Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #05

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

Audioscript

1

Policeman:   So what happened, madam?

Woman:   Well, I saw this old man, he was kind of holding this briefcase under his arm, like this. He’s just left the bank and I was still queuing up to collect my pension, but I was near that door. Now, this young man came running past him and grabbed him by the arm.

Policeman:   And they both fell down?

Woman:   Yeah, and the young man ran away and the poor old man sat on the pavement, still clutching his briefcase, and we managed to help him up. Now, can I go back in to collect my money?

Policeman:   Would you mind coming with us, madam? We need a few more details.

2

It’s important that you really listen to what people are telling you. For example, I had a trumpet player who came to see me with back pain and breathing difficulties. He couldn’t take his final exams because of the muscular tension in his jaw, but when I quizzed him about it, it turned out that the actual problem was in his teeth – far away from where the pain actually was. The same applies to sports people who often have injuries as a result of their job …

3

Man:   It all looks so different. Where’s the canteen?

Woman:   It’s in the basement. You get there by going down the main staircase from the entrance hall.

Man:   Right. I’ll get there in the end. Everything seems to have moved around.

Woman:   Yes, there was a rebuilding programme last year, which wasn’t much fun for those of us trying to study. The main building was altered a lot. And they’re building a new sports centre. It should be open for the new students in September.

Man:   Well, I’m envious. Everything looks a lot better.

4

I used to watch Granny cooking, and right from when I was five years old I was allowed to season the soups, test the potatoes, and so on. One year for my birthday, she bought me a cookbook. It was just like Granny talking, all the recipes were simple, economical and linked with little stories, useful advice and amusing sketches. I treasured it, but gradually it fell to bits from overuse, my tastes changed and, finally, I threw it out. Now, of course, I wish I’d hung on to it despite its sad state and despite the fact that all the advice would be out of date.

5

I went to a party with a friend and she knows that I’m a big fan of Chris Turner, the footballer. I just think he’s a genius and, anyway, he was going to be there. Now, I knew that I would be really shy, which is stupid because he’s exactly the same age as me and, you know, he’s just a regular bloke, I’m sure. But when my friend introduced us and he shook my hand, my mouth just went, you know, really dry and I didn’t know what to say, honestly, which was awful. I felt so bad about it afterwards, my friend just couldn’t understand it.

6

Hi, can I just talk to you about our plans for the summer conference? I think I said that I was going to be away for the opening meeting and couldn’t give you a hand, but it seems I got my diary muddled up and I will actually be around, so what would you like me to do?

7

Man:   So, Sophie, tell me all about it.

Woman:   I’m sorry, but I’ve just been feeling terrible for the last week or so and last night I just couldn’t do my homework, I felt so bad. I was aching all over. So my dad said I had better make an appointment and come and see you. Perhaps you can tell me what’s wrong.

8

My wife Margaret and I were sitting behind a rock on the top of a mountain in the Highlands one day, nobody else around, perfectly silent, and Margaret said, ‘I just heard a telephone bell ringing.’ ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘Margaret, there are no telephone kiosks up here.’ But in the silence of the hills, you can imagine anything. I said, ‘I often imagine things. I’ve heard babies crying in this silence. I’ve thought I heard a symphony orchestra,’ and Margaret said, I’m sure I heard a telephone ringing.’ She got up and went round the back of the rock and there was a cow with a bell around its neck.

9 graves   10 twelfth century   11 their/the owners   12 make(-)up

13 ten thousand pounds   14 original clothes   15 soft bodies

16 maker(‘)s name(s)   17 (little) adults   18 plastic

Audioscript

Dolls have always fascinated me, and that’s why, five years ago, I was delighted to be offered the job of running a doll museum.

Dolls have existed for thousands of years, and the earliest dolls we know about were found in graves in ancient Egypt. I only wish we could get one or two for our museum, but we haven’t unfortunately got anything as old as that in the museum. All the same, we have got examples from Europe from the twelfth century, but my favourite early dolls are actually from the seventeenth century. They interest me not just because they are early, or fairly early, but also because of the clothes they’re wearing. They have their original clothes, and from them we know what the owners wore, since dolls in those days were always dressed like their owners. They were made of the only material readily available for things like this at the time: solid wood, and they were painted in great detail. In fact, on the best examples, like the ones in the museum, the detail includes the seventeenth-century make-up.

Dolls like these were very expensive then, and only the very rick could afford them. These days, they’re popular with collectors and if you want one today, you have to pay anything up to ten thousand pounds for a doll in perfect condition from this time! By the way, what makes them so valuable is that, as far as a collector is concerned, a doll is only worth collecting if it is in perfect condition, and that means having the original clothes.

Doll collecting has become very fashionable since the museum opened, with people interested in dolls from every period, including later dolls. There’s great interest in nineteenth-century examples, when dolls were no longer made of wood, but began to have soft bodies and real hair. They were very delicate and few have survived, meaning such a doll would be worth about two thousand pounds, perhaps a bit more. Later, in the nineteenth century, you could often take off the doll’s hair. If you can, you can often see the marker’s name underneath, and of course the right one increases a doll’s value.

There was a really big change in dolls at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the museum we have one of the earliest examples, from about 1909, of a doll that’s a model of a baby. Previously all dolls, the earlier ones, were little adults. That’s just one of the changes that have occurred in the last hundred years. Another, again, is to do with what dolls are made of. Although dolls with soft bodies continued, after about 1930, plastic began to be used. In fact, dolls from the 1930s and 40s are now very popular with collectors, some of them selling for very, very high prices.

19 E   20 F   21 D   22 B   23 C

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Well I have to say, I never really thought about a career until I got to my last year at school. Lots of people here say that they knew exactly what they wanted to do right from a very young age, but I never really had any burning ambitions. In the end I just sort of drifted into it because that’s what our lot have always done. If I’d chosen something else – like going into business, say – I would have been the first for four generations to have gone outside the medical field. I don’t think that that would have mattered but it means there are lots of things we can talk about at home.

Speaker 2

Most of my friends went into teaching actually – I think they felt it was more ‘academic’ and of course the pay is quite a bit better. But I’ve never really been bothered about things like that – I think the enjoyment of the job comes first and I certainly get a lot of good feelings doing this work. We have some difficult cases sometimes but there’s still a lot of laughter here and the patients can be amazing – especially the kids. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes helping people.

Speaker 3

I think I’m lucky really because I didn’t try very hard at school – I guess you’d call me lazy! And then it ended and I thought, ‘Wow, I’d better think about a job,’ and I got really worried and emotional about it because, well, I suddenly realised that I didn’t want to go from job to job, you know. I wanted a career and regular money and an opportunity to climb up the ladder if possible. So, one day I saw a TV programme about nursing and it looked like it had the kind of benefits that I wanted – so here I am.

Speaker 4

At first I thought I’d made the wrong choice … you know, I was never really sure that it was the thing for me and I used to go back to my flat at night and think, ‘Well maybe I should have listened to my parents after all’. They thought I’d get too upset and that I should have stuck with something office-based like the rest of my family but it was my best subject at school – well Biology was – and all the staff there thought medicine would be a good choice, so … Anyway, one day I woke up and felt fine about it and it’s been great ever since.

Speaker 5

I remember we all had to go to this Careers Advisor in our last year at school and I think she got really confused when she saw me because I just had no idea. I liked the sound of a lot of jobs and I couldn’t make up my mind. When the time came to tell our teachers what we were going to apply for, I thought, ‘Well what does matter to me is being separate from my friends’ and so I went round to see one of them – the most important I suppose, and anyway she had chosen nursing, so that was it really – a difficult decision made easy, although I must say, I’ve never regretted it.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   I suppose the first question I have to ask you, Alan, is one you get fed up answering, but here goes: what is a Best Boy?

Alan:   Well, I’m not sure why I’m called a Best Boy exactly, but I like to think it’s because I’m the best at what I do. But the title is an American term used to describe the assistant to the man who works with the cameramen and the electricians on a film to make sure that the film is properly lit.

Interviewer:   So how do you spend your time?

Alan:   Basically what I do is work between the electrical department and production. I deal with the companies where the lights come from. And I’m also there on the film set, making sure that everything runs smoothly, that the lighting is set up when the camera crew arrives to shoot the film, and then I also help with the budget – we have to do timesheets, things like that. It’s mostly paperwork really.

Interviewer:   When did you start working in the industry?

Alan:   About fifteen years ago. I’d been an electrician and my first few film jobs were basic electrical ones, then I moved over to this.

Interviewer:   It sounds a rather complicated job to me.

Alan:   No, not really. I’ve never had to do anything out of the ordinary. But filming on location does make things more intense – there’s less control than in the studio and you can have problems with the weather. On my latest film, we were working in the hills and it would take us ages to get the equipment up there. But I enjoyed it. It was a challenge.

Interviewer:   Is working on location a plus for you?

Alan:   Well, you see some great places, but long working days and problems with production are far more common. There’s a lot of responsibility with the job, because there’s so much money involved. If all the lighting goes wrong on one day, then obviously there’ll be trouble. The long hours are very unsociable, which is OK if you’re single, but there’s quite a lot of work abroad, which puts a lot of pressure on the family. I went away for five months once. When I left, my son wasn’t talking, and when I came back, he was. It varies though. Some years you don’t go away at all.

Interviewer:   What advice would you give to someone wanting to give it a try?

Alan:   You need a good head for mathematics, plus knowing how to mend a fuse. So training as an electrician is the first step, then you need some experience on the production floor.

Interviewer:   Where do you see yourself in the future? What would promotion be for you?

Alan:   I like it where I am. I like working behind the scenes and seeing how the production works. There are enough challenges in the present job for me. The more experience you get, the more you worry whether you’ve got things to the right stage at the right time or not. You can’t just go home and switch off. But getting things right is a big satisfaction.