IELTS Listening Practice Test

Part 1 · Questions 1–10

Part 2 · Questions 11–20

Part 3 · Questions 21–30

Part 4 · Questions 31–40

Part 1

Oystor Bay Sailing Club — telephone enquiry

WOMAN: Good morning, Oystor Bay Sailing Club. What can I do for you?

MAN: Hello there. I'm ringing to ask about courses for people who've never sailed.

WOMAN: Certainly. Would the course be for you?

MAN: It would, yes. I've been on your website but couldn't work out which one would suit me.

WOMAN: Right. Our Taster Days might appeal to you.

MAN: Perhaps.

WOMAN: They're designed for complete newcomers – essentially a first look at sailing, so you can decide whether it's something you'd like to pursue.

MAN: What's the price?

WOMAN: A single day costs £120 – though if a pair of you book, that drops to £110 per person.

MAN: It would only be me.

WOMAN: Not a problem. You'd join a small class – normally around eight people, and never more than ten – and the atmosphere is always welcoming.

MAN: I see. Are there other courses I should consider?

WOMAN: The alternative would be our Level 1 course. That's a weekend course spread over two days, and it runs throughout the year.

MAN: What's covered on that one?

WOMAN: A blend of classroom theory and practice on the water. You study topics such as the weather, which is vital knowledge of course, along with the tides, and you pick up fundamental sailing techniques. You take special beginners' training dinghies out into the harbour, two learners per boat with an instructor, who will make certain you're clear about everything to do with safety.

MAN: That sounds demanding!

WOMAN: It is, but there's plenty of enjoyment along the way.

MAN: And the price for that one is…?

WOMAN: £200 – slightly less if you decide to become a member, as club members receive a discount.

MAN: Hmm, I haven't decided about joining yet.

WOMAN: There's no hurry at all.

MAN: Is everything covered in that fee?

WOMAN: It is, everything's included – and you're also given an excellent dictionary explaining all the sailing terms. Newcomers often find the vocabulary tricky at first, and it's full of pictures, so I'm certain you'd find it valuable. Then, when you've finished the course, you receive a certificate, and after that you're ready to move up to Level 2.

MAN: Great.

WOMAN: I think that covers the main points. Just a couple of general matters. For one thing, you must know how to swim – that's essential.

MAN: I'm quite comfortable in the water.

WOMAN: Excellent. Also, wetsuits and life jackets are supplied by us, but you should bring swimming trunks and a pair of old trainers.

MAN: Should I pack a towel?

WOMAN: Definitely. And your own toiletries as well – shampoo and so on.

MAN: Right. And what about eating – do I bring my own food, or is there a café at the club?

WOMAN: There is – it sells sandwiches, cakes and snacks, all at reasonable prices.

MAN: Good. I think the Level 1 course is the one for me. But since I know absolutely nothing about sailing, is there any way I could prepare beforehand?

WOMAN: My suggestion is to watch the training videos we use – they're available online, and I can email you the link. They'll show you exactly what to expect.

MAN: Brilliant, thank you. One final question – I'll be arriving by bike and I'll need somewhere safe for my valuables. Are there lockers people can use?

WOMAN: There are, plenty of them, in the changing rooms.

MAN: Perfect. Could you put my name down for…

Part 2

Film-making podcast — starting out as a makeup artist

MAN: Welcome back to the film-making podcast. This week, Clare Lemar joins us to explain how to break into makeup artistry. Clare has spent more than twenty years doing makeup in the film business and has plenty of practical guidance for anyone starting out.

WOMAN: Thank you, Iain. Well, before anyone becomes a film makeup artist, they spend roughly two years working as a makeup trainee.

A sensible first step is a short film with a small budget. You won't be paid, naturally, but the experience usually justifies it. Do check that your transport costs are being reimbursed – and since catering is very rarely laid on, take plenty to eat.

With luck, you might begin on a big-budget production, where the experience is the most valuable. On films of that size, makeup and hair styling operate as separate departments – so leave the curling tongs at home! You'll most likely work with people of all ages, and with different ethnicities too. Special-effects makeup, however, is a highly specialised field, so don't count on being offered any hands-on experience there.

One downside of the makeup department is the constant pressure. Moments when you're bored, with nothing to occupy you, are rare indeed. It can be stressful, yet the best makeup artists remain thoroughly professional – even when working alongside directors who are impatient or unhappy with their work. Take your cue from your supervisor and keep calm whatever happens.

Over the years I've worked with plenty of very big stars. In the beginning I was so overawed I could barely get a word out. Better that, mind you, than becoming overexcited and requesting selfies. These days meeting the talent is simply part of the routine – and frankly, without all the makeup, most actors look fairly ordinary!

Every trainee needs a makeup kit and must keep it with them at all times. The essentials are quite enough for the sort of tasks you'll be set – nothing elaborate. It's worth looking at what the other artists carry in theirs – but never borrow a single thing without asking beforehand.

Building your portfolio matters enormously. Photograph all the work you do, ideally showing each stage of the makeup application. Remember, though, that you must get approval from the makeup designer who runs the department. And since portfolios are sent digitally these days, there's no need for printed photos.

WOMAN: So what does a makeup trainee actually do, day to day? You should consider whether you're the right sort of person for the job and whether you'd find it enjoyable. Here are some of the typical duties.

You may be asked to help prep an actor before their makeup begins. Some arrive with their skin already cleansed and moisturised. But at times you'll have to take over and complete this without losing a moment, or the makeup artist will fall behind schedule.

Trainees are valuable when it comes to continuity. You'll be expected to take photographs, record them digitally, and print a hard copy for each actor's file. These records must be kept in good order, because a reshoot can mean reproducing the makeup months afterwards.

General duties cover everything from making the teas and coffees to running a wash. A positive attitude, and a readiness to tackle whatever you're given, will help you land your next film job.

You'll never be asked to make up the principal cast – only the extras. And when dozens of extras are waiting, you must maintain a swift pace and avoid lingering too long over each person. Doing that well calls for real confidence.

Now, moving on to terms and conditions…

Part 3

Phill and Lucie — talk on ocean biodiversity and seminar resources

PHILL: Good lecture from the visiting speaker yesterday, wasn't it?

LUCIE: Yes, she taught me a great deal about ocean biodiversity. I'd read around the subject already – I even did an assignment on some related problems last year – but what I really appreciated was the way her talk concentrated on the longer-term issues.

PHILL: Agreed – matters that aren't attracting much attention now but are likely to count in years to come. That struck me too. Hardly a cheerful ending, mind, since it's difficult to imagine genuine solutions to many of the problems.

LUCIE: True, although she did indicate where changes to policy might help safeguard our marine and coastal environments.

PHILL: Mm, but only at national level. Her examples, on the other hand, were global, and they brought home to me just how wide-ranging the threats to ocean biodiversity really are.

LUCIE: Same here.

PHILL: That research project she outlined was impressive, wasn't it? I'd have thought having so many experts collaborating is fairly unusual.

LUCIE: Yes, and from such varied backgrounds too – it must have been an exciting team to belong to. A couple of the names were familiar to me – they'd been involved in studies back in 2009 warning of the dangers of ocean pollution.

PHILL: People are far more conscious of that now, though, aren't they?

LUCIE: I'd say so.

PHILL: Something else about the project – its members were based all over the world. Then again, that's hardly remarkable these days, now that everyone can work remotely.

LUCIE: Right. And I liked that she didn't drown us in figures – I mean, the numbers were there, but she concentrated on the broader points they revealed.

PHILL: Mm. And those advances in the systems used for tracking marine animals, and things like robots – fascinating stuff.

LUCIE: Yes, especially her account of how robotics can be applied to investigating threats to biodiversity.

PHILL: Definitely.

PHILL: While we're together, shall we run through the list of resources we're meant to assess for tomorrow's seminar? I've been through them all, though rather hurriedly.

LUCIE: Sure. What was your view of that piece on invasive lionfish? The one claiming they're spreading their habitat right across the Mediterranean Sea.

PHILL: Well, the writer kept insisting how dangerous they are in environmental terms – probably correctly – yet gave hardly any information to justify the claim.

LUCIE: My feeling exactly.

PHILL: I began the documentary on microplastics – at least, I started it – but once I realised it was made ten years ago, I stopped watching.

LUCIE: I stayed to the end, but you're right, it's really showing its age. Back then hardly anyone had heard of microplastics, whereas today everyone understands the danger they pose.

PHILL: Quite. Did you get through the podcast on ocean pollution?

LUCIE: Mm, though I got nothing out of it. Most of it was stating the obvious.

PHILL: It was – pesticides, plastic and so forth, all clearly labelled as bad things, which everybody knows already. What about Jon Harpur's book on coastal ecosystems – did you read it?

LUCIE: I did. Heavy going at first – masses of detail about things like the effects of offshore wind farms and fish farms – but by the end my understanding of the issues was far better.

PHILL: Same for me – a well-written summary of them, I thought. And the diagrams were a real help too.

LUCIE: The article on metal toxicity was completely beyond me. I knew nothing about how metals from industrial emissions behave in the ocean… and I still don't.

PHILL: I abandoned it in the first chapter – I simply couldn't follow it.

LUCIE: That podcast on floating marine cities held my interest, though the picture it painted was rather one-sided, I felt.

PHILL: Yes – it was all about the benefits to people, and the effects on the environment were ignored.

LUCIE: Anyway, shall we…

Part 4

Lecture — natural rubber and other sources

Most of humanity now lives within an industrial civilisation – something made possible only because the necessary natural resources exist. Industry could not function without three kinds of natural resource. The first of these is metal – no metal would mean no machines and no transport. The second is fossil fuels, the power source for those machines. And a third resource is needed to join the different parts of a machine together, with belts and pipes and shock absorbers, and that resource is rubber. It now appears in more than 40,000 products, everything from waterproof boots to surgical gloves.

Two kinds of rubber are in general use today. One is natural rubber, which comes almost entirely from the Parra rubber tree. Native originally to Brazil, it is nowadays grown on plantations across South-East Asia. Lately, though, anxiety has been growing that supply may fall short of the world's needs. What, then, is restricting the supply of natural rubber?

To begin with, rubber trees hardly appear overnight. Eight to ten years may pass before a tree starts to yield rubber, which makes cultivating them a slow business. That leads to a further difficulty. Growers of most crops can readily switch what they plant, or how much of it, whenever they see the demand for a crop climbing or falling. But when you must plant eight or ten years ahead, that becomes far harder. The tree is also highly particular about where it grows – it needs the right warmth, the right rainfall, and the right altitude, neither too high nor too low. The consequence is that it cannot be farmed in the northern or southern parts of the planet, only in the band around the equator. A further issue is that extraction methods have barely altered in hundreds of years: it's done by hand, by making small cuts in the tree trunk and fixing a little cup there to collect the latex, the name given to the rubber. Extremely labour-intensive. Nor do the limits end with production. Materials such as water and glass can be recycled once we've used them; with rubber, though this is also possible, it's so difficult in practice that it further reduces the amount available to us.

Recent years have brought fresh threats to the supply of natural rubber. One arises from the fact that nearly every rubber tree in South-East Asia is descended from a small handful of seeds carried over from Brazil in the nineteenth century. Genetic diversity among the trees is therefore minimal, and that in turn leaves them highly exposed to disease. The gravest danger is a fungus – the one that wiped out huge numbers of rubber trees in Brazil, and which could bring devastation to plantations across the globe. On top of that, farmers in South-East Asia are switching in growing numbers to palm oil, which is easier and more profitable for them. And finally, in recent years the region, like much of the world, has been hit repeatedly by extreme types of weather, a pattern that looks set to continue.

Rubber can, of course, also be produced synthetically, and for certain purposes this works admirably – for instance, making engine parts, or the silicone pots and pans used in cooking. Set against natural rubber, however, it is nowhere near as strong, which means it cannot replace the natural product in a range of goods. Car tyres perform well with a blend of natural and synthetic rubber, but only natural rubber can withstand the extreme speeds that aircraft tyres experience during take-off and landing.

So for quite some time, scientists have been hunting for alternative sources of natural rubber. One candidate, known about for years, seems improbable at first glance. It's a wild plant with yellow flowers – the kind we normally dismiss as a weed when it appears in the garden. Yet pull it up and slice open its roots, and rubber is found inside them.

Now, compared with the rubber tree, dandelions produce only modest quantities of rubber, but unlike rubber trees they are wonderfully adaptable. They will flourish in all kinds of locations, and they have no need of rich soil. Several projects are currently under way exploring the possibility of using dandelions as a rubber source.

A further possibility is a desert shrub cultivated in Mexico and Texas…