Listening 2026-09 Test 4

PART 1 Part one. You will hear a person phoning a holiday resort to inquire about booking a family holiday. First, you will have some time to look at questions one to ten. Now listen carefully and answer questions one to ten. Hello. I'm looking to book a holiday for my family. Do you have any recommendations? Absolutely. We have a wonderful holiday resort called Foxton Bay that is perfect for families. Is it close to the beach? We love spending time by the sea. Yes, it's located near a beautiful beach. They have professional lifeguards who provide peace of mind for visitors. It's indeed a safe place to visit. That sounds perfect. What other facilities does the resort offer? Along with the beach, we have a swimming pool that can be heated for a more comfortable swimming experience, especially during cooler climates or colder seasons. That's wonderful. Are there any other activities we can enjoy? Absolutely. We also have tennis courts for our guests to enjoy. Additionally, we offer bicycle rentals for convenient transportation. There are some fabulous cycling lanes near our center where you can take in the beautiful scenery. That's fantastic. What are the accommodation options like? We offer self-catering cottages with two bedrooms, each equipped with a fully equipped kitchen, including a microwave. You can prepare any dishes you like during your stay. That's wonderful. Are there any other amenities available? Yes, we also have a cozy living room with a TV offering numerous channels for your entertainment. Additionally, we provide a selection of family games that cater to different ages. That's exactly what we need. Will there be any provisions when we arrive? Certainly. When you arrive, we'll greet you with a welcome pack of beverages, including milk, tea, and other drinks. That's a nice touch. Are there any attractions or nearby towns that we can explore? Absolutely. There are several nearby towns with various attractions that you can explore. The closest town is just a forty minutes drive away, making it easily accessible. Is there a store nearby where we can buy groceries if needed? Yes, there's a supermarket conveniently located just a five-minute drive from the holiday park. It's perfect for our guests, especially if they want to have a barbecue party or need to stock up on essentials. That's very convenient. What about dining options? Are there any restaurants nearby? The nearest town has a fantastic selection of restaurants situated by the harbor. You'll find a variety of cuisines to choose from, and you can enjoy delicious food while taking in the beautiful sea view. That sounds lovely, but we don't want to travel too far for dinner. Is there anything closer? Actually, this town also has large amusement parks that are perfect for families with children. Additionally, there is a cinema if you're looking for entertainment options nearby. That's fantastic. What are the prices like for a week's stay? The regular price for a week's stay is nine hundred and forty-five pounds. However, for the week beginning August twenty-second, we are currently offering a discount, bringing the price down to nine hundred and fifteen pounds. And if you choose to stay one week later, the price will be even lower at eight hundred and forty-five pounds. That's a great deal. We'll take the week beginning August twenty-second then. We need to be back before the new school term starts. How do we proceed with the booking? Wonderful. I'll take your details and process the booking for you. That is the end of part one. You now have one minute to check your answers to part one. PART 2 Now turns to part two. You will hear a talk on New Zealand radio about an art sale which is being held to raise money for charity. First, you have some time to look at questions eleven to thirteen on page ten. Now listen carefully and answer questions eleven to thirteen. One of the most anticipated art events in Christchurch is the charity art sale organized this year by Neil Curtis. Neil, tell us all about it. Well, Diane, this looks like being the biggest art sale yet. And the best thing about it is that the money raised will all go to charity. So what you probably want to know first is where it is. Well, the pictures will be on view all this week, most of them at the Star Gallery in the shopping mall. But we have so many pictures this year that we're also showing some in the cafe next door. So do drop in and see them any day between nine and five. Now, if you're interested in buying rather than just looking, and we hope a lot of you will be, the actual sale will take place on Thursday evening, with sales starting at seven-thirty. Refreshments will be available before the sale, starting at six-thirty. We've got about fifty works by local artists showing a huge range of styles and media, and in a minute, I'll tell you about some of them. You're probably also interested in what's going to happen to your money once you've handed it over. Well, all proceeds will go to support children who are disabled, both here in New Zealand and also in other countries. So you can find an original painting, support local talent, and help these children all at the same time. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions fourteen to twenty on page eleven. Now listen and answer questions fourteen to twenty. Now, let me tell you a bit about some of the artists who have kindly agreed to donate their pictures to the charity art sale. One of them is Don Studley, who has a special interest in the art sale because his five-year-old daughter was born with a serious back problem. After an operation earlier this year, she's now doing fine, but Don says he wants to offer something to help other less fortunate children. Don is totally self-taught and says he's passionate about painting. His paintings depict some of our New Zealand birds in their natural habitats. One relative newcomer to New Zealand is James Chang, who came here from Taiwan nine years ago at the age of fifty-six. Mr. Chang had thirteen exhibitions in Taiwan before he came to live here in Christchurch, so he's a well-established artist and art has been a lifelong passion for him. His paintings are certainly worth looking at. If you like abstract pictures with strong color schemes, you'll love them. Natalie Stevens was born in New Zealand, but has exhibited in China, Australia, and Spain. As well as being an artist, she's a website designer. She believes art should be universal, and her paintings use soft colors and a mixture of media. Most of her pictures are portraits, so watch out, some of them may even be friends of yours. And then we have Christine Shin from Korea. Christine only started to learn English two years ago when she arrived in New Zealand, but she's been painting professionally for over ten years, and she sure knows how to communicate strong messages through the universal language of art. She usually works from photographs and paints delicate watercolors, which combine traditional Asian influences with New Zealand landscapes, giving a very special view of our local scenery. Well, that's all I have time to tell you now. But as well as these four, there are many other artists whose work will be on sale. So do come along on Thursday. We accept checks, credit cards, or cash. And remember, even if you don't buy a picture, you can always make a donation. That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers. PART 3 Part three. You will hear two students discussing their project on the relationship between climate change and allergies. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-five. Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-five. Have you had a chance to look at the information for our project yet, Beth? I've had a look at most of the stuff on the relationship between climate change and allergies, and the role played by pollen from flowering plants and trees. Yeah. Me too. The main message is that seasonal allergies seem to be getting worse. In just the last twenty years, the amount of pollen that's produced by the flowers on birch trees has tripled, and one in four people suffers from either hay fever or asthma, which is triggered by pollen. I read something about allergy sufferers being more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency because we no longer take cod liver oil as a vitamin supplement like many people used to do in the nineteen fifties in Britain. And since then, allergies have quadrupled in most European countries. But it was only in Britain that cod liver oil was so popular, so that argument doesn't really make sense. No, it doesn't seem that relevant. What seems to be happening now is that an increasing number of people are getting their first attack in their forties and fifties. Hmm. That must be because of the link with climate change causing rising temperatures. But CO2 levels are seriously affecting pollen counts too. As much as milder winters. Definitely. CO2 helps stimulate plant growth, and several recent studies have shown that when plants are exposed to more CO2, they produce more pollen. Really? So people might experience more severe allergic symptoms in future? That's right. Hmm. And another factor is that the pollen season is changing. Yes. Scientists are predicting spring will come five weeks earlier by twenty one thirty. That's in the long term, but that doesn't mean that spring will come earlier every year. Look at last winter. That was really cold until March, and the pollen season was delayed. Whereas this year, spring came earlier and lasted longer. Right. And another thing we should mention is ragweed. As an example of a plant species moving into new areas as a result of climate change? Yes. In the US, it's already the major allergen affecting millions of people in August and September. But we're starting to see it grow in Europe for the first time, which is really worrying because it's so allergenic. The problem with tree pollen is also worse in cities because there are so many hard surfaces around and the pollen doesn't get absorbed so much, just stays in the air. Yeah. Wasn't the pollen shown to be three times higher in one city? I think so. So because of this, many cities have started to ban the planting of certain types of trees. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-six to thirty on page six. Now listen and answer questions twenty-six to thirty. So shall we look at the different data tables for seasonal changes for pollen in Europe? Okay. But I think we should just focus on the trees and plants which we have the most data for. So that's oak trees and birch trees and grass. Yes. That makes it more manageable. Shall we go through the data for each country in detail and pick out anything interesting? All right. So, uh, starting with Austria. Well, here we've only got data for birch pollen. I wonder why there's no data for oak or grass. Hmm. It would be interesting to compare with neighboring countries. True. The picture in France is unusual. Yes. The pollen season starts earlier for both oak and birch, but it doesn't start any earlier for grass. I wonder why that is. In the Netherlands, we've got complete data for all three plants. So what does it show? Hmm. Grass and birch pollen are only starting a few days earlier, but oak pollen is starting much earlier, eighteen days, in fact. Hmm. That's unusual. There's not such a big difference in other countries. No. Switzerland's an interesting case. The pollen season starts here earlier than in the past for oak, birch, and grass. Yeah. From twenty-one days to fourteen days earlier. Yeah. The UK shows a different picture again. Yeah. Here, the problem is that wet summers have extended the grass pollen season from five weeks to eight weeks, which is bad news for allergy sufferers. Right. Well, I think we should have another... That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers. PART 4 Section four. You will hear a psychology lecture on the topic of laughter. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty. Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty. Today I'm going to talk about something I hope you will find amusing because the topic is laughter. Despite its prominence in daily life, there has been little research on laughter. So after I became interested in this subject, I started off by having three of my psychology students conduct an observational survey as a component of the course which was designed to focus on the methodology used in this field. The students and I observed twelve hundred people laughing spontaneously in their day-to-day worlds, from the university library to the city streets. Whenever we heard laughter, we noted down information about the exchange. As to our findings, well, we usually think of laughter coming from an audience after something funny has been said by a single speaker. But contrary to our expectations, the speakers we observed laughed about fifty percent more often than their audiences. Our observations also showed that simple everyday comments like, "Where have you been?" are far more likely to precede laughter than a joke is. In fact, only ten to twenty percent of the laughter episodes we witnessed followed anything actually funny. The gender difference in laughter is also striking. In our twelve hundred case studies, we found that while everyone laughed a lot, females laugh one hundred and twenty-six percent more often than their male counterparts. But men seem to be the main instigators of humor across cultures. I also had students in my classes note down in a diary instances when they themselves laughed. When they analyzed the results, they found that laughter for them was thirty times more frequent in social situations than when they are alone. This suggests that laughter is a signal we send to others. Now, moving on from this research to some more general observations, what do we know about the phenomenon of laughter and its psychological features? Oftentimes, if one person laughs, those around that person will also laugh even if they didn't hear or see what caused the laughter. Consider the extraordinary outbreak of laughter at one boarding school some years ago. The symptoms appeared when three students started laughing and couldn't stop. The symptoms rapidly spread, eventually affecting ninety-five students and forcing the school to close until the laughing stopped. Quite an amazing tale, I think you'll agree. What part of the brain controls laughter? Well, when a speaker laughs, the laugh usually occurs at the end of sentences or phrases rather than being randomly scattered through the sentence. This suggests that different regions of the brain are involved in speech, which is largely based on cognition and laughter, which is based on emotion. The physiological effects of laughter are incompletely documented, and their medical benefits are even less certain. But it is known that in many people laughter does, at least temporarily, raise blood pressure. Results of other studies have proved less definite. At least one study reported that comedy and laughter increased the levels of certain chemicals in the urine that were known to be associated with stress. On the other hand, other research in the US reported that laughter reduced these same chemical levels, which indicated the exact opposite effect. So it is far from certain what the effects of laughter are on these particular chemicals, and thus the ultimate effects of laughter in this regard. However, one of laughter's most promising applications, which has been rather extensively noted experimentally, is the reduction of the extent to which we feel pain. One American university study found that this was tolerated better by subjects who laughed at the films of certain comedians than by other subjects who did not watch the films. In another American study, patients who had undergone surgery and then watched comedy films requested fewer aspirin and tranquilizers than others who had viewed serious dramatic films. And science has long understood that laughter causes the prefrontal cortex of the brain to release a certain hormone which makes the person feel happy, although the exact mechanism is not completely understood, nor is its effect. Is laughter universal among humans? That is the end of section four. You now have half a minute to check your answers.