Practice FCE (B2) Listening Test 21 with Answers and Audioscripts

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

Audioscripts

1   You hear a student talking about her university course.

I’ve been learning about child development on my college course and it’s interesting to see how my young cousin matches up to the different stages. Every day he’s up to something new and he’s developing in leaps and bounds. Yesterday I turned round and there he was on his own two feet. I can’t wait to hear him utter his first words, as we’ve gone into that in detail – it’s fascinating. I’m looking forward to putting what I’ve studied into action – that’s if I’m lucky enough to find a job in the childcare field after my degree, and of course, if I’m still into the whole thing by that point!

2   You hear a conversation between a customer and a florist.

A:   Can I help you?

B:   Yes, I’d like to buy some flowers for my mother’s birthday.

A:   Did you have anything particular in mind? We’ve got some tropical bouquets which are rather distinctive.

B:   They’re beautiful! And a little over my budget, I’m afraid. I think she’d prefer something a bit more traditional. I’ve been looking into roses, which she likes growing. Perhaps she’d like a variety she’s less familiar with.

A:   Let me think … I’m expecting a delivery this afternoon of a new hybrid rose. It’s been a winner with our customers so far. Why don’t you pop back in about an hour’s time and I’ll show you?

B:   Sounds perfect.

3   You hear two students discussing their maths class.

A:   How did you get on in maths today? I struggled with that new formula. I just couldn’t get my head round it.

B:   I’m with you there. Have you seen that new maths app? It’s pretty cool – you just download whatever you want to do more practice on, on your mobile.

A:   Doesn’t help you grasp the concept though, does it? I mean if it’s just practice activities?

B:   You’ve got a point – but don’t you think that if you keep doing it, you’ll eventually get it?

A:   I could give it a try. I’d rather ask the teacher to go over it again, though.

B:   Well, yes – if it makes you feel more confident.

4   You hear a weather forecast on the radio.

As the day proceeds, we’ll see storm clouds building up here on the west coast, moving gradually across the country and bringing temperatures down to well below the seasonal average. Scattered showers over on the west coast will die down during late afternoon. The east coast can expect to get the worst of the bad weather, with very heavy storms hitting during the late evening and in the early part of the night, though the south coast won’t escape this entirely; we’re forecasting gale-force winds in some areas …

5   You hear a woman leaving a message for a plumber.

This is a message for John, the plumber. I’ve got a bit of a leak coming through the kitchen ceiling but I can’t seem to track it down. I’m not sure whether it’s coming from the bathroom or somewhere else. You’ve already sorted out that problem with the taps, so I wondered if you might be able to call in at your convenience and check this for me as well. I’m working late this evening but the weekend’s fine. In the meantime, I’ll have another look into it and see if I can work out where the water’s coming from. Can you call me back on this number? Thanks.

6   You hear a man talking about his travel plans.

The sales training session was supposed to be taking place on Thursday afternoon, in which case I could have caught the 10 a.m. train into London. But plans have changed, so I’m thinking of travelling down the day before – it’s going to be a nine o’clock start now and there’s no way I can get there for that time from where I live. So, I was wondering whether you might be able to put me up for the night since you don’t live far from the conference centre. If it isn’t convenient, don’t worry about it – I can easily make alternative arrangements. Either way, I hope to see you soon.

7   You hear two friends talking about the football team they support.

A:   Good match, despite the result.

B:   Do you think so? We’ve played better. Good job our goalkeeper was on the mark.

A:   He’s been doing an impressive job this season. As have the rest of the team.

B:   Pity we can’t say the same for the referee. He’s supposed to be impartial, but I’m sure he was favouring our opponents.

A:   Oh, I don’t think so! You’re just fed up ‘cause it was a draw. We’ll make it up next time, wait and see.

B:   I wish I shared your enthusiasm. We’ve got a long way to go if we want to win the championship. Though it’s not beyond us, I guess.

8   You hear part of an interview with a student who wants to become a volunteer.

A:   So, you want to become a student buddy – helping new students settle in to university life?

B:   Yes. When I started at this university as a first-year student myself, I remember feeling a bit disorientated during the first few weeks – I wasn’t sure where to find things or who to approach about general student life. I remember feeling really grateful that I could go to the buddies about these things. I guess I feel it’s my turn to give something back. I like to think I’m a pretty approachable person and I know the university like the back of my hand – why not help others feel at home?

9 two   10 experience

11 advertising   12 active

13 education   14 links

15 shipping malls   16 exhausting

17 government   18 June

Audioscripts

Thank you for coming to hear my talk about Museums for All. My name’s James Edwards and I’m director of the association. Let me start by telling you what the association is. As the name suggests, it’s a sort of club with all the museums in the country as members. Although museums themselves have been around for hundreds of years, our part in this is relatively new – two years ago a group of major museums came together and started the association – but we’re already making big changes.

So, what’s our task? Since the association was formed, we’ve been putting in a great deal of effort to alter the experience people have of visiting museums. For decades, museums have been seen as stuffy, boring places, but in the next few years we aim to have transformed this belief – and we’ve got plenty of ideas about how to do this!

My own background isn’t actually in this field. As a university graduate, I worked for a marketing firm and made the switch to advertising a few years later. It was while I was working for a large agency in this area that I was approached and asked to think about becoming director of Museums for All. I hope my experience will enable me to apply a fresh point of view.

At Museums for All, we believe we have to publicise museums more effectively as far as attracting visitors is concerned. The age-old way of running a museum has been too passive in this respect, which is why we’re committed to being more active in that sense.

I can quite understand why traditional museums are the way they are – it’s all to do with the history of museums, and the whole way of thinking about museums in the past, when they were mainly for people with high levels of education. All that has changed, but people in general still don’t feel very much at home in museums. We’re working on ways to change that.

The best way to encourage interest in museums, I think, is to get children into the idea from an early age. Ideally, I’d like to see close links between museums and schools in the area, so the children can feel that the museum belongs to them It’s important that we reach out to the community and connect with them in this way.

Many people find museums a little threatening – they’re often silent places in dark old buildings. We want museums to be much more friendly places, much like shopping malls are – with things like cafés and gift shops. We envisage museums with a central area and wings or corridors leading off that area towards the exhibitions and other facilities. That would allow people to return to the central area after wandering around for as long as they want.

A trip to a large museum can leave people feeling overwhelmed. There’s so much to see that visitors don’t know where to begin. At Museums for All, we think that we can make a museum visit a far less exhausting experience, which for some people, is the case. By changing their appearance and improving visitor flow, we think people will come to enjoy the experience much more than they ever have.

Rebuilding museums, however, is rather expensive, but they are really important: investing in museums is investing in the future of the country, just like investing in other services for the community – and the government has to realise that.

We certainly have a huge challenge ahead of us in the next few months, but I feel very optimistic about what we have to do. I’m sure we’ll see more and more people visiting museums in the near future through our programme of planned cultural events. Next year in June, we’re organising a Museum Festival, which is intended to attract people who wouldn’t normally go to museums. I’m convinced it will be a huge success. I think that’s really all we’ve got time for right now, but are there any questions?

19 A   20 E   21 H   22 C   23 F

Audioscripts

Speaker 1

Our History Society organised a trip to Kent, where we spent a fortnight digging up some Roman remains. I didn’t know a thing about archaeology before, but that summer I really got interested in the subject, and the dig was fantastic. I got to know two girls and we’ve become really close since then. I also fell in love with Kent – that’s what I call a great trip. I’m now pretty busy making preparations for another trip – this time to Egypt! It’ll be my first solo trip to join a professional team out there and I can’t wait to go. I’ve even learned some Arabic phrases!

Speaker 2

One year our geography teacher organised a ski trip to the French Alps. It was great! None of us had been skiing before, and I don’t think any of us had seen such wonderful scenery before, either. I thought later that if we’d learnt some of the basics about skiing before we went, it would have helped a lot, because the first week we were basically stuck in the ski school and couldn’t go out on the slopes by ourselves. But in spite of all that, it was still a really good trip.

Speaker 3

Our school had a cottage in the Lake District, where some of us went for weekends during the summer. I was about 14 when I went for the first time. It was quite nice, really, but we were a bit disappointed because we didn’t realise we’d have to go walking round the mountains all day. We wanted to have more time to ourselves, just to go and look round the lakes, but of course looking back, I can see why the teachers had to supervise us closely and make sure we kept safe.

Speaker 4

One summer our Spanish teacher organised a trip to Spain, which was fascinating! She knew all about the history of the country, and she’d prepared a very good programme of sightseeing tours. She’d taught us some good communicative language – though we didn’t use it much. The area we stayed in was great – there was tons of stuff to do. The teacher gave us lots of time to explore on our own as well – the only downside was that the trip didn’t go on long enough! My friends and I were really sad to come home. Hopefully I can convince my parents to take me back on holiday there this year!

Speaker 5

Our English teacher also taught drama, and he was really keen on us seeing as much live theatre as we could. One of my most memorable experiences was going to London to see Hamlet at the National Theatre. We stayed overnight in a youth hostel. I was about 15, and I’d never been to London before, so it was really exciting for me. We must have had a big discount at the theatre and the youth hostel, because I remember the whole thing only cost £35, which was pretty cheap.

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

Audioscripts

Interviewer:   This evening on Young and Gifted I am joined in the studio by Julia Emerson, the young Scottish writer who’s recently had a screenplay accepted by a major Hollywood studio. Julia, I’m glad you could be with us today. Could I start by asking you to explain exactly why what you’ve done is so unusual?

Julia Emerson:   Well, Hollywood films these days don’t start off with a screenplay. The screenplay only gets written after the producers have come up with an idea for a film. Then they contact agents to find at least one major star who will act in it. The next step is to get a team of anything up to 20 writers working on the screenplay. Now, I was inexperienced enough to think that I could simply write a screenplay and send it to a number of studios. Which is what I did. When I didn’t get an answer, I wrote another one. And this time, by some amazing chance, they accepted it!

Interviewer:   I think everyone has been stunned by the fact that you’ve been successful with a screenplay at such an early age. But in fact, this isn’t the first piece of writing you’ve had published, is it?

Julia Emerson:   No, it isn’t. I won a short-story competition in a magazine when I was 15, and ever since then I’ve been writing in my spare time. I’ve had a number of articles published in teen magazines. I’ve always been fascinated by television and the cinema, and I even tried to develop an idea for a TV series, but somehow it didn’t feel right. Then I tried putting down an idea for a film, and the writing just flowed.

Interviewer:   Do you think you’re influenced very strongly by films you’ve seen?

Julia Emerson:   Yes, but I have to watch out, or I might end up writing a slightly different version of a classic! I suppose everyone who does anything creative has to think about that, though.

Interviewer:   Can you tell us something about this screenplay that’s been bought by Planet Studios. What’s it about?

Julia Emerson:   It’s about two sisters, who are stranded in the jungles of South America after becoming separated from the rest of their tour group. They have all sorts of adventures as they try to get back to civilisation. It’s an adventure story, but it’s also about the relationship between the two girls. You see, they’ve never been very close – in fact, at the start of the story they really hate each other. Or at least, they think they do.

Interviewer:   How much of the story is based on your own experience?

Julia Emerson:   Since I don’t have any brothers or sisters, in one way it’s clearly not based on my experience! But on the other hand, I have experienced how the feelings we have for our family can go through different stages and transformations, which is the real theme of the story.

Interviewer:   And when am I going to be able to see this film in the local cinema?

Julia Emerson:   I’ve got no idea! The studio has paid for the right to use the screenplay, and they have that right – it’s called an option – for another six months. They might make the film in that time, or they might buy the option again for another couple of years. It’s all out of my hands, in fact. So I try not to get too excited about seeing the story on the big screen one day, because I have no way of knowing when that might be.

Interviewer:   I hope it’s soon, anyway. Julia Emerson, thanks for talking to us. It’s been a pleasure.

Julia Emerson:   Thank you.