CUỐN 12 TEST 1

TRUDIE:               OK, Stewart. We need to start planning our paper on public libraries. Have you thought of an angle yet?

STEWART:           Well, there’s so much we could look into. How libraries have changed over the centuries, for instance, or how different countries organise them. What do you think, Trudie?

TRUDIE:               Maybe we should concentrate on this country, and try relate the changes in libraries to external developments, like the fact that far more people can read than a century ago, and that the local population may speak lots of different languages. (Q21)

STEWART:           We could include something about changes in the source of funding, too.

TRUDIE:               Yes, but remember we’re only supposed to write a short paper, so it’s probably best if we don’t go into funding in any detail.

STEWART:           Right. Well, shall we just brainstorm a few ideas, to get started?

TRUDIE:               OK. We obviously need to look at the impact of new technology, particularly the internet. Now that lots of books have been digitalised, people can access them from their own computers at home.

STEWART:           And if everyone did that, libraries would be obsolete.

TRUDIE:               Yes.

STEWART:           But the digitalised books that are available online for free are mostly out of copyright, aren’t they? And copyright in this country lasts for 70 years after the author dies. So you won’t find the latest best-seller or up-to-date information. (Q22)

TRUDIE:               That’s an important point. Anyway, I find it hard to concentrate when I’m reading a long text on a green. I’d much rather read a physical book. And it takes longer to read on a screen.

STEWART:           Oh, I prefer it. I suppose it’s just a personal preference.

TRUDIE:               Mm. I expect that libraries will go on evolving in the next few years. Some have already become centres where community activities take place, like local clubs meeting there. I think that’ll become even more common.

STEWART:           I’d like to think so, and that they’ll still be serving their traditional function, but I’m not so sure. There are financial implications, after all. What I’m afraid will happen is that books and magazines will all disappear, and there’ll just be rows and rows of computers (Q23). They won’t look anything like the libraries we’re used to.

TRUDIE:               Well, we’ll see.

———————–           

TRUDIE:               I’ve just had an idea. Why don’t we make an in-depth study of our local public library as background to our paper?

STEWART:           Yes, that’d be interesting, and raise all sorts of issues. Let’s make a list of possible things we could ask about, then work out some sort of structure. For instance, um, we could interview some of the staff, and find out whether the library has its own budget, or if that’s controlled by the local council. (Q24)

TRUDIE:               And what their policies are. I know they don’t allow food, but I’d love to find out what types of noise they ban – there always seems to be a lot of talking, but never music. I don’t know if that’s a policy or it just happens.

STEWART:           Ah, I’ve often wondered. Then there are things like how the library is affected by employment laws. I suppose there are rules about working hours, facilities for staff, and so on. (Q25)

TRUDIE:               Right. Then there are other issues relating to the design of the building and how customers use it. Like what measures does the library take to ensure their safety? (Q26) They’d need floor coverings that aren’t slippery, and emergency exits, for instance. Oh, and another thing – there’s the question of the kind of insurance the library needs to have, in case anyone gets injured. (Q27)

STEWART:           Yes, that’s something else to find out. You know something I’ve often wondered?

TRUDIE:               What’s that?

STEWART:           Well, you know they’ve got an archive of local newspapers going back years? Well, next to it they’ve got the diary of a well-known politician from the late 19th century (Q28). I wonder why it’s there. Do you know what his connection was with this area?

TRUDIE:               No idea. Let’s add it to our list of things to find out. Oh, I’ve just thought – you know people might ask in the library about local organisations, like sports clubs? Well, I wonder if they keep a database, or whether they just look online. (Q29)

STEWART:           Right. I quite fancy finding out what the differences are between a library that’s open to the public and one that’s part of a museum, for example (Q30) – they must be very different.

TRUDIE:               Mmm. Then something else I’d like to know is … 

CUỐN 12 TEST 2

BETH:                   Oh good morning. You must be James. I’m Beth Cartwright – please call be Beth.

JAMES:                 Thank you.

BETH:                   Now as this is your first tutorial since you started on the Scandinavian Studies course, I’d like to find out something about you. Why did you decide to take this course?

JAMES:                 Well, my mother is Danish, and although we always lived in England, she used to talk about her home a lot, and that made me want to visit Denmark. We hardly ever did, though – my mother usually went on her own. But whenever her relations or friends were in England they always came to see us. (Q21)

BETH:                   I see. So I assume you already speak Danish, one of the languages you’ll be studying.

JAMES:                 I can get by when I talk to people, though I’m not terribly accurate.

BETH:                   Now you probably know that you’ll spend the third year of the course abroad. Have you had any thoughts about that?

JAMES:                 I’m really looking forward to it. And although Denmark seems the obvious place to go, because of my family connections, I’d love to spend the time in Iceland.

BETH:                   Oh, I’m sure it can be arranged. Do you have any plans for when you graduate? A lot of students go on to take a master’s degree.

JAMES:                 I think the four years of the undergraduate course will be enough for me. I’m interested in journalism, and I quite like the idea of moving to Scandinavia and writing for magazines (Q22). I’d find that more creative than translating, which I suppose most graduates do.

BETH:                   OK. Now how are you finding the courses you’re taking this term, James?

JAMES:                 Well, I’m really enjoying the one on Swedish cinema.

BETH:                   That’ll continue next term, but the one on Scandinavian literature that’s running at the moment will be replaced by more specialised courses (Q23). Oh, and by the way, if you’re interested in watching Danish television programmes – there’s going to be a course on that the term after next.

JAMES:                 That sounds good.

BETH:                   Have you started thinking about the literature paper that you have to write in the next few weeks?

JAMES:                 Yes, my first choice would be to do something on the Icelandic sagas.

BETH:                   Hmm. The trouble with that is that a lot of people choose that topic, and it can be difficult to get hold of the books you’ll need. Why not leave that for another time?

JAMES:                 Right.

BETH:                   You might find modern novels or 19th century playwrights interesting. (Q24)

JAMES:                 I’ve read or seen several plays in translation, so that would be a good idea.

BETH:                   Fine. I’ll put you down for that topic.

JAMES:                 Right. So what would you advise me to aim at in the paper?

BETH:                   First I suggest you avoid taking one writer and going into a great deal of detail. That approach certainly has its place, but I think you first need to get an understanding of the literature in the context of the society in which it was produced – who it was written for, how it was published, and so on (Q25). I also think that’s more fruitful than placing it within the history of the genre.

JAMES:                 OK, that sounds reasonable.

————————                         

JAMES:                 Could I ask for some advice about writing the paper I’m working on about the Vikings? I have to do that this week, and I’m a bit stuck.

BETH:                   Of course. Have you decided yet what to write about?

JAMES:                 No, I haven’t. There’s so much that seems interesting – Viking settlement in other countries, trade, mythology …

BETH:                   Well, what I suggest is that you read an assignment a student wrote last year (Q26), which is kept in the library. It’s short and well focused, and I’m sure you’ll find it helpful. I’ll give you the details in a moment. Textbooks usually cover so many topics, it can be very difficult to choose just one.

JAMES:                 OK. I’ve got a DVD of the film about the Vikings that came out earlier this year. Should I watch that again?

BETH:                   If it’s the one I am thinking of, hmm, I’d ignore it – it’s more fantasy than reality. But I’ve got a recording of a documentary that you should watch (Q27). It makes some interesting and provocative points, which I think will help you to focus your topic.

JAMES:                 Right.

BETH:                   So then should I work out an outline? (Q28)

JAMES:                 Yes. Just headings for different sections, at this stage. And then you should start looking for suitable articles and books to draw on, and take notes (Q29) which you organise according to those headings.

BETH:                   I see.

JAMES:                 Then put short phrases and sentences as bullet points under each heading (Q30). Make sure that this skeleton makes sense and flows properly, before writing up the paper in full.

BETH:                   OK. Thanks, that’s very helpful. 

 

CUỐN 12 TEST 3

NATALIE:             Dave, I’m worried about our case study. I’ve done a bit of reading, but I’m not sure what’s involved in actually writing a case study – I missed the lecture where Dr Baker talked us through it.

DAVE:                   OK, well it’s quite straightforward. We’ve got our focus – that’s tourism at the Horton Castle site. And you said you’d done some reading about it.

NATALIE:             Yes, I found some articles and made notes of the main points.

DAVE:                   Did you remember to keep a record of where you got the information from? (Q21)

NATALIE:             Sure. I know what a pain it is when you forget that.

DAVE:                   OK, so we can compare what we’ve read. Then we have to decide on a particular problem or need at our site. And then think about who we’re going to interview to get more information.

NATALIE:             OK. So who’d that be? The people who work there (Q22)? And presumable some of the tourists too?

DAVE:                   Yes, both those groups. So we’ll have to go to the site to do that, I suppose. But we might also do some of our interviewing away from the site – we could even contact some people here in the city, like administrators involved in overseeing tourism. (Q23)

NATALIE:             OK. So we’ll need to think about our interview questions and fix times and places for the meetings. It’s all going to take a lot of time.

DAVE:                   Mmm. And if we can, we should ask our interviewees if they can bring along some numerical data that we can add to support our findings.

NATALIE:             And photographs?

DAVE:                   I think we have plenty of those already. But Dr Baker also said we have to establish with our interviewees whether we can identify them in our case study, or whether they want to be anonymous. (Q24)

NATALIE:             Oh, I wouldn’t have thought of that. OK, once we’ve got all this information, I suppose we have to analyse it.

DAVE:                   Yes, put it all together and choose what’s relevant to the problem we’re focusing on, and analyse that carefully to find out if we can identify any trends or regularities (Q25) there. That’s the main thing at this stage, rather can concentrating on details or lots of facts.

NATALIE:             OK. And then once we’ve analysed that, what next?

DAVE:                   Well, then we need to think about what we do with the data we’ve selected to make it as clear as possible to our readers. Things like graphs, or tables, or charts.

NATALIE:             Right.

DAVE:                   Then the case study itself is mostly quite standard; we begin by presenting the problem, and giving some background, then go through the main sections, but the thing that surprised me is that in a normal report we’d end with some suggestions to deal with the problem or need we identified, but in a case study we end up with a question or a series of questions to our readers, and they decide what ought to be done. (Q26)

NATALIE:             Oh, I hadn’t realised that.

————————–

NATALIE:             So basically, the problem we’re addressing in our case study of the Horton Castle site is why so few tourists are visiting it. And we’ll find out more from our interviews, but I did find one report on the internet that suggested that one reason might be because as far as transport goes, access is difficult.

DAVE:                   I read that too, but that report was actually written ten years ago, when the road there was really bad, but that’s been improved now. And I think there’s plenty of fascinating stuff there for a really good day out, but you’d never realise it from the castle website – maybe that’s the problem. (Q27)

NATALIE:             Yes, it’s really dry and boring.

DAVE:                   I read somewhere a suggestion that what the castle needs is a visitor centre. So we could have a look for some information about that on the internet. What would we need to know?

NATALIE:             Well, who’d use it for a start. It’s be good to know what categories the visitors fell into too, like school parties or retired people, but I think we’d have to talk to staff to get that information.

DAVE:                   OK. And as we’re thinking of suggesting a visitor centre we’d also have to look at potential problems. I mean, obviously it wouldn’t be cheap to set up.

NATALIE:             No, but it could be a really good investment. And as it’s on a historical site it’d need to get special planning permission, I expect. That might be hard. (Q28)

DAVE:                   Right, especially as the only possible place for it would be at the entrance, and that’s right in front of the castle.

NATALIE:             Mmm.

DAVE:                   But it could be a good thing for the town of Horton. At present it’s a bit of a ghost town. Once they’ve left school and got any skills or qualifications, the young people all get out as fast as they can to get jobs in the city, and the only people left are children and those who’ve retired. (Q29)

NATALIE:             Right. Something else we could investigate would be the potential damage that tourists might cause to the castle site, I mean their environmental impact. At present the tourists can just wander round wherever they want, but if numbers increase, there might have to be some restrictions, like sticking to marked ways. And there’d need to be guides and wardens around to make sure these were enforced. (Q30)

DAVE:                   Yes, we could look at that too. OK, well … 

 

CUỐN 12 TEST 4

KATIE:   Joe, you know I’m giving a presentation in our film studies class next week?

JOE:       Yes.

KATIE:   Well, could we discuss it? I could do with getting someone else’s opinion.

JOE:       Of course, Katie. What are you going to talk about?

KATIE:   It’s about film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. I’ve got very interested in all the different approaches that film directors take.

JOE:       Uhuh.

KATIE:   So I thought I’d start with Giannetti, who’s professor of film and literature, and in one of his books he came up with a straightforward classification of film adaptations based on how faithful they are to the original plays and novels. (Q21)

JOE:       Right.

KATIE:   I’ve already made some notes on that, so I just need to sort those out before the presentation. I thought that next I’d ask the class to come up with the worst examples of Shakespeare adaptations that they’ve seen, and to say why (Q22). That should be more fun than having their favourite versions.

JOE:       Yes, I can certainly think of a couple!

KATIE:   Right. Next I want to talk about Rachel Malchow. I came across something on the internet about her work on film adaptations, and I was thinking of showing some film clips to illustrate her ideas.

JOE:       Will you have enough time, though? Both to prepare and during the presentation? After all, I doubt if you’ll be able to find all the clips you want.

KATIE:   Hmm. Perhaps you’re right. OK, well, I’d better do some slides instead, saying how various films relate to what she says (Q23). That should encourage discussion.

JOE:       Mmm.

KATIE:   Next I want to say something about how plays may be chosen for adaptation because they’re concerned with issues of the time when the film is made. (Q24)

JOE:       You mean things like patriotism, or the role of governments?

KATIE:   Exactly. It’s quite tricky, but I’ve got a few ideas I’d like to discuss.

———————–           

KATIE:   And finally I want to talk about a few adaptations that I think illustrate a range of approaches, and make some comments on them. Do you know the Japanese film Ran?

JOE:       I haven’t seen it. It was based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, wasn’t it?

KATIE:   That’s right. It was a very loose adaptation, using the same situation and story, but moving it to 16th century Japan instead of 16th century Britain (Q25). So for example the king’s daughters become sons, because in Japanese culture at that time, women couldn’t succeed to the throne.

JOE:       OK. I hope you’re going to talk about the 1993 film of Much Ado About Nothing. I think that’s one of the best Shakespeare films. It really brings the play to life, doesn’t it?

KATIE:   Yes, I agree. And I think filming it in Italy, where the play is set, makes you see what life was like at the time of the play. (Q26)

JOE:       Absolutely. Right, what’s next?

KATIE:   Er, next, I thought Romeo & Juliet, the 1996 film, which moves the action into the present day. (Q27)

JOE:       Yes, it worked really well, I thought – changing the two feuding families in the original to two competing business empires, even though they’re speaking in the English of the original play.

KATIE:   You’d expect it would sound really bizarre, but I found I soon got used to it.

JOE:       Me too.

KATIE:   Then I thought I’d include a real Hollywood film, one that’s intended to appeal to a mass commercial audience.

JOE:       There must be quite a number of those.

KATIE:   Yes, but I’ve picked the 1996 film of Hamlet. It included every line of the text, but it’s more like a typical action hero movie (Q28) – there are loads of special effects, but no unifying interpretation of the play.

JOE:       All show and no substance.

KATIE:   Exactly. Then there’s Prospero’s Books, based on The Tempest. That was really innovative, from a stylistic point of view. (Q29)

JOE:       Didn’t it include dance and singing and animation, as well as live actors?

KATIE:   Yes, it did. I also want to mention Looking for Richard. Did you ever see it? (Q30)

JOE:       No, but I’ve read about it. It was a blend of a documentary with a few scenes from Richard III, wasn’t it?

KATIE:   That’s right. It’s more a way of looking into how people nowadays connect with the playwright – the play is really just the starting point. And that’ll be where I finish.

JOE:       Well, it sounds as though it’ll be very interesting.