§ 1. If you've ever thought that talking to someone was a waste of breath, you might be comforted to know that in some cases you are right  — the words we utter have very little effect on people compared with how we say them and what we are doing when we say them.

§ 2. Recent research has shown that in a presentation before a group of people, 55 per cent of the effect on the audience is determined by the body language of the speaker, 38 per cent by their tone of voice and only 7 per cent by the actual content of what is being said. Body language speaks louder than words.

§ 3. So can performance and communication skills really be improved? It would appear so, according to Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP, which was developed in the 1970s by therapist Richard Bandler and linguistics professor John Grinder. They asked: "What makes the difference between someone who is competent at something and someone who is excellent?" They examined the behaviour of people generally considered to be examples of excellence in their respective fields to identify what they were doing consciously (осо­знан­но) and unconsciously. Surprisingly, they discovered patterns of communication which all these high achievers were using to produce consistently positive results. They found that they were able to copy these strategies and achieve similar success, so they developed a way of teaching these skills to other people, a method they called Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

§ 4. They have discovered how people achieve mutual understanding, both consciously and unconsciously, by observing the body language and voice patterns of the person they are talking to. If you're dealing with someone who is painfully shy, you're not going to make a good connection by overwhelming them with your cheerfulness. By matching someone's behaviour we can gain their confidence, achieve a good relationship and improve the quality of communication  — in other words, we can get on someone's wavelength. NLP practitioners claim anyone can learn how to do this, and quite quickly. NLP is all about taking one's unconscious, not very highly developed skills and practising them consciously.

§ 5. Another powerful aspect of NLP is its use of positive thinking. We can become aware of the negative and turn it to the positive. Once it is framed in a positive way as a goal, the brain can begin to cope with it and then apply itself to achieving that outcome. To put it another way, if you don't know where you're going, it makes it harder to get there.

1.  Margherita Taylor is the only female presenter at Capital Radio, one of London's top music radio stations. She got into radio while she was a student in Birmingham. Along with hundreds of other hopefuls, she and a friend queued for hours in the rain to take part in a 'Search for a Star' competition held by a local radio station, BRMB. "I had to read a travel script and a weather script, talk about myself for a minute, then introduce a record." Within days the phone call came to say that her voice had earned her a regular show on BRMB. Truly the stuff dreams are made of. After working there for 18 months, she was offered a job with Capital.

2.  Margherita claims never to get nervous before a show. "You can't get nervous because then you make mistakes, she says. Of course, there has been the odd disaster. "For instance, when I did my first live concert show at BRMB, I'd only done one programme. In front of a crowd of 50,000, I went on stage to introduce a certain well-known singer. I said: "Please welcome our next performer. You know her best for hits like." Then I just went blank. There was this silence from the crowd, and for the life of me I couldn't think what she'd sung. That's one occasion that will stay with me for ever."

3.  Margherita says that her own musical tastes are varied. But she doesn't pick her own music for the show. The Capital computer selects the records in advance from a list approved by the station managers. "The station has a certain sound, and if we all picked our own music, it wouldn't sound like Capital," she says."But for someone who likes music, this is a dream job. I get to go to concerts and meet the bands you can hear on my show. It's great to hear the "behind the scenes"gossip."

4.  Most people would expect that a presenter's most important qualities are a nice voice and huge amounts of confidence, but Margherita says that basic maths is handy as well. "You have to make sure that you've got an eye on everything that's going on in the studio, but you've got to be able to add and subtract and think in minutes and seconds," she says. "You're dealing with timed records, and you have to be ready to switch to the news at exactly the right second. If you're going over to a live event, you need to be ready for that on time, not a second earlier or later."

5.  Margherita Taylor is very nice and very easy-going, but very much in control. She is so much a "Capital Radio girl" that you might think she is just doing a good job for the station's publicity department, although you know what she's saying really comes from the heart. She smiles a lot, laughs a lot and is generally a great advert for Capital.

§ 1. If you walk into any bookstore there is an entire shelf dedicated to books about people who decide to change their lives by relocating to another country. I used to laugh at those kinds of books and wonder why anyone would put themselves through the discomfort of going to live in a foreign country  — all in search of a simple lifel

§ 2. One day, instead of walking straight past this section, I selected a book to read on the train. It was about an accountant who realised one day how boring her life was, so she bought a ticket to Italy. After reading the book, the idea of moving abroad had lodged (за­се­ла) itself in my mind and was turning into a magnificent possibility.

§ 3. I resigned from the hospital where I worked, sold my apartment and moved to the region of Umbria in Italy. Once there, I rented an apartment and hired a little motorbike. I loved sampling the local cuisine and I signed up for a short cooking course. A very charming local man called Francesco ran the course. Each lesson not only did we learn how to prepare an authentic Umbrian dish, we were also rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, since Francesco was a natural storyteller and we enjoyed his talent for imitating people.

§ 4. I also took a three-month Italian language course. It is fair to say that my attempts at cooking were more successful than my attempts to acquire a new language. I tried hard, however, and after a few weeks of lessons I actually had a short conversation with a local  — OK, I only asked for directions to the train station. In my mind, though, this was a triumph of communication and I was satisfied with my modest progress.

§ 5. It was at one of these language classes that I heard a fellow student, John, mention that his neighbour, Sandro, was moving to Rome and selling his farmhouse very cheap. John said he wished he had the money to purchase it himself, as the property was sure to be snapped up soon. I couldn't believe that it cost less than half the amount that I had sold my tiny apartment for. Would I dare to copy the writers of all those books? I had to go and have a look, of course. The farmhouse was located on the top of a hill, and although it was very run-down, it possessed charm. I bought it straight away.

§ 6. The project wasn't without its difficulties, though. The farmhouse was collapsing in several places. My first priority, therefore, was to hire some local workers to add supports to the building. I also strengthened the foundations, installed a new kitchen and renovated the rest of the property. In the end, all the cost and effort were worthwhile, because I felt I belonged here as much as I did anywhere in the world, and I was determined to make it my home. I must say I sometimes look at my collection of books on Italy and think I'd like to have a goal writing one myself I'd like to share my experience and let other dreamers out there know that the difficulty is worth it. I didn't quite find the simple life, but I did find what the Italians call the sweet life  — la dolce vita.

§ 1. The moment for Olympic glory and gold occurs once every four years - a moment which becomes the focus for the lives of athletes from all over the world. This one event is their main goal and in order to achieve their dream they are prepared to make any sacrifice. All athletes are selected by their national Olympic Committee to represent their country, and once selected they face two major demands. The first is the mountain of form filling, paperwork and administration. The second is to finalise their preparation for the Games. Most athletes have highly-developed training schedules which enable them to reach the height of their performance for a particular event. However, the Olympics, creates its own timetable and pressures.

§ 2. When I was selected to represent Great Britain, I had approximately a hundred days to prepare. This included finalising training plans, raising nearly £16,000 towards the costs, seeing to travel arrangements and entry forms, and having discussions with my employer about extra time off work to allow me to prepare fully. Throughout my sailing career I had never had the opportunity to become a full-time athlete, so I needed to pursue my business career at the same time as my sporting objectives. However, any top-class athlete in any sport needs a level of business skills when competing at Olympic standard. They need the ability to plan and arrange for all the expenses effectively as well as work towards definite aims.

§ 3. Once you arrive, you stay in the Olympic "Village', which is really a small town housing 15,000 people from every imaginable culture and background. It is fascinating to watch athletes from tiny gymnasts to huge weightlifters and basketball players, and best of all is the excitement at being part of such a select gathering. There are training facilities, souvenir shops, launderettes, a bank and post office, as well as the Village restaurant which seats over 3,000 at one time.

§ 4. So what does it feel like to go to an Olympics? It can be summed up in many ways by the opening ceremony, where thousands of athletes and officials parade wearing their team kit. To most it is an event they will never forget and the honour of just being there is almost magical. And perhaps winning a medal is one of life's major experiences. For me it was the thoughts of family and friends who had all played a part on my road to success, and it felt wonderful. I feel that it is important to try and repay everyone's faith in me by putting something back into the community. I want the younger generation of athletes to benefit in the ways that I did.

§ 1. It is Saturday night at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. In the galleries devoted to African art, children are playing hide-and-seek while the parents sip beer from plastic cups. Some teenage girls head through the sculpture exhibition to a temporary dance floor where a DJ is playing reggae music. Watching the scene is Bryan, a young teacher from a local school. What brings him out tonight? 'I'm here for the reggae, of course,' he says. When I heard they were playing that I thought, "I have to be there," and obviously a lot of people feel the same way.' Besides the DJ, the museum has laid on gallery talks, a Martin Scorsese film, a puppet show and a samba band.

§ 2. The Brooklyn Museum of Art wasn't always so trendy. For decades, it put on excellent exhibitions that few came to see. Had it been over in the city's fashionable Upper East Side, of course, the museum would have been packing them in. Even when they put on dull exhibitions, New York's top museums can count on a steady stream of visitors  — mostly tourists. But Brooklyn, one of New York's toughest districts, isn't on the standard tourist route. When the museum was built, it was in a wealthy suburb, but these days the surrounding streets are home to recent immigrants, mostly poor folk from the Caribbean.

§ 3. Two years ago, in an effort to revive itself, the museum appointed a new director, Arnold Lehman, who was born in Brooklyn. Lehman was convinced that the museum should forget about trying to attract visitors from the other side of town and try to appeal instead to people from the surrounding area.

§ 4. The free evening events, called 'First Saturdays', are Lehman's way of reaching out to people. The great thing for me is when you see teenage boys looking at art in the galleries without being handcuffed to their parents,' he says. What's more, the annual number of visitors to the museum has roughly doubled since the scheme was introduced. Similar institutions across the country are now calling, wanting to know how much it costs to throw a good party'. The answer, incidentally, is about $25,000 per event. 'And worth every penny,' says Lehman.

§ 5. The real achievement of First Saturdays is more significant and profound than the increased visitor numbers suggest. Most people visit art museums because they want to have a special 'artistic' experience. The Brooklyn Museum of Art has introduced thousands of people to the idea that museum-going can be a perfectly ordinary part of their lives.