9. An important part of the selection procedure for an air­line is to understand the psychology of an applicant. Here are ten typical questions from a pre-interview questionnaire.

1. How strong and confident are you?

2. How often can you be honest with your friends?

3. What do you look for most in a job?

4. What kind of people do you admire?

5. How do you like to spend Saturday nights?

6. What do you do when you get bad service?

7. When do you work overtime?

8. How do you feel when people criticize you?

9. What do you value most?

10) How easy is it for you to achieve your goals?

10. Match the questions to the multiple-choice options be­low.

A

It doesn't bother me at all.

1 don't usually mind.

1 don't like it very much.

1 hate it.

В

Dealing with people

Security

Travel

Adventure and excitement

С

Very — I always get what 1 want.

I've never really had to struggle.

Not very — it always takes a lot of effort.

I've never really had many.

D

Very — you need to be to survive.

Quite — in a quiet way.

1 try to be but it's not easy.

Not at all — I'm quite shy really.

E

Complain — more people should too.

1 get embarrassed but I say something.

It depends — sometimes I do something.

Nothing — it doesn't really bother me.

F

My close relationships.

My personality and appearance.

My intelligence.

My knowledge and skills.

G

Every time my boss asks me to.

Only when there is an emergency.

When I want to get something finished. Never— I don't need to in my job.

H

Business people Writers Police officers Film stars

I

Throwing a wild party. With family and friends. With a special person. On my own, reading.

J

Very — that's what they are for.

Quite — it depends how well I know them.

I usually try to bite my tongue.

Rarely — people don't appreciate it.

11. Imagine you are the airline's Personnel Officer. Which of these answers would indicate a good applicant? Which would worry you? How would you deal with these worries in an interview?

12. Now complete the questionnaire for yourself. Compare your answers with your partner and see if you agree with your assessments of yourselves.

13. Retell "Victoria's First Flight" in the Is' person singu­lar on the part of Victoria.

Victoria's first flight

Sitting in her seat at Airways Terminal there had come the magic moment when the words "Passengers for Cairo, Bagdad and Teheran, take your places in the bus, please," had been ut­tered.

Magic names, magic words. Devoid of glamour to Mrs. Hamilton Clipp who, as far as Victoria could make out, had spent a large portion of her life jumping from boats into airplanes

and from airplanes into trains with brief intervals at expensive hotels in between.

... They arrived at Keith Row and she assisted Mrs. Clipp to alight from the bus. She was already in charge of passports, tick­ets, money, etc.

"My," said that lady, "it certainly is a comfort to have you with me, Miss Jones. I just don't know what I'd have done if I'd had to travel alone."

Travelling by air, Victoria thought, was rather like being taken on a school treat. Brisk teachers, kind, but firm, were at hand to shepherd you at every turn. Air hostesses in trim uniform with the authority of a nursery governess dealing with feeble-minded chil­dren explained kindly just what you were to do. Victoria always expected them to preface their remarks with "Now, children."

The various barriers passed, they sat down to wait once more in a large room giving directly on the aerodrome. Outside the roar of a plane being revved up gave the proper background. Having duly appraised her fellow-travellers, Mrs. Clipp became restless.

"I'd like to know what we are waiting for like this? That plane's revved up four times. We're all here. Why can't they got on with things? They are certainly not keeping to schedule!"

"Now then, please," said the smart Nursery Governess Air Hostess. "Take your seats in the plane. As quickly, as you can, please."

Her attitude implied that a lot of children had been keeping

the patient grown-ups waiting. Everybody filed on the airplane. The great plane was wait­ing, its engine ticking over like the satisfied purring of a gigan­tic lion.

Victoria and a steward helped Mrs. Clipp on board and set­tled her in her seat. Victoria sat next to her in the aisle. Not until Mrs. Clipp was comfortably settled and Victoria had fastened her safety-belt, did the girl have leisure to observe the man sit­ting in front of them.

The doors closed. A few seconds later the plane began to move slowly along the ground.

"We're really going," thought Victoria in ecstasy. "Oh, isn't it frightening? Suppose it never gets up off the ground? Really, I don't see how it can?"

During what seemed an age, the plane taxied along the aero­drome then it turned slowly round and stopped. The engines rose to a ferocious roar. Chewing-gum, barley sugar and cotton wool were handed round.

Louder and Louder, fiercer and fiercer. Then, once more, the airplane moved forward! Mincingly at first, then faster, faster still, they were rushing along the ground.

"It will never go up," thought Victoria, "Wfe'll be killed."

Faster — more smoothly — no jars, no bumps, they were off the ground skimming along up, round, back over the car park and the main road, up, higher, a silly little train puffing below, dolls' houses, the cars on the roads ... Higher still, and sudden­ly the earth below lost interest, was no longer human or alive, just a large flat map with lines and circles and dots.

Inside the plane people undid their safety-belts, lit cigarettes, opened magazines. Victoria was in a new world, a world so many feet long, and a very few feet wide, inhabited by twenty to thir­ty people. Nothing else existed.

She peered out of the small window again. Below her were clouds, a fluffy pavement of clouds. The plane was in the sun. Below 'the clouds somewhere was the world she had known heretofore.