SECTION 2

Hi, everyone. My name’s Sam Thomas, and I’m here to give you some information about worldwide Student Projects, or WSP for short. The talk takes about five minutes , and after that I’ll be happy to answer questions, OK? Right, well, WSP is a voluntary service organization , which was set UP to promote international understanding. Right now, we’ve got people from 30 different countries working in local communities around the world. So, if you’re interested in joining them, I’d like to tell you about some of the opportunities that are available.

Now, depending on how long you want to be away, there are three sorts of projects to choose from: short-term projects lasting two to three weeks, medium term projects lasting between one and six months and long-term projects which can be anything up to a year. One of the short-term ones we’ve got on offer at the moment is in Japan. It’s a village improvement project, and the work involves clearing the river banks and planting flowers, things like that. You’d be working alongside local people, so you need a basic knowledge of Japanese for that.

The next one to tell you about is a children’s holiday center in Poland. What’s required here is basically manual work. You’ll be painting rooms, gardening and generally preparing for the children’s arrival . It’s a medium-term project lasting six weeks, and there’s comfortable accommodation on site.

And now something for the animal lovers amongst you. It’s a conservation project for sea turtles in Mexico. Sea turtles are under threat from poachers in that part of the world, so your main job would be collecting and moving the eggs to a safe site. It’s a short-term project, and you’d be staying in a local school, but be aware that it has very basic conditions. Don’t expect any luxury of satellite TV! tv Now, here’s an exciting opportunity in China for any budding architects . This is a long-term project, and placements are for nine months, you’d be working in an office in Shanghai, involved in planning and design, under supervision of a local architect. Oh, and I should mention that you have to pay an additional fee of 250 US dollars when you arrive.

Finally, do we have any medical students here? Because there’s a placement available in a center for disabled children in India. You’d be providing general medical care and also assisting in the outpatients of department. It’s for six months, so you can get plenty of experience and also do something worthwhile for disabled children.

Well, that’s just a taste of the incredible range of projects we have to offer, but I hope it’s whetted your appetite . And in case you do decide to apply, let me tell you what happens next.

First of all, you need to fill in an application form and send it to us. Oh, and you should also include a passport photo, by the way. Once we’ve received the form and photo, we process them and’then we send you a “Welcome Pack” containing general information about the programme, together with the formal terms and conditions. These terms and conditions are basically a list of responsibilities on both sides, yours and ours-what happens if you want to leave early, ect. And you also get a detailed questionnaire , which helps us identify a suitable job for you.

Then, about one month before you leave, you’ll receive all the details about your particular placement . And I think that’s about it. Oh, I never forgot to mention, we’ve also got a website. The address is in our brochure. Now, are there any questions?

SECTION 3

David: what you’re going to join yet, Sarah?
Sarah: Well, I want to do something connected with media and journalism , but there’s such a lot to choose from.
David: Isn’t there? Let’s look at all the information we’ve got and we can decide what we want to do later.
Sarah: Right, let’s see. There’s something here called grapevine .
David: What is it?
Sarah: It’s a student magazine. Apparently it won Magazine of the Year at the guardian and NUS-I guess that’s the National Union of Students-media awards in 1995 .

David: That sounds good. Do they want people to work on it?
Sarah: Oh yes, they want lots of people. It says here they need people to write features , sell advertising, and to proofread articles. Oh, and to take photographs .

David: That’s a possibility. I like the idea of taking photographs.
Sarah: Do you? I think I’d like to write articles but I’m not sure. What have you got there?
David: Concrete. It’s a newspaper. It sounds very professional .

Sarah: What makes you say that?
David: Well, it’s 48 pages long, for a start. That’s bigger than some national newspapers.
Sarah: I suppose it is. What else does it say?
David: Let’s see. It did well at last year’s media awards too. And it says it has lots of different sections as well as news… like features, sport and entertainment .
Sarah: That might be good experience. What do they need people for?
David: They want people to edit and organise. I wonder what they mean by organized .

Sarah: Yes, it does sound a bit vague.
David: Well, it’s obviously well-organised. It started in 1992 and it’s still going strong!
Sarah: (not sure) Mmmm…sounds possible.
David: Yeah, but let’s go on, shall we?
Sarah: Here’s something a bit different. Livewire-it’s a student radio station.

David: Now that does sound interesting. What type of programmes do- they produce ?
Sarah: It just says good quality and entertaining progammes.
David: What are they looking for?
Sarah: Again there aren’t a lot of details. It says they want people to work in all areas of radio broadcasting . I think I’d like to find out more about that one.
David: Mmm so would I. We’ll come back to it later.
Sarah: Oh look at this. Do you fancy being on television?
David: Don’t tell me there’s a student TV station as well?
Sarah: Yes, there is. It’s called Nexus UTV. They produce a wide range of programs and they have a production deal with the bbc !
David: That sounds really interesting. Is it difficult to get into?
Sarah: I don’t know, I don’t think so. They want a lot of people. Actors…
David: I used to act in school plays-when I was about 10 years old.
Sarah: Well, maybe acting isn’t for you. But they also need people to direct, programmes, to read the news and to be comedian. I could see you as a comedian .
David: Ha ha! Shall we go for that then?

Sarah: Maybe, let’s look at what else there is.
David: I think there are two more, yeah something called Notice Board- whatever that is-and Student Web.
Sarah: What’s Notice Board about?
David: Well, it’s a magazine with lots of local information.

Sarah: Mmm… doesn’t sound all that exciting .
David: Well, if you change your mind. They want people to write articles and to produce the magazine.

Sarah: I don’t think so. Let’s look at Student Web.
David: OK. Well, we’ve had the radio station and the television station, so I suppose we had to have the website .
Sarah: It’s quite a big website. Look, there are a thousand pages.
David: What sort of things are on it?
Sarah: Well, there’s information about shops and entertainment but there are also features and a news service . They want people to write websites.

David: Writing websites sounds a bit too technical for me.
Sarah: Ah, but they also need people to do some graphics and to write articles .
David: I still don’t think that’s for me. What about you?
Sarah: No, it doesn’t really interest me either. I like the sound of Grapevine, Livewire and Nexus UTV.
David: Yeah, those are the three I’d choose. But we’re only going to have enough time to join one club so let’s go back and look at the information on those three again.
Sarah: OK, first…

SECTION 4

Travel and tourism is the largest industry in the world, but calculating its economic impact is quite difficult. The one thing everybody can agree on, though, is that it’s huge. There are two things which have influenced the growth of tourism. There are firstly-social social factors , and secondly- technology and the way it’s developed . Let’s consider the social factors first of all. Demand for tourism is determined mainly by the amount of wealth a country has, which is why countries such as Japan, Australia, the USA and western European countries have contributed most in terms of tourist numbers in the past. However, growing wealth in developing countries will mean that demand for holidays abroad will take off there in the near future, boosting tourism enormously.

That said, the majority of tourists are still from what are called the developed nations. However, studies show that their number will not rise much further in the next few decades because their populations are fairly stable . As a result there’ll be a growth in the number of retired people who’ll have more time on their hands. This will influence the kind of tourism wanted: fewer skiing holidays will be required, but there’ll be an increase in the number of people wanting to visit art galleries.

Let’s turn now to the second factor in the growth of tourism. The technology that sustains mass tourism today is the jet plane. Air travel has opened up the world. In 1970 , scheduled planes carried 307 million passengers. Today there are four times as many. In fact, Cheaper and more efficient transport has been behind the development of mass tourism from its beginnings in Britain in the 19th century. The first package tours were arranged in 1841 by Thomas Cook, an entrepreneur whose company subsequently became one of the world’s largest tour operators. In his day, it was the railway that allowed his business to flourish.

Today, technology is proving important in other ways as well as in transportation . In the past people went to a travel agent to find and book their holiday. Now many of these people are bypassing the High Street travel agents and booking their holidays themselves on the Internet. Airlines have been keen to encourage this direct approach as it keeps down their costs, and increasingly High Street travel agents are finding their business is disappearing. These days there may be more tourists to go around, but there is also more competition among destinations , as cities, countries and continents all compete for tourist revenue. But becoming a tourist destination is not quite as straightforward as it may. seem. For example, Ireland used to sell itself as a place to enjoy the beautiful countryside. However it soon discovered that it was attracting young student backpackers without any money. So how did Ireland set about increasing revenue from tourism? Well, the Irish Tourist Board came up with the idea of promoting the country’s literature , using the names of writers such as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce to appeal to older, richer tourists who would spend their money in the hotels and restaurants of the country. However, there are other ways of appealing to tourists. The US is dotted with places that claim to be the capital of something or other-sometimes things which may seem rather strange : Crystal City, for example, is the world capital of the vegetable broccoli , and then there’s Gilroy-famous for its garlic. These towns are trading on a single gimmick to attract the tourists.

Festivals are another way to bring them in-literary, food, art they’re all staged for one reason only: to attract tourist revenue. Many a town has sought to copy the success of Stratford, Ontario, which was transformed from a small run-down blue-collar town to a busding cultural centre by the efforts of Tom Patterson, who managed to persuade a British director to stage their first drama festival in 1953 .

But then boosting a city through tourism is nothing new. In 18th Century England, Bath Spa became fashionable after the owners of the hot baths employed Beau Nash, the trend-setter of his day, to promote the city. I want Zto end the lecture there for today. Now, Thank you.