Part 1
You will hear a telephone conversation between a man who wants to book some accommodation at a holiday park and a woman who works at the park.
Woman: Good morning, Ohope Holiday Park.
Man: Oh, hello. We're planning on coming to Ohope for a couple of weeks during the summer holidays, and some friends of mine recommended your holiday park, particularly the wooden cabins you have.
Woman: That's good to hear. Well, we have different types of cabin available.
Man: Can you tell me about the most basic type?
Woman: Yes. We have a couple of cabins still available which are right beside the pool.
Man: That sounds great.
Woman: Yes, they are in a good spot. They have one main living area, and there's another room with the beds. If you want to do any cooking, there's a communal kitchen that everyone uses, but otherwise the kitchen in the cabin just has a fridge, a small one, and also a microwave for heating things up.
Man: I see. And what's the cost of that?
Woman: That's $35 per night.
Man: Okay. And what other types of cabin do you have?
Woman: Right, we have our standard cabins. These are near reception, so that's handy if you want to come in and get us to book a trip or anything. The kitchen is fully equipped too, so you can do all your cooking there.
Man: What other facilities does it have? Is there a television?
Woman: In the standard cabin, I'm afraid not. But it has a shower, which you don't get in the basic cabin.
Man: Okay.
Woman: And that's $55 a night inclusive.
Man: And is there another cabin type?
Woman: Yes, the Standard Plus. All of these cabins are directly opposite the lake, and they all come with a private spa as well.
Man: Sounds good.
Woman: I should tell you that these cabins are quite popular, so I'd advise you to book as soon as possible.
Man: I don't suppose there's a discount for booking for a longer period?
Woman: There is, actually, for the Standard Plus. Once you go up to 5 nights, there's a 15% discount, and anything more than 10 nights, it's 18%.
Man: I'll give it some thought. I think we'll probably go for the standard.
Woman: All right.
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.
Man: So for children, what kind of activities can they do at the holiday park? Do you have a trampoline or anything?
Woman: No, but a lot of the kids who come here do tennis. It costs nothing to use our court, and they can come borrow the racquets from us, as long as they bring them back, of course.
Man: Great. My kids would be into that. And we're planning to bring our boat with us and get out on the water. Is it possible for an afternoon or something to hire some equipment? We're hoping to go fishing, but we don't have our own stuff.
Woman: Yes, for a small charge we can let you have some equipment.
Man: Fantastic. Is there anything else for kids to do in the Ohope area?
Woman: Well, on Saturday or Sunday, you might like to go to the farm. It's only a short drive from the holiday park. You can go riding there, and see how everything works. It's quite a popular thing to do.
Man: Okay, I'll just make a note of that.
Woman: Actually, one thing I would recommend, depending on whether your children don't mind a late night...
Man: I'm sure they wouldn't.
Woman: Well, it's a guided tour, $20 for a family. Every evening, and you go along with the guide into the forest. That's when the native birds wake up, and it's a great chance to see them in their natural habitat.
Man: My daughter would love that. Now I just want to check all this with my wife. Will you still be there in 30 minutes?
Woman: No, I'm going on my lunch break, but I'll pass your details on to someone else who can confirm your reservation. Her name's Aritaki. That's A-R-I-T-A-K-I.
Man: All right. Thank you.
Woman: You're welcome.
Part 2
You will hear a radio talk on horse riding for disabled people.
Presenter: This week, our slot is 'A Life in the Day of Joan Gilbert', local organizer for Riding for the Disabled. Joan, would you like to tell us about this?
Joan Gilbert: Well, I always have the very best intentions of starting the day at 5:30 to give the horses a really good muck out, but reality intervenes and I finally wake at about 6:30. That probably still sounds very early to you, but for a farm worker, which is what my son is at the moment, that's cutting things pretty fine. Once I've managed to get him safely on his way at about 7:00 a.m., I can start turning my attention to the other important tasks of the day.
Joan Gilbert: For about five years, we've been taking overseas students from the International Center at our local college, and I have to give them a proper breakfast. Most of our students used to be from the Middle East, but they're no longer coming, so we tend to have Malaysian girls, and they like to have a cooked breakfast, much more than any Europeans we've had, including me, and I don't have anything these days. After cooking, I finally get round to the poor horses.
Joan Gilbert: It's only after this that I can start thinking about what I regard as my most important task: work for Riding for the Disabled. I've been involved with this organization on and off for over 20 years, but I've only recently taken on the job of chairperson. Most of the work seems more secretarial, but that's how charities get organized. In our immediate district, we have had as many as 30 riders, but currently we've only got 22. The number of helpers who have volunteered is actually 40, but we can rely on 25 to come regularly to help in the different groups. We now have four separate groups which cater for disabled children and adults from 6 to 40 years old.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20.
Joan Gilbert: As I say, I feel that although I no longer have any proper full-time paid employment, I do have a full and busy life. I'm a housewife, which I don't mind because I don't really object to doing things like washing and cooking. Then there's my own horses, which I adore, even the revolting stuff like cleaning out the stables.
Joan Gilbert: The official RDA stuff is a mixed bag really. I don't have major problems with all the letter writing and correspondence which it entails, but like lots of shy people, I find the fundraising horrendous. Other regular RDA duties, such as ringing round the riders to fix times etc., is one of the pleasantest aspects of the work. After all, that's why I'm involved with charity work - the contact with people. My working day ends with the least enjoyable job of all: sorting the accounts.
Joan Gilbert: I got involved with RDA because I've always loved horses, and I can see disabled people gaining so much. I know all the medical evidence that shows that it does wonders for muscle building and so on, which is important, but from talking to the riders, they say it is the confidence they gain, and also the opportunity to be part of a new and exciting environment, which gives them the greatest benefit.
Joan Gilbert: In terms of the RDA organization itself, I feel it works very well, but we're always striving to make it better. I wish, for example, our helpers and the organizers in the various centers could really rationalize the fundraising efforts, which sometimes are very inefficient. And it also saddens me how unaware some of the stables can be about the difficulties faced by people who are disabled.
Joan Gilbert: Anyway, I feel very privileged to work with our riders and to see such tangible benefits. It sends me to sleep with a feeling that though the day has been hard, it has been worthwhile.
Part 3
You will hear a student called Ravi talking to his tutor, Dr. Chang, about research he is doing for an assignment on children playing outdoors.
Dr. Chang: Right, Ravi. Tell me how the research for your assignment about children's outdoor play is going.
Ravi: Yes. Well, I've been reading about why children spend less time playing outside now than 20 or 30 years ago.
Dr. Chang: So is it just because of the amount of online time that children have now, which obviously happens indoors?
Ravi: Well, if that was the case, there'd be a correlation between high internet use and low levels of outdoor play. And it's nothing to do with whether there are adequate facilities outside - playgrounds, for example, as any open space will do. There's perhaps no single more important factor than parental worries about the dangers of vehicles on the streets.
Dr. Chang: But it could also be that children today prefer playing indoors to outdoors?
Ravi: Well, a study in Tokyo suggests it's the other way round. But children are spending more time in structured activities and out-of-school clubs than before. And this has a knock-on effect on...
Dr. Chang: ...what's left for outdoor play.
Ravi: Right.
Dr. Chang: Your premise is that outdoor play is good. What exactly do you want to focus on in your assignment?
Ravi: Well, not so much on things that apply to exercise in general, like children's muscles getting stronger because they run around, and not on what seems, for instance, self-evident - that outdoor play helps children to concentrate on things other than lessons.
Dr. Chang: Sure.
Ravi: I'd like to investigate some of the more unexpected benefits, like to children's digestion. This is because fresh air tends to stimulate hunger. Perhaps leaving to one side the question of whether climbing trees helps educate children about the natural world.
Dr. Chang: No, not really relevant. What sort of decisions do outdoor games and activities force children to make?
Ravi: Well, for example, how they decide how dangerous something might be. And I'd like to outline the main findings on that.
Dr. Chang: Okay. And as you're arguing that there's been a shift in play patterns over the last generation or so, how are you going to substantiate this?
Ravi: Yes. Surveys have compared parents' recollections of their childhood play 30 years ago with what their children do now. And the nature of what children do when they are playing outdoors has changed.
Dr. Chang: How exactly?
Ravi: Well, surprisingly, it's not so much how often children play outside or preferences for large or small groups, but the fact that the play sessions don't go on for as long. And games involving one child running after another, who tries to get away - these are still as popular as ever. But one thing that has declined is improvised games, and I'd like to examine why this might be.
Dr. Chang: Interesting. And what about safety?
Ravi: Well, from my reading, serious accidents are still rare. More kids hurt themselves falling out of bed than out of trees.
Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30.
Ravi: I think that the decline of outdoor play is a problem which should worry parents. I mean, perhaps the children themselves don't miss it; they may be happy to spend lots of time indoors. But the links between inactivity and physical problems when they're adults are so well established that I think kids should be encouraged to spend more time outdoors with their brothers and sisters and friends.
Dr. Chang: What about schools?
Ravi: Well, what I think they should do differently regarding outdoor play - and it wouldn't actually require a great deal of expenditure - is base their policy on different outcomes, like developing children's confidence, not just thinking about exam results. Although I don't know how it would go down with the parents.
Dr. Chang: And do children get more contact with nature in rural areas?
Ravi: There's research on this by Smith and Barker. Intuitively, you'd expect children in rural areas to spend more time out in the open, but in fact, they are generally told to keep off agricultural land. Plus, there are difficulties with supervision outside towns and cities.
Dr. Chang: Right. And Smith and Barker's paper was published in...?
Ravi: 2001.
Dr. Chang: Not the most up to date, but still valid to use. But you'll need to stipulate very precisely that their focus was, if I remember correctly, just on rural areas. So you'd need to consider how far their restricted findings might be applicable to urban areas as well.
Ravi: Okay.
Dr. Chang: Right. So now I'd suggest you produce an overview of what you're going to cover.
Part 4
You will hear a lecture about early gold mining in the Otago region of New Zealand.
Well, today we're focusing on New Zealand in the 1860s, and in particular, how the discovery of gold transformed the country. At that time, gold had created great wealth in North America and Australia, and naturally, New Zealand was hoping for the same success.
People knew there was gold in New Zealand. Some had been found in 1852, leading to a brief gold rush in which people had come from all parts of the world to see if they could dig up any for themselves. But now New Zealand needed experienced gold prospectors - people who knew where to look for the stuff to find in other areas.
So what the local government started doing in the late 1850s was promising a reward if these prospectors discovered gold anywhere in their province. The man who eventually answered the call was an Australian miner called Gabriel Read, who came to Otago in May 1861. The story goes that he was walking outside his tent at night when he saw gold shining like stars in a nearby river. It didn't take long for word of his find to spread, and soon thousands were coming to Otago to take part in the gold rush.
Who were these people? Well, the men that came were predominantly laborers and tradesmen, and often very young, although some were married and left their families back in the countries they came from. But women did come too, to the towns that suddenly sprang up by the goldfields. They made a living by starting up hotels - simple ones, of course, where new arrivals would often stay. And then there were businessmen who knew there was money to be made by setting up services like hardware stores that sold mining and camping equipment, and of course, banks where gold could be deposited. In fact, the businessmen often did better than the miners.
So, as I mentioned before, where there was a goldfield, a town began to grow too. At first, the buildings were constructed in a temporary fashion, just made out of materials such as canvas and timber. But later, once supplies started arriving, it was concrete, so the structures became more permanent.
But the fact was, the goldfields were often in very isolated areas, so life was very difficult for these people. The miners were often working at the bottom of deep gorges, so they had to cope with freezing temperatures, and also sudden flooding when winter ice melted in the mountains. If this wasn't bad enough, the miners also had to deal with another problem: because they had to carry everything with them, they had a very poor diet. They mostly drank tea, and the main thing they had to eat was flour, which they cooked in different ways. That's all that was available.
Anyway, some miners were lucky, others not. But the gold that was found certainly brought many benefits to the Otago region, and also a couple of problems. First of all, the town of Dunedin was suddenly transformed into the biggest city in New Zealand. Some of the original residents complained about how the value of land was increasing, and about the inadequate sanitation. You can imagine how crowded it might have felt with the sudden influx of thousands of immigrants. But overall, the gold brought many positive changes to the city. There was immense investment and growth in the shipping industry, just what the region needed.
Another unexpected benefit of this wealth was that it provided the funds for the first university in the country. As well as this, as the industry developed, there was a great demand for workers of all sorts, but most of all, there was a demand for experienced and skilled engineers. They often started their own companies, and many of these companies are still operating today. What we will discover next week is that these companies are still...