Speaker 1 Kevin is very quick to think negative things about people. Even when he talks about his best friend, he always tells you about his faults. And if somebody hasn’t got any faults, he invents them

1

I’m not sure who to vote for. Even so, that’s no excuse not to

do it at all.

2

We couldn’t go to London to demonstrate. Still, we managed

to protest effectively in other ways.

3

I don’t really understand how Twitter works. Nevertheless, I 

will try to use it.

4

My sister went on a protest march at the weekend. Talking 

of protests, did you sign that petition about equal rights?

5

Scientists say it will be difficult to reverse global warming. All

the same, it would be better to try to do something about it.

6

Journalists are sometimes difficult to trust. By the way, did 

you know that Matt is studying journalism at university?

2.17 Lesson 8C, Exercise 5

1

 Talking of politics, I was fed up with the lack of political 

education at my school, especially with the general election 

coming up, so I decided I would try to do something about it.

I went to the head teacher and asked if I could stage a mock

Solutions

 

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Audio scripts

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election in the school. I thought I would have trouble 

persuading him, but he was all for it. So I invited students to 

put themselves forward as candidates, then organised a 

speech day and a polling day, and guess what? The turnout 

was 85%! Students went home and researched the different 

political parties in our electoral system and what they stood 

for. I was delighted!

2

Did you know that in the last general election, turnout 

among 18-24-year-olds was poor – only 43%? Teenagers 

are accused of being politically apathetic, but that isn’t 

altogether true. For instance, in Scotland, 16- and 17-year-

olds were allowed to vote for the first time in the Scottish 

referendum – you know, when the Scots were voting 

whether to be independent from Britain. And what was 

interesting was that young people were inspired and 

galvanised to think about politics and the future of 

Scotland – and the voting turnout among the young was 

incredibly high – 80%! So it just goes to show that when 

teenagers are included in the political system, they can act 

responsibly and go to the polling station. 

3

As a journalist I can say that that hashtag activism is here to

stay. In the past few years, a solid Twitter presence has 

become essential for any good protest movement. For 

instance, a hashtag slogan links all posts together into a 

debating forum, so that people can easily find and join in the

discussions. Incidentally, for those of us who work in the 

media, news is more and more often made on Twitter than 

through official channels. So I don’t think it makes sense to 

distinguish between online and offline activism any more. 

Social media is not a substitute for actual demonstrations, 

but a complement to them. Demonstrations are organised 

on Facebook. Then people go on protest marches with 

hashtag slogans on their banners. Therefore other people 

can see them, go online and join the protest. Digital and 

traditional activism feed into one another. That’s real 

life today.

4

A rather interesting reaction happened with teenagers a 

while ago in the States. Thousands of teens wanting to 

make a point against the perfect bodies found in magazines 

started posting photos and videos of themselves with acne, 

body fat, etc. They used the hashtag ‘Don’t Judge 

Challenge’. You know, the hashtag was used over two 

million times! However, some teenagers then started making

themselves intentionally unattractive. For instance, they 

painted on spots, big eyebrows, big glasses or missing teeth

and took photos, then slowly changed themselves to show 

that they were attractive after all. Then a backlash started, 

with thousands of other teenagers criticising it on Twitter, 

saying that the videos didn’t empower teenagers, but gave 

the message that people who naturally have bad skin, wear 

glasses, or that sort of thing can never be attractive. So then

a new hashtag was formed called ‘Beauty In All Challenge’, 

encouraging people to embrace their individual, personal 

beauty. 

2.18 Lesson 8G, Exercises 1 and 3

Examiner

  I’d like you to imagine that you are discussing 

practical ways in which people can help to 

combat pollution. How effective are each of the 

five suggestions?