UNIT 1

Carlos Acosta is one of the greatest livingballet dancers. He was the first black principal dancer at Covent Garden inLondon. He is famous around the world and in his home country of Cuba he is anational hero.

Carlos now travels the world but always seesCuba as his home. All his family are still there. In Cuba he isn’t a foreigner.He says that in Cuba a child learns to dance first and then to speak. He talksabout the heat and the sea, about dance and music and happiness.

“Cuba is always going to be my home. In myheart, that’s the only country, you know, and because that’s where all myrelatives are, my memories, you know, and this is the only place I’m nevergoing to be a foreigner. You learn how to dance first; then you learn how tospeak, you know, in Cuba. It’s something that’s been passed on throughgeneration to generation. And it’s also, you know, the heat, and the tropic(tropics), and the sea and … it’s … it’s almost, that’s what it’s asking for,dance and music and happiness.”

Carlos was born in Havana, the youngest of 11children in a poor family. He often missed school. He was a championbreakdancer in the streets but didn’t want to be a professional dancer.

When he was nine, his father sent him to aballet school. Carlos hated it. He told his father he wanted to do somethingelse.

“So I … I did tell him many times that Ididn’t want to be … and that I wanted to … to do something else – football, youknow – but he didn’t want to hear it. So, I went and … But thank God he didn’twant to hear it because thanks to that I’m here now.”

At ballet school, Carlos wasn’t always a goodstudent and didn’t want to be a dancer. But when he was 13, Carlos saw theCuban National Ballet and he loved it so much that he changed his mind aboutballet. He decided to work hard and three years later, at 16, he traveled toEurope for the first time. That year he won four major dance competitions andbecame famous all over the world.

Now he is an international star and he dancesin many countries, but he still goes home to Cuba several times a year to visithis family.

UNIT 2

V = Voice-over; W1 = Woman 1, etc.; M1 = Man 1, etc.

V: All over the world, festivals bring peopletogether. But why do people go? For the music? The food? The fun and games? We went to Bestival in the Isle of Wight, England to find out. But the first question is – where do we sleep?

M1: I ... I’ve got a beach hut up here to stayin, and I’ve got the key.

V: One man said it was like sleeping in theback garden.

M2: It’s like opening your back door, goingdown to the end of your garden, getting in your shed with your baby and wife, and then calling it aholiday.

V: You can stay in a hut, but most people heresleep in tents. There are a lot of different people here – families, young people, older people.We asked: Why do so many different people come to festivals?

W1: Well, I suppose it gives everybody a chance just to be themselves, and just to be free and be away from their normal jobs.

W2: People will respect each other and have... um … sort of some of those old -fashioned traditional values, but actually values that everyone really likes.

M3: The thing I always think about festivalsis they’re just playgrounds for grownups.

V: And, of course, there’s one reasoneveryone’s here: the music. This really is a festival for all the community, young and old mixing together.In the tea tent these women are having a great time. Why do they go to festivals?

W3: The community getting together, the youngmixing with the older people. We make cakes; we do pop festivals; we’ll go anywhere, do anything.

V: So, if there’s one answer to the question, why are you here? One thing that everyone talks about is this: being together

UNIT 3

F = Francesco; M1 = Mamas; M2 = Maria

F: Kalimera. Kalimera. Er, can you show mearound Crete?

M1: Yes.

F: This is the biggest Greek island of all, soI’ve got a local guide for the next two days. M1: Francesco, do you want to seea Cretan wedding?

F: Oh, great! Traditional Cretan weddings canbe incredible. Preparations often last days. Mamas is taking me to meet the bride, Maria Skula.

F: Kalimera, Francesco.

M2: Welcome! Come in.

F: Congratulations!

M2: Thank you.

F: Are you a little nervous?

M2: A little.

F: All the women are helping prepare for thewedding feast. They’re making decorations in dough  for a special wedding bread. How many guests for your wedding?

M2: Er, 1,500 about (about 1,500).

F: Mamma mia, it’s a lot! Mamma mia. The whole of Maria’s village has turned out to see her get married. The bride arrives with her father.She’s gorgeous. This is the nervous bridegroom, Jorgos. In a few minutes he andMaria will be man and wife.

M2: I do!

F: And now we go to party. It’s certainly the largest wedding reception I’ve ever been to. At Cretan weddings, guests give money as gifts. And now the food is served. The meat of 150 sheep ... and a whole lot more. Maria and Jorgos’ first dance as man and wife includes all the close family. I’m destroyed! Ah, really.

Unit 4

P = Presenter; W1 = Woman 1, etc.; M1 = Man 1, etc.

Part 1

P: Heathrow Airport is having a bad day. Hundreds of passengers can’t fly because of a computer problem in air traffic control. In Terminal 1, things are getting worse. More and more passengers are arriving. Some airplanes are leaving, but many flights are canceled. Everyone is hoping to find a flight. Some of the waiting passengers are having a snack while others are spending their time outside. It’s a hot summer day. Back inside the terminal, it’s getting hotter and hotter. Some people came here five hours ago.

W1: I’m here with my grandmother and my parents and it’s terrible for us to wait here for such a long time now. We have to sleep at the airport because no hotel is available. So, it’s just terrible.

M1: Have a look at this. Improvisation at its best. I’m glad they’re sleeping now. I was hoping to get to Berlin soon.

P: People are still trying to find a flight.

W2: I’ve had my son go on the Internet, my daughter be in one queue, me be in the other queue and on the mobile, all at the same time, trying to get to Amsterdam for 9:30 tomorrow morning.

M2: After five hours queuing, you … you really become really Zen, you know ... and here it’s pretty calm.

P = Presenter

Part 2

P: The airport managers find an interesting solution to one of the problems: garden chairs. With the chairs to relax in, some passengers are finding new ways to pass the time. Inside Terminal 1, it’s late at night, after midnight. And many passengers are still here, waiting for their flight. Around 300 flights left Heathrow that day, but 319 flights were canceled, and over 500 people spent the night in the terminal.