SOME TRANSCRIPTS

EXTRACT ONE- Tim: Hey Helen, guess who just called? Helen: Oh no, was it Michal? Tim: Yes, you just missed him! Helen: Oh, no! Tim: He said to send you his love. Why don't you call him back? Helen: No. He said he needed some space, so I've got to give him some space. But I wish I'd been here when he called. What else did he say? Tim: Oh, he sounded well, he's working hard, his dad's a bit better, nothing much really. Helen: I really miss him. EXTRACT TWO. Alice: Hey girls, let's stand here. We'll get a great view of the fireworks. Nurse Molly: Okay. Who's got the champagne? Nurse Liz: Me. Shall I open it now? Alice: Oh no, wait till the big moment. It's so great to be out with you all. Thanks for being so lovely this Christmas. I don't know what I would've done without you. Liz: It's been great getting to know you too, Alice. We wouldn't have had anywhere near such a good Christmas if you hadn't been there to cook the turkey!  Alice: We had a lovely time, didn't we? I wish I hadn't missed my ward's Christmas party though. Still, I've had fun in the end. Molly: And here's wishing you more fun for the New Year! EXTRACT THREE. Now we can go on making small talk like this all evening if you like, but I'd rather we tackled that big old elephant in the corner. (elephant in the corner: a situation that no-one wants to talk about because it is awkward, difficult or embarrassing- I know talking to your teenagers about sex is embarrassing but if we want fewer teenage pregnancies, we have to deal with this elephant in the corner) Paul: What elephant is that then? Alice: Lucy. And before you say it, I'm not implying that your ex-wife is a big fat animal. Paul: Alice, I've no idea what you're talking about. Alice: You mean she didn't tell you? Paul: Didn't tell me what? Alice: That she used your mobile to call me and harass me. (making small talk: chatting, talking about unimportant things- tackled:dealt with or faced and solved a problem. Harass: say things or behave in a way that annoys or upsets someone) EXTRACT FOUR. Interviewer: Excuse me, we're doing a survey for a travel company. Can we interview you? Khalid: Sure. Interviewer: If you had the money and time, where would you go for a holiday? Khalid: I'd go to Sydney. Interviewer: And, if you didn't like your hotel room, what would you do? Khalid: Well, if there would be a serious problem with the room, I spoke to the manager.!!!!! Interviewer: You wouldn't contact your travel agent? Khalid: No, I wouldn't. Interviewer: I see. EXTRACT FIVE. Khalid: And then he asked me about my dream holiday. Alice: And what did you say? Khalid: I said I thought Australia would be nice. Helen: All those beaches. Alice: All that sunshine. Khalid: Yeah, but then I thought afterwards, what about my carbon footprint? Alice: Ever the environmentalist. Helen: And what about the cost of the flight too! Khalid: Exactly. Helen: I think it's the end of jet-setting holidays for all us for a while. Alice: No trips to China in the offing then Helen? Helen: Afraid not. Alice: But you know summer's only just round the corner. It's time we were planning our holidays. Khalid: So what are you thinking of? Helen: Needs to somewhere cheap. Khalid: No long-haul flights. Alice: So environmentally friendly, easy on our pockets... Khalid: I've got it! How about ... a homecation? TASK TWO Read the sentences extracted from the five different episodes and match them to the situation they may refer to. There are some situations that might apply more than once or extra ones you do not need to use. A. I wish I'd been here when he called--- 1 B. I'd rather we tackled that big old elephant in the corner---3 C. If you had the money and time, where would you go for a holiday? 4 D. It's time we were planning our holidays. 5 E. If you didn't like your hotel room, what would you do? 4 F. I wish I hadn't missed my ward's Christmas party. 2 G. We wouldn't have had anywhere near such a good Christmas if you hadn't been there to cook the turkey!2 ´What situation do they refer to? 1. A course of action a person would prefer someone else to take. B 2. A situation in the past that a person is not happy about or even regrets.A 3. A situation in the present that a person is not happy about but cannot change. X 4. A situation a person is not happy about, usually because it is annoying, and he/she wants someone else to change. X 5. Hypothetical results to past situations G 6. Now as a suitable moment to do something D 7. What somebody would do in the preset in imaginary situations C The GCSE exam in England is going to be replaced in core subjects by a qualification called the English Baccalaureate Certificate. The GCSE exam in England is to be replaced by a qualification called the English Baccalaureate Certificate - which will be awarded for the first time in 2017. The shake-up of the exam system will mean a single end-of-course test rather than modular assessments, and one exam board responsible for each core subject. But will the new system really push up standards and what will the changes mean for less able pupils? A shake-up of the exam system, unveiled by Education Secretary Michael Gove, will mean a single end-of-course exam and one exam board for core subjects. Pupils beginning secondary school this year will take the first new exams - in English, maths and sciences - in 2017. Mr Gove said GCSEs were designed "for a different age and a different world". The education secretary said the changes would modernise the exam system "so we can have truly rigorous exams, competitive with the best in the world, and making opportunity more equal for every child". Labour's shadow education secretary, Stephen Twigg, attacked the plans as "totally out of date, from a Tory-led government totally out of touch with modern Britain". He also criticised the repeated leaking of the plans to scrap GCSEs which he said meant that such changes avoided proper parliamentary scrutiny. Mr Twigg accused the education secretary of trying to introduce changes for future exams while he was still grappling with the "fiasco" of this year's GCSE results. Leighton Andrews, education minister in Wales, criticised the plans as a "backwards step" - and said that Wales might keep the GCSE. Single exam board The changes, now being put out to consultation, will be introduced from 2015 - with the first candidates taking the new-look exams in 2017. This will initially be in three core subject areas - English, maths and sciences. Illiteracy ’ve written this article and you’re reading it. So we are members of the same club. We’re both literate - we can read and write. And we both probably feel that literacy is essential to our lives. But millions of people all over the world are illiterate. Even in industrialised western countries, such as the UK and the USA, approximately 20% of the population have 'low literacy levels'. But what exactly does that mean? My parents both left school at 14. They could read and write, but except for a quick look at the daily newspaper, reading and writing didn't play a big part in their lives. There were very few books in the house. My mother was amazed because the woman who lived next door always wrote a list of what she needed before she went to the supermarket. Why couldn't she remember? We laughed about that for weeks. Our family didn't write lists! And when I was only 14 years old my father gave me an important letter that he'd written to the bank and asked me to check it for grammar and spelling mistakes. And there were quite a lot. He never usually wrote letters or postcards or even Christmas cards. So when he had to write he wasn't comfortable or confident. Does that mean that my father had a 'low level of literacy'? I don't think so. What is illiteracy? There are lots of different definitions of literacy. Some experts define it as having the reading and writing skills that you need to be independent in your everyday life. So, for example, if you can read instructions, write a cheque, fill in a form, - anything that you need to do in everyday life - then you are 'functionally literate'. Other people say that you are illiterate if you think that you are illiterate. In other words, if you feel that you can't read or write as well as you would like to. If you live in a society where most people are literate then you will feel ashamed or embarrassed and avoid situations in which you have to read or write. The father of a friend of mine finally admitted to his family that he couldn't read when he was 45 years old. He bought the newspaper every day and pretended to read it - and believe it or not, his family had no idea. Literacy in the past We often forget that writing is a recent invention. Many years ago, the word 'literate' meant being able to communicate well in speaking, in other words what we now call 'articulate'. Story telling was an important activity in the past and still is today in some societies. Reading was often a co-operative activity - someone would read aloud to a group, often from a religious text such as the Koran or the Bible. Only a hundred years ago, in the United States, you were considered to be literate if you could sign your name to a piece of paper. It was an important skill. You were not allowed to vote if you couldn't sign the voting register, so literacy was connected with political rights, and many people were excluded from the democratic process. Nowadays we see reading and writing as being connected, but that wasn't so in the past. Many people could read, but not write. Writing was a skilled profession. If you needed something written then you paid an expert to write it for you. And of course, rich and important people have always employed people to write things for them. Important company bosses dictated letters to their secretaries or personal assistants. And now with new computer software you can dictate directly to your computer. Is literacy important? Being illiterate can have a big effect on people's lives. For example, a study in the UK showed that people who write and spell badly are seen as careless, immature and unreliable, and often unintelligent. So it is more difficult for them to find jobs, even when reading and writing are not necessary for the work. World-wide statistics show that literacy problems are associated with poverty and a lack of political power. More women than men are illiterate. Illiterate people have worse health, bigger families and are more likely to go to prison. So literacy campaigns must be a good thing. But don't forget that an illiterate person, or someone with a low level of literacy, isn't necessarily stupid or ignorant - and may not be unhappy at all. Knowledge and wisdom isn't only found in writing. Should homework be banned? (2) Page 90-91: Click here:should homework be banned link What´s in a name? (2)

Recently, a couple in New Zealand were forbidden from naming their baby son 4Real. Even though New Zealand has quite liberal rules about  naming children, names beginning  with a number are not allowed. They decided to call him Superman instead. In many countries around the world, unusual names for children are becoming  more popular, especially since the increasing trend for celebrities to give their children  wacky names. In Britain, you can call a child almost anything you like - the only restrictions on parents  relate to offensive words such as swear words. Some parents choose names which come from popular culture. For example,  there have been  six boys  named Gandalf after the character in the Lord of the Rings novels and films. Equally, names relating to sport are fairly common - since 1984, 36 children have been called  Arsenal after the football team. Other parents like to make up names, or combine names to make their own unique version,  a method demonstrated by Jordan, the British model, who recently invented the name  Tiáamii for her daughter by combining the names  Thea and Amy (the two grandmothers). She was quoted as saying that the accent and double letters were added to make the name  'more exotic'. Other countries have much stricter rules when it comes to naming children.  Countries  including Japan,  Denmark, Spain, Germany and Argentina have an approved list of names from which parents must choose. In China, there are some rules about what you may call a child - no foreign letters or  symbols are allowed.  As a result a couple were recently banned from calling their baby @. In Britain, some names which were previously thought of as old-fashioned have become  more popular again,  such as Maisie or Ella for a girl, or Alfie or Noah for a boy. But the most popular names  are not the wacky ones. The top names are fairly traditional - Jack, Charlie and Thomas for boys  and Grace, Ruby and Jessica for girls. Vocabulary liberal: believing in and/or allowing more personal freedom trend: a new development, fashion wacky: unusual in a positive, exciting or silly way restrictions limits (especially established by laws or rules) offensive causing upset or hurt feelings swear words rude, offensive words after if you name someone after someone or something, you give them the same name as another person or thing to make up to invent unique the only one of the kind, very unusual accent a mark written or printed over a letter to show you how to pronounce it exoticunusual and often exciting stricter limiting further (someone's freedom to do as they wish) when it comes to as far as ... is concerned banned not allowed, not permitted old-fashioned not modern, belonging to the past top here, most popular traditional here, common, widely used