Part 4 · Interview

Narrator: You will hear an interview with a young woman called Amy Clarke, who keeps bees. For each question, choose the correct answer.

Interviewer: Today I'm talking to Amy Clarke, who's seventeen and keeps bees in her back garden. Amy, how did you get started?

Amy: It was actually my grandad's idea. He'd kept bees when he was young, and he still had all his old equipment in the garage. One day he asked if I wanted to help him start again. I wasn't keen at first – I was a bit scared of being stung – but I said yes because I knew how much it meant to him.

Interviewer: And were you stung?

Amy: Only twice in the first year, which isn't bad. The special suits protect you really well. What surprised me more was how calm the bees are if you move slowly. I'd expected them to be aggressive, but they mostly just ignore you.

Interviewer: How much time does it all take?

Amy: In winter, almost none – the bees stay inside the hive. In spring and summer I check them once a week, which takes about an hour. Then in August we collect the honey, which takes a whole weekend. Last year we got nearly twenty kilos from two hives.

Interviewer: What do you do with all that honey?

Amy: We give a lot of it to family and neighbours. I did think about selling it at the local market, but you need a special certificate for that, and I haven't had time to get one yet. Maybe next year.

Interviewer: Has keeping bees changed you at all?

Amy: Definitely. I notice nature much more now – which flowers are out, what the weather's doing. And I've become more patient. You can't rush with bees. My friends say I'm much calmer than I used to be, which is probably true!

Interviewer: Would you recommend it to other young people?

Amy: Yes, but I'd say start by joining a local beekeeping club. Don't just buy a hive online and hope for the best. The members of our club have taught me so much, and they'll even lend you equipment, so it doesn't cost much to start.

Narrator: You will hear an interview with a young woman called Sophie Lam, who designs video games. For each question, choose the correct answer.

Interviewer: My guest today is Sophie Lam, who's eighteen and has just won a national prize for a video game she designed. Congratulations, Sophie! How did you first become interested in making games?

Sophie: Thanks! Well, I'd always played games with my friends, but I never thought about making them until my computer science teacher set us a project. We had to make a very simple game in two weeks. Mine was terrible, but I loved doing it, and I just couldn't stop.

Interviewer: What's your prize-winning game about?

Sophie: It's about a girl who has to find her way home through a forest at night. It's quite simple to play, but people say the music and the pictures make it feel very special. My brother wrote the music, actually – I couldn't have done that part myself.

Interviewer: How long did it take to make?

Sophie: About eight months. The hardest part wasn't the programming or the drawing – it was the testing. I asked my friends to play it, and they kept finding problems I hadn't noticed. It was annoying at the time, but it made the game much better.

Interviewer: What will you do with the prize money?

Sophie: Some people expected me to buy a new computer, but mine's fine. I'm going to use it to pay for a summer course in game design in Canada. I've wanted to go for ages.

Interviewer: Do you think more girls should get into game design?

Sophie: Definitely. In my class there were only three girls out of twenty-five. I don't think girls are less interested in games. It's just that they rarely see women doing this job, so they think it's not for them. That's starting to change, though.

Interviewer: And finally, what advice would you give to someone who wants to start?

Sophie: Start small! Everyone wants to make a huge adventure game straight away, but you'll just give up. Make something tiny and finish it. Then make something a bit bigger.