Tests Audio Script

Track 1

It’s never too soon to aim for success

Nancy Yi Fan was just 11 years old in 2004 when she started to write
Swordbird – a fantasy novel about birds. She spent two years writing it and
then emailed the book to several large publishing companies in the USA. Just
one month later, in 2006, Nancy had a publishing deal and became one of the
youngest published novelists in the USA. But what makes Nancy’s
achievement even more impressive is the fact that English isn’t her first
language. Nancy was born to Chinese parents in China and they moved to
the USA when she was seven years old. In 2008, Swordbird reached the top
of The New York Times best-seller list. Nancy has now written a prequel to
Swordbird, called Sword Quest and she’s also translated Swordbird into
Chinese!

It’s never too late to learn something new

In 1989, there was an exhibition of Aboriginal art at a gallery in Sydney,
Australia. The exhibition was a big success and many art dealers and gallery
owners became particularly interested in one of the artists there – Emily
Kngwarreye. Kngwarreye’s painting, Emu Woman, was the image on the front
cover of the catalogue. The art world of Australia wanted to know more about
this extraordinary artist. ‘Who is she?’ they wondered. ‘What has she already
painted?’ Amazingly, Kngwarreye was a 79-year-old Aboriginal woman and
Emu Woman was her first ever painting on canvas. In the following eight
years, Kngwarreye produced nearly 3,000 paintings (approximately one
painting per day). She died in 1999 and is now one of Australia’s most famous
abstract artists. Her paintings have become famous around the world. Not a
bad achievement for an artist who only began painting at the age of 78!

Track 2

Operation Smile
Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft lip or cleft palate. Children with
these conditions have terrible problems with eating, drinking and speaking
and one in ten of them die before their first birthday. The luckier ones live, but
they are often rejected by friends and sometimes even by their own families.

In rich countries, simple surgical operations can correct most of these mouth
problems and allow children to live normal lives. But in poorer countries, the
operations are too expensive for ordinary people and there are not enough
doctors who can do them.

In 1982, American doctor Bill Magee and his wife Kathy, a nurse, went to the
Philippines to do some cleft palate surgeries. But it was a short trip and there
was no time to help all the children who needed surgery. They felt terribly
guilty. When they got home, they started a new charity. They called it
Operation Smile.

Now Operation Smile works in more than sixty countries. Five thousand
volunteers give their time and skills to provide free mouth surgery to the
children who need it most. The charity also provides medical equipment and
trains local doctors to do the surgery themselves. In this way, the results of an
Operation Smile visit continue long into the future.

When an international group of doctors and nurses travels to a country, two

secondary school students go, too. The students are usually people who have
done a lot of fundraising in their local area and told a lot of people about the
work of Operation Smile. Their trip is a fantastic way to experience a
completely different culture and help to change lives forever.

Track 3

The story of Innocent Smoothies

Adam Balon, Richard Reed and Jon Wright were friends from university. They
all had very well-paid jobs, but they also shared a dream. They wanted to start
their own company, but they didn’t know what product to make. They decided
to focus on a target market that they knew and understood – young people
who lived in cities and worked hard. These people wanted to have a healthy
lifestyle, but didn’t always have the time to prepare healthy food. Adam,
Richard and Jon developed some smoothies – fruit juice combined with
crushed fruit. But first, they wanted to test their product. So, in August 1998,
they spent £500 on fruit and then sold their bottles of smoothie at a local
music festival. They placed a big banner by their stall, saying, ‘Should we give
up our jobs to make these smoothies?’ Beneath the banner were two bins for
the empty smoothie bottles, a ‘Yes’ bin and a ‘No’ bin. At the end of the
festival, the ‘Yes’ bin was full of bottles. The friends resigned from their jobs
the next day and set up ‘Innocent Smoothies’. Next they needed some
funding for their company. They wrote hundreds of letters to possible
investors, but had no success. However, they kept on trying and finally
Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American, agreed to invest £250,000 in their
business.

The rest is history … Innocent Smoothies now sells more than two million
bottles of smoothie per week and it employs over 250 people. Why is it so
successful? Adam, Richard and Jon weren’t experienced entrepreneurs, but
they were organised and practical and they believed in their product. The
success of Innocent Smoothies in a big corporate world shows that
personality is an important factor in the success of a business.
Track 4

Narrator Life in a seaside town

Max, 16, lives in Weston-super-Mare, in England
Max In summer, it’s crazy living here. Weston-super-Mare is a major
seaside resort, so we get loads of tourists. All sorts of shops
open up around the pier – ice cream kiosks, bucket and spade
shops and places selling cool jewellery. There’s also the pavilion
at the end of the Grand Pier. It was completely destroyed in
2008 by a big fire, but it was rebuilt in 2010 and is now open
again. It’s got a huge go-kart track and lots of amusement
arcades, so my friends and I hang out there sometimes, when
the weather’s not so good. There are also music festivals and
sand sculpture exhibitions on the beach in summer. The winter
is much quieter and lots of the summer shops are closed, but the
beaches at Weston-super-Mare are perfect for kite surfing from
October to March. I don’t go often because it’s expensive, but it’s
great fun!
Narrator Kayla, 17, lives in Simon’s Town, in South Africa.
Kayla The amazing thing about Simon’s Town is the wildlife. I can walk
down to the beach in the morning and see whales out in the
ocean and penguins and otters on the beach. There are more
than 3,000 African penguins on Boulders Beach and lots of
tourists come to Simon’s Town just to see them! But Simon’s
Town is also an important naval base and it has a working
harbour, so there are always ships coming in and out of the bay.
Most places along the Cape Peninsula are wet and windy in
winter, but we’re lucky in Simon’s Town because it’s protected
from the winds and rain by the Cape Peninsula mountains. My
friends and I often go hiking in winter and sometimes we go sea
kayaking. The sea is too rough for kayaking in summer, but it’s
calmer in winter and we can get really close to the whales and
seals!
Track 5

Asteroids

What are asteroids?

Asteroids are objects in space which are smaller than planets and orbit the
Sun. They are made of rock or metal and some have ice on them, too. This is
the material which wasn’t used when the planets in our solar system were
formed 4.5 billion years ago.

How many asteroids are there in our solar system?

Millions. Some are small piles of stones and these are irregular in shape. But
the largest asteroid in our solar system, Ceres, is the shape of a planet and
has a diameter of 975 km – that’s bigger than France!
Where are they?
There are asteroids in many parts of our solar system, but most of them are in
the ‘asteroid belt’ between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Do asteroids ever crash into planets?

Yes, sometimes. In fact, some people think that the Moon was created when
a huge asteroid crashed into Earth early in our planet’s history. And it was
probably another impact event which caused the extinction of the dinosaurs
and many other species about 65 million years ago. These big impact events
don’t happen very often, but smaller rocks strike Earth about 500 times a
year. There are a lot of big holes in the ground which were made by these
rocks.

Is Earth in danger from asteroids today?

Sometimes big asteroids pass very close to Earth. In 1989, a 300-metre
asteroid passed through the exact position where the Earth was only six hours
before. If an asteroid of that size hit Earth, there would be an explosion twelve
times more powerful than a big nuclear bomb. Astronomers think that about
2,000 asteroids bigger than one kilometre might hit Earth in the next billion
years. These will be very dangerous. However, there’s nothing terrible to
worry about until the year 2880, when a kilometre-wide asteroid has a 1 in
300 chance of hitting Earth.

Track 6

Oliver Cromwell

These days Britain is one of the few countries in the world with a king or
queen. 360 years ago, however, there wasn’t a royal ruler in Britain. Instead,
there was Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell was an ordinary farmer until he decided to become a politician at

the age of 40. The king at that time was Charles I. Cromwell and the other
politicians in Parliament kept complaining that his taxes were unfair, but
Charles refused to listen. In 1642, a civil war started between Parliament and
the king. Cromwell became the leader of the Parliamentarian soldiers. After
many years, Parliament won the war and put Charles I in prison. In 1649, the
king was executed.

Oliver Cromwell was now the most powerful person in England and in 1653
he started ruling the country without help from Parliament. He was a Puritan,
a type of Christian who believed that people should work very hard and that
having fun was a sin. Under Cromwell, England had some very strict rules. No
one could wear make-up, jewellery or colourful dresses. Theatres were closed
and most sports were against the rules. In the time of Charles I, people used
to celebrate holy days with special food and dancing. Under Cromwell, they
celebrated these days by eating no food all day. On Christmas Day, soldiers
walked around town. If they found any special Christmas food or decorations,
they took them away. Most people hated living in Cromwell’s England.
After Cromwell died in 1658, Charles I’s son, Charles II, was invited to rule
England. When the new king arrived from Holland, there were huge
celebrations around the country. His journey through London to his palace
took seven hours because there were so many happy people in the streets.
Charles II soon cancelled Cromwell’s strict rules. The people of England were
relieved to have a king again.