Section 1. You will hear a woman talking to a man about joining a drama club. First, you have
some time to look at questions 1 to 6. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. You will see that there is an example
that has been done for you. On this occasion only, the conversation relating to this will be played first.
Hello, Robert Gladwell speaking. Oh, hi. My name's Chloe Martin. I was given your name and phone number by Ben
Winters. I work with him and he said you're a member of Midbury Drama Club. Yes, I am. Well, I've just moved to
the area and I'm keen to join a drama club. Great. Yes, I can give you some information. We're one of the oldest
drama clubs in the area as the club started in 1957. We now have about 60 members. Our youngest member is 10 and
our oldest member is 78. The year the drama club started was 1957, so 1957 has been written in the space. Now we
shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen. Because you will not hear the recording a second
time. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 6. Hello, Robert Gladwell speaking. Oh, hi. My name's Chloe
Martin. I was given your name and phone number by Ben Winters. I work with him and he said you're a member of
Midbury Drama Club. Yes, I am. Well, I've just moved to the area and I'm keen to join a drama club. Great. Yes,
I can give you some information. We're one of the oldest drama clubs in the area as the club started in 1957. We
now have about 60 members. Our youngest member is 10 and our oldest member is 78. Oh, I think I saw a picture in
the newspaper the other day of some of your members being presented with a prize. Yes, the youth section did
very well in a competition and won £100, which will help with their next production. Anyway, tell me a bit more
about yourself. Well, I've done a bit of acting. I was in a couple of musicals when I was at university and a
historical play more recently. We mainly do comedy plays. We get good audiences for that kind of thing. We
haven't attempted a musical yet, but we might do one soon. Oh, when do you usually meet? On Tuesdays. Well,
presumably I'll need to do an audition. Yes, there were a few auditions last Tuesday, and we'll be doing more at
our next meeting, which is in two weeks' time. That's on Tuesday, the 12th of March. There'll be another
opportunity two weeks after that, which will be on the 26th of March. Oh, well, I can come to your next meeting,
and if I don't get an acting part in a play, I'd be happy to help with something else. I've designed publicity
before. Great! We're very short of people who can do that, so that would be really good. There are a lot of
people who like making scenery, so we get plenty of help with that, but we haven't got enough people to do the
lights at the moment. So, if you think you can do that, or you have any friends who would like to, do bring them
along. We can show you what to do if you haven't got any experience. I'll have to think about it. So, do you
meet in the theatre? We do our performances in the Manor Theatre, but we only hire that for the nights of the
actual performances. We meet to rehearse every Tuesday evening in the Community Hall. We rent a room there. Oh,
I'm not sure where that is. I'll be coming by car because I don't live in the town centre. It's in Ashburton
Road. As you're coming towards the centre, down Regent Street, you need to turn left at the crossroads. Oh, I
know. There's a big car park down there, just before you get to a hotel. It's on the other side of the road from
the Sports Centre. That's it. That's the closest place to leave your car, and you don't have to pay in the
evening to park there. We meet at 7.30, and we usually finish by 9.30 or 10. OK. Before you hear the rest of the
conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to 10. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. Now listen
and answer questions 7 to 10. I haven't mentioned that we have to make a charge. Everyone pays a subscription of
£180 to be a member for a year. You can pay for the whole year at once, or you can pay £15 every month. It works
out the same. There are reductions for retired people and under-18s, but I don't think you come into either
category. No, I'm 26. Oh, that fee covers all the costs, like photocopying of scripts and producing the posters,
but it excludes the costumes for the performances. We ask people to pay for the hire of those themselves. It
does mean they look after them properly, as they know they won't get their deposit back otherwise. Can I come
along to the next meeting then? Of course. We'd love to see you. And if you want to know more about how we run
the auditions or the next play we're doing, why don't you give our secretary a ring? She'll be really pleased to
help you. Oh, what's her name? It's Sarah Sordicott. That's S-A-W-D-I-C-O-T. Got that. And her phone number?
I've only got a mobile number for her. Just a minute. Let me find it. Ah, it's 07955 240063. Great. Thanks for
your help. That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section two. You will hear a radio programme in which a presenter called Jasmine tells her
colleague Fergus about a charity. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15. Pause the recording
for 30 seconds. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15. And now here's Jasmine, who's come to tell
us about this week's charity. Hi, Fergus. This week, I'm going to talk about Forward Thinking and their plans
for the Colville Centre. So, in recent years, people have realised how useful the arts can be within healthcare.
The idea behind Forward Thinking is to use the arts to promote wellbeing. The charity develops projects for
people with special needs and health problems and also delivers training to healthcare professionals in using
the arts, as well as supplying them with information and advice. Forward Thinking doesn't just run art and craft
classes to distract people who are ill or recovering from illness, but arranges longer-term projects and
courses, as it's been shown that the arts can bring all sorts of positive changes in patients, including
benefits such as shortening the length of stay in hospital and reducing the amounts of medicine they need. I
see. Forward Thinking has experience of working with a broad range of people, from young adults with learning
difficulties to older people in homes or daycare centres and people with physical disabilities. The
organisation's been around since 1986 and it gradually expanded during the 1990s. Then, in the new millennium,
it was decided to find a memorable name, so it's been operating as Forward Thinking for several years, in fact,
since 2005. It's quite a locally-based charity, mainly for people in the southern part of this region, which
includes all rural and urban communities outside the city of Clifton, which has its own organisation. There are,
of course, some similar charities in other parts of the country, in London and so on. And what's the present
fundraising in aid of? Yeah, well, the charity needs funding in order to buy the Colville Centre. This is a
former village school, which was built in 1868. It was modernised and refurbished by the present owners last
year, so it's ideal for art classes and for small social events, performances, seminars and so on. Forward
Thinking is fundraising to purchase the building so they can use it to continue running classes and so on for
the general public and eventually also for some of the people they help. Before you hear the rest of the talk,
you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. Now listen and answer
questions 16 to 20. Right, so can you give us a few ideas about what classes people might do there? Is it all
art classes? Well, there are some very good art classes, but there are lots of other things going on as well.
So, for example, there's Learn Salsa with Nina Bellina's team. They say that salsa is an easy dance to learn.
It's also an excellent form of exercise, according to Nina. And that class is for both men and women, of course.
It's ideal for beginners and what they call refreshers. That's £100 for 10 sessions. Then another class is
called Smooth Movers. It's with Kevin Bennett. And it's for you if you don't have the same energy levels as you
used to when you were a teenager. It's a gentle exercise class geared to the needs of whoever is in the group in
a particular session. And Kevin is qualified to teach classes to people getting over injuries and so on and
balance training. That's £60 for 10 sessions. Then there's a day called Art of the Forest with Jamie Graham,
where you discover Upper Wood, a short walk from the Colville Centre, and learn how to design in 3D with natural
materials. It's an unusual and exciting way to be creative. Jamie is an artist with a background also as a
country park ranger. For this day, youngsters must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and the costs are
adults £40, under-14s £10. But it's best value at £80 for a family of four. The next one is The Money Maze. And
this is a series of talks by Peter O'Reilly, an independent financial advisor. He gives advice on family
finances, things like everything parents need to know about managing the costs of bringing up children, sending
them to university, and actually also about care for elderly relatives. It's £10 per talk, which will all go to
support forward thinking. And as a final example of what's on offer, there's Make a Play. That's for 8-14s, and
this activity is such a hit that it usually sells out within days of being announced. Basically, what you do is
write, rehearse and perform a play in just two days, and it doesn't require any previous experience. I gather
there's lots of fun and silliness along the way. And the best bit, perhaps, is that there's a performance for
family and friends at the end. It's just £50 for two days. Pretty good range of activities, I think. And all
raising money for a good cause. Yes, and the all-important contact details are colville at
forwardthinking.org.uk or write. That is the end of section 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section 3 You will hear Tom and Danny, two students, talking with their professor about the
assignment. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26. Now listen carefully and answer questions
21 to 26. Professor Tomlinson, may Annie and I please quickly ask you a few questions about the reflective
journal assignment? It's just that we're a bit confused as to what you want us to include and discuss. Yes, of
course. What are you having trouble with? Well, everything really. To start with, what should be included first
in the reflective journal? Perhaps suggestions from others? No, no. Firstly, you should include the study goals
you set yourself at the beginning of the module. This section should have been discussed in some detail towards
the beginning of the course by Professor May. You should be able to find her suggestions on the slides she has
provided the class online. OK, thank you, Professor. Could I also trouble you to take a brief look at my
bibliography and footnotes? I feel like they're missing something. Most of our friends' bibliographies are
longer. Well, looking at this, Annie, I can see that you have used a wide range of resources, which shows that
you have made effective use of communication technology. As far as I can tell, you need not make any changes to
this. Although you might want to double-check that your referencing complies with the Harvard Referencing Style
regulations. Oh, I'm very surprised you've said that. Thank you. Now I can set my mind at ease. Tom, you said
you wanted to ask the Professor about the achievement section? Ah yes, Professor. In the assignment guidelines,
we're asked to introduce and elaborate on our biggest achievement in the past, saying which skills we learned in
the process and how these skills can be transferred to various different future careers. The only problem is
that I don't know what my greatest achievement actually is. I've only ever worked as a waiter in a hotel
restaurant during the summer holidays from university. If you worked as a waiter in a hotel restaurant, you're
bound to have worked with other waiters as part of a team. Would you say that during your time as a waiter, you
developed any leadership skills? Yes, well, I suppose I was asked to become the team leader of the food and
beverage department, but that's hardly an achievement. You might not think so, but if you write that you were
offered the position of the team leader, it shows a lot more about your character. For example, that you're
charismatic and work well in a high-pressure situation. I never would have thought to write that down, thank
you. I guess I should start listening to others more often. Annie, do you have any more questions, or are you
ready to go back to the library? Yeah, I think I've got everything I need. Thank you very much, Professor
Tomlinson. That was really helpful. I'm actually starting to look forward to writing this now, and it should be
a really useful exercise to prepare us for writing CVs and applying for jobs. It's shocking how bad I am at
identifying my strengths and weaknesses. Professor Tomlinson has shown me that I definitely need to start
displaying some self-awareness. Yeah, Tom, you really do. You're always so modest. Modesty is great until it
comes to applying for jobs. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at
questions 27 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30. Oh no, I forgot to ask the professor about the
section on identifying the skills gained through different activities. Do you remember? When it asks you, for
example, whether writing an essay develops your study skills, or your independent learning, and so on. Oh
goodness, we really should have asked him that. I've been having trouble with it too. It just seems like such a
pointless task. What do you reckon the answers are? I think writing an essay might be a way of identifying and
resolving a problem, because you have to state the problem in the introduction and then solve it. I'm not so
sure about taking exams. I thought they were supposed to develop lots of different skill sets. If I really had
to choose, I'd say that taking exams enables you to become more confident in yourself. Do you agree? Maybe. I
really don't know either. What do you think about the last two? Making class notes and presentation notes? Oh,
it's so difficult. I think making class notes has to be a way of becoming a more independent learner, because
you yourself decide what the important information is and learn it. That reminds me, I find taking presentation
notes is a disaster. The professors speak much too quickly and I write much too slowly. That is the end of
section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Section four. You will hear a lecturer giving the beginning of a talk on the history of British
pottery. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty. Pause the recording for one minute.
Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty. Thank you for coming to this series of talks.
Before I talk in detail about the experiments and innovations of the British ceramicists, I'd like to give you a
summary of the social and manufacturing background in which they lived and worked. So, we're talking about
England, or more specifically, the region known as the Midlands, and we need to go back, mainly to the 18th
century, and briefly even earlier, to put it in a global context. Now, at that period, the majority of the
population, whatever their station in life, as you might say, were dependent for their living, in one way or
another, not on the geographical location of where they lived, but on the physical characteristics of the actual
land they lived on. This is true whether we're talking about the aristocracy, the owners of great estates who,
incidentally, had no snobbery about the concept of making money from all the reserves of coal, or timber, or
stone, on their rolling acres, or the farmers making a fat living from the rich soils. And besides these groups,
and the less affluent ones, the deposits of iron ore and lead, the limestone and flint, and the brown and yellow
clays also sustained the numerous industries in the area. It's important to recognise that it was already an
industrial region, and had been so for centuries. There were many Midland trades, some of them indigenous, some
of them not. For example, there were immigrants from France who came as early as the late 16th century, and they
were producers of glass. A century later, there is plenty of evidence that the variety of trades was enormous.
There was brewing in Burton-on-Trent, silk weaving and ribbon making near Coventry, framework knitting around
Nottingham, and of course, in Cheshire, men dug the salt, as we still do nowadays even, which in that era was
sent downriver to the estuary of the Mersey. Now, among these well-established trades, one of the oldest of the
local crafts was pottery. As you will probably be aware, ceramics has always been a mix of science, design, and
skill. And a good potter is, in a sense, an experimental chemist, trying out new mixes and glazes, and needing
to be alert to the impact of changes of temperature on different types of clay. For 200 years, up to the time we
are concerned with, potters had been making butter pots and pitchers and patterned plates, using the clay which
was plentiful in the area where they lived, in a handful of North Staffordshire villages dotted along the low
hills. Now I want to explain a little about the industrial processes which had preceded the great breakthrough
in Germany in 1708. That's when the formula for porcelain was discovered, a secret that had been held in China
for a thousand years. In the Midlands, in England as elsewhere, there had basically been two kinds of pottery.
The first was known, is still known, as earthenware. Now, this was a bit rough and ready, but it was deservedly
popular for several reasons. To start with, it was relatively cheap, so it could be used by most households.
This was because it could be made from local clay, without any complicated processing or added materials. From
the potter's point of view, there was another reason for its cheapness. This was that it could be fired in
simple ovens or kilns and at relatively low temperatures, so he didn't have to spend so much money on fuel to
achieve the necessary heat. On the other hand, after one firing in the kiln, the problem with earthenware was
that it remained porous, so had limited usefulness. So for most purposes, it had to go back in the kiln for a
second firing before it became waterproof. And another thing was that it was extremely breakable. I mean, before
it had even been sold. I suppose the potter wouldn't have minded so much if people just had to keep coming back
for more every time they broke a jug or whatever. But it was very inconvenient, because it meant there was a lot
of wastage in the course of the manufacturing process. Anyway, for all these reasons, if people could afford it,
and that would be all but the very poor, they would buy stoneware, a much tougher product. Now, for this, the
potter used a slightly more expensive raw material, which was made by combining clay and flint. And this mixture
was fired at a far higher heat, with the result that the ingredients vitrified. That is to say, in effect, the
whole thing became glassy. And because of this, it was non-porous, and naturally, this was regarded as a great
advance. Well, that's the situation in the 18th century. Are there any questions at this stage? OK, so now we
can go on to look at the age of innovation.