IELTS 7 Listening Test 1

Cambridge IELTS Evan Bayh University of Cambridge s all examinations published by Cambridge University Press

this recording is copyright CD one test one you will hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer

questions on what you hear there will be time for you to read the instructions and questions and you will have a chance

to check your work all the recordings will be played once only the test is in four sections at the end of the test you

will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet now turn

to section 1 section 1 you will hear a telephone conversation between a passenger and an official at the land

transport information service at Toronto Airport first you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5 you will see that there is an example

that has been done for you on this occasion only the conversation relating to this will be played first hello this is land transport information

at Toronto Airport how may I help you oh good morning um I'm flying to Toronto Airport next week and I need to get to a

town called Milton could you tell me how I can get there Milton did you say let me see I think that's about a hundred

and fifty miles southwest of here in fact it's 147 miles to be exact so it'll take you at least say three to

four hours by Road the distance from the airport to Milton is 147 miles so 147

has been written in the space now we shall begin you should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the

recording a second time listen carefully and answer questions one to five hello this is land transport information

at Toronto Airport how may I help you oh good morning I'm flying to Toronto Airport next week and I need to get to a

town called Milton could you tell me how I can get there Milton did you say let me see I think that's about a hundred

and fifty miles southwest of here in fact it's 147 miles to be exact so it'll take you at least say three to

four hours by Road Wow is it as far as that yes I'm afraid so but you have a number of options to get you there and you can always rent a car right here at

the airport of course right well I don't really want to drive myself so I'd like more information about public transport

okay in that case the quickest and most comfortable is a cab and of course there are always plenty available but it'll cost you you can also take a Greyhound

bus or there's an airport shuttle service to Milton I think for that kind of distance a cab would be way beyond my budget but the bus sounds okay can you

tell me how much that would cost sure let's see that would be fifteen

dollars one way or 2750 return that's on the Greyhound that's quite well whereabouts does it stop in Milton it

goes directly from the airport here to the city center and it's pretty fast but you have to bear in mind that there is only one departure a day so it depends

what time your flight gets in of course hang on would you two get there at 11:30 a.m. mmm too bad the bus leaves at 3:45

a.m. mmm too bad the bus leaves at 3:45 so you would have quite a wait more than four hours well what about the show

till you mentioned okay that's the airport shuttle that will take you from the airport right to your hotel or private address it's a door-to-door service and it would

suit you much better because there's one every two hours so how much does that cost let's see yeah that's $35 one-way $65 return so I

guess it's a bit more expensive than the Greyhound that doesn't sound too bad especially if it'll take me straight to the hotel but you do need to reserve a

seat okay is it possible to make a booking right now through you sure before you hear the rest of the conversation you have some time to look

at questions six to ten now listen and answer questions six to ten okay I just have to fill this form

out for you so what date do you want to book this for the 16th of October oh no sorry that's my departure date I

arrive on the 17th so booked it for the end please so that's the Toronto Airport shuttled to Milton and this is for just one person

oh right and you said your expected time of arrival was 11:30 so if I booked your shuttle for after 12:00 let's say 12:30

that should give you plenty of time to you know collect your baggage maybe grab a coffee yeah that sounds fine as long as we land on time well we'll take your flight

details so you don't need to worry too much about that now what about the fare what sort of ticket do you want one way yeah that'll be fine provided I can book

the return trip once I'm there no problem just allow a couple of days in advance to make sure you get a seat and what is your name please Janet Janet

Thompson is that Thompson spelled with a P no it's th o M s in okay and you'll be

coming from the UK what flight will you be travelling on it's Air Canada flight number I see nine three six from London

Heathrow right now do you know where you'll be staying we need to give the driver an address yes it's called that vacation motel and

I think it's near the town centre anyway the address is twenty-four Kitchener Street that's K IT

in our street that's fine right so that's $35 to pay please have you got your credit card number there yes it's a

Visa card and the number is three three oh three eight four five oh two oh four five

six eight three seven okay well that seems to be everything have a good trip and we'll see you in Toronto next week

yes bye oh thanks for your help that is the end of section one you now have half a minute to check your answers

turn to section 2 section 2 you will hear a representative from a holiday company called PS camping giving a talk

about the holidays the company organizes first you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16 now listen and answer questions 11 to 16

thank you all for coming to my talk this evening it's nice to see so many people in the audience for those of you who don't know very much about PS camping

let me start by giving you some background information about the company the company started 25 years ago it actually opened as a retail chain

selling camping equipment and then 20 years ago it bought a small number of campsites in the UK and began offering camping holidays the company grew

rapidly and has been providing holidays in continental Europe for the last 15 years if you book a camping holiday with

us you'll have a choice of over 300 sites in Italy we now have some 64 sites that we either own or have exclusive use

of France is where we have the majority of sites and we currently have a project to expand into Switzerland we also have a number of sites in northern Spain

particularly in the mountainous region of picos de europa we've upgraded all these Spanish sites and improved them considerably from their original three

star rating we believe our holidays offers superb facilities for the whole family parents who want their children to be fully occupied for all or part of

the day can take advantage of our children's activities these are organized by our well qualified and enthusiastic staff each day kicks off

with a sports match or perhaps football or volleyball followed by an hour of drama for everyone this may include singing or dancing mime or other

activities in the afternoon there's a different art activity for each day of the week including a poster competition

or model making what's more our sites are truly child-friendly and with this in mind we operate a no noise rule

evenings children's evening activities usually finish at 9:30 or occasionally 10 and from 10:30 holidaymakers are

expected to be quiet in the areas where there are tents we want nothing to go wrong on a PS camping holiday but if it

does we also want all our customers to be insured if you haven't organized an annual insurance policy of your own you'll need to take out the low-cost

cover we offer and we require that you arrange this when you make your holiday reservation there are many advantages to choosing PS camping and to recommending

it to others as a regular customer you'll be kept informed of special offers and your friends can benefit from 10 percent off their holiday or book a

luxury tent for the price of a standard one in return we'll send you a thank-you present which you can choose from a list

of high quality items before you hear the rest of the talk you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20

now listen and answer questions 17 to 20 when it comes to our tents these are equipped to the highest standard we really do think of every essential

detail from an oven and cooking rings fueled by bottled gas to mirrors in the bedroom areas if you don't want to cook indoors you can borrow a barbecue if you

ask in advance for one to be made available and there's even a picnic blanket to sit on outside your tent inside a box of games and toys can be

found and children's tents can be hired if required all tents have a fridge and if you want to spend the day on the beach for example ask for a specially

designed PS camping cool box which will keep your food and drinks chilled there are excellent washing facilities at all our sites with washing machines and

clotheslines in the central areas along with mops and buckets in case your tent needs cleaning during a stay all sites have a cafe and/or a shop for those

who'd rather eat in than dine at a local restaurant that is the end of section 2 you now have half a minute to check your

answers turn to section 3 section 3 you will hear a tutor talking to two business

students called Philip and Janice about their research on managing individuals first you have some time to look at questions 21 to 23

now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 23 well you've both been

looking at different styles of managing individuals and companies in the workplace how's the research going Philip well I've been looking at why individualism

I mean individual differences are such an important area of Management Studies when you think about any organization be it a family business or a multinational

company they're all fundamentally a group of people working together but it's what these individuals contribute to their places of work that makes you realize how important they are

of course they bring different ideas but it's also their attitudes and their experiences of learning diversity is important in these areas too so why do

people behave so differently from one another at work there are lots of reasons but research has shown that a lot of it comes down to personality and

the other factor is gender it's a well-known fact that men and women do lots of things in different ways and the workplace is no different did you look at the effects of this variation on

companies yes I did on the positive side exposure to such diversity helps encourage creativity which is generally an asset to a company

but unfortunately individual differences are also the root of conflict between staff and they can lead to difficulties for management which can sometimes be

serious before you hear the rest of the conversation you have some time to look at questions 24 to 30

now listen and answer questions 24 to 30 thanks Philip so now I guess the two main things to remember here are to

identify individual talent and then to utilize it so Janice you were looking at identifying different talents and workers do you think this is easy for

managers to do well currently teamwork is in fashion in the workplace and in my opinion the importance of the individual is generally neglected what managers

should be targeting is those employees who can take the lead in a situation and not afraid to accept the idea of responsibility mmm that's true Janice

but unfortunately many managers think the entire notion of encouraging individuality amongst their staff is far too hard yes that may be true but I

think one of the most important tasks of managers is to consider the needs of the individual on one hand and group cooperation and conformity on the other

it requires creative thinking on the part of management to avoid tension so Janice what kind of people do you think companies should be looking for well it

has to start from the very beginning when companies are looking for new employees when the personnel department is choosing between applicants they need to look for someone who's broken the

mold and can think for themselves instead people making these decisions often use a range of psychological tests to see if a person is a problem-solver

or will do as they're told I'm not convinced these qualities are actually the most important so do you think being

a good team player is overrated no it's not overrated you do need to learn the rules and learn them fast no individual can get around this if you're working in

an organization so how should managers deal with this rewards when an individual demonstrates the behavior the organization expects

it's some kind of incentive can be given what's important here is that this happens right at the beginning so new recruits learn the rules of the system

immediately also the incentives should be something the individual actually wants and this isn't always just money mmm come back to you Philip you were

saying that recognition of good performers is essential hmm now what else should managers be looking for well managing people means you not only have

an understanding of your employees but you also recognize the culture of the organization in fact for some organizations creativity and individuality may be the last thing they

want to see during working hours very true yes but managing people isn't as easy as it looks for example change in the workplace can be quite tricky

especially if there's a need to increase profit and at times like these managers may have to give priority to profit rather than individual staff needs hmm

yes and that creates difficult situations for people yes but what's important is that managers are able to deal with quite high levels of personal

stress during times of change they should be thinking not only about the strain on their staff but take time out

to think of themselves absolutely so what are the implications of that that

is the end of section 3 you now have half a minute to check your answers turn to Section four section four you

will hear part of a lecture about cave paintings and other types of rock art first you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40

now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40 good afternoon everyone this is the first seminar in

preparation for our archaeological fieldwork in Namibia we are fantastically lucky to have received partial research funding for this trip from our Institute so I shall expect

200% attention and participation from you all first in the seminar I'm going to give a brief introduction to contemporary research on rock art and in

the second part I'm going to give you some do's and don'ts for our fieldwork trip in April so please listen very carefully I first going to focus on the

interpretation of rock art in Namibia we are very fortunate to be going to an area where you can find some of the most important sites in the entire world and I hope to show you how easy it is for

everyone to make mistakes in looking at cultures which are different from our own the first and most important lesson we had to learn in Namibia there are both paintings and engravings that's

where the surface of the rock is cut out many of the engravings show footprints of animals and most scholars used to think that the purpose of these was

simple and obvious this rock art was like a school book with pictures to teach children about tracks which track belonged to which animal giraffe lion

and so on but there were some mysteries first when you look at a typical Namibian painting or engraving you see the tracks are repeated there are dozens

of tracks for the same animal you'd expect just one clear illustration if the reason the aim was to teach tracking now there were two more problems why are

some of the engravings of animals very accurate as you'd expect all clearly identifiable and others quite unrealistic and another mystery some of

these unrealistic animals that's in the engravings seem to be half human some for example have got human faces many researchers now think that these were

pictures the why man engraved of themselves they believed they could use magic to control the animals they had drawn so the hunters could then catch them for food this

shows you some of the dangers of coming from one culture to another as we'll be doing without understanding it fully scholars imagined that children looked at rock art pictures to learn to track

just because they themselves had learnt skills from pictures many researchers now believe that rock art had a much more complex purpose and we'll talk more about it next week

now before I invite you to join in a discussion in this second part of the seminar I'd like to make some very important points about our fieldwork and in fact any field trip to look at rock

art we're going to a number of sites and we won't always be together the single largest problem faced by people who manage the sites is yes I'm sure you've

guessed damage caused by visitors even though it's usually unintentional whenever you do go to a site don't forget you can learn many things from observing at a distance instead of

walking all over it this can really help to reduce visitor pressure people often say well there's only two of us and just this one time

but maybe thousands of people are saying the same thing and then some basic rules to guide you we'll have our own camp near a village but remember never to camp on a site if

you go on your own it may be disrespectful to the people of that culture and certainly don't make fires however romantic it may seem it's really

dangerous in dry areas and you can easily burn priceless undiscovered material by doing so so how are we going to enjoy the rock art on our field trip

by looking at it drawing it and photographing it never by touching it or even tracing it rock art is fragile and

precious remember that climbing on rocks and in caves can destroy in a moment what it lasted for centuries so no heroics in the

maybe er please try to be extra careful and help others to be too oh and lastly please don't even move rocks or branches to take photographs you should leave the

site intact I'm sure I can rely on you to do that well that's about all I want to say before today's first discussion but if you have any questions please ask

them now oh and um don't forget you'll find some fascinating information about worldwide sites on the Internet right

first question them that is the end of section 4 you now have half a minute to check your answers

that is the end of the list test in the IELTS test you would now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet