Answer Keys:

1B

2C

3C

4C

5A

6advertise

7donate

8quote

9charity

10Sell

11corner

126

132

14classes

15swimming/swim

16learn

17program/programme

18(music) videos

19free

206

21differences

22Italian

23Mexican

24ingredients

25Australia

26restaurants

27fat

28cooking

2940%,40 percent

30healthy

3110 or more

32lack of practice

33preparation

34topic

35eye contact

36slowly

37record yourself

38meaning

39posture

40distract

 

Part 1

A conversation between two students, Harry and Andrea, who have just finished their final exams

H: Hi Andrea, how are you feeling now that exams are over?

A: It’s fantastic to have finished, isn’t it, and to sleep in every morning! What about you?

H: Well, I’ve been catching up on sleep, too. But I’ve got a lot to do before I leave for England. Perhaps you could give me some advice? I’ve got a lot of things I can’t possibly take back with me but I don’t know what to do with them.

A: Well, it depends on what sort of things they are and whether you’re thinking of giving them away or selling them.

H: Well, almost everything – furniture, the fridge and other kitchen stuff that I bought from the previous tenant, but the new people have already got what they need so they’re not interested in buying stuff from me. I can’t afford to give it away but I’m not sure how to sell it all. Oh, and there are some clothes and books as well.

A: Why can’t you take them?

H: The books are really heavy – it’s so expensive if you exceed the airline baggage allowance. And the clothes just won’t all fit in my suitcase, it’s amazing how much stuff I’ve accumulated since I’ve been here. Anyway I don’t think I’ll need as many summer clothes in England as I have here in Australia!

A: I see. Well, there are several alternatives. First of all, you could put up notices around the university about the books – you know on the notice-boards in the student union building, and in the economics department, anywhere second and third year students will see them. People are always keen to buy cheap textbooks.

H: OK. What should I say on the notices?

A: Just put the titles, authors and price you want … your name of course, and maybe put your phone number on those little tear off tags.

H: That’s a good idea. And what about the furniture?

A: You could try doing the same thing, but usually students are away all summer so they don’t want to buy furniture now. Another place to try might be a second-hand shop. Someone from the shop will usually come around and give you a free quote, and then you can decide. But you don’t usually get much money for that sort of stuff.

(Pause)

A: Another alternative is to put an advertisement in the Trading Post. Do you know that paper? It comes out every week, advertising things people want to sell. You have to pay to put the advert in and then hope people phone. Give them as much information as possible and if they’re interested, invite them to come and have a look. The hard part is agreeing on a price.

H: No, I haven’t seen the Trading Post, but I should have a look at it, and I could advertise the fridge, the microwave, and the furniture. But the kitchen stuff isn’t really that good -you know, old cutlery, a few pots and pans, and some plates and things. What shall I do with them?

A: Well, another option is to donate the kitchen things to a charity shop, you know like the Salvation Army or St. Vincent de Paul. Why don’t you get a second-hand shop to give you a quote first?

H: Yes, I could do that – find out how much they’ll give me and then decide whether to sell them or give them away. But I’ve still got the clothes.

A: A charity shop will take them too, as long as they’re in good condition. And even though you don’t get any money at least you know that someone who really deserves some help has benefited.

H: That’s a good point. I’ll advertise the expensive stuff – the furniture – and donate the clothes and kitchen stuff. Let’s go and buy a Trading Post and you can help me write the advert.

A: Well, … actually I’m interested in buying the fridge and the microwave, depending on the price of course.

H: OK. Let’s see how good you are at bargaining!

 

Part 2

A phone conversation giving information about a health and fitness centre

H: Hello.

C: Hello. Is that Ms. Heidi Jones?

H: Yes.

C: Good morning Ms. Jones, I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to tell you about the Sevenoaks Health and Fitness Centre which is in your suburb. Would that be convenient?

H: OK.

C: Well, the centre’s not far from you, it’s on the corner of Marion St. and Giles St., and has a large car park. It’s open every day of the week, opening on weekdays at 6 am and at 9 am at the weekend. It closes at 9:30 pm Monday to Friday, and on Saturday at 4 pm and Sunday at 2 pm.

We also have childcare, Monday to Saturday from nine in the morning until midday for a small extra charge, so you can leave your children in safe hands while you attend one of our classes, or perhaps have a swim, or if you just want to relax in the spa and sauna or steam room. Talking of classes we have a very wide range which are designed to suit all different levels of fitness and individual needs. I mentioned the pool just now; well, in addition to swimming laps or just relaxing we also offer aqua aerobic classes, which are 45 minute classes that use the therapeutic effects of water. This provides a very safe and effective exercise and is suitable for all fitness levels, as well as being a lot of fun. Many people who haven’t been exercising for a while start in the aqua classes, as do people who need to take care after hospital surgery for example. These classes are very popular and are scheduled every weekday, Monday to Friday and on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Another very popular activity in the pool area is learning to swim, and these swimming classes are held at 4 pm every weekday and in the mornings at the weekend. By the way, they’re open to both adults and children of any age.

Now it would take too much of your time to tell you in detail about all our programs as we have a very wide range of activities at different times, however, I’ll just outline some of them. Our super-circuit classes are extremely popular and you get a good aerobic workout while toning your muscles. They’re easy to learn, as you combine using hydraulic equipment with exercises guaranteed to give you a good cardio-workout. The teachers are very good and there’s a fun atmosphere. And the classes are very effective in assisting weight loss, relieving stress, lowering blood pressure and generally increasing fitness. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned our range of aerobic and step classes of different types which suit all levels. Our specially designed aerobics room holds over 55 people, and our highly qualified and trained staff can advise you as to which class might suit you.

We are inviting you to a free one week trial period when you can come and try any of the classes or activities before you make the decision to join. By the way, there is also a large and very well-equipped gym, where we offer free fitness assessments and you can have an individual program designed just for you. Also the cardio-vascular room has the latest range of machines which help you burn fat, increase your fitness or just warm up. They’re very popular as you can forget all about the calorie burning by watching your favourite music videos on TV while you exercise! Right now we have a very special new member joining fee offer, which allows two memberships for the price of one, a real bargain! So if you can, bring along a friend who’d like to get fit as well, in time for summer. Come along and try us out. You can meet the staff, try out some of the classes for a week, absolutely free, and then if you like us, sign up for only $110 each for six months. Thanks for taking the time to learn about the Centre and I hope we’ll see you there soon, Heidi. I’ll put one of our brochures in the mail for you right now. Bye for now … .

 

Part 3

Two business studies students, Evelyn and Mark, preparing for a seminar presentation

E: Well, I think the marketing of food would be a good topic. I read a very interesting article the other day about the Canadian food market.

M: Mm… I suppose everybody’s interested in food, even if it’s trying NOT to eat. Why Canada? I know that’s where you come from, but isn’t it just all North America really?

E: No, that’s why I thought this article was inter-esting. Although lots of US companies are well established in Canada, and vice versa, there are still subtle differences between the two markets. It says here ‘the Canadian market is definitely not a northern clone of the US’. I like that. And it says that if you understand these differences, it can have a big impact on successful food marketing.

M: So I know that Canada has a big French-speaking population in Quebec, is this what they’re referring to?

E: Not only French and English speakers, there are many different ethnic groups in Canada.

It’s really quite multicultural. For example, Toronto has large Asian and Italian populations, and Vancouver’s got a large Asian population, too. And because Canada’s population is small, these groups make quite an impact, introducing new styles of cooking. So you can see lots of unfamiliar vegetables and things in the markets and new restaurants are opening every day. It’s great if you love trying out new foods, as many people do!

M: Which kinds of food are becoming popular?

E: Well, some Asian food I’d say has been popular for quite a while like Chinese, but now South East Asian restaurants are becoming very fashionable. Then there’s Mediterranean of course, such as Greek, Italian and so on, but Caribbean and Mexican food is really taking off among young people these days.

M: So are the supermarkets starting to stock the ingredients that are needed to prepare these foods at home, you know, all those unusual condiments and sauces?

E: Yes, that’s right, it’s quite interesting going to the supermarket, isn’t it, and noticing how they’re introducing sections for foods of different nationalities – you can buy quite exotic products locally these days. The article mentioned that 80% of the Canadian retail market is controlled by eight major national supermarket chains, so that when they introduce changes they can happen quite rapidly.

M: OK, well, how are we going to organise this seminar then?

E: I made some notes on the trends in the Canadian market, about changing tastes and also patterns for where food is consumed. I thought maybe we could summarise it into a chart or table and maybe use the overhead projector to present it.

M: Good idea. Maybe I could have a look for similar trends and tastes in Australia and the UK, for comparison. Let’s have a look at what you found.

(Pause)

E: The most significant trend it seemed to me, was that Canadians are definitely interested in healthy food. For example, did you know that salads are the third most commonly eaten food in Canadian restaurants?

M: Really! What about organic food then, is that becoming more popular?

E: Yes, it’s definitely moving into the mainstream, compared to a few years ago. And, a recent survey .showed that 4 out of 5 shoppers said that they check the fat and nutritional information on the packet when they are deciding what to buy.

M: What other trends did you find out?

E: There’s one change I noticed straight away when I was home last year, in the meat department. You know here the meat packaging says ‘rump steak’ or ‘forequarter chops’ and so on? Well, they discovered that most consumers these days didn’t know what to do with these roasts, and rounds and ribs, so the government approved a new naming system for cuts of meat, which is related to the required cooking technique.

M: What a good idea. I’ve never really understood the difference between sirloin, rump, round and all those names. So how many new categories are there?

E: Eight. There are three kinds of steak – for grilling, for marinating and for simmering, and then there’s what they call ‘quick serve’ beef, for stir fries I suppose, and premium oven roast, oven roast, pot roast and stewing beef. It’s a great idea, isn’t it? I hope it catches on here.

M: I agree! Any other trends that you thought were significant?

E: Well, what’s really interesting is what the article called ‘mobile meals’. In other words, more and more Canadians are eating meals away from home, but NOT just eating more junk food.

They are projecting a 40% increase in snack food sales over the next three years and the growth is coming from healthy snacks – you know the ones that have less cholesterol and fat, such as muesli bars, health food bars and those types of products. Apparently in the food marketing jargon they are called ‘nutritious portable foods’ which means healthy snacks!

The other major trend is that young people are doing more of the food shopping these days so marketing has to be aimed more at them, as well as more conventionally at the mother.

M: Thanks Evelyn, I think we’ll have an interesting discussion about these trends and the comparisons with other English speaking countries. I’ll see if I can get some information about them to compare with yours, and meet you on Friday to put it together.

E: See you then, bye.

 

Part 4

A talk given by Doctor Miranda James and introduced by the President of Overseas Students’ Association Good afternoon everybody and welcome to the first in a series of talks we have arranged for the Overseas Students’ Association this semester.

Doctor James has very kindly agreed to speak to us today on the topic of public speaking, and judging from the large numbers of you here it is clearly a subject of great interest and relevance. Dr. James. Hello. It’s good to see so many of you here and hopefully what I’m going to tell you will be useful to you both here at the University and in your future employment. Many people avoid speaking publicly, by which I mean in front of say 10 or more people, not because they lack the ability but mainly because they lack confidence which is really only due to lack of practice. Today, as a consequence of the influence of television, audiences expect speakers to be relatively brief and to the point, in addition to being well informed and interesting or entertaining.

Probably the most important part of public speaking is what you do beforehand, by which I mean preparation. This includes practical details such as knowing precisely what your topic is and exactly how long you are expected to talk for. You should also plan the content thoroughly. A good strategy is to write out the content as you intend to say it and then make brief notes, preferably on small cards, which you use to talk from. This way, you sound more natural, you incorporate pauses while you look at your notes and you can then look at your audience while you are speaking. Never read your speech without looking at the audience. Eye contact is a very important part of communicating with an audience; so deliberately move your head and look around at your audience. Pauses are important as most people when they are nervous tend to rush through their speech. Practise speaking slowly, this gives you more time to pronounce your words correctly. It’s always easier for your audience to listen to someone whose speaking is clear and calmly paced so that they can understand the ideas being explained. And the bigger the group, the more slowly you should speak. Remember to project your voice, speaking clearly to the person furthest away from you. It’s a good idea to rehearse and record yourself. Pay attention to your intonation when you listen to yourself. It’s even harder if you are speaking in a second language. I would imagine, but there’s nothing worse than listening to a flat monotonous voice, so try to vary your tone and rhythm. This will add meaning to your words. Lastly, pay attention to both your posture and your gestures. A confident person stands (or sits in a small group) with their head up, chin out and shoulders back; Try to avoid scratching or fiddling with your hair or beard, or pens, jewellery and so on. These movements can distract and irri-late your audience, yet you may be unaware of them yourself – another reason for rehearsing, preferably with feedback from a friend, or better still on video.

I hope these few tips will make your experience of speaking in public a little easier – remember ‘practice makes perfect’!