a restaurant. How do they
react?
Speaker A
It's true that a lot of people know me. They know me, at least in the restaurant world, so I always eat with
a friend and they'll make the booking.
Often, though, I get recognised, and when that happens, it's inevitable, I suppose, that they take a bit
more care over serving the food, and some seem a bit nervous.

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I've never been given a complimentary meal, though, or anything like that. That would be just too obvious,
and of course it could be considered unethical to accept a gift like that.
Speaker G
And what makes a good restaurant?
Speaker A
A good restaurant... A good restaurant is one where the management and waiting staff have given some
thought to why their customers are there. Most restaurant owners believe that the main reason people
go to restaurants is for the food, but that's completely wrong.
The main reason people go to restaurants is to have a good time, not because they're hungry. So there
might be a big difference between the priorities of a restaurant and the priorities of diners.
For example, one thing that a restaurant gets judged on is the quality of service. What restaurant owners
think is good is service that is efficient, but what customers have is service that is not.
EXERCISE 48
Extract 1.
You hear two friends talking about doing team sports in the schools they went to.
Speaker C
You did a lot of team sports at school, didn't you?
Speaker A
Yes, mainly football and volleyball. I was in the school team for both of them. I always felt really healthy
from it and it was a great way of getting to know people well.
Some of the people I played with are still people I meet up with regularly. But you were good at sport too,
weren't you? Didn't you enjoy it?
Speaker C
To be honest, I really didn't like team sports at school, although I did play rugby. It certainly kept me in
good shape, but what I disliked most was having to spend so much time on it after school.
All I really wanted to do was get on with homework, which I actually enjoyed, but the rugby practice got
in the way. I also hated the competitive side, the constant pressure to win.
I've spoken to some team mates since then, still people I keep in touch with, and many of them felt the
same way.
Speaker A
Well, I suppose the pressure is sometimes a bit intense. But overall, I think doing team sports can really
help you develop skills that are useful in later life.
I suppose I'm a naturally competitive person and I got a lot of fun out of playing against teams from other
schools.
Speaker C
You did a lot of team sports at school, didn't you?
Speaker A
Yes, mainly football and volleyball. I was in the school team for both of them. I always felt really healthy
from it and it was a great way of getting to know people well.
Some of the people I played with are still people I meet up with regularly. But you were good at sport too,
weren't you? Didn't you enjoy it?
Speaker C
To be honest, I really didn't like team sports at school, although I did play rugby. It certainly kept me in
good shape, but what I disliked most was having to spend so much time on it after school.
All I really wanted to do was get on with homework, but what I disliked most was having to spend so much
time on it after school. All I really wanted to do was get on with homework, which I actually enjoyed, but
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I've spoken to some teammates since then, still people I keep in touch with, and many of them felt the
same way.
Speaker A
Well, I suppose the pressure is sometimes a bit intense. But overall, I think doing team sports can really
help you develop skills that are useful in later life.
I suppose I'm a naturally competitive person. And I got a lot of fun out of playing against teams from other
schools.
Speaker G
Extract 2.
You hear two friends talking about reading.
Speaker B
I notice one of your friends gave you an e-reader for your birthday, but I haven't seen you use it yet.
Speaker E
No, I've hardly used it at all. I still prefer reading printed books.
Speaker B
Oh, but e-readers are so convenient. You should really try it more. I use mine all the time. I read on the
train, on the way to work, on holiday, reading in bed before I go to sleep.
You read a lot, don't you? You'd be able to carry a load of reading material around with you in something
that's the size of a single paperback. And it's not just books. You can get newspapers and magazines as
well.
What I particularly like is being able to change the font size so easily. I hate reading books with very small
print. Have a go.
Speaker E
Yes, that's all very true. But I just like holding real books. There's something about how they feel, and
sometimes even how they smell, that really appeals.
And I like having them on my bookshelves to remind me what I've read as I walk past them. And also to
show people who visit what I've read so they can learn something about me.
You can't do that if what you've read is on an e-reader.
Speaker B
I notice one of your friends gave you an e-reader for your birthday, but I haven't seen you use it yet.
Speaker E
No, I've hardly used it at all. I still prefer reading printed books.
Speaker B
Oh, but e-readers are so convenient. You should really try it more. I use mine all the time. On the train,
on the way to work, on holiday, reading in bed before I go to sleep.
You read a lot, don't you? You'd be able to carry a load of reading material around with you in something
that's the size of a single paperback. And it's not just books. You can get newspapers. And magazines as
well.
What I particularly like is being able to change the font size so easily. I hate reading books with very small
print. Have a go.
Speaker E
Yes, that's all very true, but I just like holding real books. There's something about how they feel, and
sometimes even how they smell, that really appeals.
And I like having them on my bookshelves to remind me what I've read as I walk past them. And also to
show people who I've read so far. I know people who visit what I've read so they can learn something
about me.
You can't do that if what you've read is on an e-reader.
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You've got a new job in your company, haven't you?
Speaker D
Yes, I transferred to the marketing department just a couple of weeks ago. My job's to send texts to people
about new offers and new products.
Speaker F
Oh, I get marketing texts all the time. And I must say that I find it pretty... irritating. They tend to come
from companies I know nothing about, trying to sell me things I've no wish to own.
Although I sometimes text back telling them to stop contacting me, the texts just keep coming. I mean, I
can understand why companies do it. It's a really efficient way of keeping people informed.
But I wish I could stop it somehow.
Speaker D
Well, our company just sends texts to people who we think would want to find out more about our
products. Perhaps they've already bought something from us online. So we know they might be interested
in hearing from us.
They'll have given us permission to send them details as well. And if people tell us to stop contacting them,
we always delete their details from our database. Of course, not all companies follow the regulations that
have been agreed about marketing texts.
Speaker F
You've got a new job in your company, haven't you?
Speaker D
Yes, I transferred to the marketing department just a couple of weeks ago. My job's to send texts to people
about new offers and new products.
Speaker F
Oh, I get marketing texts all the time. And I must say that I find it pretty irritating. They tend to come from
companies I know nothing about, trying to sell me things I've no wish to own.
Although I sometimes text back telling them to stop contacting me, the texts just keep coming. I mean, I
can understand why companies do it. It's a really efficient way of keeping people informed.
But I wish I could stop it somehow.
Speaker D
Well, our company just sends texts to people who we think would want to find out more about our
products. Perhaps they've already bought something from us online, so we know they might be interested
in hearing from us.
They'll have given us permission to send them details as well. And if people tell us to stop contacting them,
we always delete their details from our database. Of course, not all companies follow the regulations that
have been agreed about marketing texts.
EXERCISE 49
Extract 1.
Speaker B
You hear a woman asking her friend about a change in his transport habits.
Speaker F
What's happened to you? You never used to walk anywhere.
Speaker A
I know, but now I've turned over a new leaf.
Speaker F
I don't believe it. You always used to get us to drive you everywhere, even when you could have caught
a bus or a train.

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Speaker A
Yeah, well, a couple of weeks ago, just about everyone seemed to be away and I had to get taxis every
day. You know, I have no idea about public transport. Even though I was often just travelling very short
distances,
it was costing me an absolute fortune. One night, it was really late and I got fed up of waiting for a taxi.
So I walked home. It only took me about ten minutes longer than it would have taken me by taxi.
I really felt quite pleased with myself because I'd saved the price of a pizza. I realised that there were a
lot of better things I could be doing with my cash than blowing it on taxis.
Speaker F
Why don't you buy yourself a taxi? Yeah, you're right.
Speaker A
Actually, I've started taking driving lessons and I'm saving what I would have spent on taxi fares.
Eventually, I'll be able to afford my own car. In the meantime, I'm enjoying walking. It's really good
EXERCISE.
Speaker F
What's happened to you? You never used to walk anywhere.
Speaker A
I know, but now I've turned over a new leaf.
Speaker F
I don't believe it. You always used to get us to drive you everywhere, even when you could have caught
a bus or a train. Yeah, well, a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker A
just about everyone seemed to be away and I'd saved the price of a taxi. Everyone seemed to be away
and I had to get taxis every day. You know, I have no idea about public transport. Even though I was often
just travelling very short distances, it was costing me an absolute fortune.
One night, it was really late and I got fed up of waiting for a taxi. So I walked home. It only took me about
ten minutes longer than it would have taken me by taxi. I really felt quite pleased with myself because I'd
saved the price of a pizza.
I realised that there were a lot of better things I could be doing with my cash than blowing it on taxis.
Speaker F
Why don't you buy yourself a car?
Speaker A
Yeah, you're right. Actually, I've started taking driving lessons and I'm saving what I would have spent on
taxi fares. Eventually, I'll be able to afford my own car. In the meantime, I'm enjoying walking. It's really
good EXERCISE.
Extract 2.
You hear two people talking about flying.
Speaker B
So, how did it all start?
Speaker F
Well, it got really bad after a flight to France. It was a small plane and the weather wasn't working. It was
wonderful, but it was only a 55-minute flight. And what happened? Well, take-off was a bit wobbly.
And as we got higher, it started to get really bumpy. When the pilot started speaking, I thought he was
going to tell us to prepare for an emergency landing and I started to panic.
As it turned out, all he said was that the flight was going to be a bit rough because of turbulence. But that
didn't help? No, not really. I thought he was just saying that to stop everyone panicking. But nobody else
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They were taking the whole flight. They were taking the whole incident very calmly. It was then that I
realised I had a problem. Hmm. And you always get like this in the airport? Well, I just feel a bit
apprehensive now.
That's natural, isn't it? My hands are a bit sweaty, I suppose. I guarantee you, on the plane, I'll feel
absolutely sick with nerves when the engine starts up. But landing is a massive relief to me,
which is the bit most people find scary.
Speaker B
So, how did it all start?
Speaker F
Well, it got really bad after a flight to France. It was a small plane and the weather wasn't wonderful. But
it was only a 55-minute flight. And what happened? Well, take-off was a bit wobbly.
And as we got higher, it started to get really bumpy. When the pilot started speaking, I thought he was
going to tell us to prepare for an emergency landing. And I started to panic. As it turned out,
all he said was that the flight was going to be a bit rough because of turbulence.
Speaker B
But that didn't help?
Speaker F
No, not really. I thought he was just saying that to stop everyone panicking. But nobody else was panicking.
They were taking the whole incident very calmly. It was then that I realised I had a problem.
Other speaker
Hmm.
Speaker B
And you always get like this in the airport?
Speaker F
Well, I just feel a bit apprehensive now. That's natural, isn't it? My hands are a bit sweaty, I suppose. I
guarantee you, on the plane, I'll feel absolutely sick with nerves when the engine starts up.
But landing is a massive relief to me, which is the bit most people find scary.
Extract 3.
Speaker A
You hear part of an interview with a man who is talking about travelling on the London Underground.
Speaker F
Do you remember the first time you went on an underground train?
Speaker B
Yeah, I was about five, I think. I remember it was my first time in London. I didn't have the faintest idea
what the tube was. I couldn't believe it when we stepped on the escalator and started going down into
the ground.
That was so thrilling for a little kid. I remember giggling and waving at the people on the up end. At one
point, I got so carried away that I almost toppled, but luckily my dad was holding my hand.
On the platform, I remember staring at the black tunnel. Then there was a whooshing noise, a warm wind,
and suddenly there was the train. The doors slid open and hundreds of people spilled out.
That was the only thing that was a bit scary.
Speaker F
Do you still get like that?
Speaker B
No, I'm pretty blasé now. It's still awe-inspiring, though, when you think about it. All the business types,
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because it's simply the best way to get from A to B. It's one of the great London institutions. No wonder
you see all the merchandise, covered in logos and maps on sale everywhere these days.
The London Underground has become an icon.
Speaker F
Do you remember the first time you went on an Underground train? Yeah, I was about five, I think.
Other speaker
I remember it was my first time in London.
Speaker B
I didn't have the faintest idea what the Tube was. I couldn't believe it when we stepped on the escalator
and started going down into the ground. That was so thrilling for a little kid.
I remember giggling and waving at the people on the up escalator. At one point I got so carried away that
I almost toppled, but luckily my dad was holding my hand.
On the platform, I remember staring at the black tunnel. Then there was a whooshing noise, a warm wind,
and suddenly there was the train.
The doors slid open and hundreds of people spilled out. That was the only thing that was a bit scary. Do
you still get like that? No, I'm pretty blasé now.
It's still awe-inspiring though, when you think about it. All the business types, tourists, clubbers and
buskers rushing about in those hot airless tunnels,
because it's simply the best way to get from A to B. It's one of the great London institutions. No wonder
you see all the merchandise covered in logos and maps on sale everywhere these days.
The London Underground has become an icon.
EXERCISE 50.
Extract 1.
You hear two friends discussing the topic of marketing. Now look at questions 1 and 2.
Speaker A
Hi, Daniel. How are things? Have you applied for college yet?
Speaker E
Well, I can't decide which one to go for. Lots of colleges have sent me their glossy brochures, and I see
they now go on about how environmentally friendly they are. In fact, they've got a star rating system for
this one.
Speaker A
Hmm, they're trying to attract as much interest as possible, though I'm not sure that would have much
impact on my choice. Ultimately, the course has to be the right one, though I can see they need to
compete.
Speaker E
Well, yes, but if I was torn between two courses, the new rating could decide it. It's good they're thinking
about these issues, and the marketing people are certainly shouting about it.
Speaker A
It's getting like the commercial sector, those companies who sponsor a charity, for example, trying to
persuade consumers that just by buying, they're doing their bit for charity and can ignore other causes.
I don't know if it increases sales, but the cynic in me reckons many companies just want to appear softer
in the public eye, so they make a lot of noise about their charitable credentials.
Hi, Daniel. How are things? Have you applied for college yet?
Speaker E
Well, I can't decide which one to go for. Lots of colleges have sent me their glossy brochures, and I see
they now go on about how environmentally friendly they are. In fact, they've got a star rating system for
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Speaker A
They're trying to attract as much interest as possible, though I'm not sure that would have much impact
on my choice. Ultimately, the course has to be the right one, though I can see they need to compete.
Speaker E
Well, yes, but if I was torn between two courses, the new rating could decide it. It's good they're thinking
about these issues, and the marketing people are certainly shouting about it.
Speaker A
It's getting like the commercial sector, those companies who sponsor a charity, for example, trying to
persuade consumers that just by buying, their products, they're doing their bit for charity, and can ignore
other causes.
I don't know if it increases sales, but the cynic in me reckons many companies just want to appear softer
in the public eye, so they make a lot of noise about their charitable credentials.
Extract 2.
You hear two friends talking about ways of keeping fit. Now look at questions 3 and 4.
Speaker B
Are you still going to the gym, Frank?
Speaker F
Yes, but not as often as I should be.
Speaker B
That's the problem, isn't it? I've heard that the dropout rate among gym members is very high, even in
those really expensive luxury health centers. Anyway, gyms aren't the answer.
I'm sure the real key is to build EXERCISE into your daily routine by doing something simple like walking to
the mall, or taking the stairs rather than the elevator, or doing sport.
And another thing. People tend to think that a 60-minute workout entitles them to laze around, for the
rest of the day, or eat a lot and then undo all the good they might have done.
But people who EXERCISE little and often don't fall into the same trap.
Speaker F
That's all very well, Mary. But what about the people who don't give up on the gym and who actually feel
the benefit and quite enjoy the comradeship? Each to his own, you know. If you just give it another shot,
you might find it suited you too.
Speaker B
Are you still going to the gym, Frank?
Speaker F
Yes, but not as often as I should be.
Speaker B
That's the problem, isn't it? I've heard that the dropout rate among gym members is very high, even in
those really expensive luxury health centers. Anyway, gyms aren't the answer.
I'm sure the real key is to build EXERCISE into your daily routine by doing something simple like walking to
the mall, or taking the stairs rather than the elevator, or doing sport.
And another thing. People tend to think that a 60-minute workout entitles them to laze around for the
rest of the day, or eat a lot and then undo all the good they might have done.
But people who EXERCISE little and often don't fall into the same trap.
Speaker F
That's all very well, Mary. But what about the people who don't give up on the gym and who actually feel
the benefit and quite enjoy the comradeship? Each to his own, you know. If you just give it another shot,
you might find it suited you too.
Extract 3.

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You'll hear a woman telling a friend about living in her capital city as a student. Now look at questions 5
and 6.
Speaker D
What did you study at university, Alicia?
Speaker C
Horticulture, plants and things. I was based at a regional one, but I also spent time studying in the capital.
Speaker D
Seems a strange place to go if you want to grow things the middle of a huge city.
Speaker C
That's what my fellow student said. I mean, I know it wasn't ideal. It's a harsh climate. Winters are bitterly
cold and the summer's sweltering with little rain.
But folks in the city are just determined to grow stuff on rooftops, balconies, wherever. They'll just garden
anywhere they can. It was a reminder of the strong spirit of gardeners.
Speaker D
Come to think of it, I do remember noticing the way some of the trees were looked after there. Instead of
bare bits of ground around urban trees,
they seemed to take great pride in filling the earth around them with flowers.
Speaker C
done by the residents themselves. It's as if every tree is to be celebrated.
Speaker D
I wouldn't go that far. Not all parts of the city are like that.
What did you study at university, Alicia?
Speaker C
Horticulture, plants and things. I was based at a regional one, but I also spent time studying in the capital.
Speaker D
Seems a strange place to go if you want to grow things the middle of a huge city.
Speaker C
That's what my fellow student said. I mean, I know it wasn't ideal. It's a harsh climate. Winters are bitterly
cold and the summer's sweltering with little rain.
But folks in the city are just determined to grow stuff on rooftops, balconies, wherever. They'll just garden
anywhere they can. It was a reminder of the strong spirit of gardeners.
Speaker D
Come to think of it, I do remember noticing the way some of the trees were looked after there. Instead of
bare bits of ground around urban trees, they seem to take great pride in filling the earth.
They've got a lot of stuff around them with flowers.
Speaker C
And all that's done by the residents themselves. It's as if every tree is to be celebrated.
Speaker D
I wouldn't go that far. Not all parts of the city are like that.

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Part 5 | 2024
Part 5 | 2024
EXERCISE 1
Extract 1
Speaker B: Okay. As regards you as students, the tutorials are voluntary. You're not obliged to attend,
but you are encouraged to do so.
Last year, for the first time, a register was kept of students attending lectures, and this year tutors are
being asked to keep a register of tutorial attendance.
This is not a formal register, and not all tutors will be doing it, but in the philosophy department all of us
have chosen to keep registers. Another point that's being emphasised this year is punctuality.
When we did exit questionnaires, we found that people arriving late for tutorials and lectures was the
single most annoying thing for the majority of students.
I would therefore ask you to try to be on time for the tutorials, and for all your other classes, for that
matter.
Extract 2
A: Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Science Matters show. Our special guest this week is Dr
Jenny Wood, an astrophysicist from the European Space Agency. She’s been studying the mysteries of
outer space for the last fifteen years and is here to tell us about some recent discoveries.
B: Hi, and thanks for having me on the show.
A: It’s our pleasure. Now, your interest in space started at a young age didn’t it?
B: Yes it did. When I was eight years old my parents bought me a small telescope so that I could look at
the moon from my bedroom window. I remember looking at the craters on its surface and being
absolutely amazed. Since then, all I wanted to do was study outer space.
A: So, what recent developments have there been in your field?
B: Well, without a doubt, the most exciting thing to happen in years is the discovery of gravitational
waves. These are tiny waves of energy. They travel through space for billions of years before they reach
Earth. They happen when large objects, much bigger than our sun, crash into each other.
A: But what does this discovery mean?
B: Well, we use waves to take pictures. Light is a wave and we can capture that in photographs and X-
rays.
Extract 3
Speaker E: So, Katya, how are you getting on?
Speaker C: All right, I think, Mr. Findley. Well, I'm a bit worried about some of my work.
Speaker E: Well, I've looked at all your marks. You're doing well in most subjects. Very well, in fact,
especially history and English. So which ones are you worried about?
Speaker C: I was worried about science, but that's OK now. I don't think I'm doing that one in geography.
I had to redo my last project.
Speaker E: Hmm, you have had one or two low marks. Do you know what that was?
Speaker C: My teacher explained that my last project was too short and I had missed out some of the
maps. I don't think I'm good at geography, Mr Finlay.
Speaker E: I'm sure that's not true, Katja. We just need to find out what the problem is. I know you're a
hard-working student, so there must be something we can do to help you. Have you any ideas yourself?
Speaker C: Sometimes I don't understand what I have to do. We're given a handout with instructions for
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Speaker E: And with geography, your final mark is 50% project work, isn't it?
Speaker C: Yes, that's right. That's why I'm a bit worried about it.
Speaker E: Do you ask your teacher for help if you don't understand what to do?
Speaker C: It's only when I get home and get started on a project I get confused. Then I start looking for
information on the web and there's so much. I spend ages trying to find what I need.
Speaker E: But you can always ask to see your teacher and get some help.
EXERCISE 2
Extract 1
Emiliano: Hello, my name is Emiliano. I am a student here and I'd like to rent a house for six months.
Interviewer: OK, well you've come to the right place. We specialise in short-term rental. First of all, I
would like to get a few details from you. Can you give me your full name, please?
Emiliano: Yes, it is Emiliano Nespla.
Interviewer: And can you tell me your present address, please?
Emiliano: es, it's 17 Middle Way, Penrose. I'm living with a homestay family at the moment.
Interviewer: That's great. Now do you have any identification with you? Oh, and we will need a
reference from someone who knows you here. Maybe your homestay family?
Emiliano: Yes, OK. Here's my passport and a card from my language school. My reference can be Mrs
Alice Thompson. She's my homestay mother and she wouldn't mind, I'm sure. You can contact her at the
same address as me, of course.
Interviewer: OK. OK. OK. And to contact you, should we leave a message with your homestay?
Emiliano: No, you can speak to me directly. My cell phone number is 021-548-3534.
Interviewer: Great. Now do you have a bank account? You will need to pay your rent by direct debit.
You know, it will come out of your account automatically every month.
Extract 2
Dad: Hello? 992846.
Hannah: Dad? Is that you?
Dad: Hannah?
Hannah: Dad. I'm phoning ...
Dad: The line isn't very clear.
Hannah: Yes, I know, I'm on a mobile and the signal isn't very good. I'll see if I can move ... is that any
better?
Dad: Yes. That's much better. Just don't move.
Hannah: I'll try not to.
[Repeat]
Dad: Have you found a place to live yet?
Hannah: Yes! I think I have at last.
Dad: Wonderful!
Hannah: I'm relieved, because I'm fed up looking. I didn't think it was going to take me three weeks.
Dad: It hasn't been easy for you. I suppose it's the beginning of the academic year and you have all the
new students looking for places as well.
Hannah: Yes, that's one reason. But this place is also full of new technology companies and there are
lots of young people looking for somewhere to live. And you know what that means?
Dad: Higher rents as well.
Hannah: Yes. Much higher.
Dad: Well, tell me, how much is it?
Hannah: It isn't cheap for this area.
Extract 3

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Mark: Hi there, Nam! You aren’t still working on your history assignment, are you?
Nam: Hi, Victor! No, I’m taking a break. I’m looking at some photos, actually – a family celebration.
Do you want to see them?
Mark: So, who’s the cute baby in this picture here?
Nam: She’s my niece – my brother’s daughter. Her name’s Tae-Hee. She’s one year old in this picture.
It’s a very important birthday in Korea – we call it ‘Dol’ or Doljanchi. It’s a very special celebration – in
fact, I think it’s probably more important than a wedding or a graduation! And we invite all our family
and friends and sometimes our neighbours. Here’s a picture of the restaurant where we celebrated Tae-
Hee’s big day.
Mark: What a lovely place – and a beautiful garden, too.
Nam: Yes, it’s a perfect location for taking photographs. Can you see me just there next to the trees?
Mark: Ah yes, I like your hat! And I like the red and silver hat Tae-Hee’s wearing too. It’s really pretty.
Nam: Yes, it’s a traditional hat for a girl. Baby boys wear a diferent one – all black. It looks very serious!
Mark: That’s a bit boring. Black and silver would be more interesting.
EXERCISE 3
Extract 1.
Welcome, everyone, again to the Different Lives program. Here in the studio today we have Ray
Bell, who is, uh, I guess we can call you a professional competition winner.
That's about right, but I don't win every competition I take part in, unfortunately. It would be nice
if I did.
Ray, can you tell us exactly what you do?
I make a living from competitions, all sorts of them. You name them, I do it. Word games,
questionnaires, quizzes, collecting tokens, riddles, treasure hunts, making up slogans.
The list is endless, really, but there are loads out there, and I do about 50 a week. Some are very
quick to do, maybe just answering a simple couple of questions by text message.
Others can take several weeks, especially those involving collecting a certain number of samples
of a product, like bottle tops. The prizes vary, too, but I win enough to justify the time put in.
How did you get into this world of competitions?
Well, I'd done a few competitions when I was younger and quite liked them, but there's nothing
unusual in that. I mean, everyone has done some sort of contest, haven't they?
What turned things round was when I won my first serious prize, a home computer. It was a very
basic model, but quite expensive at that time. Probably more than a month's wages in my...
Boring office job.
I was thrilled to bits with that computer, and all I had done was just send off a questionnaire and
get my name pulled out of a hat. It made me think that I could get other stuff, too, if I did more
of the same.
So it all started.
Extract 2.
Thank you for calling Carline. So that we can best help you, can you please press the star button
on your phone now? Thank you.
Now choose one of the following four options by pressing the buttons on your telephone. Press
1 if you would like to make a car reservation.
Press 2 if you would like to talk to someone about a car reservation. Press 3 if you would. Please
hold.

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to one of our assistants good morning melanie speaking how can i help you my name is mr
Maxine and i booked a car several days ago to be picked up from heathrow airport in london and
i'd like to change the booking i see have you got a reference yes i have it here somewhere on a
piece of paper ah here it is it's a for alpha c for charlie f or foxtrot y for year yes the number of
15 1 5 a for alpha and g for go let's see can i just check that a c f y 15 a g yes mr john Maxine yes
that's it okay so how can i help you i booked a car for three days from this friday at 6 p.m to
monday at 6 p.m yes a manual i'd like to change it for a larger car and an automatic rather than
a manual and i'd also like to book it for five rather than three days okay let's have a look
Extract 3.
Hi, Carl. It's Andy. How are you? Feeling better? Not really. I have
to sit down most of the time. It's too tiring walking with these crutches. Really? Still on
crutches, eh? So you're not back to work yet? No.
And I'm bored to death. I don't go back to the hospital for another week. Another week?
Is that when the plaster comes off? I hope so. I can't wait to have two legs again. Anyway, how
are you?
Still missing the snow and the mountains? No, I'm fine. We're both fine. Julie sends her
love, by the way. Thanks. Send her my love too. I miss you all. By the way, have you got any of
your
photos back yet? Yes, yes, we have. Julie picked them up today. They're all in the car. I've
got them. They're good. I didn't realise we'd taken so many of us all. What about that one with
the
amazing sunset behind the hotel? Yes, the sunset. It's a good one. All of us together on
Bob and Marcia's balcony, with the mountains and the snow in the background. Brings back
memories, doesn't it? Yeah, the memory of me skiing into a tree. Yes, I know. I'm sorry. Now
listen again.
Other speaker
PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS
Speaker A
PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS PHONE RINGS Well, it's Andy. How are you? Feeling better?
Speaker B
Ah, not really. I have to sit down most of the time. It's too tiring walking with these
crutches.
Speaker A
Really? Still on crutches, eh? So you're not back to work yet?
Speaker B
No. And I'm bored to death. I don't go back to the hospital for another week.
Speaker A
Another week? Is that when the plaster comes off?
Other speaker
I hope so. I can't wait to have two legs again. Anyway, how are you? Still missing the snow
and
Speaker B
the mountains?

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Speaker A
No, I'm fine. We're both fine. Julie sends her love, by the way.
Speaker E
Thanks. Send her my love, too. I miss you all. By the way, have you got any of your photos
Other speaker
back yet?
Speaker A
Yes, yes, we have. Julie picked them up today. They're good. I didn't realise we'd taken so
many of us all.
Speaker B
What about that one with the amazing sunset behind the hotel?
Speaker A
Yes, the sunset. It's a good one. All of us together on Bob and Marcia's balcony with the
mountains and the snow in the background. Brings back memories, doesn't it?
Speaker B
Yeah, the memory of me skiing into a tree.
Speaker A
Yes, I know. I'm sorry. Sorry.
Other speaker
Sorry.
EXERCISE 4
Extract 1.
First, Mr. Murphy, can you tell us why you want to work for us?
I like money. It's as simple as that. I was thinking of a job where there would be lots of money
around, and the answer came to me. A bank. It's strange I hadn't thought of this before.
All those years I worked in the garage. But I told my wife she works as a teacher, and she agreed
it would suit me perfectly.
It seems quite a change, going from working in a garage to a bank.
Not really. There are a lot of similarities. Cars are just like customers. You have to look after them,
make them feel good, even when they are completely hopeless cases.
Every car is important, and you shouldn't forget that. I also talk to my cars. We all do.
Do they talk back?
No. What I mean is that the garage has given me lots of skills I can use in use.
Can you give me an example of that, Mr. Murphy?
Certainly. One day, an old man came in with a beautiful Porsche, a really expensive one, and said,
it doesn't work properly. I was surprised because it was a brand new car and looked in perfect
condition.
Anyway, I got in the car, and it was all fine. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that he
couldn't see anything when it was dark. I showed him where the light switch was, and he drove
away happy.
You just have to be calm and understanding.
How do you imagine a typical working day in a bank?

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I'd get in about nine, ask my secretary to make me a nice cup of coffee. I'm not really a morning
person.
Extract 2
Welcome to the travel programme. Today we're looking at unusual and interesting problems.
We're going to look at some of the most common problems we face on our trips and journeys.
Megan Smith, our travel writer for Australia and New Zealand, is here to tell us about a place
she's been to recently. Hi, Megan. Welcome to the programme.
Hello. It's great to be here.
Tell us where you went, Megan.
Well, I went to Wanaka, which is a small and really beautiful town in New Zealand.
It's on the southern shores of Lake Wanaka, and that's right next to a place called Mount Aspiring
National Park. It's also fairly close to Queenstown.
In fact, it's about an hour and a half from Queenstown.
Is that by air?
No, that's driving. I flew to Queenstown in the first place, and then drove my jeep to Wanaka,
although there is a regular bus service too.
And why is Wanaka such a great place to go?
Well, there are lakes, rivers, mountains and glaciers. The scenery is really varied and really
beautiful.
And you took a boat trip across the country?
Well, I did more than that. I went on an organised trip to the glaciers. It took us across the lake
on a jet boat, and then we travelled by helicopter for a close-up look at the glaciers.
Then we went for a walk in the wilderness and got back in the boat for the last bit of the journey.
And how long does that trip take?
The whole thing takes about three and a half hours, and that includes the helicopter ride, which
is about 25 minutes.
Extract 3
Henry, don't you think Dr Adam's lecture was really very good? He could talk about the telephone
directory and make it interesting.
All his lectures are like that, Astrid. He's just one of those people. I wish we had him as our tutor.
I bet you that he is very demanding, though. Boris is in his tutorial group and agrees that he is a
brilliant lecturer, but he puts them under a lot of pressure.
But don't you think that's good?
Perhaps. But I am glad to have Dr Adam's as a lecturer. He's interesting and rather funny and puts
just the right amount of pressure on people.
Did you take lots of notes in the lecture?
Yes, actually, I did. In fact, several pages. I didn't think I had taken so many.
I was that busy listening to what was being said that I didn't take many notes. Can I photocopy
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I don't think that's such a good idea. You won't be able to read my handwriting. And sometimes
I write them in English and sometimes in Arabic.
Oh, let's have a look.
EXERCISE 5
Extract 1
I suppose one thing that everybody knows about Japanese, Chinese and Korean cooking is that they all
use chopsticks rather than knives and forks like people in the West. The chopsticks that people use in
the different countries are quite different though. In China the chopsticks tend to be made of wood and
are round at the end, whereas in Korea they’re made of stainless steel and are rough at the end. This is
because in the past the emperor would use silver chopsticks, as they changed colour if there was any
poison in the dish. They can be quite tricky to use, but in Korea people use a spoon to eat their rice. In
Japan they use a variety of things to make chopsticks. Wood and plastic are the most popular now, but
you can find bone, metal and even ivory ones. If we look at the food of the different countries, it’s very
difficult to talk about China in general terms because it has many different cuisines. So it might be better
if we look at Korean and Japanese food a little more.
Extract 2
Hello everyone. So can you all hear me and see me? OK, my name’s David Edwards and I’m your tour
leader for your shopping tour today. Now, as you can see, we’re parked just in front of the main theater.
If any of you would like tickets for tonight’s performance, we can arrange that for you. We’re just round
the corner from the railway station. If you want to come on our Historic Buildings tour tomorrow, the
coach will leave from just outside the station. And if you want to go for a drink at the end of our tour
today, there are plenty of cafes just behind the station. We’re still waiting for a few people, but while we
wait I can tell you a little about the theater. Although the building is very modern, in fact a theater has
existed on this site for over 200 years. The original theater used to be very popular because of the
musicals it put on. However, it had to be rebuilt after a fire. Some people love the striking modern
design, others hate it. These days, its popularity is mainly due to the fact that it attracts a lot of well-
known performers. Now, in a few minutes’ time, at 9.30, we’ll be starting our tour.
Extract 3
Speaker C: Welcome to the holiday program. Today, we continue our search for the worst hotel in
Britain. In this program, we look at the King Edward Hotel. Last year, it was voted the worst hotel in
Britain for service, cleanliness, and facilities. Will the King Edward Hotel be the worst again this year?
We sent our reporters, Nicky and Gavin Becks, for a weekend in Brighton, to find out.
Speaker D: We arrived in Brighton on Friday evening and drove straight to the King Edward Hotel. A big
sign in the front window said vacancies. We rang the bell and waited. After about five minutes, the door
finally opened and the manager appeared.
Speaker F: Yes? Hello. We'd like a double room for two nights, please.
Speaker D; It's late. Wait there and I'll see you. It wasn't the friendliest welcome, but a few minutes
later... A woman came to the door.
Speaker E: It's £60 a night. No credit cards and you need to pay in advance.
Speaker F: That's fine, fine. Here you are. Can we see the room?
Speaker E: I'll get the key. Hang on. Room 51, fifth floor, on the right.
Speaker F: Fine, thank you. Is that the lift over there?
Speaker E: It's not working at the moment. The stairs are through that door.
Speaker F: Never mind. We’ll walk
EXERCISE 6
Extract 1

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Ralph: When students from North America head to Europe to study, it’s normally to experience large
cities like London, Paris and Barcelona. But Emma Richardson went somewhere quite different – the
island of Malta. She’s here to tell us about her experiences. Welcome, Emma.
Emma: Hello, Ralph.
Ralph: So why did you choose to go to Malta?
Emma: I’m studying history of art, and I’m particularly interested in the art and architecture of the
1600s, and there’s plenty of that to see on Malta. I knew I would find new enthusiasm for my studies
there. Also, my language skills aren’t great, so Malta was a good option for me because English is an
official language of the island, and all classes are taught in it. If someone ever used one of the other
main languages of the island, Maltese and Italian, in class, someone always translated for me.
Ralph: So, you didn’t have any difficulty in adjusting to the classroom environment in Malta?
Emma: I wouldn’t say that. Lectures on Malta are much more formal than at home, and there are more
rules to obey. I felt like I was back at high school, actually. I’m used to using the first names of teaching
staff, but that’s not the culture in Malta. I stopped doing it when people told me it was disrespectful.
Extract 2
Speaker D: Come in.
Speaker B: Hi.
Speaker D: Oh, hello, Ahmed. How are you?
Speaker B: Fine, thanks.
Speaker D: Have a seat. So, how do you think the seminar went last week?
Speaker B: Oh! Well, I enjoyed it, yes, though I'm not sure I really followed parts of the discussion that
took place. You know, about the theory and all that.
Speaker D: Well, we can talk about that later, but were you comfortable in the group?
Speaker B: Oh, it's better, I think, than working on your own, though you're comparing yourself all the
time with the other students there. Okay.
Speaker D: Well, let's talk about how you did and look at some strategies. I'm sure you have some
strategies to help you in the future.
Speaker B: That would be great.
Speaker D: Now, one of the things that students often overlook when they go to seminars is that you do
need to prepare for them. You can't rely on other people.
Speaker B: I know, and I did look at the results of the experiments we did in class and write them up
beforehand, as you said.
Speaker D: Yes, and that was good. It made it easier to analyze them. But you have to do some
background reading as well. Did you get the list of articles I sent round? Mm-hmm.
Speaker B: I've started to read them.
Speaker D: Okay. Well, you'll know that for next time. Yes.
Speaker B: Yes, sure.
Speaker D: So, let's move on to your participation in the seminar. Right.
Speaker D: Perhaps you can tell me how you think that went.
Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I'm not used to talking to more than a couple of people. It's very different from
the way we learn in my home country.
Speaker D: Yes, I appreciate that.
Speaker B: Well, I know I should have included everyone, but I think I kept turning to the person next to
me.
Speaker D: Is that because you were avoiding eye contact?
Speaker B: I don't think so. I'm not shy. It's just habit, I think.
Speaker D; Well, that will improve as we do more seminars. Uh-huh.
Extract 3
Speaker A: So, have you heard about this amazingly generous money donated by one of our ex-
students, Penny?
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Speaker A: Were you on the teaching staff like me when Richard Judd was studying here?
Speaker F: Uh, from what I remember, he left for art college the summer before I started. Looking
forward to meeting him now, though.
Speaker A: Oh, such a nice guy, really. I loved teaching him. And this donation is so generous. Not as rich
as all that.
Speaker F: I know, but apparently he said he wanted to give the school something back for all the
encouragement and help he was given when he was here.
Speaker A: Yes, which makes me determined to make the best use of the money. Not just invest it in the
bank, but not just spend it on lots of different little things, either. You know, so there's nothing really to
show for it.
Speaker F: Oh, exactly, Geoff. What about the feedback from students' parents? You know, the
questionnaire you sent them over half term?
Speaker A: Oh, well, not too many surprises there. More computers, books, that sort of thing. Nothing
very exciting, although all very necessary, of course. Hmm.
Speaker F: I know what you mean. We want something permanent that everyone would like. That's
what Richard would want, I'm sure.
Speaker A: Which is why, Penny, I was wondering about a water fountain. Everyone appreciates the
calming effects of water, children especially. We could just watch it and lose all the stress.
Speaker F: A fountain? You must be joking.
Speaker A: Why not? Not very big or deep or anything. It wouldn't be dangerous. And if we choose the
right one, it could be really attractive.
EXERCISE 7
Extract 1
Speaker C: Hi, I'm Steve Pinfold, and I'm here today to tell you about my gap year, which I took about 20
years ago. Unlike many students these days who go traveling or get some work experience between
school and university, I decided to do something completely different after finishing my degree. I
applied to work for a charity organization. What it does is it sends people with particular skills to
countries where those skills are needed. Apart from having some experience teaching English to
summer school students, I didn't have any particularly useful skills, I thought, but luckily I was still
accepted. I had to find the money for the flight, but you get free accommodation. I stayed with a family
of five. And you do get paid, but... But not much. It's a bit like pocket money, enough to get by. I worked
in an orphanage and taught English at a local school. Where was I? Well, originally I was going to be sent
to a village in India, but at the last minute the organization decided to send me to Trinidad. Now, this is a
fascinating place. It's an island in the Caribbean. Well, in fact, the country is actually two islands. The
smaller one is called Tobago, which is connected somehow to the word tobacco.
Extract 2
Rosana: Hi. My name is Rosana McClaren. Mmm. I'm a bit early, but I have an appointment to see the
assistant Registrar, Andy Matthews, at 10am.
Andy: Hi, I'm Andy Matthews. Nice to meet you.
Rosana: Nice to meet you. My tutor advised me to come to see you about changing my course.
Andy: Yes. I've had an email from your tutor, David Vine. Let me just call it up.... Here we are. It says
tutee... Rosana McClaren ... is on the Wednesday part-time course and wants to change to the distance
learning programme. Have you any problems with the course itself?
Rosana: Oh no. I love it. I think the course is really worthwhile. The theoretical sessions once a week on
Wednesday from 10am to 3pm are really good.
Andy: You have two two-hour sessions then?
Rosana: Yes that's it. And I have to say I think the practical session from 4 through to 9 in the fashion
workshops are also good fun, but I am finding it all very tiring and it makes me too exhausted for my
work on Thursdays and Fridays.
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Rosana: Yes, and some Saturdays.
Andy: I see. So what do you want too do?
Rosana: I'd like to finding it all very tiring and it makes me too exhausted for my work on Thursdays and
Fridays.
Andy: Yes. That is a possibility. I see from your tutor Dr Vine that he has no problem with this, but you
realise it's possible you'll have a different tutor.
Rosana: Yes. I'm aware of that. It's a shame because he's a very good tutor. What do I need to do now.
Extract 3
A: Hello, Mr James. I’m PC Gareth Rhodes. I understand someone has burgled your home.
B: Yes, that’s correct.
A: I see the window by your front door is broken. Is that how you discovered your house had been
burgled?
В: Indirectly, yes. My wife and I went out to dinner tonight, you see, and as we pulled into the driveway
on our return, we heard the sound of broken glass under the wheels. That’s when we first knew
something was wrong. The burglar must have smashed the window to open the door.
A: Have you been inside your house yet?
B: Well, I was going to, but then I opened the front door and saw that everything inside was in total
disarray. I was afraid the burglar might still be inside so I decided against entering. I told my wife I wasn’t
going to go in because I didn’t want to disturb any evidence. I didn’t want to frighten her, you see. We
reported the burglary using my mobile and I’ve been waiting out here ever since.
A: And did you see or hear anything while you were waiting?
B: Only my neighbour, Mr Stewart. He got concerned when he saw us standing out here and came out
to ask what had happened. When we told him, he was most sympathetic and brought us both a cup of
tea.
EXERCISE 8
Interviewer: I’m talking to Claire Hirst today, a student architect. Hi Claire.
Claire Hirst: Hi.
Interviewer: Claire, first of all, are you enjoying your course?
Claire Hirst: Yes, I am. I chose architecture because it is such a creative, yet practical, profession, and
I’ve certainly learnt loads. We’ve done technical drawing and construction skills, to know what’s going
on at the sites, and I’ve loved that. We’ve had to design buildings, and present our ideas to the other
students on the course. So presentation skills are essential – both through speaking and drawing – that’s
been quite stressful.
Interviewer: You’re now in your last year of studies, and architecture is a long course. Does this final
year feel different?
Claire Hirst: It’s definitely more intense. Some of the people who started on the course have dropped
out, and everyone who’s still left knows they’re in it for the long haul – they know this is the career for
them. You have to be self-motivated – there are no tutors telling you what to do and how to do it. They
just give you tasks to complete – often several at once – and a set of deadlines, then check on you every
week or so, so you really have to be well-organised.
Interviewer: You’ve done work placements as part of your course. Was this useful?
Claire Hirst: It’s the only way of really finding out what life is like as a professional architect.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Today we’re talking to mathematician Ben Chadwick about a possible connection
between maths and music. First Ben, tell us what it’s like being a professional mathematician.
Ben Chadwick: Well, it’s a bit of a conversation stopper! People tend not to know what a professional
mathematician does on a daily basis, and they rarely know how to respond. Inevitably, they assume that
I must be a teacher, which has never been the case. What I do do, is research, testing theories. When I
say this, some people look uneasy, as if they’re worried I’m about to ask them some complex
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Interviewer: Now, could you explain the theory that maths and music are linked?
Ben Chadwick: The idea is that if you play classical music to young children, they’ll become good not
only at music, but at maths, too. I guess the theory came about because of the idea that you have to be
able to count in order to play a rhythm. Unfortunately, some people are scared of maths because they
think it’s hard. If they can help their children succeed without them having to put in too much effort,
they’ll go along with anything they think might work – and who can blame them, really?
Interviewer: What’s your personal opinion about the maths-music theory?
Ben Chadwick: Well, I don’t think it can be as simple as just listening to music to improve your marks in
maths. Both maths and music deal with abstract structures, so I believe that what connects the two is
being good at dealing with abstract structures. This is where the connection comes in – but it isn’t the
one many people believe it to be.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Today, we have in our studio Matt Brown, who recently trained as a sailing instructor.
Matt Brown: Hi!
Interviewer: First of all, what made you want to be a sailing instructor, Matt?
Matt Brown: Well I’ve always loved the sea – we lived miles from the coast when I was a child, but had
fantastic summer holidays by the seaside every year. I learned to sail with my brothers, but it never
occurred to me when I was younger that I might actually teach anyone else to do it. Then a good mate of
mine suggested I should consider becoming an instructor. While I was busy working in a restaurant last
summer to finish paying my university fees, he’d been having a much better time doing just that.
Interviewer: Was it hard for you to find somewhere to train?
Matt Brown: Yes, harder than I’d expected. I searched for courses on the internet, though people
advised me not to take the online course reviews too seriously. And although there was a wide range of
courses at reasonable prices, a lot of the ones I liked the look of were full, so it took a while for me to
sort it out.
Interviewer: And did you like the other people on the course?
Matt Brown: I’d been a bit nervous about meeting them, I suppose, but maybe that’s not particularly
surprising! What was, though, was the different types of people doing the course with me, and how
much they already knew. I’d realised they would mostly be older than me, and of course we were all
very eager to learn, but I was very lucky to be in a group like that.
Interviewer: How did the first day go?
Matt Brown: It was fantastic: we saw a group of five dolphins hunting together.
EXERCISE 9
Extract 1
Interviewer: Mel, you’re a life coach, which means you help people improve the way they live their
lives. You specialise in achieving a work-life balance, don’t you?
Mel Candy: Right. The most frequent complaint from clients is that they’re ‘too busy’. Some high-
powered managers love that, and they’re successful at making free time too, but for others, no matter
what their position, it’s a problem. They recognise there must be something they can do about it – that’s
why they approach me. I think they expect me to pick a number and say ‘you should only be spending X
number of hours at work,’ but it depends what’s best for the individual.
Interviewer: Do people who work from home find it more difficult to switch off?
Mel Candy: Definitely – especially those who live alone, because it’s tempting to work late. For these
people it’s essential to get out and have some contact with others every day. The more time you spend
on your own, the harder it becomes to hold a conversation when you do see someone. You can spend
too much time inside your own head without realising it, and that isn’t healthy.
Interviewer: What’s your opinion of multi-tasking?
Mel Candy: Trying to do more than one thing at a time? Sounds great, doesn’t it, saving time by making
a business call while you’re eating your lunch at your desk? I used to think I was really good at this, but

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when I read some ground-breaking research I realised it was actually counter-productive – my brain
couldn’t cope with constant switching between activities. It’s better to do one task at a time.
Extract 2
Interviewer: I’d like to welcome Barry Green, the successful concert violinist, to our studio today.
Barry Green: Hello. It’s good to be here.
Interviewer: Barry, why did you decide to be a violinist?
Barry Green: It was something I’d been desperate to do since I was about six years old. My parents
weren’t musicians, but they let my brother and I to do whatever we liked as hobbies, as long as it didn’t
interfere with our education, so we could get what they called a ‘proper job’ if necessary. My brother’s a
good footballer, but sport’s never really been my thing. I watched a concert on TV, and after that I was
hooked.
Interviewer: Was it hard to combine this passion with ordinary school life?
Barry Green: Well we certainly got plenty of homework, and I wasn’t treated any differently just
because I had grand ambitions – though I must say my teachers were always very supportive. It probably
helped that my marks were always pretty good, without my ever having to make too much of an effort.
Not fair, I know! But I always had to get my school work done before any music lessons or practice.
Interviewer: So what did you do when you left school?
Barry Green: I thought about studying maths or physics, but then I heard about a youth orchestra that
was doing a world tour. They offered me a scholarship so I could afford to go, which was brilliant. When
I got back, as I already knew what I wanted to do, it seemed pointless to delay going to music college, so
that’s where I went.
Interviewer: And did you like music college?
Barry Green: Well, I’d really looked forward to being there.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Rod, you work in the field of saving endangered languages. What does that mean and how
did you become involved in it?
Rod Chambers: An endangered language is one at risk of disappearing – nobody’s learning it as a first
language. I did a degree in communication – though decided against doing a course on the theme of
endangered languages at that point. The issue had actually been staring me in the face my whole life –
my grandparents speak a language with a limited population of speakers. Yet it was only when I visited
an isolated community while I was travelling the world after university that I realised the importance of
the matter. I could see that the younger people had moved away for work, so who would the language
be passed on to?
Interviewer: Why do languages stop being spoken?
Rod Chambers: As technology’s spread, communication across the world has improved, and schools
have focused on teaching international languages like English – rather than minority languages. It’s a
pity but it’s understandable. People, such as those in the business world, are aware that they have to be
able to speak to others in the global society, and parents may just stop using the minority language at
home because they want their children to succeed in communicating in an international language.
Interviewer: Is it possible to save a language?
Rod Chambers: Yes – with a lot of determination from the whole community – including those who
speak the majority language.
EXERCISE 10
Extract 1
Anna: Hi, Peter! I'm over here.
Peter: Oh, hello Anna. It's great to see you. Where's Miriam?
Anna: She's not here yet, but I know she's coming because she rang me last night.
Peter: Oh, she was always late for lessons, I seem to remember. Anyway, how are things with you? Oh.
Oh, thanks for the letter, by the way. But you didn't say whether you were enjoying your business
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Anna: Oh. I do not know. That's an awful lot of work. We have to do two or three essays a week, as well
as all the background reading. It's much more difficult than I expected, and I'm not sure if it's what I
want. It makes school seem like a holiday camp. You know, it feels like ages since we left, but it's only six
months. Oh, there's Miriam.
Miriam: Hi. Oh, sorry, I'm a bit late. I missed the bus.
Anna: Oh, it's really good to see you, just like old times.
Peter: How's the job going?
Miriam: It's brilliant. What about yours?
Extract 2
Speaker C: And welcome to The Dreamers, a weekly programme in which we talk to young people who
will fulfil their dreams. In the studio with me this week are Mariko, who's always wanted to be a model,
and Ronan, who has achieved his ambition of running his own business. Mariko, let me ask you first of
all, how did this dream come true? I mean, six months ago you were working in a supermarket.
Speaker A: That's right, I know it sounds unbelievable, but while I was at work one day a woman came in
and gave me her business card. She worked for an agency and said that she thought I'd make a really
good model. So I went along and they took some photos of me and sent them off to another agency in
London, one of the really big agencies, you know. Well, I waited weeks and didn't hear anything, and
then one day I got a phone call. And this guy said, we can use you, but you'll have to move to London.
Well, my parents weren't very keen on the idea, but they agreed I could try. So the agency booked me
into a small hotel in central London.
Extract 3
Speaker B: In the studio with me today is Sasha Lombard, who recently starred in the film Altogether
Now. Sasha, welcome to the programme.
Speaker F: Hey, thanks for inviting me.
Speaker B: I suppose what we all want... ...to know is how you got involved in the film in the first place.
Right.
Speaker F: Well, it's quite weird, really. One of the subjects I study at school is drama, you know, theatre
arts. Mm-hmm. And the guy who teaches us, Mr Theo, used to be on the stage. So obviously he knew
lots of people in the acting world, agents, producers, directors and so on. And one day at the end of the
lesson he said, by the way, Joel Brooks is going to be on the stage. Coming to the school next week. And
we're like, what? The Joel Brooks? Because, as you know, he's dead famous.
Speaker B: Absolutely. So why was he visiting your school?
Speaker F: Well, the producer of Altogether Now was looking for a suitable school which they could use
for some of the scenes in the film. And so he contacted our theatre arts teacher because they'd worked
together years ago and had remained friends.
EXERCISE 11
Extract 1
Speaker B: Have you got time to discuss what we're going to do about needing more help?
Speaker A: OK. I was going to prepare the vegetables for tomorrow, but I can do them later. I'm still not
sure I agree with you about that, though.
Speaker B: Look, there's simply too much for the two of us.
Speaker A: Well, yes, when we're full, but it seems quite hard to tell when we're going to be busy. And if
we have to pay someone's wages, that'll reduce our profits.
Speaker B: But we can't carry on like this. Some days we work an 18-hour day. We may as well not go to
bed.
Speaker A: But if we want to open a bigger restaurant next year, then we have to watch our budget.
Speaker B: Well, what about just opening in the evenings for dinner? That would mean we would have a
little more time for ourselves.
Speaker A; But our lunchtime trade is really good, and we lose quite a lot of money. It's not as if
business is that much better in the evenings. Our costs, you know, like the rent, would remain the same.

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Speaker B: Well, then, let's put up our prices. We're one of the cheapest places in town as it is.
Speaker A; But that's probably one of the reasons for our popularity. I mean, I know it's a tempting idea,
but if we're planning to expand, we'll want to rely on our popularity. Why don't we think about changing
our menu?
Speaker B: What do you mean? Turn ourselves into a Chinese restaurant?
Speaker A; Don't be silly. No, why don't we consider doing a cold buffet at lunchtimes? That's the only
way people can help themselves, so that we're not rushed off our feet.
Speaker A: Oh, right.
Extract 2
Speaker D: And welcome to our arts review slot. This week I have Roland Welsh with me in the studio.
Roland, I believe you've just returned from a rather special weekend in Amsterdam.
Speaker B: That's right. I went to the Oatmarkt, which is held the last weekend in August. I must admit
that I wasn't looking forward to it very much. I thought it looked pretty uninteresting from the
information I received. But I had an absolutely fabulous time, and I've come back completely convinced
that every city should have an Oatmarkt.
Speaker D: Well, what exactly is an Oatmarkt?
Speaker B: It marks the beginning of the new season's entertainment. The main streets and squares are
filled with market stalls. Not selling food, but advertising the new season's performances, selling
advance tickets and taking bookings. The atmosphere is like a fairground. But more importantly,
certainly from the visitor's point of view, is that the whole weekend is given over to free entertainment.
The city was absolutely packed with thousands of people who get to see and hear free music and
theatre performances.
Speaker D: You're joking!
Speaker B: No, I'm not. You simply go along to whichever event you're interested in, you join the queue,
and if it's an indoor event, then when the place is full, they close the doors.
Speaker D: But I don't understand. How do the performers earn money?
Speaker B: Well, they don't, I suppose. They give their services free in the hope that they'll attract an
audience later in the year.
Extract 3
I: Octopushing, elephant polo, ice racing or cheese rolling. Our sports correspondent, Mike Taylor, has
been finding out about some of the world's strangest sports. Which is the most unusual one for you,
Mike?
M: Well, I think it has to be chess boxing, because it's such a bizarre combination. A match starts off
with a four-minute round of speed chess, followed by a three-minute round of boxing. There can be up
to six rounds of chess and five of boxing before a winner is decided. Now you may think this is just a bit
of fun, but when I watched two men competing in a match on German television last year, I was amazed
by their level of skill in each of this two very different discipline. After all, boxing is suchan aggressive,
violent sport - it's about using the body, whereas chess is all about using the brain. You don't expect a
boxer to be good at chess, or a chess player to be good in the ring.
I: Have you found any other unusual combinations like that?
M: No, but at the beginning you mentioned octopushing, which is underwater hockey - so it's an unusual
setting for a familiar game. I haven't seen it played. but I've read that it's a very exciting spectator sport -
major tournaments have TV screens which show the images captured by underwater cameras. I've also
read that you don't have to be very fit to play. But I'm not convinced, to be honest - it seems physically
very demanding to me. The good thing, though, is that because it's a team sport, no individual player
has to stay underwater for long periods at a time. People like me who can't hold their breath for very
long can keep coming up for air.
I: Hmm, not one for me, though, I’m afraid.
EXERCISE 12
Extract 1

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P: My guest today is robot scientist Keith Wells. Keith's company, ELA Robotics, hit the news a few years
ago with their Home Help robot, the first of its kind to be able to perform more than one domestic task.
What are you working on these days. Keith?
K.: I can't really tell you that, I'm afraid. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that we've all been given our
instructions and signed an agreement not to give anything away until it actually comes onto the market.
I don't quite know when that will be, but probably some time early next year.
P: OK, well we'll look forward to that. In the meantime, perhaps you could tell us what you think are the
most important applications of robots in our lives. Why are they useful?
K: Well, they help us to do what we call 'the three Ds'. That's anything which is dull, dirty or dangerous.
They can be used in the home or in the car manufacturing industry, to do dull or monotonous work;
they're used for doing dirty jobs like mining or cleaning toxic waste; and then they have applications in
the military or in the dangerous business of space travel. Of course, that's not an exhaustive list, but it
gives you an idea of the range of different uses they have - and also of the variety involved in my line of
work.
P: Yes, indeed. Let's talk if we may about one area in particular, though, the more humanoid robots, the
ones with a recognizable human form. What are the latest developments there?
Extract 2
I: Few of us would admit to actually enjoying doing the housework, so getting our teenage children to do
their fair share is no easy task. Deborah Chilton, the author of a new parenting book, The Stress Free
Guide to Bringing up Teenagers, is here to give us a few pointers. Deborah, where do we start?
D: Well, as you say, it's not easy, but if we're aware of what we're trying to achieve and why, then the
battle is half won. Getting teenagers to contribute to housework has so many benefits. It's an ideal way
of teaching them what it means to belong to a family and a community. They also learn to take on more
responsibility as they approach adulthood, and they pick up some useful skills on the way, too. Knowing
all this gives parents the strength they need to see their goals through.
I: Right. And at what age should teenagers begin helping out with the housework?
D: Long before they reach adolescence. Teenagers are naturally resistant to being told what to do, and
suddenly asking them at fourteen or fifteen to take on chores when they've never done anything to help
before - well, let's just say it doesn't meet with a very positive reaction. Parents often fail to take
advantage of the fact that young children are quite happy to make their bed, tidy their room, lay the
table or wash the dishes. So get them started early and you'll find it easier later on.
Extract 3
I: Rebecca, you've been living in a village for nearly five years now. What made you move to the
countryside? It I suppose my priorities had changed with age. When I first went to London, I used to love
the hustle and bustle of the place. But then I gradually became more aware of the planes roaring
overhead, car horns beeping all the time, music blaring out at strange hours. I needed a break.
I: Greg, I can see you're smiling.
G: Yes. I remember when I first moved out with my family, we all found it a little too quiet. But we
quickly got used to it and now we prefer living with less noise. We also like the fact that you don't have
to worry about the kids so much if they go off on their own. it Hmm. I'm not so sure. Some people drive
like maniacs on these narrow roads. I have to keep a really close eye on my two young kids and make
sure they don't wander off too far.
G: Well, we're lucky enough to have very good neighbours in the village. Everyone looks out for
everyone else, and someone will soon tell you if your kids are in danger, or doing something they
shouldn't be doing.
R: Yes, you can't do anything in a village without your neighbours knowing about it. But that's good,
though. It's like having a big extended family.
I: What about the amenities where you live?
G: The basics are within walking distance from us; the school, the shops, even a couple of tennis courts.
it I can't say the same, unfortunately. Being able to pop out to the shops when you need something is
one of the things I miss about living in the city.

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EXERCISE 13
Extract 1
Speaker C: In this evening's programme, we're starting with a subject which has got many of you
worried. We'll be discussing young people and digital technology. It's something that worries not only
parents, but young people themselves. On our studio panel, we have Evan Matthews, a child
psychologist, Joanne Carter, a secondary school headteacher, and Liz... Liz Winslet, who has three
teenage children and is a student counsellor. Our first caller this morning is James Benson. What is your
question, James?
Speaker A: Thank you. I'd like to ask you what you think about my parents' recent behaviour. They're
getting more and more obsessed about the amount of time I spend with what they call my virtual
friends. Hi, James. Can you tell me who these friends are?
Speaker E: They're mainly people I've met on social networking sites.
Speaker A: And how much contact do you have with them? Well, on a normal day, I'll update my status
as soon as I wake up. Then I'll check to see if anyone sent me any messages on my mobile. And how long
does that usually take? Um, about five minutes, if I have to reply to any messages.
Speaker D: What about later in the day?
Speaker A: Well, if I don't have to go to college, I'll spend a couple of hours chatting to friends in the
morning,
Speaker B: and maybe another two in the evening.
Speaker D: That does seem rather excessive.
Speaker A: I suppose so, but it's what I'm used to.
Extract 2
Speaker D: This afternoon we have in the studio John Reginald, a former diplomat and now a full-time
writer. His first book, an autobiography, has the title A Strong Stomach. Why this title, John?
Speaker A: Well, food really can be a tricky issue. Obviously, as a diplomat, you attend many official
dinners, and you have to learn to negotiate your way through a minefield of rules of etiquette. What is
acceptable in one culture can be quite inappropriate in another. But the main thing I discovered very
early on is that, basically, you really have to be prepared to eat whatever is set in front of you. And
believe me, this does sometimes necessitate having a strong stomach. Hence the title.
Speaker D: Can you give us some examples?
Speaker A: The one that springs to mind happened... at my first official dinner, when I was in the Middle
East. The main dish was a sheep's head. And as the guest of honour, I was presented with the eyeball,
which over there is regarded as a delicacy.
Speaker D: Oh dear! Did you manage to eat it?

Speaker A: I really didn't have much choice. If I hadn't eaten it, I would have offended my hosts, as
simple as that.
Speaker D: So was that the worst thing you've ever been served?
Speaker A: It was among the worst, certainly. But there have been many others. I had dried bat once,
when I was in the Pacific. That wasn't very nice either. Dry and leathery.
Extract 3
Speaker E: Now I have a guest whose voice will be familiar to many listeners. TV presenter Kirsty Ross.
Good morning, Kirsty, and welcome to radio.
Speaker B: Good morning.
Speaker E: To start off, why did you choose presenting as a career? Had you done media studies or
something like that? At university?
Speaker B: Actually, I'd been working in entertainment ever since I left school. I was the keyboard player
in a band. I was having loads of fun, but it wasn't leading anywhere. And what really fascinated me was
television. I'd thought of trying acting and getting into TV that way. But I think I felt I wanted to be
myself in front of the camera. And that's why I decided on presenting.

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Speaker E: And how did you manage to get into it? There must be thousands of people out there with
the same ambition.
Speaker B: Yes, I knew there would be a lot of competition for the few jobs going and that just watching
TV all day long and trying to imitate those doing the presenting wouldn't bring success. I looked at
specialist courses for would be presenters, but they were all too expensive. So instead, I spent six
months doing work experience. It was a difficult time because, of course, I wasn't earning anything. But
being right inside a major TV organisation taught me a lot.
Speaker E: What did you do after that finished?
Speaker B: I made a short film of myself, about three minutes long, showing off what I felt to be my
strongest points.
Speaker E: What are they?
Speaker B: People say I'm good at looking straight into the camera and talking. And I've always enjoyed
getting into conversation with a live audience. But being able to ask guests the right questions and get
good answers out of them is what I take. I've always had the most pride in.
EXERCISE 14
Extract 1
Interviewer: Sheena, you’re a behavioural psychologist, which means you study the way people
behave. What’s so interesting about human behaviour for you?
Sheena Smith: Everyone’s a psychologist really, aren’t they? I mean, we’re all fascinated by what other
people do, especially when it isn’t what we do ourselves. I guess that’s the heart of the matter for me
these days. I’ve always been pretty good at reading people’s faces and understanding how they really
feel and that’s what first got me interested in psychology.
Interviewer: One of your earliest experiences of observing behaviour was seeing what your father did
when he answered the phone. Tell us about that.
Sheena Smith: Well, he had quite a strong local accent but whenever he picked up the phone he’d
speak in what I used to call his ‘telephone voice’ – he sort of became a bit more posh. My mum and I
would exchange secret smiles when we heard him. What sticks in my mind is the thrill of realising that
once he knew who was calling he’d either carry on with the posh voice or relax into his normal way of
speaking, if he felt comfortable with them.
Extract 2
Interviewer: I’m with Laura Rogers, who’s recently been on a trip with her uncle to the coast near her
home, to look for signs that dinosaurs may have once lived there. Laura, why did you go on the trip?
Laura: Well, my uncle’s an archaeologist, and he’s learnt a lot about dinosaurs in his work – and I’d
begun to get into archaeology through some books I’d got from school I’d also been to an exhibition
about dinosaurs found locally. Anyway, my English teacher asked us to do some creative writing about
where we live, and dinosaurs seemed the perfect subject. But to write convincingly about them I knew
I’d have to go and find out more for myself – and my uncle was the ideal person to help me with this!
Interviewer: So did he tell you more about dinosaurs before you went?
Laura: Oh, he brought along some dinosaur bones he’d found during an excavation! It was amazing,
thinking I was looking at something that’s lived in my area millions of years ago. But then he said he’d
actually found them in the USA, so that was a bit of a let-down, and I realised we almost certainly
wouldn’t find any on our trip. He said that the original creature would’ve been as big as a bus, though,
so that really fired my imagination!
Extract 3
Interviewer: Today I’m with John Benton, who’s just taken part in a 25-kilometre running race. John,
you’d never run that distance before, what made you decide to enter the race?
John: Well, a few famous people have recently taken up running – one in particular ran twice the
distance I did. That really impressed me – but what finally made me get my running shoes out was my
mates’ attitude. They reckoned I was far too lazy to complete any race at all, so I was determined to

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show them I could do it! Anyway, my dad’s a keen runner – and once I’d decided to enter, he came
along during my training runs as my ‘running buddy’, which was great.
Interviewer: So how much training did you do beforehand?
John: Well, I was pretty organised! First of all, I drew up a 12-week training plan, and built in goals I
thought would be manageable. Dad wondered if I was being over-ambitious time-wise, ‘cos I hadn’t run
for a while – but then I do play football, so I knew I was in reasonable shape. And I was told I shouldn’t
push myself too hard without resting and recovering between training sessions, but I admit I didn’t
really listen to that advice!
EXERCISE 15
Extract 1
Interviewer: I’m with Ella Fletcher, who’s currently doing work experience as a lighting technician at a
theatre. Ella, welcome. What attracted you to this job?
Ella: Well, I’ve always been interested in brightly-coloured light shows, like the ones you see at rock
concerts. I’ve always been keen on fireworks displays too. But I think a play I went to ages ago was the
original inspiration – the memory of the amazing, constantly changing lighting they used at that theatre
has stayed with me. I just know I’ll be happy in this area of work.
Interviewer: So what do theatre lighting technicians do, exactly?
Ella: Well, our theatre director once said some people think we just turn the lights on and off at the
beginning and end of a performance – which really underestimates what we do! Not everyone thinks
like that, though! In fact, lighting technicians really help the audience to get what’s happening on the
stage during a play. Depending on the action, you can make a scene beautiful one minute and miserable
the next – all with lights!
Extract 2
Interviewer: I’m with guitarist, Tom Barker, whose band has won a national music competition.
Congratulations, Tom!
Tom: Thanks!
Interviewer: So tell us why you first took up the electric guitar.
Tom: Well, my brother’s always been a fan of rock guitarists like Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Berry, so I
grew up hearing their music. There were a few of their guitar pieces I really loved, so I tried playing them
myself, on the violin, would you believe, which my parents preferred me to learn – that and the piano.
They wouldn’t let me have a guitar as they hoped I’d get into classical music. Anyway, after paying for
loads of lessons, they finally realised I wasn’t really into it, so they let me learn the guitar instead.
Interviewer: So you saved up and eventually bought your own guitar?
Tom: Yes, and I loved it! To be honest, though, when friends showed me photos they’d taken of me
playing at school concerts, I was always disappointed. I’d imagined I looked like my rock heroes – but I
definitely didn’t! Anyway, just having that guitar round my neck made me feel I could play absolutely
anything when I got on stage, despite the fact I was normally a bit shy.
Extract 3
Interviewer: I’m with Katie Cross, who’s going to tell us about her favourite sport, kitesurfing. Katie,
what is kitesurfing, exactly?
Katie: It’s just what the name suggests – you stand on a surfboard in the sea, and a kite above you
catches the wind and pulls you along as you surf the waves. It’s great fun!
Interviewer: So what appeals to you about it?
Katie: Well, let’s see. I’m interested in keeping fit. I go running every evening, and I enjoy that – in fact,
it’s built up my strength for kitesurfing. And luckily I live by the sea, so I’m able to kitesurf several times
a week if I wish. But I’ve discovered it’s also had a really positive effect on my studies, which is strange,
but great! If I know I’m going kitesurfing, I try double hard to get stuff done – this means I’m keeping up
my fitness and not sitting too long at my desk.
Interviewer: But it’s not a sport that would suit everyone, is it?

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Katie: Well, I don’t know – most people do enjoy it once they try it. I mean, you need to be somewhere
with good access to water to do it and obviously that’s not straightforward for everyone. And even if
you are, not everywhere offers kitesurfing facilities. I have to admit, the equipment you have to get
initially isn’t exactly cheap – but once you’ve bought it, you’re all set! And if you travel a lot to kitesurf,
for example by plane, it’s possible to carry what you need with you if you get a kitebag with wheels and
take your board apart.
EXERCISE 16
Extract 1
Interviewer: I’m with student Lucy Hughes, talking about her favourite subject – maths! Lucy, some
people don’t really enjoy maths, so what first interested you in it?
Lucy: Well, I didn’t like it much either, at first! I thought doing things like learning multiplication tables
were boring, like everyone else. But then my teacher introduced us to something called Fibonacci
numbers – a mathematical formula where you add the previous two numbers together to get the next
number. And he showed us how the seeds in sunflowers are arranged according to these numbers. I
realised then that what we were learning was relevant to things like plants and wildlife. My ‘maths
brain’ suddenly woke up – and I was hooked on numbers! I don’t know why it took so long, though – our
teachers were always organising maths activity days and things, so I’d been involved in exciting stuff
before.
Interviewer: And your parents like maths, too …
Lucy: Yes, Mum’s a maths teacher, and Dad does advanced maths training for business people. He
believes some people he meets are much better at maths than they claim they are, they just don’t feel
very sure of their abilities. They’ve all learnt lots of maths by heart at school, but he thinks they’re just
not keen to try and apply it in case they make a mistake.
Extract 2
Presenter: Today I’m talking to Claire Bradshaw about mountain running. Claire, it sounds exhausting,
running up and down mountains.
Claire: Well, like any sport, it takes practice but everyone has to start somewhere. Actually, calling it
‘mountain running’ makes it sound worse than it is. Most people run up and down hills rather than
mountains – or several hills in one session.
Presenter: Whew! Do a lot of people do mountain running?
Claire: Yes. The runs take place in countryside with the right landscape – areas like the Lake District and
the Highlands of Scotland are very popular. But this doesn’t stop people from the city talking part. For
example, I drive to my club from my city apartment. And there are hundreds of clubs so you’ll probably
find one not too far from home.
Extract 3
Presenter: This evening we’re talking to usability expert, Simon Baldwin. Simon, what exactly is
usability?
Simon: It’s about how objects are designed, and if they’re designed in a way that makes them as
effective and simple to use as possible. It’s about designing from the point of view of the user rather
than creating something that just looks attractive.
Presenter: Could you give us an example of good design?
Simon: Yes, sure. The traditional potato peeler, the old-fashioned knife with a shortish blade at a
ninety-degree angle and a slot down the length of the blade. You can see by looking at it how it works.
People have been using it for years because it’s uncomplicated – and it works. It looks unimaginative but
unlike some modern gadgets, it’s very easy to use.
EXERCISE 17
Extract 1
Presenter: Yvonne, how did you become interested in yoga?

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Yvonne: Soon after I’d given birth to my first child, I started getting back pain and tried everything to
treat it, but with no success. Then a friend suggested yoga. I was in so much pain that I didn’t need much
persuading, and after a few weeks my back felt better. I’d never been a great one for EXERCISE so I was
amazed how much I enjoyed it.
Presenter: When did you decide you were going to teach professionally?
Yvonne: About three years ago. I was a school teacher at the time but I decided to go on a part-time
contract with my school and run yoga sessions in my spare time at a local sports centre. Then I was
offered the chance to rent a room in a leisure centre so I gave up the teaching job to do yoga full time.
Extract 2
Presenter: In the latest of our interviews with women in male-dominated professions, I’m talking to
Molly, a commercial airline pilot. Molly, did you always want to fly?
Molly: I did, yes. My father worked in air traffic control so planes were always a topic of conversation in
our house. At first, I wanted to do his job but then there were a few holidays abroad. That’s when I
developed an interest in becoming a professional pilot.
Presenter: And did your parents encourage you? After all, it’s a very male-dominated profession.
Molly: My parents were fantastic in that way. There were keen for me to explore various career
options and we spent time investigating what the life of a pilot is like. Over ninety per cent of pilots are
men, and that figure would have been even higher when I was a child. But my parents didn’t see that as
a reason for me not to follow my passion.
Extract 3
Interviewer: This is Kate Green with another edition of Wild Ones, the programme about extreme
sports. My guest on today’s programme is Sam Hall, a mountain climber. Sam, thanks for being with us
today. Now, I’d like to start by asking you how you became interested in such a dangerous sport.
Sam Hall: Well, first I’d like to point out that climbing isn’t a dangerous sport, as long as you take it
seriously and don’t get too excited. Almost all the people who have accidents are badly prepared, you
see, and this gives the sports a bad name, which isn’t really fair.
Interviewer: Is the excitement part of the reason why you are so keen on climbing?
Sam Hall: Only a small part of the reason, if I try to analyse it. The sense of achievement is more
important, I suppose. But the main thing is the sensation of being so close to nature, though perhaps
that’s not the right way to put it …
EXERCISE 18
Extract 1
Interviewer: This evening on Young and Gifted I am joined in the studio by Julia Emerson, the young
Scottish writer who’s recently had a screenplay accepted by a major Hollywood studio. Julia, I’m glad
you could be with us today. Could I start by asking you to explain exactly why what you’ve done is so
unusual?
Julia Emerson: Well, Hollywood films these days don’t start off with a screenplay. The screenplay only
gets written after the producers have come up with an idea for a film. Then they contact agents to find
at least one major star who will act in it. The next step is to get a team of anything up to 20 writers
working on the screenplay. Now, I was inexperienced enough to think that I could simply write a
screenplay and send it to a number of studios. Which is what I did. When I didn’t get an answer, I wrote
another one. And this time, by some amazing chance, they accepted it!
Extract 2
Interviewer: Welcome to this week’s edition of Careers for You. My guest on today’s programme is
Laura Bartlett, a successful florist. I’m sure there are many young people out there who’ve never
considered floristry as a career. Who knows, they might be inspired by Laura’s example! Laura, how did
you become interested in floristry?
Laura Bartlett: My parents were keen gardeners. My father used to grow rare varieties of vegetables
and my mother grew orchids very successfully. But it was my mother’s sister who was the professional.

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She had a florist’s shop, and when I was a kid, I’d help out at weekends. I grew up knowing quite a lot
about the business.
Interviewer: So being a florist was something you’d always wanted?
Laura Bartlett: Not exactly! When I was at school, I wanted to be an artist but my art teacher
persuaded me to train as a graphic designer instead. After college I got a job working for a magazine, but
I hated being in an office all day, so I resigned. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had a number of
temporary jobs. And then one day, my aunt fell and broke her arm. She asked me to help out in the shop
until she got better. But I liked it so much that I stayed on, and eventually took over from her when she
retired.
Extract 3
Interviewer: My guest today is Alice Barker, who has a very unusual ability. Alice, thank you for coming
into the studio. What kind of unusual ability are we talking about here?
Alice Barker: Well, it’s quite easy to describe. Basically, when I read a word or even think of a particular
word, such as Tuesday, I see a colour connected with it. It’s not that I imagine a colour – I really see it
floating in front of my eyes. People think it sounds really weird, but it feels perfectly normal to me!
Interviewer: How interesting! Is it a sort of medical condition?
Alice Barker: Yes, and just recently doctors have begun to understand it more. They call it synaesthesia,
and it means that somewhere in my brain there are links between sections that should really be
separate. Synaesthesia affects different people in different ways. Some people experience tastes or
smells when they hear a word, for example. Apparently, it’s generally passed on from parents to their
children, which is the case with me. That means if I have kids, I could pass it on to them.
EXERCISE 19
Extract 1
Interviewer: Hello, Mark, thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your experience of being a student
at Gramwell University. I’m sure many of our listeners will be thinking of applying next year, and they’ll
be very interested in what you have to say!
Mark Stone: Thanks, it’s great to be here.
Interviewer: First of all, why did you choose Gramwell University?
Mark Stone: Well, no one in my family had been to university before, and my parents couldn’t really
help me decide. My mother hoped I’d live at home while I was a student, but I really wanted to go to a
different city, and make new friends. And Gramwell is really one of the best places in the country for
law, so that’s why I went for it.
Interviewer: Was there anything that particularly surprised you when you arrived at Gramwell?
Mark Stone: Yeah, I hadn’t actually realised before I came here how different many things would be. It
may sound silly, I know, but I hadn’t actually spent more than a few hours here – when I came on an
open day – before arriving at Gramwell as a student. Of course the buildings are all very modern, but I
knew that. I just wasn’t prepared for how different everything would feel, you know – most people are
my age, so it’s all quite exciting. It rains as much as it always did at home, though!
Extract 2
Interviewer: Today on Mind Matters I’m talking to Dr Ann Winters, an expert on human memory. Ann,
welcome to the programme. Now, I suppose the first question everyone would ask is: what exactly is the
human memory?
Ann Winters: Well, like so many apparently ‘easy’ questions, the answer isn’t very simple at all!
Basically, the human memory is a compartment in our brain, where we store images, rather like the
hard drive in a computer – though we can’t confirm the brain’s limitations yet in terms of available
storage space! Like a hard drive, however, our memories can become infected by viruses or even wiped
out by accidents. But the comparison breaks down when we consider that we can train our memories to
expand and work better – which computers can’t manage … yet!
Interviewer: When you talk about memory being infected, do you mean by a disease?

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Ann Winters: Yes. For instance, people suffering from a physiological disease like Alzheimer’s forget
things that happened in the past and they also forget how to perform straightforward tasks, like tying
their shoelaces. This is of course, frustrating for both sufferers and care-givers alike. It can also be
extremely difficult for family members who are no longer recognised by patients.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Today I’m going to be talking to a successful young American singer, Kay Stanley, about a
special aspect of her work – one that’s not very well known on this side of the Atlantic. And that’s the
Stanley Trust. Kay, welcome to the programme. Would you start by explaining what the Stanley Trust is?
Key Stanley: Sure. It’s basically an organisation set up by my father to help kids who have problems
reading and writing – kids with dyslexia. I’m dyslexic myself, you see, and after I had been diagnosed, my
dad realised there weren’t many organisations for dyslexic kids, and he decided to set one up himself a
few years later.
Interviewer: I believe one of the problems with dyslexia is that it isn’t diagnosed in many cases, or not
early enough. Was this what happened with you?
Key Stanley: I used to learn stories off by heart by playing the tapes of them over and over again, and
then pretend to read them. In fact, I was so good at it that my mum only guessed there was something
wrong when she caught me learning the stories like that! Then my parents got me examined by a
doctor, and luckily, he knew something about dyslexia, so he sent me to an expert.
EXERCISE 20
Extract 1
Interviewer: Hello, Mark, thank you for agreeing to talk to us about your experience of being a student
at Gramwell University. I’m sure many of our listeners will be thinking of applying next year, and they’ll
be very interested in what you have to say!
Mark Stone: Thanks, it’s great to be here.
Interviewer: First of all, why did you choose Gramwell University?
Mark Stone: Well, no one in my family had been to university before, and my parents couldn’t really
help me decide. My mother hoped I’d live at home while I was a student, but I really wanted to go to a
different city, and make new friends. And Gramwell is really one of the best places in the country for
law, so that’s why I went for it.
Interviewer: Was there anything that particularly surprised you when you arrived at Gramwell?
Mark Stone: Yeah, I hadn’t actually realised before I came here how different many things would be. It
may sound silly, I know, but I hadn’t actually spent more than a few hours here – when I came on an
open day – before arriving at Gramwell as a student. Of course the buildings are all very modern, but I
knew that. I just wasn’t prepared for how different everything would feel, you know – most people are
my age, so it’s all quite exciting. It rains as much as it always did at home, though!
Extract 2
Interviewer: Today on Mind Matters I’m talking to Dr Ann Winters, an expert on human memory. Ann,
welcome to the programme. Now, I suppose the first question everyone would ask is: what exactly is the
human memory?
Ann Winters: Well, like so many apparently ‘easy’ questions, the answer isn’t very simple at all!
Basically, the human memory is a compartment in our brain, where we store images, rather like the
hard drive in a computer – though we can’t confirm the brain’s limitations yet in terms of available
storage space! Like a hard drive, however, our memories can become infected by viruses or even wiped
out by accidents. But the comparison breaks down when we consider that we can train our memories to
expand and work better – which computers can’t manage … yet!
Interviewer: When you talk about memory being infected, do you mean by a disease?
Ann Winters: Yes. For instance, people suffering from a physiological disease like Alzheimer’s forget
things that happened in the past and they also forget how to perform straightforward tasks, like tying
their shoelaces. This is of course, frustrating for both sufferers and care-givers alike. It can also be
extremely difficult for family members who are no longer recognised by patients.

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Extract 3
Interviewer: Today I’m going to be talking to a successful young American singer, Kay Stanley, about a
special aspect of her work – one that’s not very well known on this side of the Atlantic. And that’s the
Stanley Trust. Kay, welcome to the programme. Would you start by explaining what the Stanley Trust is?
Key Stanley: Sure. It’s basically an organisation set up by my father to help kids who have problems
reading and writing – kids with dyslexia. I’m dyslexic myself, you see, and after I had been diagnosed, my
dad realised there weren’t many organisations for dyslexic kids, and he decided to set one up himself a
few years later.
Interviewer: I believe one of the problems with dyslexia is that it isn’t diagnosed in many cases, or not
early enough. Was this what happened with you?
Key Stanley: I used to learn stories off by heart by playing the tapes of them over and over again, and
then pretend to read them. In fact, I was so good at it that my mum only guessed there was something
wrong when she caught me learning the stories like that! Then my parents got me examined by a
doctor, and luckily, he knew something about dyslexia, so he sent me to an expert.
EXERCISE 21
Extract 1
Interviewer: I have with me Leonie Steiner, who’s had a distinguished career both as a pianist and as a
music teacher. Leonie, who was your first-ever piano teacher?
Leonie: There’s a long piano-playing tradition in my family and from a very early age I was keen to start
playing. In earlier generations fathers and mothers had taught daughters and sons, but both of mine
were working full-time, so from the beginning they had me taught at home by a tutor. That would have
been shortly before my first year at primary school, where I also had lessons.
Interviewer: And when did you actually start giving lessons?
Leonie: In my late teens, by which time I was giving solo performances. Some professional musicians
give private classes to make enough to live on, or perhaps to find out whether they would make good
teachers, but for me it was never a conscious decision to become a teacher. I’d always enjoyed working
with younger students, doing what I could to help them develop as musicians, and without realising it I
was becoming a teacher. And ever since then, that – together with performing – is what I’ve done.
Interviewer: And what kind of students do you prefer?
Leonie: I’d say those who perhaps aren’t naturally brilliant..
Extract 2
Interviewer: Adriana, what originally made you decide you wanted to be a professional wildlife
photographer?
Adriana: Well, unlike some who eventually take it up as a career, I wasn’t a particularly talented
photographer, but I was fascinated by what living creatures do and why. I developed my skills as a
photographer while I was actually doing the job, and it wasn’t until then I realised my work could take
me to all kinds of distant places.
Interviewer: So beginners don’t need to take budget flights abroad to improve their photographic skills?
Adriana: No, they can usually do that in their local countryside, where there’ll probably be just as wide a
variety of wildlife as anywhere, really. Actually, learning has if anything become simpler. For instance,
the cost of good-quality digital cameras and other essential items has fallen dramatically in recent times,
enabling far more people to take good photos. Studying photography can certainly help improve one’s
technical ability, though I’d do that at college rather than by signing up for one of those online courses.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Could you tell us, Amy, about the first time you travelled abroad, and why?
Amy: I was just eighteen, and back in those days I had no confidence in my ability to travel on my own
and pick up other languages, much less actually live and work abroad as I do now. So when Carla and
Nicky asked if I’d be interested in joining them for a few weeks somewhere sunny, I immediately said
‘yes’ and we chose a holiday on the Spanish island of Ibiza.
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Amy: I love seeing new places, and as it was somewhere neither Carla nor I had ever visited before,
Nicky agreed she’d like to go back there even though it’d cost a bit more than going to a Greek or
Turkish island, say. I suppose what appealed to us was that it offered such a wide range of activities,
including of course its famous nightlife. So we found a reasonably-priced package holiday for three,
booked it, and on the first of July I headed for the airport.
EXERCISE 22
Extract 1
Interviewer: My next guest is James Hyland, the young Irish entrepreneur, who has been behind all sorts
of music projects. The latest is Bubble TV, a music channel without advertising breaks. James, welcome.
James: Hi.
Interviewer: You’re 23 now, but you launched yourself into the music world while you were still at
school, didn’t you? You were a very young starter!
James: Yes, I was 12 when I started my own radio station in my house. I played music I liked. The station
was called Happiness. Not a good name I know, but I was young. I would have been happy if it had been
just the neighbours listening, but it soon became clear that I’d attracted a lot of fans and I was invited to
play at events. I ploughed all the money I made from that back into the station. It got very big and I got
noticed.
Interviewer: Weren’t people amazed when they found out you were 12?
James: Yes, but they were far more amazed when they discovered that I was organising concerts by
some of the biggest bands on the British music scene when I was just 16. That also attracted a lot of
jealous rivalry. At 12 people are pleased for you, people are happy and encourage you, but when you’re
just a little older and running a successful business, it can be more of a threat.
Extract 2
Speaker: As someone who didn’t even own a pair of running shoes until I was in my twenties, I think I’m
well placed to talk about the virtues of taking up running. After a childhood and youth spent – or
misspent – avoiding physical activity and sport at all costs, I am now, a decade and a half on, fitter and
healthier than ever, and have completed more than 100 races, including ten marathons. Through my
running I have gained a wonderful sense of independence, greater confidence, discipline and focus, a
sanctuary from daily stresses and some great friendships. I can’t quite remember what it was that first
motivated me to go huffing and puffing my way around the block – but whatever it was, I’m thankful for
it now. And that’s why I am so keen to persuade you to do the same. You’ll find that no other EXERCISE
variety gets results as fast as running. Give it a go and I promise you three things. Firstly, every muscle
from the waist down will become stronger, tighter and firmer while excess body fat will be sent
marching. Secondly, you’ll feel great about yourself. You’ll have more energy, you’ll feel alert and
focused and you’ll experience a real sense of accomplishment as you gradually become fitter and
stronger. Finally, you’ll find that running is very easy to fit into your life. Unlike that EXERCISE class, you
don’t have to be somewhere dead on six o’clock, unlike swimming you don’t have to get to the pool
before closing time, unlike tennis or squash, you don’t have to rely on someone else to make it happen.
Extract 3
Interviewer: I’m talking to Jackie Gould, who’s a very proud mother. Both of her daughters – Olivia, aged
12, and Alicia, seven – are currently appearing on the stage of the world-famous London Palladium
theatre, in the musical The Sound of Music. Olivia and Alicia survived six auditions to be picked from
1,000 hopefuls for the group of seven children playing the Von Trapp family in the show. So how did it
all come about?
Jackie: Well, until last year, the idea of them appearing at the London Palladium would have been
unthinkable for our family. Things started to happen when Olivia auditioned for a production of the
show Annie at the local theatre. She auditioned for the chorus and, by chance, got the leading role
instead.
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Jackie: Yes, for Annie, Olivia had to learn more than 200 lines. She was on stage for most of the two-
hour show. It was a big script, and I decided that we’d do ten pages a night. After memorising it, I gave
her a random line. She would have to tell me what the next line was. She picked it all up even better
than her homework.
Interviewer: And she did well in the part, presumably?
Jackie: She was great in the part. Everyone was astonished by her performance, including us. She had
always been very shy, and she suddenly came out of her shell. We found that she could really sing. A
member of the stage management team for the show was taking over a local agency and asked her to
sign up. So then she had an agent to represent her and try to get roles for her.
EXERCISE 23
Extract 1
Interviewer: It’s tough maintaining a child’s interest, but Kate Scarborough has had the experience to
know what it’s all about. Kate, you used to be a teacher, didn’t you?
Kate: Yes, six years ago I had the idea that I wanted to do something for children, so I decided to be a
primary school teacher. I have never been so tired as I was working as a teacher in a classroom. You just
never stop. Working with children is so intensely exhausting, but it’s also fantastic.
Interviewer: Well, today, we’re sitting in your London office and talking about something very different
– being the founder of CY magazine, a new magazine for children. Having worked in children’s non-
fiction publishing for 12 years before retraining as a primary school teacher, you certainly have the
background to produce such a magazine.
Kate: Yes, well being a teacher I guess led me to the idea for CY. I felt that there was a gap in the
market for a monthly publication that not only entertains and teaches children, but also satisfies their
parents too. And it was during my teaching days that I began preparing for CY. I talked to children about
what they wanted. I then thought, if I was a child, what would I want, and as a parent, what would I
want my children to be reading?
Extract 2
Interviewer: This evening in our series ‘Careers with a Difference’ our guest is Rachel Reed who works
for a small commercial art gallery. Rachel, welcome.
Rachel: Hello.
Interviewer: Rachel, what exactly do you do?
Rachel: Well, there’s two great things about working for a really small company. Firstly, you get to do a
bit of everything. The other is that you can practically invent your job title. Mine is marketing manager –
although I do a lot of other things too, it does describe the majority of what I do.
Interviewer: So, tell us about your day.
Rachel: Well, it all starts with the huge pile of post we get. We often get artists sending in photographs
of their work to see if we’d be interested in exhibiting it. I learned very early on how to differentiate
between the ‘possibles’ and those which are unsuitable.
Interviewer: But how do you tell?
Rachel: It might be the style, or sometimes the subject matter is just not going to look right in our
gallery, but more often than not, it’s just that they’re not of the required standard. The ‘possibles’ I pass
on to the gallery manager who makes the final decision.
Extract 3
Woman: Today on the programme we have Mickey Smith, author of the book The Power of Practice.
Mickey, in your book you talk about what makes a champion sportsperson. Your argument is that talent
– a natural aptitude or skill – doesn’t exist. Right?
Man: Right. I know that’s controversial because it’s thought that people are born with natural abilities. I
have my critics but the evidence from research I’ve done backs up my argument. If you look at anyone
who’s reached a high level in any complex task, you’ll find they’ve spent many years building up to it.
This has started other people thinking and doing their own research. I’ve no doubt they’ll reach the
same conclusions I have.

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Woman: What about physical abilities like speed? Isn’t that what makes one footballer better than
another, for example?
Man: There are physical issues that are significant in some activities. However, in virtually all complex
tasks the limiting factor is a mental thing. People don’t become the greatest footballers because they
move around the pitch quickly. While he may not realise it, the way a great footballer understands
where his teammates are around him on the field is what helps him score goals, rather than speed.
EXERCISE 24
Extract 1
Interviewer: Today I’m talking to 21-year-old, long-distance runner Ann Brown, who’s just returned
from the World Championships. So, Ann, how did you feel about your performance in the
championships?
Ann: When you haven’t raced for a while, you’ve no idea whether you’re in sufficiently good shape. I’d
only had a few weeks of training behind me so I wasn’t thinking I’d do brilliantly, and it certainly
would’ve been amazing to come first. Anyway, I was happy to get the silver medal. It was an exciting
race and the crowd was fantastic.
Interviewer: So what‘s your training routine like, Ann?
Ann: I do around 25 to 30 hours a week, mostly long-distance, steady stuff. I go running through the
woods. Running on roads is pretty dull so I make sure there’s always some attractive countryside to
keep me interested. I get pleasure from seeing the changes in nature, but I do have to remember to
keep my eye on the time so I can check my pace. It’s vital to keep pushing myself to my limits.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Penny Greer is a successful photographer, who runs her own company. Penny, is it
important to take a college photography course if you want to do this work?
Penny: I think so − it changed my life. I’d already realised how creative taking photos could be, and my
college course was heavily commercial, which put me off at first. My idea was that photography was
‘art’ and I had little interest in taking photos to sell things. I’m glad I got over that, but above all what I
learnt there was how to use light and to apply that understanding to whatever I want to shoot. Once
you get that, you lose the fear of making mistakes.
Interviewer: What made you specialise in wedding photography?
Penny: After college, I did some work for wedding photographers who had quite traditional ideas of how
to express the character of the event. A wedding’s an emotional day, and photography to me is an
emotional process. I’d never thought about it till then, but putting the two together made sense. I was
keen to experiment with breaking the rules by being more a fly on the wall − catching what’s happening
without interfering.
Extract 3
Interviewer: My guest today is Rosie Carnes, who teaches people to sing. Rosie, is it difficult to sing
well?
Rosie: Well I guess the first thing to mention is that when we sing, we ourselves cannot truly know how
we sound to anyone who’s listening to us. We have to sense what it must be like through a combination
of what we can hear and what it feels like to make sound. When I was a child and I created a sound I felt
excited. When I take in breath, I know I’m not just taking in air, I’m taking in the basis of sound. That’s
exciting too!
Interviewer: And is it important to warm up before you sing?
Rosie: Yes, you’ll ruin your voice if you’re not warmed up, and you’ll sound rubbish. Your throat is quite
small, and it’s what you have to push the air through into your mouth, which is what will frame your
music. But in fact you need to begin with your spine, which wants to be stretched and made flexible.
That way, your whole body is prepared. The importance of whole body readiness cannot be
overstressed. The way you stand affects the way you sing.
EXERCISE 25

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Extract 1
Wendy: What a load of old rubbish. You hated it too, didn’t you, Mum?
Mrs Turner: Well, I have seen better films. I mean it wasn’t as good as ‘Aliens’ or that ‘Werewolf’ film,
you know the one.
Adrian: Oh, come on, some bits were brilliant. What about the scene where the accountant is…
Wendy: Well, you always like these mindless special-effects movies; I mean, where was the acting?
Mrs Turner: The dinosaurs were good. The last film I saw with dinosaurs – you could see they were
made of rubber but these ones looked real. It’s amazing.
Adrian: It’s all done with computer graphics. I will say they looked much better on the big screen than
they did on my mate’s pirate video – but at least I could smoke at my mate’s house.
Extract 2
Anne: I’m fed up with staying in nearly every night. Since John and I broke up life has been really boring.
How about you two, how’s your love life these days? Mark you’re grinning, you must be happy.
Mark: Well actually yes I’ve just met someone really nice. She started working in the office a fortnight
ago and we liked each other straight away.
Dave: Well, well. That’s why you’re never home these days when I phone you. Are you actually going
out with her then?
Mark: Yes I am.
Anne: So how many times have you been out?
Mark: Erm, quite a few.
Extract 3
Interviewer: My guest today is the novelist Greg Field! Greg, you started writing quite young. Were you
into books and reading as a kid?
Greg: Well, funnily enough, my parents were always on at me to read, they couldn’t understand why I
didn’t like it much. But if we went to a library, it was all serious and silent and slow and not lively at all.
One summer, though, I was in my grandma’s sitting room and she had this whole pile of books, which
she let me play with because I liked the covers. And I started leafing through, and then maybe reading a
word or two, and then a page, and then that was it.
Interviewer: And what about at school?
Greg: Well, in fact school added another dimension. We’d got schoolbooks, of course, history books and
maths books that we’d work through, though I much preferred finding out about stuff online. But there
was one particular teacher we had, who at the end of every day would get out a book, maybe poems or
a story and read them to us. It was like music, like a film – these great pictures his voice summoned up
in my mind: and that’s when I knew I had to be a writer, so I could make that happen too.
EXERCISE 26
Extract 1
Interviewer: So, Fiona, can you tell me about how you started in fashion retailing?
Fiona: Yes, of course. After I finished university, I took a job with a big high street chain – I
was an assistant manager. Every week you would see the sales figures for your product and then act on
that by placing repeat orders or putting a new style in. It was a good grounding. However, most of the
staff had been there years and I think I did make mistakes in my dealings with them – I blush now to
think of my time there. I then moved on, after five years, to my present job.
Interviewer: And now you’re thinking of moving up the ladder. How do you see yourself in ten
years’ time?
Fiona: I would eventually like to be in senior management.
Interviewer: Well, before you rush off to see your line manager, I think you need to work out skills you
can offer emphasising your selling points, showing them what you can do. Also have you been going the
extra mile to get things done or doing more than what is asked of you, recently?
Extract 2
Friend: So, what happened last weekend?

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Woman: Well, we were taking our boat along the river, when we passed a pair of swans, with a nest
nearby. One swan just carried on feeding, but the other one – the male I think – decided to come and
investigate.
Friend: Oh, fantastic. I’ve never seen a swan’s nest close up. I expect he was hungry.
Woman: Well, actually it was immediately obvious from his body language that he had other things on
his mind. He was flapping his wings really hard, and approaching at incredible speed. And I guess we’d
gone too close to the nest. I’d never have done that if I’d known what would happen.
Friend: Gosh, amazing. I’ve never heard of swans behaving like that before. So what did you do? Row
like mad?
Woman: Well, we got out onto the bank, but he followed us up, and then stood between us and the
boat for about an hour! We just couldn’t frighten him away.
Friend: No, I suppose not. Still, I’m sure he wouldn’t have hurt you.
Woman: Are you kidding? You should have seen the way he moved – swans can be really aggressive at
nesting times.
Friend: Hmm.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Bruce, at school, you discovered you had a natural talent for art.
Bruce: Yes, I inherited my dad’s gift for drawing. I wanted to do representational art; paint portraits. But
every college I went to – and there were three who accepted me – all the college tutors said, ‘Forget
representational art, get a single lens reflex 33-millimetre camera, hit the shutter, crash, there’s your
picture. Not even Rembrandt could get that accuracy, so it’s not worth it.’
Interviewer: And you believed them?
Bruce: I did. That was my biggest mistake. I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since.
Interviewer: How did your father react, when you told him you weren’t going to art college?
Bruce: His face was white with rage. He said, ‘Right, that’s it. You could have made something of going
to college. You won’t get another chance. Now I’ve got a perfectly good job for you on the factory floor.
You start this week – take it or leave it.’ I said, ‘No, I’m going to start a business next.’ He said, ‘Well, at
your own expense, then.’
Interviewer: He refused to support you any more?
Bruce: That’s it, and so…
EXERCISE 27
Extract 1
John: So, Diane, have you finally decided to come to Hong Kong with us for a holiday? Your flight’s
reserved, we need to confirm by Wednesday.
Diane: Well, John, I’ve given it some thought and it’s pretty tempting, but it’s not that long since I last
had a break. I don’t know – I still haven’t come to any definite decision.
John: Oh, come on, what’s the problem? I know it may seem extravagant, but you told me you’d just
been given promotion and a rise, so that can’t be an issue, surely.
Diane: Well, it’s not so much that as my work situation. Taking another break so soon after my
promotion might send out the wrong message to my team, although I think my line manager would
understand.
John: Of course – she knows you’re a good worker.
Diane: Hmm. Well, I guess I could empty my in-tray in time – my workload’s not too heavy just now. It’s
just that I haven’t had much time to get the office organised, and to be honest, one of my colleagues
would probably be only too glad to use my absence to further his own position.
John: Hmm, sounds pretty nasty to me. Are you sure you want to carry on working there?
Extract 2
Man: I hear Joe Schultz’s new film The System isn’t going to be given the ‘12’ certificate he wanted.

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Woman: So youngsters can’t see it? I’m not surprised. The reviewers say that watching the first few
minutes is pretty unpleasant – there’s a lot of aggression.
Man: That didn’t seem to worry the authorities. Nor did the strong language, although there’s quite a bit
of that, but they couldn’t take the little bursts of rather tense music – makes your hair stand on end,
apparently!
Woman: Interesting. Anyway, I don’t think the storyline’s really suitable for young
children – too much delving into people’s thoughts and motives.
Man: True. You’ve read the book?
Woman: Oh yeah. A great page-turner. I had no idea what the final outcome would be.
Man: Oh, I guessed. I loved the way the author uses dialect all the way through – a bit out of the
ordinary.
Woman: Takes some getting used to, but it’s decidedly different. You can’t really believe the Prince is
based on a real person from the past, though, can you?
Man: I thought he did come over well, considering how little we know about people from that era.
Woman: We’ll go and see the film, won’t we?
Man: Definitely.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Ingrid Chapman, tell us about this new office block.
Ingrid: It has enormous glass walls, because transparency was paramount in the brief I received from my
clients – that gives it an airy, spacious feel inside. The three floors all open onto a cavernous central hall,
and this is what’s crucial for me – there are so many reasons for people to meet there: have a coffee,
gossip, discuss formal matters in an informal setting. I force them to do these things by locating most of
the services they need in this area – toilets,
photocopying, cafe, etc.
Interviewer: Forgive me, but there’ll be company executives listening who are saying,
‘That’s all very well if you’re able to design a brand new building from scratch.’ What would you say to
them?
Ingrid: Commission me to come up with a scheme for a replacement, for example? No, seriously, it
doesn’t require much, a little creativity, that’s all. Under-used areas can be refurbished, art hung on the
walls, that sort of thing. And a questionnaire can be sent to all personnel to get their reactions to any
changes you’ve made. Good morale facilitates productivity.
EXERCISE 28
Extract 1
Eva: So the thing is, you aren’t getting on with our new boss then, Colin?
Colin: She’s just so different from her predecessor. I mean, John used to get us all involved in the
decision-making process.
Eva: No chance of that with Sandra, you think?
Colin: No way! OK, I grant you, she’s got some good ideas – she moved pretty fast to get us all to agree
to individual job descriptions and a proper timetable, none of which we’ve had before and we should
have had. And she’s done her homework on the staff profile, our qualifications and past experience and
so on…
Eva: As you’d expect.
Colin: Yes. But she doesn’t seem aware of the atmosphere here – it’s the way we’ve always done things.
I just don’t feel I can work with her.
Eva: I’d say she’s just finding her feet in a new job, and she’ll soon get the hang of what we’re all about.
Let’s focus on how much she’s already achieved. I wouldn’t let anybody tell you it’s a trivial issue,
though. If she doesn’t settle in soon, and you still have issues with her, I think you should approach her
direct.
Colin: OK, thanks, Eva.
Extract 2

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Interviewer: Show me how you do it. I see you’ve got trays and trays of pieces here.
Expert: Yes, you have to find the bits that match, so I’ve put all these tiny pieces into colour groups – red
here, blue over there. It’s a bit like doing a jigsaw, really. But at least there are no stains to remove. All
we have to be aware of is the enamel on the surface; that we have to lift all the dirt and grease off. If
you don’t, the pieces won’t go back together again, it’ll fall apart. If the cracks are going to show, they’ve
got to be really clean, otherwise they’ll look messy.
Interviewer: You want the cracks to show? Some people would say that’s terrible, for such a valuable
vase.
Expert: Well, yes, they probably would, but something that’s broken so extensively as this, if you cover
all the cracks up you’re really making a fake. Being broken is something that’s happened to it in its
lifetime, which should be recorded, and as long as you can restore it so that aesthetically it still works, it
shouldn’t matter that the cracks show…
Extract 3
Woman: This is such an unusual place because there’s no public transport to the island – I came here in
your fishing boat. The result is a paradise – rich marine life, unspoilt countryside. Yet you want to let the
world in – you’ve campaigned to start up a ferry service from the mainland. Why?
Man: There isn’t enough work to support our population. If visitors come to the island – and we have a
lot to offer them – catering for them would create employment. Also our young people would be able to
commute to jobs on the mainland.
Woman: Don’t you think it’s risky? These beaches could be covered with holiday houses and hotels;
your visitors will complain because there are only a few shops. And a ferry service won’t be enough.
People will want to fly here, and you’ll have to build an airport. No more paradise!
Man: We can build a small airport without impacting on our quality of life [6] here, and it makes
economic sense. Our shops can cope with more people on the island – it’ll be seasonal anyway. And why
would we build on the beaches? It’d be crazy.
Woman: I hope you’re right.
EXERCISE 29
Extract 1
Woman: So is John Elliott a player you like to watch? I’m guessing he is.
Man: Yes, he’s excellent, very technical, clever with the ball; he’s good at passing the ball to the team’s
top goal scorers and setting them up to shoot. When he sees that final pass coming as he approaches
the goal area, you get a lot of players who get there but then freeze and get erratic, but he’s not one of
them. So if you can get him backing up the strikers, he can be the key player.
Woman: And what about their new man, Danny Martinez? Seven million they paid for him, they’ve
probably overpaid. Not very cautious given that they’ve paid out this kind of cash before and it all went
wrong, didn’t it? They’ll want to hang on to him come what may, at that price…
Man: Yes, well, it hasn’t broken the bank, but they were overcharged for him. They probably thought he
was a good investment – he’s young, they can sell him on if things go wrong, for more money. They got
their fingers burnt once over a similar deal, and they won’t want it to happen again.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Congratulations, Deanna!
Deanna: Thanks very much.
Interviewer: Were you surprised to win?
Deanna: Completely!
Interviewer: Now you’re trying to save a wildlife habitat that stretches 3,000 kilometres along the coast
of South America. Aren’t you daunted by that?
Deanna: It’s a huge task but we’re basically getting the message out: the local fish population – mainly
anchovies – are being forced into colder water because the sea’s warming up. Of those left, 85 per cent
are being scooped up by industrial fishing trawlers so predators like seals, penguins and dolphins – and

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local fishermen – are left with very little. Now this is the richest ecosystem in the world. If it’s starting to
be affected, you know there must be a tremendous impact on other less robust systems.
Interviewer: So what’s your relationship like with local fishermen?
Deanna: They used to regard me as an enemy because I used to work for seals, and as you know,
fishermen and seals compete for the same fish – but now they see me as an ally trying to control
industrial fishing.
Interviewer: What – stopping them scooping up anchovies?
Deanna: Not stopping them, but getting them to catch less; which means the local fishermen can catch
more of the large fish that feed on the anchovies.
Extract 3
Neil: Today we’re talking about books that have inspired us, books that have made a difference to our
lives. Each of my studio guests has chosen what for them was an important book and first off we’re
going to hear about Monica Naim’s choice. Monica.
Monica: Thanks, Neil. Well the thing about this book is that when I first discovered it in my late teens –
it was a birthday present, if I remember correctly – I’d never really read anything like it before. I’d heard
about it from a friend, and I’d got the idea it was something special and so I asked for it specifically. I
think I was about 17, so I was a fairly late developer as a reader. I hadn’t been particularly interested up
till then, but it suddenly sort of took a grip. I think it was the strangeness of that book; I mean it’s the
one I’d take with me to a desert island because it’s just got everything in it and it just opened me up to
what pleasures there are in description, in narrative, you know, in ideas.
Neil: Well, we’ll discover exactly which book my next guest has chosen…
EXERCISE 30
Extract 1
Gordon: Annabelle, you saw A Secret Place the other day, didn’t you?
Annabelle: I did. Interesting, but the action’s very patchy – it falls apart here and there.
Gordon: There isn’t a thread you can follow all the way through [1], is there? I can see what the
director…
Annabelle: Yoshiki Muto.
Gordon: Yeah. I can see what he’s trying to do – it’s a complex layering of detail, but it just doesn’t come
off.
Annabelle: Well, it’s a brave attempt. It works for me. Although I have to say, I still really prefer the
original novel with its very delicate touch.
Gordon: I think, though, the film version taps into our emotions more. But what about the ending?
Annabelle: I’d have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t been for that powerful, pounding rock music, which was
obviously supposed to emphasise what was happening on screen. But I did like the way I was on the
verge of laughing, then almost crying, for that final two or three minutes. Very well done [2].
Gordon: Not that it really appeared to sort anything out for our hero.
Annabelle: Presumably he’ll turn up in a sequel soon, with the same old dilemma!
Gordon: Look forward to that then!
Extract 2
Interviewer: So, Alan, what’s the best way to get good public architecture?
Alan: Well, people don’t want to be challenged by architecture, that’s understandable in a way; I’m not
one for saying necessarily that public buildings are an appropriate area where people should have a vote
to say that this building should go ahead or not. Many of our greatest and most glorious buildings
wouldn’t exist if that happened. Take St Paul’s Cathedral in London – at the time, people were very
antagonistic and hated its horrid foreign style. Now everyone adores it; it’s a landmark, a sort of emblem
of the city, that wouldn’t have existed if public opinion had had its way.
Interviewer: Do other countries do better than us – either in terms of imagination, or in terms of the
kind of decision-making we’ve been talking about?

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Alan: Yes they do – in recent history anyway. The Netherlands is a prime example. A number of the
world’s leading architects happen to come from there, but the important thing is that the people are
very knowledgeable; they learn about architecture in school. They do have a good record for town-
planning as well, but that’s hardly the point.
Extract 3
Interviewer: Why did you decide to publicise climate change in this way?
Lorna: Well, I was really upset about some countries’ failure to sign up to pollution agreements; it felt
like the science wasn’t getting through to the politicians, so I decided to look into what I personally
could do. That led me to dream up a cartoon character called Mr Carbon – we all know somebody like
him – he’s climate-ignorant and makes no effort to save energy. Factories are the obvious villains, of
course, but I couldn’t do much about them.
Interviewer: So are we going to see him in scenes like we get in disaster movies?
Lorna: That’s pretty unlikely – you need a lot of alarmist nonsense to make a box office success. But the
reality certainly gives cause for concern.
Interviewer: So you came up with the idea of another cartoon character, Mrs Green.
Lorna: Yes – now she pays attention to little things, uses low-energy light bulbs, doesn’t leave the TV on
standby, goes in for recycling. And, can you believe it, as well as making a huge difference to her climate
impact, she’ll save one hundred and fifty thousand dollars over her lifetime.
Interviewer: That’s incredible!
EXERCISE 31
Extract 1
Woman: Sorry to be late. This club’s a bit off the beaten track, isn’t it? Thought I’d never find it!
Secretary: You don’t have an in-car satellite navigation system, then?
Woman: A sat-nav? No I don’t, though I suppose I should invest in one. I often have this sort of trouble –
getting to a town’s a piece of cake, but after that… well. It’s not so much the cost – my friends all have
them and tell me the price is going down all the time. But electronic gadgets aren’t my favourite things.
Fine when they work; nightmare when they don’t. A little black box could hardly have been less useful
than my map today, though!
Secretary: I wouldn’t be without mine now. I won’t try and blind you with science, but I do know quite a
bit about satellites. The technology’s amazing – position can be pinpointed to within a metre. Of course,
accuracy’s down to the mapping companies who do the updating work, but new models come out all
the time. It’s entirely up to you of course, but imagine never having to ask for directions again!
Woman: That’d be good – I’ll certainly give it some thought!
Extract 2
Paula: We both grew up in a fairly rough part of the city, Mike, so I’m assuming you used comedy to
keep yourself safe – and popular in the long run!
Mike: Well, in school, as you know, if you could run fast or make people laugh, you had a very good
chance of surviving and emerging unscathed. I wasn’t a fast runner, so I exploited comedy to avoid
unwelcome attention. It seemed to come easy, and it worked.
Paula: Your type of comedy is less spontaneous than reflective. You see things from your own point of
view, don’t you, and create a world for other people to see. Whereas I explore the world that’s already
there, which most people don’t see.
Mike: Don’t you think that the key to achieving what you want in life is the realisation that it’s going to
be tough, and the sheer persistence that gets you there in the end?
Paula: What you have to have is massive self-confidence. With that you can do anything.
Mike: And being specific about what it is you want to do.
Paula: Ah well, that goes without saying.
Extract 3
Woman: If you’re English, a nice sad nineteenth-century romance is very useful if you’re on holiday and
you get attacked by homesickness because it conjures up dripping English autumn days perfectly.

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Man: I always take something by this chap who’s written a number of books about the criminal
underworld of Boston, Massachusetts, which is hardly culturally or geographically a place that I know,
but I find it fascinating. There’s no doubt about it if you compile, as I do, dictionaries of slang for a living,
one is drawn inevitably not alas to the great classics, who are on the whole rather light on slang, but to
someone like this fellow who has this amazing ability, far beyond quoting, of writing 20 or 40 pages of
dialogue in almost incomprehensible slang, which I have the most wonderful time going through. I find it
very alluring.
EXERCISE 32
Extract 1
Woman: So, did you go to that play in the end?
Man: I did, and it was an interesting experience.
Woman: Really? Why’s that?
Man: Well, for a start, the theatre was in Pelham Street. Now I’ve walked up and down that street many
times, but I never realised there was a theatre there.
Woman: No, nor had I. Has it always been there?
Man: Apparently. Anyway, it took a bit of finding; you go through a doorway, down a passage – you
know the sort of place. And when you do get inside, it’s really surprisingly intimate – I shouldn’t think it
holds more than about forty people.
Woman: And the play?
Man: Well, the show was a big success up in London last year – huge audiences – but unfortunately only
a handful of people turned up for last night’s performance. I’m not surprised though – it was rather
amateurish. They could have done with using at least a bit of make-up and learning their parts better.
They just about managed to cover up their mistakes by really throwing themselves into their characters.
Woman: Yes, I know what you mean.
Extract 2
Reporter: Excuse me, sir, could you spare a couple of minutes before the conference to answer some
questions?
Man: Well, if you could make it really brief.
Reporter: You’re always identified with ‘responsible’ tourism – how do you feel it’s different from
normal tourism?
Man: Our trips have unique themes including culinary, spa, angling, indigenous peoples – plus those
specially designed for groups with special needs. But it’s the tour organisation that really differentiates
them from others. Take the Himalayas: several of our outdoor staff work only six months of the season
but are well paid all year round. Then we always use solar powered equipment and make our
environmental commitment known to every tourist…
Reporter: Do you believe people are willing to pay more for your kind of tourism?
Man: Not in the main, but I think they will be once their thinking is revolutionised: they just become
aware of the global consequences of the choices they make. Then I think they’ll see that the future of
the world depends on justice in commerce and industry and they’ll dig deep in their pockets – I must
rush now, but come to my session!
Extract 3
Laura: So, Steve, what about next week’s all-important match in Melbourne – Australia versus Wales?
The teams are pretty evenly matched, aren’t they?
Steve: Australia are certainly the favourites, but whether they’ll pull it off and by what margin is
anybody’s guess.
Laura: A real cliff-hanger probably. And there’s huge interest in this match, but I understand the Welsh
supporters haven’t been allowed enough tickets.
Steve: As usual, the authorities have given priority to the home fans, but that seems eminently
reasonable to me.

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Laura: There’s concern, isn’t there, about two of the Welsh players who are currently recovering from
injuries?
Steve: Yes, and there’s still doubt about whether they’ll play, but even if they don’t, I reckon it’ll be a
gripping match to watch. And to anybody listening who’s lucky enough to have tickets, Melbourne’s
filling up with school groups and junior teams because the Australians are very keen to encourage their
youngsters to take up rugby, so better make sure you book somewhere to stay right now. And, of
course, you could consider becoming a member of the Welsh team’s fan club, although it’s a bit late to
take advantage of their cheap flight deals.
Laura: Well, thanks for that, Steve.
EXERCISE 33
Extract 1
Interviewer: Why did you decide to include a painting by a famous politician?
Man: I wanted to remind viewers that amateur painting has its own purpose, that scores and scores of
people paint for themselves as that politician did. And I liked his daughter’s explanation that it helped to
give him some respite from the pressures of public life. I thought that was important to focus on, so that
we weren’t just talking about painters as professionals who had really cracked it and who taught us
things about their technique.
Interviewer: You draw yourself, don’t you?
Man: Yes, I’ve always liked it though I’m afraid my attempts aren’t very good, so I keep them purely for
my own amusement. The intensity of drawing is always a great thrill, i can’t say it’s a relief, which it
obviously is for some people. You have to use your eyes to look more carefully at a scene than you
would if you were just out for a walk, or even if you were taking a photograph as an amateur. There’s
something about drawing that forces you to see things and think about them
Extract 2
Interviewer: I’ve only ever been up in a plane once where the pilot turned the plane over in an aerobatic
display and I’ve never been more scared or felt sicker. Do you get that sinking feeling too, Gina?
Gina: I’m very fortunate in that I don’t. This came as a pleasant surprise to me because I do get terribly
seasick. I find that what is routine and what I’m used to doing isn’t frightening. Learning some of the
new manoeuvres, though, can be quite daunting because this is a single-seater plane. So, the first time I
do anything new, I’m on my own except for the guidance of my coach, who’s on the ground.
Interviewer: What’s the real thrill for you of performing these difficult manoeuvres in competitions?
Gina: It’s exciting of course, but ultimately the reward comes from knowing that you’ve done it with
precision. It involves an unusual combination of mental preparation, physical preparation and skill. It’s
not as difficult as you might first think to fly the sequences of movements. What is difficult is doing it to
a high enough standard to avoid the faults the judges are looking out for.
Extract 3
Fran: I’m exhausted. It took an hour to drive five kilometres! George: You should do what I do and use a
motorbike.
Fran: Is it much quicker?
George: It is a bit, because you avoid some queues. The great thing is, when I put on my helmet, I’m
shut away, you know, in my own little world and that means I arrive feeling quite calm. I started riding a
motorbike where I grew up in the country because there weren’t any buses.
Fran: So is that your most prized possession? I was asked recently what my favourite thing at home was.
As a chef I imagine yours is something in the kitchen, your cooker perhaps.
George: The one at the restaurant is fantastic because it was specially designed for me. It’s hard to say
here. My family love the kitchen table, where they chat for hours. Given the late hours I work, I hardly
participate in that. No, my workplace is so hot and sticky that what I long for is a shower when I get
home. I feel the stresses of the day disappear with the water. Odd thing to choose, isn’t it?
EXERCISE 34

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Extract 1
Man: As a kid, I was always messing around on computers, so ended up doing a degree in computer
science. Though strictly speaking it isn’t necessary for this job, it did mean I could walk straight into it.
What companies want is people who can come up with ideas. I get a buzz from that side of it [1], even
when it’s hard. It’s a fluid working environment, so hours aren’t fixed and can be long in relation to the
salary. I generally like to work on my own, but a web designer can’t produce stuff in a vacuum, because
by its very nature it’s a collaborative effort.
Woman: I didn’t go the university route but worked part-time with different companies and made loads
of contacts who’ve come in handy – got my foot in the door so to speak – then I got a full time job offer
that got me on the ladder. It wasn’t easy, and considering what you put in the job’s not the big earner
that people assume it is – at least not at the beginning! [2] I supplement it by writing reviews of other
people’s sites, but I enjoy the flexibility. I like working with other people, and that’s key.
Extract 2
Woman: How long have you been cycling then?
Man: I started road cycling when I was six, and got hooked immediately. I’d practise sprinting between
two streetlights over and over. I’ve always been competitive, and I work harder than anyone else. If I
don’t win I need to know why. I copy the person who beat me. I won’t stop till I’m better than them. The
stiff competition in the cycling world is what drives me. You’ve been to the velodrome, haven’t you?
Woman: Yeah. The track itself is amazing – such a steep angle and the bikes have no brakes. If you stop
pedalling it stops! Although I’m not such an experienced cyclist as you, I jumped at the chance to try it
and, wow! From the position of the start line that steep slope looks like a mountain! I was told the faster
you go the safer you are, so I pedalled like mad, and managed one lap. I kept going and started to enjoy
it; so much so I forgot to pedal, and immediately fell off!
Man: So you’ll go be going back?
Woman: You try stopping me!
Extract 3
Interviewer: So, Roy, what do you want to talk about on the programme today?
Roy: I want to talk about bees. Bees are a vital part of our ecosystem, they’re friendly creatures and
they’re declining in numbers. For what it’s worth, my own experience is much like that of other callers
who’ve reported near normal numbers of bumble bees but virtually no honey bees. I think there’s a
distinct lack of wasps, too. I’m at a loss to know why, though I’ve read interesting articles about the
domestication of bees and poor practices of modern beekeepers, but it seems clear that we can’t
discount what others see as the number one culprit – the overuse of chemicals by gardeners.
Interviewer: So what do you suggest gardeners do, Roy?
Roy: Well, the best thing anyone lucky enough to have a garden can do is provide a ‘bee friendly’ area.
And the good news is bees prefer ‘lazy’ gardeners, which I suspect is most of us. A wild garden providing
a natural habitat is the way forward. Choose what you plant carefully. It doesn’t have to be hard work
but it could make a big difference! And buy your honey from local suppliers you know and trust.
EXERCISE 35
Extract 1
Girl: Hi Tom, so what d’you think of the concert?
Tom: Well, I’m not complaining because at the end of the day, I had a pretty good night out. But it’s just
as well that we got a hefty student discount on the tickets. I went with high hopes of seeing something
really spectacular from the headline band, and it just didn’t happen. I reckon I was taken in by all the
hype; you know, the big build-up in the media and everything.
I should know better than to take any notice of it, but you just get swept up by it, don’t you?
Girl: Well, you may but I don’t. I hadn’t actually read or heard much about the gig at all, so I didn’t go
with any preconceptions. If you ask me, you’re being rather hard on the main band. I mean, they were
way better than the support act. If the idea was to get us in the mood for what was coming later, then I
think they should’ve been presenting us with something a bit more exciting.

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Tom: Well, who knows? Perhaps they were chosen because they wouldn’t upstage the stars.
Extract 2
Gary: There’s been lots of speculation in the press this week surrounding the fate of United manager
Tony Benson, with some people calling for his resignation after a run of poor results. Talking to people
at the club this week, I sense that there may actually be little substance to stories that his job’s on the
line. Indeed, a number of people I spoke to were keen to defend his record, feeling that he was
focussing the players on a more stylish, entertaining brand of football. They thought it would only be a
matter of time before we begin to see this reflected in the results. What’s your take on all this, Suzie?
Suzie: Well Gary, the club’s invested in promising players. The potential’s there, it’s just a question of
whether Benson’s the man to pull it all together and make it work; and time’s running out for him. I’ve
been talking to some of the players and I’d say there was a groundswell of support in the dressing room
for Benson’s general approach. But I think the results speak for themselves and, these days, if a top-
flight football team isn’t getting points, then something’s got to change and that comes back to the
manager because that’s his responsibility – getting the results.
Extract 3
Man: So what did you think of it?
Woman: I could stand and look at his work all day long. I know it’s a strange thing to say about
sculpture, but it really makes you think, you know, about more than just the art – about aspects of life
itself [5].
Man: But this was a strange exhibition. They seemed to have gone for quite an eclectic selection [6].
Was it meant to be representative of something? I never read the notes they hand out because I prefer
to come to my own interpretation.
Woman: Yes, so do I. Actually, I think the unifying theme was the material. I mean, all these pieces were
made out of the same three raw materials – wire, glass and straw. Not all his work is, of course, but I
guess it’s a phase he went through; part of his development as an artist. I’d have been happy to have
seen some of his other stuff actually.
Man: Yeah, more of a range. Well you can’t fault the museum, can you? I mean, any exhibition they put
on is worth going to. It’s such a brilliant space and you never know how things are going to look because
the presentation’s so imaginative, isn’t it?
Woman: There’s nowhere quite like it really.
EXERCISE 36
Extract 1
Interviewer: Charles, you’re retired now, but you actually designed some 600 household products, and
all of them as an employee of a company. Did it ever frustrate you that you were making products
without your name on?
Charles: It was standard practice. Besides, I needed a weekly pay check before I needed recognition.
Nowadays, you can find designers’ names on products, but it tends to be high-profile people seeking
attention. And then there’s celebrity endorsement and all that. People think that if they buy a soccer
ball that has the name of some famous player on it, they’re going to score wonderful goals… a ploy to
get you to buy products.
Interviewer: What advice do you have for young designers?
Charles: What they do will affect so many people during the lifetime of that product. That’s serious
stuff. So the product should do what it’s supposed to do and be pleasing to have in your environment. I
tried to make things appear as if they just belong. They don’t need to scream. I don’t think a nutcracker
needs to look like an elephant.
Extract 2
Man: Well, what a one-sided interview that was – and with one of my favourite actresses. She hardly got
a look-in! Noone would’ve learned anything new about her, especially as it was the usual, tired stuff
being put to her. When she did try to steer things in a different direction, the interviewer just ignored
her and kept going on about himself.

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Woman: There aren’t many really good interviewers, are there? The best ones really take on board
what’s being said and follow it up. This guy showed no imagination at all, just covering old ground, and
targeting obvious stuff. No wonder he couldn’t get interesting responses.
Man: And Celia could’ve told a few stories… she’s had a fascinating life. I know some film actors are
perhaps a bit tricky – some seem afraid to be themselves, like they’re desperate to keep up their public
image at all costs. And of course many actors are interviewed just after their last film’s been released,
and are understandably keen to publicise it, but interviewers often concentrate on other superficial
stuff. I love it when actors are challenged a bit, and the interviewer dares to deviate from the set script,
putting them on the spot!
Extract 3
Man: Hmm, I must get down to some work.
Woman: Is getting started tricky for you?
Man: Well, it can take me a while to enter into a creative state, but once I’m there, I lose awareness of
absolutely anything but the ideas flowing – don’t even perceive my fingers typing.
Woman: Really?
Man: Hm, and I’m then extremely resistant to interruption, so I’ll shout at anyone who knocks at my
study door. My defensive reactions are subconscious, though, and usually I don’t even recall them. The
family’s used to it and I’m certainly not upholding it as a model of good behaviour, but sometimes it’s
necessary.
Woman: Yeah, once I’m immersed in creating something, I usually maintain that state until I complete
the work. And I don’t even feel as if I am working. But if I look at the task ahead of me, all I tend to see is
the effort involved!
Man: Right. And what about stuff you wrote ages back? Do you return to it for inspiration?
Woman: Well, I find I can’t always recreate the mindset I had during its creation, because inevitably I’ve
since broadened my perspective on it. I can see why I used the inspiration I did, but obviously
experience changes you.
Man: Yes… absolutely.
EXERCISE 37
Extract One
Man: You know, I think privacy as we used to understand it is a thing of the past.
Woman: Why do you say that? Not another scare story in the papers? They’re always full of fanciful
tales of doom and gloom…
Man: You may laugh, but after what happened yesterday…

Woman: What did happen?
Man: I was discussing the whole issue with an uncle of mine, who’s just turned 85. He proudly informed
me there couldn’t be any data relating to him on the internet because he’d never used a computer.
Woman: Well fair enough, surely?
Man: Well, I only spent a couple of minutes searching and was still able to come up with quite a bit of
stuff about him
Woman: Really? That’s a bit worrying. I bet he was taken aback, wasn’t he?
Man: He was stunned… speechless – asked me to remove it all from ‘cyberspace’. But it doesn’t work
like that, of course. What’s there, is there.
Woman: That does seem an erosion of privacy. Mind you, come to think of it, I suppose there’s also
been some information available on us all for a while, way before the days of the internet.
Man: But it wasn’t so easy to get at. And the situation’s not going to improve.
Woman: No… I guess not. Quite the opposite.
Extract Two
Woman: Did you know that over seven million tonnes of food is thrown away every year in the UK?
Man: Really? That’s one big garbage mountain.

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Woman: Yeah – and it costs huge amounts to collect, not to mention clogging landfills and producing
vast amounts of C02 emissions.
Man: There’s not much we can do about it though, is there?
Woman: Well actually, restaurants are some of the worst offenders. That’s why we adopted responsible
practices in our kitchen a while back. We’ve only got one garbage bin now despite having 100 seats, but
two compost machines for food waste.
Man: Oh come on! We’ve got four or five bins and only 60 seats at our place.
Woman: Look, anything is possible. Our place is unrecognisable from what it was like last year, as is my
boss – can’t think what’s got into him! Thinking ahead for a change!
Man: Hmmm. OK – maybe I’d better talk to my head chef. Might be fighting an uphill battle though.
Woman: There’re other things you can do too – my chef’s obsessive about portion control, keeping an
eye on how much food customers leave, and altering dishes accordingly.
Man: Don’t you get complaints about small servings?
Woman: Granted, we don’t do enormous portions – but if occasionally someone wants a little bit more,
we’ll give it to them. It works – honest!
Man: Don’t suppose we’d go far down that road.
Extract Three
Man: Do you know anything about that experiment the lecturer was referring to?
Woman: I’ve looked it up – it involved this Frenchman spending two months in a cave under a glacier –
in 1962 I think it was. He was 100m below ground, and because he had nothing to track the time – no
clock obviously, no sun either – he got disorientated. When he came back up, he thought he’d been
down there for just 34 days. Very revealing for the researchers, who’d anticipated it would go the other
way. Various stuntmen and entertainers have done similar things to push themselves to extremes – but
then of course they’ve always got an eye on the headlines they’ll create.
Man: That’s fascinating.
Woman: Yes, it’s all about temporal landmarks – they’re really important. If you build more of them into
your life, you’ll experience time differently. Days and years won’t be one undifferentiated mush.
Temporal landmarks help stop the feeling that time’s whizzing by. I bet, for example, you retain
memories of events that happen near the beginning or end of term – they’re kind of landmarks – better
than those that happened somewhere in between.
Man: So?
Woman: So establish a few landmarks – remember to mark special events like birthdays properly with
some sort of celebration.
Man: That advice I’m happy to follow.
EXERCISE 38
Extract One
Man: How are you finding the teaching course, Susanna? You seem to have been making good progress
so far.
Woman: Yeah, I’m feeling more confident in front of my students. But I worry about whether they’re
inspired by the activities I do with them sometimes. I guess this is a wake-up call for me – that it’s just
too much to expect them to be as excited about Maths as I am.
Man: I think when a teacher’s motivated, that can’t fail to make an impression. You can’t expect your
students to love a subject unless they can see you love it yourself. Sure, your students will think you’re
crazy if you talk about Maths as if it were a spectator sport, but in the end your attitude will rub off on
them.
Woman: I was reading about some techniques I could try in the classroom to keep their interest levels
up. I’ve been trying to get some more hands-on stuff into my classes – you know trying things out in a
practical sense rather than sticking to boring theory.

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Man: Sounds like an excellent idea. Students always appreciate a teacher who goes the extra mile for
them.
Extract Two
Sam: So you decided against the concert then?
Ella: I thought about it, but I don’t really think it’s possible to get caught up in the atmosphere when all
you see is someone pressing buttons on a computer and tinkling the keys on a synthesiser. That’s all this
electronic music amounts to.
Sam: Admittedly the performer was dressed all in black and she looked like a scene shifter. And the
visuals were limited – there was a screen, but just with some sober animations on it – trees, castles,
rippling water – that sort of thing.
Ella: That says it all.
Sam: But does that matter, if the music’s brilliant? And it certainly was. But that’s just my opinion.
Ella: Tell me something about her then.
Sam: Well – she’s a student – studying comparative literature I think. That seems to give a bit of
substance to her music, make it thoughtful and rigorous.
Ella: Sounds overly serious!
Sam: Well, it all paid off. When the audience got more lively towards the end, she kept it steady and
didn’t change pace to build excitement. And she didn’t seem to need the pyrotechnics and lasers that so
many techies rely on.
Extract Three
Man: I heard that people from your office were planting trees last week. What’s going on?
Woman: Sustainability’s the new watchword these days. Last year we concentrated on cutting down on
our use of paper, and providing raw material for more also seemed a good thing to do.
Man: And easier too – your office is next door to a big forest, isn’t it?
Woman: Yes – very convenient. We’re really keen on the idea that the company should be seen to
identify with a certain set of values – and I think we were doing just that out there in the woods. So
much internal conflict seemed forgotten too – which may not last, of course!
Man: What else have you done?
Woman: It’s not just the trees of course – we’ve cut down our carbon footprint and reduced staff travel
by encouraging remote working and flexible home working, so people have been understandably
pleased about that. And word seems to have got round because the last bunch of job applicants were a
very noticeably higher calibre than previously- and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just a coincidence, though
it wasn’t part of our original thinking. There are certainly plenty of happy clients, but they’ve always
been keen on the idea of supporting community projects through our efforts!
EXERCISE 39
Extract One
Woman: You’ve read this new book on competitiveness. Is it all about striving for success, or a defence
of the Olympic ideal? You know – taking part is more important than winning.
Man: Well, yes, that’s a view often ridiculed certainly, as some sort of excuse for underachievement. I
mean if you run a race, surely it’s because you want to win, and we’ve all got used to the belief that
competition is a necessary force for good in the modern world. It’s a deeply ingrained idea. It was a bit
of a shock to read that competition impoverishes people rather than enriching them. There’s the mind-
boggling range of convincing examples you’d expect in support of this theory, and the whole thing is so
engagingly written that the most hostile opponents would have trouble refuting it.
Woman: Well my experience of competition in the business world is nothing but negative. I’d say that if
you put competition at the heart of your strategy, far from achieving the desired outcome of boosting
efficiency by pitting staff against each other, the effect is rather to encourage people to focus exclusively
on immediate success… not on sustained growth . Let’s face it, the best businesses are the ones that
look ahead instead of limiting their perspective in this way.
Extract Two

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Woman: You know how colours affect us, like red and yellow are often used in fast food restaurants… in
the decor I mean.
Man: Yeah, yeah – they say they excite the brain, which tells you you’re hungry – that was in the papers
years back.
Woman: Well, OK, but now there’s a suggestion colours may help us memorise better.
Man: Oh, come on. Influence appetites and emotions, maybe, but…
Woman: No, really – this teenager did some research.
Man: Teenager?
Woman: Yeah I know- but it does seem sound. She took a page of words and printed them in so-called
‘warm colours’…
Man: How do you mean?
Woman: Well, reds, oranges, yellows, etc. – and gave people two minutes to memorise the words. She
followed that with pretty complicated maths equations to stop them reciting the words in their head.
Man: Hmm… OK, sounds good so far…
Woman: And they were given a minute to record how many words they could remember. And then the
same procedure with words printed in cool colours like green and blue.
Man: And?
Woman: Overall warm colours were memorised better and cool colours worse.
Man: She’s followed a thorough process, then. But is there any existing published data that backs up or
contradicts these claims?
Woman: Well, not as such, I grant you. Though it sounds like she’s onto something to me. But only time
will tell.
Extract Three
Woman: I watched ‘How Musical are you?’ on TV last night – they were saying how listening to music is
a really complicated process. The scientists were really going to town on it!
Man: I thought so-called musicality meant being able to play a musical instrument, but that seemed to
be just one aspect of the whole programme. It’s odd, people who’ve never set foot inside a music
classroom might still have a musical ‘ear’ without realising it!
Woman: You mean, everyone has an innate ability to make sense of music? I’m not sure but it brings an
enormous amount of pleasure.I really don’t know how, but it changes my mood when I’m down – which
never ceases to amaze me! But they missed a trick in not clarifying why some people are avid listeners
to music and others not.
Man: They seemed more interested in the possible effect of music on musicians’ brains. I didn’t know
that people who’ve had music training in childhood find long-term positive effects on their verbal
memory- who’d have thought it.
Woman: I don’t remember words whatever I do! You know that online quiz they mentioned – that might
be worth a go. It’s about how engaged you are with music, you know, whether it’s part of your identity
or not.
Man: So you might be more musical than you think!
EXERCISE 40
Extract One
Woman: I dread the experience. It’s the anticipation that gets me. Once I start I’m usually OK but
beforehand I panic. I think that my mind will go blank and everyone will stare at me. This happened
once. I was trying to speak and listen to my own voice at the same time but all I could hear was silence. I
seemed to have forgotten how to speak and I felt my face go red. I fumbled for my notes and simply
read out the rest of the speech.
Man: Well, fear of public speaking, or what is called ‘representational anxiety’, is normal. If you think
about it, public speaking is not a natural thing to do. You don’t want to humiliate yourself in front of
people. But with preparation and practice, even the most stressed public speakers can conquer their
fears. There are very few people who are quick, intelligent and extrovert enough to just get up and

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deliver something spontaneously. If you’re giving a speech, you must carefully plan what you’re going to
say.
Woman: I find it also helps not to think of yourself the whole time. Once you shift the focus on to the
people you are speaking to, you feel the pressure lift.
Extract Two
Man: As part of a huge publicity drive in the 1920s and 1930s, London Transport launched a poster
campaign to persuade people to move into the suburbs and make use of the rapidly expanding
Underground network. Tell us about that, Zoe.
Woman: Well, the posters were used to encourage people to live in and enjoy the quiet and domestic
life of the suburbs and travel into London for work and leisure. They helped to shape people’s
perceptions and expectations of London and what it meant to live there in a period of great change. As
well as persuading people to move out to the suburbs, there was a drive for people to make use of the
city at a time when the leisure industry was expanding.
Man: What kind of things did these posters show?
Woman: Well, despite the fact that many women worked in the 1920s and 1930s, the posters depicted a
domestic ideal, with pictures of women playing with their children in the park and preparing meals for
their husbands’ return. More and more people were becoming middle class and part of this ideal was
that the husband would go to work and the wife would stay at home, even though this was not the case
for many families.
Extract Three
Man: Of course, the cliche is ‘don’t believe everything you read in the papers’, and I guess there’s some
truth in that. But in many ways that’s not backed up by the evidence. Look at all the times when stories
would never have come out if it hadn’t been for the much maligned news media.
Woman: I don’t know about that. Personally I’m always pretty sceptical when it comes to all these
revelations. I mean, look at medical stories. It sometimes seems as if every day brings some new health
scare – you mustn’t eat that, you should drink that – and most of these things you never hear about
again. I think it’d be really interesting to find out how many of these stories actually turn out to be true. I
reckon they just write these things to create a stir. I mean, lots of them are in the entertainment
industry really, aren’t they? ‘Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story’ is the joke in the trade
isn’t it? I think lots of them live by that.
Man: I don’t think that’s really fair. There are lots of investigative journalists who’ve done the public a
great service by exposing things they otherwise would never have known about.
EXERCISE 41
Extract One
Jane: Well that was certainly original. I’ve seen quite a few of his plays and that one was completely
different to the others.
Bill: Yes, it was quite dark, wasn’t it? Maybe it’s because he’d become aware of his own mortality when
he wrote it.
Jane: That’s right. He’d been seriously ill, hadn’t he?
Bill: Apparently it was touch and go for a while.
Jane: Mind you, the main character was hilarious, in a sick kind of way. I think that kind of humour
would go right over most people’s heads.
Bill: Well, I don’t know how he’ll follow up that story. He really seems to be a different character to
when he first started to write.
Extract Two
Interviewer: The old mantra about the three most important factors for a shop’s success – location,
location, location – has been borne out by a new mathematical model. It could help retailers pinpoint
lucrative sites for their stores. Physicist Pablo Jenson is here with us today. Good morning Pablo.
Pablo: Good morning. We have analysed location records for more than 8500 retail outlets in Lyon,
France. We found that the shops formed clusters, with shops such as butchers and delicatessens in one

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group, for example, and laundromats and bookstores in another. Stores of the same group seemed to
attract each other, while stores from different groups repelled each other.
Interviewer: You’ve created a theory haven’t you?
Pablo: Yes, that’s right. It’s a theory of magnetism to calculate a number, ‘Q’ for shops, based on the
proximity of attractive and repellent businesses in the area. ‘Q’ represents the suitability of a site for a
particular type of shop: the higher the number, the better the site. We tested this theory with all of the
bakeries in Lyon between 2003 and 2005. During that period, 19 bakeries shut down and their average
‘Q’ was lower than the average for all bakeries. Actually, the Lyon Chamber of Commerce is using the
model to help entrepreneurs identify promising new premises
Extract Three
Speaker: For a beautiful alternative to the bigger Spanish coasts, try the Costa de la Cruz, ‘the coast of
light’. The government of Andalucia is taking care to protect this little known region, which has earned
the nickname, ‘the Spanish Algarve’ thanks to its charm and proximity to the Portuguese border. A
property in the area represents a sound investment because homes are cheaper than their Portuguese
equivalents, and land laws mean that it will never become so built up that it is spoiled. National parks,
farmland and beautiful beaches all abound, and Chris Mercer of spanishproperty.co.uk says that more
homes will be built soon. ‘More land will have to be made available for development soon because
demand is quite simply starting to outstrip supply’, he says. ‘The government is being careful to preserve
the natural beauty and character though, so your investment should stay strong.’
EXERCISE 42
Extract One
Man: One of my colleagues is always complaining about his job, or moaning about our boss, or the
company’s management. It’s making other team members dissatisfied because some of his complaints
are true and it’s created a very negative atmosphere. I’ve tried to speak to him about it, but now he just
thinks I’m trying to be the boss’ favourite.
Woman: Well, I’m not trying to question your analysis of the problem or your motives for trying to sort
it out, but I do suspect you’ve gone about trying to solve it in a way that casts you, however unjustly, as
a bit of a self-important bore. Why don’t two or three of you put your complaints to your boss in a fair
and constructive way? And, it might be a good idea to involve your unhappy colleague in that.
Extract Two
Janet: I’m glad you persuaded me to go to the recruitment fair. It was nothing like I thought it would be.
Paul: Yes, it was really interesting.
Janet: I was quite sure that I would become a translator before I went to the fair because I was just
about to finish my degree in modern languages. I wandered up to a stall that was promoting careers in
Public Relations, just to have a nose really. I was blown away. It seemed perfect to suit my skills and
interests.
Paul: Well, I’d been looking for a job in the papers and in employment agencies and I didn’t find
anything at the fair, but one of the employees I spoke to there passed on my CV to the marketing and
business development manager and a week later I was invited for an interview. I couldn’t believe my
luck when they offered me the position.
Extract Three
Man: It’s not just a job for men you know and it’s a career where you can achieve promotion very
quickly.
Woman: What’s the salary like?
Man: Typically, graduates who join can expect to earn? 28,000 within a year and achieve two
promotions within the first two years. Of course, you can join up straight from school but it will take you
longer to get to a higher position such as management.
Woman: To be honest, I didn’t think I could ever do your job. You’ve got to be out of your mind to want
to work with dangerous people like that, plus I wouldn’t have the courage to face violent criminals. You
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Man: Well, I just wanted to be sure of a career where I could do well without having to wait until I was a
lot older.
EXERCISE 43
Extract One
was so upset!
Woman: Oh no!
people think our clothes are rubbish!
Man: Yeah. But what gets me is that I reckon for a lot of people the clothes aren’t the point. It’s more
about the act of shopping. It’s heavily linked to wanting to be the centre of attention, to clothes giving
them a strong personal identity or whatever. It’s basically a way of showing off. Too much importance is
placed on clothes and appearance, but it’s not, like, a political issue for me. It’s just a game I’m not
prepared to play.
Extract Two
but kept it hidden from my peers. I’d hear a hit record and think: ‘I could do that.’ From the age of
fourteen I fired off loads of demo discs I made in my bedroom. I had a folder where I kept all the
rejection letters I got from record labels. It might’ve helped to share that with somebody – but I didn’t. I
just sulked, then had another go.
Man: … I was vindicated. And it was a good deal in most respects too. Funny thing was though, if after
my first hit I thought I’d made it, I was soon disabused of that notion. If I was to add up everything I’d
done up till that point – school, working in a factory, learning the guitar, making the demos – it doesn’t
compare. I’ve had to put in a lot of effort to capitalise on that breakthrough, I can tell you.
Extract Three
talent.’ And at that point, I was really not interested. I was an athlete, a three-season athlete. I was
more interested in, like, hanging with the guys and doing what I was used to. But when I saw her
perform, I was blown away and decided it was for me, and at college I majored in it. I trained classically.
Woman: That’s so unlike my experience. I mean, I was dancing almost before I could walk and, although
I wouldn’t say I was pressurised into it, my parents were like behind me every step of the way. So much
so, that I was on the point of rebellion on more than one occasion – though I’m happy to say that
particular storm never actually broke!
EXERCISE 44
Extract One
Woman: I’m always getting asked where I get the inspiration for my art. I find that a tough one to
answer, don’t you?
Man: Well, I think the answer’s got to be there. The real issue is whether you’re ready to open up to that
extent. Because whether you think in those terms yourself or not, it’s hardly an easy thing to articulate.
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Man: Well, take my most recent work. In that, I’ve been looking at the idea of the annual holiday. I was
struck by the thought that it was just another thing that we interact with. In the various brochures and
pamphlets, destinations are similarly grouped together in digestible sections, making them objects of
desire that we use in our leisure time.
Woman: You mean, the gloss and the allure of the images, tempting us to make the visit?
Man: Not just that. It’s also that from there it’s a short step to believing that we’re leaving the pressures
of the everyday behind us, when in truth there’s a difference between the actual experience and the
sanitised reality printed on the page. And that’s what I want to look into.
Extract Two
Man: I started out working for a radio station as a studio assistant and because of my love of electronic
music, I tried to push it at the station. I pretty soon got my own show because I was pretty
knowledgeable about the music scene. It wasn’t easy and I soon discovered that I wasn’t really cut out
to be an interviewer – so I wasn’t comfortable in the role. But once I started doing club DJing, I knew I’d
found my real niche.
Woman: Yeah. The connection with the crowd can sometimes be incredible, can’t it? I’d never have
thought that playing records could ever become my life. But here I am, making a living out of it.
Man: And not a bad one either. I play lots of different styles because I like them all in their own way. But
it really depends on the party and the crowd – you’ve got to give them what they want.
Woman: No two sets are ever the same in that respect and that’s the beauty of it. I’m all for being
flexible, but I don’t play tracks which I don’t like myself. I reckon that’d be selling out.
Man: Really? I’m happy to go with the flow actually.
Extract Three
Man: Now Teresa, you’ve just opened your own cake shop in town. Was it always your ambition to be a
cake-maker?
Woman: Hardly. I left school at seventeen with little idea of where I was heading. I took a job in an
Italian restaurant because there was little else available. I had no experience but I found I loved the buzz
of working in the kitchen, so I decided to go to catering college. Although I’d never actually done any
before, I focused on cake-making there because it’s quite artistic, but also scientific. Getting the right
ingredients in the right measures is not something you can leave to chance. I like that idea.
Man: So how’s the cake shop going?
Woman: Well, after the initial blaze of publicity, you get really worried about whether you’ve made the
right decision. People come and try your stuff because you’re the new shop on the block but do they
come back? I had lots of expert advice about pricing and the range of goods to offer, but most of it
turned out to be pretty wide of the mark. So I’ve learnt to follow my instincts, and fortunately we’re
beginning to see a firm customer base emerging as a result.
EXERCISE 45
Extract One
Man: Good flight?
Woman: Hardly. Air travel just goes from bad to worse. It wasn’t even a particularly cheap flight, but
there was precious little leg room, it left half-an-hour late and I wasn’t offered as much as a glass of
water.
Man: Well it was the national airline, so you always pay a bit over the odds, but there are actually fewer
seats, so it shouldn’t be cramped. But since the budget airlines started competing, nobody’s offering
free refreshments on these short routes anymore. Anyway, the pilot obviously made up time. I’d only
just turned up and there you were!
Woman: I expect you were late too! But there’s an inordinate amount of queuing up and hanging about
involved in air travel. I know you’re going to say that’s because of security and so it’s not the airline’s
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Man: I wasn’t actually. The thing to do next time is steer clear of the big hubs. You could have flown into
the little airport down the coast even with this airline; lots less hanging about there. There’s not the
volume of passengers and despite the drive, it’d still be quicker than the train.
Woman: It’s not this airport I’m complaining about. It’s the one I’ve just come from!
Extract Two
Man: From what I remember of science at school, it was mostly a case of ‘listen and make notes’ with
the odd set-piece experiment.
Woman: That’s not science. I mean, all subjects are knowledge-based to a certain extent, but with the
internet, kids can access information directly without the mediation of the teacher. What they can’t
manage to do on their own is question it – have a critical view of its accuracy and usefulness. That’s
where the teacher comes in.
Man: Right.
Woman: And kids need to know how to use science in real life. So these days, it’s all about putting
information in context. Like, I did a lesson last week where they worked out how much energy is
expended to make, buy and watch a television. I mean, there’s an immediate relevance there.
Man: So do kids everywhere do that now?
Woman: Well it’ll be good if they could. I worked out this scheme of work with some colleagues from
other local schools. It had official backing, but only time will tell if it gets adopted on a wider scale. But
we had a meeting last week to see how it was going and nobody wanted to change anything!
Extract Three
Man: And Fiona, you’ve been listening to the first album from a new band, new to me at least, called
The Forerunners. Where did they come from?
Woman: Well, basically Tom, what you’ve got here is four young guys from rural England who debut
with a record that’s effectively home made – not a studio recording. That’s incredible in itself. But what
really blew me away was the fact that it’s unaffected in a way you’d scarcely think possible. They make a
gentle sound, and even when doing crescendos they never get harsh – never seem to fall in love with
their own vibe. Added to that, they seem to use a whole range of instruments without ever drawing
your attention to the fact.
Man: Yes I agree, and they keep the interest going from one little jewel to the next, there are almost no
duds here. And, although there are echoes of all sorts of people, it wouldn’t be fair to make
comparisons. I mean, what makes them kind of unique is that they don’t seem to be trying to sound like
anyone but themselves.
Woman: Quite. Highly recommended!
EXERCISE 46
Extract One
Juliet: Hi, Adam. How are you finding living in Montreal?
Adam: Hi, Juliet. It’s a great city and I’ve got some good buddies now, guys who live on our street and
work colleagues. Are you going to the street party to celebrate Canada Day?
Juliet: You bet. It’s a real important thing for me and my family; celebrating it is an annual ritual for us.
Adam: I’ll see you there then; it’s going to be a beautiful day. That sudden shift from biting cold gales to
beautifully balmy evenings when you can sit outside in a T-shirt until midnight is what drew me to
Montreal. It’s awesome!
Juliet: I know what you mean. So are you staying on in your apartment? I think you said you only leased
it for a year?
Adam: Yeah. It makes sense to rent in Montreal – you don’t have to fork out a fortune for a place
downtown.
Juliet: You can get a deal because there’s so much on the market.
Adam: And getting a place of my own is, well, financially out of the question. But quite a few people on
our street are moving out, right?
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Adam: Oh, OK.
Extract Two
Halim: Hi, Soraya, how are you getting on with your essay on plastic?
Soraya: Hi, Halim. Well, the background reading’s fascinating. OK, there’s been a complete U-turn in the
views expressed in journals and even in the popular press in recent years. But actually, when I read
about the 1950s, I get that at that time plastic was seen as revolutionary. You could make anything from
it, from bottles to roofs; it was so strong and durable. What was not to like? Whereas now, it’s seen as a
real threat to the planet.
Halim: Yeah. I’ve read a couple of really thought-provoking articles and I watched the documentary our
tutor recommended, you know the one called Plastic Madness.
Soraya: Oh yeah, any good?
Halim: Wildly over-dramatic at the end, in my view. To be fair, it did go into the pros and cons of the
uses of plastic, and it covered the main ideas we’d discussed in class, but to close with statements like
Most species of fish will be extinct within ten years was way over the top.
Soraya: And did it go into issues like plastic causing air pollution?
Halim: It did, yeah.
Extract Three
Ed: So, Jane, I’m the parent of a sixteen-year-old, Max, and my wife and I are constantly wondering if
we’re doing the right thing.
Jane: The teenage years are critical in human development, Ed. Parents are programmed to care for
their child, but in evolutionary terms, the infant must develop, mature and eventually separate from
them. And although the majority of parents cope admirably with their child becoming a monosyllabic
and at times difficult teenager, few know when to let go. At the same time, parents do generally adapt
well to having to provide more emotional support than physical support.
Ed: With Max, we’re going through things like, he seems reluctant to wake up before ten.
Jane: Some schools have changed their timetable to take into account the fact that teenagers perform
better later in the day.
Ed: Not his, unfortunately. The good thing is Max and I are both seriously into gaming and I’m fascinated
by how so many games promote universal values like hard work pays off, collaboration works better
than confrontation and thinking things through is to be admired. I encourage Max to invite his mates
round to our house because I want him to build up a circle of good friends who share common interests.
EXERCISE 47
Extract One
Nathalie: David, have you read this article about watching thriller movies?
David: No, is it good?
Nathalie: Yeah, well, I’d heard before that when we’re scared, our brains pump out the feel-good
chemical dopamine, like when we’re in love with someone. But look at this: it says that families who like
nothing better than sitting together on the sofa in front of a good thriller movie are the most contented.
That’s news to me! Most people I know who adore thriller movies, appreciate them for the really good
plot lines. You know, the stories are so rational in many ways that some otherwise very sensible people
are drawn into them.
David: For me, when I watch horror movies, it’s like going on a mini vacation.
Nathalie: Do you mean you can wander off into a fantasy world?
David: More that it gives me ideas, even about how to solve issues at work. And I’ve heard other people
say the same.
Nathalie: Really? I could understand it if you said something like it’s the suspense, the special effects or
the thrill you get from watching them.
David: Well, it may sound odd, but they leave me feeling more excited about possibilities to do with
daily life.
Extract Two

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Woman: I’ve just been reading an article about building skyways in cities. Their effect on commerce,
particularly shopping, can be considerable because when they link the upper floors of buildings, shops at
ground level don’t get passing trade any more. Some even go bust.
Man: Absolutely. If people are walking about on the third or fourth floor, they won’t make a special trip
down to the ground level to buy something, and that’s why so many stores are having to close, even
when they’re in prime central locations.
Woman: I read they’re also struggling because people are buying online. And with online shopping,
deliveries are becoming more efficient. Plus centres are suffering because all those large shopping malls
on the outskirts of towns were built to attract people by offering a range of activities, like movie
theatres.
Man: I think the two things are different. But you know the arguments – skyways mean pedestrians can
enjoy walking through a city in any weather, and there’s less crime than at street level. But, to my mind,
getting people away from congested roads and sidewalks has to be the winning argument. Skyways have
the potential to bring life back to city centres. After all, the centre is where people not only want to shop
and work, but live too.
Extract Three
Sophie: So, Gary, you’re working on public information campaigns, aren’t you?
Gary: Yes, Sophie, I’m actually employed by the government and the thinking behind the public
awareness campaigns this year is all about encouraging participation in sports at school.
Sophie: Yes, I saw the very successful TV campaign showing the importance of doing sport for healthy
growth in primary-aged children. But isn’t that something that the public already knows?
Gary: Most people, yes, and that’s why we started with the health aspect. What’s less well understood,
and what I want to get across, is how sport helps children mature socially by teaching them about
teamwork and about fair play. I’d rather not focus on the discipline aspect – the idea that sports are all
about learning sets of rules and sticking to them.
Sophie: Interesting. I’m looking into the effect of sport on learning performance. My first study followed
a group of children from primary school right through to university level. I tracked various things like
how often they were absent through illness, and their grades, and what stood out was that those who
did sport were much keener to try to get good grades in maths, English, those kinds of subjects.
Gary: And did they achieve that?
Sophie: Not always, but the aspiration was there. And for me, that’s what really counts.
EXERCISE 48
Extract One
Lisa: So, Peter, how’s your work on generating electricity from the oceans going?
Peter: Good, thanks, Lisa. As you know, my interest is in generating energy from ocean tides. And it’s
easy to talk about the obvious benefits to potential investors, like there are always tides, twice a day, so
as an energy resource it won’t run out. But that’s not, as I see it, the main attraction – it’s the fact that
wherever there’s a large body of water, you can generate power. Energy won’t need to be imported
from abroad.
Lisa: That’s a really important point. And I think I’m right in saying that a whole range of new devices
have been developed to harness energy from the sea, like giant blades, and paddles to power turbines?
Peter: Yes, they’re the next big thing.
Lisa: But I’m still a firm believer in land-based wind turbines as a clean, renewable energy resource. The
company I work for doesn’t use off-shore wind turbines. To me, the possible damage to marine wildlife
that can occur with generating energy from the ocean, by whatever means, cancels out any benefits.
Extract Two
Man: Hey, Nancy, you know a lot about plants – what do you think about urban foraging?
Woman: You mean people going out and picking fruit and things from public areas in cities? Well, I can
understand the appeal. It’d barely make a difference to your weekly outlay on food, but I think people
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artificial chemicals. But I wonder how many people these days venture out into parks and forests. I
mean, loads of city kids have never been into the countryside.
Man: Mmm. You know there’s talk of letting people pick the fruit and nuts from the trees in the park on
Main Street? Just in the area where all the trees are, so the flowers and bushes don’t get trashed.
Woman: Well, as long as they offer classes so that people know what things are. Apparently, there are
some blueberry bushes in the park.
Man: Really? I didn’t know that. But good point – you also wouldn’t want anyone getting sick because
they’d eaten something poisonous! It’ll be interesting to see how many of my neighbours have heard
about foraging and might do it!
Extract Three
Man: Freya, do you think it’s about time we did something about booking a summer holiday?
Woman: Absolutely! It seems ages since last year’s holiday. Are you happy to laze about on a beach
again?
Man: Perfect. Living in a city and having hectic jobs, that suits us, I think. And I’d rather not do anything
too energetic like a walking holiday. Remember when we went with your sister?
Woman: Yeah, exhausting! And we don’t want to book so late this year that we end up in a grotty hotel
like last year. We’d even saved enough to stay in a four-star hotel, but they were all booked.
Man: I know. Anyway, we’ve got those new suitcases, so packing will be easy. We always seem to take
more than we need, but I’d rather it was that way round than be short of things.
Woman: And you never know exactly what the weather’s going to be like, so you’ve got to cover every
eventuality! Have you still got that list you downloaded from the internet so that we don’t forget
anything?
Man: It’s saved on my laptop. Do you want to look at it now?
Woman: Why not? I love planning everything way ahead of time; it’s part of the fun.
EXERCISE 49
Extract One
Nina: My view on giving praise to children is simple: approach it in the same way you’d approach rock
climbing – with great caution! One false move or word can be disastrous. A child may get the wrong
message if you say, for example, that poor homework is wonderful, and as for a rock climber, well, if
they are led to believe that they are accomplished sportspeople when they aren’t, they may find
themselves in difficulty and their confidence in themselves and their instructor could be severely
damaged. However, unlike rock climbing, how to praise a child in an effective way takes only moments
to grasp.
Dan: I agree. And you hear so much what I call ‘empty praise’, when parents look absent-mindedly at
their child’s painting and just say ‘wonderful’. It should always be followed up with ‘because’, for
example, ‘it’s full of detail’. Children have very different personalities, but I’ve found this sort of praise is
always effective, no matter whether the child is naturally self-assured or not. And when children have
really worked hard at something, it’s up to adults to make the praise meaningful.
Nina: That’s very true.
Extract Two
Martha: Hi, Robert, are you still thinking about taking up golf?
Robert: Hi, Martha, yes, and the more I think about it, the keener I am on the idea. I know it gives you a
good workout and I really need that ’cos in my job I sit in front of a screen all day long, but I’d always
thought of golf as kind of dated, you know, not cool! My uncle used to play at a very exclusive golf club
and had to wear what I thought were ridiculous clothes to play in. Perhaps that’s where I got my
prejudiced ideas from.
Martha: Probably! Well, I’m up for it if you are. I don’t have a lot of extra cash to splash out, though.
Robert: You wouldn’t need to if we joined the city golf club. I know what you mean, though, some
private golf clubs can be pricey. I’ll ask a guy I know at work about the city club – he’s a golfer.

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Martha: Actually, they’re having an Open Day when potential members can go along. I saw a poster
somewhere. We could check it out then. Interested?
Robert: You bet!
Extract Three
Man: That was the best festival ever. I mean the line-up of bands was awesome, sure, but it was the
organisation as well that was first class.
Woman: I’ve never been to a festival where the sound was so good. Do you think it was because they’d
invested in the best sound system?
Man: I think that’s a given at a music festival – well, the best they can afford. What I noticed was the
layout of the whole area. That had been landscaped to get the best acoustics. The importance of that
often seems to be ignored or perhaps forgotten. I also liked the way the sound engineers checked
everything and wouldn’t let the band start until they were happy that everything was OK.
Woman: That local band held their own against some big international names.
Man: Yeah, I didn’t know anything about them until I heard someone chatting about them while I was
getting coffee.
Woman: And I only realised they were worth seeing when I went to the stage where they were playing
and a huge crowd was gathering. I was so pleased for them, especially when one of the big names later
said how great they were.
EXERCISE 50
Extract One
David: Hi, Jeanette. How’s your guitar practice going?
Jeanette: Hi, David. Well, I only started learning to play the guitar about six months ago and I’m making
progress, although it doesn’t always feel like that. I have good days and bad days. I wonder if great,
famous guitarists have the same problem getting motivated some days. My mum keeps telling me to
practise more, so I looked up on the internet what to do to spur myself into action and yes, there’s loads
of suggestions. But after a few futile hours browsing, I realised just reading about it wasn’t the solution!
David: Still, I really think playing the guitar’s a great pastime and it’s certainly doing what I hoped it
would for me. On my college course we were getting into some really complex work …
Jeanette: Oh, yeah, you’re doing maths, right?
David: … and I was finding it hard to keep focused when I was doing these really long calculations, and I
heard that learning a musical instrument can help with that.
Jeanette: And does it?
David: Without a doubt. Some of my classmates were getting a bit anxious about college work and I’ve
recommended learning an instrument to them.
Extract Two
Man: Our company’s working on some exciting new initiatives, all connected with roads – for example,
making a road surface that contains magnets so that electric cars can be charged as they’re driven along
the road. This means electric car drivers won’t have to stop and recharge their cars on long
journeys. Personally, I’m involved with harnessing the wind that cars generate as they go along. This can
be used to generate the required electricity for street lamps. A different department is looking at
painting road markings with special paint that gets energy from the sun during the day and then the
road markings light up at night.
Woman: We’ve been having some problems with getting the paint to shine to the same brightness along
all the roads. But what interests me is that we can even put solar panels on roads – yes, roads made of
glass! But don’t worry, they won’t be slippery. Drivers can still stop quickly, even when travelling at
around 125 kilometres an hour. These ‘glass roads’ would also be perfect for countries with cold
climates, as they can be used to melt snow and ice. That would be a real bonus!
Extract Three

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Woman: I teach sociology and this week I’ve been talking about disagreeing. It’s fascinating because I
have students from all corners of the world in my classes and we’ve had some in-depth discussions
about who you can express disagreement with and when – you know, what do you do if you’re talking to
someone older than you, for example. And actually, that’s all quite straightforward: societies have
‘rules’ for that. But what makes it tricky is that disagreeing stirs up feelings, from anger to
embarrassment.
Man: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Like you, as a sociologist I’ve thought about
disagreeing from an academic perspective. Interestingly, though, when someone at work disagreed with
my proposal to introduce flexitime, I realised there’s a great difference between theory and practice. I
almost immediately started steering the conversation to something else. I didn’t do it in a rude way, I
just kept redirecting the conversation. Afterwards, I had no idea why I’d done that because I’m sure my
colleague and I could have discussed it and come to a practical solution.
Woman: You were probably worried about being in an ‘awkward’ situation with a colleague.
Man: You’re right.
Part 6
Part 6
EXERCISE 1
Labyrinths have existed for well over 4,000 years.
Labyrinths and labyrinthine symbols have been found in regions as diverse as modern-day Turkey,
Ireland, Greece, and India. There are various designs of labyrinth but what they all have in common is a
winding spiral path which leads to a central area.There is one starting point at the entrance and the goal
is to reach the central area.Finding your way through a labyrinth involves many twists and turns, but it's
not possible to get lost as there is only one single path. In modern times, the word labyrinth has taken
on a different meaning and is often used as a synonym for a maze. A maze is quite different as it is a kind
of puzzle with an intricate network of paths. Mazes became fashionable in the 15th and 16th centuries
in Europe, and can still be found in the gardens of great houses and palaces. The paths are usually
surrounded by thick, high hedges so that it's not possible to see over them. Entering a maze usually
involves getting lost a few times before using logic to work out the pattern and find your way to the
centre and then out again. There are lots of dead ends and paths which lead you back to where you
started. The word 'maze' is believed to come from a Scandinavian word for a state of confusion.
This is where the word 'amazing' comes from. Labyrinths, on the other hand, have a very different
function. Although people now often refer to things they find complicated as labyrinths, this is not how
they were seen in the past. The winding spiral of the labyrinth has been used for centuries as a
metaphor for life's journey. It served as a spiritual reminder that there is purpose and meaning to our
lives and helped to give people a sense of direction.
Labyrinths are thought to encourage a feeling of calm and have been used as a meditation and prayer
tool in many cultures over many centuries. The earliest examples of the labyrinth spiral pattern have
been found carved into stone, from Sardinia to Scandinavia, from Arizona to India to Africa. In Europe,
these spiral carvings date from the late Bronze Age.
The Native American Pima tribe wove baskets with a circular labyrinth design that depicted their own
cosmology. In Ancient Greece, the labyrinth spiral was used on coins around four thousand years ago.
Labyrinths made of mosaics were commonly found in bathhouses, villas and tombs throughout the
Roman Empire. In Northern Europe, there were actual physical labyrinths designed for walking on.
These were cut into the turf or grass, usually in a circular pattern.
The origin of these walking labyrinths remains unclear, but they were probably used for fertility rites
which may date back thousands of years. Eleven examples of turf labyrinths survive today, including the
largest one at Saffron Walden, England, which used to have a large tree in the middle of it.

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EXERCISE 2
Speaker: Douglas Finch is to be awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration in
recognition of his outstanding scientific, design, and entrepreneurial achievements and their important
contribution to the history and reputation of Bristol.
Douglas Finch was born near Glasgow and attended Allan Glen’s School before reading aeronautical
engineering at Glasgow University, from which he graduated in 1961. He gained a Master’s Degree in
Industrial Engineering at Cornell University, USA in 1963 before returning to the United Kingdom and
joining the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
He joined the Bristol Gliding Club and in 1965 received the Silver ‘C’ Gliding Badge. In 1967 he helped
build the ‘Bristol Belle’, a red and white striped balloon which made its first flights at Weston-on-the-
Green near Oxford. It was the first modern hot air balloon in Western Europe. In 1968 Doug Finch was
issued with the first ever Private Pilot’s Licence for Hot Air Balloons.
The success of Doug Finch in translating his ballooning expertise into a commercial concern is reflected
in the birth and success of his company, Finch Balloons of Bristol, which was formed by Finch in 1971 –
five years after he constructed his first balloon. The new company was based in Dutton, Bristol, where a
total of twenty-nine balloons were made in the basement of the property. 1971 also saw Finch build
Golden Falcon, a balloon designed specifically to fly across the Sahara.
In 1972 Doug Finch received the Royal Aeronautical Club Bronze Medal, the first awarded for hot air
airships. A year later he was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Club Silver Medal for the first balloon flight
over the Alps. In the same year he received the Lighter Than Air Society (USA) Achievement Award for
the development of the first hot air ship. Five years later he attempted the first Atlantic crossing by
balloon for which he received the Royal Aeronautical Club Gold Medal. In 1978 his attempt to make the
premier Atlantic crossing by balloon ended when bad weather forced his heated helium balloon
‘Zanussi’ down after a 2,000 mile flight from Canada.
The Finch company moved to its present site in Gellingborough in 1983 and in the following years all of
the records for distance and duration were taken by pilots flying Finch balloons. In 1989 Finch Balloons
Limited received the Queen’s Award for Export, confirmation that Doug Finch had made Bristol the
undisputed balloon manufacturing capital of the world. During the 1990s interest in becoming the first
to fly around the world by balloon became intense and almost all the contenders have used Finch
helium or hot air balloons.
Doug Finch has advanced the science, technology and art of balloon flight to the highest level. His
factory in Bristol is the world’s largest and last year he was awarded the Prince Philip Design Award.
Doug Finch will receive his Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration at the award
ceremony at Bristol Business School.
EXERCISE 3
Announcer: Every four years, the National Sports Commission does a survey on how the media cover
women’s sport. This year’s report, released last month, shows that only 4% of newspaper stories are
about women’s sport. But why does women’s ?port get such a raw deal? Today I’m talking to Greg
Hunter, the editor of Today’s Sport magazine. Hi, Greg.
Greg: Hello, Amanda. You know, people in the media don’t see a difference between men and women’s
sport. In other words, we don’t say, oh this is a sports story about women so we won’t publish it.
Usually, if we don’t publish, it’s because it’s a minority sport and very few people do it or very few
readers have an interest in it. It’s got nothing to do with whether the sport is being played by men or
women.
Announcer: Well, Greg, I don’t know that you could really call netball, for example, a minority sport. I
mean, the Netball Association estimates that every week over 1 million women in the UK play netball. Is
that a minority sport?
Greg: OK, a lot of people say that, and say that it’s not fair for women that we don’t write anything
about netball in newspaper and magazines. But if you use that argument, then we’d be doing lots of
articles about fishing and other big participation sports. As I said, it has absolutely nothing to do with the

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fact that it’s women. It’s not even about how many people play it. For us, it’s about how many people
want to read about it.
Announcer: So what’s the ratio of male to female readers on your magazine?
Greg: About four men for every woman – and that’s up maybe 5% from two or three years ago.
Announcer: Why don’t more women read your magazine? Do you think that a lot of women are turned
off it because it is male oriented?
Greg: Oh, without a doubt, Amanda.
Announcer: And do you think women actually want a sports magazine aimed solely at women?
Greg: Absolutely. I think, uh… for sure. If we look at the sports magazines on the market at the moment,
they’re definitely more for the male sporty person than the female sporty person. So I think, yeah,
there’s a gap in the market for a sports magazine aimed at women who take sports seriously, and want
to read about sport and learn more about sport, on all levels.
Announcer: So, in your experience, what do women want out of a sports magazine?
Greg: I think women readers care more about the human side of stories. They like to know about what,
what’s behind a sports person. For example, top female tennis players with children find life very
difficult. They have to travel all the time to international tournaments and that means they hardly ever
see them. Whenever we run an article about this kind of thing, it’s very popular with our women
readers.
Announcer: Moving away from magazines for a moment… The Sports Commission report also says that,
in the last four years, television coverage of women’s sports has actually decreased. Women’s sports
received only 6% of total TV time available for sport last year, compared to 9% four years ago. Why
should that be?
Greg: OK, I have to admit that one of the reasons women receive little media coverage is that most
sports reporting is done by men. I heard there are about 600 members of the Sports Journalist
Association of Great Britain but only around 60 are women. Perhaps if women were more involved in
sports journalism there’d be better coverage of women’s sport. But anyway, there have been some
improvements in how women’s sports are shown on TV.
Announcer: Really?
Greg: Yes, of course. For example, last year, the women’s football World Cup was shown on a number of
TV channels. There are more sports channels than ever now, so a lot of big women’s events are getting
shown. And in the future, it’ll be possible to see a lot of minority sports on cable or satellite channels.
EXERCISE 4
Lecturer: This week, the temperature across the country will be hitting 30 degrees and above. So
jumping in the pool sounds like a pretty good idea, right? But if you have little kids, you need to know
that a swimming pool can be an extremely risky place for them. So I’m really glad to be invited here
today to talk to you about keeping your children safe in the water. Oh – and if you want more
information afterwards, I have copies of a fact sheet from the Royal Lifesaving Society here, and you can
also visit our website… uh, the address is printed on the back.
To most parents, teaching very small kids to swim isn’t a high priority. So I’d like to start by quoting the
old saying, “prevention is better than cure”. In other words, teach your child to swim as soon as
possible. You can take your baby to the pool when it’s as young as 3 months. By the age of 6 months,
the child should be able to begin having lessons.
After that, you should take your child to the swimming pool as often as possible. What’s important is to
get them used to the water. After a few lessons, even very young children can be taught to just roll over
and float on their backs, blow bubbles and generally enjoy life. That means that if they do fall in a pool
accidentally, they’re not afraid and they have a good chance of staying alive until an adult finds them. Of
course, as parents, you can do much more. Make sure someone is always supervising children around
the pool. Take your children to public pools which have trained lifeguards. And if your child goes to a
friend’s pool, always check to see that there are enough supervisors. As a rule, there should be one

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supervising adult for every four kids under eight. And there’s a simple message to tell your kids: “if
there’s no adult around, you can’t go near the water.”
Talking of private pools – swimming pools in people’s homes, I mean – these should be your biggest
worry in the summer months. More than ten times as many water-related accidents happen at home
than at public pools. By law, you must have a securely fastened fence around the pool. It’s also a good
idea to have a back door alarm that makes a loud sound if your child ever decides to explore outside by
him or herself.
When you go to the beach you have to be extra careful. Always, and I really do mean always, keep an
eye on your child. A small child can get into trouble even in small waves. Also, avoid all those kind of
blowup toys that kids love. They may be fun, but they can easily be blown out to sea. And – this may
seem an obvious thing to say, but you’d be amazed how many people ignore it – never, I repeat never,
swim when the red flag is flying. Apart from that, have a great time at the beach!
EXERCISE 5
Host: We have with us today the psychologist Simon Calvin who has recently created quite a stir with
some rather unlikely claims about Astrology. Simon, are you indeed claiming that our lives are ruled by
the stars?
Simon: No, not at all. I would not for one minute say that all of our lives are affected by the movements
of stars in the heavens. My research really concerns things that are far more down to earth. But, before I
start, I should just say that by no means do the majority of people in general totally disbelieve the value
of astrology. An incredible 62% of British adults say that their stars are of some interest to them
although only 3.5% would use them to choose a husband or wife, and only 2.9% of people would refer
to them in making business decisions. But anyway, coming back to what I said before, I’m not so
interested in the stars themselves, as I am in the time of year somebody is born. Psychologists now
widely agree that both early life experiences and time of birth are a great influence on the development
of a person’s character. Of course, this does not make the whole of a person’s character, but rather the
foundation or base on which later changes are made. However, these later changes in character are not
connected with the person’s time of birth. So the question is, then, after all these personality changes
have happened, can we look at an adult and see any of this foundation or base as part of their
psychological make-up? The technique I have been using to do just this is a very simple one, but I
believe, very effective. I have simply made a statistical comparison between people’s choice of career
and their zodiac sign. Where somebody has made a strong choice in favour of a particular kind of career,
I believe that this indicates something very important in their character. If you look at a particular
profession, say entertainers for example, and find that more than 15% of them were born in a certain
short period of the year, it suggests that their choice of that profession is in some way connected with
their birth at that particular time of the year. And this is, in fact, the case. An astonishing 20% of artists
and entertainers were born in the period between the 12th of July and the 20th of August. This, in fact,
is the most positive connection we have found so far. But there have been others although they have
been less obvious. We looked at keen sports players participating more than five times a week and
found a sizable number were born in the winter months of January and February. Another group of
people we looked at were frequent travellers, who we discovered were more likely to have been born in
early spring while accountants, bankers, executives and people generally in financial professions more
frequently have birthdays in the late spring.
Now, so far, we haven’t found any professions containing large percentages of one particular star sign,
which is a little disappointing, but this is, no doubt, because our modern technological world has
removed us further and further from the effects of nature. If, as was the case in the past, many people
lived closer to nature, we could be seeing percentages as high as 40 or 50 or even more. This of course
would mean that we would have…
EXERCISE 6

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Host: It’s a long way from cooking dinner every day for the family to preparing half a million meals a
week in a purpose-built, £5 million factory of your own design, but Anita Lee has made the jump in just a
few years. The Chinese meals she used to make for her husband David and two young daughters are
now enjoyed in millions of homes all over Britain. It’s not something that’s easily done, so where did she
start and why?
Anita: I started making my own Chinese food because I didn’t like what I could buy. The Chinese meals I
bought in the supermarket didn’t taste like Chinese food to me, and they were nothing like my mother’s
cooking, back home in Hong Kong. Even meals from the local Chinese restaurant seemed to have been
adapted to suit English tastes. So I looked around for proper Chinese ingredients and cooked for myself.
And when I cooked for my family and friends, they all said how much better things tasted and how much
they enjoyed them.
Host: Well, many of us are good cooks at home, but that doesn’t make you Businesswoman of the Year
overnight. So, what was so special about your cooking that made it so enormously successful?
Anita: Oh… one of our friends owned the local Chinese restaurant, and whenever he visited our house
he liked my home-made noodles so much that he wanted to use them in the restaurant. They were a big
success and he encouraged me to try out other things for him, like sweet-and-sour sauce and crackers.
He always had trouble getting good cooks, and even more trouble keeping them, so he liked to buy in
the sauces ready-made. He liked the arrangement, and so did I. Anyway, I started taking on people to
help, and then I took a unit on an industrial estate in Cowbridge to cope with the demand. It all grew
from that, really.
Host: As easy as boiling an egg. But in fact it wasn’t always plain sailing for you, was it?
Anita: Strangely enough, we had trouble when the company became really successful. Gourmet
magazine had given us its top prize for ethnic cuisine, and contracts were coming in from all the big
supermarket chains. We needed to expand, but didn’t really have the capital to do it. I was reluctant to
go to the bank for a loan, and Lania Foods came along and offered us the funds we needed. It seemed
too good to be true.
Host: And it was, wasn’t it?
Anita: Sorry?
Host: Too good to be true.
Anita: Oh. Yes, yes it was. You see, at first it seemed that Lania Foods was willing to provide the
necessary funds and be seen as an equal partner. But then, very soon, they tried to take over control of
the company… they even wanted to alter the food production, change some of the ingredients in the
recipes, things like that.
Host: Mm… nasty…
Anita: Yes, that time was like a living nightmare. I really had to fight to protect my products and the
business I’d struggled to build up. Luckily, I had a very loyal workforce who backed me all the way. I
eventually managed to get a bank loan, but I also had to sell my house to afford to buy out Lania Foods.
It took a whole year, but at least I got my company back. By then our sales had skyrocketed, and they
continued to do so for the next five years. I was able to pay back the loan, buy an even bigger house …
then I became Businesswoman of the Year. That was my proudest moment. It made all the hard work
worthwhile.
EXERCISE 7
Interviewer: And now for our sports section, and I have with me today Paul Collison who is a swimming
instructor with a rather unusual approach. Thanks for taking the time during your holiday to come and
talk to us, Paul.
Paul: It’s very kind of you to invite me.
Interviewer: Paul – you’re the swimming instructor at the Palace Hotel in the south of France. How long
have you been there?
Paul: Oh, well I started working there in 1970 when I was eighteen years old.
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Paul: Nope – I get to meet a lot of famous people there and… I guess I enjoy that.
Interviewer: And of course a lot of them go there because they want you to teach them to swim!
Paul: That’s true, but I teach plenty of other people too – and not all my students are beginners.
Interviewer: But we’re not talking about young children, are we?
Paul: Not usually – there isn’t the same challenge teaching children. They have an almost natural ability
to swim. Adults are afraid, and helping them overcome that is hard but much more fun somehow.
Interviewer: But don’t a lot of people just give up trying to learn once they reach a certain age?
Paul: Not at all. I get hundreds of calls from people looking for ‘sympathetic’ instructors. I would
estimate that about fifty per cent of the adult population can’t swim – but they’re still keen to learn.
Interviewer: So it’s just fear that holds them back?
Paul: Basically, yes. I come across it all the time and it isn’t just beginners. I have students who can swim
a bit, but don’t make any progress because – like all of them – they hate going under water.
Interviewer: Hmm… So what’s the secret, Paul?
Paul: Well, you’ve got to relax in the water and that means that you must control your breathing.
Interviewer: And I understand you have a special technique to help people do that.
Paul: Yes, before my students even go into the pool I teach them how to breathe and to do that I give
everyone a salad bowl.
Interviewer: A salad bowl? Right…
Paul: Everyone in the group gets one of these… each full of water. First, I get them to breathe… slowly
through the nose and mouth… just normal controlled breathing.
Interviewer: To calm them.
Paul: Uh-huh… and then – they all have to put their faces in the bowl and breathe out under water.
Interviewer: How does it go?
Paul: Well, they’re all terrified at first. So we repeat the EXERCISE many times and in the end they
become quite competitive about who can keep their face down the longest!
Interviewer: And that means they’ve started to forget about their fear.
Paul: Exactly. When I’m sure they’re more confident about breathing, I move the group into the pool
and I tell them that they are going to begin by trying to float with their faces in the water. Once I’m sure
they’re OK, I start them off and I teach different swimming strokes to different pupils depending on
which one I think they’ll find easiest. The swimming technique itself is far less important than feeling
confident in the water.
Interviewer: Great. So how many lessons would I need to learn to swim?
Paul: Well, all my lessons are an hour long and generally it just takes three to overcome the fear and get
people swimming. A few never make it but I’d say ninety per cent end up swimmers.
Interviewer: So there’s hope for us all yet… and now on to…
EXERCISE 8
Newsreader: And for our last news item today, a special report from Diane Hassan on an animal that is
rapidly becoming known as ‘man’s best friend’, the dolphin.
Diane: Last week, a twenty-eight-year-old diver who went swimming in the Red Sea with a group of
dolphins learnt the hard way just how caring these creatures can be. When the diver was suddenly
attacked by a shark, they saved him by forming a circle around him and frightening the shark away. It’s
not the first time such a rescue has happened and it’s been known for some time that dolphins will do
for humans what they do for their own kind. They are, in fact, the only animals in the world whose
brains match ours in terms of size, and their intelligence and ability to feel emotion continue to fascinate
scientists and doctors alike. For some time now, their healing powers have been well known. A swim
with a group of dolphins, for example, is a recognised ‘medical’ activity for everyday problems such as
stress. But some dolphins are playing a far more serious medical role for us than that.
Amanda Morton, who suffered from a life-threatening illness, argued that being with dolphins saved her
life because they were able to read her feelings. ‘They knew how I was feeling,’ she was quoted as
saying. And it’s the idea that they actually ‘care’, that they are gentle, happy creatures that want to

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befriend us, which has led to projects with children as well. In one such project, dolphins are being used
to help children who are slow learners learn to read. The dolphins do things like carrying small boards on
their noses. These boards show words or pictures which the children are asked to identify. When the
children get it right, they spend more time swimming with the dolphins and touching them and they see
this as a reward. So what is it that makes contact with dolphins so powerful? They certainly have an
engaging smile… in each jaw they have up to fifty-two teeth, but rather than frightening us to death, it’s
one of the warmest greetings in the world! They’re also fantastic swimmers to watch… the spotted
dolphin has been observed reaching twenty miles an hour and keeping this up for two days at a time.
And they know they’re good at it so they show off in front of humans by diving in and out of the water
and showing us just how much fun they’re having.
They’re great communicators too. They make all kinds of fascinating high-pitched noises. They catch
fish, for example, by sending out sound waves which tell them everything they need to know – where it
is, what it is and how big it is.
The only creatures that concern dolphins, in fact, are sharks and man. We don’t necessarily harm them
on purpose, but we trap them in fishing nets and we pollute the water they swim in. Pollution, in fact, is
one of the dolphin’s greatest problems. So with all the good they do for us, isn’t it time we started
caring about them?
EXERCISE 9
Presenter: If I asked you what the difference is between animals and human beings, you might think for
a bit and then suggest something about the fact that humans can speak to each other using a language –
or in some cases more than one language – and in a way you would be right. But that is not the whole
story by any means. Many animals can communicate in surprisingly complicated ways, but they never
quite achieve the range and depth of human languages. At the simplest level, several kinds of insect,
including bees, have been observed performing a special dance to tell each other where they can find
nectar and pollen, which is their food.
This, of course, does not mean that they are using a ‘language’ but they are, all the same,
communicating something. Many people think that certain birds like parrots can speak, but this is in fact
not true. Such animals are only capable of copying the sounds of human speech but have no
understanding of these sounds and generally use them at the wrong time. There is also no apparent
logic in the way they select what to copy either. On the other hand, monkeys, apes and other primates
are capable of communicating a small number of basic ideas using a range of simple sounds that are
recognised by other members of their social group. Unfortunately though, none of the groups of
monkeys observed so far have developed any form of grammar and so we cannot call this a language.
However, some apes, chimpanzees in particular, can be trained to understand and respond to certain
spoken commands by humans, but so far none have attempted to copy our speech. Now there is one
kind of animal that does just this, although not many people can understand what they are saying.
Dolphins have different shaped mouths to humans and as a result they are unable to make all the
sounds that we can make. They can manage the vowel sounds ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ and so on, but lack the
necessary voice equipment to reproduce our consonants. Thus, a simple phrase like ‘Hello, how are
you?’ becomes ‘e – o – ah – u’. But what makes these noises more amazing is that dolphins do show
awareness of when to use such phrases and in this sense, are actually trying to communicate with
humans.
But by far, the most remarkable form of animal communication are the ‘songs’ of whales. These are fast
clicking and squeaking noises that whales make underwater and the sounds themselves actually contain
more information than human speech. Scientists have noticed that some whales repeat certain long
phrases of sounds, and this is in fact why they are called songs. Of particular interest is a species called
the ‘bottle-nosed’ whale whose songs have many of the characteristics of human speech. But at the end
of the day, we are the only species that have developed proper grammatical languages and most experts
now agree that this is because of the large communities that we live in – where a child growing up can

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hear hundreds of different examples of his or her language being spoken every day. If, for any reason, a
young child does not get enough contact with other people between the ages of one and four, he or she
Gordon: OK, so they may be useful in the freezer – but what about products like milk, which aren’t may
never fully develop the power of speech. One can imagine that if whales or dolphins did start living in
large communities then well…
EXERCISE 10
Gordon: You don’t have to go far back to find a time when the most widely used packaging for food was
a brown paper bag. In fact, I remember as a boy, some 40 years ago, when everything from bacon to
biscuits to butter was measured out and then wrapped just well enough to get it home. Since then
we’ve seen the development of plastics and other materials for packaging our food. We’re told this
makes the food better and keeps it fresher. Now, with me in the studio today is Maggie Forbes, who is
head of packaging and presentation for the supermarket chain, Waston’s. Welcome, Maggie. Can you
tell us, does the new packaging really help us, or does it create problems for us?
Maggie: Well, Gordon, it’s very easy to see the benefits of modern food packaging. In countries which
don’t have modern packaging and transport systems, between 30% and 50% of all food deteriorates
before it can be eaten. It was probably the same when you were a boy. Nowadays in Britain and across
Europe, only 2-3% of food is thrown away. It saves a lot of money.
Gordon: That may be so. But do we need so much of today’s modern packaging? With freezers at home,
surely we only need the brown bags to carry food home. Most of the plastics we see today are just
thrown away and, far from being a saving, it seems a huge waste.
Maggie: I think you’re being unfair there. Brown paper bags do very little to keep food fresh, clean or
wholesome. They don’t stop food drying out and they can actually encourage the bacteria which make
food go bad quickly. And if you want to chill food successfully in your freezer, you need a plastic which
doesn’t let water vapour through. Without a wrapping like that, food loses most of its water content in
the freezer and is uneatable.
frozen? Surely glass or even stone bottles were just as effective and could be used again?
Maggie: Yes, they were certainly effective – but also very heavy. I assure you, you wouldn’t want to
carry all of your food home in glass jars. Glass and stone jars are also easy to break, as you will probably
remember from your boyhood. The benefit of plastic is that it’s light and long-lasting. It also keeps in
smells. You wouldn’t want your milk smelling of fish, would you? And lastly, it keeps out bacteria. If we
seal fresh food in good condition in plastic, then it’s certain to be free from contamination when you get
it home. You probably won’t remember, but in your boyhood, food poisoning was much more common
than it is today.
Gordon: But plastic takes so long to break down in the ground – plastic bags take over a hundred years!
This is so bad for the environment. I believe that until we use less packaging, the future of our world
looks grim. But now we’ve run out of time, so perhaps you could come again, Maggie, and we’ll continue
this fascinating discussion.
EXERCISE 11
The most endangered cat species is the Iberian Lynx, sometimes called the Spanish Lynx. Should this
species die out it would be the first feline extinction since the Smilodon, commonly known as the Sabre-
toothed Tiger, 10,000 years ago [10]. Recent studies estimate the number of surviving Iberian lynx to be
as few as 100, which is around 400 less than there were in 2000. What does an Iberian Lynx look like?
Their leopard-like spots particularly distinguish it from its cousin, the Eurasian Lynx and it is also smaller,
with a head and body length between 85 and 110 centimetres.
Males can weigh between 12.9 and 27 kilograms, which is about half the weight of the average Eurasian
Lynx. The lynx can live up to a period of thirteen years. The Iberian Lynx’s size means that it typically
hunts for animals no bigger than rabbits or hares. Rabbits would account for more than 70% of the
Lynx’s food, but due to Spain’s declining rabbit population, the lynx has been forced to attack larger
mammals such as young deer or roebuck. The Iberian Lynx hunts alone and follows its prey even up to

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distances of 100 kilometres. Or it lies in wait for its prey for many hours. It uses the four sets of whiskers
on its ears and chin to sense its victim. They are active at night. They stay active in winter and their fur
becomes thicker and paler. In extreme weather, they take shelter in caves or trees.
The Iberian Lynx was once widespread all over the peninsula but it is now restricted to very small areas,
mainly mountainous areas covered with vegetation. Its recent drastic decline over recent decades is due
to loss of habitat, reduction in prey and high non-natural mortality from road kills, predator control and
hunting, although it is under legal protection and it is no longer legal to hunt them. It was recently
thought that the only breeding Iberian lynxes were in the Donana National Park in Andulucia, southern
Spain, but in 2007 a previously unknown population was discovered in Castilla-La Mancha in central
Spain. In March 2005, for the first time Iberian Lynxes managed to breed in captivity. 3 healthy cubs
were born at a breeding centre in Donana. In 2009 it was announced that 3 more cubs had been born in
the same centre. Typically a mother will give birth to 3 cubs after a gestation period of 60 days. Iberian
Lynx conservation is now under way through political campaigning and lobbying from individuals and
organizations such as SOS Lynx.
Important progress has been made in a number of ways. The foundation of the breeding programme in
Andalucia, prevention of further construction in areas the Iberian lynx lives, and the halting of proposals
for new roads in problematic areas, such as the new motorway that had been planned between Ciudad
Real in La Mancha and Cordoba in Andalucia. Despite these successes, challenges and conflicting
pressures remain.
The World Wildlife Foundation has been urging Spanish authorities for over two years to close a road
which crosses the Donana national park, as Callum Rankine of the WWF says, ‘With such a small
population, the accidental loss of just one individual on the road brings the species closer to the brink of
extinction.’
EXERCISE 12
Interviewer: Good evening and welcome to the programme where, as you know, we go out and talk to
people who run their own companies. Today, we’re talking to Richard Porter, who makes large concert
organs as a profession. Richard, tell us, just how did you get into this area of work?
Richard: Well, I play the piano and, as a child, I had a good teacher who wrote her own music, and I
always wanted to be a composer too. However, my parents persuaded me that what I needed to do was
go to college and study how to make musical instruments, rather than play them, because they saw
more of a future in that. And now, I make the organs which are played in churches and concert halls all
around the world. The one thing that I never intended to do was become a businessman, which is what I
am now really, as well as being an instrument maker.
Interviewer: So, when did you start making organs?
Richard: About five years ago. I started from a room in my house, but now I have my own workshop.
Interviewer: So, it must pay.
Richard: Well, an organ sells at £9500, which means around £3500 profit for me I suppose.
Interviewer: And how long does it take to build one?
Richard: It might take me three months to complete one, and when I say three months, I mean three
months of working seventy hours a week. Although that sounds a lot, I have to say I don’t mind because
I love the work and I get to meet lots of interesting people. Most of my commissions are from overseas
clients and they’re nearly all the result of personal contacts. I rarely use advertising these days.
Interviewer: So, you make a living out of it?
Richard: Not really. The most profitable part of my business is actually mending organs, generally old
large ones so they can be used for concerts and recording sessions. That can earn me up to ?300 each
time. Which is just as well, because I do need to have money available to buy the raw materials for the
larger organs. There’s a lot of investment to make before I can start to build. I get the wood from Britain,
but most of the other components come from France or Germany.
Interviewer: And I understand you’ve made a big decision recently?
Richard: Yes. I’ve decided to take the opportunity to move my workshop to a former schoolroom that
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Interviewer: So, you’re moving house as well?
Richard: Yes. We’re moving there in three months’ time.
Interviewer: Tell me about the new workshop.
Richard: It is a lovely old building attached to the Town Hall in a small market town. In return for using
the workshop, I’ve agreed to spend forty days a year working as a museum attendant. There’s a small
museum in the town that has visiting exhibitions, but is only open on certain days in the year.
Interviewer: And is that something you’re looking forward to?
Richard: Not really, but it means that I save around £4000 a year because apart from paying the heating
bill the workshop is rent free. That’s the great thing about the place. It’s also very close to our new
house, so I’ll have the luxury of walking to work each morning, which is nice.
Interviewer: Is it easy to find a building that is suitable as a workshop?
Richard: No it isn’t. It’s very easy for the instruments to get damaged so the environment must be dry.
None of the buildings I’ve worked in so far have been dry enough. The new workshop is perfect in that
respect.
Interviewer: Oh right. Well, best of luck to you in that new project. Now, I think you’re going to play us a
piece on an organ which you built yourself…
EXERCISE 13
Hi everyone - today I’m going to be talking about the origins of ceramics. So, first of all. Let’s start off
with - what is a ceramic? Well, generally speaking. Ceramics are what you get when you apply heat to
certain inorganic, non-metallic solids and then allow them to cool.
And examples of ceramics are everyday things like earthenware pots, crockery, glassware, and even
concrete.
So how did it all begin? Well it all started around 29.000 years ago when humans discovered that if you
dig up some soft clay from the ground, mould it into a shape and then heat it up to a very high
temperature, when it cools the clay has been transformed into something hard and rigid.
And so - what did those first humans do with their discovery? Well - they created figurines which were
small statues and which depicted animals or gods or any shape that the day could be moulded into
And all this activity was centred around southern Europe where there is also evidence of ceramics that
were created much later.
The early humans also found a practical use for their discovery, such as storing things like grain -
although there were drawbacks. The pots were porous so that, although they could carry water in them,
it wasn't possible to store it over a long period. And also, they were quite brittle and shattered very
easily if they were dropped.
But despite these problems, it was many thousands of years before there were any improvements. In
China at around 200 BC they discovered that by adding minerals to the clay they could improve both the
appearance and the strength of the ceramics.
But it took nearly a thousand years before they perfected the process to produce high-quality ceramics
known as porcelain. And once they had perfected the process they kept it a secret - for another
thousand years!
Compared to the first ceramics, porcelain was lighter. finer, harder and whiter and became an important
commodity in China's trading with the rest of the world for hundreds of years.
In fact, it became so valuable that it was known as white gold and spies were sent to China to discover
what they did to the clay to produce such high-quality merchandise. It wasn't until the eighteenth
century that the secret began to unravel.
A German alchemist called Johann Friedrich Bottger was asked by the king to make gold out of lead.
Unfortunately, Bottger failed to achieve this and soon gave up, but in order to please the king he
attempted to make high-quality porcelain.
And after many years of experimentation, he discovered that by adding quartz and a material called
china stone to very high-quality clay he managed to get the same results that the Chinese had been
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We now look at another ceramic which is made from mixing sand with minerals and heating to over 600
degrees Celsius. When this mixture cools the result is of course glass.
The main difference between ceramics made from clay and glass is that clay is made up of crystalline
plates which become locked together in the cooling process whereas glass cools too quickly for crystals
to form.
Apart from that, the process of heating up naturally occuring materials to transform them is the same.
The origins of glass date back to 3500 BC but it wasn't until the Roman Empire, 2,000 years ago, that the
art of glass-blowing and the practical uses of glass became more widespread.
One of the more innovative uses was to use it in windows as, up until then, they had just been holes in
walls.
EXERCISE 14
Narrator: Today we continue our series on ecology and conservation with a look at a particularly
endangered member of the black bear family. One in ten black bears is actually born with a white coat,
which is the result of a special gene that surfaces in a few. Local people have named it ‘the spirit bear’.
And according to the legends of these communities, its snowy fur brings with it a special power. Because
of this, it has always been highly regarded by them – so much that they do not speak of seeing it to
anyone else. It is their way of protecting it when strangers visit the area.
The white bear’s habitat is quite interesting. The bear’s strong relationship with the old- growth
rainforest is a complex one. The white bear relies on the huge centuries-old trees in the forest in many
ways. For example, the old-growth trees have extremely long roots that help prevent erosion of the soil
along the banks of the many fish streams. Keeping these banks intact is important because these
streams are home to salmon, which are the bear’s main food source. In return, the bear’s feeding habits
nurture the forest. As the bears eat the salmon, they discard the skin and bones in great amounts on the
forest floor, which provide vital nutrients. These produce lush vegetation that sustains thousands of
other types of life forms, from birds to insects and more.
Today, the spirit bear lives off the coast of the province of British Columbia on a few islands. There is
great concern for their survival since it is estimated that less than two hundred of these white bears
remain. The best way to protect them is to make every effort to preserve the delicate balance of their
forest environment – in other words, their ecosystem.
The greatest threat to the bear’s existence is the loss of its habitat. Over many years, logging companies
have stripped the land by cutting down a large number of trees. In addition, they have built roads which
have fractured the areas where the bear usually feeds, and many hibernation sites have also been lost.
EXERCISE 15
As you all know, the university is planning an arts festival for later this year, and here in the music
department we’ve planned three concerts.
These will be public performances, and the programme has just been finalised.
The theme of the festival is links between the UK and Australia, and this is reflected in the music: each
concert will feature both British and Australian composers.
I’ll tell you briefly about the Australian music, as you probably won’t be familiar with that.
The first concert will include music by Liza Lim, who was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1966.
As a child, Lim originally learned to play the piano – like so many children – and also the violin.
But when she was 11 her teachers encouraged her to start composing.
She found this was her real strength, and she studied and later taught composition, both in Australia
and in other countries.
As a composer, she has received commissions from numerous orchestras, other performers and festivals
in several countries.
Liza Lim’s compositions are vibrant and full of energy, and she often explores Asian and Australian
Aboriginal cultural sources, including the native instrument, the didgeridoo: this is featured in a work

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called The Compass. Her music is very expressive, so although it is complex, it has the power of
connecting with audiences and performers alike.
In the festival we’re going to give a semi-staged performance of The Oresteia.
This is an opera in seven parts, based on the trilogy of ancient Greek tragedies by Aeschylus.
Lim composed this when she was in her mid-20s, and she also wrote the text, along with Barrie Kosky.
It’s performed by six singers, a dancer, and an orchestra that, as well as standard orchestral instruments,
includes electric guitar, and a traditional Turkish stringed instrument.
Lim wrote that because the stories in the tragedies are not easy to tell, the sounds she creates are also
disturbing, and they include breathing, sobbing, laughing and whistling.
EXERCISE 16
Richard Livingstone: I’d set off, with my friend Matthew Price, to sail down a little-known river in the
rainforest, in a homemade boat. Our original idea was to go all the way by boat, carrying it past any
rough bits, but the river was much rockier and faster-flowing than we’d thought, which meant we were
only covering a few kilometres each day. Then, suddenly, we realised that, as the river was about to go
over a waterfall, we could go no further by boat.
As it was only a homemade thing, we decided to abandon it, and walk to the nearest road. As far as we
knew, there were no villages or trading posts along the way and, on our map, it looked like a 100-
kilometre walk.
And that walk, through thick rainforest with 25 kilos on our backs, was difficult. We walked for six days,
it was hot and we were permanently wet through, before we came to any sign of civilisation. There were
times when we really wondered if we’d ever get out of that jungle alive.
Then, on the seventh day, we suddenly came across a path – not an animal trail, but a man-made one,
so we knew there must be people living there. It was going roughly in the right direction, so we followed
it and, at dusk, we came to a deserted camp in a hollow. Deserted, but not uninhabited. There was
digging equipment wrapped in plastic, alongside two water-filled holes. Obviously someone had been
digging in search of gold at some time or another.
Nearby, on a rough wooden table, were some cooking utensils and a few other supplies, and whoever
was camping there must’ve been intending to return soon because there was a large pot full of thick
soup. We couldn’t identify either the strange-looking pieces of meat or the unfamiliar vegetables it
seemed to be made from, but we were in a desperate state. Over the previous seven days, we’d only
had flour and rice to eat and, although we had plenty left, we were low on energy. This was our greatest
problem.
So, we cooked up some of our rice and decided to have two spoonfuls from the pot with it. It was good,
so we had another spoonful. And then another. Soon, nothing was left of our host’s meal. Afterwards,
we began to get worried. People living this sort of life could be very tough, and this one could return any
minute. We decided to make an early start.
To show we were grateful, we placed 30 dollars in the cleaned-out cooking pot. It was quite a lot for the
quantity of food – it was probably only worth 10 dollars or so – but that wasn’t the point. This man
wouldn’t be able to pop to the supermarket to replace the food we’d eaten. But I have no regrets
because that dinner gave us the strength to make it the rest of the way through the jungle safely.
EXERCISE 17
Museum guide: Welcome to the City Museum and Art Gallery. Before we start our tour, I’d like to give
you a bit of background information about the place itself. The museum was founded in 1849 as a home
for the collections built up over the years by the local Cultural Society, and is one of seven museums
owned by the city council. Its collections of dinosaurs and mummies are well known, and it also has one
of Britain’s top five exhibitions of natural science. Unfortunately, not all areas are open to the public at
the moment. In the cellar storerooms, for example, there are, amongst other things, display cases full of
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Upstairs, there’s a section designed especially for children, for those of you who are interested, where
young people can dress up, draw pictures, and find out about the museum at their own pace. It’s called
‘Let’s Interact’ and there’s more noise there than silence, as you might imagine. But we find this to be a
successful way of attracting children to museums. Let’s face it, museums in the past have been boring,
rather stuffy places for children, and indeed adults, to visit.
The picture galleries, which we’ll be visiting later, boast a fine collection of drawings, prints and
woodcuts by German artists, and the art collection is arranged thematically, rather than chronologically.
The themes we shall see are: colour, light, movement, signs, and symbols.
It’s a bit cold here, I’m afraid. I do apologise for this but, I’m sorry to say, the central heating needs a
million-pound refit, which the city can’t afford to undertake at the moment. So, if any of you are
millionaires, and feeling generous today, please see me after the tour!
Now, if you will just follow me to the end of the Grand Colonnade, we’ll turn right into the first exhibit
room on the ground floor. [pause] Now, this room houses the Rutland Dinosaur. As you can see, it’s
three and a half metres high and fourteen metres long, quite an intimidating sight ! This Cetiosaurus, as
it’s called, was found in England’s smallest county in 1968. The creature loped across the countryside
175 million years ago, and is the most complete example of the breed discovered to date. Most of the
neck, some of the spine and a bit of the tail were found in Rutland; the rest of the tail is polystyrene. For
those of you who prefer your dinosaurs on a much more human scale, there is a much smaller 200-
million-year-old Pilosaur over there.
EXERCISE 18
Narrator: At the time of the Roman Empire in Europe, around 2,000 years ago, it was common for
information to be written, not on paper, but on things called ‘tablets’. These were pieces of wood about
the size and thickness of a typical modern envelope.
Hundreds of such tablets have been unearthed from archaeological sites throughout Europe and the
Mediterranean world – nearly 200 were found in one Roman fort alone – and like most of these
discoveries, they have been placed in public collections, mainly in museums in northern Europe, to be
viewed but not, unfortunately, to be read.
This is because, although in some cases traces of writing can still be seen, most are now illegible to the
naked eye. But that’s all soon to change because archaeologists hope that with the help of new
technology, their secrets may soon be revealed. Many of the tablets took the form of legal documents
and letters written by Roman soldiers. An example, now at the British Museum, bears the name of the
person who wrote it and the name of the person who received it, plus the word ‘transportation’, which
you can just make out, but the rest remains a mystery. Now, with the help of computer techniques,
experts hope eventually to be able to read the whole letter. Professor Mike Brady, a leading figure in
what’s known as ‘computer vision’ for many years, admits that this is the hardest project he’s ever
worked on. But the excitement of seeing the latest ideas in computing applied to such a very ancient
problem has the archaeological community buzzing.
So, in simple terms, why has the writing been preserved and how will it be possible to ‘undo’ the ageing
process? Well, the tablets were made with thin, hollow panels cut across them. Wax was poured into
these and the text was then written into this soft surface using an instrument with a fine metal point. In
virtually all cases, the wax has perished and all that can be detected on the surface of the tablet
underneath are scratches. These are too faint to be read, because they are distorted.
For some time, scientists have attempted to study them with laser photography, but this has proved
fruitless . However, it is now hoped that by enhancing images of the tablets on computer, their original
messages will become legible again. If this is the case, a whole new source of historical information will
be opened up, and this promises advances and new knowledge for many decades to come. The new
technology has already been used on texts in ink as well, and in the future, it will be applied to damaged
surfaces of many kinds.
EXERCISE 19

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Narrator: When I visited a number of fruit farms in central England, I found broad agreement among
most of the growers that these days it makes sense to move away from their traditional crops such as
apples and into cherries instead. Now, in summertime, they have orchard after orchard of beautiful
trees, heavily laden with bright red fruit.
UK cherry growers tend to choose the varieties which ripen slowly. This fruit may command a higher
price because the harvest is not so early, and there are always reliable buyers for it. Research is
currently being carried out into ways of improving yield. A major obstacle to efficient production is the
fact that growth may not be consistent from season to season. Sometimes the fruit only grows as big as
a pea, and then drops to the ground.
Quite a few of the smaller trees are covered up against the rain and wind, in a plastic tunnel. Older,
larger trees have to take their chance out in the open, but cherries are a delicate fruit, and optimum
weather conditions are needed to achieve the potential yield of five tonnes per hectare. The surface of
the fruit has very little wax on it, so cherries need to be kept out of the rain as much as possible,
because the skin is liable to crack when water gets into it. If this occurs, the crop may be lost, because
the fruit bursts with a pop, rather like a balloon.
When you’re selecting the best cherries to buy, don’t get them if they look at all tired or wrinkled, and
buy the ones with a green stem. You’ll find they taste much better than ones without.
People often ask, ‘How long does it take to get a decent crop from a cherry tree?’ Well, there are new
varieties, laden with fruit, that are only four years old, but if you go back and read the old fruit-growing
textbooks from the 1960s, they tell you cherries don’t give a worthwhile crop till they’re 12 years old.
Some varieties go on cropping till they’re 90!
There are three new varieties which have recently been introduced by growers. ‘Symphony’ and
‘Staccato’ are both highly successful so far, but ‘Sweetheart’ is being planted in larger numbers than
either of them and looks to be a real winner.
Just one problem if you go cherry picking this summer – how do you stop yourself eating them all? One
expert who’s been picking all her life told me, ‘Eat a cherry, suck the stone and keep it on your tongue –
it stops you putting any more in!’ That way you end up with at least a handful of this delicious fruit in
your basket!
EXERCISE 20
Stella Prime: Hello. I’m Stella Prime and I’m a mountaineer. I’m here to tell you about climbing Mount
Everest in the Himalayas – the world’s highest mountain.
I was first bitten by the climbing bug when, as a journalist, I accompanied an expedition on the
northeast ridge of Everest some years back. I wanted to write about what made mountaineers tick, and
over the couple of months I spent with the expedition, I began to understand the sense of freedom and
achievement that mountaineering brings, and I did lots of personal learning and exploration too. I think
they were the happiest two months of my life.
Over the next three and a half years, I honed my newly acquired climbing skills on various mountains all
over the world. People say: ‘Weren’t your family surprised by this new interest?’ Well, they weren’t,
because I’d already done numerous similar activities of the sort people like to call ‘adventure sports’,
you know, hang-gliding, scuba diving and so on.
Anyway, eventually I gave up my job, let out my flat and joined the British Everest Expedition. To
prepare physically for this, I trained at my local gym – that was the easy part – the bit I found trickier
was the mental preparation and I’d learnt that, whilst you have to be physically fit, that is really only half
the story.
And there were lots of things that frightened me about Everest. One of them was the icefall that you
have to climb through. A friend asked if there was any way I could prepare myself for it. I thought: What
can I do – put myself in a fridge and look at lumps of ice?’
Everest is certainly not a place for cowards, and it’s also certainly not a place for life’s luxuries. You don’t
carry anything that isn’t necessary because weight multiplies at high altitudes. The first time I went, as a
journalist, I carried my perfume all the way, but it wasn’t necessary. You can forget baths and showers

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on a mountain as well. On my second trip, I didn’t even take my toothbrush above seven thousand
metres. The only source of water is melted snow. To melt snow you need fuel and fuel is heavy, so you
don’t melt snow unless you’re going to drink it.
The question I’m asked most often is: ‘How did you feel when you reached the summit?’ Well, I still get
emotional when I think about it. Neither of the two climbers with me had been to the top before either.
It was tremendously exciting obviously, but I think the overriding thing we all felt was a great sense of
satisfaction. That is the thing that stays with me when I look back.
Since then, I’ve gone on to climb a number of other summits and I plan to tackle Mount Fuji later this
year. And of course I’ve got my new career in TV – as a presenter on the programme Tomorrow’s World.
I’m in demand on the lecturing circuit and my book about my ascent of Everest – Aiming High – is a best-
seller. So, that’s my story. Now, does anyone have any questions?
EXERCISE 21
Ruth Sampson: Last year I found myself flying to the Arctic Circle with five biologists from the Canadian
Wildlife Service. As our small plane descended towards a snow covered runway, I looked out of the
window at the frozen ocean below. I could see small holes in the ice, and, around them, lots of
extraordinary little figures rather like ants. I was told they were seals, basking on the ice in the sun. Ten
minutes after we’d landed, I had my first sighting of a wolf, which my eagle eyed colleagues pointed out
to me at least seven hundred metres away, and later on I was lucky enough to see a caribou with its
huge antlers at much closer range.
At first sight, the Arctic seems to be a kind of desert, but there are plants and animals around – you just
have to look around for them. You may find what’s called an oasis – this is a little confined area with
access to water, where vegetation can establish itself and provide nutrients for animals. Arctic plants
have evolved to cope with this harsh environment, like the yellow Arctic poppy, which only has a tiny
tuft of leaves visible, as the bulk of the plant – a network of roots – stays underground. Its leaves remain
green all winter, so it can make the most of the short growing season. The diversity of bird species
decreases as you travel north, but there are birds which spend the winter here, and others that come
back in the spring. Most of these birds get their nourishment from seeds, although a predator like the
snowy owl feeds on small mammals called lemmings, and others do manage to find fish.
For accommodation, we had tents which looked just like the igloos the local Inuit people build out of ice,
with little tunnels at the front, only ours were orange and made of nylon! And our only connection to
the outside world was our radio link. You notice how light the snow cover is – it scatters with the wind,
and there are hardly any deep drifts.
Apart from the cold, the main hazard is the wildlife, and I received a brief introduction on the correct
action to take if a polar bear came to visit. There are other large animals, like the musk ox, but they
seldom pose a threat. Another thing was that recording the team’s descriptions of wildlife, which was
my task, was incredibly difficult. The recorder itself was fine, but batteries just don’t work in the cold, so
I had to hold them inside my thick coat to keep them warm. But on the whole, I found it...
EXERCISE 22
Keith Assadi: Hello! I’m Kate Assadi, and I’m here to talk about my hobby, which is skydiving. So why do
people want to jump out of a plane? In the UK, this is still seen as something done by crazy young
people! But in the USA, skydiving is a hobby that has been taken up by people from all age groups, by
anyone looking for excitement, from twenty-year-olds to people enjoying an active retirement.
I wanted to do skydiving as a teenager, but my parents weren’t very keen on the idea, and wouldn’t give
their permission. So, my first jump was as a university student – when I was able to get a discount.
Immediately, I was hooked! I couldn’t afford to do it regularly though, until I started working as a lawyer.
Why do I do it? Well, skydiving makes you feel great – you forget all your problems. There aren’t really
any health benefits, although I know several business executives with stressful jobs who do skydiving to
help them relax. Of course, some people start skydiving to help them get over a fear of heights. If they

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can face up to their fear – and jump out of a plane at a height of three thousand metres, it helps them to
build up the confidence to tackle other things.
So, how do you start? The equipment for skydiving is specialised, and not easy to get in local sports
shops. Nowadays, most people buy skydiving kit from websites – there’s more choice and you can see
photographs. Though when you’re buying second-hand on the internet, you should ask to see the
equipment first. I got my skydiving camera that way and last week I got a helmet with a fifty percent
discount. You need a good helmet by the way – it’s the most important part of your equipment.
For your first skydive, you jump from a height of over three thousand metres – strapped to an instructor
who’s required to have done at least two thousand jumps before. You dive down in free fall, for thirty
seconds… And when the parachute opens, you float down sedately – landing very gently! After that,
most people can’t wait to have another go!
Still nervous? – Don’t worry! All trainee skydivers must wear an appliance known as the ‘automatic
parachute’ – if s compulsory – so even if you black out, your parachute will still open on its own. These
rules are for safety reasons. So… what’s stopping you?
If you’re interested, you need to get in touch with the Parachute Association, and you’ll find the contact
details through your local airport. They’ll give advice on how to get started. You can learn to skydive
over a weekend, but I suggest the best way is to do it over several months – that allows you to build up
your confidence gradually. Skydiving’s great. It’ll give you a whole new outlook on life!
EXERCISE 23
Man: I’d been teaching art for about ten years when I went on holiday to Greece. While I was there, I
became really interested in the art of making mosaics and decided to include this in the courses I run.
Many people assume that the Romans invented mosaic, but it was the Greeks who were the true
craftsmen. And they, in turn, probably picked it up from the Sumerians. But it was the Romans who
brought mosaics to Britain. And, apart from the introduction of nylon backing to hold the tiles together,
the techniques themselves haven’t changed much over five thousand years. It’s the designs which have
undergone a really radical change. In the recent past, modern mosaics have been restricted to the walls
of public libraries and the odd swimming pool, and, by and large, it looked as if the true art of the
mosaic could well disappear. Fortunately, that has not happened.
People often ask me why I prefer to spend hours teaching my students to stick tiny squares onto tiles
when I could be doing something else. And it’s certainly the case that the process demands both time
and motivation on occasions. It can even give you a really bad headache! But, in fact, there’s something
very therapeutic about it. I think it has something to do with breaking things up and then reconstructing
them.
For every course I teach, we have jars and jars of brightly coloured glass, odd bits of china, broken plates
and dishes, and most people just can’t wait to start sticking them onto larger stretches of concrete. For
the beginners, we produce mosaic packs, which contain all the essentials you need and explain clearly
how to go about things. Each course includes a weekend workshop, which is attended by the majority of
students, and it’s actually a wonderful way of relaxing. I’m often asked if I do puzzles, and it’s not such a
silly question as it sounds because it’s a very good comparison of skills. Some people do get a bit scared,
faced with all that choice, but that’s why the mosaic packs are so popular. But I try to teach people to be
inventive as well.
If you look around yourself, there’s plenty of evidence that the art is enjoying a revival. Not only do you
see mosaic ashtrays and soap dishes, but you can actually now find them decorating underground
station walls. Now, I’m not suggesting that you start pulling your own home to pieces and replacing
everything with mosaics, although I often find myself looking at chests of drawers and thinking, ‘Hmm,
just a border, perhaps!’ Still, my reply to my over anxious students is, ‘All right, I know it takes hours,
but, after all, it’s a labour of love, and you have something which will give you pleasure for a long time
afterwards.’ Now if you’re interested in trying out the effect in your own home…
EXERCISE 24

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Tim: Hi. My name’s Tim and the topic of my presentation is a seabird called the albatross. It’s the largest
seabird, and it’s always been a great favourite with sailors. It’s also well-known because it features in a
famous English poem.
The word ‘albatross’ came into the English language via the Portuguese word ‘alcatraz’ that was used for
similar birds called gannets. The famous American prison island was also named after them. But the real
origin of the word is thought to be Arabic, where it means ‘diver’. There’s lots of different species of
albatross, and scientists are always arguing about exactly how many. Over the years, estimates have
varied from thirteen to as many as eighty. Nowadays, a figure of twenty-one is widely accepted [8], with
nineteen of those identified as being in danger of extinction.
The albatross is mostly found in the southern hemisphere, and there’s none in the north Atlantic. The
bird travels long distances in search of its food – fish and squid mostly – and depends on the wind to a
great extent. That’s why you rarely find them in tropical areas, where long periods of calm are common.
The albatross manages to cover such long distances by conserving energy. Apart from take-off and
landing, it rarely flaps its huge wings, and actually there’s a locking mechanism in its shoulder that keeps
the wings in place as it glides through the air.
As you’d expect, the bird’s got good eyesight and will swoop down when it sees signs of food near the
surface of the water. What I didn’t expect to find, however, was that it can also detect the smell of its
food; this explains why it follows fishing boats that use dead fish as bait. Indeed, one of the reasons the
albatross is such an endangered bird is that it tends to get caught up in fishing nets.
Another reason the albatross faces extinction is it takes a long time to reproduce. The bird can live for
sixty years, and only starts breeding from the age of five. Even then, each pair of birds only produces
one egg per year. They build nests on remote uninhabited islands, because animals like rats, which
arrive at the same time as humans, will eat the eggs and, predictably, cats will kill the chicks. Apparently,
even little mice can be a problem at nest sites, which is incredible.
And, of course, the albatross has always been killed by people. Sailors used to eat them, and at one time
their feathers were highly valued, which was actually the main reason. Even the bird’s bones were used
in certain ceremonies by local populations, though that wasn’t on a big scale.
These days, plastic is the biggest enemy, and there’s tons of it in the sea. Eating plastic doesn’t in itself
kill an albatross, but it tends to stay in the stomach and so cut down the amount of food the bird can
digest, which then weakens it. Some dead birds have even been found with weird things like plastic
cigarette lighters and toy soldiers in their stomachs as well as the all too common bottle caps. There
must be a way of stopping those getting into the sea! Anyway, before I go on to talk about the next...
EXERCISE 25
Carl: Hi, I’ve come along to tell you about surfing here on the island; something I know many of you
want to learn. Now, you can learn to surf anywhere that waves break on a swimmable shoreline.
On this island, most of the local population lives around the north coast. We often see waves on it but
you rarely see surfers there. The National Park, on the other hand, has miles of sandy shoreline with
plenty of elbow room for beginners to develop their surfing skills. I’d say that was your best choice of
venue.
Now, surfers need waves, and waves are generated by wind moving across water. The further the wind
drags across the water, called fetch, the more powerful the waves, which then spread out and fall into
groups we call sets. The distance between waves is measured in seconds and we call that the period. We
see just the very top of waves. Most of the energy goes deep into the ocean.
The ocean here’s not warm, so surfers wear wetsuits most of the time. These keep you warm by
trapping a thin layer of water against your body, which your body heats. A new suit should almost feel
too tight. If the fit of your suit is too loose, then it will hold more water. If you start shivering
uncontrollably, then this may be the problem, and you should go in and get warm.
New materials will stretch out and conform to your body. Make sure you have lots of length in the legs,
and that you have no folds of material under your arms. It’s also important to check that it fits well over
your lower back. Rinse your suit thoroughly every time you use it. Use a mild detergent or a wetsuit-

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specific soap in warm water to wash your suit, and especially your boots and gloves regularly. Hot water
is not recommended for wetsuits. And keep your suit on a wide plastic hanger. Metal hangers, especially
wire ones, will create creases that will be the first wear-out points on your suit, and wooden hangers
aren’t much better. Creases decrease lifespan. Do not store your suit in direct sunlight. It will lose
elasticity and become stiff and brittle before its time.
Now, the other thing you’ll need is a surfboard. Don’t go out and buy a new one straightaway. The
surfboard you use as an accomplished surfer will be far too fragile to take you through the learning
process. The main problem is when beginners hit the board with their knees and put great dents in
them, but they also tend to lean surfboards against cars and walls where they can fall over or bump into
pointy things when carrying them. So I’d say always borrow your friend’s board to learn on, or maybe
rent one.
Your board will need waxing. Surfers use wax to help them stay on their boards, whereas skaters and
snowboarders use it to make their boards slide. If you want to clean old wax off, leave your board in the
sun for a while or, better still, use a hair dryer and then use a wax comb or plastic scraper. A citrus-based
cleaner on a cloth will clean up the rest. Now before I go on...
EXERCISE 26
Janine Rogers: Hello, everyone. My name is Janine Rogers, and I’ve got what many people would regard
as a dream job – I’m a chocolate taster! My route into the job came after graduation. As a qualified
chemist, I was looking to specialise as a lab technician, but when nothing came up, I considered
retraining as a chef. Then I spotted a vacancy in the company I’m in now – and that’s where my career
started. Everyone has a very specific professional title, mine being Product Developer. It doesn’t cover
everything I do, but it perfectly describes one aspect of the role.
My background has been a real asset to my work here. I’m currently creating the perfect fillings for our
chocolates – at the moment it’s caramel. But last month I had to come up with a way of introducing
bubbles into the chocolate mixture. It may sound trivial, but it’s what sells the chocolate! And I suspect
only someone with my technical knowledge would’ve had the know-how to pull that off.
It may sound wonderful to work with chocolate all day, but it’s not exactly a simple substance to work
with – I’d even go so far as to call it problematic. That’s because we’re using a blend of fat as well as
cocoa, which means the approaches we use, and the time we spend blending it can be crucial.
A lot of variables can affect how chocolate tastes – it doesn’t naturally occur as the sweet-tasting
confection we’re all familiar with. Things like the climate of the region where the beans are grown have
an effect, as does the technique used for drying them and the amount of sugar we put in the chocolate.
I spend about 20% of my time actually tasting chocolate. But of course, the end result is all the work of a
team. For example, the marketing team will come up with a concept for a new range – and it’s my job in
Research and Development to bring that idea to life. Then we’ll make samples and test them on
consumers.
After that we’ll speak to the engineers in manufacturing, and also the people in charge of packaging
which, believe it or not, is an essential early stage. There’s no point in creating something that can’t be
wrapped up and sold. Liquid chocolate is a good example – it’s delicious, but difficult to preserve in that
state for sale.
We also rely heavily on advice from our legal team about the claims we make for our chocolate in our
advertising. And we need to be aware whether we’re making something that’s not suitable for
vegetarians, say, but we haven’t stated this in our labelling.
So what qualities are required in my job? Well, a curiosity about how things work and why, but above
and beyond all else, you need initiative, and lots of it. There’ll be times when no-one’s giving you specific
instructions and you need to get on by yourself. And of course, you need to love chocolate!
EXERCISE 27
Sarah: Welcome to my talk about my work to protect the oceans from the growing problem of pollution.
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My interest started when I was working as a volunteer on a beach clean-up project called ‘Cleaner
coasts’ and was introduced to my current boss. He persuaded me to come and work full-time for the
environmental group he’d just established under the name ‘Water Response’, and I’ve never regretted
my decision.
I soon found myself face-to-face with the direct consequences of ocean pollution, as my job involves
helping to save seabirds who’ve swallowed the litter found floating on ocean surfaces, mistaking it for
food. There is such a wide range of garbage entering the oceans now, and we rescue birds that’ve
consumed everything from plastic bags to balloons, and even light bulbs on occasion, would you believe.
Things like plastic bottle tops are common finds, unfortunately, too.
Another aspect of my work is removing as much of this debris from the coast as possible. Plastics are
particularly dangerous for marine creatures as they contain what are known as organic pollutants. This is
because plastics draw in a high concentration of damaging poisons, acting like a sort of chemical sponge.
This is really bad news you see. These chemicals affect not only a seabird’s digestive system, which is to
be expected, but, what was news to me was that they also damage its reproductive system. I was well
aware that toxins are also notoriously harmful to the immune system, making it harder for many marine
species to fight disease.
Another problem with plastic is its durability – it doesn’t go away like natural materials do, but just goes
from being, say, a floating bottle to tiny plastic particles, attractive to marine creatures. This results from
the action of sunlight, but wave action also plays a part in the fragmentation process.
Unfortunately, ocean pollution is increasing, despite various international conventions set up to control
it. Around 100 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually, of which a shocking ten million tonnes
end up in the sea. The majority of this gets there from land sources, although marine sources are
actually responsible for dumping as much as 3.5 million tonnes of plastic each year.
As well as removing debris and caring for marine animals, I’m also involved in raising public awareness
of the problem. I help run educational projects teaching people how to make small changes in their daily
lives, like avoiding chemical-based detergents which can get into waterways and eventually find their
way into the sea. I encourage others to try simple ingredients such as lemon juice for various household
chores instead of their regular cleaning product. This can be remarkably effective. Even things like
keeping cars well-maintained is essential for ocean protection because oil leaks get washed down drains
and end up causing more pollution than the car tyres you see abandoned on beaches. Irresponsible
though tyre dumping is, we’ve at least got a chance of stopping the tyres from getting into the sea.
EXERCISE 28
Jim: Hi. I’m Jim, and together with colleagues I’ve been attempting to create a group of robots that build
things in the same impressive way that termites do. Termites are like large ants and build amazingly
complex structures called mounds to live in. Unlike bees, termites don’t receive instructions from their
queen about what to do. In fact, a single worker doesn’t know what the other termites are doing or
what the current overall state of the mound looks like.
This tells us that large numbers of units working independently can, paradoxically, build complicated,
large-scale things together. So, we decided to make and to program what I like to call a colony of robots.
Now, by giving the robots a picture of what we want them to build – and it doesn’t matter how many of
them there are or which robot does what – they do indeed end up building what they’re asked for. The
robots and termites both have very restricted sensing – a single unit can only tell what’s going on right
around itself. It’s the same with communicating.
Rather than communicating with one another directly, termites make alterations to their shared
environment, and others respond. One deposits some soil, for example, or half-eaten wood…another
one comes along later and on seeing this, a reaction is triggered. We observed this and devised a similar
system with the robots.
Like termites, the robots often make errors, for example trying to pick up a brick and failing. Rather than
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correction process, so they try again until they get it right. So they keep patrolling the structure, fixing
only what needs fixing.
I’ve demonstrated this in action several times in public presentations, with one of our robots. It had to
try to complete the structure I asked it to, in this case a staircase. And there was a block missing at the
top, so it had to try and pick up building material from the loading area and walk up the structure until it
discovered exactly what needed attention.
In the long-term, one day robots like this could build for us in inaccessible or dangerous settings, such as
underwater or on Mars. In the shorter term, the same principle applies. So, for instance, if you wanted
to position sandbags to protect against rising floodwater, or build in difficult Antarctic surroundings, you
can imagine how hardware and approaches very much like this could be used.
In a sense, termites are like cells in your brain, all acting independently but interacting with each other,
and out of that comes a higher intelligence. And in a similar kind of way our robots are individuals,
moving around independently with no central coordination, and together, hopefully, producing
complicated structures.
One spin-off piece of research has already been put into place. A Turkish group has been working
alongside us to see if the way the robots and termites operate can actually be captured in a
mathematical model to be used in future projects. It’s a fascinating idea and I believe there are similar
studies with flocks of birds and shoals of fish. Now let me move on...
EXERCISE 29
Susie: This week’s edition of World Farming comes from the island of Reunion, off the south-east coast
of Africa, where there are vanilla plantations as far as the eye can see. Vanilla is an exotic spice which is
very nearly the most expensive in the world – second only to saffron – and certainly the most popular.
We’re used to tasting it in sweet dishes, but people are now beginning to use it in savoury ones as well.
In fact, there’s a restaurant near where I live in London, called Fresh Tastes, where chef Antonio Meltini
adds vanilla to almost all the dishes, and quite delicious they are too!
These days vanilla is grown in the Caribbean, East Asia and Africa, but it originated in Mexico, where
there is a particular insect which can pollinate the plant. This morning, I visited a vanilla plantation here
on Reunion. I heard local people referring to the plants as ‘green gold’ – which isn’t surprising when you
think of all the money they represent. Good vanilla is always in great demand and the price at the
moment is between ?150 and ?180 a kilo for top quality. In fact there’s been a problem with supplying
customers recently, as storms have had a detrimental effect on the harvest – all the more unfortunate,
now the various diseases which used to decimate the crop have been eradicated.
I’m told that some of the earlier producers had their vanilla growing in the shelter of trees, but on
modern plantations the plants are grown under nets, which can easily be removed when it’s time to
harvest the vanilla seed pods, which are the valuable part of the plant. After three or four years of
growth the first flowers appear, but they only bloom for a day – they need to be pollinated then, either
naturally or artificially. Later on, the pods – they’re a kind of shell or case which holds the seeds – are
harvested. The pickers often make small holes at one end of the pods, as a means of identifying their
farm or plantation. Any pods with black marks on them will probably be rejected at this stage. Healthy-
looking pods are dried outside in the sun, then they are boiled for about three minutes [13] – which
surprised me rather – but if this isn’t done, the pods wil l open and all the seeds will be lost. So it’s a very
important part of the process. Then the pods are put in boxes which have blankets wrapped round them
to retain the heat. Materials like polystyrene have been experimented with, and found unsatisfactory
apparently. Finally, when the pods have dried out enough, they’re put into new boxes, to allow their
characteristic aroma to develop. I was allowed to open up one of these boxes – they’re really just like
treasure chests.
EXERCISE 30
Man: One day in spring 1945, physics engineer Percy Spencer was walking past a switched-on piece of
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he had been saving for his coffee break. Intrigued, he set out to discover why it had suddenly melted.
The equipment concerned was a magnetron tube – the heart of a radar set. Radar had been invented by
the British in World War II to detect enemy aircraft at night using short waves, or microwaves. But it
wasn’t until Spencer, an engineer at a small-time firm called Raytheon in Boston, US, worked out a way
of mass-producing the tubes, that radar made a real difference in the war.
The day after the chocolate incident, Spencer sent a boy out to buy some popcorn. He placed the
kernels near the magnetron tube. They immediately started popping round the lab. His next experiment
was with an egg, which he put inside a kettle. Curious colleagues gathered round to watch it quaking –
one unlucky director bent down to take a closer look just at the moment the egg exploded. Spencer
came to realize that the microwaves were heating the food by agitating its water and fat molecules,
which meant that the inside cooked just as fast as the outside. Raytheon engineers soon refined the
idea: the first microwave, 5ft 6in tall and weighing 750lb, was installed in a Boston restaurant for testing
in 1946.
The first commercial microwave hit the market the following year. It was named Radarange following a
competition among Raytheon employees. Spencer and his colleagues confidently expected a cooking
revolution. But the machine was primitive, enormous and, at $3,000, too expensive. All too soon, chefs
realized its main drawback: meat refused to brown and food emerged limp and flabby. The company
chairman’s chef quit in disgust because he was told to use the Radarange. Not until the 1960s, when the
first countertop microwave was produced, did sales at last begin to take off. The first model in 1967 was
100 volts and cost just under $500. By 1975, sales of microwaves overtook gas cookers in the US. Now,
nearly 90% of households in Britain and the US use a microwave oven.
EXERCISE 31
John: The extensive network which makes up the Grand Union Canal is, without doubt, a truly
extraordinary piece of engineering. Begun in the late 18th century, the majority of the canal system was
built without the benefits of modern technology or public finance. It is a truly grand canal. But why is it
known as the Grand Union Canal? From 1790 to 1929 a large number of competing, independently
owned canals were constructed, their waterways not uniform in size and often unable to carry the larger
vessels from other sections. Through a series of takeovers, the various companies eventually
amalgamated and created a ‘union’ of canals which could form a continuous link between Birmingham,
London and other important industrial areas. Along every stretch of canal, you will find this heritage
retained. Traditionally-painted narrow boats are still guided by original mile posts, while working
examples of mills, pump houses, ancient locks and keepers’ cottages are a common sight on any
journey.
The Grand Union Canal boasts an extraordinary variety of wildlife, from feeding herons and hunting owls
to rare water voles. Natural habitats are numerous as a result of cleaner waters and the declining
industrial traffic. The hedgerows and canal banks have proved an ideal location for a number of diverse
species to thrive in this tranquil and often unique environment.
A car-free and carefree way to appreciate the beauty of the canal – and at your own pace – is by
walking. Whether you are looking for organised or independent towpath walks, we can help you with
your planning. Each waterway office can supply information on circular walks, waterside pubs plus
suggested routes and specific points of interest. There are many stations within easy reach of the Grand
Union Canal. Why not try a one-way walk, returning to your starting point by train?
We’re keen to encourage both experienced and inexperienced anglers onto the well-stocked canal
network and reservoirs. We lease certain sections to established clubs who welcome non-members for a
small daily fee. Before you fish, check with your local British Waterways office for information on access
and availability. Rod licenses are obligatory, and can be obtained from your local post office.
Last but not least, the towpaths are wonderful for cycling. Free of traffic, free of fumes and free of hills.
Miles of accessible towpaths through some of England’s finest countryside. We can all share the delights
of the canal system so please be considerate to other users. Surfaces vary from stony pathways to
smooth asphalt – but that’s all part of the enjoyment!

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EXERCISE 32
Woman: My background is from a family of six children from a council estate where I saw friends drift in
and out of crime. I had a desire to help people see that there are choices in life. I was interested in
probation work but having left school with little in the way of qualifications, I never thought I could do it.
It was only after taking an IQ test that I realised that I might have a chance.
After leaving school, I joined the army. Then I started to study for a degree in Health and Social care. At
the same time I was a volunteer for the St. John’s Ambulance Service, the Probation Service and at a
residential children’s school. Then I applied to be a trainee probation officer. Time management is the
most important skill, especially the need to prioritise deadlines, read and digest information and then
write clear reports for the courts. I also have to be able to interact with people from all walks of life.
There is a lot of one-to-one work with offenders and this requires you to work through both your own
and their emotional barriers.
Every day is different. Of a working week, about three days are spent in the office with the remainder
split between prison and being in court. The best thing is that you get to work with a huge spectrum of
people from the homeless to professionals who have made mistakes. The worst thing is that the job is
generally very pressured and there are times when you have to engage with people that have
committed crimes that involve domestic violence. That is really hard to take.
My role is currently that of Case Manager where I manage up to 35 offenders at one time. I liaise with
the courts which is basically providing guidance on the best sentence for people to be given. I also visit
prisons where I am involved in the release process. As a next step, I’d see myself as a Practice Manager,
monitoring a team and ultimately I’d like to be a senior Probation Officer.
EXERCISE 33
Sally: Hi. My name’s Sally Nelson, and I’m a radio reporter specialising in current affairs. I’m here to tell
you how useful work experience placements have been in my career.Although I’m in my dream job now,
at school I lacked ambition, and made a poor choice of university course. Some of my colleagues did
subjects like Media Studies, which have a direct application to the work. Although my subject sounds
relevant – it’s known as Communication Studies – I think a degree in English and Drama would’ve been
just as useful. My course centred on the sociological use of language rather than the media.
When I graduated, I took the first job I was offered. I’d always been interested in music and clubbing and
had considered training as a DJ, and I soon realised being a marketing assistant was too far away from
this. My friends had more interesting jobs than me; one was even working as a manager for a rock band.
So I quit the job and rang another friend who was a radio presenter in Brighton.
I organised to sit in on his show for a few days, which was a bit cheeky of me, and although I was
intimidated for the first couple of hours, it was actually a very relaxed sort of place. And it gave me
exactly the sort of insight I needed to confirm that radio was for me.
So, I approached the boss of the station. He immediately offered me a place on the station’s Trainee
Scheme, it’s a bit like a work experience scheme really and involved spending two days a week working
unpaid at the station. To fund myself, I did waitressing jobs the rest of the week.
The station’s a small company, so the work was varied and very hands on. I got to do traffic reports on
air, which was fun, background research about musicians, which was more interesting than I expected,
and even once or twice conducted live interviews. I got the biggest buzz of all from that. In this industry
you have to network, and that’s why work experience, however short the placement, is so important. I
met people in Brighton who really opened doors for me. One colleague said technical training would
help my job prospects, and told me about a journalism course which you can do in the evening. At
twenty-five, I was much older than my fellow students but I was very focused, and it stood me in good
stead.
Thanks to someone I met on that course, I got another work experience placement, this time with a
larger national broadcasting company. I worked for six months unpaid there. I was taken on to work on
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placement, with occasional days on the travel desk. Although I was on a steep learning curve, it was
fantastic from day one.
Working for free was exhausting because I had to hold down other jobs to keep myself. If I had to say
what the main benefit of work experience was, I’d say it gives you flexibility. You learn on the job and
make mistakes without feeling that you’re about to get sacked, and that’s just as important for your
confidence and employability as any number of qualifications.
EXERCISE 34
Paul: Hi. My name’s Paul Osborne. I work as a designer in the computer-game industry. Like a lot of my
colleagues, I grew up playing video games; wasting money on arcades, playing the early game consoles.
Computer games have always been a big part of my life.
Basically, lots of people are involved in the production of a game. As a designer, I’m largely concerned
with the visual material that you see, so my background’s artistic. People sometimes wrongly assume
that I’m a developer – that’s the guy with a maths background who actually figures out how the game
works. We work closely together, of course, also with the game’s market researcher, who tells us what
players are asking for.
So, how did I get into game designing? My degree was in art and design, and I did courses in painting
and drawing as you’d expect, as well as one in computer graphics, which really captured my imagination,
and one in animation. That was the one which enabled me to build up the key conceptual and visual
design skills that I use now. But I wasn’t afraid of technology, so my career could’ve gone in a number of
directions.
My first job was as a graphic designer, doing book covers largely, though occasionally video game boxes
or CD sleeves did come my way too. After a while, an opening came up in the company’s games division
for someone who had art and design sensibilities, along with some technical acumen, to work on things
called user interfaces. I saw that as the opportunity to move into designing software. It was interesting
to put together visual design, ergonomics, psychology and technology. I had some great mentorship
from the head of my section and really developed a passion for the work.
Basically, what you’re responsible for as a designer is whether a game’s fun or not. I’ve worked on a
number of great games: Purple Moon was my first big challenge, and I had a key role on Defending
Planet X. But the one I got most out of was Star City because I was working on defining the multi-player
experience. That’s when two or more people play against each other. We wanted multi-players to play
the game as if they were creating their own narrative, as compared to a single player when they’re
experiencing a story you’ve made up for them.
I love being able to come up with a cool idea and actually see it happen. The most challenging aspect of
the game, however, is hitting the right level of difficulty. You want the game to be hard enough to
reward people who gain expertise, but not so hard that people become frustrated and stop playing.
So, what does it take to be a game designer? You need the creativity to have a vision – see what will
make a game fun and create a great experience. You need the communication to articulate that vision to
other people and get them to do what you think needs to be done. But above all, you need dedication to
see your vision through – to work your way through the disappointments and failures. When you’re
three months from shipping, working until two in the morning, that’s what sees you through.
EXERCISE 35
Jon: Hi there. My name’s Jon and the topic of my presentation is an animal which originally comes from
South America. It’s called the llama, and it’s becoming an increasingly common sight in North America
and Europe, where it’s used as a guard animal to protect flocks of domestic sheep and goats from
predators. Just the presence of a llama is apparently enough to keep foxes and other predators away –
and they are quite large animals. Standing as tall as me, but weighing a lot more! But llamas themselves
are domesticated animals, closely related to another smaller animal called the alpaca. People
sometimes confuse the two. Alpacas have the same long and slightly curved ears, narrow feet and thick
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Both animals are related to wild animals which are still found in the Andes mountains. But, whereas
llamas come in a range of colours including dark brown, black and white, and often a mixture of the
three, the animal from which it is descended tends only to be light brown. This wild animal still lives high
up in the mountains – near the snow line – but there aren’t that many of them left.
Llamas were domesticated long before European settlers arrived in the Americas. Although their meat
was eaten, the largest numbers worked as beasts of burden in mining districts rather than being
associated with farming. Ancient pictures do show llamas pulling a plough, but they were soon replaced
by the horses and mules introduced from Europe.
Llamas are one of those animals that people seem to like. You hear words like docile and friendly used
to describe their character, although the one that comes up most often when people talk about their
character is curious. I guess that’s why they have been domesticated for so long. They approached
humans, and seemed more useful than dangerous.
Some people think that llamas, like the camels to which they are related, sometimes kick people or even
spit at them. But, I read that this is a sign of poor training by the humans concerned; that in a well
brought up llama, such behaviour would be a sign that they’re feeling threatened, and not a sign that
they feel bored or bad tempered.
Llamas are naturally very sociable animals which like to live in groups. They communicate using various
noises. A gentle hum keeps them in touch with their friends and family, whereas a bray like a donkey
would be a warning to others in the group of impending danger.
These days, llama hair is still used in the spinning and weaving industries, where it is particularly valued
because it’s grease free, as well as being lightweight, warm and rather luxurious when knitted into
garments. Alpaca hair tends to make the best pullovers, however, with llama being used for other
things, especially rugs, but also wall hangings. And llama is quite often used to make useful things like
ropes too.
So, those are the basic facts about the llama. I’d now like to show you some video footage of the animal.
But before I do that, does anyone have any questions?
EXERCISE 36
Kerry: Hi. My name’s Kerry, and the topic of my presentation this evening is a bird called the swift. For
people living in most of Europe, the swift’s a familiar bird. But it only stays in the northern hemisphere
for a few weeks each summer. The rest of the year it spends in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, one of the
best known facts about this incredible bird is that it has one of the longest migrations of any living
creature.
The other incredible fact is that a swift spends most of its life in the air, where it eats, drinks and sleeps,
only landing to build a nest and raise its young. Indeed, the name of the bird in German translates to
‘wall-glider’ in English, whereas its Latin name means ‘without feet’, both reflecting the fact that the bird
never seems to touch the ground.
In Europe, swifts are a familiar sight, wheeling around high up on summer evenings, making a lot of
noise. But swifts don’t produce a song, like some birds, nor do they go tweet tweet. Instead they
produce what can only be called a scream. [8] You must have heard it!
Swifts are not large birds, but they have a very characteristic shape in flight. Some people say this
reminds them of a new moon, and the bird’s certainly crescent shaped with a very noticeable forked tail.
But for me, the thing that comes to mind when I see a swift is a boomerang; you know, the thing made
and thrown by traditional peoples in Australia.
So, swifts come to Europe to breed and they often make their nests in buildings, especially chimneys and
for some reason, ancient monuments. Because they can’t land, the swifts’ nests need to be in places
from which they can launch themselves into the air. Probably cliffs were their original preference, but
even out of town, these days they tend to go for man-made places like quarries.
As you’d expect, leaves and grasses are used to build the nests, but even here the link with humans is
evident as amazingly paper is often used, together with less surprising things like the feathers of other
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Because they never land, swifts are very vulnerable to bad weather and, in Europe, retreat to their nest
sites during periods of rain or high wind. I was once lucky enough to observe a large group of swifts
travelling at great speed to get out of the way of a thunderstorm. It was an awesome sight that I’ll never
forget.
As I said, swifts only spend a short time in Europe each year, generally June and July, with even the
newborn birds making the incredibly long journey to Africa in about 48 hours.
One strange fact I discovered in my research is that once it gets back to Africa, the bird is silent; people
there being unaware of that characteristic call.
Swifts have always fascinated people, especially because the birds have always been attracted to towns
and buildings. Traditionally in Europe, the bird was used as a symbol by the younger sons of wealthy
families who, without land to inherit, were destined to wander the globe. I like that. So before I go on...
EXERCISE 37
Woman: In my role as a publishing consultant, I’ve recently written a report on trends in the best-seller
lists over the last five years. I’ve carried out an in-depth analysis of best-selling titles in various
categories and have tried to identify some patterns. It’s my conclusion that there are some common
features in the books that have been most successful.
First of all, the genre of the celebrity autobiography. These consistently top the charts, selling in vast
numbers, but what makes them so popular? They show the reader a world of glamour, and they claim to
give an accurate picture of the ‘real person’ behind the celebrity. But my research shows that the most
successful books all describe the celebrity’s struggles. These may be connected with achieving fame, or
they may come after fame, or both. And contrary to what you might expect, the top-sellers in this genre
do not always include gossip, even though this is generally assumed to be part of their appeal.
Cookery books sell in large numbers and when I analysed the top-sellers in this genre, it was clear that
they offer an air of sophistication that has huge appeal. People aren’t buying books of simple, everyday
recipes. Often the ingredients required are expensive and hard to find, and the recipes can be complex
and challenging. People seem to buy these books because they show a world they aspire to, rather than
something they will actually do, apart from for special occasions, when they may well turn to recipes in
these books.
When it comes to books about sport, the best-sellers have all been biographies or autobiographies of
well-known figures, and what these books have in common is a wealth of anecdotes. It’s clear that
readers like the feeling of being on the inside, of getting a glimpse into the world of top professional
sport through these funny stories. They are less interested in dry factual accounts of how a career
started or statistics about sporting achievements.
One genre that has seen a huge rise in recent years is history books. The best-sellers in this category are
aimed at the ordinary reader, not serious students of the subject, and one feature they all share is their
use of oral accounts. Quoting from people who were speaking at the time, these books aim to provide a
human aspect to history, rather than just focusing on facts and figures, and this give them more
relevance to the ordinary person.
Ever since they first appeared on the scene, self-help books have always featured high on best-seller
lists. Analysis of the top self-help books of the last five years shows a move away from those dealing
with personal relationships or happiness to those advising on how to get ahead in careers. This suggests
a shift in the priorities of the people who buy this kind of book.
When it comes to fiction, crime fiction has long been extremely popular, of course. My analysis of
bestsellers in this genre indicates that the scientific procedures used in criminal investigations are a
dominant feature these days, rather than the character of the detective, which used to be the
cornerstone of books in this genre. This might well reflect the current popularity of TV crime dramas,
with their focus on forensic science. Now moving on to other kind of...
EXERCISE 38

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Speaker: I am standing in the middle of a group of people at an event and someone asks the inevitable
question ‘What do you do?’ When I say that I am a Life Coach I often encounter a puzzled stare followed
by the comment ‘What’s that?’ I tell them that I am really in the ‘construction business’ and that I
partner with people to discover what they truly want in their personal lives and how to build profitable
businesses.
Most people know what they do not want and often make the mistake of focusing on the ‘don’t wants’
to the detriment of their real desires. Make no mistake, we get what we focus on, so it is up to you to
focus on your true goals. With the help of a coach, you are held accountable for your actions in a non-
judgemental way.
The first step is to identify a specific goal. Think of the goal as a destination and our plan to reach it as a
road map. Together we devise an action-oriented strategy to achieve results much faster than you can
do alone. Goals can include personal changes such as getting fit or losing weight, increasing self-
confidence or improving time management skills. Business goals can be identifying your target market,
attracting new clients and innovative marketing ideas.
The two most important skills that a Life Coach has are intensive listening and incisive questions. On
your own when dealing with problems you ‘may not see the wood for the trees’. Sometimes the coach’s
questions may elicit only surface answers, but with further questions the coach can get to the true issue.
Sessions are conducted on the telephone which allows for full concentration on what the client is saying
without any physical distractions.
As a Life Coach, I do not deal with your past – that is a therapist’s job. My primary concern is where you
are at the moment and where you want to go in the future. What do you want to change about the here
and now? Coaches do not act as problem solvers, but serve as the catalyst for the client to find their
own solutions. I will point out your strengths and not just your problem areas. Sometimes the client has
the answers; sometimes the coach does. It really doesn’t matter where the answers come from as long
as they are found.
EXERCISE 39
Reviewer: The play The Short Goodbye, by Richard Holder, is virtually unknown today, and is hardly ever
produced, so it may be hard to understand the impact it had when it was first produced in 1957, but it
represents an important landmark in the development of theatre in the UK.
So, why was this play so remarkable at the time? Well, to begin with, it took place in an industrial city,
which was almost unheard-of as the setting for a play in those days. At the time, plays were often set in
small towns and suburbs or country homes, and they tended to focus on the higher end of society. The
Short Goodbye, on the other hand, dealt with the lives of factory workers. The main characters, a
husband and wife named Colin and Sadie Thomas, were low-paid workers with little education, working
in a factory that made car engines.
Another feature of the play that broke new ground at the time was that the characters all spoke with a
regional accent – before this, what was then regarded as standard English in terms of accent was the
norm. Even when characters were from a specific part of the country, authentic regional speech was
rarely heard on the stage.
So the play set out to depict working-class people at that time, and it caused quite a sensation because
these characters were not what working-class people were assumed to be like. It was assumed that the
men talked only about football and the women discussed only household matters. However, despite
their lack of education, the characters in this play spent a lot of time discussing social attitudes. As the
plot developed, the audience discovered that the main character, Colin, was planning to enrol at a
college and that his aim was to become a lawyer. His wife Sadie also had aspirations, and didn’t want to
spend her life doing boring work and household chores. She felt that her talents lay in art and she was
keen to do that professionally. So both characters were people who had dreams and a desire to fulfil
them. This portrayal of working-class people caused a sensation at the time.
Now, let me just tell you about the stage set for the play when it was first produced in 1957. It showed a
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different. For example, very prominent on the stage – towards the front of it so that audiences couldn’t
miss it – was a piano. It wasn’t played at all, but the director and set designer both felt that it would be a
striking feature. And at the back of the stage, again very visible to the audience, was a group of
bookshelves, indicating that the inhabitants were interested in reading. So, the set surprised and
fascinated the audience. When the curtain opened, they wanted to know what kind of people lived
there.
EXERCISE 40
Alex: It’s a pleasure to be here talking to you today. So, the first thing people always ask me about is
how we chose the group’s name. We actually started out calling ourselves The Elements but then we
came across another group with that name so we went for Storm Clouds instead. We were sitting there
racking our rains trying to come up with something different. I looked out of the window for inspiration
and the sky was incredibly black and dramatic, Two seconds later there was thunder and lightning and
that was it! We feel it fits the drama we try to bring to our music.
As you know there are actually seven of us in the group. Five of us were born and raised in the USA. I
was actually born there though my parents moved to Canada when I was a baby. The final member of
the group — my wife, Lara — was actually born and grew up in Cuba. We all started out in music as
individual performers and got together when we were at a music festival in New York one summer.
I met Lara, my wife, on my 21st birthday, She was singing at hat festival and her voice was amazing. It
made a very strong impression on me. Her appearance was unusual — to my eye at least – but she was
also incredibly attractive. That combination of voice and looks had an instant impact on me, making me
determined to be with her forever.
In this business of modern music we are totally different from most other groups in that we are one
hundred per cent self-funded. That means we don’t have to answer to anyone else. We can make our
own musical and business decisions and that independence means a great deal to us all.
Of course, this means that we don’t have access to the major record companies’ studios but we’ve
managed to make our own. It’s actually a conversion from a disused church. It’s convenient because it’s
actually next door to the large old converted barn where I live with my family,
It’s hard to characterise our style of music. It’s often called unconventional, but that slightly misses the
mark, in my opinion. For me, the unifying factor in all our songs is that they’re romantic. That’s always
there — whether the song is happy or sad, wild or sentimental.
Our latest album will show you what I mean, As you know we had a lot of success with Rainbows, our
last album. Our current one, Shadows, is rather different. A lot of the songs are slower, with stronger
melodies.
All the songs that we’ve written for this latest album in some way explore childhood. Each member of
the group brought very different experiences to this and we’ve all contributed our ideas to the topic.
Perhaps I could now just play you one track from this album before I take questions…
EXERCISE 41
Lara: My name’s Lara King and I’m here to tell you about my experience of losing my job. I’d had a
feeling I would get made redundant. One of my best friends worked as a banker and she’d lost her job,
as had another one who was an IT consultant. I had a good job as a lawyer and the company I was
employed by had just been taken over. I’d been working there for three years and I loved it!
I lost my job in August. I’d just been off sick with flu. I don’t usually catch things. The last time I was ill
was at school when I had bronchitis quite badly once — anyway, I’d been off for over a week. Then, on
my first day back at work, I found I didn’t have a job any more.
My first reaction was to rush back home to my parents in Ireland but I decided to resist that. Then within
a week I’d booked a flight to Central America and spent a month travelling there. I thought to myself:
I’m 33, I don’t have any ties and I don’t have to find a new job; I can use this as an opportunity to do
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Anyone with a job like I had should have something they’d like to do if they get made redundant –
something like improve their French or learn how to play golf. I’d recently been skiing for the first time
and I really enjoyed it but had thought to myself that I’d never be able to get that good if I only did it
once a year. So, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to spend more time in the mountains.
I began working as a rep with a winter holiday company. It was like nothing I’ve ever done before. I’m
not normally someone who likes early mornings but when I had to get up at 6 am and saw the sunrise, it
was all worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beauty. Six months ago I was working at a computer all
day, every day and who knows what I’ll be doing this time next year. I liked my life before, but I
appreciate now that it was very ordinary, and there’s an awful lot more out there.
If one of my friends got made redundant tomorrow, what advice would I give? Well, the first thing I’d
say is to welcome it, and above all, don’t panic. See it as a chance to do something you’ve never done
before.
As for the people who’ve put you in that position, I think it’s also crucial not to feel a sense of anger
towards them, partly because there’s no point, but also because they’ve actually given you an
opportunity. My main feeling now towards the people who fired me is, honestly, one of gratitude. If
you’re given the chance to try something different, you should just take it.
EXERCISE 42
James: I feel very fortunate that at only 23 years old I have already spend more than 18 weeks on an
unsupported polar expedition, going from one side of Greenland to the other. I completed it last year
together with Greg Hamilton. It was 2,198 kilometres and it was actually the longest unsupported polar
expedition in history. By ‘unsupported’ I mean that we pulled everything ourselves without the help of
any motorised vehicles or animals. The only help that we did have was from kites which — when the
wind conditions were good — pulled us along as we skied, dragging our sleds behind us. I can assure you
that it was still very hard work!
People often ask me what first interested me in polar exploration. I think they imagine that I come from
a family of explorers or something like that, but in fact I come from a pretty conventional family. In fact
my mum and dad were both architects and neither of them were even particularly into sport. They often
wonder where on earth I could have got it from.
I was always very sporty and adored football from pretty much before I could walk. I did a lot of
swimming and cycling too. I was about fifteen I suppose when I became hooked on adventurous
activities. It all started when I discovered I got a particular kick out of kayaking. That took me on some
amazing long expeditions and I guess I haven’t looked back since.
Also, when I was about fifteen, I learnt about an expedition which has gripped my imagination and held
my admiration ever since. This was the 1995 unsupported journey by Richard Weber and Misha
Malakhov to the North Pole. The distance and technical difficulty of their expedition was enormous and
they kept going despite most so-called ‘experts’ claiming they would fail.
I love reading about other explorers. If I were to have a hero it would undoubtedly be Fridtjof Nansen,
the Norwegian explorer. He had – great breadth – as is shown by the fact that he was also a diplomat
and geologist. All in all a quite remarkable man.
Reading Nansen’s biography taught me that the key thing all explorers need in harsh conditions is the
ability to keep their mind under control. If they can’t manage that, then they won’t succeed even if their
body is in top physical condition.
I’m often asked to give advice to would-be explorers and I always say: you shouldn’t just look at what
has already been done and copy it, thinking it’s the only way. Think of new challenges that you can
attempt. In terms of gaining the necessary funding, don’t spend months cold-calling but concentrate on
networking. This is the only way to make the critical relationships which lead to big sums of funds.
EXERCISE 43
Woman: So today I want to tell you about my favourite artist. He’s an absolutely amazing wood carver
called Livio di Marchi, I’ve always loved wood carving ever since I was a small child. One of my favourite

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toys was a lovely carved wooden bear. Also an uncle had a table made by someone who’d carved a
mouse at the top of one of the legs. You couldn’t see it without crawling under the table but it seemed
such a personal and fun thing to do.
Wood carving is a wonderful kind of art, I think. You just have to marvel at the patience of the people
who’ve spend endless hours creating their works for our pleasure. I’d never be able to do it, I know.
Anyway, Livio Di Marchi is a wood carver from Venice in Italy. He prefers to use simple but familiar tools,
including 100 different kinds of chisel and an ancient hammer made of wood. He is truly a master
craftsman, and some of his work is absolutely awesome.
Many of his pieces are very famous. For example, he did one called A Dream in Venice that made an
appearance in 1994. This extraordinary creation is a huge pumpkin drawn by four horses, which rear up
when the driver pulls the reins. It can accommodate four people as it glides across the waters of the
Venetian canals and was one of the jewels of the Carnival that took place in the city that year.
As a child, di Marchi’s interest in ornamental carving led him to work and practise in a craftsman’s
workshop while studying art and drawing at a famous Venetian art academy. From an early age he was
demonstrating that he had enormous artistic talent for moulding materials, creating wonderfully
detailed sculptures. He started off working in marble, later moving to bronze.
However, it was not long before he gravitated towards wood. He said he did so because wood offered
greater scope. He felt he would be able to put it to a very wide range of uses. And indeed he has done
so.
He has created a wonderful variety of pieces — a basket full of teddy bears, items of clothing, all sorts of
things. The one I like best is a jacket. It just looks so realistic – you want to touch it because you’re sure
it must actually be made of leather — but it isn’t! But many other people would say their favourite piece
is a car. He’s done several of those and they’re also amazingly realistic.
We often use the word wooden to describe something stiff, but di Marchi’s works are very far from stiff
in this sense. In fact the most appropriate adjective to describe his work is simply ‘incredible’. You just
cannot believe that his objects are all made of wood.
EXERCISE 44
Woman: I’m here today to talk to you about working in computer gaming, I’d certainly recommend it as
a career. Not because it’s glamorous — it has that reputation among some people, I believe — nor
because it’s a well-paid job — generally it isn’t — but rather because it’s creative. And that’s the factor
that, all things being equal, correlates most highly with job satisfaction.
People get jobs in the computer games industry after degrees in all sorts of subjects. Of course, if you’ve
done a course in graphic design, that’ll stand you in good stead but it’s certainly not essential. I myself
graduated in economics and colleagues of mine did history, engineering and English. The degree itself is
less important than the enthusiasm someone brings to the job. It goes without saying that everyone
who joins the industry has themselves enjoyed playing games. My parents always told me I spent far too
much time on them, so much so that they suggested I put it to good use and apply for work in the
industry. My uncle sent me the name of someone he knew at a major games company, so I decided to
apply there first.
I was lucky enough to get taken on. I didn’t have the skills to become a technical programmer of course
and started as a game tester. That taught me a huge amount and after six months I was able to do
something more demanding.
At first I was assigned to one of the games the company was then in the process of developing. You may
well know it — it’s called Jungle — it turned out to be a big seller. Later I worked on a game called Motor
Show — that’s less widely known but it has a devoted niche following. Anyway, I learnt a lot working on
these two contrasting products.
After six months I moved on. I was given a position in the research department. I had applied for
something in the marketing department but didn’t get that. I was disappointed at the time but now feel
it worked out for the best.

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There are, of course, many different types of computer games. The company I work for specialises in
sports games — skateboarding, motor racing, that sort of thing. However, it’s also dabbled in old-
fashioned arcade games and it does some adventure games too. Those are the ones I personally most
enjoy working on — though each type of game has its own attractions, of course.
Anyway, I’d certainly recommend a career in computer games. I’d say mine has been very satisfying. Not
as financially rewarding as some of you might like but that’s not the main thing is it? When preparing for
this talk I asked some of my colleagues how they would sum up their careers. The most common word
they used was challenging but I don’t feel that that puts a positive enough slant on a career in computer
games. Anyway. let me now take any...
EXERCISE 45
Harriet: I was really lucky last year to have the opportunity to visit South Africa. It was absolutely the
holiday of a lifetime. I went with my husband. He has some relatives who emigrated there recently who
emigrated there recently – an uncle and some cousins – so we spent a bit of time with them, which was
good. Oddly enough my grandfather was actually born in Johannesburg, but he’d left before he was ten
years old. Still, that’s always made me feel I have a connection with the country and I’ve always wanted
to go there.
The main impetus for our visit, however, was that our son’s mad on sport and his school had organised a
tour, so the boys in the first and second teams could play some rugby matches there. Quite a few of us
parents decided to go out there at the same time to watch them play – which was quite scary as the
South African boys all seemed so much bigger than ours! But anyway they all survived with no broken
bones and we managed to have a really exciting holiday too!
Although we were following the same route as the school tour, we travelled independently. The school
used a travel agent called ‘Rainbow Tours’ and they were able to make arrangements for us too. We
considered organising our trip through another company called Safari Holidays but didn’t use them in
the end, though they also had some very good deals.
It was an amazing country. As soon as I got off the plane after our overnight flight I was impressed by
the light there. It was just so clear, quite different from what we have here. It was beautifully warm too,
of course, but we’d been expecting that. One of the best things we did was spend a weekend at a safari
park. That was just brilliant – it was such a privilege to see so many beautiful animals in their natural
habitat, black and white rhinos, giraffes, elephants, aardvark. I loved seeing lions sleeping in the bush.
Best of all for me were the cheetahs, which we saw when we went on a night drive. My husband’s
favourites were the hippos.
We saw interesting animals elsewhere as well as at the safari park. We hired a car to get around and we
caught sight of lots of zebras and ostriches as we were driving along the east coast. One day we broke
our journey at a crocodile farm and learnt so much about them.
We went in January and it was a little hot for comfort at times. I’m told the best time to go is April. It’s
cooler then – at night particularly – and so you’ve got more energy for sightseeing. It’s still plenty warm
enough to lie on the beach in the daytime if that’s your thing.
We felt so relaxed during the trip I was taken aback when we got home to discover how exhausted I was
— I suppose we’d just done so much over a short time. Anyway we soon recovered and I hope we’ll visit
again someday.
EXERCISE 46
The Peruvian city of Cuzco is a total experience, from its location 11,000 feet up in the Andes mountains,
its history as the ancient capital of the Inca Empire and its unique culture, to the blend of Inca and
Spanish architecture from different centuries that has led to researchers referring to it as an open-air
museum. Its origins actually go back over a thousand years, but it was in the 13th century that the
invading Incas reached Cuzco. They planned and built the city so that it resembled a mountain lion, and
districts and individual streets still bear the names of body parts such as the head and back, while the
tail was formed by straightening the point where two rivers joined. Although night-time temperatures in

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Cuzco can be quite mild, that is certainly not the case all year round. On account of that, many of the
original Inca homes there lacked windows and had just a single door, which would have been covered by
a thick mat during the chillier months. There would also have been a straw roof that had to be replaced
every few years. My colleagues and I were there in late June, and I noticed on the first afternoon that a
number of the others were looking distinctly uncomfortable as the fierce sun began to beat down, but
as an Australian I’m accustomed to that. The height above sea level was another matter, leaving all of us
short of breath at times, especially when climbing the steep hills around the city.
Having arrived a couple of days ahead of the Festival of the Sun, we were able to watch some of the
performers practising for the big day. What really stood out for me was the folk dancing, though some
of the concerts and parades were well worth watching, too. On the 24th, the day of the Festival itself,
the city centre was packed as the procession set off. The multi-coloured costumes were fabulous, even
more varied than I’d imagined, as the participants moved slowly up the hill to the ancient site called
Saksayhuaman where the main ceremony would take place. That is where the magnificent walls are
located. Standing nearly six metres tall and measuring up to 400 metres in length, they were built of
huge stones that fitted together perfectly. Given that some of them weighed 200 tons each, the only
way the Incas could have achieved that, my research indicates, is by sculpting models in lighter materials
to the exact size and shape required, and then reproducing them in stone. I stood there marvelling at
the sight of the walls, and at the colourful scene as the ceremony began. Looking at the vast crowds of
spectators, I recalled a paper written by a local historian which made the point that in Inca times there
weren’t any. In one way or another, all the thousands of people at the Festival in those days were
participants.
EXERCISE 47
Radio Announcer: Last month, the renowned and much-lover singer Lena Horne died in New York, aged
92. This Afro-American singer and civil activist worked in America in the Golden era of stage and screen,
meeting such great names as Billie Holliday and Duke Ellington. We have with us here in the studio Joel
Lightwater to tell us more about Lena Horne’s remarkable life.
Joel Lightwater: Thank you John. Lena Horne was born in 1917 to a Brooklyn family, described by a
prominent writer as the ‘Talented Tenth’ – a name which was given to those members of the African
American community who were educated and socially prominent. Her family were activists in African-
American rights – her grandmother, Cora Calhoun, was in fact the founding member of the N.A.A.C.P. ,
that is, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. Indeed, at the age of two,
Lena was photographed parading in a protest.
Her childhood was split between her grandparents’ town house in Brooklyn, and her mother’s lodgings
in Harlem, her father having left the family when Lena was only three years old. She went to school at
Brooklyn Girls High, but when she started singing at the famous Cotton Club at the age of 16, she
dropped out without a diploma.
All her life, Lena’s mother Edna had hoped that Lena could use her performances to break down race
barriers. This was not an easy thing to do in the race-conscious culture of the time. At one point Lena
was advised to advertise her creamy complexion as Latin, something she refused to do; while later in her
career, studio executives in Hollywood suggested that she darken her skin colour with make-up.
Matters relating to racial equality were always high up on Lena’s priorities. During World War II, when
she was entertaining soldiers and prisoners of war, she noticed that she was always being asked to
perform for groups which segregated in terms of colour. In the rare instances where she sang for mixed
groups, white German prisoners of war were seated in front of the African American servicemen. She
soon refused to perform for such occasions, and, cine the US Army refused to allow integrated
audiences, she put on her own show for a mixed-colour audience.
After the war years, Lena had the opportunity to move into the glamorous world of Hollywood, and she
was the first African American to be signed on a long-term studio contract. However, this was an age
when the colour barrier was still strong. Black actors rarely had the chance to play anything more than
maids and butlers. Although Lena was beginning to achieve a high level of notoriety, she found that she

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rarely had the chance to act, and many of her lines were cut during the editing process. Only in two
incidences did she play a character that was central to the plot.
But Lena’s elegance and powerful voice were unlike anything that had come before, and both the public
and the executives in the entertainment industry began to take note. By the mid-’40s, Horne was the
highest paid black actor in the country, and her songs were instant classics.
However Horne’s great fame could not prevent the wheels of the anti-Communist machine from bearing
down on her. During the 1950s, she was marked as a Communist sympathiser as a result of her civil
rights activism. She soon found herself blacklisted and unable to work on television or in the movies. At
this time, however, she continued to sing in nightclubs, and made some of her best recordings. In the
60s, she was once again back in the public eye.
Since the 16-year old danced her first steps on the stage of the Cotton Club, much has changed. Thanks
to her continued musical, theatrical and political efforts, she paved the way for many other non-whites
in the entertainment industry. But what she will be remembered for most of all must be her ability to
move generations of audiences with her shimmering resonant voice, singing the classic greats, like
“Black Coffee” and the unforgettable “Stormy Weather.”
EXERCISE 48
Brad Mitchell: When you go extreme snowboarding, you head for the highest peaks and the steepest
slopes, taking little more than a map and some basic survival equipment with you. Unlike in ski resorts,
you won’t see any signs telling you there are rocks, or trees around, so it’s up to you and your guide to
make sure your route is as safe as possible. Of course, you should never attempt to go down a slope on
your own. It’s essential to be accompanied by a guide, who must go first every time as there may be no
clear route down through the rocks and other dangers. They’ll also show you the way up to your starting
point, which may involve a long, difficult climb, and may wear a backpack containing supplies. I know
some snowboarders like to take a helicopter up to the top, and that’s quick and easy – though expensive
– but I always prefer to go on foot, with a helmet on, of course. When you finally get up there, the view
is always completely different from the way it looked from below. People say to me it must take a lot of
courage to start going down such a steep slope, but if you’ve reached that point then you must be a
pretty experienced snowboarder and what’s really required is a tremendous amount of confidence. You
never know exactly which way you’re going to go or what you’re going to encounter on your way down,
and you often find yourself having to make split-second decisions, but that’s part of the fun. There’s
nothing quite as exciting as suddenly having to perform a series of jumps as you descend, and then
managing to stay on your feet afterwards. The ability to do that is obviously something that takes those
new to extreme snowboarding quite some time to learn. And whereas doing a reasonably good take-off
seems to come fairly naturally to most of us, landing is a more complex skill to acquire, as I found in my
early days out on the mountain side.
Falling correctly is also something you need to practise, initially at low speed and on gentle slopes, and
later in conditions more similar to those you’ll encounter on the mountain. Rule one when you lose your
balance is not to panic, or else you’ll get tense and be far more likely to injure yourself than if you’re
relaxed and just let yourself go with the fall. Often the best thing to do is roll out of the fall, but it’s
natural to try to use your arms to try to slow yourself down and if you do so remember that elbows, if
you fall on them, are much stronger and less likely to be injured than wrists. Following a high-speed fall,
you might find yourself covered by some of the white stuff that has fallen with you. There may be just a
few feet of it and you can usually pull yourself up to the surface, but if you can’t you’re in big trouble
and that’s why I’d never go down a slope without a small device fastened to my body that sends out a
signal to the rescue services if I get buried. I know some safety experts recommend also taking a medical
kit, but somehow I think that if I were buried under ice, my priority would be to get out or get rescued.
I’m always looking for new challenges. Competition snowboarding was something I looked at, but there
were just too many guys showing off. Teaching snowboarding is certainly something I might do one day,
but what I really dream about is parachute snowboarding: going straight down a mountain, flying off a
cliff and then floating down to the valley below. Now that’s what I call extreme.

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EXERCISE 49
Markus Fischer: Mooncake has long been popular among the Chinese communities in many western
societies and of course it first appeared in China many centuries ago, and it’s also extremely popular in
countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, but I hadn’t actually tasted it until I visited Japan some years
ago. I enjoyed it so much that since then I’ve eaten it in places as far apart as Vietnam and the
Philippines, each time being pleasantly surprised by the differences in appearance, ingredients and
flavour. Of the traditional types in China, I very much like those filled with egg, dried fruit or seeds,
though for me the one that really stands out has nuts inside. All of these kinds are quite sweet, as of
course are the more modern varieties filled with chocolate or ice-cream, though I’m not so keen on
those. Whatever the type of mooncake, though, it is best accompanied by tea. I certainly drank lots of it
when I was in Shanghai last year, rather than my usual favourite coffee with milk. I was fortunate
enough to be there while people were celebrating the Moon Festival, an annual event that sometimes
takes place in October although last autumn it was in September. In other years it’s been held only just
after the end of August.
During the festival I learnt a lot more about mooncake from the Chinese family I was staying with. I
noticed the form of a rabbit on the upper surface of the one I was about to bite into, and it was pointed
out to me that others may have flowers on the top, or the name of the baker’s written there. Mooncake
is traditionally seen as a way of bringing families closer together, so I’d assumed that most Chinese
people baked their own at home, but when I asked the family about that they said few did, mainly
because it’s so difficult to prepare. Nowadays, of course, people in towns and cities often buy
mooncakes in supermarkets, and at that time of year many are received as presents in gift-wrapped
boxes, often from relatives or friends, though in the case of my host family theirs was from the
employer of both the man and the woman. Although living in Shanghai, the family originally came from
the city of Ningbo, further up the coast to the north-east, and as a gift they gave me a mooncake to take
with me when I left. This one differed from the generally sweet varieties found elsewhere in China in
that it tasted a little salty, on account of the fact that it was made from locally-produced ingredients that
included meat. By this time I was becoming fascinated by everything connected with mooncake, and I
asked the family to tell me a little about its history. They told me it first became popular in the
fourteenth century during the time of the Ming Revolution, when people passed on secret messages to
one another as writing on the top of four mooncakes. To understand the code, the cakes had to be cut
into four slices each and then joined with those from the other cakes to complete the message. This
took place on the day of the Moon Festival, which then – as it still is today – was one of the most
important dates in the Chinese calendar. Once the message had been received, the evidence soon
disappeared when everyone ate the mooncakes. Another legend describes the passing of messages
hidden inside mooncake, although presumably in that case the secret letter was burnt once it had been
read.
EXERCISE 50
Fiona Doyle: My parents now both work from home so they made the decision to move from our city-
centre flat to the countryside, although it meant big changes for the whole family. It was a winter
evening when we first went to the village, and as we walked along the pavement I remarked on how
dark it was without the street lights of the city, and how bright that made the lights of the cars seem as
they approached. I also noticed the sound of running water, and when we reached the house I was
delighted to discover that it stood next to a little bridge over a stream. I soon decided I liked the house.
It has thick stone walls, high ceilings and wooden floors. The central heating keeps the temperature in
all the rooms pleasant throughout the year, although during the colder months those in the basement
tend to get a bit damp, probably because of the stream. My room is actually on the other side of the
house so I don’t hear it at night, which is a pity, really. I was used to the constant big-city background
noise of traffic and voices, and for a while after we moved in I’d keep waking up in the middle of the
night owing to the total silence there. It doesn’t bother me now, though, and these days I look forward

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to settling down for the night in my large, comfortable bed. I rarely stay up any later than when I was in
the flat, and in the mornings I normally wake up at the same time, but there aren’t the sounds of the
city telling you it’s time to get up so I’m usually in far less of a hurry to do so. The atmosphere here is so
relaxing, and I have a wonderful view from the window of my room. Whereas before I’d see city wildlife
like cats, dogs and maybe the occasional fox, here I start the day to the sound of distant farm animals
and the sight of rabbits in the open fields. Apparently there are also deer around, though I haven’t
actually spotted any yet. The pace of life in the countryside is certainly slower, but I think I’ve adjusted
pretty well to it. I must confess, though, that I can get a bit fed up with the speed of the Internet
connection here, compared with how fast it was in the flat downtown. In spite of that I still manage to
chat online with my friends there more or less whenever I want, so I don’t have the feeling of missing
them that I thought I might have before I moved. There is, though, fairly weak mobile reception out here
– sometimes no signal at all – and when that happens I may not receive calls they’re trying to make to
me, which can be annoying. I suppose poor public transport is another disadvantage of living in the
country. There isn’t a railway station within five kilometres, it’s nearly a two-kilometre walk to get to a
bus stop, and taxis charge a fortune to come out here. It’s so different from where I grew up, where the
buses stop right outside your home or you can take the Underground.
You can live quite happily there without a car, but not here. People say ‘why not go by bike?’, but the
reality is that it’s just too far to ride anywhere from here – and dangerous on those country roads,
especially in the dark. I’ll just have to rely on my parents for lifts everywhere until I pass my driving test,
which I hope will be before I go to university next year. Fortunately, it’ll be a shorter drive from here
than from where I used to live, and I’ll avoid the awful traffic on the roads in and out of the city, too!

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EXERCISE 20 2. - What’s the matter with Julie?

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