LISTENING TRANSCRIPT

PART 1
Listen to the conversation. Write T for True or F for False for each statement.
Michael: I saw this fascinating program on TV last night.
Janet: Really? What was it about?
Michael: It was about art forgery. About how artists paint copies of famous works of art, and then try to
sell them as originals.
Janet: That sounds pretty interesting.
Michael: Yeah, it was. They also talked about how art buyers can take certain precautions to make
sure that they don’t accidentally buy one of these fakes. For example, they said it’s a good
idea to become very farmiliar with an artists’ style before you purchase one of their pieces. You
should have a sense of what colours, material and subject matters the artist usually preffered, as
well as what his or her brush strokes look like.
This one gallery owner said that signature location and mounting and framing techniques can
also alert you to poor copies. He also said that at his auction house, all pieces must have a
provenance. He said if auction houses and galleries come across a piece of artwork without
one, they will not sell it.
Janet: Provenance. I’ve heard that word before, but I’m not exactly sure what it means.
Michael: A provenance is a ‘paper history’, or documentary of an artwork’s life. Who bought it from
whom, when, and for how much. Reputable art dealers insist on being provided with a
provenance when a prospective client wants to sell a piece of artwork. If an auction house does
accidentally sell a forgery, it can be held liable for the selling price.
Janet: So, if I’m interested in a painting, the seller should be able to produce this paper trail.
Michael: Absolutely. Don’t buy it otherwise.
Janet: Ok. But I don’t think I’ll buy any famous paintings anytime soon.
Michael: Me neither. But, you never know. Anyway, what I really found interesting in this show was the
part about how experts – scentists – use different techniques to try and tell the difference
between real works of art and fakes.
Michael: For instance, very often, if you hold a black light to a painting, the signature may jump out and
look like it is resting on top of the painting. That means it’s probably a fake. Also, an x-ray of the
picture might show if the painting has been altered in any way. And let’s say you are examining
a painting that is supposed to be several hundred years old. Well, an analysis of the paint – its
chemical composition – can tell you if it matches the kind of paint that was normally used
back when the piece was supposedly painted.
Janet: Wow. That’s pretty impressive.
Michael: Sometimes, experts have been able to see the artist’s fingerprints in the paint itself. If they find
fingerprints in the paint, they might be able to use them to determine who really painted
the work.
Janet: Did they show any examples of forgeries on this show. I mean, did they show any forgeries next
to original paintings?
Michael: Yes, and to the untrained eye, it was impossible to tell the difference. Some artists who have had
their artwork forged are Vermeer, Dali, and Picasso among many, many others. They showed a
few of these forgeries on the show.
Janet: So with all those ways of authenticating a painting, is the buying and selling of forgeries
common?
Michael: That’s really hard to say. As techniques for detecting forgeries have become more sophisticated,
so have the forgers. Some of these forgers have become so good, in fact, that experts simply
cannot tell the difference between their copies and am original work. So in some cases it
may be impossible to authenticate a painting. Get this: some experts say that 40% to 60% of
some private and public collections may actually be fake.
Janet: Really?
Michael: Yep.
Janet: That’s incredible. It’ll make me think twice the next time I’m in an art museum.
Michael: And apparently some forgers have become famous for their forgeries and their work is now
considered valuable even though everyone knows they’re forgeries.
Janet: Wow. That sounds like a pretty interesting program. I wish I had seen it.

PART 2
Interviewer: Thank you everyone. Now I’m going to hand over to Jean Masters, who is going to talk
about her trip to a cowboy rodeo and a Native American powwow.
Jean: Thanks. Yes, these were undoubtedly the highlights of my North American tour, really enabling
me to sample the old Wild West. The rodeo was in Wyoming state, where it’s actually the official
sport. Basically a rodeo is a public exhibition of the cowboy skills originally involved in the job of
herding cattle. It’s actually a competitive sport, and the animals I saw were well taken care of and
their welfare strictly regulated.
The event kicked off with the grand entry, involving a parade of riders carrying flags and the
competitors, officials and sponsors were introduced, and the latter thanked for making the event
possible. A hearty rendition of the national anthem followed, then, after a bit of obligatory
cheerleading, we were ready for the big off. Oh, and by the way, there were also some side
attractions away from the action such as a reconstruction gunfight and later on a performance by a
magician during the halfway intermission.
But I’m jumping the gun, if you’ll pardon the pun … the best came first, the famous bronco
riding, where riders mount a wild young horse which tries to throw them off. They hold on using
the saddle and a rope attached to the horse. Then came some bull wrestling, where the competitor
jumped off his horse onto a young bull and wrestled it to the ground by grabbing its horns. This
was less dangerous than it sounds because riders who are thrown off can be helped by what are
known as pickup riders. That’s the generic term for them, although they get called different things,
and I noticed the group of people standing next to me were calling them rodeo clowns. They took
great delight in explaining the details of the event to me.
Next up was roping, and here the competitor had to secure a calf, by throwing a lasso over its
head. I learnt from my new-found friends that roping was originally done by working cowboys
who had to capture cattle for branding, or for medical treatment. They also told me that the word
rodeo originated in Spanish America and means ‘rounding up’.
Well, so much for the cowboys, but to find evidence of the Native American’s side of society I
joined the Standing Arrow gathering, or ‘powwow’ as it’s called, in neighboring Montana state.
This wasn’t actually a spectator event, although visitors were entirely welcome. Almost everyone
there seemed to be a dancer or musician, although the attendance was down on the rodeo event
 and the prize money paled by comparison. But then again the purpose was really to socialize and
to honor Native American culture, so that’s understandable.
The most important group were the host performers or ‘drums’, who were responsible for the
songs at the beginning, including the grand entry song, the flag song, and the victory song, and
also the retreat song to signify the official closing of the event. I gathered this was standard
practice at powwows in general.
Powwows can take place anywhere, from fields alongside rivers to sports stadia, but the arena
here was a small, dusty open-sided pavilion with a dirt and Astroturf floor. The dancers in all their
brilliantly colorful regalia are a sight to behold and each dance has its own meaning, dress and
rules. The Jingle Dress dancers wore a skirt with hundreds of small cones made out of tin that
made a lovely sound like little bells in the mountains, while the Grass Dancers swung their tassels
to imitate prairie grass in the wind.
The outfits are just incredible and can cost thousands of dollars. One competitor in the Golden
Age category had a traditional Mohawk hairstyle and was wearing eagle feathers and a
porcupine’s quill, but what pushed his costume’s cost up was the thousands of minute hand-
stitched beads. This costume has great sacred significance and is passed down from generation to
generation. But the dances and outfits are continually being updated and blended, and I did notice
he had some ribbons made out of nylon, a man-made textile which suggests a later modern
addition. All of which tells us that …

PART 3
Interviewer: Good morning listeners and welcome to Window on the World. Today we’re continuing our
segment on communication. Yesterday, we took a look at music and the way in which we
express ourselves through song. Now, we’re going to delve into something that’s very
closely related and that is the medium of dance. With us in the studio is Alice Reynolds, a
choreographer who has worked with the London Ballet and the Royal Ballet School and is
running a project with the local youth centre to encourage teenagers to express themselves
through dance. Welcome to the show.
Alice: It’s a pleasure to be here.
Interviewer: Why don’t you tell our listeners something about what it is you do?
Alice: Well, as you said I’m a choreographer. I’ve worked with some amazing dancers through the years
and it’s always struck me how well emotions can be portrayed through movement. Even when
simply loosening up at a rehearsal, the dancers showed how they were feeling. Dance has been
around for centuries. Human cultures have used it throughout that time as a means of
communication in ceremonial rites and celebrations as well as entertainment. So we decided to put
this unique ability to communicate to good use in helping young people express themselves.
Interviewer: In what way?
Alice: It can be difficult for people, especially young people and teenagers, to talk about how they feel.
There can be a number of reasons for that, they may be shy or just simply not be able to find the
appropriate words, but for those that can’t find their voice, dance offers a way of getting those
feelings out. Whether they are feelings of anger, love, remorse, it doesn’t matter. Dance allows you
to express these emotions in a positive way instead of keeping them locked away. And we’ve
found that, once you can express yourself through movement, it’s easier to open up verbally.
Interviewer: Mmm, teenagers are not exactly known for their communication skills.
Alice: No, they can be quite socially awkward. But that’s another side to the dance programme we run, it
forces them to interact and by the end of it they usually come out of their shells. Also, because
we don’t suppress emotions, we let them loose, they’re forced to deal with whatever is ailing
them, any anxieties they may have. It can be quite cathartic. It’s almost a form of therapy but
without the therapist. It offers a level of freedom unlike anything else. Afterwards the children seem
to be more emotionally well-balanced.
Interviewer: So, do you think it would work for anyone?
Alice: Of course. When I worked with professionals, I noted that, through their training, no matter
what type, they had learnt to express their emotions but not betray their personalities. With
the teenagers it was the opposite. We can already see their personalities but their emotions are
suppressed. It was this insight that showed me how effective this venture could be. Our work
with them is designed to bring those emotions out for all to see. And they’re recognisable emotions.
Dancing conveys subtle messages about what people are thinking and feeling that other people can
read. After all, communication is a two-way street. This ability to read these messages is an inherent
human trait that has its roots in our evolutionary history. The power of movement to tell a story is
quite exceptional.
Interviewer: I suppose there are certain types of people, personalities, that take to dance. Find it easy to
get up and let loose?
Alice: Actually, it’s not whether someone will dance or how well they dance that’s determined by their
personality but rather how they dance. There was a study conducted to see if you could tell a
person’s personality from the way they moved and the findings were emphatically yes. It
seems we can’t hide who we are when we dance. Be we an extrovert, neurotic, conscientious,
open-minded or agreeable, it all comes out on the dance floor. Having said that, certain
personalities are better able to convey emotion without assistance.
Interviewer: I wonder what my dancing would show. Probably just that I should really have some classes.
Well, thank you for taking the time to come in and talk to us.
Alice: Thank you for asking me.
Interviewer: If that has got any of you wanting to put on your dance shoes, ...

PART 4
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is oftentimes misperceived as the world’s fiscal sponsor, the
omniscient and practically immeasurable pit of money for any suffering nations. Indeed, the drive behind
this organization’s assistance is likened to a sugar daddy’s, which is nothing but pressurizing the hard-hit
countries to fulfill its requirements. Such a paradox can be seen in the case of Malawi in 1990s-2000s.
Besides the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was diminishing overall life expectancy and decimating the
workforce, the South East Asian country was also harshly deteriorated by a food shortage due to extreme
weather. Under the IMF’s policy conditions to the early 1990s bailout loans, Malawi had to sell off its
grain reserves to private companies while abandoning its agricultural subsidy program. The IMF’s
suspension of economic aid as a punishment against the Malawi government for violating such
commitments was heavily criticized, with Action Aid’s in-depth autopsy of the food crisis being the
accusation. In fact, the emergency situations were completely overlooked by the organization’s rigid
approach to economic salvation. It is by now crystal clear that IMF’s assistance was intrinsically a loan at
an extortionate rate, an exchange for natural resources and a vicious circle of corruption and inflation.
Therefore, a handful of nations are reeling from this financial trap. Free market principles can be a cure for
everything if only unshackled by the urgency to care for the best interests of citizens.