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Tapescript №13. R9.5Advanced. Face to Face. Student’s Book. Unit 9C, recording script R9.5, page 92.
Teacher: Right, settle down please…OK, OK, a show of hand here, how many of you are considering studying economics next year? Ah, two, I promise you those people are not related to me in any way. Right, so why should anyone want to study economics? After all, it’s often referred to as “the gloomy science,” but believe me it isn’t. And I’ve got three minutes to convince you that rather than being gloomy, it is in fact optimistic – it could save your world. So, I’m going to divide the talk into three sections. First of all, how economics is related to real life. Then I’ll go on to the intellectual challenge. And finally I’ll discuss future careers.
R9.6
Teacher: Let us start with world issues. How many of you would like to make the world a better place? Ah good, three of you this time! Let’s take poverty. The current rise in world food prices is likely to lead to a serious outbreak of famine in less-developed countries which rely on rice and wheat. We hear a lot about this from politicians, yet its roots and consequences are economic. In fact, most of the world’s problems can be understood in terms of economics. Obviously, it won’t provide easy answers to these problems but it does clarify the issues. For example, we exploit the earth’s resources, trees, oil, etc., in order to create economic wealth, but we don’t realize the real cost of doing so. What do we make plastic from? Oil, right, right. So, what is the real cost of, let’s say using a plastic bag? It isn’t just the cost of producing it, you have to think about the cost of disposing of it when you throw it away. Economists can do that, they can analyze the full social costs of our actions, so we can make better choices like, should we have more airports or more railways? Should we use nuclear power or renewable energy? What are the real costs and benefits of each? As I said before, economics won’t provide all the answers but it will help you form balanced and informed opinions and with those you may find solutions. So, to sum up this first section, if you have a wish to really understand and analyze the background to world issues and not just have an emotional response to them, then economics is absolutely essential. Let’s move on to the intellectual challenge involved in economics. It’s a subject that suits people who are logical thinkers and who enjoy serious debate. It’s for those who like creating and testing theories. I’m not saying it’s easy. It does need a good understanding of mathematics and you do have to be able to communicate clearly in writing. But if you have these skills, then economics might just put them to the best use. And even if few aren’t interested in the business world as such, because economics is related to most other subjects it will give you a deeper understanding of anything you want to study from politics to rocket science to fashion. And finally, there’s the small matter of how you’re going to earn a living. Well, careers in business, finance and management obviously all have economics at their heart. However, careers in architecture or engineering also need an understanding of what we call opportunity cost, the building block of economics. Perhaps you’re interested in agriculture, overseas aid, politics or journalism? Whatever your ambition, the study of economics provides a good grounding for these and many other careers.
So in conclusion, if you want to study an interesting and interdisciplinary subject, which provides relevant knowledge and skills for your future career, go for economics. It’s not gloomy at all. It is, in fact, a lively and exciting science; challenging and deeply satisfying. Right, let’s have another show of hands, see if…
Tapescript №14.Face to Face. Student’s Book. Advanced. Unit 8C, recording script R 8.4, page83.
Interviewer Do you think being a man or a woman has ever stopped you from doing something you wanted to do? And if you could live your life again as a man or a woman, which would you choose and why?
Em So far in my life, being a woman hasn`t stopped me doing anything that I`ve wanted to do. An experience that springs to mind was when my boyfriend and I were travelling around Italy and we ran out of money. So we needed to find work, and we found work on a building site. So Toby was building and I was Toby`s labourer. And that`s not a typical role for a woman, but it was a really good experience. If I could live my life again, I would definitely come back as a woman, for the simple fact that I`ve really thoroughly enjoyed my life so far. And I hope it carries on to be as much fun as it already has been – as a woman.
BOB I`ve never really thought about it. Everything I`ve sort of wanted to do has always been from a male perspective. So, I don`t know any other way of behaving other than being a man. No, all the things like sport and work and that, I`ve never had any problems with – it`s all flowed probably from being, well, a man, I guess, so no, I don`t think it`s hindered me at all. Definitely, I`m happy staying a man, I real, you know, I really enjoy it. But if for a day or two I could come back as a woman, just to gain, gain a greater understanding or empathy, then I could probably do that. As long as I could revert back to being a man…at will.
MICK Well, yeah funnily enough the one thing that I cannot do and probably will never be able to do unless science progresses far beyond I imagine it will, is give birth. It`s something that biologically, obviously I can`t do. And it is something I do think about. I have lots of female friends that have got babies and have given birth and have said that it`s the hardest thing bur it`s also the most rewarding thing they have ever done in their life. And like I say, it`s something that I will never ever be able to do. In some aspects I wish I was a seahorse, `cos seahorses are the only mammal where the male gives birth. But having said all that, if I were to come back, I think I probably still would be a man.
KAY Well, when I think about my childhood I was at a huge disadvantage being a girl `cos I was brought up in a house of brothers and I desperately wanted to join in with the football. And I think I would have been really rather good at it, but it wasn’t allowed. They wouldn’t let me join in ever and I ended up doing ballet, which of course I wasn’t good enough at. But I think I would have been a pretty young footballer one way and another. And, and I love the game; I really enjoy it. So that’s, that would have been a good reason to be a fella. And if I was to live my life again, I think, I think I probably would try it as a male. One reason being that you wouldn’t have to queue up in the hotels. And they only have to think of one thing at a time – men.
JOEY It hasn’t ever stopped me from doing anything I’ve wanted to do, but being a woman makes love harder and more complicated it that you’re trying to do a job and you’re also having to look after your family. And I have definitely seen with women that I work with, truing to juggle those two things can be quiet difficult and it can hold up the careers or to make them feel that they’re not successful at doing both things at once. I’d quite like to be a man to see what it’s like, but I think I’d choose to be a woman because I think women are better communicators and they have richer lives with their friends. And they can have it all really if they, they work at it.
DAN being a woman has been, you know, been a wonderful experience. I’ve, I’ve not felt restricted being a man. I felt that actually doors have been opened for me. And I’ve been very conscious of the fact that being a woman at times, in, in this present society, has been difficult for women, but that, it’s, it’s worked out, it’s been all right for me. If I could live my life again, I don’t think I’d have a particular preference of coming back as male or female. I, I’m, if I think, yes, I’d come back as male or female.
Tapescript №15.Face to Face. Student’s Book. Advanced. Unit 6A, recording script R6.1, page58 R6.1
Pete I have a friend called Martina and she owns two rabbits. Not so strange in itself but she’s got a habit of talking to them everywhere she goes. So, a typical afternoon round a friend’s house will consist of people crawling around in a neighbor’s hedges looking for them. And there is a chicken wire over her bookcase to stop the rabbits eating her books. And the things that I will never forget is the first time I met her. She came to the pub, dressed very glamorously – long coat and high heels, opened her coat and there hopping out of the top of her sweater were two rabbits.
Natalie Really! Blimey. I commute on the train to work every day and, on the way back home, there’s a guy that gets on the train and he starts at one end of the platform. He, he hops on the train at the back end, and he patrols all the way up the carriages, through to the, the front of the train and then patrols back again until he finds the perfect seat. I think, I guess, that’s what he’s looking for, I mean, I’ve been travelling for two years now. And, I’ve sort of…
Keith He is not a ticket inspector then?
Natalie No, no he is not a ticket inspector…
Alex Undercover.
Natalie …he’s you know, he does the same thing, day in day out and the only thing that I can put шеек down to is that he’s just trying to find the best seat on the train. I thought that was quite bizarre.
Alex That is very bizarre. I used, I used to commute to Liverpool Street for ten years and you’ve just remind me actually, there was a couple, who used to get on at King’s Lynn and go all the way down to Liverpool Street, and she – the woman – had extraordinary eyebrows that were painted on with very, very heavy eyebrow pencil. But they used to have a, a bag of toy animals. Stuffed, you know, children’s toys…
Keith OK, Ok.
Alex And they used to get them out and line them up. I’ve only just remembered this.
Keith How very strange.
Alex Yeah, and they used to line them up, so that, the, the toys could look out of the window.
Natalie That is very, very bizarre.
Alex It was extraordinary.
Keith Very odd behavior.
Alex We all used to sit there just, ignoring them and nobody, you know, nobody, ‘cos we are British, nobody would say anything.
Natalie No
Alex Like, why are you lining these toys? You are a grown-up couple.
Natalie Gosh.
Keith My daughter does that, but she is six, so I think it’s more understandable.
Alex Year, quite.
Keith But she does, she does strange things, I mean she can, she collects pebbles which really winds us up, ‘cos we’ve; she’s just got her this really nice coat and she always like, she comes home from school and she is always got pockets and pockets full of pebbles. Grubby pebbles that just, make holes in the pockets and so on, you, you take, you know help her off with her coat and it’s so heavy… We empty them every day we’ve got this great heap of pebbles in the garden. She collects them with her friends.
Alex You can get her make a path one day.
Keith She collects with her friends, I think, and sort of compare them. And the other thing actually, recently, she went for a week and she insisted on putting on odd socks every morning.
Natalie Really?
Keith Year, she wanted to put on different color socks. It’s obviously the height of fashion…
Natalie Oh, wow.
Alex It’s sweet though isn’t it?
Keith … in her class at school.
Tapescript №16R1.4:Face to Face. Advanced. Student’s Book. Unit 1C, recording script R1.4., page 12.
Claudia Well, my favorite saying is ”Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it”. It’s probably not very exciting for British people, but for me as a non-native speaker I thought it was really, really nice. It basically means that you can’t always plan ahead and you can’t control everything. Well, to put it simply you can’t really worry about things that are way in the future. The first time I heard it was from my then boyfriend, Ben, and nothing has influenced my life more that that saying actually. Well, Ben and I are now married, so I reckon it worked out alright!
Chris My favorite expression is “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys”, which kind of basically means that the less money you pay the worse the service. It’s an expression I’ve always wanted to tell my boss but never really had the courage to do that.
Claire One of my favorite sayings is “If you fly with the crows, you’ll get shot with the crows”. I can remember my grandmother saying it to me when I was growing up in Scotland. And what it means is that if you hang about with the wrong crowd, and what she was saying to me is, at school, that if people who be, behave badly you’ll get punished with them, even if you were (weren’t) wrong. I’ve not heard the expression in years, but recently. I’ve heard it quite a lot in the news and political contexts.
Lynn Well, my favorite saying is something I, I picked up from my mum and I use it because I’m not a very practical person. The saying is “Why have a dog and bark yourself?” and this basically means there’s no need to bother doing something difficult if someone around you can do it better than you. So, for example my boyfriend’s a fantastic cook, and people say “Why have a dog and bark yourself?”, because, because there’s really no need for me to bother.
Pete Well, I grew up in a horsy family and everyone in my family rode horses, except for me. And as a result of that, I picked up quite a few expressions involving horses. One of my favorites is “Horses for courses.” Basically different horses are involved in different kinds of races, and the horses are suited to its particular course. So, in real life every person is suited to a particular job, every machine to a particular job and “Horses for courses” basically sums up that connection between the thing and the job it should do.
Tapescript №17 Face to Face. Advanced. Student’s Book. [2, T 9.6]
Let us start with world with world issues. How many of you would like to make the world a better place? Ah good, three of you this time. Let’s take poverty . the current price in world food prices is likely to lead to a serious outbreak of famine in less – developed countries which really on rice and wheat. We hear a lot about this from politicians, yet its roots and consequences are economic. In fact, most of the world’s problems can be understood in terms of economics. Obviously, it won’t provide easy answers to these problems but it does clarify the issues. For example, we exploit the earth’s recourses, trees, oil, etc., in order to create economic wealth, but we don’t realize the real cost of doing so. What do we make plastic from? Oil, right, right. So, what is the real cost of, let’s say using a plastic bag? It isn’t just a cost of producing it, you have to think about a cost of disposing it when you throw it away. Economics can do that, they can analyse the full social costs of our actions, so we can make better choices like, should we have more airports , or more railways? Should we use nuclear power or renewable energy? What are the real costs and benefits of each?
As I said before, economics won’t provide all the answers but it will help you from balanced and informed opinions and with those you may find solutions. So, to sum up this first section, if you have a wish to really understand it and analyse the background to world issues not just have an emotional response to them, then economics is absolutely essential. Let’s move on to the intellectual challenge involved in economics. It’s a subject that suits people who are logical thinkers and who enjoy serious debate. It’s for those who like creating and testing theories. I’m not saying it’s easy. It does need a good understanding of mathematics and you do have to be able to communicate clearly in writing. But if you have this skills, then economics might just put them to the best use. And even if you aren’t interested in the business world as such, because economics is related to most other subjects it will give you a deeper understanding of anything you want to study from politics to rocket science to fashion. And finally, there’s a small matter of how you are going to earn a living. Well, careers in business, finance and management obviously all have economics at their heart. However, careers in architecture and engineering also need an understanding of what we call opportunity cost, the building block of economics. Perhaps you’re interested in agriculture, overseas aid, politics or journalism? Whatever your ambition, the study of economics provides a good grounding for these and many other careers.
So, in conclusion, if you want to study an interesting and interdisciplinary subject, which provides relevant knowledge and skills for your future career, go for economics. It’s not gloomy at all. It is, in fact, a lively and exciting science; challenging and deeply satisfying. Right, let’s have another show of hands, see if…
Tapescript №18. Master Class CAE [3, p. 89]
Part 1
N = Narrator
N How many young women can you think of who reached international stardom by the time they turned 20? Such youthful success stories are few and far between. But Mariah Carey would definitely be at the very top of that list, by anybody's standards. In 1990, when she blasted non-stop up the charts with her self-titled debut album, she was catapulted into instant celebrity. How does such a thing happen?
Born in New York City to parents who separated when she was just three, Mariah grew up with her mother, Patricia, and her much older brother and sister. Mariah's brother is nine years older than her; her sister is 10 years Mariah and her mum moved at least 13 times, as Patricia sought work as a voice coach. Finally, they settled in Huntingdon, Long Island, in the mid-80s.
older. Music was a way of life around the house because Patricia was a singer in the New York City Opera. She also taught voice lessons and had lots of musically talented friends who frequently dropped by. All of this had its influence on the girl. By the time she was only four, it was as if Mariah had already seen the future: she knew even then that she was destined to be a famous singer when she grew up. The tough part was a disrupted home life. Mariah began writing songs at 13. She says she was influenced a lot by MTV, which she remembers as being 'on' throughout her whole teen life. School and study became a problem during her teens, but while her school grades suffered, her skills as a singer and songwriter steadily improved. And her dream never wavered. The minute she graduated from high school, Mariah made the big move to Manhattan, where she roughed it with two room-mates and had a string of jobs that would pay the rent. These included working as a waitress and a hat checker. At the same time, she worked into the wee hours of the night on a demo tape. Finally, good fortune took over and she was given some studio work and gigs singing back-up for other vocalists.
If you consider yourself introverted, it's not the easiest thing to go out and make people aware of you. And shy Mariah's always been a reluctant self-promoter. But she got the classic lucky break when she agreed (also reluctantly) to go to a music industry party. There she met Tommy Mottola, a head executive at CBS records, who took her demo tape without a whole lot of enthusiasm. The story is now legendary. On his way home from the party, Tommy popped Mariah's cassette in the tape deck
and could not believe what he was hearing. He returned to the party to find her, but she had gone. A few days later, like Prince Charming in search of Cinderella, he'd tracked her down and offered her the world - in the form of a recording contract.
In 1990, Mariah realized every artist's dream by winning two Grammy Awards, for Best New Artist and Best Pop Female Vocalist. Her first album sold an unbelievable seven million copies. With that, the Cinderella story was complete. Once Mariah got the gold disc - and several platinums - for her first album, she could have relaxed for a while. But it was right back to the studio to work on album number two, Emotions, which sold over a million copies too.
Her lifestyle is about total devotion to her career. Preferring to work at night, Mariah goes into the studio when most people are calling it quits. She usually works till dawn and then sleeps till mid-afternoon. Though she loves to travel, she wouldn't tour at all if she didn't have to. The schedule is a grind, and she doesn't sleep well on the road, and all that affects her voice. And of course, given her shyness, getting up in front of a crowd is not her idea of a good time.
Part 2 page 64
N = Narrator
NMariah Carey's got a gift that has given her freedom, fame and the rare opportunity to spend her life doing exactly what she loves. Her advice for success? - to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength, to say 'I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself'. It has certainly paid off in her case.
Tapescript №19 [ page 127“New English File” by Clive Oxenden and Christina Koenig for Advanced level. Student’s book. Oxford University Press. 2010.]
In the book History Goes to the Movies, the author Joseph Roquemore gives films stars according to their historical accuracy on a one-to-five scale - five stars means a film's very accurate, and no stars means it's very inaccurate. I'm going to look at two of the best- known films that Roquemore features in his book. The first film is the Oscar-winning movie Titanic, which was directed by James Cameron in 1997. The film is historically accurate as regards the events leading up to the collision with the iceberg - the Titanic was sailing too last and the captain ignored warnings about ice. Ihe collision and sinking are also very accurately portrayed with amazing special effects. However, where the film falls down is in its characterization. 1 must say 1 entirely agree with Roquemore when he criticizes director lames Cameron for what he calls 'class-conscious overkill'. What he means by that is Cameron depicts all the third-class passengers in the film as brave and good, and all the first- class passengers as selfish, stupid, cowardly, or downright evil. And this can't have been the case. Ihen a large part of Ihe film centres on the love story between Jack, a third class passenger, played by Leo DiCaprio, and Rose, a first-class passenger, played by Kate Winslet. Obviously, these characters and their story are fictitious and were just added, presumably to sell the film to a younger audience. But many historians have pointed out that a romance between Jack and Rose is totally improbable, because at that time there was complete class segregation on board ship. Roquemore also criticizes the film's portrayal of Captain Smith. He's made out to be indecisive and frankly useless throughout the disaster. But this contradicts everything which was said about him by survivors of the sinking. And for me, though, even more indefensible was the film's portrayal of the ship's First Officer, William Murdoch. On the night of the sinking he behaved heroically. In his home town in Scotland there's even a memorial to him, but in the film he's shown taking a bribe from a passenger (in exchange for a place in a lifeboat), shooting passengers dead, and finally shooting himself in the head. In fact, the film company 20th Century Fox, who produced Titanic, were eventually forced to admit that there was no historical evidence that Murdoch did any of these things, and that they'd included these details purely and simply to make the story more interesting. Roquemore gives Titanic three stars, describing it as 'Great pyrotechnics - mediocre history'. All in all, I think his assessment is about right. 'Ihe main events are true but the characterization is definitely the weak point in the film.
Moving on to the second film, Braveheart, this is one of the films to which Roquemore gives five stars for historical accuracy. He gives the film five stars because despite what he calls some 'small fictions' he thinks Braveheart is, I quote, 'true to the spirit of William Wallace'. Well, that may be the case, but I'm afraid I have to take exception to the phrase 'small fictions'. The historian Elizabeth Ewan described Braveheart as a film which 'almost totally sacrifices historical accuracy for epic adventure.' William Wallace is portrayed as a kind of poor primitive tribesman living in a village. In fact, he was the son of a rich landowner and he later became a knight. You'll remember too that in the film Mel Gibson wears woad, a kind of blue face paint. Apparently, the Scots stopped wearing woad hundreds of years earlier. And while we're on the subject of costume, in the film the Scottish soldiers wear kilts. No surprises there you might think, but in the I31*1 century, which is when the events of the film are set, the Scots did not wear kilts, and in fact, they didn't start wearing them until four centuries later. Another of these 'fictions' is that in Braveheart, William Wallace has a romance with the beautiful French princess, lsabelle. However, the historical reality is that Wallace never met lsabelle and even if he had, she would only have been nine years old at the time! Finally, anyone who's seen the film will remember the famous battle scene. The battle was Ihe Battle of Stirling, so called because it was fought on Stirling Bridge in Scotland. Basically, the reason why the Scots won the battle is because the English soldiers got trapped on the narrow bridge. In Braveheart the bridge does not appear at all in the battle. In fact, Mel Gibson originally planned to film the scene on the actual bridge, but he found that the bridge kept 'getting in the way'. Apparently, when he mentioned this to one of the Scottish history advisors on the film, the man's reply was 'Aye, that's what the English found'. Mel Gibson defended all the inaccuracies in the film saying that the film's version of history was more compelling cinematically' Admittedly, it is a very entertaining film, and it does give you a strong feeling tor William Wallace and how he must have inspired his countrymen, but I don't think you can give this film five stars or even two stars tor historical accuracy.