KEY
Exercise 1:
- 2017
- 15
- polymer
- portrait
- Elizabeth
- pound
- five
- pounds
- UV (ultraviolet)
- 5/five
Exercise 2:
1.G manual 2.J useful 3.C closer 4.E light
5.B brighter 6.H popular 7.F long
Exercise 3:
- good
- experts
- questions
- skill
- you
- The internet
- failure
- failed
- trying
- three
Exercise 4:
- Wood
- Stainless steel
- Poison
- Bone
- Spicy
- Tempura
- Expensive
- Barbecues
- Japan, Korea
Exercise 5:
1. half-moon
2. thousands of years
3. flour
4. salt
5. ten minutes
6. pieces
7. cabbage
8. lamb
9. spring onions
10. sticks together
Exercise 6:
- Beijing
- Beijing duck
- Meat, Vegetables
- Jellyfish
- Spicy, Hotplate
- Fun
- Egg, Salt, Wheat flour
- Flour, Water
- Prawns
- Thursday
Exercise 7:
1 talents 2 simple 3 notebook 4 camera movements 5 comic book 6 creative 7 advertise
Exercise 8:
- Central
- forests
- ground
- silverbacks
- black
- herbivores
- fruit
- water
- trees
- hunting
Exercise 9:
- unpopular
- east
- aquatic plants
- larger
- 600
- yellow
- eyes
- 25,000
- snakes
- 100,000
Exercise 10:
- seas
- coastal
- Australia
- box
- transparent
- 15
- 3
- venom
- painful
Exercise 11:
- 1070s
- William the Conqueror
- William II
- Henry VIII
- Edward I
- Henry VIII
- Anne Boleyn
- English Civil War
- Crown Jewels
- Charles II
- Royal Menagerie
- Lions
Exercise 12:
- ravens
- six
- Raven Master
- attack
- kingdom
- Beefeaters
- Henry VIII
- 22
TRANSCRIPT
Exercise 1:
In your previous talks, you have looked at coins and then the rise of bank notes as the form of currency. Now today I’d like to briefly cover the idea of banknote security. I thought that the 2017 introduction of a new £5 note in the UK would provide a great example of how banks are fighting against fake or counterfeit money. Now you may already know that the newer note is not as large as the previous one, 15 % less to be exact, and is made of a durable polymer, sometimes referred to as ‘plastic’, which will give the note a longer life and make the note harder to copy. On the left-hand part of the note there are three security elements of particular interest: a small portrait of the Queen, … the Elizabeth Tower, with Big Ben, …and lastly a pound sign which changes from purple to green depending on the angle you look at it. All these are incorporated on a see-through window. In addition, the image of the Elizabeth Tower shows as gold colored the front of the note, but on the back of the note it is silver. Directly below this is a kind of hologram. It’s a silver patch which shows either the word ‘five’ or the word ‘pounds’ depending on how you look at it. And above the Elizabeth Tower is a similar feature, but this one shows the coronation crown in three dimensions, and produces a rainbow effect when viewed at certain angles. Interestingly, on the back of the note this patch shows the word ‘Blenheim’, but the metal foil here, that’s to say, the metal that forms the patch, is green. Last but not least, is something you cannot see, well, at least not under normal conditions. In the top-middle section of the note, the number 5 will appear in the white triangular shape underneath the words ‘Bank of England’, but only when viewed under UV or ultra-violet light. Most bank notes these days have similar features and …
Exercise 2:
If you’re going to take film-making seriously, you need to learn how to get the best from your camcorder. Many people use camcorders these days, to make short videos of their friends and family, and often people just use the automatic functions. These work well enough for those types of occasion, but if you want to take a more professional approach for the production of your short film, you should have some knowledge of the camcorder’s manual functions too.
In this tutorial I will start by discussing three of the most basic functions: the focus, the iris and the zoom. The focus control is usually the manual focus ring at the front of the lens, well certainly with professional cameras. It’s a particularly useful function if used correctly. The ring turns anti-clockwise for a more distant focus and clockwise for a closer focus. Next, I will talk about the iris ring. This is also located on the lens. It manages how much light appears through the lens, through the adjustable opening called the aperture. As you let more light into the shot, it naturally becomes brighter. Finally, I will talk about the zoom function. Many people use this function and it’s often over-used! Used in moderation, however, this very popular feature can be a really useful tool. It moves your perspective closer or further away from your chosen subject. I would advise, however, that whilst shooting a long zoom, you use a tripod.
Exercise 3:
Interviewer: So, you’ve been a famous singer for over three decades now. What advice would you give to someone wanting to become famous?
Celebrity: Well, my first piece of advice is – don’t try and become famous. Instead focus on being good at something. Choose something you enjoy and then work hard at doing well in that area.
Interviewer: What did you do to become such a successful singer?
Celebrity: Well, a good way to be the best is to learn from the experts. Find people you admire in your area of interest. Try to get as close to them as possible. Observe them carefully. If possible, talk to them. Ask lots of questions. Don’t copy them, but try to learn from them. And don’t be afraid to experiment, try something new.
Interviewer: Being the best is one thing, but how did you get yourself known?
Celebrity: Getting yourself known is indeed another skill you must work on. One thing is for sure, nobody is going to come to you. You have to make opportunities for yourself. You have a product to sell and the product is you. It’s much easier to do that these days, especially with the internet around. Many people use social media for this.
Interviewer: Any other piece of advice?
Celebrity: Yes, the last thing I would say is, if you want to be really successful in something, you will most likely experience a certain amount of failure. People who fail at some point often say that the experience has been a great lesson and helped them on the road to success. Try to learn from these moments instead of being frightened of them. In fact, some of the most successful people have often failed countless times before reaching their end goal. What makes them successful, is that they kept on trying regardless.
Exercise 4:
Chef: I suppose one thing that everybody knows about Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cooking is that they all use chopsticks rather than knives and forks like people in the West. The chopsticks that people use in the different countries are quite different though. In China, the chopsticks tend to be made of wood and are round at the end, whereas in Korea they’re made of stainless steel and are rough at the end. This is because in the past the emperor would use silver chopsticks, as they changed colour if there was any poison in the dish. They can be quite tricky to use, but in Korea, people use a spoon to eat their rice. In Japan, they use a variety of things to make chopsticks. Wood and plastic are the most popular now, but you can find bone, metal, and even ivory ones.
If we look at the food of the different countries, it’s very difficult to talk about China in general terms because it has many different cuisines. So it might be better if we look at Korean and Japanese food a little more. It’s well known that Koreans tend to like spicier food and red peppers can be found in a wide number of dishes. I suppose that everybody thinks of sushi when they think of Japanese food, but you can also find a lot of influences from all over Asia and even Europe, for example, tempura, which came to Japan from Portugal. Those aren’t present in Chinese and Korean food. Traditionally, in both Japan and in Korea meat plays less of an important role than in Europe, perhaps because it’s so expensive due to the lack of space for keeping animals. That said, both the Japanese and Koreans enjoy meat. Barbecues of all types are popular in Korea and beef forms the basis of many special meals in both of the countries. Now moving back to Chinese cuisine …
Exercise 5:
Chef: Today, I’m going to show you how to make one of my favourite recipes. It’s a type of food that’s been popular for thousands of years. The Jiaozi or dumplings are beautiful and have the shape of a half-moon. You start by making them in a similar way to noodles. You need to make some dough first, but this is quite easy.
OK, so what do you need to make the dumplings? First of all, you need to make the cases. These are the cases which you’ll put the other ingredients in. To make the cases, you need to make the dough. Of course, you need flour for this. To make 20 cases, you’ll need four cups of flour. Then, mix the flour with two cups of water. Don’t forget to add some salt, but only a little to add some taste. When you’ve mixed the ingredients, leave the dough for ten minutes
in the bowl to make sure it’s ready. You can make the filling to go inside the dough while you wait.
There are two main ingredients in the filling. Firstly, you have the cabbage. You need to chop this up finely and add it to another important ingredient, the meat. You can use any meat, but today I’m using lamb. Put the meat and cabbage together and mix it by hand. When it’s mixed well, you can add some other ingredients. In China, people like to add spring onions to their dumplings and I do too! I’d like some seafood today, too, so I’m going to add some shrimps.
Chop the spring onions and shrimps into small pieces and mix them together with the rest of the filling. To make sure that everything sticks together, add some vegetable oil. Now that the mixture is ready, you need to finish the cases. First, cut the dough into twenty pieces, making sure they’re all the same size, and roll them into flat little circular shapes. Put the mixture into the centre of the cases. Make sure you don’t put too much filling in at this stage otherwise you won’t be able to close the cases and all the filling will come out when it’s cooking. Then, fold them into half-moon shapes. Finally, boil the dumplings three times, and there you have it. Delicious half-moon dumplings ready to eat.
Exercise 6:
Interviewer: Today in the studio I am pleased to have with me the famous chef, Graham Shepherd. Graham has just come back from Beijing in China, where he was making a TV programme on the food you can try in this historic city. So, Graham, what can you tell us about your trip? Was it how you expected it to be?
Graham: It was quite surprising really. I suppose that most people think of Beijing duck when they think of Beijing and I did try some of this tasty traditional dish, but with so many people from all over the country living in Beijing there really are a lot of different foods from all regions of the country. One dish that I really enjoyed and I didn’t expect to find was kebabs. These tasty snacks are originally from north-west China, but they’re very popular street food in Beijing. They’re especially popular as a tasty snack at lunchtime for school pupils. They have less meat and more vegetables than we are used to, so they’re a bit healthier.
Interviewer: I’m sure that most people have tried kebabs, but did you try anything that might be unusual for our listeners?
Graham: Oh, yes. One of the things that I had was jellyfish. It added a nice texture to the dish, but I thought it didn’t taste of much. One dish that did have a strong taste was hotpot. The dish I had was made in the Sichuan style, so it was very spicy. What I found interesting was that the hotpot was put on a hotplate in the centre of the table, and we were given a dish of raw food and we chose what we wanted and put it into the pot ourselves, and got it out when it was ready. It was great fun and very sociable. And very tasty!
Interviewer: I’m sure that you tried some of the dishes that we all know and love too. Can you tell us something interesting about them?
Graham: Of course, everybody knows about noodles and dumplings, but I doubt many people know how many different types there are! One of the highlights for me was learning how to make fresh noodles with a chef from Northern China. The recipe of egg, salt and wheat flour is quite simple, but to make the noodles by hand you need to be quite a skillful chef. Something which is much simpler to make are dumplings. The basic ingredients are flour and water, but the beauty of this dish is that it’s very flexible. You can fill them with whatever you like. I especially enjoyed one with raw prawns, but all sorts of meat and vegetables can be put in them.
Interviewer: Thanks Graham, that’s really interesting, but unfortunately we’ve run out of time. If you’d like to know more about Graham’s adventures, the series will be starting on Thursday at 7 o’clock on Channel 9.
Exercise 7:
So welcome to Film-makers’ Club. I hope you’re excited at the thought of making a film and that you’re bursting with great ideas. I’ve put you all into groups, so here’s what you’re going to do. Now you might think the first thing that you need to do is to come up with an idea for a story, but even before that you need to think about what type of film you want to make. Remember that a film is really a story in pictures. There are lots of ways of telling a story. So choose a style of film that suits the talents of the group. If you have talented artists, but no good writers, or actors, you might want to make your film in the style of a cartoon or some other kind of animation. Last year a group made an excellent film using Lego bricks. So having decided that, you can start to think of your idea for the story.
Think about the movies you like to watch. What is it that makes them interesting? Is it the characters, the plot? As regards plot, my advice is – don’t be too ambitious, don’t make it complicated. Keep it simple- the simplest ideas are often the ones that work the best. Initially you just need to find the basic concept. You can fill in the details later. It’s a good idea to keep a notebook in your pocket and carry it everywhere. You never know when a great idea will suddenly come to you! And the more ideas, the better, in my opinion. The next stage is to write the screenplay- for this you need to divide the story up into a series of scenes. For each scene, the screenplay should begin with a short description of where it takes place and the time of day, that is day or night. Then the rest consists of the script – the lines the actors will speak, and it should also describe the camera movements, and give directions to the actors about how they should move. Before you can start filming, you need to prepare a storyboard of your film to help everyone involved to imagine the scenes clearly and to understand what you are trying to achieve. This is similar to a comic-book version of your film, but without speech balloons. And at this point you need to appoint a director. This is a major role and it’s vital that he or she is a good communicator, as they are the key link between the actors and the rest of the team. This person will have responsibility for the creative side of the project. He or she will have the final say in the choice of the main actors and in directing the action of the film.
That brings me to the next stage- casting your film- finding the actors. Don’t just rely on your friends. Be creative! Perhaps you could advertise on social media. Or if your film needs a doctor, perhaps you could ask one from the local hospital if they could spare a couple of hours for you? And then before filming finally starts, you will need to assign other jobs, such as director of photography- in your case this will be the person who operates the camera; someone in charge of sound and music, and someone in charge of costumes and props {including furniture and any other objects needed) and also someone to look after hair and make-up. But we’ll look at these roles in more detail in our next session.
Exercise 8:
Hello everyone. Today I’m going to talk about a project I’ve done about the mountain gorilla. I think it’s a truly fascinating animal. They originate in Africa – Central Africa, in fact. So now I’m going to talk a little about where they live. As you can probably guess, and as you can see in this first photo, their name reflects the environment they live in – tropical mountain forests. Now just like all other apes, they build nests out of leaves. But they don’t make their nests high up as other species do – mountain gorillas make them on the ground instead. And they sleep wherever they end their day and they rarely sleep in the same bed twice! So, I’ll move on to talk about the physical features of the mountain gorilla. In other words, what it looks like. So here are some more photographs on screen for you all to have a look at. This gorilla here on the left is a male gorilla. We know that he’s an older male gorilla because of the colour of his coat. As you can see, his coat is grey. He’s called a silverback. Younger male gorillas are called black backs. And there’s an obvious reason for that! Yes, a young adult male has a black coat. As he gets older, his coat turns from black to grey. Next, I’m going to tell you a little about the diet of the mountain gorilla. Interestingly, mountain gorillas are herbivores. In other words, they survive on a diet of plants. As you can see from this next picture, this gorilla is eating leaves. They also eat fruit and flowers. They occasionally eat insects too, but only when they’re very hungry! And it might interest you to know that mountain gorillas very rarely drink water, even though they live in a very warm climate. It appears they get all the water they need from plants. I’d like to conclude by talking about some of the threats that mountain gorillas face. They are in serious danger of disappearing from our world altogether. Let’s have a look at two reasons why they’re in such danger. And both of these reasons are connected to human activity. Firstly, people are damaging the mountain forests where these gorillas live. They’re cutting down the trees to build farms and towns. Mountain gorillas live in close family groups and this means that it’s difficult for them to get enough to eat in the small areas they now have to live in. Secondly, gorillas are also suffering as a result of hunting. Sadly, some people find and kill them to sell. So it’s a very sad situation indeed for these beautiful animals.
Exercise 9:
Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture I want to talk to you about a very unpopular animal here in Britain. In fact, you could say that it’s one of our least loved animals! It’s called the American bullfrog and yes, it does in fact come from America – the east of America, to be exact – and it was brought to Britain in the early 19th century, so you could say that it’s been here for quite a long time. It wasn’t brought here on purpose – it actually arrived in a big container of aquatic plants. In other words, it was accidentally introduced into Britain. Now, I’ll tell you a little about its appearance. The American bullfrog is a very large – and ugly – species of frog. And when I say it’s large, I mean large. Interestingly, female American bullfrogs are usually much larger than the males. In fact, they can weigh up to 750 grams, whereas the males only go up to about 600 grams. Take a look at its head – it’s really broad and flat, isn’t it? And you can see its mouth – just here – that’s quite large too.
Now, both the male and the female American bullfrogs have green or brown bodies and have dark spots on the top. But there’s one important difference between them – the male’s throat is yellow but the female has a white one instead. And the other difference is their eardrums, here just behind their eyes. Those of the male are much larger than the female’s. So, let’s move on to why we so dislike the American bullfrog. Well, this is because it has threatened our own native species of frogs. Firstly, it breeds very quickly indeed. For example, female bullfrogs can lay up to 25,000 eggs every single season. And secondly, the American bullfrog is very greedy. In fact, they eat just about anything they can put into their mouths! As well as other frogs, they eat insects, fish and have even been known to eat birds and snakes! So, in other words, they eat the food sources of our own native species. Thirdly, they carry a disease that is dangerous to other frogs. And finally, they don’t just damage our natural world, they cause financial damage too. Around £100,000 has been spent monitoring the American bullfrog in the wild. So, as scientists, we can learn a lesson from this about the dangers of introducing any living species into a new environment.
Exercise 10:
OK everyone, I think we’re ready to make a start. Now, when you think of a dangerous animal, what do you think of? A tiger perhaps? Or maybe a leopard? Most people think that all dangerous animals live on land, but in fact, some of the most dangerous animals on the planet live in our seas and oceans. I’m going to talk today about one of these – the box jellyfish. There are different types of box jellyfish, and they are found in warm coastal seas anywhere from the Indian Ocean to as far north as Japan, but the most dangerous ones are found in the oceans around Australia. OK, so now let’s examine what these box jellyfish look like. There are no prizes for guessing why it’s called a box jellyfish! You can see that it’s shaped like a box or a cube, with four sides and rounded corners. And you can also see that its body is light blue. So, let’s take a look at the tentacles of the box jellyfish more closely. It’s got 15 of these growing from each of the four corners of the box. Now, you may be surprised to learn that these tentacles can grow to a length of three metres! And another surprising thing is its large number of eyes, that’s six eyes on each of its four sides, so 24 altogether. So now let’s move on to talk about the sting of a box jellyfish. What is it? Well, a jellyfish has a lot of tentacles, and each tentacle has thousands of cells which can produce a poison. If the tentacles come into contact with a fish, or a person, they stick to their skin. If the tentacles are very long, they are in contact with a lot of the body, giving a bad sting which hurts terribly. This can be dangerous to the victim.
There are two ways that people can die as the result of a jellyfish sting. Firstly, a very severe sting can cause a person to have a heart attack. This can happen within minutes. Secondly, sometimes a swimmer goes into shock and can’t make it back to the beach because they are in such extreme pain. If they’re in the water alone, they’ll die. And now I’d like to conclude with advice on how to help someone who has been stung by a box jellyfish. If they have had a heart attack, of course the most important thing is to try to revive them first of all. And then, the best thing to help is vinegar. Yes, the same vinegar you use when you’re cooking! Many Australian beaches keep bottles of it near the jellyfish warning signs. You should pour a bottle over the tentacles for 30 seconds, and then the tentacles can be removed. However, if you get stung and don’t have any vinegar, you should pour seawater on the skin. This will help to ease the pain before you can get further medical help.
Exercise 11:
The Tower of London was built in the 1070s by William the Conqueror, who had invaded England and defeated the English king, Harold. He wanted a strong fortress to consolidate his rule over the English people. The Tower was then extended by later kings, including William 11, Henry VIII and Edward I, the last two being chiefly responsible for creating the form in which the Tower exists today. It has a long and interesting past which places it at the heart of many key events in British history. During the reign of Henry VIII, the Tower housed a large number of political and religious prisoners. Many of them were executed. When Henry VIII broke away from the Church of Rome, many of those who opposed this move ended up in the Tower, including the second of his six wives, Anne Boleyn, who was also executed here. The Tower also played a key part during the English Civil War from 1642 to 1649, when it was fought over by the armies of the King, Charles I, and his opponents, the Parliamentarians. The enemies of the King gained control of the Tower and the Crown Jewels – the ceremonial jewellery of the royal family – were destroyed and melted down so the gold and jewels could be sold and the money used for the good of the people. However, after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the new king, Charles II, regained control of the Tower and it became the home of the new Crown Jewels which he had specially made. And here’s another fact which may surprise you – it was once home to lions and tigers! As long ago as the 1200s, King John founded the Royal Menagerie for the entertainment of the court. The first creatures were lions, an elephant and even a polar bear, a gift from the King of Norway. Attached on a lead, the polar bear was allowed to swim and catch fish in the River Thames! The Menagerie survived for 600 years, until the mid 1800s, when it was closed and the animals moved to Regent’s Park and became the basis of London Zoo, which you can visit today.
Exercise 12:
Most visitors to the Tower ask about the ravens – the big, black birds who live within the walls of the Tower. They are known as the Guardians of the Tower and there are always at least six of them. They are fed on raw meat by a Raven Master and visitors are asked not to feed them as they can attack. Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the kingdom will fall. Another famous sight at the Tower is the Beefeaters, or as they are correctly called, the Yeoman Warders. They were first appointed in 1485 by Henry VIII as the ceremonial guards of the Tower and the Crown Jewels. Nowadays they entertain visitors from all over the world with their colourful stories of the Tower’s history. However, it’s not a position many of us can aspire to. To become a Beefeater, you need 22 years’ military service with a medal of good conduct.