TIM: Good morning. You’re through to the tourist information office, Tim speaking. How can I help you?

JEAN: Oh hello. Could you give me some information about next month’s festival, please? My family and I will be staying in the town that week.

TIM: Of course. Well it starts with a concert on the afternoon of the 17th.

JEAN: Oh I heard about that. The orchestra and singers come from the USA, don’t they?

TIM: They’re from Canada. They’re very popular over there. They’re going to perform a number of well-known pieces that will appeal to children as well as adults.

JEAN: That sounds good. My whole family are interested in music.

TIM: The next day, the 18th, there’s a performance by a ballet company called Eustatis. (Q1)

JEAN: Sorry?

TIM: The name is spelt E-U-S-T-A-T-I-S. They appeared in last year’s festival, and went down very well. Again, their programme is designed for all ages.

JEAN: Good. I expect we’ll go to that. I hope there’s going to be a play during the festival, a comedy, ideally.

TIM: You’re in luck! On the 19th and 20th a local amateur group are performing one written by a member of group. It’s called Jemima. That’ll be on in the town hall. They’ve already performed it two or three times. I haven’t seen it myself, but the review (Q2) in the local paper was very good.

JEAN: And is it suitable for children?

TIM: Yes, in fact it’s aimed more at children than at adults, so both performances are in the afternoon.

JEAN: And what about dance (Q3)? Will there be any performances?

TIM: Yes, also on the 20th, but in the evening. A professional company is putting on a show of modern pieces, with electronic music by young composers.

JEAN: Uh-huh.

TIM: The show is about how people communicate, or fail to communicate, with each other, so it’s got the rather strange name, Chat. (Q4)

JEAN: I suppose that’s because that’s something we do both face to face and online.

TIM: That’s right.

TIM: Now there are also some workshops and other activities. They’ll all take place at least once every day, so everyone who wants to take part will have a chance.

JEAN: Good. We’re particularly interested in cookery – you don’t happen to have a cookery workshop, do you?

TIM: We certainly do. It’s going to focus on how to make food part of a healthy (Q5) lifestyle, and it’ll show that even sweet things like cakes can contain much less sugar than they usually do.

JEAN: That might be worth going to. We’re trying to encourage our children to cook.

TIM: Another workshop is just for children, and that’s on creating posters (Q6) to reflect the history of the town. The aim is to make children aware of how both the town and people’s lives have changed over the centuries. The results will be exhibited in the community centre. Then the other workshop is in toy-making, and that’s for adults only.

JEAN: Oh, why’s that?

TIM: Because it involves carpentry – participants will be making toys out of wood (Q7), so there’ll be a lot of sharp chisels and other tools around.

JEAN: It makes sense to keep children away from it.

TIM: Exactly. Now let me tell you about some of the outdoor activities. There’ll be supervised wild swimming …

JEAN: Wild swimming? What’s that?

TIM: It just means swimming in natural waters, rather than a swimming pool.

JEAN: Oh OK. In a lake (Q8), for instance.

TIM: Yes, there’s a beautiful one just outside the town, and that’ll be the venue for the swimming. There’ll be lifeguards on duty, so it’s suitable for all ages. And finally, there’ll be a walk in some nearby woods every day. The leader is an expert on insects (Q9). He’ll show some that live in the woods, and how important they are for the environment. So there are going to be all sorts of different things to do during the festival.

JEAN: There certainly are.

TIM: If you’d like to read about how the preparations for the festival are going, the festival organizer is keeping a blog (Q10). Just search online for the festival website, and you’ll find it.

JEAN: Well, thank you very much for all the information.

TIM: You’re welcome. Goodbye.

JEAN: Goodbye.

WOMAN: I’m very pleased to welcome this evening’s guest speaker, Mark Logan, who’s going to tell us about the recent transformation of Minster Park. Over to you, Mark.

MARK: Thank you. I’m sure you’re all familiar with Minster Park. It’s been a feature of the city for well over a century, and has been the responsibility of the city council for most of that time. What perhaps isn’t so well known is the origin of the park: unlike many public parks that started in private ownership, as the garden of a large house, for instance, Minster was some waste land, which people living nearby started planting with flowers in 1892 (Q11). It was unclear who actually owned the land, and this wasn’t settled until 20 years later, when the council took possession of it.

You may have noticed the statue near one of the entrances. It’s of Diane Gosforth, who played a key role in the history of the park. Once the council had become the legal owner, it planned to sell the land for housing. Many local people (Q12) wanted it to remain a place that everyone could go to, to enjoy the fresh air and natural environment. Diane Gosforth organised petitions and demonstrations (Q12), which eventually made the council change its mind.

Soon after this the First World War broke out, in 1914, and most of the park was dug up and planted with vegetables (Q13), which were sold locally. After the war, the park was turned back more or less to how it had been before 1914. Plans for transforming it were drawn up most recently in 2013, revised in 2015, and the changes finally got going in 2016 (Q14), finishing on schedule last year.

The statue of Diane Gosforth has been moved: it used to be close to the south gate, but it’s now immediately to the north of the lily pond, almost in the centre of the park (Q15). There’s a new area of wooden sculptures on the river bank, where the path from the east gate makes a sharp bend (Q16).

The playground has been enlarged and improved, between the river and the path that leads from the pond to the river (Q17). There’s also a new maze, a circular series of paths separated by low hedges, near the west gate (Q18).

The tennis courts have been doubled from four to eight and remain in the south-west corner (Q19). The new fitness area is right next to the lily pond on the same side as the west gate (Q20).

CATHY: OK, Graham, so let’s check we both know what we’re supposed to be doing.

GRAHAM: OK.

CATHY: For the university’s open day, we have to plan a display on British life and literature in the mid-19th century.

GRAHAM: We’ll have people to help find materials and set it up; for now, we just need to plan it.

CATHY: Who’s expected to come and see the display? Is it for people studying English, or students from other departments?

GRAHAM: It used to be like that, but it didn’t attract many people. This year it’s part of an open day to raise the university’s profile. It’ll be publicised in the city to encourage people to come and find out what goes on here (Q21/Q22), and included in information sent to people considering applying next year (Q21/Q22).

CATHY: Presumably some current students and lecturers will come?

GRAHAM: I imagine so, but we’ve been told to concentrate on other categories.

CATHY: We don’t have to cover the whole range of 19th-century literature, do we?

GRAHAM: No, it’s up to us. I suggest Charles Dickens.

CATHY: Most people have heard of him and probably read his novels or seen films based on them (Q23/Q24), a good lead-in to life in his time.

GRAHAM: His novels show the awful conditions most people lived in; he wanted to shock people into doing something about it (Q23/Q24).

CATHY: Did he campaign other than writing?

GRAHAM: Yes, for education and social reforms, and he gave talks, but I’d focus on the novels.

CATHY: Shall we think of a topic linked to each novel?

GRAHAM: I printed Dickens’s novels in publication order.

CATHY: The first was The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836. A character keeps falling asleep, and that medical condition was named after the book – Pickwickian Syndrome (Q25).

CATHY: In Oliver Twist, Oliver is taught how to steal. We could illustrate that very few children, especially poor children, went to school, so they learnt in other ways (Q26).

GRAHAM: Nicholas Nickleby joins a company of touring actors. We could show theatres and other amusements of the time (Q27).

CATHY: Martin Chuzzlewit goes to the USA, and Dickens himself had been there a year before and used that experience in the novel (Q28).

CATHY: In Bleak House, Esther is treated badly by a woman she does not know is her aunt. Later she is happy with her guardian, manages the household, marries, and receives a house from him (Q29).

GRAHAM: In Little Dorrit, Mr Dorrit inherits a fortune and pretends he has always been rich (Q30).

CATHY: We now need to think about materials to illustrate each issue.

I’m going to report on a case study of a programme which has been set up to help rural populations in Mozambique, a largely agricultural country in South-East Africa.

The programme worked with three communities in Chicualacuala district, near the Limpopo River. This is a dry and arid region, with unpredictable rainfall. People were unable to support themselves through agriculture and instead used the forest to earn income, mainly by selling charcoal. This was not sustainable because they were rapidly using up the resource.

The programme used water resources from the Limpopo River by setting up systems of irrigation (Q31), providing a dependable supply for crops and animals. The region had one farmers’ association, so two more were established.

The associations carried out water management, livestock breeding and agriculture. In general, women (Q32) formed the majority of the workforce.

Special areas were fenced off to protect crops from wild and domestic animals. The community created the fences, while the programme provided wire (Q33).

The land was dug so vegetables and cereals suitable for the climate could grow, and the programme provided seeds (Q34). It also provided pumps to bring river water through pipes. Local people provided the labour and the posts (Q35) supporting the fences.

The farmers grew enough produce for themselves and to sell, but lacked transport (Q36), so much produce was spoiled. They needed to learn techniques for preservation (Q37).

Farmers also dug holes for tanks, filled them with water and used them for breeding fish (Q38), an important source of protein. Later they set up colonies of bees (Q39) to produce honey for consumption and sale.

The programme shows that reliable water creates agricultural potential in dry regions. Production improved food security and gave local people food and income. However, realistic timelines are important for each phase, especially design (Q40), because mistakes made then may be difficult to correct later.