Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #23

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

Audioscript

1

Man:   Because you need water for various reasons, you often end up making your overnight camp by a river. Providing you take care to keep insects away, this can be as healthy a place as any. Much as you might feel you need a good wash, one trap not to fall into, though, is the use of soap or shampoo. These may make you feel good, but actually give off unnatural smells in the jungle which act as a magnet to insects, thus increasing the chances of your getting bitten. Better to actually go in for a dip, being careful to dry off and re-apply your anti-insect cream immediately afterwards.

2

Man:   So, how did the school football competition go on Saturday? Sorry I didn’t turn us to help, but I had so much to do, you know how it is.

Woman:   Oh, don’t worry – luckily some of the other parents came along to help. We just didn’t attract as many teams as we thought we would, and I thought the whole thing lacked any excitement as a result. You know, of course, that the point was to raise some money to pay for new trees in the school grounds? Well, we achieved that, and my kids thought the whole afternoon was great, so I guess it was OK.

3

Woman:   I was twenty-four when I went to China and persuaded the Beijing Opera School to take me on as their first western pupil. I was twice the age of the other students and hardly spoke their language. At the interview I arrived with my little Chinese-English dictionary, which was quite funny as it helped towards persuading them ‘cause they thought this girl is so determined. When I actually started the lessons it was very irritating both for me and my teacher. Most of the time we were making signs at each other and misunderstanding. I just had to remain as patient as they were. I learnt the lesson of patience through that school …

4

Man:   To be honest I sort of fell on my feet. I was doing this course in media studies which meant, you know, looking at cameras and drinking lots of coffee. And one day, we visited a television station as, like, work experience. And they were making this variety show and said they were looking for a new comedian because someone had let them down and so myself and my friend volunteered. It’s still a mystery to me why, but they liked us and so I was on live television at the age of about seventeen. We thought we were absolutely brilliant, but I’m glad to say no copy exists of those programmes.

5

Woman:   So tell me again, what time does that train get in? I see. That’s a bit late, because I wouldn’t really have enough time to get from the station to my meeting. What about the one before that, what time does that one arrive? Yes, that sounds better. Is it necessary to book? Will you see to that for me and leave the tickets on my desk? No, on second thoughts, I’ll be at my mother’s for the weekend. Can you post them to me there? It’ll save time all round.

6

Woman:   I get lots of ideas for novels, but I don’t necessarily follow them all up. Only when they stick around over a period of years do I realise that a particular idea has really got a hold on me. That’s certainly what happened with my latest novel, ‘The Red Cord’. Although it’s set in my home city of Sydney, Australia, the stirrings of an idea came about ten years ago when I was travelling in Chine. This was followed by a long period when the idea occasionally came back into my consciousness, each time refined a little more, until I reached a point where I thought I’d better start writing.

7

Sue:   What do you mean, Mary, when you say, ‘I never invite friends round to my house?’ No, sorry, I can’t accept that. I invited everybody round here for a party on my last birthday, remember? I was going to cook something special for you all and then Henry and Mark insisted on taking us out to that new Japanese restaurant in town. It’s true that I accepted their offer, but I thought it would be very rude to refuse.

8

Man:   Memories of long summer days by the sea are recalled in ‘The Last Summer’, our family drama this afternoon. The Finnish children’s writer Tova Janssen, well known for her stories about family life, wrote ‘The Last Summer’, a magical recreation of her own long childhood summers spent on an isolated island with her grandmother. There are superb performances by Moira Harmer and Alice Williams. Tune in to ‘The Last Summer’ at two o’clock this afternoon and be transported to an island in a blue sea far away from the world of work.

9 British Airways / B.A.   10 cabin   11 motorbike

12 Australia   13 helpers   14 fuel   15 9 months

16 sea   17 accurate   18 tired

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Now, today I have with me Brian Coleford and he’s someone who spends a lot of time up in the air in that smallest of aircraft, the microlight. Hallo Brian.

Brian:   Hallo.

Interviewer:   But it’s more than just a hobby, isn’t it?

Brian:   Oh yes, I learned to fly when I was at university and I worked as a British Airways pilot for many years until my retirement. These days I spend a lot of my time helping people who want to learn how to fly a microlight, as well as other types of aircraft, at a local flying club.

Interviewer:   Tell us about the microlight.

Brian:   Well, it’s like a very small aircraft, which is powered by an engine. The thing with microlight flying is that it’s the closest you can get to actually feeling like a bird because you’re out in the open air, there’s no cabin or anything around you.

Interviewer:   Oh I see …

Brian:   And although it’s powered, the way it’s controlled is by moving your own weight, you steer it by moving your body one way or another.

Interviewer:   So you have to lean over like you would on a motorbike?

Brian:   You don’t lean really, you actually have to push. So you have to be quite fit especially for a long flight.

Interviewer:   Which brings us on to the other thing which I know about you and that is that you’ve recently broken a world record. Tell us about that.

Brian:   Well, it involved flying over four continents because I left from London and flew over Europe, Africa and Asia on the way to Australia. No one had ever done that before in a microlight.

Interviewer:   The organisation for a long flight must be very difficult indeed, Brian. Surely you didn’t do it all on you own?

Brian:   Yes, I had no helpers. It was a matter of planning my route in advance and finding out where I’d be able to get fuel en route and knowing how far I could plan to travel safely each day.

Interviewer:   So how far can you travel on one tank of fuel?

Brian:   Well, I had a special fuel tank fitted – that was the only way in which my microlight was modified for the flight. So that meant I had enough fuel to be able to do about eight hours. The actual distance I covered depended on the winds, of course, but the still-air distance was round about 500 miles a day. It took nine months to plan the 49-day flight, and for each leg I filed a flight plan so that each airport I would land at knew that I was on the way, and if I didn’t arrive within half an hour of the time I’d stated, then they’d have started looking for me.

Interviewer:   Yes I’m sure that’s very necessary. What radio, if any, did you have?

Brian:   Yes; I had a two-way VHF radio, but the range of that was only 70 miles, so there was a lot of time when I was out of radio contact with anybody. I crossed thousands of miles of desert and mountain which is quite dangerous, of course, should anything go wrong, and 5,000 miles of the trip was over the sea, which is even more so.

Interviewer:   So how did you find your way?

Brian:   Well, I had a navigation system which uses satellite signals. It was really easy to use and, I must say, very accurate. I couldn’t say I had any problems in knowing where I was or which way I was going.

Interviewer:   And what sort of protection did you have? I mean, you weren’t just dangling in the cold air, were you?

Brian:   Yeah, I just wear a warm flying suit and warm clothes underneath. The coldest was going over the Alps, it was minus 28 degrees there, because I was quite high up. But actually feeling tired was my real problem because it was often dark by the time I landed and I was leaving again at first light. I was never hungry because I was met by such great hospitality everywhere I went. Although sadly I didn’t get to see much of the places I visited.

Interviewer:   Well, Brian, many congratulations. It’s a wonderful achievement and thank you very much for coming in today and talking about …

19 D   20 F   21 E   22 A   23 C

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Man:   I went on a canoeing course last weekend, rather against my better judgement, because although I enjoy swimming, I thought canoeing might be too difficult. And I was right. I really couldn’t get the hang of it. I bet the tutors will remember me: not because I was one of their star students, far from it, but I fell out of the canoe more often than everyone else put together! But even so, I enjoyed it so much that when some of the group signed up to do another course together, in six months’ time, I found myself signing up too. I bet the tutors refuse to teach me next time!

Speaker 2

Woman:   It was really good fun: 15 people from all sorts of backgrounds, all desperately trying to speak Italian to each other, and most of us were absolute beginners. We kept falling about laughing, but actually it did get a lot easier by the last day, and the tutors were awfully patient. It was held in a big house in the country which now belongs to a university, and the whole thing was brilliant. In fact I don’t know how they can do it for what they charged, because it was almost like staying in a luxury hotel. Maybe it was subsidised by the university.

Speaker 3

Man:   It was quite an odd sort of course, in a way, because I expected everyone to be working together, and helping each other to learn, but most of the time we were all just working on our own computers, with the tutor going round and helping each person individually. No teamwork at all. It made me realise that I work much better with other people than on my own: maybe it’s poor motivation, or something. Anyway, I learned much more about using a computer, which is what I wanted, so I suppose it was worth it, even though I can’t say I enjoyed it much.

Speaker 4

Woman:   I can hardly move, I’m so exhausted. We were out on the courts playing tennis from morning to night, practically. I’m certainly not as fit as I ought to be. I suppose they thought we’d want to play all day to get our money’s worth. Well, I could have done with a bit more theory and demonstrations, and a lot more taking it easy! They told me I should go on to the advanced course, next month, but I don’t know; I think they have to say that to get the bookings, because the seemed to be saying the name thing to everyone.

Speaker 5

Man:   There were several people I’ve met on other courses: I haven’t been on that many, but some of them seemed to take at least a dozen a year. Actually we ended up spending a lot of time chatting and going for walks in the garden, and that kind of made up for the fact that I didn’t really learn much about local history, which is why I’d gone. The tutor certainly knew a lot about the subject, but she seemed to have very little idea how to teach, so I just couldn’t get into it. And it cost enough. I probably need to find a better way of studying.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Today’s guest needs no introduction. He is a man who has given us hours of interest and entertainment over the years, with his weekly series of wildlife programmes. He is, of course, Martin Middleton. Martin, you’ve been to the four corners of the Earth in search of material. Where did this love of adventures come from?

Martin:   I don’t really know … I didn’t travel much as a child, but I remember reading about the East and being fascinated by it. Then, when I was about 12, I met someone who’d been to Singapore – and to me that seemed incredible … and, of course, when I started in television, back in the early 1960s, you didn’t travel to make a wildlife programme … you went along and filmed at the local zoo. So, when I said I’d like to go and film in Africa, the Head of Programmes just laughed at me.

Interviewer:   … and, did you go to Africa?

Martin:   On that occasion, no! But I eventually got them to allow me to go to Borneo in 1962. There was just me and a cameraman. We went off for four months, filming wherever we found something interesting. We bought a canoe, sailed up-river for ten days and ended up in a traditional longhouse. Nowadays, of course, it’s all quite different.

Interviewer:   Different? In what way …?

Martin:   We do months of preparation before we set off, so when we start filming, we know exactly what scenes we want to get. I mean, you don’t get up in the morning and say to your team, ‘What shall we do this morning?’ You have to know exactly what each scene is going to show … to work to a strict plan.

Interviewer:   Some of your programmes have taken place in some pretty remote areas. It’s hard to imagine other programme-makers wanting to risk the dangers or discomfort that you’ve experienced.

Martin:   Well, if you want original material – you’ve got to go off the beaten track … but you can find yourself doing some pretty strange things … um … like, for example, on one occasion, jumping out of a helicopter onto an iceberg. There I was … freezing cold … then it started to snow … and the helicopter had gone back to the ship and couldn’t take off again. So I was stuck there, on this iceberg, thinking, ‘This is crazy … I didn’t even want to come here!’

Interviewer:   What I wonder is … where does somebody like yourself, who travels to all these exotic places as part of their work, go on holiday?

Martin:   (laughs) I’m not very good at lying on a beach – that’s for sure. I wouldn’t go to a place just to sit around. It’s nice to have an objective when you’re travelling … to have something you want to film … mm … I’ve just come back from the Dominican Republic, and we were put up for the first night in a big hotel … The place was absolutely full of people, just lying there sunbathing. They seemed quite happy to spend the whole day stretched out around the pool … they never seemed to want to go and explore the amazing things there were to see outside the hotel. For me, that would be a very boring way to spend a holiday.

Interviewer:   Your programmes, though, must have inspired a lot of people to take their holidays in remote and little-known places.

Martin:   You are probably right, but … well … I have mixed feelings about all this. I go back to the places where, years ago, I was the only European, and now there are cruise ships coming three times a day. So, you worry that in ten years or so, every remote place on the planet will be swallowed up, because everyone will be visiting it. But, on the other hand, I am in favour of tourism that is done in a way that protects the environment. You can see a good example of this in the Galapagos Islands, where the tourism is carefully managed. That’s very successful, and could be a model for the future …