AUDIO SCRIPTS
150
Best New Artist. I admire her
determination and ability: she can sing
in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
She’s also very beautiful! What would
I like to ask her? Well, um, perhaps
this: ‘How did you feel when you won
the Grammy?’
LESSON 2.3 RECORDING 2.7
R = Robert, G = Gao Ying
R:
Hello.
G:
Hi Robert, it’s Gao Ying.
R:
Oh, hi. How are you? How did the
interviews go?
G:
Oh, I’m fine. The interviews
were fine, too. Have you got ten
minutes or are you busy?
R:
I’m fine for time. Tell me about the
people. Who did you see first?
G:
Well, the first person was a guy
called Martin. He’s a young
doctor, he’s Canadian.
R:
Oh, that sounds good. What’s he
like?
G:
Well, I’m not sure. At first, he
wasn’t very friendly and he
certainly isn’t chatty. He works
long hours, so he’s hard-working,
I guess. He seems honest.
R:
I see, so, erm … what does he
like? What are his interests?
G:
Well, he likes watching sport on
TV, but he doesn’t play any. Um,
what else? He doesn’t smoke, in
fact he hates smoking. Oh, he said
he likes cooking, when he’s got
time.
R:
OK, so perhaps he’s a bit quiet.
What does he look like? Does he
look tidy and smart? Or does he
look scruffy, like a messy teenager
or something?
G:
Well, he’s a doctor, so he looks
professional. He wears nice
clothes. He’s got short brown hair.
In fact, he looks like that actor
who plays Mr Bean.
R:
Really? I’m not sure that’s a good
thing! What about if he’s like
Mr Bean, as well as looking like
him? We don’t want to him to
damage the flat with his stupid
accidents!
G:
Indeed, but I’m sure he just looks
like him.
R:
You never know! Anyway, what
do you think? Would you like to
live with him?
G:
Mmm, yes, I think so. I’m happy to
live with a quiet person.
R:
What, like me?!
G:
Yeah, exactly! And I’d like to live
with a Canadian – you know,
my sister lives in Toronto. Also,
doctors are usually honest and
responsible. What about you?
R:
Well … erm … he sounds quite
quiet … tell me about the others
first …
LESSON 2.4 RECORDING 2.10
1
I was eighteen when I left my
home town and went to live by
myself. I didn’t know how to cook
anything! My mum prepared all
my food. The first meals I cooked
were really simple – pasta, things
like that, very basic. But I felt
very proud of myself – and also
independent. I was really happy.
It was fun to go to the shops and
choose what to eat. I know a lot
of people hate shopping for food,
but at the time it was all new and
quite exciting for me. I don’t think
anyone showed me how to cook.
I just learnt by myself, little by
little. There were lots of cookery
books, so it was easy to learn.
Later, when I was quite good at it,
I invited my friends to dinner.
2
About ten years ago, I got a job
in Japan – in Tokyo, actually.
I wanted to learn some
Japanese, and I bought a book
called
Japanese for Busy People
.
I clearly remember the cover of the
book – it was light blue. People
say Japanese is a difficult
language, but some things are
quite easy – like the pronunciation.
It’s a bit like Italian. But it was very
difficult to remember the words –
they were so different to my own
language. For example, the
Japanese word for ‘train’ is
densha
.
How do you remember that? It
isn’t like anything you know. So
I didn’t enjoy that part of it. But the
main problem was that I was very
busy with my job. It was funny,
because the name of the book was
Japanese for Busy People
, but I
was really busy myself and didn’t
have time to study. So my progress
was extremely slow. But, after
some time, I learnt how to make
full sentences, and that gave me a
feeling of real power.
LESSON 3.1 RECORDING 3.1
1
In 1992, I was working for an
internet service provider. It was
a new company, one of the first
in the country to help people get
onto the internet. We had two or
three thousand customers. It was
funny, though, because often they
didn’t really know how to use the
service. They phoned us and asked
questions like: ‘OK, I’m connected.
What do I do now?’ So we said:
‘Well, what do you want to do?
Do you want to send an email?’
And they said: ‘Well, I don’t know
anyone with an email address.’
Things became easier a year or two
later when people started to find
out about the world wide web.
2
The first blog probably appeared
in 1994. Of course, we didn’t use
the word ‘blog’ back then, and it
was very different to today’s blogs.
Actually, it was really a website. It
belonged to an American journalist,
Justin Hall. At first, Hall used it to
give us a kind of guided tour of
the internet. But then he started
writing about his personal life – his
relationships, his plans, his fears.
This became his main subject.
Once, while he was taking a road
trip across America, he wrote about
his experiences along the way,
sharing everything with us. Hall
was, I guess, the first blogger.
3
In 1994, I was living in a large
house in west London with three
friends from Australia. Together,
we decided to set up an internet
café – or cyber café, as we called
it then. It was one of the first in
the UK. We used the ground floor
of a computer company in central
London. It quickly became a very
popular place – we had a lot of
celebrities there. One day, an
extremely famous pop star came
in. Everyone was really surprised
and stopped what they were doing.
We worked very hard for about five
years, but we didn’t make much
money. It wasn’t a great business,
but it was a great experience.
LESSON 3.3 RECORDING 3.4
Hello and welcome to
The World
Today
, the programme that brings
you the freshest news and views from
the worlds of politics, business and
entertainment. In today’s programme,
we interview the Prime Minister
about her family life, we meet young
film directors in Ireland, and there’s
music from a popular new band. Our
business specialist, Tony Cotton, visits
an international company in the States,
and Lynne Miller brings you the latest
