Practice FCE (B2) Listening Test 05 with Answers and Audioscripts

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

Audioscript

1

So, as you may know, some of us went to a music composition workshop last weekend – and it was brilliant! We took part in a range of musical activities, such as composing short pieces in groups inspired by poems the organisers had brought along. They were all musicians in big orchestras, and trying out our ideas with their guidance was such a great experience for us. Their input was amazing. If we’d never tried music composition before, we might have struggled though, as it was still quite hard to pull our ideas together and capture them in music. But our results were good – and it was a great weekend!

2

Kemal:   How was your trip to your grandparents’ place? It’s about four hours away by train, isn’t it?

Lucy:   Well, I’d prepared for it – I had some reading to do for our history project with me!

Kemal:   And it was a really hot day …

Lucy:   Yeah, I was expecting to feel boiling hot, but luckily the windows were all open, so it was bearable. The train left the station late, though, and it crawled along slowly in places, so the journey really dragged.

Kemal:   Right.

Lucy:   Anyway, while I was doing my reading I was also listening to music, and at one point my earphones came out of my phone and the music played really loudly in the carriage! Luckily, no-one complained about the noise!

Kemal:   Great!

3

As you may know, audiences sometimes think actors turn up to a theatre night after night, perform exactly the same play, everyone claps and they go home, and that’s that! Well, if that was true about the job, most actors would give up! We prefer our work to be interesting and take on a wide range of roles to test our skills, rather than doing the same old stuff all the time. I’m currently performing as a character who’s my opposite in every sense and that creates lots of challenges for me. It’s a difficult part of the job as I have to think and behave in a completely unfamiliar way. But it’s absolutely worth it when it all comes together on stage!

4

Mr James:   So what’s this about your homework, Karen?

Karen:   Well, it took me a while to decide what to write about, but I decided on ancient castles in our country, as they’re fascinating. I’ve been looking up lots of stuff on the internet and in encyclopaedias, and have made loads of notes, but now I’ve just got so much information I don’t know how to get it all in order and start writing my essay.

Mr James:   Sounds to me like you’ve been overambitious. You need to limit the topic you’re looking at. Could you do that, do you think?

Karen:   OK, I’ll try. Thanks, Mr James.

5

Martha:   Hi Mum. Just ringing to say what I didn’t manage to meet up with Katie after all. I waited for ages, and I was beginning to feel really annoyed that she was so late. Anyway, I decided to phone her to see if she was on her way – and it turns out I’d actually suggested tomorrow to meet rather than today! So that was really silly. She was at the doctor’s when I got through – she’s hurt her foot, but hopefully she’ll be OK, so we’ve rescheduled for next week instead. Let’s hope we manage to meet up this time!

6

Now listen everyone. As you know, we’re going to try and create some mini-volcanoes here on the sports field today! Now you’ve got your clay volcano shapes that you’ve made, and each one has got a glass container inside, hasn’t it? So now I want you to mix the vinegar I gave you with a large spoonful of soap – you don’t need to be too precise about measuring it – and pour that into the container. Then wrap the baking powder you’ve got in some paper, and put that into the container too. Watch what comes next carefully, but stand back, as the volcano could erupt without much warning. OK, let’s get started.

7

Paul:   Did you enjoy the carnival?

Keeley:   I guess so – although my mum kept saying that it wasn’t like it used to be years ago. But as I can’t really remember, I couldn’t say! It was great to see all those live bands performing – you don’t get that much around here.

Paul:   Yeah, I’ve seen a few of them. And I noticed there were some people playing that used to go to our school. What a brilliant opportunity for them!

Keeley:   Really? I didn’t notice that. But the bands certainly meant lots of people our age attended.

Paul:   It’s quite rare to see them turn up to anything held around here, isn’t it?

Keeley:   That proves the carnival was a success then!

8

Miss Carter:   Michael, the story you submitted for your homework was fantastic! You’re always written some really imaginative stuff, but you must have been very inspired when you sat down to write this latest one.

Michael:   Thanks, Miss. It just seemed to flow through my fingers onto the keyboard, somehow. I almost found it hard to know when to stop!

Miss Carter:   Well, professionals read their work again after a few days, then go back and edit it. That might be something to consider to improve it even more?

Michael:   I know what you mean, but then I sometimes seem to end up questioning my original ideas.

Miss Carter:   Well, you do have to approach writing in a way that suits you …

9 (fashion) designer   10 anxious   11 recycled

12 dragon   13 landscape   14 cartoons   15 abstract

16 nature   17 feathers   18 enthusiasm

Audioscript

Hello, everyone. I want to tell you about an event I attended at the art centre near our town recently – an art day for teenagers! It was fantastic! The whole day was run by a woman called Fiona, who’s well-known as a filmmaker in our town. But she’d also worked previously as a fashion designer, and is a painter in her spare time, so she knew a lot about art.

Usually when I’m faced with new situations, I’m quite self-confident, and find it easy to chat to people. This time, for some reason, I was aware of being anxious as I got to the centre – I guess in case everyone was brilliant at art, and I wasn’t! In fact, though, all the people there were really friendly!

To begin the session, Fiona gave us all a drawing book, so we could record our ideas and do initial drawings. I’d expected it to contain instructions about what we were going to do – and sort of hoped it might have pictures for us to copy! Instead, it turned out the book had lots of different types of recycled paper in it, which I really approved of, as I’m always trying to help look after the environment. It also made me want to get creative!

First, Fiona asked us to decorate the cover of the drawing book. I tried to create something using a photo of myself I’d brought along, but then decided it looked boring, so I ended up decorating it with a dragon – which everyone liked!

Then after we’d done a few drawings in our books, we moved on to doing some painting – but I couldn’t really think what to paint. Fiona saw I needed help, and suggested doing a portrait of the girl next to me. That sounded hard – so, as the centre was out in the country, I decided to do a landscape instead, as it wouldn’t matter so much if it wasn’t very good!

After a while, Fiona suggested we have a break and look at what other people had done. One person had done some animal drawings, which were quite good, and someone else had produced some cartoons, which I thought were the best in the group. I was a bit discouraged after that, but some people said my stuff was good, too, so I kept going!

I soon decided that my painting was looking a bit traditional, and as there were some amazing colourful paints available, I used them to make my work more abstract. With Fiona’s help, I focused on creating something in that style, and the result was fantastic – much better than when I’d started.

After lunch, Fiona proposed a new activity – working together to make a big sculpture from wire and cardboard based on a theme chosen by the group. Fiona had brought along some objects from home, and suggested those as a theme – but we thought it might be too limited. The theme of the sea was also rejected, as we were far from the coast and ideally we wanted our sculpture to reflect our local area. Finally we decided that as we were near the forest, we’d look for objects for the project there. We all agreed this was a task we could tackle.

Anyway, we made an enormous tree sculpture, and then went off to search for objects to decorate it with. I wondered about bringing things like wild flowers to hang in the tree, but Fiona reminded me we weren’t allowed to pick them. Then I noticed people seemed to be collecting leaves, so I started picking up feathers I saw on the ground, which were a great contribution to the sculpture!

It was a wonderful day – and Fiona filmed our work as a souvenir for us! All the people there had real talent, and showed a great commitment to producing art. They were also fun and had loads of enthusiasm, which was the key thing for me. I’ve already booked for the next art day – just being with them was really inspirational!

19 C   20 H   21 A   22 D   23 F

Audioscript

Speaker 1

I haven’t been playing tennis for long, but when I’m on court, I love every minute of it. I always play against my friends, although they’re more experienced than me, so I know I probably won’t win!! That’s never bothered me, though – it’s just the nature of the game. Anyway, I’ve definitely got better since I started, even without putting in much effort! I’ve become a lot sharper at working out strategies in my head, a bit like in a game of chess, when you’re trying to decide what your opponent might do next, or thinking several moves ahead. That’s what keeps me going back for more.

Speaker 2

Tennis is like lots of other sports – if you want to get anywhere, you have to practise. I thought I’d hate that kind of tough discipline, but there’s nothing like the feeling I get when I hit a perfect shot! I’ve already started to achieve that regularly through my training, which is really rewarding, so for me that’s the appeal. I was hoping I’d meet people my age through my tennis club, although they’re mainly older. But I’ve told my friends about it, so hopefully some of them will join up! It can be tricky to fit my training in sometimes, as I go cycling and swim a lot, too – but at least it’s all keeping me fit!

Speaker 3

I’ve always done lots of sport, although I’ve never really gone in for competitions, as I hate the pressure of feeling I’ve got to win. I only really like doing sports for fun! Luckily, my tennis club doesn’t have that atmosphere, so I can just go along after school with a few people and wind down a bit before I go home and start my homework. It’s become a really important part of my day. I sometimes go along to the local gym with my dad, too, to build up my strength – it’s hard work, but there’s a real feeling of satisfaction about that, somehow.

Speaker 4

I love doing individual activities like going to the gym and climbing. What they don’t give me is the opportunity to try and beat an opponent in some way, which I find really motivates me about tennis. If I don’t win a match, I just try and tell myself I wasn’t prepared enough or whatever. I’m not really there with that yet, though, as I still feel really disappointed. Tennis still makes me pretty stressed, too, as it’s hard to keep up my energy levels right to the end of a match. I’m usually exhausted afterwards and go straight to bed! It’s still good fun, though!

Speaker 5

I wasn’t very keen to play tennis when my dad first suggested taking me along to his club. I thought I’d have to practise hard and perform really well, because my friends would all be watching and hoping I’d win, and for me, that’s never really been a reason for doing sport. But since I’ve taken up tennis, it’s occupied a lot of my spare time, to the point where I’ve almost abandoned all the other physical activities I used to do. Mainly this is because I’ve realised they just don’t keep me entertained in the same way as this game does, and I’m sure that feeling will continue!

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   I’m with student Lucy Hughes, talking about her favourite subject – maths! Lucy, some people don’t really enjoy maths, so what first interested you in it?

Lucy:   Well, I didn’t like it much either, at first! I thought doing things like learning multiplication tables were boring, like everyone else. But then my teacher introduced us to something called Fibonacci numbers – a mathematical formula where you add the previous two numbers together to get the next number. And he showed us how the seeds in sunflowers are arranged according to these numbers. I realised then that what we were learning was relevant to things like plants and wildlife. My ‘maths brain’ suddenly woke up – and I was hooked on numbers! I don’t know why it took so long, though – our teachers were always organising maths activity days and things, so I’d been involved in exciting stuff before.

Interviewer:   And your parents like maths, too …

Lucy:   Yes, Mum’s a maths teacher, and Dad does advanced maths training for business people. He believes some people he meets are much better at maths than they claim they are, they just don’t feel very sure of their abilities. They’ve all learnt lots of maths by heart at school, but he thinks they’re just not keen to try and apply it in case they make a mistake.

Interviewer:   So have your parents always helped you with maths?

Lucy:   Yes, and they’ve made it fun, too – even my homework! Usually, though, they try to leave me to get on with that by myself, however hard it is! I’ve learnt a lot that way. But often when we go shopping, for example, they’ll ask me to calculate the change we’ll get – that’s really improved my mental maths. And sometimes Dad organises evening events to promote maths to adults, which I’m hoping to attend when I’m a bit older.

Interviewer:   So can you explain why you love maths?

Lucy:   Well, in my English class recently, we all had to write a poem about a tree. And when we compared them, everyone had written something completely different – but all of us had got the task right. But that’s not the case with a maths problem. You have to find the one correct solution – and that’s what really interests me. I mean, there might be lots of ways of working it out, but it doesn’t matter as long as your answer’s right. And that applies to all the different areas of maths.

Interviewer:   And you recently took part in an international maths competition?

Lucy:   Yes, in my city. I wasn’t at all sure of myself when I arrived, but my teacher told me I had an excellent chance of doing well. So that helped, and by the time I went onto the stage to answer questions, my nerves had disappeared! The other people were really good, though! By the end, I’d actually got quite a high score, but I knew all along I wouldn’t win.

Interviewer:   So what do you think you learnt from the competition?

Lucy:   Well, I was looking forward to being with people who all loved maths, no matter which country they came from – and I wasn’t disappointed! I realised it really didn’t matter if we couldn’t all understand each other perfectly when we were chatting, because when you wrote a maths sum on the board, everyone knew exactly what it meant! It was also fascinating to see how other competitors worked out solutions to maths questions – there were a number of different methods, just as my teacher had told me there’d be.

Interviewer:   And how do you think maths with feature in your life in the future?

Lucy:   Well, at the moment, I just like playing around with it, doing maths puzzles online for example. But eventually I’m hoping to do a physics degree, and I can’t really do that without advanced maths. My mum’s asked if I’d like to become a teacher like her, and I think I’d probably enjoy it, at least initially. I might find just doing maths all day a bit of a narrow focus, though.

Interviewer:   Thanks, Lucy!