__________CLASSROOM. NOW THESE EXPERTS ARE SAYING THAT IT...

20. __________

classroom. Now these experts are saying that it is back to parents to help

teenagers cut down on TV and computer use, and make sure that they spend

equal amounts of time on other activities.

SECTION III: READING

Part 1: You are going to read an article about a London tour guide. For questions 1-8, choose the

answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the

numbered boxes.

The best kind of know-it-all

There is an art to being a good tour guide and Martin Priestly knows what it is.

It's obvious that the best way to explore a city is with a friend who is courteous, humorous, intelligent

and - this is essential - extremely well-informed. Failing that, and if it is London you are visiting, then

the next best thing may well be Martin Priestly, former university lecturer, now a guide, who seems to

bring together most of the necessary virtues and who will probably become a friend as well.

Last spring, I took a trip around London with him, along with a party of Indian journalists.

Accustomed to guides who are occasionally excellent but who often turn out to be arrogant, repetitive

and sometimes bossy, I was so struck by Priestly's performance that I sought him out again to see, if I

could, just how the trick was done.

This time the tour was for a party of foreign students, aged anything between 20 and 60, who were

here to improve their English, which was already more than passable. As the ‘tourists’ gathered, Martin

welcomed them with a kind of dazzled pleasure, as if he had been waiting for them with excitement

and a touch of anxiety, now thankfully relieved. I have to say, all this seemed absolutely genuine.

Then we got on the coach and we were off. Martin sat in front, not in the low-level guide's seat, but up

with the group, constantly turning round to make eye contact, to see if they understood him. Soon

we're in a place called Bloomsbury, famous among writers in the early 20th century. ‘Bloomsbury is

famous for brains,’ says Martin, getting into his stride. ‘It's a very clever place. It's not very

fashionable but it's very clever’. Soon after, we pass the British Museum and Bedford Square, ‘a great

architectural showpiece’, advises Martin. The comment prompted questions which led to a

conversation about building, the part played by wealthy people and how big chunks of London still

belonged to them - an issue which was to re-emerge later. This was how he liked to work: themes,

introduced as if spontaneously, were laid down for subsequent discussion.

Suddenly the coach stopped and it was over, two and a half hours of non-stop performance, with

information, observation and humour. Martin says encouragingly, ‘I do hope you enjoy London.’

We go to a nearby cafe to talk. Why, I asked, had he become a guide? ‘Well, I used to organise a lot of

courses at the university I worked for. It was line 50 quite stressful. But I had shown students around

London and I enjoyed that. It seemed an obvious move to make. 1 did the London Tourist Board's Blue

Badge course - two evenings a week for two years. That was tough, especially the exam in what is

known as "coaching". You're taught to smile but everybody had difficulty with that in the exam, when

you have other things to worry about. You have to do it backwards in the coach, desperately casting

your eyes about to see what is coming next, and you're facing the tutors and the other trainees.’

‘And you have to know so much to guide well, different places, all kinds of architecture, agriculture.

What if somebody asks a question about a crop beside the road? But some of it sticks, you know ...

eventually.’ He also tells me he keeps himself up to date with radio, TV and newspapers.

There are several hundred other guides out there, all looking for a share of the work. I think, as we

talk, that I am starting to understand why good guides are so rare. It's a great deal harder than it looks,

and it demands, for every stretch of road, an even longer stretch of study and forethought.