IELTS PREDICTION TEST

Agent: Hello, Bakewell Travel, how can I help?
Sarah: Oh hello, my name is Sarah Carter. I wonder if you could tell me about the price of plane tickets to Dubai.
Agent: Our computers are down, so what I can do is take some details about you and your travel plans. Then, when everything’s okay again, I can call you back. Alright?
Sarah: Okay then, right.
Agent: So, some details first. Your name was Sarah Carter, wasn’t it?
Sarah: That’s right.
Agent: And can I take a contact phone?
Sarah: (Q1) Number 07958 8472 22. Now, I’ll probably need to get back to you on this. Shall I call you back tomorrow morning?
Sarah: Uh, I work on Wednesdays. (Q2) Can you call me back on Thursday before 12?
Agent: Fine, okay. So Mrs. Carter, how many tickets will you need?
Sarah: Three adults and four children. (Q3) So seven all together.
Agent: Are all the children under the age of 14?
Sarah: They are, yes.
Agent: Which date do you wish to travel on?
Sarah: Well, uh, we definitely need to be there for the 24th. So if we leave the UK on the 22nd, we’ll have time to… from the 23rd. (Q4) So the 22nd of October. Not this month, next month… November.
Agent: Right. And I assume these are return tickets?
Sarah: Yes, we want to fly back on the Tuesday. Is that the 25th or the 26th?
Agent: It’s the 25th. So it’s going to be a short holiday?
Sarah: (Q5) We’re going to a wedding, we’re not going for a holiday.
Agent: Oh, that’s nice. Now, do any travellers have any special requirements? You know, special assistance with mobility and that sort of thing?
Sarah: Oh, um, well actually yes. (Q6) My son’s allergic to cheese. It makes him really, really ill.
Agent: Fine. So as soon as I can, I’ll look into finding some tickets for you.
Agent: Now, I wonder if I could just ask you a couple of questions as part of our market research. Would you be happy to do that?
Sarah: Will this take long?
Agent: Just a couple of minutes, that’s all.
Sarah: Okay.
Agent: So, how many foreign visits have you made in the last 12 months?
Sarah: About six, I suppose.
Agent: And where was your last foreign trip?
Sarah: Well, I was in Egypt in May, (Q7) then most recently India. Oh, nice! Yes, I’m off for some IT training in Bangalore next month, actually.
Agent: And was that a vacation?
Sarah: I’d love to go back there for a holiday, (Q8) but it was for business this time.
Agent: And I presume you use the internet?
Sarah: I do, yes.
Agent: And so you’ve seen our website?
Sarah: Yes, I had a look this morning actually.
Agent: Well, we had it redesigned a month ago, and we’re keen to get feedback on how our customers find it, so…
Sarah: Oh right. Uh, oh OK. (Q9) Well, I have to say I found it terribly slow, so I just gave up and thought I’d give you a call.
Agent: Oh well, I’m sorry to hear that, but yes, it does happen sometimes. Um, would it be OK for us to email you with any promotional offers?
Sarah: I suppose so. Well, OK. Uh, my address is (Q10) carter.s@speedtech.com.
Agent: Is that S-P-double E-D-T-E-C-H?
Sarah: Yes, that’s great.
Agent: And can I ask how you found out about Bakewell Travel?

Questions 1–10

Part 1 Questions 11–16

city hospital {B cooking lessons}
 
local government {E use of a greenhouse}
 
university {C advice on soil}
 
supermarket {D eat-to-keep-fit course}

Questions 17–20

Part 2

Katie: Hi Daniel!
Daniel: Katie, you look as if you’re off somewhere.
Katie: Yes, I was just heading out for a walk.
Daniel: (Q21) Hmm, funny. I was just reading an article about some research that’s been done on the effects of walking on creativity.
Katie: Huh, sounds interesting. I’ve always found walking helped me think, but this article confirms that everybody can benefit.
Daniel: Oh, tell me more.
Katie: Okay, but I may even do some more research on it at some point, so don’t pinch my idea, promise? Well, in the experiments, the researchers tested participants’ creativity by comparing how many ideas they thought of while they were walking, compared to while they were doing other activities.
Daniel: What, like listening to music?
Katie: Nothing like that. (Q22) But they did analyze the ideas participants came up with when sitting both outdoors and inside. What I found surprising was that they didn’t compare walking to other forms of exercise, like running for example.
Daniel: Right. So what was the difference between the experiments?
Katie: (Q23) Well, in each one, the activities were put together in different ways. Several of the experiments specifically focused on the ability of participants to come up with new ideas. Then the final experiment was a control test of sorts.
Daniel: Oh, right.
Katie: In one experiment, participants had to think of unusual uses for three everyday objects within a time limit.
Daniel: OK, and then there was an experiment with words. What did they ask them to do?
Katie: Compare words in unusual ways. For example, the word “sweet”. If participants simply said “sweet as sugar”, that wasn’t creative. But an answer like “sweet as a cat with honey on its paws” was okay.
Daniel: I can see why they’d ask them to do that.
Katie: Really? I just don’t see how the experiment is fair.
Daniel: Why?
Katie: Because the conclusions are based only on the researcher’s opinion.
Daniel: (Q24) I think it’s more that anyone who’d studied language would be at an advantage. Hmm, OK. Was there an experiment about focused thinking?
Katie: Yeah, there was. It aimed to find out if walking helped focused thinking, though I wasn’t sure that I agreed with their findings. They decided that walking doesn’t help this type of thinking.
Daniel: What evidence did they have?
Katie: Well, that’s it. (Q25) I don’t think there was enough evidence to support their conclusions, even if their methods were sound.
Daniel: Well, I’d certainly hesitate before making such a bold statement. Still, it’s a first step, isn’t it?
Katie: I suppose to move forward with this, they’ll need to test other ways people keep fit, like swimming. That would be useful. (Q26) But personally, I’d like to know more about the fundamental reason for the effect on people’s creativity.
Daniel: That would be good. Then it could be applied more widely in work, for example.
Katie: Again, that’s secondary, really.
Daniel: But how would you test walking if you wanted to assess its physical benefits?
Katie: Well, firstly, I’d like to know more about the benefits of different situations. What about the effect of footwear?
Daniel: Hmm, hadn’t thought of that.
Katie: Well, I’ve read that shoes with thinner soles were found to be better for people’s joints. (Q27) It even made the skeletal structure tougher.
Daniel: Interesting. Was that because they lost weight?
Katie: Not as far as I’m aware. And then there’s walking in the mountains.
Daniel: Walking in the mountains? Hmm, I think I’ve read something about that. Doesn’t altitude help people regulate their sleep patterns?
Katie: (Q28) It’s more that it improves your vision.
Daniel: It must be those breathtaking views.
Katie: Yeah. And what about the effect that walking has for elderly people? Better balance, by any chance?
Daniel: More than that. (Q29) It had a positive effect by helping them maintain their body clock’s natural rhythm, both when going to bed and waking up.
Katie: Right. And what about the effect of walking long distances?
Daniel: Well, a person needs to find the balance between their optimum speed and their natural breathing pattern. (Q30) Once they’re synchronized, they can just keep on going for much longer periods than they could before.
Katie: Hmm, I can see how that would work. But anyway…

Questions 21–26

Walking situations
 
walking with thin-soled footwear {F stronger bones}
 
walking in the mountains {C better eyesight}
 
walking for the elderly {E regulate sleeping pattern}
 
walking long distances {B greater stamina}

Questions 27–30

Part 3

Lecturer: Hello everyone. My presentation today is about the cave paintings produced by prehistoric artists about 30,000 years ago, and in particular, the symbols that appear in or near these paintings. These symbols are found deep in caves in many countries around the world, but the ones I’m going to talk about today are mainly European.
Firstly, a little about the most common symbols. The symbols that have been discovered are of different shapes and sizes. Some are easily recognizable as they’re quite simple. The most basic are just a series of dots, (Q31) but they may also include forms such as the triangle. However, other symbols are more complex. A case in point is the wavy line. This is sometimes used on its own, but the same wavy line is also used as part of a larger picture of a horse, (Q32) so we think this is what the wavy line represents (a horse).
One very important symbol is what’s called the hand symbol. This frequently appears on the walls of caves. I’ll talk about it in a bit more detail. Firstly, how it was made. The paint itself was made up from a variety of things that cave artists would have had access to. They had fire, so charcoal was one ingredient. (Q33) Another was the fat from the animals they would have hunted, and lastly, the saliva from their own mouths.
Then there’s the question of how they actually applied the runny paint onto the walls of the cave. It certainly wouldn’t have been easy. They would have had to use something hollow. (Q34) In fact, it’s likely to have looked like a straw—you know, like the kind we use for drinking nowadays. They’d have sucked the paint up into it, then blown it out.
Researchers have recently recreated both the paint and the processes used to make the hand symbols. The artist would have first put his hand flat against the wall, then blown the paint onto the wall, creating an outline of the hand. The researchers who’ve tried to recreate the process have said that not only is it a difficult technique to master, but (Q35) also that a strange noise is produced. It also led them to feel lightheaded, so we can only imagine that these cave artists felt the same.
I’m sure you’ll agree that these symbols are really interesting, but they’re also of vital importance. Researchers have now identified a total of 26 symbols commonly used in France and Spain. We only have this knowledge thanks to a database that’s been created and which is being added to all the time. It clearly demonstrates that many symbols are often used in particular combinations, even if they’re in different places.
(Q36) Although researchers don’t believe that these symbols are a language as such, they are happy to call them a type of code. There is evidence to support this idea. One sequence of five symbols is particularly common in caves in Spain. (Q37) Exactly the same sequence of five symbols has been found carved into a necklace made from the teeth of a red deer. So it appears that this combination of symbols may have had a special meaning.
Of course, many of these explanations are theory as opposed to hard facts, which is why there is disagreement among researchers about the significance of what we are seeing. One theory is called the “Great Leap Forward”. (Q38) The idea is that around 35,000 years ago, there was a sudden increase in creativity which led to the invention of the boat, among other things.
However, not everyone agrees. In fact, many scientists believe that what has been found in Africa seems to indicate that this increase in creativity happened much earlier. (Q39) One example of an artifact that is offered to support the idea is the discovery of different sorts of arrows, which would have been used for hunting. These scientists suggest that the reason more symbols haven’t been found from this earlier time is (Q40) because they would have been painted on things that did not survive, such as wood. In fact, we’re very lucky that caves have protected these specimens as well as they have, or we might never have known what these artists were capable of.

Listening Test 34

IELTS Listening Exam

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[COM] Information for fire wardens

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[Q1] Listening Test 26

[COM] Environmental Science modules

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[COM] Information for fire wardens

[Q1] Listening Test 26

[COM] Environmental Science modules

[COM] MOVING OFFICE

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