SECTION 1 

SARAH: John, I’ve just had some good news. Susan has had her baby.
JOHN: Do you know when she had it?
SARAH: Yesterday. The tenth of August.
JOHN: Oh, my father was born on August the tenth. Give me the details and I’ll make a 
note for everyone at work.
SARAH: OK.
JOHN: Well, was it a boy or a girl?
SARAH: It’s a boy.
JOHN: And what are they going to call him?
SARAH: Tom. Tom Lightfoot. It sounds quite good, don’t you think?
JOHN: Yes, that has quite a good ring to it.
SARAH: 
JOHN:
You know he’s quite a big baby. He weighed four and a quarter kilos when he 
was born. That does sound big, four and a quarter kilos.
SARAH: And he’s long too, forty-six centimetres.
JOHN: Mmmm. Tall parents. He’ll grow up to be over two metres, I’d say.
SARAH: With masses of black hair, curly black hair. You know, we should go and visit 
them in hospital. What about tomorrow afternoon at around 1 pm?
JOHN: Yes, OK.
SARAH: Where should we meet? ... Ah, I could come and pick you up at your house, if 
you like.
JOHN: Yes, that would be wonderful. My car is still off the road.
SARAH: Just refresh my memory. What’s the address again?
JOHN: It’s 15 Chesterfield Road, Paddington.
SARAH: It’s next to the library, isn’t it?
JOHN: Not exactly. It’s next to a bank. The State Bank actually. The library is opposite 
us, on the corner.
SARAH: That’s right, and there’s a garage on the other street corner. I remember now.
JOHN: So, you’ll pick me up at a quarter to one and we’ll be there at one easily.
SARAH: Now what should we take? We must take them something.
JOHN: I always think flowers are good to take to someone in hospital, don’t you?
SARAH: Well, not really. Everyone always brings flowers and they don’t last. I think it’s 
much better to take a pot plant, so she can take it home with her.
JOHN: Yes, but then she has to remember to water it. What about a big box of 
chocolates?
SARAH: OK, chocolates sound fine. We should get something for the baby too. What do you think?
JOHN: Yes, you’re right. What do you think of something like baby shampoo or talcum 
powder?
SARAH: Or we could get a little hat, or something like that.
JOHN: We don’t know the size, or the right colour, do we?
SARAH: I think we should get something they wouldn’t normally buy. What about a soft 
toy of some sort?
JOHN: Yes, a soft toy.
SARAH: What about a teddy bear?
JOHN: I could get one early tomorrow at the market and I could probably get the 
chocolates there too.
SARAH: Good.
JOHN: So you’ll pick me up at a quarter to one at my place and I’ll make sure that I’ve 
got the presents.
SARAH: You must remember how much you paid for the gifts, so I can pay you back for half. If they’re going to be from both of us, I would like to go shares.
JOHN: OK. I’d say the chocolates would be about $15 for something nice and not too 
small and the toy would be around $35 or so, I’d think.
SARAH: Good, that’ll be fine. About $25 each then. Good, I’ll pick you up then on 
Sunday at twelve forty-five.
JOHN: OK.
SARAH: See you then. Bye.

SECTION 2 

PRESENTER: Good evening. Tonight s show comes to you from the Good Home 
Exhibition in Duke’s Court, where we’ve been trying out some of the latest 
gadgets on show here and getting our resident expert - Liz Shearer - to tell 
us which ones are worth buying and which will die a death.
LIZ SHEARER: Well, hello. Yes, John, I’ve been investigating four new household gadgets and sorting out the advantages and disadvantages and then really deciding 
what are ‘Must buys’, what are ‘Maybe buys’ and what are ‘Never buys’. 
Let’s start with this vacuum flask for keeping drinks hot. Well... I felt this 
had quite a lot going for it, most of all is the fact that it contains no glass
and is therefore unbreakable to all intents and purposes. It’s made of 
stainless steel which is guaranteed for 20 years .. . hope that’s long enough . 
.. and it’s true what the manufacturer claims - that it does maintain heat for 
18 hours. So that’s pretty good. On the down side, it really works out to be 
quite expensive and, much more surprisingly, it unfortunately leaves a 
strange taste . . . you know when you’ve drunk from it... so all in all, my 
recommendation would be it’s got plenty of advantages, but it is rather 
expensive so I’d say you should maybe buy it. Moving on to a natty little 
device .. . the Whistle Key Holder. Basically this is where you whistle and 
the key holder gives off a high pitched noise and flashes light so you can 
find it. One advantage of this model is that it also has a small light. You 
press the button and this means you can find keyholes easily. I also felt the 
small size was a real advantage. On the weaker side, I did find the noise unpleasant. Which I m sure the designers 
could have done something about. And I found that it didn’t work through 
metal, so it’s mainly useful for finding in coat pockets, cushions, etc. But 
taken as a whole I thought it was a masterpiece of design and would 
highly recommend it. 
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The third gizmo is called the Army Flashlight because it was developed 
initially for military use. It works by squeezing the handle to generate the 
power. Its advantages are that it can be used for outside activities, and also 
... and this is one of the surprising features... it does work underwater. My 
main objection to it though was although it did work in these conditions, 
this model gave off a weak light. So my recommendation I’m afraid would 
have to be to avoid this one. The decoy camera was last on my list. This is 
a fake video camera which you fix to your wall to scare off burglars. The 
advantage of this model is something which makes it look very realistic ... 
its flashing light. On the down side, it was quite difficult to fix to the wall. 
However, burglary is such a major problem these days that it is worth the 
effort, so this gets my strong recommendation.
PRESENTER: OK. Thanks for that, Liz.

SECTION 3 

BRYSON: Well, Amina, thanks for letting me have your draft in such good time.
AMINA: Oh, that’s alright. I was just very anxious to hear what you think of it. You can
see that I decided to change the topic - I had been interested in looking at 
Barings Factory.
BRVSON: Oh, I think the hospital was a much better choice. In fact... well... I have to  
say that I thought it was good.
AMINA: Oh?
BRYSON: There’s still lots of work to be done .. .
AMINA: Oh yes ... of course.
BRYSON: But there’s plenty of good ideas. It opens well and the first chapter is fine but 
the middle section really stood out for me ... most interesting.      
AMINA: That’s amazing because I really didn’t find it a bit easy to write .. .       
BRYSON: How long did you work on the whole thing?
AMINA: Well, I spent about two or three weeks reading and doing general research and then I dashed the writing off very quickly ... so about four weeks in all.
BRYSON: Well, that’s about par for the course. You’ve got a while yet to make the 
changes.
AMINA: Oh right... no problem ...
BRYSON: Right. Let’s have a look at my notes here. OK. Starting with section headings ... the broad divisions are good but you’ll have to re-do the actual headings.   
I’ve made some suggestions in the margins ...
AMINA: OK. Thanks.
BRYSON: Now, this information on local housing ... I can see why you put it there but it 
really isn’t relevant to the approach you’ve taken.
AMINA: I think I see what you mean.
BRYSON: Now . . . what did I say about the interviews?
AMINA: I worked very hard on those. I really thought they were valuable.
BRYSON: They are, Amina, but they’re very complex and rather unclear at the moment. 
You’re going to have to spend a bit of time making the data a lot clearer.
AMINA: OK ... as long as 1 don’t have to remove them altogether . . .
BRYSON: No, don’t worry.
AMINA: What about the chronology ... the list of dates? I wasn’t sure whether I should 
rewrite those.
BRYSON: My advice on that is to take them out. I feel it makes the whole piece appear too simplistic.
AMINA: OK, if it’ll help.
BRYSON: Now, there are a couple of other books I’d like you to look at. Have you got a 
pen? Right. . . Approaches to Local History by John Mervis . . .
AMINA: Right.. .
BRYSON: And then I think you need to think about ways of representing interview data. 
Have a look at Sight and Sound by Kate Oakwell.
AMINA: Sight and Sound.
BRYSON: Then you know I’m going away on holiday next week . . .
AMINA: Yes.
BRYSON: So when you’ve made the changes I suggest you show the work to your Support 
Tutor.
AMINA: Support Tutor . . . right. . .
BRYSON: Then you do the proof reading . . .
AMINA: Proof reading . . . uh-huh. When by, do you think?
BRYSON: I’d aim for 29 June and after that you should get it laser printed . . . but be 
careful because the computer centre closes on 10 July.
AMINA: And then I hand it in to ... ?
BRYSON: Oh, the Faculty Office as usual.
AMINA: OK, that’s fine. I think I’m all set now! Thanks very much for all your help.
BRYSON: A pleasure. See you when I get back.
AMINA: Yep. Thanks, Dr Bryson. Bye.
BRYSON: Bye.

SECTION 4 

Good afternoon. I’m Paula Bundell and I am giving you the lectures on Environmental Noise this term. Today we are going to look into the effects of noise on a planned housing estate in a particularly difficult part of the new Manchester Park area. This site is not as bad as some I have researched in the past. The Blacktown airport is closed from 6pm to 7am and this is a great advantage to the site. The only noise after dark
is from the highway and the traffic is somewhat reduced between 7.30pm and 5.30am. So, the people most affected by the noise will be, I expect, housewives. By the time most of the students and workers have arrived back home in the evening during the week the noise will have abated to a fairly large extent. The weekends are still a problem of course, but the traffic is certainly reduced on Saturdays to a large extent and even more so on Sundays. Of course modifications to houses will be necessary at a site like this and they come at a significant cost to the developer and home buyer. The modifications I am about to outline will add about $25,000 to the price of a newly-built house. That will still mean a cheaper house than in a less noisy and more desirable area. A bit of background would not go astray. 
I understand that you are all familiar with the proposed development site at Manchester 
Park. It’s a particularly difficult one in terms of noise with the highway along the eastern 
perimeter and the Blacktown airport not 3 kilometres away to the north. Of course, those nearest the highway will be the worst hit, with heavy traffic noise as well as the noise from the light planes overhead. As you all know, the normal noise threshold for private housing is 55 decibels. At this site the levels have been recorded as high as 67 decibels. 
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The construction of the houses has to be somewhat modified from houses in most areas. In the houses on the highway and in the noisiest areas of this site there will be a need for specialised double glazing and special acoustic seals will have to be fitted to the doors. All exterior doors in this especially noisy pocket will have to be solid core wood doors with hinges. Every house built on this site, not just those adjacent to the highway or nearest to the airport, will require high density insulation materials in the roof. Not only will all the roofs need insulating, the exterior walls will be required to be double brick. All ceilings will require double thickness plaster board to be used in the construction. In the noisiest areas mechanical ventilation will have to be installed in the exterior walls. In those areas with sealed windows it will be necessary to fit fans with absorbers to cut out the noise in those particular houses. Air conditioning units could also be fitted in the ceilings of such houses but this is substantially more expensive than fans, and may not be needed on this site. 
Coming back now to the double glazing I mentioned before. Specialised double glazing 
requires a larger air gap between the inner and outer glass than normal double glazing. The gap must be at least 7 centimetres. The thickness of the glass is also a factor, 8 millimetres on the outside and 6 on the inside pane. It is essential that the glass be thicker on the outside than on the inside and that the gap between the panes of glass be a minimum of 7 centimetres. Obviously, the noise factor will have to be taken into consideration with the layout of the houses. Living areas will have to be designed at the back of the houses away from the highway. Bedrooms and living rooms will have to be built towards the back, and for those houses closest to the highway two layers of plasterboard will be needed for the interior bedroom walls. Those rooms constructed at the front of the houses should be garages, laundries, kitchens, bathrooms and dining rooms. I have come to the conclusion that this development should go ahead, but with various acoustic modifications according to the position of the block in relation to the highway and intersection.

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