UNIT 4 Our planet, 4C Listening Eyewitness, page 44
Exercise 1
1 earthquake
2 volcanic eruption
3 flood
4 avalanche
5 famine
6 tsunami
7 drought
8 forest fire
9 epidemic
10 mudslide
Exercise 2
Photos 1: volcanic eruption,
Photos 2: drought
Exercise 3
Dialogue 1:
1 They are in Mrs Dennington’s home. (She says ‘Come in’.)
2 A flood caused the damage. (twenty centimetres deep in my living room!)
Dialogue 2:
3 They’re discussing a drought. (They need rain!; it didn’t rain at all; The ground is so dry.)
4 It is early morning; they are having breakfast. ((the shop) isn’t open yet; toast and jam is just fine.)
LISTENING 1.15
1 Man Hi. Mrs Dennington?
Woman Yes, that’s me. Are you Mr Jones?
Man Yes.
Woman Come in, come in.
Man Hmm. I can see straight away there’s a lot of damage here!
Woman Yes. It was about twenty centimetres deep in my living room!
Man So, what would you like me to look at?
Woman Well, this wall by the kitchen. The water made a few holes near the bottom.
Man Oh yes, I see.
Woman Is it safe?
Man Safe? Yes, perfectly safe. You don’t need to worry about that. But it doesn’t look very good!
Woman So can you fix it?
Man Yes, of course. I suppose it’s about two days’ work, so … let’s say £300.
Woman That’s fine. When can you do it?
2 Man Did you read this article?
Woman Which one?
Man About California. They need rain!
Woman Really?
Man Yes. It says here that in some places it didn’t rain at all during the whole winter! The ground is so dry. Look at this photo.
Woman That’s amazing.
Man What are you having for breakfast?
Woman Just toast and jam. Do you want a piece?
Man Hmm. No, I fancy eggs.
Woman We haven’t got any eggs.
Man I can buy some at the shop next door.
Woman It isn’t open yet. You need to wait about twenty minutes.
Man Forget that, toast and jam is fine.
Exercise 4
1 famine
2 tsunami
3 epidemic
4 volcanic eruption
LISTENING 1.16
1 Woman Hello.
Man Hi.
Woman I’m collecting for emergency relief. Can you spare a few coins?
Man Actually, I’m in a bit of a hurry. I need to get to the supermarket before it closes.
Woman Which supermarket? The one in the shopping centre?
Man Yes …
Woman Oh, you’re fine. That’s just round the corner. And it doesn’t close until 8 o’clock. You’ve got ages!
Man Right … OK. So, what’s this charity?
Woman We’re collecting money for food packages to send to Somalia. The situation there is terrible: more than a million people have got nothing to eat. These photos show what’s happening there and how food packages are helping. Maybe if you can spare a minute …
Man Yes, yes. It looks terrible. I’ve got some money in my pocket … hold on.
Woman Anything you can spare …
Man Here.
Woman Thank you!
2 I was in Japan when it happened, but not near that part of the coast. In fact, I was in Tokyo. I was working there for a few days. While we were having a meeting, somebody heard the news or saw it online. And then everyone was talking about it – in Japanese, of course. I didn’t know what was happening because my Japanese isn’t very good. I had lessons for a while but I found it really difficult! Anyway, I knew something was wrong. I could tell that from their faces and from their voices when they talked. After a few minutes, somebody explained to me in English what was happening. Later I saw it all on TV, how that enormous wave came in and destroyed everything on the coast. It was shocking.
3 I took a gap year at the end of my university course. I studied medicine, but I didn’t want to be a doctor – my interest was in research. I wanted to be a scientist. Anyway, for my gap year, I went to Cameroon in Central Africa. I got a job helping a medical charity and stayed for the whole year. Basically, I worked as a doctor’s assistant in one of their medical centres. We were really busy because that year, there were a lot of cases of Yellow Fever. It was spreading fast, and people were coming to the medical centre every day with the disease. It took ten months to get it under control. After that, I changed my plan – I didn’t want to be a scientist after all. So I went back to the UK and finished my training to become a hospital doctor. That took two years. Now I’m looking for a job – and I’d love to go back to Africa.
4 Woman Look out of the window. What a great view!
Man Yes, it is. Amazing. Look at those trees – and that mountain in the background.
Woman It’s a volcano, I think.
Man Is it? Yes, maybe. I’m not sure.
Woman We can ask. Bell boy Here are your suitcases, madam.
Man Thanks very much! Can I ask you a question?
BB Yes, of course.
Woman Is that a volcano or just a mountain?
BB It’s a volcano: Mount Bagana. But don’t worry – the last time we all had to leave the hotel was five years ago.
Man Only five years? So, it’s an active volcano?
BB Yes, active. But it’s quiet now.
Woman For the moment …
BB Yes, for the moment.
Exercise 5
1 b
2 b
3 a
4 c