Spotlight_Audio_2011-05_Booklet.pdf

Spotlight Audio

Das Hörmagazin für Englisch

LANGUAGE

Better e-mails

in English

TRAVEL

The wilds of

New York state

5/11 www.spotlight-online.de

Spotlight Audio 5/2011

So finden Sie sich in jeder Metropole zurecht.

Introduction

[1] David: Welcome to the May 2011 edition of

Spotlight Audio. I’m David Creedon from

Britain...

Anne: ...and I’m Anne Alexander Sieder from

the United States. Join us now for a 60-minute

expedition around the English-speaking world

— with stories, language tips and exercises.

David: Do you want to write better e-mails in

English? In our language feature, you’ll learn

important vocabulary and useful phrases to

make your e-mails the best they can be.

Anne: Our travel feature takes us to the Adiron-

dack Park in New York state, a place of both lux-

ury and isolated wilderness.

David: Also in this edition, you’ll hear our regu-

lar columns from Britain and Australia, learn

how to talk about exams, and enjoy an original

short story. If you’d like to read along, you can

find all the texts in your audio booklet.

say they’ve found a new, more effective way of

helping animals that have been involved in oil

spills.

David: In the very first sentence, you’ll hear the

term “dinner jacket”. This is what Germans call a

Smoking — a black jacket worn by men on for-

mal occasions.

Anne: Also listen for the words “plumage” and

“waddle”. “Plumage” is another word for a bird’s

feathers. And to waddle is to walk like a duck:

taking short steps and moving your body back

and forth.

Schnell und einfach fit

in Englisch!

Mit dem Sprachmagazin Spotlight

verbessern Sie Ihr Englisch für

Urlaub, Alltag oder Job.

Penguins naturally look as if they’re wearing lit-

tle dinner jackets, and as with a suit made from

sensitive textiles, dry-cleaning may be the best

way to help when the birds come into contact

with oil spills.

The Age reports that researchers John Orbell

from Victoria University and Peter Dann from

Phillip Island Nature Park are testing a new

method for cleaning oil from the birds’ feath-

ers.

“It’s essentially a dry-cleaning process that

we’re developing,” Professor Orbell said. “It’s

Testen Sie jetzt die aktuelle

Ausgabe kostenlos!

www.spotlight-online.de/probe

World View

[2] Cleaning up

dry-cleaning

chemische Reinigung

Anne: We’ll start with a story from Spotlight ’s

World View section. Researchers in Australia

oil spill

Ölkatastrophe; Ölteppich

read along

mitlesen

more benign than detergents, which can be

quite damaging to plumage.”

Typical methods for washing oil from birds can

damage the feather structure in ways that the

dry-cleaning method does not. Using the new

method, penguins are first dusted with oil-

absorbing iron powder. The powder and oil are

then removed using a magnet. Afterwards, the

powder can be separated from the oil and used

again.

“Penguins are robust, but they are also quite

vulnerable because they waddle around

through oil spills and, not being able to fly, they

get the oil on their plumage,” Orbell said. “It’s

quite a serious problem.”

Source: Spotlight 5/2011, page 11

Robert Trejo:

They’re stimulated all the time, so [for] these

animals it’s not just school when they come

here. They also get to play. They exercise. There

is a lot of socialization within these groups, and

we’re also part of that socialization. So when

they see us first thing in the morning, they say,

“Oh, there’s Robert!” “Oh,” you know, “now we’re

going to have some fun!” And that’s our job, is to

make sure that every day is something different.

And that’s part of our training, is that we don’t

want to make this a very predictable job,

because once you get into a routine it becomes

boring for the animal and the trainer. So our job

is to make sure that we are always thinking of

new ideas for them — new things to interact

with. We make sure that their brain is always

awake and doing, learning something new.

and learn about ’em and just be able to physi-

cally be around ’em. The other part is being

able to see how people react to them. When

people come and see an animal and you see a

smile on their face because they’ve met an ani-

mal that you work with every day, it’s easy to

take something like this for granted. It’s easy to

forget about it. But when you see people come

in who’ve never encountered this and you

make their day, I think that’s the part of my day

that I smile about — when people come in and

are happy to be here.

David: Debt is money you must pay back to

someone after borrowing it. True or false? ...

Anne: True. Debt is money you owe someone.

The word has a silent “b” — it’s spelled D-E-B-T.

David: If you are hard up, you have lots of

money but refuse to spend any of it. True or

false? ...

Anne: False. “Hard up” means that you don’t

have much money.

David: Good job! Enjoy the column now. It’s

read by Nick Lloyd from Britain.

See Spotlight 5/2011, pages 8–9

Britain is going to be different. We’re going to

be a “Big Society”. That’s what David Cameron

tells us. It’s his political dream.

Politicians seem to like slogans and labels, even

if their meaning isn’t clear. John Major’s slogan

— “Back to Basics” — was a big joke. Tony Blair’s

“Third Way” was difficult to understand. Will

the current programme be any different?

Britain Today

[4] What’s the big idea?

A Day in My Life

[3] Robert Trejo

David: In the next segment, you’ll hear Robert

use two interesting phrases: he talks about

“taking something for granted” and “making

someone’s day”. If you take something for

granted, you accept it the way it is without

thinking about it. And if you make someone’s

day, you make that person happy.

Anne: Here we go! Julian, our correspondent, has

just asked what Robert likes best about his job.

David: We’ll take a look at politics now, with our

British columnist Colin Beaven. Prime Minister

David Cameron has big plans for British society,

but Colin isn’t so sure that society really needs

these changes.

Anne: Colin talks quite a bit about money. You’ll

hear the terms “salary,” “debt,” and “hard up.”

Before we listen to the column, let’s check to

see if you know what these mean.

David: Your salary is the amount of money you

earn. True or false? ...

Anne: True. You might talk about your monthly

or your yearly salary.

benign

hier: weniger aggressiv

David: In our A Day in My Life section, we’ll hear

about more sea creatures. Correspondent

Julian Earwaker went to SeaWorld in San Anto-

nio, Texas, and spoke with an animal trainer

named Robert Trejo. We have two excerpts

from his interview for you here.

Anne: Robert works with sea lions, dolphins,

and whales. In our first excerpt from the inter-

view, he talks about keeping the animals inter-

ested and happy.

damaging

schädigend

detergent

chemisches Waschmittel

’em = them

encounter

hier: erleben

exercise

üben, trainieren

interact

interagieren, kommunizieren

owe

schulden

plumage

Federkleid

predictable

vorhersehbar

Well, I think there [are] two parts to that. I think

one is being able to interact with the animals

directly, being able to communicate with them

quite a bit

ziemlich viel

vulnerable

ungeschützt, gefährdet

whale

Wal

The prime minister’s “Big Society” isn’t a place

where people try to eat more and more choco-

late and hamburgers. It’s a place where local

people take the initiative and organize their own

community. They don’t wait for the government

to do it for them. The idea is that when some-

thing needs doing, local people know best.

Currently it’s the government, either central or

local, that organizes most public services. The

people who run our schools, hospitals, libraries

and so on work in the public sector.

Conservative politicians prefer to see things

done by the private sector, by people who want

to make money, or by the voluntary sector, in

which people mostly work for nothing.

Britain’s voluntary sector does fantastic work.

There are countless charities that run activities

for children with special needs, or that help

people who’ve been in prison to find jobs. Mr

Cameron wants a system in which these chari-

ties can offer their services more widely —

using government money.

But hang on: we keep hearing that the govern-

ment doesn’t have any money. Across the UK,

jobs are being lost in the public sector — in

children’s services, social services, town halls

and so on. Why? Because central government

has cut the money it gives local government,

so now local government can’t afford to pay as

many salaries.

Central government says it had no choice. It

argues that the previous government under

Gordon Brown was spending money like water,

leaving behind debts — big debts.

So if central government’s so hard up, where

will Mr Cameron get the money to make soci-

ety bigger? It’ll come from the “Big Society

Bank”, using some of the billions that sit

unclaimed in bank accounts across Britain. A

new bank? Some would say that’s the last thing

we need.

What’s so wrong with local government any-

way? After all, it’s local; that ought to be posi-

tive in David Cameron’s eyes. Local govern-

ment already has a professional workforce with

lots of experience.

Well, not only do Conservative politicians not

like the public sector, they really don’t like it

when it’s local government. Margaret Thatcher

abolished the Greater London Council back in

1986 because it was local, big and anti-

Margaret Thatcher.

So is Mr Cameron another Iron Lady? If his big

idea is accepted as today’s ideology, one really

hopes it doesn’t lead to the mass unemploy-

ment that Thatcher’s ideas caused. But the

number of those without jobs has been rising.

It’s one in five among young people. That

sounds more like a big disaster than like a big

society.

In theory, lots of new small businesses will

grow, so the private sector will create jobs to

replace the ones the public sector is losing.

Let’s hope that’s right. The voluntary sector

does great work, but there’s a limit to the

amount of time you can ask people to spend

working for nothing.

Source: Spotlight 5/2011, page 13

[6] Up in the Adirondacks (excerpt)

David: To begin our time in the Adirondack

Park, Anne will read us an excerpt from the

travel feature in Spotlight magazine. Ready?

Travel: The Adirondacks

[5] Introduction

Today, I am on top of the world. Pilot Tom

Helms is flying me high above the Adirondack

Park in northern New York state. Below us,

reflecting the sunlight like little mirrors, are

numerous lakes and ponds. Around them is a

deep carpet of trees. The mountainous land-

scape looks so soft that I can imagine stepping

out onto it.

David: This month’s travel feature takes us to

New York — but not New York City. We’re fol-

lowing Spotlight deputy editor Claudine Weber-

Hof on a journey to the Adirondack Park in

northern New York state.

Anne: The Adirondacks aren’t nearly as well-

known as parks such as Yellowstone and

Yosemite, but this area has a fascinating histo-

ry and is well worth a visit. A hundred years

ago, the very rich traveled <to the Adirondacks

to enjoy life at “Great Camps” — luxurious holi-

day homes set in the isolated wilderness.

David: In the next tracks, you can learn more

about this part of New York. You’ll hear an

excerpt from the travel article “Up in the

Adirondacks” and then listen to an interview

about what the park reveals about American

attitudes to nature. Listen closely, because

Anne and I will give you a quiz to test your lis-

tening comprehension on track 8.

abolish

abschaffen

after all

schließlich

billion

Milliarde(n)

charity

wohltätige Organisation

children with special

Kinder mit besonderem

needs

Förderbedarf

deputy editor

stellvertretende(r) Chefredak-

teur(in)

Greater London

ehemalige oberste Verwal-

Council

tungsbehörde Londons

hang on ifml.

Moment mal

listening

Hörverständnis

comprehension

pond

Teich, Weiher

reveal

verraten, offenbaren

run

betreiben; veranstalten

town hall

Rathaus

unclaimed

nicht in Anspruch genom-

men, nicht benutzt

voluntary

ehrenamtlich

workforce

Erwerbsbevölkerung

Tom turns the seaplane to one side so I can see

all of Long Lake. Down on the water, two jet-

skiers zigzag about. A grand holiday home

comes into view, but the land next to it reveals

a different kind of building activity: a beaver

dam. From up in the sky, the fallen trees look

like a woodworking job left in chaos. Tom taps

the plane’s fuel gauge to get my attention.

“Guess we should land,” he jokes.

As he lowers the plane onto Long Lake, Tom

tells me that the Adirondack Park is a big exper-

iment. Half the land is protected as “forever

wild” by the constitution of New York state. The

other half is in private hands. Ever since the

park was established in 1892, people have

watched to see whether the two parts — nature

and the 130,000 people who call the park

home — can live in harmony. Today, conserva-

tionists still consider the Adirondacks a living

laboratory.

At six million acres, this “laboratory” is the size

of a small state. A five-hour drive from Manhat-

tan, it is also, by American standards, easy to

access. Getting to the park took much longer in

the late 19th century — 30 hours by train and

coach. And because of its isolation, only the

rich could afford a visit to the playground in the

wild.

Tom and I climb out of the plane and onto the

dock. As I pay my bill, Tom makes a recom-

mendation: take a tour of Great Camp Sag-

amore, the holiday home of the Vanderbilts. In

fact, I already have a reservation to stay at the

summer home once owned by the famous rail-

road millionaires.

As I drive away from Long Lake, I consider the

Adirondacks in detail. The park has 2,800 lakes

and ponds and 2,400 kilometers of river —

including the source of the Hudson, the great

river that gives New York City its drinking water.

The park is also very biodiverse. Ninety percent

of the species native to America’s Northeast are

represented here. And, even more impressive,

it is the largest park of any kind — state, nation-

al, or otherwise — in the continental US.

Source: Spotlight 5/2011, pages 28–33

protected land in the world — and half is small

towns and villages.

I think Sagamore probably best represents the

conflicted attitudes that Americans have

toward nature. We in many ways have a deep

connection with nature, but we enjoy some of

the comforts of modern society, and, you know,

people can come to places like the Adirondacks,

which are probably in some ways more wild

than they were a hundred years ago. You know,

much of the Adirondack Park has been recover-

ing from logging for over a hundred years. The

Adirondack Park was established in 1892, so

much of the forest preserve has now been

recovering for more than a hundred years. Sag-

amore is intact architecturally, so you can get a

very good appreciation for both Gilded Age his-

tory [and] rustic architecture in America in the

19th century, which continues today; but at the

same time, you can see the best attempt that

America, I think, has made to try and find the

balance between nature and the demands of

people: the balance between modern technolo-

gy, modern industry, modern life and our deep

desire to reconnect with the natural world.

David: Ready to go? Here’s our first question.

When was the Adirondack Park established?

a) 1802, b) 1892, or c) 1922? ...

Anne: b) 1892.

David: There used to be logging in the Adiron-

dacks. True or false? ...

Anne: True.

David: How many people live in the Adirondack

Park? a) 3,000, b) 30,000, or c) 130,000? ...

Anne: c) 130,000.

David: What is the name of the river that gives

New York City its drinking water? a) The Hud-

son, b) the Mississippi, or c) the Rio Grande? ...

Anne: a) The Hudson.

acre

Morgen (ca. 0,4 ha)

[7] Interview with Jeff Flagg

appreciation

Verständnis

beaver

Biber

biodiverse

artenvielfältig

David: At Camp Sagamore, where the famous

aristocratic Vanderbilt family used to spend their

summers, we meet local professor Jeff Flagg.

Here’s his perspective on the Adirondack Park in

general and Camp Sagamore in particular.

coach

Pferdekutsche

conflicted

gegensätzlich

conservationist

Umweltschützer(in)

demand

Bedarf

desire

Verlangen, Wunsch

fuel gauge

Kraftstoffanzeige

Gilded Age

Blütezeit der amerikanischen

Wirtschaft (1870–1898)

Jeff Flagg:

Well, the Adirondack Park is a unique system in

[terms of] the fact that there’s nothing quite

like it in America, and maybe nothing quite like

it in the world, as far as being a large protected

area that includes both people and nature. So

half of the park is constitutionally protected

forest preserve — probably the most strongly

intact

unberührt

logging

Abholzung

perspective

Ansicht, Sichtweise

[8] Adirondacks quiz

preserve

Schutzgebiet

reconnect with

wieder in Verbindung treten mit

recover

sich erholen

Anne: David and I will test you on the Adiron-

dacks now. You might want to go back and listen

to tracks 6 and 7 again before starting the quiz.

rustic

ländlich

tap

leicht klopfen auf

unique

einzigartig

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