Listening 2026-09 Test 3

PART 1 Part one. You will hear a telephone conversation between a woman calling a home appliance company to report a fault with a new fridge and an agent at the company. First, you have some time to look at questions one to five. Now listen carefully and answer questions one to five. Hello, Superior Home Appliances. This is Ian here. Oh, hello. Yes. I have a new fridge, and I'm ringing to report a fault with it. I need you to send someone out to have a look at it. Okay. I'll fill in a customer complaint form and arrange for one of our repair agents to come out to you. Okay, then. Now, can I just get some contact details from you for the form? Your name is? Jessica. Jessica Brown. Okay. And if I can just get a contact telephone number. Our home phone number is five eight two three two two one zero. Got it. Now, can I get some more details about the fridge? Well, it's been playing up since yesterday afternoon. I see. And is it still under warranty? Well, I should think so. It's only a couple of weeks old. That's fine then. Now, I just need to get some more information about the make and model. Is it a top mount, a bottom mount, or a side by side? The freezer is on top. And have you got the model number there? Yes. It's here on the instructions booklet. It's S six five four three nine one X. Okay. So it's silver in color. That's right. I thought it was so much nicer than the usual white ones. Hmm. Now, if I could just get a few details from you. First, when did you buy the fridge? Well, as I said, it was only a few weeks ago, but I don't have the receipt in front of me at the moment. I do know that it was delivered on the sixth of February. Okay. Well, I can use that date to search on the computer. Um, mm. Ah, here it is. It says here you bought it on January the twelfth. Now, what exactly is wrong with the fridge? Well, my fridge is fitted with an alarm, and it started to go off. It made an awful noise. So what was wrong? Well, when I went to check the freezer, it felt pretty warm. It's ten degrees, and it should be minus eighteen, so everything is melting. And then the main part of the fridge doesn't seem to be working either. Mm, I see. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions six to ten on page two. Now listen and answer questions six to ten. I've made a note of that on the form, and I'll pass it on to the service agent. When can they come and fix it? Let's find the closest one to you. Um, let's see. That's Ken's Appliances, and they've got two centers in your area, one near the station and another one in the shopping center. Well, we're miles away from the shopping center, so the station one would be closer. I'll ring them in a minute. But I should warn you, it could take a day or two for them to get to you. What? What am I going to do without a fridge? Look, there's a fridge full of food there, and it's all going off. I'll have to throw it all out, you know. Yes, I do sympathize. It's not just that. This is going to affect my business. I run a sandwich shop, and that's where I keep my stock. Mm, I see. Look, Jessica, if you tell me how much the stock is worth, we can send you a check for that amount, though there is a maximum of two hundred and fifty dollars. Well, I've just filled it with a hundred and eighty dollars worth of meat and salad, so that would be something, I suppose. But how long is my business expected to survive without a fridge? It's just not good enough. Yes, I understand your concerns, but that's all I can really offer you. Well, I'd like to speak to someone higher up about this. Um, I can ask my manager to ring you back by close of business today. Would that be acceptable? Yes. Thank you. I do apologize for all the inconvenience. Is there anything else I can help you with? Actually, there is one more thing. The door has a dent in it on the left-hand side. It wasn't there in the shop, so it must have happened when it was delivered. I'd like that replaced too. I'll make a note of that too. You'll be hearing from us very soon. That is the end of part one. You now have one minute to check your answers to part one. PART 2 Section two. You will hear a coordinator talking to volunteer helpers before a race involving a large number of people. First, you have some time to look at questions eleven to fourteen on page three. Now listen carefully and answer questions eleven to fourteen. Thank you for all volunteering to help us with the Bridge to Brisbane Fun Run. The purpose of this meeting is to give you some information about your duties on race day. Some of you are asking about where you can park on the day. Unfortunately, some of the usual places, down by the river, for example, will be out of bounds because we'll need extra space for emergency vehicles. Probably the best option is the Jack Gray Sports Field in Barker Street. Although the closest parking lot is the Metro Shopping Complex, I would advise you not to park there as they tend to tow away people who aren't customers. At the start line, most of you will be checking that runners have the necessary gear, especially their electronic timing chip, the race number and the identity wristband. Make sure that the number is attached to the front of the running shirt or singlet, not the back. The timing chip, which records the runner's time, needs to be clipped onto one of their shoes, and check that they are wearing their wristband. Some of you will be responsible for organizing the starting groups. It's very important that runners start in a particular order. There is a system of color codes. The red group are walkers and people with baby strollers. The purple group are runners that expect to finish in less than one hour, and the yellow group are our elite athletes. We'd like them to start the race, and we'd like the other groups to follow after that, with the red group and the strollers at the very back. This is for their own safety. Now, we are still short on volunteers for the race day, so if you have any friends or family members who might be interested, please let us know. We're probably okay for people to help with the start, but we'll still desperately need volunteers along the race course to distribute water bottles to the runners. A few of you have offered to help with first aid, but the good people of St John's Ambulance have donated their services, so that won't be necessary. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions fifteen to twenty on page four. Now listen and answer questions fifteen to twenty. Now I'll show you the layout of the race village, which is where the race ends. Can you all see the map? If you look at the bottom right-hand side, you'll see where the runners enter the village next to the corporate catering section. As you continue along the course, you'll see the stage on your right. That's where the winners will receive their medals. Now can you all see the finish line near the center? After they finish the race, the runners can take one of two paths, it doesn't matter which one, to get their finisher's T-shirts from the T-shirt stand at the end of those paths. Many of you will be stationed there at the end of the race. After they finish, the runners will also want their belongings, and all bags are kept in the building on Bowen Road. It's quite close to the exit in the top left hand corner of your map. Now, some of you will have an important role working in the information center. That's the building in the center of the map, not far from the finish line. It's just below it on your map. And one other thing, can you all please remind the runners to enter in the prize draw for the new car? The entry box is between the shade tents and the corporate catering buildings. Okay, let's see now. What else do I need to point out? Ah, yes. The runners are always thirsty, and the main water station in the village is just beside the third exit through to Gregory Terrace. Can you see it there to the left of the corporate catering area? So everyone please direct the race finishers there to get their free bottled water. That is the end of section two. You now have half a minute to check your answers. PART 3 Part three. You will hear two architecture students, called Luke and Millie, discussing their assignment about the use of plastic as a building material. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-four. Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-four. Hi, Millie. Hi, Luke. So we're here to talk over our first assignment on alternative building materials. Yeah. I think it will be really interesting to learn more about how plastic has been used. I found lots of information from the nineteen sixties. So did you find out why the idea of plastic buildings wasn't popular with the public at that time? It wasn't the material's environmental credentials. The concept of plastic houses was just too futuristic. So you mean it was their appearance? No. People liked their modern design, but the idea of that sort of building as a home just didn't appeal. Right. I did some research on the kind of problems engineers had with the old plastics in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. What did you learn? Well, firstly, because plastic doesn't weigh very much, the buildings weren't very good in windy weather. They managed to fix that by amending the shape of the buildings. But the real disadvantage was that when the plastic was exposed to the light, it developed fine cracks, and when rain got into these cracks, the plastic would deform and lose its strength. Right. I wonder where we can find some more information about the situation nowadays. Maybe we could ask one of the PhD students. I expect they'll be too busy. Yeah, that's true. Well, we could always use the Internet. Maybe we should research more academic sources, like the journals we have in the library. Hmm. Okay. That way we can reference everything properly at the end of the assignment. Have you read Peterson's article about plastic houses? Yeah, it was really good. But it didn't have enough illustrations of the houses. That was a shame. They'd have been useful for us as examples in our presentation. I liked the way it was organized, though. That was really clear. Yeah, and it wasn't too technical. But you did need to know a bit about plastic houses before you read it to get the most out of it. That's true. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-five to thirty. Now listen and answer questions twenty-five to thirty. Okay. Well, shall we start comparing our findings then? Sure. I'll make some notes. Well, the earliest one I read about was a plastic house called The House of the Future that was built in nineteen fifty-seven, though no one actually lived in it. It was on show at a theme park in America for ten years. After that, they demolished it, but they had a hard time. It was really built to last. They couldn't break the plastic up. Was that the one that had an ultrasonic dishwashing machine? Yes. That would still be pretty revolutionary today. Did you read about the Wonder House? It was designed in nineteen sixty-four by an industrial designer called Alfred Noyes. Oh, the one with the roof like a sort of tent or an umbrella. That's right. The roof was made of fiberglass, and it curved down to the ground at each corner, enclosing a big central space. Then the sides were filled with glass or plastic. It was a really innovative idea for the time, but Noyes only made a small model, and the design wasn't implemented. Hmm. Pity. What about those spaceship houses they built between nineteen sixty-eight and nineteen seventy-eight? Like flying saucers. They built over a hundred of them. I don't know if I'd want to live in one. The living area was quite limited, and they had really low ceilings. But they do look really futuristic, don't they? With their white walls and circular shape, yes. But the plastic houses I like are the foam houses they built between nineteen seventy-nine and nineteen eighty-three. They've got really curvy shapes. They built them by spraying foam over a great big balloon. They were partly built to show what computers could do in the home, uh, things like controlling heat and light and so on. Quite new ideas at the time. And they were very well insulated as well, so they saved energy. People were just beginning to get into that. I read about a plastic exhibition hall that can all be packed away in a relatively small container. You just put it on a truck and take it to wherever you want it, then inflate it. You know, fill it up with air, and there's room for hundreds of people. And when the exhibition or whatever's over, you just take it down again, and you can reuse it again and again. And there's a house in New Zealand that's built from household and industrial waste, like plastic boxes. They say it's a much better construction material than bricks from the point of view of insulation. Yes. They're using that idea to build houses in other parts of the world too. Okay, well, it looks as if we've got plenty of stuff. That is the end of part three. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers to part three. PART 4 Part four. You will hear part of a presentation about the early history of salt. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty. Now, listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty. In my presentation, I'm going to talk about salt. In modern times, when we talk about salt, people may associate it with high blood pressure or increased heart risk, and many health experts warn that we should use less salt in our meals and dishes. However, we should not ignore its importance in our cuisine and even in early human history. Salt is one of the oldest, most ubiquitous food seasonings. The taste of salt is one of the basic human tastes. More importantly, salt plays an indispensable role in the health of human beings. For example, it regulates the body's acid-base balance. Because of its importance to survival, salt has often been considered a valuable commodity during human history. This can be tracked all the way back to ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and ancient Rome, when salt was highly valued and used as a method of trade and currency. In ancient Rome, the busiest road leading to the city was the Via Salaria, which means the salt route in English. A soldier's pay, which partly consisted of salt, was known as salarium argentum in Latin, from which we derived the English word salary. A soldier's salary was cut if he was not worth his salt, an expression still used today. In fact, salt was not only the first condiment discovered, but also the first preservative. We know today that food goes bad because microorganisms in the food multiply in abundance, and a high salt environment is not conducive to microbial reproduction. Extremely high concentrations of salt can even kill microorganisms in the food. The ancients certainly didn't know this, but they did know that salted food can be preserved for a long time. The use of salt as a preservative can be traced to ancient Sweden. At first, hunting was the principal means of livelihood. In this case, meat supplies were unlikely to be frequent. What's more, fewer animals were available for hunting. In order to ensure the supply of meat, many families in Sweden began to raise animals in the surrounding forests during the summer when the weather was suitable for animals to survive. These animals were fed every day until about three to four months later. That's in October, they were ready to be butchered for meat, and that was the only month when ancient Swedish people had fresh meat on their table. Then with the continuous increase in productivity, people finally had some meat left. However, how to store the meat had become a headache until someone invented a whole new way to preserve food, salting. People tried to keep meat from going bad by adding some salt to it, and it could be preserved for several months and even years. There was evidence that salt was widely used to preserve meat. Historical documents in fifteen seventy-three recorded the Swedish king's everyday meals, mentioning that one hundred and seventy-five pounds of meat was consumed each year, but over one hundred and fifty pounds was salty. From this, we can clearly see the importance of salt in Sweden at that time. In addition, the documents also noted the annual sales of beer in Sweden soared during that period, and this must be related to high levels of salt in their food. Now, let's turn to the sources of salt. Where is salt from? Well, salt is common in nature. It has long been found that salt can be extracted from seawater, mineral deposits, saline lakes, brine spring, etc. Among which the two most important ones are oceans and basins. On the floor of the latter often lie deserts where traces of salt can be found, such as the Sahara. Furthermore, the quality of different salt types varies a lot. For example, salt from seawater is always mixed with impurities. So after the salt is dried, the sediments and other chemicals need to be purified before eating. However, this is not the case with salt from spring water. We can hardly find any impurities, and the salt level is much more concentrated. Then, how did people distribute salt around the world? Of course, in modern times, we have various ways of transporting goods, but in ancient times it was not the case. Take ancient Sweden we mentioned before as an example. Because of the heavy use of salt in the diet, Sweden could not feed itself and had to import large amounts of salt from other countries. In order to make sure they could buy enough salt from abroad, the Swedish had to attach great importance to shipping and keep it undamaged, as it was the most crucial way at that time. While in other ancient countries, in order to distribute salt to other places, groups of men were employed. They put bags of salt on their shoulders or backs and moved them to the surrounding regions. And gradually, these people were considered as a mode of transport in early times. Later, with the improvement of traffic conditions, salt trade between different regions was boosted, and long-distance food trade was also promoted, making communication between different cultures more frequent and- That is the end of part four. You now have forty-five seconds to check your answers to part four.