Life 2e Advanced End-of-year Test A Audioscript

Life 2e Advanced End-of-year Test A

Audioscript

Track 1, Part 1 transformed beyond all recognition. It

MP3 file: Track1_Life_Adv_TestA_Part1 had become a rather depressing place.
M Well, I’m all in favour of that, but I can’t
1 help feeling that the aim is just to sell
F Hi, Stefan. Haven’t seen you for ages. people things they can’t really afford.
How’s everything? Is the course going When I walked past, all I could see
well? were big advertising hoardings saying
things like ‘I refuse to be normal’ and
M The law course? Actually, I’m taking a
‘Release the individual in you’. I mean,
break from it this year. I couldn’t keep
please.
up with all the work. I do night shifts at
a newspaper three times a week – F Yeah, that kind of message is really
journalism’s my other interest – and I’m annoying, isn’t it? As if we’d all be more
completely done in by the time I get to individual if we bought the same brands
my classes on Thursday. … I don’t think so.
F Do they allow that – taking a year off?
M Yeah, the college was really
understanding. I think they realize it’s in 3
no one’s interest if students become M How did the interview go, Vero?
burned out. Law’s great – kind of F Er, well … I don’t know what they
practical and cerebral at the same time thought of me. But I found it a really
– but it’s such a knowledge-based odd experience.
course, compared to other subjects,
M Why, what happened?
and your mind just doesn’t retain large
quantities of information when you’re F Well, so I got there a bit early, as you
run down. do, but no one seemed to be expecting
me, so I just ended up talking to this
F Tell me about it. I find studying really
woman at reception for about 40
gruelling and I’m not trying to hold down
minutes. She was really nice, actually –
a job at the same time.
we had a funny chat. But when I finally
M Well, I wish I had that luxury, but I have
got to see the manager, he only spent
to make ends meet somehow. My only
five minutes with me, checked a couple
worry is that when I go back, I’ll have
of details on my CV and that was it. I
forgotten even more.
reckon it was all just a formality and
they’d assigned the job elsewhere
already.
2
M Hang on a minute. Did it occur to you
F Have you been down to the new
that the chat at reception might actually
shopping and leisure complex in the
have been the interview?
city centre yet?
F What?! No, it didn’t … Oh no, how
M No, I’ve just walked past it. Frankly, I
awkward! I told her all sort of things
don’t know what the council think
about my private life. Surely, they
they’re doing. It’s just a big monument
wouldn’t do that …
to their vanity.
M Well, it’s a bit sneaky, but not really.
F Well, it is a huge gamble on their part.
Employers have to be smart these days
All the trends point to people doing
and sometimes that means using
more online shopping, not visiting
unconventional tactics to discover what
shopping centres. But actually, it’s not
just shops. They’ve created some really someone’s really like.
nice leisure spaces too: there’s a great
hands-on arts and crafts centre for kids,
a new cinema and the library has been

© Cengage Learning, Inc. 2019 1

Life 2e Advanced End-of-year Test A
Track 2, Part 2
MP3 file: Track2_Life_Adv_TestA_Part2
Keisha Royston
Hello everyone. My name is Keisha Royston
and I’m senior advisor at the Institute for
Innovation. I’m very grateful to Carson
College for inviting me here today and for
giving me this opportunity to share with you
some of the insights that 22 years in this
industry has given me. The question that
you all probably want answered is: Is there
an innovator in me? The short answer to that
is ‘I don’t know’. But if you were to put it
another way and ask me – do I have any
good ideas? – my answer would be a
definitive ‘yes’. We’re all full of ideas and the
fortunate news for you is, the younger you
are, the more willing you are to run with
them. As we get older, we become more
judgmental and dismiss ideas before they’ve
even had a chance to take root. But to go
back to the original question – is there an
innovator in you? – well, that depends on
several factors.
The first is belief: not only do you need a
good idea, you also need to feel passionate
about the merits of it. If not, you won’t
persuade others to buy into it.
The second is application: having the idea is
the easy part – making a prototype, testing
that it could work practically and
commercially, looking for backers or
investors – the patience and hard work
involved in all that is what separates real
innovators from mere dreamers. Innovation
is not just a light bulb moment; it’s countless
hours of application before and after that
moment.
The third is pragmatism: keep your feet on
the ground and don’t get carried away with
the romance of invention. Seek out others’
opinions, be prepared to listen and to adapt
your idea, or even to abandon it and go back
to the drawing board, if necessary.
So, how do you advance from the idea to a
successful innovation? The first thing is to
take a long hard look at the idea and ask
yourself: What does this thing do and is it
really necessary? Or, if you like: What
problem does it solve? Einstein said, ‘If I had
20 days to solve a problem, I would take 19
to define it.’ In other words, understanding
the problem is critical. Test out your solution
© Cengage Learning, Inc. 2019
Audioscript
on others and listen carefully to their
objections.
The next step is to find a partner to help
bring this idea to market. Crowdfunding is
certainly a good way to finance development
of your product without breaking the bank,
but sooner or later, you’ll need a commercial
partner to market it. The start-up
‘ParkAtMyHouse’ is a good example. It’s
based on a simple solution to the problem of
a shortage of cheap parking spaces in cities.
The ideas is that private households can
rent out their parking spaces to commuters.
The founder first developed the idea through
a crowdfunding website, that then caught
the attention of carmaker, BMW. They were
so impressed that they invested in the
company and from there it has grown …
Track 3, Part 3
MP3 file: Track3_Life_Adv_TestA_Part3
Int = interviewer, MR = Michelle Rosignol
Int So, Michelle, you specialize in the
history of toys and games. How did
that interest come about?
MR Well, I have to say, most aspects of
history fascinate me. But with toys ... I
think the seed might have originally
been planted when I saw the film Toy
Story back in the 1990s. Although I
was probably only dimly conscious of
it then – I was only about 11 or 12
years old – the film was … well, apart
from being a fantastic adventure story,
of course, it was really a nostalgic
glance back at the toys that my
parents’ generation played with in the
60s and 70s.
Int Toys like Mr Potato head?
MR Yes, exactly. And the slinky … and
the Barbie doll, and the little toy
soldiers. I’m sure that one reason the
film was so successful was because it
appealed to both generations –
children and adults. People love to
reminisce about their own childhood
and there’s nothing more evocative of
those years than your favourite toys ...
Int Mmm ... that’s true. But you’ve now
made that nostalgia your life’s work.
MR Well, it’s not just nostalgia. I’m
interested in what determined the kind
of toys and games people played with
in the past. Are they a reflection of
their culture? Do they reveal what
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Life 2e Advanced End-of-year Test A
people’s priorities were in some way?
Or do they perhaps tell us something
about how they lived? If you examine
one of the 17th century doll’s houses in
the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, for
example, you can learn a lot about
domestic life at that place and time.
Int Interesting.
MR But my main interest at the moment is
toys from the Middle Ages. The
conventional view among historians is
that children in medieval Europe didn’t
really have a childhood as we now
know it. They use the fact that there
are very few toys surviving from that
period as proof of that. And that’s
something I want to challenge, or at
least investigate.
Int But, hang on, isn’t there some truth in
that? Because we know children in
those days were often forced to work
from a young age. It was an economic
necessity.
MR Well, yes, for all except richer families.
And, as I say, the prevailing view until
fairly recently was that that pretty
much denied children the type of
childhood they have today. There are
some historians, most notably a
Frenchman named Philippe Ariès,
who take the idea even further. From
this idea of the lack of a free and
natural period of growing up, he infers
that the bonds between parent and
child in those days were much
weaker.
Int Really?
MR Yes, in fact, he goes so far as to
question whether such emotional
bonds existed at all. Supporters of
that view also cite paintings of the
period – the type that depict children
as small adults – as further evidence
of the absence of empathy for
children.
Int And you? Do you subscribe to that
view too?
MR I’d like not to! As I said, I’m seeking to
challenge it. In fact, my most recent
research has been all about that. An
archaeological dig near the River
Thames in London recently
uncovered some objects which we’re
pretty certain are medieval toys.
Int Really? What did they find?
MR Various items. Little replica guns and
cannons, some small figurines – like
dolls – and also miniature household
objects of the kind that you might find
in a doll’s house today such as little
© Cengage Learning, Inc. 2019
Audioscript
chairs, jugs, a small birdcage, even a
frying pan with fish in it. If, as we
believe, these are children’s toys, they
paint a very different picture of
medieval childhood to the one that
Ariès has presented. It suggests that
someone went to the trouble of
making these things for a child’s
amusement.
Int But it’s not conclusive evidence, is it?
MR No, but it is highly suggestive. I mean,
it’s unlikely adults made these things
for themselves.
Int And can we just go back to where we
started, with Toy Story, and talk about
more recent history?
MR Sure.
Int What do you think those toys that your
parents played with tell us – or might
perhaps tell a future generation –
about our society? Are there any
conclusions to be drawn?
MR Oh, yes, I think so. You can see from
the toys of the 60s and 70s that,
compared to kids today, children were
left much more to get on with things.
They weren’t constantly supervised as
children often are now. So, they
created their own imaginary worlds
with dolls and action figures – that’s
what the film Toy Story’s all about. I
hear a lot of older people bemoaning
the loss of that kind of creative play.
.... I think it also reflects a society
which wasn’t so fearful or safety-
conscious. You couldn’t imagine a six-
year old these days being left to play
with a pea-shooter or even a Mr
Potato head for fear that they’d hurt
themselves .... or someone else.
3
Life 2e Advanced End-of-year Test A
Track 4, Part 4
MP3 file: Track4_Life_Adv_TestA_Part4
1 experience really educational. It
M I travelled out to Ecuador last
summer, on the face of it to do an
intensive Spanish language course.
You see, my teacher here is from
Colombia and she told me that people
in Ecuador speak really slowly, so that
was a big incentive for me – I thought
it’d probably suit my rather ponderous
language learning brain. But deep
down I was really thinking this is
probably the only opportunity I’ll get to
visit the Galapagos Islands, one of
nature’s wonders. I was a bit
apprehensive because the trips out to
the islands are very strictly managed
– you have to go in guided groups
and that’s not really my thing. And
they’re not cheap either. But it was
worth every penny. It’s a different
world – absolutely stunning!
2 times when I wished I was back at
F I was at a conference in Szczecin in
Poland a few years back and I liked it
so much that I took my husband and
children back there during spring half-
term. I wished I hadn’t actually
because it rained for five of the seven
days and it limited our options
severely. I often present at
conferences around the world so I get
taken to places that I wouldn’t
perhaps otherwise think of visiting.
There’s an added advantage in that
being with local hosts, you get to see
a place from their perspective, not just
as a tourist. But going back didn’t
work out. I guess there’s a lesson
there – don’t try to repeat your own
good experiences for the benefit of
others.
3 you.
F I don’t really believe in travelling for its
own sake. I’d much rather go
somewhere for a purpose, like for
work or to look up someone I haven’t
seen for ages. That’s actually what
took me to New York last year, but
two weeks before I was due to go, my
supposed host announced he was
going to be away for his job, so I had
© Cengage Learning, Inc. 2019
Audioscript
to make other plans. Apart from
costing me a fortune, I had a really
great time. And I found the whole
forced me to think about how you
occupy your time and entertain
yourself when there’s no one else to
organize things for you.
4
F My friend Sarah and I had both
wanted to visit Georgia and the area
around the Black Sea for a long time
because we had read about how
gorgeous the scenery was around
there. But Sarah’s never one to take
the easy route and, anyway, she
wanted to do some fundraising for the
local hospice where she volunteers.
So she decided that we’d canoe there
by way of the rivers of Europe. I
honestly don’t know why I signed up
for it. It wasn’t about the fundraising. I
guess I just can’t resist testing my
own capabilities. There were many
home, but at the end, the feeling of
achievement was amazing.
5
M About 15 years ago, after I had left
university and was wondering what to
do next, I saw this ad in the paper for
a courier. A Jordanian guy wanted
someone to drive a nearly new car for
him from Germany, where he’d
bought it, all the way to Jordan. I think
he was trying to avoid the tax he’d
have to pay if he’d just imported a
new car in the normal way. Well, it
seemed like an interesting way to
make a bit of money. The trouble was
I had to do it in only five days. I was
absolutely done in by the end. Don’t
ask me what the countries I went
through were like, either. I couldn’t tell
4