Matching

Narrator: Part 2. You will hear the manager of a new city library talking to a group of local residents on an open evening.

Manager: Good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming. My name's Grace Okafor, and I'm the manager here at the new Central Library. We open to the public next Monday, so tonight is your chance to have a look around before the crowds arrive. I'll start with a little background and some practical information, and then I'll tell you about some of the facilities.

Manager: Many of you will remember this building as the old cinema, and it's true that films were shown here for nearly forty years. But it wasn't designed as a cinema. It was actually built in the 1920s as a department store, and the cinema only took over the upper floors after the shop closed. When we started the renovation, we found the original shop signs behind the walls, and you can see one of them by the main stairs.

Manager: One thing we were very aware of when we planned the building was noise. A library today isn't a silent place – people come here to meet, to work in groups and to use computers. We did consider putting carpet down throughout, but it's very hard to keep clean in a building with this many visitors. So instead, we've made the whole of the top floor a silent floor, and that's where you'll find the individual study desks.

Manager: Now, joining the library. In the past, you had to bring a document showing your address, but that's no longer necessary. Membership is free for everyone, whatever your age. What we do ask is that you register on our website before your first visit, because then your card will be ready for you to collect at the desk, and it saves a lot of queuing.

Manager: As for opening hours, we'd hoped to open on Sundays, but unfortunately the budget didn't allow it this year. What we have done is open an hour earlier on weekdays – at eight instead of nine – because a lot of people told us they'd like to call in on their way to work. Closing times stay the same: eight in the evening from Monday to Thursday, and six on Fridays and Saturdays.

Manager: And of course, there's the café on the ground floor. It's run by a local charity that trains young people who are looking for their first job, so every coffee you buy helps them. Drinks with lids are allowed in the study areas, but please keep food in the café itself. I'm often asked whether there's a student discount – sadly, there isn't at the moment, but the prices are very reasonable.

Manager: Right, let me tell you about some of the facilities. On the first floor, we have twelve study pods. These are small private rooms for up to four people, and they're very popular in other libraries, so you'll need to reserve one online beforehand. You can use a pod for up to three hours at a time.

Manager: Next to them is the recording studio, which we're particularly excited about. It's designed for people who want to make podcasts or record music. Unfortunately, the soundproofing has been delayed, so it won't be ready on Monday. We're hoping it'll be finished by the end of next month.

Manager: On the same floor, there's our 3D printer. Members often expect this to be free, like the computers, but there is a small charge to cover the cost of the materials – usually only a pound or two for a small object.

Manager: If you go up to the roof, you'll find the roof garden, which has wonderful views over the river. For the moment, we can only open it on Saturdays and Sundays, because a member of staff has to be up there whenever it's open, and we don't have enough people during the week.

Manager: Finally, the homework club. It meets in the children's area on the ground floor, but it's actually for secondary school students, aged eleven to sixteen. It's run entirely by volunteers, most of them retired teachers, who help with everything from maths to essays. It meets every weekday from four until six. Right, please do go and explore, and if you have any questions, our staff are wearing green badges.

Narrator: Part 3. You will hear two students, Anna and Leo, discussing a presentation about a survey they carried out on cycling to their university.

Anna: So, Leo, we need to plan the presentation for Friday. Shall we start with why we chose the topic?

Leo: Before we start – how long have we actually got? I thought it was fifteen minutes, but someone in the other group said twenty.

Anna: It's fifteen for the presentation itself, and then five minutes for questions. So we really need to keep to time, because the tutor stops people when the time's up. Last year apparently one group didn't even get to their conclusions.

Leo: Right, that's useful to know. Shall we split it so that we each speak for about half? I'm happy to do the parts with the numbers if you'd rather do the beginning and the end.

Anna: That suits me. OK, so let's start with why we chose the topic.

Leo: Sure. I know our tutor suggested a few topics, but cycling wasn't one of them, was it?

Anna: No. And it wasn't because of any data we already had, either. It was really because the university has just started building those new cycle lanes across the campus, and we wanted to know whether people would actually use them.

Leo: Right. That's the point to make at the beginning.

Anna: Then we should be honest about the questionnaire. We got more responses than we expected, over three hundred, so that wasn't an issue.

Leo: No, and the length was fine. People finished it in about five minutes. The real problem was question four, the one about how far people live from campus. We didn't say whether we meant kilometres or minutes, so the answers were all over the place.

Anna: Yes, we had to leave that question out of the analysis. We should mention that as a limitation.

Leo: What about the results? What surprised you most?

Anna: I'd expected safety to be the main reason people don't cycle, because of the traffic on the ring road. But it only came third. The most common reason was that there's nowhere to shower or change clothes after arriving.

Leo: Me too. And the cost of a bike hardly came up at all.

Anna: OK. Now, the charts. I made pie charts for every question, but there are so many categories that they're hard to read.

Leo: I agree. I think bar charts would work much better, and we could put the percentages on the bars.

Anna: Fine, let's do that. So what's left to do before Friday?

Leo: Well, you've done most of the charts, so I'll write the handout. I was going to book a practice room, but the department says we can just use the seminar room, so there's no need.

Anna: Great. Now let's go through the sections one by one and decide what needs changing. The introduction first.

Leo: I think it's too long. We spend three minutes on the history of cycling in the city. We could cut that down to one minute.

Anna: Agreed. What about the methods section? That's where we explain the questionnaire.

Leo: It's quite thin at the moment. We don't say how we chose the people we asked, and the tutor's bound to ask about that. We need to add more detail there.

Anna: OK. Then there's the section comparing staff and students. That's got a lot of numbers in it.

Leo: Too many to read out, really. Why don't we replace the list of figures with a chart, so the audience can see the difference at a glance?

Anna: Good idea. And the interview quotes? I really like those.

Leo: So do I. They're short and they make the presentation more personal. I wouldn't change them at all.

Anna: Finally, our recommendations. At the moment they come straight after the introduction.

Leo: Hmm. I think the audience needs to hear the results first, otherwise the recommendations won't make sense. Let's move them to the end, as our conclusion.

Anna: Yes, that's more logical. Right, I think we have a plan.

Leo: Shall we meet on Thursday afternoon to rehearse it the whole way through? Then we can time it properly and see if anything's still too long.

Anna: Thursday's good. Let's say two o'clock in the library, and I'll bring my laptop so we can check the slides on a bigger screen.