Listening Practice Test OC8 | Hilary Lodge Retirement House

This is the IELTS

listening

comprehension

test

. You will listen to several different recordings and have to answer questions about what you hear. There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions and you will have the opportunity to check your work on all recordings. will be played only once the exam consists of four parts at the end of the exam you will be given 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet now move on to the first part you will hear a telephone conversation between two people Kathy and John John hopes to volunteer at a

retirement

home first, you have some time to review questions one to ten.

Hello, Hillary Lodge,

retirement

home. Kathy speaks. Hello, my name is John Shepherd. Can I ask you if you are the

house

manager? That's right, oh, well, hello. Cassie, a friend of mine, volunteers at Hillary Lodge and I would also like to help if you need more people. I work part time, so I have a lot of free time. We are always happy to receive more help. John. Tell you about some of the activities the volunteers are involved in please, on Monday nights we host computer training, we have six laptops and five or six residents attend the sessions regularly.

Now everyone knows how to write and send emails, but our coach just moved and we need two or three volunteers who can help residents create documents, simple things, we are really interested in making it cool. On Tuesday afternoons we have an informal singing class which most residents attend. a keyboard and someone who plays, but if you want to join in singing you would be welcome. I work Tuesdays at the moment, although that could change. I'll have to leave it for now, I'm afraid it's okay. then on Thursday mornings we usually have a session in our garden.

Several of our residents enjoy learning about flowers, where they grow best, how to care for them, etc., something that interests you. I'm not an expert, but I enjoy gardening. Yes, I would like to participate. Do you have your own tools at home? We have some, but not many, some with me when I come. Thank you so much. One very important thing for volunteers is that we hold a monthly meeting. Meeting where you all meet with staff is an opportunity to make sure we are working well together and that everyone knows what the residents are like and what is happening in the home now, obviously we would need to meet you before you become one of our volunteers Of course, could you come for an informal interview later this week?

Maybe he'll be busy the next few days dead, but on Saturday I'd certainly stop by any time during the day. I won't be working then, so you. I will see my assistant married, sorry, how do you spell that it is m a i r e a d merade? Okay, I understand it's not a name I'm familiar with, it's an Irish name, she comes from Dublin, right, and the street Hillary Lodge is on is called Bridge Road, no. That's right, number 73. Another thing that might interest you. We will be holding a couple of open days and we still need some volunteers.

If you are available, what are the dates? There is one on April 9th ​​and another on May 14th. They are both Saturdays and all day events. I can certainly organize May 14. I have another commitment on April 9, although that would be a big help. We will have several guest artists, singers, a music band, etc. We're expecting a lot of visitors so one possibility is to help look after the entertainers or you could spend an hour or so organizing people as they arrive and then just be part of the team making sure everything goes well. Do I show people where?

They can park very well, thank you. One of the reasons for holding open days is to get publicity for Hillary Lodge locally, so someone from a newspaper may want to interview you. They will want to know from two or three people why they Volunteer to help in a

house

. We're trying to get a TV station, but they don't seem very interested. I don't mind being interviewed. Well, if you come to chat as we agreed, we'll take it from there. Thank you very much for calling me. It's a pleasure, goodbye. That's the end of the first part.

Now you have half a minute to check your answers to the first part. Second part. You will hear from the director of a center. which offers evening classes for adults she is explaining to you some recent changes that have been made at the center first, have some time to review questions 11 to 15. Hello, as some of you know, I am Elaine Marriott, director of the Center for university learning resources, we have invited you all for evening classes and leisure activities to come and see the changes we have made to the center over the last month. One major change we've made here on the ground floor is the layout, as you can see by looking around I'm sure.

You will recognize the desk that is still in the same place as it has to be right inside the door, but you will see that there are now periodicals on the shelves in the corner behind the desk, we have moved them closer to the entrance because that way many people find them I like to come just to read magazines. We now have a much wider range of periodicals than before, so we have decided to separate them from newspapers. This means that the newspapers are now right on the other side of the stairs, near the study area.

Now, another thing is that we have moved the computers downstairs, people used to complain about having to go up to use them, so now they are on the other side of the building on the right, in the corner facing the parking lot we have now. We have an extra copier, so in addition to the one upstairs, there's one down here. You can see it right in front of the entrance, along the wall on the other side, but the biggest change, and although I'm sure many of you will appreciate it, is that we now finally have a coffee shop that we have been asking for for years.

If you turn right as soon as you pass the counter you will see the door in front of you. It became possible to have a cafeteria because the building has been expanded and We now have a new office and warehouse area, what else should I tell you before walking around? Oh yes, we have received so many requests for sports books that we have bought many more and they are all together immediately to the right of the entrance, before you listen to the rest of the conversation, you will have time to look at questions 16 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.

For the new design, we will discuss it in a moment, but first. We do something with the people who are here to help you, of course all the staff will do their best to answer your questions, but now each of us will specialize in certain areas, so if you ask a member of staff about something and doesn't do it. I don't think they can help you enough, they will direct you to our specialist. Jenny Reed is the person who can see if there are any movies you would like us to have in stock, as she has taken the responsibility of purchasing them.

She'd better warn you that our budget is limited, so I'm afraid we can't promise to buy everything you ask for. Phil Penshurst can help you improve his writing. If you need to produce reports for your course, you can book a half-hour session with Phil to get started. If he wants more help, he will arrange follow-up sessions with you. I must mention Tom Salisbury. Many people are interested in researching or simply reading about this region. People's occupations change over the years, etc. Tom is a specialist in this area. field, so if he needs help, he can point him in the right direction.

We have a large collection of relevant documents, from old maps to wildlife studies. We have a new member of staff, Saeed Akhta. I'm sure he will know him. Plug it in soon and you'll find it very useful if you're unemployed and want some advice on the practical aspects of job searching. Saeed is the person to talk to. He has also written a very useful book on the subject which, of course, we have. on our shelves many of you will know Shilpa Desai, who has been working here for about five years. Shilpa now has the added responsibility of providing information and advice on anything she has to do with housing, such as finding out what is available or if she is eligible for financial help.

Okay, that's enough from me, so let's walk through the library, which is the end of part two. Now you have half a minute to check your answers to the second part. Third part, you will hear a tutor and a student discussing a project the student is working on. First, you have some time to review questions 21 to 27. Okay, Stuart, well, I read the draft of your report on your work placement at the Central Museum Association. It sounds like you had a great time, so you ended up making a movie for them. Yes, it was a film to train employees of different museums on the techniques they should use to label ancient objects without damaging them.

Some of them are really fragile. Well, in your report you go over the main stages of the film, let's look at that in a little more detail, you had to find a location somewhere to film the film, which took quite a few days because I had to look at different museums around the country, but he had given it time and even though it was the middle of winter there. There was no snow, so I didn't have any transportation problems, right? Did you have to decide what equipment you would need for the filming? Yes, I think they were quite surprised at how well I managed it, it was just luck of the draw.

I had actually done that project with you last year, oh, in Recording Technology, so you knew a little bit about it from that point on. Yes, what I found really difficult was writing the script. I had a deadline for that, but the association had to extend it. I couldn't have done it otherwise, it would have helped if you had some training there. I think you're right. I probably needed it. Yeah, right now, based on your draft report, it looks like you had one or two problems deciding who went. appear in the video, the casting, yes, I expected that the people who worked for the association would be very interested in participating, but that was not the case, the problem was that they were all very busy and that meant that some of them had to do it.

I traveled, but Janice King, who I reported to for the project, oh she was great, she organized for people to have time off and have their work covered, so she was a huge help to me and it seems like the filming itself was good. I assume you found a company that provided an online introduction to the techniques. Yes, it was very informative and very easy to use. I learned a lot from her and then, when editing it, the association put me in contact with someone who works for one of the big ones. film companies and I went to the studio and sat with him in front of his computer for a day learning how to cut and paste and handle the soundtrack and so on, so no, I didn't include this in my draft report. but I had to design the cover of the DVD as well as the lyrics and everything, have you done that kind of design work before?

No, but I made a draft and then I talked about it with a couple of my colleagues and they gave me some more ideas and when I finished it I showed it to the people who worked at the association and they really liked it. Excellent. Now listen and answer questions 28 to 30. Now, in addition to your own draft report, I have also received some writings. association's evaluation of the work you did during your placement and how it was beneficial to them. I noticed you haven't included anything about that in your report yet. How did my project benefit the association?

Do you mean I have to include that? Yeah, well, think about it, I guess if I hadn't made the movie for them, they would have had to hire an outside company to do it, but since I was actually working for the association, it made a lot more sense that their goals are things like their responsibility for the conservation of exhibits. I don't think an outside company would have had that understanding, they would have been more impartial and the association also said that because of your background you had a good idea of ​​where to go to get the best deal for the equipment you needed they said the expense savings made that it was worth it even though getting it took a long time yes, that's true the association also said that making the film had a very positive effect on recruiting staff working together more closely oh, I hadn't heard that that was good and certainly people weren't afraid to tell me what they thought while I was doing it, so I was able to get a lot of feedback at every stage which was helpful to me, but also meant the final product worked better for them.

Can you think of other benefits? Well, I don't think they really thought about what they would do with the movie once it was made. I made quite a few suggestions for distribution and other people we could send it to, as well as the museum staff, yes, they mentioned it. Okay, it looks like it's certainly the end of part three. You now have half a minute to check your answers tothe third part. You will hear a lecture about a species of bird called the New Caledonian Crow. First you will have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40. Today I am going to talk about research on a particular species. The bird, the new Caledonian crow, whose natural habitat is small islands in the Pacific Ocean and it seems that these crows are exceptionally resourceful in using sticks or other tools to find food, is not unknown among birds and animals, some chimpanzees, for example, they are known for banging nuts. stones to crack the shell and get to the edible kernel inside a New Caledonian crow named Betty bent a straight wire into a hook and used it to lift a small bucket of her favorite food from a vertical tube.

This experiment was the first time she had been introduced to a wire, which makes it very impressive. Another crow named Barney has demonstrated his ability to use sticks to forage for food. In a research project, scientists from New Zealand and Oxford posed captive New Caledonian crows a three-stage problem: whether they wanted to extract food from a hole , the crows first had to pull a rope to get a short stick and then use that short stick to remove a long stick. a stick from a toolbox and finally using the long stick to reach the food surprisingly they figured out how to do this successfully.

Other experiments carried out at Oxford suggest that crows can also use sticks as tools to inspect all kinds of objects and possibly assess whether they introduced Danger. The idea for the experiment came from observing birds using tools to pick random objects, such as an image of a spider that was printed on a web. In this research, five pairs of crows, including Barney, were

test

ed to see how they would react. to a variety of objects that were carefully chosen so that the birds would not be tempted to view them as a possible food source as an added precaution. all the crows had been fed beforehand eight times.

The first contact with a bird was through the use of a tool in In all three tests, Barney began by using a stick for inspection. One involved a rubber snake. He first approached her but didn't touch her, then he retreated to grab a stick and then poked her with the stick, after some more investigation he discarded the stick and took her away. by pecking at the snake with more confidence apparently convinced that it would not move in other experiments two different birds named Pierre and corbo also made a first approach with tools on three separate occasions Pierre used a short piece of wood splinter to touch a light that Corbeau was seen poking a metal toad with a stick, meaning that the crows tended to use the sticks only to make their first contact with the object, subsequently ignoring the object or dropping the tool and pecking at the object, which which is very different to use. the tool to access food, then what conclusions can be drawn from the research.

Evidence is accumulating from experiments like these that birds can plan their actions in advance, which is very interesting for understanding their cognition, it seems they don't. be responding in a pre-programmed way, it may even be possible that they are able to see a problem and determine what the answer is; However, a major difficulty is evaluating whether this behavioral tool is a sign of intelligence to some extent. This is related to the ecological circumstances in which the animal is found, so scientists want to know much more about how crows behave in their natural habitat and a team from the universities of Exeter and Oxford are carrying out research in New Caledonia.

If the way the birds forage for food gives them any possible evolutionary advantage, the birds are difficult to observe since they live in a mountainous forest region, so researchers have attached small cameras to the tails of some birds as a method. to investigate their behavior. Birds are masters at using sticks to find their food, particularly tree beta larvae, it is possible that birds could get so much energy from these worms that they only need to eat a few each day, this would mean they wouldn't have to do it. They spend most of their waking time searching for food, as most animals do.

Beetle larvae have a distinct chemical composition that can be traced through the feathers and blood of the birds that eat them. Scientists have collected samples of crows to estimate the proportion of larvae in their diet, so they should be able to measure the extent to which individual birds rely on using sticks for food. We have learned a lot about the ability of New Caledonian crows to use tools and there is some very interesting research being carried out on them which is the end of part four, now you have a minute to check your answers to part four i.e. , the end of the

listening

test in the IELTS exam, you will now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.