Cambridge IELTS 19 Academic Listening Test 3 (Questions 21-25) (Online Test)

CLARE: Hi Jake. How are you getting on with the practical teaching?

JAKE: It’s harder than I expected, but I’ve got some great classes. How about you?

CLARE: Not brilliant. I’m really struggling with my Year 12 science class.

JAKE: Are they hard to control?

CLARE: Well, I don’t have discipline problems as such. It’s just that they don’t seem to think that science has anything to do with their lives. It’s depressing. They listen to what I say, and I gave them a test last week and the results weren’t too bad, but there’s no real engagement.

JAKE: Right.

CLARE: And as part of my teaching practice, I have to design an experiment for them to do. I was wondering about something on the children’s diets… you know, asking them to record what they eat and maybe linking it to their state of health.

JAKE: Mmm. Let’s think. So your methodology would involve the children recording what they eat. OK, but you’d also need to have access to the children’s medical records and I don’t think people would be happy about that; confidentiality would be an issue. If you could get the right data, the conclusions might be significant, but I suspect it’s just not going to be easy.

CLARE: Right.

JAKE: Have you thought about doing an experiment using animals?

CLARE: Wouldn’t that be upsetting for the children?

JAKE: Well, the animals don’t have to be harmed in any way. It could just be an experiment where they’re given a certain diet and the effects are observed.

CLARE: Would I have to get permission to use animals?

JAKE: Yes, you’d have to submit an outline of the experiment and fill in a form, but it’s quite straightforward.

CLARE: But if we found out that, say, a particular diet affects the health of animals, the same thing wouldn’t necessarily be true for people, would it?

JAKE: No that’s true, but the findings for any experiment are going to be limited. It’s inevitable.

CLARE: I suppose so. So what animals could I use to investigate the effects of diet? Mice?

JAKE: Yes. You’d need experimental mice – ones that have been specially bred for experiments.

OK, so what will your experiment be investigating exactly?

CLARE: Well, something to do with nutrition. So maybe we could look at food supplements… things like extra iron and extra protein, and their impact on health.

JAKE:Mmm. That might be rather broad. Maybe just look at the effects of one supplement, like sugar, on the health of the mice?

CLARE: In fact, maybe the focus could be on whether mice can control their own diet.

JAKE: So, what happens when they have access to more sugar, that they don’t really need?

CLARE: Exactly. Do they eat it or do they decide to leave it?

JAKE: Great. Then later on, you could do a follow-up experiment adding another variable. Like, you could give some of the mice the chance to be more active, running on a wheel or something, and the others just sit around and don’t do much.

CLARE: Or I could repeat the experiment but change the type of food I provided . . . or use mice with a different genetic structure. But I think your idea would be more interesting, I might think about that some more.