Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #12

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

Audioscript

1

Jenny, hi, it’s me. I’m on the train and it’s stuck somewhere just outside the station – signalling problems or something … Yes, I know, sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Anyway, listen, could you check my diary and see when I’m supposed to be with those marketing people? … It’s on my desk … … Oh, isn’t it? Oh, that’s strange. And it’s not in the drawer? I wonder … Oh, I know, I must have left it in Jimmie’s office after yesterday’s meeting. You couldn’t get it and then ring me back, could you? Sorry to be a nuisance. Thanks a lot.

2

Eggs are delicious food and parents have to make sure they are laid in spots well hidden from hungry thieves. One such careful parent braves the rushing waters of the Iguaçu waterfalls in South America to lay its eggs in a damp crack in the rock face behind the falling water. Accidents are frequent, but evidently the risk is considered worthwhile. In any case, there are no eggs on the menu in this particular part of South America, which is bad news for some!

3

Customer:   There’s something wrong with my watch. It’s running slow.

Woman:   Oh, a Lexor. It’s a common problem with the older Lexor watches. The latest ones are much better!

Customer:   That’s no help to me.

Woman:   No, I suppose not. Anyway, it’s not easy to get them fixed, either. Not many people are up to it.

Customer:   Right. So …?

Woman:   And the problem is that by the time you’ve got it to pieces and put in the new parts and reassembled it, you might as well have replaced it. It’s always the same, and it’s just as likely to go wrong again in a couple of months.

4

I must say, it surprised me when I saw how many there were in the family. I don’t see how they’re all going to fit in that small house. And they’re obviously quite well-off – you should have seen the amounts of electronic equipment that was carried in, and they’ve got three large cars between them – so why would a wealthy family like that want to live here? It makes you wonder how they earn their living. Not that I’ve got anything to complain about – they’ve been perfectly pleasant whenever I’ve spoken to any of them, though so far they haven’t found time to come in for a coffee.

5

I love deep-sea diving. I go at least once every summer. The deeper you go, the quieter everything becomes, until finally all you can hear is the sound of your own heartbeat. It’s my way of getting away from it all, finding some peace for once. I spent my honeymoon diving, although my wife’s not so keen, and it’s not something we always do together. I don’t need company necessarily, and I’m not looking for some incredible adventure. I did, however, once join some guys in a cage off Florida, searching for the great white shark. If sharks stop moving, they die. That sounds like me back home!

6

Interviewer:   It’s difficult to talk about the beauty of a sound, but our great musicians today still clearly feel that these sixteenth-century Italian violins are the best. Do you agree with them?

Scientist:   Well, if you look closely at a violin, um … it may be a beautiful-looking instrument, but it is basically just a wooden box, whose function is to take a little energy out of the string that the musician plays and to turn it into sound that is then heard by the listener. The function of an individual violin is to provide suitable playing and sound qualities for the musician to express all of his or her emotions.

7

If, like me, you’re about to set off for Australia and you haven’t yet bought a guidebook, how about trying a CD-ROM instead? Be careful though, the majority of interactive CDs turn out to be a let-down. Many publishers convert printed material to digital formal, add a few flashy linkages and expect the buying public to be impressed. I wasn’t. In this context, Wilson’s multimedia package is a refreshing contrast. It’s got all the information, readily accessed from a single-page pictorial index covering states, cities, wildlife, famous people, etc., and the data is accompanied by good still pictures and ninety-two video clips.

8

If you have to deal with a customer who keeps ringing your office about a problem you think you’ve already dealt with, it’s important to be forceful. Make them understand that you really sympathise with their problem, but decide on a course of action early in the conversation and try to keep it moving quickly to avoid any difficult areas. If you can, it might be worth your while trying to discover if there is another reason for their persistence, to try to do something about it before they call again.

9 German (and) Spanish   10 (tour) guide   11 World Travel

12 4 months   13 advertising   14 journalists   15 adventure holidays

16 home town   17 presenter   18 conference

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Good morning, and today we are continuing with our series on careers for young people. In the studio today we have Sylvia Short, who works for a company that produces guidebooks for serious travellers. Now, Sylvia, I believe you left Essex University with a degree in German and Spanish. Tell us something about how you got your job.

Sylvia:   My main interest has always been travel. I spent every holiday when I was a student travelling abroad. After I left university I spend a year as an English teacher in Spain, followed by six months as a tour guide in Italy. When I returned to England I applied for loads of jobs advertised in the newspaper, but didn’t have any success. So I decided to make a list of every company I wanted to work for and write to them directly, rather than wait for them to advertise.

Interviewer:   Good advice to anyone, I think.

Sylvia:   Yes, and I was very lucky as the company World Travel needed an assistant in their office in London. I dealt mainly with the post at first, just to get used to their way of doing things. Obviously, I was qualified to do more, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Then the manager’s assistant announced she was leaving after only being with the company for twelve months, and I applied for her job. The company encourages their staff to apply for higher-level jobs, and I was promoted four months after joining.

Interviewer:   Good for you! What does the job involve?

Sylvia:   Well, I’ve expanded the role since I took it on. I’m in charge of all the advertising in the press whenever we publish a new guidebook and I sometimes give talks to people in the travel industry.

Interviewer:   Do you find the work interesting?

Sylvia:   Oh, yes, it’s never boring. We often get odd requests from journalists. They assume we know everything there is to know about travel so they often ring us to see if we can help them. One rang to say he was writing an article and wanted to know whether there were any female football teams in China.

Interviewer:   Really? And what other things do you find yourself doing?

Sylvia:   Oh, a large part of my job is to make sure my boss is where she should be. She does a lot of TV interviews on all aspects of travel and she also presents a radio programme about adventure holidays every Friday night. In between, she writes articles and now and again comes into the office to find out what’s going on there. My job is to keep her fully informed.

Interviewer:   What do you think you’ve learnt from working for her?

Sylvia:   Oh, she’s an excellent writer and she’s helped me, especially when I have to do press releases – she suggests changes, but she’s very encouraging, not bossy. She even suggested I did part of a chapter in a new guidebook to Great Britain on my home town, which I enjoyed a lot.

Interviewer:   So, how do you see your career developing?

Sylvia:   Well, I don’t think I’m good enough to be a full-time writer. But my boss has a lot of contacts in the TV world, and I fancy becoming a TV presenter. However, at the moment I’m enjoying my job far too much to give it up.

Interviewer:   Do you get to go abroad as part of your job?

Sylvia:   Not as often as you’d think! I do spend a lot of time doing things like answering the phone, but I did manage to go to the company’s head office in Australia last year for a conference. That was terrific.

Interviewer:   Sounds to me like you’ve got the perfect job, Sylvia! Next …

19 C   20 D   21 F   22 B   23 A

Audioscript

Speaker 1

There’s nothing like getting on a motorbike, it’s wonderful. All my life, I’ve never travelled any other way. I was eleven years of age when I first started on my brother’s bike. I had my licence in nineteen fifty-five and when a company in Birmingham advertised for a test rider I applied and got it. I had to ride all the bikes they made from nineteen fifty-seven through to nineteen seventy-eight, which included hill climbs, reliability trials and speedway races. After the company closed down, I did trick riding with my brother. We called ourselves The Partners Dare, but by then, of course, it was only a hobby.

Speaker 2

Well, of course, although many people start off with brothers, fathers or other family members who ride, actually before you go on the road at all in Britain you’ve got to take a basic training course, and that really gets you off on the right foot. Now, after you’ve passed that, you’re allowed on the road, but we as an organisation strongly recommend that you take further training, and this may be where Dad can help, you know. Then, after that, of course, you’re completely free to buy what you like, go on motorways, take passengers, and just thoroughly enjoy motorcycling.

Speaker 3

I’ve a passion for my bike because it takes me away from the day-to-day round of family life, as a mother, and the problems of that kind of existence. I can just put the key in, turn it, and I’m in another world. And I can be relieved of all the stresses and strains, just by riding my bike. Then, you may be going along the motorway and, if cars are passing you, you do see the women sort of turn, and you can lip read them saying ‘you look great’ or ‘well done’ and the men always give you a wave in the mirror.

Speaker 4

The motorbike seems to be an incredibly strong image. This is because it is the perfect form of transport for the individual. You don’t have to take account of any other person, you can cut through traffic, on a very simple level, but there’s also the idea of the unity of mind, body and machine. It’s really the sense of complete freedom, the sense of being completely in control of your own destiny – it’s just great fun. You must do it, it’s wonderful, you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

Speaker 5

My mother bought me a bike as soon as I had my licence and she used to ride thousands of miles on the back in those days. And then when I started side-car competitions, she used to come with me as the ride-car partner. In those days we did a lot of races together – just for fun. She was wonderful, the same weight as me, so the balance was marvellous, and she used to enjoy it. I don’t know what the rest of the family really thought about it, but my brothers are deeply admiring now. Their wives won’t let them ride motorbikes, so they look lovingly at mine sometimes.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   With us today is Steve Thomas, a twenty-three-year-old chef who delights TV audiences with his imaginative cooking programme, Steve, what’s the secret of your success?

Steve:   Well, I think I’m different from other TV chefs in that I want people to see how I prepare a dish from the word to, so I don’t present them with a dish that’s half prepared already. If anything should go wrong during the programme, y’know, suppose something gets burned, well, that’s part of the experience. When they try preparing it themselves, then they’ll see the beauty of the finished product, but not on the screen.

Interviewer:   So how did you come to get your own TV series?

Steve:   I was working in a restaurant called the Gala in December last year when they came to make a documentary about the place. I didn’t even look at the camera. I was too busy making pasta and cooking fish. But the producer spotted me and the following week they phoned me to offer me a job … The Gala owner wished me all the best and let me go without a complaint.

Interviewer:   Wow! Now, is it true that you come from a family of cooks?

Steve:   Well, you could say that … I started cooking at the age of eight. My mum and dad have a restaurant, and Dad used to do all the cooking back then. My mum was too busy looking after us … Dad insisted that if I wanted some money, I should work for it. And it seemed a lot more interesting to help out in the kitchen and see how things were made than to earn my money washing Dad’s car …

Interviewer:   You attended a catering course at college. How did you like that?

Steve:   At school I wasn’t very good at anything much. At that time, my mind wasn’t on anything other than cooking. I found sitting in a classroom, trying to pay attention to things, very, very trying. I managed to get to college though and there I was fine, because when it came to the actual cooking, I knew what I was doing. I realised that a bit of academic work didn’t do you any harm either and I found it much easier when I was interested in the subject, and so I’ve no regrets really.

Interviewer:   And now you have a TV programme and several cooks working under your orders. How do you get on with them?

Steve:   Oh, I love working with them. But on my programme everyone has to be really special. They need to have gone through college training before they even apply for the job. I suppose the problem is that fairly frequently I tend to raise my voice if they don’t work efficiently … but I’m just as likely to praise them if they do well … What I say to them is, you want the audience to say we are the best, so we need to make a special effort …

Interviewer:   Is there any chef celebrity that you admire especially?

Steve:   I definitely think that Ron Bell is the best, and I’m pleased that he’s now got his own food column in a newspaper. I had the great privilege of working with him for a while. What’s so special about him is that he’s always been enthusiastic about using ingredients that come from the area where he works … For example the fish of the day would be the catch from the river close to his restaurant. He’s been criticised for sticking to old-fashioned recipes, maybe that’s a weakness, but I think that’s his decision.

Interviewer:   I heard that you are also going to write a book.

Steve:   Yes, I’m writing it at the moment. It may disappoint readers who expect a lot of glossy pictures, as most cookbooks nowadays seem to be things to look at rather than read … I’ve gone for a style that may be less attractive, with fewer colour pictures, but it will be more useful for most types of reader. What I say in my book is that we must remember the success of a meal does not depend on how it looks … it’s what it tastes like and the company of the friends you’ll share it with that matters.

Interviewer:   Well, thank you, Steve. I look forward to trying some recipes ….