IELTS LISTENING TEST 1

SECTION 1 You will hear a student from overseas phoning the student accommodation office of a college in the UK for some information. First you have some time to look at questions 1 to 4 on page 2. You will see that there is an example that has been done for you. On this occasion only, the conversation relating to this will be played first. College Accommodation Bureau, Darren speaking. How may I help you? Oh, good morning. I'm starting at the college in September and I need to find some accommodation. Right. Well, there are various options. The first one is to stay in college accommodation. That would be a single room. The first type of accommodation is a single room in the college. So, single room has been written in the space. Now we shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 4. College Accommodation Bureau, Darren speaking. How may I help you? Oh, good morning. I'm starting at the college in September and I need to find some accommodation. Right. Well, there are various options. The first one is to stay in college accommodation. That would be a single room. How much would that cost? Well, it depends. For a standard room, you're looking at three thousand two hundred and seventy six pounds for the year. That's just for a room with washbasin. Or three thousand eight hundred and thirty four pounds if you want an ensuite. That's with your own small bathroom. I see. That's more than I expected. It does include heating. That's quite a saving because energy costs can be high, especially in winter. Hmm. Does it include meals as well? No. All our rooms are self-catering now. There's a shared kitchen on each corridor where you can cook if you want to or there are plenty of places to eat out on campus. Okay. And you said that's the price for the whole year? Well, you pay annually but actually it's for 36 weeks. It doesn't include holidays. You have to vacate the room then. Oh, I need somewhere to stay in the holidays. I can't afford to go home. The flights are too expensive. Well, there is another option. Several families who either work at the college or have children studying here offer visiting students a room in their homes. Oh? We call this arrangement home welcome and we've still got a few places left at the moment. You pay a hundred and fifty pounds per week and that includes breakfast, a packed lunch and dinner as well as heating. Is there a contract? Do you have to stay for the whole year? No. It's flexible. It sounds really good but I'm not sure. I really want to be a little more independent. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions five to ten on page two. Now listen and answer questions five to ten. What about finding somewhere to live off campus? Yes, you can rent a property in town privately. You might want to rent a room in a shared house. You'd have a room of your own and share the kitchen and bathroom with other students. What about if I don't want to share? You can get what we call a studio. They're often quite small but they'll have everything you need. Right. How much would those two options cost? Well, prices vary depending on which part of town the property's in. Generally speaking, the cheapest is around 275 pounds a month for each student. Oh, that's not too bad. Yes, but it can also be as high as 490 pounds and then you'll have to pay all your other bills. What sort of amount would I be looking at for those? Well, last year students were paying on average about 43 pounds per month each for gas and electricity. This year it'll probably be somewhere in the region of 48 pounds. That's a lot. Yes, they've gone up quite a bit and on top of that you have to pay for water and that'll probably be around nine pounds. That didn't occur to me and I guess I'd have to pay for transportation, too. That's right. Most of these properties are quite a long way from the college. It just gets worse and worse. What's the minimum contract on this type of accommodation? Six months and you have to pay a deposit but of course you can stay there over the holidays. That's true. And you'd have to provide references. They want two from someone in this country. I see, but that's not a problem. If you do choose this option, we can't find the property for you. You'd have to go through the estate agent which manages the property for the owner. Right. Thanks. Well, I think I'd like to see what's available privately. Could you give me the estate agent details? That is the end of section 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn to section 2 on page 3.

SECTION 2 You will hear an audio guide introducing visitors to a museum. First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15 on page 3. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15. Welcome to the Global Museum located at the heart of this truly multicultural city which is home to more than 60 different nationalities. The museum has a number of exciting displays and exhibitions and this audio guide is designed to help you make the most of your visit. Altogether the museum has 18 different galleries and this season sees the opening of three new exhibitions. We recommend that you begin your tour by visiting this season's highlights. The Heritage Clothes exhibition is located in gallery 5 of the museum. People who live in the area have spent two years preparing this exhibition which brings together some of the fascinating garments traditionally worn in their own communities. They researched the history of their community's clothing traditions and the customs and rituals associated with them. Altogether 16 countries are represented from Ghana to Korea from Turkey to Nepal. The photographs that accompany each display case were taken by some of the city college students who are studying design and show the clothes being modelled by the real people who wear them in the course of their everyday lives. Another highlight this season is the exhibition called Toys from the Past which can be found in gallery 9. This exhibition which will appeal to people of all ages is on tour throughout the country and will be here for 10 weeks only. The exhibits include dolls made over a hundred years ago with beautiful porcelain faces and in some cases real hair. The collection covers the favourite toys such as wooden train sets from many different generations and provides plenty of interest for children and adults. The gigantic board games which are laid out on the gallery floor are one of the most popular activities in the exhibition and should not be missed. This exhibition concludes with a special display of miniature toys. These small objects are on loan from countries all over the world and in some cases measure no more than a few centimetres. There's a tiny car made from matchsticks, a toy aeroplane complete with pilot and passengers made out of seashells and some exquisite little buildings no higher than four centimetres. Before you hear the rest of the talk you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20 on pages 3 and 4. Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20. The final gallery highlight of the season is the biscuit gallery at number 15. Many years ago this city was famous for its biscuits although today the factory no longer exists. Did you know for example that before biscuits were packed in paper or cardboard boxes biscuit tins were fashion items. The factory made tins round, square, triangular, hexagonal for a whole range of different occasions to celebrate national events, festivals, famous faces and so on. One fascinating display deals with people's favourite biscuits. There are sweet biscuits and savoury ones, biscuits filled with jam and biscuits filled with currants, biscuits with pink, yellow and white sugar icing or coloured sugar flowers. When the factory finally closed it announced that people's favourite biscuit was not as you might expect a chocolate biscuit or one filled with jam and cream but a plain savoury one which was eaten with cheese. When you get to the end of the exhibition there's an entertaining hands-on activity to fill your own biscuit tin. All the biscuits ever produced by the company are piled up on a table along with various tins. The biscuits are made out of thin pieces of wood but the weight, colours and shapes replicate the original biscuits. Your job is to fill a tin with biscuits so that when the lid is taken off they sit there as neatly as they did when the job was done by machine. It's not as easy as it looks. If you would like to buy a memento of your visit there is a museum gift shop selling postcards, souvenirs and handmade pottery next to the information desk on the ground floor. And finally if you don't want to carry your coats and bags around with you during your visit please make use of the free lockers provided by the museum. Enjoy your visit. That is the end of section 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn to section 3 on page 5.

SECTION 3 You'll hear a student called Paul talking to a tutor about a course he is thinking of doing. First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25 on page 5. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25. Good morning. Come in. You're Paul are you? Yes. I spoke to you on the phone. Yes. Have a seat. You wanted to talk to me about the archaeology course? Yes. I've read the handbook but I'd like to find out a few more details before I decide whether to do it. Right. Yes. What would you like to know? Well first of all can I combine the archaeology course with one in anthropology? Yes. You can combine it with any other subject apart from classical history. That's simply because there's some overlap in the lecture times for those two courses. We weren't able to coordinate them. Okay fine. And could you tell me about the modules? Well in the first semester there are three. All of them are compulsory. We don't offer optional modules till next year. Right. The first one focuses on what can be learned from specific artifacts such as pottery and stone tools. It's called object matters and it's taught by Dr. Morris. Is that how is the module presented? I mean is it lectures? We refer to the means of presentation as the learning method and in this case it's lectures integrated with practical sessions so it's a mixture. What about the content? I suppose we'll be looking at different kinds of archaeological remains and how to date them and so on. To some extent but the module is basically about processes. First of all recording material, then classification, then interpretation of the data. That's how archaeologists draw conclusions about their findings. And finally display. Is that okay? I think so. Yes thanks. One other thing. How is the module assessed? Is there an exam? No it's all based on coursework. Before you hear the rest of the discussion you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30 on page 6. Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30. Okay. And the second module, that's the one called towns and cities, is taught by our department head Professor Elliott and as the name suggests the modules about the origins of built environments and how they developed. That's mainly factual then I suppose? It is really and for that reason the assessments by examination but you may be pleased to know it's an oral rather than a written exam. It sounds a bit scary. Most of our students find they actually enjoy it so don't worry too much. Okay. And then the title of the third module is method and science and in that Dr. Thompson will be introducing you to the standard techniques used in archaeological fieldwork and analysis. Things like excavating and dating. What about the learning method for this module? Are there any lectures or is this all laboratory work? Oh it's half lab work and half seminars. There aren't any lectures. Then right at the end of the module you'll take part in a site survey. The date for that is week beginning the 10th of March but I can't tell you the location yet. That will be announced later but I think you'll find it very useful. Yes I know someone who went on That is the end of section 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn to section 4 on page 7.

SECTION 4 You will hear part of a talk about research into learner persistence given by a university lecturer to her colleagues. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40 on pages 7 and 8. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40. My talk is about a research study I did over a period of five years on learner persistence. Why some people stick at academic study better than others. As teachers you will know that there is a tremendous variation in the learners response to certain things. For example a short period of illness might completely destabilize some students and cause them to give up their degree studies. Other learners might overcome tremendous difficulties to stay the course. I am particularly interested in this second group who are the ones with learner persistence. What I decided to do was design a research study using a sample of my university's third-year undergraduate students 295 in all who obviously had already stayed the course pretty well. The sample was drawn from a range of ages but there was deliberately a significant number of mature students and all respondents were living at home in the local region. I wanted to have this element of consistency not having some coming from outside the area and living in university accommodation. It should be noted though that there was significant variation in home background to reflect the variation in our student population. I designed questionnaires which were devised to elicit what their concerns had been as they started the course and what had sustained them throughout the three years. Findings from the first section indicated that their worries when they started varied from financial concerns though this had not been as strong as I expected to career prospects but mature students with children tended to emphasize uncertainties about their relationship with them. The second section of my questionnaire looked at learner persistence under three main headings social and environmental factors other factors and intrinsic or personal characteristics. I identified three levels of importance for each of these. At the first level those points identified by participants as most important in learner persistence. For social factors many respondents said how crucial it had been to have good support though there was no one specific source it could be family or friends. As regards other factors students are heartened not so much by high grades but by what they regard as success in study and for personal characteristics many respondents reported that they took pleasure in challenge and that this was regarded as very significant. At the second level of importance in the first category a sizable percentage talked about the fact that they had enjoyed themselves in school as an important social factor. In the second column other factors a number of people said that what was of most importance was decent health. This had a fairly strong influence on their persistence in their studies and then under the heading of personal characteristics there were quite a large percentage of respondents who mentioned they felt it was important to have lots of interests in their everyday lives. This gave them a depth and sense of perspective which less persistent learners might lack. And then on to the third level under social factors several respondents talked about good relationships with their tutors. For other factors they mentioned lack or absence of any problems in their families and finally under column 3 they identified an ability to juggle several roles what we might call their capacity for multitasking. Now these findings obviously helped inform the design of activities as I mentioned but in addition a number of further recommendations emerged. Firstly I propose that the department distributes questionnaires to first-year students to help get an idea of their maturity when starting the course. This is really our overriding concern. Secondly I recommend we look into ways of offering induction courses for some selected students to allow them to take on the role of advisors. We think they are the best people to act in that role. This policy will make support much more accessible to our students. Thirdly this help is often most needed in the evening and night when offices are closed and so we should set up online services instead of the more traditional telephone services. Research has shown that these services are actually more accessible to the majority of students and finally it is often important to be proactive. If students are not meeting deadlines then someone should contact them rather than wait for them to come to us. Now are there any questions about the point? That is the end of section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers. That is the end of the listening test. You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.