Listening Tape Script 1997

EXAMINA TION TAPE FOR THE USE OF ENGLISH LISTENING TEST 1997 Announcer:

The test is about to begin. Keep your earphones on until you are told to take them off. Now look at page 1 of your Question-Answer Book. (5 seconds pause) Introduction. Situation. You are a member of a local youth club which is planning to do some work for charity. You are attending a discussion arranged by two teenagers who are promoting an international charity project. You are hoping to get some ideas from the discussion about ways to organize such projects in Hong Kong. The discussion is divided into two parts. In the first part you will hear details of the charity project and in the second part there will be a question-and-answer session. You need to take careful notes on both parts so that later you can report back to the other members of your youth club. Part I In this part, you will hear details of the charity project. You will now have 5 minutes to familiarize yourself with the note headings for Part 1 before the discussion begins. At the end of Part I, you will have five minutes to tidy up your answers. (5 minutes of Greensleeves)

TONE The discussion is about to begin. Remember that you will only hear the recording once. Young:

Good afternoon everybody. My name is Richard Young, regional director of Oxfam, and I'll be chairing this discussion, which is titled 'Ride for Recovery' I'd like to welcome our two guest speakers today, John and Andrea Robinson, who've cycled all the way from the UK to Hong Kong as part of a special trip for a charity called 'School Aid' John, Andrea, what are your objectives in talking to us today?

John:

Well, there are several reasons for us being here today. Firstly, we'd like to share our experience of fund-raising with Hong Kong students. We've been sharing our experience with students in all the countries that we've visited on our trip. We'd also like to explain our reasons for choosing cycling. We considered lots of different activities before choosing this way of raising money.

Andrea:

And later of course, we'd like to ask for donations to our charity.

Young:

Okay. I'm sure a lot of people in our audience will be pleased to give money. Now, perhaps you could begin by telling us what first motivated you to do this remarkable trip for charity.

Andrea:

Basically, we wanted to take a break for a year, I mean a year off before starting university. We just wanted some time to ourselves.

John:

Yes, and we've always wanted to travel, ever since we were young, so that was another reason.

Andrea:

Also, we thought we'd be able to learn about other cultures - you know, other customs and traditions - while we were travelling.

Young:

I see, and what about the charity itself? What does it do?

John:

Well, the charity we're working with, 'School Aid' focuses on countries which are at war. As the name suggests, the charity aims to provide schooling for teenagers who miss their education because of war.

Young:

That sounds like a very worthwhile cause. Why are you particularly interested in helping these teenagers?

Andrea:

Because it helps the process of a country's recovery. The process begins with teenagers between 15 and 18 receiving a full education. This in turn produces an educated workforce. There'll be educated young people to fill jobs once things are back to normal. If you have an educated workforce, this encourages foreign investment. Foreign investment means that money not only goes into businesses, but also into schools.

Young:

Right, I see the connection. Now, let's talk about what kind of sponsorship you've got for this project.

John:

Well, you can divide the sponsorship into two main categories - that is, equipment donated before the trip, and I can tell you, we needed a lot of stuff, and the other thing of course is the money promised on completion of the trip.

Andrea:

The sponsors that gave us equipment were our first concern, as without these things, we wouldn't've been able to make the trip. We had a sponsor, Gunn Company, who make sports equipment. They provided us with several mountain bikes. Another sponsor we had was South Ridge, who make clothes. They supplied cycling shorts and shirts. These were essential, especially the shorts, for cycling long distances, The next sponsor was an eye-wear company, Atlantic See, and they gave us special glasses for cycling.

John:

These glasses helped to protect our eyes from the sun, and also to protect them from flying insects. Another of our sponsors, a soft drinks company called Vitafresh, supplied us with a high-energy drink. It had lots of sugar in it, so it gave us plenty of energy.

Young:

Apart from equipment, what other preparations did you need to make?

John:

From the time when we first came up with the idea to when we set off, there were several major steps we needed to take, with a number of procedures for each step. To begin with, we needed to get sponsorship. To do this, first we had to write proporals to the companies we wanted money from, then we had to follow those up with visits to the companies who showed interest in our idea. After the visits, once we had approval, we had to agree on the budget.

Andrea:

The next major thing we did was plan our route - which way we were going to go. To do this, we had to read about the laws of the countries - some don't allow women to cycle, for example. We also needed to check on weather conditions - some countries may be too hot, others may have snow or blizzards. Once we had this information, we needed to apply for visas for some countries.

John:

The next major piece of preparation was arranging discussions like the one we're having now. Initially, we needed to predict our arrival time in each country, and I'm sure you’ll appreciate that was quite difficult to do. Then we had to book meeting halls like this one to hold our discussions in. Finally, we prepared materials for the discussions.

Andrea:

Whilst we were doing all this, we also had to get fit for the journey. Cycling such a long way takes a lot of energy.

John:

Yes, this was a painful time. To get fit, we started jogging in the park. Once we could run for about one hour without stopping, we did exercises in the gym. The instructors there gave us special exercises to strengthen our legs. As soon as we felt strong enough, we began cycling practice in the hills. This involved cycling in Britain on week-long trips, carrying all our equipment.

Young:

So when did you set off on your journey?

Andrea:

Well, we had to plan what would be the best time. In the end we set off on the 4th of September. There are some advantages to choosing this time of year. It meant that the hottest part of the year in Europe was over. Cycling is hot work.

John:

This was risky though, as a possible disadvantage was that we might hit winter in some of the countries further east. To avoid the cold weather we cycled very quickly at the beginning - which was also a disadvantage.

Andrea:

I think the biggest advantage to starting after the summer was that we had time to try out all the equipment before the trip.

Young:

So what was your route - which countries did you visit before you came here?

John:

Well, I suppose you could say we did the trip in three stages. The first stage was in Europe. We started by crossing the channel to Belgium. Then we went down through France and then Spain. We rested in Spain for a couple of days, and as the weather wasn't very good, decided to miss out our planned trip to Portugal. So we went to the south of

Spain to get a ferry across to Morocco. Andrea:

Once we were on the African continent, which we considered the second stage of our journey, we rode through Morocco. Although the next country on the map is Algeria, we had already decided not to go there because it was dangerous for tourists. So, we had to fly over it to Sudan. We particularly wanted to visit this country because our charity does a lot of work there. We then went on to Israel, where we spent nearly a week. After that we went up to Lebanon and from there we took a boat back to Eastern Europe, to start the third stage of our journey.

.John:

We cycled across Greece first and then through Albania. We needed to cross the former Yugoslavia to be able to get to Bulgaria, but as there was a war there, we had to miss it out and fly straight to Bulgaria. We then went across the Black Sea to Russia, and from there we came down to China.

Young:

You've certainly covered some miles. Did you cycle all the way across the countries you visited?

John:

Well in some counties, such as Lebanon, there were restricted areas, so we had to fly across them.

Andrea:

And in some countries, the weather was really bad so we couldn't cycle. When there was heavy snow and freezing temperatures, we put our bikes on the train. We did this in Russia. And once in China, we couldn't cycle because of flooding, so we took a ferry.

Young:

Well, that does sound interesting. Now let's take a break, and give John and Andrea a moment to rest. In the second half, you'll have a chance to ask them some question.

Announcer:

That's the end of Part I. You'll now have 5 minutes to tidy up what you’ve written. (5 minutes of Greensleeves) TONE Part II In this part, you'll hear a question-and-answer session. You'll now have 3 minutes to familiarize yourself with the headings for Part II. At the end of Part II, you will have 10 minutes to tidy up your answers. (3 minutes of Greensleeves) TONE

Young:

Well, I'm sure that many members of our audience today are eager to ask you about your journey and its purpose. So I'll open the floor to questions. Please tell us your name and where you're from before you ask your question. The gentleman at the back there - what’s your question?

So:

Andy So, Hong Kong Post. You've seen many things on your travels, so I'd like to ask

you what you remember most. What sticks in your mind? Young:

John, perhaps you could start.

John:

I think that for me, one of the most memorable things was the lifestyle in Africa, the simple way people lived. (Pause) The other thing that I thought, was particularly memorable was the importance of animals to their daily life. There seethed to be animals everywhere, living close to the people. We saw lots of animals, particularly camels, while we were cycling. What about you, Andrea?

Andrea:

Well I think I'll always remember the number of bicycles in China. There are so many of them, used for carrying all kinds of things. I saw people carrying pigs and furniture, for example. And something else I'll always remember is the dangerous way people ride their bikes. I mean, at night, nobody seemed to use lights on their bikes.

Young:

Thanks for that - let’s have another question - the girl at the front.

Lok:

Hi, I'm Winnie Lok from St. Helena's Girls' School. I wonder if you could tell me, what was the hardest part of the journey?

Andrea:

John and I have been asked this before. In fact, there've been many hardships en route. I think the most difficult part of the journey, though, was coping with exhaustion and dehydration.

Lok:

Sony?

Andrea:

Exhaustion and dehydration, you know, when you get very tired and thirsty. This happened because we sweated a lot while we were cycling, and also because there were big temperature changes in some places, and it was hard to get used to them.

John:

For me the most difficult part was travelling through one particular country, I mean Albania. It was hard because the people had no spare food, so we couldn't buy anything to eat. Also, the roads were very bad, making it hard work to cycle. Add to this the fact that there are lots of mountains you have to go over. Albania is not somewhere I'd go back to in a hurry.

Young:

It was hard work, eh? The next question is from the man on the left. What’s your name?

Cheung:

Paul Cheung of Action Asia Magazine. You must need to carry a lot of things for such a long trip. How do you carry it all on your bikes?

Andrea:

To carry our things we have special bags that fit over the wheels. They're designed to fit on either side of the wheels. These bags are not very big, so you can’t carry too Because of this we just carried essential items. We took only one change of clothing, and basic toiletries - by toiletries I mean things like toothbrushes and soap and shampoo. We also needed a medical supply kit in case of illness. And, of course, lots of water.

John:

Another important thing we took was spare parts - we needed lots of spare inner tubes, a chain, pedals, et cetera. We also needed a tool kit so that we could fix the bikes if

anything happened. Young:

Any more questions? Yes, the girl on the right - what's your name, please?

Ng:

Florence Ng of the Kowloon Nursing College.

Young:

And your question?

Ng:

You mention that you needed a medical kit - did you suffer from any illnesses while you were travelling?

John:

Yes, on the trip we did get sick a couple of times - we caught flu in the first few weeks -this was because we'd get hot whilst we were cycling, then get cold when we stopped. These changes in our body temperature caused the flu. And we had minor stomach problems - nothing very serious. There were times when we were very hungry, so we had to eat at roadside stalls. Sometimes these were not too clean!

Andrea:

Obviously, before we set off, we had several types of innoculations against various illnesses: we had to have an injection against yellow fever, as well as a set of shots as a precaution against tetanus. We also needed to take pills for typhoid as well as some horrible tasting liquid for polio. These diseases are very common in some of the African countries. Oh - and the most painful innoculation was for cholera - we were sore for days afterwards.

Young:

1 think we have time for a couple more questions before we end the session.

Tam:

Gillian Tam of Super Sports Company. If you were given the chance, would you do something like this again?

Young :

Mm, That's an interesting question. John, would you make the trip again?

John:

Well, I feel that we've learnt a lot from this trip - for example, we've learnt how to overcome problems in difficult circumstances. Solving problems is a very useful skill for the future. We've also learnt how to work with a broad range of people - business people, religious people, sports experts. They all have their own way of working and it's been a very good experience, so I probably would do it again. Mm. I hadn't considered those aspects. What about you Andrea?

Andrea:

As John said, we have had a lot of problems on this trip and I'm not sure I'd want to experience anything like them again. One typical example is dealing with bureaucracy - I mean, the amount of forms you have to fill in to get into some countries is incredible. You have to be very patient when you're planning this kind of trip, and I'd probably not have the patience a second time.

Young:

The boy on the right there - what's your question?

Ho:

Hi! I’m Bill Ho. My class at Chi Wah College would like to raise money for charity. Would you recommend any other methods of fund-raising?

Andrea:

What would we recommend? Well, in the case of Hong Kong schools you might consider something that takes less time. Perhaps your class could all do something like a parachute jump from an aeroplane. This involves getting people to sponsor you to do the actual jump. You can get training on how to use a parachute from various flying clubs.

John:

Another popular activity for a team is a 'non-stop sports event. Perhaps playing badminton or basketball. I think those two sports are popular here aren't they?

Andrea:

Or perhaps you could have a team 'karaoke' event - sing karaoke for 24 hours as a team. The neighbours might not be too happy though!

Young:

Well, out of those three I think I know which one will be most popular in Hong Kong. The last question from the audience: the boy at the back.

King:

Hello! Tony King from the Hong Kong Adventure Club. What did you miss the most while you were travelling?

John:

Well, for me, I didn't miss the comforts of home very much at all. You soon adjust to those things. What I missed was being alone. When you're in some remote village, everybody comes to watch you - you never have any time to yourself.

Andrea:

I think I missed not having any contact with my family and friends back home. In most places there were no telephones, so we couldn't speak to our parents for weeks at a time

Young:

Well, I have one last question. You've passed through so many different countries and seen so many different ways of life. How has the trip changed you as people?

John:

As people? Well, I think the biggest change is the self-confidence you develop when you do a trip like this. If we can do this, we can do almost anything. Also we've had to learn to become independent, which has been very good for us.

Andrea:

And don't forget - we've got very fit as a result of this trip. We certainly weren't when we set off. All this exercise to be good for us.

Young:

OK - that's all we have time for - I'm sure you’ll all join me in thanking John and Andrea for sharing their experiences with us, and wish them a happy and safe onward journey. If you want to make a donation to 'School Aid' please put it in the box by the door as you leave. Thank you for coming everyone.

Announcer:

That’s the end of Part II. You'll now have 10 minutes to tidy up your answers. During this time you will hear one piece of classical music. At the end of this 10-minute piece, you will hear a final announcement. (10 minutes of The Blue Danube) TONE