Listening 2026-09 Test 5

PART 1 Part one. You will hear a woman telephoning the Hengrave Tourist Information Office to find out about the city's International Weekend. First you have some time to look at questions one to 6. Now listen carefully and answer questions one to 6. Good morning. Hengrave Tourist Information. Hello. Could you tell me what's happening during the International Weekend next month, please? Well, there's a major sports event. On Saturday afternoon, the local rugby team is playing against a team from France. Do you know if there are still tickets available? Let me just have a look. Yes, there are. The 20 pound tickets have sold out. In fact, they sold out even before the 10 pound tickets, but there are still a few at 15 pounds. They're selling fast, though, so you'll need to book very soon. Okay. How can I book? We're selling tickets here. How many would you like? 2, please. Right. I'll take your details later. Are you also interested in any of the arts events? There's usually a film festival, isn't there? Yes. It runs from 10 in the morning until midnight both days. Where's the festival taking place? It's usually at the town hall, isn't it? Yes, but this year it's outside in the park so that there's more room for spectators. And once again, the audience is being invited to write a review. There's a prize for the best one. I know. I won a whole lot of books 2 years ago. Well, this year it's a DVD collection. If you want to enter again, you'll need to contact the organizer, Cathy Edwards. Have you got her number? Yes. It's oh one 7 double 4 9 double 5 3 two one. That's her home phone number, so it's best to ring evenings or weekends. Okay, got that. Thanks. Are there any music events during the weekend? Oh, yes, several. A youth orchestra from London is performing at Hengrave Theater on Saturday evening. All the music they're playing is from various regions of Africa. It's part of the theater's Weekend of World Music. There'll be people playing informally all day, as well as the particular events. Mm, nice. What's happening on Sunday? Is there any jazz? You're in luck. We've got one of the top Brazilian groups playing on Sunday afternoon. Cool. I hope there are still some tickets. They aren't being sold in advance. You pay at the door. Right. Any other music events? Sunday evening, a local club is performing traditional songs from India. I've heard them. They're very good. There's certainly a lot going on. That's all the music events. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to 10. Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10. But you might also be interested in the market. The market? Don't they just sell clothes? No, it's a special one for that weekend. There'll be stalls with people cooking and selling food from all around the world. It's open from 9 till 4 both days in Market Square. That sounds good. And are there any exhibitions? There's a special exhibition showing how shipping has evolved over the centuries and contributed to international trade. That might be good. Is it at the City Museum? At the library. The museum is closed for renovation at the moment. Hmm. Okay, I might go to that. And on the Sunday of the International Weekend, there are a number of events focusing on literature. That sounds different. A well-known writer from Russia is going to discuss poetry and the difficulties of translating it. Good. I mustn't miss that. Is there a website with all this information? Yes. You can find full details on the International Weekend website. The address is hengrave.international@beaumond.com. Hengrave.international@... Could you spell the next bit, please? Of course. It's B-E-A-U-M-O-N-D dot com. Okay, I've got that. So I'd like tickets for the- That is the end of Part One. You now have one minute to check your answers to Part One. PART 2 Part two. You will hear a woman called Sandra Hayes, who works at a bird park, talking to a group of people who want to volunteer there. First, you have some time to look at questions eleven to fifteen. Now listen carefully and answer questions eleven to fifteen. Hello, my name is Sandra Hayes, and I'm from Clifton Bird Park. It's great to see so many possible volunteers here. The park is now a very popular attraction in this area. I think people love coming to see so many different types of birds in a beautiful environment. For some species that we have here, there aren't many still alive in the wild, so a big part of our job is to make sure we help their numbers increase. All the birds are native species. We need volunteers to help the bird park officers with different jobs. One of these is gardening. Obviously, summer is the time when we have most visitors, but the park needs looking after all year round. If you want to help, you can choose which day, although we do already have plenty of volunteers working Saturdays and Sundays. But one day every four weeks is the minimum commitment that we ask for. So who's the ideal volunteer for gardening work? If you have expert knowledge about flowers and trees, great, but we're looking more for people who are flexible and turn up no matter whether it's raining or baking hot. That's what'll make you the best person for the job. It's all teamwork, so you'll have plenty of support. What about volunteer guides? A guide's role is to point out the birds and talk about the conservation program. In general, it's people in a foreign tour group that you're responsible for. The Clifton residents who come to the park usually know their way around. We get a few teachers bringing in classes, but they're the park officer's responsibility. The last thing to mention is the park's maintenance day, which is coming up soon. We're hoping to get as many volunteers as possible to come and help tidy things up. If anyone is able to drive some other volunteers to the event, please let me know, because we need help there. The park officers will provide you with spades and drills and hammers, all of that stuff, and they'll be offering you some refreshments too. So it should be a good day out. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions sixteen to twenty. Now listen and answer questions sixteen to twenty. So here's a map of Clifton Bird Park. As you can see, the railway line runs along the northwest of the park, and road access is on that side too from Clifton Lane. We want volunteers to work in a few different areas on maintenance day, which is coming up soon. Firstly, the wooden bridge. I'll explain where that is. You can see Clifton Lane and the main gate into the park. On the southern side of Clifton Lane is one of our car parks, and below that there are two similar sized ponds. The wooden bridge runs between those two ponds. We just need to make it a bit stronger. Some volunteers will be doing a bit of painting at the observation tower. The tower's in the southeast corner of the map. You see there are two different sized ponds there. The tower's on the south side of the larger pond at the end of the path. We'll need about three people to help out. We need to replace the windows on the visitor cabins. So on the map you can see our car park on the north side of Clifton Lane. There's the woods and on the left-hand side of the map, the railway line. The visitors cabins are marked there between the woods and the railway station. You'll also be repairing some nesting boxes. See the picnic area? The path you want is between there and the big pond. Follow it round all the way to the end. So as we're looking at the map now, the nesting boxes are on the right of that pond. Finally, the boat sheds. Towards the top of the map, you've got that smallish pond quite near the railway line, and there are two places marked up there. The boat sheds are on the same side of the pond as the woods, not the place marked at the tip of the park. What we want you to do... That is the end of part two. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers to part two. PART 3 Section three. You will hear two industrial design students called John and Debbie discussing research for a presentation on a new building. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-six on page five. Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-six. Hi, John. Hi, Debbie. Should we get ready for our presentation? Yes. Well, we have to give a presentation to our seminar group about Education House, the new government building that uses cooling, heating, and water in an environmentally friendly way. Let's start with a diagram of the building so the other students can see what it looks like. Well, here's a very simplified diagram with symbols to represent key areas of the design. Shall we look at it and see if we can explain the different processes? Yes. Firstly, on the left-hand side of the roof, there's a cooling tower. Yes. This is where hot, stale air from inside the building rises naturally up a chimney. Uh, there are exhaust fans mounted on the roof that push the air out. Okay. Moving along the top of the roof to the right-hand side, we have the weather station. This monitors how cool the outside air is. Once this is assessed, then the information is fed to computers, and these activate the necessary heating or cooling processes. Okay. Let's talk now about the cooling processes. On the right-hand side of the building below the timber shutters is the part they call the shower tower. This is where water falls through a three-story tube, sucking in air from outside as it falls. The unusual thing about it is this fresh air actually helps to cool the building. Yes. It's amazing, really. Okay, below ground level in the basement on the right-hand side is a tank, which forms another part of the cooling process. The tank is full of small metal balls. Water passes through this tank. Each time it does this, the balls absorb the heat from the water, making it cooler without using any energy. What should we talk about next? Well, you see the balcony below the light shelf. What happens there? Rainwater is fed down from the roof, and this is where it's used to water the plants that cover the outside wall. What about the square above the light shelf? It represents a window, doesn't it? Yes. That's important to point out. Because the upper floor windows get more daylight than the lower floor ones, the windows at the top of the building are smaller than those at the bottom. This means energy is saved higher up in the building because not as much heat is wasted through large windows. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-seven to thirty on page six. Now listen and answer questions twenty-seven to thirty. Let's continue the presentation by giving our opinions on some of the features of the building. Let's talk about what we thought was surprising about the building. Yes. It's not out of the ordinary in terms of size. I mean, it's well under the height of the surrounding buildings. Also, in the past, I think people would have been surprised by the vegetation on the facades, but that's become quite common now. That's right. But we both agreed that the access to the building through a shopping arcade is quite unusual. Yes. The way in is behind a small cafe, which is not what you'd expect. Now, should we mention the findings on staff productivity in the building? According to one article, the access to greenery and vegetation is increasing productivity by relieving stress. Yes, I remember that article. Researchers have been monitoring this for a couple of years now, so the results are clear. But to be honest, I think it's pretty obvious that you feel calmer seeing greenery around you. Yes. We've been reading that in newspapers for ages, haven't we? So I wouldn't bother to mention it. Okay. So we haven't mentioned the edge space yet. You know, the place that's been marked for social interaction between workers, where you can have a coffee and a chat. What are your thoughts about it? Well, I'm just amazed the management allowed it. I'm sure all the staff love to get away from their desks. I would. I'm just not sure how much work I'd get done if I had an edge space to go to. [chuckles] I agree. Okay, let's think about the water system now. They want to supply one hundred percent of their own non-drinking water needs by recycling water, and it looks like they are on target to complete this stage of the project by early next year. But, you know, I don't think the staff are gonna respond well to this. I agree. People just don't like using too much recycled water, even though it's been proven to pose no health risks whatsoever. Well, I've really enjoyed researching this building. That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers. PART 4 Part four. You will hear a lecture on the production and history of natural and synthetic rubber. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to thirty-six. Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to thirty-six. Good morning. In this module, we've been looking at the production of some of the world's most important raw materials, and today it's the turn of rubber. Traditionally, natural rubber was produced on small holdings, and in case you're not familiar with the process, I'll just describe it briefly. The first stage in the process, known as tapping, involves making an incision in the rubber tree and removing a thin layer of bark. This procedure has to be done very carefully with a special knife, because if the incision is too deep, the tree will be damaged, and a white liquid known as latex starts to ooze out. Next, the tapper attaches a cup to the tree made out of something simple like a coconut shell to collect it. Tapping is usually started in the early morning because the coolness encourages the latex to flow easily. Later in the day, the tapper goes back to each tree to get the latex and take it to what you might call the factory. Although the procedures that take place in it are relatively simple. Here it is poured into a mold, and then formic acid is added to it, and the mixture is left for a few hours. The purpose of the formic acid is to thicken the liquid latex. So after some time, the latex is transformed into a solid block of rubber. This block of rubber is then pressed manually to turn it into a thin sheet, and then when it's thin enough, the rubber sheet is fed through a mangle. And I should point out that apart from this, no other machinery is used in the process. It's fairly simple, just a frame with two rollers and a handle to turn them. The procedure is repeated several times to get rid of as much water as possible. And finally, these sheets are taken to a special smoke room where they are dried, and you're then left with what are by now sheets of brown rubber. These are then sold to traders who collect them from villages and sell them on in turn. Before you hear the rest of the lecture, you have some time to look at questions thirty-seven to forty. Now listen and answer questions thirty-seven to forty. Well, that's the process then. Now, just a little bit about the history of rubber. Rubber was in use in America long before it became commercially important. The rubber tree was a native of Brazil, and there's an account from as long ago as fifteen twenty-five of people in Mexico playing with rubber balls. But it wasn't until the nineteenth century that Europeans recognized the usefulness of the substance, chiefly for clothing. Various attempts were made to improve the properties of rubber. One of the key discoveries was of a process known as vulcanization, which involved heating the rubber and adding sulfur to it. And the result was a substance that had a lot more strength and was also more elastic, making it suitable for a variety of uses. But the thing that gave demand for rubber a real boost was the expanding automobile industry at the end of the nineteenth century and the invention of car tires. During the twentieth century, rubber became so important that there were various attempts to develop a synthetic version, but none of them resulted in a product that was able to compete with natural rubber until Germany developed a successful substitute when its supplies of the natural substance were cut off during the First World War. Later, this was accelerated when the American government built its own rubber factories. So in economic terms, rubber's had an outstanding position in the global market for more than a hundred years. That is the end of part four. You now have forty-five seconds to check your answers to part four.