Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #04

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

Audioscript

1

I think we really have to encourage young girls to get involved in women’s football, to show them it’s a great sport and there are opportunities to play on the world stage, things like the women’s World Cup, things like the Olympic Games. That’s what inspires young kids to do things. They get to see role models and they get to see opportunities for them to perform, you know, in front of huge audiences. So, I think if we want this sport to develop, this is the message we have to get across.

2

This model from Vango’s impressive range is one of those bags that you can use quite happily on long walking trips. It has well-made, comfortable straps, large side pockets and, as on their bigger bags, there is a removable rain cover – very useful in this changeable climate. Interestingly, they’ve added an internal pocket for a water flask and a key clip, both of which make this bag excellent value compared to other models available.

3

Well, it’s an amazing film. They got all the details right, well, almost. They certainly give you a good idea of just how enormous these creatures were, they make you feel really tiny … and the way they move is so believable … Having said that, I feel there should have been more research into the scenic effects, you need to know what their environment was like, the kinds of plants these giants were eating … What they had was some kind of strange landscape … But, when it came to the noises that these beasts would have made, you were left in no doubt, a lot of effort had gone into making them terrifyingly realistic …

4

Woman:   We ought to take some exercise, you know.

Man:   Well, there’s probably something in that, but I resent constantly being told by the media that I’m not active enough.

Woman:   Well, doctors want people to take that message on board too.

Man:   So people join a gym, spend a fortune on fitness videos, then within a few weeks get fed up with it, so it’s money down the drain.

Woman:   Some people manage to keep it up.

Man:   Yes, and then they start overdoing it, so that it rules their life.

Woman:   I don’t think there’s much danger of that in your case.

5

Hi, glad I caught you in. I’m phoning from my mobile, and guess where I am now? … Yeah, can you hear the waves? Tell you what, we can both do the shopping together this evening if you like, it won’t take long. How about coming to join me for a couple of hours first? … No, I’ve got enough cash, I went past the bank this morning, but if you need some, get it on your way here. OK, so is that settled then? See you soon, I promise you won’t regret it!

6

Woman:   How did it go then?

Man:   Well, I didn’t say what I wanted immediately. First we talked about the difficulty of the course and how much pressure it puts on students and so on. I mean last month I had to ask for an extension on both my assignments.

Woman:   Mmm. I did too. You’re not alone there. And?

Man:   I finally got to the point saying I’d lost my part-time job and had money problems. She mentioned that there were special grants for those having difficulty with the costs. So I got an application form to fill in and if they accept that, it’ll cover the fees for the next six months, so problem solved.

Woman:   Great.

7

The best way to learn how to paint is out in the open, with a teacher giving you guidance. Sitting on a stool and painting, you forget about everything else. I thought it would be demanding, and it was, although I wasn’t trying to become a professional. Choosing and mixing the colours, trying to create perfect clouds … I was amazed when people passed by and peered over my shoulder and said, ‘I wish I could do that!’ Seeing artists at work had always fascinated me, but at school a teacher’s report had said: ‘Peter has no feeling for art or design.’ Then at last I knew she’d been wrong.

8

It’s sometimes hard to deal with a difficult situation on your own. Having the support of someone else can make all the difference and we should recognise that getting the aid of a friend or relative is a strength and not a weakness. So often we are led to believe that sharing our challenges is a sign of failure. This simply isn’t true. The most successful people are those who know how and when to ask for help so don’t battle on with things on your own if you don’t need to. Here are a few tips on how to …

9 composer   10 concert halls / concerts

11 9500 / nine and a half thousand / nine thousand five hundred

12 contacts   13 mending   14 wood

15 school / schoolroom   16 (small) museum

17 heating (bill(s))   18 dry

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Good evening and welcome to the programme where, as you know, we go out and talk to people who run their own companies. Today, we’re talking to Richard Porter, who makes large concert organs as a profession. Richard, tell us, just how did you get into this area of work?

Richard:   Well, I play the piano and, as a child, I had a good teacher who wrote her own music, and I always wanted to be a composer too. However, my parents persuaded me that what I needed to do was go to college and study how to make musical instruments, rather than play them, because they saw more of a future in that. And now, I make the organs which are played in churches and concert halls all around the world. The one thing that I never intended to do was become a businessman, which is what I am now really, as well as being an instrument maker.

Interviewer:   So, when did you start making organs?

Richard:   About five years ago. I started from a room in my house, but now I have my own workshop.

Interviewer:   So, it must pay.

Richard:   Well, an organ sells at £9500, which means around £3500 profit for me I suppose.

Interviewer:   And how long does it take to build one?

Richard:   It might take me three months to complete one, and when I say three months, I mean three months of working seventy hours a week. Although that sounds a lot, I have to say I don’t mind because I love the work and I get to meet lots of interesting people. Most of my commissions are from overseas clients and they’re nearly all the result of personal contacts. I rarely use advertising these days.

Interviewer:   So, you make a living out of it?

Richard:   Not really. The most profitable part of my business is actually mending organs, generally old large ones so they can be used for concerts and recording sessions. That can earn me up to £300 each time. Which is just as well, because I do need to have money available to buy the raw materials for the larger organs. There’s a lot of investment to make before I can start to build. I get the wood from Britain, but most of the other components come from France or Germany.

Interviewer:   And I understand you’ve made a big decision recently?

Richard:   Yes. I’ve decided to take the opportunity to move my workshop to a former schoolroom that has become available in Lincolnshire, about a hundred miles away.

Interviewer:   So, you’re moving house as well?

Richard:   Yes. We’re moving there in three months’ time.

Interviewer:   Tell me about the new workshop.

Richard:   It is a lovely old building attached to the Town Hall in a small market town. In return for using the workshop, I’ve agreed to spend forty days a year working as a museum attendant. There’s a small museum in the town that has visiting exhibitions, but is only open on certain days in the year.

Interviewer:   And is that something you’re looking forward to?

Richard:   Not really, but it means that I save around £4000 a year because apart from paying the heating bill the workshop is rent free. That’s the great thing about the place. It’s also very close to our new house, so I’ll have the luxury of walking to work each morning, which is nice.

Interviewer:   Is it easy to find a building that is suitable as a workshop?

Richard:   No it isn’t. It’s very easy for the instruments to get damaged so the environment must be dry. None of the buildings I’ve worked in so far have been dry enough. The new workshop is perfect in that respect.

Interviewer:   Oh right. Well, best of luck to you in that new project. Now, I think you’re going to play us a piece on an organ which you built yourself …

19 C   20 E   21 A   22 F   23 D

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Woman:   This was my first bike ride across the really difficult ground. When you ride at speed on rough tracks, it’s hard to find an easy riding position, and as a result you get an unpleasant stiffness in your back. You can stand up on the bike, and that sometimes helps. But it didn’t with me. On the contrary, I found myself flying over the handle bars a couple of times, landing on soft grass, luckily. If the bike had been damaged I’d have stopped then and there, but it was OK. I carried on to the end but the slight pain in my back didn’t get any better.

Speaker 2

Man:   We cycled through towns and also through remote areas, and everything was fine until I came to a hilly bit. I knew I had an advantage here, because I’m good at speeding up slopes. No aching muscles for me! But at some point during the climb, I noticed one of the wheels needed adjusting. I’d been told before the start that there’d be a support team, so even if your bike broke down they’d be there to help you immediately. Well, they certainly weren’t capable of running things properly because I had to wait far too long, and so was one of the last competitors to reach the finishing line.

Speaker 3

Man:   I’d been involved in all the planning stages of the race, and so it seemed a good idea to take part. However, halfway through, I realised my best option was to turn back. I hadn’t done enough training. In a race like that, you need to keep a regular speed, even when you are going up what looks like a mountainside. If you are not fit enough, your leg muscles may seem to refuse to keep on pedalling hard! I saw other riders speeding past me – I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, I thought, this is silly, I may end up with a torn muscle, so that was that.

Speaker 4

Woman:   Well, I think I was just plain unlucky. I came up this village road and there were all these cars moving slowly uphill. There had been an accident or something. Anyway, it was impossible to overtake them, on such a narrow path, so they slowed me down. I’m content with what I’ve achieved, although I didn’t win any of the prizes. Basically, I managed all the difficult bits of the race, and I know that if it hadn’t been for that problem, I would have had a good chance of winning. Also my bike was great, I’d had it repaired recently and wasn’t sure it would stand this test.

Speaker 5

Man:   I have lots of cycling experience, but I knew this was going to be a long race, and your muscles can get very tired and strained. But I was ready for the challenge, after months of weightlifting to increase my strength. In fact, I could almost say I overdid it, because I developed an elbow problem a couple of months before the race, which fortunately was not serious. But I certainly wasn’t expecting my bike to give my any trouble! But that’s what happened, unfortunately. I had started the race feeling fitter than ever, so it was all the more disappointing that it had to end like this.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Today, in our series about celebrity families, the TV presenter Tanya Edwards talks about her first job and also about her daughter, Maddy, a pop star and model. Tanya, your first job was in children’s television, wasn’t it?

Tanya:   When I was asked to audition for a job presenting on children’s television, I didn’t want to do the job at all. I’d always wanted to be an actress, and had done a lot of acting at college. In fact, it was the closest thing to acting that I could possibly have chosen, because it was presenting a live programme – so having been on stage in college productions came in handy. In those days, we didn’t have talkback – you know, that’s where you have a little gadget stuck in your ear, and you can hear the producer talking to you – so we had to rely on signals from the floor manager … which worked fine.

Interviewer:   You had an extraordinary boss, didn’t you?

Tanya:   Yes. Paul Broadly. He was a very well-respected programme editor. He taught me so much. He seemed quite old to me when I started – he was a grandfather – but he had this way of understanding what children could enjoy watching. He was absolutely determined to produce the best children’s television – whether it was something about wildlife on safari, or how to make a chocolate cake. He was devoted to the programme, completely single-minded about it, and expected us to feel exactly the same.

Interviewer:   But you enjoyed it?

Tanya:   Oh yes, and there was always something different. I even did parachuting for the programme. There I was, leaping out of this aeroplane, with the cameras on me – trying to smile, although it was pretty scary! The stupid thing was that the jump went fine, but I fell over running back to the car, carrying the parachute – and broke my ankle. I thought my boss would be furious, but in fact he was okay about it, and I was amazed that lots of the children who watched the programme sent me cards – one even sent me a cake.

Interviewer:   And your daughter is Maddy, the singer and model. Did she always want to be famous?

Tanya:   Well, we always had a lot of music in the house, when she was young. I wouldn’t say that I knew that she would do something special – I had to persuade her to learn an instrument – but I do remember one day, she was supposed to be doing her homework, and my husband came down the road and there was Maddy leaning out of the window, playing her flute for all she was worth. It was a nice sunny day, and people were stopping and listening, and Maddy was bowing and really enjoying the attention!

Interviewer:   And she still does?

Tanya:   Well, these days, years later, when I watch my daughter singing in front of a big crowd, there’s always this curious thing – I suddenly realise that practically everyone is thinking that she’s brilliant – it’s not just me thinking, ‘That’s my little girl’ – it’s the whole room sharing the experience. It’s not all roses, though. When Maddy had a bad patch with her singing career, she was taken on by a modelling agency.

Interviewer:   Another glamorous job.

Tanya:   Well, I don’t think that modelling’s at all easy. And I know she finds it hard when people back at the agency don’t think she looks right for a particular job – you know she’s too tall or something, or not young enough. It can be hard – even if, like Maddy, you know you’re beautiful.

Interviewer:   Mm, and how do you both deal with your fame?

Tanya:   Well, we’ve talked about it – there is a certain look that people get on their faces when they recognise you, and I think probably that that’s what some people miss when they’re no longer famous. But it also means that you can’t go to the shops in peace. And that can be tough – so is reading about yourself in the paper, when what’s being said is a load of rubbish. But you just have to learn to cope with that side of it …