Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #51

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

Audioscript

1

Man:   That’s a cool computer, is it new?

Woman:   I bought it a while back, actually – best thing I ever did!

Man:   It does look good, but I like the one I have now.

Woman:   Yeah, maybe, but if you had one like mine, after twenty-four hours I swear you’d never want to go back to your old one!

Man:   Really? Why’s that?

Woman:   Well, there are just so many fantastic features – I’d let you borrow it, but I just can’t live without it!

Man:   It must have been expensive, though …

Woman:   Not really, considering how much it can do.

2

Man:   That was good, wasn’t it?

Woman:   Not bad – I wasn’t sure about the script, though – I’m not sure people ever really spoke like that, even in those days!

Man:   Yeah, you may be right there, but the actors coped with it, didn’t they? They were pretty convincing, I thought.

Woman:   They had poor material to work with, but I’m with you on that – I don’t think anyone could have done better.

Man:   And the set design was unusual, wasn’t it?

Woman:   Just a bit too unusual for me, I’m afraid. I think something more traditional would have been less distracting.

Man:   Yeah, maybe you’re right …

3

Man:   I saw Mike the other day.

Woman:   Oh, how was he?

Man:   Seems to be enjoying his new job.

Woman:   Oh good. He never has trouble making new friends, does he?

Man:   Well … he doesn’t really talk much about himself until you get to know him.

Woman:   I suppose. But he’s very easy-going – whatever goes wrong in his life, he seems to stay cheerful.

Man:   Well that’s true … nothing much seems to upset him, does it?

Woman:   But I’m not sure the new job is really him. He’d be better off long term in a job where he can help others.

Man:   Only time will tell. He needs to give it a try.

4

Well the deadline’s not for a while yet, so there’s plenty of time for you to choose your topic for your nineteenth-century history project and read up on it. There’s been a lot written on this period that you’ll find useful I’m sure. Books are a great source of information, as well as the internet of course – but check your facts carefully and use reliable websites. Also make sure you come and see me if there’s anything that’s unclear or you think I can help you with. Straight after a lecture is a good time to catch me. And finally, good luck, everybody!

5

Man:   We started off by covering the swimming championships together last year, didn’t we? And I reckon that helped us build an essential rapport with each other and the viewers. Presenting’s not something you can learn, though. It has to be natural, like adopting a suitably sympathetic expression when you’re announcing disappointing results.

Woman:   Well, I’d say presenters do best when they’re making it look fun and spontaneous, even if they’re actually sticking to a script. Nobody likes seeing presenters who aren’t having a good time. And they need to have that connection with whoever’s watching.

Man:   And the relevant subject knowledge always helps too.

Woman:   You’re right.

6

Well it’s a programme that’s on every week, about the countryside. It can get a little boring, but I listen to it anyway, as I always have the radio on when I’m driving home from work. I was curious when they started talking about a village, because it all sounded rather familiar. And then I realised they were talking about somewhere I’d been to on a family holiday as a child. I turned the volume up then, because I didn’t want to miss a word of it – not because I didn’t know quite a lot about the village already. I just wanted to know what they thought about it.

7

Woman:   That talk about next year’s assignment was good, but I’m not sure I understood everything. I liked the sound of having to perform a song or instrumental piece and record it in the studio.

Man:   … And you can get help from your team – thank goodness! The technical side’s not my strong point!

Woman:   But then there was something about a commentary.

Man:   Yes, you have to write a long commentary on it, saying how you organised everything and how you overcame difficulties.

Woman:   But are we supposed to also say how we think it went … you know, analyse our own performance?

Man:   Hmm … I can ask my sister – she did it two years ago.

8

Of course, it’s wonderful when your book is made into a film or a TV series. It’s the greatest compliment, but the hardest thing for a writer is handing your book over to someone else and letting their ideas take over. I’ve done it four times now and it doesn’t get any easier. When I met the current director I thought we’d be working together, but he listened to my views of how the film should be made, then completely ignored them! Despite that though, he’s done my writing justice and I’m glad he didn’t listen to me.

9 plastic   10 rules   11 field   12 stand   13 shoulders   14 tree   15 view

16 TV / television series   17 scoring / keeping (a) score   18 parents

Audioscript

Hello, my name’s Anne Ruskin. Thank you very much for inviting me to your college this evening to talk about my experiences on a one-day archery course.

When you were little, I imagine many of you, like me, used to have bows and shoot arrows from them – wooden bows you made from branches or maybe a plastic one like mine. Lots of kids love them – I even saw a little metal set in a toyshop the other day.

Anyway, I decided that now I was an adult I’d have a go at the real thing, and signed up for a beginners’ archery course. I had planned to read up a bit on the history of archery beforehand, not knowing much about it. But I ran out of time and only managed a quick scan through the rules. I’ve found out more about it since, and it’s fascinating.

The archery courses are generally held in a variety of locations, depending on the season and the weather. In winter, they even use a large gym if the weather’s really bad. I was happy that mine was in the field they use in the summer, though I suppose a medieval castle or some woods would be the ideal setting.

There was so much to learn, I really had to concentrate. It was far harder than I’d imagined to stand in the right way, but how to hold the bow correctly came to me relatively quickly. I was also taught to place the arrows in exactly the right position in the bow.

Soon most of my body was aching! The teacher showed me some exercises to strengthen my hands, so I’ll be able to grip the bow tightly for longer. He told me my shoulders were too tense and reassured me that my arms would eventually become stronger if I practised enough. I hope he’s right!

Perhaps due to beginner’s luck, most of my arrows went in the right direction, and into the target, though I never managed to hit the middle! And I did manage to hit a tree, narrowly missing a bench and a bag I’d left underneath it! That certainly wasn’t deliberate! Someone else hit the target next to theirs instead of their own!

There were regular breaks, and part of the appeal of archery is the delightfully calm rhythm. There was a lot of time to drink tea, and enjoy the view, and I did plenty of both. There were some archery books and photographs to look through showing us how we could improve, and some people took the opportunity to check their phones for messages, but I preferred to chat.

I asked some of the other people there why they had decided to do the course. In fact, I’d imagined it might be because of a website or something. In fact, it turned out to be because of a TV series. The archery courses are advertised on local radio too, but none of us had actually heard about them that way.

The teacher made sure we practised loads of shooting and it was thrilling when he finally let us do some scoring. There are rings on the targets, and you get points depending on where your arrow lands. It was fun to see how well I was doing compared to everyone else! And I must say, I wasn’t too bad!

I loved it, and archery is one of those rare sports that almost anyone can do, including children, though they must be over the age of ten. Some of my friends have said they’ll join me next time I go, and I’m working on my parents at the moment, in the hope that they’ll come along as well.

Thank you all for listening. I hope some of you will consider taking archery up. It really is a great leisure activity. Now, have any of you got any questions? I’d be happy to tell you more about … [fade]

19 E   20 H   21 C   22 F   23 B

Audioscript

Speaker 1

We decided to move our office from the centre of London to a town about thirty kilometres away. Our office in the centre of London was very expensive to run and we knew we’d make a lot of money from selling the building because it was in an excellent location. The administrative staff decided to resign because they enjoyed working in London and didn’t want to move. We had to accept that, but we had to dissuade our top managers from leaving, so some of the money we got from selling the building was given to them in the form of a bonus.

Speaker 2

Our company decided to move office at what would be a very busy time of year for our department. So a number of us in the department tried to get the date changed so that our work wouldn’t suffer. No luck with that, but at least senior management were aware of the problems we would have. I knew that everywhere would be in chaos on the day itself, so I collected as many empty boxes from the removal company as I could and was glad that I did, because in the end they came in handy for me to pack my stuff in.

Speaker 3

About three years ago we moved our office from one side of the street to another. First of all, we set up a small group of people to be in charge of the move and any requests had to go through them. That made everything more organised and democratic. However, quite a few things still went missing during the move. For instance, we couldn’t find the computer manager’s cupboard and eventually it turned up in our old building. OK, these things happen, but when you use a well-established company to do your move, you expect better.

Speaker 4

Moving offices always creates disruption, so we said, why not use this opportunity to reorganise where people sit. The offices are now arranged according to people’s responsibilities. So staff in each office can work together without having to phone one another. There were things we didn’t take into consideration though, like the size of the canteen, which turned out to be much too small. Moving to new offices is like moving house; many of the problems are the same.

Speaker 5

Always bear in mind the amount of thinking ahead that you’re going to need when you move. We took a few little things like the files we were working on at the time and our personal belongings, but we failed to give the removal company clear enough instructions about the rest. We couldn’t find several important invoices we needed to access, because they’d put them in the wrong room. We resolved not to follow it up, though, as it wasn’t really their fault. We found we needed at least two days; one to clear everything out, and the other to set it all up in the new offices. And then we spent months trying to find out where everything was.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   In our series of interviews about people’s jobs, we’re delighted to welcome Jane Brown, who works in the food industry.

Jane:   Hi!

Interviewer:   Now I know you studied home economics at Longley University, Jane. Why did you go there?

Jane:   Well some of my friends also studied home economics, and they wanted me to go to the same university as them rather than to Longley. If I’d done that, I could have shared a flat with them – that would’ve been fun but being closer to home really appealed to me and made getting used to being a student that bit easier.

Interviewer:   And did you enjoy the course?

Jane:   I loved it! I’ve always been interested in food chemistry, so that’s what I specialised in. The class sizes were small so the staff knew us all by name and all about us. I’d always enjoyed working with other people, and I did a lot of that on the course. The university also made sure we had plenty of opportunities to get out of the classroom and apply things we’d learnt in theory to real life.

Interviewer:   I suppose you also learned about things like food tasting?

Jane:   A group of us would all have to taste the same dish and try to decide if the general public would like it. As the training got more complex it became harder to agree, and there were even conflicts and tense moments. We had really long arguments about flavours, but it was worth it in the end.

Interviewer:   And what was your first job after university?

Jane:   I worked for a large food company, in the sauces team, testing out new recipes and making sure the quality of the sauces they produced was consistent. When I applied, I knew I could do it, and it was really a step along the way to something more interesting. But there were a lot of applicants and the food industry isn’t always an easy one to get into, so I was very aware of how lucky I was.

Interviewer:   Is there anything you particularly remember about that first job?

Jane:   Yes, I assisted in the development of a new product, a delicious cheese sauce! It was very different at first to be making decisions on my own and doing things without the support of the people I’d studied with for three years, but I coped pretty well, I think. The team I was in managed to reduce the salt content of the cheese sauce while keeping it tasty, which wasn’t straightforward. And then of course it was great to see it on supermarket shelves!

Interviewer:   Yeah, it must have been exciting! So what did you do next?

Jane:   Well that first company sent me to work in Denmark for two years. That was really interesting. Part of my job involved visiting local food companies, and that way I met lots of people I’m still in touch with who’ve helped me and taught me loads. And on a personal level, it was great to discover a new country and culture, as well as a whole new food culture.

Interviewer:   Out of all the different things you mentioned Jane, there must be some things you enjoy more than others?

Jane:   There are lots of different things I have to do. For example I have to interview clients, to find out about and understand what they need; I taste food to assess its quality – rather a lot of that, which actually isn’t always that great when the food gets really unusual! And then there are reports to write, which some people hate but I never mind. And lots of other things too, so every day is different. I really think I have a fantastic job and would certainly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in food and how it’s produced.

Interviewer:   Thanks very much, Jane, that’s been really interesting …