Longman exam skills new proficiency listening speaking teachers book

Each unit contains two listening sections and two speaking sections: Listening A: introduces the topic and key vocabulary contains two or more listening passages with tips and guidance S

LONGMAN EXAM SKILLS Proficiency

Longman

Pearson Education Limited

Edinburgh Gate

Harlow

Essex CM20 2JE

England

and Associated Companies throughout the world

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© Pearson Education Limited 1999

The right of Fiona Scott-Barrett to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in

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All rights reserved; no part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers

ISBN 0 582 36340 3

First published in 1999

Second impression 2000

Set in Wilke and Delta

Printed in Spain by Mateu Cromo

CONTENTS MAP

Section

Proficiency Listening and Speaking: an overview

Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency: Exam factfile

Additional ideas and activities

Lesson notes and answer key (Units 1-10)

! Practice exam

Mock exam

Page page 2 page 2 page 4 pages 6-50 pages 51 -53 pages 54-56

Proficiency Listening and Speaking TeMtatflcMiKI

Proficiency Listening & Speaking: an overview

Approach and organisation of the Students' Book

Proficiency Listening & Speaking is organised around ten theme-based units Each unit contains two

listening sections and two speaking sections:

Listening A: introduces the topic and key vocabulary

contains two or more listening passages with tips and guidance

Speaking A: provides speaking practice on topics related to those in Listening A

includes tips, guidance and language support

Listening B: expands and develops on the topic

contains three listening passages (From unit 3 onwards all three of these passages

are of UCLES Proficiency exam length and format.)

includes tips, guidance and vocabulary support where appropriate

Speaking B: provides speaking practice on topics related to those in Listening B

includes tips, guidance and language support

Through this approach the learners:

• are given gradual and thorough familiarisation with key themes and vocabulary related to

contemporary topics and issues which commonly feature in the Proficiency exam

• build up strategies for dealing with the tasks that appear in papers 4 and 5 of the exam

The units may be used in chronological order, or at random

However, if used at random, it should be noted that the later units offer fewer tips and less

guidance and language support than the earlier units

Organisation of the Teacher's Book

The unit-by-unit notes contain:

• Boxes containing background information on people, places or events mentioned in the

Listening or Speaking sections

• Boxes highlighting common errors of vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation

• Answers to 'Before you listen' activities

• Answers to the Listening tasks

• Tapescripts for the Listening passages with the sections where the answers may be found

highlighted in bold

• Model responses for Speaking activities which are fairly controlled

• Answers to questions on passages in the Speaking sections

Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency: Exam factfile

About the exam

The UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) examination leading to the

Certificate of Proficiency consists of five papers:

Paper 1 - Reading Comprehension

Paper 2 - Composition ' Paper 3 - Use of English

Paper 4 - Listening Comprehension

Paper 5 - Interview

There is a maximum of 180 marks for all five papers A candidate must achieve a minimum score of

about 60% of the total marks in order to pass The marks for all the papers are combined; it is not

necessary for candidates to achieve a pass mark in each individual paper

A pass in the Certificate of Proficiency is generally recognised by (some) universities in Britain as

indicating a level of competence, which fulfills their entrance requirements in English language

Proficiency Listening and Speaking

three or four sections making up a total of 2 5 - 3 0 items Unlike the First Certificate, there is no set format for the different tasks They could take the form of:

• multiple choice questions

• understand the gist

• follow the significant points

• identify specific information

• understand points of detail

• recognise attitude, emotions and opinions

• infer underlying meaning

by giving one mark for each correct answer Each candidate's raw score is converted to a final score out of a total of 20 marks

Proficiency Listening and Speaking TaacfeMjSg Bpflfc

a one-to-one interview with an examiner OR

an interview in pairs with an examiner OR

an interview in groups of three with an examiner

four parts:

• some general, personal or social questions (about 1 minute)

• a discussion based on one or more photographs (about 5 minutes for individual candidates; about 7 minutes for paired candidates; about 10 minutes for groups of three)

• commenting on a short passage (about 2 minutes for individual candidates; about 3 minutes for paired candidates; about 3 minutes for groups of three)

• a communicative activity (about 5 minutes for individual candidates; about 8 minutes for paired candidates; about 12 minutes for groups of three)

interact in a theme-based conversation in English on general, specific or abstract topics while demonstrating appropriate control of:

by awarding marks out of five for each of these six areas

The raw score out of 30 is adjusted to a final score out of a total of 4 0 marks

Additional ideas and activities

Dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary in Paper 4

Sometimes the questions related to listening passages may contain vocabulary that candidates are not familiar with This can cause learners to get anxious about being able to answer the questions, and so they tend to ask for explanations or translations of unfamiliar words However, as they will

be unable to ask for clarification during the exam, they need to learn the skill of deducing meaning from the context Often the meaning of unfamiliar words will become clear during or after the first listening To help them develop this skill, do not always define unfamiliar vocabulary before listening Instead, put the unfamiliar word(s) on the board before the first listening

Then ask them after the first listening if they now have a general idea of what the word relates to Frequently, a general understanding is sufficient in order to complete the task

Unit 2, Listening B, Listening 1, page 16

In question 5 mink may be an unfamiliar word After Listening 1, however, it should become clear that:

a it is an animal which is used to make fur coats

b it is a predator

A more precise understanding of the word is not needed in order to complete the task

Proficiency Listening and Speaking ItadHflrUPBook

Recording vocabulary

Proficiency students can very usefully spend time recording and revising vocabulary at home

This assists them with all aspects of exam preparation, not just paper 5 Many learners, however,

are not sure how best to go about this, so you can do this the first time together in class

Example: recording vocabulary by topic

1 Put this blank chart on the board

health and medicine

illnesses/health problems treatments/medicines preventive measures

2 Ask learners to go through the unit, adding vocabulary they find in the correct section

3 The completed chart could be:

health and medicine

illnesses/health problems treatments/medicines preventive measures

surgery diabetes obesity heart disease

high blood pressure

degenerative diseases

an allergy infections/infectious diseases

cancer rickets scurvy food poisoning

AIDS depression Example: recordina vocabularv bv tvpes of

adjectives to describe

people's physical condition

healthy, obese, chubby,

overweight, sedentary,

terminally i l l

surgery tonics vitamins diet supplements

an injection

an operation

a transplant

vitamins tonics diet supplements vaccinations antiseptics

a life support system pain relief

word/phrase

adjectives to describe people's

humane,

character

compassionate

adjectives to describe emotions/attitudes

reassuring/reassured, enthusiastic, scornful, astonished, furious, guilty, depressed

Pronunciation

In total, pronunciation makes up one third of the marks in the Proficiency interview Some common

pronunciation errors are highlighted in the unit-by-unit notes

However, as pronunciation errors tend to be particular to individual students, it is not possible to

predict which areas will cause most difficulty The following ideas may take up a little more time in

class, but will pay dividends in making learners more aware of their pronunciation of individual

sounds and of complete sentences

• Play selected sentences from listening passages in Proficiency Listening & Speaking and ask the

students to repeat them, reproducing the sounds and intonation patterns as closely as possible You

could even record the students' pronunciation of the target sentence for them to compare and

correct against the original

• Record students talking in the classroom while carrying out any^of the tasks in the Speaking

sections of this book Two to three minutes per student should be a sufficient sample Play the

recording back to let them hear and analyse their typical intonation patterns and/or pronunciation

difficulties Provide a correct pronunciation model for them to practise on their own This could be

done two or three times in the school year

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

a a past participle of a verb 4 5, a figure 2, an

adjective describing geographical location 3 ,

a service or organisation 6, a day or date 1,

a noun relating to people 7

b 1 Monday (or Monday morning) 2 200

3 central 4 died 5 injured 6 Weather Service

7 local residents

Background information

A tornado and a hurricane are both violent winds A

tornado, however, is characterised by the circular movement

of its funnel-shaped centre

Listening 1 - Tapescript

; You will hear part of a radio news bulletin about a natural

I disaster in Florida

• A n n o u n c e r Severe storms ripped across Florida in the

J early hours of M o n d a y m o r n i n g , stirring u p

; deadly t o r n a d o e s that knocked out power and

; damaged or destroyed scores of buildings It is

: estimated that s o m e of the t o r n a d o e s h a d w i n d

; speeds close to 200 miles p e r h o u r , which

• represents an intensity of f3 on the six-point Fujitsa

; Tornado Intensity Scale The areas affected, all in

* central Florida, are Seminole County, Osceola

» County, Orange County and Volusia County Reports

; are still coming in of casualties, but current

• estimates place t h e death toll at at least 3 6

: p e o p l e alid a n o t h e r 21KJ a r e believed to have

; sustained injuries Although the National

"• Weather Service issued t o r n a d o - w a t c h

; w a r n i n g s o n Sunday evening, by the time these

* had been upgraded to full-scale tornado warnings

J many Florida residents had already gone to bed

; Ironically, Monday was to have been the start of

« Florida Hazardous Weather Awareness Week, an

* event which would have included a state-wide

; tornado drill Instead, local residents a n d

'• emergency-management officials find

; themselves facing an e n o r m o u s clean-up

• operation Now, we'll go over to our correspondent

l in Orlando, Florida for an on-the-spot report on the

tornado damage

Orange County, Osceola County, Volusia County Orange County, Osceola County, Volusia County Orange County

Orange County, Osceola County Orange County

Orange County, Volusia County

\ The news bulletin you heard in Listening 1 continues

; Local c o r r e s p o n d e n t Well, the scene here in central Florida is one of total devastation T h r o u g h o u t t h e disaster-stricken area, trees have b e e n

• u p r o o t e d a n d p o w e r lines d o w n e d Here in : O r a n g e County, three people have died and a b o u t

; 100 m o b i l e h o m e s a n d an a p a r t m e n t complex

• have b e e n severely d a m a g e d o r destroyed In

t Winter Garden, a suburb of Orlando, t h e rrtnf of a

• convenience store w a s r i p p e d off and several

• cars i n t h e p a r k i n g l o t t h r o w n s k y w a r d by the

; force of the wind Luckily, however, t h e t h r e e

• theme p a r k s in t h e county -Walt Disney World,

• Universal Studios Florida and Sea World - have all escaped damafie The death toll has been heaviest

• in neighbouring Osceola C o u n t y - so far : five deaths have been reported Many of the victims were residents of a campsite near Kissimmee which

• and ran next door for safety Unfortunately, her

' boyfriend refused to join her She was gone for just

three minutes when the tornado struck, destroying

I their m o b i l e h o m e and killing her boyfriend

: Meanwhile in Seminole County (fade)

Before you listen

Answer key

1 e 2 a 3 b 4 c 5 d

Listening 3, page 5

Answer key

1 December 2 three to seven years

3 higher (or warmer or about ten degrees higher)

4 from east to west 5 Eastern

6 arid conditions or droughts

7 Guano 8 anchovies

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

Background information

El Nino: a climatic phenomenon, which occurs along the

tropical west coast of South America and affects weather

patterns worldwide

Listening 3 - Tapescript

: You will hear a lecture about a climatic phenomenon called

• El Nino

' Woman Good afternoon and welcome to the third

; lecture in our series on 'Man and Nature' Our

« speaker today is Stanley Green, a meteorologist and

: author of a new book called 'The El Nino

; Phenomenon' Now, I remember from my Spanish

• lessons at school that 'El Nino' means 'the Christ

; Child', but don't worry, you've not stumbled into a

: lecture on religion by mistake! (audience laughter )

" The El Nino Mr Green will be describing is a climatic

; phenomenon which occurs in the Pacific Ocean and

• affects weather patterns worldwide So, let me hand

', over to Mr Green to tell us what it's all about

; (audience applause)

: Mr Green Thank you Well, Mrs Murray was perfectly

• correct in telling you that El Nino means the Christ

• Child and that name originally referred to a warm

: southward current that appears on the

• Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru during the

' month of December, in other words around the

; time of Christ's birthday Nowadays, however, the

• term El Nino is used in a rather different sense, to

" describe a collection of oceanic and

: atmospheric phenomena, which occur every

'• three to seven years These originate in the

: Southern Pacific but can cause climatic disturbances

• all round the world I think the easiest way to explain

" it to you is to show you the normal wind and ocean

I patterns in the Pacific region and to contrast them

• with what happens during El Nino Can I have the

: first slide, please? Thank you

J So, this shows the normal pattern - here in the

: Western Pacific the water temperature is

• warm, about ten degrees higher than over

J here on the coasts of Peru and Ecuador The

: air pressure is low over the warm regions, so moist

» air rises, causing clouds and the typical heavy rainfall

characteristic of South East Asia, New Guinea and

; northern Australia In the eastern Pacific the water is

• cold, the air pressure high and this creates the

: typically arid conditions you find in coastal South

; America This arrow here shows the direction of the

• trade winds, blowing from east to west and

; pushing the warmer surface water westwards (Next

• slide, please.) Now, here we see what happens during

", El Nino The trade winds die down, or even change

; direction, and so the warmer water of the

• western Pacific flows to the east, bringing

: thunderstorms and heavy rain to South

• America At the same time, the weather conditions

J in India and South East Asia change as a result

; of the influx of cold water and high air pressure,

• causing unusually arid conditions or droughts

; So how does this affect the inhabitants of these

• regions? Well, apart from the inconvenience and

; discomfort of fluctuating weather patterns, El Nino

; can have drastic effects on the economy of a region

I The coastal waters of Peru and Ecuador usually

' support large populations of anchovies, which thrive

: in cool waters, and anchovy-fishing is one of the : economic mainstays of the region Another important

source of income is guano, which is used in the

I regional fertiliser industry During El Nino,

; however, the anchovies either die or leave the area ' and birds, which feed on the anchovies, do the same

; Thus, the region's two most important industries go

I into decline until the weather patterns are reversed

: again And, frequently, the economic effects are felt

• not just locally, but worldwide To give you an : example, in 1972/73 Peru's anchovy-fishing industry

; collapsed as the result of El Nino Now anchovies

\ are a major constituent of fishmeal, which is

; used to feed chickens, so fishmeal prices rocketed

; Naturally, farmers passed their rising costs on to

' consumers, sending chicken prices soaring by forty

: percent

; Now, some of you may be thinking that the unusual

; climatic patterns I've been describing are another

1 manifestation of global warming, which is so much

; in the news these days But, in fact, many of my

• fellow-scientists believe that these fluctuations have

• been part of the Earth's weather patterns for

; thousands of years I'd now like to tell you something

• about the evidence (fade)

5, 6, 7 international aid organisations 1, 2, 5, 6,

7, 8 insurance companies 4 the victims and their families 8, 9

Proficiency Listening and Speaking TaacnarVtlMft

Background information

Minoan: adjective referring to the civilization that flourished

in Crete from about 3000 BC to about 1100 BC

Common errors

thp pronunciation of flooded (Phntrv^ph h)

« the pronunciation of psychological (Discussion point a 8)

» the use of the with nature wher.e nature is used in the

sense of the natural environment

Before you listen

Answer key

1 soil erosion 2 rise in earth's temperature

3 car exhaust fumes 4 breathing problems, e.g

asthma 5 oil spills (or untreated sewage)

6 untreated sewage (or oil spills) 7 water pollution

8 increased risk of skin cancer

Background information

CFCs stands for chlorofluorocarbons These are chemicals

which are used in refrigerators, cooling systems and aerosol

sprays and which contribute to the thinning of the ozone

layer $P.u.••&?>•"• \ y i_ '• -'^ *U\^'u ' / > •

Listening 1, page 8

.• '.'< XJ •

Answer key

1 60 2 South-East Asia 3 the Caribbean

4 harbours 5 airports 6 sewage 7 over-fishing

8 fertilisers 9 oil spills 10 dynamite (or dynamiting

them) 11 cyanide (or poison or poisoning them

with cyanide)

Listening 1 - Tapescript

I You will hear a part of an interview with Paul Wrightsman,

; the director of 'Scubatours', a tour company which

• specialises in diving holidays He is discussing the contents

' of a recent environmental report about coral reefs

» Interviewer Paul, you've read the report 'Reefs at Risk'

" How do you think the information in it will affect

; your business?

' Paul Well, the report states that nearly sixty per cent

• of the world's coral reefs are at risk from

• human activity, and that's a pretty horrifying

: statistic And the areas which are the worst affected

-» South-East Asia and the Caribbean - are the

: ones which are the most popular with our clients

; But it's hard to say whether that fact will stampede

J people into rushing out and booking scuba-diving

: holidays before all the coral reefs die, or whether it

• will encourage more ecologically-minded people not

" to go on diving holidays at all

• Interviewer The report is critical of the role played by

' tourism in the destruction of coral reefs, isn't it?

• Paul That's not entirely true It does state that tourism

: can have a destructive influence - some reefs have

• been destroyed during harbour and airport

I construction, andajot of damage is caused by

» J'

sewage discharge from holiday resorts And for

• most people on holiday by the sea, the idea of eating

I fresh fish is pqrt and parcel of the holiday, so

over-I fishing is a problem too

; Interviewer Right

» Paul But the blame can't all be laid on tourism The

: report also highlights the role played by agricultural

; products, such as fertilisers, which are washed out

> into the sea, and marine pollution from oil

"spills And a major offender is the appalling

• practice in some countries of dynamiting fish,

\ or poisoning them with cyanide As a fisherman

: myself, I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind

; Paul Coming back to the point about tourism, the report

"• also notes that in areas where the coral reefs have

been well-managed - Australia's Great Barrier Reef is

a prime example here - they can support both

I tourist activity and a healthy and varied

; marine population Of course, Australia's a

• wealthy country You've got to remember that the

J areas where the reefs are most at risk contain

: relatively poor countries where an enormous

I proportion of their national revenue comes

; from tourism They've developed tourist resorts

• rapidly to cash in on the travel boom, usually without

I appropriate environmental checks or controls, and as

; a result they're destroying the very assets that

• people g o there to see It's tragic, but

", understandable, in a way

» Interviewer So, what can be done?

; Paul Well, first of all, the governments of the countries

• concerned need to introduce far stricter controls on

I fishing methods, and much heavier penalties for

; poisoning or dynamiting fish Then I think that

| tour operators, especially the bigger ones, can

' have some influence We can educate our clients

; for a start: in fact at Scubatours we've always given

- the people who travel with us a lecture at the start of

; their holiday - we tell them there's to be absolutely

• no chipping off bits of the coral to take home as

I souvenirs and no spear-gun hunting of rarer fish

; species

I Interviewer Good idea

« Paul More importantly, tour operators could use the

: threat of boycotts to persuade hotels to install

; proper sewage treatment systems rather than

• pumping raw sewage into the sea If enough

; tour operators stopped using the hotels and resorts,

• which are the worst offenders, they might clean up

• their act Of course, this might force everyone else's

; costs up in the short term, but if something isn't

• done s o o n to protect the reefs, w e won't have

' a business at all in ten or twenty years' time

Proficiency Listening and Speaking TeachertsBoak

Listening 3, page 9

Answer key

a 1 B 2 D 3 C 4 B

Listening 3 - Tapescript

", You will hear a radio interview with Maggie Kerr, who

; launched the 'Down with Noise' campaign

" Presenter What exactly is the 'Down with Noise'

; campaign about?

: Ms Kerr Well, firstly we try to raise public awareness of

: the effects that noise can have on your health Our

• second aim is to campaign for reduction of noise

' levels in towns and cities

I Presenter How does noise affect health?

r Ms Kerr Very severely In fact, the World Health

• Organisation has declared that noise is n o w

; 'the first envirorimentaTnuisance of

• industrialised countries' But while "many people

• nowadays are very aware of other forms of pollution

: and the health risks they carry, like the increased

« incidence of asWma among children who live in areas

I with a lot of traffic, very few people realise that noise

I can be almost as damaging I myself only realised

• it when my doctor discovered I had very high

I Wood pressure

"- Presenter Indeed

• Ms Kerr I'd never suffered from that before and, as

I far as I knew, was under no more stress than

; usual Luckily, my doctor questioned me

• about changes in my environment I mentioned

" that construction work had started a few months

; before on a new supermarket opposite my house and

; since then I'd been living with the continuous noise of_

: bulldozers and other heavy machinery

: Presenter Nasty! C'bttl ,t(oU.2-dS

• Ms Kerr The doctor said that was_probably the

• source of the problem and indeed, once the

: construction work was over, my blood pressure

• gradually dropped to a more normal level

: Presenter What other health problems are caused by

noise?

Ms Kerr Well, depression is a c o m m o n problem,

especially w h e n long-term exposure to noise

is combined with other stressful factors such

as job or relationship problems And one study

done by researchers in Dusseldorf showed that there

was a higher incidence of premature and underweight

babies among mothers who lived near airports

Presenter Airports?

Ms Kerr Then, of course, frequent exposure to noise, say

eighty to ninety decibels for six hours a day, can

result in deafness in the long term

Presenter What is an acceptable noise level?

Ms Kerr Well, that varies very much from person to

person Some sensitive people start to suffer at levels

as low as thirty-five decibels Others actually enjoy the

noise level at a rock concert, though of course that's

for a limited period only The World Health

Organisation recommends maximum levels of fifty-five

decibels in residential areas But, in practice, many

city-dwellers are subjected to much higher levels than that

Presenter So what about your second aim - to get

action to reduce noise levels?

Ms Kerr Well, our main enemy is the car We get together with other environmental groups at local level to put pressure on councils to reduce car traffic in towns and to improve

" public transport services We also organise petitions and set up pressure groups w h e n any major construction projects are planned for residential areas

Presenter How can members of the general public help?

Ms Kerr If you're concerned about noise in your area, as

a first step you can contact your local Environmental Health Officer And if you'd like to join the 'Down with Noise' campaign, we'll be very happy to have your support

Presenter A contact number for the campaign will be

broadcast at the end of this programme Maggie, thank you very much [fade]

Speaking B Photographs : Answer key

c They are all environmental problems which have been caused by man

Discussion points

Suggested answers

2

traffic

members of the public - use public transport instead

of driving, use bicycles, campaign for the reduction

of car traffic in towns

governments - ban car traffic in town centres, reduce

car traffic in town centres by means of the alternating number plate system (Athens) or by imposing tolls (Singapore), build more car parks on the outskirts of towns, improve public transport, increase road taxes and petrol prices

forest fires

members of the public - be more careful about

disposing of cigarettes, be more careful about extinguishing cainp fires

governments - impose harsher penalties for arson,

appoint more forest wardens

rubbish * - » ^ * }

members of the public - recycle more rubbish,

campaign for recycling schemes and facilities, dispose of used household goods in dc^gnated areas

only te&^ltMaidC

governments -Oct:upjXnorc recycling schemes and

facilities, impose^harsher penalties lor dumping rubbish TTTcgallv

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

Common errors

Students tend to use the adjective ijnpottgnt to describe

problems ^

Encourage the use of other adjectives toj»Wecate with

problem, such ar$erious^evere/>r (worr

Communicative activities

2 Discussion

Answer key

a covered in concrete: full of roads, hotels,

apartments, supermarkets, parking lots

cleaned up its act: cleaned up beaches, installed

litter bins, instituted fines against littering,

installed waste water and sewage treatment plants

Relationships

Listening A

Before you listen

Suggested answers

1 An extended family comprises children, parents,

grandparents, aunts, uncles etc living under the

same roof or in close proximity

A nuclear family comprises parents and

child(ren) only

A single-parent family comprises a mother or

father only, plus children)

2 If you keep someone company, you spend time

with someone so that they don't feel

lonely-If someone is good company, they are fun to be

with

If you keep company with a person or group of

people, you spend a lot of your free time with

them

3 A childminder looks after other people's

children for a living

A babysitter looks after someone else's children

on an informal, occasional basis

A nursery school is a school for children who

arc not yet old enough for primary school

Listening 1 - Tapescript

: You will hear part of an interview with Kathy, a British

• woman who lives in Greece and is married to a Greek : man She is talking about the differences between family

; life in Britain and Greece

; Interviewer Kathy, what do you think are the main

; differences between family life in Greece and Britain?

' Kathy Well, I d o n ' t really like t o generalise,

: especially as life is changing fast in both countries

» In Britain the divorce rate is very high and there are a : lot of single-parent families, so not many kids nowadays grow up in t h e s t a n d a r d M u m , D a d

'• a n d two kids family t h a t I h a d And in Greece

there's b e e n a p a t t e r n for a long time n o w of

• p e o p l e moving t o t h e large t o w n s for w o r k ,

• s o the old extended family system is b r e a k i n g

d o w n But I t h i n k it w o u l d b e fair to say that

• family links in Greece a r e still m o r e

i m p o r t a n t t h a n they a r e in Britain, a n d t h a t family m e m b e r s feel m o r e c o n n e c t e d h e r e Interviewer Can you give me some examples from your own experience?

Kathy Certainly As I said, I grew u p i n a classic British nuclear family My b r o t h e r is five years older t h a n m e and he left home at seventeen, so for my teenage years it w a s m o r e like being a n only child I have three cousins on

my father's side, but they lived a long way away from

us so I rarely saw them Every so often we'd get together at Christmas with their family and our grandparents, and that was a real novelty for me, being in such a big lively group, all relatives Then, when Dimitris and I got married and moved here five years ago, suddenly I was plunged into a completely different world We lived in t h e small flat upstairs a n d my parents-in-law w e r e in this

o n e - w e s w a p p e d last year after our son was born, to give us more space D i m i t r i s ' brother, his wife, their t w o children a n d his mother-in-law live in t h e large flat o p p o s i t e , across the hall So that's ten family members, all within thirty seconds' of each others' front door!

Listening 2, page 13 Answer key

So, Kathy, which system do you think is

be annoying when you're trying to get on with something and you keep being interrupted For me, what's far worse is the lack of mental and emotional privacy - everyone in t h e family k n o w s all your

p r o b l e m s a n d difficulties, a n d of c o u r s e

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

• everyone has his or her opinion about what

I you should do I've been used to making my

\ o w n decisions since I left home and started

: my first job at eighteen and I resent other

; people getting involved in my business unless

• I specifically ask for help and advice But the

other side of the coin is that if you need practical

; help, it's always available

: Interviewer Such as ?

I Kathy Well, I work part-time as a hotel receptionist and

', my schedule changes every week, which would

make finding a childminder virtually

" impossible if I lived in Britain But here, if

Dimitris is at work too, I just take our son

• upstairs to his grandmother or across the hall

to his aunt, and they're happy to babysit until

o n e of us gets home I really appreciate that I

• think the system works well for old people, too

: Dimitris' brother's mother-in-law moved in with them

I several years ago when her husband died She's quite

• old, well over eighty, and she suffers a lot of pain

: from arthritis, but she still cooks lunch for them all

every day I was a bit shocked at that when I first

'• came here I thought, you know, that they were

: exploiting her, but now I think that's actually

what keeps her going She feels she's doing

"something usetul for the~farn~flv that she's

really needed and that gives her the will to

; _ live Sometimes I think about my own grandmother,

: who spent the last five years of her life in a nursing

; home All she ever wanted to do was go back home

; again, but that wasn't possible as she was too ill to

; cope alone Mum and Dad were at work all day and

: I was at school, so we couldn't have her at our

] house At the time I thought the situation was

I perfectly normal, but now, when I see the way things

I are here, I feel really sad to remember that

Listening 3, page 13

Answer key

1 Penny 2 Neither 3 Alec 4 Alec 5 Penny 6 Both

7 Penny 8 Neither 9 Alec

Listening 3 - Tapescript

" You will hear a radio programme in which a couple discuss

; their unusual relationship

' Presenter And now for our weekly spot on relationships

; In the studio today we have Alec and Penny Stewart

« Penny is a marketing manager with a

; computer company and Alec, a former bank

; clerk, is what w e might call a 'househusband'

* I'll be asking them about their relationship then, as

t usual, there'll be time for you to phone in with your

• questions for the couple at the end of the

* programme Let's start with you, Alec I hope you

; didn't mind me referring to you as a 'househusband'

' Alec Not at all It's the best word I know to describe my

; role in our family I cook, I clean, I do the shopping,

• collect our daughter from nursery school and so on

-" all the things a traditional housewife does, so why

• not call me a househusband?

; Presenter Fine So how did it come about that Penny

* became the breadwinner and you took on the

> household duties ? '

• Alec Well, it's not something that we planned,

; you know We didn't sit d o w n one day and say, 'Let's try a spot of role reversal!' Right

from the start of our marriage eight years ago, it was

clear that Penny was the ambitious one - she was

• the one w h o did overtime if there was work

', still to be done, while Tw^s strirtly p niqe t o

I five guy And she took special marketing classes and

• exams in her spare time in order to work her way up

: the company ladder, while I wanted to keep my

I spare time for my friends, and our daughter ' once she was born Then I was made redundant

; three years ago I spent six months slogging around

» lookingJQr_a new job and getting more and more

I "oppressed until one day Penny pointed out that

; we didn't actually need two salaries, s o why

« didn't I take over running the home The very

: next day we paid off the cleaning lady and gave

• notice to the childmindex_and I've never looked back

• since

• Presenter So, you enjoy what you're doing?

; Alec Enormously, yes! OK, vacuum-cleaning's not a lot

« of fun, but I get great pleasure out of planning and

', cooking our meals - I've always been a bit of an

; amateur chef - and going shopping in a leisurely

» fashion instead of racing round a supermarket in the

' after-work rush But the best thing is the chance to

; spend more time with my daughter - she's just

I turned four, and she's very good company, so we

i have lots of fun together

• Presenter Penny, how about you? H o w has having

: Alec at home affected your life?

• Penny Very positively As Alec said, we used to pay

; for a cleaning lady and a childminder and they did

• their jobs well enough, but it wasn't the same

Nowadays, if I have to stay late at work or go away o n a business trip, I do so in the complete confidence that our daughter and our house are in safe hands

5 Presenter What about the thorny issue of money? Does

; that present any problems?

• Penny Well, I pay the mortgage and the bills, like

: the phone and electricity, then I leave a float : of cash for Alec for the shopping, petrol and

• so on I make sure he's always got plenty to : hand, s o he doesn't have to come and ask me,

• which might be embarrassing for him

; Presenter And you, Alec? Did you find it difficult to get

I used to the idea of Penny as the breadwinner?

; Alec Not really You see, she's always earned

» more than me, s o I got over any male pride

' about money and earning power a long time

; ago But it does rile m e a bit when friends

• make jokes about me being ^pkept manpAfter

; all, it's not as if I sat around doing nothing all day, or

• u m

: Penny or painting his toenails and waiting for me to

• come home! Yes, it's true that other men seem to feel

• threatened by how we live, while most women think

; it's great In fact, my female colleagues are jealous of

» me - they're run off their feet trying to manage a

I career, a home and a family

• Presenter One more question from me, then we're going

C to open up the phone lines Penny, what do you

• think (fade)

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teaca*Er8)£ftaJif

Speaking A

Passages

Answer key

a colourful descriptions etc/literary/uxtract from n

novel or short story

personal opinions are avoided etc/neutral,

impersonal/extract from a newspaper article or

scientific report

personal opinions are expressed etc/informal,

personal/extract from an interview or discussion

b literary (text 3) - the sunset glow of the fire/like

a halo/gurgles of joy/had lit up her life/it bunted

like the flame of a candle

neutral, impersonal (text 2) - the most striking

fact emerging from the survey/this dichotomy

surfaces/the number one attribute chosen by

males

informal, personal (text 1) - personal pronouns

I and we used/Looking back/scrub the dirt

off/There was no discrimination in my family

c text 1 - source: extract from an interview (could

be spoken or written)

style: informal, personal

text 2 - source: extract from a newspaper article

style: neutral, impersonal

text 3 source: extract from a novel or short

story

style: literary

Background information

The 1960s 'melting pot' ideology refers to the fact that

social workers in Britain in the 1960s encouraged mixed-race

and inter-racial adoptions Nowadays the trend has changed

and social workers consider it undesirable for parents to

adopt children from different ethnic backgrounds

Exam tip

Ask the learners which of the texts might originally have

been a spoken passage

Listening B

Before you listen

Answer key

1 A conservation a r e a is an area of land thai has

been set aside for the protection and preservation

of wildlife

An animal's natural h a b i t a t is the environment

in which it normally lives

2 A p o a c h e r is a person who hunts illegally on

other people's property or hunts animals which

are protected by laws against hunting

A h u n t e r is a person who hunts animals for food

or sport

A p r e d a t o r is an animal which hunts other

animals for food

A nucleus is the central part of a cell

An egg cell is a cell which, when fertilised, will grow into an embryo

Listening 1, page 16

Answer key

I F 2 T 3 T 4 F S T 6 F 7 T 8 T

Background information

A mink is a small animal whose fur is used to make coats

Theplural form can be min£hr mink£^

Listening 1 - Tapescript

: You will hear a conversation between two flatmates They

I are discussing an article in the morning newspaper

: D e r e k Hey, Mike Have you seen this article about the

; mink that have been freed?

; Mike No, I haven't looked at the paper yet What are you

« talking about?

; D e r e k Well, do you remember that there's a mink farm

; near my parents' house ?

; Mike Oh, yes, I remember all right When we went to

• visit your parents you w a n t e d t o d r a g m e off to : join s o m e dreary protest t h a t w a s going o n at

; the farm

I D e r e k Well, apparently the Animal Liberation Front have

; made a raid on it It says here that animal rights

• activists released up to 6,000 mink in a night-time : raid on the farm

", Mike Good Lord! What a stupid thing to do!

• D e r e k What are you talking about? I ' m all for w h a t

• they've d o n e Fur-farming is an utterly disgusting : practice and the owner of that place has already been

I had up on charges of cruelty to the animals As for

: the p e o p l e w h o actually w a n t t o strut a r o u n d

; with dead animals o n their b a c k s , well

: Mike Yes, yes I k n o w your views, D e r e k ; I've h e a r d

• them a h u n d r e d times before But since you're

I such an animal lover, have you thought about this? ,

; Mink are predators, and very vicious ones at that V V

• They'll attack anything small that moves - birds,

" squirrels, pet dogs and cats, even young children

; And t h e a r e a w h e r e t h e farm is located is, or

\ p e r h a p s n o w I s h o u l d say, w a s , o n e of the

: m o s t i m p o r t a n t wildlife c o n s e r v a t i o n areas in

; England - b u t your p r e c i o u s m i n k will create

\ havoc with t h e wildlife there

• D e r e k Umm I hadn't thought of that But you've

- got t o agree that it's n o t right t o k e e p

; animals p e n n e d u p in cages just t o m a k e fur

» coats for rich w o m e n

; Mike Yes, of course I agree w i t h y o u there, Derek

• It's the activists' methods I object to You say t h e : o w n e r is already facing trial on charges of cruelty -

0 o>Sv

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Boofc

very well then, he should go o n trial But it's not

for other people to take the law into their own

hands, like this MLF, or whatever you call them

Derek It's ALF - Animal Liberation Front

Mike Right And this latest episode shows just how

hare-brained they are - they call themselves animal

lovers, but most of those newly-liberated mink will

get shot by farmers protecting their own animals,

and those that aren't shot will kill off a few hundred

other innocent animals into the bargain It's

madness!

Derek Well, when you put it that way, I suppose you've

got a point Oh, look, it's nearly nine already I'd

better go or I'll be late for football practice Will you

be coming down the pub?

Listening 2, page 16

Answer key

1 F 2 T 3 T 4 F 5 F 6 T

Listening 2 - Tapescript

: You will hear a radio news bulletin about dogs

• Presenter And now over to Marie Leblanc in Paris for a

' story on the latest supermodels

» Marie Leblanc Thank you Well the big news here is

", that top models nowadays have four legs! No, Eva

; Herzigova has not had transplants; I'm talking about

« dogs The big stars of advertising campaigns and

; fashion shoots are dogs in all shapes and sizes

-« tall, leggy greyhounds to accompany tall,

' leggy ladies in miniskirts, and cute little

; miniature dogs, like poodles or pekinese to

• complement photos of ladies in long evening

; gowns As the ultimate fashion accessory, dogs can

; be chosen to harmonise with the colours of the

• clothes in a fashion shoot and be dressed up or

: down to match the styles on show You think I'm

• joking? Not at all Hair and beauty parlours for

', dogs are big business in Paris these days, as

: are dog modelling agencies The director of one

• such agency here in Paris says that demand for

; canine models has rocketed in the last few

; years, boosted by the box-office success of

j Disney's '101 Dalmatians' But don't imagine

: that you might be able to earn a little money on the

• side by popping over to Paris with your pet The

l dogs on his books are all professionals and

: veterans of dog shows, who are used to working

» with photographers and flashlights Could this only

1 happen in France? Perhaps Although it is the

; British w h o have an international reputation

- for being ardent animal lovers, it is in fact

; the French w h o are dog-mad The French have

• more dogs per household than any other country in

" Europe and the fact that you live in a tiny flat in the

: centre of a city is not considered a bar to

dog-• owning Only time will tell if the latest fashion for

: canine chic will catch on across the Channel

Listening 3, page 17

Answer key

1 1000 2 their mothers sit on them (or their mothers squash them or they are squashed)

3 their natural habitat 4 poaching 5 an egg cell

6 an adult tell 7 a host mother 8 a different species 9 276 attempts 10 restoring the panda's natural habitat

Background information

Dolly the Sheep: the first mammal to be successfully cloned

_frpjTi_an adult cell in 1997 by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues

of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh

Listening 3 - Tapescript

: You will hear a radio programme about the giant panda

• Presenter Today's wildlife programme is about one of

: the world's bestloved but least successful species

-• the giant panda It is estimated that there are n o w

• only about one thousand pandas left in the

; wild, most of those in the Chinese provinces of

« Sichuan and Gansu In the studio today we have : Pauline O'Grady, a zoologist and expert on the giant

; panda Pauline, how is it that the panda has become

» a threatened species?

; Pauline O'Grady There are two factors here - as usual

J with threatened species, environmental factors play

an enormous role; then the panda itself is somewhat

; ill-equipped for survival

: Presenter Really? What exactly do you mean?

.* Pauline O'Grady Well, basically, pandas are far more

: interested in eating than in mating Only about ten

; percent of females are fertile and then only once a year for a period of seventy-two hours If, despite the

» odds against it, a panda does successfully conceive

* and bear a cub, the problems are far from over A

I new-born panda cub is tiny - they weigh only about

; 100 grams - while an adult panda weighs about 100

'* kilos and is a rather clumsy animal, so it's not

; uncommon for a mother to sit on her cub

and squash it to death by accident And if a

: panda gives birth to twins, she will usually abandon : one of them

: Presenter Oh dear! So nature has certainly not made

• things easy for them!

", Pauline O'Grady Absolutely not

• Presenter What about the environmental factors that

: you mentioned before?

" Pauline O'Grady The most crucial is the

destruction of the animal's natural habitat

since 1949^melhlrd of the forests in Sichuan have

"• been cut down, d^sjio^hig^thjejbamboo that the

: pandas live off Poaching is also a problem, as

» panda skins are very highly prized

; Presenter What is being done, then, to protect pandas

I and increase their numbers?

• Pauline O'Grady Well, naturally the Chinese have been

• at the forefront of most of the initiatives, as they're

; very well aware of international interest in pandas

• They began breeding programs in zoos a long time

» ago but unfortunately they have not been very

; successful - only 24- pandas have given birth in

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

captivity since 1953 The latest research project is to

attempt the trans-species cloning of pandas

Presenter Like the cloning of Dolly the Sheep?

Pauline O ' G r a d y No, a far more complicated process

To put it in very simple terms, cloning involves three

main steps - first t h e nucleus is r e m o v e d from

a n egg cell; then it is replaced w i t h t h e

nucleus from a n adult cell, and thirdly t h e

resulting embryo is implanted in a h o s t

mother In the case of Dolly, all three of these stages

involved sheep or cells and nuclei from sheep But

because pandas are so rare and it's difficult to take

eggs from living females, the Chinese plan t o u s e

the egg of a different species of m a m m a l ,

perhaps another species of bear; the nucleus from an

adult panda cell, a n d a host m o t h e r of t h e

species that provided the egg cell

Presenter It sounds like science fiction! Do you think

this is really possible?

: Pauline O ' G r a d y The idea works in theory, but whether

it will work in practice remains to be seen It t o o k

276 attempts before Dolly w a s successfully

cloned

• Presenter Really?

; Pauline O ' G r a d y .so the success rate is very low And,

' as I explained before, cloning a panda would be even

more complex If it does succeed, it will of course

• bring tremendous scientific prestige to China and I

; suspect that's why they favour high-tech solutions to

; the panda problem

: Presenter Are you yourself not in favour of high-tech

; solutions?

; Pauline O ' G r a d y Not entirely You see, a research

• project like this is e n o r m o u s l y expensive a n d

I will divert financial resources w h i c h m a n y

; p e o p l e believe w o u l d b e better spent o n

• restoring t h e p a n d a ' s natural habitat

Speaking B • a p.j»w-flstti •$ , T *

Photographs

Suggested answers

c photograph 1: man as hunter and animal as prey

photograph 2: animal as helper and guinea pig

photograph 3: animal as helper and beast of

tribal cultures: mainly a source of food, sport and

clothing (hunting); may be a source of income (eg

poaching skins, tusks etc for sale)

agricultural societies: mainly a source of food and

income (raising farm animals); may also be beasts of burden or a means of transport (donkeys, oxen); possibly a source of sport and entertainment (hunting, riding, exhibiting at or attending agricultural fairs)

urban, technologically advanced societies:

mainly a source of company and comfort (domestic pets); may be a source of sport and entertainment (horse-racing, zoos, circuses); often used as guinea pigs (pharmaceuticals and cosmetics testing); are a

Communicative activities

2 Selecting

Background information

Factory farming is a term describing the process of farming

by keeping animals in confined spaces indoors and feeding them special food so that they grow faster or produce higher than normal quantities of milk or eggs

Young people in society

Listening A

Before you listen

Answer key Attributes of educated people

nouns - creativity, intellect, knowledge, literacy adjectives - articulate, coherent

Qualifications: A-levels, degree, GCSEs Staff and students

at school - form teacher, pupils

at university - lecturer, professor, undergraduates

Background information

GCSEs is an abbreviation for General Certificate of Secondary Education, exams which are taken in Britain by fifteen and sixteen year-old pupils

A-levels are exams which are taken in England by seventeen and eighteen year-old pupils Passes in these exams usually form part of the entrance requirements for university

In British secondary schools, a form teacher is responsible for a pupil's general academic progress, as opposed to a subject teacher, who is responsible for the pupil's performance in one subject area only

Passes in GCSEs and A-levels, like the UCLES Proficiency exam, are awarded grades (A, B, C) rather than numerical points

Listening 1, page 20

Note

In this section of the unit there are two listening passages,

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

and the first one is exploited three times This is because this

is the first listening passage in the book to deal with rather

abstract and complex issues and so the learners are led more

gradually towards the final exam-style task

Answer key

a 1 Anne Quentin 2 Quentin, Phil 3 Anne

4 Anne 5 Quentin, Phil 6 Phil

b 7 the aims of education 8 exams and

qualifications 9 literacy

c 10 B 11 A 12 D 13 C 14 D

Listening 1 - Tapescript

J You will hear a radio debate on education

• Presenter Good evening and welcome to our weekly

I debate Our topic this evening is 'Education Today'

; and we have three guests with us - Anne Tanner, a

I former secondary school teacher w h o returned to

; university as an undergraduate last year; Phil

J North, a disillusioned university lecturer; and

I Quentin Lewis, a psychologist specialising in children

: with learning difficulties Anne, you've seen education

• from both sides of the fence, as it were, so let's start

: with you What do you see as the main problems in

: education in Britain today?

; Anne Well, as everyone knows, there's been a lot of

discussion in recent years about the

curriculum, discipline in schools and so on

: But, in my view, that's putting the cart before the

I horse and concentrating on details instead of dealing

• with the key, underlying problem, which is

: that we no longer have an ideal model of

; what an educated person should be and

therefore of what our education system

should be aiming to achieve

I Presenter Mmm perhaps you could elaborate on that

idea a little

: Anne Well, up until about the end of the 1960s everyone

; was fairly clear about what it meant to be

well-' educated: not only did an educated person

I k n o w his or her subject thoroughly and have

• an understanding of method and a desire to

", seek knowledge for its o w n sake, but he or

: she was also articulate, tolerant and

well-" mannered Now this concept was swept away as

: being elitist after the student revolution of 1968

I Presenter Right

; Anne But nothing has really appeared to fill the gap; the

J current emphasis in Britain on education being a

means of developing skills is too narrow and

• commercially-based - it implies that a qualified

• plumber is as well educated as a university professor

: In fact, nowadays people bend over backwards to

• avoid being seen as 'too' educated

: Presenter Right, now, Quentin, what do you feel about

I the current emphasis on skills development?

I Quentin Well, like Anne, I feel that the aim of

I education in Britain is too narrow nowadays

: I also think that there's far too much focus on

r passing exams and gaining qualifications In

: fact, exams do nothing but test a candidate's ability

; to please the examiner - intellect and knowledge

• have nothing to do with the process What w e

should be doing in our schools and universities is to encourage inventiveness, creativity and original thinking - these are the

traits that will be needed to cope with life in the

twenty-first century At the moment all we're

doing is churning out obedient conformists who've succeeded in getting bits of paper

Presenter Phil, you look as if you wanted to comment

on something Quentin just said

Phil Yes, indeed I agree that creativity and originality are important, but not at the expense r /

of basic skills, such as literacy I am aghast at the

low standard of literacy displayed by many students at the university where I lecture

About a third of my students have to attend remedial classes because they can't spell properly or construct

a grammatically correct sentence Frequently their writing skills are so bad that they are incapable of producing an essay - instead they present a list of bulleted points and hope to get away with it And,

no matter h o w creative and original the ideas might be, if a student is unable to put those f,

ideas across coherently, in speech or in i k0[k)/>/3rfi)hr/()

writing, then he or she" does not deserve to be described as a well-educated person

', Anne Hear, hear!

* Phil Nor do I agree with Quentin's contention that we

focus too much on qualifications nowadays In fact,

university entrance requirements are much

"• more lenient than they used to be - some

university courses are prepared to accept

* students without any A-levels at all; that would

have been unthinkable twenty years ago

Presenter Well, perhaps we could go back to the point

: that Anne made earlier about (fade)

: You will hear a conversation between two women, Elaine

\ and Jane They are discussing the school that Jane's

: daughter, Patricia, goes to

; Elaine How's Patricia getting on at her new school,

: Jane? Are you pleased with the choice you made?

Jane I'm absolutely delighted They use something they call a 'personal review scheme' there - it's like the appraisal schemes they use in

j management nowadays Do you know the type

; of thing I mean?

: Elaine Well, being self-employed, I haven't experienced a

scheme like that, but my husband has an appraisal at work every year - he sets targets with his boss, they discuss achievements over the last year, that sort of thing

Jane Yes, that's exactly the kind of thing they do at

Patricia's school too, but in their case it's twice a

year Each pupil gets a report and then has an

individual consultation with her form teacher

in which they talk about her strengths and

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Tsacher'a Book

h e r weaknesses in each subject, h o w she

feels a b o u t t h e report, a n d w h a t factors

cause her t o d o well o r n o t A n d then she's

asked to set five realistic targets for herself

to achieve by the end of term or the end of the

year - things like improvements in school work,

behaviour, attitude and so on

Elaine Right

Jane And what really surprised me is that even for t h e

ones as young as Patricia - she's just t u r n e d

thirteen - they discuss potential c a r e e r

choices d u r i n g t h e reviews

Elaine That sounds really sensible I remember w h e n I

w a s at school careers w e r e never m e n t i o n e d

It was a school with high educational standards, so

there was a sort of assumption that most of us

would go on to university, but there was never any

guidance as to what you might do after that

Jane Well, you were luckier than me, Elaine! At my

school - it was a mixed one - they assumed that

most of the girls would get married after school, so

w a w e r e n ' t e n c o u r a g e d to study very m u c h ,

far less to think in career t e r m s Incredible,

really - I'm talking twenty-thirty years ago,

n o t t h e nineteenth century! So, anyway, I'm

really delighted that Patricia's getting so much

support

Elaine And what does she think about it?

Jane Oh, she's really enthusiastic She says t h e scheme

encourages a t e a m spirit which didn't exist at

t h e school she w a s at before w e moved h e r e

The pupils revise together and e n c o u r a g e

each other a n d really w a n t t o d o well And it

seems t o w o r k - t h e school's GCSE results

last year were the best in Britain for a state

school - over eighty percent p a s s e d w i t h As!

Elaine Very impressive!

Jane They've got some other interesting ideas at the

school too They teach them time management

techniques to help them study more efficiently and

they have sessions on relaxation, yoga a n d

a r o m a t h e r a p y so t h a t the p u p i l s d o n ' t suffer

from stress!

Elaine Wow! It makes me wish I could go back to

school and start all over again! I don't think they'd

even invented the concept of stress in my day,

certainly not for schoolchildren! I think perhaps

sports lessons were intended to help us relax as well

as keep fit, but I was completely useless at sports

They had the opposite effect on me I used to wake

up with a horrid feeling of dread on days when we

had those lessons, knowing I'd make a complete fool

of myself trying to chase a ball round a hockey pitch

Jane Oh, I quite liked hockey myself What I didn't like

was doing cross-country running in winter - we had

to wear these tiny little skirts and our legs were

usually blue with cold A nice spot of yoga indoors

would have suited me much better!

b Photographs 1 and 2 both show t f l ^ U ^ t t b

^ ^ • • • • • • H f l t but in the first photograph the

teacher iaoHiMivAMBBMiHmi MtaMMNBlJM!>*

ES, while in the second some pupils appear to be paying attention to the icachcr whereas others are either doing group work or may merely be chatting together

picture-In photograph 3, no teacher is in evidence and the pupils seem to be performing some kind of experiment

In contrast to photograph 1 where they appear rather passive, and photograph 2, in which not all the pupils" attention has been captured, in the third picture the pupils look enthusiastic and absorbed in what they're doing

1 • 2X 3 ^ 4 V 5 ^ 6X 7 ^ 8X 9 i /

Listening 1 - Tapescript

*, You will hear an interview between a researcher doing a : public opinion survey and three passers-by The researcher

\ is interested in their opinions about giving the vote to

: sixteen and seventeen-year-olds in local elections

• Interviewer Excuse me I'm conducting a public opinion survey and I wondered if you'd mind answering a few

• questions

• B o y l OK That sounds fun

: Girl Yes

• Interviewer Fine Can I just check your ages first?

; Boy 1 I'm seventeen

I Interviewer Yes, and you?

\ Girl Sixteen

• Boy 2 I'm sixteen too

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's fRaofe

Interviewer Perfect So, I don't know if you've heard,

but one state in Germany has granted sixteen and

seventeen-year-olds the right to vote in local elections

Boy 1 Oh no, I hadn't heard that It's brilliant!

Interviewer So, what we'd like to know is if you think

that's a good idea, and if it should be introduced

here too

Boy 1 I think it's great I mean, there are loads of

decisions that are taken at municipal level

that affect young people - things like banning or

allowing open-air concerts in parks, creating

pedestrian areas in town centres and so on, so it's

absolutely right that we should have a say in who

gets on to the town council to make those decisions

Interviewer OK And you?

Girl I don't know really My Mum and Dad argue

about politics all the time but the topic leaves

m e pretty cold - it's all about taxes and boring

things like that There's time enough to think

about those sorts of things when you're

older

Boy 2 I don't agree at all You're never t o o young to

take an interest in politics After all, it's our

future that's at stake, isn't it?

Interviewer Right So my next question is: Would you

exercise your vote if you had a chance to do so now

in local elections?

Boy 2 Definitely

Girl I might do But I wouldn't really know which was

the best candidate to vote for

Boy 1 Oh, come off it! Don't you watch television or

listen to the radio? There's no excuse nowadays

for ignorance - there are hundreds of youth

programmes that discuss important political

issues, at national and local level Or maybe

you just follow the pop music and fashion

programmes

; Girl How dare you! Anyway, it's one thing to get your

• opinions pre-packaged from a radio or TV

programme, and quite another to develop them

based on your own experience I don't feel I've

b e e n out on my o w n in the world enough yet

; to have strong opinions about lots of issues,

and I'm sure plenty of my friends would feel

the same

• Interviewer Ehm, coming back to my question of would

: you vote what about you?

J Boy 1 Yes, definitely And the sooner the better

; Interviewer OK Thank you all for your participation

Listening 2, page 24

Answer key

1 15 to 16 year-olds 2 nearly 72 3 just over 60

4 4 2 S slightly less than 6 6 20 7 1 9 9 1 8 1996

Listening 2 - Tapescript

: You will hear part of a lecture about substance abuse

• among high school students in America

; Speaker Although it is drug abuse that generally causes

• most concern to parents, alcohol and cigarettes are in

fact far more frequently used by American high

I school students For example, the latest statistics

: show that nearly 72 percent of tenth-graders

; (that's 15 and 16-year-olds) have tried alcohol

j at least once in their lives and just over 6 0

; percent have smoked tobacco, compared to only

; 4 2 percent who've tried marijuana and slightly

I less than 6 percent who've ever taken Ecstasy

; Accordingly, the programme we've

» implemented in our schools over the las^twp

-; decades covers not only illicit drugs, but also the

; use of alcohol and tobacco During that period, : we've identified which strategies work and which are

; largely ineffective Nowadays we've developed a

six-^ point curriculum which seems to be getting positive

: results, at least as far as drug abuse is concerned - in

; 1997 the use of illicit drugs leveled off; this

was the first year that didn't s h o w a rise since

; this extract the speaker uses the term ATOD to refer

• collectively to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs

; Speaker So, the six-point programme covers these areas

I First, normative education - in other words, by

; means of student surveys and opinion polls we help

• students realise that substance abuse is not the norm

", among teenagers Students generally

over-: estimate the numbers of their peers w h o are

• using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs - ATOD

I for short - and so it's easy for them to be pressured into doing so themselves by thejnyth that everyone /

%JD

does it Next w^belrvl communication skills -

em developyocial and yW

this is especially important for' h

younger teenagers Around the time of puberty,

they face big changes in their social interactions, both with peers and with adults, and this can lead to communication

problems Another very important area is learning

to recognise social influences - for example the

ways that advertising, role models and peer group attitudes can promote ATOD use Next,

what we call perceived risk of harm In other words,

if young people believe that by using a certain drug or substance they risk harming themselves, the chances of them taking it decrease And so this part of the programme

focuses on explaining the short-term and long-term

consequences of ATOD use; it is important here

that the information comes from a credible source and does not use over-dramatic scare tactics, a strategy which was used in earlier ATOD programmes but proved to be ineffective The fifth area is that of protective

factors; in other words, supporting young people by helping them to realise their potential in life, to set goals, and to make friendships with positive peers -

anything that builds up self-esteem and a~

positive view of life Finally, we teach them refusal

skills - the art of saying 'no' when offered

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

drugs or alcohol w i t h o u t losing friends Over

the years we have also found out by trial and error

which teaching methods work best Talks a n d

lectures t o large g r o u p s of s t u d e n t s w e r e n o t

very successful, so nowadays we use interactive

techniques, such as role-plays, simulations, class

discussions, brainstorming and so on Video and

multimedia are useful tools for stimulating

discussions, and literature, movies, pop songs or

current events that portray substance abuse can be

used to help students understand social pressures and

the personal consequences of ATOD use

Work and play

Speaking B

Passages

Suggested answers

1 Both passages deal with the role of laws/the

law/legislation in the life of minors/young

people

2 The first passage discusses the way that laws

may protect young people from doing stupid

or dangerous things

1 n contrast, the second looks at the topic from the

point of view of the ways in which laws

restrict young people's freedom

3 I would say (he first is fairly informal, l o r

example, it uses personal pronouns and direct

speech

The second seems to be more formal A number

tSTpassive veTRTorms are used, such as can be

set/is "used to and the vocabulary is _quiie_

complex For example, the word "counties^ is

used instead of a lot of

4 I would imagine the first passage was spoken or

written by a child psychologist/a social

worker and is aimed at parents, as it mem ions

'your teenage child'

However, the second one may have been written

by a tccnager/minor and is intended to be read

by members of the government/government

bodies, as can be seen from the lasi line where ii

says 'we ask that states work to smooth

the transition to legal adulthood.'

Background information

Passage 1 comes from a handbook of advice for parents,

which is written by a psychologist

Passage 2 comes from a declaration made by a pressure

group known as 'Americans for a Society Free From Age

Restrictions'

Listening A

Before you listen

Answer key 1b 2c 3 e 4 d 5 a

I working patterns we'll be discussing job-sharing and

talking to people who've given up their old

nine-to-"• five existence In fact, job-sharing is an option that

; hasn't proved very popular in Britain so far - at

; present less than four percent of part-time jobs are

I done on a job-sharing basis I'll be speaking to Gaye

; Fyfe and John Summers who share a job at a small

[ London-based advertising agency Gaye, why do you

: think so few employees have opted for job-shares so : far?

Gaye I think p e r h a p s because part-time w o r k still h a s a bit of a stigma attached t o it And of course, traditionally, part-time jobs do pay less and have less security But that's where the beauty of job-sharing lies - you can cut your working hours without any drop in status and though your salary is

of course lower because you work fewer hours,

pro-• rata you don't earn any less

: Presenter John, do you think another reason for the low incidence of job-sharing is a general reluctance on the

" part of employers to explore alternative working

J slackers The reason I wanted to work fewer hours

; was that I was studying in my spare time and at my

• own expense for a business degree which would : ultimately benefit his company, but that argumenUMt

I on the phone one day and I told her I was feeling fed

up She well, I'll let her tell her side of the story

I Gaye OK Well, as it happens, at the same time I was

; also feeling frustrated, but for different reasons I used

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

I to finish work pretty late too and my husband and

; children were getting more and more upset about it,

• so I thought something had to change John and I

» putijur headjsjogether and decided we could share

; my job between us Luckily I had a boss who was

• much more flexible than John's and, after some

I initial reservations, he was keen on the idea

; of two happy employees rather than one

« irascible over-worked one

» Presenter How do you divide your working hours

• between you?

| Gaye I do mornings, we overlap for about half an hour

» for liaison, then John takes over from me after lunch

I The liaison period is not paid for, but we both accept

» that's a small price to pay for a better quality of life

; Presenter What practical difficulties have you had to

; overcome?

; John I think communication was the biggest problem At

• the start we'd forget to pass on important information

t at hand-over time, then waste half our time phoning

; each other up at home to check on details We've

• ironed most of those difficulties out now, though, and

: job-sharing actually makes you more, rather

• than less, efficient: I'll deal with tasks I don't

i enjoy and would otherwise have put off

; rather than face the embarrassment of telling

• Gaye I still haven't done them yet!

; Gaye I think for me the main difficulties have been

• psychological rather than practical You have to

I trust each other completely and back up each

• other's judgements It's no use John going into a

• meeting with a client one day and my reversing all

; the decisions they've made the next morning Even if

• it's not exactly the decision I would have made, I

• have to stand by it, and vice-versa of course

• Presenter Any regrets?

; Gaye None at all

", John Only when my pay cheque comes in! No, seriously,

; it's been a good move for me, though I will have to

• have a re-think once I've finished my degree course

Listening 2, page 29

Answer key

1 C 2 D 3 office area (or open plan offices)

4 showroom and library 5 post room 6

-7 atrium (or central atrium) 8 cafe 9 office area (or

open plan offices) 10 fitness centre 11 office area

(or open plan offices)

Listening 2 - Tapescript

; You will hear an architect describing his initial plans for a

* revolutionary new office building to the clients who

: commissioned him to design it

* Architect This then is the site plan As you can see, the

* building is long and narrow and is aligned

: along a north-south axis, with a narrow side

facing south This means that it presents the

* smallest area to the midday sun, which helps to keep

* temperatures down in summer time In accordance

: with your request for natural ventilation, all outside

I windows will be able to be opened The unusual

: features that we plan to incorporate are that there

will also be internal w i n d o w s opening onto the central atrium, as illustrated in this cross- section drawing here When the w i n d o w s are opened o n both sides, a natural cooling breeze will flow across the working areas In addition, for very hot and sultry days, w e plan to incorporate large vents in the atrium roof which can be opened to allow hot air to escape

Now let's look at the ground floor plan The

shaded areas o n the plan represent office areas - as you requested these will be open plan

working spaces equipped with individual work

stations for employees The large area in the

north-east corner will house your s h o w r o o m and library The enclosed rooms along the east wall are, respectively, the p o s t room, the shop, and the fitness centre for the

employees You will notice that the cafe opens ^ ,

directly onto the central atrium, The thinking £ I -'

behind this is that employees, clients and visitors can take their refreshments with them and move out into the atrium for informal chats and meetings

It is possible to work from home

2 People are under pressure to deal with problems or questions more rapidly

It can make work more complicated for people who are not technically-minded

Jobs have been lost because many tasks are now performed by computers or robots

3 Perhaps they have a deadline to meet

It might be a means of appearing keen and impressing the boss

They may be workaholics

English-Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Bgpk

English dictionaries to help them if necessary Alternatively, if

not all the items are familiar to them, use the technique

suggested in the Introduction under Dealing with

unfamiliar vocabulary

Answer key

danger o r risk: dice with death, scared out of your

wits, your heart in your mouth

b o r e d o m o r lack of interest: a jaded appetite,

blase, mope around, time on your hands, turn your

1 Father 2 Neither 3 Father 4 Neither

5 Both 6 Neither 7 Sarah 8 Sarah

Common errors

The word athletics in English refers only to track and field

sports, such as running, jumping, javelin-throwing etc It is

not used as a general term to describe all sports

Listening 1 - Tapescript

: You will hear a man and his daughter having a

• conversation They are discussing her children, Timothy and

I Rebecca

• Father What on earth is the matter with Timothy? It's

| n o t healthy for a y o u n g lad like t h a t tO_be

; m o p i n g a r o u n d i n d o o r s all day

'• Sarah I don't know what you're talking about, Dad

; There's nothing the matter with him at all, and he's

• certainly not moping - he's got lots of interests

; Father Such as?

• Sarah Well, sports for one He's crazy about football

• Father Bah! W h e n I w a s a b o y if you said you

• Father Come on, I'm not that ancient But seriously,

< Sarah, I'm worried about him I m e a n his sister's

: n o t like t h a t - she was at tennis last night

; a n d she told m e she's going off camping w i t h

s o m e friends at the w e e k e n d That's the s o r t

; of thing he s h o u l d b e doing

| Sarah Honestly, I don't think there's anything to worry

; about H e does athletics at school, so it's n o t

• as if h e doesn't get any exercise He was in the

: football team for a while, but they kicked him out

; because he wasn't very talented A pity, when he's so

I passionate about it

; Father You see, that's the modern world for you It's

I n o t e n o u g h to have s o m e fun kicking a ball

: a r o u n d , b u t you've got to b e trained a n d

• coached a n d bullied i n t o being t h e best

; Sarah That's true Rebecca's got this schoolfriend

• who's a really good swimmer - she's won all sorts of

• medals But for the past three years she's been getting : up at six to go to the pool for training before school,

• and she's back there for another two hours after

• school Mind you, it's her own choice Her mother's

; not too happy about it as her schoolwork's suffering, but the girl's dead set on making the national team Would you r a t h e r Timothy w a s like t h a t ? : Father Absolutely n o t I'd just like to see him taking an : interest in something

• Sarah Like I told you, he's got plenty of hobbies - he's a bit of a c o m p u t e r wizard, t o o Any time I need

I to d o a bit of research for o n e of my articles, I '• get Timothy o n t o it a n d he finds m e t h e

: information o n the Internet in next t o n o

Listening 2 - Tapescript

• You will hear a radio interview with the author of a new

i book on leisure time and activities

: Interviewer My guest this evening on the book

I programme is Mary Greenaway, author of the

best-j selling handbook 'FreeTime, Free Fun' Mary, what : prompted you to write the book?

"• Mary G Well, personally, I've never suffered from

: boredom, but I b e g a n to notice t h a t t h e r e were

• a lot of p e o p l e a r o u n d w i t h t i m e o n their : h a n d s w h o didn't k n o w h o w t o fill it At the

; s a m e time t h e press w a s full of advertisements

« for n e w h o m e e n t e r t a i n m e n t technology,

; holiday packages to suit all tastes, s u p e r b

; sports a n d fitness centres a n d s o o n , a n d I

• started t o w o n d e r w h a t w a s g o i n g w r o n g

• Interviewer You mentioned the people around you : started you thinking Can you give me some

; examples?

; Mary G Well, my kids for a start - every time the

s u m m e r holidays came a r o u n d they'd b e in : seventh heaven for two weeks, t h e n s p e n d the rest of t h e t i m e w h i n i n g a b o u t b e i n g b o r e d

• Then a friend of mine was made redundant and : panicked about money She immediately gave u p

; all the g l a m o r o u s things she u s e d t o d o like

"- dining out, going to fancy h e a l t h clubs, taking

: holidays in t h e Seychelles Then, apart from going

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's kloofe

out job-hunting, she fell into a cycle of doing nothing

but watching television all day Not long after that

my uncle died within a year of retiring - he'd been a

man who lived for his work, and he just couldn't

stand the strain of all those unstructured

hours in front of him when he woke up every

day And I realised all these people lacked resources

- either the financial resources to get access

to the fantastic leisure opportunities that are

available nowadays, or the personal resources

to amuse themselves

: Interviewer And, in fact, that's the two-part structure

; you've built the book on, isn't it?

; Mary G That's right Part one is basically a listings

section of leisure activities that you can do free, or

; almost free, and there is still a host of those available,

; from museums to public lectures, open air conceits in

I parks, and so on The second, and to my mind, far

; more interesting part, concerns personal

• resources - motivating yourself, creating your

: o w n entertainment, setting up leisure projects

: and s o on, all of course with the criterion of costing

» nothing, or next to nothing

; Interviewer Where do you think you yourself got your

• resources from?

; Mary G Ah, that's a good question Maybe because I

• was an only child and that certainly forces

; you to learn to amuse yourself Then,

; unusually for the period, my parents were

« anti-television, s o I grew up without one, and

; that also encouraged me to create my o w n

• entertainment

; Interviewer Wouldn't you say that some of the

• ideas and values expressed in the book are

" rather old-fashioned?

• Mary G Oh, absolutely I mean lots of people would turn

I their noses up at the idea of using a public library

• nowadays And things like creating your own board

« games and party games go right back to the Victorian

; era That's why no-one was more surprised

• than me when the book turned out to be such

• a success I hadn't expected it to go down quite so

: well in a world full of off-the-peg entertainment

Listening 3, page 33

Answer key

1 A 2C 3 C 4 C 5 D 6 11

Background information

Uncool is an informal word meaning unfashionable

Samoa is a group of islands and islets in the south-central

Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand

Machu Picchu is an ancient fortress city of the Incas in the

Andes Mountains of Peru

Canyoning is an adventure sport based on rock-climbing,

which is carried out over waterfalls

our jaded appetites For quite a while n o w it's

been very uncool to spend your summer holiday lying o n a beach, even if it's in an exotic location Even travel to far-flung places no

longer inspires jealousy or reluctant admiration at dinner parties With round-the-world flights available from around £800, most people nowadays are quite

< blast; about walking on the Great Wall of China,

"sleeping on the beach in Samoa or seeing the sun

come up in Macchu Picchu To stay ahead of the

game you n o w have to go abroad to learn something new or indulge(ln)unusual activities, preferably dangerous or unpleasant ones For the next five weeks in the holiday

programme we'll be reporting on the latest in activity holidays and short breaks So first a report from Don Blunt, who went to Lake Geneva in search of adventure

D o n Blunt Yes, you heard it right Lake Geneva may sound to most people like the ideal destination for old ladies with a penchant for blue rinses, pink gin and elegant hotels, but

hidden in the mountains above the peaceful shoreline

of the lake is the wild side of the Swiss Riviera

Ballooning and paragliding are two of the adventure sports/<5rLbffer here, but I decided those were too tame for me and opted/~f5r~fcanyoning instead The following day, as I stood dressed in a wetsuit at the top of a waterfall, I began to regret my decision

Canyoning is an adventure sport pioneered by the Swiss; for most people, climbing down a sheer rock face on the end of a rope would be adventure

enough, but they have added the refinement of ,

doing it over ice-cold alpine waterfalls 'Don'|_3^

worry, it's only a twenty-metre drop' said the guide, as I looked down with my heart in my mouth I shut my eyes and jumped into the

waterfall 'Don't forget tc^ho]d2232-in e r oPe' he shouted as I leapt If my moutti hadn't been full of spray, I would have pointed out that the last thing on earth I was likely to do was to let go of the rope

Having safely negotiated the waterfall, the next challenge was to jump off a tiny ledge of rock into a pool of freezing water while avoiding any protruding rocks that you might collide with on the way down

This done, sliding on my back down areas of smooth rock was easy in comparison At the end of my first day of canyoning I was stiff, aching and very, very cold, but as we celebrated our survival with a bottle

of Swiss wine cooled in canyon waters I had to admit that, despite being scared out of my wits most

of the time, I felt exhilarated by the experience

• Presenter So, your overall judgement, Don?

; D o n Blunt Definitely not for the faint-hearted, but a

• great weekend break for those who Jike to dice with

', death

hainl

Speaking B

Listening 3 - Tapescript

' You will hear a radio programme on holidays

» Presenter Travel companies and tour operators are

; falling over themselves to find new holidays to whet

Photographs

Common errors

Sights are places of interest frequently visited by tourists

They include places of natural beauty (eg lakes, gorges) as well as places of historical or architectural interest

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's BoQk

Sightseeing relates to the activity of visiting sights, not the

sights themselves It can also be used as an adjective - eg a

sightseeing tour/holiday

The word sites (pronounced the same as sights) is used to

refer to places where something specific happened or was

built It is frequently preceded by the adjectives historical or

archaeological

Man and the environment

iwiF liiiftff iiTfiiiiiffiMiHii'fiiJii|l i P'ljp !• i l * W W W « W • *-""?-'

Passages

Answer key

a 1 It deals with : It appears to be about ;

The speaker/writer mentions

2 It must be a written/spoken passage

because : The style is fairly ; It's rather

in style.: The use of lots of makes it seem

rather ; It could be either a written or a

spoken text because

3 It might well be from : It probably comes

from : I would imagine this is an extract

The Maasai are an African tribe

Text 3 is a review for the film Jumanji released on the new

technology of DVD (digital video disc) The learners should

be able to pick up on the fact that the version referred to is

for home entertainment, even if they are not familiar with the

technology in question

Answer key

b

Text 1 It appears to be about a country house

which you can rent for a luxury weekend

party The use of lots of personal pronouns

and imperative verbs, makes it seem rather

'minimal I would imagine this is an extract

from an advertisement for the country house

in question and that the ad_niuiU have

appeared in a paper or mnpnzin^with a")

'"wealthy readership

-Text 2 It deals with rhe effect tourists have on local

culture The writer mentions that the locals

don't dance the same way for themselves as

they do for tourists, and so the tourists see a

parody of their culture However, this

doesn't really matter as the tourists don't

want to understand the local culture anyway

The style is fairly informal and I think it

might well be from a newspaper or

magazine article or perhaps from a spoken

lecture

Text 3 It appears to be about a film made by or

starring Robin Williams It must be a written

passage because several of the sentences are

rather long and complex However, the

vocabulary is quite informal in style, for

example it says 'break out the popcorn" It

probably comes from a review pfjlilms

released pn)video/for home entertainment/

'TnT

Listening 1 - Tapescript

A twenty minute consultation per patient is the norm

Background information

The word drugs is used in British English to refer to

medicines as well as to narcotics

Listening 2, page 37

Answer key

I C 2 D J C 4 A

Listening 2 - Tapescript

; You will hear part of a conversation between a general

; practitioner who has just returned from an international : medical conference, and his wife

• Wife How was the conference then?

: GP A bit of a mixed bag, really Some interesting talks,

'- some unintelligible ones, the usual sort of thing But

the best thing I got out of it was the chance

to talk to GPs from other countries It's quite fascinating to see how culture influences illness and treatment

Wife How do you mean?

GP Well, it seems that any time the Germans feel a bit down, they go to the doctor's complaining

of 'heart insufficiency' or 'circulation collapse' and

Wife What on earth are those?

GP Blood pressure problems, as far as I can make out They're certainly not terms we would use So the doctor obligingly prescribes heart tablets Not that it seems to make much difference - apparently the Germans consume six times as many heart tablets as the Dutch do, but the death rate from heart disease is exactly the same in the Netherlands and Germany!

Wife Which implies that the drugs don't do much good

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

? : GP Exactly But the Germans have another, rather

• nifty^idea; apparently many health insurance

I schemes pay^for^people to take a two-week

: rest cure in a spa once a year

; Wife Really!

', GP The idea is that by getting the chance to

; unwind they will avoid stress-related illnesses

\ which might cost the insurance company

: much more in the long run

• Wife That's a great idea! I can't see the National Health

; Service going for it, though, can you?

" GP I doubt it Too expensive for a state-run healthcare

: system

: Wife So what else?

' GP Well, the French worry constantly about their livers,

I so they're given tonics and vitamins ^y^he bucketful

• Wife Yes, I've noticed that when we've been sitting in

: cafes on holiday in France You see people

" disappearing into the chemist's shop looking anxious

and emerging ten minutes later with a carrier bag full

• of medicines and a satisfied smile on their faces

: GP That's right It seems that French patients feel

• they haven't got their money's worth if they

leave the surgery without a prescription,

• whereas w e British are relieved if w e don't 'If

the doctor hasn't prescribed anything, then it

i can't be that serious' is our way of thinking

My French counterparts spend much longer

:; o n consultations too - apparently twenty

; minutes per patient is the norm! They said

; their patients would have a fit if they were

; fobbed off with the classic British six-minute

", consultation

• Wife Thank goodness we don't live in France, then You'd

never get home from work!

Listening 3, page 37

Answer key -^

1 doubled 2 tease and bully them 3 rejects them

4 stay that way 5 eating habits 6 sedentary

7 3 0 minutes

classmates, rejection by members of the opposite sex when they reach their teen years and

so on But the risks for their long-term physical health

are much more disturbing The longer a child

remains fat, the greater the statistical chance

of suffering from heart disease, diabetes or high b l o o d pressure later in life And the really

bad news is that if a child is fat at seven years old, he

or she is likely to stay that way

Presenter So how has this^ome about?_j

Dr Stein The reasons are two-fold The most obvious is

eating habits, of course Children today eat too much fatty food and not enough fruit and vegetables Ten years ago a take-away hamburger

might have been a once a week treat; now it's/ff staple,

of many children's diet Many consume excessive

quantities of protein as well, which can contribute to obesity This might not be so

harmful, however, if the other factor didn't come into

play, which is that many European kids have an

alarmingly sedentary lifestyle An interesting

piece of research done at Exeter University set out to discover how many children in the five to sixteen age

range were getting at least three twenty-minute

bouts of activity per day that raised their heart

rate above 140 beats a minute - that's the rate needed

to produce health benefits Almost none did, so they dropped the criterion to three ten-minute bouts, but very few children in the study were getting

even that much exercise This is very, very worrying

Speaking A

Photographs

Common errors

Exercise (uncountable noun) refers to any form of vigorous

physicalactivity It is used with the verbs get or take It is

usually confused with an exercise (countable noun)

An exercise is a specific movement, which is repeated

several times in order to strengthen specific parts of the body, e.g stomach muscles It is used with the verb do

'/-Listening 3 - Tapescript

• You will hear an interview with a consultant on the subject

;: of obesity in children

; Presenter J n recent years, there's been a lot of media,

: coverage of eating disorders such as anorexia and

bulimia in teenagers and young adults What we hear

much less about, however, is the other side of the

story - the burgeoning problem of obesity in

: children Dr Janet Stein, a consultant at the European

I Institute of Child Health, has been studying this

problem Dr Stein, how widespread is this problem

; and how much of a health risk does it really pose?

; Dr Stein Well, to answer your first question, the

• incidence of childhood obesity is increasing

: dramatically in Europe - in France and Greece

• for example, there are twice as many fat

t children nowadays as ten years ago If this

trend continues, Europe risks going the way of the

; US, where one in four children are overweight Now,

: in the short term, fat children face psychological

problems - teasing and bullying from

Passages

Answer key

a Nutrients found in food and/or in diet supplements

b medical or scientific terms are largely avoided:

informal, chatty/extract from a report in a magazine aimed at teenagers or young women

medical and scientific terms are used: factual,

neutral/extract from a news report in a serious newspaper or magazine

some medical and scientific terms are used: factual

but personal/extract from an advertisement

c factual, neutral (text 2) - toxic/amino-acids/in

easily assimilable form/is being described

factual but personal (text 1) - the exact

recommended level of 400 meg of folic acid/you need a supplement you can trust/we launched it/to help you safeguard your requirements

informal, chatty (text 3) - Great news/post-pub

chip'n'burger binges/Get squeezing!

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Tsacher'B Bpek

Listening B

Note

The medical issues dealt with in Listening B and Speaking

B of this unit all raise questions of an ethical nature and may

provoke strong emotions and responses in learners It would

probably be wise, therefore, to use these sections only with

learners whom you know well and with whom you have

developed a good rapport

Before you listen

Answer key

1 administered; lethal 2 alleviated 3 limbs

4 severed 5 dexterity 6 eradicated: vaccinations

7 degenerative 8 immune system 9 side effects

I rejection, which may occur with any transplant Other ethical issues are raised by the fact that, in order to avoid physical rejection of any : transplant, the patient has to take powerful

; drugs to suppress the immune system These drugs have serious side effects in that they

; increase the risk of the patient developing

\ infections or even cancer When an organ is

transplanted, the potential side effects can be justified

• by the fact that the transplant may save the patient's

I life; this is not the case with a hand as not having a

; hand could never be seen as a life-threatening

1 carpenter 2 dexterity 3 stamina 4 ten 5 France

6 physical rejection 7 emotional rejection

8 psychological rejection 9 suppress ihe immune

svstem 10 infections and cancer

Listening 1 - Tapescript

: You will hear a news bulletin about microsurgery

I Announcer Twenty-five years ago a pioneering operation

; was carried out at Zurich University Hospital - the

• first in Europe in which a surgeon successfully

; reconstructed the blood vessels, tendons,

• muscles and skin of a carpenter's accidentally

• severed hand Inspired by this success, the surgeon,

Viktor Meyer, opened a centre for replantation and

» reconstructive microsurgery He recruited a team of

", specialists and set up a practice laboratory, because

; intensive training is required for a surgeon to

develop and maintain the dexterity and

; stamina required to carry out lengthy

; operations of this type A good microsurgeon can

I sew together a blood vessel half a millimetre wide, a

; feat requiring incredible manual precision Nowadays

• microsurgery to replace severed limbs is quite

commonly performed and the success rates are high:

; in seventy percent of cases the patient can

• return to a near normal life after the

: operation; a further twenty percent regain

• restricted use of their restored body part

: Now anodier first has been recorded in Europe - a

• team of surgeons from four different countries have

' performed an operation in a hospital in Lyons,

: France, to attach the hand of a dead Frenchman

• to the body of a living New Zealander using

: microsurgery techniques While organ transplants are

; now almost commonplace, the idea of transplanting

» limbs has remained in the realms of fiction up till

: now The doctors performing the operation

• acknowledge that the hand is part of the personality

: and so this transplant risks emotional and

; psychological rejection, as well as physical

Listening 2 - Tapescript

• You will hear a conversation between two women They are

: discussing a television programme on surrogate mothers

" Jane Did you watch that programme(amsurrogate

; mothersJast night, Louise?

; Louise Yes, I did I found it rather interesting

• fane Me too I hadn't actually realised before that

it was illegal here in Britain to set up an

; agency to supply surrogate mothers or even to

• accept payment for acting as a surrogate

; Louise Nor had I Mind you, I thought the arguments

I that professor put across to support the ban on

: payment were pretty spurious

• Jane Really? I rather agreed with what he said : Personally, I find the idea of paying a stranger

• to have a child for you rather distasteful But

- there was one woman who quite impressed me, ehm,

; Sandy I think it was, you know, the woman who

• helped her best friend by acting as a surrogate

", mother for her

• Louise Oh, I wasn't sure about her at all I mean she

• claimed she did it because she felt sorry for her friend and wanted to help her after all

• those miscarriages, but I rather got the

I impression she had ulterior motives

I Jane What do you mean?

t-; Louise Well, it all seemed too perfect She was going to

"• have the baby and hand it over to her friend and the

: husband when it was born, she'd become the kid's

• godmother and everyone would live happily ever

" after

: Jane And why not?

: Louise Well, she seemed to me to be a rather lonely

• woman - she said she'd like to have children of her

" own, but she didn't approve of single-parent families

; and she didn't have a partner at the moment So I

\ have my doubts about what'll happen when the child

; is actually born - I think she might refuse to

; hand it over as agreed; that's not unheard of

If not that, and she remains in close contacF : with the family, maybe she'll try to interfere

• (Withjthe child's upbringing because she's the

", Diological mother

• Jane Well, I would never have believed you're such a

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

I cynic, Louise So you preferred the other surrogate,

I the one who admitted that she took money for

• having the baby?

: Louise It's not a question of preferring one or the other

• I mean, I don't know either of them personally, do I?

• But I thought she was more honest

• Jane Well

; Louise She did it because she needed the money and, as

• far as I could see, she treated it like any other

: kind of job - she signed a contract, adhered

; to the terms of it, including all, um, you

« know, going for all the necessary health

• checks, giving up drink and cigarettes, eating

: healthily and so on, and at the end of the

» contractual period she delivered the goods, took her

payment and left What's wrong with that?

» Jane Well, it all seems a bit clinical to me, you know

I And like the professor said at the beginning of the

» programme it's usually poor w o m e n having the

• babies for wealthy couples, s o it's a form of

: exploitation really

'• Louise That's absolute nonsense! If the women don't get

I paid for their services, then that's exploitation Why

• on earth should anyone give up nine months of her

I life in exchange just for travelling expenses and a bit

; of cash to pay for any extra medicines she needs?

", Jane Well, out of human kindness and the pleasure of

; helping someone

", Louise Well, human kindness doesn't pay the bills, Jane

; You wouldn't expect the doctor w h o helps to

I deliver the baby not to get paid, would you?

; Jane No, I suppose not

• Louise So why shouldn't the person who's bringing

: s o much happiness to a couple by providing

• them with a longed-for child not get paid too?

; Jane Mmm well perhaps you're right

Listening 3, page 41

Answer key

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

Background information

Passive euthanasia— a doctor allows death to happen by

withdrawing help that is keeping a terminally ill patient alive

artificially (legal in Britain and many other countries)

Voluntary euthanasia - a terminally ill patient chooses to

die (legal, in certain legally prescribed circumstances only, in

the Netherlands and the American state of Oregon)

Active euthanasia - a form of voluntary euthanasia in

which a doctor administers the means of death

Assisted suicide - a form of voluntary euthanasia in which

a doctor prescribes the means of death but the patient

administers it

Listening 3 - Tapescript

: You will hear a doctor talking about euthanasia

• Interviewer Dr Grange, a lot of different terms are used

' in the media when talking about euthanasia I've

heard people talk about 'active', 'passive' or

'voluntary' euthanasia, and also 'assisted suicide' I think it would be helpful.if you could start off by clarifying these terms for us, and the current legal position as far as each is concerned

Dr Grange Certainly First of all, let me make it

absolutely clear that in all the situations I will

describe I am talking about voluntary euthanasia

- that means it is the patient w h o makes the

choice to die I am not talking about issuing

doctors with a 'licence to kill' at their own discretion

At present the practices known as active

euthanasia and assisted suicide are against the

law here in Britain The difference between

them is whether a doctor or nurse administers the drugs or lethal injection, or whether the doctor prescribes the means of death and it's the patient w h o administers it

Although suicide has not been considered as a crime

in the UK since 1961, assisting in a suicide is illegal.- Consequently, a doctor either administering or prescribing lethal injections or drugs is guilty of a criminal act The anomaly is that passive euthanasia

is not against the law This means that a doctor who allows death to happen is not committing a crime

Interviewer Could you clarify what you mean by

'allowing death to happen'?

D r Grange For example, with the patient's or the

family's consent, it is not against the law to withdraw mechanical life support to a terminally ill person w h e n it is merely prolonging the process of dying Nor is it illegal to give such high doses of pain relief that death is hastened This, of course, has

exactly the same moral and practical result as actively giving a lethal injection on request

Interviewer What are the main arguments in favour of

de-criminalising euthanasia?

D r Grange I think these could be divided into legal

arguments and moral arguments A survey done in

1994 showed that ten percent of British doctors have helped patients die, despite the risk of prosecution, and nearly half of all the doctors surveyed said they would give active help in dying if it were legal By legalising voluntary euthanasia, strict and rigorous, guidelines for carrying out euthanasia could be laid

down This would be infinitely preferable to

having it going on furtively,- as now, in situations where it is impossible to determine whether it really was the patient's

o w n decision The moral arguments are more

complicated Of course, a doctor's primary purpose

is to sustain life, cure illness and, when that can no longer be done, reduce a patient's suffering as far as possible Most physical pain in terminal illness can

be alleviated, if not completely eliminated, by means

of drugs However, there are cases where a

terminally ill patient is suffering unbearably and a compassionate doctor would want to agree to the request for a quick end The other

main argument is that if a patient feels their body has been so destroyed by disease that life is no longer worth living, then that is an intensely personal decision which should not be thwarted

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

B

lih'

Photographs

Answer key

b They all show ways in which human beings use

medical science in order to improve upon nature

(1 - cosmetic surgery; 2 - monitoring or

diagnosis of disease; 3 - a surrogate mother and

client)

Communicative activities

1 Discussion

Background information

£BSE> stands for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better

known as 'mad cow disease'

Rickets - an illness in children whose diet lacks vitamin D It

inhibitsjhe growth and hardening of bones

Scurvy - an illness in people whose diet lacks vitamin C It

causes stiffness of joints, bleeding under the skin, slow

wound healing and ajTaernia £ ^ ' f t i ' /»I2)

2 Discussion

Answer key

1 F 2 F 3 A 4 F 5 A 6 A 7 F 8 A

Note

Both communicative activities in this section provide extensive

support on the student's page This is because young

learners frequentlyjack both theJspowledqe and the

vocabulary to talk about topics.^ofajriedicaljTature

The consumer society

ListeoMgA

Before you listen

Answer key

1 chains 2 economies of scale 3 merchandise

4 retailers 5 basic necessities 6 groceries 7 brand

Background! information

Economies of scale is a business term which means that a

company can sell or produce goods more cheaply when

dealing with large quantities

Listening 1, page 44

Answer key

1 competitive 2 make money (or a profit) 3 the best Internet account (or the best Internet Service Provider) 4 know and trust 5 more profitable

6 brand name 7 special offers 8 new products

Background information

Electronic shopping is a new method of shopping in which shoppers order goods over the Internet The goods are usually paid for by credit card and are delivered to the customer's home

Web store - a shop or supermarket's site on the Internet where goods can be ordered

Listening 1 - Tapescript

" You will hear a radio programme about British supermarket : chains becoming Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

: Presenter For over a year, shoppers in some parts of

Britain have been able to buy their groceries over the Internet Now some supermarket chains have launched their own Internet services I spoke to Peter Frankley, a consultant to retail businesses and an expert on electronic shopping, about this new trend Peter, I understand that there are already more than

a hundred Internet Service Providers in the UK, so

why should supermarkets want t o get involved in what is already a very competitive business?

: Peter Frankley As you say, there is already a lot of

• competition among Internet Service Providers

-: even well-established ISPs find it difficult to

; make money out of dial-up Internet access I

• think it is clear, therefore, that retailers are not entering the market primarily because they want to sell Internet accounts The main reason is that this is the most powerful way of encouraging on-line

shopping - up till n o w a customer w h o was

interestedin having tne convenience of choosing and ordering groceries on-line would have had to shop around to find the best Internet account before he or she could visit the Web store

Presenter So, in other words, it's easier for people, especially p e r h a o s j h o s e w h o are not very kiio^vJbd^eabk(abouKconiputers and the Internet, to sign up foflnternet access when they

happen to be in their favourite supermarket

Peter Frankley Exactly Or they might pick up a leaflet

about it one day when they're in the shop, read it at home, and sign up for the service the next time they visit the store

Presenter Right

Peter Frankley It makes it very simple for customers It also means they're using a company that they already know and trust, rather than having to

choose an Internet Service Provider that they may never have heard of before

Presenter I can see the benefits to the customer, but I

still don't see what the supermarkets stand to gain out of doing this

Proficiency Listening and Speaking Teacher's Book

• Peter Frankley Well, it's basically a question of

I expanding their market for on-line shopping

• Electronic shopping is not very profitable for

", retailers as yet, but if more people can be

; encouraged to shop this way, economies of

» scale will come into play Another benefit for the

: supermarket chains is that, from a marketing point of

I view, 'owning' a customer's Internet account is very

' powerful Customers may pass their favourite

; supermarket only once a week, but if they use the

« supermarket's Internet service, they will see

; the brand name every time they access the

• Internet

: Presenter I see

' Peter Frankley In addition, retailers will b e able to

; use their Internet services to inform

• customers about special offers or n e w

1 products, and to build up information about

• people's shopping patterns

Listening 2, page 45

Answer key

1 F 2 F 3 T 4 T 5 F 6 T 7 F

Background information

The idea of fair trade is dealt with in Listening 2 and

Speaking A - text 3, though the term itself is not used Fair

trade involves paying a fair price for produce or raw materials

to the suppliers or growers, and avoiding sources which

exploit workers or farmers

Listening 2 - Tapescript

: You will hear an appeal from a charity

» Speaker Nowadays, we have an incredible range of fresh

; fruit and vegetables available to us all the year round

: But have you ever thought about what's involved in

» getting those products to our supermarket shelves?

; Perhaps that fruit wouldn't taste so» sweet if you knew

• how bitter life was for the people who harvested it

: Let's take fifteen-year old Benedicto as an

• example He lives on a banana plantation in the

• Philippines For the last three years, he's worked

: before and after school every day, and for eleven

• hours every Saturday tying up banana trees The pay

; is s o bad that an hour's work would earn him

• enough to buy one can of cola in the

I plantation shop But Benedicto doesn't work

: to buy luxuries like soft drinks Without his

» contribution, his family wouldn't be able to

: afford to send him and his three brothers to

; school at all

; Unfortunately, Benedicto's situation is far from

; unique Throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa,

» the use of child labour in food production for the

: export market is commonplace Frequently, employers

• prefer to take on children rather than adults, because

I children will work as many hours as they're

asked to and do not get involved in labour

I disputes

: In many cases, children as young as five work

I and, unlike Benedicto, some never get the chance to

: go to school at all

* If, as consumers, you find this sort of

; exploitation unacceptable, is there anything you can

do about it? Indeed there is In response to

consumer pressure, many supermarkets in the

; UK are n o w supporting fair trade practices

This means they adopt codes of conduct which

* ensure that the goods they import are produced in

« safe conditions, and the prices they pay for those : goods represent a fair return for the labour put into

their production As a result, working adults

should be able to support their families without their children having to work too : To find out if your favourite supermarket supports fair trade, and what to do if it

; doesn't, call us n o w for a free information pack

Listening 3, page 45

Answer key

1 B 2 B 3 D 4 A S C 6 D

Listening 3 - Tapescript

; You will hear an interview with a compulsive shopper

Interviewer Today, in our series on addictions, I'll be

: speaking to a lady whom I will refer to as Shelley, : since she would prefer to remain anonymous Shelley,

» you're €f5c^n2nuJ^e_shDppJj!', aren't you?

• Shelley That's right Though I'm happy to say that,

: thanks to professional counselling and a : support group, I've nowi got my compulsion-

\under control.,

; Interviewer What are the typical symptoms of

\ [Compulsive shopping?

• Shelley The most obvious one is that you shop

w h e n you're feeling down, you know, a bit

depressed or anxious, and then w h e n you've

• bought something you feel really good, like

t youiye got a sense of euphoria J h e problem is

: that the feeling wears off pretty fast, so then you've got to go out and buy something else

in order to feel g o o d again

Interviewer Is it important what you buy and who you

buy it for?

- Shelley Well, typically compulsive shoppers will buy

: something for themselves when they're g_hit down

• like clothes or jewelry or make-up But it isn't

: exclusively things for yourself - 1 used to really go

; over the top at Christmas time buying gifts for

• everyone I knew

:; Interviewer You mentioned jewelry and make-up Is

> this a^typically female addiction, then?

; Shelley Not necessarily, though it tends jojbe more c o m m o n in w o m e n And it]s more

widespread than you might imagine I don't know

"- any exact figures, but in the support group they've

: told us that somewhere between five and ten percent

I of the population indulge in out-of-control shopping

1 Interviewer What are the main problems that

: compulsive shopping causes?

: Shelley Well, obviously,^f you shop till you drop,, you get

through an awful lot of money Most compulsive