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In this test, you'll hear a number of different recordings and you'll have to answer questions on what you hear.
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There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions and you will have a chance to check your work.
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All the recordings will be played once only.
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The test is in four sections. Section one.
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You will hear a man and a woman talking about travelling to an airport.
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First, you have some time to look at questions one to five.
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You will see that there is also an example which has been done for you.
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Now, we shall begin.
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You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time.
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Listen carefully and answer questions one to five.
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Good afternoon. Travel info. How can I help?
2:38
Oh, hi. I hope you can help me. I'm here in Chepstow at the moment and I need to get to Bristol Airport the day after tomorrow.
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I was looking online at connections and I couldn't find too much useful information.
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I mean, I'm actually very near the airport, no more than 40 kilometres, but public transport seems a bit limited.
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Bristol Airport, okay? I'll see what I can come up with for you.
3:04
Sorry, where did you say you were?
3:06
Chepstow, that's C-H-E-P-S-T-O-W.
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There's a train station here and I've been looking at the train times, but I've been struggling to understand them.
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Taxi would probably be the fastest and easiest way.
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It should take no more than 30 minutes or so from where you are right now.
3:22
Yes, but I was quoted between 55 and 70 pounds.
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It's not the cheapest way, that's for sure. Let me see what other options there are.
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Can I ask the time of your flight?
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I want to make sure I get there at about 130 at the latest in the afternoon, that is.
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My flight is actually at 325, although I should really be at the airport two hours earlier.
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You've got a couple of other options then.
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There isn't a boat is there.
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I mean, there's a big river between here and Bristol.
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It would be good if there was.
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You can certainly get around Bristol City by boat, but getting to the airport is another matter.
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The train is an option, but I wouldn't really recommend it.
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Why not?
4:07
Well, it would involve catching one that leaves it at 11.29.
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Goes to another town in the opposite direction where you need to wait for 50 minutes.
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And then wait for a connection to head back towards Bristol.
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It would end up taking nearly three hours in total, which I'm not sure is the most sensible choice.
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And you'd still have to use a bus for the last part of your journey.
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You'd get to the airport by 1340.
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It would be a lot cheaper than the taxi though.
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It's 17 pounds 10 for a single.
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Otherwise, there's a bus service setting off at 11.05.
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And you'd reach the airport at 12.44.
4:45
Okay, that's more than two hours before my flight leaves.
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Well, there's another at 12.02, which also arrives about two hours later.
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And that would be 16.40.
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The time of arrival?
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No, no, the price of the ticket.
4:58
Oh, I see.
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Well, I think I'll take the earlier one just to be on the safe side.
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Otherwise, I'd be petrified of missing my flight.
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Before you listen to the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions six to ten.
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Now listen and answer questions six to ten.
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Where does the bus leave from exactly?
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The train station, I guess.
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Actually, you can't catch the bus from there.
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And Chepstone doesn't have a bus station as such.
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You'll need to find the police station, which is just a few minutes walk up the hill from the town centre.
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The buses arrive and leave from the same street.
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Ask someone if you can't find it.
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Or just ask where the buses leave from.
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Right.
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Okay.
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Your bus service is T7.
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Be careful about bus S7,
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which goes in a completely different direction.
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Both leave from stand one.
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And don't worry, there are only about three or four stands, so you can't miss it.
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Great.
5:56
So this will take me all the way to the airport?
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Actually no.
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You'll need to go all the way to the end stop, which is Marbra Street in Bristol.
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Marbra?
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That's N-A-R-L-B-U-R-G-H?
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Not quite.
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M-A-R-L-B-O-R-O-U-G-H.
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Oh, I see.
6:09
Well, I was nearly right.
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You'll need to change buses there.
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Airport buses leave every ten minutes.
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You can't miss them.
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They'll have the name written on the side.
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So something like the Bristol Airport Express?
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Flyer, actually.
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Which is funny, because buses don't fly.
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And I won't have any problem taking all my things on board.
6:28
Well, you shouldn't have difficulty finding luggage space.
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Because the buses leave so regularly, there are not going to be too many people on board.
6:37
Well, it sounds complicated, but at least it's cheaper than taking a taxi.
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Thanks very much.
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You're welcome.
6:47
Have a good trip.
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That is the end of section one.
1:55
First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
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Now listen and answer questions 11 to 16.
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Hello everyone.
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Very few of us have the luxury of being able to live in a spacious home with breathtaking
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views from the window and a vast garden to relax in.
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More likely than not, you'll live somewhere like I do.
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A nice apartment in a pretty good location, but a lot more cramped than I'd prefer it
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with narrow corridors and not much room for anything other than essential furniture.
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But in this talk, I'd like to offer a few tips on making a small apartment feel as light
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and airy as possible.
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I'd like to show you this slide, which is a very simple plan of my own apartment.
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As you can see, it's not too big, it's something like 40 square meters.
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But I've tried to make the most of it.
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As you come in, you'll basically come into what is now my bedroom, but you probably won't
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notice it because I've put a lovely secondhand piece of furniture there, stacked my books
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on it, of course, along with some other things, and it totally blocks the view of my bed on
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the left.
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It stretches most of the way up to the ceiling, and it basically creates a kind of wall.
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Apart from a sense of privacy, it also means I don't have to look at the door to the bathroom
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while I'm in bed.
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So I've essentially created an extra corridor.
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I work from home occasionally, and I couldn't think of where I'd put a large desk, so what
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I've done instead is install a folding one on the wall, which lifts up whenever I'm not
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using it.
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It's in front of the bed, and rather than a desk chair, I use a trunk to sit on whenever
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I'm working.
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That's permanently there in front of my desk.
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It's okay as long as I'm not sitting on it for hours, and it's really useful for extra
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storage too.
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My kitchen area is in an awkward place.
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As you come right from the bedroom area, and towards what I call the living room area,
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there's certainly no room for tables or chairs there, which is why I often have breakfast
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standing up.
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Then there's the balcony, where I have managed to put some chairs and a table.
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It's quite a big amount of space, and good for sitting and having a meal with one or two
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friends when the weather's okay.
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All I have in the living room area at the moment is an armchair.
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There's actually room for a small table and a lamp, and I'd like to add those later.
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I don't think there's any need for a sofa when it's just me living there.
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Before you listen to the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17-20.
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Now listen, and answer questions 17-20.
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First of all, don't spend your time wishing that you had a separate room for an office or
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whatever.
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It's perfectly easy to turn a single room into different zones.
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This is what I did with my bedroom, which now has a corridor, a sleeping area, and a working
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area.
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You don't need to use a large bookshelf to achieve this, though.
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Some large plants may work well to split up an area, or even some well-placed rugs in
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different colors if you want to make things feel warm and cozy.
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Another trick, which always works well, is to use mirrors to create the illusion of depth.
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I have quite a big one in my bathroom, which really helps.
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There are some places where it would be a terrible idea to place one, of course, like right
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in front of where you sleep.
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However, pictures and mirrors achieve the same effect.
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I have a poster in front of my entrance door, which is the first thing I see when I come
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home.
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Another good trick is to avoid placing your furniture, especially things like sofas, large
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tables, or beds, so that it goes right up against the walls.
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It can actually give a much more spacious feeling if furniture kind of floats in the middle
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of a room.
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And while I'm on the topic of furniture, choose the style carefully.
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Glass can be an interesting material for things like tables.
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The one in my living room area is made from this, and looks a lot more airy than something
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made of heavy looking wood or metal.
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Similarly, my balcony tables and chairs, which are actually made from wood, can fold up and
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be put aside when I'm not using them.
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Finally, and this might seem like another obvious point, but it's an important one.
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If you have the choice of painting the walls, don't try and be too creative when it comes
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to lots of interesting, exciting colors.
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Go for lighter, neutral colors instead.
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Otherwise, you'll really make your place seem a lot darker and smaller than it needs
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to be.
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This is especially so with ceilings, which always seem to be a bit further away the paler
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they are, so choosing the right color for those is a must.
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Thank you for listening.
6:57
Now if you've got any questions or even tips of your own, then I'd be pleased to...
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That is the end of section 2.
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Section 3.
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You will hear a student and a teacher talking about a dissertation.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.
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Now listen and answer questions 21 to 25.
2:06
Hello, Professor Jaworski.
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Hi, Dora.
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You wanted to talk about your dissertation?
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That's right.
2:14
The deadline for submitting my idea is coming up soon, and I'm not really sure what I should
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focus on.
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Hmm.
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Yes, you haven't got long left.
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You brought up something in a lecture recently.
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The linguistic landscape.
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It sounded interesting.
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Ah, yes.
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It's a relatively new area of research.
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Basically, it's how a particular language or group of languages is visible in a particular
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space.
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There's been a lot written about it if you want to read up on it.
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Yes.
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Thanks.
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Knowing some of the people who've contributed the main ideas would be useful.
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Well, Landry and Borhis would be a good place to start.
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They were the first to come up with a clear idea of what the linguistic landscape was
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back in 1997, focused especially on road signs, street names, adverts, shop signs.
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They did research in Canada, which of course has a bilingual cultural background.
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It's a place where two languages are spoken.
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There you can see French and English all around you, because Canada is, historically, where
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both French and English speakers have lived together.
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So in Canada, you can tell that it's both a French and English area and culturally diverse
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because of what you can see around you in the public space.
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Sure.
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And many researchers have built upon this.
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Spolsky and Cooper, for example, made it clear that the linguistic landscape is something
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that changes over time, depending on who moves in and out of an area.
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Or how important people feel a certain language to be.
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Okay.
3:40
Thanks.
3:40
Any other researchers I could look into?
3:43
There's Peter Backhouse.
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He's done some interesting work in Tokyo, where he noticed not just Japanese signs everywhere,
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but a lot of English signs too.
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Now what does that tell you?
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That Tokyo is a place where lots of Japanese and English-speaking people live.
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Or that people they're just like English?
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Exactly.
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Fewer than 30% of Japanese people speak any English, but nevertheless, it has prestige there.
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You mean like a special value?
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That's right.
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Other researchers have looked extremely carefully at multilingual signs.
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For example, Skolan and Skolan came up with a theory of geosemiotics, which is to say,
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they analyzed how language appears when it's put into a public space.
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If you've got a sign with two languages on it, which comes first?
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Are both languages written in text the same size?
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Are the fonts different?
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So everything can give you clues as to which language is more important to the people who put
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the signs up.
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Yes.
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And it's not only about signs, essentially language is being displayed around us all the time.
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Whether we notice it or not, researchers like Copeland have even studied the languages that
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people wear on t-shirts.
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And is that important?
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Yes.
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The languages we choose to wear, and therefore to display, can give us lots of information
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about our feelings towards them.
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Before you listen to the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 26-30.
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Now listen and answer questions 26-30.
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I think this is something I'd really like to do some kind of research into.
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I guess the first thing I need to do is to start thinking about all the languages I can
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see around me here.
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If I were you, I'd select a location first.
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As you're not doing a huge piece of research, you could choose somewhere relatively small,
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like the main shopping street here in the city, or somewhere that tends to have a higher number
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of international visitors, like the airport.
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OK, maybe the airport would be a good idea.
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The next step would be to focus on what type of data you want to collect.
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You could go for a quantitative approach in which you select all the signs in a particular
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area, and then count the number of languages you find, then your research could simply indicate
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which languages are most common.
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You could support the data you collect with maps and photos.
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To be honest, most studies into the linguistic landscape are like this because it's the
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easiest type of data to collect, and the research can be very objective.
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What about a qualitative approach?
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Well, there are two different things you could do here.
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One is to look carefully at signs, especially signs in more than one language, and ask
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questions about the designs you can see.
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Which language looks more official or more permanent?
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Where are the different languages displayed?
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If there are two languages on a sign, are they both exact translations?
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What's the other thing I could do?
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Probably most difficult of all, but worth trying.
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You could interview people and ask if they have positive attitudes about the signs around
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them.
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Do they identify with them?
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Are they happy about the number of languages on display?
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Would they like more?
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Have they even noticed what languages are on the signs?
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One interesting thing would be to find out whether or not people feel like outsiders because
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of the languages that are on display.
7:13
Hmm.
7:14
Okay.
7:15
Thank you.
7:16
I've got a lot to think about now.
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I think the first thing to do would be to start studying the subject in detail.
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Great.
7:25
I should be able to email you an initial reading list sometime later today.
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That is the end of section 3.
1:55
First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
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Now listen and answer questions 31 to 40.
2:03
Hello everyone and thanks for coming.
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Now, some of you might not think that you're impatient people.
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You rarely, if ever, get furious or upset about things.
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But I can guarantee that for every single one of us,
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there are things which annoy you regularly.
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Getting annoyed is part of human nature.
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But what kind of things make us annoyed
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and what's the scientific explanation for it?
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First of all, there are plenty of things in modern life
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that are incredibly annoying.
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From pop-up ads to being asked to make it through a test
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to prove you're not a robot when you try to get onto a web page.
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But there are plenty of old-fashioned things too.
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People blocking an escalator at the exact point
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when you have just one minute left to catch your train.
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Or people who open their mouths while chewing their food
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are just two out of thousands of things
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that we might find irritating.
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In short, there seem to be an endless number of things
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to get annoyed about.
3:00
I would probably go as far as to say
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that getting annoyed is the most common emotion of all.
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So let's look at this emotion a little more scientifically.
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We cannot say that we are all annoyed by exactly the same things.
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For example, for one person, a selfie stick
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might be a perfectly handy device,
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well worth taking with you on holiday.
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For someone else, seeing someone with this gadget
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might drive them crazy.
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In addition, there are almost certainly cultural differences
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when it comes to what is annoying.
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Someone raised in Britain, for example,
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is unlikely to greet an assistant or owner when entering a shop.
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In other countries, it would be quite rude not to.
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There may also be medical reasons.
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For people with a condition known as misophonia,
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certain noises like fingers tapping on a keyboard
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or someone eating crisps can trigger very strong reactions.
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But perhaps we can say that there are some general rules
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as to what makes us annoyed.
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Scientists Joe Palka and journalist Flora Lixman
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have written a book about this subject
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which sets out three of those rules.
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The first is that the annoying thing, whatever it is,
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must be unpleasant without actually being physically harmful.
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For example, an angry wasp flying around your room
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wouldn't actually be annoying.
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You know that you're somewhat at risk from a wasp.
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Not so a fly would seem endlessly attracted
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to circling around the middle of your room,
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completely ignoring the window you kindly left open for it.
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Secondly, to be annoying,
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something needs to be as unpredictable as possible,
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and it must also be intermittent,
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which means that it continually stops and starts again.
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Permanently slow wi-fi is something you can probably get used to.
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If you know you have slow wi-fi,
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you'll learn not to depend on it.
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But normally good wi-fi that suddenly stops
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when you're in the middle of something
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and keeps on stopping at surprising moments
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can really get on our nerves.
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And here is a final rule.
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Imagine that you order something online.
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You get an email saying that it will arrive on Saturday
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after 9am.
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Excitedly, you wake up on Saturday morning
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looking forward to your delivery.
5:06
Time passes and keeps on passing.
5:08
Before you know it, it's 1pm
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and you have absolutely no idea how much longer you have to wait.
5:14
It could be five minutes or five more hours.
5:17
After 9am begins to seem like it could mean anything.
5:21
Basically, for something to be truly annoying,
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it has to keep going for an unknown length of time.
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So getting annoyed is extremely common.
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But is there a way to get over it
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and live a life free of always continually getting
5:35
slightly angry about things?
5:36
Annoyingly, the answer seems to be no.
5:39
That is the end of the test.
