Part 1 
Welcome to our Cretan holiday information line. We thank you for calling and hope you have found something in our brochure to interest you. The following details might help you in your choice.     For those of you intending to fly direct to Crete from the UK, we would like to point out that all our flights operate on Tuesday and we will be flying from Manchester, Newcastle and Heathrow airports to Heraklion or Chania airport in Crete. Transport to accommodation within 10 kilometres of the airports is free, but for those wishing to book a holiday further afield, we ask for a small supplement to cover the additional cost of the taxi fare.     An alternative is to hire a car, which can be collected at the airport. We must emphasise, however, that comprehensive insurance does not cover either the tyres or windscreen of the car and that, should you cause damage to any of these, you will be required to pay the full cost of repairs, so please drive carefully! Hiring a car costs anything between 140 and 365 pounds per week, depending on the season and type of car.     All our villas and apartments are self-catering with fridges and cookers, though it should be mentioned that the cookers are small and have only two or three rings. The majority of our villas and apartments are cleaned six times a week and the linen is changed once a week. Clients staying in some of our resorts may use the watersports equipment free of charge, and beginners' lessons, which can be paid for locally, are available every morning. On all our holidays we offer reductions for children aged eleven and under, and a five per cent reduction for senior citizens.     When you book we ask for a deposit of sixty pounds per person, plus insurance premium, as set out in our brochure.    If you would like more information, please ring us on 0501-5227.    Thank you for calling. 
Part 2 
    Courier: Here we are in Fancaster. It's an historic place thousands of people visit every year. Let me tell you a bit about it before you explore. Do interrupt if there's anything you'd like to ask or don't understand. As you can see it's old, but 'How old is Fancaster?' people ask me. Well, it depends what you mean by Fancaster. In fact there was a very primitive settlement not far from where we are right now, between 2500 and 2250 BC.     Passenger: How long ago?    Courier: At the earliest 2500 and the latest 2250 BC, but it wasn't really a proper town, just huts on the hilltop, probably for defence.    Passenger: How do we know?     Courier: It was excavated a few years ago. Fancaster really started, as a recognisable sort of town, much later. As many of you may know the Romans arrived in Britain in the first century. Now, they built a harbour here in the first century, and also a military camp. It was quite important from the first till the fifth century.     Passenger: Excuse me.     Courier: Yes?     Passenger: Can we see anything Roman?     Courier: Yes, you can. There are some interesting remains of a lighthouse on the hill. The lighthouse was needed to guide ships, of course. Anyway, it was a kind of port and military camp for about three hundred years, and then in the fifth century the Romans went away and Fancaster almost disappeared for eight hundred years after that. However, in the twelfth century there was a huge increase in the trade in wool and Fancaster grew rapidly as a wool exporting centre. And then there was a disaster. There was a great storm in 1287, and the town was destroyed when thesea flooded the whole town.     Passenger: Excuse me? You mean the whole town ...     Courier: Yes, the whole town was washed away. So they decided to go ahead with a new town on safer ground right here, and they actually started it in the early 14th century. About 1320, I believe. But the problem was after twenty years the coastline changed and left the town sort of stranded inland. The sea just disappeared. That was in the 1340s or so. So it was useless as a port and Fancaster was just a sleepy little place till recently. The medieval buildings have therefore survived very well, which is why it's such a popular tourist centre. I'm sure you'll enjoy strolling around. Please be back here by 12.30 because ... 
Part 3 
    Interviewer: Dr Emily Gardiner is an economist from Lancashire University. She specialises in the study of cereal production in tropical areas and spends a great deal of time abroad. Recently she went on a two-week trip to study the grain trade in a third-world country where she experienced a flood disaster.at first hand. Dr Gardiner, tell us what happened.     Dr Gardiner: Well, when I was met at the airport, I was given a very tight timetable which involved travel to the provinces, all over the country in fact, although we started off in the capital. After about three or four days, my very good local guide and interpreter came with rather downcast faces and said that they didn't think we'd be able to go on our first trip to the East because the main city was waist-deep in water and the ferries that crossed the big rivers were unable to cross. So, we decided to go the South instead. Now I'm rather glad that I never got there because the day after that, the main rail link was cut off and the lines were dangling limply into a really swollen river, which kept on rising.     Interviewer: How did it affect you, I mean, were you marooned?     Dr Gardiner: I was very lucky to be staying with a British family in the capital but the house where I was living was quite seriously affected. The first day the water rose about half a metre, and the children paddled in it. Worms fled from it but were finally drowned and then eaten by big black ants which invaded the house.    Interviewer: Were you able to get around? Did you have to take a boat?     Dr Gardiner: No, I waded, well walked around actually, without any shoes! At first I was told that I was a fool because of snakes and, of course a lot of the deaths there have been because of snake bites. But we were quite a long way from the rice-fields where the snakes abound, so I bargained on the fact that there wouldn't be too many!     Interviewer: You were, as you say, staying in a rich area of the capital, did you see what washappening in the poorer areas?     Dr Gardiner: I did indeed, and I felt very involved with it because we could see what was happening on the lower ground. The houses are really like tents made of rush matting supported by bamboo poles and as the flood water gets deeper, people are forced to move to higher and higher land taking their houses with them.     Interviewer: And what about food supplies?     Dr Gardiner: Well, I was of course studying the merchants and it was quite impressive how theyhad managed to move all their stock well above flood level and were able to double prices in some areas of the capital that were cut off. The price of grain varied by about a hundred percent, depending on where you were in the city. Now what the Government tries to do in these circumstances is two things: one is to try to sell some of its stock on the open market at low prices in a vain effort to bring down prices, and the other thing is to organise relief and soup kitchens in conjunction with the international charities.     Interviewer: How did you manage to get out because the airport was under water for a lot of thetime and there just weren't any flights?     Dr Gardiner: I, of course, double reconfirmed my ticket out. But on the day itself I was told thatthe flight didn't exist and really only got out because there was a spare seat on another flight. As we taxied for take-off, the wings of the F28, which is by no means a large plane, were actually over the flood waters on the runway, which didn't inspire a great deal of confidence. So it was one of the most spirited take-offs I've ever had.    Interviewer: But you lived to tell the tale.    Dr Gardiner: Yes. 
Part 4
    Parent: What we really need to know is how hard to push her. We neither of us went to college ourselves, and we don't really know how much work they have to do. Is she doing enough homework? It seems like a lot to us, but as I say, we can't tell. 
    Politician: The thing that concerns me is that higher education is not fitting young people for the world in which they are going to find themselves. It's no use their dreaming up fancy policies if they produce too many teachers and not enough mechanics. They should be more in touch with the real world: turning out people to fit jobs we want done in the manufacturing industries. We can't be expected to turn in a profit if we can't get the labour with the right skills. 
    Museum curator: When I started, I thought they'd be difficult to handle, wandering about, trying to fiddle with things, touching the things on display. Actually, they're usually very well behaved. And they're much better informed than most members of the public. It's often a visit that ties in with a history project and sometimes I help the teacher prepare worksheets. They ask some difficult questions, too, sometimes. It's quite challenging, in a pleasant sort of way. 
    Sports coach: Well, we do sometimes get a youngster coming in from his school with glowing reports about how many junior records he's broken and so on. But we don't take too much notice of that. What we do is, we put everyone through three months of intensive training, mainly to get rid of all the bad habits they've picked up, and see they're really fit, and then we start selection and specialisation after that. We find it works very well. 
    University professor: I know you've all been wondering about the details for next week. Well, I can now tell you that the Education Minister herself will be on the campus for most of the day on Wednesday, and she will be spending part of the morning in this faculty, looking in on some lectures and having coffee with us here in the common room. I myself will be lunching with her along with other department heads and the senior administrative staff.