Practice English Listening Tests for B1 – Listening Test 36

8 A   9 C   10 A   11 C   12 A   13 A

Audioscripts

8   You will hear a brother and sister talking about a gift for their cousin.

Man:   So what do you think we should give our cousin Lucy for her birthday? She’s just moved into her new apartment.

Woman:   I think she’d like a microwave. In fact, I’ve already had a quick look online and seen a few special offers.

Man:   Shall we go and have a look in the big department store in town?

Woman:   What for? It’s likely to be more expensive. And besides, it weighs so much, can you imagine us trying to take it on the bus?

Man:   OK, but we’d better hurry up and order online, or they might not have any left.

9   You will hear two colleagues discussing their holiday travel plans.

Woman:   I’ve finally decided on my holiday plans. What about you?

Man:   Well, actually, I’m going to Greece next week. And you?

Woman:   We’re off to the coast of Ireland in a month’s time.

Man:   Going by car and the ferry again?

Woman:   Yes.

Man:   You most love it – you go there every holiday!

Woman:   I do. And this time we’re going for a fortnight, not just a week. So that’s exciting.

Man:   Wouldn’t it be better if you flew? You wouldn’t waste so much time getting to where you’re going.

Woman:   We like to be able to get around easily once we’re there.

10   You will hear a man talking to a friend about a fitness training session.

Man:   Hi Joanna. I’m afraid I can’t make today’s fitness training session.

Woman:   Oh? Are you OK?

Man:   Well, I’m not too bad. I had this really awful cold, which took about a week to get rid of. Fortunately it’s over now. But my doctor told me to take things easy anyway – I don’t know if I mentioned it to you – I need to have an operation on my foot on Friday. It’s nothing serious, though. I’ll be back at fitness training very soon.

Woman:   Oh good! Well, you take care then. See you.

Man:   Okay, but we’d better hurry up and order online, or they might not have any left.

11   You will hear two friends talking about a play they’ve just seen.

Man:   That play was really great, wasn’t it?

Woman:   I thought the second half was a bit less interesting than the first. You could predict exactly what was going to happen.

Man:   Really? I wasn’t sure how it would end. The actors were excellent though, weren’t they?

Woman:   Well actually I expected the performances to be a lot better. I must say though the costumes were brilliant.

Man:   I think you’re a bit hard to please when you go to the theatre, so why don’t you choose the next play we see?

Woman:   OK, well, I hope you’ll like what I choose!

12   You will hear two friends talking about a film and its soundtrack.

Man:   What are you listening to on your phone?

Woman:   The soundtrack to that film, Smash. Have you seen it?

Man:   Not yet.

Woman:   I’ve got it – we could watch it together. It’d be a nice thing to do after a hard week of work.

Man:   Cool. I’m free on Friday.

Woman:   I mean, the film’s aimed at kids, but I think you’ll like it. The music’s definitely popular with a much wider range of people. Some of it’s good old-fashioned jazz and soul, but it’s got a sound that makes you want to get up and move. It’s definitely as good as the film.

13   You will hear two friends talking about the news.

Man:   Why are you always looking at your laptop?

Woman:   I’m checking what’s happening in the world. I make sure I do it every morning before anything else.

Man:   So do I, I need to for my job. But I much prefer reading a real newspaper.

Woman:   But online I can focus on what I’m really interested in, rather than all the stuff about celebrities and sport stars. I just don’t care.

Man:   There’s a lot of that, but I must admit I always enjoy reading about their lives.

Woman:   Do you? Well, there’ actually more about that sort of thing online.

20 A   21 C   22 B   23 A   24 B   25 C

Audioscripts

Presenter:   Laura Dickson, you’ve already had two books of your poems published. How did you become interested in poetry?

Laura:   Well, my dad loves literature so there were always lots of poetry books on the shelves around the house, I used to spend hours looking at them. I’m pleased it happened that way, because there needs to be more time spent on it at school. I think students would enjoy it.

Presenter:   And how did you decide to turn your interest into a career as a professional poet?

Laura:   I started doing some classes in journalism. I showed my poems to the woman running the course. She was a well-known reporter on a national newspaper, and she suggested that I enter a poetry competition. I did, and two months later found out I’d come first. That’s when I knew I wanted to do this full-time.

Presenter:   So, I hear you’ve just finished a new book of poems. What’s it about?

Laura:   You never exactly know what poems are going to be about until you start writing them, and my previous books have included my thoughts about architecture – ancient and new. In this one, though, I focus on connections with the people I’m close to. I actually started out with the idea of writing about global warming and the environment, which is very different to what I produced in the end.

Presenter:   Your poetry’s very modern. Do you read poetry written a long time ago?

Laura:   Yes, I do. The words and style are often very different from modern English. But you soon notice how carefully the poems have been put together. I think they took more skill to write than many modern ones do.

Presenter:   And you’ve also started teaching poetry at a university recently. How’s that going?

Laura:   I’m certainly enjoying it, even if I’m not always sure how much my students are actually learning. Thankfully the other teachers have a lot more experience than me and are happy to share their ideas. I was warned about how much preparation there’d be, so that wasn’t too much of a shock.

Presenter:   And what are your plans for the future?

Laura:   Well, there’s a poetry festival soon, and the organisers have asked me to read my work at it. I’m hoping to turn some of my previous work into songs – after all, hip-hop and rap are just poetry with a tune. New poems come into my head all the time too – I’d get worried if I had to stop writing because I’d run out of ideas.

Presenter:   Thank you, Laura… (fade)