Listening 2026-04 Test 4

==================== IELTS Listening Transcript ==================== PART 1 Speaker 0: Section one. Speaker 0: You will hear a telephone conversation between a woman who works at a volunteer center and a student finding out about how he can volunteer. Speaker 0: First, you have some time to look at questions one to five. Speaker 0: Now listen carefully and answer questions one to five. Speaker 2: Hello, Volunteer Center. Oh, good morning. I saw an advert about volunteering, you know, doing some unpaid work for charity, and I wanted to get some more information. Speaker 1: Sure. Can I take your name? Speaker 2: Yes. It's John Smith. Speaker 1: Well, hi, John. My name is Karen, and I'm one of the advisers here at the Volunteer Center. What would you like to know? Speaker 2: Well, I've been thinking about volunteering for a while, but then I was put off as I heard that you need to give a minimum of ten hours a month. Is that right? Speaker 1: No. There we do say people have to give at least five hours a month. That way both organization and volunteer benefit from the experience. Speaker 2: Right. Well, that would be much more manageable as I'm also studying full time. Speaker 1: Yes. Many volunteers are students and they seem to find that works for them. But can I ask? Are you at university every day, as we really need people to volunteer in the weekdays rather than over the weekend? Speaker 2: I was really hoping to be able to do Saturdays. Speaker 1: Oh, okay. Just what I ask. Now what else did you want to know? Speaker 2: Well, there was one other thing that was worrying me. Speaker 1: What was that? Speaker 2: Well, again, I've also heard that I would need to keep doing the job for ten weeks or more. Is that right? Speaker 1: Well, yes. This time your information is right. We ask for that as a minimum commitment. Many people carry on for years. It's a good amount of time for you to give it a fair go before you decide whether to continue or not. Speaker 2: Oh, I nearly forgot. Do I need to have my own car? Speaker 1: No, you don't need one. But if you have a driving license, that's a bonus for some types of work. Speaker 2: Right. Well, that's good. So how do I find out what's available? And what about actually applying for a post? Speaker 1: We have a database here, so I can look now and see what posts come up. Speaker 2: Would I need to go there in person? Speaker 1: Not straight away. The first step is usually to fill in an application form. Speaker 2: Would I find that on the website? Speaker 1: Yes. You'll need to give your personal details and experience and so on. Speaker 2: What about photos? Speaker 1: They're not necessary, but you'll need a couple of references. Speaker 2: Okay. And what happens after that? Will there be an interview? Speaker 1: There might be, though that doesn't always happen. Speaker 2: So some accept you just like that. Speaker 1: Well, if they think you could be good, then yes. Speaker 0: Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions six to 10. Speaker 3: Now listen and answer questions six to 10. Speaker 1: The search has come up with a few vacancies that should suit you. If I give you the basic details, okay? We have some work for volunteers who can offer domestic help. You'd be doing things like DIY, you know, putting up shelves and things, and you probably also be gardening for them, but not cooking. Speaker 2: And who would I be helping? Speaker 1: That depends, but it's often people who are sick. Speaker 2: Sounds interesting. Is there anything else I need to know? Speaker 1: Well, since these people can't get out much, they often enjoy having someone to talk to. So it helps if you are a friendly person who will chat with them. Speaker 2: Okay. And what about working in a charity shop? You know, where people donate stuff they don't need so the shop can sell it. Speaker 1: Yes. We do have a vacancy in one shop nearby. Speaker 2: Great. But it wouldn't be just making tea, would it? Speaker 1: No. You'd be doing things like arranging the displays in the windows, among other things. Speaker 2: And which charity would that be for? Who would the money raised be helping? Speaker 1: It would be for a charity that works to improve the lives of elderly residents in the area. Speaker 2: Right. I'd be happy to do that. Speaker 1: They also give you training on the job, so it can be really useful for people who want to work in customer service. Speaker 2: Oh, so that's a bonus. Now you might also be interested in our environmental project. We're looking for people to help clean up the local nature reserve this summer. Speaker 2: That sounds like it could be fun. What kind of work is involved? Speaker 1: Well, the main task is rubbish collection. You'd be working in a small team to clear the trails and the lakeside to protect the local wildlife. Speaker 2: I don't mind getting my hands dirty for a good cause. Is it a day trip or something longer? Speaker 1: It's actually a weekend project. The organization provides basic accommodation for all volunteers. Speaker 2: Oh, do we stay in a hostel or a local guesthouse? Speaker 1: Actually, to keep the impact on the environment to a minimum, everyone sleeps in a tent. You'll need to bring your own sleeping bag, but they provide all the camping gear and meals. Speaker 2: Sleeping under the stars? That sounds like a real adventure. I'd definitely like to add that to my application. Speaker 0: That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers. PART 2 Speaker 4: Part two. You'll hear the warden of a nature trail talking to a group of people who are interested in hiking on the trail. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14. Speaker 5: Good morning. I'm Susan Meyer, trail warden for the McFadden Hiking And Nature Trail. Let me tell you a bit about the trail. The trail is 25 miles long, running roughly east to west. To hike it, you may start at either end of the trail, or in between. You can hike the whole length of the trail, or just a couple of miles, because there are 20 entry points along the trail, each connected to public roads by short paths. For hikers coming from Johnson City, there's a shuttle bus to each of the two end points every morning and evening. And four of the entry points have a free car park with television camera surveillance. At one mile intervals along the trail, there are rest stations providing picnic areas, water, toilets, and places where you can recharge your electronic devices. In response to a poll of walkers last year, we've recently installed kiosks at each rest station with clear, easy to follow maps and other trail information. There are several distinct sections of trail. The Red Rock Walk offers a superb opportunity to study a huge variety of vegetation along the way. There's lots to look at, though you can't see great distances. Birds are actually hard to spot, but with a pair of binoculars and at certain times of day, you may see some rare varieties. The River Walk comprises about five miles of trail winding along the bank of the Mulder River. Personally, I prefer this section of the trail in winter. The river does freeze over, and the snow can accumulate, but that doesn't always discourage visitors. Sometimes, though, if the weather conditions are really unsuitable, we might have to close this walk to the public. But often it can get crowded with hikers who've discovered the attraction of the area. Speaker 4: Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20. Speaker 5: Now let me tell you about the Halfway Hostel, located approximately midway along the trail. It has a range of facilities available to help make your walking experience memorable. Let me give you some information about the various facilities available there. Of course, there are beds in dormitories for use at a very reasonable $7 per person, weekdays or weekends. Unfortunately, we found that pre booking beds just didn't work, so now we allocate them as people arrive, but we have extra cots and sleeping bags to help with any overflow. There are two family rooms, accommodating six people each, with private bathrooms. They are $35 per room, and for them you will need to make arrangements ahead of time, as they're very popular, especially at the weekends. A popular facility that we've recently added is coin operated washing machines for your clothes. You can get awfully wet and dirty if you're walking the trail in bad weather, and since we got these machines, you can put on clean gear when you set out in the morning. The hostel serves two meals a day: breakfast at $4 and dinner at $8, the same for adults and kids. There's always a vegetarian and a non vegetarian option, depending on your preferences. We do ask you to give a hand with serving and cleaning up after meals. We have plenty of showers and unlimited hot water available, so you can have this luxury at no charge, and you can enjoy it as long as you like. Now, some people like to spend time on the trail on mountain bikes, and maybe take a bit of a rest from all that walking, and that's permitted as long as you observe basic safety rules. The hostel's in the process of creating a bike rental scheme, which should be up and running next year. Speaker 4: That is the end of part two. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers to part two. PART 3 Speaker 4: Part three. You will hear a student called Ravi talking to his tutor, Doctor Chang, about research he is doing for an assignment on children playing outdoors. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26. Speaker 6: Right, Ravi. Tell me how the research for your assignment about children's outdoor play is going. Speaker 7: Yes. Well, I've been reading about why children spend less time playing outside now than twenty or thirty years ago. Speaker 6: So is it just because of the amount of online time that children have now, which obviously happens indoors? Speaker 7: Well, if that was the case, there'd be a correlation between high Internet use and low levels of outdoor play. And it's nothing to do with whether there are adequate facilities outside – playgrounds, for example, as any open space will do. There's perhaps no single more important factor than parental worries about the dangers of vehicles on the streets. Speaker 6: But it could also be that children today prefer playing indoors to outdoors. Speaker 7: Well, a study in Tokyo suggests it's the other way round, that children are spending more time in structured activities and out of school clubs than before. And this has a knock on effect on what's left for outdoor play. Speaker 6: Right. Your premise is that outdoor play is good. What exactly do you want to focus on in your assignment? Speaker 7: Well, not so much on things that apply to exercise in general, like children's muscles getting stronger because they run around, and not on what seems, for instance, self evident – that outdoor play helps children to concentrate on things other than lessons. Sure. I'd like to investigate some of the more unexpected benefits, like to children's digestion. This is because fresh air tends to stimulate hunger, perhaps leaving to one side the question of whether climbing trees helps educate children about the natural world. Speaker 6: No, not really relevant. What sort of decisions do outdoor games and activities force children to make? Speaker 7: Well, for example, how they decide how dangerous something might be. And I'd like to outline the main findings on that. Speaker 6: Okay. And as you're arguing that there's been a shift in play patterns over the last generation or so, how are you going to substantiate this? Speaker 7: Yes. Surveys have compared parents' recollections of their childhood play thirty years ago with what their children do now. And the nature of what children do when they are playing outdoors has changed. Speaker 6: How exactly? Speaker 7: Well, surprisingly, it's not so much how often children play outside or preferences for large or small groups, but the fact that the play sessions don't go on for as long. And games involving one child running after another who tries to get away – these are still as popular as ever. But one thing that has declined is improvised games, and I'd like to examine why this might be. Speaker 6: Interesting. And what about safety? Speaker 7: Well, from my reading, serious accidents are still rare. More kids hurt themselves falling out of bed than out of trees. Speaker 4: Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30. Speaker 7: I think the decline of outdoor play is a problem, which should worry parents. I mean, perhaps the children themselves don't miss it. They may be happy to spend lots of time indoors. But the links between inactivity and physical problems when they're adults are so well established that I think kids should be encouraged to spend more time outdoors with their brothers and sisters and friends. Speaker 6: What about schools? Speaker 7: Well, what I think they should do differently regarding outdoor play, and it wouldn't actually require a great deal of expenditure, is base their policy on different outcomes, like developing children's confidence, not just thinking about exam results. Although I don't know how it would go down with the parents. Speaker 6: And do children get more contact with nature in rural areas? Speaker 7: There's research on this by Smith and Barker. Intuitively, you'd expect children in rural areas to spend more time out in the open. But in fact, they are generally told to keep off agricultural land. Plus, there are difficulties with supervision outside towns and cities. Speaker 6: Right. And Smith and Barker's paper was published in... Speaker 7: 2001. Speaker 6: Not the most up to date, but still valid to use. But you'll need to stipulate very precisely that their focus was, if I remember correctly, just on rural areas. So you'd need to consider how far their restricted findings might be... Speaker 4: That is the end of part three. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers to part three. PART 4 Speaker 3: Part four. Speaker 4: You will hear a talk on the research of the behavior of chimpanzees. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40. Speaker 8: Welcome back to my series of short lectures on apes. Today, we will examine recent and historical breakthroughs on the behavior of chimpanzees, otherwise known as chimps. The word chimpanzee is an umbrella term for two different species of apes in the genus Pan, which are the common chimpanzee or pan troglodytes, found in West and Central Africa, and the bonobo or pan paniscus, which are found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Chimpanzees belong to the Hominidae family, together with gorillas, orangutans, and indeed humans. Current research tells us that the chimps broke away from the human branch of the Hominidae family approximately six million years ago and remain the closest living relative to humans to this day. More modern researchers into chimpanzees have centered on their behavioral characteristics once all biological and genetic factors have been ruled out. In this way, scientists have unearthed an unfathomable amount of similarities between human and chimpanzee behavior. Although much of this research has taken place through observation of captive chimps, the results are widely seen as an authoritative reflection of chimps living in the wild. Chimps live in large so-called communities comprised of many male and female members, with the social hierarchy determined by an individual chimp's position and influence. Through such research, scientists have found that chimps learn and adapt through observation of others' behavior. Once in power, the alpha male is often seen to alter its body language in order to retain power. For example, he might puff himself up in order to intimidate others, while lower ranking chimps are noted to behave more submissively and holding out their hands while grunting. Female chimpanzees also have a distinct social hierarchy with high social standing inherited by children. It is not unheard of for dominant females within a community to unite and overthrow the alpha male, backing another in his place. James Diamond, in his book "The Third Chimpanzee," suggests that chimps should now be reclassified in the genus Homo instead of Pan, and there are many arguments still in favor of this. Male common chimpanzees are on average 1.7 meters in height, weighing 70 kilograms, with their female counterparts being somewhat smaller. By comparison, the bonobo is slightly shorter and lighter, but with longer arms and legs. However, both species walk on all fours and climb trees with great ease. Jane Goodall made a groundbreaking discovery in 1960 when she observed the use of tools among chimpanzees, including digging for termites with large sticks. A recent study claimed to reveal that common chimpanzees in Senegal have been using spears sharpened with their teeth to hunt. However, these reports remain unsubstantiated. Researchers have witnessed such tools, namely rocks, being used by chimps to open coconut shells and indeed crushing nuts with stone hammers. As scientific technology has developed, so too has our knowledge of the sheer extent of the chimps' intelligence. Research has now shown that chimps have the capability to learn and use symbols and understand aspects of the human language, including syntax as well as numerical sequences. As I mentioned earlier, the umbrella term chimpanzee is comprised of the common chimpanzee and the bonobo. These two subspecies are divided along the Congo River, with the common chimps living on one side and the bonobos living on the opposite side of the river. Over the past few decades, both of these subspecies have witnessed an alarming decrease in population density, with animal activists now working harder than ever to protect those remaining and encourage procreation. In addition, next week's episode will focus more closely on how chimpanzees in captivity are able to learn things through imitating the behavior of humans, as well as how chimpanzees' behaviors have developed over many generations. Thank you very much for attending this evening's lecture. I hope you found it intellectually stimulating, and I look forward to seeing you again next week. Good night. Speaker 3: That is the end of part four. You now have one minute to check your answers to part four. That is the end of the listening test. In the IELTS test, you would now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.