Upper-intermediat 5tudenf Book

2 I get invited to talk to teachers all around the
world, and this time I was in Mexico giving a talk
to some English teachers. Though I say it myself, I
think I'm a good speaker and usually the
audiences enjoy my talks and are interested in
what I'm saying. But after about ten minutes, I
realized that something was wrong. The audience
weren't laughing at my jokes and some people
were looking very unhappy. Then I saw several
people get up and walk out of the hall. 1 just
couldn't work out what was going on. I'd given a
presentation there the year before and the
audience had been really enthusiastic. In the end,
I just stopped and asked them. 'Is anything the
matter? You don't seem to be enjoying this.' And
one teacher said 'Actually the problem is that you
gave exactly the same talk last year, so we've heard
it all before'. I didn't really know what to do at this
point. I just apologized profusely and invited the
people who had already heard the talk to leave,
which, unfortunately, was almost everybody.
3 I was giving a presentation to a rather serious
group of businessmen in Germany. They listened
politely for 45 minutes, and at the end I asked for
any questions. Nobody said anything. Then a
young man stood up and said to me, 'Sir, you are
open.' I looked down at my trousers and realized
that 1 was.
4 I had to give a talk to some students at Imperial
College in London. It's the science and technology
department of London University, so 1 didn't
think there would be any problems with the
equipment. I'd seen the auditorium before and it
was a nice room, good sound and screen, etc. But
as soon as I began my talk, people started
complaining that they couldn't see the slides -
there was something wrong with the projector
and the screen was too dark. So I started touching
keys on my laptop, and I don't know what I did,
but I managed to delete the whole presentation.
So there 1 was with no presentation notes at all,
nothing, and I had to improvise from what I
could remember. It was all very embarrassing,l
must say.
5 I had to give a business presentation to a company
in Paris, and after I'd got there and checked into
my hotel, I thought I'd go for a walk as it was such
a beautiful day and I had plenty of time. My talk
wasn't until one o'clock and 1 was well prepared.l
was strolling along by the river enjoying the
sunshine when I noticed that several people at the
cafes were already having lunch. I thought it was a
bit early for lunch and I checked my watch - it
was only a quarter to twelve. And then I suddenly
realized that I'd forgotten to change my watch.
The UK is one hour behind France, so that meant
it was in fact quarter to one. My presentation was
supposed to start in 15 minutes' time. I
desperately looked for a taxi to take me first back
to my hotel and then to the company's offices
where I was going to give the presentation. I finally
arrived 20 minutes late and very stressed - and the
worst thing of all was that the tide of the talk r was
giving was 'How to manage your time better!'
6.9 Interviewer What advice would you give
to someone visiting London for the first time?
Sebastian It's often said that London is a city of
villages, for example, Hampstead, even Chelsea,
were aJl villages in the past; so take some time to
get to know the village you are staying in before
you start to explore the famous sights.
Interviewer What's the one thing you would say
someone visiting London should do or see?
Sebastian Outdoors: walk up Parliament Hill - you
get far and away the best view over the city.
Indoors: the British Museum. When you see what
the people of ancient times were capable of, it
makes you feel humble about the achievement~ of
our own age.
Interviewer And what's the best place to have your
photo taken?
Sebastian I've always liked the classic view of the
Houses of Parliament either from Westminster
Bridge or from the other side of the river.
Interviewer What's your favourite landmark?
Sebastian St Paul's Cathedral. It is so hidden-away
that when you catch your first sight of it, it's
always a thrill. You just turn a corner and
suddenly there it is.
Interviewer What's the best place to watch the
sunset?
Sebastian Well, the views from the bridges are
always spectacular. I imagine the London Eye, by
Waterloo Bridge, would be a good spot, but I am
ashamed to say I have never been on it. And on a
summer evening I like the roof garden of The
Trafalgar Hotel just off Trafalgar Square - you can
watch the city lights come on as the sun sets.
Interviewer What's the best place to be at dawn?
Sebastian In the summer, almost anywhere. I love
the city when it's completely deserted in the early
morning light. One of my favourite places to be at
that time is the all-night bagel shop on Brick
Lane. I love queuing on the pavement outside for
a salmon and cream cheese bagel in the early
morning, because then it means I must have been
out all night doing something fun or interesting.
But in winter the best place to be at dawn is in
bed - definitely!
Interviewer What would be a good thing to do on a
scorching hot day?
Sebastian Getting a boat on the Serpentine or in
Battersea Park is one of my favourite things, and
another of my favourite places, the Lqndon
Aquarium, is somewhere where you can escape
from the heat into a world of water and air
conditioning.
Interviewer What's a good thing to do which is
absolutely free?
Sebastian Walking in the parks. London's parks
deserve their fame. I love walking in Hyde Park. It
aJways reminds me of my childhood - I have
memories of feeding the squirrels there.
Interviewer What do you think is the most
romantic place in London?
Sebastian In Kensington, Knightsbridge, and
Chelsea, residential squares have enclosed gardens.
They're magical places at any time of day, like
secret gardens, but at night you can often hear
nightingales singing - they're the only birds that
sing at night. It's very romantic.
6.11 Presenter And tonight on the book
programme we're reviewing a book called Did you
spot the gorilla? by Dr Richard Wiseman, who's an
expert on creative thinking. With us tonight to .'
talk ahout this book is Steven Hutchinson, a
freelance journalist. So Steven, what exactly is Dr
Wiseman's main message?
Steven Well, Dr Wiseman's theory is that most
people don't think creatively because they
concentrate so hard on the small, specific job that
they are working on that they don't see the bigger
picture. That's what the gorilla experiment proves.
Presenter What was the gorilla experiment?
Steven Well, a study was carried out by Daniel
Simons and Christopher Chabris at Harvard
University in 1999. He got volunteers to watch a
45-second film of people playing basketball. There
were two teams. One team were wearing black T­
shirts and the other team were wearing white
ones. He gave the volunteers a simple task: they
just had to count the number of passes made by
the white team. Afterwards, he asked them how
many passes they had counted and most people
got the answer right. Then he asked them if they
had seen anything unusual and at least half of
them said no. And that's really amazing. Because
during the film, while the two teams were playing
basketball, a woman dressed as a gorilla walked
onto the court and she beat her chest at the
camera, and then slowly walked off the court. And
half the volunteers just didn't see it!
Presenter That's incredible. Why not?
Steven Because they were so busy trying to count
the passes that they didn't notice the gorilla! Dr
Wiseman repeated this experiment many times
and the result was always the same. In fact, he
actually tried it on a group of top British scientists
and not one of them saw the gorilla.
Presenter How extraordinary!
6.12 Steven The gorilla experiment is a perfect
demonstration that we normally only focus on
what we're looking for, and don't see outside it, so
we sometimes miss really important discoveries
which are right in front of us, we just don't see
them. That's why when something is invented
people often say, 'Why didn't anybody think of
that before?' - well, they didn't because they didn't
think creatively.
Presenter Dr Wiseman gives some examples of
people who he says are creative thinkers, doesn't
he?
Steven Yes, people like the man who invented PostitTM
notes. He was actually trying to develop a
really strong kind of glue, but he could only
manage to make a very weak one. But instead of
just thinking, 'Oh that's no good' he actually
thought of a way of using the weak glue to make
Post-itTM notes, notes that would stick to
something but not too much. Or the man who set
up Ikea, the furniture company - I mean for years
people had been wanting cheap furniture that was
well designed, but nobody did it. Or the idea of
cheap air travel. People just accepted that it was
impossible. But then somebody said 'It is possible,
and I'm going to do it'. And that's how we got
low-cost airlines like easyJet.
Presenter Can we make ourselves creative thinkers?
Steven Yes, Dr Wiseman has lots of tips on how we
can become more creative. One of the things he
recommends is to try to do the opposite of what
you normally do. For example, he told a group of
journalists to try to think of articles that nobody
would find interesting - he said that from that,
possibly a brilliant idea for something interesting
will come up. His book is full of tips - it's really
worth reading.
Presenter Has he had any 'Eureka' moments himself?
Steven Yes, actually he's thought up a great idea for
book lovers. His idea is to print a book which
contains the first chapters of 15 other different
books. This book has a book token in the back, a
voucher that you can use to buy another book.
The idea is that you read the beginnings and then
choose which book you want to read more of and
buy it with the book token.
Presenter What a great idea! That's creative thinking
for you.
6.16 Interviewer John Bigos is the managing
director of London Duck Tours Limited. This
company use Ducks, renovated World War II
amphibious vehicles, which can travel on land and
water. What makes a Duck tour better than a
normal sightseeing tour?
John What makes Duck tours more interesting in
terms of the tour as opposed to other tours is the
ability to be able to go on the land and the river in
one tour at the same time. That has a great benefit
for all our clients. We also have a very small vessel
which only takes 30 people and that allows you to
have much more intimate relationship with your
clients, which makes it a wonderful experience,
which you don't get when you go all ordinary,
pre-determined computerized tours.
Interviewer Some people might say that taking
tourists on such a busy river is a bit dangerous.
Have you ever had any accidents?
John In terms of accidents, we have had
breakdowns, that means that we have to drop the
anchor in the river which is similar to having to
use the brake on the land and we've had to
recover both our boat and our passengers, but
that fortwlately is quite a rare thing, but it adds to
the fact that the tOlU is unique and no one else
can do it. It's an experience, which can include
being recovered by another Duck.
Interviewer Do you ever have to rescue other
people on the river?