Audio Script: Cumulative Tests

Cumulative test Units 1–5

Broadcaster:Who do you think you are? Here tonight on Radio 4.

In tonight’s programme we’ll investigate the roots of Anthea Allen, the

well-known fiction writer and broadcaster and find out what skeletons
she’s got in her closet! After writing so many spine-chilling detective
novels, I wonder if she’s expecting to find anything of a criminal nature
in her family’s past.

But first, let’s talk to historian and genealogist Dr Leroy Jones to find
out what’s behind the sudden surge in interest in genealogy and family
history. Fifteen years ago it was just your Uncle Brian who was working
on a family tree – now it seems like just about everybody is researching
something. Good evening, Dr Jones! Thanks for coming on the
programme!

Dr Jones: Thank you!

Broadcaster:So, can you tell us a bit about the genealogy revolution?

Dr Jones: Well, I think it’s an internet revolution, really. The internet has quite
simply transformed the way we access information. Across the world,
lots and lots of archives and resources that were once shut away in this
library or that civic hall are suddenly available for study – not just open
to the public, but, now that so many of us have broadband at home,
available to the public from their living rooms.

Broadcaster: So it’s become much easier.

Dr Jones: Yes, it’s certainly true that getting the information has become a good
deal easier, although analysing it, and having the patience to process
all the raw data still requires a lot of application on the part of the
researcher. And I would say that it’s become an awful lot easier to
record and compare the information, with dedicated software and
sharing sites that allow people to communicate with other researchers
easily across the world. These days it’s easier to collaborate with
others – I suppose it’s become less solitary. But for me, this level of
research has also lost something of the old romance.

Broadcaster: What do you mean?

Dr Jones: Well, it used to be that if I wanted to find out about great-great-

grandmother Mary-Lou, I would have to travel. I would go to the village
where she used to live. I would visit the town hall and find her marriage
certificate. I would visit the cemetery and try to find where she was
buried. I felt like I was actually seeing some of the things she might

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have seen, walking the streets she might have walked. It brought the
past to life for me, you know? Now, if I go online, and I find that Ryan in
Detroit has the same ancestor as me, and I can copy and paste a
section of his tree into mine, well then the names are just entries on a
list. You never take the time to think about their lives. That’s why I think
family research has lost some of its mystery. But it’s also why I really
enjoy your programme, by the way. You actually go to the places, dig
out the stories, reminisce with the people. It’s more human.

Broadcaster: Well, thank you Dr. Jones. And indeed, we will be travelling to
Scotland tonight with Anthea Allen, and she’ll be visiting the bleak and dreadful
debtors’ prison where her great grandfather may have been imprisoned. Join us for
that, after the news!

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Audio Script: Cumulative Tests

Cumulative test Units 6–10

Speaker 1:

I hate traveling by plane these days. I just think that it’s become such a stressful way
to travel. I’m sure it used to be much simpler. You would turn up, answer a few
questions, drop off your suitcase and then spend a few minutes wandering around
the shops before going calmly to wait in the queue to get on the plane. On the plane,
you found your seat and there was always space in the overhead lockers. These
days you have to be there hours early. Then you get treated like a criminal while you
trudge through the endless security checks in your stockinged feet. When you finally
get to the boarding gate, it turns out that your ticket number gets called last, because
you forgot to pay for priority boarding, and by the time you get on the plane, all the
lockers are full, and the only seat left is right at the back next to an air-sick
screaming toddler. I guess I shouldn’t go for the low-cost tickets, if I can’t stand the
low-cost travel, but I wish it wasn’t quite so much of a free-for-all.

Speaker 2:

I object to low-cost air travel for several reasons. The main one has to be the
environmental cost, which is anything but low! Personally, I haven’t flown now for the
last six years, and I don’t intend to fly again. The generations who come after me
may not thank me for it, but I’m sticking to my guns. Unfortunately, as it happens, I
know that the next generation doesn’t agree with me, because I had an argument
about it with my daughter just yesterday. She wanted me to fly to Morocco next
month for her wedding, and I refused. She was quite upset. In the end, I promised to
go to her wedding, but I warned her that I will be travelling there by bike. I don’t think
she believes me, but I have been planning my route already. It’s going to be a long
ride, but I think sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is!

Speaker 3:

I’m seventeen, and it’s my dream to become an airline pilot. I have another year of
school, then I’m going to start my training at the Aviation Training Academy. I’ve
always wanted to be a pilot – maybe because my Dad is in the air force. I know that
the competition to get a place at the academy is fierce, but I’m determined to
succeed. I think air travel has opened up so many opportunities to people. I really
believe that the benefits of travelling, meeting new people and seeing their way of life
first-hand, are impossible to ignore. We have a far better understanding of other
countries and cultures than our grandparents’ generation did, simply because we
have the opportunity to visit and experience such a variety of other places. To me, a
world without air travel is simply unimaginable.

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Speaker 4:

My main quarrel with low-cost flights is the cost. Sure, it starts out low, but it soon
goes shooting up. Once you’ve factored in the airport taxes and the fees they charge
you when you pay with a credit card, the price of the ticket has almost doubled
already. Then you have to pay extra to check your luggage in. Then I’ll always go for
the priority boarding option, because you don’t want to be stuck at the back of the
queue at the boarding gate, do you? So finally you get on the plane and you’re
starving hungry – and you find that they’re going to charge you £10 for a sandwich
and a packet of crisps. You start out with a £20 bargain ticket to Paris, and by the
time you get there, it’s already cost you an arm and a leg!

Speaker 5:

There’s just no way you’re going to get me on a plane. People go on about how it’s
the safest way to travel, or whatever, but I just can’t stand the thought of all the
things that could go wrong. If I had to fly tomorrow, I’d be petrified. I don’t even want
to live near the airport. I think that with all the conflict in the world, it’s just become
too dangerous. It just takes one crazy person to do something stupid, or some secret
terrorist group to decide to make a point. I don’t care if it means I’ll never get to see
the Taj Mahal, or the Statue of Liberty. I don’t ever want to fly again.

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Audio Script: Cumulative Tests

Cumulative test Units 1–10

In other news, the man the newspapers have called “the piano man” has flown home
to Germany today, bringing a mystery that has fascinated the nation to a happy
conclusion. The man has been formally identified at last and police and social
workers have spoken to his parents in Bavaria.

The “piano man” became the subject of a global investigation when he turned up lost
and disorientated in a seaside town in the south of England earlier this summer. He
was clearly frightened and unable to communicate in any language. His mysterious
appearance sparked an international search for his identity.

Neatly dressed but dishevelled, the man was wearing a soaking wet suit and tie
when police picked him up in Kent. It was widely reported that all of the labels had
been cut out of his clothes, making them almost impossible to trace. The man’s
behaviour, showing signs of deep distress and fear, led police to suspect that he
may have suffered a breakdown or been traumatised by some terrible event. He was
taken to hospital, where he remained withdrawn and silent.

It was not until hospital staff gave him a pen and piece of paper, hoping that he might
write down his name that the first breakthrough came. Instead of writing, the man
started to draw detailed pictures of a grand piano. Not knowing what else to do, the
staff at the hospital led him to the chapel, and showed him the piano. The man sat
down at the instrument and promptly started to play, treating the surprised nurses to
an unexpected virtuoso performance. He continued to play for several hours. This
impressive musical talent was the only clue to the man’s identity.

In the weeks that followed, an appeal for information was sent out nationally and
internationally. Orchestras all over the world were contacted in the hopes of
identifying the mysterious piano man. The public response was astonishing, but
nevertheless it took almost 4 months to identify the young man and arrange his safe
return home. Due to patient confidentiality, we will never know the piano man’s
name, but we are pleased to report that the story has ended happily, and the
talented young musician will now be able to put this chapter of his life behind him.

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