People in conversation – Yasmin – Answers

Pre-Listening

1. How did Yasmin travel from Seven Sisters to Walthamstow?

• a. by bus
• b. by car
• c. by Underground

2. Which two cities does Yasmin mention?

• answer: Leeds and Birmingham

Part 1:

1. Yasmin’s parents have five girls and one boy.
2. Nasreen is the eldest child and Shazir is the youngest.
3. Yasmin’s mum finds English names really difficult to pronounce.
4. The second oldest daughter’s name is P-e-r-v-e-e-n.
5. Yasmin’s brother’s name is S-a-r-f-r-a-z.
6. The youngest daughter’s name comes from a novel.
7. Her name is S-h-a-z-i-r.

Part 2:

8. Yasmin came to England when she was a little girl. (T ‘my parents brought me when I was four’)
9. Yasmin’s parents moved to England from a big city in Pakistan. (F ‘a village’)
10. Yasmin’s father had three older and three younger brothers. (F ‘my father had six brothers… And he was the eldest.’)
11. Yasmin’s father began working on a farm at the age of 12. (T ‘he’d worked on the land since he was 12′)
12. In Pakistan it seems only the oldest brother inherits the family’s land. (F ‘his feeling was that everybody would get a share of the land’)

Part 3:

13. Yasmin says a lot of British and French people in the Middle Ages left their countries because they wanted ‘to see the wealth and taste the fruit’ of other parts of the world.
14. Yasmin’s parents came to England to benefit from the economy and to find work.
15. Yasmin’s mother didn’t want to come to Britain at first.
16. She had been brilliant at maths when she was at school.
17. However, she was not allowed to leave the village to pursue an education.
18. This is why she was passionate about her daughters being educated.
19. She felt her daughters would have more opportunity in Britain.

Part 4:

20. Yasmin thinks her parents were in their 20s when they left Pakistan. (F ‘Maybe my mum was in her mid-30s… my dad might have been in his late 30s.)
21. Yasmin thinks her parents were very brave to come to England. (T ‘I think they were so courageous in making this huge change’)
22. Yasmin says her parents are in their 60s now. (F She talks about cold winters in the 1960s, not her parents being in their 60s.)
23. Yasmin remembers very cold winters in England as a child. (T ‘the winters used to be freezing’)

Part 5:

24. Who brought home a mango one day, when Yasmin was eight or nine years old? Yasmin’s father

25. How much did each child get to taste? a slice

26. Who went without? Yasmin’s mother

27. What did Yasmin’s parents keep in Pakistan? a farm

28. When did Yasmin last visit Pakistan? about six years ago

29. Where did Yasmin see masses of mango trees? in the farm’s orchard

30. Which words does Yasmin use to describe the mangos? ‘succulent’ and ‘fresh’