Cambridge IELTS 01 Academic Listening Test 4 (Online Test)

Speaker:

Thanks for turning up today, thanks for turning up today to this short talk I'm going to give on student banking. Many of you are unfamiliar with the way banks work in this country and today's talk should just give you a few starting points. I will of course answer any questions at the end.

Right. Well, as you probably know, you'll need to open a bank account while you're here — it's the safest place to keep your money and it's best to open an account with one of the major banks. You should each have a handout with the names and addresses ... there's Barclays in Realty Square, National Westminster in Preston Park, Lloyds in City Plaza and Midland in Hope Street. OK. All these banks offer special student accounts. However, it's important to note that as an international student you'll not necessarily be eligible for all the facilities offered to resident students.

Now, as an international student you will need to provide evidence that you can fund yourself for however long your course lasts. Banks have different policies and the services that they'll offer you will depend on your individual circumstances and on the discretion of the bank manager involved. So it's a matter of going there and finding out about your own particular situation.

Right, erm, when you do go to open a bank account, you should take some documentation with you. I've already mentioned that you must be able to support yourself. In addition to this most banks ask you to bring your passport and your letter or certificate of enrolment. OK?

Now, by far the most useful type of account to open is a current account. When you do this, you will actually get what is called a "student account" which is a current account with special concessions for students. When you open the account, the bank will give you a chequebook and you can use this to draw money out as you need it. If you need to write cheques in shops, you'll also need a cheque card. This is really an identity card which guarantees that correctly written cheques up to the value stated on the card will be honoured by the bank. OK?

Right, er, if you want to draw out cash for yourself you can make the cheque payable in your own name or "to cash". You can also withdraw cash from a cashpoint machine with a cashcard. These are extremely useful as they enable you to withdraw cash from your account during the day or at night.

There is also another card called Switch or Delta and you can use this to pay for things in shops. It takes the money right out of your account, so you don't need your chequebook.

Now — you may want to take more money out of the bank than you have in it. This is called having an overdraft. Be very careful with this you should not do this without permission from your bank. Overdrafts usually incur charges though some banks offer interest-free overdrafts to some students. But find out before you get one! Right?

Well, that just leaves opening times — when can you go? Banks used to be open from 9.30 am until 3.30 pm from Monday to Friday but many main branches are now open until 4.30 or 5 pm on weekdays and some of the bigger branches in London and other major cities are now open for a limited time on Saturdays.

OK — any questions?

I = Ilmar

D = Dawn

I: Hi, Dawn.

D: Oh hi, Ilmar.

I: I'm glad I've bumped into you. I've just found a great idea for the presentation we've got to do for Dr Banks next month.

D: What, the one on everyday objects?

I: Yes ... look at this article ... it's really interesting.

D: The aluminium coke can?

I: You know ... coca cola cans, soft drink cans. Look let's sit down here. Have you got a minute?

D: Sure ... I'll just get my bag.

D: OK, so you think we can get a presentation out of this article?

I: I'm sure we can. First of all we can provide some interesting facts about the aluminium cans that we drink out of every day.

D: Like ... ?

I: Well, here ... it says that in the US they produce 300 million aluminium drink cans each day.

D: Wow! 300 million!

I: Exactly. That's an enormous number. It says here "outstrips the production of nails or paper clips". And they say that the manufacturers of these cans exercise as much attention and precision in producing them as aircraft manufacturers do when they make the wing of an aircraft!

D: Really! Let's have a look.

I: They're trying to produce the perfect can - as thin but as strong as possible.

D: Mmm ... this bit's interesting ... "today's can weighs about 0.48 ounces: thinner than two pieces of paper ... from this magazine say."

I: Yeah, and yet it can take a lot of weight.

D: More than 90 pounds of pressure per square inch — three times the pressure of a car tyre. OK, I agree, it's a good topic.

I: What I thought was that we could do a large picture of a coke can and label it and then talk about the different parts. Look, I've done a rough picture here.

D: OK, so where shall we start?

I: Well, the lid is complicated. Let's start with the body first. I'll do a line from the centre of the can ... like this ... and label it "body ". What does it say?

D: It's made of aluminium, of course, and it's thicker at the bottom.

I: Right, so that it can take all that pressure.

D: And then I think you should draw another line from the body for the label.

I: Right "label". The aluminium is ironed out until it's so thin that it produces what does it say?

D: "A reflective surface suitable for decoration."

I: That's right apparently it helps advertisers, too.

D: Yes, because it's so attractively decorated.

I: Good ... and then there's the base.

D: Yes, it says the bottom of the can is shaped like a dome so that it can resist the internal pressure.

I: That's interesting. I didn't know that.

D: Nor did I. OK, so going up to the lid ... there are several things we can label here. There's the rim around the edge which seals the can.

I: Got that. And there's a funny word for the seal isn't there?

D: Yes, it's a flange

I: What does it say about it?

D: Well, the can's filled with coke or whatever and after that the top of the can is trimmed and then bent over to secure the lid.

I: That's right, it looks like a seam. We could even do a blow-up of it like this F-L-A-N-G-E ...

D: Yes, that would be clearer. I think we should label the lid itself and say that it constitutes twenty five percent of the total weight.

I: Twenty-five percent ... so it's stronger than the body of the can.

D: So to save money, manufacturers make it smaller than the rest of the can!

I: Didn't know that either ... so how do we open a can of coke?

D: Mmm ... first of all there's the tab which we pull up to open the can and that's held in place by a rivet.

I: Mmm ... I think that's too small for us to include.

D: I agree, but we can talk about it in the presentation. We can show the opening though

I: That's the bit of the can that drops down into the drink when we pull the tab.

D: Yeah, hopefully. Sometimes the tab just breaks off.

I: I know.

D: Anyway the opening is scored so that it pushes in easily but doesn't detach itself.

I: OK, we can show that by drawing a shadow of it inside the can, like this I'll label it scored opening. Great ... well, I think we've got the basis of a really interesting presentation. Let's go and photocopy the article.

D: Fine. I'll take it home and study it some more.

Lecturer:

Good morning and welcome to the University's Open Day and to our mini-lecture from the Sports Studies department. Now the purpose of this lecture is twofold: one — we want you to experience a university lecture, to give you a taste of what listening to a university lecture is like, and two — we want you to find out something about the Sports Studies program at this university. So feel free to ask any questions during the talk and I'll do my best to answer them.

Right — so what does a course in Sports Studies involve? Well, you wouldn't be blamed for not knowing the answer to this question because Sports Studies as a discipline is still comparatively new. But it's a growing area and one which is now firmly established at our university.

Now there are three distinct strands to Sports Studies and you would need to choose fairly early on just which direction you wanted to follow. And I'll just run over these now. Firstly, we've got the Sports Psychology strand, secondly, we've got the Sports Management strand, and last, but not least, there's the Sports Physiology strand. So Just to recap there's Sports Psychology, Sports Management, and Sports Physiology.

Let's look first at Psychology. Now the people who study Sports Psych want to work with top athletes, and they're looking at what will take those athletes that one percent extra. What makes them win? When all other things are equal, physically all other things are equal, they want to know ... what are the mental factors involved? The Sports Psychologist works closely with the athlete through his or her training program and becomes an integral part of the team. In fact you could say that they play just as important a role as the coach. So if you're interested in what makes people win this could be the area for you.

Now secondly, we've got the strand which I referred to as Sports Management and this goes hand in hand with the area of Sports Marketing. So you might like to think of this area as having two branches: Management and Marketing. On the Management side we look at issues relating to the running of sports clubs, management of athletes that sort of thing. But then on the other side, we've got Sports Marketing. And this is the side that interests me more because here we will look at the market forces behind sport. Questions like: why do people spend their money on a football match, or a tennis game rather, than say on buying a CD or going to the cinema? What are those market forces?

Sport used to just compete with sport. Nowadays it competes with other leisure activities. The spectators go to sport to be entertained rather than out of loyalty to a team. They want to have an evening out and they don't want the cheap seats any more they want good seats they want entertainment. And the professional sportsmen and women respond to this without question. They're there to give a performance. They provide the entertainment. So in the marketing course we address all these commercial issues and we look at how this hooks back into the Management of sport.

Now the third branch of Sports Studies sometimes comes under another name and is also known as Exercise Science. And again here we find that there are two distinct types of exercise science. The first is working very much at the macro level. What I call the huffing and puffing people. So this looks at fitness testing, body measurements, all that sort of thing. But the more interesting side of sports physiology, at least in my view, is the side that looks at the micro level, looking at cellular change. They're doing cellular research, looking at changes in body cells when the body is under stress.

So that just about brings us to the end of our mini-lecture for today. I hope you've found it interesting and I look forward to seeing you all on our course next year. Feel free to come and talk to me if you want any more information. I'll be over at that notice board near the main entrance.