Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #27

1 C   2 B   3 B   4 A   5 C   6 B   7 A   8 C

Audioscript

1

M   I had a stroke of luck today. I’d nipped out of school in my lunch hour to get my wife some CDs for her birthday tomorrow. Who should I see coming out of the shop but Kylie Minogue. Fortunately, I had my little digital camera in my pocket – I always carry it just in case – and I took a quick photo of her getting into her limo on the High Street. My class was most impressed when I told them.

2

F   This part of the world has been no stranger to disasters over the last few years. Hurricanes cause problems almost every year. And only four months ago I was standing more or less in this very spot reporting on the floods that had destroyed so many homes and businesses. No one then could have imagined that fire could ever be a problem here. Yet the wooded hills around the town are clouded in smoke and some families living on the edge of the city have been evacuated.

3

F   I hope she’ll like it. I set out intending to buy her perfume but then I saw this and thought it was just her. She’s got some earrings with a similar stone so it should look good with them, don’t you think? The chain is nice and short so it’ll go well with an open-necked shirt, like she often wears. What do you think?

4

M   So there we were in the middle of our history test and suddenly this mobile phone goes off. Everyone laughed except the teacher who looked furious. We’d all been told to switch them off before the test. It took me a few moments to realise it was mine. I’m sure I went as red as a beetroot. I tried to switch it off as fast as I could but of course it took me ages to find it in my bag.

5

F   … but recent research suggests that this is not actually true. Although some people do seem initially to lose weight on this fashionable diet, they have almost all put it back on again within a few weeks of stopping the programme. Several people who have been following the diet for over six months have reported stomach problems which they attribute to the diet. We’ve invited to the studio today an expert in nutrition …

6

M   So, have you any plans for the weekend? You’ve worked very hard this week.

F   Tina and I were thinking of going to the disco in town tonight.

M   What, just the two of you?

F   That’s not a problem, is it?

M   I’m not that keen on your being out in town late at night. Why don’t you ask your brother to go with you?

F   No way!

7

M   Everyone said I was mad to be jumping out of a plane at my age. Even my son said he’d be too terrified to do it. I was very excited beforehand – I thought it would really feel like flying and that the views would be amazing. In the end it was actually a bit of a let-down. It was all over so quickly and the visibility wasn’t all that good either. It certainly wasn’t exciting enough to make me want to have another go.

8

M   The photography was superb, wasn’t it!

F   Well, it was OK, I suppose, but I thought it was a bit clichéd at times, nothing very original. Mind you, you could say the same about the story! So perhaps that was appropriate.

M   Didn’t you like anything about it then? Surely you’d agree that Ray Grant made a pretty good hero?

F   Yes, he was the best bit of it all. He’s really talented, isn’t he!

9 computer chips   10 1981   11 office gossip

12 photocopier   13 email   14 radio station 15 making tea

16 week’s holiday   17 26%   18 workshop

Audioscript

M   Good morning, listeners. What annoys you about the people you work with? Is it the way they suck up to the boss? Or the way they get other people to do things that they should be doing? Today we’re going to be talking about how people feel about their colleagues with Ann Gates, who is head of human resources at Redcom, a large international telecommunications company specialising in the manufacture of computer chips employing nearly 2,000 people in this country alone. So, Ann, how long have you worked for Redcom?

F   For well over twenty years now. I got my first job there in 1981. It was my first job in Personnel and the first task I was given was to conduct a survey into employees’ attitudes to their colleagues. I decided to do a similar survey again this year and it’s been fascinating to see the changes in people’s feelings over this period.

M   So how have things changed?

F   Well, in the past there was a very noticeable difference between the attitudes of men and those of women. For example, women regularly reported that they couldn’t stand office gossip. At least 76 per cent of the women I interviewed said that they tried to avoid colleagues who wasted time on this and they felt their behaviour had a very negative effect on the atmosphere at work. Surprisingly, perhaps, their male colleagues on the other hand were much less likely to be annoyed by this – they expressed particular objections to people jamming the photocopier. 60 per cent of men said that their working life would be considerably improved if they knew the machine would always be in working order whenever they needed to use it.

M   They both sound pretty annoying things. Don’t people still complain about them?

F   Very little, in fact. The most striking thing from the recent survey was that men and women today share the same pet hate, which is that they detest being emailed by colleagues who are sitting at the next desk. They wish they would just speak to them instead! There are still some differences between men and women’s attitudes, though. Men, for example, are much more likely to complain about their colleagues’ choice of radio station. This rarely bothers women who don’t seem to mind what people opt to listen to while they are working. Women are irritated much more by those people who always let everyone else make the tea. They report that they would be much less likely to agree to cover for such people as they see them as fundamentally selfish.

M   How significant do you really think that these complaints are?

F   Actually, I think they are very significant indeed. Unfortunately we didn’t do this with the first survey, but this time round we took the opportunity to ask our interviewees what they would be prepared to do without if they could work somewhere where all their colleagues were sympathetic. Over half of those we questioned said that they would be ready to give up a week’s holiday for this. We were amazed as we know how important time off is for all of us. Rather fewer but still 26 per cent said they would agree to be paid less if it would improve their working environment.

M   So, is Redcom planning to do anything to improve working relationships, given their clear importance to employees?

F   Yes, we take the results very seriously. So much so that we have organised a workshop on employee relationships. All our staff will be obliged to attend it and we hope that it will to some extent make our company a happier working environment.

19 D   20 F   21 A   22 E   23 B

Audioscript

F   The flight home from New Zealand was very enjoyable. We decided to have a stopover in Los Angeles. It was interesting to see it though it’s not really my kind of city. Anyway an amazing thing happened when we were at the airport waiting for our flight home. We were sitting in a café when a woman came up to me and said ‘Are you Jo Stanton?’ I didn’t recognise her at all but she introduced herself and then I remembered her perfectly. We’d been at primary school in London together. I hadn’t seen her since she was eleven, so I don’t feel too bad about not recognising her at once. Don’t know whether to be worried or flattered that she recognised me!

F   We usually just get in the car and set off when we’re ready, going wherever we feel like. That can be quite fun as you never quite know where you’re going to end up. But sometimes I feel I’d prefer to have something arranged in advance so I can look forward to something specific. So, this year, I managed to persuade my husband to book a week in a hotel in Switzerland in advance. We were going to go away as soon as Christmas was over and spend New Year there. I was looking forward to it so much. But when we came to start the car after Christmas, it wouldn’t go. Everywhere was closed and we couldn’t get it repaired. The trains and flights were all booked so we had to cancel. I don’t suppose I’ll ever get him to book in advance again.

M   It was quite hard work so I don’t suppose that everyone would consider it a real holiday, but actually it was one of the best summers I’ve ever spent in my life. It was while I was at university and I was working on an archaeological dig in the north of Scotland. We were excavating an old church and one day we uncovered hidden treasure – some old silver and gold bowls and brooches and other objects that experts decided had probably been hidden in the church when the Vikings invaded.

F   You don’t need to spend a lot of money to have a good time on holiday, do you? But I must admit a bit of luxury can be nice once in a while. My husband hadn’t been very well so we decided to go away somewhere really special that year. We went to a very expensive hotel in Paris. It was in an old palace, I think, and our bedroom was about as big as our whole house. The furniture was antique and beautiful and the bathroom was amazing. We were served breakfast off silver dishes in our room. We went to local restaurants rather than eating in the hotel dining room though – as that looked far too grand and we couldn’t understand half the words on the menu. We’d no money left for souvenirs but we’ve got some great memories.

F   We had a simply brilliant time until it was time to come home. Then when we got to the airport we found that there was a strike by air traffic control staff in one of the countries that we were supposed to be flying over and we were going to have to wait. Nobody could tell us how long we were going to have to wait for. The airport got more and more crowded and it was desperately hot. In the end we had to wait till the next day! I was late back for work and missed an important meeting. And to crown it all, my luggage went to South Africa and I didn’t get it back for another week!

24 C   25 B   26 C   27 B   28 A   29 B   30 C

Audioscript

F   In this week’s edition of Design Today, we are going to be looking at the issue of ethical design. In the studio we have Jeremy Wales, who lectures in ethical design at the International College of Design in London. Jeremy, perhaps you could start by telling us exactly what ethical design is?

M   I suppose the central thing is that it aims to blend the aesthetic with the ethical. There used to be a contrast between what was seen as ‘ethical’ and what was considered ‘design’; now the two are coming together. It’s something that people have talked about for ages but have only recently attempted to put into practice. People are developing craft products from the third world using contemporary approaches to design. The aim is to produce items that are attractive to the sophisticated western market but are developed in accordance with moral and social principles. So poorer societies inspire and benefit but are not exploited.

F   So the ethics bit is concerned with the relationships between rich and poor countries?

M   That’s probably the most publicised element but there are other issues too. For example, ethical design pays much more attention to ecological concerns in the production of goods and to the preservation of the environment. There is also a strong strand within the movement which acts against the designer mentality, promoting unlabelled equivalents which are just as good as and half the price of their labelled versions.

F   It sounds great! Could you give us a specific example of ethical design in practice?

M   Of course. I could tell you about LOSA, for instance. LOSA stands for London South Africa and is proving a very interesting liaison between British based designers and South African craft workers. British designers went out to South Africa to help craft workers adapt what they produced. They used to make what would sell to tourists. But western design experts told them they could earn a lot more by adapting their goods so they became attractive, desirable items and not just souvenirs. They now sell to some major design stores in the UK and will be expanding into other European countries soon. If that goes well, then they’ll start targeting the States.

F   What sorts of changes had to be made to the traditional products?

M   The key word would be simplification. The number of colours used was reduced, for example, and the lines of an object were often made more straightforward. Despite any changes, the items have clearly retained their own distinct Zulu feel.

F   I suppose the key question is: who gains financially from all of this? The western experts or the Africans involved in making the goods?

M   The ethical approach holds here too. The British designers have taken only a small fee each and the rest of the profits are ploughed back into the business. The South African members of the project are involved throughout all the processes and say that it has been an amazing learning process for them. Ideally, there will be no need for the involvement of British designers in the future – all the work will be able to be done locally.

F   Thank you, Jeremy. I’d now like to a turn to another ethical design project, this one taking place in Brazil …