Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #22

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

Audioscript

1

Interviewer:   So, do you have a favourite movie?

Director:   Oh … that’s difficult. Well … I think it has to be The Agents, the Mel Rivers movie. I like it because it reminds you that no matter how hard life is, or how many times you get knocked down by bad situations, things can get a whole lot worse.

Interviewer:   When did you first see it?

Director:   On television, late one night … I must have been about 16. There were moments when I just couldn’t stop laughing. It’s anarchic and silly, but it’s very warm. I love the friendship that develops between the two main characters.

2

Man:   I think this is the last time I’m buying anything from that shop. I can’t believe how inefficient they are! But they’ve got reasonable prices. The next time I buy a sofa I’d be prepared to pay double to avoid all this stress. They came to deliver it, and when I saw it I thought this isn’t the sofa I chose, maybe the colour looks different in daylight. But it was mine. And then I realised that part of the cover at the back was torn and the filling was coming out. So I got them to take it away and now I have to wait two weeks to get it replaced.

3

Man:   Most actors start out with a bit of a regional or non-standard accent of some sort, but what tends to happen is that, at drama school, part of the training is to acquire what’s called ‘standard English’. So you lose your original accent and when somebody says, you know, ‘Do something in your old voice’, it takes a couple of minutes to click in and get your head round it again. I phone my parents and they say, ‘My, you sound so English’. but then over there, I sometimes don’t get work because people can hear that I’m actually Australian, so I’ve got a bit more work to do there.

4

Interviewer:   Can you still remember the thrill of it? I mean the first time you actually ride out there, out in front must be …

Man:   Yeah, yeah, it was certainly a big thrill, but it was an evening event. It was the last race and it was almost dark by the time we’d finished and when I got home it was about ten or eleven o’clock, so there was very little time to think about it or do anything. And I had to be up at about half five the next day for my job, so unfortunately it was straight back to work really.

5

Man:   I was always fascinated by the musical theatre, from the very word go. My aunt was an actress, not a particularly successful one, but I thought her world was unbelievably glamorous. And she used to take me to London to see some of the American musicals which were on in Great Britain some time after they were on in New York, and so I got to see a lot of things at a very early age. It just grabbed me, it was one of those things.

6

Woman:   The earliest records of this trade go back to the Ancient Greek period with various deals around the Mediterranean area. Unlike the trade in more decorative or luxury goods, however, few written records remain. So, we mostly rely on archaeological evidence which does show, for example, that designs for swords spread from Greece to the rest of Europe. And using the type of research more usually associated with the spread of artistic trends, we can now show how the equipment necessary to do batter was being exported.

7

Man:   The best thing about the Eurostar train is that it is city centre to city centre. I almost always travel with colleagues and we use the train as a second office. Sometimes have are as many as nine of us and I schedule formal meeting to have on the train. I invite suppliers and clients, who have meetings in Paris on the same day, to travel with us so we can discuss business. It’s a perfect opportunity to talk without the distractions of the office – we don’t switch on our mobile phones.

8

Woman:   It’s no good just standing there saying you’re sorry, because that isn’t going to give me the photographs you’ve lost, is it? And I took them on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, so it’s impossible to replace them. It didn’t cross my mind for an instant that you could lose a roll of film, just like that. To be frank, I think it’s an insult just to offer me a new roll in its place. I would expect at the very least to be offered a refund and compensation for the loss and inconvenience, even if it isn’t your normal policy.

9 travel agency   10 High Adventure   11 mending/repairing

12 6 days   13 local   14 bored   15 (enormous) storms

16 (World) Sailing Club   17 (other) ships   18 diaries

Audioscript

Interviewer:   In the studio this week we have Anna Stephens who returned last July after a non-stop voyage round the world alone. Anna, welcome to the programme. Tell me, how did you get interested in sailing?

Anna:   Well, although I was a teacher of sports in a school for a while, it wasn’t until I started working for a travel agency that I first went sailing. A colleague invited me and I loved it straightaway. After that I went on several sailing holidays with friends in the Mediterranean.

Interviewer:   So, where did you get the idea to sail round the world alone?

Anna:   Well, I read a book, ‘High Adventure’ was the title, which was about a woman sailing alone, and it really impressed me. I suddenly knew what I wanted to do with my life. So I gave up my job and talked a friend into lending me his boat. It was a bit old and rusty, but basically fine. I then spent the next few months mending the boat.

Interviewer:   Did you take the boat out to sea to test it?

Anna:   Well, that was the problem – I had planned to spend three weeks seeing how the boat performed at sea, but after six days I had to return because it got damaged in bad weather. That was good really because if I’d had three weeks of good weather, I wouldn’t have realised what problems I needed to sort out.

Interviewer:   What did people say when you had to turn back?

Anna:   Oh, some of them thought this proved I wasn’t ready for the trip. I would have preferred to carry on with my preparations without telling anybody, but because I relied on money from a number of local companies, they all had to be kept informed of my progress.

Interviewer:   Right. Once you finally set out and you were out there alone, did you never feel lonely?

Anna:   Well, yes I did, but that wasn’t my main problem. The trip was ruined for me by the boat making such slow progress that I got bored. I wanted to be doing something all the time. The only time I really felt busy was in the Southern Ocean, where there were enormous storms and I had plenty to think about all the time.

Interviewer:   Were the storms really frightening?

Anna:   No, they were the really exciting part. My main difficulty was when I get back home and people didn’t believe I’d really done it.

Interviewer:   Why did that happen?

Anna:   Well, as soon as I returned, I got on the phone to the World Sailing Club to say that I had successfully completed the trip and what did I have to do to get my certificate. They told me to fill in all the forms, etc. Then, on television, people began to say that it was strange although I claimed to have sailed around the world, I had not been in touch with any ships along the way. That’s what started it. After that the newspapers were saying I hadn’t made the trip at all!

Interviewer:   So how did you manage to convince people?

Anna:   Well, I showed the sailing club my diaries, which I’d been very careful to keep up-to-date throughout the trip, and they checked them and gave me a certificate. I even got an apology from the newspapers in the end.

Interviewer:   And what will your next challenge be?

Anna:   I haven’t got any firm plans as yet, but I’m writing a book about the trip.

Interviewer:   Well, thank you, Anna. We look forward to reading all about it …

19 D   20 C   21 F   22 B   23 A

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Girl:   Well, I’ve had lots of teachers who really knew their stuff, I mean, you could ask any question, and you knew you’d get the answer … But most teachers, when their class was over, that was it, they were gone. You see, a teacher may know a lot, the thing is, it’s usually after class that you need their help, often as an individual, if you know what I mean. They think if they just turn up and do the job, that’s good enough. I remember one teacher, she was new, said drop in any time. I liked that, I really did …

Speaker 2

Boy:   I was always good at maths, and I think it was because I had this excellent teacher, I was lucky really. I didn’t like doing my homework, and he’d say, these are the rules, take it or leave it, you do this for tomorrow or you’re out of my class. You see, a teacher may be there for you whenever you need his advice, but if he doesn’t force you to do your best, it’ll all be wasted, won’t it? This teacher had been in the school for many many years, and I know some of the younger teachers didn’t like his methods.

Speaker 3

Girl:   I think it takes some time for a teacher to become really good. Sometimes a teacher who’s just starting, well, they can be so demanding, expect a lot, it’s as if they want to teach you everything now, if you know what I mean. Some of my friends were always against the teachers who’d been there for a while, and I used to say, well, they’re the ones who’ve gone through all this before, and when they tell me I’ve done something really well, it means a lot, doesn’t it?

Speaker 4

Boy:   In my opinion, a good teacher has to be able to cover a topic thoroughly. I once had a history teacher who was really kind and helpful, you know, her smile, her manner, like a big sister she was. I was very interested in history at the time, and I realised she didn’t exactly … master the subject … I think this kind of put me off, although she was always willing to look things up for me in her library, nothing was too much trouble for her. But I sort of lost confidence in her.

Speaker 5

Girl:   No matter how much a teacher knows about a subject, I think he or she needs to remember that the students are not there to become experts. A good teacher is one that gives encouragement all the time, who tells you when you’re making progress, even if it’s only very little progress. Of course, a person can know everything about a subject and still be not good as a teacher. We’ve all had teachers like that, the kind who’ll only be satisfied with the highest standards and who will never give you credit for having tried.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   My guest today is Douglas Turner, who recently spent a weekend climbing a mountain in Africa. Douglas, how did this come about?

Douglas:   Well, I suppose it started with seeing adverts for activity holidays in the national press week after week; it somehow got into my subconscious. Then there was one which said, ‘Are you ready for the greatest physical challenge of your life? 5,000 metres. One weekend’, and somewhat against my better judgement, I found myself picking up the phone straight away. You see, I simply hadn’t trained for it, the nearest I’d got was a bit of hill-walking five years ago.

Interviewer:   What did you think you would get out of the weekend?

Douglas:   Generally when I go to things I enjoy meeting people, but in this case I was afraid the rest of the group would be a bunch of healthy types, and I wouldn’t have much in common with them. And as for the physical effort of climbing the mountain, I thought I’d be lucky if I survived the weekend at all! It was more a kind of wanting to see what I was mentally capable of doing, would I get cold feet and not go at all, or go, but give up halfway up, that sort of thing.

Interviewer:   But you made it to the top.

Douglas:   Yes, I did. Much to my surprise, I can tell you.

Interviewer:   And were you right about the other people?

Douglas:   No, actually. There were a few serious walkers and climbers, but most of the participants were professional people who wanted to do something quite different once in a white, more or less like me, in fact. So not intimidating after all. Though I have to admit that nearly all of them were fitter than me. Actually I hadn’t realised so many people did this sort of thing. It was funny, when I told a friend that I was going, she said, ‘Oh, not another one. Everyone I know’s going climbing this year. There’s a big thing about pushing yourself to your limit at the moment, isn’t there? You’re welcome to it,’ she said. ‘You won’t catch me up there.’

Interviewer:   How did you all get on together?

Douglas:   I suppose we were a bit suspicious of each other at first, but that soon went, and we somehow developed a really close group feeling, and nobody complained about having to wait for the slow ones, which usually included me. Or at least, if they did complain, they did it out of earshot. In fact, on the flight home we were busy exchanging cards and decided to book another weekend trip as a party – but without a mountain in sight this time.

Interviewer:   So how did the weekend compare with your expectations?

Douglas:   It was much better than I’d expected. It made me change, in subtle ways. As I’d hoped, I gained in self-knowledge, and I learnt to get on with people I couldn’t escape from, but I also became much more observant, of the tiny little wild flowers, for instance, and that was quite a bonus.

Interviewer:   I suppose you’re going to be a regular mountain climber now.

Douglas:   The pair of boots I wore, I’m keeping with the mud still on them, on my desk at work. They’re a kind of trophy, to prove to myself that I’ve done it. But I somehow don’t think I’ll be using them again. I’m going to have to put them somewhere less visible, though, because it’s sometimes a bit embarrassing when other people are impressed.

Interviewer:   Douglas Turner, thank you very much.

Douglas:   Thank you.