Listening Practice Test 8| Hilary Lodge Retirement Home #ieltslistening #ieltstest

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 look at questions 1 to 10 hello

retirement

home

Hillary Lodge Kathy speaking hello my name is John Shephard could I ask if you are the house manager, that is, oh well. Hi Katy, 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 plenty of free time, we are always happy to have more help, John, should I tell you about some of the activities that volunteers participate in?

Please, on Monday afternoons we organize computer training, we have six laptops and five or six residents attend the sessions regularly. Now everyone can write and send emails, but our trainer just moved and we need two or three volunteers who can help residents create documents, really simple things. I would definitely be interested in making it great on Tuesday afternoons. We have an informal singing class that most residents attend. We have 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, so 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, so yes, I would like to participate. Do you have your own tools at home? We have some, but not many. I could bring some with me. When it comes, thank you very much. One very important thing for volunteers is that we hold a monthly meeting where everyone meets with the staff.

It's an opportunity to make sure we're working well together and that everyone knows what the residents are like and what it's like. happening at home uhhuh 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? I might be busy the next few days, but I would do it on Saturday. It's certainly possible, just stop by anytime during the day. I won't be working then, so you'll see my assistant Merid. I'm sorry, how do you spell she? It is m a i r e a d marade.

Okay, it's not a name I'm familiar with. Oh, it's Irish. Its name comes from Dublin, right, and the street Hillary Lodge is on is called Bridge Road, isn't it? Number 73. Well, another thing that might interest you. We'll be holding a couple of open days and we still need one. few volunteers if you are available what are the dates there is one on April 9 and another on May 14 both are Saturdays and all day events. I can certainly handle May 14th. I have another commitment on April 14. On the 9th, that would be a big help, we will have several guest artists, singers, a brass band, etc., and we expect a lot of visitors, so one possibility is to help look after the artists or you could spend an hour or so organizing. people as they come in and then just being part of the team making sure everything goes well.

Will I show people where they can park? Thank you. One reason to hold open days is to get publicity for Hillary Lodge locally so they can be found. I have someone from a newspaper who wants to interview you, two or three people will want to know why you volunteer to help around the house. We're trying to get a TV station to come too, but they don't seem very interested. You don't mind being interviewed, well if you come to chat like we agreed, we'll take it from there thank you very much for calling me, it's my pleasure, bye, that's the end of section one.

Now you have half a minute to check it. your answers now go to section two recording 68 you will hear the director of a center that offers evening classes for adults she is explaining to you some recent changes that have been made at the center first you will have some time to review questions 11 to 15 hello Some of you know that I am Elaine Marriot, director of the university's Learning Resources Center. We have invited everyone who takes evening classes and leisure activities to come and see the changes we have made to the Cent Center in the last month.

The change we have made here on the ground floor is to the layout, as you can see by looking around. I'm sure you'll recognize the desk that's still in the same spot, since it has to be right inside the door, but we'll see that there are now periodicals on the corner shelves behind the desk. We have moved them closer to the entrance because many people like to come in just to read magazines. We now have a much wider range of periodicals than before. We have decided to separate them from the 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 brought the computers downstairs, people used to complain about having to go upstairs to use them. They are now on the other side of the building on the right, in the corner facing the parking lot. We now have an additional photocopier. In addition to the one above, there is one below. You can see it right in front of the entrance. the wall on the other side, however, the biggest change and one that I am sure many of you will appreciate is that we now finally have a cafeteria that we have been asking for for years if you turn right as soon as you pass the desk, you will see the door in front of you, it became possible to have a cafeteria because the building was expanded and now we have a new office and warehouse area, what else should I tell you before walking?

Oh yes, I have received so many requests for sports books that we have purchased many more and they are all together immediately to the right of the entrance. Before

listening

to the rest of the conversation, you'll have some time to look at the questions. 16 to 20 now listen and answer questions 16 to 20 okay that's enough with the new design we'll look at that in a moment but before we do anything with the people who are here to help you of course all the staff will do our best to answer your questions, but now we will each specialize in certain areas, so if you ask a member of staff about something and you feel they can't help you enough, they will direct you to our specialist.

Jenny Reed is the person to consult. If there are any movies you would like us to stock, since she took 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 request. Phil Penshurst can. Help you improve your writing If you need to produce reports for your course, you can book a half-hour session with Phil to get started and then if you want more help he will arrange follow-up sessions with you. I have to mention Tom Salsbury, a lot of people. are interested in researching or just reading about this region, people's occupations change over the years, etc.

Tom is a specialist in this particular field, so if he needs help, he can point you in the right direction. We have a great collection. of relevant documents, from ancient maps to wildlife studies, we have a new member of the s akar staff. I am sure you will meet him soon and find him very useful if you are unemployed and want some practical advice. aspects of the job search is who 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 Shila Desai, who has been working here for about 5 years.

Shila has the additional responsibility of providing information and advice on anything she has to do with housing, such as finding out what is available or if you are eligible for financial assistance. Well, that's enough from me, so let's walk through the library which is the end of section two. Now you have half a minute to check your answers. Now move on to section three. You will hear a tutor and a student discussing a project that the student is working on first. You have some time to look at questions 21 to 27. Okay, Stuart. Well, I already read. Her draft report on her job at the Central Museum Association looks like she had a great time, so she ended up making a film for them.

Yes, it was a film to train employees of different museums on the techniques they should use to label ancient objects. objects without damaging them, some of them are really fragile, okay, so in your report you go over the main stages of making the film, let's analyze in a little more detail that you had to find a location somewhere to shoot the film, which took quite a few days. because I had to see different museums all over the country but I had given myself time and although it was the middle of winter there was no snow so I didn't have any transportation problems, right, you had to decide what equipment you would need for the filming yes, I think they were quite surprised how well I managed it, which was just luck of the draw, in fact, I had done that project with you last year, on recording technology, so you knew a little bit.

About that from that point, yeah, 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 that. Yeah, right now, based on your draft report, it sounds like you had one or two problems deciding who was actually going to appear in the video. The casting. Yes. I expected the people who worked for him. The association would be very interested in participating, but they weren't, the problem was that everyone was very busy and that meant that some of them had to travel, but Janice King, who I was reporting to for the project, was great, she organized people. having time off from CL and covering her work, so that was a big help to me, and it seems like the filming itself went well.

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 it and then during editing the association put me in touch with someone who works for one of the big film companies and I went down to the studio and sat with him in front of his computer for a while. day I learned how to cut and paste and deal with the soundtrack and so on, so no, I didn't include this in my draft report, but I had to design the DVD cover as well as the lyrics and everything, have you done anything?

I hadn't done that kind of design work before, 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 liked it a lot. Excellent. Now listen to and answer questions 28 to 30, as well as your own draft report. I also received a written evaluation from the association about the work he did during his internship and how it benefited them. I noticed you haven't included anything about that in your report yet.

How did my project benefit the association? You mean? So do I have to include that? Yes, well, let's think. I guess if I hadn't made the movie for them, they would have done it. I had to get an outside company to do it, but since I was actually working for the association, I had a much better idea of ​​what their goals are, such as their responsibility for the preservation of the exhibits. I don't think an external company. You would have had that understanding because they would have been more indifferent 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 cost savings were worth it to them.

Although getting it done took a long time, yes, that's true, the association also said that making the film had a very positive effect by getting the staff to work more closely. Oh, I hadn't heard that was good and people certainly weren't. They were afraid to tell me what they thought while I was doing it, so I was able to get a lot of feedback at each stage which was helpful to me, but also meant the final product worked better for them. Can you think of any other benefits? I don't think they really thought about what they would do with the movie once it was made.

I made some suggestions for distribution, other people we could send it to, and the museum staff. Yes, they mentioned it. Alright. Well, it seems that indeed, that is the end of section three. Now you have half a minute to check your answers. Now move on to section four. You will hear a lecture about a species of bird called the New Caledonian Crow. First you 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 the research of a particular species of 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 otherTools for finding food is not unknown among birds and animals, some chimpanzees, for example, are known to bang nuts against stones to crack the shell and get to the edible kernel inside a new Caledonian crow named Betty Bent. some straight wire on a hook and used it to lift a small bucket of his favorite food from a vertical tube.

This experiment was the first time he was introduced to 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 a three-stage problem to captive New Caledonian crows. If 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 get a long stick out of a toolbox and finally use the long stick to reach the food. Surprisingly, they discovered. 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, possibly to assess whether or not they present a danger.

The idea for the experiment came from observing birds using tools to pick them at random. Objects such as a picture 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 see them. as a possible food source as an additional precaution all crows had been fed beforehand on eight occasions. A bird's first contact was through the use of a tool in all three trials. Barney began by using a stick for inspection.

One of them involved a rubber snake. He approached first. but he didn't touch it, then he retreated to grab a stick, then he poked it with the stick, after some more investigation he discarded the stick and continued pecking at the snake with more confidence, apparently convinced that it wouldn't move in further experiments. two. Different birds named Pierre and Coro also made a first approach with tools on three different occasions. Pierre used a short piece of wood splinter to touch a flickering light and Cor Bow was seen poking a metal toad with a stick, significantly which crows often used. sticks only to make their first contact with the object, they subsequently ignored the object or dropped the tool and pecked at the object, which is very different from using the tool to access food, so the conclusions that can be drawn From research evidence they are From experiments like these, birds can plan their actions in advance, which is very interesting for understanding their cognition.

They don't seem to be responding in a pre-programmed way; It may even be possible that We can look at a problem and find out what the answer is. However, a major difficulty is evaluating whether behavior using this tool is a sign of intelligence. To some extent this is related to the ecological circumstances in which the animal finds itself, so scientists want to find out much more about how crows behave in their native habitat and a team from the universities of Exor and Oxford is leading conducted an investigation in New Calonia. They are investigating whether the way the bird forages for food provides any possible evolutionary advantage for birds.

They are difficult to observe since they live in a mountainous forest region, so researchers have placed small cameras on the heels of some birds as a method of investigating their behavior. Birds are masters at using sticks to find their food, particularly tree beets. It is possible that birds could get so much energy from these larvae that they only need to eat a few each day, this would mean that they would not have to spend the most time part of their waking time searching for food as most animals do. They have a distinct chemical composition that can be traced through the feathers and blood of the birds that eat them.

Scientists have collected samples from crows to estimate the proportion of ly in their diet and should then be able to measure how dependent individual birds are. Regarding the use of sticks for feeding, we have learned a lot about the ability of New Caledonian crows to use tools and very interesting research is being carried out on them.