UNIT 3 – SUSTAINABLE HEALTH

Recording 1 (1.33)
Host Professor Martin, you’re interested in the limits of the human body. Is that right?
Professor Yes, that’s right. So, for example, we’ve been asking: Is it possible to survive in a (1) vacuum?
H And what’s the answer?
P Well, sadly we know how long humans can survive in a vacuum in (2) outer space. Three Russian cosmonauts died
in (3) 1971 when their space capsule had a major problem at an altitude of (4) 168 kilometres. The pressure inside the
capsule dropped to zero and the (5) crew died after 30 to 40 seconds.
H What a tragedy!
P Yes, indeed. But it is possible to survive shorter periods of time in a vacuum. In (6) 1966 a scientist was testing a
spacesuit in a special room when the pressure suddenly dropped to almost zero for a period of (7) 27 seconds. He (8)
passed out after 15 seconds and he woke up when the pressure inside the room returned to normal. He was fine.
H Good! So what else have you been studying?
P We’ve also been asking: how long can the human body survive (9) without sleep?
H And what is the answer?
P Well, we can’t (10) force people to stay awake until they die, so it’s impossible to know the exact limits. But we
know about some (11) extreme cases. For example, on (12) 28 December 1963, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old student,
got up at 6 o’clock in the morning and didn’t go back to sleep again until the morning of (13) 8 January 1964. That’s
264 hours.
H Amazing! How many days is that?
P About 11 days.
H He (14) probably slept for a week after that!
P Actually, no. His first sleep after those 11 days lasted almost (15) 15 hours.

Recording 2 (1.32)
There are many amazing stories of human survival, but actually our bodies are very (1) fragile and do not cope well
with extremes. (2) Polar explorers can cope with temperatures of (3) -40oC, but only if they keep warm. Most people
will collapse if their body temperature drops by only 5°C, and if it drops by (4) 15oC, they’ll die. Heat can be just as
dangerous. Temperatures of 35°C are safe provided (5) humidity is not above 50%. High altitudes are dangerous too.
We pass out when the pressure falls below 57% of normal (6) atmospheric pressure. This happens at about (7) 4,500
metres. Climbers can go higher because their bodies (8) gradually get used it, but no one survives for long at 8,000
metres. At high (9) altitudes, lack of oxygen is another problem. At ground level, about (10) 1/5 of the air is oxygen. If
that falls below 1/10, we die.
 UNIT 4 - HOME
Recording 3 (2.05)
1 I live in quite an unusual home. It’s a houseboat on the river (1) Thames. My mum and dad are quite arty and (2)
alternative and they decided a few years ago to sell their house in Oxford and buy a houseboat. A houseboat is also so
much cheaper than a house. They managed to get one for (3) £20,000, which is amazingly cheap. Mind you, it was in
a pretty poor (4) state and needed some work doing on it, but they managed to do that (5) fairly cheaply too. When I
tell people I live on a houseboat, they usually think it’s far away, (6) in the middle of the countryside. But in fact the
boat is parked (7) on the canal in Oxford. (8) Unfortunately, there aren’t any spaces for boats near the centre, but
we’re still in the city.
2 I live in (9) a block of flats on the outskirts of Prague. The flat is quite (10) spacious and has got three bedrooms, a
dining room, living room, bathroom and toilet. What I like best about it is the balcony. You reach it through some (11)
glass sliding doors from the living room. We’re on (12) the eighth floor so we can see right across the city, which is
fantastic. The block has a garden that we share with all the other (13) residents, but it would be nice to have a garden
of our own. Unfortunately, my parents (14) don’t earn much money, so we can’t (15) afford to move anywhere better.
3 We lived in (16) Florence for many years in a flat, but we recently moved to the country. The flat was quite cramped
(17) compared to our new house, which is an (18) old farmhouse. There aren’t many people living nearby. Our nearest
neighbour is a (19) five-minute walk away, and it’s a couple of kilometres to the nearest town. Although the
countryside round here is lovely, the views aren’t great from the house as it’s (20) surrounded by trees. But it’s a very
spacious house, (21) beautifully restored by the previous owners – so it wasn’t cheap. It has six bedrooms, so I don’t
have to share with my sister any more. (22) All in all, it’s not a bad place to live, but I miss the (23) excitement of city
life.
4 We live in a (24) terraced house in Boston. We’ve been living here for (25) about a month now. It’s a lovely house,
quite old. My parents bought it from an old lady who lived here for (26) 40 years. During that time she didn’t really
(27) modernise/modernize it. It’s in good condition but the décor is very (28) old-fashioned. My parents want to create
a much more (29) contemporary look and are going to spend quite a bit of money on it until they’ve got it how they
want it. They also need to (30) insulate the roof so we don’t waste any energy. I think they’re going to start in the next
month or two.

Recording 4 (2.08)
Speaker 1 I’ve been working for a charity called (1) Safe Houses for three years now, and in that time the number of
young people without a home has (2) increased sharply. Charities like ours do not have enough time or money to (3)
deal with all the people who require (4) assistance. Only the government can really solve the problem, but
unfortunately, homelessness is not (5) a high priority for most people. One of our aims as a charity is to change that.
Speaker 2 I was expecting to be one of the youngest people on the Sleep Out, but (6) in fact there were lots of people
(7) my age or younger. I think young people care about homelessness – especially when they see people sleeping
rough on the streets who need help. (8) Whereas older people often just walk past, maybe because they’re too busy. I
(9) suppose that’s why so many young people want to (10) be part of an event like the Big Sleep Out. I’m going to
suggest that all of my friends take part next year.
Speaker 3 We’re making (11) two proposals for tackling the problem of homelessness in our city. Firstly, for people
who are (12) currently sleeping rough, we will provide free places at local youth hostels. And secondly, we’re offering
assistance for young, homeless people who need to find work – because we know how difficult it can be to (13) gain
employment when you are homeless. With these proposals, we aim to (14) fulfil the promise we made during the
election – to make our city a better place for all of its (15) inhabitants.