Practice CAE (C1) Listening Test 05 with Answers and Audioscripts

1 B   2 C   3 B   4 A   5 A   6 C

Audioscript

Extract One

David: Hi, Jeanette. How’s your guitar practice going?

Jeanette: Hi, David. Well, I only started learning to play the guitar about six months ago and I’m making progress, although it doesn’t always feel like that. I have good days and bad days. I wonder if great, famous guitarists have the same problem getting motivated some days. My mum keeps telling me to practise more, so I looked up on the internet what to do to spur myself into action and yes, there’s loads of suggestions. But after a few futile hours browsing, I realised just reading about it wasn’t the solution!

David: Still, I really think playing the guitar’s a great pastime and it’s certainly doing what I hoped it would for me. On my college course we were getting into some really complex work …

Jeanette: Oh, yeah, you’re doing maths, right?

David: … and I was finding it hard to keep focused when I was doing these really long calculations, and I heard that learning a musical instrument can help with that.

Jeanette: And does it?

David: Without a doubt. Some of my classmates were getting a bit anxious about college work and I’ve recommended learning an instrument to them.

Extract Two

Man: Our company’s working on some exciting new initiatives, all connected with roads – for example, making a road surface that contains magnets so that electric cars can be charged as they’re driven along the road. This means electric car drivers won’t have to stop and recharge their cars on long journeys. Personally, I’m involved with harnessing the wind that cars generate as they go along. This can be used to generate the required electricity for street lamps. A different department is looking at painting road markings with special paint that gets energy from the sun during the day and then the road markings light up at night.

Woman: We’ve been having some problems with getting the paint to shine to the same brightness along all the roads. But what interests me is that we can even put solar panels on roads – yes, roads made of glass! But don’t worry, they won’t be slippery. Drivers can still stop quickly, even when travelling at around 125 kilometres an hour. These ‘glass roads’ would also be perfect for countries with cold climates, as they can be used to melt snow and ice. That would be a real bonus!

Extract Three

Woman: I teach sociology and this week I’ve been talking about disagreeing. It’s fascinating because I have students from all corners of the world in my classes and we’ve had some in-depth discussions about who you can express disagreement with and when – you know, what do you do if you’re talking to someone older than you, for example. And actually, that’s all quite straightforward: societies have ‘rules’ for that. But what makes it tricky is that disagreeing stirs up feelings, from anger to embarrassment.

Man: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Like you, as a sociologist I’ve thought about disagreeing from an academic perspective. Interestingly, though, when someone at work disagreed with my proposal to introduce flexitime, I realised there’s a great difference between theory and practice. I almost immediately started steering the conversation to something else. I didn’t do it in a rude way, I just kept redirecting the conversation. Afterwards, I had no idea why I’d done that because I’m sure my colleague and I could have discussed it and come to a practical solution.

Woman: You were probably worried about being in an ‘awkward’ situation with a colleague.

Man: You’re right.

7 historical   8 presentation

9 mental image   10 textures

11 board game   12 balance

13 elegant   14 packaging

Audioscript

Finding inspiration for fabrics to be used in the fashion industry isn’t always easy. If designers go to special design galleries, the chances are that other designers are doing the same thing. I’d like to suggest that looking at everyday objects and activities might result in more imaginative designs.

Over the years, I’ve found watching films is a great source of inspiration for fabric design. However, in my opinion, not all films are suitable. I’ve had little luck with science fiction films, whereas historical films have been invaluable. It must be something about getting away from the contemporary that leads to more original ideas.

I’ve even been known to get inspiration in restaurants. If you really take time to examine the food on your plate, the presentation might give you a brainwave, much more so than the colours, as they are, by definition, limited in food. Even which parts of the plate have no food on them at all is worth analysing because what is left blank, without a pattern, creates certain effects.

I know that listening to music is often suggested as a source of inspiration for writing, but it also works well for me as a fabric designer. I choose the music according to the season the clothes will be worn – you could say I ‘tailor the music’. So I’ll listen to light music for spring, for instance. Then I conjure up what I refer to as a ‘mental image’ of what I’m listening to and turn it into a design.

Going out into the countryside for a walk can be a good starting place for creativity. Of course, the shapes of leaves are interesting, as are the patterns of flowers, but what inspires me most frequently are the various textures found in nature. I’ve also seen fabrics inspired by animals and insects.

I work alongside another designer who always has terrific ideas. I remember him bringing in some tools once that he’d found in a shed! But perhaps the most unexpected was when he used a board game for inspiration. I would never have thought of that!

An easy-to-access source of inspiration is photographs. Often the problem is that there’s too much choice if you think of all the colour and black and white photos that exist. Monochrome photos can be great for getting a feeling for curves and lines because they often appear stronger than in colour shots. But, in general, make sure you look at good quality photos so that the depth of colour is there. Then, assessing the balance of colours can be really useful.

Don’t forget too to look at ‘big ideas’, for example, styles of architecture. Modern architecture usually has simple, clean lines and reminds you of abstract paintings. But I like the Art Deco style for this reason: because it’s what I’d describe as elegant, and that makes it perfect for fashion design.

Designers also have to take into account the garments that the fabric will be used for. Toys may provide inspiration for T-shirts, which can be funny or even show a puzzle that you have to work out. I’ve even seen jackets that have been inspired by packaging and they were spectacular. Look at some of the everyday things you’ve got in your kitchen cupboard – you may get ideas there.

15 B   16 A   17 D   18 A   19 B   20 C

Audioscript

Tutor: Thank you for coming in to see me today. I just wanted to check how you were getting on with your assignments on the Mediterranean diet. Bill?

Bill: Well, it took me quite a while to think through what the term Mediterranean diet means. I know it’s generally thought of as the food eaten in Greece, Italy and Spain, etc., and it’s based on using fresh, seasonal and local produce, but, in fact, there’s quite a lot of misuse of the term in publicity for products that claim to keep you looking younger. I found that confusing. What’s interesting is that, despite big multinational fast food chains emerging in Mediterranean countries, the basics of the Mediterranean diet are still at the heart of most family meals in those regions.

Tutor: True. And many family meals in southern Europe have bread or pasta as the carbohydrate component of the meal, perhaps more so than in some other countries. It goes back to the time when most people had physical jobs and they needed the energy these foods provide. They would then just have a small amount of fish or meat accompanied by salads and vegetables. So you have to take into account that nowadays most of us have jobs that require very little physical activity, so Mediterranean families have adapted their diets accordingly. Kelly, how are you getting on with your assignment?

Kelly: I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been reading a lot about olive oil, how it’s an ancient food. It’s been established that olive trees have been grown since around 3000 BCE and the olives pressed to extract the oil. Personally, I’ve never been very fond of the taste, but I think it may be because I’ve been using olive oil that’s been heat treated during the production process. It’s only pure olive oil that’s never heated, just pressed, that’s the best and apparently it tastes quite different. I guess it’s worth paying a bit more to get good oil. Next, I’m going to read about its health benefits. Is it beneficial for our hearts?

Bill: I read that it was.

Kelly: Right.

Bill: And I think in general following the Mediterranean diet must be good for you; fresh fruit gives you some natural sugar … but it does rely on people sourcing fresh food regularly and preparing meals properly.

Kelly: Absolutely, and not just opening a packet of some pre-prepared meal that’s full of additives. But the thing is, if people don’t get home from work until quite late, they don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen.

Bill: Exactly – getting everything ready and then waiting for it to cook when they’re really hungry! That’s the problem with the Mediterranean diet. Traditionally people ate a wide range of fresh food, often taking hours over lunch, having it at home with family and friends all together. I think that must be a good mood enhancer, and it must make you feel ready to carry on working for the rest of the day. Of course, in summer in Mediterranean countries, it can be quite hot and the midday sun has to be avoided, so people have to find a shaded area if they eat outside, and resting after lunch is a quite practical way to spend the hottest hours of the day.

Kelly: Yes, I wonder if people have different routines in summer and winter. And the recipes people use must be different because different seasonal food’s available; you won’t get local fresh tomatoes in winter in some places, for example. But going back to the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, I’m keen to find out whether it helps mental processes, especially people’s ability to recall things. I think I saw a study by someone in one of the American universities about that. And there was another study in Japan where people of all ages had been asked to follow the Mediterranean diet. I need to read that too.

Tutor: Well, I’m glad you’ve both been looking into the Mediterranean diet from a wide range of perspectives. Well done.

Task One

21 C   22 H   23 E   24 F   25 B

Task Two

26 G   27 F   28 B   29 D   30 H

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Traditional sports like football, tennis and golf are losing fans in their hundreds. Young people are just not getting into them. If you go back 40 years or so, when kids came home from school, they’d go and play football or something locally – often for free as long as they had a ball. But a lot of the pitches have gone, and have been used for housing in many cases. What’s interesting, though, is how in years to come, with new technology, we’ll be able to find out things like the player’s heart rate, calories used, etc., whereas right now, we only know, for example, the speed of a serve in tennis.

Speaker 2

Well, I’m not surprised well-established sports like soccer and baseball are attracting fewer spectators. And to redress this problem, I’m sure sports will be a whole lot more exciting to watch or to take part in very soon. In fact, it’s already happening if you think about the take-up rate for action sports like kiteboarding, snowmobiling and mountaineering. Then there’s e-sports, where people play sports video games. And yes, these are now classified as sports – the element of competition is there, if not the physical exertion! The real explanation why regular sports are less popular is because people spend much more time alone on their computer. Being in a huge crowd at a baseball game’s no longer what people want to do.

Speaker 3

My mum plays badminton at the weekend, but her club’s losing members and I can understand that because I think people have become less bothered about keeping in shape. If you look at the number of hours people spend in front of a computer or TV, it’s obvious. And more of us are becoming spectators rather than players. In my opinion, that’s down to new sports becoming so complicated – for example, these what are called mash-up sports, where two or more sports are blended, like playing frisbee and volleyball! But that’s the way sports are going, I’m convinced of it. And because these sports are new, the rules haven’t really been established yet, so that’s another complication.

Speaker 4

I think traditional sports like cricket and rugby have had their day. And it’s not such a bad thing because when I played rugby at school, quite a few of us got injured. But that’s not the cause of the drop in spectator numbers, or even players. It’s more to do with the fact that now we accept that the word ‘sport’ can refer to many more activities, even individual sports and e-sports too. And with the increase in popularity of e-sports, a natural consequence is that players are more likely to be in their teens than their forties. And this is going to be the trend – a huge change in the demographic of who takes part in or watches sports.

Speaker 5

I can’t stand traditional sports and to me it’s obvious why they’re no longer attracting people. I used to play hockey and, as a team, we were keen and wanted to have a good time playing, but literally every three minutes, the referee would blow her whistle and we’d have to stop because someone had done something wrong, like raised her stick too high. It’s a shame because when I stopped playing, I missed being so fit. The other thing I don’t like is professional sport and the amount players earn. But I think pretty soon, these mad salaries will be have to be cut because young people just don’t want to support that sort of ‘big business’ – we’re more democratic.