Collins Practice Tests For IELTS 2 Academic Listening Test 4 (Online Test)

Speaker:

Many thanks for inviting me along to talk about saving energy in the home. This is a key issue for many people who now find themselves on tight budgets. So today I'd like to spend a few minutes going through some simple tips to help keep those energy bills to a minimum. I'll start with some easy, cheap ideas before talking about more major solutions later.

I think we're all aware of the importance of insulating our homes, and although I'd advise you to get it done, I appreciate it can sometimes be inconvenient to have building work carried out. And though they're growing in popularity, having solar panels installed on the roof isn't a cheap enough option for many of us to consider seriously. So what other steps can we take? Well, most people will make a point of turning the heating down when temperatures outside rise but they ignore other equally useful ways of saving energy when they're making dinner or doing their weekly laundry.

If you're living in a relatively new apartment or house, you're probably blessed with a cosy, draught-free living space. But for those of us in older properties, the chances are there are gaps all over the place where cold air is getting in. Walk around your home and place the back of your hand around window frames. Can you feel cold air coming in from outside? Get down on your knees at the doors. Is there a draught at floor level? Fix these draughts with some cheap draught excluders and savings in heating bills will begin straight away.

And are you using the latest energy-saving light bulbs? I'm not recommending you go around your entire property throwing out older ones and replacing them all immediately. But next time a bulb goes, make sure you buy an energy-efficient alternative. And what about heating? If you have radiators in every room, do you need them all switched on throughout the day? If they're on timers, set them efficiently. Then there's the laptop or your TV. Do you leave them switched on overnight or on standby? Don't waste money, turn them off. And that goes for lights as well. You'd be surprised how many people leave them on when they go out.

There are also guaranteed savings to be made in the kitchen. I'm always telling my husband not to overfill the kettle when he makes a cup of tea. Why boil more water than you actually need? When you consider how many times that kettle gets used every day, you'll appreciate just how much electricity can be saved by boiling what you need and no more. And the next time you're cooking pasta or potatoes, keep a lid on the pot. The water will boil much more quickly than if you leave it off. And if you've bought yourself a pressure cooker or steamer and it's sitting in the cupboard never being used, get it out - they're much more efficient than pots and pans.

Now, the refrigerator and freezer. If the fridge is next to the cooker, it's having to work harder to stay cold. But as I'm giving cheap, easy solutions here, a kitchen redesign might be out of the question. Still, there are other energy-saving steps you can take. Keep an eye on the temperature control. We often forget to turn it down in the colder winter months when a high setting is unnecessary. Also, remember to defrost the freezer frequently and try not to overfill it as this isn't the most efficient way of using it.

The washing machine is another potential money saver. A lot of people wash at 40°C but it's often OK to drop the temperature down to 30°C, with similar results. And remember to either wash full loads or select the half-load programme; again, a surprising number of people forget to do this. And is it really necessary to dry your clothes in a tumble drier? If you have a garden or a yard, hang them outside. Or if you're drying them inside, get yourself a cheap clothes rail rather than hanging things over radiators, which robs you of valuable heat.

Now let's turn to some of the help our local council is offering to householders to save energy ...

Oliver: Excuse me, is this seat taken?

Alice: No, by all means, have a seat. Are you here for the Open Day?

Oliver: Yes, I think I've just about finished now. I got here first thing this morning. What about you?

Alice: I got here a little while ago. I spent some time walking around the place first, just to get a feel for what it's like. I'm doing the organised events this afternoon. I thought I'd have a coffee before I get started. It's a lovely campus, isn't it?

Oliver: Yes, I love it. And the facilities are unbelievable. I've just been over to have a look at the sports centre. There's an Olympic size swimming pool, a gym, squash courts, everything really. All the high street banks are here, and the bookshop looks better than the one in town. There's supposed to be a big supermarket a few minutes' walk from the main entrance, so there's pretty much everything you need here.

Alice: Yes, I really like the look of it ... Um, I wonder if you can help me. I think I need to register to let them know I've arrived, don't I?

Oliver: I'm not sure you have to. You can just pick up an information pack from the desk over there. And nobody asked my name or anything when I turned up for the events earlier. I just walked in. But you never know; they might check after to see if people have bothered to come to the Open Day, so I think it's best to register.

Alice: Thanks. I'll just finish my coffee and then I'll get started.

Oliver: So, is this your first Open Day?

Alice: No, it's my fourth. I've been to Sussex, Coventry and Birmingham so far. They've all got their good points. But being a bit older, I'm particularly keen on somewhere that has a few students my age on the course. Apart from that, they all seem to have great links to businesses, and there isn't much to choose between them as far as their facilities are concerned. How about you?

Oliver: I haven't been to any other Open Days yet but I'm hoping I end up here. I've just been to a presentation by the Head of Department. It sounds like a great place to do Maths - that's my subject. He was telling us about all the avenues open to Maths graduates and the kind of work you can end up doing. A lot of students go into finance, accountancy, banking, that kind of thing. I can't say that's ever appealed to me, though. My Maths teacher at college was telling me about the opportunities in the software industry, which I quite like the sound of.

Alice: Well, I hope you manage to get in. According to the letter they sent me, my department is doing something similar. There's a talk later this afternoon by the head. I can't miss that. There's also someone who'll be explaining about the year abroad. Apparently, you can spend your third year at one of their partner universities in Spain or Germany. I'm going to have to give that a miss, though, to catch my train. Oh, and there's also an exhibition area in the Physics Department with some of the things people are doing here. I'll try and catch that.

Oliver: There were a few second- and third-year students at the exhibition I went to. One of them gave me some great tips on finding work as well. I already knew about a couple of accountancy firms in the area that offer work experience. That's on a voluntary basis, though. But apparently the students helping here on the Open Day get paid, and the university advertises other jobs that come up now and again, so that's worth remembering. And a lot of the shops here are always looking for staff.

Alice: Mm, that's useful to know. I overheard someone saying there's a tour of some of the halls of residence in about half an hour, so I think I'll register and try to fit that in before I go to the talk. Are you thinking of living on campus?

Oliver: I've not made my mind up yet. I don't live far from here. My parents' place is just the other side of town. I could easily get the bus to campus, plus it would be a lot cheaper if I stayed at home. But it would be nice to get some independence as well, so I don't know. I'll have to see. But I didn't know about the tour. Would you mind if I tag along with you?

Alice: No, not at all. Let me just finish my coffee and I'll go and register.

Lecturer: Today we're going to continue our investigation into the use of technology in plotting oceanographic migratory patterns and I'd like to focus specifically on creatures that we didn't even realise existed until very recently: pygmy blue whales. In particular, I'd like to talk about a high-tech method of tracking that researchers have used to find out more about these creatures.

Pygmy blue whales, which are one of several sub-species of blue whales, spend their lives in the vast expanses of the Indian and southern Pacific Oceans. They were first identified as a distinct subspecies in 1966. Before then they were probably confused with the Antarctic or 'true' blue whale, so it's only recently that researchers have started to learn about them and their migrations to and from their breeding and feeding grounds.

Scientists are interested in pygmy blue whales because although they are a very mobile subspecies, very little is known about their movements and their populations. Large-scale movements of whales are particularly hard to study, and what we do know about pygmy blue whales we've mainly learnt from examining whaling records. There are several populations of pygmy blue whales in the southern hemisphere and two main feeding grounds off southern and western Australia. Scientists were interested in testing their hypothesis that the pygmy blue whales feeding off western Australia migrate to Indonesia to breed.

To track the whales' movements, researchers made use of something called satellite telemetry. This refers to the use of a satellite-linked tag attached to a whale. When the antenna on the whale breaks the surface of the water, the tag communicates with a satellite system. The location of the whale can be determined when multiple satellites receive the tag's transmissions, much like how the navigation system works on a mobile phone. Researchers receive this location data in almost real time via the project website, which allows them to track the movement of the tagged whale from many miles away.

The use of these tags has enabled researchers to discover that pygmy blue whales do indeed travel northwards from the west coast of Australia in March and April, reaching the warmer breeding grounds of Indonesia in June. They remain there until September, at which time they then return to Australian waters.

In addition to identifying the migratory pattern of this particular population of pygmy whales, research has also shone new light on the whales' feeding patterns. It's usually assumed that whales go without food outside of the summer, when they leave their feeding grounds. But interestingly, the pygmy blue whales studied travel from productive feeding grounds off western Australia to productive areas in Indonesia and therefore probably still have the opportunity to feed whilst they're in their breeding grounds.

It is hoped that mapping the migratory movements of the pygmy whales will help conservation efforts for these endangered animals, and the study has enabled researchers to identify specific conservation issues. For example, the migratory routes of pygmy blue whales correspond closely with shipping routes. Consequently, researchers are keen to monitor whether this has any negative effects on the whales' behaviour. Baleen whales - these are whales that use filters to feed, not teeth - use sounds to communicate and to gain information about their environment. Clearly, as pygmy blue whale movements correspond to shipping routes, there is potential for the noise generated by ships to affect communication and hence social encounters and feeding.

Previously, researchers could only hypothesise that pygmy blue whales occupying western Australian waters travelled into Indonesian waters. Now that this hypothesis has been borne out by evidence, conservation efforts can be undertaken in a wider area than just Australian waters.

However, scientists aren't stopping here. A question mark still remains over the movements of the pygmy blue whales that utilise the feeding grounds further south, off the southern coast of Australia. Genetic evidence indicates that there is a mixing taking place between the population of whales in the feeding grounds of western Australia and the population further south. Researchers are keen to discover whether the pygmy whales from the southern feeding grounds follow a similar migration route to those from the west coast or whether they migrate to the subtropical region to the south of Australia. As a result, there are plans to tag the pygmy blue whales further south in order to find out whether they move through the same areas as the western population and are therefore exposed to the same risks.