AUDIOSCRIPT

Part 1
AMBER: Hello William. This is Amber – you said to phone if I wanted to get more
information about the job agency you mentioned. Is now a good time?
WILLIAM: Oh, hi Amber. Yes. Fine. So the agency I was talking about is called
Bankside – they’re based in Docklands – I can tell you the address now – 497 Eastside.
AMBER: OK, thanks. So is there anyone in particular I should speak to there?
WILLIAM: The agent I always deal with is called Becky Jamieson.
AMBER: Let me write that down – Becky …
WILLIAM: Jamieson (Q1) J-A-M-I-E-S-O-N.
AMBER: Do you have her direct line?
WILLIAM: Yes, it’s in my contacts somewhere – right, here we are: 078 double 6, 510
triple 3. I wouldn’t call her until the afternoon (Q2) if I were you – she’s always
really busy in the morning trying to fill last-minute vacancies. She’s really helpful and
friendly so I’m sure it would be worth getting in touch with her for an informal chat.
AMBER: It’s mainly clerical and admin jobs they deal with, isn’t it?
WILLIAM: That’s right. I know you’re hoping to find a full-time job in the media
eventually – but Becky mostly recruits temporary staff for the finance sector – which
will look good on your CV – and generally pays better too.
AMBER: Yeah – I’m just a bit worried because I don’t have much office experience.
WILLIAM: I wouldn’t worry. They’ll probably start you as a receptionist, or something
like that. So what’s important for that kind of job isn’t so much having business
skills or knowing lots of different computer systems – it’s communication (Q3 ) that
really matters – so you’d be fine there. And you’ll pick up office skills really quickly on
the job. It’s not that complicated.
AMBER: OK good. So how long do people generally need temporary staff for? It would
be great if I could get something lasting at least a month.
WILLIAM: That shouldn’t be too difficult. But you’re more likely to be offered
something for a week (Q4) at first, which might get extended. It’s unusual to be sent
somewhere for just a day or two.
AMBER: Right, I’ve heard the pay isn’t too bad – better than working in a shop or a
restaurant.
WILLIAM: Oh yes – definitely. The hourly rate is about £10 (Q5), 11 if you’re lucky.
AMBER: That’s pretty good. I was only expecting to get eight or nine pounds an hour.
WILLIAM: Do you want me to tell you anything about the registration process?
AMBER: Yes, please. I know you have to have an interview.
WILLIAM: The interview usually takes about an hour and you should arrange that about
a week in advance.
AMBER: I suppose I should dress smartly if it’s for office work – I can probably
borrow a suit from Mum. (Q6)
WILLIAM: Good idea. It’s better to look too smart than too casual.
AMBER: Will I need to bring copies of my exam certificates or anything like that?
WILLIAM: No – they don’t need to see those, I don’t think.
AMBER: What about my passport? (Q7)
WILLIAM: Oh yes – they will ask to see that.
AMBER: OK.
WILLIAM: I wouldn’t get stressed about the interview though. It’s just a chance for
them to build a relationship with you – so they can try and match you to a job which
you’ll like. So there are questions about personality that they always ask candidates
– fairly basic ones. (Q8) And they probably won’t ask anything too difficult like what
your plans are for the future.
AMBER: Hope not.
WILLIAM: Anyway, there are lots of benefits to using an agency – for example, the
interview will be useful because they’ll give you feedback on your performance
(Q9A) so you can improve next time.
AMBER: And they’ll have access to jobs which aren’t advertised. (Q9A)
WILLIAM: Exactly – most temporary jobs aren’t advertised.
AMBER: And I expect finding a temporary job this way takes a lot less time (Q10) –
it’s much easier than ringing up individual companies.
WILLIAM: Yes indeed. Well I think …

Part 2
BẢNG A:
(W=Wendy M= Mrs Turner A = Adrian)
W: What a load of old rubbish. You hated it too, didn’t you, Mum?
M: Well, I have seen better films. I mean it wasn't as good as 'Aliens' or that
'Werewolf' film, you know the one. (1)
A: Oh, come on, some bits were brilliant. What about the scene where the accountant
is...
W: Well, you always like these mindless special-effects movies; I mean, where was the
acting?
M: The dinosaurs were good. The last film I saw with dinosaurs – you could see they
were made of rubber but these ones looked real. It's amazing.
A: It's all done with computer graphics. I will say they looked much better on the
big screen than they did on my mate's pirate video (2) – but at least I could smoke at
my mate's house.
W: Well, if everyone was smoking in the cinema you wouldn't be able to see the picture,
would you? Anyway, that's one movie I won’t be bothering to take out on video.
A: You just didn’t like it because you were frightened.
W: No, I wasn't! What are you talking about? (3)
A: I saw you covering your eyes!
W: I wasn't covering my eyes, I was laughing.
M: Well, I couldn't look sometimes. I mean, it was only a P.G. film but some of the
scenes were ... well ... pretty.... (4)
W: You mean hilarious. Well, at least it wasn't too long. Look, it's only quarter past ten.
M: Ooh, yes. Ten minutes till last orders. Why don't we go for a quick one at the King's
Head? (5)
W: Adrian can't. Don't you remember? He's driving.
M: Don’t worry. I’ll have a fruit juice and I can drive us home.
A: That's very kind of you, Mrs. Turner, but I’m afraid you’re not insured to drive my
car and if the police stopped us we'd both be in trouble. (5)

BẢNG B:
S: Hi, Nuala ... how was Madrid?
N: Great! It’s a very beautiful city! But my trip was quite adventurous! Especially the
end!
S: Really? What happened?
N: On Thursday, I checked the times of the airport bus, but I didn’t notice that they were
different at weekends ... and I was leaving on Sunday ...
S: Oh no!
N: I wanted to get the half past twelve bus to the airport... my flight was at seven
o'clock (1) in the morning ... so I arrived at the bus stop at twelve o’clock ...
S: But you were too late ... (2)
N: Exactly! ... the last bus was gone ... and I didn’t have money for a taxi and the metro
wasn’t running either...
S: What did you do?
N: I thought of going back to my friend’s, since I had no money for a hotel ... but I
decided to spend the night in a cafe ... in the city... (3)
S: Oh dear!
N: I didn’t get any sleep, of course ... and they didn’t have a TV set, but thank
goodness, there were quite a lot of magazines and newspapers... (4)
S: So, what time did you get to the airport?
N: Oh, I was there at five but you’ll never believe what happened! I was there for
four hours! We finally took off at 9! (5)
S: Oh, no! You must be exhausted ...
N: You bet...

Part 3
Speaker 1
'Well, it really was a pity you couldn't be there. Brian and Julia looked so wonderful and
everything went off perfectly. The vicar gave a beautiful address and the reception was
gorgeous. Everyone commented on the bridesmaids' dresses. They wore pale yellow just
like you wanted, oh, and l almost forgot, Brian mentioned you in his speech. He said
Julia's got everything a wife could offer, but he still likes your cooking best. think he
meant it, too. Of course, Dad was there with ... er .. but I don't suppose you want to
hear about that.
Speaker 2
Brian's not going to have an easy time of it. After all, Julia's not going to coddle him like
that mother of his does. And it's a good thing too if you ask me. It's about time he learnt
to be useful around the house. Seventy years of feminism doesn't seem to have done
much for our family either. Still, when we get married a few little things are going to
change. There’ll be no more nights out with the lads - not when I'm in charge - and I’ll
tell you another thing, if I were Julia, I'd be keeping a good eye on one of those
bridesmaids, too.
Speaker 3
So you must have known Brian for quite some time now. Has he always been this
handsome? ... No, don’t tell me, I can imagine. Well, anyway, I met him a couple of
years ago when they moved our unit up to head office and he was already working there
as entertainment officer. You know, all the big firms have them these days. He organizes
surprise parties and hires entertainers and kissagrams and then
comes round the office collecting money for them afterwards, but I suppose you know
all this already.
Speaker 4
Did you take all these pictures yourself? You are clever. And look there's one of me. I
don't remember you taking that one. Oh, and here's one of everybody outside the church.
Your Auntie Julia would probably like a copy of that one and so would your granny;
mind you, it's a pity it's got your granddad in with that Marjorie. Oh, could you be a
darling and get some copies done? We could send them for Christmas. They always send
you something nice.
Speaker 5
It was really one of the best weddings I've ever been to. The service was short, the bride
arrived on time; the groom was sober, the food was excellent; the speakers were funny -
not like my wedding at all. They really must have put so much thought into it, and so
much preparation. Which must show that they're serious about each other because so
many young people aren't these days. The only sad thing is that they live so far away. I
mean if you hadn't given me the Friday off, I simply wouldn't have been able to get
there on time.

Part 4
So, we think we know how to motivate people, right? Offer them a reward. Do this and
you’ll get this. Do this faster, earn more money. Do this better than everyone else, here’s
a promotion. We offer incentives when we want people to do things. We do it at work,
at school, even at home with our kids (1). Tidy your room and you can watch TV. But
when social psychologists test whether incentives work, they get surprising results. Sam
Glucksberg, from Princeton University, America, set people a problem to solve and told
them he was going to time them to see how long they took. Then he put them in two
groups. He offered one group a reward for finishing fast. Five dollars for anyone
finishing in the top 25 per cent and 20 dollars for the person who finished the fastest of
all. To the other group he offered no incentive, but he told them he was going to use their
times to calculate an average time. The first group, the ones with the reward, solved
the problem faster, you’d think, right? Well, no, they actually took three and a half
minutes longer than the group who just thought they were being timed. Incentive
didn’t work (2). In fact, it made them slower. This experiment has been repeated, with
the same results, many times. But in business we still offer bonuses, promotions and
rewards to staff. That’s fine if we want them to do something simple, like chop wood.
We’ll pay you more if you chop the wood faster. An incentive works then. But if we
want someone to do something complex, something creative, something where they
have to think, rewards don’t work. They might even have the opposite result, and make
people perform worse. Another study, by Dan Ariely, showed that the bigger the
reward, the worse the subjects performed on a complex task. (3) The reward made
them focus so hard on the result that they couldn’t think creatively any more. (4)
And this all matters because more and more simple jobs will become automated. We’ll
be left with creative, problem-solving jobs that computers will never do. And we
need to find a way to motivate people to do those jobs when we’ve proved the
traditional incentives don’t work. (5) So what does work? Giving your workers
freedom; freedom to work on the things they want to work on, freedom to choose when,
where and how they work. Want to work from home three days a week, get up late and
work into the night instead? Fine. Just do the job well. And evidence shows people who
choose the way they work get results. Companies that give employees time during the
week to work on things that interest them and are not part of their regular job achieve
amazing things. Some of the big tech companies are good examples of this, with ping-
pong tables and areas to relax in …