Transcripts Unit 12
12.1 Shazia Hello, it’s Shazia Hussain from The Globe. Could I speak to Dr Davis, please? It’s about a telephone interview he’s agreed to do and I’m just firming up a time to call.
James
I’m afraid Dr Davis isn’t here. He’s at a conference and he’s left strict instructions that he doesn’t want to be disturbed.
Shazia Ah! Right. Could you tell me when he’ll be back in the office?
James Not till Wednesday morning. It’s his first day back so I expect he’ll be very busy. Maybe you could phone on Thursday?
Shazia Thursday. That’s a bit late. Do you know if there’s anyone else I could interview – maybe his deputy?
James No, unfortunately, that wouldn’t work. She’s at the conference, too.
Shazia Right. That’s tricky. The problem is we’re going to print on Friday and I’d really like to include Dr Davis’s comments. I emailed him the interview questions yesterday. Have you any idea if he received them?
James Just a minute, I can check. Yes, I think so. He’s certainly picked up your mail.
Shazia Good. Well, I wonder if you could ask him to email the answers. And then if anything’s not clear, I can call him late Wednesday. It would only take a few minutes.
James OK. I can certainly ask him to do that. Shazia Great. That’s really helpful. James No problem. Can I ask when your deadline is? Shazia Midday Thursday. That’s the absolute latest. James OK. I’ll phone Dr Davis and explain the situation. Shazia Great. Sorry, I don’t know your name. James
It’s James. James Burnie.
Shazia Right. Just one other thing, James. Do you think you could contact me if there’s a problem?
James Of course. I’ll email you as soon as I’ve spoken to him. Shazia Fantastic!
12.2 a Could you tell me when he’ll be back in the office? b Have you any idea if he received them?
12.3 Shazia Thank you for giving up your time, Mr Pelegrino. I really appreciate it as I know you’ve been involved with the shopping centre right from the beginning. Perhaps you could start by giving us an update on progress?
Marti Well, the construction work is nearly finished and everything is on schedule for the big opening next October so that’s really good news. We’ve already had a lot of interest from retailers and 22 of the 50 units have already been booked, making a total of 18 new stores and four restaurants and, of course, a
five-screen cinema. We’re thrilled to have attracted so many quality shops.
Shazia But isn’t it rather disappointing that you’ve only let 22 of the 50 units?
Marti We’re not concerned at this stage. It’s a really exciting opportunity for retailers and we’ve had a lot of interest, especially from some of the big name fashion brands like Calvin Klein and Hugo Boss. We’re confident we’ll fill all the units in time for the opening.
Shazia OK. How does the council propose to deal with parking?
Marti
There’ll be a 600-space underground car park, but we really want to encourage shoppers to leave their cars at home, or at least on the edge of the city. We don’t need more traffic in our beautiful city. The centre will be a ten-minute walk from the train station so we hope shoppers from the local towns will take the train option. And we’re extending our park-and-ride scheme so people can use our car parks on the edge of the city and come direct to the shopping centre by bus. And we’re making the buses free to encourage people to use them.
Shazia I just can’t see how that will work. Surely, if people want to shop, they want to park near the shops. I think you should have parking near the shops.
Marti
But that’s not our vision. We want a traffic-free zone around the shopping centre so that people really enjoy their shopping experience. There’ll be benches, cafés so people can sit outside in summers, and lots of green spaces.
Shazia I see. So is your plan to pedestrianize the area around the centre permanently?
Marti
Yes, that’s always been our goal. We had to close all the roads around the building site during construction and we now plan to keep it that way. It will make the whole area more attractive.
Shazia OK. Thank you. I have one more question. What do you see as the main benefits for the city?
Marti
It’s a fantastic opportunity. It will be good for local business. It will bring more people into the city, and they’ll spend money in the restaurants and the smaller specialist shops in town. And with its cinema and cafés, I’m confident it will become a new going-out area for local people. We’ve made a rather unattractive part of the town into a stylish place that we can all use and be proud of.
Shazia That does sound good. Thank you for your time, Mr Pelegrino. It’s been very interesting.
Slideshow – Can we trust the media? If you spent any time on the internet during the summer of 2015, you may have come across an alarming story. Several websites reported that a huge asteroid was due to crash into earth at some point in September. Experts predicted it would completely wipe out large parts of the American continent. Well, you probably also noticed that this did not happen. In fact, there was never any asteroid at all.
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