Part 1

Extract 1
Eva: So the thing is, you aren’t getting on with our new boss then, Colin?
Colin: She’s just so different from her predecessor. I mean, John used to get
us all involved in the decision-making process.
Eva: No chance of that with Sandra, you think?
Colin: No way! OK, I grant you, she’s got some good ideas – she moved pretty fast
to get us all to agree to individual job descriptions and a proper timetable, none of
which we’ve had before and we should have had. And she’s done her homework
on the staff profile, our qualifications and past experience and so on…
Eva: As you’d expect.
Colin: Yes. But she doesn’t seem aware of the atmosphere here – it’s the way
we’ve always done things. I just don’t feel I can work with her.
Eva: I’d say she’s just finding her feet in a new job, and she’ll soon get the hang of
what we’re all about. Let’s focus on how much she’s already achieved. I wouldn’t
let anybody tell you it’s a trivial issue, though. If she doesn’t settle in soon, and
you still have issues with her, I think you should approach her direct.
Colin: OK, thanks, Eva.
Extract 2
Interviewer: Show me how you do it. I see you’ve got trays and trays of pieces
here.
Expert: Yes, you have to find the bits that match, so I’ve put all these tiny pieces
into colour groups – red here, blue over there. It’s a bit like doing a jigsaw (lắp
ghép một trò chơi xếp hình), really. But at least there are no stains to remove. All
we have to be aware of is the enamel (sơn men) on the surface; that we have to
lift all the dirt and grease off. If you don’t, the pieces won’t go back together
again, it’ll fall apart [3]. If the cracks are going to show, they’ve got to be really
clean, otherwise they’ll look messy.
Interviewer: You want the cracks to show? Some people would say that’s terrible,
for such a valuable vase.
Expert: Well, yes, they probably would, but something that’s broken so
extensively as this, if you cover all the cracks up you’re really making a fake. Being
broken is something that’s happened to it in its lifetime, which should be
recorded [4], and as long as you can restore it so that aesthetically it still works, it
shouldn’t matter that the cracks show…
Extract 3
Woman: This is such an unusual place because there’s no public transport to the
island – I came here in your fishing boat. The result is a paradise – rich marine life,
unspoilt countryside. Yet you want to let the world in – you’ve campaigned to
start up a ferry service from the mainland. Why?
Man: There isn’t enough work to support our population. If visitors come to the
island – and we have a lot to offer them – catering for them ( cung cấp dịch vụ
hoặc đáp ứng nhu cầu) would create employment. Also our young people would
be able to commute to jobs on the mainland.
Woman: Don’t you think it’s risky? These beaches could be covered with holiday
houses and hotels; your visitors will complain because there are only a few shops.
And a ferry service won’t be enough. People will want to fly here, and you’ll have
to build an airport. No more paradise!
Man: We can build a small airport without impacting on our quality of life here,
and it makes economic sense. Our shops can cope with more people on the island
– it’ll be seasonal anyway. And why would we build on the beaches? It’d be crazy.
Woman: I hope you’re right.
Part 3
Interviewer: I’m sitting here, rather uncomfortably, with designer Lucy Collett.
Lucy, you’re an architect really, but an architect with a difference.
Lucy Collet: Yes, I specialise in small buildings.
Interviewer: And we’re in one of your buildings now. It’s a tree-house, and we’re
perched on ( miêu tả một tư thế ngồi )child-size seats, two or three metres above
the ground.
Lucy Collet: In fact, I was commissioned to design this house by my neighbours for
their children. I don’t like heights, but I loved the challenge of weaving the house
in amongst the branches [15]. You can see there are several storeys (số ít là story-
nghĩa là tầng của 1 toàn nhà) with stairways (cầu thang dể đi lên gác) between
them.
Interviewer: I’d have given anything for a house like this when I was a child. What
started you off on this type of design?
Lucy Collet: I’ve always had a passion for small buildings. Play houses, of course,
when I was a little girl. Then I found a book about historical telephone boxes,
which fascinated me. When the telephone was an amazing new invention, money
was poured into the designs of public phone boxes. They were all sizes and styles.
There were some that looked like rustic ( mộc mạc, thô sơ, thôn quê) cottages,
with thatched roofs(mái nhà được rợp bằng rơm lá) ; others like Chinese pagodas;
one like a sort of Greek temple. Some were quite luxurious, with chairs, and
people used to go in there to play cards. But it didn’t last long; they had to be
standardised and made more practical.
Interviewer: You went to architecture school. Did you know you were going to
work on this small scale?
Lucy Collet: Yes, my final year project was on small buildings in an industrial
context. If you look at major building sites, they’re dotted around with (được bao
quanh rải rác xung quanh bởi..) huts (nhà nhỏ tạm bợ) and temporary buildings.
You think, ‘They put up these tin boxes for the workers to drink their tea and read
their newspapers in. What is there to that?’(Điều đó có nghĩa là gì?) Well, they’ve
all got to conform to safety standards, and why shouldn’t they have some style as
well? I designed them to look better, and also to be put up and dismantled more
quickly [17]. I worked on durability of materials, comfort and so on.
Interviewer: Where did you get your inventiveness from?
Lucy Collet: I don’t know. I think I’m more practical than inventive. My parents
were market stall holders. They had a really cumbersome (ngổn ngang, cồng kềnh)
stall which took them forever to put up. All the market people started setting up
about four o’clock in the morning. It was freezing, back-breaking work, and it
drove me mad when I had to help them. I was visiting some clients abroad a few
years ago, and saw some brilliant stalls in their local market. They were little metal
folding houses, completely waterproof and enclosed, with plenty of display
room [18]. At the end of the day you could lock them up with the goods safe
inside, or you could fold them flat and cart them off to the next town. I did
drawings of them and made one when I got home. But I haven’t sold it.
Interviewer: What have you done that you’re most proud of?
Lucy Collet: I suppose everything I’ve done is a variation on a theme, so it’s hard
to pick anything out. But I did get an award. The Newspaper Sellers’ Association
gave me a prize for a design I did for street corner kiosks – you know, those cute
little buildings with display windows on three sides. Mine were in strong steel,
painted, with domed roofs (mái vòm) and lots of decorative detail. I must admit, I
was particularly pleased with the fancy work (Công việc trang trí)[19], and the
newspaper people loved it.
Interviewer: Have you ever done any phone box designs, since that was what
started you off?
Lucy Collet: Funnily enough, that’s what I’ve just been doing. For an international
hotel chain. They’d stopped putting public phone booths in their hotel lobbies
because of mobile phones, but there were complaints from a few countries where
mobiles hadn’t really caught on yet. So the hotel decided to make a big feature of
lobby phone boxes. I did these sort of glass bird-cage designs, with brass work and
over-the-top telephones. Now the company’s putting them in all their hotels, and
people are going into them to make calls on their mobiles. It’s sort of retro-style
lobby furniture.
Interviewer: And tree-houses?
Lucy Collet: No, this is a one-off. I’ve told you, I’m scared of heights.
Interviewer: Okay. Shall we let down the ladder and go home? Thank you, Lucy
Note:
Fancy (adj): decorative or complicated: