P21：

Hello. I'll be talking briefly now just for a few minutes about sports drinks or energy drinks?-- That's the drinks that sports men and women are drinking all the time these days, it seems whenever they are playing their sport.?Drinks?which are also being consumed a lot by the public at large. So if you're ready, I'm going to start that.

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Ladies and gentlemen, you probably wouldn't think it just to look at me. But when I was a bit younger, I actually was a very keen sportsman. I played a lot of sport. I played a lot of football. I played quite a bit of tennis, and I also cycled a lot. I even entered some cycling competitions. Nowadays though, I have become more of an armchair sportsman.?I wouldn't go so far as to say I've become a coach potato. But still, I do spend more time these days watching sports on television, rather than actually participating myself actively in games.

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And as I've been watching sports on TV over recent years, one thing has struck me and that is that an increasing number of sports man and woman while they are involved in whatever game it may be, let's say a football match. They seem to be drinking all the time. And they're not just drinking water because they're thirsty. No, they are consuming the so called sports drinks or energy drinks?--?drinks designed to replenish the energy that they have lost that they have expended during their physical effort.

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But the interesting thing is that these drinks have also become popular among the public at large. Everybody, it seems nowadays wants to consume these energy drinks and the companies who are manufacturing them of course are making a fortune. What seems to be happening is this: People are sitting at home like?me in their armchair, watching their sports stars on TV. These fit and healthy, sleek, slim, athletic individuals. And they see them drinking these drinks and they think at least this is what I suspect is going on. They think well maybe if I started drinking those drinks, I could become fit and healthy and athletic just like my favorite sports stuff. So they go out and buy these drinks but of course the problem is that if you drink a lot of these energy drinks without actually practicing sport yourself, and the result is quite the opposite from that that you might intend.

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Because these drinks are Ram Jam full of sugar or they are highly calorific. So if you drink a lot of them without practicing sport, what is the result? The result is that you're going to get fatter, maybe even become obese, and certainly very unhealthy. And indeed, I would even suggest that these energy drinks are one of the contributing factors to the growing wave of obesity in many of our countries today. Thank you.?

P22:?

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Helen Campbell, formerly of the DG interpretation of the European Commission. Today I'm going to talk to you about giving gifts, but in a particular context.

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Now I'm speaking to you in December 2012. We're very close to Christmas. Christmas is of course, a time for giving presents. It's always very agreeable to give presents, but also to receive them. And I often find myself wondering what would be the best thing to buy for family members and friends.

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Let me now turn to another country, a little further afield, China. I visited China myself some years ago, where I noticed that it is customary to give gifts to everyone you meet. So If you go to China, remember to take along some presents. But giving gifts in China is also a little bit of a minefield. You have to get it right, be diplomatic and choose the right gift. Let me give you some ideas, Some tips here.

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Don't give anything to obviously expensive because it could be seen as a bribe. A good idea would be to take along maybe a book of beautiful photographs, perhaps from your own country, your own city, or perhaps another piece of local craft, perhaps a tapestry or something made by people where you live. You have to be very careful to about avoiding certain things. There are underlying messages in every gift in China.

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Numbers for example, be very careful with numbers because eight is a good number, a?lucky number in China, four is the opposite. Never give anyone a clock or a watch because it looks as though you're setting a time limit on that relationship. Don't give anything sharp either:?scissors or knives to be avoided. Because they imply you want to cut off the relationship. And then last but not least,?be careful how you package your gift. What color you use for wrapping paper that's important too. Red is always a good bet. Red is a very lucky color in China, whereas Black and White should be avoided because they remind people of funerals. And then last but very not least is when you give your gift you must not be surprised or put off if it's not accepted. Apparently it is absolutely polite good manners in China. Not to accept the gift the first time. You can try again should be the third time you offer your gift. It will be accepted very gracefully. I hope this is useful advice to you?if you go to China. Thank you.?

P23:?

Hello, today I'm going to talk about something which is quite germane to the training or to the training course that maybe you're enrolling to become an interpreter. It is about overcoming the fear of public speaking. ?

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Up until two years ago, the most frightening thing I could possibly think of and I mean?even more frightening than finding that spider in your slippers in the morning was to make a speech in front of a benign audience. The fear that I had of making a speech in public was as extreme as it was irrational. And therefore I would go to extraordinary lengths to avoid speaking in public. That was until my 40th birthday. At that juncture, I realized that this phobia was not only a career enmity, it was also pathetic. Therefore, I began to accept public speaking invitations.

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The night before my first ever presentation, I got exactly no sleep at all. In order to overcome my rather bedraggled look, I decided to wear bright orange stockings in the hopes that I could trick the audience into thinking that the speaker was going to be as jaunty as the color of her tights.

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Anyway, given my history, and like sympathy for the millions of other people like me who share this phobia, I get very cross when I see that advice being given. I saw some such advice in a very well Business Review not long ago. There the review very?confidently stated before your first public speaking engagement, the most important thing is to get a good night's sleep. Clear the author?in question had absolutely no clue what they were writing about. The whole point of nerves is that you get no sleep.

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Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you five pieces of advice that I have found useful since deciding to accept public speaking engagements. First of all, it is probably best to avoid taking sleeping pills. Sleeping pills not only get rid of all the nerves and help you to sleep they also get rid of any feeling, most of your intelligence as well?certainly sensitivity. It's better to be shattered than be a zombie when turning up to speak.

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The second piece of advice is to offset an irrational fear with a larger rational danger. For example, on my way to one of the speaking engagement, I?almost?got run over by a bus. My very, my relatively cool reaction to this life-threatening moment, shamed me?into feeling ridiculous, about how anxious I could get about an irrational fear of simply standing up in front of an ordinary audience to speak.

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My third piece of advice is remember how awful most other speakers are.?In sum, the bar is low, you can easily clear it.

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Four, and?it's probably the most obvious piece of advice is arrive feasibly early.?And that is to remove all risk of being late. And reduce it to the zero. There's no point in adding to the nervousness of talking in public with the nervousness about being made.

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At five, practice in front of an unforgiving audience. And for that, I would like to recommend selecting a teenager. a young teen who never laughs at your jokes. And intermediately moans is it over yet? After all, a bad rehearsal?makes for a good performance, thank you.

P24：

Good morning. My name is Neil Monroe. And I'd like to talk to you this morning about the possible use of mobile phones on aircraft and what I think about that as a possible way forward. So I'll start?now.

Ladies and?gentlemen, I guest that most of us accept our mobile phones and our use of e-mail as a way of life that we couldn't manage without.?But I think it's fair to say that people are probably divided into two groups, those who value these modern technologies because they're indispensable and those who enthused about them because they find them very exciting and let me tell you immediately that I firmly belong in the first book.

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So you can probably imagine my reaction when I read an article recently, according to which airline companies are thinking of allowing people to use their mobile phones on planes. Immediately, I have this image of some idiot sitting in the row behind me bellowing into his phone, darling, I'm on the plane.

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Now for a long time, it's not being possible to use mobile phones on planes for safety reasons, and apparently will still not be possible for landing and takeoff. But there are no safety objections to using phones on flights. And many airline companies who are looking for ever new ways of making money?have thought that this could be an excellent business for them. And consequently, a number of pilot projects have been run already. And an interesting survey was conducted a few weeks ago, with one group of passengers who had been on the flight where mobile phones were prohibited as usual. And another group of passengers on a similar flight where mobile phones had been allowed and the results of the survey were interesting, and in my opinion, rather surprising.

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For those passengers were planes of where mobile phones were not allowed. There was an overwhelming majority of passengers against for the reasons I've indicated. But on those planes where people were able to use mobile phones, most people actually said it hadn't caused much inconvenience at all. Because people use their phones very moderately, mostly for sending text messages, and certainly not for engaging in loud, long conversations. So I suspect it's just a matter of time before people will be able to use their mobile phones on all?planes. But I have to say, I remain to be convinced that this is a good thing to do. Thank you very much.

P25

Hello, my name is Peter Hughes. I am a British and today I want to talk to you about the tube etiquette in London. And I will start my speech now.

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I can imagine many of you have visited London possibly in the last couple of years to visit all the tourist sites that London holds such as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Bridge. There's all sorts of things to see and do in London. However, the question is, how would you get to these places? London is also known as being a very expensive city so taxis are probably out of the question. And cycling while cycling is not really seen as a safe way of getting around the city. So many people take the tube that is the underground or the metro.

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Now British people are known for their quirky politeness and their social interactions, and this can definitely be seen on the tube as the ways of navigating the system is very, very important.

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So what you need to do is remember these following steps: once you arrive at the chief station, have your ticket ready to get to the barriers because people will be rushing past you. You should ?remember to have your ticket ready and not hold the ticket?behind you. And then once you get through the barrier, you need to make sure you're going in the right direction by looking at which areas direct you to which line,?whether you want to get on the red central line or the dark blue line for Piccadilly, or the light blue line for Victoria. You need to know and what color you're going on?and in which direction.

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Then you will get to the escalator. This is very important. And you'll hear the announcements say that need to stand on the right and walk on the left.?Do not get this mixed up because you will not become very popular. Then once you arrive for the platform, you need to make sure that you walk down the platform because many people will tend to this cluster around the entrance which causes a lot of stress for lots of people. So if you walk down the platform, you're more likely to find it easier to get on the tube once it arrives.

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Once?the train?arrives into the tube station, remember to stand back and let others off before you get onto the train. This is very important. As it can this can cause a lot of frustration and a lot of tension between people. Then once you're on the tube, you may sit down if you?can find a seat, or if you don't,?make sure you walk down that carriage rather than stand by the doorway. If you happen to sit in priority seat that is the seat next to the door. Make sure you give your seat up to anybody who looks like they needed that is a pregnant woman, somebody who's disabled or the elderly. Again, this is very much a social role and regulation that is implemented was traveling on the tube and then hopefully you will arrive at your destination without any fuss and you can enjoy the rest of your trip. Thank you.?

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P26：

I’d like to talk to you today about why men hate shopping. If there's one thing that clearly shows that men and women are different, it's shopping.

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Women like to window shop and browse. Men shop with A Mission. Men know exactly what they want to buy before they leave the house. Women however, tend to decide on their purchases?only after they've seen what's available in stores. Men easily get lost in shopping malls. Women spend so much time there. They can give shortcuts to the security stuff. Women don't get stressed if a short shopping trip turns into a very long shopping trip. Men on the other hand insist on being in and out of a store in 20 minutes. But that may be for the good of their health. A medical study has shown that men who are forced to go on long shopping trips suffer from sudden increases in their blood pressure. This gives an entirely new meaning to the expression “shop till you drop.”?

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Yes, everything I've said is a broad generalization. There are some women out there who hate shopping just like there are very few men out there who love to buy shoes. However, these generalizations are firmly grounded in truth. They are backed up by a large number of studies, which have made the following findings. The average woman will spend about three years of her life shopping. Not surprisingly, women are responsible for more than 80% of consumer spending in the United States,?in Europe and in Australia. Women even make the majority of purchases in unexpected areas, such as buying a new car, although that does depend on the type of car.

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Most sensible family vehicles are purchased by women. Most sports cars, however, are bought by men. But here's some consoling news for men. A recent study has shown that men are much less likely than women to return from a shopping trip empty handed and they might even return it from that shopping trip with a brand new sports car. Thank you

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P27：?

In this speech, I'm going to tell you a few things about interpreting at blabla, the United Nations Office in Geneva and I shall begin.

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Ladies and gentlemen, as you probably know, the United Nations has six official languages:?English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. In order to service a meeting with all six languages, 14 interpreters are required. There are two in each of the English, French Spanish and Russian booths and three interpreters in the Arabic and Chinese booths. The reason why they have an extra team member there is because the Chinese and Arabic booths work both into that language and out of that language, providing a ritual into either English or French with the other booth, then taking that ritual on relay.

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In fact, relay is a very much prominent feature of the interpreting system that has been set up here at the United Nations. For example, when Spanish or Russian are spoken, they will interpret directly into English and French with all the other booths then taking those ones on relay. So we don't have interpreters in the Spanish booth who?work directly from Russia, they will always work on relay.

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And the same can be said of Spanish into Chinese. It's always done via a relay.?Now all the meetings which are serviced here?are six language meetings. This is because a few years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution restricting the working languages?of some committees to just three. So we have for example, a number of committees which we call the human rights treaty bodies, which work in three languages normally English, French and Spanish, although they are free to choose their languages out of any of the six official languages in line with the real needs of the members?sitting on those committees at any given time.

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An additional language will also be added to a meeting if required. For example, if the delegation is coming from an Arabic speaking country, then an Arabic booth?can be added for that meeting so that there will then be four languages available.

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Overall, our service comprises around 100 interpreters with 20 in English and French groups and some 15 in the other four booths. For several months?a?year, the staff interpreters are enough to service all the meetings going on here in Geneva, but there are peaks normally in the spring and in the autumn, when freelance interpreters have to be recruited in order to cover the needs. This is because there is uneven split or uneven schedule of meetings throughout the year. This is one of the issues which has to be addressed so that we can make the best possible use of the resources that we have.

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In the meantime, please allow me to suggest that you take a look at UN web TV available on the internet so you can see the kinds of meetings which go on here at the United Nations Office in Geneva and see the challenges that they pose for interpreters. Thank you very much.?