Dream job

Since 1969, Mark Harris has worked for a well-known toy manufacturer designing cars. When he started, he was the only man in the department, but now he is in charge of a team of 35 designers.

Mark first got interested in cars during his teens. His dad was a football coach and one day he took a car magazine away from one of his players during a practice session. He brought it home and gave it to Mark. From that moment on, cars became the love of Mark's life. He went on to study car design at university and then worked for a car company designing actual cars, before being persuaded by a friend to join the toy company and set up their design department.

Of all the cars he has designed, his favorite is the Silver Sunrise. It may not have achieved such high sales as some other cars, but it is important to Mark because it was the first time he was allowed to make a model that looked like a real car. 'Before that, the wheels on all the cars stuck out so they would go straight.' explained Mark. 'The Silver Sunrise was the first one where the wheels were under the body. It meant it didn't work so well on a race track but it looked amazing.'

Now in his 60s, Mark is approaching retirement. He finds it hard to imagine what that will be like. 'I have expensive hobbies, so it might be difficult to continue with them when I am no longer earning! Plus, I like coming in to work. Ideally I'd like to retire part time and work part time.'

Changing your life

Rich and Amanda Ligato were professional people with successful careers. This (1) ... were both accountants. They worked in a small office in a big city. Every week, they worked very hard. They often intended (2) ... something fun and exciting at the weekend but, in the end, there (3) ... never time. One day they asked themselves, 'Is this all there is?'

They realised that they wanted to stop working and to (4) ...  traveling. Or, as Rich said, 'To buy our (5) ....' But first they needed to (6) ... some money. Every month they lived (7) ... Rich's salary and saved Amanda's. Then they bought a campervan to travel from the bottom of South America to Brazil and from there (8).... to get to Africa on a container ship.

​Colleagues at work (9) ... their decision difficult to understand. Even their closest friend thought they were crazy to go on this kind of journey, (10) ... finally, the day came. They left their home and started to live their dream.

Drew Aquilina

Landscape architect and environmental cartoonist

Drew Aquilina is a landscape architect. As a child he loved plants and animals and studied nature. Then, later in life, he studied architecture, and now he (1)..... areas outside with trees and flowers.

It’s a creative and (2)..... job and he’s very busy, travelling and working in different places. However, he also has another job. He’s (3)..... environmental cartoonist, and during the day he thinks (4)...... his next cartoon. Drew says, “When I get a (5)...., I plan a cartooning storyline I want to draw in the evening.”

At the end of the day, he goes home and has dinner with his wife Lisa. They (6)...... about the day and discuss his new ideas for cartoons. Lisa often helps him with ideas for the dialogues. Then, when most people are relaxing and (7)..... TV for the evening, Drew finally sits down and starts work on the cartoons. He often (8)...... until late in the evening and, when it goes well, until early in the morning.

Drew’s (9)..... book of cartoons, called “Green Pieces: Green from the Pond up” has even won a book award. And when he has spare time, what does he do? More work! He loves (10)..... outside and working in the garden.

Designs from Nature

Animals and plants can (1)_____ humans a lot about design and engineering. As a result, many designers, scientists and engineers spend time (2)_____ them. When they have a problem, nature often has the answer. This (3)_____ is called biomimetics. Bio-means ‘studying living things’ and mimetics means ‘copying the movement of things’. In other words, scientists – or biomimeticists – study animals and plants in order to copy the design.

Take, for example, a whale. Engineers in Canada are studying their flippers because they move so (4)_____ through water. The engineers believe the shape can also improve the movement of wind turbines. Similarly, the boxfish is (5)_____ animal from the sea which is helping car manufacturers in Germany. Mercedes Benz is using the shape of the fish for one of (6)_____ new cars. The shape makes it (7)_____ and more fuel efficient.

Velcro is probably the most famous (8)_____ of biomimetics. Most people have some Velcro on an item of clothing. It was invented by the Swiss engineer George de Mestral in 1948. He was walking (9)_____ the countryside when he pulled a plant’s bur from his trousers. He noticed how the bur stuck so well to his clothes. He worked on his idea and the (10)_____ was Velcro, which became an affordable alternative to the traditional zip.

In recent history, there have been some amazing inventions which have changed our lives. The aeroplane has made international travel faster and easier. The computer can store the contents of a library. And you probably know the names of some famous inventors like Henry Ford or Steve Jobs. But for every famous invention and inventor, there are many everyday objects which we don’t notice and we don’t know who invented them. Take the inventor Nils Bohlin who invented the modern-day car seatbelt. His invention has saved millions of lives. Fifty years ago, Bohlin was an engineer who worked for the car manufacturer Volvo. There were other types of seatbelts, but he developed the first one which went across the chest and across the legs and then joined at the same place. Amazingly, this was a very simple idea which no one had tried before – and that’s probably true of so many great inventions. Volvo soon started selling the new seatbelt in countries where cars were very popular. Fifty years ago, and probably still today, the biggest market was the USA. However, it took a long time for the invention to become popular there. Even in cars which had the invention, many drivers didn’t use it. People enjoyed driving without a seatbelt. It was difficult to change their habits, even though more people survived a car crash when they wore Bohlin’s seatbelt. Over the years, more and more governments made laws that forced drivers to wear the seatbelt and today Nils Bohlin’s simple invention still saves thousands of lives every year.

bài nghe track 51

GREENWOODS HOLIDAY VILLAGE

(1) If you want to take the whole family on holiday, and keep everybody happy, then I have found just the place for you. I recently went with a group of friends to stay at the Greenwood Holiday Village, which is open from May until October.

(2) Built in the center of a forest, Greenwood is a place to stay whatever the weather is. Its main attraction for families is the indoor World of Water, where young and old people can have fun in the different pools. Some of these, however, are for serious swimmers only.

(3) For sporty people, the Country Club offers tennis, squash and badminton. If your children are too young to join in these sports, there are activity clubs. Greenwood is a good place for families as it is traffic-free -- you explore on foot or by bike. Some people complained that this was inconvenient, but I was pleased to be out in the fresh air. For evening entertainment, there are shows and cinemas.

(4) Accommodation is in a variety of apartments of different sizes. These have up to four bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, as well as a dining area. Before going, I thought the apartments might not be big enough for all of us, but I was pleasantly surprised - it was not too crowded at all.

I'll definitely go back to Greenwood next year. Why don't you give it a try? Visit their website for further information now!

Holiday Horror Stories

It had looked great in the brochure. It’s true that there hadn’t been pictures of the cottage, but there (1) _____ photographs of the sea, empty beaches next to the cottage for the children, and nice long walks on the (2) _____ forest with the dog.

We arrived late at night after a six-hour drive. The address on the booking form said ‘Green Tree Cottage’ on the Old Farm Road. The cottage wasn’t very clean. In fact it was full (3) _____ furniture, books, pictures and objects in boxes. It was (4) _____ someone else lived here.

Anyway, it was late and we went to bed. In the morning, my daughter said there were clothes in her wardrobe. We emptied the wardrobe and (5) _____ the clothes in a box.

Later that day we had been to the beach and when we got back the clothes were (6) _____ in the wardrobe. We wanted to leave but my husband thought there was a simple explanation.

In the evening, as it got (7) _____, I noticed a light at the end of the field. We walked across with the dog and we saw a small shed (8) _____ the trees. We knocked on the door and a man (9) _____. He was the owner of the holiday cottage and lived in his shed when visitors stayed. He also asked us not (10) _____ his clothes because he needed to use the house from time to time. The next day, we loaded the car and left.

Sony Walkman

On your way to school or work this morning, you probably listened to music on your headphones. Maybe you downloaded your favourite music onto a device which holds thousands of songs, or played your favourite songs through your phone. These days, listening to music is a personal activity that we all do on our own, but it didn’t use to be so easy to get music or to listen when you were on the move. In the seventies, people used to buy music on vinyl records and play them on record players at home.

But in 1979, the Sony Walkman changed the way people listened to music. In the eighties and nineties, you used to see people everywhere with their Sony Walkman, a few cassettes and a set of headphones on. In the end, Sony’s product was so successful that other companies copied the idea, but Sony’s original Walkman was always the most popular. By 1986 the name Walkman was included as a word in the English dictionary.

Looking back, the idea of the Walkman seems so simple, but simplicity was the reason for its success. At the time, some people thought it was a crazy idea; after all, who wanted a music player with no radio, no speakers, no way to record, and small headphones? They were wrong, of course. The Walkman did everything people wanted: it was small enough to carry, it played music, and it was personal.

Listening

ast week the captain of a Scottish fishing boat pulled an old bottle out of the sea in one of his fishing nets. He told news reporters that he had been very curious when he’d seen the message inside. However, the message was a bit disappointing. It wasn’t a love letter or a message from someone lost at sea. Instead, the writer said the message needed to be returned to an address.

In fact, the bottle was part of a scientific experiment which had begun 98 years before, when scientists threw 1,900 bottles into the sea in order to find out more about the movement of the oceans. It took nearly one hundred years for someone to find this bottle. So it’s the oldest message in a bottle ever found – it’s a world record.

Of course, the history of messages in bottles goes back many hundreds of years. Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks put bottles in the sea to find out if the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean were connected. And sailors in World War I sent messages home by bottles. For example, one sailor in 1915 wrote a love letter to his wife. The message said that his boat was sinking and that he loved her.

The greatest mountaineer

Reinhold Messner has been described (1)______ “the greatest mountaineer in history”. He’s famous for (2)______ the first man to climb Mount Everest without oxygen in 1980. But he was also the first man to (3)______ all fourteen of the world’s mountains over eight thousand feet.

Messner was born in 1944 in a small village in the mountains of northern Italy. When he talks (4)______ the area he still says, “It’s the most beautiful place in the world.” His father was a climber and (5)______ his son up a mountain when he was only five. As a teenager Messner climbed with his younger brother Gunther.

In (6)______ twenties, the two brothers started climbing in the Himalayas but Gunther died (7)______ an accident and Reinhold lost sixes toes. (8)______ , Messner continued climbing and he became a legend among other mountaineers. The climber Hans Kammerlander believes Reinhold changed climbing. “Reinhold had so many new (9)______ ,” says Kammerlander. “He found new ways, new techniques.”

Nowadays Messner spends more time at home with his family and he has written over sixty books. In 2006 he opened the Messner Mountain Museum where people can (10)______ more about the world he loves.

EARTH DAY

We celebrated Earth Day in my city last week. The idea of this special day began in 1960s when life was very different. Few people talked, or even thought, about the environment. Most people had no idea how dirty our air and water were. This attitude bothered Gaylord Nelson, who was a senator in the US government, and he had an idea. If people around the world knew the planet was in danger, they might work harder to save it, so he just needed to get their attention. The first Earth Day was just in the United States but it led to events every year all around the world on April 22 or the nearest weekend, depending on where you are.

In my town, last Saturday afternoon lots of people rode their bikes from the park, around the town together and back to the park, taking as much time as they possible could, so that the cars had to wait. Then we talked to all the drivers in cars which just had one person in them, to explain how wasteful that is and how much pollution it causes. The idea was to make people think about how much they use their cars. In other places, people collected plastic bags for a week and then made a pile of them in the town square. You can do anything as long as it makes people of all ages come together for a few hours and talk about the environment. Last year we had a big music event for young people. Some people said it was a waste of time, but there was information for people to read and announcements between the bands about how to help protect the environment.

THE POWER OF NATURE

It’s early evening and Rex Geyer and his family are eating (1)_____ On the TV, the weather man is telling everyone to look (2)_____ for tornadoes. If a tornado hit Rex’s house, it would (3)_____ it. Tornadoes travel at over two hundred miles an hour and the biggest are a kilometre wide. Suddenly, Rex’s brother rushes through the front door. “Tornado! We have to go now!” he (4)_____. The whole family run to the car. They leave (5)_____ except for a mobile phone. As they drive away to safety, two cars go past in the opposite direction- straight towards the tornado.

If anyone else drove in that direction, they’d be (6)_____. But the people in the cars are Tim Samaras and Pat Porter who follow and study tornadoes. This year they (7)_____ trying to put a “probe” into the middle of a tornado. So far they haven’t been (8)_____. If the tornado passed over the probe, it would record a lot of useful scientific data so they are keen (9)_____to try. Maybe they (10)_____ be lucky this time.

Alpacas

Alpacas were first kept by the Inca people in the mountains of South America, more than six thousand years ago. These animals (1)_provided______clothes, food and fuel for owners. The softest wool was mainly worn (2)_by_______ the leaders of Incan society though. When Spanish explorers arrived in the fifteenth century, sheep were (3)________ and these gradually replaced alpacas in the region. It wasn’t (4) ________the middle of the 20th century that both famers and fashion designers began to recognize the (5) ________of alpacas again. They are easy to look (6) ________since they eat grass and are used to low temperatures. Their wool, which comes in a (7) ________of natural colours from white to dark brown, is lighter and warmer than sheep’s wool and (8) ________strong. It is not surprising, therefore, that alpacas are (9) ________ a familiar sight in the fields (10) ________North America, Australia and the UK.

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