IELTS LISTENING TEST 33

Section 1. You will hear a woman talking to a man about joining a drama club. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 6. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. 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. Hello, Robert Gladwell speaking. Oh, hi. My name's Chloe Martin. I was given your name and phone number by Ben Winters. I work with him and he said you're a member of Midbury Drama Club. Yes, I am. Well, I've just moved to the area and I'm keen to join a drama club. Great. Yes, I can give you some information. We're one of the oldest drama clubs in the area as the club started in 1957. We now have about 60 members. Our youngest member is 10 and our oldest member is 78. The year the drama club started was 1957, so 1957 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 6. Hello, Robert Gladwell speaking. Oh, hi. My name's Chloe Martin. I was given your name and phone number by Ben Winters. I work with him and he said you're a member of Midbury Drama Club. Yes, I am. Well, I've just moved to the area and I'm keen to join a drama club. Great. Yes, I can give you some information. We're one of the oldest drama clubs in the area as the club started in 1957. We now have about 60 members. Our youngest member is 10 and our oldest member is 78. Oh, I think I saw a picture in the newspaper the other day of some of your members being presented with a prize. Yes, the youth section did very well in a competition and won £100, which will help with their next production. Anyway, tell me a bit more about yourself. Well, I've done a bit of acting. I was in a couple of musicals when I was at university and a historical play more recently. We mainly do comedy plays. We get good audiences for that kind of thing. We haven't attempted a musical yet, but we might do one soon. Oh, when do you usually meet? On Tuesdays. Well, presumably I'll need to do an audition. Yes, there were a few auditions last Tuesday, and we'll be doing more at our next meeting, which is in two weeks' time. That's on Tuesday, the 12th of March. There'll be another opportunity two weeks after that, which will be on the 26th of March. Oh, well, I can come to your next meeting, and if I don't get an acting part in a play, I'd be happy to help with something else. I've designed publicity before. Great! We're very short of people who can do that, so that would be really good. There are a lot of people who like making scenery, so we get plenty of help with that, but we haven't got enough people to do the lights at the moment. So, if you think you can do that, or you have any friends who would like to, do bring them along. We can show you what to do if you haven't got any experience. I'll have to think about it. So, do you meet in the theatre? We do our performances in the Manor Theatre, but we only hire that for the nights of the actual performances. We meet to rehearse every Tuesday evening in the Community Hall. We rent a room there. Oh, I'm not sure where that is. I'll be coming by car because I don't live in the town centre. It's in Ashburton Road. As you're coming towards the centre, down Regent Street, you need to turn left at the crossroads. Oh, I know. There's a big car park down there, just before you get to a hotel. It's on the other side of the road from the Sports Centre. That's it. That's the closest place to leave your car, and you don't have to pay in the evening to park there. We meet at 7.30, and we usually finish by 9.30 or 10. OK. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to 10. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10. I haven't mentioned that we have to make a charge. Everyone pays a subscription of £180 to be a member for a year. You can pay for the whole year at once, or you can pay £15 every month. It works out the same. There are reductions for retired people and under-18s, but I don't think you come into either category. No, I'm 26. Oh, that fee covers all the costs, like photocopying of scripts and producing the posters, but it excludes the costumes for the performances. We ask people to pay for the hire of those themselves. It does mean they look after them properly, as they know they won't get their deposit back otherwise. Can I come along to the next meeting then? Of course. We'd love to see you. And if you want to know more about how we run the auditions or the next play we're doing, why don't you give our secretary a ring? She'll be really pleased to help you. Oh, what's her name? It's Sarah Sordicott. That's S-A-W-D-I-C-O-T. Got that. And her phone number? I've only got a mobile number for her. Just a minute. Let me find it. Ah, it's 07955 240063. Great. Thanks for your help. That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Section two. You will hear a radio programme in which a presenter called Jasmine tells her colleague Fergus about a charity. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15. And now here's Jasmine, who's come to tell us about this week's charity. Hi, Fergus. This week, I'm going to talk about Forward Thinking and their plans for the Colville Centre. So, in recent years, people have realised how useful the arts can be within healthcare. The idea behind Forward Thinking is to use the arts to promote wellbeing. The charity develops projects for people with special needs and health problems and also delivers training to healthcare professionals in using the arts, as well as supplying them with information and advice. Forward Thinking doesn't just run art and craft classes to distract people who are ill or recovering from illness, but arranges longer-term projects and courses, as it's been shown that the arts can bring all sorts of positive changes in patients, including benefits such as shortening the length of stay in hospital and reducing the amounts of medicine they need. I see. Forward Thinking has experience of working with a broad range of people, from young adults with learning difficulties to older people in homes or daycare centres and people with physical disabilities. The organisation's been around since 1986 and it gradually expanded during the 1990s. Then, in the new millennium, it was decided to find a memorable name, so it's been operating as Forward Thinking for several years, in fact, since 2005. It's quite a locally-based charity, mainly for people in the southern part of this region, which includes all rural and urban communities outside the city of Clifton, which has its own organisation. There are, of course, some similar charities in other parts of the country, in London and so on. And what's the present fundraising in aid of? Yeah, well, the charity needs funding in order to buy the Colville Centre. This is a former village school, which was built in 1868. It was modernised and refurbished by the present owners last year, so it's ideal for art classes and for small social events, performances, seminars and so on. Forward Thinking is fundraising to purchase the building so they can use it to continue running classes and so on for the general public and eventually also for some of the people they help. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20. Pause the recording for 30 seconds. Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20. Right, so can you give us a few ideas about what classes people might do there? Is it all art classes? Well, there are some very good art classes, but there are lots of other things going on as well. So, for example, there's Learn Salsa with Nina Bellina's team. They say that salsa is an easy dance to learn. It's also an excellent form of exercise, according to Nina. And that class is for both men and women, of course. It's ideal for beginners and what they call refreshers. That's £100 for 10 sessions. Then another class is called Smooth Movers. It's with Kevin Bennett. And it's for you if you don't have the same energy levels as you used to when you were a teenager. It's a gentle exercise class geared to the needs of whoever is in the group in a particular session. And Kevin is qualified to teach classes to people getting over injuries and so on and balance training. That's £60 for 10 sessions. Then there's a day called Art of the Forest with Jamie Graham, where you discover Upper Wood, a short walk from the Colville Centre, and learn how to design in 3D with natural materials. It's an unusual and exciting way to be creative. Jamie is an artist with a background also as a country park ranger. For this day, youngsters must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, and the costs are adults £40, under-14s £10. But it's best value at £80 for a family of four. The next one is The Money Maze. And this is a series of talks by Peter O'Reilly, an independent financial advisor. He gives advice on family finances, things like everything parents need to know about managing the costs of bringing up children, sending them to university, and actually also about care for elderly relatives. It's £10 per talk, which will all go to support forward thinking. And as a final example of what's on offer, there's Make a Play. That's for 8-14s, and this activity is such a hit that it usually sells out within days of being announced. Basically, what you do is write, rehearse and perform a play in just two days, and it doesn't require any previous experience. I gather there's lots of fun and silliness along the way. And the best bit, perhaps, is that there's a performance for family and friends at the end. It's just £50 for two days. Pretty good range of activities, I think. And all raising money for a good cause. Yes, and the all-important contact details are colville at forwardthinking.org.uk or write. That is the end of section 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Section 3 You will hear Tom and Danny, two students, talking with their professor about the assignment. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26. Professor Tomlinson, may Annie and I please quickly ask you a few questions about the reflective journal assignment? It's just that we're a bit confused as to what you want us to include and discuss. Yes, of course. What are you having trouble with? Well, everything really. To start with, what should be included first in the reflective journal? Perhaps suggestions from others? No, no. Firstly, you should include the study goals you set yourself at the beginning of the module. This section should have been discussed in some detail towards the beginning of the course by Professor May. You should be able to find her suggestions on the slides she has provided the class online. OK, thank you, Professor. Could I also trouble you to take a brief look at my bibliography and footnotes? I feel like they're missing something. Most of our friends' bibliographies are longer. Well, looking at this, Annie, I can see that you have used a wide range of resources, which shows that you have made effective use of communication technology. As far as I can tell, you need not make any changes to this. Although you might want to double-check that your referencing complies with the Harvard Referencing Style regulations. Oh, I'm very surprised you've said that. Thank you. Now I can set my mind at ease. Tom, you said you wanted to ask the Professor about the achievement section? Ah yes, Professor. In the assignment guidelines, we're asked to introduce and elaborate on our biggest achievement in the past, saying which skills we learned in the process and how these skills can be transferred to various different future careers. The only problem is that I don't know what my greatest achievement actually is. I've only ever worked as a waiter in a hotel restaurant during the summer holidays from university. If you worked as a waiter in a hotel restaurant, you're bound to have worked with other waiters as part of a team. Would you say that during your time as a waiter, you developed any leadership skills? Yes, well, I suppose I was asked to become the team leader of the food and beverage department, but that's hardly an achievement. You might not think so, but if you write that you were offered the position of the team leader, it shows a lot more about your character. For example, that you're charismatic and work well in a high-pressure situation. I never would have thought to write that down, thank you. I guess I should start listening to others more often. Annie, do you have any more questions, or are you ready to go back to the library? Yeah, I think I've got everything I need. Thank you very much, Professor Tomlinson. That was really helpful. I'm actually starting to look forward to writing this now, and it should be a really useful exercise to prepare us for writing CVs and applying for jobs. It's shocking how bad I am at identifying my strengths and weaknesses. Professor Tomlinson has shown me that I definitely need to start displaying some self-awareness. Yeah, Tom, you really do. You're always so modest. Modesty is great until it comes to applying for jobs. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30. Oh no, I forgot to ask the professor about the section on identifying the skills gained through different activities. Do you remember? When it asks you, for example, whether writing an essay develops your study skills, or your independent learning, and so on. Oh goodness, we really should have asked him that. I've been having trouble with it too. It just seems like such a pointless task. What do you reckon the answers are? I think writing an essay might be a way of identifying and resolving a problem, because you have to state the problem in the introduction and then solve it. I'm not so sure about taking exams. I thought they were supposed to develop lots of different skill sets. If I really had to choose, I'd say that taking exams enables you to become more confident in yourself. Do you agree? Maybe. I really don't know either. What do you think about the last two? Making class notes and presentation notes? Oh, it's so difficult. I think making class notes has to be a way of becoming a more independent learner, because you yourself decide what the important information is and learn it. That reminds me, I find taking presentation notes is a disaster. The professors speak much too quickly and I write much too slowly. That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Section four. You will hear a lecturer giving the beginning of a talk on the history of British pottery. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty. Pause the recording for one minute. Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty. Thank you for coming to this series of talks. Before I talk in detail about the experiments and innovations of the British ceramicists, I'd like to give you a summary of the social and manufacturing background in which they lived and worked. So, we're talking about England, or more specifically, the region known as the Midlands, and we need to go back, mainly to the 18th century, and briefly even earlier, to put it in a global context. Now, at that period, the majority of the population, whatever their station in life, as you might say, were dependent for their living, in one way or another, not on the geographical location of where they lived, but on the physical characteristics of the actual land they lived on. This is true whether we're talking about the aristocracy, the owners of great estates who, incidentally, had no snobbery about the concept of making money from all the reserves of coal, or timber, or stone, on their rolling acres, or the farmers making a fat living from the rich soils. And besides these groups, and the less affluent ones, the deposits of iron ore and lead, the limestone and flint, and the brown and yellow clays also sustained the numerous industries in the area. It's important to recognise that it was already an industrial region, and had been so for centuries. There were many Midland trades, some of them indigenous, some of them not. For example, there were immigrants from France who came as early as the late 16th century, and they were producers of glass. A century later, there is plenty of evidence that the variety of trades was enormous. There was brewing in Burton-on-Trent, silk weaving and ribbon making near Coventry, framework knitting around Nottingham, and of course, in Cheshire, men dug the salt, as we still do nowadays even, which in that era was sent downriver to the estuary of the Mersey. Now, among these well-established trades, one of the oldest of the local crafts was pottery. As you will probably be aware, ceramics has always been a mix of science, design, and skill. And a good potter is, in a sense, an experimental chemist, trying out new mixes and glazes, and needing to be alert to the impact of changes of temperature on different types of clay. For 200 years, up to the time we are concerned with, potters had been making butter pots and pitchers and patterned plates, using the clay which was plentiful in the area where they lived, in a handful of North Staffordshire villages dotted along the low hills. Now I want to explain a little about the industrial processes which had preceded the great breakthrough in Germany in 1708. That's when the formula for porcelain was discovered, a secret that had been held in China for a thousand years. In the Midlands, in England as elsewhere, there had basically been two kinds of pottery. The first was known, is still known, as earthenware. Now, this was a bit rough and ready, but it was deservedly popular for several reasons. To start with, it was relatively cheap, so it could be used by most households. This was because it could be made from local clay, without any complicated processing or added materials. From the potter's point of view, there was another reason for its cheapness. This was that it could be fired in simple ovens or kilns and at relatively low temperatures, so he didn't have to spend so much money on fuel to achieve the necessary heat. On the other hand, after one firing in the kiln, the problem with earthenware was that it remained porous, so had limited usefulness. So for most purposes, it had to go back in the kiln for a second firing before it became waterproof. And another thing was that it was extremely breakable. I mean, before it had even been sold. I suppose the potter wouldn't have minded so much if people just had to keep coming back for more every time they broke a jug or whatever. But it was very inconvenient, because it meant there was a lot of wastage in the course of the manufacturing process. Anyway, for all these reasons, if people could afford it, and that would be all but the very poor, they would buy stoneware, a much tougher product. Now, for this, the potter used a slightly more expensive raw material, which was made by combining clay and flint. And this mixture was fired at a far higher heat, with the result that the ingredients vitrified. That is to say, in effect, the whole thing became glassy. And because of this, it was non-porous, and naturally, this was regarded as a great advance. Well, that's the situation in the 18th century. Are there any questions at this stage? OK, so now we can go on to look at the age of innovation.