6. Аудирование: поиск запрашиваемой информации в интервью: все задания

Presenter: Are interpreters in high demand now? 

Liza: According to statistics, between 2010 and 2020, the American interpreter job market has grown by about 40%. That’s a lot faster than the average for all occupations in the USA. This is happening because more and more foreigners are coming to the USA. Moreover, the country’s growing international trade also needs plenty of interpreters.

Ayla: I’ll start with a kind of stream of consciousness. A lot of my writing is actually free form. Form. Sometimes I’ll have, like, a verse that maybe I’ve already written down somewhere, and I’ll listen to an instrumental, and that will kind of spark something in me. Or sometimes it starts with a melody, so I have a chord progression and drums, and then I’ll voice a melody over the top of that. And then I’ll kind of rummage through my notes and find something that strikes a similar chord in me as the music goes.

Presenter: Wow, that early! Then you’d had a lot of experience when you took over the business I guess. But have you ever wanted to do something different? 

Bob: Not really. My brother and I have always wanted to have the lifestyle our dad had. He was free to spend time with us. We got off the school bus at three o’clock, and he would drop whatever he was doing with the business to be with us. He was engaged with us. He was hands-on. He was present in our lives.

Michelle: Through my foundation, I make many small grants throughout the year. But I usually have one priority area, where a majority of the grant-making is focused. Since 1984, climate change has been the focus, and in the past few years I’ve added women’s health to that list of core priorities.

Paul: I guess Paris always remains a mystery, no matter how much time you have spent there. Last summer I came back to Paris as a tourist because I wanted to look around. Look up for a change, instead of looking at my feet, and I did love it. But Paris infuriates me as well because there is something provocative and tantalizing about it. It makes me quietly dissatisfied with living in London.

Presenter: Did you continue writing at college? 

Alyson: Of course, in my freshman year in college I submitted a couple of short stories to a university-wide creative writing competition called the Hopwood Awards and I won a cash prize. My university was a large one so the prize was fairly competitive. That felt like the first serious evidence that I might actually have some sort of real knack for writing. My work has been recognized not by my friends or an encouraging English teacher but by complete strangers who’d picked my work out of a large pile of entries. 

Presenter: Your novel has wonderful dialogues, as well as exciting, long, uninterrupted monologues. How do you manage to make them so gripping? Is that the effect of your experience as a playwright?

Maggie: I don’t think the genre matters much. I even try not to look at the story itself because even a banal story may turn into a blockbuster. What I pay attention to and fall in love with is the script. If the script is good, I start just living in those dialogues or monologues.

Presenter: What advice would you give to an artist who is dealing with artist’s block? How do you boost your imagination and keep yourself creative?

Brenda: I’d say, go out and have some fun. Step away from whatever you are doing and try something new or different. Living a healthy and balanced life is also important, as it helps keep ideas flowing. I personally enjoy being outside, hiking, hanging out with friends, window shopping, playing different sports or just meeting new people. All the little things that you experience along the way will serve as inspirations when creating your work. The more you discover and observe things around you, the more you will have to draw from when you need ideas.

Vanessa: I think that storytelling is almost innate in us.People sat round fires and caves in the stone age, telling each other stories. I don’t think they would have just said «I went off and got a mammoth today». We have an ability to hang on to the important parts and drip-feed people with the important bits. You don’t give it up all upfront. You make them wanna know the next bit. Keep them involved by creating the character that draws them in and putting that character in a situation they can empathise with. Make the reader want to find out how they resolve this thing.

Presenter: Speaking about the coming conference, what would you say is the major benefit for attending publishing events for writers as compared to, say, online resources on the subject? 

Julia: I think the major difference between online and face-to-face events is energy. Whenever I’ve taught or attended an event, it’s the energy in the room that I really notice. There’s a rich atmosphere of expectation, optimism, and motivation that you don’t get if you’re sitting alone at your computer. There’s also the opportunity to swap stories with other attendees, learn from the questions that are asked and the answers given by the speaker. There’s a sense of community that you don’t get online, and people often leave feeling fired up, motivated, and determined.

Kim: Maybe. Of course, my heroine is quite different from me in terms of character and temperament. But the day-to-day routines of juggling my husband’s schedule and mine were very familiar to me. We are both very active public, busy people. So we work extra hard not to lose our close connection to each other.

Peter: I had a choice to start working as a news reporter, since that was my major, or continue as a football player. I chose the second option. I joined the professional team a week after my graduation, and played with them for the next seven years. In those seven years, I underwent seven serious surgeries, and had three head injuries. <…> My wife and my father are the two people who helped me make the decision to leave football behind.

John: I didn’t invent that style of photography, but I’ve been thinking about it since I was only nine years old, when I was swimming and snorkeling around the jetties of New Jersey. I would put my head above water and see clouds, lifeguards, the beach, and people. Then I’d put my head underwater and I would see silverfish, spider crabs, all sorts of other things. It was like escaping to a world that was dreamlike. Today we use wide-angle lenses and a special underwater housing to make these photos come to life. I recently published a book of my half-and-half photos called Two Worlds. It’s an idea I’ve had for quite a while and it took me thirty years to get the pictures together.

Lisa: Stress is good and healthy as long as it is neither too little nor too great. You don’t want a stress-free environment for yourself or your children. You also don’t want to be overwhelmed by stress.

Presenter: As a writer, what do you think about drafting and drafts? 

Stacey: <…> I find revision easier and more enjoyable than drafting and that’s mostly because the internal critic is so bad while I draft. If I don’t put him away he’ll drive me away from the computer. You must be doing a lot of editing later then. Of course, my first drafts are huge messes and it can take me multiple revisions to even pin down the basic plot arc. I used to think revision was 100% about the critical brain because that’s the only part I use when editing others. I certainly wouldn’t want to let my free writing brain loose on someone else’s work but I’m starting to think there may be room for it when I revise my own.

Peter: You can easily do it by asking questions. Here are some questions to consider. You may ask about jobs and hobbies, past achievements and upcoming goals and priorities, values, dreams, passions and things like that.

Carl. I realized that if I wanted to make my life better, I would have to straighten up in school and really succeed in football to get an opportunity to move up in life. I was very motivated. I remember in third grade, when the teacher asked me what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to play in the NFL. I was a standout on every football team I was on, in school, high school, and college. 

Presenter: What is your favourite room in your home?

Alice: My favourite room is my office. It’s where I feel most creative. I’m surrounded by books, photographs, pictures, my computer and things I’ve accumulated over the years that are a comfort to me. I like to feel I’m in a safe place when I write.

Paul: I would like to say that I use multiple tools as much as I can — pencils, markers, gouache, watercolours and acrylics. I started with pencils and markers, so I can say I have excelled in using them.I do have to improve my computer skills, but my brother Geordie is very good at it and supports me in the studio.