Official IELTS Practice Materials General Training Listening Test 2 (Online Test)

Good evening, everyone!

I'm glad you could all make this planning meeting for what promises to be the biggest and most colourful free rock festival ever held in the south-east! So whether you're a performer, a craft exhibitor or an artist, we all extend a big welcome to you.

Could we turn first to the plan so I can familiarise you with the layout of the site - which as you know is an old football stadium - we're really lucky to have so much space this year. You can see the main gate at the bottom of the plan - have you found it? - that's where most visitors will enter. It's also the entrance for those taking part in the craft fair: we've set the stalls just inside the gate on the left, in a circle.

If you walk straight ahead from the gate along the path without turning right, you'll come to some steps up to the football stadium. On the left of the steps is the Fringe Stage. This is for alternative artistes - they include folk singers, poets and other acts which are more suited to a smaller stage - and they should also enter by the main gate. On the opposite side of the steps is a restaurant, and adjoining that is the main festival information point. Here you can get extra programmes and up-to-the-minute information about events, and you can discuss any last-minute problems - although we hope everything will be running smoothly when the festival opens.

Right, coming back to the plan, you go up the stairs to the stadium. The entrance for the rock bands is on the far side, and on your right is the main stage, which will have powerful illumination and amplification throughout the weekend. There will probably be TV vehicles adjacent - that's in this area only - for recording purposes.

If you look at the outside of the plan, you can see a third gate for exhibitors opening onto a side path. A little way down the path, before you get to the trees, is the building where the Art Exhibition's being housed. Then finally there's just one more building marked on your plan - quite near the main gate. It's divided into lock-up garages. So I hope you now feel quite familiar with the main festival area.

We also hope that you'll have received your welcome pack. In it, you should find two parking tickets for yourself and anyone assisting you, an arm band to indicate that you are an official visitor, one of our brilliant yellow badges with the new festival logo, a festival programme, and several sheets of information that we'd ask you to study carefully before the event.

Please could you note that all setting up of stalls, displays and so on should be completed by 9.30 a.m. and that unfortunately we won't be able to allow any vehicles to enter the festival area after that time. Yes, it's a big site - but even a few vehicles parked in the wrong place can block the paths. With crowds of people - and we are expecting several thousand - this can merely be a nuisance; but if there's an emergency and access for an ambulance is blocked, the situation will become not just annoying but also dangerous. And don't forget it could be your mother or your child who needs help.

Several exhibitors and craftspeople have asked us if any provision can be made for overnight storage of tables, chairs and display items rather than having to take them home and bring them again. We're pleased to say that a limited amount of space has been made available in the building near the main gate. You'll be issued with a yellow ticket to reclaim your property - similar to the red parking tickets, so do check you bring the right one! - but please understand that this is entirely at your own risk as we can take no responsibility for items lost or damaged.

I think that's all I have to say at this point but thank you all for your attention!

T: Hi Marco, come in.

M: Thanks. I've got a bit stuck trying to select courses for next semester. Could you help me, please?

T: Of course. Sit down. First of all, most people just go for the areas of business that they're interested in, but - even if something doesn't look very stimulating - it's important that you can use it once you get a job. It's not much good choosing areas that aren't going to be helpful later on.

M: Right. I want to go into management, so I'll need to think about that. And should I start specialising in a particular area yet?

T: I don't think that's wise, at this stage. It's better to aim for a wide variety of subjects, especially as management covers so many possibilities. You shouldn't be limiting your choices for later on.

M: Yes I see.

T: You should also look at how the course is made up - will you have regular seminars and tutorials, for example, as well as lectures?

M: OK. Some of the lecturers are quite big names in their fields, aren't they? Should I aim to go to their courses?

T: Well remember that the lecturers who aren't well-known may still be very good teachers! I'd say we have a consistently high standard of teaching in this department, so you don't need to worry about it.

M: Good. Well that's a great help.

T: Now last time we met, you mentioned doing Team Management, didn't you?

M: That's right. I'm still quite keen on the idea.

T: The trouble is that because of changes in the content of various courses, Team Management overlaps with the Introduction to Management course you took in your first year. So what you'd learn from it would be too little for the amount of time you'd have to spend on it.

M: I'll drop that idea, then. Have you had a chance to look at the outline I wrote for my finance dissertation? I left it in your pigeonhole last week.

T: Yes. Why exactly do you want to write a dissertation, instead of taking the finance modules? It'll be pretty demanding.

M: Well, I'm quite prepared to do the extra work, because I'm keen to investigate something in depth, instead of just skating across the surface. I realise that a broader knowledge base may be more useful to my career, but I'm really keen to do this.

T: Right. Well I had a quick look through your outline, and the first thing that struck me was that you'll have to be careful how you set about it, as the way you've organised it seems unnecessarily complex. The data that you want to collect and analyse is potentially valuable, but you'll need to narrow down the subject matter to make the whole thing manageable.

M: OK, I'll have another look at it. I was talking to Professor Briggs about it yesterday, and I got some more ideas then. For part of the dissertation I was thinking of trying to persuade finance managers from three or four companies to let me ask them about their company finances. If not I think I'll have to change to another topic.

T: Well go ahead then. I could give you some names.

M: Thanks.

T: Now let's talk about practicalities. Your dissertation must be finalised by the end of May, so you should aim to finish the first draft by the end of March. Is that feasible?

M: Yes, it shouldn't be a problem. I'll need to register for the dissertation, won't I? Is that with the Registrar's department?

T: No, it's internal to this department, so you just need to let the secretary know. Do that as soon as you're sure you're going to write the dissertation.

M: OK.

T: Then to analyse your statistics, you're going to need some suitable software. If I were you, I'd drop in to the computer office and ask them for a copy.

M: Right. So if I revise my outline, can I ...

Good morning, everyone. Today, I'm going to talk about the research project I've been involved in on the tiger shark.

First of all, some background information. The tiger shark, also known as the leopard shark, is often thought to have got its name from its aggressive nature, but in actual fact, it's called that because it has dark bands similar to those on a tiger's body.

It is a huge creature growing up to lengths of six and a half metres. It can be found just about everywhere throughout the world's temperate and tropical seas, but it is most often found along the coast, rather than the open sea.

In terms of feeding, tiger sharks tend to be most active at night and are solitary hunters. Their preferred prey includes other sharks, turtles, seabirds and dolphins, to name but a few. However, it's not uncommon to find garbage in its stomach. This is because it tends to feed in areas such as harbours and river inlets, where there is a lot of human activity.

Now to the project itself. We are particularly interested in some studies that had been done in the Raine Island area. Observations here have shown that there is a large population of tiger sharks present in the summer, during the turtle nesting season. However, during the winter months the sharks disappear - so we decided to do some of our own research there.

The first step was to tag a number of sharks so that we could follow their movements. To do this, we first needed to catch the sharks. Early in the morning, we baited lines with large bits of fish and set them in place. These lines were then checked every three or four hours. If no sharks were caught, the baits were replaced. Once a shark had been caught on one of the baited hooks, it was pulled in close to the boat and secured so that we could carry out a number of brief activities to aid our research. This usually took no more than about ten minutes and was carried out as carefully as possible to minimise any stress to the shark. Each of the tiger sharks that we caught was measured and fitted with an identification tag and also a small amount of tissue was taken for genetic studies. For some larger sharks over three metres long, we also inserted into the belly a special acoustic tag capable of sending satellite signals, while on other large sharks we attached a camera to the dorsal fin, to enable us to study the behaviour and habitat use of the sharks. After this, the shark was released, and we were able to follow its movements.

So what was the purpose of all this tagging? Well, while we were already familiar with some aspects of the tiger sharks' behaviour and food sources, what we hoped to do in this project was to see exactly what factors affected the migration patterns of tiger sharks and whether it was in fact food, weather and reproductive needs.

These are some of our findings: On February 21st a large female shark, whom we named Natalie, was attracted to our research boat at the northern tip of Raine Island and fitted with one of the satellite tags I've just mentioned. No transmissions were received from Natalie between April 2nd and April 29th indicating that she didn't surface to feed during this period. The area in which she was last reported is very shallow, suggesting that she may have changed her feeding preferences during this period to focus on prey found on the sea floor.

We also made a number of other discoveries thanks to the various transmitters we used. It seems that tiger sharks move back and forth between the ocean floor and the surface quite often. This may help the sharks conserve energy while they swim, but it probably also helps them hunt, since this movement back and forth maximises its chances of not being detected by its prey until the last minute.

So far our findings have not been conclusive. However, we have gained some very interesting insights into the behaviour of tiger sharks and are now hoping to develop our research further.