You'll hear four different extracts. For questions 1-8, choose the answer (A, B, or C) which fits best according to what you hear. There are two questions for each extract.

PART 1

Nahrávku můžete spustit zde:

The first science-fiction film was 'Rocket to the Moon', made in 1902. According to one movie director not known for his succinct use of language, the appeal of science-fiction is that 'it's the modern equivalent of ancient myths, where the fantasy world that's created provides the backdrop against which human nature can come up trumps in the face of adversity.' And ever since that first movie, we've been vicariously hurling our bodies into the void: to the moon, and above all to Mars.

For several decades Mars was a place of awe, even in, say, the 1938 film 'Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars', in which all the Martians spoke English. It seems laughably naive now.

In the 1950s, science-fiction gained a tinge of science fact, not to mention politics. A decade later, the increasingly sophisticated movie-going audience was drifting away to other genres, after more convincing special effects, or out of the cinema altogether. And for a few years, there was little film-makers could do to stem the flow.

PART 2

Nahrávku můžete spustit zde:

The next time some academic writes a book about how science is on the verge of having a grand theory of everything, he or she should be mercilessly exposed, not only for misleading us, but for encouraging us to believe that science has the answer to all our problems; that all we need to do is lie back and follow the instructions. Genetics is the most recent example of this triumphalism in science. Exaggerated news reports give the impression that a genetic cause can be assigned to virtually anything. And whilst more serious scientists make clear that that's not true if you study the evidence carefully, no-one's listening at that point because the story's broken and the headline has caught the public imagination in a way that the detail never could. The cult of the expert is a strong one. We like to believe that scientists are clever and their conclusions are valid. But we also persuade ourselves that we don't need to think things through for ourselves. Somebody else will do this for us, somebody who knows what they're talking about.

PART 3

Nahrávku můžete spustit zde:

Well, I tend to make it up as I go along. I don't map out stories beforehand. You have to know what road you're going along but not what twists and turns it's going to have, but you've got to get to a destination even though you don't know what it is. But all novels are different. I've written thrillers in which you kind of have to know the plot, which I find a bit tedious actually, because then in a way you're just filling in the gaps with language. It's more stimulating if you take the reader on a route you don't know either - a magical mystery tour!

And yet you have to trust your unconscious enough to know you'll be able to tie up all the ends, and it's quite startling when you do, because you go through a patch when you're despondent. But you have to remember that this has happened before and hope it'll happen again and I think I learned early on, you know, the pain of having to abandon something is so terrible that your unconscious will do anything to avoid it, anything!

PART 4

Nahrávku můžete spustit zde:

What's likely to happen all over the world is that we'll see an increasing homogenisation of the earth's plant life. There's plenty of evidence to show that that's going on. I'm particularly worried about aliens; plants that have insinuated themselves into ecosystems where they don't belong. Many ecologists now believe that the spread of such aliens is the second biggest threat to the world's range of species after habitat loss.

A lot of the species we're talking about that are currently causing this problem were deliberately brought in for ornamentation but once aliens are established, it's not easy to get rid of them. They become a problem not because native ones are effete and ripe for take-over by more aggressive colonists, but because native plants have their own predators, insects, etc. - fungal diseases. When you have an introduction into a country, it doesn't have anything that's adapted to live on it. And so the alien is able to grow very well with a release from that competition, I suppose.