Second Edition
Listening & Speaking
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Unit 1: Gathering
NARRATOR:  Drones have become more fun,
widespread, and affordable in recent years.
You’re more likely to have seen one yourself.
But in places where lots of people gather,
like airports or stadiums, they can become
a nuisance or a danger. And drones around
airplanes can cause alarm or accidents.
NARRATOR:  Detect Global is a company
whose smartphone app can help identify
such trespassing drones.
EDWARD “ZAK” ZAKRAJSEK, GENERAL
MANAGER OF DETECT GLOBAL:  The
DroneWatcher app on a single phone tells
a single user if there’s a drone, a wi-fi drone,
near them. But the application is really
crowdsourcing, where if we have a hundred
users in an area using the app all of their
data from detecting that drone gives us
much better information, and instead of
knowing that the drone is near one phone
we can now locate that drone and the
controller and essentially plot that drone on
a map now with good accuracy and track its
movements.
NARRATOR:  Who would be using such an
app—and who would benefit?
EDWARD:  DroneWatcher app users near
an airport would be helping to identify
through that crowdsourcing process where
the drones are operating near the airport—
hopefully they’re not but if and when they
are. Then the airport would be the paying
client for us, who has the need, like the
stadium security for instance behind me,
who would have their air traffic control, the
airport security police being the end user
of the map data, the location of the drones
that are being detected.
NARRATOR:  Edward’s company hopes to
work with airports, stadiums, and other
places where people gather. By using
existing technology, and delegating the
tasks of drone detection to ordinary
smartphones, they hope to make all their
technologies more effective.
EDWARD:  Our technology, both the radar
and the RF sensing of the known drones in
our database would be able to detect the
drones operating near our airport, would
advise air traffic control that the risk is in
the area so they can take correct action and
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advise air crews, as well as alert the airport
security police to apprehend the clearly …
the user who clearly should not be there.
Unit 2: Games
NARRATOR:  Frenchman Robert Marchand
rode his way into the record books on
Wednesday January 4th by cycling 22,547
km in one hour on a track near Paris. That
doesn’t seem like a remarkable speed until
you recognize the fact that Marchand is 105
years old.
NARRATOR:  Marchand was cheered on
as he rode round the velodrome at Saint-
Quentin-en-Yvelines by a huge following of
hundreds of fans. Wearing yellow and purple
with the number 105 on his back, the former
fireman is no stranger to breaking records.
NARRATOR:  After his 100th birthday, he
became the fastest cyclist of his age to
cover 100 km. At 102, he peddled almost 27
kilometers in one hour.
NARRATOR:  Marchand, who was born in
1911, only started cycling seriously when he
was 67.
JEAN-MICHEL RICHEFORT:  Each morning
he spends between half an hour and an
hour on an exercise bike, plus stretching and
exercises. As for his physical fitness, for the
past few days we came to try out the track,
to do a few tests to get the right gear, the
right pedaling rate so that Robert can attain
this record in the best possible conditions.
NARRATOR:  Marchand, who weighs 50.5
kilograms was delighted with his success. He
spoke to journalists after his one-man race
telling them he could have done better.
ROBERT MARCHAND:  I didn’t see the sign
that said it was the last minute, otherwise I
would have been quicker.
NARRATOR:  Marchand was asked if he
would be attempting another record.
ROBERT MARCHAND:  I have already
managed to live to 105, I don’t know. You
know, sir, it takes nine months to come into
this world and then only 30 seconds to kick
the bucket.
Unit 3: Energy
NARRATOR:  Many of the techniques used
in classical Gothic architecture have long
been forgotten, but researchers in Zurich
are rediscovering the methods of the
“master builders” in an effort to use these
techniques to make modern-day building
more effective.
PHILIPPE BLOCK:  The research that we’re
doing here at ETH (Zurich) is basically
to demonstrate how to understand our
heritage, understand the past, but then also
to design better in the future, so we very
much like this connection.
NARRATOR:  Architects of the past created
structures that have stood the test of time
despite the constraints of efficiency, and
little in the way of mechanized tools.
NARRATOR:  Researchers have developed
algorithms to design structures using gothic
geometry. These are strong despite using
lightweight materials such as sand, and
despite often being just a few centimeters
thick.
PHILIPPE BLOCK:  It’s just sand kept
together with a simple binder. An extremely
weak material, if you were to take this piece
you could break it just in bending with your
own hands, but if you place it where the
forces want to go, which we discovered
through new algorithms that we developed,
then you can actually use such a weak
material to use structurally.
NARRATOR:  The floor is beautiful, functional,
and lighter than the traditional concrete
floor slabs used in modern construction.
PHILIPPE BLOCK:  To me it’s really a
no-brainer; by going back to these lost
techniques and demonstrating them
through rigorous research that you can
actually provide a safe structure that is at
least 70% lighter.
NARRATOR:  Researchers are applying this
technology in other ways, too. In 2016, they
built the Armadillo Vault—a structure made
from 399 limestone pieces, assembled
without mortar.
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Listening & Speaking
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Unit 4: Risk
NARRATOR:  As Argentina’s Tigres de
Pacheco powerchair soccer team geared
up for the Copa Libertadores international
championship that is to be held next month
in Uruguay it was clear that this is a seriously
competitive sport.
NARRATOR:  Powerchair is thought to have
originated in France in the 1970s but now
has its own governing body—FIPFA and is
thought to have more than 250 associations
worldwide.
NARRATOR:  Members of the teams use
battery-run wheelchairs controlled by sticks
to whip around the basketball court at
speeds of up to 10 km/h. Each team has a
maximum of four players on the court at any
one time.
NARRATOR:  Coach Jose Luis Lazo, says that
he doesn’t see wheelchairs, he sees young
athletes filled with the passion to compete.
JOSE LUIS LAZO:  At the beginning, I had
a contemplative attitude, as one can have
when you see a kid with another ability. Now
I say, and I realize the evolution, because
for me it is as if they are running, I don’t see
the chairs. When we play, if you see me, I’m
not scared that they will run me over, for me
they are running because I truly see it in their
faces and the happiness they experience
when they play.
NARRATOR:  For many of the players this
game has brought a new sense of hope
and pride and a chance to overcome the
many assumptions that people have about
them. Players change their role from passive
spectators to active participants. Now
they have their friends and family coming
along to cheer them on as they compete in
international events.
NARRATOR:  Currently, there are five
powerchair teams in Argentina, and with
the sport bidding to become part of the
Paralympic Games, its popularity is sure to
grow.
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Unit 5: Sprawl
NARRATOR:  For many of Cairo’s residents
the daily commute to work through the
gridlocked streets proposes a major
challenge, but for some this may be a
thing of the past. A new initiative to offer
commuters a river taxi service may mean
that there is finally a stress free alternative.
NARRATOR:  The streets of the Egyptian
capital have long been notoriously chaotic,
but recent increases in crime mean that
tired commuters now face the prospect of
carjackings and theft in addition to traffic
jams and smog.
NARRATOR:  Magdy Kirollos, one of the
founders of Nile Taxi, says the service is
something they have been developing for
some years.
MAGDY KIROLLOS:  We developed this
project because we wanted to reduce the
traffic on the street. We targeted those
people (private car owners) and we started
this project after having thought of it five or
six years ago.
NARRATOR:  Inspired by similar water taxi
services in cities like Berlin and Sydney, Nile
Taxi now has five motorboats on the water,
but a fleet of up to 30 larger yellow taxi boats
is in the works.
NARRATOR:  The Nile Taxi service runs from
the Shubra docks to the suburb of Maadi
with stops along the way. The same journey
which can take over an hour by car can be
completed in just 20 minutes using the river
taxi.
NARRATOR:  Ticket prices, easily affordable
for the young professionals who are Nile
Taxi’s target demographic, range from 10 to
35 Egyptian pounds, between 1.4 to 5 U.S.
dollars. This, however, is still well beyond the
reach of the average commuter.
Unit 6: Behavior
NARRATOR:  Researchers in Nice believe that
chess could be the latest breakthrough in
the fight against Alzheimer’s.
NARRATOR:  More than 35 million people
suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, according to
Alzheimer’s Disease International and with
a rapidly ageing population in industrialized
countries this figure is expected to double
over the next 20 years.
PROFESSOR PHILIPPE ROBERT:  This is
not only memory disturbances but there are
other cognitive functions that are impaired.
For instance, attentional processes, or the
fact … The organizational strategy in front
of a task. And in chess, you have all these
components.
NARRATOR:  Robert enlisted the help of
chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov and
French counterpart Joel Lautier as part of a
scientific experiment to see if the intellectual
activity involved in playing chess can help
prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
NARRATOR:  Scientists measured the
player’s brain activity as they struggled with
complex moves, measuring their emotional
and psychological reactions as well as stress
levels.
NARRATOR:  Alzheimer’s disease normally
affects the elderly but can strike at any age
and scientists want to know if an intellectual
activity like chess can protect against it.
PROFESSOR PHILIPPE ROBERT:  This type
of serious game is a protecting factor in
order to have a normal cognitive functioning
even in the elderly. If you have a normal
cognitive functioning, you fight against AD,
Alzheimer’s disease.
NARRATOR:  Research has also shown
that London Taxi drivers, who memorize
landmarks and street routes for various
destinations also have larger hippocampi,
the part of the brain used for long-term
memories. So the good news is that the
brain will stay healthy longer if kept engaged
with mental exercise.
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Second Edition
Listening & Speaking
4 VIDEO SCRIPTS
Unit 7: Expanse
NARRATOR:  If mankind is ever to reach the
planet Mars, one of the biggest problems
could be overcoming the sense of isolation
created by the length of the journey.
NARRATOR:  But now a study designed by
NASA and carried out by scientists from
the University of Hawaii is attempting
to simulate a Mars mission in order to
understand some of the potential problems.
NARRATOR:  As part of the study a group
of six scientists are spending eight months
perched on top of a remote volcano in
Hawaii to simulate the life of astronauts
living on the red planet.
NARRATOR:  The study should help NASA
plan for a manned expedition to Mars by
helping them to better understand issues of
performance during such a long mission.
NARRATOR:  The crew members are
Ansley Barnard, James Bevington (crew
commander), Joshua Ehrlich, Laura Lark,
Samuel Payler, and Brian Ramos. Professor
Kim Binsted is the mission’s principal
investigator.
NARRATOR:  The crew are now at the
halfway point of the mission and they have
been performing geological fieldwork and
basic daily tasks in the 1,200-square-foot
(365 m) dome, located in an abandoned
quarry 8,000 feet (2.5 km) above sea level
on the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big
Island.
BRIAN RAMOS:  So the midpoint is an
interesting time in the mission. In some
sense, time has been flying by and it sounds
a little crazy, but I think at the end of the
mission, I am not going to be ready to go.
NARRATOR:  The dome has little vegetation
and the crew have no contact with the
outside world.
NARRATOR:  Communications with the
mission control team are time-delayed to
match the 20-minute travel time of radio
waves passing between Earth and Mars.
NARRATOR:  It is hoped that data from the
project can be used to create guidelines for
future missions to Mars, some 35 million
miles (56 million km) away.
JOSHUA EHRLICH:  My hope is that the
research being done here at HI-SEAS will
be a major contribution to the planning of
mankind’s next giant leap to Mars.
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Unit 8: Change
NARRATOR:  Almost 1,000 women took part
in a recent career fair in the Saudi capital of
Riyadh.
NARRATOR:  Women account for almost
half of all Saudis listed as looking for work
but only 7% of Saudis employed by private
companies.
NARRATOR:  For employers wishing to take
on Saudi women the situation is difficult,
due to segregation requirements that ensure
unmarried men and women will not be
placed in unchaperoned proximity.
NARRATOR:  Despite these constraints
women taking up jobs seems to be
something of a necessity.
ALA’A, A SAUDI STUDENT:  The reason
women are getting jobs now is because as
a wife, mother, and sister she needs to help
and contribute to the household, especially
given the recent rise in the cost of living.
NARRATOR:  But, since King Abdullah’s
recent decision to push for cautious change,
more than 160 thousand women have been
employed by the Saudi private sector.
NARRATOR:  Companies also seem keen to
employ Saudi women as they are perceived
as being hard-working and diligent
employees.
NARRATOR:  Muna AbuSulayman, popular
TV personality, had some good advice.
MUNA ABUSULAYMAN:  My advice to
any woman looking for work is to accept
anything she can find as a starting point.
Many women wait until they get the right job
and years pass, making their employment
difficult because companies ask “Why did
you spend four or five years without work?”
If a girl can’t find a job, I suggest she signs
onto training programs or takes part in
volunteer work to show she was not sitting
idle and to prove to potential employers her
seriousness about work.
Unit 9: Flow
NARRATOR:  Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior
ship sailed into Beirut on Wednesday on
the first leg of a Mediterranean tour to raise
awareness about renewable and solar
energy.
Greenpeace’s third ship is environmentally
friendly and is primarily powered by wind.
While in the port, the public was invited on
board to explore the ship and talk with its
crew.
ZEINA AL-HAGE:  We are on board
Greenpeace’s ship, the Rainbow Warrior,
sailing today on Jounieh’s coast using
sails and not using a generator. This is the
beginning of Greenpeace’s campaign in
the Mediterranean to raise awareness and
encourage the use of renewable energy in
the Arab World.
We are starting a tour from Beirut in the
Mediterranean region, ending in Morocco
in October ahead of the regional meeting
following last year’s Paris Agreement
working on combating climate change.
NARRATOR:  Another Greenpeace campaign,
“The Sun Is For Free,” promotes the use
of solar power and its environmental and
economic benefits.
JULIEN JREISSATI:  We launched two
months ago a campaign called “The Sun
Is For Free” as an awareness campaign on
solar energy. The idea is that we are living
in a country where we don’t have 24-hour
electricity and where the air is getting
polluted more and more. What we are
trying to tell the Lebanese is that it is not
only an environmental matter but also a
matter of public health and an issue of basic
need. “Come On to the Solar Energy” is the
message we are telling the Lebanese people.
NARRATOR:  The cost of solar power panels
has dropped by 80% since 2010, making it
a much more affordable solution especially
for the people of Lebanon who rely on
private generators during regular power
cuts.
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Listening & Speaking

4 VIDEO SCRIPTS

Unit 10: Conflict

NARRATOR:  The mindless destruction
of hotel rooms is something that is more
usually associated with misbehaving rock
and pop stars, but on Tuesday a group
of stressed out bankers, teachers, and
clerical workers had their chance to vent
their frustrations by destroying rooms in an
upmarket Madrid hotel.
NARRATOR:  These hard-hatted volunteers
had been selected as part of a slick media
event to promote the refurbishment of the
hotel.
NARRATOR:  More than 1,000 people from
all over Spain had written to the NH hotel
group telling them about their stressful
lives in an attempt to be selected for the
task. The 100 finalists were selected after a
psychological exam which included bashing
a life-size puppet of a cigar-chomping boss
and screaming out their frustrations.
NARRATOR:  The event soon descended
into near chaos as participants armed with
sledgehammers roamed from room to room
wreaking destruction on television sets and
mirrors as well as destroying bathroom
fittings and knocking holes in walls.
Maria, a 25-year-old fund manager, loves
and enjoys her work. She says it’s social
obligations like meeting up with friends that
cause her stress. She claimed that trashing
the hotel room made great therapy.
MARIA:  Awesome—I’m hot, my hands are
shaking, but the feeling is great. It’s like
practicing bungee jumping or parachuting,
a sport!
NARRATOR:  Meanwhile, in the room next
door workmen watched as Pablo put a
hammer through a solid marble basin and
sent the bath’s glass partition shattering to
the floor.
Pablo, a 30-year-old high school teacher
from Argentina, described the experience.
PABLO:  This, once a month, would be
awesome. Now I don’t need to do this to my
classroom, I’m cool now.

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