Photo credits
Cover: Corbis (Motofish Images), Düsseldorf;S. 7: iStockphoto (Tom Hahn), Calgary, Alberta;S. 9: shutterstock (Juha Sompinmäki), New York, NY;S. 11: shutterstock (Monkey Business Images), New York, NY;S. 14: MEV Verlag GmbH, Augsburg;S. 15: Corbis (RF), Düsseldorf;S. 18: shutterstock (Peter Baxter), New York, NY;S. 24: Kessler-Medien, Saarbrücken;S. 25: iStockphoto (Gwengoat), Calgary, Alberta;S. 26: Klett-Archiv (Hermann Summer, Hohenpeißenberg), Stuttgart;S. 27: iStockphoto (S. Greg Panosian), Calgary, Alberta;S. 30: iStockphoto (Kaye Kerr), Calgary, Alberta;S. 35: Corel Corporation Deutschland, Unterschleissheim;S. 50: iStockphoto (Lance Bellers), Calgary, Alberta;S. 52: iStockphoto (Kameleon007), Calgary, Alberta
Nicht in allen Fällen war es uns möglich, den Rechteinhaber der Abbildungen ausfindig zu machen. Berechtigte Ansprüche werden selbstverständlich im Rahmen der üblichen Vereinbarungen abgegolten.
Die Printausgabe des Titels ist mit einem Hörbuch ausgestattet, das über die App Klett Augmented abgerufen werden kann.
Die E-Book-Ausgabe des Titels enthält das Audiobuch eingebettet in den Content.
1. Auflage1 Version 1 | 2020
© Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH, Rotebühlstr. 77, 70178 Stuttgart, 2003
Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Internetadresse: www.klett-sprachen.de
Redaktion: Bettina Höfels
Satz und Layout: Swabianmedia, Stuttgart
Umschlaggestaltung: Elmar Feuerbach
Kartographie: G. Wustmann, Mötzingen
eISBN 978-3-12-909082-4
Chapter 1
A first sign
Chapter 2
What to do
Chapter 3
Break time
Chapter 4
Trouble
Chapter 5
A good idea
Chapter 6
The Knowledge
Chapter 7
A new job
Chapter 8
The big day
Chapter 9
Another Romeo
Chapter 10
The Temple
Chapter 11
Waterloo Station
Chapter 12
Day one
Chapter 13
The first fiver
Chapter 14
Another friend?
Chapter 15
An extra job
Chapter 16
Lunch
Chapter 17
The next call
Chapter 18
Worried sick
Chapter 19
The race against time
Chapter 20
Central School again
Place names
Activities
Answers
“Thank you all very much for coming this evening.” said the rather large lady in black velvet leggings and a bright green velvet coat which almost reached the floor. “I am sorry you had to wait such a long time, but it’s something you are going to have to get very used to …” She then giggled, paused dramatically for a moment and looked around the room.
“I am afraid that out of the fifty-two of you who came tonight, we can only see two of you again.”
Raj looked down at his lap. He was so nervous he thought he would stop breathing. He could feel the girl next to him with the irritating laugh shaking. The boy opposite him, Michael, who had spent the whole evening telling them he was a professional actor already, was still looking very calm. The large velvet lady continued speaking.
“So darlings, it’s my job to do the dirty deed. That’s what they pay me for. So I won’t make you wait any longer. Would number 7 and 33 come and see me over here please? The rest of you can go home.”
Raj could not believe it. Number 33. That was him. There must have been some mistake.
He stumbled over to the velvet lady. All around him people were putting their coats on, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. It was only when he was standing next to the velvet lady that he realized that Michael was also standing there. He was number 7.
“So, congratulations, Raj and Michael, you have both got a recall. Please be sure to be here at nine o’clock prompt on Saturday morning. And remember to wear loose clothing again. So see you then. And don’t forget to practise your Shakespeare monologue. Any questions? No? Well, we’ll see you both on Saturday then.”
Raj walked down the long stone steps of the Central School of Speech and Drama in silence. He still couldn’t believe his luck. He had been chosen to come back again. He had a chance of getting a place at drama school. It was only when he got to the bottom of the stairs that he realized Michael was standing next to him.
“See you anon,” Michael called as he disappeared up the road.
“Yes, mm, sure,” shouted Raj after him. Was that Shakespeare? He wondered.
As he was walking down Fitzjohn’s Avenue towards Swiss Cottage Tube, Raj realized what the recall meant. On Saturday morning, like every Saturday morning, he was supposed to be working in his parents’ shop. He would be selling papers, giving out National Lottery tickets and London travelcards.
What was he going to tell his parents? Since he was fourteen he had worked in Patel News every Saturday. There would have to be a death in the family for him not to work there. A drama audition would not be a good enough reason not to turn up to work. At least not as far as his family was concerned.
velvet soft thick material used to make curtains and sometimes clothes (Samt)
to giggle ['ɡɪɡl] to laugh in a silly way
lap the upper part of the legs and the knees when a person is sitting (Schoß)
irritating ['ɪrɪteɪtɪŋ] annoying
deed job that needs to be done
recall here: being asked to come back again
anon [ə'nɒn] soon (old Shakespearean word)
London travelcard ticket which allows travel anywhere in London on trains, tubes and buses after 9.30 in the morning and at weekends
audition [ɔ:'dɪʃn] interview for a role as a singer, dancer or actor
At nine o’clock the next morning, Raj was sitting in a Business Studies lesson. It was a bad morning. Ninety minutes of business studies and he hadn’t done his homework.
“Raj, would you like to explain to the class please what is meant by ‘the Boom and Bust’ years of the eighties?”
Raj tried hard not to yawn. “Sorry, Boom and …”
“Bust, Raj, bust. Do try to look a little bit interested. Or have you forgotten everything we did in the last lesson?” Raj could see Neil Young, his tutor, was getting more and more irritated.
“Let me try again. The economic policies of the Thatcher years? Margaret Thatcher? Conservative prime minister for seventeen years?”
Now Neil Young was getting very angry. Raj knew that tone of voice. And he knew he wasn’t going to win this discussion.
“Okay, Raj, I realize there is no point in continuing with this. Chloe, perhaps you know the answer?”
Raj sighed. He had no interest in business studies, but had been made to take the subject by his parents.
They wanted him to have a good business head so he would be successful when he took over the shop. The only problem was: he didn’t want to run the shop. And he never would. He wanted to be a successful actor like his great uncle, Amrit Kapoor, the Bollywood star.
“Raj, would you like to turn to page 27 in the book like the rest of us?”
Sarah nudged him and pointed with her finger at the page. She whispered under her breath, “Exercises 1a and 2b.”
Raj opened his textbook and started reading.
He took out his pen and started to write down the instructions. “So how did it go?” asked Sarah. “We’re all dying to know.”
“Great. Really great. They want me to come back. There’s just one big problem.”
“What’s that?”
“What am I going to tell my parents?” Raj asked.
Boom and Bust a time in the 1980s when many people made a lot of money quickly and people lost a lot of money, too
irritated ['ɪrɪteɪtɪd] annoyed
to sigh [sɑɪ] to breathe out loudly to show pain or sorrow (seufzen)
Bollywood the Indian “Hollywood” in Bombay
to nudge to push sb with an elbow to get their attention
Raj and his friends were sitting on a wall outside the College of North West London. It was a friendly but ugly concrete building near Neasden tube station. The traffic screeched past on its way to the North Circular, Wembley and the M1. It was so loud they could hardly hear each other speak.