Comprehension , Upper Intermediate & Advanced ( 7 )

Comprehension 

7 - ] Upper Intermediate & Advanced 

Comprehension

Read the following article , then answer the questions below :

                 There are 25 of us on the course for radio program presenters , to hear the tips from the expert , Paul Fairburn , program director at the Heart FM . I have been doing the job for nearly 20 years but it is the closest I have ever come to anything like training . Two of us old hands are clearly there for the chance to make fun of radio presenter school ( Lesson Five : The time Check . ‘Class , repeat after me : It’s 21 minutes before the hour of three o’clock .’ ) .

                 About half of us are presenters from small local stations and the rest are the type of young man - they are always male - who is always , and a little unfairly , laughed at in the radio business : single-minded enthusiasts who in any other branch of entertainment would probably be welcomed .

                  Fairburn passes on a vital hint for potential phone-in hosts : ‘Don’t worry if someone phones up and says they’re going to thump you . They won’t. The people who are really going to hit you don’t tell you first .’ This is not altogether encouraging , but interesting to know , and we dutifully make a note of it .We also note Fairburn’s tip number one :‘Get a Life outside radio .’

‘If you are an interesting person , you will be a more interesting presenter ,’ says Fairburn . ‘So don’t spend all your time in radio stations .’ This is a bit ironic , because if we had a life we probably wouldn’t be sitting in that room on a Wednesday afternoon taking notes . For those of us who went into radio back in the 1970s , it may be a little late for all this . But times have changed , says Fairburn and now you need to learn the profession .

                 To this end , today’s presenters will almost certainly be invited to spend time at lectures , learning from the masters . Dan O’Day , an American breakfast-show presenter generally regarded as one of the best of that kind , hosts weekend schools , at which topics such as ‘Establishing Good Relations On The Telephone’ are discussed deeply . The Metro Radio Group in Britain even makes its presenters sign an agreement not to give away confidential ideas picked up on the group’s training schemes .

                 However , courtesy of Fairburn , who picked it up from a former Metro trainee , I am now able to reveal exclusively one of those secrets . ‘You are ten minutes from the end of a four-hour program ,’ Fairburn tells the class . ‘You are naturally winding down , sounding tired ; so , a second or two before opening the microphone , shout “Wow!” very loudly into the closed microphone . Then , when you open it , you will sound wide awake , despite yourself ,’ It does work . I have tried it since , although “Wow!” doesn’t seem like the right word for the station I work on , so I tend to shout “Heck !”

                    Another example of presenter cleverness , which never occurred to us older ones , is the phone-in trick . This gets you on good terms with the local audience if you find yourself working in a strange town . When someone phones in , you find out in some detail - before putting them on the air - where they come from , what the local landmarks are and so on . Then , when they appear on the radio and say where they are calling from , you can say authoritatively , ‘Oh yes , just around the corner from the railway station .’

                     Brilliant , and much more practical than any advice I was given in the dark days when I started . With the benefit of an afternoon’s training . I can see the old-fashioned attitudes that were passed on to me then have no place in today’s highly competitive radio market .  

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1 . What do we learn about the writer in the first paragraph ?

( A ) He had heard that this particular course wasn’t very good .

( B ) He was attending the course so that he could write about it .

( C ) He wasn’t given training as a radio presenter when he started .

( D ) He had always avoided courses for radio presenters before .

2 . What does the writer say about some of the others taking the course ?

( A ) People who work in radio have a low opinion of them .

( B ) They are never likely to find work as presenters .

( C ) They couldn’t follow even simple instructions .

( D ) People who know them enjoy their program .

3 . What does the writer say about the advice to phone-in hosts ?

( A ) It was worth writing down .

( B ) It was not true of his own experience .

( C ) It was not intended for older presenters .

( D ) It was difficult to understand .

4 . What do we learn about Metro Radio ?

( A ) Paul Fairburn used to work there .

( B ) It runs courses for radio presenters .

( C ) It has copied American methods .

( D ) Excellent presenters work for it .

5 . What do ‘those secrets’ in paragraph five originally come from ?

( A ) confidential documents

( B ) radio programs

( C ) telephone conversations

( D ) training schemes

6 . What does the writer say about shouting into a closed microphone ?

( A ) He has adapted the original idea .

( B ) He initially thought it wouldn’t work .

( C ) It doesn’t help him overcome problems .

( D ) He had tried a similar thing before .

7 . What does the writer think of the ‘phone-in trick’ ?

( A ) It works better in some places than in others .

( B ) It is wrong to deceive the listeners in that way .

( C ) It is a very good idea he hadn’t thought of .

( D ) It requires too much research before the show .

8 . What is the writer’s conclusion after taking the course ?

( A ) Such courses can be useful even for presenters with the experience .

( B ) He is glad that he started presenting radio programs a long time ago .

( C ) Courses for radio presenters are unlikely to make them better at the job .

( D ) It has made him worried about his future career as a radio presenter .

Answer Key

1 . C 2 . A 3 . A 4 . B 5 . D 6 . A 7 . C 8 . A