In this week's listening test we are going to practise the multiple choice task. Listen to this radio programme about a writer and choose the option a, b or c that best completes the sentence or answers the question.
1) How is Mary George known in the publishing world?
a. Marcy Markusa
b. Mary George
c. Elizabeth Thornton
2) Mary George switched to writing historical romance because ...
a. her Jane Austen-like style was acclaimed.
b. she wanted to make a living as a writer.
c. she was really keen on comedy.
3) What sentence is true, according to the text?
a. She expects to sell 2,000,000 copies of her book.
b. She learnt how to write novels while doing another job.
c. Her education was not helpful in her job as a writer.
4) When Mary wrote her first historical romance, her family was ...
a. happy.
b. not sure what to think.
c. sad.
5) What sentence is true, according to the text?
a. She published her first novel at 40.
b. She has three careers.
c. She has enjoyed her professional life.
6) What does Mary think her heroine would want for Valentine’s Day?
a. Nothing material.
b. Not a very big gift.
c. She doesn’t know.
Marcy: Hi I'm Marcy Markusa. Well, did you happen to celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th? On Information Radio we marked the occasion by interviewing Mary George, a Manitoba novelist who writes historical fiction under the pseudonym Elizabeth Thornton. In this interview, Terry McLeod finds out how Mary became a writer. He also asks her what she thinks her latest romantic heroine, Faith McBride, would want for Valentine’s Day.
Terry: How did you become an historical romance writer?
Mary: Um, well I first started off um 1987, my first little book was published. It was a sort of Jane Austenish book, because of course I’m a great fan of Jane Austen, and it was a comedy of manners. But it didn’t take me long to figure out that I could not make a living writing these small books and my editor, she suggested a historical romance and I loved the history. And then the history moves the plot.
Terry: So ah how did you come to learn to write these things, starting out as a lay minister, and especially good ones that would sell two million copies around the world?
Mary: Um, I always was good with words. My education in Scotland you know prepared me for this kind of thing. All the papers we had to do, the the analysis, that’s what I was good at. And even the sermons I had to do at the church occasionally when Bruce Miles was away, my Minister. But even that prepared me because I was good at putting words together and I had a family who are writers, and they kept saying, my son and my husband, you’ve gotta write a story, you’ve gotta write one of these murder mysteries you love so much. Y’know, you’d be really good at it, you’re good with words. So when I wrote my first romance they were bitterly disappointed.
Terry: You started in your, in your forties to write?
Mary: Yes, forty-six.
Terry: You’re kind of like a Carol Shields, a, you know, a latish bloomer?
Mary: Yes, oh yes, I’ve had three wonderful careers. I was a teacher, I was a lay minister and now I’m a novelist.
Terry: Now tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day, and many men wonder what women really want as a gift. What would Faith McBride want?
Mary: Well, I can’t, I don’t really know, on Valentine’s Day? I don’t think she’d want very much for Valentine’s Day but for every day of the week she would want a man who cherished her, and loved her and respected her. And that’s what you want for Valentines.
Terry: Thanks so much for coming in. Great to meet you.
Mary: It’s been a pleasure.
Key:
1C 2B 3B 4C 5C 6A
