Audio Scripts
Unit Test 1
Mum Bethany, have you decided what volunteering you’re going to do?
Bethany No, I haven’t found anything I’m interested in yet. I want to get involved in the
community and make a difference in the world, but I don’t know what to do.
Mum Maybe this will give you some ideas.
Bethany What is it?
Mum It’s an article about teenagers that have done amazing things in their free time. Look
at this – Leanna Archer, a 12-year-old girl, set up her own hair accessory business
while she was studying at school. She used the money she got from selling her
products to help children in Haiti go to school. She is so successful now that she has
set up her own website. How about that?
Bethany Wow, that’s really impressive.
Mum And look at this … Dylan Mahalingam organized fundraising events to raise money
for children in Tibet. He’s also dedicated to protecting the environment. He has set up
many websites, including ‘Green Your Lives’. It’s run by students to educate others
about the environment and what they can do to protect it. Dylan has been working to
increase awareness of environmental issues and animal protection for many years.
He involves other children and teenagers in his projects, so they feel like they are
also making a difference and getting involved. Could you get involved with helping the
environment like Dylan did?
Bethany Um… I’m just not that passionate about the environment, Mum, sorry. I want to do
something I enjoy, but at the same time help people. I am quite good at maths and
English. I could try to get some teaching experience as that’s what I want to focus on
in the future.
Mum What about helping at a homework club, then? I saw an advert in the local newspaper
for volunteers at a school in Aylesbury. They want someone who is dependable and
enthusiastic about education. That sounds like you, Bethany!
Bethany What age are the children?
Mum Five to ten.
Bethany Oh no! I’m not very good with little kids.
Mum Yes, you are! Oh, Bethany, you really need to be more optimistic!
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Unit Test 2
Agnes Welcome back to Consumer Protect. Let’s move on to our next topic, consumer
tracking. To discuss this, we have in the studio Janet Fielding, journalist with the Daily
Review and Peter Johnson, technology specialist at Techwatch. Welcome to you
both.
Janet Good morning.
Peter Hello.
Agnes So, consumer tracking. What is it?
Peter Basically, it’s when shops record information about what you buy, how often you buy
it and what you are thinking about buying.
Agnes What we are thinking of buying?! So, shops can read our minds!
Peter Not quite, but some of the bigger shops have very sophisticated marketing
departments.
Janet Yes, and there is simply too much of this consumer tracking going on now.
Agnes How does it work?
Peter Let’s take shopping online. A lot of people these days buy their weekly supermarket
shopping via a supermarket’s website. The software will record everything you buy in
a favourites list to make it easier to select products the next time you shop. You will
see the products you have bought before – your favourites – plus some suggestions
from the products that you looked at, but didn’t buy.
Agnes What about those of us who don’t shop online? Can shops still track our shopping
habits?
Janet Yes, they can … and they do. Most shops offer loyalty cards, cards from specific
shops that appear to offer great bargains. Consumers often feel that they will save
money if they get one. Advertising for these cards exaggerates the savings
customers can make. The shops simply use the card to record everything you buy.
They pass on your information to other companies! A few weeks after I had got a
loyalty card with a department store, I received emails and phone calls I didn’t want
from other companies.
Peter Yes, and one important point that some customers don’t realise is that they can
request that their contact information isn’t shared with other companies. You usually
have to either tick or not tick a box on a registration form to say that you don’t want
your details passed on.
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Agnes So, is there anything we can do to stop consumer tracking?
Janet My advice to consumers is to be aware that shops are tracking you in this way. When
you see adverts online for all your favourite products ask yourself how the shop has
got this information. Also, do watch out for the tick box that allows shops to share
your details!
Agnes Good advice from Janet there and plenty of useful information from our experts. Let’s
open up the lines and hear what you have to say about consumer tracking. Have you
had experience of …
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Unit Test 3
Host Welcome, Lorna and Henry. Today, you’re going to tell us about a new project you’re
both involved in. Lorna, why don’t you start?
Lorna So, we all know we’re living through a climate crisis, right? Well, I wanted to do
something that would make a difference. But where do you start? So, I talked about it
with Henry.
Host And did you come up with a solution, Henry?
Henry No. I decided that we’re all in this together, so we all have to solve it together. So, we
held an event at the school hall. Everyone in the community was invited.
Lorna We told everyone, ‘All of you have an interest in something. How can your interests
and skills transform the environment in a positive and sustainable way?’
Henry By the end of the meeting, we had five groups with five specific targets.
Host Can you give me an example?
Lorna Sure. One group were concerned about the rubbish being dumped around the
countryside – you know, old sofas, fridges, etc. One of them has a van, so together
they’re going to do weekly trips around the area to pick up this waste and take it to
the local recycling centre. People can send them messages to let them know where
the rubbish is.
Henry Another group are keen gardeners, they’re going to plant trees wherever there is
space. Then there’s the group who …
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Unit Test 4
Host Thanks for coming on the show, Matt. We asked you on to talk about your hobby of
making old photos look new.
Matt Hi, Sarah. Yes, it’s a hobby I spend too many hours on!
Host How many hours?
Matt About 30 hours a week.
Host That is a lot! So, can you explain to the listeners what exactly it is that you do?
Matt Of course. Many people don’t realise that colour photography has been around for
more than 100 years. And some of the oldest photos are really beautiful. The problem
is that over the years, these photographs have faded or been damaged.
Host And that’s where you come in. You repair them.
Matt Yes, I enhance them. I clean them up and repair any damage.
Host The results are really amazing.
Matt Thank you. It brings the past to life, doesn’t it?
Host It really does. The photos look like they were taken yesterday. And the people don’t
look any different to us.
Matt I agree. It makes you think of them like real people rather than photographs.
Host It must take a long time to enhance these photos.
Matt Yes, around 12 to 15 hours for each one.
Host And to be clear, these aren’t colourized photos?
Matt You mean when colour is added to photos that were originally black and white? No. I
never do that. I don’t like it at all.
Host Well, perhaps next you …
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Unit Test 5
Jake Hey, Elsie. On the last day of my holiday in Spain there was a forest fire on the
mountain near our village.
Elsie Oh yeah? That sounds scary, Jake.
Jake It was. There were three helicopters trying to put the fire out. They had these big
buckets hanging from underneath. They flew down to the lake in the valley and
collected water. Then they flew up above the fire and dropped all the water onto it.
Elsie Wow! You saw that?
Jake Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Elsie So did they put the fire out?
Jake They did. But the people in the village said that if they hadn’t put the fire out before it
got dark, it would have burned all night. They can’t fly the helicopters at night. If that
had happened, we would have had to evacuate the area.
Elsie What do you mean?
Jake Everyone would have had to leave the village in case the fire got too close and
destroyed it.
Elsie You were lucky!
Jake I know. I didn’t realise what a dangerous place it was!
Elsie Really?
Jake Well, last year there was an avalanche up near the ski slopes.
Elsie Oh no! Was anyone hurt?
Jake No, everyone survived. Three people had to be rescued but the worst thing that
happened was a broken arm, I think.
Elsie If you go skiing, that’s a risk you take, I suppose.
Jake Yeah. Oh, and another thing is all the earthquakes …
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Unit Test 6
Teacher OK, everyone, it’s Kelly’s turn to present her report on the news habits of teenagers
at our school. Kelly, when you’re ready …
Kelly Thank you. So, for the past week, I’ve been collecting information about how the
students at our school get their news. I hope you’ll find it as interesting as I did.
So, to begin with, I asked all 12–16-year-olds if they were interested in current affairs.
Seventy-five per cent of people said that they liked to follow national news and
politics. But that dropped to 65% when I asked about international news. Interestingly,
when I asked students to describe three of the top news stories from the previous
day, only 50% of people were able to do so.
Next, I asked about where people got their news from. Overwhelmingly, 80% of
students said that they got most of the news from social media platforms. Only 10%
of students said that they read the news in traditional print or online newspapers.
What I found most fascinating was that more than half of the students who said that
they got their news from social media did not trust the news stories they got. In
contrast, traditional news sources were trusted by 83% of those who got their news
from there. Next, I asked …
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Unit Test 7
Host Welcome to the show, Lisa.
Lisa Glad to be here, thanks.
Host Now, you’ve written a book about the future. Maybe you could tell us about a few of
your predictions? I read that there will be a lot of changes to the way we deal with
health issues.
Lisa Yes, that’s right, Colin. There are some very exciting developments, like for instance,
the use of algorithms and wearable devices to detect and predict illness.
Host What do you mean?
Lisa Well, everyone will wear smart bracelets or watches to keep track of things like blood
pressure and so on.
Host We already have things like that, though, don’t we?
Lisa Yes, but soon this will be linked directly to your health care provider. Alerts can be
sent from your device if your heart rate, for example, seems unnatural for the activity
you’re currently doing. A doctor can then contact you. However, that’s just the
beginning. Your health care provider will also have your DNA mapped on their
system. They’ll know what kinds of diseases you’re most likely to get.
Host OK, and how can that help?
Lisa If it’s known, for instance, that a particular kind of cancer is common in your genetic
type, health providers can check your blood and do scans every year or so to see if
there are any signs of that cancer.
Host That’s incredible. And so …
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Unit Test 8
Host Good morning, it’s review time here on The Gamer. Pablo, what have you been
playing this week?
Pablo I’ve been playing The Wild West, Sarah.
Host There’s been a lot of talk about how realistic this game is.
Pablo That’s right. And the graphics are amazing. You really do feel like an American
cowboy in the 19th century. You get to ride horses, shoot baddies and explore the
countryside.
Host Sounds fun.
Pablo That’s the problem. It isn’t. The attention to detail is incredible and that’s what makes
it so uninteresting to play.
Host What do you mean?
Pablo Well, for example, you have to eat, take care of your horse, clean your guns and
sleep. That’s interesting for about five minutes. After that, it gets very boring.
Host I’m sure it is. The point of a game is to escape the real world and have some fun,
right? You don’t want to spend your time doing all the boring things you have to do in
your everyday life!
Pablo Exactly. That’s why I’m only giving this game three stars out of five.
Host OK, three stars for The Wild West. What else have you been playing?
Pablo A science fiction game called Space Man. In it you play the captain of a spaceship
who discovers a new planet. When he lands on the planet and begins to explore, he
finds something very surprising.
Host Really? What does he find?
Pablo Well, it’s a …
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