Listening Comprehension

NIVEL AVANZADO 1 - PRUEBA F.I.S. FEBRERO CURSO 2009-2010

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

LISTENING 1: You will hear five people talking about their favourite holiday destinations. Match each speaker 1-5 with what they say about the place A-G. There are two extra letters you won’t need to use.You’ll hear the recording twice. (5 marks)

A.  It is their own property.
B.  They are careful to preserve its environment.
C.  The journey there is not an easy one.
D.  It has always been popular with the British.
E.  They would like to live there permanently.
F.  They always choose places off the beaten track.
G.  It is easy to make friends with the locals. /
Speaker 1 __b__
Speaker 2 __e__
Speaker 3 __c_
Speaker 4 __g__
Speaker 5 __a__

1.For the last 2 years, we’ve flown out to Africa and gone off on safari. We camp and walk and drive in small trucks with a company called Kalahari Safari, all without leaving any trace of ourselves behind to spoil it for others. We have local guides, which is great, and walk in the bush at dawn and sleep around the campfire. I don’t worry bout anything for two weeks and arrive home completely relaxed.

2.the best family holidays we’ve had have been in Queensland, Australia. In fact, our ambition is to make our home out there- run a pineapple farm or something similar, that’d be our idea of heaven. I reckon that wihtin ten years, British people will be going to that part of Austarlia in the same number that they’re already going to the US, Florida.

3.we stay in Britain and go off to this remote spot on the west coast of Scotland. It’s all totally unspoilt. It’s a hard place to get to- lots of narrow, single-track roads. There’s nowhere to stay so you have to take your own tent. We love the emptiness – we walk and picnic and fish. We go in April and May when there’s a good chance of sunshine – though sometimes we hit a bad year- makes you realize what it must be like to live there all the time.

4.We adore the small villages and landscapes of the southern part of France. There are still areas that aren’t visited much by tourists – we like that because it means you can really get to know the people who live there. And regional parks have been set up to protect the countryside from development, so the scenery and villages that’ve been painted by so many well-known artists still look much the same.

5.well, I must admit, our favourite holiday spot is our private island in the Caribbean. The only buildings are the main house, a staff house and two cottages. Then there’s a swimming-pool, of course, and tennis courts, but apart from that the island remains more or less untouched. It’s quite a distance to our nearest neighbours, so we get absolute peace and quiet.

LISTENING 2: You will hear people talking in eight different situations. For questions 1-8, choose the correct answer and fill in the grid below with A. B or C.

1 You hear a young man talking. Why did he go back to college?

A He needed a better job.

B He needed an evening activity.

C He needed new skills.

1.I’d been thinking of starting on a course at college for a while. It’s not easy to study when you are working full time ...and my only free time was after 6pm ...Then the company where I work gave me a promotion, and my new job involved managing staff, which I had no experience of. That’s why I chose this subject. My degree is in engineering, you see. I still wasn’t too sure I wanted to give up the only part of the day when I did absolutely nothing, but I’m actually enjoying going to college after work!

2 You hear a man talking on the radio. What is he?

A an inventor

B a company employee

C a writer

2.I’m fighting in the courts to make it easier for people like me to protect their ideas. If you’re a writer or a songwriter you own your own creation without paying a penny, but people who create mechanical objects have to fight for their rights and pay for them. That’s fundamentally unfair. And I’m not doing this just to benefit myself – I’m doing it so that other individuals like me who work alone won’t be disadvantaged by large companies with large budgets.

3 You hear someone talking on the radio about an artist. How does the artist feel about his work?

A He would like to exhibit it in an art gallery.

B He wants to make his creations last longer.

C He is happy to see his work destroyed.

3.Gennaro Naddeo is an unusual sort of artist. For a start his creations rarely survive more than a few weeks, and sometimes as little as a few hours. They either go stale, or they melt, or else they are devoured by the very people who most admire and appreciate them. Not surprising really, since his materials of choice are butter, chocolate, cake and sugar. With the help of a freezer his work would find itself in an art gallery. But Naddeo has very modest ambitions and the highest compliment he can hope to be paid is to have his works sliced up and swallowed.

4 You hear a woman talking to her son. Why is she talking to him?

A to give him a warning

B to refuse permission

C to make a suggestion

4.I know you really want to go on this climbing holiday, but will there be anyone with you who is a qualified climber, a guide? You hear of so many people getting into difficulties and on TV they’re always warning people not to go alone into the mountains. Contact the mountain guide service, tell them where you’re going and ask for information about the region. Get as much information as you can and then talk to me about it again.

5 You hear part of a lecture about the role of retired people in the economy. What is the lecturer describing?

A reasons why something is changing

B errors in statistical information

C disagreements between researchers

5.Well, basically, in Western countries the retired population is split. There’s a significant minority who are really quite well off, and so they have consumer power, and we now see businesses like holiday companies, for example, targeting this group. But even the significant majority who are living off their pensions or savings and trying to make ends meet, are collectively powerful because there are so many of them, and they are demanding more specialized products from manufacturers who are having to design more of their products for people of this age range.

6 You hear a chef being interviewed on the radio. Why did he decide to become a chef?

A to follow a family tradition

B to develop a natural talent

C to pursue his love of cooking

6. Int:Was there a particular moment in your life when you thought – this is the job for me?

Chef:Well not really. My mother used to put these meals on the table that were inedible. Pastry that you couldn’t cut through … rice that came out of a pan in a lump.

Int:So it was a case of having to!

Chef:If we wanted to eat, yes. Of course, I realized eventually,

‘Hey,I could do this’. I knew how to make things taste good. And that’s what I wanted to build on when I went to college. Even though at the time, I found it a bit of a chore, you know, getting home from school you just wanted to go out with your mates.

7 You hear a teenager talking about the sport she plays. How does she feel while she is playing the sport?

A uncomfortable

B embarrassed

C confident

7.For girls, it’s never a case of going down the road to the nearest club, you have to find a club and travel to it. There aren’t many so you have to make the effort. When people ask, ‘Are you sporty?’ I don’t always admit to playing football. Somehow I feel awkward. Some females say, ‘I can’t understand why you do it, you’ll get all dirty.’ I started playing competitively when I was nine years old. There were some negative responses at first, but when people saw me play, they realized that once I’m on the field, I know exactly what I’m doing.

8 You hear an explorer talking about a journey he is making. How will he travel once he is across the river?

A by motor vehicle

B on horseback

C on foot

8. The engine’s full of water at the moment, it’s very doubtful if any of the trucks can get across the river in this weather. The alternative is to carry all the stuff across using the old footbridge, which is perfectly possible … just rather a slow business … and then use horses rather than trucks for the rest of the trip; all the way instead of just the last 10 or 15 kilometers as was our original intention. We can always pick up the vehicles again on the way back down. They’ll be safe enough here.

READING 1:

Which person mentions...

enjoying their pastime more than the job they used to do? / 0.  B
enjoying being in charge of their own life? / 1.  D
being surprised by suddenly losing their previous job? / 2.  A
not having other people depending on them financially? / 3.  B
missing working with other people? / 4.  C
undergoing training in order to take up their new job? / 5.  D
a contact being useful in promoting their new business? / 6.  A
not being interested in possible promotion in their old job? / 7.  C
disliking the amount of time they used to have to work? / 8.  C
surprising someone else by the decision they made? / 9.  B
a prediction that hasn’t come true? / 10. C
consulting other people about their businesses? / 11. D
the similarities between their new job and their old one? / 12. A
working to a strict timetable? / 13. D
A. The Farmer
Matt Froggatt used to be an insurance agent in the City of London but now runs a sheep farm.
‘After 14 years in business, I found that the City had gone from a place which was exciting to work in to a grind- no one was having fun anymore. But I hadn’t planned to leave for another 5 or 10 years when I was made redundant. It came out of the blue(2), but it made me take a careful look at my life. I didn’t get a particularly good pay-off but it was enough to set up the farm with. My break came when I got to know the head chef of a local hotel with one of the top 20 hotel restaurants in the country. Through supplying them, my reputation spread(6) and now I also supply meat through mail order. I’m glad I’m no longer stuck in the office but it’s astonishing how little things have changed for me: the same 80- to 90-hour week and still selling a product.(12) / C. The Hatmaker
After working for 5 years as a company lawyer, Katherine Goodison set up her own business in her London flat, making hats for private clients.
‘My job as a lawyer was fun. It was stimulating and I earned a lot of money, but the hours were terrible(8). I realised I didn’t want to become a senior partner in the company, working more and more hours, so I left.(7) A lot of people said I’d get bored, but that has never happened(10). The secret is to have deadlines. Since it’s a fashion-related business, you have the collections, next year’s shapes, the season – there’s always too much to do, so you have to run a very regimented diary. I feel happier now, and definitely less stressed. There are things I really long for, though, like the social interaction with colleagues.(4) What I love about this job is that I’m totally responsible for the product. If I do a rubbish job, then I’m the one who takes the blame. Of course, you care when you’re working for a company, but when your name is all over the promotional material, you care that little bit more.’
B. The Painter
Ron Ablewhite was a manager in advertising but now makes a living as an artist
‘My painting began as a hobby but I realised I was getting far more excitement out of it than out of working. The decision to take redundancy and to become an artist seemed logical. The career counsellor I talked to was very helpful. I think I was the first person who had ever told him, “I don’t want to go back where I’ve been.” He was astonished(9) because the majority of people in their mid-40s need to get back to work immediately- they need the money. But we had married young and our children didn’t need our support.(3) It was a leap into the unknown. We went to the north of England, where we didn’t know a soul. It meant leaving without friends, but we’ve been lucky in that our friendships have survived the distance- plenty of them come up and visit us now.’ / D. The Masseur
Paul Drinkwater worked in finance for 16 years before becoming a masseur at the Life Centre in London.
‘I had been in financial markets from the age of 22, setting up deals. I liked the adrenaline but I never found the work rewarding. I was nearly made redundant in 1989, but I escaped by resigning and travelling for a year. I spent that year trying to work out what I wanted to do. I was interested in health, so I visited some of the world’s best gymnasiums and talked to the owners about how they started up(11). I knew that to change career I had to get qualifications so I did various courses in massage(5). Then I was offered part-time work(13) at the Life Centre. I have no regrets. I never used to feel in control, but now I have peace of mind and control of my destiny(1). That’s best of all.’

READING 2: Read through the texts and answer questions 1-10. Fill in the grid below once you are sure of your answers.