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Key – Part 1

1 4
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 C 7 B 9 C 1 B 3 C 5 D 7 A
2 B 4 B 6 A 8 B 2 C 4 B 6 A 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 A 3 B 4 B 5 B 6 B 1 B 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 A 6 A

7 100 years 7 (by) hunting and fishing

8 because of drought 8 because he takes a long time
9 as a result of isolation 9 the government

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

2 5
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 A 5 A 7 C 9 A 1 B 3 B 5 A 7 B 9 A
2 A 4 B 6 B 8 C 2 A 4 C 6 B 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 A 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 B 1 A 2 B 3 B 4 A 5 A 6 B

7 Mrs Palmer’s mother 7 about 20 years

8 because he is in the opposition/opposing 8 an earthquake
political party 9 through glass tunnels
9 because they would be neighbours
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

6
3
Task 1
Task 1 1 B 3 B 5 A 7 A 9 B
1 B 3 B 5 C 7 C 9 D 2 A 4 B 6 D 8 A
2 A 4 B 6 D 8 A
Task 2
Task 2 1 B 2 B 3 D 4 B 5 A 6 B
1 B 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 B 6 A
7 a judge
7 in August 1962 8 lie about accidents
8 for their love of dance 9 elderly people
9 how much Jamaica has to offer the world
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

3
Key – Part 1

7 10
Task 1 Task 1
1 C 3 A 5 C 7 A 9 B 1 A 3 B 5 B 7 B 9 A
2 C 4 B 6 B 8 B 2 B 4 A 6 C 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 A 3 A 4 C 5 C 6 D 1 C 2 C 3 D 4 A 5 A 6 A

7 their work/working life 7 very amused

8 some relief/relaxation from their hard work 8 profitable but upsetting
9 that things in the town will go wrong if nothing 9 lilies, snapdragons and laburnums
changes
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

11
8
Task 1
Task 1 1 D 3 C 5 B 7 C 9 A
1 B 3 B 5 B 7 C 2 B 4 C 6 B 8 B
2 B 4 A 6 C 8 D
Task 2
Task 2 1 B 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 D
1 B 2 A 3 A 4 A 5 B 6 A
7 blankets
7 (the Honourable) Samuel Slumkey 8 water that isn’t flowing/running
8 (because of) the beating of drums 9 that he admires/wants to be like George
9 the little man takes his hat off and waves
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

12
9
Task 1
Task 1 1 B 3 A 5 A 7 A 9 A
1 D 3 A 5 D 7 B 9 A 2 B 4 A 6 D 8 C
2 B 4 B 6 A 8 A
Task 2
Task 2 1 B 2 A 3 B 4 B 5 B 6 A
1 B 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 B 6 B
7 because they call a different game football
7 not as respectable though richer 8 the word ‘soccer’
8 unadventurous and comfortable 9 pay or transfer players
9 Bilbo’s mother’s genes/the Took side in him
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

4
Key – Part 1

13
Task 1 16
1 B 3 B 5 D 7 D 9 C
2 A 4 B 6 D 8 D
Task 1
1 B 3 B 5 C 7 C 9 C
Task 2 2 A 4 D 6 B 8 B
1 B 2 C 3 C 4 A 5 A 6 A
Task 2
7 because of its reputation for scientific discovery 1 A 2 B 3 D 4 A 5 A 6 B
and the arts
8 President James Garfield 7 a fight during the Bulgarian Cup final
9 the first powered plane 8 in 1996
9 DC United
Task 3
Ss’ own answers
Task 3
Ss’ own answers

14
17
Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 C 7 B 9 D
Task 1
2 B 4 A 6 B 8 C 1 B 3 B 5 A 7 D 9 C
2 B 4 B 6 B 8 A
Task 2
1 B 2 A 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 B
Task 2
1 B 2 D 3 B 4 A 5 A 6 B
7 as well-researched and cutting to the heart of
the issues straightforward 7 pressing at the right rate/speed
8 Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro 8 researchers at the University of Illinois
9 Time magazine’s Person of the Year 9 disinfectant and a plaster

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

15 18
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 B 5 C 7 D 1 A 3 B 5 A 7 C 9 D
2 A 4 A 6 D 8 B 2 B 4 A 6 D 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 A 2 B 3 B 4 C 5 D 6 B 1 C 2 B 3 D 4 A 5 A 6 B

7 Tsentralna Banya Park 7 (French sociologist) Michel Maffesoli

8 a credit card 8 fashion designers
9 in the 1950s 9 skinny jeans

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

5
Key – Part 1

Ss’ own answers

22
19
Task 1
Task 1 1 B 3 B 5 A 7 B 9 D
1 B 3 A 5 B 7 B 2 A 4 B 6 D 8 C
2 A 4 B 6 C 8 D
Task 2
Task 2 1 A 2 A 3 B 4 A 5 A 6 B
1 B 2 A 3 D 4 B 5 A 6 B
7 amused/pleased/very happy
7 because she had typhus as a child 8 with courage, truth and the power to endure
8 an asteroid named after Caroline 9 the twist she makes in the stocking
9 the crater C Herschel
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

23
20 Task 1
Task 1 1 B 3 A 5 D 7 D 9 C
1 B 3 B 5 D 7 C 9 D 2 B 4 A 6 C 8 D
2 A 4 A 6 A 8 C
Task 2
Task 2 1 C 2 C 3 C 4 A 5 B 6 A
1 B 2 B 3 D 4 A 5 A 6 A
7 to encourage her to take up a profession
7 how much of his time it would take up 8 because Miss Kilman is very clever/knows
8 because they don’t have time about real life
9 free stamps 9 her/the family’s wealth

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

21 24
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 A 7 B 9 B
1 D 3 A 5 B 7 A
2 B 4 A 6 D 8 C
2 A 4 A 6 A 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 A 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 A
1 A 2 B 3 B 4 C 5 B 6 C
7 because it’s easier to travel elsewhere
7 to foster understanding and innovation across
8 the elderly
Europe
9 different areas
8 by gaining better intercultural skills,
self-confidence and self-reliance
9 because they have a pan-European identity Task 3
Ss’ own answers
Task 3
6
Key – Part 1

28
25
Task 1
Task 1 1 B 3 B 5 B 7 A
1 B 3 B 5 B 7 D 9 C 2 A 4 A 6 C 8 B
2 A 4 B 6 B 8 C
Task 2
Task 2 1 A 2 D 3 B 4 B 5 A 6 A
1 D 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 B 6 A
7 endangered species
7 the Neolithic people 8 being older and having more experience
8 the purple thistle 9 a detailed reference
9 its (various) art, music and comedy festivals
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

29
26
Task 1
Task 1 1 C 3 D 5 B 7 A 9 A
1 B 3 B 5 D 7 B 9 B 2 D 4 C 6 A 8 B
2 C 4 C 6 B 8 B
Task 2
Task 2 1 B 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 A 6 A
1 C 2 A 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 A
7 peanut butter and caramel
7 Plato and Sophocles 8 to stop herself from crying
8 doctors and surgeons 9 a picture of (little) Mary Jane
9 very excited
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

30
27
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 A 5 B 7 B 1 B 3 A 5 B 7 C
2 A 4 A 6 B 8 D 2 A 4 B 6 D 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 C 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 B 1 C 2 C 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 A

7 the solar telescope 7 a fancy dress ball

8 tell what objects are made of 8 the desert
9 a minor planet 9 the monk’s robes

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

7
Key – Part 1

31 34
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 B 5 B 7 B 1 B 3 A 5 D 7 D
2 B 4 A 6 D 8 C 2 A 4 B 6 B 8 C

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 B 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A 1 D 2 D 3 B 4 B 5 A 6 B

7 the security and facilities 7 85% of teenagers

8 a wall of stones 8 a lack of melatonin
9 processed food 9 developmental psychologists

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

32 35
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 B 5 B 7 D 1 A 3 B 5 A 7 C
2 B 4 A 6 B 8 C 2 B 4 B 6 C 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 B 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A 1 C 2 A 3 D 4 B 5 A 6 A

7 from (British) magazines 7 hockey sticks and baseball bats

8 the 1860s 8 doing yoga
9 to the barber 9 dominated by men

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

33 36
Task 1 Task 1
1 C 3 C 5 B 7 B 1 D 3 B 5 B 7 A
2 C 4 D 6 B 8 A 2 C 4 A 6 A 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 A 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 B 1 B 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 B

7 because the vicar was in poor health 7 on the Isle of Wight

8 unexpectedly talented 8 save lives
9 chronic fear (of accidents) 9 to honour her work on the project

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

8
Key – Part 2

1 4
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 B 7 D 1 A 3 A 5 B 7 C
2 B 4 B 6 C 8 A 2 A 4 A 6 A 8 D

Task 2 Task 2
1 A 2 B 3 C 4 B 5 A 6 B 1 C 2 A 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A

7 fact-based articles 7 in Western Europe

8 an editor 8 scientific books
9 printed media 9 scanning technology

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

2 5
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 B 5 C 7 C
1 B 3 B 5 C 7 A
2 A 4 A 6 D 8 B
2 A 4 B 6 B 8 B
Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 C 3 B 4 B 5 A 6 B
1 D 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 B 6 A
7 the Yellow Kid cartoon
7 flat soda water
8 The National Enquirer
8 on the first day
9 junk food
9 (as) a silly show
Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

3 6
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 B 5 C 7 D
1 B 3 A 5 C 7 D
2 B 4 A 6 B 8 C
2 B 4 B 6 B 8 B
Task 2 Task 2
1 D 2 B 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A
1 B 2 C 3 C 4 A 5 A 6 B
7 (ten) travellers’ accomplishments
7 in June
8 different languages and cultures
8 a green bronze figure/an ivory Hermes/a silver
9 music, sport, art and food
Faun/his works of art
9 the only thing worth having
Task 3
Ss’ own answers Task 3
Ss’ own answers

9
 Key – Part 2

7 10
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 B 7 D 1 B 3 B 5 D 7 B
2 B 4 B 6 D 8 B 2 B 4 A 6 C 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 A 3 B 4 D 5 D 6 C 1 D 2 C 3 C 4 B 5 B 6 A

7 air pollution/acid rain 7 sharing (things) with his father

8 in 2009 8 the smell made him sick
9 the current economic situation 9 his son woke up (without him realising)

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

8 11
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 C 5 A 7 A 1 B 3 B 5 C 7 B
2 D 4 B 6 A 8 B 2 A 4 A 6 D 8 C

Task 2
1 A 2 B 3 A 4 D 5 C 6 B Task 2
1 B 3 C 5 A 7 A
7 cold and fast
2 A 4 B 6 A
8 from the strength of its pull
9 alone or with people he knows 7 thousands of them
8 the River Thames
Task 3 9 at Tate Modern
Ss’ own answers
Task 3
Ss’ own answers
9
Task 1 12
1 B 3 A 5 C 7 D Task 1
2 B 4 B 6 B 8 B
1 B 3 C 5 A 7 A
2 D 4 D 6 B 8 A
Task 2
1 B 2 D 3 B 4 A 5 B 6 B Task 2
7 crime and scandal 1 D 2 B 3 B 4 A 5 A 6 B
8 a broadsheet (newspaper)
9 cricket players/cricketes 7 access to hardware
8 IT professionals
9 poorer families in rural settings
Task 3
Ss’ own answers Task 3
Ss’ own answers

10
Key – Part 2

13 16
Task 1 Task 1
1 D 3 C 5 B 7 B 1 A 3 B 5 D 7 D
2 C 4 B 6 B 8 B 2 B 4 A 6 C 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 A 2 B 3 B 4 C 5 D 6 B 1 D 2 B 3 C 4 B 5 A 6 A

7 in the beauty industry 7 ‘I awake’

8 four kilogrammes 8 on the edge of Paris
9 at the Rose Museum (in Kazanlak) 9 eighteen months

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

14
17
Task 1
Task 1
1 B 3 A 5 B 7 B
2 C 4 C 6 B 8 A 1 C 3 D 5 A 7 A
2 A 4 D 6 B 8 A
Task 2
Task 2
1 B 2 A 3 B 4 A 5 D 6 C
1 B 2 A 3 A 4 C 5 C 6 D
7 the rising human population
8 construction companies 7 chrysanthemums, lilles and gladiolas
9 because this ensures that these ecosystems are 8 the youngest or a guest
protected 9 not putting one’s elbows on the table

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

15 18
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 A 5 B 7 D 1 B 3 D 5 B 7 A
2 B 4 A 6 C 8 D 2 A 4 C 6 B 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 B 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A 1 B 2 C 3 C 4 B 5 A 6 B

7 four hours 7 huge, new and red

8 The Advance of Red China 8 under thirty
9 respects serious, non-fiction writers 9 to give him a lift/ride

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

11
 Key – Part 2

19 22
Task 1 Task 1
1 D 3 C 5 C 7 B 1 B 3 B 5 B 7 D
2 A 4 A 6 B 8 B 2 A 4 B 6 B 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 A 2 C 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 B 1 B 2 B 3 A 4 C 5 D 6 B

7 across the Bering Strait 7 an Australian

8 as a melting pot 8 Anna Paquin
9 the bald eagle 9 a Māori warrior dance

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

20 23
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 A 5 C 7 B 1 B 3 C 5 B 7 B
2 B 4 B 6 D 8 A 2 C 4 B 6 B 8 A

Task 2 Task 2
1 A 2 B 3 A 4 D 5 B 6 B 1 B 2 A 3 C 4 A 5 A 6 B

7 to store valuable items and hide from danger 7 silent and fast
8 in 1847 8 that O’Brien is involved in a secret plan
9 human and animal bones 9 a slip of paper

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

21 24
Task 1 Task 1
1 A 3 B 5 B 7 D 1 B 3 B 5 D 7 A
2 B 4 A 6 C 8 A 2 A 4 B 6 C 8 C

Task 2 Task 2
1 B 2 D 3 A 4 D 5 C 6 D 1 A 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 C

7 rock formations 7 in the 1960s

8 because it is a network of caverns 8 with graffiti
9 every hour 9 the UNESCO World Heritage Site list

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

12
Key – Part 2

25 28
Task 1 Task 1
1 C 3 B 5 C 7 A 1 B 3 C 5 B 7 A
2 B 4 A 6 C 8 B 2 D 4 A 6 A 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 D 2 A 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 A 1 B 2 B 3 B 4 C 5 B 6 C

7 patience, kindness and honesty 7 a good job with a high salary

8 two years 8 spectacular beaches and beautiful buildings
9 the influence Rogers’ show had 9 Asian and Western food

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

26 29
Task 1 Task 1
1 C 3 D 5 A 7 B 1 B 3 B 5 B 7 A
2 B 4 A 6 A 8 A 2 A 4 B 6 C 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 A 3 D 4 A 5 A 6 B 1 B 2 A 3 A 4 B 5 C 6 C

7 as small clay figures 7 as an archaic instrument

8 friends and relatives 8 completely helpless
9 the frog 9 in 1944 or 1945

Task 3 Task 3
Ss’ own answers Ss’ own answers

27 30
Task 1 Task 1
1 B 3 A 5 C 7 D 1 B 3 D 5 B 7 B
2 B 4 A 6 C 8 B 2 C 4 C 6 A 8 B

Task 2 Task 2
1 C 2 C 3 D 4 B 5 B 6 B 1 B 2 A 3 B 4 C 5 A 6 D

7 a lawyer 7 so she wasn’t tempted to take a break

8 because he disowned her (for marrying the 8 80 calories
pirate James Bonny) 9 going for a walk
9 a pirate sanctuary
Task 3
Task 3 Ss’ own answers
Ss’ own answers

13
 Key – Part 2

31
Task 1
1 C 3 D 5 B 7 A
2 C 4 D 6 B 8 A

Task 2
1 B 2 B 3 A 4 A 5 D 6 A

7 almost 1 million dollars

8 the sculptor’s studio
9 after the sun sets

Task 3
Ss’ own answers

14
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 Audioscripts – Part 1
1 2
Task 1
The ruined desert city of Petra in Jordan was once
the capital of an Arab civilisation that left behind few
other signs of its existence. Unlike other successful
civilisations of thousands of years ago, the
Nabateans left no chronicles of their history. It seems
this was a deliberate decision, since we know from
messages carved by Nabatean shepherds in rocks
that they had a written language that people at all
levels of society used. It’s almost as though the
Nabateans did not wish to boast about their
achievements. Even the magnificent Petra lies inside
a mountain, hidden from view until you pass through
a narrow passage with 100-metre rock walls. Some
people have suggested the Nabateans were highly
secretive to protect some special knowledge or
object. Another, perhaps more likely, explanation is
that the Nabateans tried not to draw attention to
themselves in order to protect their wealth and its
sources. They were highly successful traders of
items such as spices, gold, perfumes and medicines,
and, according to ancient Greek and Roman
historians, they lied about their trade routes and the
locations their goods came from to keep control of
them. So much mystery surrounds the Nabateans
that we can’t even say for sure how big their empire
grew. They emerged out of the Arabian Gulf in
around 600 BCE as travelling, tent-dwelling people,
but they may eventually have had a presence as far
west as modern-day Egypt and as far east as
modern-day Iraq. One thing we know for sure about
the Nabateans is that they were excellent engineers.
They not only carved impressive buildings from solid
rock hillsides, but they also created effective water
conservation and storage systems. We also know
that the Nabateans had a monarchy, but were more
democratic than some other civilisations from the
same era. They didn’t use slaves, for example.
Another interesting detail about the Nabateans is
that they don’t seem to have been great warriors;
when Petra was attacked by an army from an empire
from the north in 312 BCE, the Nabateans failed to
stop the soldiers taking the city’s treasures. They got
them back, though – because the raiders were
carrying so much that they couldn’t fight effectively
when the Nabateans attacked them as they travelled
home. By around 100 CE, the Nabateans had lost
control of Petra and the surrounding lands as they
were made part of the Roman Empire. In any case,
Petra was eventually abandoned in the 4th century,
perhaps because trading routes had changed.
16
Task 1
Monarchy, which means having a king or queen as
head of state, is a very ancient institution that is still
in place in quite a number of countries around the
world. The oldest monarchy in Europe is the Danish
royal family, which dates back to the year 710.
Worldwide, 44 countries are still monarchies
although 15 of those are part of the commonwealth
and share the British king or queen. In the past,
kings and queens ran the entire country and made
the laws. Nowadays, nearly all decisions are made
by politicians, with the monarch carrying out
traditional ceremonies and travelling to other
countries to improve foreign relations.
You may be a loyal supporter or you may feel less
enthusiastic about the idea. So what are the main
advantages and disadvantages of being ruled over
by a monarch?
Let’s start with the disadvantages. For one thing,
there is the high cost to the state. A royal salary has
to cover luxurious and privileged living standards. In
particular, as national representatives, royals incur
considerable clothing and travel expenses. In
addition, it can be argued that a monarchy reinforces
class divisions in society. As we all know, monarchs
are from the highest of social classes. Working class
subjects may therefore feel particularly distanced
from them.
However, monarchs can definitely offer benefits.
Firstly, a king or queen brings stability to a country.
The country’s leadership is more organised with a
royal figurehead. In the United Kingdom, the king or
queen does not vote. They represent the country,
not a political party. This gives nations a feeling of
continuity during political change. The monarchy is
good for tourism too. For instance, you are sure to
see hundreds of tourists outside palaces in capital
cities, all eager to photograph themselves in front of
the royal residence.
In short, despite their drawbacks, I believe
monarchies create peaceful and prosperous states
and reinforce their democratic framework. They keep
a country’s culture and traditions alive while remaining
politically neutral. The Greek philosopher Aristotle
was right in saying that “monarchy is the one system
of government where power is exercised for the good
of all.”
Audioscripts – Part 1
3 4
Task 1
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
We rise to inform the house of Her Majesty’s loyal
opposition to the proposed motion on the tighter
regulation of our press and other news outlets.
Firstly, we believe that news outlets should be more
closely regulated by the government and follow
specific rules and regulations because they are
extremely powerful and they control people’s beliefs
and ideas. People turn to the news for information
about current affairs, and they generally accept that
what they read is factual. In 2020, 61% of adults who
took part in a global survey stated that they trusted
print media. This means that the media have the power
to manipulate public opinion and tell people what they
should or shouldn’t think, what is right or wrong, what
is acceptable or not. If the government controls the
media – to a certain extent, not totally – this reduces its
power and allows people to form their own opinions.
Furthermore, if news outlets are not regulated, they
can destroy people’s lives. Think of tabloids. Their
main goal is to sell as many papers as possible, not
to report the truth. To achieve this, they will do
whatever is necessary, whether that means
publishing people’s personal information, hacking
their phones, exaggerating the truth or even making
things up. The paparazzi follow celebrities and
politicians, taking pictures of their every move. This
is not only unethical but it has also led to tragedy,
such as the death of Princess Diana in 1997.
Finally, thanks to the Internet, more and more people
are able to voice their opinions online. While this is
positive in some ways, it has also led to a dramatic
increase in fake news, as anyone can post anything
online and news spreads around the world at an
alarming speed. Now if you think that 48% of
Americans use social media as a news source,
according to a recent study, you can understand that
it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish
between what is real and what is not. The only
solution to minimise the damage is to control online
news outlets.
In conclusion, it is our firm belief that governments
should control news outlets. We believe this is
important in order to protect people from media
manipulation, respect people’s privacy and stop the
spread of fake news online.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Task 1
The mayor’s office is excited to announce that the
theme for the next New Year’s Day parade will be
‘nature in the city’. All 28 districts are invited to enter
floats and performances in the parade, and compete
for the £10,000 prize, which will be awarded to a
charity in the winning district nominated by its
district town hall. Perhaps you’d like to dress up as
the birds that you see in your part of the city, or you
could perform a piece of drama as your entry – for
example an encounter between people and animals.
We know we don’t have to give you ideas, though.
The parade always brings out plenty of originality
and creativity across the city. Although schools
traditionally perform in the parade, districts are free
to choose any type of organisation or mix of
organisations to represent them, as long as the total
number of participants is no greater than 100 and all
of the participants come from the district. Entries are
judged on four key areas, each of which can earn a
maximum of 25 points. These are: entertainment
value, relevance to the theme of the parade, visual
appeal, and effort, which is to say the amount of
work that entrants have put into preparations. The
judges will be viewing entrants during the four or so
minutes it takes the parade to go down Greer Street
before it turns into Queen’s Crescent, but participants
must be available for questions from judges for the
whole event, which runs from noon until 4:30. Also,
participants will pass the ambassadors for Belgium,
Canada and Singapore in Union Street. This parade
promises to be extra-special, as it’s the 20th
anniversary of the event. More than 7,000 participants
took part last year, so the parade is now the biggest
free event of its kind in Europe. And to celebrate the
20 years of the New Year Parade, an exhibition all
about the parade is taking place at the New Market
Gallery until the end of January. You can find out
how the parade began as a performance by just four
military bands, and how it has become such an
important event for the city. Did you know, for
example, that before the New Year Parade began, no
restaurants opened in the city centre on New Year’s
Day? You can also see photos of some of the
winning entries, such as last year’s spectacular
creation based on the great days of sea travel.
17
 Audioscripts – Part 1
5 which means you need to take every step to stay
Task 1
A ride on the London Eye – the tallest Ferris wheel in
Europe – is the perfect way to see London. Situated
on the bank of the River Thames, it has 32 capsules
that can carry you 135 metres into the air for
incredible views of the city. You can walk around the
capsules and see famous landmarks in every direction
such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and
Westminster Abbey. Would you like to have your
picture taken with David Beckham? How about Lady
Gaga? Visit Madame Tussauds wax museum and you
can come face to face with hundreds of famous
people – from the past and the present. In Madame
Tussauds there are thousands of life-size wax models
of sports stars, film stars, historical figures and more
– and every year more and more models are added.
Big Ben is possibly the most famous landmark in
London. You probably know the 96 metre clock tower
from films and TV. What a lot of people don’t know is
that the tower itself is actually called The Elizabeth
Tower. Big Ben is the name of the giant bell inside.
However, the name Big Ben is more widely used.
Make sure you stop by Westminster for a photograph
with Britain’s most recognisable monument. While
you are there you can check out the Houses of
Parliament, which are next to the clock tower. The
London Dungeon is the scariest attraction in London!
Visitors can see live shows and go on terrifying rides
to learn about the scary events and characters in
London’s past. Everywhere you turn, skilled actors
performing as Jack the Ripper and Sweeny Todd,
some of London’s most notorious murderers, will
terrify you as well as teach you about their roles in the
city’s history. It’s an experience you’ll never forget!
Discover the magic of the big screen at the London
Film Museum. Situated in the South Bank area of
London, the LFM displays costumes, props and sets
from some of the most famous films ever produced in
Britain such as GoldenEye and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Also, in one corridor of the museum you can go
behind the scenes and find out how films are made.
It’s a must see for all film fans!
6 will most likely result in losing the customer. Make
Task 1
Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to my
presentation on the importance of customer service
in a modern retail environment. The Internet has
given the consumer more choice than ever before,
18
competitive.
As you may already know, it is between 5 and 25
times cheaper to keep an existing customer than to
get a new one. Money spent on advertising and
promotion is worthless if you can’t keep your loyal
customers coming back to your business.
Studies show that when someone has a bad
experience they tell twice the number of people as
they do when their experience is good. The rise of
popularity in social media means that a customer’s
negative feedback can be shared online with
hundreds of people in minutes. It’s important that we
identify where customer service is lacking and make
the appropriate changes.
The most common customer complaint is long waits
on the phone. Customers are looking for quick
answers to their questions or complaints when they
call a business. A recent study discovered that most
customers who are left on the phone for longer than
2 minutes will hang up, and a lot of them will never
call back. Being left on hold makes people feel
ignored. One solution is to hire more phone
representatives. If this is not possible then computer
software that can direct calls to the right place is a
good investment. If you can get your customer
through to the right person in under a minute, you
are far more likely to keep that customer.
Social media can be a useful tool for providing quick
and easy customer service. Not only that but it is
quickly becoming one of the main ways younger
people will make contact with your company. A
customer who uses social media will often expect a
fast response. Therefore, it is a good idea to hire a
customer service representative to deal with social
media exclusively. Remember, it’s not just the
customer who can see the social media conversation
thread. It’s their friends and family too. Creating an
efficient social media presence that answers
enquiries quickly and politely is some of the best
free advertising you will ever get.
However, computers aren’t the answer to everything.
Lots of people will still make the journey to a store to
resolve their issues. If a customer comes to your
place of business, you should never direct them to
your website. This makes the customer feel ignored.
When a customer comes to a store, they expect to
leave with a solution to their problem. Anything less
sure your staff are polite, knowledgeable, and ready
to answer any question they may have.
Audioscripts – Part 1
7 8
Task 1
Giovanni Battista Moroni, today regarded as one of
the greatest portrait painters of the Italian
Renaissance, wasn’t very well known during his life.
One reason why he didn’t become as famous as
other equally talented 16th century painters might be
because he didn’t travel widely. In fact, he spent
most of his life within 40 kilometres of the village in
northern Italy where he was born in the 1520s.
Another reason might have to do with his style of
paintings. Instead of painting spectacular scenes
with multiple people, most of his paintings show one
single ordinary person. Moroni’s first paintings were
completed while he was a pupil of the artist Moretto
da Brescia. These paintings were of religious scenes
typical of the time. Following his training, he moved
to the town of Bergamo, which was under the control
of the wealthy city of Venice. It was therefore full of
people, such as aristocrats, who could afford to have
their portraits painted. Moroni found work painting
the two most powerful families there. The paintings
he did in this period are nothing special, though.
They suggest he wanted to please his subjects more
than he wanted to please lovers of art, although he
carried out the difficult task of painting patterned
ladies’ dresses superbly well. The most unusual thing
about his portraits of wealthy people is their size.
Moroni was one of the first Italian painters to create
full-length, life-size portraits. Moroni had to leave
Bergamo when relations between the two families he
worked for broke down. There was even an attempt
to murder a duke. Because of Moroni’s associations
with both families, the safest thing for him to do was
to return to his home village of Albino. So, from the
mid-1560s, the ordinary people of Albino became the
subjects of Moroni’s portraits – and his work became
much more interesting. It seems Moroni was unafraid
of presenting these poorer people exactly as they
were. He had a particular talent for painting
meaningful facial expressions. When you look into
the eyes of the people in his portraits, you feel like
you understand what they’re feeling and something
of their personalities. Some critics have even
compared Moroni’s ability to reveal human character
to William Shakespeare’s. In one of his most
impressive works, Portrait of a Tailor, which is now
owned by the National Gallery in London, the tailor
stares at the viewer in a manner that is almost
aggressive. The painting gives the impression that
the young man wasn’t completely comfortable having
his portrait painted while he went about his work with
scissors and material.
Task 1
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you
all for coming here today. My name is Jonathan Carr.
This is my first time running in Millford Keys, so
I organised this event so that you can get to know
me a little better.
I have lived and worked in this town for fifteen years,
and though I love the place, I’ve always felt that its
local government falls short in terms of fulfilling its
promises to locals. Where is the ring road we were
promised, which was supposed to remove the noise
and dirt created by the columns of lorries travelling
not into the town, but between London and Coventry
to the north? Why has the Hinckley Common,
intended to become a park with play areas, dog
toilets and tennis courts, remained the dirty and
rubbish-filled wasteland we see today? Why are our
schools still barely above middle place in the
national league tables?
So, why should you tick my name at the ballot box
next Thursday? Well, for one, I’d like you to take into
consideration the volunteer work I’ve done in the
local community over the last 10 years. I’ve been
working in homeless shelters and addiction clinics,
so I know the problems our community faces, and if
you allow me, I think I have the solutions to fix them.
I have fixed problems in my own town and at my
own expense, including the complete clearance and
equipping of the Bridge Street playground, which
was achieved with the smallest of public grants and
a lot of help from local businesses, both in terms of
money and in terms of expertise. I would apply the
knowledge we gained there to the larger problem of
Hinckley Common, so we can finally have a large
town park to be proud of and use.
Secondly, as a teacher and now headmaster, I have
seen from the inside how the system is failing our
schools, and also where schools are failing themselves.
I would place schools, in fact, at the top of my list of
priorities if elected.
Finally, I intend to launch an enquiry into where the
funding for the ring road disappeared to, with less
than half the construction completed. I intend to
pursue the matter all the way to the courts if
necessary, to claim back that money and finally
complete the project.
If these points sound like ideas you could get behind
too, then vote for me in the upcoming elections. Vote
for Jonathan Carr. Vote for real change. Thank you.
19
 Audioscripts – Part 1
9 10
Task 1
F: Hi, Ethan, how are you? Are you looking forward
to living on your own in September?
M: Oh, hi Paula. I guess so. I’m just a bit worried
about things going wrong. I mean, it’s the first
time I’ll be living alone...
F: Look, it’s just part of growing up. You learn to
drive, you vote for the first time, you set up a
bank account, you move out and get your own
place. Those are just some of the things you
have to do before you can call yourself an adult.
M: OK, I get that. And I’ve even done the first three
of those. But somehow the idea of setting up a
home feels different. I mean, I don’t even know
how to cook. But you’ve had your own place for
– what, a year now? Any advice?
F: First of all, stop seeing it as such a huge thing.
I mean, your parents aren’t kicking you out, are
they? You’ve taken this decision, they’re
supporting it and if everything goes wrong, I’m
sure they’d be happy to let you come home and
regroup, until you’re ready to give it another go.
Am I right?
M: Oh, yes. My mum even said that if I wasn’t ready,
I could put it off for a few months. But I’m earning
pretty good money at the moment and I don’t
see any reason for putting it off. And when
I found this flat above the bakery on Wilson
Street, I just fell in love with it. I mean, I’ve always
loved the idea of living on a central street, above
the shops, in the middle of things...
F: Oh, yeah, it’s in a great part of town. A bit small,
but everyone’s first flat is small. I remember the
first place I moved into – it was this tiny little
broom cupboard in the basement of this old
building. Awful in so many ways. But I loved it!
M: Well, you’ve certainly made me feel a lot better.
But I still can’t cook!
F: Hmm, well, why don’t you order takeaway? It’s
quick and convenient.
M: I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. First of all,
it costs a lot more than cooking for yourself and
secondly, it’s not healthy at all.
F: Well, if I were in your shoes, I’d buy a step-by-
step cookery book for beginners.
M: That’s not a bad idea actually. I guess I could
make an effort to learn how to cook.
F: Definitely. And, how about coming to my place
for dinner on Saturday and I’ll show you how to
make a couple of simple recipes?
M: Great idea! Thanks for the advice and the
invitation, Paula.
20
Task 1
F: Good morning. Protect the Earth.
M: Oh, hello. I’d like to find out about volunteering
opportunities with you.
F: OK. We hold regular conservation days on
Sundays. We alternate between beach cleaning
and our project in the New Forest. Let’s see…
last week we did the beach clean-up so this
Sunday will be forest conservation. The work
includes building habitats for wildlife and
clearing footpaths for walkers. We need people
to build boxes for nesting birds if that’s your
kind of thing.
M: It sounds good. What equipment do I need?
F: We supply gloves and tools. But you need good
boots and waterproof clothing. The weather is
quite unpredictable at the moment. It looks
good now but it’s possible that it will rain on
Sunday, so be prepared.
M: OK. So if I become a volunteer, what should
I expect?
F: Well, it can be very hard work. You need to be
physically fit. But if you do join us, you’ll get lots
of fresh air and exercise in the countryside. It’s a
great way to make new friends too. We get
volunteers from all around the local area and
even from further away. We all finish at around 6
and eat sandwiches by the river. It’s a really nice
end to the day and the best thing is that you feel
like you have done something good for the
environment. It’s a great experience.
M: Do I need to fill in any forms before I start?
F: Only one. It’s a form about your health. You can
fill it in online or come to the office and pick up a
paper one to fill in. You need to give it to your
supervisor on Sunday morning. Do you have
any serious health issues we should know
about?
M: I have asthma but it’s not a big problem for me.
F: Well, that’s OK then. Just make sure you put it
on the form. Can you get to the New Forest
easily?
M: I could ride my bicycle. It’s not too far.
F: Well, don’t wear yourself out before you get
here. The day is quite long with a lot of walking.
We run a carpool system so someone can pick
you up if you live near town. There aren’t any
buses on Sunday, I’m afraid.
M: I live quite far outside town. I’m happy to ride
there, though.
F: Excellent! Well, see you Sunday then.
Audioscripts – Part 1
11
Task 1
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB,
was created in 1889 and today enjoys an income of
over 100 million pounds per year, and employs 2,000
people in addition to its 12,000 volunteers. Taken
together, this makes the RSPB one of the largest
wildlife protection organisations worldwide.
The beginnings of this British institution lie in two
groups, both formed by women in 1889. The Plumage
League was the brainchild of Emily Williamson, who
founded the group to fight against the use of bird
feathers in fashionable clothing at the time. The Fur
Fin and Feather Fold was set up by a group of
Croydon women. In 1891, the two groups joined
together to create the Society for the Protection of
Birds, and in 1904, they were given the right by the
monarch to use the word ‘royal’ in their name.
The campaign against the use of bird feathers in
hats and other fashion items was very important. In
the year when the two groups were founded,
7,000 birds of paradise were killed for their feathers,
in addition to 400,000 birds from West India and
Brazil and another 360,000 birds from East India.
The egret, a kind of small heron with dazzling white
feathers, was on the verge of extinction. The
continued existence of this bird serves in so many
ways as a symbol of the success of the organisation.
The more than 200 reserves for birds that the RSPB
runs today in every corner of the UK are dedicated
to preserving the habitat of native species of birds,
as well as seasonal visitors. In lots of cases, they are
maintained with the bird enthusiasts in mind, with
visitors’ centres and special hides built for
birdwatchers to use to observe their favourite
winged friends.
The charity has published a magazine several times a
year since 1903. Its original name was Bird Notes
and News, changed to simply Bird Notes in 1947. It
was then shortened even further, to simply Birds, in
1966, until receiving its present-day name of Nature’s
Home in 2013. With a circulation of over 600,000, it
is one of the most popular magazines in Britain.
Birdwatching enthusiasts are invited every year by
the RSPB to take part in a bird-counting day called
Big Garden Birdwatch. In the last weekend of
January, people are invited to send in data about the
birds they observe in their garden, and the RSPB
collect it all and publish the results. With well over
half a million participants, this is said by the RSPB to
be the “world’s biggest wildlife survey”.
12
Task 1
The Camargue is a very special region in the South of
France. At the town of Arles, the River Rhone splits
into two before it reaches the Mediterranean Sea, and
the Camargue is the area between the two branches
of the river. It’s completely flat, with very few buildings,
so you can see for miles. This area where rivers meet
the sea is full of bodies of water and species of birds.
Perhaps more surprisingly, the Camargue is known
for its white horses and black bulls, which roam free,
but also live closely alongside people who take care
of them – these people feed them, watch over their
young and help the sick ones. Both the bulls and the
horses work for local people in some way. The horses
give rides to tourists and also help to herd the bulls
for a unique sports event. Starting on a beach, horse
riders parade with bulls for six miles and then enter an
arena where men and bulls play a game with each
other. The men try to remove pieces of material that
are attached to the bulls’ horns. They use no weapons
and the bulls are never hurt, and each bull spends
only 15 minutes playing the game. The games weren’t
always so kind to the animals, however; it’s believed
the Romans organised games with bulls in the
Camargue which would horrify people now. Most of
the time today, the bulls are at leisure and enjoy
relaxing in the waters of the Camargue. The men who
ride the white horses and compete in the bull games
are called ‘gardians’ and dress like American
cowboys, with moleskin trousers, waistcoats and
wide hats. This tradition began in the early 20th
century when a wealthy man from the Camargue was
impressed by a show with the theme of the American
Wild West. He invited the performers to the
Camargue, and the men of the Camargue have been
imitating American cowboys, who lead a similar
lifestyle, ever since. An even newer part of the
Camargue culture is the growing of rice. This began
because the land of the Camargue became too salty
for growing crops as a result of the building of barriers
and canals to control the water and avoid flooding.
Farmers began to import large amounts of fresh water
to the Camargue to solve the problem, and this gave
them the idea of growing rice.
21
 Audioscripts – Part 1
13
Task 1
If you want to meet new people, start a new hobby
or improve your skills, you’ll find an activity that’s
right for you at Riverside Community Centre. Here
are just a few of the activities on offer.
Line dancing is a fun way to stay in shape and get to
know new people. You don’t need a partner because
everyone dances in a line, so it’s great for single
people! And it’s very easy to learn – most dances
involve just a few simple repeated moves. As well as
our weekly practice sessions, we hold regular line
dancing parties with live music. So, come on down
and join in the fun!
Share your thoughts on classic and popular novels
in our book group. We assign one novel a week, but
don’t worry; no one minds if you fall behind! Our
book group members really enjoy recommending
their latest finds to each other, so you’ll be
introduced to new authors and never be short of an
interesting title again. And more importantly, you’ll
make new social contacts, too!
Are you always the one to start lively discussions
around the dinner table? Then the Riverside
Debating Club is for you! This club meets once a
month to debate the burning issues of the day.
Recent subjects have included the future of the
European Union and animal rights. The debates can
get very lively but they always remain friendly. So
come along and give us your opinion!
Don’t think you have a creative side? Then think
again! You’ll be sure to find your hidden talent in one
of our art groups! From painting to model-making,
our volunteer art teachers will help you create works
of art to brighten up your home or give to your friends
and family members as presents. As with all Riverside
activities, the classes are free; just bring the materials
required for the particular art form you want to learn.
Finally, if you prefer not to be stuck inside during
your time off, try the Riverside cycling club. This very
fit but very welcoming group of cyclists spend every
weekend on the road, pedalling furiously! There’s a
shorter ride on Saturdays and a more challenging
one on Sundays, so you can match one of them to
your abilities. They also organise trips to watch
bicycle races around the country, as well as an
annual French cycling holiday!
If one, more or all of these activities appeal to you,
you can call us on 0302 6754843 or simply drop by
so that we can register you. We are open Monday to
Friday from 1 pm to 10 pm, and 9 am to 6 pm at the
weekend.
22
14
Task 1
Markus and Daniel Freitag are brothers and designers.
In 1993 they were studying and needed a messenger
bag to carry their papers in when they were riding
bikes. They came up with the idea of making bags out
of recyclable materials. They wanted to make stylish
and individual bags that were also environmentally
friendly. It was also important that the bags were
waterproof and strong enough to carry a lot of items.
The first bags were made from everything from
bicycle inner tubes to the tarps from trucks. Every bag
would be slightly different from the next one, so
customers would get a completely unique product.
Customers could even decide how the bags were
finished so not only would the bags be different from
one another, but they would have a personalised
touch too. The brothers’ idea worked better than they
had hoped. The public loved the whole concept of the
colourful bags and they were even featured in art
galleries as far away as New York. The Freitag
brothers’ hometown is Zurich in Switzerland and their
products are very popular there. When they opened a
new shop, they decided to do something a little out of
the ordinary. They wanted to build a shop that fitted in
with their eco-friendly ideas and message of
responsibility. As such, the Freitag store isn’t inside a
shopping centre, or on a high street. Instead, it’s
made up of 17 old metal shipping containers, placed
on top of each other next to a motorway. The shop,
like the bags, is made from cheap, recycled materials
and has nine floors. It’s a brightly coloured building
and tourists and residents seem to love it. It’s one of
the most unusual and unique buildings in the whole
city. Shoppers can go up to the top floor to see a
lovely view of Zurich from the viewing platform. The
Freitags describe the building as a ‘bonsai
skyscraper’. It’s small enough to fit in with the rest of
the buildings around, but just tall enough to give the
people on the viewing platform a small fright when
they look down.
Today, there are 28 Freitag stores worldwide.
Although not all of them are as interesting as the
Zurich branch and its stacked shipping containers,
they each have a very recognisable look. It’s not just
Europe either. Asian countries, such as Japan,
Thailand and China have embraced the Freitag bags
with branches opening in several major cities there.
The business is thriving as new countries embrace
the European style and unique personalised designs.
Audioscripts – Part 1
15
Task 1
M: Helen, you’ve just opened up a fruit and
vegetable stall in Camden Market, haven’t you?
F: Yes, I have. And to celebrate the opening, all
this week, I will be giving away a free punnet of
organic strawberries to every customer who
spends over £10 in my shop.
M: Well, I like the sound of that! You’d better tell me
exactly where your shop is located.
F: It’s in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side
of the square. You can’t miss it. The stall is
painted bright yellow and the sign above the
door says Planet Fresh.
M: Am I right in thinking that your shop sells organic
fruit and vegetables only?
F: Actually, no. That’s incorrect. I sell non-organic
produce, too. I want to give customers a choice
because organic produce is a lot more expensive
than non-organic, and not all people want to pay
for it.
M: Oh. I thought most people prefer to buy organic
produce nowadays.
F: No, not at all. The thing that most concerns
people is the price of their apples and potatoes,
not whether they have been grown organically.
M: Is there anything that makes Planet Fresh
different to other greengrocers in the area?
F: Yes. I’m the only greengrocer who sells locally
grown produce only. Absolutely everything on
my shelves has come from farms local to
London. All other places sell a mixture of locally-
grown and imported produce.
M: Do you get many Londoners shopping with you,
or is it mostly tourists?
F: It’s a mix, to be honest. I mean, obviously there
are a lot of tourists, especially in the summer.
But in the off-season, I’d say only about 30% of
my customers are visitors.
M: And what about you, Helen? Next to all those
sights. Buckingham Palace, the British Museum,
St Paul’s Cathedral... do you get to see any of
the sights?
F: To be honest, I hardly have any time. I mean,
I take ten minutes while the guy next door
watches my stall and go down to the River
Thames and buy a sandwich. But that’s about it!
M: Come on – not 20 minutes to go and get a bit of
culture?
F: I’m up at five in the morning to get around to
two or three farms before I drive into London.
Then I open up at 10 am, work all the way
through till 6 pm and then pack up to go home.
If I leave straight away, I’m home at 7 pm.
Where’s the time for sightseeing?
M: Yes, I see your point.
16
Task 1
The Big Issue is a magazine. Like so many other
magazines, it has interviews, reviews of films and
music, and stories about things that are in the news.
The thing that makes The Big Issue different is not
what is inside it but who is selling it. The magazine is
sold on the high street by people without homes or
those who are living in extreme poverty. It is one of
the first charities to recognise the value of giving
homeless people the opportunity to work themselves
out of poverty rather than just being given money by
charities. The Big Issue scheme started in 1991,
since then it has helped over 92,000 homeless and
impoverished people earn a combined £115 million
through work. At any given time, there are around
1,500 vendors selling The Big Issue throughout the
UK. It is considered to be one of the country’s
biggest charity success stories.
The Big Issue sellers are known as vendors. They
buy magazines for £1.50 and sell them for £3. They
can then use some of the money to buy a new batch
of magazines and use the rest to help get them back
on their feet. Vendors can buy as many magazines as
they want. If they are good at selling the magazine,
they can choose to buy more and make more money.
Essentially it is more like having your own small
business than being given a job. The advantages of
this are that it can be a great stepping stone to better
things. Charities frequently focus on giving homeless
people a hot meal and a bed for the night. Although
this is obviously important, The Big Issue is focused
on the bigger picture. They help people open bank
accounts, buy phones, and apply for jobs. Something
which is often very difficult without a fixed address.
The charity has had lots of success stories over the
years. Some vendors have gone on to amazing
careers from illustrators of children’s books to chefs
and therapists. Former vendor Viv Askeland was
sleeping rough under London Bridge in the 1990s. In
2000, she became a Big Issue vendor. The work
provided her with an income but also helped to build
her self-esteem. “When I started selling the
magazine it gave me a lot of confidence,” says Viv. “I
realised how much I actually liked speaking to new
people”. Nowadays, Viv is a London tour guide. She
23
 Audioscripts – Part 1
shows tourists around the famous monuments of
London teaching them about its history, including
the iconic bridge where she used to sleep.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that The Big
Issue had to make some big changes. Selling on the
high street became impossible as lockdowns came
into effect in British cities. The Big Issue had to move
from the high street into a subscription service and
into supermarkets. Several celebrities made videos
to inform people that they could still buy the
magazine online or in certain shops. The Big Issue
will not be leaving the high street just yet. In fact,
they are preparing to have even more vendors in the
future to help people who have lost their jobs in the
pandemic.
17
Task 1
Deborah Alma works in an ambulance dressed in a
white coat, but it’s not conventional medicine that
she practises. Deborah calls herself the Emergency
Poet – she uses the power of poetry to help people
who are feeling unhappy. She drives her ambulance
to festivals as well as public buildings like hospitals
and libraries across England, and invites people to lie
down and relax inside. She asks them questions
about what’s happening in their lives and how they’re
feeling, then carefully selects a poem to read out to
them. Whatever the person’s problem, Deborah
manages to find a poem to comfort them. Naturally,
she has an excellent knowledge of English poetry,
with two degrees in creative writing. Sometimes,
Deborah reads a poem aloud for visitors and it is
such a moving experience that they are brought to
tears. At other times, the experience is much more
light-hearted. It depends on the emotional needs of
the person and how interested they are in poetry
already. Deborah makes sure the poems she picks
for people who don’t normally read poetry are easy
to understand, and provides more experienced
readers of poetry with more challenging pieces of
work. She often describes poems in the same way a
doctor describes pills – she sometimes even tells
people not to read very powerful poems more than
once a day! One of the most common problems
people seek Deborah’s therapy for is lost love, so
Deborah has a large number of poems on that topic.
A more unusual request she got at one event was to
help a man to become less grumpy. On this occasion,
she prescribed an extract from a work by Welsh poet
Dylan Thomas. It was about a peaceful summer
garden, and she asked the man to think of it
24
whenever he was in a bad mood! Deborah thinks
that, no matter what the problem is, she can always
help, even if just a little. She says she often sees
people’s shoulders sink back as they absorb the
poetry. As she told one interviewer, “Poetry talks
intimately as though from one person to another. It
touches people really closely and deals with really
intimate things. It can also make people laugh or cry.
Like a piece of music, it can be reassuring or
comforting as well.” Although the Emergency Poet is
a success, it’s not what Deborah originally wanted to
do when she decided to go on the road. She first
bought the 1970s ambulance on the Internet with the
intention of making it into a minibus to use for
creative writing classes on the road. But then she got
the idea for the poetry ambulance, and she hasn’t
looked back since.
18
Task 1
For me, fashion is a way to have fun! I love going
shopping with my friends at the weekends and
checking out the latest trends. We also spend time
reading fashion magazines together and look at
pictures of celebrities online to see what they’re
wearing. My group of friends all have a similar style,
so we often exchange and share clothes – it’s
cheaper than buying new clothes all the time and it
makes us feel closer, like sisters! Sometimes we take
selfies and post the pictures on social media. I like
receiving nice comments about my style, it makes
me feel more self-confident.
My friend Tyler wouldn’t say he’s into fashion that
much, but he does follow a certain trend. He’s a
skater, so he likes casual clothes that allow him to
move around and don’t tear easily if he falls off his
board. He usually wears jeans with a T-shirt and a
hoodie. Even though the skater crowd is relaxed,
there is a bit of pressure to wear brand names, so he
always wears a particular brand of trainers, for
instance – and wouldn’t be seen dead in anything
else! He once told me that there’s a lot more to being
a skater than just skateboarding! It’s an alternative
lifestyle; they’re all about freedom, and I think the
clothes they wear show that. You always know a
skater when you see one, that’s for sure.
Fashion is important to another friend of mine,
Sophie, because it’s how she expresses her identity.
It’s a bit like art to her. She doesn’t want to look like
everyone else, so she doesn’t follow trends. She
enjoys mixing different patterns together or wearing
unusual colours and different fabrics. She does most
Audioscripts – Part 1
of her shopping in charity shops and she tries to
pick out one-of-a-kind pieces. She doesn’t have
many clothes, but she loves the small, unique
wardrobe that she does own. She’s against fast
fashion: for her, it has a negative impact on the
environment, and that’s why she refuses to buy
mass-produced clothes.
19
Task 1
Since human beings first began to understand – or
at least think about – death and dying, they have
held funerals. Even the Neanderthals had burial rites,
and caves as far apart as Wales and Iraq have been
discovered that held what palaeontologists believe
are graves. Bones were discovered in a position that
shows the bodies were laid down in a particular way,
and the remains of flowers scattered around the
grave site. But times have moved on since then, and
now high-tech funeral companies are offering a kind
of funeral memorial service that is literally out of this
world.
It is a service only on offer to those who have
cremated their loved ones, but companies in the
USA will send part of their ashes into space, to join
the moon and the stars as celestial bodies, orbiting
the planet at least for a while. There are even
planned missions to take ashes on more permanent
journeys, to the moon and even towards the furthest
reaches of outer space.
While these memorial packages cost thousands of
dollars, a company in the UK is offering something
for those on a more modest budget: a chance for the
deceased to at least travel into space before being
buried back on Earth. For less than 500 pounds, a
rocket will take a proportion of their ashes into space
before returning to the ground. The ashes are then
returned to the family, along with a video showing
the event in minute-by-minute action.
Those that worry about space junk – the growing
amount of old material from rockets and satellites
spinning round our planet – needn’t in this case. All
capsules are in an orbit that will allow them to take
an approximately two-year journey – going round the
Earth some thousands of times – before re-entering
the atmosphere and burning up, just like a shooting
star.
These companies would be the first to admit that
such a service is not for everyone, but if your elderly
relatives ever spoke of visiting space, this might be a
way for you to feel like you have helped them fulfil
their wishes. Certainly, it adds a touch of magic to a
sad occasion, and gives an important feeling of
eternity to the event, and of being as one with the
cosmos.
Funerals are difficult occasions, and since the time
of the cavemen, we have tried to find ways of
lessening our feelings of loss and sadness at the
death of somebody we love. Memorial flights into
space, just like flowers dropped upon a grave, are
simply a way of making the occasion more special,
and of honouring the memory of the loved ones we
have lost.
20
Task 1
I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of the science
museum. You’re now welcome to spend as long as
you like taking a closer look at anything that
particularly interested you. Or if you want to see the
only room we didn’t quite have time for, head for the
basement to see our exhibition about UFOs in space.
You’ll be surprised at the strange things astronauts
have seen out there. Before I leave you, I hope you
don’t mind if I tell you about our membership scheme.
It’s well worth joining if you live nearby. It costs £25
for a year, or £40 for a family membership. With your
membership card you can enjoy free entry to the
museum as many times as you want for one year. You
also get free tickets to any temporary exhibitions that
non-members have to pay extra to visit. What’s more,
children under 16 can visit the museum and any
temporary exhibition free of charge when
accompanied by an adult who is a member. And your
membership card entitles you to a 20% discount on
any lecture, artistic performance or film screening
held at the museum, and a 10% discount on all food
and drinks sold in the museum’s restaurant and cafes.
We also hold events especially for members regularly.
These include evening opening sessions once a
week, when you can explore the science museum
without the usual crowds, and exclusive object-
handling sessions. There’s a free cloakroom for
members’ coats and bags, and a members-only room
on the fourth floor, which is a fantastic place to read
and study. There’s free Wi-Fi there, and a snack bar
selling the best cheesecake in town, in my opinion.
It’s very popular with students, so if any of your
relatives are studying sciences at one of the
universities, you might want to consider buying them
a year’s museum membership as a gift. You’ll find the
membership office opposite the toilets near the main
entrance if you want to sign up today, or you can do it
online. Even if you don’t want to become a member at
25
 Audioscripts – Part 1
the moment, you might want to call in at the
membership office and give the staff there your email
address. It’s now the only way to receive our free
monthly newsletter. You’ll be the first to hear about
our upcoming exhibitions, and we send out quite a
few special offers through the newsletter too, like
vouchers to spend at the gift shop.
21
Task 1
I was lucky enough to spend eight months in space
living on the International Space Station. People ask
me a lot of questions about my time in space, but
not many people have asked me about how strange
it is to come back to Earth, which I think is also very
interesting. In the first 48 hours after I returned, I had
difficulty doing basic things like using a knife and
fork and washing my face. I remember missing my
mouth when I tried to put food in it several times.
Then when I went to a sink to clean my face after
one of those accidents, I got the feeling that I was
going to fall onto it when I leaned forwards.
Although it’s four weeks since my space mission
ended, I’m still learning how to walk with full
confidence again. Turning corners, in particular, can
be a problem. It sounds ridiculous, but when you first
get back from space, you have to learn how to walk
and stand up again without feeling sick or
uncomfortable. Astronauts who go to space for a
week or two can get used to walking and standing
again in a few days, but because my mission was an
unusually long one, I still don’t feel 100% comfortable
on my feet.
In the future, we may not suffer the same effects for
so long. Space scientists have recently developed
special gym machines for astronauts to use during
their training before a space mission. The machines
move in all directions and while you exercise on one,
you have to look at videos of rooms in houses.
Apparently, this helps the brain to get used to the
differences between being in space and on Earth, so
the machines will help astronauts to prepare for both
arriving in space and coming back.
There’s also exercise equipment on the International
Space Station. It’s important to use it to keep your
muscles and bones as strong as possible. In fact, it’s
compulsory, for astronauts from my country, at least.
I actually spent more time than usual exercising
when I was in space. Even so, my level of fitness
was no better than before when I returned, because
you simply can’t use all of the muscles in your body
26
when you’re in space, so some of them get weak. I
experienced quite a lot of aches and pains in my first
week back on Earth just walking from the bottom of
my house to the top. The tops of my legs and my
lower back hurt particularly badly.
People often ask me what I miss most about being
in space. The views of the planet are wonderful, of
course, and I took lots of photos of them. But one
thing I couldn’t capture to bring home was the
quality of sleep you get up there. You can get
perfectly comfortable attached to the wall in any
position on the space station!
22
Task 1
Host: Joanna, what made you decide to become a
photographer?
Joanna: Ever since I was a child, I’ve adored
photographing people! My love of photography
came from my mother. My mother was a doctor but
her favourite hobby was photography. She was
always taking pictures in her spare time.
Host: What kind of photographs do you take?
Joanna: I usually take photographs of young
children. The majority of my business consists of
photographing children under the age of 10. But
about 30% of my time is spent photographing
weddings and 10% on family portraits. I like taking
family photos the best. My favourite situation is
when I am photographing grandparents with their
grandchildren.
Host: Is it easy photographing very young children?
Joanna: No, it’s extremely difficult! You have to
make sure they are happy and not bored so they will
smile in the photographs. Luckily, my nephew and
his girlfriend help me out in the studio after school.
They’re both very good with children.
Host: Do you work long hours?
Joanna: Yes, I do. And I always have to work
weekends because that’s when most parents have
time to bring their children into the studio. And
I work summers because that’s when weddings are!
But I’m not complaining. I love my job! My fiancé
doesn’t like my long hours though. He says that
when we’re married in May, I’ll have to stop working
at weekends!
Host: So, I have to ask... who did the photographer
hire for her wedding?
Joanna: Well, I promised my assistant she could do
it if she was ready. And I sent her to a traditional
Audioscripts – Part 1
Bulgarian wedding last weekend and the photos she
took just blew me away. So I have to keep my
promise...
Host: Joanna, how can listeners contact you if they
want their family portrait taken? Do you have a
website?
Joanna: Not at the moment, no. But I will do soon.
My stepbrother is helping me create a webpage. If
people want to contact me, they can find my number
in the phone book, under Joanna Aleksov, photographer.
Host: Thank you Joanna. It was a pleasure talking to
you.
Joanna: Thank you.
23
Task 1
Georgi Ivanov was born in 1940 in Lovech, Bulgaria.
He began his career in the Bulgarian military as a
pilot. He later became a flight instructor teaching
others how to fly. After the launch of Sputnik, the
Interkosmos space agency decided that cosmonauts
should be pilots with the physical and mental
strength for the harsh task of space travel. In 1978
Georgi Ivanov was selected for the space
programme.
After he completed his training, he was selected for
the fourth mission in the Interkosmos programme.
The Soyuz 33 mission involved taking off from Earth
and docking with the Salyut 6 space station, which
had launched in 1977. The space station had a crew
of three cosmonauts and the goal of the mission was
to dock a space shuttle, manned by Ivanov and
Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov, that
would leave a craft suitable for the three-man crew
to return to Earth in.
After a two day delay due to high winds, the Soyuz
33 mission launched on the 10th of April 1979. The
take-off was perfect and the shuttle entered the
atmosphere with no complications. However, the
mission quickly ran into problems. As the craft
approached the space station to dock, there was a
problem with the engines. Three seconds into a six-
second burn, the engines shut down and the
spacecraft shook violently. The cosmonauts tried
again but the engines failed a second time. Mission
control decided to abort the mission. This left the
two-man crew in a terrifying situation. They were
stuck in orbit with only five days of food. Their main
engine was not working and mission control were
not sure the back-up engine would get them to Earth
safely.
In the end they decided to risk the return using the
back-up engine. For a successful landing, the engine
needed to fire for a precise amount of time. If the
back-up engine burned for less than 90 seconds
they could be stranded in space with no way to
return. If the engines burned for longer than
188 seconds, they would come in too fast.
The engine fired and burned for 213 seconds,
25 seconds too long. Ivanov and Rukavishnikov
came in at a steep angle and were exposed to 10 Gs
of force. For a comparison, the world’s fastest
rollercoaster pulls around 6.3 Gs and even
experienced pilots can pass out after 8 or 9 Gs in a
plane. Luckily the craft survived the re-entry and
landing, and both men walked away safely.
After leaving the space programme, Georgi won
numerous awards for his work in space travel but his
greatest achievement will always be becoming the
first Bulgarian to go into space. In fact, of the
41 nationalities that have travelled into space,
Bulgaria is 6th, and it’s all down to Georgi Ivanov.
24
Task 1
The original space race took place in the 1950s and
60s between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Each country wanted to be the first to send a man
into space. In 1961, this contest ended when the
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin entered the Earth’s
orbit in his shuttle named Vostok 1. The USA sent
their own astronaut up later that same year. Both
countries then turned their eyes to putting a man on
the moon, which the USA achieved in 1969 when
Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the lunar
surface.
At the start of the 21st century a new space race
began. However, this wasn’t a race between two
countries but between billionaires looking to be the
first to take their own spacecraft into outer space. In
early 2020, two men emerged as the leaders in the
space race. One was UK businessman Richard
Branson and the other was the world’s richest man,
Jeff Bezos.
Bezos is the creator of Amazon, the world’s largest
online shopping website. In 2000, Bezos founded
Blue Origin. Initially, the company did all its work in
secret but later it became clear that the company’s
goal is to eventually develop the technology to be
able to send people to live and work in orbital space
colonies above the Earth. They have also been
working with NASA to plan the creation of a lunar
base in the future.
27
 Audioscripts – Part 1
Bezos’ main rival in the space race was Richard
Branson, the British owner of Virgin Airlines as well
as various other companies. Branson has always
had a sense of adventure. In 1991 he crossed the
Pacific in a hot air balloon, setting a distance record
for balloon flight. In 2004 he started Virgin Galactic,
which would build spacecraft capable of taking
ordinary people into space. In 2019, the Virgin craft
VSS Unity reached an altitude of 89.9 kilometres,
which took Branson closer to outer space than any
civilian aircraft had before.
With both men having similar ambitions of space
travel, it soon became a question of who would get
there first. Both men planned launches for 2021. On
July 11th the billionaire space race ended when
Richard Branson and his Unity spacecraft took off
from a launchpad in New Mexico, flying Branson and
his crew into orbit above the Earth. Branson became
the first man to take his own craft into outer space.
Bezos acknowledged Branson’s achievement with
the message “Congratulations, can’t wait to join the
club.” He wouldn’t have to wait long. Bezos’ Blue
Origin rocket launched on the 20th of July 2021 from
Cape Canaveral. The rocket flew even higher than
Branson’s craft, crossing a barrier known as the
Kármán Line, which is roughly 100,000 km above the
Earth’s surface. Although the USA officially
recognises Branson’s flight of 86,000 km above the
Earth as space travel, some other nations class the
Kármán Line as the official boundary of space. This
means that the first billionaire to fly into space in
their own craft could be Bezos or Branson,
depending on the country you are in!
However, perhaps whoever did it first is not as
important as what they achieved. The flights offer
the possibility for ordinary people to fly into space
for the first time. Currently, a ticket into space will
cost a staggering $250,000. However, the price will
come down in future. It is quite possible that years
to come you could become the first person in your
family to travel into space.
25
Task 1
70% of the world’s rose-petal production comes from
Bulgaria. The symbol of the country is, in fact, the
damascene rose, a variety of rose which is heavy in
oil and strong in scent. This makes it ideal for perfume
production and the creation of scented soaps,
candles, creams and even rose water for sweets.
The town of Kazanlak in Central Bulgaria is located
in the very middle of Bulgaria’s Rose Valley and is
28
the capital of Bulgarian rose growing, with every
family in the town involved. It is for this reason that
every June, the world-renowned annual Bulgarian
Festival of Roses centres on Kazanlak.
The people of Kazanlak have been organising a rose
festival for well over a century, with the first recorded
one taking place in 1903! It celebrates the gifts and
wealth which the rose has given the kith and kin of
this region, and the climax of the festival is the Rose
Parade and the crowning of the Rose Queen.
Aside from these headline events, there are a
number of events leading up to the main festival day.
Rose-picking, fireworks, and traditional dancing and
music fill both day and night, and visitors are
encouraged to take part in all events except for the
rose-picking, which is something for locals only.
The Rose Parade in Kazanlak at the end of the
festival is the biggest parade in Bulgaria, with
3,000 people taking part. Add to that all the local
people, Bulgarians that come from all over the
country and even abroad to attend and the estimated
150,000 tourists the festival attracts, and you have
the ingredients for a weekend of fun, friendliness,
food and festivities!
Anyone planning a visit to the Rose Festival, however,
should bear in mind that hotels and other forms of
accommodation fill up fast for the festival weekend,
with tour companies advising hopeful travellers to
book a year in advance. Kazanlak is around three
hours by road from the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, and
can also be reached by rail.
Those wishing to stay longer in the area will be
pleased to know that there are lots of archaeological
treasures to visit. Apart from its nickname, the Valley
of Roses, the area is also sometimes called the
Valley of the Thracian Kings or the Valley of the
Thracian Rulers, due to the number of tombs that
have been found of the royalty of the Thracian tribes
that ruled the area in ancient times. There are
believed to be 1,500 grave mounds, or tumuli, in the
valley, of which only 300 have been examined.
So next June, why not take a trip with a difference: a
journey into Bulgaria’s present and past, where the
air is filled with the perfume of roses and the Rose
Queen awaits your arrival with a smile.
26
Task 1
Katherine: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Host: Let’s start by looking at the facts. Nowadays,
the world population is about 7.8 billion people.
Experts predict that by 2050, there will be 9.8 billion
Audioscripts – Part 1
people living on the planet. About 6.7 billion people
will live in cities. So, overpopulation is a real
problem; cities are getting bigger and the
countryside is getting smaller. Not to mention the
problems the planet is facing due to climate change.
So, Katherine, you’re the expert; please tell us: what
will houses be like in the future and where will we all
live?
Katherine: Yes, well, you’re right. The way we
design and build houses is already changing
dramatically in order to take population shifts and
climate change into account. At the same time,
engineers and architects use modern technologies
to create houses with smaller footprints and more
storeys, using balcony and roof space to provide
outdoor space.
Host: So, you’re saying we need to build up? Will we
all be living in huge skyscrapers in the future then?
Katherine: Possibly. Some people predict we will
indeed have super skyscrapers. These mega buildings
will take up less space on the ground, so as a result,
cities won’t spread out. We may even make cities
smaller because everything will be more compact. We
already have some super tall buildings; the Jeddah
Tower in Saudi Arabia for example is planned to be the
first 1 km-high building; a megastructure bigger than
anything we have today.
Host: Hmm… I’m not sure I would like that. I’m
afraid of heights.
Katherine: Well, another option is to build down and
create cities underneath cities. These may have
25 storeys or more but all underground. One concept
is to build inverted structures that look like pyramids.
This has already been suggested by a Mexican
architectural company. They call them
‘Earthscrapers’ and they are based on the design of
Aztec pyramids.
Host: Wow! Would we also build underwater?
Katherine: Of course, aquatic homes are another
possibility. Ocean communities in underwater cities
are an interesting idea. These would use the water
itself to create breathable atmospheres in bubble-
like houses like a modern-day Atlantis. A Japanese
company has suggested the idea and has also
provided solutions about how to maintain the ideal
temperature and provide water and food to the
inhabitants of the underwater city.
Host: Well, if we think that the Earth is 70% water,
I guess it makes sense.
Katherine: There’s one other option we haven’t
mentioned and that’s living in space.
Host: Right. So, we may all be living on the Moon in
the future?
Katherine: The Moon, Mars and maybe even other
planets outside our solar system. Even though some
people think this sounds like a sci-fi film plot, living
in space might become a reality sooner than we
think. At first, we may start living on space stations
inside the Earth’s atmosphere and then, move on to
set up bases on the Moon.
Host: That’s amazing. This is such an interesting
subject. Stay with us for more from architect
Katherine Newton who will tell us about the
technology we can expect to see in future houses.
We’ll be right back after a short break.
27
Task 1
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Dr Janet Stevens.
Welcome to my presentation on ways to improve
efficiency in the National Health Service, also known
as the NHS.
Doctors’ surgeries are busy places these days, with
patients seeking advice on all kinds of health issues,
even minor ones. In the interests of doctors and
patients alike, something needs to be done to
reduce the number of patients a doctor has to see in
any one day. The situation could be improved if the
government were to make more funding available for
national healthcare services. Injecting extra money
into the health budget would mean that more
doctors could be employed. In this way, the number
of patients in an area would be shared, relieving
individual doctors’ workloads.
Another solution could be to develop more websites
where patients can look up their condition and
receive an online diagnosis from a doctor and a
suggested course of treatment. This would mean
that, for minor problems at least, a visit to the doctor
would be unnecessary, and people could be helped
in the comfort of their own homes. It would also be a
good idea to step up government health education
campaigns. A lot of people are simply not aware of
the importance of a healthy lifestyle. If they were
better informed about following a balanced diet and
exercising regularly, the result would be that fewer
people need to go to the doctor.
One of the biggest problems that GP surgeries face
is missed appointments. Every year one in twenty
appointments are missed by patients. These wasted
appointments cost the NHS £216 million pounds a
year. This is obviously a huge amount of money
which could be spent elsewhere. In fact, this amount
of money could pay for over 8,000 community
29
 Audioscripts – Part 1
nurses! Although we all agree that the NHS needs to
remain free at the point of use, if people were
charged for missed appointments then it would
encourage people to cancel any appointments that
they don’t need.
A final idea would be to have separate departments for
different kinds of patients. Nurses could receive
additional training to deal with problems which are not
too serious. This would include things like rashes and
other cosmetic skin problems. This would take the
pressure off doctors, who could focus on more serious
illnesses. In short, there are a number of practical
solutions to the problem of crowded doctors’ surgeries.
I firmly believe that if such suggestions were put into
practice, the healthcare system would run more
smoothly and both patients and doctors would benefit.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my
presentation. I will now take any questions that you
may have.
28
Task 1
Host: Today’s guest is Emma Bussell, principal
ballerina with London’s Royal Ballet. Welcome to the
show, Emma!
Emma: Thank you for having me.
Host: Emma, how did you become a ballerina?
Emma: Well, it sort of runs in the family, really. My
mother was a dancer and a teacher. First, she put
my sister in ballet, but my sister was headstrong and
rebellious. She actually preferred doing Latin
American dance and runs her own school now.
Anyway, after failing with my sister, my mother tried
me and I took to it straightaway. I guess I’m quieter
and more willing to take direction.
Host: How old were you when you turned professional?
Emma: Dancers are normally around the age of 18
or 19 when they venture out to find a job in a
company in the professional world, but I was just a
few months short of my 17th birthday. Looking back,
it might have been best to wait for another year or
so. At 16, you cannot always bring the required
maturity to your roles.
Host: Did you find your first year as a professional
dancer difficult?
Emma: Yes, very. The first year is tough because
you get paid by the hour and the company
scrutinises you closely. They study your attitude and
if they think you’re lazy and not putting enough into
your work, they can easily fire you.
30
Host: Tell me about your daily schedule.
Emma: Well, on average I do four performances a
week – three during the week and one at the
weekend. On the days when I’m not performing, I
have a ballet class in the morning, then I spend the
afternoon in rehearsal. I could have five hours of
rehearsal, two hours or only half an hour – it just
depends. On the days when I’m not performing,
I have four hours of ballet class in the mornings and
that’s it – I’m free for the rest of the day!
Host: Do you have plans for when you retire? A
teacher like your mother?
Emma: I think I’d prefer to do something involved
with publicising ballet. The audience for ballet is
disappearing, which is a shame. I’d like to do
something to bring back our audience. We need to
get more young people interested in the ballet, as
well as different types of men and women.
Host: Why do you think young people are losing
interest?
Emma: Well, ballet doesn’t get very much exposure.
I think we need to bring ballet into the mainstream
somehow. Look what happened with musical
theatre. People thought that musicals were on the
way out a few years ago until the High-School
Musical films came out and young people realised
that they enjoyed them. Now musical theatre is more
popular than ever!
Host: Do you think that young people think of ballet
as old-fashioned?
Emma: I do. Most ballets are over 100 years old.
Perhaps it’s time that we came up with something
new. I think we have to change with the times and
try to appeal to a larger audience. There are some
great small dance companies out there doing really
creative things with ballet. I think they need more
recognition. As a publicist, I could help get these
companies into larger theatres.
Host: So what would you say to a young person
who is thinking of taking up ballet?
Emma: Ballet takes hard work and dedication but it
can also be fun. Young people often think of ballet
teachers as strict and serious so they stay away.
That may be true of some teachers, but there are
plenty who just want to share their talent and let
people have a good time. I think more young people
should try it at least once. They might end up loving
it as much as I did.
Audioscripts – Part 1
29
Task 1
In recent years, the rise of digital media has had a
transformative effect on the way we receive and
share information, and it’s happened at breakneck
speed, which is a concern. But what does this mean
for the future of print media? While a lot of people
argue that digital media will eventually replace print,
I’m convinced that print media will remain a valued
source of information in the future.
With all of the fake news online, people trust
broadsheets more than digital newspapers. There’s
just something more authentic about the printed
word. Perhaps it’s because we know that printed
news comes from a respected source (though
tabloids are obviously an exception here!). Reading
the morning paper together over breakfast has
always been a tradition in so many families. Some
even have an annual subscription to their favourite
paper. Sipping coffee, they discuss the latest
headlines, cover stories, and editorials. It’s a shared
experience that wouldn’t be the same if they were all
staring at their smartphones or laptop screens.
When it comes to advertising, printed ads are more
effective. Printed on the glossy paper of magazines,
they are more eye-catching than anything you’ll see
online. While they might not reach the same amount
of people as digital ads, printed ads have a greater
impact on those who do see them. People are tired
of being bombarded with online ads; they either use
an ad-blocker to hide them, or else have become so
used to their presence that they do not actually see
them. A well-placed billboard or poster is much
more striking and memorable.
And what about books? Well, while e-books have
been on the market for over two decades, sales
prove that the physical book continues to be a
success. Reading a book is a relaxing activity. When
people read for pleasure, they don’t want to look at a
screen – especially when they’ve spent all day at
work doing exactly that.
Lastly, there is still something magical about visiting
a bookshop. Browsing the shelves, admiring the
beautifully designed covers, holding a new book in
your hands and smelling its freshly printed pages ...
This is something that technology can never replace.
Some might say that the next generation will not be
affected by such things, as they won’t know any
different. They will never have held a book, will not
know what a record is, will be used to staring for a
long time at one screen or another. Perhaps we have
even started evolving, so that the human of the
future will have eyes adapted to blue light, a thumb
that texts at lightning speed and a forefinger adept
at scrolling.
But for now it doesn’t have to be that way. The job of
every adult, every parent, every older brother and
sister, even, is to bring young children out into the
open air, into nature, to run and breathe. It is to put
books in their hands, to read with them. It is to show
them the cartoons in the paper – which is where
I started reading newspapers, so many years ago –
and let them laugh along to Charlie Brown or Krazy
Kat. If we give up on the things we love so quickly –
what does that say about us? Say they are a lost
cause so easily – what does that say about us?
30
Task 1
2012 was a significant year for the UK. The country
not only hosted the Olympics, but it also celebrated,
along with other nations, the 60th anniversary of
Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. As 2012 approached, an
Englishwoman called Ann Morgan came up with the
idea of bringing the whole world into her life in this
most international of years for Britain. She set herself
the challenge of reading a book from every country in
the world between January and December, focusing
on fiction and biographies. She read more than one
work if she could. For example, from Bulgaria she
read Elias Canetti’s The Tongue Set Free, Kalin
Terziyski’s Is there Anybody to Love You?, Georgi
Gospodinov’s Natural Novel, Kapka Kassabova’s
Street Without a Name, Anton Donchev’s Time of
Parting, Milen Ruskov’s Thrown into Nature, Emiliyan
Stanev’s The Peach Thief and Dimitar Dimov’s
Doomed Souls!
To make it easier to find books from far-flung places
available in the English language, Ann set up a blog
in which she asked for people’s recommendations
and logged her progress. To her surprise, people all
over the world wanted to get involved in her
endeavour. One woman in Malaysia even offered to
choose a book for Ann from an English language
bookshop in Kuala Lumpur and post it to her.
Ann needed more than a recommendation for the
country that was the world’s youngest at the time,
though. In South Sudan, which gained independence
in 2011, no local author had yet published a novel.
Fortunately, Ann inspired a South Sudanese writer to
contribute something to her project. The story that
resulted was on the theme of independence, and
Ann decided it was fitting to read it on New Year’s
Day, which was South Sudan’s first.
31
 Audioscripts – Part 1
Another problem Ann overcame was the lack of
written literature in the Pacific nation of the Marshall
Islands, where the storytelling tradition is an oral one.
The Marshall Islanders’ stories in printed form can be
accessed only by people who have the permission of
community leaders. Through Internet research,
though, Ann found a Hawaiian actor who had spent
every summer in the Marshall Islands for 10 years
documenting its culture. Thanks to him, she was able
to read a collection of folk tales from the islands.
Ann had to fit at least two to three hours of reading
into every day to meet her challenge, which wasn’t
always easy as she was working full-time for most of
2012. She read on her commute to work, on her
breaks and often in the evening, too. One of the
longest books she chose was Ulysses by the Irish
writer James Joyce. It was the only one Ann listened
to as an audio book in her car, which itself took
seven months.
When Ann finished her final book in her year of
international reading – a novel about orphans
translated from Welsh – she felt a great sense of
achievement, but also some sadness that her
adventure was over. A lot of the writers and readers
she met in the course of the project have stayed in
touch with her, and she says she will continue to
explore the world through reading in the future.
31
Task 1
Thanks for your interest in our cruises to Antarctica
and coming to this talk. I notice there are a few
families among you, so the first thing I should say is
that it’s not possible to sail to Antarctica during the
long summer break. November to March is the only
period of the year when Antarctica is accessible at
all by ship – and here at Hansen Cruises we have
departures from December to mid-March only. That’s
because we’re a specialist wildlife cruise operator,
and those months provide the best opportunities to
see penguins, whales and seals. You’ll find cheaper
cruises on offer from other operators outside that
period, but you wouldn’t see as many animals, and
you wouldn’t even see very much of the continent in
November, because the ice is too thick to get
through in a lot of places. Whenever you choose to
go on a cruise to Antarctica, the journey from our
departure point in Argentina is not likely to be
smooth, unfortunately. To get to Antarctica, it’s
necessary to cross the Drake Passage, one of the
roughest stretches of sea in the world – though
32
conditions are usually calm once you’re on the other
side of it. If you’re not a good sailor, it is possible to
fly to an island in Antarctica that all of our ships call
at, but this would double the cost of your trip.
Another thing I should point out is that our ships are
not luxury cruise ships with casinos, spas and stage
shows. That’s because, unlike the larger ships on
which you can cruise to Antarctica, our ships were
designed especially for icy seas, which is why we
say we are the safest choice. Another difference
between us and our competitors is that instead of
spending money on on-board entertainment, we
employ scientists and historians to deliver lectures
and, weather permitting, lead passengers on shore
excursions. A lot of the enormous cruise ships that
go to Antarctica are unable to stop anywhere on
their journeys because of their size, but our
passengers always get the opportunity to step onto
Antarctica at least once. Weather permitting, we also
provide boat tours, allowing you to get as close as
possible to the wildlife. Obviously you need to bring
your warmest clothes, including thermal underwear,
and you’ll also find sunglasses, waterproof trousers
and boots are essential. Your boots should be at
least knee high or you won’t stay dry when you get
off the ship. When stepping off the boat, our aim is
to leave no sign we were ever there. It is of course
common sense that all litter and food remain on the
boat. Although it can be exciting to explore, it is vital
we remain in designated walking zones. The guides
will show you where to go to avoid disturbing any
nesting penguins. If you do encounter wildlife, our
policy is to stay 5 metres away and give animals the
right of way. I know it’s tempting to get that once-in-
a-life time photo, but it’s a bad idea to get too close.
These rules benefit the local environment but are for
your safety also. We assure you that these rules will
not hinder the awesome experience of stepping onto
one of the world’s most breathtaking continents.
Before I take your questions, I’m now going to show
you a collection of images from last season’s
cruises.
32
Task 1
Host: Today on the show, our guest is John Smith.
This is not our guest’s real name and you’ll
understand why shortly. John is a hacker. But not a
computer criminal who uses his technical knowledge
to break into computer systems and access sensitive
data. He’s a white hat hacker and he’s here to tell us
Audioscripts – Part 1
all about his interesting and unusual job. Welcome
John. First of all, what is a white hat hacker?
John: Hi, Tonia. Thanks for having me on the
programme. First of all, when people ask me about
my job, I say that I am a computer security expert.
Now regarding your question about the term white
hat hacker; a white hat hacker is an ethical computer
hacker.
Host: So, in other words, you hack into people’s
computer systems but not to do any harm?
John: Yes, that’s right. I test and assess companies’
security systems. Even though most companies
have really advanced systems, there are always
weaknesses. I have to find them and fix them. In this
way, I can stop a hacker with bad intentions from
accessing their systems.
Host: I see. And where does the name come from?
John: Now that’s an interesting story. It comes from
the old Western films about cowboys. In those films,
the good guys always wore white hats and the bad
guys wore black hats. Similarly, we have white hat
hackers and black hat hackers.
Host: Really? That seems a strange comparison. I’d
think cowboys and computers couldn’t be any more
different. But you haven’t always been a white hat
hacker, have you? You have worn the black hat as
well!
John: Yes, I have. In fact, most of the white hat
hackers used to be black hats too. You must be able
to think like a criminal to stop one.
Host: When you put it like that, it makes a lot of
sense, I guess. So, what sorts of things does your
job involve?
John: Well, like I said, I look for weaknesses in
computer systems and software to help companies
increase their security, but that’s not all. Sometimes,
information can be leaked in other ways. So
sometimes I check out the staff as well.
Host: What do you mean?
John: For example, I might send all the staff an
email asking for their passwords to see who will give
it. Or I may check people’s desks to see if they leave
files lying around or I may even look through the
company’s rubbish bins and see if any sensitive
information has been thrown in there.
Host: All with the employers’ permission of course?
John: Of course. There are lots of different methods
that hackers use to get access to sensitive
information, so I have to use them too in order to
improve a company’s security.
Host: It all sounds very interesting and exciting. Now,
tell me: how did you become a white hat hacker?
John: Well, I was at a hacker convention in Las
Vegas and I was approached by an agent from the
NSA in Washington who wanted to offer me a job.
I decided to give it a go so I worked for them for a
few years before I moved to London, where I started
working as a freelancer.
Host: And how is it going?
John: I’m doing very well. Soon, I may have to hire
some staff.
Host: I guess that’s good for you but bad for the
companies.
John: Well, not necessarily. It might just mean that
companies nowadays pay more attention to security
leaks and try to prevent them.
Host: I see. Let’s talk more about it after the break …
33
Task 1
A: Hello listeners and welcome to this week’s
podcast of Face the Music. Today we are going
to talk to ethnomusicologist Dr Richard Green.
Welcome Dr Green! First of all, please explain to
our listeners what exactly it is that you do.
B: Thank you for inviting me and please, call me
Richard. Well, basically, an ethnomusicologist
studies the relationship between music and
culture, specifically the culture of a particular
place or country. As part of the job, we usually
live for several years in the country we are
studying so as to learn the language and the
customs and try to understand how all the
cultural aspects are connected to the music
local people play or write.
A: Fascinating! So, why did you decide to become
an ethnomusicologist?
B: Well, I’ve always loved music, and I’ve been
playing the piano and the guitar since I was a
young child. When I finished my degree in music
at university, I moved abroad, to Italy, where
I played live music as a professional. I remember
that one evening, I was at a party with some
Italian friends, and the DJ started to play the
soundtrack from old Italian TV series. Everyone
went wild and started singing and dancing, with
big smiles on their faces. I had already lived
there for several years; I spoke the language
well and had a good understanding of Italian
music, but that was something I couldn’t join in
33
 Audioscripts – Part 1
with; I didn’t have the same memories that my
friends were collectively sharing in that moment.
A: So that inspired you to change your line of
work?
B: Yes, it made me look at music in a completely
different way. I started to go back to the very
basics. For example, what is music? If you think
about it, it doesn’t even physically exist. It’s just
vibrations in the air that hit our ears at different
frequencies and rates. Yet, it’s something that
has been central to all societies and cultures
throughout history. We hear it from the day we
are born, or even earlier, as our mothers sing to
us. We use it to mark special occasions such as
birthdays and weddings, during religious
ceremonies, and sports events.
A: You’re right. When I think of music and culture,
I think of the impact that artists like Elvis Presley
and the Beatles had on music at an international
level. Would you say that they also affected the
traditional music of other countries, as well as
their own?
B: Of course. The wonderful thing about music is
how it affects people emotionally, and both Elvis
and the Beatles, that you mentioned, were able
to capture the spirit of that period of time across
lots of different countries, despite differences in
language and culture. The Beatles still have as
many fans that don’t speak English as those
that do. It just shows that people don’t always
need to understand what the lyrics say – it’s
about the feelings that music creates.
A: And finally, Richard, do you believe that music is
still a powerful cultural tool in today’s world?
B: Well Mara, today music is a multi-billion-dollar
industry. We hear it everywhere, on the TV, radio
and the Internet as well as inside shops,
restaurants and other public places. Live
concerts have never been so popular as they are
today and musicians can be found improvising
on the streets in numerous towns and city
centres. Thanks to the Internet, music is created
and shared on platforms across the entire web
and people are continuously discovering and
creating new forms of music. Recently, new
music genres have become hugely popular on an
international level, such as K-pop from Korea
and J-pop from Japan. They sound a bit like
Western pop, but they use a number of themes
from their own cultures. In fact, it seems that
thanks to the Internet, all cultures from around
the globe can influence world music.
A: Well, that is true. Let’s take a break now … [fade]
34
34
Task 1
The Greek island of Ikaria, with its rocky cliffs and
olive trees, looks no different from other Greek
islands. If anything, it’s a less pleasant environment
than the well-known holiday islands because it’s one
of the windiest of all. The island is named after
Icarus, the character from Greek mythology who
flew too close to the sun. The story goes that the
wax in his wings melted and he crashed into the sea,
becoming that island.
There’s definitely something special about Ikaria,
though, because the average person on the island
lives for around 10 years longer than the average
European or American. The island is a “blue zone”,
which is a name given to a place where people live
much longer and healthier lives than everywhere
else. Currently, there are five of these zones around
the world, and Ikaria is one of the two located in
Europe. On Ikaria, one in three people there live into
their 90s, and the island’s
of serious illness and mental health
problems are much lower than average. The island
has not made any real money from tourism or any
other industry. Ikaria’s remarkable number of very
elderly people suggests there is no link between
financial wealth and good health. In fact, it’s quite a
poor island and 40% of its people are unemployed.
It seems likely, then, that the islanders’ traditional
lifestyle helps to explain why they stay so very fit and
healthy. Almost everyone on Ikaria grows their own
food, keeping fit through looking after their crops
and animals. In addition, family life is a much more
important part of Ikarian culture than in lots of
modern societies. Grandparents and great-
grandparents stay under the same roof as their
younger relatives. The only people in the island’s
sole care home for the elderly are people who have
somehow lost all their relations. Another aspect of
the Ikarian way of life that has been lost in cities and
towns elsewhere is the traditional afternoon sleep,
which is known to make heart disease less likely.
If the Ikarians’ diet is the reason for their exceptional
health, you’ll need to avoid eating a lot of sugar and
meat if you want to live as long as they do. Instead,
the islanders eat large amounts of beans and
vegetables that they grow at home or gather from
Mother Nature. Potatoes and goat’s milk are also
popular, and the islanders drink only small amounts
of coffee, preferring herbal tea.
As well as its people’s lifestyle and diet, the island’s
history could explain why Ikaria has such a large
Audioscripts – Part 1
percentage of people over 90. It was particularly
badly affected by the Second World War, during
which a lot of people died of hunger. Some scientists
have pointed out that today’s Ikarians are the
descendants of those who coped with the wartime
situation. That’s to say, they get their personal
biology from the strongest islanders of the time.
35
Task 1
Directions: You will hear a text about cleaning
Who here has got a robot vacuum cleaner at home?
Well, if not, I’m sure you will have one soon. Cleaning
robots are here, and they are here to stay. They can
perform several functions and are now starting to be
used more and more. This type of robot is simply
more efficient than human cleaners because they are
faster, they don’t get tired and they don’t need to eat
or sleep. They can save people from performing
repetitive tasks over and over, and of course, they
can limit the chance of injury, as cleaning windows
on high-rise buildings, for instance, is extremely
dangerous.
I mentioned the robot vacuum cleaners some people
already have in their homes, but commercial floor-
cleaning robots are on another level. Large industrial
models can clean over 200 square feet per day and
have scanners to detect obstacles and move around
them. They can even detect people and speak to
them politely. They also recharge themselves and
refill themselves with cleaning fluid. Some models
can clean indoors and outdoors and pick up rubbish.
They have parts that can be changed to match the
different surfaces. In Japan, for example, there is a
robot that can communicate with the building itself
and call the lift to go floor-to-floor for cleaning!
During the global pandemic of 2019, a lot of
hospitals discovered the benefits of robot vacuum
cleaners. The robotic cleaners have the advantage
that, unlike human cleaners, they cannot contract
infectious diseases. Another benefit of robotic
vacuums in hospitals is that they can clean using
ultraviolet light. This means cleaning can be done
without using harmful chemicals. A hospital in
Munich, Germany, has gone one step further and
introduced a robot cleaner that can tell patients
jokes and even sing a song while it works
disinfecting the room.
There are other robots that can clean the outsides of
buildings, too. Some of them are inspired by nature
as they mimic the movements of animals to clean
the windows and outer surfaces of huge
skyscrapers. One cleans surfaces using suction
cups to move around in the same way as a gecko
would and another walks with leg-like structures and
feet like an ant – and can even step over obstacles.
They can be radio-controlled and high winds are not
a problem. A similar robot is used to clean the glass
pyramid of the Louvre in Paris. It does a complete
clean of the famous structure twice a month. It can
wash and dry the glass and can be used by a person
with a controller or set to clean automatically. Other
window cleaning robots can clean the inside and the
outside at the same time. They work with wheels
and magnets and are great for buildings with
windows that open.
Accepting cleaning robots into our lives doesn’t
necessarily mean people will be out of a job. A great
number of these robots require human operators,
who also have to perform maintenance and
servicing. So, I think it’s a win-win situation and in
the future, we will enjoy the advantages of robotic
technology in every aspect of our lives.
36
Task 1
Onions may have been the first vegetable people
used in cooking. The oldest recipes ever found,
which were discovered in the Middle East in 1985
and are nearly 4,000 years old, are full of mentions of
onions and their relatives, such as leeks and garlic.
It’s clear from these ancient texts that these were
key ingredients for pies, soups and other dishes of
the time. It’s believed onions first grew in central
Asia, so they had already travelled quite far by the
time these ancient recipes were written down. There
is also some evidence that Europeans were also
eating onions at about the same time. It’s not
surprising that onions spread around the world so
easily in early human history when you consider how
easy they are to grow. Few insects attack onion
plants, so a failure to harvest onions is rare. The first
groups of English people who travelled to North
America to start new lives in the 1600s took onions
with them, but discovered the native people were
already growing and eating them. These days,
onions are an even more global food. Although
wheat is the food people grow the most of by weight,
onions are grown in more countries than wheat. In
fact, 175 nations produce onions, making them the
world’s most widely grown vegetable. Because
onions can be grown in so many regions of the
35
 Audioscripts – Part 1

world, 90% of onions remain to be sold in the
country where they were grown, and some countries
have a particularly special relationship with their
locally produced onions. Nearly all everyday cooking
in India, for example, involves onions – and a rise in
the price of onions is a political issue there. For
example, the rising cost of onions was blamed when
a certain political party lost control of the Indian
state of Delhi in 1998. More recently, in May 2014,
India’s prime minister stopped onion traders from
selling them to other countries too cheaply in order
to keep prices low at home. In 2010, the Indian
government of the day went even further. It
responded to concerns about high onion prices by
passing a law against the international sale of Indian
onions to try to avoid protests on the streets. India is
not the country that eats the most onions per
person, however. The people of Libya in north Africa
seem to have the biggest appetite for them. The
average Libyan eats over 30kg of onions per year.
Pet owners should take care, however, because
onions can be toxic to them. Dogs, cats, guinea pigs
and various others can be poisoned by eating
onions, so it is important not to give them leftover
food with onion in it.
Onions aren’t only useful for filling our stomachs,
though. Their skins can be used to produce yellow,
red and orange colouring for clothes without the use
of chemicals. They are often commonly used in
science lessons at school because their cells are
rather large and easy to see with a simple microscope.

36
Audioscripts – Part 2
1 2
Task 1
My favourite programme on TV right now is Our
Planet, a documentary series about the wonders of
the natural world on Netflix. David Attenborough, the
world-famous naturalist and TV legend, takes us on
a journey around our planet. At 93 years of age, he
has visited every continent exploring the world of the
wild and he shows us some of these wonders. This
series is different from the usual nature programmes
we see though, because it has a darker side to it.
Each episode looks at a different ecosystem and
shows how every plant and creature in it relies on
another for its survival. It focuses on the beauty in
each place and the amazing creatures that live there
but what makes the programme special is that it
comes with a warning: if one aspect of the
ecosystem is destroyed, then it means disaster for
all of its inhabitants. Attenborough presents the
impact of humanity on the living world and its
harmful effects.
The producers spent four years filming in
50 countries with a crew of over 600 people. One
clip of a Siberian tiger took two years of patience in
difficult conditions to capture on film. The message
that comes across is that these beautiful rare
creatures are now rarer than ever, and it is our fault.
One breathtakingly beautiful scene in the jungle of
Madagascar ends with the painful truth that this
place no longer exists and all the wildlife we just
watched has now disappeared.
I love this programme because it has stunning
photography, but even more because it is a
programme with a mission. It shows the beauty that
exists in the natural world, and explains why it is rare
and what we did to make it rare. But more
importantly, it also describes what we can do to
repair the damage we have done. Attenborough
takes us to places where positive action has been
taken to prove that it is possible to undo the damage
and help the ecosystem recover.
The scenes of amazing natural beauty are mixed
with scenes of destruction making this documentary
an eye-opening account of how humans have taken
over the planet. At the same time, it offers hope: we
can change things for the better if we just act now.
Some critics say it is too sad and others complain
that it treats the audience like children. I disagree.
I think the tone is fatherly, with Attenborough as our
favourite uncle showing us the unique beauty of our
planet.
Task 1
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a
good family, though not of that country, my father
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first in Hull.
He made a lot of money as a merchant, and leaving
off his trade, lived afterwards in York. There he had
married my mother, whose relations were named
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from
whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but we are
now called – no, we call ourselves and write our name
– Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was
lieutenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in
Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near
Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my
second brother I never knew, any more than my
father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not trained in
any trade, my head began to be filled very early with
thoughts of travel. My father, who was very ancient,
had given me a competent share of learning, as far
as house-education and a country free school
generally go, but I would be satisfied with nothing
but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me to
go against the commands of my father, and against
all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and
other friends.
My father, a wise and grave man, called me one
morning into his chamber, and asked me what
reasons I had for leaving my father’s house and my
native country, where I might be well introduced, and
had a prospect of raising my fortune by application
and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told
me it was poor men or rich men who went abroad
upon adventures to rise by enterprise, and make
themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out
of the common road; that mine was the middle state,
which he had found, by long experience, was the
best state in the world, the most suited to human
happiness. He told me I might judge of the
happiness of this state by this one thing – that this
was the state of life which all other people envied;
that kings have often wished they hadn’t been born
to great things, and wished they had been placed in
the middle of the two extremes, between the mean
and the great.
He told me to observe it, and I should always find
that the disasters of life were shared among the
upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle
station had the fewest.
...
37
 Audioscripts – Part 2
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and,
indeed, who could be otherwise? and I resolved not
to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at
home according to my father’s desire. But alas! a
few days wore it all off; and a few weeks after
I resolved to run away.
3 actually helped me with my future career path as
Task 1
I know there are a lot of negatives to the Internet and
social media, but for me it’s been nothing but good.
Let me give you some examples.
Last year, I moved with my family across Australia
from Melbourne to Darwin. I was gutted at first as
I was leaving behind my best friend. She’s like a
sister to me! We’ve been keeping in touch over the
Internet, though, and it’s been a life-saver. We
phone, we text and we FaceTime each other day
and night. It might not be as good as face-to-face
contact, but we chat about everything.
All my mates are mad about tennis, but it gets a bit
dull playing it day in day out. I decided to do
something different this year – running. The only
drawback is I don’t like running on my own, so
I downloaded an app that puts me in contact with
other runners in my area. The app lets me plan runs,
set targets, and even compete against other runners.
It’s so good that I’m thinking of upgrading to the pro
version so I can use it on my smart watch. In fact,
I’m off for a run now with Harry. We met through the
app and hit it off immediately. He isn’t a big tennis
fan either.
I’m also learning Spanish so I downloaded a free
app that connects you to native speakers. I had no
idea that there are so many people online eager to
chat in their own language or in English! The app can
correct my texts in Spanish and also translate what’s
sent to me, although I try not to do that too much.
I met Isabella on the app and we text all the time.
The app’s not just for Spanish, though – it’s for all
languages. In fact, I’m thinking of taking up
Japanese; I might make a Japanese friend, too.
The first thing I do when I get a school assignment is
go online and check out the chatrooms. They’re
really handy for schoolwork. I needed to up my
grades this semester, and these chatrooms and
discussion forums have got me back on track. As a
bonus, I’ve met plenty of new friends online and we
text 24/7. One rule, though – no schoolwork. Keep
that for the chatrooms!
I know there are some people who get bullied online,
and I think that’s terrible. If I ever see someone doing
38
it, I make a point of telling them not to and shaming
them in front of the other users. The only way to stop
these people is by grouping together and not letting
them pick one person out that they feel is weak and
attacking them.
All in all, the Internet and social media have been
nothing but helpful to me. I even think I’d like to be
an app-designer when I grow up, so in a way, they’ve
well!
4
Task 1
I had been taking English lessons at school for six or
seven years, so I would say that I used a traditional
approach to learning English. I loved my English
classes, but sometimes I felt they were a little slow
and the other boys and girls in my class weren’t as
passionate about English as I was. So, despite my
efforts, I’d say that two years ago, my English still
wasn’t very good. In fact, I found it really hard to
understand the lyrics of my favourite songs – even
though now I realise they weren’t that hard. That was
disappointing, because I absolutely love British and
American songs!
Then, one day, while I was scrolling down a
webpage, I came across an online English course. I
had to download some software and the course
material before starting, but then it was easy and fun
to use. The course also gave me access to lots of
different online resources, like videos and extra
practice material, and twice a week I got to practise
my speaking skills with a native speaker by video
chat. It gave my English a huge boost. Now I can
visit discussion forums and write about the things I
love in English and it feels great to be part of an
English-speaking digital community. I also met my
British pen friend online. Well, we haven’t actually
met – our avatars meet in a virtual world and we
exchange emails. But I know that his name’s Jimmy
and that he’s from Liverpool. I hope to visit him one
day soon so that we can also meet in person!
Liverpool is also the home of the Beatles, who are
my favourite band of all time. I’d love to visit the city
that inspired their music. I’ve been learning their
lyrics and singing along, and I spend a lot of my free
time online looking for more songs. I also use a lot of
e-learning and educational resources online in
English when I have to complete various class
essays or projects.
Then, my parents sent me to a summer course in
London. At first, I was angry at them because
Audioscripts – Part 2
I wanted to stay home and get a summer job but, to
my surprise, the whole experience was amazing! It’s
true that we had to get up early every day for
morning lessons, but in the afternoons, there was
always something fun planned for us to do. We got
to see London and visit some other cities – not
Liverpool, though, unfortunately! The real surprise,
however, was how much my English improved in
such a short period of time. I made friends with other
students from all over the world, and I had no
problem at all chatting in English with them! The
course was six weeks, but after just two, I felt
confident enough to start my own vlog in English.
I uploaded a few videos from my London experience
which you can see on my webpage. And I really
can’t wait for my next trip!
Now I really feel confident in my English – so much
so, in fact, that I’m starting to think about going to
university in the UK or America when I eventually
finish school.
5 Karloff’s proudest achievement was being one of the
Task 1
When people dress up as Frankenstein’s monster for
Halloween parties, it’s usually not the description of
the monster in Mary Shelley’s 19th-century novel
Frankenstein that inspires them. The enduring image
of the monster that we all recognise actually comes
from the 1931 film of the same name starring Boris
Karloff, who managed to make audiences feel
sympathy for the monster despite its sinister
appearance. Nobody had expected Karloff’s
performance to have such an impact, however. The
first choice for the role had been Bela Lugosi, who
had become famous as Dracula in the first
Hollywood version of that tale. He refused the part
that eventually went to Karloff because he objected
to the idea of having no lines and concealing his face
behind make-up. The pair would later work together
in eight different horror films.
Karloff was born in London in 1897 as William Pratt.
He attended university there but didn’t complete his
degree, choosing instead to go to Canada to get
married and start a new life. He tried to earn a living
as a farm labourer and by selling houses, but neither
venture was a success. After seeing an advert for
theatre performers in Seattle, USA, Pratt decided to
reply under the name of Boris Karloff, which he
chose for its exotic sound. Perhaps out of
desperation to get work, he claimed to have acting
experience. He got on stage as a result, but later
admitted that his first performances were awful. He
spent several years playing small parts in theatres
and improving his acting skills, and won occasional
minor roles in films. He gained a lot of positive
attention for a performance he gave in a play in New
York, and that led to regular film work throughout the
1920s, but always in supporting roles. Karloff didn’t
even put himself forward for the role of
Frankenstein’s monster; winning the part was a case
of being in the right place at the right time. Karloff
was having lunch in a film studio canteen when the
horror film director James Whale noticed the unusual
shape of his head. That observation led to Karloff
playing Frankenstein’s monster in several films,
among other characters created to scare audiences.
He became celebrated for his ability to bring emotion
to such roles.
Although the role of Frankenstein’s monster made
him famous, it was far from easy. He would have to
sit in make-up for several hours before his working
day would begin. This meant he would be working
incredibly long days in heavy make-up and clothing.
Despite being most famous for playing the monster,
founding members of the Screen Actors Guild. The
Screen Actors Guild was dedicated to ensuring that
actors had good working conditions and Karloff was
its 9th official member. Today there are over 160,000
official SAG members.
Since 1910, there have been over 60 movies
featuring Frankenstein’s monster. Karloff’s 1931
black and white version still remains the most
recognisable and undoubtably will be for years to
come.
6
Task 1
Edgar Allan Poe was a master of horror and mystery
stories. It’s perhaps because he faced so many
difficult situations in his life that his work is full of
dark characters, events and images. Both Poe’s
mother and father were actors, but his future lay
elsewhere and he didn’t really get to know either of
them. His father, failing on the stage, abandoned the
family shortly after he was born in 1809, and his
mother died when he was just three. He was
adopted by tobacco trader John Allan and his wife,
but Poe never really got on with his new father and
wasn’t really interested in the family business. It’s
even said that Poe wrote poems on some of Allan’s
business documents. Poe became a student at the
University of Virginia in 1826, but Allan didn’t provide
him with enough money to get him through the
39
 Audioscripts – Part 2
course. To earn some money, he turned to gambling,
but this only made things worse. Deep in debt, he
eventually had to drop out of his course. To make
matters worse, when he returned to the Allans’
home, he discovered that his fiancée, a neighbour,
was now engaged to somebody else. Poe was too
upset to live at the Allans’ house any longer, so he
left and joined the army. He also had his first poems
published around this time. In 1830, Poe won a
place at a military academy, but only lasted a year
there before he was dismissed for not carrying out
his duties well enough. This time, he couldn’t return
to the Allans. After a number of arguments, John
Allan had decided to cut all ties with Poe. So, Poe
focused on his writing and moved up and down the
east coast of America in search of opportunities to
succeed as a writer. He stayed with an aunt in
Baltimore for a few years and fell in love with his
cousin Virginia, whom he married. Poe’s main job in
the 1830s was as a literary critic. He worked for
several magazines, and developed a reputation for
being quite cruel in his reviews. Perhaps reading so
much work that he didn’t admire encouraged him to
develop his own. Between the late 1830s and 1845,
Poe wrote some of his most brilliant poems and
stories, including, in 1841, ‘The Murders in the Rue
Morgue’ which is seen as the first ever detective
story. There was more personal sadness for Poe in
1847, when his wife died at the age of just 25. Full of
grief, Poe himself died in mysterious circumstances
just two years later. After leaving Virginia to visit New
York, he disappeared for a whole week. He was next
seen in a bar in Baltimore wearing clothes that didn’t
belong to him. He was clearly unwell and was taken
to hospital, where he died two days later of unknown
causes.
7 become the most popular way to watch the news.
Task 1
As a presenter in the news industry, I believe that
since AR and VR technology are constantly improving,
we will experience what we call spatial journalism; we
will be able to give our viewers live coverage and
updates in a 360-degree environment so that they feel
like they are actually there and experiencing the news
for themselves. From wars and natural disasters to
sports events and the Oscars, it will be the closest
thing to reality that news companies can offer. The
platforms already exist but, unfortunately, the cost of
AR and VR equipment is still too expensive for most
people.
40
The use of AI is also definitely going to play a key
role both in terms of automated articles for online
newspapers and in targeting readers and viewers
with news stories and information that match their
specific interests based on content they’ve already
searched for. This can create a problem known as
the ‘echo chamber’ meaning that you might only see
news stories that agree with your own personal
opinion and none which contradict it. As nice at it is
to only read stories which you agree with, it’s not
exactly informative. I was speaking to a chief editor
for a major newspaper just the other day, and she
told me that one of the major problems will be to
make sure readers get a balanced view of the digital
content that is generated. Nowadays, we hear a lot
about fake news, and this is often due to the fact
that people often only want access to content that is
interesting, not necessarily true. It will become
increasingly more important to take these things into
account if we want to use new technologies but also
keep the standards of journalism high.
It isn’t just about what we provide but also how and
when we provide useful and practical user content.
In the past, people got the news from TV, radio and
newspapers; now they’ve got smart devices at
home, and can also get the news on the go via
phones, smartwatches and AR equipment. Based on
a person’s location and behaviour, we can provide
up-to-date information on things like local weather
and traffic jams, and give real time warnings or
recommendations. I expect that in the future, we will
be creating content that will be targeted at different
people. For example, a visitor to the town would
probably want easy access to tourist information,
local events and restaurant reviews, while a resident
may be more interested in local developments.
Even if the technology becomes more affordable, it
is debatable whether virtual reality technology will
Scientists at Stanford University have experimented
with VR as a way to give people a stronger
psychological connection with the news stories they
see. They believe that making people part of a scene
can give the viewer a better feeling of empathy. But
is more empathy something people want? It can be
distressing enough to watch scenes of suffering on
the television. Would people really be willing to put
on equipment that makes them feel more of a part of
that? It seems like technology is growing faster than
our imagination. It’s really no longer a case of what
technology can do for the viewer, but rather what the
viewer wants from technology.
Audioscripts – Part 2
8 So, how can we use the information revealed in this
Task 1
Good afternoon. Today I want to talk to you about
the effects of one type of natural disaster that can
happen almost anywhere on the planet: floods. We
all know how much destruction floods can cause.
Property damage, home loss and terrible economic
effects; individuals, families and communities can be
overwhelmed by loss in a matter of hours. But the
study I want to talk to you about today was done
with a different focus in mind. Researchers recently
looked at areas of Bulgaria to try and understand the
effects of floods not on our property, but our mental
health and well-being.
In recent years, Bulgaria has experienced lots more
floods than it typically gets. This is one of the main
reasons the research team chose to conduct their
research in Bulgaria. However, since one of the
authors of the study, Filka Sekulova, is from Bulgaria
herself, she was already familiar with the extreme
weather the country had been experiencing long
before they began their work.
The study, titled ‘Floods and happiness: Empirical
evidence from Bulgaria’, looks at a number of small
towns and villages, some that experienced floods
and some that didn’t. The towns and villages that
weren’t affected by floods were used as a ‘control
group’, which means they offered the research team
the opportunity to compare results.
The researchers first asked the people from these
towns and villages whether they were satisfied with
their lives. Then, they asked a variety of questions
about their quality of life such as: were they
employed, did they suffer from health problems, and
were they happy with their lives. Finally, they
examined the differences between the answers from
those who weren’t affected by floods at all, those
who more recently experienced a flood and those
who were affected by floods several years earlier.
They hoped to show that disasters like flooding have
both short- and long-term effects on people’s
happiness, and the results were unsurprisingly close
to their expectations.
The conclusion of the study was that those who
were affected by the floods had less satisfaction
with their lives no matter their age, level of
employment or social status. It didn’t even matter
how much wealth someone had; everyone’s well-
being was harmed by these natural disasters. Even
several years after the floods, when life had mostly
returned to normal, people still expressed higher
levels of unhappiness in those regions.
study? Well, we hope that by understanding how
people are affected by natural disasters, we can help
them more in the future. Think about how groups of
volunteers move in after a disaster to help rebuild
and clean up. Imagine if we could repair people’s
well-being the same way. It’s something to think
about, don’t you agree?
9
Task 1
Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in California. At birth,
his mother travelled from Syria to San Francisco to
give birth before placing her newborn son with an
adoptive couple, Paul and Clara Jobs.
After high school, Jobs attended Reed college in
Portland, where he studied English. The college was
expensive and his parents could barely afford it.
After just one semester he dropped out, saying that
education seemed meaningless to him. In 1974,
Steve Jobs got his first job in computers at the Atari
video game company as a technician. His friend
Steve Wozniak had recently designed his own
version of a video game called Pong. According to
Wozniak, Jobs took the game circuit board to the
Atari interview and got the job only because they
assumed he had built it himself.
After saving money from working at Atari, Steve
Jobs decided to take a trip to India. He had an
interest in Zen Buddhism and wanted to go to India
to learn more about it. He remained there for seven
months before returning to the United States. He
went back to work at Atari, where they hired him to
build a circuit board for a video game. He enlisted
the help of his friend, Steve Wozniak, to build it with
him and split the money. Jobs and Wozniak began
attending the Home Brew Computer Club together
in 1975. It was a club for hobbyists who built their
own computers. The members would trade parts
and give each other ideas. It was here that the seed
for Apple computers was planted.
Jobs and Wozniak started their company on April 1st
1976. Wozniak was the technical genius who would
play the largest part in designing the internal parts of
the computer itself. Jobs would help put the
computers together, but his main focus was on
marketing and making sure the computer looked
great and was user friendly. Most computers in the
early 1970s did not look like the computers of today.
People would buy parts and put them together
themselves. This could be intimidating for people
who didn’t know much about them. Jobs’ vision was
41
 Audioscripts – Part 2
to design computers that the average person would
want to use. In a lot of ways, his lack of technical
knowledge of computers was his greatest strength.
He knew how to appeal to everyday people and not
just computer enthusiasts. The first computer was
the Apple One. It was built by hand by Wozniak and
Jobs in a garage and around 200 were sold. The
sales from the Apple One made enough money to
hire enough staff to mass produce the Apple Two.
The Apple Two became the world’s first highly
successful computer, selling 6 million units. In 1984,
Apple released the Macintosh. This computer
featured a graphical desktop interface and a mouse,
just like the computers of today. Eventually,
Macintosh would be shortened to its nickname, the
Apple Mac.
In 2007, Jobs unveiled Apple’s latest product, the
iphone. It quickly became the world’s most in-
demand mobile phone and cemented Apple’s place
as a leader in technology. Sadly, Jobs passed away
in 2011 but his legacy lives on in Apple. Wozniak left
in 1985 but is still a company spokesman.
Nowadays, the company is one of the most
profitable companies in the world, currently worth 65
billion dollars. Without a doubt, Jobs’ ambition of
making computers accessible to ordinary people
has been realised.
10
Task 1
Hello everyone! My name is Janet and I just moved
back to the UK from Spain. My husband and I lived
there for about 4 years but we missed England a lot
and decided to move back to my husband’s home
town. I work in advertising and I really enjoy reading
so I was so excited when my new neighbour Kate
told me about this book club. I joined one in Spain
but my Spanish wasn’t really good enough so it’s
great to be back here where I can discuss books to
my heart’s content.
The book for this week was The Old Man and the
Sea. It’s a novel by Ernest Hemingway, written in the
1950s. The book takes place in a fishing village in
Cuba. The main character is an old fisherman named
Santiago. He has not caught a single fish in 84 days.
He has an apprentice named Manolin whose family
force him to leave the old man’s side due to his lack
of success. However, Manolin continues to help
Santiago by bringing him food and bait. Santiago
decides to sail out into the deep waters of the Gulf
Stream. The water there is more dangerous but he
decides to take desperate measures to catch some
42
fish. There, he hooks a giant fish called a marlin. The
giant fish is extremely fast and strong, and Santiago
battles for three days, before finally reeling it in. Over
the three days he comes to respect the fish for its
strength and beauty. However, after lashing the
marlin to the side of his boat, Santiago is horrified to
see a group of sharks moving towards his boat to
feed on the captured marlin. Santiago manages to
kill several sharks before they eat the fish, leaving
only a skeleton tied to the boat. Santiago returns to
the harbour defeated, where he tells Manolin of his
adventure.
For me, the book had a powerful message. Some
people say it is a simple story about strength, wisdom
and friendship. I had a different interpretation, though.
It left me with the message that it is better to try and
to fail than to never try at all. The book starts out
with a sense of failure. Santiago has tried his same
routine for 84 days and nothing has gone well for
him. He sails out into more dangerous waters and
undergoes an epic struggle. When he returns to the
harbour his efforts have ended in failure but his
experience allows him to reconnect with Manolin.
Had he stayed in safer waters, this may have never
happened. I think it teaches us that if you take on
challenges, you may get a reward you don’t expect.
My interpretation isn’t necessarily correct, though. A
lot of people have a lot of different ideas about what
the book is about. I do know I enjoyed it, though.
I found that I couldn’t put it down. It’s quite short, so
I managed to read it in one sitting, which really
helped me to get the most out of it.
11
Task 1
These days the name Getty is closely associated
with art. The J Paul Getty Museum in California,
USA, exhibits both modern and ancient art, and the
Getty Foundation gives financial help to artists and
arts venues throughout the world. There are two
Getty museums in the United States. The Getty
Centre is located in Los Angeles. It is a traditional
museum housing ancient artifacts as well as modern
photography, paintings, and sculptures. The other is
the Getty Villa in Malibu which opened in 1974 and is
themed around the ancient Greek and Roman
artwork inside. The villa includes artifacts that are
thousands of years old, including a 2000-year-old
Roman mummy. It has an ornamental pool in its
centre with a view of the Pacific. Both museums are
free for the general public to visit. The aim is not to
make money from museums. They exist to preserve
Audioscripts – Part 2
the priceless works of art and provide an environment
where anyone can see them. When the American
family who gave their name to these institutions first
became well known, however, it was through oil, big
business and huge wealth.
The Getty family is one of the wealthiest families on
Earth. The family member who did most to make
them rich was John Paul Getty, who was born in
1892. While John Paul Getty was a boy, his father
George changed careers. He left the world of law to
enter the oil industry, and John Paul joined the family
business after graduating from Oxford University
with a degree in politics and economics. Getty had a
real talent for buying and selling licences to search
for and remove underground oil. He made so much
money in his twenties that he was able to stop
working completely for two years in order to enjoy
himself. When he returned to work, his father gave
him control of a third of the business. Getty became
head of the Getty company when his father died in
1930, and began to expand it in every way possible
and buy rival businesses. Getty wanted to rely on no
other companies, and before long he achieved his
ambition. Soon, the Getty Corporation was involved
in preparing oil for sale and transporting it, as well as
finding it in the first place. Getty remained president
of the company until his death, building up a
personal fortune of $4 billion.
It seems Getty was far more talented at running his
business than handling his personal relationships.
He got married and divorced five times. He also
made a controversial decision not to give in to
criminals who kidnapped one of his grandchildren,
Paul, in 1973. The kidnappers wanted $3 million in
return for releasing Paul – but Getty refused to pay it
to avoid putting his other grandchildren in danger.
Getty only agreed to pay the money after the
kidnappers had physically harmed his grandson.
12
Task 1
Easter is a Christian celebration that takes place in
spring every year in lots of countries around the
world. However, different countries have their own
traditions and customs for this special celebration.
Easter in most English-speaking countries such as
the UK, the USA and Ireland usually takes place a
few weeks earlier than Bulgarian Easter. The reason
for the difference is that the Easter date is calculated
using the Julian calendar in Bulgaria and the
Gregorian calendar in most other countries.
Before Easter, most countries observe a period of
time called ‘Lent’. In Bulgaria, this means not eating
any meat, fish or animal products for 46 days,
whereas in English speaking-countries, Lent is only
for 40 days and people usually just give up one
thing. For example, someone may choose to give up
an unhealthy food or a bad habit for Lent.
Then, to prepare for Easter, Bulgarians often paint
hard-boiled eggs. Traditionally, they do this on the
Thursday or the Saturday before Easter Sunday.
Some people paint eggs in English-speaking
countries, too, but usually as a fun activity for
children. However, most children in these countries
make special hats from paper and card called Easter
bonnets instead. Another thing people in Bulgaria do
to celebrate Easter is to prepare or buy Kozunak – a
sweet yellow bread with a lot of butter, sugar and
fruit inside. Sometimes, they decorate the Kozunak
with a red boiled egg. In some English-speaking
countries, such as the UK, people also eat a special
type of bread. This is called a hot-cross bun and it
has got fruit and spices inside and a white cross on
the top. People eat hot-cross buns on the Friday
before Easter, whereas in Bulgaria, people don’t eat
the Kozunak until Easter Sunday.
To celebrate Easter at the church, some people in
English-speaking countries may attend a small
service on one of the days before Easter and listen
to a religious story from the Bible or sing hymns. But
in Bulgaria, almost everyone goes to the church on
the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday to
celebrate. They take a candle with them to the
church and the priest shares the flame from his
candle with everyone there. Then, each family takes
their candle with its flame back to their home. This
custom doesn’t take place in English-speaking
countries.
Finally, on Easter Sunday, people in Bulgaria and in
English-speaking countries celebrate Easter with
their family and friends. Most people sit down to
have a big meal together. In most countries, the main
meal is lamb, though different countries serve
different side dishes. For example, in Bulgaria, they
often have a green salad with boiled eggs, but in
English-speaking countries they are more likely to
have roast potatoes and boiled vegetables with their
lamb. Then, after the meal, people in Bulgaria enjoy
some of the Kozunak, whereas people in English-
speaking countries eat lots of chocolate Easter eggs.
Even though not every country celebrates in the
same way, Easter is always a great time to celebrate
with your loved ones and enjoy delicious food.
43
 Audioscripts – Part 2
13
Task 1
When people are asked about Agatha Christie, they
often think of the tiny Belgian detective Poirot, but
they seem to know very little about his creator. That
may be because Agatha Christie hated interviews,
avoided the press and never agreed to appear on
television. In fact, she was a very secretive writer
who saw no good reason why her readers should
expect anything more from her than what she wrote
in her novels.
Born in Torquay, England, in 1890 to an outgoing
American father with an independent income and a
shy British mother whom she resembled greatly in
personality, Agatha had two older siblings, Madge
and Monty. Although Madge received a formal
education, their mother decided that Agatha
wouldn’t be taught to read until she was eight;
however, by the age of five she had already taught
herself to read. Throughout her childhood, a number
of private tutors were employed for her education.
When Agatha was eleven, her father died and her
mother became restless and began to travel. In
1912, Agatha met Archie Christie, her future
husband, a qualified aviator who had applied to join
the Royal Flying Corps. They married on Christmas
Eve 1914 before Archie returned to the war in France
on Boxing Day. During the war, Agatha worked as a
nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red
Cross hospital in Torquay, where she gained a
working knowledge of medicines and poisons and
completed the examination of the Society of
Apothecaries.
Although Agatha had amused herself as a child,
acting out stories and make-believe scenarios, her
writing career only began when she was 25 after her
sister Madge told her she was incapable of writing a
detective novel. It took several years to publish The
Mysterious Affair at Styles and the publisher
requested an alternative final chapter but the reviews
were positive and the murder by poison so well
described that Agatha received the unprecedented
honour of a review in the Pharmaceutical Journal!
Why detective story writing quickly became her
speciality is not known, but she used to read her
grandmother the crime stories out of the local paper,
which may have aroused her interest.
Agatha’s daughter Rosalind was born on 5th August
1919, but in 1926 her life seemed in tatters when her
mother died and her husband left her for another
woman shortly afterwards. Faced with these
difficulties, she plotted the flight to Harrogate that
became known as “the 11-day disappearance”. Her
44
abandoned car was found on a slope at Newlands
Corner near Guildford and there was no sign of her.
Christie was eventually discovered staying at a hotel
under a false name. It seems that she believed that
she could disappear and make her husband come to
rescue her, and had never expected the affair to be
covered in the newspapers with an almost tabloid
frenzy, or the accusations of having staged a
publicity stunt.
Christie slowly rebuilt her life and in 1930 she visited
Baghdad for a second time. It was here that she met
archaeologist Max Mallowan, whom she later
married and accompanied on his annual expeditions
for nearly 30 years. After a hugely successful career
during which she wrote 82 murder mystery novels,
short stories and plays, Agatha died peacefully on
12th January 1976.
14
Task 1
When learning English by heart from books gets too
dull, there is another method to master the language:
watch a film.
Let’s be honest, how many times do you get the
chance to hear a native speaker talking for any
length of time? Apart from listening exercises in
class, probably very few. By watching films, though,
you will discover vocabulary, idioms and authentic
accents as they are spoken in daily life. OK, it might
be for situations you won’t ever find yourselves in,
like catching criminals or fighting aliens, but, on the
other hand, you never know…
Can’t make out what the screen stars are saying?
You might be able to understand through the
context, but you can turn on the English subtitles
and read as you listen. Don’t think this is cheating.
Experts say that seeing the words as you hear them
strengthens your recall.
Can you tell the difference between a tap and a
faucet, or the pavement and the sidewalk? Tap and
pavement are British English, but faucet and sidewalk
are American English. Don’t freak out! They’re not
different languages but they do have some different
words and grammar. Make a note of whether you’re
watching a Hollywood movie or a Brit flick and
separating one from the other will soon be as easy
as ABC.
Films are a great way to learn how phrases are used
in context. Some lines in theatre and film become so
well known that they become part of the language
themselves. The famous English writer, William
Shakespeare, invented over 1,700 new words that
Audioscripts – Part 2
were added to the English dictionary. The word
“uncomfortable” was first used in Romeo and Juliet
and the word “lonely” didn’t exist until he used it in
Coriolanus. Nowadays, lots of English phrases are
first used or popularised by films. The phrase
“Nobody’s perfect” is often said to mean that
everyone makes mistakes. However, people who
use it may not realise it was first used in 1959, in an
American movie called Some Like it Hot. People who
have been away on holiday on a long trip often say
“There is no place like home” when they return. This
famous quote is actually from the 1939 film, The
Wizard of Oz.
When choosing a film to practise your English, there
are several things to consider. Choose a film you’re
familiar with so you can focus more on the language.
Try to choose a genre, such as sci-fi, that will not
have a lot of made-up phrases that you won’t
understand. Also, make sure it’s a film at your level –
you don’t need to start with Shakespeare, so why
not try a comedy first? Finally, don’t push yourself –
just watch for a short while and then take a break.
Also, did you know that there are lots of scenes from
famous films online? If you don’t have time for a full
film, then you can watch these. It’s like Hollywood’s
greatest hits!
Don’t forget that this is supposed to be fun. And
don’t worry about not understanding something, or
making a mistake when you try to use a phrase.
Misunderstandings and making mistakes are both
part of learning a language. After all – nobody’s
perfect! So, grab a bag of popcorn, watch a film and
pass your exams with flying colours!
15
Task 1
When you think of William Shakespeare you
probably think of plays such as Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet and King Lear. What you may not know is
that he was also responsible for building one of
England’s most famous theatres. Theatres were a
fairly new invention in the time of Shakespeare. The
first real theatre was built in 1576. Before this, plays
were performed in courtyards of wealthy noblemen.
Shakespeare’s theatre was called the Globe and was
built in 1598. It was one of the first theatres owned
by actors and writers themselves. It was named the
Globe due to its circular shape, but, in actual fact,
the theatre was not a perfect circle but actually had
20 sides. It was 9 metres high and could hold just
under 3,000 people, which was far more than most
theatres of the day. The theatre did not have an easy
existence and suffered disasters on multiple
occasions.
The theatre was located on the left bank of the River
Thames and Shakespeare had good reason for
putting it there. It was convenient for London theatre
lovers but also outside the influence of the Mayor of
London. At the time, the Mayor would often censor
plays, cutting out any scenes which could be
considered overly political or against the monarchy.
The position of the Globe Theatre allowed
Shakespeare to put on plays the way he had written
them.
Things were not easy for the theatre in the beginning.
Just two years after the theatre was finished, the
bubonic plague hit London. The plague was terrifying
for Londoners and nobody wanted to sit in a packed
theatre where they could get sick. The Globe had to
close their doors almost as soon as they had
opened.
Things only got worse a few years later. In 1613,
during a performance of Henry the Eighth, a stage
cannon misfired and set fire to the thatched roof of
the theatre. Within one hour, the entire theatre had
burned completely to the ground. Luckily, everyone
escaped unharmed. The Globe was rebuilt over a
year, this time with a tile roof that could not catch fire
so easily. The Globe fire was a huge setback for
Shakespeare but not everyone was unhappy about
the fire and some did not want the theatre rebuilt at
all.
The Puritans were a religious group who disapproved
of anything that distracted people from attending
church. As a result, closing down the Globe Theatre
became their number one priority. They felt that the
theatres were immoral and could be used to spread
propaganda against the church. In 1642, a group of
puritans arrived at the Globe demanding that all
performances stop immediately. In 1644 they tore
down the theatre. Over the next few years, the
Puritans would close down almost all theatre
performances throughout the country for over a
decade.
The third version of the Globe was built in 1997. The
theatre is located just one street from the original. It
was constructed to look as close to the original as
possible. They used the same type of trees and the
same techniques to put it together. It even has the
thatched roof, although this time it was coated with
a special chemical to make sure it would not catch
fire. It also has additional exits due to modern fire
regulations. Apart from these small changes, the
theatre is just as it was when Shakespeare was alive.
The plays remain the same as always and audiences
can enjoy them just as people did 400 years ago.
45
 Audioscripts – Part 2
16
Task 1
“You whistle when you are happy, but you don’t
whistle when you are sad.” That was the explanation
that professional whistler Ronnie Ronalde gave for
his huge international popularity between the 1930s
and 1950s. That simple reasoning, however, gives
no idea of the very rare talent he possessed.
Whistling, for Ronnie, who was born into a poor
family in London in 1923, began as a way of
entertaining himself in the absence of things to play
with. He would spend time listening closely to the
calls of the birds outside his bedroom window and
mimic them, something that came easily to him. Like
most boys of the time, he would also whistle while
walking in the street – but, unusually, Ronnie’s
whistling was so good that people would stop to
listen to him, and even give him coins in return for a
performance.
When his mother, who played the piano at night to
supplement her income as a dressmaker, realised
how well Ronnie whistled, she incorporated him into
her act, and soon he was entertaining the public
alongside her regularly at night. His growing fame
led to an invitation to whistle the flute music Mozart
wrote for the character of the bird catcher in his
opera The Magic Flute on the radio. Following that
appearance, he left school, aged 14, to join a
travelling boys’ choir called the Silver Songsters.
Every singer in the company had an individual talent,
such as tap dancing and banjo-playing, but Ronnie’s
whistling was always the biggest crowd-pleaser of
the night.
In the 1940s, the leader of the Silver Songsters,
Arturo Steffani, put an end to the group to become
Ronnie’s manager. The name of Ronalde came from
Steffani; clearly he didn’t consider Ronnie’s real
name of Waldon to be suitable for a show business
career. A more surprising move Steffani made was
sending Ronnie to Switzerland to learn the Swiss
mountain style of singing known as yodelling. Soon,
Ronnie was giving sell-out concerts combining
singing with whistling, bird calls and yodelling. One
illustration of how well-loved he was is that he filled
the 6,500-seat Radio City Music Hall in New York
City every night for 10 weeks in 1949.
In the 1950s, Ronnie released a series of recordings
of versions of popular songs, singing the melodies,
but also adding whistling, bird calls and yodelling
where possible. Millions of people bought the
records, with Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra
counting themselves among his fans. Ronnie was
very careful to protect what he saw as the key to his
46
success as a whistler – his teeth. Even when he had
to go to the dentist, Ronnie insisted on taking no
pain-killing medication – because he insisted he
needed to have control of his teeth at all times.
In the 1950s, rock and roll emerged, and soon there
was very little demand for the show-style
entertainment Ronnie was involved in. So, he spent
the rest of his working life running a hotel he bought
on the island of Guernsey and farming in New
Zealand, before moving to Australia. He returned to
the stage in a UK tour to celebrate his 80th birthday
– and audiences reported that he could whistle
almost as skilfully as in his youth.
17
Task 1
Hello, volunteers! Thank you for coming to this clean-
up event! As you know, today we are going to be
picking up any rubbish we find at Karadere Beach.
But before we get on the bus, I want to tell you a little
bit about this area and why it’s so important that we
keep it clean and well-preserved.
Karadere is neither the largest nor the most famous
beach along the Black Sea. In fact, at just about
5 kilometres in length, it’s a rather small section of
the nearly 400 kilometres of Black Sea coast in
Bulgaria. It is found only a few kilometres from the
small town of Byala, and it stretches from the mouth
of the Byala River to the mouth of the Kara Dere
River. It’s a very quiet area, as the beach is
surrounded by forests, vineyards and farms.
Although Kara Dere is Turkish for ‘black creek’, the
sand and the water there aren’t black at all – they’re
very clean and bright! The sand is extremely soft and
fine, and the water is so unpolluted that locals say
dolphins are spotted swimming close by regularly.
There are also mud baths and some natural springs
formed by the two rivers bordering the beach,
making the spot something of a hidden gem
amongst the few campers who know about it.
Speaking of campers, for those who want to take
advantage of everything Karadere has to offer,
camping is the only way to do so. In fact, what
makes it so beautiful is exactly what makes it less
than ideal for tourists who prefer luxury over
connecting with nature. Karadere is one of the few
places on the coast of the Black Sea where camping
is free, but since there are no public facilities,
campers need to be prepared for anything.
As beautiful and peaceful as it is, you should know
that Karadere Beach is currently under threat, and
not just from litter like the rubbish we are going to
Audioscripts – Part 2
clean up today. Right now, tourism companies are
trying to buy up the land at Karadere and construct a
beach resort in order to exploit the area’s natural
beauty. Locals and environmental groups are pushing
back against the sale of land with the hope of
keeping this small area of the coast unspoilt. In the
words of one of the local residents, “The loss of a
place like Karadere is a loss of some human dignity.”
Another way we can keep Karadere Beach safe is by
continuing to make it hard to find. Remember, if you
are looking for the beach in the future, you won’t find
a street sign for it, and it’s not labelled on very many
maps. In fact, there’s not even a paved road to take
us there, so get ready for a bumpy ride! Speaking of
rides, I think we’re ready to get on the bus! Before
we do that, are there any questions? No? All right
then, follow me!
18
Task 1
When people think of the UK, they immediately think
of the English language. While it’s true that almost all
British people speak British English as their first
language, not all of them do speak it in their
everyday lives. In some areas of the UK, there are
people who can speak different British languages,
too.
In Scotland, most people speak Scottish English.
This isn’t a different language, but is just English
spoken with a Scottish accent. But, in the north and
some parts of Eastern Scotland such as the Orkney
Islands and Aberdeenshire, people speak Scots.
Scots is a language that is very similar to English,
but does contain some different words that are often
not understood by English speakers. In the West of
Scotland and on the Scottish Isles such as Skye,
some people speak Scottish Gaelic. This language
originally comes from the Old Irish language and
doesn’t sound like English.
In Northern Ireland, there are two languages apart
from English. In a small area called Ulster, some
people speak Ulster-Scots. It’s very similar to Scots.
This is because in the past, lots of people who spoke
Scots went to live in Northern Ireland. The other
language people speak is Irish. Irish is becoming
more widely spoken today compared to previous
years as schools teach it to the children living there.
Currently, there are over 1.2 million Irish speakers in
the world today. Most of these are in the Republic of
Ireland.
In Wales, most people speak English. However,
between a quarter and a third of the population
speak Welsh. In Wales, people are very proud of the
Welsh language and all of the children in Wales learn
some of it at school. In some areas of Wales such as
Gwynedd, 75% of the population speak Welsh and
some residents speak it as their first language. If you
ever visit Wales, you’ll notice that all of the road
signs and notices are in both Welsh and English.
There are also Welsh radio stations and TV channels
that people all over the country can watch or listen
to. Welsh is widely considered a success story for
reviving dying languages. Through teaching in
school and Welsh TV and radio, the percentage of
Welsh speakers in Wales has increased from 18.5%
in 1991 to 20.8 % in 2001. 2011 saw a drop to 19%,
but the latest surveys indicate the numbers are on
the rise again.
The next language is not spoken by many people. It
is called Manx and is a language spoken by a few
thousand on the Isle of Man – a small island between
Ireland and England. Here, most people only speak
English, but, in recent years, the residents of the
island have been trying to revive the language. As a
result, children now study the language at school
and adults are trying to learn online or by taking
classes.
Finally, did you know that English isn’t the only
language spoken in England? Some people in
Cornwall in South West England speak Cornish. This
language is a little bit similar to the Welsh language
and some of it can even be understood by Welsh
speakers. However, Cornish, like Manx, is only
spoken by a few thousand people. There are lots of
people in Cornwall who are trying to make the
language more popular.
19
Task 1
Bulgaria has ten UNESCO World Heritage Sites in
different areas around the country. These sites are a
mixture of historical, cultural and natural sites. Some
of the sites date back thousands of years and are
often listed because they contain unique architecture
and art work or are of high cultural value to the
country.
One well-known Bulgarian World Heritage Site is the
Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari. It’s located in Sveshtari
in the Razgard province in northeastern Bulgaria.
The site dates back to the 3rd century BCE but
wasn’t discovered until 1982. The site is a very
special burial place for the Thracian King and his
wife, but from the outside, it looks like a hill covered
with grass. This grassy hill is the burial mound and
47
 Audioscripts – Part 2
inside is a special tomb built from limestone blocks.
The tomb has three different rooms and one of them
is for the King and his wife. Then, the tomb was
covered with stones and soil; then, a layer of clay
was added to keep the water out. When they opened
the tomb for members of the public to see, they
added a large modern door at the front.
Inside, the building is still in excellent condition. The
tomb also has very unique and special architecture.
On some of the walls, there are beautifully painted
murals showing horses and men. However, the most
famous thing about the inside of the tomb is the
carvings of the ten half-human, half-plant figures.
They were also painted in beautiful colours.
However, these have faded a little over time.
Nonetheless, these figures make the decoration
inside the Thracian tomb of Sveshtari unique and
unlike anything else that has been discovered at
Thracian sites in Bulgaria.
Another famous UNESCO World Heritage Site in
Bulgaria is the Madara Rider. It is an amazing piece
of artwork that dates back to the early 8th century
and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in
1979. The site is located in Madara village in the
Shumen province in the northeastern part of
Bulgaria. Madara is around an hour from Varna on
the Black Sea coast.
The piece of art itself is a picture carved into the rock
called a rock relief. The rock relief is on the side of a
100-metre-tall cliff and is around 23 metres up from
the ground. The carving shows a man riding a horse
and attacking a lion with his spear. Behind the horse
is a dog. Then, next to the picture, there are some
Greek inscriptions in the rock that refer to Bulgarian
rulers of the 8th and 9th century. Visitors to Bulgaria
can also see a full-sized copy of the Madara Rider
work at the archaeological museum in Sofia. In fact,
this UNESCO World Heritage Site is so important
that you can find pictures of it on the back of most
Bulgarian coins.
20
Task 1
A: Good morning everyone! As this is your final
year of high school, a lot of you will be studying
hard for your exams and thinking about which
college or university you want to go to and what
grades you need to get for your chosen course.
But what about those of you that are not sure
what you want to study or what career path you
want to take? Well, today I have invited a special
guest to talk to you about another option –
48
taking a gap year. Please welcome Mr Stephen
Brown, education expert and author. Welcome
Stephen. So, first of all, can you tell us all what
exactly a gap year is?
B: Hello everyone and thank you for having me,
headmaster. So, let’s start with the basics. What
is a gap year? Well, a gap year usually refers to
a year off from studying between secondary
school and college or university. However, some
young people take a gap year after the first year
of uni or even after they’ve graduated and
before they start work. So, it’s basically when
you take some time to gain some life experience
and new skills; the timing is up to you.
A: Why is this a good idea for some people?
B: Well, some young people are just not ready to
go straight from school to university. They might
not yet know what they want to do as you said
or they may be overwhelmed by all the studying
they have done so far and not feel like starting it
all again at a higher level. A gap year can help
them to mature and to come back ready to
study without distraction.
A: OK. So, what are some of the options for what
to do on a gap year?
B: Well, the most popular answer to that question
is travel. A lot of people take this opportunity to
see some of the world and travel to new places.
They may go backpacking alone or with others
to a number of countries or just one. That’s the
beauty of it, you can tailor your gap year
experience to your own taste. You can save up
and travel as a tourist or you can turn your trip
into a working holiday and work some temporary
jobs or even save money for when you are
studying.
A: Right. And that’s good work experience, isn’t it?
B: Yes, it is. But you can also gain some work
experience that is relevant to your future career
and work as an intern to improve your CV.
Another option is to become a volunteer which
will also look good on your CV but it will help
others and give you a sense of achievement,
too. It may also motivate your choice of career if
A:
you find yourself doing something you love.
Wow. There are a lot of options.
B: Yes, there are. That’s not all. You can also spend
your gap year learning a foreign language and
immersing yourself in a foreign culture. This can
really help you grow as a person because you
get to experience a different lifestyle and
become part of another community. This can
open your eyes beyond your expectations.
A: What about falling behind with your studies?
They will start uni a year later.
Audioscripts – Part 2
B: That’s true, but you will gain so much in other
aspects of life! Certainly, taking a gap year is not
for everyone. But if you are adventurous or want
to be, then you should seriously consider it.
A: What do you say to people who are nervous of
travelling alone?
B: Well, it can be scary going off by yourself. But
you don’t have to travel alone; you can go with a
travel buddy or join an organised group. Also,
there is the culture shock that is impossible to
avoid if you have never left your country before.
But this is all part of the adventure; if taking a
gap year was without its challenges, then it
wouldn’t be so much fun.
A: Well, you’ve certainly given all my students a lot
to think about. Let’s see if they have any
questions.
B: Wow! I see a lot of hands. OK. I’ll try to answer
all of them.
21
Task 1
It used to be viewed as an act of vandalism punished
by law, but graffiti is increasingly being considered
an art form that could bring fame and fortune to
street artists. Banksy, Keith Haring and Blek le Rat
may have started by spray-painting the walls of
streets and subways, but they have now graduated
to museums and art galleries as their art is
celebrated by critics worldwide.
The graffiti we are familiar with developed in
American cities in the 1950s and 60s; however,
writing on the wall has been around a lot longer. It
was in Roman and Greek times that graffiti first
showed up on walls, often as a mark of protest.
There was also a lot of humour in the pieces of
graffiti that have been found, which is a feature of
graffiti that modern examples share. Fast forward to
modern times and graffiti with a tag (which is a
symbol or a name used by a graffiti artist) became a
common sight in 1960s Philadelphia in the USA.
Soon after, it appeared on the New York subway,
closely followed by the rest of the world.
Even in the early 1970s, graffiti was considered an art
form and was put on display in art galleries. However,
that period was also the start of the war against
graffiti as authorities tried to halt what they saw as
mindless vandalism of public and private property.
The 1970s saw the rise of the superstar street artists
Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who began
their careers on the streets and then were able to
make it to art galleries. In the 1980s, Blek le Rat was
using stencils on Parisian walls to make his rat
designs. A decade later, the spotlight fell on perhaps
the most famous name in street art, Banksy. His
designs now go for large sums of money at respected
auction houses. In the case of Banksy, waking up to
find he has spray-painted your wall could earn you a
lot of money. Although here is the dilemma: do you
make a quick profit and sell it, or do you allow a
magnificent work of art to be appreciated by the
public as the artist always intended?
22
Task 1
Over the last fifty years, the complexity of emotion in
animals has been studied by biologists around the
globe. The question of whether animals in the ape
family can communicate with humans is a
particularly interesting one, and quite a number of
researchers have experimented to see if
communication with apes is possible through the
use of sign language. Koko the gorilla was one of the
most famous of these apes due to her extensive sign
language vocabulary and her ability to recognise
thousands of spoken words in English.
Koko was born in captivity in the San Francisco Zoo
in 1971. Researcher Francine Patterson began
working with Koko the following year, conducting an
experiment to see if she could teach Koko sign
language. Patterson’s work with Koko brought a lot
of media attention and the pair were featured in
numerous news stories and articles worldwide. The
well-respected scientific National Geographic
magazine published an article by Patterson in 1978
titled “Conversations with a Gorilla”. The article not
only explored Koko’s unique ability to speak using
sign language, but also her personality. She was
able to use language beyond simply describing what
she saw or experienced. She did things that were
once believed to be purely human behaviours – she
made jokes and expressed complex emotions. She
adopted a kitten and kept it as a pet in her enclosure.
She even tried to lie to her trainers – a trait that
researchers did not believe animals were capable of
in the past. One of the most impressive of Koko’s
achievements was her ability to teach other gorillas
to use sign language, too.
There are, however, some researchers who believe
that the success of Patterson’s work with Koko was
greatly exaggerated. For instance, animal behaviour
researcher Herbert Terrace tried to recreate the
experiment with a chimp. After his study was
completed, he argued that while Koko had learned
49
 Audioscripts – Part 2
to imitate the hand movements of her trainers, she
did not actually know what she was ‘saying’.
Koko the gorilla died in 2018 at the age of 46.
Regardless of the controversy surrounding
Patterson’s research, Koko’s ability to grow and
mature in such a ‘human’ way has brought new
understanding to the depth of animal emotions. Her
legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of those who
cared for her.
23
Task 1
Bulgaria has been the home of a number of famous
artists in the past who have all had an impact on the
world of art both in Bulgaria and internationally.
Vladimir Dimitrov, also known as ‘the master’, was a
Bulgarian painter who was born on 1st February
1882 in a village called Frolosh in the Kyustendil
province. He is thought to be one of the most
talented Bulgarian painters of the 20th century with
one of the most unique painting styles. He mostly
painted landscapes and portraits, including those of
Bulgarian officials. His paintings were known for their
wide brushstrokes and for their use of colour.
Dimitrov was from a very poor family and after
school couldn’t afford to attend art school. However,
people in his local community helped him by finding
him work and eventually, he attended an art school
in Sofia. His first art exhibition took place on 21st
May 1903 in Kyustendil. Over the years, Dimitrov
continued to study and paint. The money he made
from his paintings helped him travel to different
countries, share ideas with foreign artists and visit
art galleries.
Between 1912 and 1918, there were three wars
affecting Bulgaria. Dimitrov created paintings that
showed the awful effects of the wars on the people.
After this, Dimitrov decided to move to a village
called Shishkovtsi. He lived there for over 20 years
and during this time, he painted more pictures than
at any other time in his life. He was very happy there
and enjoyed spending time outdoors being close to
nature.
As Dimitrov became more well known, he decided to
hold exhibitions of his work in other countries. While
in Italy, he met an American man called John Crane.
For four years, from 1924-1928, Crane paid Dimitrov
a salary to paint for him. He also paid for him to
travel to the USA, Turkey and Italy. During his
employment, he painted over 200 works of art for
Crane. However, after he stopped working for Crane,
Dimitrov struggled with money once again. As a
50
result, the Bulgarian government offered him a small
salary on which he could afford to live and paint. In
return, he gave every significant piece of art he made
to the state and the people of Bulgaria by donating
them to the archaeological museum or national
gallery. The people admired Dimitrov’s work because
they felt it captured the beauty of Bulgaria, its culture
and the relationships between its people. He went
on to win various awards for his work including
“Honoured Artist” award in 1950 and “People’s
Artist” in 1952.
Dimitrov died on 24th September 1960. Today, in
Bulgaria there is an art gallery in Kyustendil with over
100 of Dimitrov’s works of art. People can also see
where he lived in Shishkovtsi as his home is now a
museum where visitors can learn about his life. But
Vladimir Dimitrov is not only famous and celebrated
in Bulgaria. His talent is recognised internationally. In
fact, UNESCO even added the 100th anniversary of
his birthdate to their international calendar.
24
Task 1
We love the Internet! Around 4.6 billion of us use it
every day. It’s part of who we are, but it’s also
changing who we are. Different cultures around the
world watch the same TV programmes, listen to the
same music, and even eat the same food. Of course,
individual cultures still exist, but there is also a
shared one that we all log on to online. This is thanks
to the Internet’s creation of its own culture; one you
don’t need a passport to experience. Welcome to
Planet Internet!
In the past, TV shows would appear on US TV and
months later on TV channels worldwide. With
streaming, though, everyone gets these shows as
soon as they hit. Fans in different countries post
comments immediately, creating a sense of urgency
for others not to miss out. Similarly, music drops on
streaming services everywhere and the world hears
Beyoncé’s latest tracks all together. The days of
lorries delivering CDs or albums are long gone. Now,
everything is available at the click of a mouse.
Billions of us experience everything online at the
very same moment. Events appear as ‘Breaking
News’ online and on social media as they happen.
We rarely get our news from TV anymore; it’s all from
Facebook and Twitter and most of that news is in
English. It is the Internet’s lingua franca – a common
language that people from different countries use to
communicate. There’s even a new language
especially for the Internet – emojis! Everyone
Audioscripts – Part 2
everywhere can instantly understand these tiny icons
no matter what country they live in.
The Internet creates a shared online world that we
can all inhabit. It’s a cultural globalisation that comes
at a cost though – the loss of identity. We eat the
same cheeseburgers, drink the same cola, and
watch the same TV shows. Some people feel a
shared cultural identity is a good thing as it can bring
the world closer together. Others worry that local
cultures will suffer as a result of people embracing a
global identity. In a lot of countries, young people
can name more films made in the USA than films
that are made in their own language. In order to
protect their own film industry, China has placed a
limit on the number of foreign films allowed in the
country every year. However, online streaming
services have also allowed English-speaking
countries to experience media from other countries
and embrace those cultures. Japanese animation in
particular has become very popular over the last
decade, leading to an increase of American students
choosing to study the language at university.
It will be interesting to see how this global outlook
may transform the world. It may bring us closer
together by making us all the same, but it could also
take the fun out of being ‘different’. Let’s hope that
what makes each and every one of us unique
survives.
25
Task 1
A: Welcome back to the Fashion Show. I’m joined
now by Jemma Logley, who runs the fashion
brand Jem Fashions. I first came across
Jemma’s company during the coronavirus
pandemic, when her face masks became hugely
popular. Jemma, thanks for coming in.
B: Thanks for having me, Michael.
A: Now, Jemma, as I was saying, today your
company is synonymous with face masks, but
that’s not how you got started, is it?
B: No, when I first started the brand in 2018, we
focused on teen fashion; items like T-shirts and
jeans. In our early days, we did quite well in the
UK without really breaking into the international
market. Then, the coronavirus pandemic struck,
which really hit us hard, as it did the whole
fashion industry. As I always say, we dress to
impress, and most people don’t feel the need to
when they’re quarantining at home. It wasn’t a
money thing for most of them.
A: So, how difficult was it to keep your company
going during the pandemic?
B: Actually, by April 2020, sales had dropped so
much that I was having difficulty paying my staff.
I even considered letting half of them go. It was a
difficult time for me personally, because I
consider my employees as family members.
Thankfully, though, we managed to turn things
around. My designer, Henry Carter, predicted that
face masks would become part of everyday life
long before they actually did, and encouraged
me to put all our efforts into designing them.
I was reluctant at first, but I’m glad I followed his
advice!
A: Yes, your company really made the most of a bad
situation. Why do you think your face masks sold
so well?
B: Well, like I said, we were one of the first companies
in the UK to offer people an alternative to
disposable surgical masks. Of course, it was a
time of great anxiety, but people still wanted to
display some individuality in public. So, our
patterned multi-use cotton masks flew off the
shelves, despite being far more expensive than
regular disposable masks. Of course, we made
sure these masks served their medical purpose,
but we also made sure they were comfortable.
This made them very popular with people like
supermarket employees who had to wear them
continually.
A: And what kinds of designs were most popular?
B: Well, we concentrated solely on the female
market, and created everything from animal
patterns to masks with humorous messages.
One of my favourites had a message in support
of our national health system. Our masks even
became popular with some celebrities, which
really increased our online sales. Eventually, of
course, other bigger fashion brands started
producing their own masks, so our sales
dropped somewhat, but even at the end of 2020
we were still one of the leading high-end face
mask brands in the country.
A: Well, Jemma, congratulations on all your success,
and thanks for talking to us today.
B: My pleasure.
26
Task 1
Hello! This is Daniella for Travel Time Tips! Welcome
to the podcast and thank you for listening. For those
of you who are new to the show, this episode is part
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 Audioscripts – Part 2
of a series about travelling in Bulgaria. Last week, I
told you all about my trip to the capital city of Sofia
and gave you some advice about shopping,
accommodation and places to see in the city. But
this week I want to talk to you about getting off the
beaten track and seeing some of the hidden gems
that Bulgaria has to offer. Today, the topic of the
show is going to be the town of Tryavna.
Tryavna is a small, mountain town with a population
of just under 10,000 people, making it an excellent
choice for those of you who are looking for a quieter,
more relaxed stop on your travels. Although it’s
small, its central location means it is well-connected
to the surrounding cities and towns with excellent
roads. There are also plenty of options when it
comes to accommodation, no matter your budget!
There may not be a lot of exciting thrills when visiting
a small town like Tryavna on holiday, but there are
certainly lots of interesting – and fun! – things to see
and do, especially for those with an interest in
history. From visiting monuments, museums and
galleries to observing local craftsmen working in
their workshops, there are so many ways to soak up
the culture in this traditional town! In fact, a visit to
Tryavna has been described by some as like taking a
step back in time.
The Bulgarian Renaissance period heavily influenced
the architecture of the town. The Bulgarian
Renaissance, otherwise known as the Bulgarian
National Revival, was a period of social, cultural and
economic changes in the country beginning in the
mid-18th century and continuing to the late 19th
century. Quite a few of these buildings still stand in
Tryavna today. The most popular amongst tourists
are the buildings in the town square, which were
originally constructed in 1814 – more than 200 years
ago! – including a clock tower, a church and a
school.
The architectural designs that came out of this
period include unique features such as decorative
details around chimneys, beautiful stonework,
complex wood carvings and, interestingly enough,
the upper floor in some buildings is larger than the
ground floor and extends out with support beams.
Visitors love to explore the town and take photos of
these wonderfully kept historic buildings. I highly
recommend a visit in the spring and early autumn
months when the weather is perfect for a walk
through its streets!
Well, that’s all the time we have for now. Join me
tomorrow for more information about locations off
the beaten track in Bulgaria! Once again, this has
been Daniella for Travel Time Tips!
52
27
Task 1
A team of officers working together through two
international investigations have made arrests and
recovered a number of historic works of art and
artefacts that were stolen. The investigations took
place over quite a number of months and the team
was made up of Interpol, Europol, the World
Customs Organisation and police officers from a
number of different countries.
Over 19,000 items were recovered and are now
being held by the authorities, including historical
coins, jewellery, fossils, paintings and weapons.
Some of the works of art were cultural objects from
ancient civilisations such as pre-Colombian artefacts
from Central and South America in addition to
ancient Roman sculptures, friezes and coins. The
investigations resulted in over 100 arrests of
individuals from Spain, Colombia, Latvia,
Afghanistan and Turkey. All the people who were
arrested are suspected of either stealing or being
involved in the illegal sale of the items. It also led to
new information for over 300 similar investigations
across 103 countries.
The majority of the items were recovered by tracking
online black-market sales. Officers took part in a
“cyber patrol week” when they monitored illegal
auctions on the Internet to find out where the thieves
were located and what they had stolen. The works of
art and artefacts had been taken from a variety of
places, including museums and archaeological sites.
The investigation showed that the suspects who had
been arrested were all part of a highly organised
network of criminals working together rather than
committing their crimes individually. They even went
to countries affected by war to take advantage of the
confusion in order to loot priceless artefacts that
have significant cultural and historic value.
The operation’s size and complexity clearly show
how problematic the trade of illegal works of art is.
Films and television series tend to portray it as
glamorous or exciting, but in fact the groups behind
these crimes are often the same people who deal in
illegal weapons and drugs. Interpol’s executive
director Catherine de Bolle said in a statement to the
press that there are lots of different faces to
organised crime, and the theft and illegal trade of art
is just one of these faces.
Organisations like Interpol and Europol are incredibly
important when it comes to cultural theft because
often the countries most affected by this issue do
not have the resources to conduct investigations
themselves. The value of cultural items like the ones
Audioscripts – Part 2
recovered in this operation is not just a matter of
how much money they are worth; they are part of
history and heritage. Countries need to work
together to continue fighting these crimes, but also
to put measures in place to prevent cultural theft in
the first place.
28
Task 1
Good evening, this is Viktor and you’re listening to
Music Now where we talk about popular musicians
and their stories. Today, I’m going to tell you about a
young musician whose career is really starting to
pick up speed. In fact, you may have heard his name
once or twice recently. It’s the Bulgarian singer and
songwriter Kristian Kostov.
Kristian Kostov was born in the year 2000, and
although he was raised in Moscow, Russia, his
mother is Kazakh and his father is Bulgarian. He had
a strong connection to his cultural roots from a
young age as his father taught him to speak
Bulgarian and his mother’s father taught him to
speak Kazakh.
Speaking of things Kristian learned at a young age,
his musical talents developed quite early! He was a
shy child, but he gained confidence through playing
the piano and singing, and his skill quickly became
apparent to his family. By the age of five, he joined
the children’s musical group ‘Neposedy’ and by age
11 he was ready to branch out into a solo career.
Kristian started taking part in singing competitions,
and while he made it to the finals on The Voice Kids
in Russia in 2014 and took second place on X-Factor
in Bulgaria in early 2016, it wasn’t until his first single
climbed up the Bulgarian Music Charts later that
year that the world truly began to take notice of his
talent. He was soon chosen to be the singer
representing Bulgaria in the Eurovision song contest
for 2017. While he didn’t win the contest, he again
took runner-up for his beautiful performance.
One of the ways Kristian has become so popular so
quickly is through his use of social media. With video
and photo sharing profiles on most of the major
social media apps, his fans have access to his
content day and night, and he often posts videos not
only of his music, but also his experiences, opinions
and even struggles. For teens today, that kind of
openness is something they look for and admire in
celebrities.
Kristian continues to take part in music competitions
like ‘Singer’ in China in 2019, in which he was the
youngest person to compete at that time. He has
also released several albums in the last few years
which have received mainly positive reviews,
especially for his excellent vocal work considering
he’s such a young artist.
What’s next in store for Kristian Kostov? With such a
promising start to his career, we can imagine great
things to come. Recently his energy has been
extending into art beyond music, taking an interest
in fashion and photography, and exploring more of
what makes him unique. In the words of Kristian
himself, “Whenever you add a new element to you,
you just have so much more to say.” We look forward
to hearing what you have to say next, Kristian!
Our next story in music news is about a musician
from…
29
Task 1
Hristo Botev born as Hristo Botyov Petrov was a
Bulgarian poet and revolutionary. He was born on 6th
January 1848 in Kalofer, a town in central Bulgaria.
He was the oldest of seven children born to his
father, Botyo Petrov and his mother, Ivanka. Botyo
Petrov was a teacher and was also a significant figure
in the Bulgarian National Revival. His father’s ideas
and actions also gave Botev a love of freedom.
Botev attended primary school in his hometown of
Kalofer, but after this, he was sent away to a
secondary school in Odessa. As well as his school
education and the teachings of his father, Botev also
spent a lot of time educating himself by reading lots
of books. After finishing secondary school, Botev
spent two years teaching in Odessa before returning
to Kalofer to take over his father’s teaching position.
During this time, as Botev learnt more about Russian
revolutionaries, his political ideas and beliefs about
freedom became even stronger. In fact, it was these
strong feelings which caused him to make a public
speech against the Ottoman authorities in 1867. As
a result, he got into trouble and was forced to leave
the country. However, this didn’t stop Botev from
telling the world about his ideas.
Later that year, Botev wrote his first poem To My
Mother. The poem was printed in the newspaper
Gayda. Botev worked as an editor for various
newspapers and the following year, his poem To My
Brother was also published. After this, he continued
to teach and write poems. Some of his poems were
about his revolutionary ideas and love of freedom,
with the two most famous being In the Tavern and My
Prayer. Botev wanted to share his ideas through his
poetry and inspire people to join him in the fight for
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 Audioscripts – Part 2
Bulgarian freedom. In 1875, he went on to write a
piece of political fiction aimed at rich Bulgarians in a
newspaper and also a book titled Songs and Poems,
which was about the feelings of poor people with
revolutionary ideas and the struggle for freedom.
Later that year, he also became the president of the
Bulgarian Central Revolutionary Committee and tried
to encourage other people to stand up for freedom. In
1875, Botev also got married to Veneta Vezireva.
Then, in the following April she gave birth to Botev’s
only child – a daughter who he called Ivanka, just like
his mother.
Unfortunately, Botev died on 1st June 1876 while
still fighting for Bulgarian freedom. Today, he is
considered to be a national hero by people in
Bulgaria. Since his death, lots of streets, cities and
landmarks have been named after him, for example,
Botev Point and Botevgrad. In fact, in 1961, a
football stadium in Plovdiv, was named the ‘Hristo
Botev Stadium’ and is the home of ‘PFC Botev
Plovdiv’.
To remember him and his fight for Bulgarian freedom,
air-raid sirens go off for one minute at noon every
year on 2nd June. However, it isn’t only in Bulgaria
that people remember this brave man. His
achievements are recognised and remembered in
other countries around the world, too. In honour of
this, the ‘International Botev Prize’ has been awarded
to people who have significant achievements in
literature every year since 1972.
30
Task 1
The Avebury Stone Circle in Wiltshire in the south-
west of England, UK, is a very special place. It is one
of the main Neolithic sites in Britain and is listed with
Stonehenge as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Across the Avebury site there are several other
smaller Neolithic and Bronze Age sites.
The Avebury Stone Circle is located within the
Avebury henge, a large circular bank with a ditch
around it. It was built between 2850 BCE and 2200
BCE, making it between 4,000-5,000 years old. The
Avebury stone circle is made up of three stone
circles. The outer circle was originally made up of
between 98 and 105 large stones. It measures
around 330 metres across and is the largest stone
circle in Britain.
Inside the outer circle, there are two more smaller
stone circles, one in the north and another in the
south. The northern circle is around 98 metres
across from one side to the other. Experts believe
54
this circle originally had 27 stones, each 11 metres
apart. However, today, there are only four of these
stones remaining. Two are still stood up on their
ends, but the other two have fallen over flat. In the
centre of the northern circle, there are the remains of
the Cove Stones, which are thought to be even older
than the stone circles.
The southern circle is a little bigger than the northern
one. It measures around 108 metres across and is
made up of 30 stones in total, each 11 metres apart.
However, one stone in this circle was much bigger
than the others. It was around 6.4 metres high and
was called ‘the Great Obelisk’. Unfortunately, this
stone was removed from the site in around 1725 and
was replaced by a tall concrete post.
Experts don’t understand why the Avebury Stone
Circle was built and what people used it for, but they
believe there were other structures and buildings on
the site in the past. Some experts believe that the
stone circles may have been a peace offering from
the people to gods. Other ideas include them being
a site for feasts and celebrations for Neolithic
people. However, since this occurred during pre-
history, there are no written sources to confirm either
of these theories.
Another thing that historians don’t fully understand is
how the Neolithic people built the stone circles. The
stones that made up the stone circles were typically
3-6 metres tall and sometimes weighed over 36
tonnes. They aren’t sure how the people moved the
stones and stood them up without machinery. But
they have suggested they pushed them over logs
that could roll over. Then, to stand the stone up, they
would dig a small hole for the bottom part of the
stone and push it into the hole.
Even though there is still a lot we don’t know about
the Avebury Stone Circle, it is an incredible
prehistoric site that can help us learn about the
culture of British Neolithic people.
31
Task 1
James Lovelock is an English scientist,
environmentalist and futurist. He was born into a
lower class family in Letchworth in England in 1919.
His parents, who were quite religious, couldn’t afford
to send him to university, so Lovelock attended
evening classes in Birbeck College instead.
Eventually, he won a scholarship to study Chemistry
at the University of Manchester. As a part of his
studies, Lovelock carried out research on ways to
protect soldiers from burns. This work meant that he
Audioscripts – Part 2
didn’t have to serve in the Second World War.
After graduating with a Phd in Medicine, Lovelock
started working as a researcher in the field of
cryopreservation, which studies the effects of
freezing dead or living beings. A lot of Lovelock’s
work involved freezing mice and hamsters. In fact,
during his experiments, he even came up with an
early version of the microwave as a way to heat up
frozen hamsters! Later in his career, Lovelock
became famous for the invention of the electron
capture detector. This device was able to distinguish
the different elements that make up a particular gas.
As a result of this invention, Lovelock was able to
detect CFCs in the Earth’s atmosphere. CFCs are
chemicals that come from items such as aerosol
sprays. Lovelock initially thought they were
harmless, but, as other scientists soon discovered,
they destroy the ozone layer, which keeps out
harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
What Lovelock is most famous for, though, is the
Gaia hypothesis. He first came up with this theory
while looking into the possibility of life on Mars, as
part of work he was doing for NASA in the 1960s.
According to the theory, the whole world, both the
living and non-living matter on Earth, is one giant
organism, which Lovelock calls Gaia. Lovelock
believes that the Earth is active; that it is always
adapting its conditions so that it is as comfortable as
possible for living things. This is why our world’s
atmosphere is made up of the gases that support
life. Some scientists have complained that the Gaia
hypothesis is more like religion than science, while
other environmentalists say it is exactly the mindset
we need to save our planet. Lovelock himself states
that we can’t push Gaia too hard, and that it may
ultimately fail to adapt to human-caused climate
change.
Although environmentalists generally support the
Gaia hypothesis, they are critical of some of
Lovelock’s other opinions. In 2004, for example, he
stated that nuclear power was the only way of
halting global warming. Lovelock feels that society
cannot reduce its energy needs, and that alternative
energy sources have no hope of creating the huge
amounts of energy we require. A lot of
environmentalists feel that by saying this, Lovelock
shows little regard for the dangers of nuclear power.
Lovelock, however, has stated that nuclear waste is
far less harmful to wildlife than carbon emissions.
Clearly, James Lovelock is a remarkable scientist
who has had a huge impact on environmental
science. His work will no doubt play a significant role
in the future of our planet.
55