Achieve IELTS Practice Tests Academic Listening Test 4 (Online Test)

Salesman: Thank you for inviting me to your residents meeting. My name is Martin Pugh from Safe Sell Alarms. I'm going to explain a little bit about home security and I hope you'll all feel a bit better informed and perhaps that you will even purchase one of the alarms we sell. It is all too easy these days for people to break in to our homes. Did you know that 25% of all burglaries are committed by burglars breaking and entering via the back door? Even though it is locked, it is still relatively easy for someone to gain entry. And there are parts of our house that we think are not vulnerable because they look inaccessible - but they're not. So, if you're trying to protect your home, you should make sure the top floor is covered by that protection, not just the ground floor. We believe that the only way to secure your property is by having an alarm fitted. Just having the alarm on the outside can put burglars off and we also recommend that you warn them about the alarm. To do this, we suggest you stick a sign in the front window of the house so it can be seen clearly. This alone should be enough to dissuade a burglar before they start.

Now, our company has a range of alarms on offer and I've brought several along for you to see tonight. But let me just explain a few things about them. First of all, all of our alarms are highly visible. They're coloured red and, on the underneath, there is a blue light, which you can see whether they are switched on or not. This acts as a deterrent to burglars who can see it is an active alarm system. Like most systems, our alarms are very sensitive so you do need to look after them. You may be surprised to hear that a cat can often slink around unnoticed under the infrared beams but a spider crawling across them will set them off. Also, our system is a little different from some. Most companies offer an option that connects their alarms to the police station. All our alarms have an automatic link to our company office. This means we can deal with the situation promptly and can sort out any alarms that have gone off by mistake.

OK, let me tell you about the installation of our alarms. Later on I'll show you some house plans and diagrams of how the alarms operate but you don't have to worry about them being intrusive, as we normally put them in hallways rather than individual rooms. The diagrams show you how the beams work to cover the whole house in this way. Oh, one small thing while I remember, is don't leave your security code in your house - a lot of people keep it in the kitchen or their study but we suggest you leave it with a neighbour so that if there is a break in, the burglars can't switch the system off. Now, regarding the practical aspects of installation - I know that many of you are out all day and I'm afraid we don't install the alarms at weekends, but we do offer a service where we can fit the alarm system in the evenings for you but we do charge a little bit extra for that. Finally, we do offer a range of systems, so I suggest you look at the leaflets on our prices. And please don't be put off from investing in a more sophisticated system to protect your home as we do allow you to set up a monthly payment if it's too much in one go. OK, now, if you'd like to ... (fade) ...

Tutor: Hi, Alex, come in. I gather you wanted some help with writing essays.

Alex: Yes. I'm finding this first term difficult and I'm worried about the assignments we have to do for January.

Tutor: Well, let me see if I can help. You shouldn't panic about it because essay writing is a very straightforward process really. What it involves is organising the information that you want to include. You shouldn't have more than you can easily manage within the word count. Make sure you haven't got too much or anything irrelevant. You need to look at that and work out what you need and what you don't need before you start. And then you just have to think about how you're going to put forward your argument.

Alex: Oh, that sounds very straightforward when you put it like that. But I'm worried I haven't got the necessary skills for writing an effective essay because English is my second language.

Tutor: Well, perhaps you misunderstand the skills you need. You need to be able to analyse your data and then I would say the skills of interpretation and expressing yourself are important. Perhaps it's this last one that bothers you, but the more essays you write, the more you will develop these skills.

Alex: Yes - and I don't quite know how to improve at that - though as you say, I know practice will help. And I need to make sure I've got everything ready before I start.

Tutor: Yes. What is vital to good essay writing is preparation so make sure you build in enough time to do the research you need.

Alex: Are there any other sources I can use to help me with essays?

Tutor: Yes. You should go to the library and look through the reference section because there are books that focus on the style we use in academic writing and those will help you a lot. The other thing that you should think about is, what happens when you've actually written your essay. Too many students just complete their work and hand it in, whereas what you should be doing is making sure that you edit it as thoroughly as possible.

Alex: Oh, yes. That's a good idea. Then I'd pick up any mistakes and also see if it reads logically.

Tutor: Exactly. The other thing is, again, what a lot of students do is get their essays back, look at the marks, then just file it away. They don't seem to realise that if they checked it through and looked at what the tutor had written, then they can learn from their old essays.

Alex: Yeah, I can see that's a good idea.

Tutor: So, is that OK? You can always come back to me.

Alex: Actually, there were a couple of other things I wanted to ask you about essay writing. I had had a few thoughts of my own about what I should do such as really taking good notes when I'm reading because that helps, doesn't it?

Tutor: I think it improves your knowledge rather than your actual writing. But one tip I can give you is to try and not read too much, otherwise you end up including irrelevant material in your essay. Remember to stay on task.

Alex: Yes, sometimes I have problems interpreting the questions correctly, or the whole question seems overwhelming to me. What I try to do is highlight the key parts and divide it into smaller chunks, so I can manage it.

Tutor: Well, you might find it useful to break it down even further by making sure you understand all the words perfectly before you start. Things like 'assess' or 'comment' and such like.

Alex: Yes, I see.

Tutor: Sometimes, after an objective analysis, the question actually asks you for a subjective opinion, but you must remember to support your arguments, if that's the case. One final comment I can make is about using your own words - you must try to do this as far as possible. You're expected to summarise what you've read not just string together a list of quotations. In fact, you shouldn't have too many - just use them where it's really important.

Alex: OK, thanks.

Tutor: Do you read other student's essays when you've finished?

Alex: No. Why? Is that a good idea?

Tutor: Well, you can confuse each other so I'd advise against it - but it's up to you.

Alex: OK. Thanks very much ... (fade) ...

Tutor: OK, can you quieten down please? Now, today, I'm going to talk to you about your assignment. We've been studying the effects of the exchange rate so I'm going to give you a project to do on this. Right, can you make some notes while I'm talking. The first thing that I'd like you to do in order to prepare this is to select where you're interested in, I mean, which country, and therefore which currency you're going to be operating in. OK, now the purpose of the project is to make money and I'm hoping some of you will make a significant amount! So I want you to suppose that you have £100 that you will have to invest purely in the rises and falls of the exchange system. In other words, you'll be trying to predict rates. This is a project that you'll be doing together but, before you work together, you'll have to go off and research what you need to know about the economy of that country and how well it's doing or is expected to do in the near future. You could all make up a little information sheet with your notes on, clearly legible, because then I want you to get together - we can do that next week - and to go round and read about each other's countries. When you see how well or badly each country is doing, I want you to decide what your exchange rate is going to be against all the other currencies. After that is all sorted, what you're going to do is to go round the other students and attempt to sell your money to the others - remember this will depend on the success of your country's economy and the rate you've fixed for your currency. Now, you're not allowed to just swap currencies with each other but you may wish to buy from the other countries - but you must do a proper transaction. All the way through this you must keep your accounts properly for each transaction. I'll give you one week to do this and then we will set a time for the deals to finish - a bit like the stock exchange - and, at that point, I will ask you to calculate how much you have made. Is that clear?

OK, now before you begin that, there are a few things I want you to read up on to prepare. You need to look at the economies of the UK's main trading partners. I don't mean all of them because that would be over 80, but just the 29 principal ones. There are summaries in the last three books on the booklist I've given you. And so that you can practise applying the criteria on assessment I gave you, I'd then like you to focus just on one sector across all the countries. The most common one across every country is farming but, as much agricultural produce is for domestic consumption, I'd like you to look at manufacturing. Then, I would like you to do a detailed investigation of one particular aspect. I was going to give you a choice but I think, as we've just started the course, it's better if we all look at the same thing and then we can discuss it in the seminars. So the thing I'd like you all to look at is fluctuations in import prices. Now you need to do all that before you start the project as it will help you assess the economies of the countries you'll be representing in the project. Don't worry - you've got plenty of time. Exam week is December 8th, then it's the holidays until January 6th so I don't need the project in till February 5th. Is that OK? Now, any questions ... (fade) ...