Đề thi thật IELTS Listening — tháng 10/2026 Test 11

Part one. You will hear a woman phoning a travel agent to inquire about holiday apartments in Greece. First, you have some time to look at questions one to five. Now, listen carefully and answer questions one to five. Greek Island Holidays. Can I help you? Yes. I hope so. I have a friend who's just come back from Corfu, and she's recommended some apartments in Arillas. She thought they might be on your list. Arillas, Arillas. Let me see. Uh, can you give me the names? Yes. The first, Rose Garden Apartments. I'd like to go with another friend in the last week of October. Well, we've got a lovely studio flat available at that time. I'm sure you'd enjoy the entertainment program there too, with Greek dancing in the restaurant. And the cost for each of us? Two hundred and nineteen pounds. That sounds very reasonable. I'm just jotting down some notes. Now, the second one she mentioned was called Blue Bay. Blue Bay. Yes. In fact, that's very popular, and it has some special features. Really? The main attraction is the large swimming pool with salt water. Hmm. Much healthier, I understand. That's right. And it isn't far from the beach either, only three hundred meters. And only around half a kilometer to some shops, so you don't have to be too energetic. Is it much more expensive than the first one? Let me just check. I think at the time you want to go, it's around two hundred and sixty pounds. Uh, no, two hundred and seventy-five pounds to be exact. Right. I've got that. Now, there are just two more apartments to ask you about. Um, I can't read my own writing. Something to do with sun, sunshine, is it? I think you meant the Sunshade Apartments. They're on a mountainside. Any special features? Yes. Each room has its own sun terrace, and there are shared barbecue facilities. Ooh, sounds lovely. Yes, it is rather well-equipped. It also provides water sports. It has its own beach. There are facilities for water-skiing. Any kitesurfing? My friend's quite keen. Not at the hotel, but I'm sure you'll find some in Arillas. There's also satellite TV in the apartments. And how much is that one? Four hundred and ninety pounds with two sharing. You mean two hundred and forty-five pounds each? I'm afraid not. Each person has to pay that amount, and there must be at least two in an apartment. Ooh, I don't think that would be within our budget, unfortunately. And the last one sounds a bit expensive too, The Grand? Actually, it's quite reasonable. It's an older style house with Greek paintings in every room and a balcony outside. Sounds nice. What are the views like? Well, there are forests all around, and they hide a supermarket just down the road, so that's very useful for all your shopping needs. Uh, there's a disco in the area too. And the price? Three hundred and nineteen pounds at that time. But if you leave it till November, it goes down by forty percent. Hmm. Too late, I'm afraid. Well, why don't I send you a brochure with full details, Miss? Nash. But don't worry about that. I'm coming to Upminster soon, and I'll call and get one. I just wanted to get an idea first. Well, that's fine. Uh, we've got plenty here when you come. 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. If you've got a minute, could I just check a couple of points about insurance? I got one policy through the post, but I'd like to see if yours is better. Fine. Uh, what would you like to know? Well, the one I've got has benefits, and then the maximum amount you can claim. Is that like yours? Yes. That's how most of them are. Well, the first thing is cancellation. If the holiday's canceled on the policy I've got, you can claim eight thousand pounds. We can improve on that, Miss Nash. Uh, for Greek Island holidays, our maximum is ten thousand pounds. That's good. Of course, our holiday won't even cost one thousand pounds together. [laughs] It's still sensible to have good cover. Now, if you go to hospital, we allow six hundred pounds. Yes, mine's similar. And we also allow a relative to travel to your holiday resort. My policy just says their representative will help you. You can see there's another difference there. And what happens if you don't get on the plane? Uh, nothing, as far as I can see on this form Don't you have, uh, missed departure? No, I'll just jot that down. We pay up to a thousand pounds for that, depending on the reason, and we're particularly generous about loss of personal belongings, up to three thousand pounds, but not more than five hundred pounds for a single item. Then I'd better not take my laptop. Not unless you insure it separately. Okay. Thanks very much for your time. You've really been helpful. Can I get back to you? Your name is? Ben Ludlow. That's L-U-D-L-O-W. I'm the assistant manager here. I'll give you my number. It's oh eight one two six oh five four three two one six. But didn't I phone oh eight one two six oh five six seven two nine four? That's what I've got on the paper. That's the main switchboard. I've given you my direct line. Right. Thank you very much for your time. That is the end of part one. You now have one minute to check your answers to part one. --- Part two. How to make a guitar. You will hear a man being interviewed on the radio about his work as a musician and a guitar maker. Before you listen, you have thirty seconds to read questions eleven to fourteen. Great to have you here today, Hamish. I've been a fan of yours for ages. The very first rock concert I went to when I was thirteen, your band was playing. Gosh, I'd like to thank this station too, Juliet. If I remember rightly, Ray Rogers' interest in Sound Hole's second album put us on the map. Good old Ray. Alas, who could forget when Sound Hole broke up and Ray wept live on his show? [clears throat] But to set the record straight, Sound Hole isn't getting back together despite rumors on social networks. My performing days are over. Even solo? Especially solo. Frankly, solo gigs were a nightmare. I was so anxious every time I went out onto a stage. Live audiences seriously scare me. Yet you've got such a rapport with them. You look so relaxed in those clips on YouTube. Yeah, well, one thing the social networks did get right is the reason I quit performing. Oh? I was manic when I was on the road with the band. Crazy. I'd stay up days on end. Back home, I was horribly depressed. I'd sleep for a week. My life was a mess. My first wife left me, and my second wife left me. I've got three children I hardly know. My son sent me a card just before Sound Hole split up, in which he'd written he'd seen more of me on TV than in the flesh. Before you listen to the rest of the talk, you have thirty seconds to read questions fifteen to twenty. Now listen and answer questions fifteen to twenty. So how long have you been making acoustic guitars, Hamish? Full time for about three years. My sister and I work together. She sources the materials and does the books. I build the instruments. I checked on the Internet last night, and it's a long process to make a guitar. You bet. There's at least fifteen steps. I won't go into them all now, but sourcing the wood, the first step, is crucial. Cheap guitars use softer wood, which equates with poorer sound quality. But harder wood is scarce these days. For instance, the back of a great guitar, historically, was made from Brazilian rosewood, but the supply is minuscule now. I use East Indian rosewood, which will also disappear soon. Likewise, spruce was once preferred for the top of a guitar, but I use cedar, which is more plentiful. I thought guitars were mainly mahogany. Cheap guitars, yes, but only the necks of good ones. The neck must resist distortion when pulled by the strings, and it mustn't swell or contract with changes in temperature and humidity. Mahogany's perfect for the neck. I like that wavy pattern you get on the tops and backs of guitars. How's that done? That pattern is called book matching. A thickish block of wood about half the size of the body is sliced horizontally. The two pieces are laid together with the grain continuous before they're glued. Right. The next two steps are to saw the top of the guitar into that sensual shape and cut out the sound hole. What's inside the guitar to control its vibration and improve its tone? Braces. Narrow little bits of wood glued in an X pattern. The process is known as strutting. The back also has strutting to reflect sound waves. Interesting. How's the neck made? It's carved from a single piece of mahogany, and a metal rod is driven up into it for reinforcement. How'd you get those lovely curved sides? Strips are cut, sanded, and soaked in water. They're molded until they're set in that shape. When everything's been glued together, the back, the sides, the top, and the neck, the guitar is put into clamps for several days. There are some other reinforcements too, like end blocks and bindings. I guess precision is the key to much of this work. Absolutely. In fact, guitar making has improved my mental health because everything's nice and slow and precise. I'm alone in my workshop dealing with wood. It has a calming effect. It seems as though you sound whole again. Please. No more silly puns on the name of our band. I spent fourteen years explaining that Hole was spelt with a W. That is the end of part two. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers to part two. --- You will hear two sports physiotherapy students called John and Cath preparing a joint presentation on foot injuries in sports players. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-six on page four. Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-six. I've had a look at your draft presentation plan and compared it with mine, Cath, and we seem to have the same basic structure. We've both included the same three main sections. That's the anatomy of the foot, the injuries, and the treatment, and we've organized our presentations in the same way. But the types of sports we've chosen to illustrate the possible injuries aren't the same. I'll deal with the anatomy bit. I've got notes and a handout on that from Professor Gilligan's lecture. Oh, I was hoping to do that. I've downloaded some useful stuff. I do think we should limit this section, though. We don't want to spend much time on anatomy when the main focus is on the treatment. That's true. But in the last section, maybe the two of us could show how some of these therapies actually work. I could be the patient, and you could do the treatment. Hmm, good idea. Because it's hard to find pictures, as injuries are mostly internal. [chuckles] It would be good to hear some first-hand accounts from injured athletes too. Yeah, but we don't have time. No. Should we then discuss different types of heel injury? It's worth pointing out that these vary enormously in how bad they are. It might be just a pulled muscle or a bone injury which needs surgery. Sometimes only an expert can tell the difference. Excellent. I'll do the slides on that. Leave that one to me. [chuckles] Now, what about causes of heel injuries? Well, it's easy enough to list them: overuse, improper footwear- Yes, um, incorrect running style. They're all relevant, but for simplicity, let's just pick one cause. Say stuff about changing your training habits suddenly. You mean like suddenly doing a lot of mountain training? Yes. Mm-hmm. That's a good idea, and there was research on that in the latest edition of Physio Journal, wasn't there? Professor Gilligan recommended it to us. Great. Uh, you can leave the bit on stretching techniques to me. I really like all that stuff. So what's going to be your approach there? Well, I'll summarize all the various techniques with visual support, and then I'll make the point that the stretching should be carefully managed. Obviously, you have to be careful not to overstretch and to stretch only when your muscles are warmed up. Otherwise, you could do yourself more harm than good. It's also important that on a supervised program, stretching is later on combined with balance exercises, which stretch and also strengthen the muscles. Okay then. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-seven to thirty on page five. Now listen and answer questions twenty-seven to thirty. It's always useful to have some information on case studies at the end in case we're short of material. Mm-hmm. Did you manage to find anything? Yes, a female runner in her thirties talking about her treatment for a swollen heel. Initially, she rested the injury. This did help to reduce the swelling, although it was still a little bit uncomfortable. Then she applied an ice pack to the injury twice a day. Did that work? Well, she persisted with this treatment for the first month but decided it wasn't helping. After this period, she was shown how to use deep tissue massage techniques and was surprised at how much freedom of movement this created in her foot. Wasn't she having ultrasound treatment? Yes, she was having sessions at the hospital, but she remained unconvinced about its value. She felt the same about the balancing exercises she was prescribed. Okay, that's interesting. I looked at the aftercare program of a male sprinter who was allowed to do some sports activity as part of his rehabilitation. After four months of treatment, he did some light running on grass, wearing shoes that gave plenty of support to his injured heel. So it didn't hurt? Well, he found the heel was sore afterwards, and the same happened with some jumping exercises he was asked to try. Did he go to the gym and use weights? Yes, after a few weeks, and if he used light weights, he could train without pain. He also tried cycling and found this beneficial, as his foot was not making contact with the ground. He expected a similar result with swimming but found the repetitive kicking motion was actually aggravating the injury. Well, both these case studies have value... That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers. --- Part four. You will hear a lecture about how the discovery of gold in the 1860s transformed New Zealand. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty. Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty. Well, today we're focusing on New Zealand in the 1860s, and in particular, how the discovery of gold transformed the country. At that time, gold had created great wealth in North America and Australia, and naturally, New Zealand was hoping for the same success. People knew there was gold in New Zealand. Some had been found in 1852, leading to a brief gold rush in which people had come from all parts of the world to see if they could dig up any for themselves. But now New Zealand needed experienced gold prospectors, people who knew where to look for the stuff to find it in other areas. So what the local government started doing in the late 1850s was promising a reward if these prospectors discovered gold anywhere in their province. The man who eventually answered the call was an Australian miner called Gabriel Read, who came to Otago in May 1861. The story goes that he was walking outside his tent at night when he saw gold shining like stars in a nearby river. It didn't take long for word of his find to spread, and soon thousands were coming to Otago to take part in the gold rush. Who were these people? Well, the men that came were predominantly laborers and tradesmen, and often very young, although some were married and left their families back in the countries they came from. But women did come too, to the towns that suddenly sprang up by the gold fields. They made a living by starting up hotels, simple ones, of course, where new arrivals would often stay. And then there were businessmen who knew there was money to be made by setting up services like hardware stores that sold mining and camping equipment, and of course, banks where gold could be deposited. In fact, the businessmen often did better than the miners. So as I mentioned before, where there was a gold field, a town began to grow too. At first, the buildings were constructed in a temporary fashion, just made out of materials such as canvas and timber. But later, once supplies started arriving, it was concrete, so the structures became more permanent. But the fact was, the gold fields were often in very isolated areas, so life was very difficult for these people. The miners were often working at the bottom of deep gorges, so they had to cope with freezing temperatures and also sudden flooding when winter ice melted in the mountains. If this wasn't bad enough, the miners also had to deal with another problem. Because they had to carry everything with them, they had a very poor diet. They mostly drank tea, and the main thing they had to eat was flour, which they cooked in different ways. That's all that was available. Anyway, some miners were lucky, others not. But the gold that was found certainly brought many benefits to the Otago region, and also a couple of problems. First of all, the town of Dunedin was suddenly transformed into the biggest city in New Zealand. Some of the original residents complained about how the value of land was increasing and about the inadequate sanitation. You can imagine how crowded it might have felt with the sudden influx of thousands of immigrants. But overall, the gold brought many positive changes to the city. There was immense investment and growth in the shipping industry, just what the region needed. Another unexpected benefit of this wealth was that it provided the funds for the first university in the country. As well as this, as the industry developed, there was a great demand for workers of all sorts, but most of all, there was a demand for experienced and skilled engineers. They often started their own companies, and many of these companies are still operating today. What we will discover next week is that these companies are still- That is the end of part four. You now have forty-five seconds to check your answers to part four.