Seashells Part B

Now listen to a conversation between two students about a presentation they are going to give on seashells, and complete the sentences in Part B. Write one or two words only in each gap.

F Have you got a few minutes to discuss our presentation?
M Sure. I’ve got some ideas – have you?
F I thought we could start by talking about why we chose the subject of seashells.
M Good idea. For me, it reminds me of holidays when I was little – I loved playing with shells on the beach.
F When I was a child, I used to draw big circular shapes in the sand, and fill them with little round shells. M But I read that it’s spiral-shaped ones that children tend to be drawn to – though I loved the long thin ones.
F Then perhaps we could move on to talk about other people – shell collectors, for example?
M Yes. That’s something else I read about – the difference between shell collectors and people who study shells – they’re called something like conchologists? Anyway, the first group of people are mainly concerned with the appearance of shells, whereas the latter are interested in scientific study.
F OK. And we could include some examples of famous collections. There was a well-known author, who happened to be a museum director too, who had one of the largest collections of seashells. And there’s another in Japan, apparently, which was assembled by an emperor, though unfortunately it’s not open to the public.
M Interesting! Now, what else – it would be good to include more about people, I think.
F How about something on the women in The Gambia – you know, in the article we read?
M Oh, yes, they gather shellfish – was it oysters? And the women were struggling to make a living, selling them by the side of the road. And they were gathering too many, so the stock was declining. Then who was it who drove past the women?
F A businesswoman. She decided to help them, by teaching them how to approach local people to get financial support, and do marketing themselves so they could sell more successfully. They actually run their own organisation now. And of course they’ve learned to avoid overfishing, so the population of shellfish has risen.
M And as a result, the women have officially been asked to look after the national park, and it’s all helped to improve the economy of the area too. It’s a really positive story, isn’t it?
F Yes, and I think that should be enough for us to talk about.
M Shall we have something for everyone to look at, too? I was thinking about showing some slides, or putting something up on the wall. How about some images of coins which have shells on them?
F Or postage stamps instead? I read there are about five thousand of them!
M Let’s go for my idea on slides, and yours on the walls – so we can do one each.
F Good idea!

Here are keywords and phrases covered in seashells:

• appearance
• author
• business woman
• circular
• economy
• emperor
• gather shellfish
• holidays
• images
• marketing skills
• national park
• organisation
• population
• postage stamps
• presentation
• round shells
• seashells
• scientific study
• shell collectors
• slides
• spiral
• walls