Transcript for test 26

Section 1

Insurance Agent: Good morning. Tauber Insurance Company. How can I help you?

Female Client: Good morning. I want to alter my insurance policy.

Insurance Agent: Is that for your house, contents, or vehicle?

Female Client: My vehicle.

Insurance Agent: Can you give me the number of the policy please?

Female Client: Certainly, I have it here in front of me. It's ZQW5009.

Insurance Agent: And what make and model of car is it?

Female Client: It's a Masda...a Masda Marvel.

Insurance Agent: And what's the cc rating?

Female Client: Sorry? What do you mean?

Insurance Agent: How big is the engine? Is it 1500 or 1800 cc, for example?

Female Client: Oh that...it's actually much bigger than that. It's 2500 cc.

Insurance Agent: Thank you. Now I just have to ask you a few questions to verify your identity.

What name is the policy under?

Female Client: Heathcote.

Insurance Agent: Let me just bring that up on the computer. Yes, can I just confirm your first

name, please?

Female Client: Well, my first name is Lisa but I'm known by my middle name—Marie.

Insurance Agent: Right. I see both here, but Lisa is the one I want for ID purposes. And your

date of birth, Lisa?...I mean, Marie.

Female Client: The twenty-second of August, 1955.

Insurance Agent: Correct. Just one more question before we get started—can you remember

the password on this policy?

Insurance Agent: Everyone has a password. Would you like to take a guess?

Female Client: Possibly it's my mother's name…

Insurance Agent: And what would that be?

Female Client: Sophia.

Insurance Agent: Sorry, guess again.

Female Client: Alright...Oh, I remember now, it's my grandfather's name, Jack.

Insurance Agent: Yes, followed by some numbers...

Female Client: 1897—right?

Insurance Agent: Correct Now we can get down to business. What exactly do you want to

change?

Female Client: Well, a couple of things. Firstly, I think it's overvalued at the moment. Can we

reduce the value by $5,000.

Insurance Agent: You mean, bring it down to $15,000?

Female Client: Yes, I'm sure it's lost quite a bit of value over the past year.

Insurance Agent: Done. Now, what's the other thing?

Female Client: Well, I want to add the name of another driver to my insurance policy.

Insurance Agent: Who is it?

Female Client: His name is Samuel Michaels.

Insurance Agent: He doesn't have the same family name as you?

Female Client: No, he doesn't. Is that a problem?

Insurance Agent: No, it shouldn't be, as long as he's over the age of 25, but we find it easier to

get approval for family members.

Female Client: Oh, he is family...he's married to my daughter. He's my son-In-law. And he's 28

in fact.
Insurance Agent: Good — and what would he be using the car for? Would it be business or

social purposes?

Female Client: Not really...you see, I've injured my right arm and I'm having difficulty driving ( it's

not an automatic—I have to use the gear stick) and Sam, that is Samuel, offered to drive me to

my appointments and so on. He's a good driver and I feel safe with him but I’d like to know that

the car is still insured with him behind the wheel.

Insurance Agent: So that would be...family reasons, then?

Female Client: Yes, I think so. Will my premium go up?

Insurance Agent: No—as long as you can provide us with a photocopy of his driver's licence—a

true copy—you know what I mean—you'll have to get someone from the Department of

Transport to sign it saying that he's seen the original document.

Female Client: I think we can manage that without any difficulty.

Insurance Agent: Oh, and while he's at the Department, he should ask them for a record of any

driving offences, demerit points, that kind of thing, only for the last five years though. We're not

interested in anything beyond that but it's important that he has a clean record for the five

previous years.

Female Client: Oh, I'm sure that won't be a problem. Is there anything else you need?

Insurance Agent: Just the date for when you'd like this to take effect.

Female Client: Today, if that's possible.

Insurance Agent: Yes, we can issue temporary cover from today's date but full cover won't apply

until we've received the paperwork and it's been approved.

Female Client: What exactly is temporary ?

Insurance Agent: He'll be covered for two full weeks but it will lapse after that time if there's any

problem with his credentials.

Hello. I'm J o ( e) from Health Services and I'm pleased to be here talking to you today. You've
come here today to learn more about gaining confidence and setting goals. How many of you
are truly positive thinkers? Positive thinking is the key to confidence. It doesn't matter whether
you are playing a sports match, facing an interview or preparing for an exam, if you apply
positive thinking, you will gain confidence. This is the secret—positive thought patterns.
Positivity leads to confidence which, in turn, will optimise your performance.

What is the one simple mental strategy that all confident people have in common? They
concentrate on success. But don't they ever fail? Don't they make mistakes? What happens
when things go wrong? The crucial difference is that they don't dwell on failure. Everybody
makes mistakes—I mean, how else do we learn? Rather than giving up or becoming depressed,
the best strategy is to register the mistake; note what went wrong; and determine what would
have been a better way to act or what could have been done differently in order to achieve a
more successful outcome. Then move on! Yes, erase the negative emotions; allow those
memories of defeat, frustration or dissatisfaction to fade and move forward. Negativity erodes
confidence. You need to put aside your disappointments and focus on successful outcomes.

Oh, it's not that easy. I can hear you saying. Well, no, it's not easy to forget failure but no-one
ever fails completely so congratulate yourself on the areas where you did do welL Mentally
replay the best bits—even if they're only a small part!

Now, there are two more things you need to do. Firstly, rehearsal—yes, you heard me—
rehearsal. Surely only actors in a play need to rehearse their parts? No, the truth is, we all need
to rehearse. This is a surefire way to build confidence. Before the match, the presentation, the
exam or whatever, imagine yourself performing successfully in that particular situation. And
here's the second tip—look confident. That will always give you an extra physiological
advantage. So you can see that mind and body work together on this. You have to think and act
positively.

Let's talk a bit more about how to look confident. If you have to overcome a challenge, get rid of
that anxious expression and rigid posture, those downcast eyes and nervous gestures. Even if
you don't feel very self-assured, you can still give the appearance of confidence. Stand tall, hold
your head up, make full eye contact and keep an open expression—replace the frown with a
smile if you can manage it. And those hunched shoulders? Relax those shoulder muscles. If you
need to, take a deep breath and stretch to release pent up anxiety and tension. What if you
have to make a difficult phone call, for example? Nobody can actually see you—so does it
matter what you look like? Yes, it does. Practising positive body language will help you cross
the threshold into a confident mood.
Before we move on to talk about goal setting, it may surprise you to know that, once you have
set a goal in life, the brain responds with a burst of activity, which we experience as 7—that's
right, happiness! And what happens when the goal is achieved? Yes, there is another burst of
activity...and another feeling of happiness.

As you can see, the recipe for a happy life is to maintain a positive attitude and keep setting and
achieving your goals. So, whatever your goal, whatever it is that you're aiming for—a new job,
losing weight, giving up smoking, graduation—you need an appropriate (and by 'appropriate' I
mean 'achievable' goal). That's the first step.

The next thing to consider is motivation. How do you get going? Well, it's more likely to motivate
you if you think of the rewards of success rather than focus on failure, or what you might lose.
So you need to establish your incentives. After that you'll have to work out the various stages
and phases that you'll need to go through along the way and prepare for each one of them. If
you're not naturally motivated, keep the targets small and achievable. But it really is important to
ensure you collect the resources to accomplish the various steps. If you have performed that
particular task before, you may already have the resources or at least know where to get them
from. If not, ask someone who has already succeeded.

When you have got this far, the next stage is obvious—yes, you have to take the first step.
That's not quite all there is to it though. The final thing to remember is to keep track of what
you've accomplished; in other words, be sure to maintain a progress log. That way you can look
back at your previous small successes and watch your progress along the way to achieving
your goal.

Section 3

Professor: Come in and sit down, Louise.. Stuart. I suppose you're wondering why I've asked
you both to come here today?

Student Louise: Well, we've heard rumours...

Professor: Forget the rumours. I'll get straight down to business. You know that I’m organising a
conference on 17th Century English Literature...

Student Stuart: Yes, but...

Professor: Well, I've arranged for three keynote speakers and I've invited 25 panellists so that
we can have five panel discussions and I want you two to organise one of the panel
discussions.

Student Louise: But we haven't done that before. Is it like a team presentation?
Professor: No, the purpose is quite different. In a team presentation the group presents agreed-
upon views—as you have both done at the end of a group project.

Student Louise: Yes...

Professor: Well, in a panel discussion the purpose is to put forward different views. We want to
expose the audience to several different viewpoints at the same session. It can help the
audience evaluate their own positions regarding specific issues. And, if it's well conducted, it's
usually more interesting than a single-speaker forum.

Student Stuart: And what exactly do we need to do?

Professor: Well, you’ll take the role of leader or moderator and assistant

Student Louise: Is that like the role of chairman?

Professor: Yes, that’s it.

Student Stuart: Sounds daunting.

Professor: Not at all. I've already done a great deal of the preparation myself. Let me run
through the procedure with you. I've singled out an issue that will entail quite some conflict of
opinion. I've selected panellists who are well-informed and will probably have contradictory
points of view. That's very important, you know.

Student Louise: Actually, I feel a bit nervous—how many panellists will there be?

Professor: Well, I've invited five panellists for each panel because that's probably the maximum
number that an inexperienced moderator can handle. But don't worry, I always invite more than
we need because you can be sure someone won't be able to make it—so you'll probably just
end up with four, which is a very manageable number.

Student Stuart: Oh, I see.

Professor: And I've chosen a moderator—that's you, by the way.

Student Louise: Ah...but..Stuart will help, right?

Professor: Yes. I'll get onto time-keeping and what-not, shortly. That's where an assistant is
indispensable.

Student Stuart: But what procedure do we follow to conduct the panel discussion?
Professor: Don't worry. I was just about to say. I've also settled on the format.

Student Stuart: What is it?

Professor: There are various formats that can be followed but I've always found this one to be
very effective.

Student Stuart: Yes?

Professor: Okay, make some notes on these guidelines as I run through them and ask me
questions about anything you don't understand.

Student Stuart: We're ready.

Professor: Firstly, the moderator introduces the topic and the panellists.

Student Louise: But we don't know who the panellists are.

Professor: Don't worry—I've prepared a short biographical introduction for each one of them and
I'll give you that information tomorrow.

Student Louise: Oh, good.

Professor: Next, the panellists are given a set amount of time to present their views on the topic.
I'd say, about two minutes each should be sufficient. Now, this is where Stuart's time-keeping is
going to be important. You have to keep to the schedule all the way through because the lecture
room has only been booked for an hour.

Student Stuart: How do I indicate when the time is up?

Professor: You stand off to one side of the panel either with your back to the audience or hidden
from the audience but in full view of the panel and moderator. You have a digital clock or timer
and you hold up the appropriate number of fingers to give the number of minutes. When the
time is up, you make a cutting gesture with your hand.

Student Louise: Ah...but...what if the panellists keep talking?

Professor: Then, that's your job to politely intervene and move on to the next segment which is
the discussion itself. Panellists discuss, ask questions and react to the opinions of other panel
members. This, of course, is their primary function and should occupy about 60% of the allotted
time.

Student Louise: Stuart will watch the time, right?

Student Louise: Why?

Professor: Well, when the time's up, the moderator shuts down the debate and provides a
summary of the discussion.

Student Louise: Oh, and then it's over?

Professor: Well, no, the secondary function of the panel is to answer questions from the
audience and that should take up the remaining 15 to 20 minutes. It's the leader's role to
recognise appropriate questions and reject those not related to the subject. During the question
period you must maintain strict control and this will most likely be the toughest part of the whole
job.

Student Louise: Oh, dear.

Professor: Stuart will of course help you here by ensuring that as many people as possible have
a chance to ask their questions and that no one member of the audience tries to dominate. With
about 5 minutes to go, he'll announce that there's time for only a couple more questions, then
announce "last question".

Student Louise: And then it's over?

Professor: Not quite. You still have to acknowledge the involvement of the panellists and invite
your audience to thank them with a round of applause.

Student Stuart: Should I clap too?

Professor: Yes, you should both take part in the applause.

Section 4

Welcome to our series on renewable resources. The topic today is hydropower. As you most
probably know, 'hydro' means water—so we are talking about using water to generate
electricity. Of course, there are many ways to generate electricity but hydropower is important to
the community, firstly and obviously, because it's renewable. The earth's hydrologic cycle of
constant evaporation and transpiration provides a continual supply of water from rainfall and
snowmelt. The second point to consider is its efficiency.

Hydropower plants are able to convert approximately 90% of the energy from the falling water
into electric energy whereas many fossil-fuelled plants lose more than half of the energy content
of their fuel by way of waste heat and gases. For this reason they are very efficient. Hydropower
is also clean. It doesn't emit harmful gases that contribute to air pollution, acid rain, and global
warming. No trucks, trains or pipelines are needed to bring fuel to the site and there's no noise
pollution either. Furthermore, hydropower plant machinery is fairly simple and runs at slow
speeds, which makes it reliable and durable. And, hydropower units are flexible also—they have
the ability to start quickly and adjust rapidly to changes in demand for electricity, thus enabling
them to meet peak loads. But this also allows them to serve as reserve capacity and bring more
stability to the power system overall.

The darns that provide hydroelectric power also have other uses such as navigation, flood
damage reduction, water supply, recreation, irrigation and low flow augmentation but it's not the
purpose of this talk to go into those details.

How do the hydropower plants work? Well, a dam is built across a river which captures water to
form a reservoir and raises the water level to create ' head '. Think of 'head' as the vertical
distance that the water falls as it passes through the dam. In other words the difference in water
level between the reservoir behind the dam and the river below water from the reservoir flows
through an intake gate into a pen stock. This kind of narrow channel which leads to the turbine
below the force of the water, causes the turbine to rotate rapidly which in turn drives the
generator to spin and produce electricity. The electricity is carried the long distances from the
powerhouse to substations on the outskirts of cities via power lines.

Can you build a hydropower unit on any river? Well, no, just having water in a river isn't enough.
A good dam site must have enough stream flow as well as enough head. A fast flowing river on
the plains is probably not suitable because a dam couldn't be built high enough to provide the
head needed for efficient production of electricity. On the other hand, dams in arid high country
may have plenty of head but insufficient stream flow. The perfect spot for a hydropower plant is
where the right combination of stream flow and head exists.

What about the environment? Surely the construction of large dams has an environmental
impact? Well, yes it does. Certainly dams and reservoirs are built to improve the lives of people
living in towns, farming communities and cities. But there must be a balance between
development and preserving the natural environment. Needless to say, the natural river
environment is changed which leads to changes in river ecology and aquatic habitat.
Sometimes, for example, dissolved oxygen levels below dams get so low in summer that there
is a negative impact on aquatic life. These levels can be improved, however, by using special
aerating turbines and/or injecting oxygen directly into the stream flow. In order to protect and
improve the habitat for endangered and other species of birds, fish and water life, there needs
to be a thorough review of operating plans to see if a better balance can be achieved.

Hydropower plant design and operation must not only meet the needs of consumers for
electricity but work hand-in-hand with agencies whose concern is for the fish and wildlife, water
quality and water supply.