Read the article about a person who wants to be a comedian. You will receive up to 6 marks for the content of your summary, and up to 6 marks for the style and accuracy of your language. I love comedy. In fact, I'd love to be a comedian - but I'm not sure I'd be funny enough. So, when I heard about a one-day course on comedy, I decided to go along. We began by talking about comedians we liked, and what makes them funny. We all agreed they obviously believe in the jokes they are telling. We also shared a few of our favourite jokes. And while we were telling them, we realised that something we all did was to pause briefly before saying the final part of the joke. Our tutor confirmed that's a good technique. Then came the real challenge. We had to go out into the town centre, in pairs, and take it in turns to tell jokes to strangers. While one of us told a joke, the other one filmed it. I walked up to a woman and began: 'Why do giraffes have such long necks?' She looked at me strangely and walked away. I then thought about our tutor's advice, that we should consider the audience when choosing which jokes to tell. Maybe a child would find this joke funnier? Back in the classroom, the tutor gave us some tips after she'd studied the recordings of our joke- telling. I was first. She pointed out that I looked nervous - it's important to relax. She also suggested that I vary my voice more, for example going from quiet to loud, or from high to low. I decided to try out both suggestions. One woman on the course was praised for the way she looked directly at her audience - in this case, a mother and father with two children. The tutor also mentioned that another person on the course started laughing as soon as he'd finished his joke. We all agreed it's better not to do this - people are less likely to laugh at a joke if the joke-teller starts laughing first. We finished with some general advice - to practise a lot. So, if you'd like to practise telling the giraffe joke, you'll need to know the ending. Wait for it: 'Because they have really smelly feet.' ............................................................................................................................................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Answer:

Award up to a total of 12 marks.
Up to 6 marks to be awarded for Content (Reading)
Relevant Content points to include are:
1 do a comedy course
2 believe in the jokes you tell
3 pause (briefly) before (saying) the final part of the joke
4 consider the audience (when choosing which jokes to tell)
5 don't be nervous / relax
6 vary your voice
7 look (directly) at the audience
8 don't laugh after each of your jokes / people are less likely to laugh if the joke-teller starts laughing first
9 practise
Up to 6 marks to be awarded for Language (Writing).
See generic marking criteria for Exercise 4.

Knowledge points:

Solution: