University Orientation Program - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations
From IELTS Recent Actual Test 6 Academic Listening Test 1 · Part 3 · Questions 21–30
Audio
Questions
Questions 21–24 Table Completion
Complete the timetable.
Write the correct letter, A-H, for each answer.
A BBQ B Careers lecture C Computer lab visit
D Dance E Library tour F Student Union induction
G University tour H Legal rights lecture
| Morning | Afternoon | |
| Monday | Opening Lecture | 21 |
| Tuesday | 22 | Study Skills |
| Wednesday | x | 23 |
| Thursday | x | x |
| Friday | x | 24 |
Questions 25–30 Diagram Labeling
Complete the labels.
Write ONE WORD OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Answers & Explanations Summary
| # | Answer | Evidence | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q21 | G | Sam: Well, the ‘Careers Lecture’ might be helpful, but I am interested in the ‘Uni Tour’. It’s probably too early to be thinking of careers now, anyway, and I want to know what’s what at this new university, so I’m doing the tour.Liz: Alright. I’ll come along with you. Might learn something interesting. After all, we haven’t seen much of this place yet, and we will be spending four years here | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript shows Sam choosing the university tour because he wants to see the layout of the campus. Liz agrees to join him because she also wants to see the place where they will spend the next four years. Answer Explanation: The answer G means that Sam and Liz will go on the 'University tour' on Monday afternoon. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is G because Sam specifically chooses the 'Uni Tour' (University tour) over the 'Careers Lecture'. He explains that he wants to learn his way around the new university instead of thinking about jobs so early. Liz thinks this is a good idea too, so they both decide to do it together on Monday afternoon. |
| Q22 | E | Sam: Tuesday is another full day, too. In the afternoon there’s a lecture about study skills, but that morning offers another choice.Liz: ‘Library Tour’ or ‘Student Union Induction’. What do you think?Sam: I think the student union is very important, but we can go there any time, right, so we should take advantage of the library tour while it’s being offered. Maybe the week after, you and I can go to the student union.Liz: Library it is, then | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript notes that on Tuesday morning, the students must choose between a library tour and a student union session. Sam tells Liz they should do the library tour while it is being offered, and Liz agrees that they will go to the library. Answer Explanation: The answer E stands for the 'Library tour', which is the activity Sam and Liz choose for Tuesday morning. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is identified by looking at the conversation about Tuesday's plan. Sam explains that there are two options for Tuesday morning: the 'Library Tour' or the 'Student Union Induction'. He suggests they should 'take advantage' (meaning use a good opportunity) of the library tour now because they can visit the student union at any other time. Liz agrees by saying 'Library it is', which means she accepts the choice. |
| Q23 | C | Now, Wednesday has a free session in the morning, but after lunch there’s a choice between visiting the computer lab, or attending a lecture on our legal rights Well, law and rights are important, but computers are the basis of everything these days, so I’m going to the computer lab |
Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript shows what the students can do on Wednesday afternoon: go to the computer lab or a law lecture. Sam says he wants to go to the computer lab because computers are very useful. Liz says 'Okay' to show she agrees to this plan. Answer Explanation: The answer C means that on Wednesday afternoon, Sam and Liz will go to visit the computer room. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is C because Sam and Liz decide to visit the computer lab on Wednesday afternoon. Liz explains that they have two choices after lunch: the computer lab or a talk about laws (legal rights). Sam prefers the computer lab because he believes computer skills are necessary for everything today. Liz agrees to skip the law talk by saying 'Okay,' which confirms they will go with Sam's choice. |
| Q24 | A | Sam: Let me see the timetable. Thursday is a free day, and the week winds up with some celebrations on Friday afternoon. It looks like a fun choice, too. There’s either a BBQ on the main lawn, or the dance.Liz: I never pass up the chance to eat something. What about you?Sam: If I can get a free meal, I’ll take it any day, and I’m not good at dancing anyway.Liz: Well, that’s that decided. Right?Sam: Right | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript showing the end of the week reveals that Sam and Liz have to pick one activity for Friday. Liz wants to go where there is food to eat. Sam also wants a free meal and mentions he is bad at dancing, so they both pick the BBQ. Answer Explanation: The answer A is the BBQ (which stands for Barbecue, an event where food is cooked over a fire). Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is A because Liz and Sam choose to go to the BBQ on Friday afternoon. Sam explains that they have two options for the celebrations: a BBQ or a dance. Liz says she wants to eat, and Sam agrees because he wants a 'free meal' and says he is 'not good at dancing.' Because they both prefer eating over dancing, they decide on the BBQ. |
| Q25 | Header | The footer is at the bottom of the page, and the header is at the very top. That’s why they call it a ‘header’, you know, that little bit of writing giving details about the work | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript explains that the part of the page at the highest point is called the header, and it contains specific information about the writing piece. Answer Explanation: The answer is Header, which refers to the section of text located at the top of a page in a written assignment. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is Header because Liz describes the layout rules (the 'style guide') for university papers. She confirms that the header is the specific area at the very top of the page that contains information about the student's work. Keywords to look for are 'top' and 'writing giving details'. |
| Q26 | 16 | And even the heading on the page has to be a specific dimension. 16 points, and bold print, and underlined | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript shows that the title at the top of the paper (the heading) must be a certain size, which is 16 points. Answer Explanation: The answer is the number that represents the font size required for the main title or heading of a document. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 16 because, during the talk about the university's style guide, Liz mentions the specific size needed for headings. She uses the word "dimension" to describe the size and clearly states it should be "16 points," meaning the text size for headings is 16. |
| Q27 | 12 | Yes, the main text is Arial, too, as you said, and the size is 12 points, with the header and footer being slightly smaller, at 10 points each | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript shows Liz confirming that the font throughout the document is Arial, but the specific size for the main part of the writing (the text) is 12 points. Answer Explanation: The answer is the number 12, which refers to the required character size (font size) for the body of the written assignment. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 12 because, during their discussion about the ‘style guide’ for university papers, Liz specifically mentions the size for the main text. While she notes that headers and footers are smaller (10 points) and headings are larger (16 points), she explicitly states that the main text must be 12 points. This follow's the university's rule that everything must be in Arial font but different parts of the paper have different sizes. |
| Q28 | Single | The header and footer are different. They’re only single-spaced | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript explains that the small sections at the top and bottom of the page (the header and footer) are formatted with very little space between the lines, which is called being "single-spaced." Answer Explanation: The answer refers to a specific type of line spacing where there is no extra room between lines of text. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is "Single" because, in the discussion about document formatting, Liz explains how the lines in the header and footer should be spaced. She contrasts this with the main body of the text, which uses one and a half spaces. Keywords like 'spacing' and 'single-spaced' indicate that the lines in these specific sections are positioned close together. |
| Q29 | Work | The header has the name of the work | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript explains that the top part of the page, called the header, must have the name of the student's assignment written on it. Answer Explanation: The answer "Work" refers to the title or name of the school assignment (like an essay) that a student writes. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is "Work" because, when Sam and Liz talk about the rules for writing their essays, Sam says the name of the paper should be in the header. The word "work" here means the student's writing assignment. |
| Q30 | Teacher | No, the work, but surely the teacher’s name must go somewhere. Ah, here it is. It goes in the footer | Excerpt/Transcript Explanation: The transcript shows Sam explaining that the name of the teacher is one of the specific details required to be written in the footer of every page. Answer Explanation: The answer is the person who teaches the class. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is found when Sam and Liz discuss the 'style guide' for their university assignments. They talk about how to organize a page. Sam looks at the guide and discovers that while the name of the assignment goes at the top (header), the name of the teacher must be placed in the footer, which is the section at the bottom of the page. |
Transcript
You will hear two students, Sam and Liz, discussing their university orientation program.
Sam: Hi Liz. How do you feel about starting university here?
Liz: A little bit nervous, but I’m confident I can handle it. This orientation program seems like it will help us a lot.
Sam: Sure. I’m looking at the timetable here myself. It seems that there are choices available.
Liz: I can see. So, what are you going to do Monday afternoon? In the morning we all have the opening lecture, but it looks like we have a choice later that day, as you said.
Sam: Well, the ‘Careers Lecture’ might be helpful, but I am interested in the ‘Uni Tour’. It’s probably too early to be thinking of careers now, anyway, and I want to know what’s what at this new university, so I’m doing the tour.
Liz: Alright. I’ll come along with you. Might learn something interesting. After all, we haven’t seen much of this place yet, and we will be spending four years here.
Sam: Tuesday is another full day, too. In the afternoon there’s a lecture about study skills, but that morning offers another choice.
Liz: ‘Library Tour’ or ‘Student Union Induction’. What do you think?
Sam: I think the student union is very important, but we can go there any time, right, so we should take advantage of the library tour while it’s being offered. Maybe the week after, you and I can go to the student union.
Liz: Library it is, then. Now, Wednesday has a free session in the morning, but after lunch there’s a choice between visiting the computer lab, or attending a lecture on our legal rights.
Sam: Well, law and rights are important, but computers are the basis of everything these days, so I’m going to the computer lab.
Liz: Don’t you think knowing our legal rights is equally, if not more, important? We live in a very litigious and complex society now.
Sam: Sure, but it’s something we can pick up later, so let’s leave that one out.
Liz: Okay.
Sam: Let me see the timetable. Thursday is a free day, and the week winds up with some celebrations on Friday afternoon. It looks like a fun choice, too. There’s either a BBQ on the main lawn, or the dance.
Liz: I never pass up the chance to eat something. What about you?
Sam: If I can get a free meal, I’ll take it any day, and I’m not good at dancing anyway.
Liz: Well, that’s that decided. Right?
Sam: Right!
Sam: Guess what Liz? There’s another interesting thing in this orientation booklet, and it looks important - about a ‘style guide’.
Liz: What’s that?
Sam: Take a look yourself. It seems to be a set of rules regarding how to present written work - essays, and that sort of thing - to the lecturers. They want a uniform style of presentation.
Liz: I can see. So, everything we hand in must have a header and a footer.
Sam: A what?
Liz: A header and a footer. The footer is at the bottom of the page, and the header is at the very top. That’s why they call it a ‘header’, you know, that little bit of writing giving details about the work. And they also want the word count. Why do they need that?
Sam: I guess because the lecturers will specify the number of words they want for their assignment, and they want to be sure students follow this.
Liz: And even the heading on the page has to be a specific dimension. 16 points, and bold print, and underlined.
Sam: And subheadings are 14 points, and the font has to be Arial for everything.
Liz: Yes, the main text is Arial, too, as you said, and the size is 12 points, with the header and footer being slightly smaller, at 10 points each. Well, it seems logical. The size of everything is in proportion to its importance, but why do they need the spacing of the main text to be one and a half? The header and footer are different. They’re only single-spaced.
Sam: Probably to allow the teacher to insert comments, or corrections, or just to make it all more readable, I suppose.
Liz: And we need wide margins on the left, right, top, and bottom, probably for the same reason. Lots of space to allow the addition of comments. That’s a bit scary, actually. It seems to assume we will be making mistakes.
Sam: And look what they want in the header and footer. The header has the name of the work.
Liz: Not the name of the teacher?
Sam: No, the work, but surely the teacher’s name must go somewhere. Ah, here it is. It goes in the footer.
Liz: Okay, I’d say this is all logical. If a page is lost, say, falls to the floor, then with all this information, it can always be traced back to the teacher involved.
Sam: Right - as you say, all very logical.