[0:00]You will hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer questions on what you hear. There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions, and you will have a chance to check your work. All the recordings will be played once only. The test is in four parts. At the end of the test, you will be given 10 minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet. Now turn to part one.
[0:36]Part one. You will hear two friends talking about a guitar group. First, you have some time to look at questions one to six.
[1:17]Now listen carefully and answer questions one to six.
[1:25]Hi, Coleman. How are you? Good, thanks. I wanted to have a chat with you because our friend Josh told me that you've joined a guitar group, and it sounds interesting. I'd really like to learn myself. Why don't you come along? I'm sure there's room for another person. Really? So, who runs the classes? He's called a coordinator. His name's Gary Matheson. Let me note that down. Gary, how do you spell his surname? It's M A T H I E S O N. Right, thanks. He's retired, actually, but he's a really nice guy and he used to play in a lot of bands. Thanks. So, how long have you been going? About a month now. And could you play anything before you started? I knew a few chords, but that's all. I'm sure everyone will be better than me. That's what I thought too. When I first spoke to Gary on the phone, he said it was a class for beginners, but I was still worried that everyone would be better than me. But we were all equally hopeless. Oh, that's reassuring. So, where do you meet? Well, when I joined the group, they were meeting in Gary's home. But as the group got bigger, he decided to book a room at the college in town. I prefer going there. I know that place. I used to go to tap dancing classes there when I was at secondary school. I haven't been since though, and I can't remember what road it's in. Is it Lock Street? It's just beyond there, at the bottom of New Street, near the city roundabout. Yes, of course. The guitar club is on the first floor in room T347. Right. And when do you meet? Is it at the weekend? We meet on Thursdays. It used to be 10:30, and that suited me well. But now, we meet at 11. The class that's in there before us asked if they could have the room for another 30 minutes. Oh, I see. Well, I'd love to come, but I don't have a guitar. Well, you can always buy a second-hand one. There's a website called The Perfect Instrument that sells all kinds of guitars, violins, and so on. I'm sure you'll find something there.
[4:34]Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to 10.
[5:00]Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10.
[5:07]So, what's a typical lesson like with Gary? Well, he always starts by getting us to tune our guitars. That takes about five minutes. Uh-huh. Some people have an app they use, but others do it by ear. Gary goes round and helps them, and while he's doing that, he tells us what he's going to do during the lesson. Right. First, we usually spend about 10 minutes doing some strumming. So, is that using, oh, what are they called? Plectrums? No, we just use our thumbs. Oh, much easier. Gary reminds us where to put our fingers for each chord, and then we play them together. Sometimes we all just start laughing because we're so bad at keeping time. So, Gary starts clapping to help us. Do you learn to play any songs? Yes, we do at least one song with words and chords. I mean, that's harder than you think. Oh, I'm sure it is. That part of the lesson takes about 15 minutes. He often brings a recording of the song and plays it to us first. Then he hands out the song and if there's a new chord in it, we practice that before we play it together, but really slowly. Do you do any finger picking? That's the last 10 minutes of the lesson. When we pick out the individual notes from a tune he's made up, it's always quite simple. That must be hard though. Oh, it is. But people like it because they can really concentrate. And if we're all playing well, it sounds quite impressive. The only trouble is that he sometimes gets us to play one at a time. You know, alone. Oh, that's scary. Hmm, it is. But I've got used to it now. At the end, he spends about five minutes telling us what to practice for the following week. Well, thanks, Coleman. I'll go and have a look at that website, I think.
[7:55]Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
[9:03]I never really planned to be a lifeboat volunteer when I came to live in North Sea. I'd been working in London as a website designer, but although that was interesting, I didn't like city life. I'd been really keen on boats as a teenager, and I thought if I went to live by the sea, I might be able to pursue that interest a bit more in my free time. Then I found that the Lifeboat Institution was looking for volunteers, so I decided to apply. The Lifeboat Institution building here in North Sea is hard to miss. It's one of the largest in the country. It was built 15 years ago, with funds provided by a generous member of the public who'd lived here all her life. As the Lifeboat Institution is a charity that relies on that kind of donation, rather than funding provided by the government, that was a huge help to us. When I applied, I had to have a health assessment. The doctors were particularly interested in my vision. I used to be short-sighted, so I'd had to wear glasses, but I'd had laser eye surgery two years earlier, so that was okay. They gave me tests for color blindness, and they thought I might have a problem there, but it turned out I was okay. When the Coast Guard gets an alert, all the volunteers are contacted and rush to the Lifeboat station. Our target is to get there in five minutes. Then we try to get the boat off the dock and out to sea in another six to eight minutes. Our team's proud that we usually achieve that. The average time across the country's eight and a half minutes. I've recently qualified as what's called a helmsman, which means I have the ultimate responsibility for the lifeboat. I have to check that the equipment we use is in working order. The crew have special life jackets that can support up to four people in the water. And it's ultimately my decision whether it's safe to launch the boat. But it's very rare not to launch it, even in the worst weather. As well as going out on the lifeboat, my work involves other things too. A lot of people underestimate how quickly conditions can change at sea. So I speak to youth groups and sailing clubs in the area about the sorts of problems that sailors and swimmers can have if the weather suddenly gets bad. We also have a lot of volunteers who organize activities to raise money for us, and we couldn't manage without them.
[11:44]Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
[12:11]Now listen and answer questions 17 to 20.
[12:18]The training we get is a continuous process, focusing on technical competence and safe handling techniques. And it's given me the confidence to deal with extreme situations without panicking. I was glad I'd done a first aid course before I started, as that's a big help with the casualty care activities we do. We've done a lot on how to deal with ropes and tie knots, that's an essential skill. After a year, I did a one-week residential course led by specialists. They had a wave tank where they could create extreme weather conditions, so we could get experience of what to do if the boat turned over in a storm at night, for example. Since I started, I've had to deal with a range of emergency situations. But the work's hugely motivating. It's not just about saving lives. I've learned a lot about the technology involved. My background in IT's been useful here, and I can use my expertise to help other volunteers. They're a great group. We're like a family, really, which helps when you're dragging yourself out of bed on a cold stormy night. But actually, it's the colder months that can be the most rewarding time. That's when the incidents tend to be more serious and you realize that you can make a huge difference to the outcome. So, if any of you listeners are interested, why don't you give us a call? Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
[14:20]Part three. You will hear two students called Bella and Don discussing a presentation they plan to do on recycling footwear. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24.
[14:56]Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.
[15:05]Hi, Don. Did you get the copy of the article on recycling footwear that I emailed you? Yeah, it's here. I've had a look at it. So, do you think it's a good topic for our presentation? Well, before I started reading it, I thought recycling footwear, well, although it's quite interesting, perhaps there isn't enough to say about it. Because we put shoes in recycling bins, they go to charity shops, and that's about it. But there's much more to it than that. I realize that now, and I'm keen to research the topic more. That's great. One of the things I didn't realize until I read the article was just how many pairs of trainers get recycled. Well, a lot of young people wear them all the time now. They've become more popular than ordinary shoes. I know. I guess they are very hard wearing, but don't they look a bit casual for school uniform? I don't think they're right for that. Actually, I think some of them look quite smart on people. Better than a scruffy old pair of shoes. So, do you keep shoes a long time? Yes, though I do tend to wear my old pairs for doing dirty jobs like cleaning my bike. I must admit, I've recycled some perfectly good shoes that haven't gone out of fashion and still fit, just because they don't look great on me anymore. That's awful, isn't it? I think it's common because there's so much choice. The article did say that recent sales of footwear have increased enormously. That didn't surprise me. No, but then it said that the amount of recycled footwear has fallen. It's 6% now, compared to a previous level of 11%. That doesn't seem to make sense. That's because not everything goes through the recycling process. Some footwear just isn't good enough to resell for one reason or another and gets rejected.
[17:14]Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30.
[17:51]Now listen and answer questions 25 to 30.
[17:58]So, let's find some examples in the article of footwear that was rejected for recycling. Okay. I think there are some in the interview with the recycling manager. Yeah, here it is. Let's start with the ladies' high-heeled shoes. What did he say about those? He said they were probably expensive. The material was suede, and they were beige in color. It looked like someone had only worn them once. But in a very wet field, so the heels were too stained with mud and grass to resell them. Okay. And the leather ankle boots. What was wrong with them? Apparently, the heels were worn, but that wasn't the problem. One of the shoes was a much lighter shade than the other one. It had obviously been left in the sun. I suppose even second-hand shoes should look the same. Sure. Then there were the red baby shoes. Oh, yes. We're told to tie shoes together when we put them in a recycling bin, but people often don't bother. You think it would have been easy to find the other, but it wasn't. It was a shame because they were obviously new. The trainers were interesting. He said they looked like they'd been worn by a marathon runner. Yeah, weren't they split? Not exactly. One of the soles was so worn under the foot that you could put your finger through it. Well, we could certainly use some of those examples in our presentation to explain why 90% of shoes that people take to recycling centers or bins gets thrown into landfill. What did you think about the project his team set up to avoid this by making new shoes out of the good parts of old shoes? It sounded like a good idea. They get so many shoes, they should be able to match parts. I wasn't surprised that it failed though. I mean, who wants to buy second-hand shoes really?
[20:17]Think of all the germs you could catch. Well, people didn't refuse them for that reason, did they? It was because the pairs of shoes weren't identical. They still managed to ship them overseas though. That's another area we need to discuss. You know, I used to consider this topic just from my own perspective. By thinking about my own recycling behavior without looking at the bigger picture. So much happens once shoes leave the recycling area. It's not as simple as you first think. And we can show that by taking a very different approach to it. Absolutely. So, let's discuss how we're going to split up the presentation.
[21:00]That is the end of part three. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to part three. Part four. You will hear a zoology student giving a presentation about an animal called a tardigrade. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
[22:19]For my project on invertebrates, I chose to study tardigrades. These are microscopic, or to be more precise, near microscopic animals, which belong to the phylum tardigrada. Most tardigrades range in length from 0.05 to 1 mm, though the largest species can grow to be 1.2 mm in length.
[22:49]They're also sometimes called water bears, water because that's where they thrive best, and bear because of the way they move. Moss piglet is another name for tardigrades because of the way they look when viewed from the front. They were first discovered in Germany in 1773 by Johann Gotze, who coined the name tardigrada. As I say, there are many different species of tardigrade, too many to describe here, but generally speaking, the different species share similar physical traits. They have a body which is short and also rounded, a bit like a barrel, and the body comprises four segments. Each segment has a pair of legs, at the end of which are between four and eight sharp claws. I should also say that some species don't have any claws. What they have are discs, and these work by means of suction. They enable the tardigrade to cling on to surfaces or to grip its prey. Within the body, there are no lungs or any organs for breathing at all. Instead, oxygen and also blood are transported in a fluid that fills the cavity of the body. As far as the tardigrade's head is concerned, the best way I can describe this is that it looks rather strange, a bit squashed even. Though many of the websites I looked at described its appearance as cute, which isn't exactly very scientific. The tardigrade's mouth is a kind of tube that can open outwards to reveal teeth-like structures known as stylets. These are sharp enough to pierce plant or animal cells. So, where are tardigrades found? Well, they live in every part of the world in a variety of habitats, most commonly on the bed of a lake or on plants or in very wet environments. There's been some interesting research which has found that tardigrades are capable of surviving radiation and very high pressure. And they're also able to withstand temperatures as cold as minus 200 degrees centigrade or highs of more than 148 degrees centigrade, which is incredibly hot.
[25:27]It has been said that tardigrades could survive long after human beings have been wiped out, even in the event of an asteroid hitting the Earth. If conditions become too extreme and tardigrades are at risk of drying out, they enter a state called cryptobiosis. They curl into a ball called a tun, that's T U N, by retracting their head and legs, and their metabolism drops to less than 1% of normal levels. They can remain like this until they're reintroduced to water, when they will come back to life in a matter of a few hours. While in a state of cryptobiosis, tardigrades produce a protein that protects their DNA. In 2016, scientists revived two tardigrades that had been tons for more than 30 years. There was a report that in 1948, a 120-year-old ton was revived. But this experiment has never been repeated. There are currently several tests taking place in space to determine how long tardigrades might be able to survive there. I believe the record so far is 10 days. So, moving on. In terms of their diet, tardigrades consume liquids in order to survive. Although they have teeth, they don't use these for chewing. They suck the juices from moss or extract fluid from seaweed, but some species prey on other tardigrades. From other species or within their own. I suppose this isn't surprising, given that tardigrades are mainly comprised of liquid and are coated with a type of gel. Finally, I'd like to mention the conservation status of tardigrades. It is estimated that they have been in existence for approximately half a billion years, and in that time, they have survived five mass extinctions. So it will probably come as no surprise to you that tardigrades have not been evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are not on any endangered list. Some researchers have described them as thriving. Does anyone have any questions they'd like to ask?
[27:59]That is the end of part four. You now have one minute to check your answers to part four.
