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LISTENING (Collection of tapescripts)
Tapescripts № 1 [1.9 Advanced New English File p.121].
In the spring of 1800, the court painter, Francisco de Goya was commissioned by the Spanish King Carlos IV, direct ancestor of King Juan Carlos, to paint a portrait of the royal family. At the time, the royal family were all staving at the summer palace of Aranjuez, near Madrid. First on the left is Prince Carlos, the King's second son, and next to him is his older brother Prince Fernando, who was the heir to the throne. Fernando grew up haling his parents, especially his mother, bill in fact, he took after his mother in that he was very vain and authoritarian, and when he eventually became king he was extremely unpopular. The old woman just behind Prince Fernando is Maria Josefa, the King's sister. Single and childless, she died shortly after the painting was finished. Next to Maria Josefa is a young woman whose face we cannot see because she is looking away, and she is the 'mystery person' in this painting, there are two theories about her identity. One theory is that she is Princess Maria Amalia, one of the King's daughters, who'd died in childbirth three years before the picture was painted. The fact that she's looking away would be lo show that she was, in fact, dead. However, the other more popular theory is that she represents the woman that Crown prince Fernando would one day marry. It would have been important to put her in the picture to show that the prince would marry one day, and have a san to carry on the dynasty. If this theory is true, the woman would be looking away because she didn't actually exist al that time. In fact, Fernando did marry, not once but four times. The young girl next to the mystery woman is Princess Maria Isabel, the King's youngest daughter. She went on to marry her cousin, and had twelve children. Next to her is the Oueen, Maria Luisa. Goya made her the central figure in the painting because she had a very strong personality, and she completely dominated her husband the King. As a young woman she had been very beautiful and was rumoured to have had numerous lovers. In middle age, as she is here, she was still very vain. She tried lo compensate for the fact that her beauty was fading by wearing exquisite dresses and jewellery, as we can see in the picture. The little boy with the Queen is her youngest son. Prince Francisco. I le was a very sensitive boy and he suffered all his life due to the fact that he looked incredibly like one of his mother's lovers. As a result, people assumed that he was not in fact the King's son. The King, who is standing next to him, was a weak man. Although he came lo the throne full of ideas and dreams, his wife and his advisors made sure that he never managed lo achieve any of them 2nd he died frustrated and disappointed. The King's brother is standing behind him, and on his right, although you can only actually see part of her head, is the King's eldest daughter Carlota. Her parents arranged a marriage for her when she was only ten years old. She was an ambitious girl and eventually became Queen of Portugal. The final group of three figures shows the Queen's brother, Don Luis de Parma, his wife, Maria l.uisa and their first child, a baby boy. In fact, Maria Luisa was not only Don Luis's wife, she was also his niece, as she was the King's second daughter. In fact, Don Luis was supposed lo have married the King's eldest daughter, Carlota, but he tell in love with Princess Maria Luisa, who was lively and intelligent, and he insisted on marrying her. The royal family didn't all pose together for the painting - it would have taken too long.
Instead Goya made individual studies of each family member and later used them lo create this work. The painting took him two years to complete, and il was the last royal portrait he ever painted. Incidentally, he included himself in the painting he is standing in the background on the left, behind the two princes. Carlos IV called this painting the family all together picture', and it was originally hung in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
Tapescript №2 [p.131. New English File. Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koening (advanced) Oxford, 2010].
Interviewer: What kinds of things has influenced you as an artist?
Patricia: I think one of the great influences on me was growing up on the banks of the Hudson, which is such a beautiful place in the different light and different times of year. I think that was a main influence on me to want to be a landscape painter. Also there were lots of paintings in the house where I grew up and my parents love painting very much and also my mother painted some, so I, especially after we all grew up, she painted, so, there were a lot of influences on me.
Interviewer: What’s your favorite time of day for painting?
Patricia: Actually my favorite time of day is sunrise, but I don’t always get up in time for that, so early morning and also late afternoon.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite time of year or season?
Patricia: Yes, I do actually, I love paint just before the spring when the air is so crisp and clear, and there aren’t yet any leaves on the trees, so that I can really see down the streets, so there’s something magical in New York about that time of year, around March and then of course, when spring comes and the blossoms and the trees start to come out, it’s just magical, but it lasts a very short time.
Interviewer: Are there any other cities that you’d like to go and paint in?
Patricia: Oh, there are thousands of cities I’d love to go to paint in, the ancient cities, the older cities, Paris, Amsterdam, Florence, Venice, many places in Sicily, in Greece, I’d love to go to Turkey and paint on the Mediterranean and any place where there’s antiquity and where there’s water or mountains. But it is hard to travel and paint, it’s much better to go to one place and settle in and paint for a while in one place to get to really know the landscape. That’s what I prefer to do.
Interviewer: What do you think is the pros and cons of an artist’s life?
Patricia: I think to be an artist usually it requests a lot of sacrifice and I know that sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. It requires an enormous amount of time, it requires being free to suddenly change your plans at moment’s notice. For example, being a landscape painter is completely insane, I could be going out the door with one painting under my arm to work on it and the weather can change and I’d be working on a different painting, or I could have plans with someone and suddenly change them, or drop the plans because the weather’s right for a particular painting, and that’s a real big sacrifice in terms of your social life and also, of course, finances, if, as I do, I tend to put painting before anything else. So, I’m not well, it’s hard to earn money and be a dedicated artist at the same time, I think. They contradict one another to some degree.
Interviewer: Do you often go to art galleries?
Jason: I try to, yeah.
Interviewer: What kind of art do you like?
Jason: I like a lot of different art. My favorite is probably landscapes. Things involving the ocean.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite painting or poster in your house?
Jason: Do I have a favorite? I have a Kandinsky that I’m quite fond of.
Interviewer: Can you describe it?
Jason: It’s hard to describe and I don’t even know the name of it, but it’s just, it’s beautiful and colorful and it’s in motion.
Interviewer: Do you often go to art galleries?
Jerry: No, almost never in fact. Almost never.
Interviewer: What kind of art do you like?
Jerry: Not, well, not one kind I don’t think. I like art which has a sort of emotional effect on me, I suppose. But it could be anything. I mean it’s not a particular style, it’s more a sort of, what I see in it. If it means something to me, then I think I appreciate it.
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite painting or poster in your house?
Jerry: Most of the art in my house is actually painted by my father. I’ve got, I must have 20 or 30 paintings by him. He paints, I take holiday snaps and he sort of improves them and paints them, you know, a photograph of Florence, say, and he’ll take out some buildings and invent some replacements, and I, you know, I rather like that. It’s almost like a sort of version of holiday photos, but with his personality superimposed, which is quite interesting.
Tapescript№3. Infortech English for computer users.Students’s Book. Cambridge University Press,2008. P.118]
Interviewer: What exactly is VoIP? And how does it work?
Sue: VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, a technology that lets you make phone calls using the Internet instead of the regular phone line. VoIP converts analogue voice into digital data and transmits it over the Internet with IP technology rather than via the traditional telephone network. When the data packets reach their final destination, they’re converted into voice again. The person you’re calling doesn’t need any special equipment, just a phone.
Interviewer: But if I want to make a VoIP call, what sort of equipment do I need?
Sue: Well, you can make a call in three different ways. The easiest way is computer- to computer. All you need is a program like Skype or DialPad, a microphone, speakers and a fast internet connection. You can download telephony software from the Net-it’s even free – or you can make calls directly from a website. Another way is through the use of a device called an ATA, an analogue telephone adapter, which converts the analogue signals of your traditional phone into digital signals. In this case you don’t even need a computer. You just connect your telephone to the phone adapter, and the adapter to your broadband modem. Thirdly, you can use a special VoIP phone with an Ethernet connector, which plugs directly into your internet connection. There are also wireless VoIP phones that let you make calls from any Wi-Fi access point- or hotspot – in many public locations. A Wi-Fi phone looks like a mobile phone, only it sends and receives audio signals via a wireless network.
Interviewer: But if I have a mobile phone, why use a Wi-Fi phone?
Sue: Well, with a Wi-Fi phone you’re using the Internet, so the calls are free or at least much cheaper. And you don’t have to pay roaming fees when you go abroad.
Interviewer: And do I need to have an account with a VoIP service provider?
Sue: Yes, you need a VoIP provider. They usually offer free calls to their subscribers and flat rates for other VoIP calls. Some providers charge a few cents for long distance calls.
Interviewer: What is the future of VoIP, in your opinion?
Sue: The future of internet telephony looks really promising. According to some industry analysts, internet telephony will probably replace the traditional phone system entirely and all phone calls will eventually be free.
Tapescript№4.[1.18 p.122. New English File. Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koening (advanced) Oxford, 2010]
Int. How much do you know about your family tree ?
Sheila Not a great deal actually.
Int. Have you ever researched it ?
Sheila I haven’t, but my cousin has and she’s looked into the family history of my mother’s side of the family. And it would be really interesting to find out what she’s learned really.
Int. Is there someone in your family that you’d like to know more about?
Sheila: Both my grandfathers. So my grandfather on my mother’s side, he was a musician, professional musician, and travelled a lot during the war and I think he made quite a lot of money because I’ve got lots of photographs of him with racing cars and motorbikes. I think he was a bit of a boy racer, so it would be quite interesting to find out more about him. And my other grandfather on my father’s side, I think he was a code breaker in the war, so he’s got a bit of a secretive side that it would be interesting to research.
Int. How much do you know about your family tree?
Naomi I have to admit that I personally don’t know all that much about my own family tree, really. A little bit, I probably can go back a couple of generations, maybe.
Int. Have you ever researched it?
Naomi I haven’t researched it personality but my dad has. He’s done some research on it, and I think my grandmother on my mother’s side also did some research a while back.
Int. Is there someone in your family that you’d like to know more about?
Naomi: Yeah, probably my dad’s mother. She was a single mum basically and she raised my dad on her own and I think she were alive now, I’d probably like to ask her a few more questions about what it was like growing up as well, because I think it would have been different for her.
Int. How much do you know about your family tree?
Tim: I wouldn’t say I know too much extensively about my family tree. I know I’m Polish and French – Indian. But I only know up to my grandparents. I’ve never really researched into the history of my family or my family tree that much.
Int.: Is there someone in your family that you’d like to know more about?
Tim: Probably my grandfather on my father’s side – he died when I was pretty young. And I know he had a lot of hobbies that I’d be interested in. But I didn’t really get a chance to spend a lot of time with him.
Int.: How much do you know about your family tree?
Jeremy: I know a little bit about my family tree. We’ve done some research on my mother’s side, less on my father’s side, which is a bit of a mystery. My grandfather, in fact, he wrote his sort of memoirs of his childhood and his parents and grandparents, which I’ve kind of helped my mum type up. So I know about them. He was a chauffeur, his father worked as, I think, a footman in some country house and his grandfather was, I think something, I don’t know what he did, but something like that.
Int.: Are there any other people in your family you’d like to know more about?
Jeremy: I’d like to know more about my father’s side, because I take after my dad, everyone says I look like him and I don’t really know much about his parents or his grandparents, so that would be interesting to find out about them.
Int.: What is your earliest memory?
Speaker: I was born on the Atlantic coast of New England and my earliest memory is swimming between my mother and my father in the Atlantic Ocean.
Int.: Oh, wow.
Speaker: I because I swam before I could walk. And it was wonderful.
Int.: How amazing! How old were you then?
Speaker: I think I was like, actually, I must have been really really young, maybe, maybe I’d already walked by that point, I must have been one and a half when I had that memory. Really young, it was really, it was a beautiful experience then, I’m sure and remembering it makes me very happy.
Speaker2: My earliest memory is of being completely by myself, lost in what seemed to be a great big forest, it probably wasn’t. I was about 18 months old and we were living in Cornwall, which is where I was born, and I was on a sort of path in the middle of really really dark forest and I remember looking behind me and it was just darkness and, and big dark trees and the same ahead of me, and just having this feeling of being completely on my own, and calling out for my sister, Lynn, who was seven years older than me, who was supposed to be minding me and not being able to find her.
Speaker3: I guess I was about three or maybe four, and I remember sitting on my father’s shoulders and we were going to the zoo and there was an elephant, and the elephant took my ice cream…
Speaker4: I remember it was 1966 and I was sitting on a bus with my grandmother, and I’d been given a brand new one penny coin, it was brand new, it was sparkling, and it was beautiful, and I remembered deciding then and there that this was going to be my earliest memory, I was going to remember this day in 1966 when I was sitting there with this brand new penny. And then I remember the bus conductor came along and wanted the fares and my granny was a penny short, so that was the end of my penny.
Speaker5: One of my very earliest memories is pulling away in a car looking out of the window seeing our dog Sam, sort of pinning for us through a window, because we were moving to a flat where they didn’t allow dogs. So were having to say goodbye to him, and it was very sad, he was sort of pining in his new home and we were pulling away. It was horrible.
Tapescript №5. [3.11 p.125. New English File. Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koening (advanced) Oxford, 2010]
Interviewer:What made you want to be a translator?
Translator:It was something that I’d done when I was at university and when I moved to Spain it was difficult to get a job that wasn’t teaching English, so I went back to England and I did a postgraduate course in translation. After doing the course I swore that I would never be a translator. I thought it would be too boring, but I kept doing the odd translation, and eventually I came round to the idea because I liked the idea of working for myself, and it didn’t require too much investment to get started. And actually, I enjoy working with words, and it’s very satisfying when you feel that you’ve produced a reasonable translation of the original text.
Interviewer:What do you think is the most difficult kind of text to translate?
Translator:Literary texts, like novels, poetry, or drama because you’ve got to give a lot of consideration to the author, and to the way it’s been written in the original language.
Interviewer:In order to translate a novel well, do you think you need to be a novelist yourself?
Translator:I think that’s true ideally, yes.
Interviewer:And is that the case? I mean are most of the well-known translators of novels, generally speaking, novelists in their own right?
Translator:Yes I think in English any way. People who translate into English tend to be published authors, and they tend to specialize in a particular author in other language. And of course if it’s a living author, then it’s so much easier because you can actually communicate with the author and say, you know, like, “What did you really mean here?”
Interviewer:Another thing I’ve heard that is very hard to translate is advertising, for example slogan.
Translator:Well, with advertising, the problem is that it’s got to be something punchy, and it’s very difficult to translate that. For example, one of the Coca-Cola’ advert, the slogan in English was ‘the real thing’ but you just couldn’t translate that literally into Spanish, it just wouldn’t have had the same power. In fact, it became Sensacon de vivir, which is ‘sensation of living’, which sounds really good in Spanish but it would sound weird in English.
Interviewer:What about film titles?
Translator:They’re horrific too. People always complain that they’ve not been translated accurately, but of course it’s impossible because sometimes a literal translation just doesn’t work.
Interviewer:
Interviewer:For example?
Translator:Ok, well, think of, you know, the Julie Andrews film. The Sound of Music. Well, thatworks in English because it’s a phrase that you know, you know like “I can hear the sound of music.” But it doesn’t work at all in other languages, and in Spanish it was called “Sonrisas y lagrimas’ which means “Smiles and tears”, in German it was called “Meine Lieade - meine Traume,’ means “My songs, my dreams’ and in Italian it was “Tutti insieme appassionatamente’ which means I think “All together passionately’ or I don’t know, something like that1 In fact, I think it was translated differently all over the world.
Interviewer:Do you think there are special problems translating film scripts for the subtitles?
Translator:Yes, a lot. There are special constraints, for example the translation has to fit on the screen as the actor is speaking, and so sometimes the translation, and of course, well, going back to untranslatable things, really the big problems are cultural, and humor, because they’re just not the same. You can get across the idea, but you might need pages to explain it, and, you know, by that time the film’s moved on. I also sometimes think that the translators are given the film on DVD, I mean, you know, rather than a written script, and that sometimes they’ve simply misheard or they didn’t understand what the people said. And that’s the only explanation I can come up with for some of the mistranslations that I’ve seen. Although sometimes it might be that some things like humor and jokes, especially ones which depend on wordplay are just, you know, they’re simply untranslatable. And often it’s very difficult to get the right register, for example with slang and swear words, because if you literary translate taboo words or swear words, even if they exist in the other language, they may well be far more offensive.
Interviewer:What are the pros and cons of being a translator?
Translator:Well, it’s a lonely job I suppose, you know, you’re on your own most of time, it’s hard work, you’re sitting there and, you know, you are working long hours, and you can’t programme things because you don’t know when more work is going to come in, and people have always got tight deadlines. You know, it’s really rare that somebody’ll ring you up and say “I want this translation in three months’ time.” That just doesn’t really happen.
Interviewer:And the pros?
Translator:Well, the pros are that it gives you freedom, because you can do it anywhere if you’ve got an Internet connection and electricity, and I suppose you can organize you time, because you’re freelance, you know, you’re your own boss, which is good. I like that.
Interviewer:What advice would you give someone who’s thinking of going into translation?
Translator:I’d say that in addition to the language, get a speciality. Do another course in anything that interests you, like economics, law, history, art, because you really need to know about the subjects that you’re translating into.
Tapescript№6.Listen to the text[ CAE Objective 2nd edition, page 54] and fill in the following test.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'm sorry to say it living in London but I couldn't do without my car. I love having my car. I mean its, it's tiny, it's a soft top, it's completely impractical for most journeys but I love it and driving round in the country, well, it's just brilliant. I have a great time in it. I also, I couldn't do without my bike which is somehow a better idea around London. I can use it a lot more and I can get round all the traffic jams because it's just ridiculous in a car. You just spend your time hanging around waiting all the time. It's pointless.
Speaker 2:
Well, I've got a little baby and one thing I really couldn't do without is my washing machine, especially - I know it sounds really repulsive - but we actually wash our nappies. It's, it's really good and that might sound trivial but not in these days because, I don't know, it's so eco-friendly to have washable nappies and it's an inspired design, our washing machine, because it's got lots of features like the half-load button for example and yeah, it's very ingenious the way it can do that. And another thing I really couldn't do without is my hair dryer. Oh I love my hair dryer! It's really great. I think that's another piece of breathtaking design because it's really great the way that you can have a cold shot at the end of the dry so it doesn't make your hair too hot really. Yeah, those are the things I really couldn't do without.
Speaker 3:
Well, my contact lenses are indispensable to me. They are, apart from being a brilliant invention, they - without them I couldn't see. I'm too vain to wear glasses so I really do need them. I mean, I think they're an absolutely extraordinary and inspired invention. But the other thing that I couldn't possibly live without is my microwave and to have that, I mean as ugly and hideous as it is in the corner, is an absolute boon to my life and being able to heat things up at the last minute and cold cups of coffee suddenly become wonderfully hot, so I'm
yes, without those two, with those two things I'm fine. Without them, I'm lost.
Speaker 4:
Two things that I can't live without? Let me think. One of them goes everywhere with me, is a pepper mill for black pepper. I do a lot of travelling and I always
a terrible old piece of stuff, I mean it's, it's quite grotesque. It's not a normal wooden black pepper mill. It's got, it's made out of, almost looks like a small tree. Ifs quite impractical, I can't pack it anywhere and when you turn the top not much pepper comes out but I've had it for so long now, it automatically finds its way into my case when I, when I go away. My other thing that I have everywhere, and it sounds a bit, a bit fastidious, is my Swiss army knife. I think it's a brilliant piece of engineering really. There are several things on there that are quite pointless. I'm never going to get a stone out of horse's hoof and there's a little swirly piece of metal with a funny nodule on the end. I don’t know what that’s for. It’s a wonderful piece of engineering, though, and I take it everywhere with me and I couldn’t live without it. I really don’t think I could.
Tapescript №7[ p. 23]
Interviewer: With me today in the studio is David Burns, who freely admits that he has had a troubled past. And when I read through this potted biography; a difficult childhood, married to a fellow soap opera star, a relationship with a famous actress, an 11-year-old daughter from a subsequent relationship… all I can say David is that your life has been a roller coaster. It’s no wonder you’re constantly in the public eye. Do you think it all started in your teenage years?
David: I think it all stemmed from when I was at school. When I was about 14 In was picked on by a bully. One day he went too far with a taunt about my mother. I snapped; I really laid into him.
Interviewer: What happened?
David: Oh, there was a big fuss at school and I was branded a troublemaker. My mum began to think she could not cope with me. Things were going from bad to worse.
Interviewer: and how did you get out of that downward spiral?
David: I was lucky. A drama teacher we had really tuned into me. She said I could choose to go whichever direction I wanted. I could continue playing truant, getting into trouble or I could make something of myself. She said I had talent. Was I prepared to ignore that for a life of trouble and misery?
Interviewer: I wonder if directors see that tough upbringing because the irony is that you’ve specialized in
Playing villains…
David: I’ve always been an edgy person. I can bring that out if the part demands it. I’ve got a dark side. People say they can see an element of that in my eyes.
Interviewer: And how does that affect your fan mail? Does it mean that people think they do not like you as a person as well as the parts you play?
David:Er, I get a very mixed reception. There are fans that write very complimentary letters, saying I’m good-looking and that sort of thing, but then there are those who seem to become obsessed and it can turn nasty.
Interviewer: What do you mean?
David: Well, for example, a fan became obsessed, sort of jealous, and she caused me a lot of problems. She did not like anyone in the TV series getting near me. She’d send 50 letters every week and pictures from the show with everyone cut out except me. Then she wrote to another cast member saying she knew I had a daughter. That is when I went to my producer who contacted the police and social services got involved.
Interviewer: Tell us about your experience in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat….
David: I played the lead role. I did it for two years-and then I got sacked. The director saw I was getting a lot of attention. I think it was thought I was hogging the limelight. It may have been internal politics, but I was not even given the chance to give my final performance.
Interviewer: And tell us about your marriage to your fellow soap opera star Julia Watts….
David: Looking back, I do not think we were not destined to grow old together. We just did not know it at the time. But she’s a great actress. She could be in the soap for another 20 years. She’s brilliant in it. We’ve each said things in the press which I’m sure both regret. I was offered a fortune to tell my story, but I’m not interested. But when she was in another TV series which did quite well, she couldn’t give an interview without having a goat me.
Interviewer: And what about your daughter Sarah?
David: She’s 11 and she’s very beautiful and assured. Her mother, Carol, was a model. We separated a couple years ago, but we’ve always put Sarah first. She lives with Carol and I see her every other weekend.
Interviewer: Will you ever marry again?
David: Yeah, I hope so. I’m in relationship with someone who’s not in show business. But my lips are sealed on that. All I say is that I do believe in marriage.
Tapescript №8[The Business John Alison Macmillian 2007-Т. 1.03]
A: All right, Samantha, welcome to San Antonio. Now I just want to give you an overview of the company and who does what, so you know who to ask when you need information, OK?
B: OK, Mr Newman
A: And please call me Betram, Samantha – we’re very formal here in Texas.
B: All right, Mr New-er, Betram. And, er, everyone calls me Sam.
A: Right, Sam. Now as you know, my role is to manage Marketing and Sales; you will be working with Jake, our Art Director, and Saidah, Who’s our PR officer, but you’re going to report directly to me. I’ll introduce you to Saidah and Jake in a few minutes.
B: All right.
A: As I told you, we’re a small company, so the organization is simple for the moment, but we’re growing fast, so that’s going to change as we hire new staff. For example, right now we don’t have an HR department as such - Monica Overstreet, our Office Manager, takes care of personnel, so she’s the person to see if you have any administrative questions.
B: Yes, I met Ms Overstreet last time when I was here.
A: That’s right. She also looks after finance, and she has two accountants working under her. Now then, as you as you probably know, Warndar Technologies was founded by Merilyn Warner, our CEO, and David Darren, who’s COO now.
B: COO?
A: Yuh. Chief Operating Officer. Basically, he runs the business on a day to day basis. Merilyn deals with strategy, and she’s on the board of our parent company, so she’s often away in Houston.
B: uh-huh. And Warndar is a subsidiary of the Irysis group, right?
A: That’s right. They took us couple years ago. Anyway, as well as Monica and myself, there are three other department heads who all report to David. The woman we met just now in the corridor is Roxane Pawle. Roxabe is in charge of IT and technical Support. She is new – she joined six month ago when our old IT Manager resigned. He was appointed Head of IT at one of the big company in Washington. Nice job, but too much stress. They fired him after three months. He’s working as a bar tender now.
B: Wow!
A: Yeah. Glad you chose marketing, eh? It’s dog it dog in IT. Anyway, Roxane has a web developer and two support engineers reporting to her. OK? Now the biggest department here is R&D. We have seven research scientists in the lab, plus Doug Pearson who coordinates our development programmes. He liaises with me in Marketing and with our Program Manager, Herb Monroe. Herb manages the Engineering Department, and he’s responsible for building our products.
B: OK.
A: All right, I think that’s everyone. Unless you have any questions, we’ll go and meet Saidah and Jake. Oh, and I think David wants to see you in his office….. don’t look so worried…. He’s not going to fire you on your first day!
Tapescript №9[1.04, p.134The Business.Students’s Book. John Allison with Paul Emmerson MACMILLAN.2009]
Do you know the one about the CFO and the crocodiles? Well, there was this CEO, who was giving a party for his executive team. Over the years, the boss had done very well for himself, so he was proudly showing the executives around his luxurious country house. Anyway, at the back of the house, he had built the largest swimming pool any of them had ever seen. Absolutely huge, you know? But the pool was full of very hungry crocodiles. So, the CEO said to his executives, “The most important quality for an executive is courage. Without it, you will never become a CEO like me. So, this is my challenge to each of you: if anyone can dive into the pool, swim through those crocodiles and reach the other side, I will give them anything they want. My job, my money, my house, anything!”
Well, of course, everyone laughed at the challenge and nobody took it very seriously. Anyway, they had just started to follow the CEO towards the barbecue when suddenly there was a loud splash. Everyone turned around and ran back to the pool where the Chief Financial Officer was swimming for his life. The crocodiles had almost caught him when he reached the edge of the pool. He’d just managed to climb out of the pool when he heard the mouth of the biggest crocodile close shut- snap-behind him.
Well, the CEO shook the CFO’s hand and said, “I’m really impressed. Until you dived into that pool, I never imagined you had such courage. You accepted my challenge and now anything I own is yours. Tell me what I can do for you.” The CFO was still recovering from the swim. He looked up at the CEO and said, “You can start by telling me who the hell pushed me into the pool!”
Tapescript №10.Listen to the text «Fashion»Listening p.160
Now, it’s been brought to my attention that certain members of staff have been flouting the dress code. So I want to make it crystal clear to everyone just exactly what’s expected in terms of attire. Those of you who workin reception must be, how shall I put it, business like, at all times. You are the fmirst person visitirs see when they enter the building. Whether they then go on to the Managing Director or the canteen is irrelevant. You create the first impression of the company; and as we all know, first and last impressions count. Now for men that means a tie and a dark suit – accepted busuness practice. For women, a suit, er, that can be a trouser suit, or a smart dress or skirt and jacket. It goes without saying that hair and so on needs to be neat and tidy.The accountants. You never know when a client may come in to see you. You may think you’re not in the public relations business but in a way, you are. And, I know most of the time people make appointments but there are odd ocassions when someone just happens to be in the areaand decides to come in. in this case you are the embodiment of your profession. This is a firm with a good reputation; clients expect their accountant to reflect this not only in their work but also in the way the present themselves. Don’t forget in many in many people’s eyes sloppy clothes means sloppy work, and I must say, I tend to agree.
The only possible exception to this is the so called dress-down Friday. This new idea. And, of course, that only applies if you have no appointments with clients in your diary. Now this doesn’t mean that you can turn up wearing whatever you like. It’s got to be smart-casual. That’s what it says here. And that still means a tie, but you can wear smart jeans and a jacket or even a sweater. Now something’s come to my attention that I’m not at all happy about and that is training days. It seems as though some of you have got the idea into your head that when
You’re on a trainig day that means you can dress like a student. It does not. You’re still representative of this company. When you go out to management college, you are judged there too. I’ve heard remarks about a certain man who turned up wearing a nose ring. This is not acceptable; it’s all in the company’s dress code, which you’ve all had a copy of. What I want to emphasise is that it’s a matter of professional pride, the way you dress. I know some people start murmuring about civil liberties and all that, but I’m sorry, as I see it, we’re all here to do a job of work. We are employees of a company and as such we have to toe the line and not only in what we do and how we do our job, but also the way we dress.
If anyone feels particularly aggrieved by any of this, all I can suggest mis that you take it up with the Human Resourses department. Go up to the fifth floor, you know, next to the UK department. But really, I hope I won’t have to refer to this again and I expect tosee a dramatic improvement in personal presentation.