英语听力精选进阶版 8215（在线收听）

President of football's world governing body FIFA Sepp Blatter has said that he expected the upcoming World Cup in Brazil to be a success. He was speaking in Sao Paulo. Katy Watson reports from Sao Paulo.

At a press conference in Sao Paulo on Thursday, FIFA insisted that the World Cup would be a success.

We have listened to all the reports. It's not up to me now to comment on that. But I can tell you, listening to the report, we are confident, we and FIFA, we are confident.

But even some of its executives couldn't avoid reality as they sat in traffic jams for hours trying to get across the city during the strike. Union leaders on Sao Paulo's metro system have asked for a double digit pay rise and better conditions. They deny it has anything to do with the World Cup and everything to do with needing higher salaries to keep pace with the inflation. The state-owned underground company was locked in negotiations with Union leaders on Thursday afternoon. And the government is under a huge amount of pressure. The only viable way for fans to reach Sao Paulo Stadium is on public transport. If that fails, it won't just be a huge inconvenience for visitors but a huge embarrassment for the government, too. Katy Watson, our reporter in Sao Paulo.

Now Eimear McBride took 6 months to write her first novel, 10 years to find a publisher, but she was rewarded this week when she won a top literary prize in London worth 50,000 dollars. Her book A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing tells us the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumor. It's set in Ireland in the time of religious oppression and sexual abuse. Here is an extract.

See here this party. It's a mad. I'd never been. I've only seen on top films.

Yeah, absolutely it was a huge surprise and you know, a great honor, and you know, not something that I was expecting.

And to win a prize with a book that you found such a difficulty in finding a publisher for.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, that's certainly felt like a vindication for me. You know, I wrote the book in 2004 in 6 months and then that it took me most of the next decade to find a publisher for it.

You say vindicated, what do you think the problem was that publishers had with the book?

Well, what they told me was that while they admired the writing, they found that the subject was interestingly dealt with, they didn't feel that the book fell into any kind of need, marketing niche.