Cambridge IELTS 03 Academic Listening Test 4 (Online Test)

PRESENTER: Good evening. Tonight s show comes to you from the Good Home Exhibition in Duke’s Court, where we’ve been trying out some of the latest gadgets on show here and getting our resident expert - Liz Shearer - to tell us which ones are worth buying and which will die a death.

LIZ SHEARER: Well, hello. Yes, John, I’ve been investigating four new household gadgets and sorting out the advantages and disadvantages and then really deciding what are ‘Must buys’, what are ‘Maybe buys’ and what are ‘Never buys’. Let’s start with this vacuum flask for keeping drinks hot. Well... I felt this had quite a lot going for it, most of all is the fact that it contains no glass and is therefore unbreakable to all intents and purposes. It’s made of stainless steel which is guaranteed for 20 years .. . hope that’s long enough . .. and it’s true what the manufacturer claims - that it does maintain heat for 18 hours. So that’s pretty good. On the down side, it really works out to be quite expensive and, much more surprisingly, it unfortunately leaves a strange taste . . . you know when you’ve drunk from it... so all in all, my recommendation would be it’s got plenty of advantages, but it is rather expensive so I’d say you should maybe buy it. Moving on to a natty little device .. . the Whistle Key Holder. Basically this is where you whistle and the key holder gives off a high pitched noise and flashes light so you can find it. One advantage of this model is that it also has a small light. You press the button and this means you can find keyholes easily. I also felt the small size was a real advantage. On the weaker side, I did find the noise unpleasant. Which I m sure the designers could have done something about. And I found that it didn’t work through metal, so it’s mainly useful for finding in coat pockets, cushions, etc. But taken as a whole I thought it was a masterpiece of design and would highly recommend it.

The third gizmo is called the Army Flashlight because it was developed initially for military use. It works by squeezing the handle to generate the power. Its advantages are that it can be used for outside activities, and also ... and this is one of the surprising features... it does work underwater. My main objection to it though was although it did work in these conditions, this model gave off a weak light. So my recommendation I’m afraid would have to be to avoid this one. The decoy camera was last on my list. This is a fake video camera which you fix to your wall to scare off burglars. The advantage of this model is something which makes it look very realistic ... its flashing light. On the down side, it was quite difficult to fix to the wall. However, burglary is such a major problem these days that it is worth the effort, so this gets my strong recommendation.

PRESENTER: OK. Thanks for that, Liz.

BRYSON: Well, Amina, thanks for letting me have your draft in such good time.

AMINA: Oh, that’s alright. I was just very anxious to hear what you think of it. You can see that I decided to change the topic - I had been interested in looking at Barings Factory.

BRYSON: Oh, I think the hospital was a much better choice. In fact... well... I have to say that I thought it was good.

AMINA: Oh?

BRYSON: There’s still lots of work to be done .. .

AMINA: Oh yes ... of course.

BRYSON: But there’s plenty of good ideas. It opens well and the first chapter is fine but the middle section really stood out for me ... most interesting.

AMINA: That’s amazing because I really didn’t find it a bit easy to write .. .

BRYSON: How long did you work on the whole thing?

AMINA: Well, I spent about two or three weeks reading and doing general research and then I dashed the writing off very quickly ... so about four weeks in all.

BRYSON: Well, that’s about par for the course. You’ve got a while yet to make the changes.

AMINA: Oh right... no problem ...

BRYSON: Right. Let’s have a look at my notes here. OK. Starting with section headings ... the broad divisions are good but you’ll have to re-do the actual headings. I’ve made some suggestions in the margins ...

AMINA: OK. Thanks.

BRYSON: Now, this information on local housing ... I can see why you put it there but it really isn’t relevant to the approach you’ve taken.

AMINA: I think I see what you mean.

BRYSON: Now . . . what did I say about the interviews?

AMINA: I worked very hard on those. I really thought they were valuable.

BRYSON: They are, Amina, but they’re very complex and rather unclear at the moment. You’re going to have to spend a bit of time making the data a lot clearer.

AMINA: OK ... as long as 1 don’t have to remove them altogether . . .

BRYSON: No, don’t worry.

AMINA: What about the chronology ... the list of dates? I wasn’t sure whether I should rewrite those.

BRYSON: My advice on that is to take them out. I feel it makes the whole piece appear too simplistic.

AMINA: OK, if it’ll help.

BRYSON: Now, there are a couple of other books I’d like you to look at. Have you got a pen? Right. . . Approaches to Local History by John Mervis . . .

AMINA: Right.. .

BRYSON: And then I think you need to think about ways of representing interview data. Have a look at Sight and Sound by Kate Oakwell.

AMINA: Sight and Sound.

BRYSON: Then you know I’m going away on holiday next week . . .

AMINA: Yes.

BRYSON: So when you’ve made the changes I suggest you show the work to your Support Tutor.

AMINA: Support Tutor . . . right. . .

BRYSON: Then you do the proof reading . . .

AMINA: Proof reading . . . uh-huh. When by, do you think?

BRYSON: I’d aim for 29 June and after that you should get it laser printed . . . but be careful because the computer centre closes on 10 July.

AMINA: And then I hand it in to ... ?

BRYSON: Oh, the Faculty Office as usual.

AMINA: OK, that’s fine. I think I’m all set now! Thanks very much for all your help.

BRYSON: A pleasure. See you when I get back.

AMINA: Yep. Thanks, Dr Bryson. Bye.

BRYSON: Bye.

Good afternoon. I’m Paula Bundell and I am giving you the lectures on Environmental Noise this term. Today we are going to look into the effects of noise on a planned housing estate in a particularly difficult part of the new Manchester Park area. This site is not as bad as some 1 have researched in the past. The Blacktown airport is closed from 6pm to 7am and this is a great advantage to the site. The only noise after dark is from the highway and the traffic is somewhat reduced between 7.30pm and 5.30am. So, the people most affected by the noise will be, I expect, housewives. By the time most of the students and workers have arrived back home in the evening during the week the noise will have abated to a fairly large extent. The weekends are still a problem of course, but the traffic is certainly reduced on Saturdays to a large extent and even more so on Sundays. Of course modifications to houses will be necessary at a site like this and they come at a significant cost to the developer and home buyer. The modifications I am about to outline will add about $25,000 to the price of a newly-built house. That will still mean a cheaper house than in a less noisy and more desirable area. A bit of background would not go astray. I understand that you are all familiar with the proposed development site at Manchester Park. It’s a particularly difficult one in terms of noise with the highway along the eastern perimeter and the Blacktown airport not 3 kilometres away to the north. Of course, those nearest the highway will be the worst hit, with heavy traffic noise as well as the noise from the light planes overhead. As you all know, the normal noise threshold for private housing is 55 decibels. At this site the levels have been recorded as high as 67 decibels.

The construction of the houses has to be somewhat modified from houses in most areas. In the houses on the highway and in the noisiest areas of this site there will be a need for specialised double glazing and special acoustic seals will have to be fitted to the doors. All exterior doors in this especially noisy pocket will have to be solid core wood doors with hinges. Every house built on this site, not just those adjacent to the highway or nearest to the airport, will require high density insulation materials in the roof. Not only will all the roofs need insulating, the exterior walls will be required to be double brick. All ceilings will require double thickness plaster board to be used in the construction. In the noisiest areas mechanical ventilation will have to be installed in the exterior walls. In those areas with sealed windows it will be necessary to fit fans with absorbers to cut out the noise in those particular houses. Air conditioning units could also be fitted in the ceilings of such houses but this is substantially more expensive than fans, and may not be needed on this site. Coming back now to the double glazing I mentioned before. Specialised double glazing requires a larger air gap between the inner and outer glass than normal double glazing. The gap must be at least 7 centimetres. The thickness of the glass is also a factor, 8 millimetres on the outside and 6 on the inside pane. It is essential that the glass be thicker on the outside than on the inside and that the gap between the panes of glass be a minimum of 7 centimetres. Obviously, the noise factor will have to be taken into consideration with the layout of the houses. Living areas will have to be designed at the back of the houses away from the highway. Bedrooms and living rooms will have to be built towards the back, and for those houses closest to the highway two layers of plasterboard will be needed for the interior bedroom walls. Those rooms constructed at the front of the houses should be garages, laundries, kitchens, bathrooms and dining rooms. I have come to the conclusion that this development should go ahead, but with various acoustic modifications according to the position of the block in relation to the highway and intersection.