Practice FCE (B2) Listening Test 14 with Answers and Audioscripts

1 C   2 B   3 A   4 A

5 C   6 C   7 B   8 B

Audioscripts

1   You switch on the radio and hear this exchange in progress.

P = Presenter     R = Roger

P:   Okay Roger, … Now, this man was born in South Western Australia in 1946. He came to London in the sixties and made a name for himself in the West End before moving into film and television. His stage appearances include ‘Prospero’ in Shakespeare’s ‘Tempest’ and ‘Clive’ in ‘Where did you last see your trousers?’ His first film appearance …

R:   Is it Oliver Fulcher?

P:   Sorry Roger, I can’t give you a point for that. It was in fact Barney Fulcher. Now Muriel, this man …

2   You overhear this man talking about a restaurant.

Well, I hadn’t been to Willard’s for about four years and it came as something of a shock to find the place under new management. It really isn’t the same any more but I suppose you could say it’s changed with the times. After all, it’s still good value … but you do have to wait longer for everything and there isn’t the same selection as before – especially the desserts – but I’d imagine it will remain quite competitive, especially in this part of town.

3   Listen to a woman interviewing a man on a TV chat show.

L = Lucy     R = Roddy

L:   So Roddy … How are you shaping up to life on the outside?

R:   Well, Lucy not all the guys are as lucky as me – I mean, being a celebrity … I get a different deal.

L:   Do you mean with the film they’re making about your life?

R:   Well, yeah, … you see, the day I got out, Sam Beesly, the famous detective writer came up to see me with this contract … yeah for my story … Well, yeah, I suppose if I’d actually killed somebody … they wouldn’t have been so keen to make a movie about my exploits and the bank of England.

4   You are travelling by train when you overhear this exchange.

W = Woman     M = Man

M:   That really is the most incredible coincidence. I mean it must have been … oh … fifty years now. Let’s see. Ah yes, it was the winter of ’47. I distinctly remember your good father playing in the school yard.

W:   So you were his form master that year?

M:   No, no, no arithmetic and geometry … we taught proper subjects in those days …

W:   So, how did you know that I was his daughter?

M:   It’s the shape of your ears … (turning to his friend) his father had them, too … very distinctive ears …

5   Listen to this teacher giving a lesson.

If you open your books to page 62, you will see two contrasting maps of the region. The first one dates back to the 1950’s when this part of the world was underdeveloped and mainly agricultural, but if you now look at the second one, there has been a marked shift in population from the countryside to the cities, accompanied by rapid industrialisation and centralisation of services. So, what effect do you think this has had on the agriculture of this region? Yes, Jaswinda?

6   You hear this announcement being made in a railway station.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is an announcement for all passengers awaiting the arrival of the 7:15 train for London, Victoria. This service is now running about 7 minutes late and will now depart at 7:22 from platform 3 as advertised. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. The late departure from Three Bridges Central was due to the cancellation of a connecting service.

7   You overhear this man answering a telephone in a record shop.

Good morning, Spinster Records … Yes, we do have some discs of ‘Valhalla’ … Ah, but … no, that’s a very new release and it hasn’t reached us yet … but we should be getting it in the next fortnight … Would you like me to reserve a copy for you? … Yes, I know it was advertised on television but the distributor … Well, I’m sorry, too … Well, you’ll just have to do that, won’t you … Goodbye.

8   You are staying in the home of a British family when you hear this exchange between the husband and wife.

M = Man     W = Woman

M:   Morning dear. Did you sleep well?

W:   No, I didn’t, and you know very well why not.

M:   Well, there’s nothing more I can do about it. I’ve already fitted new windows in our room.

W:   Well, you’ll just have to go straight to the source of the trouble.

M:   Look dear, they’re students, they wouldn’t understand.

W:   Well, if you don’t go round there and talk to them, … I will. They’re sending me to an early grave, that’s what they’re doing. And if they think they can have another…

9 shooting stars   10 car

11 insects   12 iron   13 orbit

14 downwards   15 a jet plane

16 hotter and hotter   17 melts

18 reach the ground

Audioscripts

Presenter:   Even if you have never watched the sky at night, you probably know what you would see if you did. The view is best on a night with no moon. You stare upwards into the inky blackness over which are scattered millions of tiny points of light. These, of course, are the stars. Then just as you’re beginning to get bored with this unchanging scene, a tiny white streak of light shoots across the sky. It’s going too fast to be a plane. Then two seconds later you see another one. What you are witnessing is the beginning of a shower of meteors or shooting stars.

To understand what is happening, it helps us to imagine a car driving fast along the road. In a way, our planet Earth is like that car. As it is racing along, it comes towards a large group of insects all flying together just above the road.

Now, not all the insects are hit by the car, but several of them crash into the car’s windscreen with an unpleasant noise. In many ways, the meteors are similar to the swarm of insects, although they aren’t re ally animals. In fact, meteors are mostly tiny pieces of iron that look like little stones.

In a similar way, the Earth is not really moving along a road. But it does follow the same circular route around the sun once every year. This enormous circular path is called the Earth’s ‘orbit’. All the other planets are in orbits like this as well. Now, there are small groups of those stones waiting in certain places along the Earth’s route around the sun. Some of them are fixed in one orbit while others are moving around the sun in their own orbits. Once every year, the Earth’s circular path around the sun takes us through some of these groups of little rocks.

Now, when the earth approaches one of these stones, it is pulled downwards towards our planet by a strong force called gravity. And when the meteor starts to rush towards the ground, a shooting star is born. Normally, as shooting stars fall, they are travelling at speeds of 10 kilometres every second. This is about a hundred times faster than a jet plane. However, before the meteor can reach the Earth, it must go through the air around it – the atmosphere. Now, because it is going through the air so fast, the shooting star starts to become hotter and hotter and the air around it gets very hot too. This is a bit like the head of a match rubbing along the side of a matchbox. Now, very soon the outside of this piece of iron gets very hot indeed and, as a result, it gets soft and melts and then starts to burn. So, as this hot little rock rushes through the atmosphere, it leaves a tail of hot burning metal and flames behind it. This is the bright streak we can see from the ground – 100 kilometres below. Yes, you see, fortunately for us, most meteors are so small that they have completely burned up long before they could ever reach the ground – which is just as well because, otherwise, we would need to carry rather stronger umbrellas!

19 G   20 B   21 E   22 F   23 A

Audioscripts

Speaker 1

We were going up to York to see her relatives … it was quite early in the morning, as I recall. There wasn’t too much traffic on the roads so we were doing a good ninety up the central lane of the M1 – and there were still plenty of other vehicles passing us in the fast lane … and then suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a car in front of us, doing about fifty – it must have moved out from the slow lane to overtake something really slow. Anyway, Jessica saw it first and shouted ‘Look out’ and Sally braked but we still went into the back of it. Luckily, nobody was hurt. But the front of the car was completely smashed in … FADE

Speaker 2

… so I locked my bike and told the guard to keep a good eye on it … it’s still worth quite a lot of money, even now … and then I went to find a seat. We’d started moving by then, which made it more difficult going from carriage to carriage. I went all the way up to the front and then all the way back again and the only seat I could find was in a first class compartment. So, I was just making myself comfortable when the guard appeared. I suppose he could have made much more trouble if he’d wanted to. You see, he’d seen my ticket so he knew it was only for second class … but he was a decent bloke and he just gave me a warning.

Speaker 3

I was already running late when I came out of the door, I got in the car, turned the ignition key and nothing happened. I didn’t have time to look under the bonnet, so I set off on foot to get a train. What I had forgotten was that the trains were on strike. So anyway, after that, I tried for about half an hour to get a number eight bus. Four came past but they were all totally packed, of course. Then I saw Jack going past in his red Capri … but he was in too much of a hurry to see me. So, after that, I tried phoning three different taxi companies, but I was out of luck there – and in the end, I had no choice but to set off on a four-mile march to the office. I arrived two hours late.

Speaker 4

I’d just reached the bottom of Furze Hill and I was really going quite fast when I must have accidentally touched my brakes or something because the next thing … the chain had come off. So, I pulled over and stopped and then tried to put it back on without getting oil all over my hands and my clothes – that wouldn’t go down too well in the office. So, I found this piece of paper, lying beside the road, and used it to hold the chain with and it was only when I’d finished that I noticed that this piece of paper had been a hot-dog wrapper and so I had mustard and ketchup and disgusting greasy stuff all over my hands.

Speaker 5

So there I was sitting looking out of the window and we’d been sitting there for over an hour by then. We’d taxied to the end of the runway and just waited and waited for something to happen. I was getting a bit bored with the few buildings we could see from where we were. I could just make out the road in the distance, with the occasional car or bus. And, it was about then that I suddenly remembered that I’d left the back door unlocked. Of course, I told Bill but we both agreed there was nothing we could do until we got to our destination … and, of course, by then, it was too late.

24 B   25 C   26 A   27 A

28 B   29 A   30 C

Audioscripts

B = Bill   C = Charles   D = Daphne

B:   I’m afraid I can’t serve you another pint if you’re driving home tonight, sir.

C:   I’m not driving, actually. I live just up the road at Draycott farm – you must know it.

B:   The Farm – I know very well … but you, I don’t.

C:   The name’s Charles Miller, and this is my partner Daphne.

B:   What can I get you then, Mrs Miller?

D:   I’ll just have a tonic water – you see we came in my car tonight – oh, and the name’s Jameson, actually.

B:   Oh, so we’re not married. And I suppose you’re living up at the farm, as well. Old Arnie Draycott would’ve liked that.

D:   Well, yes, we moved in last week.

B:   I suppose you know what happened there.

D:   About the suicide you mean? Yes. What a terrible tragedy.

B:   Oh yeah … but I don’t suppose that fancy estate agent of yours told you why he did it.

C:   He did mention something but that’s not really any of our business. Of course, I did actually meet the poor man once – worked there one summer picking strawberries. Mind you, in those days things must have been going quite well.

B:   Well, over the years, I got to know him quite well and what with his money problems and his son getting sick and so many other things … it all got too much for him.

D:   Oh, how ghastly! Poor fellow! What an awful thing to happen.

B:   Yeah, it is … and he would have wanted the farm to go to someone from Willowdale … which you are not. Pardon me for being so frank – but there it is.

C:   So that’s a problem, is it? I suppose you all think that this is just a weekend cottage for us … and that we’ll be disappearing to the city all week and that Draycott farm won’t be a farm any more and …

B:   Steady on. That is what people have been saying … and they’re not very happy.

C:   Well, if that’s what they’ve been saying, they’re all wrong … And, I suppose that explains the broken window.

D:   Look, we’ve just both decided to move to the country … and we really want to live here. Charles is a technical writer and he’ll be working at home from now on … and we have every intention of using the shops and the local services.

C:   That is, of course, if we are welcome.

D:   Charles has a heart condition. He even had an operation last month. So we wanted to get away from the city and make a healthier life.

B:   Like running a farm you mean. It won’t be very easy with a heart condition.

C: Well, that’s where we thought you might be able to help. You see, we were hoping to find somebody who could manage the farm for us, … we’d be willing to pay of course.

B: How much were you thinking you might pay this … er … somebody?

C: Well, we haven’t decided exactly but I should think somewhere in the region of fifteen hundred a month.

B: Well, that is rather generous. I can think of one or two people who would drop everything to work for that sort of money. If I wasn’t working here, I would consider it. You are serious?

C: Absolutely! … It’s what we’ve always wanted.