P11：

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Helen Campbell, formerly of DG interpretation, European Commission. I'm going to talk to you today about telephones, mobile phones, gadgets and our attachment to them.

We are all very attached to our mobile phones, our smart phones, blackberries, iPhones, iPads, gadgets in general for communication purposes. We see children nowadays aged five and six years and they all seem to have a mobile phone now. Now, I must say that I'm also attached to my phone and I'm indeed sometimes in meetings, for example, which may not always be very interesting, sometimes tempted to have a look at my messages, perhaps send a couple of messages. But I do try to do so discreetly. But not everybody is as discreet as me.

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I'm thinking of one particular person, a lady of some renowned in the field of conference interpreting, who carries with her a number of mobile phones, which are on all the time. This lady is quite likely to be talking to someone right away through a meeting, or answering phone and sending messages. In general, she takes not much notice of anything except the phones. I find this terribly impolite, myself, but I realized that it's really quite common after all, it isn't just her it's lots of people, even politicians.

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If you look at a debate in the House of Commons, you will see a lot of MPs fiddling with their phones, tweeting, sending messages. Not polite in my view, but it's a reality. And at the Royal Wedding earlier this year, we even saw the Prime Minister of the UK David Cameron, sending messages during the ceremony. Not only David Cameron was doing that, so was Elton John. So we can see that people all over the place regardless of the circumstances?do want to use their phones,?do want to send messages.

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I personally find it as I said, a little, perhaps out of place sometimes. But it also makes me think that the plan to ban mobile phones for school children is not likely to be very successful. The idea is to stop children using their phones during classes by making them switch off the phones or eating them outside the classroom. I suspect this will get nowhere fast.?I think that not only will children feel uncomfortable without their phones beside them, but their parents will probably object as well. So I think that's one plan?that will certainly not come about.

P12：

Hello, my name is Anna Stewart and I'm a trainee at DG interpretation. This speech will be about taking a gap year. The speech will start shortly.

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Gap years are now quite common for students in the UK after they finish college and before starting university. There are many advantages to taking a gap year, but there are also some disadvantages. Students who take a gap year will either go travelling or work for a year. Some will even do both. Not all gap year is the same, which makes them so interesting. It's a time when many young people get their first proper work or traveling experience.

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One of the benefits of working for years is that students can save a lot of money before starting university. Although many students will get a loan for university, it is not normally enough to cover all the costs of accommodation, food or university fees. Also, if you work for a year, you can gain important skills and experience. Work teaches discipline and many students have not had any work experience by the time they finish school.

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Although some people like myself, had a job at weekends in a shop,?many people will choose to go traveling sometimes for many months. This is an excellent way to see more of the world and gain life experience. If you travel,?you will meet different people and see different things. For example, I went to China, Australia and New Zealand, where I?met people of all nationalities and visited lots of different cultural sites.

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The gap year is a good opportunity to challenge yourself and learn many different skills which will be useful at university. It gives you a year to mature and it's a good way to get real world experience after being in a full time education. This means when it's time to start at university, you are ready to learn.

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However, a gap year is not for everyone, and there are some possible disadvantages. If you travel abroad, especially some more popular gap year destinations, like Thailand, or Australia or South America, it can be very expensive, which means when you get to university,?you may have less financial security. Another problem can be if you were the only one of your friends who takes a gap year, then you will be one year behind them. You won't share experiences. You may graduate later and you may feel left behind. It's hard to motivate yourself when your friends are already free from university. Also, if you take a year out, you can lose some of the study skills that you learned at school. It can be very difficult to remember how to learn and study. This can be very difficult especially if you're going to study a subject like maths or chemistry, and you've forgotten useful theories or equations.

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In conclusion, the most important thing to remember is that it's neither a good or a bad decision to take a gap year. It's up to the individual and what's right for them. When I did my gap year, I did it so I could work, travel and learn a new language.

P13：

Ladies and gentleman, I will be talking to you about languages in Luxembourg, the country where I live and work.

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Luxembourg is in an interesting situation?where languages are concerned. Several languages have spoken and written throughout the whole country. So it is truly a multilingual country. First of all, there is the national language called Luxembourgish. French and German are also used everywhere in Luxembourg.

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This interesting situation with languages?dates all the way back to the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the territory of Luxembourg was divided into two large areas. In one of these areas, a dialect of French was spoken,?in the other a dialect of German was spoken, which then came to be Luxembourgish. Already at that time, French was chosen as the language for the administration and French continued to be the language of administration and legislation and politics, right the way through the centuries. This might seem strange, because the language that the people spoke at home and with each other, was always Luxembourgish, which is a dialect of German, not French. However, the nobility spoke French and the French language therefore kept an important role.

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Both French and German have been compulsory languages in schools in Luxembourg since the 19th century. So what about Luxembourgish? Well,?Luxembourgish?was not an official language in Luxembourg until the 1980s. But now, by law, people living here are allowed to communicate with the administration in either Luxembourgish?or French or German.?When they leave school Luxembourgish children?know?three languages and sometimes more. And therefore, multilingualism comes naturally here. And of course, it is a huge advantage in the multilingual society that we live in today. Certainly Luxembourgish children will have a head start if they want a career in languages. Thank you.

P14：?

I'm going to tell you about a scheme which has been set up in the county of Dorset in the United Kingdom. And this scheme is designed to reduce the number of traffic accidents. Now, it is going to cost some 800,000 pounds and it's going to run over a period of a year. It basically involves teaching drivers to pay more attention since they believe in Dorset, at least, that it is those small gestures of inattention that can cause accidents so easily. Things like fiddling with your GPS, or changing the disk or fiddling with your radio button. Or if you're a smoker, lighting a cigarette, and still worse using your mobile phone, all things which unfortunately happens more and more often.

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And Dorsett is set now to try and reduce drastically the number of accidents. So the police are patrolling all the streets, especially those streets which have a higher than average number of accidents. If they catch you, they will fine you,?give you penalty points in your driver's license, or the option of going to attend a?driver's awareness course to learn to be better in control of your vehicle.

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Now the police have caught quite a lot of people who were infringing the rules. And some of these people have shown amazing imagination. For example, one very imaginative gentleman was explaining himself came up with this story. He was just leaving his house, his own driveway without battling his safety belt. The police stopped him and his excuse was he was just about to go and get petrol around the corner and had unbuckled his seatbelt.

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Another lady claimed that she left her BlackBerry at home, and that anybody who thought they'd seen her typing messages on her BlackBerry while driving was sorely mistaken. This was not such a good story because her BlackBerry was lying beside her on the passenger seat.

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And my favorite story of all concerns the lady with the three children in the back of her car. The police stopped her and noticed that the children were not buckled in. So of course they asked, Madam, why are these children not wearing seatbelts? And the lady's answer was but they're not my children. That I think really is the best excuse of all.

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People become angry, sometimes indignant, but I think that everyone is understood if they're driving in Dorset, that no excuse is going to work. The best thing you can do is to obey the rules or be ready to pay the price. Thank you.?

P15：?

Hi, I'm Helen Campbell from DG interpretation European Commission. I'm going to tell you a story about an interesting initiative being run in the county of Dorset, UK.

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Dorset is?a rural area. It's on the coast, a very pleasant County. And it is also the subject of an interesting new project. This is a project to try and reduce traffic accidents. The project is a sort of advertising campaign, but has an element of education in it and of course there will be a lot of police patrolling involved. The whole thing is going to cost some 800,000 pounds. What is the aim? As I said it's to reduce accidents, but especially those accidents that are caused by inattention by drivers.

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We see a lot of examples of inattention by drivers everywhere. In Belgium, certainly, in the UK, in France, you name it. There is always an example, around us somewhere of someone not paying proper attention?while driving.

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Now it is said and that's what they think in Dorset?certainly?that there is no such thing as a dangerous road,?there is only bad and dangerous driving. So what's the program going to do? It's going to try to focus on the sort of things that people do all the time. They're not dangerous in themselves, but can cause accidents. The obvious infringement of the law?are speeding, which is dangerous,?talking on a handheld telephone, of course, a mobile phone as we all do, from time to time. These things are not even legal. But there are lots of other minor violations that I suspect we're all guilty of which play a part in causing accidents:?changing your CD,?fiddling with your radio,?setting your GPS,?for example. Perhaps looking for a biscuit to eat in the car. All of these things will distract you from driving and mean that you're not in proper control of your vehicle.

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So say the police officers in charge of the team running this project and they will be spending their time catching people who are in obviously infringing of the law. Now, will there be a price to pay of course there'll be a price to pay. It will probably be in the region of 60 pounds if?you're caught red handed doing any of those things. And then you will have a choice. Either you will go to a driver's awareness course and learn how to drive more carefully or you will have some points on your driving license. I believe six points is what will be given to you. Bear in mind that if you have 12 points on your license that disqualifies you from driving for a period of six months, and so I suspect that the driver awareness courses are going to be very, very well subscribe to certainly in Dorset. Remember though you're driving there. There is no excuse going to work. You have to obey the rules. Otherwise you pay the price. Thank you

P16：

I'm Helen Campbell DG interpretation of the European Commission. I'm going to talk about some of the aspects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.?And in particular, I will focus on the wildlife that has been so badly affected there.

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Now we know the whole story, the oil rig?that exploded pouring oil into the sea. And of course there are currents and there is wind, and that oil has been floating around and has finally washed up quite a lot of it on the coast in Louisiana, as a result of which we've seen these really sad pictures of the poor birds covered in oil, and especially the brown pelican,?which is also by the way, the symbol the emblem of Louisiana.?

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Fortunately for these poor birds, and there are many, many of them there is a team of excellent people, experts who are posted there?in a big rescue operation. They're working to try and catch the birds and if they can catch them in time, they then go through a fairly complicated cleaning up operation. Which means that the birds are first of all washed in warm vegetable oil to get rid of the sticky black oil. Then they have to be washed again in washing up liquid?basically mixed with water. This all sounds fairly simple and straightforward as I'm putting it, but you try catching a poor Pelican covered in oil and going through that operation. The trouble is the poor birds are so scared that they're so stressed they can almost die of fear and so the whole actual operation cannot take longer than 45 minutes. That's 45 minutes per bird. And we're talking about 30 birds a day that had been treated like this?quite an operation.

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It has happened before. Alas there have been other oil spills. And in fact the man who is leading the team here also led a previous disaster team when the Exxon Valdez?also leaked a vast amount of oil into the sea. Now, things are rather different. That wasn't an oil tanker. A lot of oil was pumped and thrown into the sea but things are a little different. Because that was a one off disaster. The oil was there, and that was that it stopped. Eventually a big cleaning up operation was possible. But this time we're talking about something rather unknown. We don't know when ?the leak will be finally kept.

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Will there be any long term effects? Of course they will. And it isn't just the wildlife. It's the whole beach, the livelihood of fishermen. It's everything,?tourism will be affected as well. So if we start pointing fingers and putting blame onto people, we shouldn't just be talking about money and just the cost of the operation. We should be thinking of those poor birds because as long as that oil is being pumped into the sea, they are going to be the ones to suffer most. So have a thought , spare a thought for the poor brown pelican, the emblem of Louisiana. Thank you

P17：

I'm going to talk about some of the aspects of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And this happened in April 2010. And it has resulted in enormous amounts 20,000 perhaps barrels of oil being thrown into the Gulf of Mexico and floating one way and the other. And it has caused, as everybody knows, endless discussions, endless arguments and a great deal of finger pointing who's responsible? Who should pay the bill? How much is it going to cost in a huge cleanup operation? And who are the victims?

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And of course, wildlife is really the main victim because the wildlife in Louisiana has been desperately affected?by the oil washing up onto the shores. And of course, the poor birds are the first ones to suffer. Anybody who has read the newspapers recently will have seen pictures of these poor birds covered with sticky black gooey oil and one of them, the brown pelican is not only a bird of some distinction and fairly rare, but it?is?also the very emblem of Louisiana. And so the bird has become symbolic of all the horror, the damage that has been done in this catastrophe.

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Now the whole coast is very much affected as I said, the birds especially so,?there is a team, a rescue team working round the clock to try to find the birds to capture them to clean them and to put them back into free life. But of course not in the same place. The coast as I said, is suffering terribly. Not only the birds, but also the fishing industry is of course terribly affected as well. Beaches are threatened. And of course everybody turns to BP and says Look at the mess you've caused. This is all your fault, especially the CEO, Tony Hayward.

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Now, thinking back to what has happened, this is now three months after the event and there is still no durable no viable solution. The birds are still stuck in the oil. They're still being of course treated, captured taken and washed and cleaned and let back into their environment. But many will die as a result of this.

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In fact, it's the second time that this poor brown pelican, the symbol of Louisiana has been threatened. Because in the 1950s and 60s, the pesticides used in Louisiana also virtually wiped out the whole species. But the people of the area were so keen to have their emblem back that birds were brought from Florida so that the population could then be set up again and finally they began to thrive again. In fact, it was only last year that the brown pelican was taken off the list of endangered species. And now the poor creatures are yet again being threatened. We don't know how long this is going to take whether a solution will be found and in the meantime, I think that the main victims are clearly the pelicans and the wildlife of that area. Thank you

P18：

Ladies and gentlemen, pirates in the seas of the East African coast?were very much in the news some years ago. I'm going to tell you about one incident that answers a rather interesting question. Can pirates actually become friends? Friends of a ship owner whose vessel they have stolen?

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The story begins with a ship and its crew hijacked of the Somali coast. The Danish ship owner and I shall call this gentleman Mr. G., receives a phone call one day. From the other end of the receiver he hears Hi, my name is Ali. I am?the leader of the Somali pirates that have seized your vessel. In fact, Mr. G said they would ring him up on the phone just like a business negotiation. Very reasonable, polite and courteous. No threats, most respectable. Mr. G felt it was like working with a car salesman. They were haggling over the ransom amount for months. Ali?working for the pirates would?throw out a big number. Mr. G. would say give me a break. That's a joke. And he would put the phone down and he would call back with a slightly lower offer. Eventually was dropped from a helicopter and Mr. G finally got his vessel and his crew back. , they came to an agreement. The money

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That should have been the end of the story. Right? But no, the story continues. One day, the phone rings. Mr. G is in Copenhagen in his kitchen and he picks up the phone. It was Mr. Ali, calling him from Somaliland. Almost like a courtesy call, says Mr. G.,?Ali wanted to say he had gotten back home after walking many, many kilometres overland through the mountains. Hijacking?is like a commercial transaction. Once it's over, it's like you've concluded a business deal.?It's not a win win situation. But as these things go, Ali and his pirates got the better of the ship owner. But Mr. G got his ship back and the crew in reasonable mental condition. That was the purpose of the whole exercise.

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In fact, Ali followed up with phone calls, and then emails on a daily basis. Mr. G.?and?Ali would talk about piracy issues, sometimes four to five times a week over the phone. Ali now says they are friends. He also says Mr. G has a nice family. Mr. G says Ali has a wife and recently a new addition to the family, a?baby boy.?When he was born,?Mr. G got an excited call, and he was informed that he had been allocated three baby camels--A traditional gift for a friend of any good family in Somalia. Mr G says I feel very honored.?

P19：

This is also a speech about eggs.

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Dear colleagues, when I finally hit upon eggs as a topic fit for memory exercises, I certainly didn't realize that I was onto such a good thing. I could spend hours talking about their?beautiful oval shapes, or the sizes and colors that they come in the different textures of the shell, how the shells can look smooth, but actually be quite rough. The fact that some eggs are reached and some are not. And that's just sticking to chickens eggs. I don't think I'd better even go into all the other egg laying species on this earth.

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I've already spoken about a couple of ways to cook eggs. And of course they're an ingredient in an incredible number of preparations. Everything from pastry to pasta but I thought that I better change tack?this time. This time, I thought I could be a little bit more scientific. Not so much looking at the science of eggs, which would be what they made up of,?what's in the yellow egg yolk what's in the egg white and all of that. But perhaps look at how eggs themselves are used in science as an ingredient.

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Eggs are wonderful. There are safe, sterile place?where chicks grow outside the mother hens body. They've provided scientists with an incredible opportunity to study the growth and development of chicks from the blob of a yolk all the way to the hatching of a fluffy yellow chick. And, quite amazingly, all that's needed for this development?is a constant temperature. Eggs are natural incubators.?This is what scientists in the USA discovered in the 1930s.?Fertile chicken eggs are the perfect breeding medium for certain viruses?that can affect human beings. The most familiar examples would be influenza, and chicken pox.

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Eggs were therefore used by scientists who were studying these diseases in order to produce more virus to use in their studies. These studies in turn led to the development of vaccines against these diseases. What vaccination actually is, is injecting a healthy person with either a very small dose of a week live virus or else of a dead virus so that the body can build up antibodies in order to fight the disease.

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What this means is that eggs are actually produced in industrial quantities, not just for people to eat but also for the pharmaceutical industry for use in research and virus cultivation. So the next time you see a barn, where eggs are being produced in vast quantities, you might just wonder whether the eggs are for human consumption or for scientific use.

P20：?

Hi, I'm Helen Campbell, DG interpretation at the European Commission. I'm going to talk to you now about soap operas on television, and how they might help in educating people. Yes, that is exactly what I'm going to talk about.

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Now many people, including many friends of mine, are totally addicted to soap operas. I'm thinking immediately of some of the british series that I know perhaps best, things like Coronation Street and East?Enders, and when I say I know them, please do not think for one moment that I am addicted to soap operas, I just know of their existence. And so far, I have not fallen under the spell. But I know people who will adapt their schedules?in order not to miss an episode.

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Soap operas appeal to many people across a very wide spectrum as well, from the intellectually sophisticated to those who have little or no formal education at all. And behind the scenes television companies, and governments and NGOs have all realized that perhaps television and soap operas in particular, can be used to get some serious messages across. That might be the best way, messages such as health issues, HIV,?AIDS, nutrition, domestic violence, the status of women in developing countries, and other fairly serious subjects.

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If a viewer can identify with a protagonist with the actor in a in a series that viewer can almost share the dreams and hopes of such a character and identify with the character. Thus, a proper connection is there and the message will get through much more easily than some lesson or finger pointing?that never works.

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Now, in the United States in Colorado, there is a soap opera that has been shown on health questions. In fact, that is the actual subject too.?The aim is to increase the number of children who are covered by health insurance.?This is a problem because many children are eligible, but they don't have any coverage for one reason or another. And so the program is shown to wake people up to the fact that it is time to take out health insurance, but it's couched in terms of entertainment so that people will watch be interested and nevertheless pick up a very important message indeed.

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There are other examples too. I'll name one more in Africa, where UNICEF has been working in Niger and they have gone together with the local state TV to put on a drama for young people. The drama happens in the capital Niamery. And the plots include issues concerning the danger of HIV AIDS prevention methods. So it's a lesson but in a very palatable form. And this works much better than any school lessons ever do. Thank you