Presenter: Tonight we continue talking with Dr Strait. So far we’ve looked at various aspects of staff selection and I think by now you should all be beginning to see how much more there is to it than just putting the applicants through a short interview or asking the ‘right’ questions. So I think you should be ready for today’s talk on ‘matching the person to the job’.

Dr Strait: We’re going to talk today about the importance of choosing that allround ‘right’ person.

Presenter: You mean we have to put ourselves into the role of the manager or supervisor?

Dr Strait: Yes. And then we are going to imagine how different applicants would fit into the team or group they have to work with. So, we’ll look at some examples later.

Presenter: It’s just theoretical at the moment…

Dr Strait: Yes. The point is you can select someone — even a friend — who has all the right qualifications… degrees… certificates, whatever. You can also check that they have a lot of experience… that they’ve done the sort of tasks that you want them to do in your office already, in a similar environment. But if they start work and you realize that they just don’t get along with everybody else, that… say they’ve got sharply contrasting views on how something will work… well, with the best intentions you may be backing a loser.

Presenter: Wouldn’t it be just a question of company training though?

Dr Strait: Not always. Particularly in a team situation and I think it’s important to think in terms of that type of working environment. People have to have faith in each other’s ability to carry out the task their boss has set them. They have to trust that everyone will do their part of the job, and you can’t necessarily train people for this.

Presenter: But it’s like trying to find out what someone’s personality is like in a job interview... I mean you can’t just do that. Even if you try, you won’t find out what they are really like until they actually start work.

Dr Strait: Well, in most interviews you usually ask candidates questions about their hobbies and what they like doing in their spare time… that sort of thing… so employers are already involved in the practice of… well, doing part of the task.

Presenter: But it doesn’t tell you anything. It doesn’t tell you if they are easygoing or hate smokers or whatever.

Dr Strait: Well, arguably it does give you information about an applicant’s character, but also … more and more employers around the world are making use of what is called ‘a personality questionnaire’ to help them select new staff and…

Presenter: Sorry, what’s it called? Dr Straight: A Personality Questionnaire. They have to be filled out by the candidates sometime during the selection procedure, often just before an interview. The idea is actually quite old. Apparently they were used by the ancient Chinese for picking out clerks and civil servants, and then later they were used by the military to put people in appropriate areas of work. They’ve gained a lot of ground since then and there are about 80,000 different tests available now and almost two thirds of the large employers use them.

Presenter: Which makes you think that there (fade out)

Presenter: Today in our studio we have a Brazilian-born actress Alice Jones, who made her film debut at the age of 18 in the Oscar-nominated «City of God». Good afternoon, Alice!

Alice Jones: Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Presenter: Your biggest achievements are connected with Hollywood and even your surname now is English. Do you still have any connections in Brazil?

Alice Jones: Well, my roots certainly remain firmly in Brazil. I own a production company in São Paolo, the city in which I was raised. Many of my family members are in the film and television industry, and my aunt and mother are both actresses there and my sister is a producer.

Presenter: What inspired you to become an actress?

Alice Jones: I can’t say I’ve always been interested in stardom. Once as a teenager I saw a performance at a theatre, and I loved the play. For me, it changed my perspective on acting and theater. I was 14, and I was enchanted; I completely fell in love. Then I finished school in São Paolo and started attending a university for the performing arts. When I got the invitation to come to an audition, I remember exactly when they told me who was going to be in the film. These were the same actors as in that play. I thought it was written in the stars.

Presenter: Are you currently into any project?

Alice Jones: I am. It is based on a novel by a wonderful Spanish writer. I read the book eight years ago. A really good friend of mine gave me the book, and she said, “You need to read this book because it’s a beautiful, strong story about this woman. Maybe she’s a nice character for you to play, so just read it”. Years went by, and now they want to make a version of it in Spanish, and I was happy when they called me because I always thought it was such a beautiful character for a woman to play. When they called me, I couldn’t believe that eight years after I read the book and fell in love with the character, they came to me. It was very special.

Presenter: As far as I remember, it’s not the first time you’ve worked on a book you love.

Alice Jones: So true! One of my films, «Blindness», is also based on one of my favourite books, so when they invited me, I had the same feeling. For «Queen of the South», again, my main reason to sign up for it was the character and the book, because that was a role I really wanted to play. So right after I got cast, I went straight to the book and made notes, getting all the little details about what people say about her, who she is, what type of woman she is in the world that she’s born into, how she manages to survive — all that. I was just trying to honor the book and have a better understanding of it.

Presenter: How do you prepare for your roles?

Alice Jones: I have an acting coach that helps me. He works with me on preparing — running lines and having ideas and developing different ways of approaching characters. When it’s a story, based on a book, I basically work off the book. The book is my main source of material.

Presenter: I think now you’ve worked more in English than in Portuguese. Is it still difficult for you to work in another language that’s not Portuguese?

Alice Jones: Even now, it’s still a challenge. Because I’m so close to my family and friends and I always speak Portuguese, my heart and mind go to Portuguese. Once I’m on the set, after three or four months doing the series working hard every day and only speaking English, it becomes easier. Your mindset is there and you’re dreaming in English. But it is hard; in a way you keep translating from one language to another.

Presenter: Thank you, Alice.

Presenter: Today I’m in the old English city of Salisbury and talking with the local secondary school teacher Jerry Lewis. OK, tell me first a few words about yourself.

Jerry Lewis: Well, I’m a 44 year old unmarried American who moved to England over 20 years ago, and I teach English in a local secondary modern school. I own my own house — a smallish terrace house just outside the centre of the city, with three bedrooms and a small garden. I've got two younger brothers. One of them, Julian, also lives in Salisbury. He's a teacher too, but he works in a private language school teaching English to foreign students.

Presenter: Secondary modern schools like Jerry's take children who have not passed the entrance examination for a grammar school. They attend the school between the ages of 11 and 16. Jerry explained that his school day begins at 08:30am and ends at 4:00pm. How much extra-curricular work do you do?

Jerry Lewis: Quite a lot, actually. There's always marking to be done and evenings when I meet the parents and so on. And then I take on extra duties, mainly in the areas of sport and drama. I’m a keen cross country runner myself, and I train the school cross country team, which means taking groups of children out running during their lunch breaks, usually a couple of times a week. And then, on the drama side, I produce the annual school play. We normally have to start preparing this in the spring term to have it ready by the summer.

Presenter: What plays have your pupils performed?

Jerry Lewis: It varies from year to year. We’ve done an adaptation of Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and we’ve done Shakespeare — A Midsummer Night's Dream. Last year the boys wrote and produced their own play.

Presenter: I can see from Jerry’s house that he takes running very seriously. His shelves are covered with medals and cups that he won over the years in various races. Since he is now over 40 he is classified as a ‘veteran’ — a term he doesn’t like — but he still continues winning. To keep himself fit, he usually runs from forty to fifty kilometres a week and more if he's training for a race. What else do you enjoy doing?

Jerry Lewis: As well as running, I love walking. The countryside around Salisbury is magnificent, and there are some wonderful walks. My idea of a perfect day is to walk out of town and stop for lunch and a drink at a small village pub — in the summer you can sit outside, or in the winter by a log fire. Then there's my garden, and I'm very fond of gardening. Every year I add to my collection of roses, and it's very satisfying to sit outside on a summer’s evening doing my school marking, surrounded by wonderful colours and scents.

Presenter: Jerry also likes cooking. On a Saturday he goes down to the market early in the morning to catch the best of the produce, and frequently invites friends and relatives to dinner in the evening. When not at home he is often to be found at his local pub, the 14th-century ‘Haunch of Venison’, where he has many friends.

Jerry Lewis: I've been teaching in Salisbury so long that many of my ex-pupils are now friends that I meet in the pub. It's strange, sometimes to think to myself: I remember when this chap was just a boy!

Presenter: Occasionally he goes to the cinema, but, he explained, he prefers the theatre.

Jerry Lewis: I go by myself, with friends, or with groups from school. Last week we went and saw Noel Coward's Relative Values, I'm not very keen on Coward myself, but the kids loved it.

Presenter: One last question. Jerry. You've lived and worked in Salisbury for over 20 years. What keeps you here?

Jerry Lewis: That’s a difficult one. My job, I suppose. I often complain, but who doesn’t. On the whole, though, I’m happy with it. Then most of my friends live here or nearby. And the city itself, it’s a beautiful place, full of history, surrounded by amazing countryside and within easy reach of some of my favourite places. No, I wouldn’t change it.

Presenter: Good evening everyone. We are happy to welcome you to our weekly program “Animal world”. Today is a very special day as we have a great opportunity to hear from an amazing woman who knows a lot about wild life and wild animals. Sarah Thomas, it is very good to see you today. Thank you so much for coming.

Sarah: Hello, it is good to be here, thank you for inviting me.

Presenter: So, before we start talking about your experiences with the animals, let me ask you how it all started. Where were you born and were you interested in animals from childhood? How did it all start?

Sarah: Well, I was born in London and my fascination with animal behavior began in early childhood when we moved to York. We lived in a cozy thatched cottage in the most picturesque part of the city and in my leisure time, I observed native birds and animals, making lots of notes and sketches, and I also read a lot in the area of zoology. From an early age, I dreamed of traveling to Africa: I was eager to observe exotic animals in their natural habitats.

Presenter: We know that your dream came true and that you spent quite a bit of time in Africa.

Sarah: Yes, when I was 18 I left school and got a job as a secretary at Oxford University. In my spare time, I worked at a London-based documentary film company because I wanted to make some money for my trip to Africa. One day, completely out of the blue, my childhood friend invited me to visit Kenya, and so I did. There I met an anthropologist Thomas Wild who wanted to perform a study about chimpanzees to see if it would throw more light on evolution. You know, some of my friends and relatives thought that was a crazy idea because I had no college education to do these studies but Thomas believed I had the right kind of character to be able to live in the wild for a long time. Since it was actually my childhood dream, I agreed. That was my very first attempt to study the monkeys. Unfortunately, it wasn’t successful.

Presenter: Did you try again, then? I know you have written several books and filmed a few documentary films about your experience with the chimpanzees.

Sarah: That’s true. I started all over. In 1960 I went to Africa again together with my mum and an African cook. We established a camp on a lake shore. Can you imagine: crystal clear water, sand banks … Anyway, it took me two long years to get close to the monkeys, to the point when they allowed me to be a part of their group.

Presenter: Two years! You’ve got more patience than I have! How did you make them like you in the end?

Sarah: Bananas! For two years I offered them bananas until they actually began to accept me as their own. I came to the same spot every day at the same time and fed them bananas. After one year they stopped running away, after the second year they allowed me to climb trees with them and eat their food.

Presenter: What? Are you serious? You climbed trees with the chimps? That was probably lots of fun!

Sarah: You bet! I had to learn to use my arms and legs like never before. It only looks easy when you observe the animals. We as people are very limited in our abilities to use our limbs: our legs and arms aren’t designed to hang onto tree branches and plant leaves. The monkeys, on the other hand, don’t even have to think about what they are doing when they move. So, there was a lot I had to learn not to fall off those tall trees. That was a real challenge!

Presenter: Was it all worth it, though?

Sarah: Definitely, I still think of that time as one of the best periods of my life. I got so close to these animals that I was able to understand them. I was able to experience what it is like to be inside an animal world.