EASY IELTS LISTENING TEST FOR BEGINNERS | short story competition |best listening test for practice

You will hear a telephone conversation between the organizer of a

short

story

con

test

and someone who wants to enter the con

test

first. You have some time to look at questions one through six. Good morning, Dave. Hello, I'm calling you about a

story

.

competition

I saw an ad in a magazine and was just calling to get some details. Yes, I am certainly the organizer of the

competition

, so I should be able to help you. What kind of details are you looking for? Well, does it cost anything to participate? Yes, there is a five pound entry fee, okay, that should be fine, it's a

short

story competition, so how many words are that?

Well, we want to give people a reasonable amount of freedom, but the guidelines are around 3000 words. Oh, that sounds pretty good. Not as much as it used to be, we had a 5000 word limit but some people thought that was too many so this year we've scaled it down properly and the story has to be about something in particular that you can't write about. any topic you like, but the main point of the competition is that it has to have a surprise ending. Oh, I see that sounds interesting. I don't think I've written a story like that before.

Yes, it is something we have introduced for this. competition of the year true, I'm 18 years old. Is there any age limit? Yes, you must be 16 years or older. If you're 18, okay, great, then you have the competition once a year. That's how it is. Yes, we start advertising in January and the contest takes up much of the year. We give people a few months to write their story and then it takes quite a while to judge all the entries and announce the winners. So when is the contest deadline? It's already April. I hope it's not too late.

No, you still have plenty of time. You must submit your entry before August 1st. Then it will be too late, although you can always enter next year's competition. Okay, so how can I participate? Well, we have a website and the

best

way to participate is to complete the online registration form. We also have more contest details on the site. Can I give you the web address? Yes, please, okay, it's www dot c o m p for s s dot com and that's the number four is not the word for okay, thank you. I have it so I can complete the online registration form, but how do I submit the story?

Should I print it and send it to you? Well you might want to print the story so you can review it but don't post it to us when you're done with your story you'll have to email it to us the email address is on the website I gave you okay that's fine before you hear the rest from the conversation you will have something It's time to look at questions seven to ten. Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10. Can you tell me a little about how the contest is judged and what the prizes are? Yes of course, well once we have all the entries I will send them to All Judges, our competition is quite popular so we are lucky to be able to use famous authors who are very interested in the competition.

It's fantastic, it's great to know that someone famous will read my story. Yes, it's true, it takes them a long time. they read the entries but ultimately decide what the top five stories I see are and what happens then, well, they'll be posted online for everyone to read. They won't be in any order at this point, they will just be the five stories that the judges think are the

best

and the top five stories get awards. No, it's just the main story and the second place. So how is the main story decided? Once the top five stories are available, it will be up to the public to vote for their favorite story.

Okay, I see, so I need all my friends to vote for me. So, yes, it's a good idea and what's the prize. Well, second place receives a £300 prize, but the winner gets a trip to Spain to attend a workshop. For writers, wow, that's great. You better start writing right away. Yes, good luck, thanks. This is the end of section one. Now you have half a minute to check your answers. Now move on to the section two guide, which talks about a marine life center. First, you have some. It's time to review questions 11 to 17. Okay, hello everyone and welcome to the Sea Life Center before you begin your tour.

I would just like to give you some information on things to keep in mind as you move forward. I guess some of you may have been here before and might be surprised to see that the name has changed. We no longer call ourselves water world since the beginning of this summer. We have changed our name and yet we have also made some other changes. The main attractions like the aquarium, crocodiles, penguins, etc. are still here, but we have a new restaurant and picnic area and the last thing we have, which was just finished last week, is the water ride.

This is a new and exciting area of ​​downtown and it's pretty scary and of course you get a little wet so make sure you're not wearing your best clothes, like I said the main attractions are still here and the most popular thing that everyone wants see is feeding time, especially for For crocodiles and seals, we used to have the main feeding time in the afternoon, around 3 p.m. m., but we found that some of the animals were a little hungry waiting until then, so now we have it at noon. They seem much happier with the new one.

Although it's a little hard to know what you're thinking right now, I'd like to mention something new we've introduced this year that we're really excited about. It's called a VIP ticket. The VIP ticket costs two extra pounds per person. person and you will be surprised what it allows you to do with this. You will be allowed to feed the sharks. Now I know for some people this can be a pretty scary thing, but it's perfectly safe for those of you who aren't sure. We have a video that you can watch to see what happens. It's a great experience and your friends will be very impressed.

Speaking of friends, I would just like to remind you that the Sea Life Center will be happy to organize it. a birthday party for you and your family and friends if you need more details you can talk to me afterwards and there are also forms at the entrance that you can fill out I would also like to draw your attention to the good work that the Mar Life Center is doing in support of animal conservation. I am sure you are all aware of the worrying situation with a large number of endangered species. Here at Sea Life Center we are taking action by asking as many people as possible to sign.

A petition, once we have over 5,000 signatures we plan to send it to the government in the hope that more people will start taking it seriously. Well, there's obviously a lot going on downtown and a lot to discover. Attractions there is useful information, so read as much as you can and if you want to see what you remembered, take the quiz after your visit. There are no prizes, of course, but I'm sure you'll be surprised at how much you've learned before you listen to the rest of the conversation, you'll have some time to look at questions eighteen through twenty.

Now listen and answer questions 18 to 20. So before I leave you all to start your tour, I just got some advice there are a lot of attractions and you may not have time to see them all, of course there are the Old favorites like the aquarium and the crocodile cave, but if you don't have time to see everything, be sure to visit the turtle. A very special town beyond the aquarium and seal centre, it has a lot of endangered species and as it is in the far corner of the sea life centre, it is often overlooked. I also have to apologize for the penguin park this has necessitated.

There is urgent work to be done and that is why we will not be open for the next week. We're very sorry, but I'm sure you'll find the seal center right across the street that will keep you entertained just as much or more. We are also very busy today, as you may have noticed along the way, everyone starts here at the aquarium, but as it is so big, there is no wait to get in, but today we are hoping that a lot of people will want to see the crocodile cave. As a couple of eggs have hatched expect delays there and if you wish move on to the seal center first and then return when things are calmer towards the end of the day so I'll leave it now but if you have any questions.

I won't be far away and I'll have a great time at the marine life center which is the end of section two. Now you have half a minute to check your answers. Now move on to section three. We will listen to two students talking about their university studies. first you have some time to look at questions 21-26 oh hi george, how are you doing? Hello Martina, it's going well, what about you? How is university life going? Well, it's great, apart from studying of course, yes, me too, what are you studying? I think I remember that. You were going to study art, that was your best subject, right?

No, actually I just liked the teacher. He was French and had an incredible accent. My favorite subject was history, but I couldn't see what career it would give me. So what did you choose? It was very difficult for me to decide. I was very good at science, but I must admit that I never really enjoyed studying it, so in the end I decided to go for English, which was my second favorite subject and I thought that would be it. Be more useful to me than studying anything else, so that's what I'm doing and how does college look to you?

Well, it's a challenge. I guess you find it difficult. Part of it I'm doing mechanical engineering, which is really interesting. but it covers many areas like materials science, machine design, physics and of course mechanics and they are all good, but it is the mathematics that I am having difficulty with, it is much more difficult than in school, I can believe it, everything It sounds very difficult for me, but I was never very good at mechanical things. I suppose it must involve some practical work. Well, not at the moment, it's almost all theory these days, so it's a bit heavy.

I guess you have to start with that to understand. Understand the concepts and learn some facts before you start putting them into

practice

. It must be very different from the course I'm taking. Yes, but in a few weeks we will have much more practical experience. I have a big assignment this term working on jet engines, which means I'll be doing some field trips to a nearby airport. Oh, that's great. It looks like you're going to be very busy. Yeah, I'm not sure how. I'm going to cope with the work, we have a lot of lectures and that's fine, the professors are very knowledgeable and I learn a lot from them, but we also have a lot of seminars and I think with so many people expressing their views it can get quite frustrating, it would be better If we didn't have so many of those.

Yes, it's the same for me. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30. How are the students at your house? Well, I haven't met anyone yet. They seem a little calm, maybe they are working hard, they don't seem to be very studious here, but they are very friendly. I have to say I've been sitting and chatting a lot over the last week or so, so that's good. The only person I've really talked to is my tutor. He is very approachable and seems to understand how difficult starting college can be. Hmm, it's nice to have someone you can talk to who can help you meet other students.

In fact, that doesn't bother me. I'm bound to meet some people sooner or later. It's more a matter of figuring out what I need to do, where to go, etc. I hope you can help me with that. Oh, I would have thought very well of that. We certainly have a There's a lot of work ahead of us, it seems like a long time, doesn't it? Study for three years. Yes, but I'm sure it will be quick. You know, I'm really afraid of the first evaluation. Yes, for the course. We have to deliver the first one at the end of next month, so do you have the topic yet?

No, but we will have it soon. I'm not sure how much we have to write yet, not too much, I hope to find out. What do you mean? It's hard to study, especially where I am now. Where do you live? I live in a residence. I thought it would be a good idea since there would be a lot of people around, but I'm finding it. It's a little noisy, I can see I'm going to have trouble when I really need to get to work, so I guess you need to be somewhere alone, so yeah, well, I like having some people around me, so I'd rather live with one family somewhere in a house not far from the university.

Well, good luck with that. Yes, thanks and good luck to you too. Oh, I have to go now. I have another conference in 10 minutes. Goodbye for now. Bye bye. That's the end of section three. Now you have half a minute to check your answers. Now move on to section four. First you will hear someone talk about creating a presentation. You have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40. Hello everyone, you have been assigned an assignment for your sociology course that will involve making a presentation to the rest of the group, so So today I will give you some tips on how to prepare your presentations. should help you with your current task, but many of the principles thatI will convey will be general principles that will of course help you with all your future presentations, so first of all, the most important thing to consider is your audience and in this For example, your audience is the other students in your group.

There are three points to keep in mind. First, you need to ask yourself what they need to know. Secondly, it is useful to consider whether they will support you or not. Third, it will be a small group. Let's say three or four a moderated meeting of about 20 people for your current task or there will be hundreds of people who have said everything I'm going to tell you will apply equally to any audience, so how do you structure your presentation? From the beginning, you should Tell them something that forces them to pay attention. This might be somewhat surprising or even shocking, but it should be relevant.

After that, you need a list of items or topics that show them what you will cover, like a list of topics. agenda and then the main part of the presentation will follow. This main part will be the detailed information you present and could include facts, statistics, personal experiences, etc. After this, you should summarize what you have presented and close with what I call next steps. For this task, you could simply point the group to other sociology reference material; In other cases, you may want to suggest some actions people can take now. What about designing slides for your laptop?

Well, the important thing here is to be consistent. have the same font type and use the same color and size for the same elements, for example, all headings should look the same, all bullets should be presented in the same way and not be limited to words, bring the presentation to life by adding graphics , these can be in various forms such as images, flowcharts, diagrams, histograms, etc., now let's move on to the presentation, you now have your presentation prepared and are ready to get off to a good start, it is important to make a good impression from the start, so take three deep breaths, look at the audience no matter how scary they may be and be enthusiastic and energetic as the presentation progresses, remember to provide some variety in the way you speak, so that, for example, you can speak quite quickly to get information you can be familiar, but then slow down for more unfamiliar sections and change your tone as you speak, don't keep it at the same level throughout, as I mentioned, look at your audience, a good tip is to select people and observe them. about five seconds not looking at the audience gives the impression that you are not interested in them or that you are terrified that looking too long at a particular person can make them feel quite uncomfortable;

There may be points in your presentation that you want your audience to really absorb and to highlight the important points, you may consider adding silence right after this, it will give people time to reflect on what you have just said. You can also present complicated ideas or technical details, but try to keep everything as simple as possible. As possible use simple words and as few as possible and be clear if you say something like this seems involves uncertainty so using weak verbs like appears etc should be avoided, I'll just end with a few thoughts. As for audience questions and interruptions, you can choose to invite the audience to ask questions as you go or ask them to wait until the end.

Either way, questions should be encouraged as they give you feedback on how interested your audience is and how well they are doing. We understand when you are asked a question, you need to give as precise an answer as possible, so initially my advice is to repeat it, this will ensure that you have heard it correctly and will give you a few seconds to collect your thoughts. On the other hand, they may not be welcome and you may receive them for a variety of reasons; However, there is likely something in your presentation that is unclear or confusing, so my advice is to reduce problems by reading your presentation beforehand and predicting potential points that could cause interruptions.

Then you might want to change that part of your presentation or at least you'll be prepared if someone interrupts you. Do you have any question?