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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

The document contains transcripts from several audio recordings. It discusses short stories and memoirs written in six words, reviews books that friends recommend for a long plane ride, and analyzes a scene from the comedy TV show Fawlty Towers.

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167 views

Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

The document contains transcripts from several audio recordings. It discusses short stories and memoirs written in six words, reviews books that friends recommend for a long plane ride, and analyzes a scene from the comedy TV show Fawlty Towers.

Uploaded by

Akron
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

UNIT 3 Stories Recording S3.1


1
The woman had been standing there for a long time and was shivering badly.
2
When she was paying for her meal, the old lady remembered what Steve
Hunt had said.

UNIT 3 Recording S3.2


I = Interviewer L = Larry Smith
I: In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway bet ten dollars that he could write a
complete story in just six words. He wrote, “For sale: baby shoes,
never worn.” He won the bet. An American online magazine has now
used that to inspire its readers to write their life stories in six words and
they’ve been overwhelmed by the thousands who took up the
challenge. They’ve published the best in a book, which they’ve given
the title of one of the submissions: Not Quite What I Was Planning. I
asked the editor, Larry Smith, what made him think of the idea.
L: So, we thought, “Let’s ask our readers their six-word life stories,
memoirs” and see what happened. We really didn’t know what would
happen.
I: And what did happen?
L: It was incredible. In a couple of months, we got 15,000 entries, and I
was just blown away. Funny, poignant—I really believe that everyone
has a story, and I was just so inspired by how serious and intense folks
took the six-word memoir challenge.
I: OK, but before we look at the examples. It’s one thing … because the
Hemingway is a story, but it’s not a story of a life. That seems to be a
bit of a challenge to fit that in six words.
L: Well, it’s interesting because some folks clearly tried to tell a whole
story of a life in six words, and you can tell; and other times, they’re

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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

telling a moment in their life, right at this moment, something that


they’re feeling right now. Or perhaps something that’s been a thread
throughout their lives.
I: Give us some examples.
L: “Wasn’t born a redhead. Fixed that.” This woman took life under
control. Whether she just always felt that her soul was a redhead soul
or simply at some point in life she was going to make a switch. She
could have quit her job. She changed her hair color.
I: But a lot of them are pretty sad, or there’s sort of sense of regret or
disappointment in a lot of them.
L: I didn’t expect that. I thought people would come back with a lot of
funny things, some playful things, plays on words … but those are
really interesting. People really told us, “It’s tough out there.” “Found
true love. Married someone else.” “Never should have bought that
ring.”

UNIT 3 Recording S3.3


I wish I could do it all again.
I wish I weren’t so anxious.
I wish I’d stayed where I was happy.
I wish he’d pay more attention to me.
If only I hadn’t become a doctor.
If only I’d been born twenty years later.

UNIT 3 Recording S3.4


C = Carl A = Amy B = Beth K = Karl
C: So, Amy, what time’s your flight?
A: Oh, it’s at one.
C: Right.
A: It’s really long as well, about twelve hours.

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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

C: Oh.
A: Listen I’m gonna need something to read. I reckon I need a good book.
Do you have any ideas?
B: Yeah, actually, yeah, you know The Hunger Games, have you ever
read that?
A: No, I don’t think so.
B: Yeah, no, it’s really good, yeah; it sort of describes like this society in
the future, you know, about the government taking over and making
these kids do a TV show, where they have to basically kill each other.
A: Ooh.
B: Yeah.
A: That sounds a bit violent for me.
B: Yeah, it, yeah, it is, but it raises all sorts of, you know, really interesting
questions about society. And the power of TV. Erm, I thought it was
really great. I mean I’m a big fan of sci-fi novels anyway. But what I
really liked about it was the main character, the girl.
A: Is that the one that’s um played by Jennifer Lawrence in the movie?
B: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
A: Right, right.
B: And, yeah, I really like that character ’cause she’s, you know, she’s
very brave and she’s a survivor and she sort of stands for what she
believes in, and, yeah, I love her.
A: Yeah, no, it does sound pretty good, but I don’t really like sci-fi that
much to be honest. So, I don’t think that’s …
C: OK, what about …?
A: What else?
C: Can I suggest something else?
A: Yeah, yeah.
C: What about The Kite Runner, have you read that?
A: No, I haven’t actually.
C: Oh, it’s wonderful.
A: All right.
C: It’s just, it’s a really moving story about two boys in Afghanistan, and …

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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

A: Oh, yes, yes, yes, and doesn’t one of them save someone’s life or
something?
C: Yes, I mean it goes through the years, and it’s so wonderful—it really, I,
I loved it. And the thing I love about it is the way it builds the whole
story, you know, and, and you get so involved with these characters
that you, you just have to know what’s gonna happen next.
B: Actually, speaking of getting involved in characters, I really love Life of
Pi, have you ever read that?
A: I’ve heard of it, but isn’t that a bit weird, it’s a bit of weird one, isn’t it,
about a …
B: Oh, no, I really enjoyed it.
A: Boy and a tiger in a boat or something, but …
B: Yeah it’s, it’s very, sort of, I think it has a deep and meaningful story
behind it, and I really like getting to know him and the fact that he loves
these, you know, this tiger, and it is very fantasy.
A: It’s not a comedy then?
B: No, no.
C: No. I mean, I did start it, but I just I couldn’t get into it, I’m afraid.
A: I know, sounds ...
C: I mean, I can’t stand books that sort of preach at you. And it felt to me
that it was doing that, I …
A: Yeah.
C: Made me uncomfortable.
B: Yes.
A: Sounds a bit serious to me to be honest for a twelve-hour plane
journey.
C: I’m not sure we’ve given any choices that have many laughs.
B: Yeah.
C: To be honest, have we?
B: No.
A: I don’t know.
C: But actually there’s a lot of warmth in The Kite Runner, that’s what I
would say, I mean. It’s worth, worth trying, you know, to stick with it.

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Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

A: Yeah—do you know what I think, no, I think I might try The Hunger
Games actually.
B: Yes!
A: ’Cause I think I’ve seen the trailer of the movie, and I, yeah, it looks
pretty interesting.

UNIT 3 Recording S3.5


1
I’m a big fan of sci-fi novels anyway.
2
What I really liked about it was the main character.
3
I don’t really like sci-fi that much to be honest.
4
The thing I love about it is the way it builds the whole story.
5
I just couldn’t get into it.
6
I can’t stand books that sort of preach at you.

UNIT 3 Recording S3.6


On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne returns home
and finds that his wife Amy has disappeared. During the next few days, the
police and media invade Nick’s life. Unfortunately for him, they decide that

Nick is the number one suspect in Amy’s murder. Through her diary entries,
we find out that Amy isn´t happy in the marriage. However, as the story
progresses, we are forced to change our opinions of Nick and Amy as more
information emerges about the true state of their relationship.

UNIT 3 Recording S3.7

PHOTOCOPIABLE © Pearson Education Limited 2017 5


Upper Intermediate Unit 3 Audio Script

Fawlty Towers. I absolutely love Fawlty Towers; I’ve seen this hundreds of
times, and it’s my absolute favorite. It always makes me laugh—in fact, it
makes me cry with laughter sometimes … can’t get enough of it. And the main
character, Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, is absolutely amazing. It’s like
a lesson in comic acting; the more bad things that happen to this man, the
more we laugh. My favorite scene is the scene with Mrs. Richards and Basil
Fawlty. And, it’s very, very cleverly done. Mrs. Richards wears a hearing aid,
and Basil Fawlty hates Mrs. Richards—she’s a terrible, grumpy, old,
complaining customer whom he really doesn’t like. So he comes into the
room, and he mimes at her—so he moves his mouth, but he doesn’t make
any sound—so that Mrs. Richards turns up her hearing aid so that she can
hear him. And then he mimes again, and he moves his mouth again, not
making any sound so she can’t understand why she can’t hear him. So she
turns up her hearing aid again. And then, once he’s sure that her hearing aid
is on full volume, he shouts at her, “Mrs. Richards!”—of course, which
deafens her, and, it’s, it’s, it’s very, very funny, and it’s amazing because he
gets back at her ’cause she’s been awful to him, so, he, you know, he kind of
wins in the end, but—Oh, it’s just amazing. If you’ve never seen it, you really
should see it. There were very few episodes made. I think there were only,
only ever one series, maybe eight episodes … something like that … I’m not
entirely sure about that, but not very many made, and, they’re, they’re really,
really fantastic. Every one is absolutely priceless.

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