IELTS LISTENING TEST 14

SECTION 1 OPERATOR: Hello, you have reached the complaints department. How can I help you? JACK: Yes, hello there. I am phoning to make a complaint regarding a flight that I took with you recently. OPERATOR: OK. There are some details I will need to take from you first. May I have your name please? JACK: Jack Dawson (Example). That's D-A-W-S-O-N. OPERATOR: And your address? JACK: It's 33 Hillcrest (Q1) Road. That's H-I-double-L-C-R-E-S-T. OPERATOR: 33 Hillcrest Road. Is that in Exeter? JACK: Yes. OPERATOR: And what is the postcode of the residence? JACK: It's AL698GQ. (Q2) OPERATOR: Thank you. Do you have a telephone number? JACK: Yes. The number at my office is 754688. (Q3) OPERATOR: That's good, and may I just take a home phone number for you in case of emergencies? JACK: No problem. It's 798662. OPERATOR: Are they both local numbers? JACK: Yes. OPERATOR: OK great, thank you for your patience. Now what is the nature of your complaint? JACK: I'm phoning to complain about a flight I took recently. I always take certain measures to ensure that I will be comfortable. For example, I always pay the additional cost for extra legroom and I always arrive punctually for the flight to make sure that I am seated beneath an air conditioner. Unfortunately I was disappointed to find that the air conditioning on the plane was broken, so I spent the entire flight in discomfort as it was too hot and the air was stuffy. (Q4) OPERATOR: I see. I do apologise for this fault with the air conditioning. Now while I have you on the phone, would you mind answering a short questionnaire regarding your recent flight? JACK: Sure. OPERATOR: OK, let's get started. What did you think of the food that was served to you during the flight? JACK: I thought that it was inexpensive and quite delicious. However I was still very hungry afterwards as it was a very small portion and more of a snack (Q5). Providing a snack for lunch is not reasonable. OPERATOR: OK, I have noted that down. What was your opinion of the quality of service that you received from our staff on-board? JACK: The staff were very helpful, (Q6) but each time I pressed the button to request service it took a long time for a staff member to arrive. I found this frustrating as there just weren't enough staff on-board the flight to be able to serve all of the customers. OPERATOR: OK, that's great. Thank you very much for answering those questions. Are there any other parts of your travel experience that you would like to comment on? JACK: Yep. The process of moving through security (Q7) was very quick and helped to make my travel experience stress-free. OPERATOR: Okay. Do you have any extra comments on the services you received during the flight? JACK: Yes, I thought that the seats were very uncomfortable and looked very old. They were also in need of repair as the reclined feature on my chair was broken so I could not go to sleep for the whole flight. Luckily the entertainment (Q8) facilities were very good so I was able to distract myself by watching movies. OPERATOR: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all of my questions, we would like to offer you some gifts as a goodwill gesture, with a 20% discount on the cost of your hotel (Q9) stay. We also appreciate that international calls to your home country can be expensive and we are sure that you would like to keep your family updated on your travels, so please accept a phone card (Q10), which has a credit of £20. JACK: Oh that's really great. Thank you so much for the gifts! OPERATOR: No problem, we look forward to having you travel with us again soon! Have a fantastic vacation.

SECTION 2 Continuing our broadcast of public service announcements, Worldwide Helpers announces upcoming vacancies for a number of volunteer worker positions. All applicants must meet the following requirements. First of all, applicants must be over 18 (Q11) years of age. The company apologises, but there can be no exceptions to this rule. Second, persons interested in these positions may not have police records (Q12). Minor traffic offences like a parking ticket are, of course, no problem. But, and I quote, "past and present drug users and sex offenders" need not apply. The employer will, of course, check with the police to verify your clean record. In addition, applicants must supply references (Q13) from past or present employers or teachers along with their recent CV (Q14). These references must testify as to the applicant's work habits and/or character. Remember, these are references from employers or teachers. A note from your dear old Mum won't do. Worldwide Helpers assures me that they will contact these references to confirm they are genuine. Although all positions are volunteer, the employer will reimburse some of your expenses. For example, they will pay for transportation (Q15) to and from the job site. Aside from that, the cost of phone calls is covered. As for the positions themselves, there are three types. The first involves assisting persons confined to wheelchairs. For this position, volunteers must be physically fit and in excellent health. They must be able to lift at least 150 pounds. They should also have a current First Aid certificate from the Red Cross (Q16). But the most important requirement is that the volunteer must have his own car. On Tuesday afternoons (Q17), the volunteers take their clients to various scenic spots around the city to experience and enjoy nature. If you don't drive, but you'd still like to get involved, the centre has a number of openings for people to read to the blind. Readers must, of course, read English clearly. Persons with no foreign accent (Q18) are preferred. For these positions, you must be available on Monday mornings. Oh, wait, I see a note here. There is one opening for someone who can read Urdu. Apparently, there is a Pakistani blind person who'd like to hear his or her native language. But the other positions are all in English. And finally, there are a limited number of volunteers needed to care for disabled children (Q19). I'm sorry, but the information I've been given does not say how many children or what disabilities they have. In any case, you are needed to care for the children for one week in August. Apparently, this will be at the close of the summer holiday. I would guess this involves helping them with the routine chores of daily life. Again, volunteers for this position must know basic First Aid, be in good health, and be able to lift up to 75 pounds. (Q20) OK, our next announcement is looking for someone to "facilitate" tiger breeding at the London Zoo. And, get this, it's a "strictly volunteer" position. That means you don't get paid! Oh my God… I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, but I just have to laugh…

SECTION 3 Jim Hello there. Do you work in the computer room? Yes, I do. Can I help you? Jim Well, I'm a first year and I know that I'll need to use the computer room for my work as I don't have a computer of my own. So, I thought I'd get down here and see what I have to do in order to get time on one of the university's computers. Dave OK. There are 4 computer labs open to undergraduates. The others can only be used by the staff (Q21) and postgraduates. The names of the 4 labs that you can use are Wimborne, Franklin, Salisbury and Court. Wimborne and Court are in this building, the Johnson building, Franklin is in the Computer Sciences building and Salisbury is in the library. (Q22) Jim So I can use them whenever I like? Dave Well, you can use them but not whenever you like. As you can imagine they're in quite a lot of demand so you have to reserve your time on a computer. In each of the labs there is a reservation book and you can reserve your time on a computer in that for 2 hours daily (Q23). If a computer is free though you can go on it straight away. It's quite straightforward but be sure to always write your name in the reservation book in pen (Q24) or someone can rub it out and put their name in instead Jim Oh my God! Does that really happen? Dave I'm afraid so. And far more often than you would think. When people are stressed about their assignments they'd, they'll do anything to get some time on the computers. Better not try it yourself though or you'll be banned from the computers for the rest of the academic year and your password and user name will be taken away. Jim That reminds me. I've got to get a user name and password . How do I go about that then? Dave Well, what I'll do is pass you over to my colleague, Jane, as she's in charge of all that. Jane! Jane Yes Dave. Dave I've got a new student here wanting to find out about user names and passwords. Can you help him out with that? Jane Yeah sure. Hi there. Jim Hi. Jane Well, it's a straightforward process. First of all tell me your name and I'll type it into the system. Jim James Smith. Jane Right, let me do that. You see all students are automatically given a user name and then they just choose a password themselves. OK. So, your user name is James smith – – that's all small case. That means there must be more than one of you at the university at the moment. Well, what do you want your password to be? (Q25) Jim I think I'll choose biology (Q25), as that's the subject that I'm studying though my girlfriend Mary will be upset that it's not her name I'm using. Jane Well, that's all done. You can now use any of the four undergraduate computer labs. Jim By the way, can I print out stuff at the labs? Jane Yes you can but sometimes it's not quick. When you print it goes into a queue and it will be left in a tray in Franklin (Q26), as that's where all the main printers are. The good bit is that, although last year it cost 3 pence per page, now it doesn't cost you anything. (Q27) Jim I don't really know much about computing. Is there any training available? Jane Yes. We have introductory courses for all new students. There is beginner, intermediate and advanced. Which would you like to go for? Jim Well, I have done some but I don't know if I'm up to anything more than beginner (Q28). I'd better stick with that. intermediate could be too tough. Jane Well your course is in Franklin then (Q29). We're in Court now. You know where that is? Jim That's in this building too, isn't it? Jane No that's Wimborne you're thinking about. Franklin's over in the Computer Sciences Building. Anything else? Jim I don't know what time the course starts. Jane Let's have a look then. Advanced starts at 4:30 in the afternoon on Mondays but yours is the day after at 5 in the afternoon. (Q30) Jim Are there any other times as I've got a part time job then. Jane Yes. You could try Thursday at 2.00 pm. How's that? Jim Even worse as I've a tutorial then. Anything else? Jane No. That's it. Jim I'll have to rearrange work then. I can't miss the tutorial.

SECTION 4 Tutor Good afternoon everyone. In today's seminar we are going to continue listening to different students giving us a presentation on the subject of their term paper. Now today is Hillary's turn. So, what are you going to talk about today Hillary? Hillary Well, some of you will know that I was brought up when I was young in Japan and I'm going to do my term paper on Japan's bullet trains, which have revolutionized their rail industry. Japan's main island Honshu is covered by a network of high speed train lines that connect Tokyo with most of the island's major cities and Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. Japan's high-speed trains are called shinkansen but are known to us bullet trains. The Japanese bullet train system is credited with being the world's first purpose built high-speed railway, and the model and inspiration for all other similar type systems running today such as the French TGV. The reputation it has earned for safety, speed and punctuality is unsurpassed. I'd like to give you some figures about that. As regards safety, there has never been a death on the bullet train system since it's inception in 1964 (Q31), other than that caused by deliberate passenger misadventure. As far as speed is concerned the bullet train holds the current world records for the fastest average speed (Q32) between two station stops, which was 260 1.8 kph between Hiroshima and Kokura. The train travelled 192 kilometers in 44 minutes. This record is from the 500 series "Nozomi" trains running at a maximum speed of 300 kilometers an hour between Shin-Osaka and Hakata. I'll talk more about them later. The punctuality puts European train services to shame. Most trains arrive at their destination, after several hours, to within the second! In one year, the total time that all bullets trains were late by was 12 seconds (Q33)! This statistic is hard to believe but it would be difficult to prove otherwise and that's what the rail authorities in Japan have told us. Now I'd like to tell you a bit about their history. The first bullet train was introduced in 1964 by Central & West Japan Railways for the Tokyo to Osaka route. Most of these old trains have now been discontinued. There have been several bullet train models since then. The most recent ones have been the 300, 500 and 700 series and it's the 500 series one that can travel at 300 kph. The bullet trains operating in Japan today are of the three following categories: Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama. The Nozomi trains stop only at the most important stations (Q34), and reach Osaka from Tokyo in only about two and a half hours and it's the most modern of bullet trains that serve as Nozomi. Hikari trains stop a little bit more frequently than Nozomi trains, and need roughly three hours to reach Osaka from Tokyo. Kodama trains stop at all stations (Q35) and they are the local trains among bullet trains. Older models of bullet trains serve as Kodama. I'd like now to talk a little bit about the technology involved in bullet trains. The Shinkansen bullet trains consist of electrically powered cars. That means basically all individual cars are equipped with electric motor driving systems. This is in contrast to locomotive trains in which the locomotive pulls the passenger coaches. The realization of the high-speed Shinkansen with the electric train system had a great significance. The French "Train a Grande Vitesse" or TGV runs on a centralised power system (Q36), in which the heavyweight, high-output locomotives at both ends pull the passenger coaches. It's a system suitable to European railways, which run basically on straight tracks in wide plains with solid foundations. However it is unsuitable in Japan where the ground is flimsy and the tracks full of curves and undulations and inter-city distances are short (Q37), making it necessary for the trains to accelerate and decelerate frequently. One of the advantages of the electric car system is that the motor functions as a brake to reduce the speed of the train (Q38). When the power feed to the electric car motors is stopped, the wheels continue revolving, keeping the motors rotating, resulting in electricity generation by magnetic induction (Q39). As the force acts in the direction opposite to the axles motion, it functions as a brake to the train. All the motors equipped on each coach can be utilized effectively to reduce the speed, making the electric train system advantageous on Japanese railways, which involve frequent deceleration and acceleration. In addition, by virtue of the remarkable progress achieved recently in semiconductor technologies, the electric train system has undergone tremendous improvements in power, operability and safety administration, so the system is becoming increasingly advantageous. (Q40)