Practice FCE (B2) Listening Test 22 with Answers and Audioscripts

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

Audioscripts

1   You hear a physiotherapist talking to a patient.

Well, Mr Saunders, we have to take this lower back pain of yours seriously. You’ll need to get an orthopaedic mattress, and a chair for your desk that supports your back – and I’ll be showing you how to stand properly. Now, for the first exercise, get down on the floor, look straight up at the ceiling, arms by your sides, and lift each foot as high as you can. That’s great, I’d like you to repeat that four times, three times a day. Now I’ll show you the second exercise.

2   You hear a woman phoning an Indian restaurant to order a takeaway meal.

A:   Hello?

B:   Good evening, Taj Mahal restaurant.

A:   Oh, good evening, I’d like to order a takeaway.

B:   Certainly. What would you like?

A:   I’d like a Madras curry with beef, a hot lamb curry and a mild chicken curry, your special Oh, and three portions of rice.

B:   Did you know the chicken curry is with rice?

A:   Oh, I see. Better make that just two portions of rice. Thanks.

B:   And would you like anything else with it?

A:   No. That’s all, thank you.

B:   And where would you like it delivered to?

A:   11 Grant Street, Hitchworth Common, Dryswold …

3   You hear a woman in an art gallery talking about a painting.

It’s incredible how he makes the whole scene come to life. I think this is a perfect example of Impressionism at its best. The colours are so lively, so exciting, and you really have the sense that you know how he felt when he painted it. This is one of his later works, right at the end of the real Impressionists. In fact, art historians generally say the end of the Impressionist movement was 1886, and this was actually painted two years later. But it clearly belongs with the Impressionists …

4   You hear a man giving directions to a football ground.

The football ground? Now let me see – probably the quickest way to get there is to go along this road until you come to a big supermarket on the left, and you turn right just opposite it. That brings you into Oldham Street, and you go straight on. You come to some traffic lights just after a park on the right – you keep on going, and then you take the third turning on your left – at a cinema called the Majestic, you can’t miss it – and the football ground’s on the right.

5   You hear two colleagues talking about a character one has invented.

A:   All right, Bill, so you’ve come up with a new cartoon character. What’s his name?

B:   Crazy Conrad. Do you think it sounds good?

A:   Well, not bad. And Conrad’s a horse, right?

B:   No, you’re holding it upside down. He’s a baby elephant.

A:   Oh, sorry. Yes, now that I look more closely I can see what you mean. It’s got bigger ears than a horse and it’s got a trunk. Yes, of course it’s not a horse.

B:   He was originally going to be a bear, but then I changed my mind.

A:   Why was that?

B:   I’m not sure, really, I just thought it wouldn’t be as funny, somehow.

6   You hear a woman talking to a policeman at a police station.

Oh officer, I do hope you can help me. I never thought this would happen to me! Well, I suppose you never do expect these things, do you? Anyway, I didn’t notice anything, though someone must have put their hand in my bag. They didn’t take the camera, just my purse. The camera’s quite expensive, in fact, so I suppose I’m lucky they ignored that! And I thought I was being so careful about the bag, you know, always keeping it closed and where I can see it. So it must have happened in a flash, maybe when I was getting off the bus.

7   You hear a radio announcement about traffic.

And now for our traffic bulletin. The police have issued a warning about long delays on the M63 heading south, between junctions 15 and 16, caused by an accident involving three cars on the A36, just before junction 15, where the A36 and the B636 intersect. The incident on the A36 has produced a long tailback. Delays are expected for the next three or four hours while rescue services clear the road, and police are advising motorists to avoid the area if at all possible. And on the railways …

8   You hear a woman talking about a slimming diet.

My mother’s been doing this fruit diet, you know where you’re supposed to eat only fruit for ten days as a way of losing weight. What she doesn’t seem to understand is that if she eventually manages to lose a few pounds, it’ll be because she’s eating less, rather than because of eating nothing but fruit. It won’t do her any harm, of course, but it’s quite funny, really. I mean there’s no scientific basis for it, in my opinion. At least it’s only for ten days, and then she’ll be back to her usual diet, which I think is quite healthy and varied.

9 headteacher   10 60,000 / sixty thousand

11 50,000 / fifty thousand   12 writing

13 all day   14 cultural

15 imaginative   16 optimistic

17 (the) government / governments

18 second / 2nd

Audioscripts

Hello, my name’s Jane Robertson, and I’m here to talk to you about a language you may not have heard much about before: Gaelic. I work at a Gaelic school in Scotland – I’m the headteacher, in fact. There aren’t very many of these schools at the moment, so I’m lucky to have such an interesting job.

Maybe I should start by explaining exactly what Gaelic is. It’s a very old language that was spoken in most of Scotland, outside the cities, up to a couple of hundred years ago.

Today, unfortunately, very few people speak or even understand the language – only about 60,000 in the whole of Scotland. Now you may think that sounds like rather a large number of people, but the total population of Scotland is over 5 million. So you can see that the number of Gaelic speakers form a relatively small proportion of the population as a whole.

And according to experts, a language is dead if fewer than 50,000 people speak it. You see, you have to have a large number of people using the language in everyday situations, not just linguists or people who learn it as a hobby. It needs to be a normal part of a lot of ordinary people’s lives, or it simply doesn’t qualify.

So our aim is to get as many people as possible interested in learning it. And young people – those under 25 – are particularly important. I would like to see a third of them speaking and writing the language – then we could begin to say it was in a healthy state.

At my school all the teaching is in Gaelic, whatever subject the children are learning. This is very important, because it has been discovered that very young children learn a language best if they are completely exposed to it – hearing and speaking the language all day. Of course, it’s a bit of a shock for them at first, but we have some wonderful teachers, and they’re trained to cope with that!

Quite a lot of parents send their children to our school because they want their children to know about the history of the country – cultural reasons like that. But of course it’s also well known that it’s good for a child to grow up speaking two languages perfectly. And in fact, these children grow up to be bilingual. This gives them many advantages. It’s been scientifically proven that bilingual children do better at tests, and there’s reliable evidence that they’re also more tolerant and imaginative. In this case, an added advantage is that children of Scottish origin are rediscovering Scotland’s mother tongue.

Many people feel pessimistic about the future of Gaelic, and I can see why, when you look at the figures, it could appear that there’s little hope. But I myself am extremely optimistic.

In fact, when it comes to situations like this, there’s an example which is encouraging, and it’s quite close to home. Not that long ago, the Welsh language was in real danger of dying out. Some children may have grandparents who speak it as a first language, but in many parts of Wales it’s rare for kids to grow up speaking Welsh instead of English at home. However, with a lot of effort it’s been possible to save the Welsh language. The important thing is to have government support and enough money available. In Wales, virtually 80% of children now learn Welsh as a second language at school. It’s been a real success story and I hope that we’ll eventually be able to do the same in Scotland …

19 D   20 F   21 H   22 C   23 B

Audioscripts

Speaker 1

My event is the 100-metres sprint. Athletes never stay in the sport for very long in this kind of event; you just burn up too quickly. It may seem a bit cynical, but I think you have to see it as a way to get your name famous, get some good income from sponsors and advertising, and then put that money into a business – a shop selling sports equipment or a luxury sports club, for example – so it’ll take care of you in ten or 15 years’ time, when you can’t compete any more.

Speaker 2

Archery isn’t a very well-known sport, but it is an Olympic event. I actually started by complete accident, when a friend of mine wanted to go to an archery club, and I said I’d go along just out of curiosity. But now I’m really hooked. Last month I won a regional contest here in Cornwall, and I have my eye on the national championships later this year. Winning it would just be amazing, even if I never become famous; just the feeling that nobody can beat me is exciting enough.

Speaker 3

Like most athletes, I started at school. We had a really good gym teacher who encouraged everyone to try all the track and field events to find which we were good at. Well, it turned out that I was good at the high jump, and now I’m going to compete in my first international event in the summer. To be honest, I haven’t thought beyond that; it’s always been my biggest dream to compete at international level for Australia. I know I’m going to be terribly nervous, but it’s definitely worth it.

Speaker 4

Ever since I was about ten years old, I knew I wanted to be a professional footballer. I suppose it was partly because both my elder brothers were really good at school – they were always among the best in their class at maths and things – and I wasn’t. My little sister was also getting loads of praise from her teachers, even though she was only little. So I wanted my mum and dad to see I was good at something, at least. Of course, as I got older that part of it became less important, and I found myself loving the game itself.

Speaker 5

Show jumping is as much a social activity as a sport, you know, and in this part of the country lots of people have horses. It’s something people spend a lot of money on and it takes up most of their free time. In fact, most of my friends are interested in things like show jumping or pony clubs. We meet almost every weekend, except in the middle of winter. That’s how I started, although there’s an awful lot of hard work involved if you get more serious about competing at higher levels. But it’s still loads of fun!

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

Audioscripts

Interviewer:   This is Kate Green with another edition of Wild Ones, the programme about extreme sports. My guest on today’s programme is Sam Hall, a mountain climber. Sam, thanks for being with us today. Now, I’d like to start by asking you how you became interested in such a dangerous sport.

Sam Hall:   Well, first I’d like to point out that climbing isn’t a dangerous sport, as long as you take it seriously and don’t get too excited. Almost all the people who have accidents are badly prepared, you see, and this gives the sports a bad name, which isn’t really fair.

Interviewer:   Is the excitement part of the reason why you are so keen on climbing?

Sam Hall:   Only a small part of the reason, if I try to analyse it. The sense of achievement is more important, I suppose. But the main thing is the sensation of being so close to nature, though perhaps that’s not the right way to put it …

Interviewer:   I suppose you get a view of mountains that nobody else really sees?

Sam Hall:   Yes, that’s very true. But at the same time, if I was dropped on the top of a mountain by helicopter, it wouldn’t be the same. Less tiring, maybe, but not the same! It’s knowing that you’ve covered the distance to the top yourself, fighting every inch of the way. That’s what makes you feel so pleased with yourself when you get to the summit.

Interviewer:   Have you always been keen on climbing?

Sam Hall:   Ever since I was about 12, when my parents took me on a holiday to the Lake District, and we went walking almost every day. Suddenly, it hit me that I was completely myself when I was in the hills and mountains, and I knew for certain that’s what I wanted to do. I think perhaps everyone has a moment like that in childhood, thought whether you can do anything about it later in life is a different matter.

Interviewer:   How did your parents feel when it became clear that you were hooked on the sport?

Sam Hall:   Oh! Very anxious that I should get the proper training and experience, but they’ve never tried to put me off. They were able to support me financially, which was useful. I’m not sure that it’s exactly what they would have chosen for my occupation in life, but they’ve never said anything.

Interviewer:   I’d like to ask you about your last climb, in Peru. It was quite an adventure, wasn’t it?

Sam Hall:   Definitely. You see, there’s a mountain there called Siula Grande, and nobody had ever climbed the west face. So there I was, with an old friend called Tony Gold. We’d done lots of climbs before, so I suppose we felt fairly sure of ourselves. Which, as any experienced climber will tell you, is naturally when it can get dangerous; you make mistakes when you feel confident that you can do it.

Interviewer:   And what exactly happened to you?

Sam Hall:   We got lost in a storm and had to spend 14 hours longer than we had planned on the mountain. Actually, in the circumstance we were fortunate: it could have been a great deal worse. We were told later that storms in that region can last for as much as a week at that time of the year. But while we were there in sub-zero temperatures, wondering if anyone would ever find us, that’s certainly not how it felt!

Interviewer:   Well, I’m sure we’re all delighted that your adventure turned out happily in the end. Thanks for joining us, and carry on climbing!

Sam Hall:   Thank you – I will!