IELTS Recent Actual Test 4 Academic Listening Test 5

Interviewer: Today we're pleased to have on the show Chris Evans from The Royal Caledonian Curling Club. Now, let's welcome Chris to tell us something about ice curling. Chris, please.
Chris: Thank you. It's my honour to briefly talk about ice curling here to all of you. So let's start with what curling is.
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on an ice rink towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. Two curling teams consist of four players: the lead, the second, the third and finally the skip. The captain of the curling team, and its players will throw their stones in the order stated above. Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score in the game; points are scored depending on which stone is resting closest to the centre of the target area at the end of the game.
The ice surface on which the game is played or the rink in curling is called 'the sheet'. It is covered with tiny droplets of water that become ice and cause the stones to 'curl' or deviate from a straight path. The curling players should slide the heavy, polished stones or rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the house—a circular target marked on the ice, as I've mentioned before.
There are several pieces of equipment essential for a curling game, so a concise introduction will be given to you.
The most important things are the curling brush, which is used to sweep the ice surface in the path of the stone; as well as the curling stone, which is sometimes called rock. The former is usually made of horsehair, and the latter is made of granite, mainly coming from Scotland.
Curling shoes are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except that the two shoes in a pair have dissimilar soles. The sole of the slider shoe, which is designed for the sliding foot, is typically made of Teflon, while the gripper shoe for the hack foot has a special layer of rubber applied to the sole.
During the curling game, you may also find a stopwatch attached either to the player's clothing or the broom, which is used to time the stones over a fixed distance to calculate their speed.
Now a word about the development of curling clubs. Curling is thought to have been invented in medieval Scotland, and outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries, as the climates provided good ice conditions every winter. Kilsyth Curling Club is renowned as the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716, and widely influencing the ice curling development. In Kilsyth today, both Men's and Ladies' sections are thriving, participating in all major competitions and having won championships in the British Open in the past.
The mother club of curling—Grand Caledonian Curling Club was instituted in 1838 for the purpose, not as such to attract people's interest, but to regulate the ancient Scottish game of curling by general laws. With these official rules, the young curlers could be trained in a more professional way. By 1842 the new national club had sought and obtained royal patronage, and it has ever since been known as The Royal Caledonian Curling Club.
However, many sports such as athletics and tennis were frowned upon as being too recreational and not practical enough. So the crown banned them by law during the 1300s in the hope that men would instead practise the archery skills that were seen as vital to the country's defence. And the ban was lifted in the 17th century.
So, do you know the reason for curling being kept during the 16th century? Is it because it was so popular or because people from all ages like children could play it? The spirit of curling dictates that one never cheers mistakes, misses or gaffes by one's opponent, and most importantly, all the team members should strictly follow the instructions of their captain, which is essential for men in battle.
Curling was brought to Canada from Scotland and some curling was played informally before 1800. Curlers often used iron curling 'stones', made from melted materials such as cannonballs rather than granite until the early 1900s, because there were transport problems importing granite stones from Scotland...

Tutor: OK, Greg, so I finally managed to read the article you submitted—the one about the study of the wind farm in Australia.
Greg: You did? Great! What did you think of it?
Tutor: Yeah. I was a little confused at first because of the background information you failed to present on the paper. I mean, it's kind of important for you to give some general knowledge before you start actually writing on the main theme.
Greg: Oh, I was thinking of doing that during the presentation session, but now that you have mentioned it, I could add it to the beginning of the essay. I've done some research on that. To think about the different ways that people use wind. Wind is one of our cleanest and richest sources of power, as well as one of the oldest. Windmills began to be used in ancient Iran back in seventh century BC. They were first introduced to Europe during the 1100s, when armies returned from the Middle East with knowledge of using wind power. For many centuries, people used windmills to grind wheat into flour or pump water from deep underneath the ground. During the 1970s, people started becoming concerned about the pollution that is created when coal and gas are burned to produce electricity. People also realised that the supply of coal and gas would not last forever. Then, wind was rediscovered and carried out into research for the first time.
Tutor: Greg, why don't you just put all of that information together and present that in the introduction part of your essay?
Greg: OK, I'll do that. What also intrigued me was that there were disadvantages about a windfarm. You see, all the conventional 'green' scenarios for reducing carbon emissions include a dramatic upscaling in renewable power generated by wind, both on and off shore. However, the environmental impacts of this large-scale industrial deployment, both of turbines and power lines, frequently in relatively natural areas, are often neglected by climate campaigners. For example, wind turbines have the reputation of generating noise as well as electricity, so as more electricity is produced, they can be really noisy. Another thing is that some new turbine blades kill a worrying number of birds, especially large birds like raptors.
Tutor: But there must be a bright side, right?
Greg: Yeah, of course. According to figures pulled together by consultants of the Intelligent Energy Systems using data from the Australian Market Operator, wind energy accounted for 50 percent of demand in the state. That's half of the power source. Besides, this one unexpected outcome really attracts lots of visitors and helps the local tourism.
Tutor: That's good to hear.
Tutor: Oh, how about the structure?
Greg: Offshore wind farms consist of a number of connected elements. These include the turbines, foundations, array cables, offshore substation, export cable and onshore substation and infrastructure. Just a single one of these giant wind turbine blades produced by manufacturer Siemens is almost as big as the Airbus A380, the world's largest plane. That's made in Europe.
Tutor: Impressive!
Greg: Actually at first there were protests among residents who claimed themselves to be victims of land loss and noise. Then policies came out really quick, and then they could get allowance from the government. From then on, things went smoothly.
Tutor: What would happen in extreme weather conditions? I mean it could be dangerous if hurricanes occur.
Greg: A motorised operating mechanism enables the device to be switched back on remotely. All versions feature the modular design and share the same complete range of standard accessories. Thanks to its very extensive operating temperature range of -25 to 70 °C and its storage temperature range of -40 to 70 °C, it is ideally suited for use in wind turbines under extreme climatic conditions. Though they do have an option to lower the speed of it.
Tutor: Wonderful. Then what were the fans, or turbine blades made of? Is it a special kind of metal?
Greg: No, they were too heavy. Wind turbine blades must be strong, light and capable of operating for decades without much, if any, maintenance. Fiberglass is one of the main components of many large-scale wind turbine blades. The material is used because it is lightweight, easily shaped and not too expensive. Another material used to make longer turbine blades is timber. This material is too expensive to use amongst all the blades, but on the longer blades it's used to help reinforce them because it is stiff and light.

So what I'm going to talk about to you today is something called Tea Tree Oil, which was first extracted from Melaleuca alternifolia in Australia. This species remains the most important, commercially. Several other species are cultivated for their oil extraction.
There is a very long history of tea tree oil's use in aromatherapy. Traditionally, Melaleuca alternifolia leaves were crushed and the oil was inhaled by the Aborigines of Australia for the treatment of coughs, colds and also for the treatment of wounds. For instance, they chewed the young leaves to alleviate headaches, and took them to treat sore throats or skin ailments.
The Aborigines' world was discovered by Willem Jantszoon, a Dutch explorer, who was the first European to sail to Australia. In 1606, he reached the northern coast of Australia in his ship. Then several voyages of exploration followed in the first half of the seventeenth century. The Dutch found it a paradise on earth for man's well-being, with timber, stone, and lime for building. There was also plenty of salt and the coast was full of fish. Besides, they found the characteristics of the diet there because they happened to meet ten naked, black Aborigines having a meal in the open air.
While the value of tea tree oil originated from Australia, it was gradually known and tested by the outsiders. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Sir Hugh Palliser, an officer of the British Royal Navy, who had been to Australia several times during that period, got serious injuries all over due to his experiences in several wars. For more than the last fifteen or sixteen years of his life, he seldom laid down on a bed because of the constant pain in his leg. Then he tried tea tree oil, as it was said that tea tree oil could operate as a very powerful immuno-stimulant for pre and post surgical care.
The use of the name Tea Tree, also called paper bark trees, probably originated from Captain James Cook's description he made soon after he had arrived at the coast of New South Wales in 1770. At the time, he witnessed some Aborigines of Australia using one of the shrubs' leaves to make an infused drink in place of tea.
In the 1920s, some human clinical research and the documentation of many benefits associated with tea tree oil were credited, which were made by Dr. Arthur Penfold, an Australian government chemist. He investigated the business potential of a number of native extracted oils, then reported that tea tree oil was promising, as it exhibited powerful antiseptic properties. But after World War II, the entry of antibiotics declined the use of natural products in medicine, which had a negative effect on the production of tea tree oil.
As such an important and valuable material in the world, how is tea tree oil produced? I think most of you are curious about this.
Tea tree oil can be extracted in some different ways, but the most traditional way is steam distillation.
Once harvested in winter, when the amount of required essence in oil meet the needs for production, the finely cut trees are transported to a steam distillation facility. The extraction is made by distilling the leaves in specially designed stainless steel stills along with the stems, to yield pure oil. The water-filled boiler is heated and constantly monitored to maintain the correct temperature. Both the steam and oil evaporate and then condense as they run through a pipe into the collecting container where the oil floats to the lid, while the water, because of gravity, goes steadily out the lower exit pipe. At the end of the hour, the oil is siphoned off through the upper pipe, while the condensed steam floats through the lower pipe towards the ground.
At the end of each distillation all the spent plant material is hauled out of the still pot by hand with a short rake, piled onto a trailer and spread where required as a thick woody mulch...