Part 1. You will hear John and Joan talking about their new school.

Hi John, how's it going? — Pretty good. What about you? — Terrific. So, what do you think of our new school? — A1, man. Much better than the old one. In fact, I'm going to write an article for the London Times about it. — Really? Have you got half an hour? Maybe you should give me some ideas. — If you buy me a coffee. — No problem.

How do you think I should start? Introduce the headmaster? — Why don't you compare it with the old one? You know, the buildings, laboratories, language lab, computer equipment, fitness centre, pool, stuff like that. — Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I mean, the old one was pretty bad and 1the new headmaster seems like a great guy. Actually, all the teachers I've met seem pretty decent. — Same here. The French teacher is really cool and he's actually French, 2not like Smith at the old place. He sounded less French than even you do. — Hey, my accent is perfect. — Dream on.

But why don't you start with what the headmaster told us this morning — you know, 3his ideas on education and things? — Yeah, I liked that. None of that stuff about how we must study hard for our futures in the honour of the school. — What did he say? — "If we teachers succeed in stimulating your minds, stimulating you to ask questions and think critically, then you will discover the joy of learning. Enjoy your studies and therefore work hard." — Hey, what a memory! Those are his exact words. Do you remember what he said next? — 4Something about it's good to keep fit. — Yeah. Do you remember him mentioning those experiments showing that after half an hour of exercise our brains are much more creative for hours? 5And puts you in a better mood.

Did you see the fitness centre? — I went early this morning for a workout. Fantastic. 6Olympic-sized pool, not like that tiny 25-metre thing we had before. And the gym has absolutely everything. 7I counted 10 exercise bikes, rowing machines, really good ones. — Are you going to go? — I've been every other day for two weeks. Feel great.

Hey, 8maybe I should interview some of the teachers and students for my article. — Of course you should. — Wow, just thought of it — I'm doing a video project. Maybe I could film the interviews. — Makes sense. — And I could take a few photos. Maybe the newspaper would use one or two of them. 9The main hall is awesome — really light, lots of windows and a huge stage, big enough for a 60 or 70-person orchestra. — 10Did you see Mr. Clark, the old music teacher? I think he's the only teacher here from the old school. — He is. And he was the only decent teacher. I met him in the hall. He's really happy — planning to double the size of the school orchestra.

Part 2. You are going to hear an introduction to some London parks.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the London Park Society. It's a lovely day, so in half an hour or so we'll go outside and start our tour of some of London's famous royal parks. 11But for the next half an hour or so, while we enjoy our coffee and biscuits, I'll tell you something about some of these wonderful parks, a brief history, and some of their special attractions (A — kofe/pechene bilan qisqa tarixiy suhbat; ekskursiya keyin boshlanadi). I also have a few slides to show you.

First, what do we mean by royal park? In short, they once belonged to, or were established by order of, a king or queen of England, or at least a member of the royal family. And it's a good job they did. 12They provide quiet and natural scenery, places that we might not be able to enjoy today if our former rulers had just put buildings everywhere (A — harmonious natural landscape).

Let's start with the most famous, Hyde Park. This park offers some of London's finest scenery, and covers 630 acres and a perimeter of four miles. I know we have friends from France here, so I'd better give it in metric. 13That's about 260 hectares and 6.5 kilometres (B). 14Hyde Park dates back to 1536, when King Henry VIII got the land from the monks of Westminster Abbey (B). Much of the later design, its layout, was done by the architect Decimus Burton in the 1820s (A tuzoq — bu keyingi dizayn, qurilish boshlanishi emas).

15It was the original site of the Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 (A), the original ancestor of today's World Expos, like the one that will be held in Shanghai in 2010. Many famous rock bands, like Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, have put on big rock concerts here. I still remember the Rolling Stones concert there in — I forget the exact year — it was around 1968, when I was a university student (B va C tuzoqlar: 1968 = Rolling Stones, 2010 = Shanghai Expo).

I mentioned the architect Decimus Burton. 16He designed the very impressive grand entrance to the park... the gates made of iron and bronze, with a beautiful Greek-style flower design (B — Greek architectural design). One of the most popular sites in the park is Speaker's Corner, in the north-east corner, where you can hear British people exercise their right to free speech.

17And south of the Serpentine Lake is the memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It's an oval stone fountain that opened on July 6, 2004 (F — located near the Serpentine Lake; E tuzoq — eng qadimgi favvora emas). Another memorial, in the south-east corner of the park, is the Albert Memorial.

Regent's Park. It has a fantastic landscape, and is known as the Jewel in the Crown. 18Regent's Park covers 487 acres — that's 197 hectares — including Primrose Hill, and has the largest outdoor sports area in London (D). Rugby, basketball, soccer, netball, cricket — it's all here.

19St James's Park, with its royal, political and literary associations, is at the very heart of London (G — centre of London). It's overlooked by not one but three royal palaces. The most ancient palace is Westminster, now known as the Houses of Parliament (C tuzoq — eng qadimgi saroy, park emas).

Finally, we'll visit 20Greenwich Park, which is the oldest enclosed royal park (C — the most ancient park of the Royal). It's situated on a hilltop, with impressive views over the River Thames to the Docklands and the City of London.

Part 3. You will hear a discussion between a college tutor and two students, Cristina and Ibrahim.

First of all, I'd just like to say, Cristina and Ibrahim, that I really enjoyed watching your video about student life last week. So, Cristina, what did you enjoy most about making the video? — I liked using the camera. — Is it the first time you've operated one like that? — Yes, it is. — Anything else? — I also enjoyed visiting one of the British students we filmed. 21I'd never been inside a British home before.

What about you, Ibrahim? — Well, for me it was a very good chance to get to know students who are on other courses, because everyone in our group is studying English. — Do you think you'll maintain the contact now? — I hope so. 22I've invited three of them to have dinner with me next week.

Cristina, what was the most useful aspect of the project from the point of view of English practice? — I think when we were being shown how to edit the film, we had to follow the instructions, and that was very good practice for me. 23And I also learned some technical words that I hadn't heard before. — What about you, Ibrahim? — It was listening to the British students, because they don't speak as slowly as most of the tutors on our course. I think they speak at natural speed, so it forces me to get used to it. 24And they use a lot of slang.

Were there any other benefits? — Yes. Firstly, I learned how to use a video camera, and also I think I really learned a lot about working together with other people. I've never done anything with a group before, and 25we had to find ways of cooperating and compromising and 26sometimes persuading people when they don't agree with you.

What about you, Ibrahim? — 27I think I learned a lot about how important editing is. When you're filming, you think that everything's going to be interesting, but in fact we cut around half of it in the end, and then it was much better.

What mistakes do you think you made as a group? — We didn't plan very well. For example, 28we didn't decide on dates when we'd complete each separate step of the project, and we should have agreed about that in the beginning, because we were always late with everything. — Anything else? — 29I think we should have tried to experiment more with the camera — I mean, with angles and focus and that kind of thing.

Do you agree, Ibrahim? — Not really. In fact, I think we were too ambitious. We were inexperienced and we didn't have a lot of time. 30And we tried to do too much to make a long film. Next time, I would make a shorter one and try to get the quality better.

Part 4. You will hear a talk about scientific research in the continent of Antarctica.

Tonight I'm going to talk to you about that remarkable continent, Antarctica: remote, hostile, and at present uninhabited on a permanent basis. First, some facts and figures. Antarctica is a place of extremes: the highest, coldest and windiest continent, and 31over 58 times the size of the UK. The ice cap contains almost 70% of the world's fresh water and 90% of its ice. But with very low snowfall, 32most of the continent technically falls into the category of desert.

Research and exploration has been going on in Antarctica for more than 200 years and has involved scientists from many different countries who work together on research stations. 33Here, science and technical support have been integrated in a very cost-effective way.

The research stations are really self-contained communities of about 20 people. There's living and working space, 34a kitchen with a huge food store, a small hospital, and a well-equipped gym to ensure everyone keeps fit in their spare time. Our station, Zero One, had some special features. It wasn't built on land, but on an ice shelf hundreds of metres thick. 35Supplies were brought to us on large sledges from a ship 15 kilometres away at the ice edge.

Snow build-ups caused enormous problems for four previous stations on the same site, which were buried and finally crushed by the weight. These buildings became a huge challenge to architects, who finally came up with a remarkable solution: 36the buildings are placed on platforms, which can be raised above the changing snow level, on legs which are extendable.

Food is one of the most important aspects of survival in a polar climate. Maybe you know that an adult in the UK will probably need about 1,700 kilocalories a day on average. 37Someone in Antarctica will need about 3,500, just over double. Rations for field work need to provide maximum energy but must also be compact and light; freeze-drying preserves the quality of the food product while making a large saving in weight.

It's perhaps climate change research that is the most crucial field of study. Within this general field, surveying changes in the volume and stability of the ice cap is vital, 38since these may have profound effects on world sea levels and on ocean currents. A second important area is monitoring the size of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. Thirdly, 39bubbles in the ice sheet itself provide an index of pollution, because frozen inside them are samples of previous atmospheres over the past 500,000 years — these provide us with evidence for the effects of such human activities as agriculture and industry.

40There are an increasing number of opportunities for young people to work for a period in Antarctica — not only as research assistants in projects like mine, but also in a wide range of junior administrative and technical positions, including vacancies for mapmakers.