ef3_pre-int_short_film_scripts

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© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 1&2 
A photographer 
 
This is Gonzalo. He’s a photographer. At the moment he is living and working in New York. 
Every day he takes photos of the city and its people. 
 
Gonzalo came to New York two years ago from Guatemala. He found a job and is now living in the 
east village. He has a photography studio in his apartment, and he uses lots of different equipment. 
Gonzalo loves his life and his work, but he wasn’t always a photographer. 
 
'I went to school for something completely different. Uh, I went to law school. I graduated from law 
school. I went to UFM, I have a law degree from UFM. But when I graduated I was not happy with 
my choice of um career' 
 
Gonzalo was working for a newspaper when he decided to become a photographer and move to the 
United States. Gonzalo now works as a professional fashion photographer. He uses several different 
cameras and lenses, but one camera is particularly special. 
 
'My first camera, um, actually is this one. I inherited it from my grandfather. He passed away when I 
was seven years old. My grandfather was German. This is a German camera. It’s a Leica M2 it’s still in 
mint condition. I treasure it so much. I barely use it but I mean it takes amazing quality photographs 
still … so it’s pretty cool.' 
 
Today Gonzalo is taking photographs of a model for a famous fashion website. But Gonzalo likes to 
photograph – or ‘shoot’ - lots of different things. What are his favourite? 
 
'My favourite things to shoot, um, that’s a very tough question because I shoot a lot of things. I love 
to shoot portraits. I love to shoot the street, I’m a big sports fan. So, uh, I like to shoot sports a lot.' 
 
Photography isn’t always easy. Gonzalo travels a lot and at the moment he is working on three 
different jobs. So why does he enjoy his job? 
 
'It entertains me. It distracts me. it stops me from worrying about my everyday troubles or my stress 
or anything. So I enjoy it. I enjoy it, you know.' 
 
For Gonzalo every day is different and in a city like New York there’s always something new and 
exciting to photograph. 
 
 
 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 3&4 
Shopping in the UK 
 
The British high street has always been a popular place to buy and sell. Recently, however, this has 
changed. Fourteen per cent of town-centre shops are now empty. So, where have all the shoppers 
gone? 
 
This is The Oracle in Reading, England. It opened in 1999 and it cost £250m to build. Today, it has 90 
shops on three different levels and covers over 80,000 square metres. Shoppers can browse their 
favourite labels, have a meal or a drink in one of its 22 restaurants, cafés and bars or even watch a 
film in its 10-screen cinema. 
 
With its glass roof and riverside location The Oracle offers a 21st century shopping experience. It is 
an exciting and entertaining place where you can buy all of today’s most fashionable brand names. 
But ‘shopping centres’ are not just a 21st century phenomenon. 
 
The Burlington Arcade, which opened in 1819, was one of the world’s first shopping centres. Lord 
George Cavendish, the man who built the arcade, said it was “for the sale of jewellery and fancy 
articles.” Today, shoppers can still buy luxurious and unique products, such as hand-made gold and 
silverware, precious materials and even these golden slippers. 
 
The arcade is almost 200 meters long and has been a part of London’s history for almost 200 years. 
However, the Burlington’s owners are going to modernise this traditional shopping arcade. 
Something they are very excited about is that some global modern brands, like Lulu Guiness and 
Jimmy Choo, are going to be based there, as well as the older specialist stores like Penhaligons and 
the jewellers Heming of London. 
 
The Burlington Arcade and The Oracle are two very different shopping centres but both are almost 
always busy. Experts predict that this is going to change as online shopping becomes more popular 
and people start to shop from home. However, at the moment only about 10% of retail transactions 
take place online while 31% take place in shopping centres. As long as places like The Burlington 
Arcade and The Oracle continue to offer convenience and choice they will continue to be a popular 
place to shop. 
 
 
 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 5&6 
Chicago 
 
Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois. Some of the things it is famous for are pizza, 
gangsters and sports. This is Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs, Chicago’s oldest baseball 
team. 
 
Many American people call Chicago ‘The Second City’ because for a hundred years it had the second 
biggest population in the country. It was smaller than New York but, until the 1980s, it was bigger 
than every other American city. 
 
Today, Chicago is a very popular tourist destination. Every year over thirty million people visit the 
city. They go to the Millennium Park, the newest park in Chicago, they walk along the shore of Lake 
Michigan, the second largest of the five Great Lakes, and they admire the view from the top of The 
Willis Tower. 
 
The Willis Tower used to be called the Sears Tower and for 25 years it was the tallest building in the 
world. In 1969 Sears, Roebuck and co., the largest department store chain in the world at that time, 
built the tower to use as office blocks. 
 
Today the skyscraper is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city. It is still the tallest 
skyscraper in the U.S but it isn’t as tall as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the Petronas Twin Towers in 
Kuala Lumpur. 
 
Chicago’s other famous nickname is ‘The Windy City.’ People say that it is windier than other major 
cities but weather experts disagree. In fact scientists predict that Chicago will have a very different 
climate in the future. They say that it won’t be as cold and as windy as it is now but will be warmer 
and wetter. 
 
This will mean many changes but Chicago is further ahead than most other cities in its preparations 
for climate change. The city is constructing new environmentally friendly buildings, planning more 
parks and green areas and placing big hedges alongside the city’s pathways. Chicago is also investing 
in new roads and car parks for electric cars. 
 
Chicago is a changing city. The Windy City’s famous climate is going to become much warmer. 
Chicago will be a hotter more tropical place than it is today. This will cause problems but at the 
moment America’s Second City is one of the first places to properly deal with pollution and climate 
change. 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 7&8 
Learning a language 
 
This is year ten in Llantaf School in Cardiff. The students in this class are between 14 and 15 years old 
and there are about thirty in each class. They all speak Welsh and English but today the students are 
learning how to speak French. 
 
In most schools in England and Wales students have to learn a foreign language but they don’t have 
to choose French. In this school, for example, students can also learn German, Spanish, Italian, and 
even Latin. Whatever language they choose, they will have three to four forty minute classes every 
week and they’ll have to do an exam at the end of the year. 
 
Today these students are learning how to describe their hometown. The teacher explains the 
language and the students have to take notes and answer questions on worksheets. Discipline in 
class is quite strict. The teacher doesn’t allow chatting and the students have to obey the rules. 
Technology is becoming more popular in British classrooms. This teacher is using a projector to 
practise vocabulary and pronunciation. Most students enjoy learning a new language, but not all of 
them! 
 
This is an English lesson at a private language school in Oxford. The classes hereare quite small. 
There are usually about eight students in each class. Most of the students here are adults and they 
come from lots of different countries. They say that if they learn English they’ll have a better chance 
of getting a good job. 
 
Because these students are adults discipline isn’t a big problem. The teacher and the students try to 
have fun and lots of the activities involve working and speaking in pairs and groups. 
The teacher must be active, enthusiastic, and hardworking. Caroline Reading, another English 
teacher in Oxford, explains what teaching English as a foreign language is like. 
 
'Why did you decide to become an English teacher?' 
 
'Well, I left university and didn’t know what to do and I decided I wanted to travel. So it was a good 
way to see the world.' 
 
'What do you like best about the job?' 
 
'I think the best thing for me is, um, being with people and just helping them with their learning. 
Helping them get on in life with their English.' 
 
'What do you like least about the job?' 
 
'I think the worst thing is probably the marking, correcting their homework and essays.' 
 
'What problems do different nationalities have when learning English, and why?' 
 
'The, the learners from the Far East and the Middle East have problems with writing and reading in 
English and this is because their languages have a different alphabet and so before they can start 
learning English they have to learn our alphabet. And they also read from right to left, which makes 
it very difficult for them. 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Italian, Spanish, and I think French students also have problems with pronunciation, that’s probably 
their biggest problem. And then if you speak German, so if you come from Switzerland or Germany, 
they also have pronunciation problems, but it’s more to do with the intonation, as they can sound a 
little bit rude in English.' 
 
'What do you think is the most useful thing(s) students can do outside class to improve their 
language learning?' 
 
'I think that outside the classroom students should first of all do their homework and go back over 
what they’ve learnt in the classroom during the class. But I also think that they need to do more than 
that. They need to go on the internet, watch films in English, if they can read a book in English and 
socialize with people and also travel, because when you travel you often end up speaking in English 
to people.' 
 
Teaching English in a language school is quite different to teaching French in a secondary school. But 
both involve working hard, and having fun. 
 
 
 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 9&10 
Marwell Wildlife 
 
This is Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire, England. It was started in 1972 and since then it has become 
one of the most popular wildlife parks in the UK. 500,000 people come here every year. They come 
to visit well known animals like giraffes, tigers, monkeys and rhinos as well as more exotic animals 
like the snow leopard, the Somali wild ass and the ring-tailed coati. There are reptiles like this green 
tree python and birds like these flamingos. 
 
However, Marwell Wildlife is different to other wildlife parks and zoos. It’s a charity, dedicated to 
conservation of different species of animals. Some of these species are endangered like the Grevy’s 
Zebra, with a population of just over 3,000, and some are near extinction like the Siberian Tiger, 
which has a population of less than 250, or the Amur Leopard, with only 30 pairs of adults left in the 
wild. 
 
For forty years staff have brought animals like these to Marwell because their natural habitats – the 
places they live in – have been destroyed by humans and by climate change. It is a sad fact but if 
these animals were left in the wild they probably wouldn’t survive. In Marwell Wildlife they live and 
breed safely and, unlike many other zoos and wildlife parks, they have lots of space. 
 
However, Marwell Wildlife hasn’t always been like this. It used to be smaller and used to have fewer 
animals. But in the last 20 years the park has grown from 120 acres to 150 acres. It has become a 
more open park where the animals have much more space. 
 
Marwell is now home to 235 different species and in total 1200 animals live in the park. If it weren’t 
for Marwell Wildlife’s conservation work many of these animals would be extinct in the wild. Sadly, 
though, some of them already are. 
 
This is the Scimitar Oryx. They are a type of antelope that used to live all over North Africa. They 
have always been hunted for their large horns and now there are none left in the wild. They only 
live in places like Marwell Wildlife where they are part of a breeding programme. The park hopes 
that if more Oryxes are born then some might be released back into the wild. They have already 
done this with some Oryxes, which have been released in Tunisia. 
 
The Oryx breeding programme has been a huge success but there are many other strange and 
beautiful creatures still in danger. If places like Marwell Wildlife didn’t help many of these amazing 
animals would die out completely. 
 
© Oxford University Press English File third edition – Pre-intermediate 
Files 11&12 
Sports in New Zealand 
 
New Zealand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Over 2 million people 
come here every year. So, why do so many people come to New Zealand? 
 
They come for the beautiful scenery, the relaxed atmosphere and to experience some of the world’s 
most exciting adventure sports. 
 
This is Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island. It’s a small town by Lake Wakatipu surrounded 
by mountains. It used to be a quiet, farming town but now it’s a popular destination for tourists from 
all over the world who are looking for excitement. 
 
This is the Shotover Jet. It’s a high speed jet boat that races through narrow, windy canyons and has 
been a major attraction in Queenstown since 1970. 
 
Queenstown is also home to the bungee jump. This jump on the Kawarau Bridge was the first 
commercial bungee jump in the world. It has been a huge success for almost thirty years and it has 
turned Queenstown into the adventure sports capital of the world. Today, visitors to Queenstown 
can do all kinds of adventure sports. As well as jet boating and bungee jumping they can go sky 
diving or even parasailing. 
 
But not all visitors to New Zealand want to jump off a bridge or out of a plane. Tourists looking for 
something a bit more relaxed should travel 1600 km north … to Auckland. Auckland is at the 
northern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. It is between the Tasman sea and the Hauraki Gulf so it 
is the perfect place for sailing. In fact Auckland is known as ‘The City of Sails’. It has more boats per 
person than any other city in the world with around 135,000 yachts and motor boats in the city’s 
many marinas. Auckland has hosted the most famous yacht race in the world – the America’s Cup – 
twice. On the first occasion the New Zealand team won. 
 
Auckland is proud of this sailing tradition. Today tourists can hire the Team New Zealand yacht, 
worth millions of dollars. They can sail the yacht around the harbour or sail it towards the ocean to 
see whales and dolphins. 
 
Many international visitors come to New Zealand for its adventure sports and from Queenstown to 
Auckland it’s got something for everyone.