Unit 1 Nine to fiveInside viewConversation 1Janet What a wonderful view！This is such a great city. Do you ever get tired of living in London, Andy?Andy"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;for there is in London all that life can afford."Janet This is a quotation by Samuel Johnson, isn't it?Andy Correct! So do you have any plans when you finish at Oxford?Janet I've got another year to go, and then I suppose I'll go back home.Andy And will you find a job?Janet I think I'll have to do my Masters before I look for work. But I must admit London is very special. Do you think you would ever leave London?Andy Sure!I'd love to come to China one day, and I like traveling. But I think I'll always come back here.Janet Well, your roots are here, and there are so many opportunities.Andy But have you ever thought of living in London for a year or two?Janet Yes,but what could I do here? I had planned to become a teacher. But I've often thought if there was a job I could do here in publishing, maybe as an editor, I'd go for it.Andy That sounds like a good idea. I think that would really suit you.Janet Maybe I should update my CV and send it to one or two publishers.Andy Don't make it look too good!Janet Why not?Andy Well,if you enjoy working with London Time Off, we don't want you working with anyone else!Janet Oh, working with you and Joe, it's great fun, and really interesting. I couldn't think of a better way to find out about a city.Andy So, maybe you should think about applying for a job with us.Janet But do you think I'd stand a chance? I mean, I'm not sure if Joe likes me. Andy Don't even think about it! Joe is very straight talking, and I promise you that you'd know if he didn't like you!Janet Perhaps we should both update our CVs and look for jobs together.Andy Hey,right! That would be fun.Conversation 2Janet Talking about future plans, how do you see your career developing?Andy My career? Will,I like working for London Time Off. It's part of a larger media company called Lift Of USA, so there are lot's of opportunities. But…Janet But what?Andy It's not always very easy working with Joe. I mean, I think of he has a different agenda.I like his work, but sometimes I don't think his heart's in his job. Janet How did he end up in London?Andy He did media studies in the States, and then found a work as an gofer at Lift Off in New York.Janet What's an gofer?Andy Go for this, go for that. It's a word for the least experienced person in the film and TV industry. Then he came to London and get a proper job as an researcher at Lift Off UK, and then after a few years he got the producer's job on London Time Off. Janet He's good at his job, isn't he?Andy Yes. He's confident and very competent at what he does, so the people who work with him rate him quite highly.Janet Except you?Andy No,I rate him too. And I get on with him quite well, although we're not best buddies or anything like that. It's just that…I what his job!Janet Now we know your little secret. I promise I won't tell anyone!Andy It's OK,I suspect he knows it too. But if I can't be a producer on London Time Off, then I guess I'll find something elsewhere. Janet, there was something I was going to ask you.Janet Sure, what is it?Andy I was wondering…oh, it's nothing. Anyway, all this talk about your future career is making me thirsty. Let‘s do for a drink.Janet Whose round?Andy Yours!Outside viewPart 1Samantha Graduation. What a day! Your life is about to begin! And then your parents say…Mother Get a job.Samantha I tell you! Looking for your first job out of college can be pretty hard.Reading all the job listings is so annoying. Even trying to figure outwhat the actual job is can be difficult. Searching through the want adscan be so boring. And writing your resume is really hard work. Samantha I don‘t have that day open.Samantha Getting a job interview, and than going on it–the whole process is pretty tough .Interviewer Sorry to keep you waiting. Uh, have a seat. I have your resume here, and you‘re interested in the assistant‘s position.Samantha Yeah. Yeah, I am.Interviewer Well, the right candidate for this job has to be very outgoing andsociable. After all, it is a sales position.Samantha Well, I‘m a real extrovert. Definitely.Interviewer And the right candidate has to have great self-confidence. Customers need to fell that you know what you‘re talking about.Samantha Well, I‘m really self-confident. Um, I know what I‘m talking about and I think I can project that.Interviewer So, what skills would you bring to this job?Samantha Well, I realize that I‘m completely overqualified for the position. I mean, um, in my last job, I was running the whole place. Interviewer Oh, so you‘ve supervised people?Samantha Yep. Five of them. So, obviously I could do this job, no problem. I also have really good computer skills. Um, what else do you want toknow about me?Interviewer Uh …Samantha Even though I was trying really hard, even though I had sent out about 300 resumes, even though I asked all my friends and relatives ifthey knew of anything, I wasn‘t getting anywhere! Despite all mybest efforts, I was still unemployed.Part 2Mother Please, why don‘t you see a career counselor? I‘ll pay for it. Anything to help you get a job!Phyllis Samantha, I‘m Phyllis Stein. Welcome.Samantha Oh, hi, Phyllis. Nice to meet you.Samantha So. I figure, heck, why not? I met with Phyllis Stein, a professional job coach.Phyllis Interviewing is vital to getting the job that you want.Samantha She showed me how to prepare for an interview by doing research on the position and the company. And later, she coached me on myinterviewing skills.Phyllis I am going to pretend to be your interviewer, and then we‘ll stop it and replay it and look at the video and see what we could learn fromthat. OK?Phyllis I don‘t think that you should go into an interview having not practiced with some of the questions that are pretty standard.Phyllis Tell me about yourself.Samantha Well, my parents –my mom is a social worker, and my dad is an engineer.Phyllis Your preparation is really important.Phyllis What do you know about our organization?Samantha Well, I saw on, um, the Internet that you do business publishing?Right?Phyllis There‘s a whole range of things that have to do with how you presentyourself.Phyllis Why should I hire you?Samantha Oh, well, um, I‘m a really outgoing person, and I like, I like people a lot. I‘m responsible and nice.Phyllis You need to think about what the interviewer is actually looking for. Phyllis Samantha, what was a major problem that you‘ve encountered and how did you solve it.Samantha I haven‘t really had any problems to deal with.Phyllis Thank you. Now, let‘s look at your mock interview on videotape. Phyllis I think it boils down to preparation, presentation, and understanding what the interviewer is looking for.Phyllis Tell me about yourself.Samantha Um, well, my name is Samantha Green and, um, I grew up in Cambridge and, um, I went to Boston College.Phyllis Another way of answering it is not telling about yourself, but telling about yourself in relationship to the job. So, they don‘t care so muchabout your parents and that your want to live in Cambridge. They mayneed you to be able to be a troubleshooter. You use some examples inyour life from being a troubleshooter.Samantha I haven‘t really had any problems to deal wit.Phyllis One of things that someone who is an assistant in a trade show is doing, is dealing with problems.Phyllis You need to be sure that you stay, sourt of, on target with presenting…presenting yourself in the strongest possible way.Part3Samantha This time I felt a lot more confident when I went in for interview. Samantha I have developed strong communication skills. In college I worked on the school paper, and I‘ve brought some writing samples to show you.I also worked every summer at a bed-and-breakfast. I worked a lotwith our guests. I booked reservations over the phone, got them whatthey need, and handled any complaints.Samantha Well, I feel like I didn‘t really well, We‘ll see.Speaker 1Making a good first impression is the most important part of a job interview.Speaker 2Arriving on the important parts of a job interview.Speaker 3It‘s very important that you are being confident and you‘re being clear in your answers and listening carefully.Speaker 4Not fidgeting and being confident are the most important things in a job interview.Speaker 5Writing a thank-you note is the most important thing you want to do after a job interview.Speaker 6And go in there with a firm handshake.Listening inPassage 1―It‘s not enough to ask what successful people are like…It is only byasking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind whosucceeds and who doesn‘t.‖This is the basic idea of an intriguing book called Outliers, by theAmerican journalist Malcolm Gladwell. The book explores the factorswhich contribute to people who are extremely successful in their careers,for example, the role that family, culture, and friendship play.Gladwell examines the causes of why the majority of Canadian icehockey players are born in the first few months of the calendar year, whatthe founder of Microsoft Bill Gates did to achieve his extraordinarysuccess, and why the Beatles managed to redefine the whole of popularmusic in the 1960s.Gladwell points out that the youth hockey league in Canada recruitsfrom January the first, so that players born early in the year arebigger, stronger and better athletes than others born later in the year. Andbecause they have this advantage at the start of their sports career, they‘regiven extra coaching, and so there‘s a greater chance that they‘ll be pickedfor an elite hockey team in the future.He calls this phenomenon accumulative advantage, a bit like the ideathat the rich get richer and poor get pooer. Success depends on the processby which talented athletes are identified as much as it does on their ownabilities.Another aspect which contributes to success is the 10,000 hour rule.Great success demands an enormous amount of time for practice andTraining. For example, the Beatles performed live in Hamvurg Germanymore than 1,200 times over four years, much more than the 10,000 hours Gladwell claims is necessary for great success. So by the time they returned toEngland, they had developed their talent and sounded completelydifferent from any other group.In the same way , Bill Gates had thousands of hours’ worth of programming because he had access to a computer at his high school. He also became a teenager just at the right time to take advantage of the latest developments in computer technology.All through the book, Gladwell repeats his claim that it’s not just talent or genius which determines someone’s success, but opportunity, advantage and even simple good luck.Outliers has met with extraordinary success, matched only by Gladwell’s own career over 25 years in journalism. As a result, many critics have seen it as an autobiography, in which the writer appears to be apologizing for his own personal achievements. But the idea that you have to be born at the right moment, in the right place and in the right family, and then you have to work really hard is a thought-provoking way of revisiting our traditional view of genius and great achievement. It’s certainly worth reading, as long as you don’t take it too seriously. Passage2Presenter : Hi we’re talking about typical working hours in the US and in Brazil. Eric…um… you’re from the States, tell me what are the typical working hours in the States?Eric : Er…traditionally people go to work at 9 o’clock in the morning and they finish at about 5,so sort of a 9 to 5.Presenter : And, and Penny I…I know you’re English but you work in Brazil, what are the hours in Brazil?Penny : Um varies slightly, sometimes you can start um on an earlier shift, say, 8 o’clock in the morning to 5 um or 9 until 6. But in Brazil often people will work longer hours than this.Presenter : Right, right, OK. And what kind of clothes do you wear? I mean do you, do you dress up formally or in a relaxed way?Eric : It used to be that you would wear a jacket and a tie to work for…for men but er nowadays an open shirt is OK. You don’t necessarily have to wear a tie and sometimes on a Friday you can wear a pair of jeans to work.Presenter : Oh right, the dress down Friday?Eric : The dress down Friday ,that’s right.Presenter : Does that still happen?Eric : Yes, yes sure it does.Presenter : And how about in Brazil?Penny : Um it’s fairly casual, quite informal, um I mean you need to look neat and tidy obviously, but you, you have your own choice really on what you would wear, there are no rules and regulations. It’s important to look smart but be comfortable. Presenter : Right, yeah and do you have meal breaks or is that… you just fit in meals when you can or…?Eric : Lunch, lunch is usually an hour, sometimes a little shorter if you have to do a lot of work from your desk.Presenter : Yeah. How about Brazil?Penny : That’s the same, about an hour.Presenter : And, and with overtime, I mean, if you… I mean you’re obviously contracted to do a certain number of hours. What happens if you do more than the hours that you… that’s in your… that are in your contract?Eric : I have to make a fairly strict record of my hours so if I go beyond 5 o’clock on most days I put in for overtime.Presenter : Right.Eric : And it’s… the first hours is one hour of overtime and then there’s I think 15 minute periods after that. So I could work an hour and a quarter.Presenter : And you’d be paid for the quarter hours?Eric : That’s right, by the quarter hour.Presenter : How about in Brazil?Penny : It’s, it’s a lot looser in Brazil actually. We, we often end up doing overtime but unfortunately not paid.Presenter : Fine. That’s hard luck. And what about holidays, what about in the States? You don’t have much holidays in the States, do you?Eric No, when you, when you start at a company you get two weeks holiday or two weeks vacation as we say…Presenter YeahEric Um then it‘s usually not until you‘ve been at the company for about five years that they give you another week. So you get three weeksafter you‘ve been there for five years.Presenter And, and, and what about in Brazil?Penny Um it‘s quite good actually—30days.Presenter Sounds very generous.Penny Yeah I can,I can pop back to…Presenter Is that 30 working days or 30 days in total?Penny That‘s 30 working days.Presenter Wow that‘s….Penny Yes yeah it‘s a good deal.Presebter What about retirement？I know it‘s a long way off?When do youretire?Eric Generally speaking it‘s at 65.Presenter And,and the same for women?Eric Um,I think a little sooner than that for women. Women I think 62 or63.Presenter Right, good. And, and in Brazil is it similar?Penny Similar to the states. It‘s um after 60 for women,65 for men,or um if you‘ve clocked up about 30 or 35 years of service then you canretire after that.Presenter Right.And when…do you have a pay day? When is pay day? Eric Um well we get paid, er, twice a month, so we get paid at the beginning of the month and then we get paid in the middle of themonth at the 15th give or take.Presenter Yeah, and what about Brazil、Penny I think it all depends which company you‘re working for .For the one I am working for right now I get paid twice a month but whenI began ,with a different company that was once a month so,itvaries.Presenter And are there any company benefits that you have in the states?Do you have a company car or a pension？Eric Yean we get a company car.We‘re able to…we lease a car in effect but it‘s a company car that we get for 18 months to two years andthen we ,er…we can move on to another model from that. Thereis a fairly good pension scheme, that‘s still working, andhospitalization as well.Presenter Oh that‘s important.Eric Yeah,a health plan through work is very important.Presenter Right.And what about in Brazil?Penny Yean excellent benefits like that. Well I mean it does depend on the company and the status of you ,of your job but um you mightget a car ,un living accommodation ,um school for thechildren ,um they‘ll pay for your lunch ,travel passes ,umgasoline ,health insurance ,all sorts of benefits actually it‘s verygood.Presenter Sounds very good, with the holiday and all those benefits it sounds a great place to work..Unit 2 A good readInside viewConversation 1Joe Ok,when you‘ve finished chatting ,let‘s get down to work.Andy Ok,sure.Jenet Fine by me .What‘s on the agenda?Joe First up today is Read all about it!Now .I assum everyone has read all the booksfor the feature ？Has anyone read any of books?Andy Well, Joe, there are over 20 new books, coming out next month,so…Joe I‘m sorry, I really think that‘s quite unacceptable. It‘s your job! What about you, Janet?Janet I‘m sorry but this is the first time I‘ve worked on Read all aboput it, and I didn‘t know I was meant to read all the books.Andy Have you read them？Joe No, but that‘s why you‘re my assistant. You‘re meant to assist me. Andy It‘s true that we need to read the books, Joe, but we haven‘t…Joe Ok, here you go. You‘re always making excuse!Andy And what‘s more, we haven‘t even chosen the book yet.Joe OK, let‘s get on with it. What‘s on the list?Jane t I suppose we‘re looking for books with a London angle?Andy Not necessarilyJanet Is it OK to look for non-fiction too?Joe Absolutely.Janet OK, here‘s an idea. There‘s a new biography of Charles Dickens which I‘m readingAndy Sounds good-his books are always on TV.Janet You see I‘m studying Dickens at university, and I noticed it in the bookshop last week.It‘s really interesting.Joe OK, tell us more.Janet Well, it‘s a description of the London locations where he set many of his books, like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.Andy Sounds right up your street!Joe Well done, Janet. Maybe you can show Andy how to plan the feature. OK, that‘s it everyone. Let‘s get to it!Conversation2Janet What‘s the matter with Joe today?Andy No idea. He‘s a bit like that sometimes. He gets annoyed with me, but I don‘t really know why.Janet He wasn‘t being at all fair. How often does he get like this?Andy Well, I suppose it‘s not very often. But sometimes he really gets on my nerves.Janet Don‘t let it get to you. He‘s probably got too much work, and he‘s stressed. Andy Well, he should keep his problems away from the studio. Anyway, you‘re the expert on Dickens, tell me something about him.Janet Well, Charles Dickens was one of the most popular novelists in 19th century Britain. Many of his novels first appeared in magazines, in short episodes.Each one had a cliffhanger at the end that made people want to read the nextepisode.Andy And was he a Londoner?Janet He was born in Portsmouth but his family moved to London when he was ten years old.Andy And he set most of his stories in London, did n‘t he?Janet That‘s right. He knew the city very well.Andy Whereabouts in London are his stories set?Janet Around the Law Courts in the centre of London. He worked as a court reporter and many of the real life stories he heard in court inspired some ofthe most famous characters in his novels.Andy I think some of his stories take place south of the river?Janet That‘s right, especially around Docklands. The thing was…Dickens was a social commentator as much as he was a novelist-his stories describe thehardship, the poverty, and crime which many Londoners experienced in the19th century. It makes me want to read some Dickens again. Maybe I‘ll justgo shopping for a copy of Great Expectations.Andy Anyway, you did me a huge favor. That was a real brainwave to suggest the new biography.Janet Cherr up, Andy. It wasn‘t your fault.Andy No, it‘s OK. I‘ll get over it. Go on, off you go and enjoy your shopping!Outside viewPart1British people read a lot. They read books,Newspapers and magazines. And of course they read text messages on their mobile phones. Sixty-five percent ofBritish people list “reading for pleasure”as a major hobby. A quarter of thepopulation reads more than 20 books each year. So where do these bookscome from? Well, there are bookshops where you can buy books. And thereare lots of public libraries where you can borrow books for free.Part2In this library you can borrow books but you can also buy a cup of coffee, look at an art exhibition, sit in a quiet study area or connect to the Internet. You can alsonow borrow CDs, videos or DVDs of films and television programmes.Some libraries even let you borrow computer games. There are oftenreference rooms where you can go to look something up or go to study.Many libraries have also got special rooms with books and photographsabout the history of the area.Libraries are very important in schools anduniversities both for reading for pleasure.Part3The British Library is one of the world’s greatest Libraries. The Queen opened it’s new building in 1998.It receives a copy of every book published in Britain and adds three million new items every year. It’s got books of course, but also sound recordings, music, maps, newspapers and magazines. People predicted that radio ,then television, then the internet would kill reading, but it is still a very popular activity.Listening inPassage 1Mike So how long has your book group been running ?Chris Well , let me see, it’s over 20 years now. I think it’s actually one of the oldest book groups around , because it was only about 20 years ago that theystarted to become fashionable in the UK.Mike And how often do you have meetings ?Chris We meet about once every four or five weeks , although we try to avoid meetings in the summer holidays, and during the run-up to Christmas whenwe all start to get busy with other things.Mike And how many members do you have?Chris We’re ten in all .although it’s rare that everyone can attend.Mike And what happens during the meeting?Chris Well,we usually meet at one of our homes ,and we start fairly late, around8.30 ,and the host prepares dinner, and sometime during the meal ,someone asks “So what did you think of the book ?” and that’s when thediscussion starts.Mik e It sounds quite informal.Chris It is , yes , and sometimes if we haven’t enjoyed the book , the meal becomes more important than the discussion. But it’s fairly rare that no onelikes the book, and it gets quite interesting when opinions about it aredividedMkie and what sort of books do you read?Chris Oh, all kinds, actually, not just novels,although I must admit that being a member of the club makes me read more modern fiction than I might do otherwise. But we also read the classics, you know the novels we all read or should have read 30 years ago, and it’s quite good fun to revisit them, to see if our views of the books have changed. We re-read Thomas Hardy recently, and whereas I used to love it when I was a student, this time I thought it was exasperatingly dull. And we read non-fiction, quite a lot of history and travel writing. A couple of the members like poetry, which I don’t, but you know, we’re tolerant of each other’s choice, and it gives us a chance to try things we wouldn’t usually readMike And how do you choose the books?Chris Well,at the end of the evening the person who hosts the dinner-basically, the cook-Has the right to choose the next book.Mike And that works OK?Chris Yes, although there’s quite a lot of stress on choosing something that will earn everyone e lse’s respect. And we’ve got one member who likes science fiction, so we try not to goto his place too often!Passage 2Well, thank you for your kind welcome, and for giving me the opportunity to give this brief tour of Literary England. I can’t claim it’s an authoritative tour,as I’m not a professional literary specialist. However, I have two amateur passions: one is travel and the other i s reading, and English literature in particular. And this lecture is a description of different visits I have made to places in Britain and Ireland, chosen specifically for their close links with well-known writers of what we call the classics of English literature.Just to give you an overview of the lecture, I’m going to start in my home town of London, which is also the home of many well-known writers. But I think that the picture we have in our mind of London has been largely fashioned by the work of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. Dickensian London illustrated most clearly by his book Oliver Twist, and Shakespeare’s London brings to mind the plays written and performed here, such as Romeo and Juliet. We’ll also have a look at the memorial of great British writers, Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.Then off we go to Oxford, another city rich in its literary history. I’m going to focus on the greatest of Oxford’s literary alumni, JRR Tolkien, the professor of English who wrote Lord of the Rings, which is now famous throughout the world because of the recent series of films.Then we turn south towards the gentle countryside of Hampshire, home of Jane Austen, where her various novels, including Pride and Prejudice are set. She also spent a period of her life in the magnificent Georgian city Bath.Then we turn north to the hills of West Yorkshire where we find Bronte country, so called because it was the home of the three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Br onte. Perhaps the two best known novels are Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, also made into successful films.Then up to the northwest, to the stunning land of mountains and Lakeland poets. Perhaps its most famous so n is William Wordsworth, whose poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud” has been learnt by generations of school children not just in Britain, but around the English-speaking world.So that’s the basic route Literary England, although I’ll be taking several days to visit other famous writers whose work contributes to the glory which is English literature. Let’s start…Unit 3 Fashion statementsInside viewConversation 1Tanya Hey! That looks good on you! You should try it on!Janet No thanks. I’m just looking.Tanya Go on, try it on. I can tell it suits you.Janet You seem to want to me to buy something. And I’m not sure I want to buy anything at all.Tanya Well, yes, I’m pretty sure you want to buy something.Janet How do you know?Tanya Well it’s my job to know what women want to wear.Janet How do you know what I want to wear?Tanya I can just tell. Most women don’t hold things up like that unless they know they want to buy it, but either they haven’t got the money or they are nervous about impulse buying.Janet So what type of women am I then?Tanya No money!Janet Yeah! You’re right, but how do you know?Tanya If you were nervous about impulse buying, you’d try it on. That way you’ll feel good that you’ve made a careful decision.Janet That’s pretty smart. What is your job then?Tanya I’m a buyer for a store in New York City. I’m here for London Fashion Week. Hey, do you want to go? I have some free tickets for the catwalk show this afternoon. Janet Well, I’m not sure. I’m waiting for a friend, actually, and…Joe Hi Janet!Janet Joe! What are you doing here?Joe Why the surprise?Janet It’s just… I didn’t expect to see you. That’s all. Er, this is..Tanya Hello, I’m Tanya Feinstein. Is this the friend you were waiting for..Janet No. Yes!Tanya So would you both like to come this afternoon?Janet Tanya has invited us to the catwalk show this afternoon.Tanya Look at this. Oh, it’s perfect. I’ll just try it on. I’ll leave you two to make up your minds.Conversation 2Joe Who is she? Is she a friend of yours?Janet No, she just came up to me and started talking about fashion. She’s a buyer for some New York fasion store.Joe But why has she invited us to a catwalk show?Janet She’s giving out free tickets. Part of her job I think.Joe So, do you want to go?Janet I suppose so. Haven’t got any money for shopping, so why not?Tanya OK, you guys made up your mind?Joe You sure you got a couple of tickets for us?Tanya sure!Joe Thanks. So what‘s your take on the London fashion scene then?Tanya As far as I‘m concerned, the clothes shops in London are some of the best in the world . The way I see it, if I want haute couture I can go to Paris orMilan, But if I want street fashion that will look good in New York too, Icome to London .The kids here all have this unique style.。
