Practice English Listening Test for B2 with answer and audioscript – Test #59

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

Audioscript

1

Girl:   Did you see the final episode of Teenage Cooks?

Boy:   Yeah. I’ve never seen anything like those seafood dishes they made.

Girl:   Me neither. Apparently, they’re Malaysian specialities. It all looked really professional too, especially when you remember how terrible their food at the start of the series was. They were being trained by a top chef, though. It can’t be that hard to cook a few prawns with some ride.

Boy:   But those guys were only thirteen years old.

Girl:   True. They made the most of their opportunities too. I don’t know how they stayed to positive actually – you know, always looking so cheerful. I’d hate to spend hours on end in a kitchen myself.

2

Girl:   Sports day last year was an afternoon off from normal lessons watching the school’s best athletes do their thing and try to win the prizes. It was great seeing all the teachers and students chill out after the stress of another hard term. I’m not particularly sporty, so I didn’t have the chance to take part – I wasn’t picked to run, which was no surprise and didn’t really bother me. You were supposed to cheer for your team, but me and friends didn’t care that much who won, and you didn’t get the feeling that anyone was putting in much effort, which didn’t go down too well with the teachers.

3

Boy:   How did you find the film? I saw you covering your eyes in the scary bits.

Girl:   Yeah, there were times when I just couldn’t look. I didn’t miss much though.

Boy:   That’s good cos if you’d looked away for too long, you wouldn’t have understood what was going on. I didn’t think it was too frightening, but it was sometimes hard to follow.

Girl:   Well, we’d done that period in history at school, so I knew the background to it.

Boy:   You couldn’t complain about the acting, especially those two kids.

Girl:   Hard to believe they’re only thirteen. They certainly held their own with the adult stars.

Boy:   But I still wouldn’t want to see it again.

4

Teacher:   I’ve now been through your stories. You all stuck to the basic plot I gave you – a girl moves to a new school where everything’s strange and different from what she’s used to, and we find out how she deals with it. You described the challenges someone like that would face very well, and what you had the girl and other people saying to each other was particularly convincing – that’s how people actually speak. I did feel you could’ve included more details about the personalities of certain people, to help the reader imagine what they look like and how they behave. But, on the whole, you did a great job.

5

Boy:   What did you think of our visiting speaker then? The way he got across some very difficult stuff was great, and the visuals he used were helpful, I thought.

Girl:   I know what you mean – not sure I got my head round absolutely everything he said, though. But I thought the last speaker we had was really rather boring, so I was surprised this one kept my attention for the full hour.

Boy:   Mm, I didn’t think he’d manage to keep my listening like that. He’s coming again next term to do the subject in more detail, which’ll be good.

Girl:   I think that might’ve been quite enough detail for me, actually!

6

Girl:   I had to do a class on environmental studies last term. I really wanted to do more physics or chemistry, and I thought studying the environment didn’t count as real science somehow. I’m happy to say it was more challenging than I expected though, and I’ve changed my mind. It’s helped me understand chemistry and biology better. It’s given me the big picture and it’s made it easier for me to understand what’s happening in the world. I’ve realised that every day I’m making decisions that can help or hurt the environment, like picking up litter or turning off the lights when you leave a room.

7

Girl:   Did you enjoy World Sleep Day?

Boy:   Well, apart from those students who kept talking about how much sport they do, yeah, I did.

Girl:   I know what you mean. The day was meant to be about sleep, not doing loads of exercise to make you exhausted. But there was interesting information about how much sleep different people should get, and how lack of it can affect you.

Boy:   Well, thinking about it, lots of that stuff’s fairly obvious, though it’s worth being reminded of it. Like, as teenagers we need nine hours’ sleep a night to function well.

Girl:   Yeah. I’m going to go to bed an hour earlier from now on.

8

Man:   I first heard Janie singing in an all-girl band at school and I was singing on my own at the time. Her voice really stood out for me. You just don’t hear many singers like that. But I didn’t realise until later how great she really is.

Anyway, we were just good friends to begin with, and we were earning a bit of money at weekends singing with different support bands, each of us trying to make it individually, but without much success. But then it occurred to us that we should get together, just the two of us, and we haven’t looked back. It works brilliantly!

9 (computer/video) games   10 Wake up   11 newspapers

12 time   13 editor   14 (a) born leader   15 partner

16 teaching/teacher(‘s) assistant (in an IT class)

17 politics   18 ((a) good) imagination

Audioscript

Phil:   Hi! I’m Phil Sandwell and I was just twelve years old when I started my first business. At that time, there were plenty of websites giving information about almost anything anyone wanted to know, but I set up a website where people could play games and not pay anything. There were virtually no websites doing that at the time – it was a really new thing back then – I charged twelve pounds for each ad on the site and that’s how I made money.

So my first business, which I called Fun Factory, really took off and became well known. And at the age of seventeen I got the opportunity to be on a radio show for teenagers called ‘Wake Up’. It featured current affairs and things of interest to young people. I had a ten-minute slot giving advice on starting your own business. Unfortunately, the programme was axed after about a year, but I’ve included lots of the advice I gave in a book I’ve just finished writing for young people interested in going into business.

In the book, I give advice about how to get young people to buy stuff. I mean, if you want to sell things to other teenagers, you’ve got to know and where to advertise. For example, teenagers look at lots of magazines but don’t bother with newspapers so much, so there’s no point advertising there! Actually, the cheapest thing to do is produce well-designed leaflets.

Some people think that my book’s based on what I’ve done in my life, but that wouldn’t have been too successful because I don’t have enough business experience yet. I did some research into what was important for wannabe teenage business people. And one thing that kept coming up was that finding time was their greatest concert rather than finding the money or ideas, which surprised me a bit.

Of course, trying to get a book published isn’t easy. But I had an editor who was willing to check my book for free – my mum. And the designer of the front cover was my dad. Then I found a small publisher who thought the book would be a success and was willing to give it a try.

I’ve had various write-ups in the press – some people think what I do is boring, but others are more interested. One business mag recently said something that made me laugh. They called me a ‘born leader’! Anyway, that’s better than being called a ‘sad loser’, as somebody in a chat show once described me, rather unkindly!

But you can’t always be successful. I mean, two years ago I started a business with a partner, selling software. We ran out of funds and it looked as if it wasn’t going to survive, but we produced a decent business plan, and my bank gave us a loan. We were successful for a while, but then we had to sell up because we were having too many disagreements.

So at the moment, I’m studying business at college. But I’m also a teaching assistant in an IT class at a local high school, which is great, and because it’s only part time, I have no problem fitting it in with college work. A friend also offered me work as a business advisor in a small company he’d set up, but it would’ve been too much for me to take on.

I don’t know what I’ll do in the future. I’d like to try something different, though, in the area of politics rather than finance or writing. I know I’m good at persuading people to do things, so who knows, it might be my sort of thing.

What I’ve learned is that business people should have determination and lots of common sense, but having a good imagination, that’s the one thing you just can’t do without. You’ve also got to try to be flexible, of course, and be willing to take the rough with the smooth. Oh, and a sense of humour also helps!

19 E   20 F   21 H   22 A   23 C

Audioscript

Speaker 1

Girl:   Last term, my art teacher had us designing posters for school events. My group wanted to do the sports day poster, but our teacher decided another group should do it, so we designed the school play poster instead. The idea was that it should persuade people to go and see the play, and it seemed to have worked – various people said they wouldn’t have gone if they hadn’t seen the poster. It’s funny because we had endless discussions about whether it should show characters from the play or be more abstract. We finally went for my idea, the abstract design, which upset some of the group, but they ended up admitting they’d been wrong.

Speaker 2

Boy:   Our art teacher got us making face masks, with a technique called papier mâché. We tore up newspapers and mixed them up with sticky paste. Then we made different shaped masks with the mixture, and when it had hardened, we decorated it. Me and my friends didn’t know what to do at first, especially cos our teacher didn’t do a lot to help us. Once we got going, though, it was good fun. We even planned to make a whole set of masks, but then we thought we should concentrate on just one of them. It would’ve been nice to produce a few more – we had enough materials – but our teacher said we’d do something similar next term.

Speaker 3

Girl:   The art project we did was to make sort of sculptures and other stuff using recycled materials. My group made two statues out of a couple of large plastic bottles, some old clothes and various other things that we fixed onto the bottles. We had a great laugh doing it and I was amazed that our teacher loved the sculptures so much. But some people in the class said things like: ‘That’s not proper art.’ Comments like that get on my nerves. Maybe our figurers weren’t as good as they could’ve been, but they were OK, especially as we only had two lessons to do them in.

Speaker 4

Boy:   My art teacher organised a class competition to design a logo for an imaginary company that makes sports clothes. Working in groups, we had to design the logo and present it to the class. Everyone in my group enjoys arguing – we’re strong personalities – and it took us ages to agree on what our design should be. Going through the process, it became obvious how hard it must be for professionals to have ideas that are both original and effective. I hadn’t realised that before. We thought the design we eventually came up with was pretty good actually, but it didn’t win, which was such a pity because we really wanted it to.

Speaker 5

Girl:   Our teacher gave us a choice of projects. Me and two friends opted to paint a group portrait. We thought it’d be fun, but after a while, we realised we weren’t getting anywhere. Our first sketches looked ridiculous and other students in the class weren’t exactly kind about them. So, then our teacher gave us some advice about what to focus on. The final picture wasn’t exactly what we’d hoped for, but it was an improvement on our early efforts, and a lot of that was down to her. To be honest, the portrait should’ve been good because all three of us are actually quite good at art.

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

Audioscript

Interviewer:   Today we’re talking to the young magician, Jonny Frame. People around the world have seen clips on the internet of Jonny performing his amazing tricks. How did you start doing magic, Jonny?

Jonny:   It was when I was about twelve. I was small for my age and, for some reason, it was hard for me to make friends. My granddad, who I was close to, said I needed to make sure I was seen in a different way, and he taught me a couple of cool tricks. I did them over and over again with my two sisters, then tried them out at school. They worked brilliantly. Suddenly everyone there wanted to know me, and I saw what magic could do for me.

Interviewer:   Interesting. Where do the tricks you do nowadays come from?

Jonny:   I read a lot about great magicians from the past and some tricks I do have been around for ages. Some of my act is nothing like what anyone else does, though. It’s inspired by what I see in certain movies – like when things suddenly disappear and you don’t know how. I rehearse with a couple of friends, and their reactions tell me whether something’s going to work.

Interviewer:   Do you spend lots of time practising your tricks?

Jonny:   Yes. Anyone who’s ever tried magic will appreciate how long it takes to get a trick right. You have to be very disciplined and that’s not something everybody would enjoy. If you’ve seen my videos, you’ll know my act looks natural and improvised. I usually perform in public places – like shopping centres – and I keep my act short and move around a lot, so actually I only need to be really good at a limited number of illusions – but most people probably wouldn’t realise that.

Interviewer:   What are your typical audiences like?

Jonny:   I’m only twenty-three, so I’m often called a young person’s magician. In fact, I have lots of younger fans, and it’s them I mainly interact with on social media – they ask me where I’ll be performing and even stuff like where I live and what I do in my free time. But I’ve always appealed to different ages. What I’ve noticed though is that, as I get more exposure, expectation rise – people want better tricks than anything they’ve seen before.

Interviewer:   Do other magicians watch you perform?

Jonny:   Yes, online and live. I realise it’s a type of compliment, but I get very worried about what the top guys might think. I’ve got a long way to go before my magic’s up to their standards. But they all make comments to me afterwards, like: ‘That was original, I’d love to know how you did it’. They’re probably exaggerating, but it’s nice of them.

Interviewer:   What would you be doing if you hadn’t become a professional magician?

Jonny:   I don’t know. Even though I tried hard at school, I found most subjects, except art, really difficult. When I finished, there weren’t many opportunities open to me, but I loved doing magic. I entered a TV talent show and got through a couple of rounds, but didn’t get chosen for the final, which was very disappointing. But I didn’t consider any other careers. I just spent loads of time at home developing my tricks and working out how to make a living from it – which was probably a mistake because it would’ve done me good to experience other things.

Interviewer:   Could you offer other young magicians any advice?

Jonny:   Well, I imagine most people realise it’s not easy to do magic professionally – I’ve been lucky. But it’s great, even if it’s just a hobby, and what I’ve come to realise is that magicians vary greatly. Personally, I needed to work out what distinguished me from others, and how to show that, and I think that’s what all magicians should try and do. Some are great performers – and they’ve often done drama courses to help them. Others might be really good at the technical side and they’ll use the latest gadgets in their tricks.

Interviewer:   OK Jonny. Thanks very much. It’s been fascinating …