KYRA: ‘Female’? That’s a very odd choice of word.

You see, I’m afraid I think this is typical. It’s something that’s happened… it’s only happened of
late. That people should need to ask why I’m helping these children. I’m helping them because
they need to be helped.

Everyone makes merry, discussing motive. Of course she does this. She works in the East End.
She only does it because she’s unhappy. She does it because of a lack in herself. She doesn’t
have a man. If she had a man, she wouldn’t need to do it. Do you think she’s a dyke? She must be
fucked up, she must be an Amazon, she must be a weirdo to choose to work where she does…
Well, I say, what the hell does it matter why I’m doing it? Why anyone goes out and helps? The
reason is hardly of primary importance. If I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.

I’m tired of these sophistries. I’m tired of these right-wing fuckers. They wouldn’t lift a finger
themselves. They work contentedly in offices and banks. Yet now they sit pontificating in
parliament, in papers, impugning our motives, questioning our judgements. And why? Because
they themselves need to feel better by putting down everyone whose work is so much harder
than theirs. You only have to say the words ‘social worker’… ‘probation officer’… ‘counsellor’…
for everyone in this country to sneer. Do you know what social workers do? Every day? They try
and clear out society’s drains. They clear out the rubbish. They do what no one else is doing,
what no one else is willing to do. And for that, oh Christ, do we thank them? No, we take our own
rotten consciences, wipe them all over the social worker’s face, and say, ‘If –’ FUCK! – ‘if I did the
job, then of course if I did it… oh no, excuse me, I wouldn’t do it like that…’

from Skylight, by David Hare. David Hare: Plays 3, p87.

PAUL: Look, if you really want to know: of course I went into AA kicking and screaming. Everyone
does. Believe me, I had a thousand reservations… Yes. I bottomed. That’s the phrase they use.
Not just the M4. Not just that one night, believe me. Other nights you wake up in the morning
and you’ve fallen down three flights of stairs. But even so. Even then. I was still reluctant. I clung
to the thought: I’m not the sort of person who sits in a circle stripping himself bare. Even when I
was young, at college, in the student common room, come that dreaded moment, come eleven,
come twelve, people have been drinking and they begin to spill. How unhappy they are. You can
imagine. I was out of that room like a shot.

Whatever. I was not in the common room, telling all and sundry my innermost thoughts.
However. You go to the meetings because you have to. Because it’s your last chance. Your only
chance. If we were alone on this earth, then what would it matter? Oh sure, everyone has the right
to destroy their own life. But to destroy the lives of others?

You’re right. I was frightened of AA. Yes. Why do you think I was frightened? I was frightened
because in my heart I knew it would work.

That’s why. I no sooner walked into the room than I intuited: oh my God, this is going to work.
‘I’m not the sort of person who does this,’ you say. But what sort of person are you by that stage?
What have you become? A worthless drunk.

adapted from My Zinc Bed by David Hare. David Hare: Plays 3, p385-6
Consonant features Student:
Light L Dark L syllabic R TR, DR STR
/l/ /ɫ/ L, M, N /ɹ/ /tɹ/ /dɹ/ /stɹ/ /zdɹ/

/tj/ /dj/ NG ING words words starting linking /ɹ/

/ŋ/ /ɪŋ/ ending /t/ with vowels
or /d/

unvoiced voiced TH Lateral T or Nasal T or /z/ /d/ - consonant

l l n n
TH /θ/ /ð/ D /t / /d / D /t / /d / voicing clusters
 KIT DRESS STRUT FOOT GOOSE FLEECE NURSE TRAP BATH PALM

START LOT CLOTH THOUGHT NORTH FORCE FACE GOAT GOLD PRICE

CHOICE MOUTH NEAR SQUARE CURE happY commA lettER horsES

Vowel sheet Student: