C2 Listening Practice Test 1

Carla: My guest this morning has spent the better part of two years translating a novel that, by his own admission, he very nearly abandoned in the first month. David, what went wrong? David: Oh, nothing went wrong, exactly. The trouble was that the book is deceptively simple. The sentences are short, the vocabulary is almost childlike, and I assumed it would be a gentle stroll. In practice, it was more like walking a tightrope. Every plain word turned out to be carrying a second meaning, and a translator who isn't paying attention flattens it without ever noticing. Carla: Can you give us an example? David: There's a character who is described, again and again, as careful. In the original, the word hints at both caution and kindness, and the author plays on that ambiguity. In my language, I had to choose one or the other. Whichever I chose, I lost something, and I'd be lying if I said I'd made peace with that. Carla: So a translation is always a kind of betrayal? David: That old Italian pun about translators and traitors is rather overused, and I'd resist it. I'd say it's closer to a negotiation, in which nobody walks away entirely satisfied. What matters, to my mind, is that the loss should be deliberate rather than careless. Carla: And do readers appreciate that? David: Most of them never give it a thought, which is as it should be. If a translation is working, it vanishes. The only people who notice the seams are other translators, and they, of course, are merciless.

Dr. Lee: I'd like to use today to test our assumptions about opening in Poland, rather than simply rubber-stamp them. Grace, you've done the market research. Grace: Yes, and I'll start with the encouraging bit. Demand for our kind of product is plainly there; the category has been growing steadily. What gives me pause is how that growth is distributed. Almost all of it is online, and the online space is already crowded with competitors who can outspend us on advertising. Frank: Which rather undermines the premise, doesn't it? Our advantage has always been the shops, the relationships with independent retailers. Grace: In the home market, certainly. Over there we'd be starting from nothing. I'd say it would take us two years just to build the same level of trust. Dr. Lee: I take that on board, but I'd resist the idea that we're starting from zero. Our best-selling title already has a translated edition that's been distributed there through a third party, and the sales have been quietly respectable. Frank: Quietly respectable is a generous description of a figure that small. Dr. Lee: Fair, but it tells us something. Nobody has been pushing it, and it still sells. Grace: So what are you proposing? Dr. Lee: Not a launch. A test. Six months, one distributor, no new office, and a modest budget. If it's still quietly respectable at the end of that, we reconsider. If not, we'll have learnt cheaply. Frank: I can live with that, provided we agree in advance what counts as success. Dr. Lee: Agreed. Grace, could you suggest three measures by Friday?

Anna: So, are we really doing this? A whole weekend with no phones? Jack: That was the agreement, and I've already told my mother, who took the news with the composure of someone being informed that the sun had been cancelled. Anna: Ha! Mine wanted to know how she'd reach me in an emergency. I said the cabin has a landline, which she found only marginally more reassuring. Jack: Funny, isn't it? Fifteen years ago, nobody would have given it a second thought. Now an unanswered message is practically a crime. Anna: I'll admit I'm slightly dreading it. Not the quiet, exactly, but the withdrawal. I caught myself checking the weather on my phone yesterday while looking directly out of the window. Jack: Which is precisely why we need this. Although I'd be more convinced if you hadn't glanced at your screen twice during this conversation. Anna: That was pure coincidence. Anyway, what are we taking to fill the time? Jack: Board games, a ludicrous quantity of food, and, as a concession to my pride, a paper map. I refuse to be reliant on a blue dot. Anna: And a camera? Jack: Now there's a loophole. Are you proposing we use the camera on a phone? Anna: No, a proper camera. My uncle's old film one. I've got three rolls, so we'll have to be disciplined. Thirty-six pictures each, and no deleting. Jack: Brilliant. That's the most appealing part of the whole plan.