Part 6

You are going to read an article about a cookery course for children. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

The little chefs

Hilary Rose travels to Dorset, in the south of England, to investigate a cookery course for children.

There must be something in the air in Dorset, because the last place you’d expect to find children during the summer holidays is in the kitchen. Yet in a farmhouse, deep in the English countryside, that’s exactly where they are – on a cookery course designed especially for children.

It’s all the idea of Anna Wilson, who wants to educate young children about cooking and eating in a healthy way. ‘I’m very keen to plant the idea in their heads that food doesn’t grow on supermarket shelves,’ she explains. ‘The course is all about making food fun and enjoyable.’ She thinks that eight is the perfect age to start teaching children to cook, because at that age they are always hungry. 37 __.

These children are certainly all smiles as they arrive at the country farmhouse. Three girls and four boys aged from ten to thirteen make up the group. They are immediately given a tour of what will be ‘home’ for the next 48 hours. As they wander round, they argue lightheartedly about who has had the most experience in the kitchen. But one thing is quite clear -they all have a genuine interest in food and learning how to cook.

Anna has worked as a chef in all sorts of situations and has even cooked for the crew of a racing yacht, in limited space and difficult weather conditions. 38 __. ‘Kids are easy to teach,’ she insists, ‘because they’re naturally curious and if you treat them like adults they listen to you.’

Back in the kitchen, Anna is giving the introductory talk, including advice on keeping hands clean, and being careful around hot ovens. 39 __. Judging by the eager looks on their young faces as they watch Anna’s demonstration, they are just keen to start cooking.

The children learn the simplest way, by watching and then doing it themselves. They gather round as Anna chops an onion for the first evening meal. Then the boys compete with each other to chop their onions as fast as possible, while the girls work carefully, concentrating on being neat. 40 __. When they learn to make bread, the girls knead the dough with their hands competently, while the boys punch it into the board, cheerfully hitting the table with their fists.

The following morning, four boys with dark shadows under their eyes stumble into the kitchen at 8.30 a.m. to learn how to make breakfast (sausages and eggs, and fruit drinks made with yoghurt and honey). We learn later that they didn’t stop talking until 4.30 a.m. 41 __. Ignoring this, Anna brightly continues trying to persuade everyone that fruit drinks are just as interesting as sausages and eggs.

Anna has great plans for the courses and is reluctant to lower her standards in any way, even though her students are so young. 42 __. ‘And I like to keep the course fees down,’ Anna adds, ‘because if the children enjoy it and go on to teach their own children to cook, I feel it’s worth it.’ If this course doesn’t inspire them to cook, nothing will.

A She always uses top-quality ingredients, such as the best cuts of meat and the finest cheeses, so there’s clearly no profit motive in this operation.
В In the garden, they learn about the herbs that they will use in their cooking.
C Their obvious tiredness may explain why one of them goes about the task so carelessly that the ingredients end up on the floor.
D This is particularly true of young boys, who are happy to do anything that will end in a meal.
E As a result, she has a very relaxed attitude to cooking, constantly encouraging the children and never talking down to them.
F This contrast will become something of a theme during the course.
G This is followed by a session on ‘knife skills’, which will be important later on.

Part 7

You are going to read a magazine article about people who make short films. For questions 43-52, choose from the options (A-D). The options may be chosen more than once.

Which film-makers …
43. produced a short film at a very busy time in their lives? __
44. are realistic about their future together? __
45. mention the need to keep on working hard at producing short films? __
46. made early career decisions that would lead them towards film-making? __
47. gained financial assistance after impressing an organisation in the film world? __
48. like variety in their working lives? __
49. have benefited from observing professional film-makers at work? __
50. were not concerned by the fact that nobody recognised them? __
51. suddenly realised the great potential of their film? __
52. felt their studies were not providing them with what they wanted? __

A short cut to Hollywood

We meet the most successful young makers of short films in Britain. These short films usually last no more than ten minutes and are often shown before the main films in cinemas.

A Kevin Teller and Justin O’Brien
Anyone who saw Together, the surprise arthouse hit, will have been as charmed by Jumping Gerald, the short film which ran before it, as they were by the main feature film itself. Yet Gerald’s creators faced financial difficulties from the start, and the final version wasn’t even finished until the eve of its first screening. As they sat in the cinema watching it for the first time, it dawned on Teller and O’Brien just what they had achieved. ‘The way people were laughing,’ Teller remembers, ‘we knew we were on to a good thing.’ Jumping Gerald was nominated for Best Short Film at the British Film Festival; although it missed out on the award, it was thought by many to have deserved it. The two men are presently involved in their second production. ‘We make a good team,’ Teller says, ‘and we’ll continue to work as one. Unless, of course, one of us gets an offer he can’t refuse.’

В The Collins brothers
Tim and Mark Collins first fell in love with the art of film-making when they were young boys. Their father was often abroad on business, and his two sons would send him video diaries to inform him of the goings-on at home. Several years later, their first short film was lucky ever to get made. At the time, Tim was writing a novel between takes, and Mark was preparing to get married. Oh Josephine! was made with a cast of hundreds for just £500, but it went on to win several video awards nevertheless. The film really began to get the brothers noticed, and several others followed, all exceptionally well received. The brothers now feel ready to move into full-length feature films, and are busy writing a screenplay. The only disadvantage of having had such a perfect start to their careers is the weight of expectations: they have to keep coming up with the goods.

C Brian Radley and Nicky Tomlinson
Radley and Tomlinson’s very first short film More Cake Please was nominated for a prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival. Tomlinson says, ‘We couldn’t believe it when we found ourselves on a red carpet at Cannes. Noone knew who on earth we were, but that couldn’t have mattered less.’ Although More Cake Please didn’t win, Radley and Tomlinson were sufficiently encouraged by the nominations to enter the film into Channel Four’s short film competition at the British Film Festival. To their surprise it won, and their film-making career began to look even better with Channel Four’s promise to fund their next project. The duo had chosen university courses – in media and drama – with a film-making future in mind but, disenchanted with the theoretical rather than practical experience of the industry that was provided, both men left university before completing their courses and went to work for production companies in London. They place enormous value on the hands-on experience that their work on film sets provided them with. ‘We’ve seen so many directors get it wrong, that we kind of know how to get it right,’ says Radley.

D Hiroko Katsue and Mica Stevlovsky
Katsue and Stevlovsky speak fondly of the days when every feature film at the cinema was preceded by a short film. Katsue and Stevlovsky’s short film-making debut, The Big One, was rather unusual, as it became the cinema advertisement for Big Issue magazine. It won award after award. ‘Winning a festival is great in that it raises your profile, but it doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels,’ says Stevlovsky. ‘Right, you can’t just expect things to happen for you,’ echoes Katsue. ‘You could spend years going around festivals with the same old film, but we’re not into that. We’re always looking for different sorts of projects, never standing still. Even when we’re lying on a beach on holiday, we both have ideas churning around in our heads.’

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