Unit 14

Section I

Task 1

Woman: Could you live without a credit card?

Man: Well, that’s a good question. I don’t like owing money. I mean, I never keep a

balance on my credit cards. I pay them off every month. So in that sense, I could live

without one. But I like to travel, and you really need a credit card for that. Like, to

buy airline tickets, right? And I wouldn’t want to carry cash with me everywhere I

went. What if you were going away for two weeks and you needed to pay for

everything in cash? Hotels and things? I don’t think they’d even let you rent a car

without a credit card. Or you could get robbed, and then what would you do? So, no. I

guess I couldn’t live without a credit card.

Task 2

Woman: Do you often buy things you don’t need?

Man: That’s a loaded question! What do you mean by “need”? Let’s just say that I

don’t like a lot of clutter in my life. So I don’t have a lot of things. I’m not a collector.

On the other hand, I’m really picky. So when I do buy something, it has to be “just

right.” I usually shop around until I find exactly what I’m looking for. If it’s

something big, I might even go back to the store a few times before I make up my

mind to buy it. So I’m not an impulse buyer. I never get home with something I just

bought, take it out of the bag, and say to myself, “Whoa! Why did I buy that?”

Task 3

Woman: Have you ever gotten upset because you lost or broke something valuable?

Man: Well, one time I lost my watch. I was in Puerto Rico on vacation. I was having

really great time, and to tell you the truth, I have no idea when I lost it. It must have

been at the beach. I looked all over, retraced my steps and everything. But it was gone.

Anyway, it was a great watch from the 1950s. Vintage. One of a kind. I got it in Paris,

and people used to compliment me on it all the time. I really, really liked it. So yeah, I

was pretty upset. And you know what made it worse? I didn’t lose the watch until the

very last day of the vacation. So I’m still wearing it in all of the photos we took on the

trip. I still can’t look at those pictures without feeling bad all over again.

Section II

Task 1

Katie: So, um, you know my aunt sadly passed away recently. We, um, she's given my

brother and I some inheritance . . .

Vince: OK.

Katie: . . . And I've decided to buy a flat!

Vince: Wow!

Katie: It's quite exciting, isn't it?

Emily: Oh, my God, what? Outright?

Katie: Yeah, well, well I've got the money for a deposit so, I can stay in London which

is what I've always wanted to do.

Emily: Oh, Kate, that's amazing.

Katie: And um, yeah, look for a flat.

Emily: So what, are you gonna get a mortgage?

Katie: Yeah. I know—proper grown-up.

Vince: Yeah, wow, OK. That's uh . . .

Emily: Oh, that's so not fair!

Katie: Why? I think it's a great idea.

Emily: Yeah, no, it is, if you've got the money to do it though. I mean, I don't know I

can't. I'm never going to be able to afford a place of my own.

Katie: Of course, you will. You'll be able to save and you know, perhaps . . .

Emily: You can't though. Unless you've got, unless you've got a lump sum, you can't

buy anything.

Vince: The way I see it is, if you're young and you live in London, what's the . . . then

why not rent, you know? The young haven't got any ties . . .

Emily: 'Cause it's totally different if you've got a house you own and then . . . It's . . .

you've got free rein, haven't you? What's the point in just paying rent into something

that just goes into nothing.

Katie: And you can do what you want with your own house you know. You don't have

to worry about . . .

Vince: Yeah, but what if you . . .

Katie: . . . Hammering . . . Walls.

Emily: Yeah, decorating! Oh, yeah, you can decorate it properly. What?

Vince: What if you get a job where you have to work overseas? What if you get a job,

you know, where an opportunity comes up where you can work overseas. And you

know, then you're stuck.

Emily: Yeah, but then you can rent it out. So then you're making the money for it.

Vince: Yeah, I suppose you could. I'm just saying, right now it—it's something I

wanna do but right now, I'm . . .

Emily: But that's 'cause, that's 'cause you haven't got the means to do it. If you've just

been given money like Kate has, you would, wouldn't you, you'd invest?

Vince: I'm not sure, I'm not sure.

Emily: I would.

Vince: Maybe, I might throw it in a savings account, but I don't know if I'd definitely

get a place right now.

Emily: No! 'Cause if you get, if you buy it and that's it. That's yours. So if you've got

to sell it again, you can. But you, you know that you've got it to . . . you can either

rent it out or you can resell it. It's just . . .

Vince: Hmm . . . I, I guess I'd just feel tied down if I had a mortgage and everything

now, if like, if the boiler broke, then I'd have to fix the boiler, but now, it's like the

landlord, I say: "landlord, it's broken, could you fix it"?

Katie: But wouldn't you like to live on your own?

Vince: Yeah, but it doesn't bother me living with people at the moment. So it's nice to

come in and there'll be people there. And "hi", I have a little conversation.

Emily: Are they your mates?

Vince: Well no, not always. Sometimes it's random. Like I'm living with random at

the moment. Like people I don't, I didn't know previously, so . . .

Emily: You see I really, I'm past that now. I’ve kind of, I've done the student thing, of

living with people just and you know, making friends as you live with them, but then,

it comes to the point where you've been doing that for years and it's just really nice

just to go home and make a cup of tea and not somebody come in and have to and

have to be polite. Do you know what I mean?

Katie: You grow out of it, I think you grow out of it, don't you? You really do grow

out of renting, um, with people that aren't your friends.

Emily: And also . . . I was gonna say, if you're moving in with Alex or something, you

know with your partner, then it's one thing because you don't, you, you respect each

other's space, don't you? But if it's people you're not quite friends with . . . but you're

friends enough with you just have to—it's like walking on eggshells. You can't just

ever relax and I don't . . . oh, I just, oh, I'm so jealous, I really am.

Vince: It depends what you wanna do though.

Katie: I agree.

Vince: I mean, if you wanna go and walk around your house naked or like I don't

know, just do crazy things, and I don't know, just like . . . I don't know it just seems

like . . .

Emily: No, just . . .

Katie: Just coexisting with people, you do it every day.

Emily: Yeah, but I don't want to. That's the whole point. I mean if I had the chance

to . . . I . . . like Katie has, to have my own house, and buy it now, I wouldn't even

think about it, and I can't, I can't believe that you wouldn't.

Vince: I think it's more of a case of, I don't know, if I want to put down roots in this

country. I mean, I love London, but I haven't made up my mind what I wanna . . . I

want to put down roots somewhere obviously because I can't be like a traveler just

aimlessly roaming the world . . .

Emily: Yeah.

Vince: . . . But I think where I am at the moment is, just kind of like the idea of, of

anchoring myself somewhere is, uh, is slightly scary.

Task 2

Rhiannon: So, I've just come back from speaking to Mark and he's approved my

sabbatical.

Katie: So . . .

Rhiannon: So I'm going.

Katie: For how long?

Rhiannon: Three months: January, February, March. So I'll finish at Christmas and

then I won't go back until the beginning of April.

Kevin: Where are you going?

Rhiannon: I'm gonna go to India. I haven't completely firmed it up, but yeah, that's the

plan.

Katie: To India? Wow. That's just so different though.

Rhiannon: Well, yeah, that's kind of the point.

Kevin: It's for how long?

Rhiannon: Three months.

Kevin: You're going to India for three months?

Rhiannon: Yeah. That's the idea, yeah. And then I fly—all I know is I'll fly to

Bangladesh.

Kevin: Yeah.

Rhiannon: And I'll stay a few nights there. And then I'll see how it goes and go from

there.

Katie: Wow that's just so . . . The culture's just so different. How long's the flight?

Rhiannon: I don't know, eight hours or something? I'm not sure, but I like flying. It's

good.

Katie: Oh, my god.

Kevin: You're gonna get like food poisoning. I mean, that's . . .

Rhiannon: No, I won’t, I’ll just…you know.

Kevin: The food's just so hot . . .

Rhiannon: The food's lovely. That's part of the reason I want to go. I'm going to do a

cooking course in Kerala . . .

Kevin: Yeah.

Rhiannon: . . . And I'm gonna do a diving course in possibly Kerala or Goa as well.

Doesn't that just sound amazing? Wouldn't you do it?

Katie: Gosh, you're so brave. I just much prefer what I know and love going to—I go

to Cornwall every year. (Laughs)

Kevin: Really? Really?

Katie: And that's it. I just love it, I know what to expect. I know that usually we get

nice weather in the Summer so we just potter around by the beach . . .

Rhiannon: Don't you need to see new things?

Kevin: No. No, I hate going on holiday?

Katie: I'm not very good at traveling.

Rhiannon: Do you?

Kevin: I do. It's just . . .

Rhiannon: When was your last holiday?

Kevin: Uh, well, I guess when I came to this country. That was probably the last time.

I just don't wanna ever go anywhere else. I'm cool here, man, I like it here. And I . . .

Rhiannon: But don't you want some sunshine? And some change of scene?

Kevin: Oh, there's plenty—it's sunny right now. It's sunny outside right now. It's great.

I go to the park. Uh, you know.

Rhiannon: But what about . . .

Kevin: I just don't wanna go anywhere. I was…I went on a holiday once.

Rhiannon: Uh huh.

Kevin: Uh, huh. To…It was Italy, that’s what it was.

Rhiannon: Lovely.

Kevin: I didn't speak the language, I got lost, I got mugged.

Rhiannon: Did you?

Kevin: My stuff got stolen. It was, I got food poisoning—it was awful.

Rhiannon: But this is the stuff of life. Do you know what I mean? This stuff happens.

Kevin: It was terrible.

Rhiannon: There must have been good things in it as well, like eating an amazing

pizza on like a gorgeous little windy street. Um, you know.

Kevin: No, 'cause I can't speak the language, so . . .

Katie: But when you can't speak the language, I just think, stick with what you know.

I mean the UK's got loads of places that you could go to and, you know . . .

Rhiannon: Yeah and I do, but I also think it's amazing to go somewhere where you

haven't got a clue what's gonna happen. Like the next minute, or the next hour, or the

next day. You don't know who you're gonna meet, you don't know where you could

end up the next week.

Katie: So, you haven't planned it?

Rhiannon: Well, know that's kind of how it goes.

Katie: So you don't know where you're staying?

Rhiannon: I'll probably go to a hostel, because then I'll meet people. I mean I've done

it a lot, you know. I was away, I did Asia last year, and I met some amazing people

and you just kind of, you know, meet people from all over the world. So you travel

with people from Holland, or from Belgium, or you know, so you're not just in

another country but you're with other people from other countries.

Katie: So you quite happily travel around with people you don’t know?

Rhiannon: Yeah. You'll know them quick enough. Do you know what I mean? It's the

fastest way of getting to know other people.

Kevin: Really? Well, yeah, they could…you don’t know who they are. They could be

anybody, they could be sociopaths, they could be psychopaths, they could be

anything.

Rhiannon: They never have been so far.

Kevin: Yeah, so far. You don't know.

Rhiannon: I've had an amazing time. So do you, do you not go on holiday at all?

Kevin: No, I don't need to. I don't need to. I've got everything I want right here.

Rhiannon: So you never . . .

Katie: So you'd rather stay at home rather than go on holiday?

Kevin: Yep.

Rhiannon: What would you do? What do you do? When you're not at work?

Kevin: Um, I read a book, DIY, watch some movies . . .

Rhiannon: You must really love this country.

Kevin: I do.

Rhiannon: (Laughs)

Kevin: It's good. I go out and . . .

Katie: But how often do you go home then? 'Cause this is almost like a holiday, isn't it?

Living abroad?

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it's kinda, maybe that's kinda how I see it. I don't know. I go home

like every couple months, to see the family but, I mean this is kind of, why would I

want to go anywhere else?

Katie: Surely, Canada's nicer than the UK?

Kevin: Yeah, it's really nice, yeah.

Rhiannon: I'd love to do a Canada trip actually. And do like a road trip around

America and stuff. It'd be amazing.

Katie: I don't know if I could do the flight. It's like eight hours.

Kevin: Yeah, it is a long flight.

Katie: Longer than that.

Rhiannon: Yeah, but you've got films and food and people to chat to and . . . do you

know what I mean? Do you not like getting on an aeroplane? It's the most exciting

thing.

Katie: No, I don't, I can't do aeroplanes.

Rhiannon: Really?

Katie: I just don't like the idea of being in the air and not being able to get out. It's just

a bit claustrophobic.

Section III

Allan: Er, my name's Allan Brigham, I live in Cambridge. I came to Cambridge thirty

years ago. I came to see a friend um, I had no intention of staying here, I just wanted

to earn some money and move on. Um, and the only job I could get was sweeping the

streets. Um, I thought I was going to do it for six months, and thirty years later I'm

still here. Er, I needed an extra job—it doesn't pay a lot of money and I saw people

taking tourists round and I thought maybe I can have a go at that.

I think if I'd known what was involved I'd have never have done it. I, I trained as

a guide, which took a year. Um, and now I show visitors around in my spare time, so I

show visitors around telling them how beautiful Cambridge is, and I sweep up the

rubbish. And sometimes the rubbish in Cambridge is pretty gross. It's both. It's a

beautiful city and it's a gross city; it's a man-made city and I think I'm very lucky to

live here now.

I get up at, er, quarter to five in the morning which is, uh, the biggest struggle.

Especially in winter, er, I have to be in work at six so I'm in the town centre here with

my colleagues, clearing up the city centre. And we have to get it clear before

everybody comes to work. I start on the market square. I started . . . This is where I

first started work, thirty years ago—cleaning the market because we have to get this

clear before all the store holders arrive. And some of these stalls—it takes two to three

hours to set them up, to arrange all the fruit and vegetables so we get this clear at six

o'clock and then we move on to the rest of the town.

The rubbish has got worse over the years. When I started, fish and chips were

wrapped up in newspaper. Now they seem to be wrapped up in polystyrene boxes and

packaging and advertising material, and the number of take-aways has grown from

one to about every other shop I should think.

I've always been interested in how . . . ordinary people's lives. I think the history

you study for a degree is about kings and queens and politicians which is interesting,

but I've always found it more interesting—just how did ordinary people get on and

lead their lives. Yeah.