IELTS Trainer 1 Listening Test 3

Part 1 — A phone call about joining a drama club

Man: Hello. Robert Gladwell speaking. Woman: Oh hi. My name's Chloe Martin. I was given your name and phone number by Ben Winters. I work with him and he said you're a member of Midbury Drama Club. Man: Yes, I am. Woman: Well, I've just moved to the area and I'm keen to join a drama club. Man: Great! Yes, I can give you some information. We're one of the oldest drama clubs in the area as the club started in 1957. We now have about 60 members. Our youngest member is ten and our oldest member is 78. Woman: I think I saw a picture in the newspaper the other day of some of your members being presented with a prize. Man: Yes, the youth section did very well in a competition and won £100 which will help with their next production. Anyway, tell me a bit more about yourself. Woman: Well, I've done a bit of acting. I was in a couple of musicals when I was at university and a historical play more recently. Man: Mm ... we mainly do comedy plays. We get good audiences for that kind of thing. We haven't attempted a musical yet, but we might do one soon. Woman: Oh! When do you usually meet? Man: On Tuesdays. Woman: Presumably I'll need to do an audition? Man: Yes, there were a few auditions last Tuesday and we'll be doing more at our next meeting which is in two weeks' time, that's on Tuesday the 12th of March. There'll be another opportunity two weeks after that which will be on the 26th of March. Woman: Oh, well I can come to your next meeting. And if I don't get an acting part in a play, I'd be happy to help with something else. I've designed publicity before. Man: Great! We're very short of people who can do that, so that would be really good. There are a lot of people who like making scenery so we get plenty of help with that, but we haven't got enough people to do the lights at the moment so if you think you can do that or you have any friends who would like to, do bring them along. We can show you what to do if you haven't got any experience. Woman: Mm ... I'll have to think about it. So do you meet in the theatre? Man: We do our performances in The Manor Theatre but we only hire that for the nights of the actual performances. We meet to rehearse every Tuesday evening in the community hall. We rent a room there. Woman: Oh, I'm not sure where that is. I'll be coming by car because I don't live in the town centre. Man: It's in Ashburton Road. As you're coming towards the centre down Regent Street, you need to turn left at the crossroads. Woman: Oh, I know, there's a big car park down there, just before you get to a hotel. It's on the other side of the road from the sports centre. Man: That's it. That's the closest place to leave your car and you don't have to pay in the evening to park there. We meet at 7.30 and we usually finish by 9.30 or 10. Woman: OK! Man: I haven't mentioned that we have to make a charge. Everyone pays a subscription of £180 to be a member for a year. You can pay for the whole year at once or you can pay £15 every month. It works out the same. There are reductions for retired people and under-18s but I don't think you come into either category? Woman: No. I'm 26! Man: Oh! That fee covers all the costs like photocopying of scripts and producing the posters but it excludes the costumes for the performances. We ask people to pay for the hire of those themselves. It does mean they look after them properly as they know they won't get their deposit back otherwise. Woman: Mm ... can I come along to the next meeting then? Man: Of course. We'd love to see you. And if you want to know more about how we run the auditions or the next play we're doing, why don't you give our secretary a ring? She'll be really pleased to help you. Woman: What's her name? Man: It's Sarah Sawdicott. That's S-A-W-D-I-C-O double T. Woman: Got that. And her phone number? Man: I've only got a mobile number for her. Um ... just a minute ... let me find it. Ah! It's 07955 240063. Woman: Great. Thanks for your help.

Part 2 — A radio item about an arts and health charity

Fergus: And now here's Jasmine, who's come to tell us about this week's charity. Jasmine: Hi Fergus. This week I'm going to talk about Forward thinking and their plans for the Colville Centre. So, in recent years people have realised how useful the arts can be within healthcare. The idea behind Forward thinking is to use the arts to promote wellbeing. The charity develops projects for people with special needs and health problems, and also delivers training to healthcare professionals in using the arts, as well as supplying them with information and advice. Forward thinking doesn't just run art and craft classes to distract people who are ill, or recovering from illness, but arranges longer-term projects and courses, as it's been shown that the arts can bring all sorts of positive changes in patients, including benefits such as shortening the length of stay in hospital and reducing the amounts of medicine they need. Fergus: I see. Jasmine: Forward thinking has experience of working with a broad range of people from young adults with learning difficulties to older people in homes or daycare centres, and people with physical disabilities. The organisation's been around since 1986, and it gradually expanded during the 1990s. Then, in the new millennium, it was decided to find a memorable name, so it's been operating as Forward thinking for several years, er, in fact since 2005. It's quite a locally based charity, mainly for people in the southern part of this region, which includes all rural and urban communities outside the city of Clifton, which has its own organisation. There are of course some similar charities in other parts of the country, in London and so on. Fergus: Mm. And what's the present fundraising in aid of? Jasmine: Yeah. Well, the charity needs funding in order to buy the Colville Centre. This is a former village school, which was built in 1868. It was modernised and refurbished by the present owners last year, so it's ideal for art classes and for small social events, performances, seminars and so on. Forward thinking is fundraising to purchase the building so they can use it to continue running classes and so on for the general public and eventually also for some of the people they help. Fergus: Right, so can you give us a few ideas about what classes people might do there? Is it all art classes? Jasmine: Um, well, there are some very good art classes, but there are lots of other things going on as well. So, for example, there's Learn Salsa! with Nina Salina's team. They say that salsa is an easy dance to learn. It's also an excellent form of exercise, according to Nina, and that class is for both men and women, of course. It's ideal for beginners and what they call 'refreshers'. That's £100 for ten sessions. Then another class is called 'Smooth Movers'. It's with Kevin Bennett and it's for you if you don't have the same energy levels as you used to when you were a teenager. It's a gentle exercise class, geared to the needs of whoever is in the group in a particular session. And Kevin is qualified to teach classes to people getting over injuries and so on, and balance training. That's £60 for ten sessions. Then there's a day called 'Art of the Forest', with Jamie Graham, where you discover Upper Wood, a short walk from the Colville Centre, and learn how to design in 3-D with natural materials. It's an unusual and exciting way to be creative. Jamie is an artist, with a background also as a country park ranger. For this day, youngsters must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and the costs are: adults £40, under-14s £10, but it's best value at £80 for a family of four. The next one is 'The Money Maze', and this is a series of talks by Peter O'Reilly, an Independent Financial Adviser. He gives advice on family finances, things like everything parents need to know about managing the costs of bringing up children, sending them to university, and actually, also, about care for elderly relatives. It's £10 per talk, which will all go to support Forward thinking. And as a final example of what's on offer, there's 'Make a Play'. That's for 8-14s and this activity is such a hit that it usually sells out within days of being announced. Basically what you do is write, rehearse and perform a play in just two days and it doesn't require any previous experience. I gather there's lots of fun and silliness along the way and the best bit perhaps is that there's a performance for family and friends at the end. It's just £50 for two days. Fergus: Pretty good range of activities, I think. And all raising money for a good cause. Jasmine: Yes! And the all-important contact details are: colville@forwardthinking.org.uk or write to me ...

Part 3 — Two students discussing a city centre field trip

Tutor: Now, Stefan and Lauren. You worked together on the assignment for your Urban Geography course, didn't you? I know you made a plan of what you were going to do before you went on the field trip. Did you stick to it? Stefan: More or less! Tutor: OK. So where did you start? Stefan: Well, first of all we selected one area of the city to work in - we decided on the centre - and we looked in detail at how it has been developed by doing a survey. Lauren: Yeah ... We did that by walking round and dividing the area into different categories such as residential, commercial and industrial so we could record land use. We're going to find some maps from 50 years ago and from 100 years ago so we can look at what has changed. Tutor: Good! So that gives you a foundation. Then what did you do? Stefan: Um, I was interested in looking at how polluted the city was. Lauren: I thought that was too general a topic and would be difficult to check. But Stefan persuaded me and actually it was quite interesting because before we started, we assumed that a lot of the pollution problems would be caused by industry. Stefan: In fact, most of the industrial development has been on the outskirts and most pollution is caused by the traffic which passes through the city centre every day. There are five major road junctions around the edge of the city so we set up equipment to check the air quality on each of those three times on one day. Lauren: In the morning and evening, which is when most journeys are made in and out of the city, and at 2.30 in the afternoon. Stefan: On the same day, we went to the two busiest junctions in the morning and evening to calculate the traffic flow into the city. Tutor: Right. Stefan: We'll be able to produce some graphs from the figures we collected. Lauren: Yeah. Tutor: Presumably you then looked at where all these cars ended up? Lauren: I thought we should look at why people were coming into the city - um, whether it was for employment or education or leisure activities but Stefan thought that would be too difficult. Stefan: Because most people were in cars it would be hard to ask them. So we decided to spend an afternoon examining the parking facilities available instead. We established the capacity of each car park and we spent an afternoon counting cars in and out so we have an idea of how long people spend in the city centre. Tutor: So do you have evidence that most journeys are made by car within the city centre? Stefan: We checked local government statistics to see if that was true but they were inconclusive. Lauren: Everything is quite close together in the city centre and there are wide pavements so you would expect people to walk from one place to another. Stefan: So we chose a number of locations and we noted how many pedestrians passed a particular spot. Tutor: Um, how did you choose where to do that? Stefan: Oh, we stood at two places in the business district, one in the shopping area and the other was in an area where there are more tourists. Tutor: Right. Lauren: I thought it was really important to talk to people so we carried out a survey on how people usually travelled into the city. We asked them about their usual means of transport. Stefan: We found out that it varied according to why people were travelling - if they were employed in the city they wanted to get there quickly but if they were coming in for their leisure time they didn't mind using the bus. Lauren: That's all we had time for while we were there. Tutor: OK. So shall we talk about what you're going to do next and how you're going to divide the tasks up? How are you going to present the data you've got? Stefan: Well, some of the information can be presented as graphs or maps. Lauren: I'm quite good at the software. Stefan: You'd better do that then, Lauren. I'll help you check all the statistics before you start. Lauren: OK. Tutor: Um, it's good to present as much as you can visually. Is there anything else you can use as visuals? Stefan: Mm ... we've got a lot of photographs which we can go through. Tutor: Aha. Lauren: Er, we both took them so some will be duplicated. It's going to take ages to go through them all. Maybe one of us should just choose some. Tutor: It's better if you collaborate. That way you'll end up with the best of what you've got. Lauren: That's fine, we'll do that. Tutor: And, er, when the graphs and maps are done, you'll need to write a report, an analysis of the data. Will you do that together? Stefan: I think that should be my responsibility if we're going to share the work out evenly. I can use some of Lauren's notes as well as my own. Tutor: OK. And finally, you'll be presenting your project to the rest of the group in a couple of weeks' time. Lauren: We thought it'd be better for Stefan to do that as he's got more experience at that kind of thing. Tutor: I would prefer to have input from both of you as I have to do an assessment. Stefan: We'll take turns then. We'll divide it into sections and talk about a few things each. Tutor: Good. You'll find it easier, Lauren, than doing a presentation on your own. Well, if you need to ask me any more questions while you're working on this, email me. I look forward to seeing what you produce. Lauren and Stefan: Thanks!

Part 4 — A lecture on eighteenth-century Midlands pottery

Lecturer: Thank you for coming to this series of talks. Before I talk in detail about the experiments and innovations of the British ceramicists, I'd like to give you a summary of the social and manufacturing background in which they lived and worked. So, we're talking about England, or more specifically, the region known as The Midlands, and we need to go back, mainly to the eighteenth century and, briefly, even earlier, to put it in a global context. Now, at that period the majority of the population, whatever their station in life, as you might say, were dependent for their living, in one way or another, not on the geographical location of where they lived, but on the physical characteristics of the actual land they lived on. This is true, whether we're talking about the aristocracy, the owners of great estates, who incidentally had no snobbery about the concept of making money from all the reserves of coal, or timber, or stone on their rolling acres, or the farmers making a fat living from the rich soils. And besides these groups, and the less affluent ones, the deposits of iron ore and lead, the limestone and flint and the brown and yellow clays also sustained the numerous industries in the area. It's important to recognise that it was already an industrial region, and had been so for centuries. There were many Midland trades, some of them indigenous, some of them not. For example, there were immigrants from France who came as early as the late sixteenth century and they were producers of glass. A century later, there is plenty of evidence that the variety of trades was enormous: there was brewing in Burton-on-Trent; silk-weaving and ribbon-making near Coventry; framework knitting around Nottingham. And of course, in Cheshire men dug the salt, as we still do nowadays even, which in that era was sent downriver to the estuary of the Mersey. Now, among these well-established trades, one of the oldest of the local crafts was pottery. As you will probably be aware, ceramics has always been a mix of science, design and skill, and a good potter is in a sense an experimental chemist, trying out new mixes and glazes, and needing to be alert to the impact of changes of temperature on different types of clay. For two hundred years, up to the time we are concerned with, potters had been making butterpots and pitchers and patterned plates, using the clay which was plentiful in the area where they lived - in a handful of North Staffordshire villages dotted along the low hills. Now I want to explain a little about the industrial processes which had preceded the great breakthrough in Germany in 1708. That's when the formula for porcelain was discovered, a secret that had been held in China for a thousand years. In the Midlands, in England, as elsewhere, there had basically been two kinds of pottery. The first was known, is still known, as 'earthenware'. Now this was a bit rough and ready, but it was deservedly popular for several reasons. To start with, it was relatively cheap, so it could be used by most households. This was because it could be made from local clay without any complicated processing or added materials. From the potter's point of view there was another reason for its cheapness. This was that it could be fired in simple ovens, or kilns, and at relatively low temperatures, so he didn't have to spend so much money on fuel to achieve the necessary heat. On the other hand, after one firing in the kiln, the problem with earthenware was that it remained porous so had limited usefulness. So for most purposes it had to go back in the kiln for a second firing before it became waterproof. And another thing was that it was extremely breakable - I mean, before it had even been sold. I suppose the potter wouldn't have minded so much if people just had to keep coming back for more every time they broke a jug or whatever! - but it was very inconvenient because it meant there was a lot of wastage in the course of the manufacturing process. Anyway, for all these reasons, if people could afford it, and that would be all but the very poor, they would buy stoneware, a much tougher product. Now, for this, the potter used a slightly more expensive raw material, which was made by combining clay and flint and this mixture was fired at a far higher heat, with the result that the ingredients vitrified, that is to say, in effect the whole thing became glassy and because of this it was non-porous, and naturally, this was regarded as a great advance. Well, that's the situation in the eighteenth century. Are there any questions at this stage? OK. So, now we can go on to look at the age of innovation.