Tess: It’s time we decided about our travel arrangements.

I
mean, if we leave it too late the prices will have rocketed.
Lo1c: We’d better make up our minds then. I suppose we
could take the tunnel and then drive all the way down.
Tess: What do you think, Marco?
Marco: It’s a long way and the motorway charges will be high.
Lo1c: Mm,. I know what you mean, and we shouldn’t forget
the petrol.
Tess: We could fly, you know, take one of these low cost
flights and then we could always hire a car if we need one
when we. get there. We should be able to afford that.
Lo1c: But wouldn’t that end up just as expensive as driving?
Marco: Yes, but driving down could be part of the holiday,
couldn’t it? I don’t mind spending a few days stopping off
at different places.
Tess: OK, but personally I’d rather we got there as quickly as
possible. We only have two weeks, I don’t really want to
spend a lot of time just getting there.
Lo1c: I was just about to say t he say the same thing. I just
want to lie on a beach and relax.
Tess: I’ve got to say too I am a bit nervous about driving.
I’ve never driven on the continent before.
Lo1c: That doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind doing the driving.
Marco: And I could share it with you.
Tess: Not the way you drive, Marco! I tell you what, why
don’t I take the plane and meet you down there!
Lo1c: Very funny. Hold on, I’ve just had an idea There is another option. What if we took the ferry
from Portsmouth, across to Britanny? It would make the journey at the other end a lot shorter.
Marco: And if we took a night crossing, it would give us a night’s sleep and then we could get down
there by the middle of the afternoon. We’ll have gained an extra day. Tess: The ferry. Mm, I like that
idea. But before I look at prices, does anyone suffer from sea-sickness?!
选必一 Unit 2
Bryan What do you think of the idea of being educated at
home, or ‘unschooling’ , as it’s been called?
Laura Yes, I think ‘unschooling’ was first used by the
American educator, John Holt. He rather saw schools as
prisons - where children were bored and weren’tin
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 ... .
Bryan 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.
Laura No, a lot of us like some time away from the kids!

Hi everyone. My name’s Lizzie Middleton and last week I

visited an architects’ firm to get a better idea of what goes on
there, and also to help me decide what to specialize in next
year. Obviously there were quite a few different firms that I
could have chosen for my visit - some of them certainly have
a huge number of clients - here in Australia, for sure - and
some get a lot of international projects too, but something
that Roberts and Reed Architects really focus on is the
environent ana that S an important aspect O1 aesign that
really interests me as well. Their designs are all about
sustainability. That has to be the way forward, right? Well, it
took me a while to actually find their new offices in Westport.
Ifyou’ve been there, you’ll know the whole area has changed
- even the old shipping yard has been turned into a small
park. And what was amazing about the architects’ office -
and in fact I didn’t realize it at first - is that it’d previously
been a fire station, which then moved to a larger premises.
So, Roberts and Reed bought the building and did all the
renovations themselves.
So- the plan was to meet the lead architect - her name’s Evie
Roberts - and she showed me round and introduced me to
some of the other architects. I asked Evie what she was working
on, and she said that her current project was the museum, the
national museum in the city centre. They’d already finished
the decoration, she said - the new colour schemes, I mean,
but the lighting is sormething that’s still in progress. From the
drawings she showed me, I think it’ll make a real difference to
the way the public can view the museum collections.
She also showed me some photos of the new museum roof.
It’s already been finished and I recommend you go and see it
for yourselves. It’s not like the kind of grey tile roof you see on
a lot of old buildings in the city. All I can say is that its
appearance reminded me of the ocean - have a look at the
colours and the shape and you’ll see why.
I had a chat to Evie about the kind of clients she deals with -
and she works on probably an equal number of commercial
and residential properties. I thought that perhaps one of the
things that might cause a dispute would be the fees - when
clienls don’t anticipate how cxpcnsive a design can work out
to be. What Evie said, though, was that it was more to do with
materials. A lot of people just assume they can use, say,
timber or stone, when it’s just not going to be practical. And
Evie has to point that out.
In the afternoon I got to spend some time with a junior
architect - Daniel. He graduated a couple ofyears ago, I
think, and he’d specialized in urban planning in his third
year. I asked him what kind of project he was involved with at
Roberts and Reed and it was quite cool - it was a kind of
shelter - something that was light and easy to move and you
can put up in emergency situations. Anyway - he’s still at the
concept stage, and I said I’d really like to see how it develops,
and hopefully we’ll keep in touch.
To be honest, before I went along, I think I had a few
preconceptions about what professional architects might be
like - but theywere all really friendly - and what I found
really amazing, quite inspiring really, was that some of the
architects had done work in other countries, too, not as paid
professionals like you’d expect, but actually as volunteers
- you know working on designing and building homes for
people who’d lost theirs in some kind of disaster. And the
only other thing I want to say is that- I think for us right now
- well, we’ re focusing on technical design and it’s true that
professional architects need those skills, but havingwatched
some of the architects in Roberts and Reed in action - talking
to their clients I mean, it’s very much about commnunication.
Ifyou can’t persuade them that your design s the best, you
aren’t going to win the contract. So that’s it from me. Thanks
for listening.
选必四 Unit3 Sea exploration
Interviewer It’s that time of year again when thousands of
students are about t0 lake their final exams ... but then
what? Will they begin their search for a well-paid job or
will they choose to take a year off before entering the
labour market? I’d like to welcome Toby Burrow to the
suudio, who is here to talk about the year he spent doing
voluntary work in Madagascar.
Toby Hi Andrea. First of all, before I say anything that might
come across as a bit negative, I completely recommend
Madagascar. In fact, I just saw in the paper today that
there’s a documentary on it tonight so any interested
students should have a look. I sort of chose it partly
because it was so far away from England and exotic, but
mainly because the kind of work on the volunteer
programme there looked like it was really going to stretch
me and take me out ol my comfort zone ... like a test of
character. And it wasn’t like anyone could give me any
advice. The students I knew from the year before us had
gone off travelling, but only on a backpacker’s tour.
Interviewer I’ m sure that many parents are anxious when
their children announce that they re going off to distant
lands. How did yours react?
Toby Honestly, they were fine about it. I suppose Dad tried
to talk me out of it at first. He thought I should be getting
on with finding a secure job .. that kind of thing, but Mum
was all for it. 1 think she would have loved to have travelled
herselfbut she missed out on that by having me and my
sisters. Actually, she really got into it by getting out books
from the library and going online and I’d come home and
she’d be telling me about the history and the culture, and
that was quite handy, really. The only thing I had to
prepare for was getting all my vaccinations done and
taking a course of malaria tablets.
Interviewer And when you arrived in Madagascar, was it
what you expected?
Toby Sort of. The organization which was running the
volunteer programme had been quite clear about the
teaching work I’d be doing. But I admit I’d led a sheltered
life up to then and living in the village was quite an eye
opener. There was no running water and no sanitation,
and that took quite a bit of getting used to. ] didn’t mind so
much the fact thal I was sleeping in a room with the other
volunteers. Comning from a large family, I’m used to
sharing my living space. And in fact, 1 actually need
background noise lo get off to sleep, otherwise I can’t help
bul feel rather lonely.
Interviewer Was there any time that you wanted to come
running home?
Toby No, I can’t say there was. I remember 1 once went off
sailing for a day."There were six ofus - all from Europe - some
mates from the programme and some guy I didn’t knowwho
worked for a hotel in the city. When we got back to shoreI
found that my wallet had disappeared .. someone had
obviously taken it. I felt that I couldn’t directly accuse anyone
so I ended up saying nothing. A few days later, Iheard that
Interviewer And now you can speak from experierne, wiu. hav
should prospective gap-year travellers know?
Toby lhat’s a hard one to answer because your experience is
what you make it, and very much to do with the kind of
person you are. Some graduates just go off and have fun
for. a year and if that’s what you’ re into, fine. There’s hardly
a moral obligation to do charity work. But if you do
volunteer, for example, to do something for a local
community, don’t for a moment think you’ re superior in
some way. You need t( recognize what you ‘re gaining in
return from the people you’ re living with. I’d also avoid
signing up for a project with a friend because that way you
won’t make the effort to get to know new people, and
make sure you choose a reputable company to go with,
otherwise you’ll just end up miserable and probably out
of pocket.
Learning language
Three friends and I have come here for an Arabic course
at the Advanced Language Centre as part of our degree
at London University. In our fi rst year we were offered the
choice of several modern languages. Persian, Turkish and
Arabic were available, but I was charmed by the Arabic
lecturer, who had a huge smile and a 1
passion for his
subject. As the course developed, so did my fascination
with Arabic, its different alphabet – and the culture. I
researched the possibility of studying in a Middle Eastern
country. In the end I decided this was the best place: the
city has a lively cultural scene, and its 2
colloquial dialect is
the most widely understood throughout the Arab World.
We arrived in September and got to our hotel at about
10 pm. Unfortunately, the staff were nervous about
letting us stay, as we were a 3
mixed group who were all
unmarried. We eventually found another hotel, where we
haggled over the price of rooms. We spent the next few
days settling in and getting to know the city. Then our
course leader arranged fl ats for us to look around. We
chose a light, spacious fl at, with a friendly and helpful
landlady. It’s much better than I was used to in London.
It was a fascinating time for us, but the 4
culture shock
was so great that within the fi rst week one of our group
returned home.
The area around our 5
language centre is crowded with
shops and cafés, where people sit and drink tea. We
usually have lunch at the centre: small flatbreads stuffed
with falafel or beans; or large circular pieces of bread,
filled with strips of beef and pieces of cheese. We have
two teachers. Rania is a young woman who wears a hijab
that always matches her jeans. In her lessons we learn how
to greet, congratulate and explain why we are studying
here. Ingy dresses in a more western style: jeans, short
sleeves, no hijab. With her, we do 6
role plays – we shop
for groceries and other everyday items, we arrange visits
to places of interest, It’s Ramadan at the moment, but the
teachers seem relatively unaffected by it. They teach for
four and a half hours a day, Sunday to Thursday, with no
food or water from sunrise until sunset.
One of the most difficult challenges in learning Arabic
is that to us there seems to be no connection between
the written and the spoken forms. Quite apart from the
different script, the written form of the language has no
vowels, making some words very difficult to understand.
Also pronunciation is very tricky because lots of Arabic
sounds are made at the back 7
of the throat – something
that I find really difficult and, to be honest, a bit
embarrassing.
At weekends we relax at the 8
country club – membership
costs £10 a month – and lie by the pool, where the dress
rules are more relaxed. In the evenings we sit in cafés
by the sea and smoke apple sheesha. Soon the crescent
moon will signal the end of Ramadan, and the country will
show us another face.