IELTS Recent Actual Test 4 Academic Listening Test 6 (Online Test)

Hello, I'm delighted to welcome you to our Mining Community, and very pleased that you're interested in the ores and pits of this area. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with your special experience here. Now, let me start by giving you some warnings on safety rules and regulations.

Rule number one: always wear safety equipment. There is a litany of safety equipment that mining workers use for their protection, from helmets to safety glasses and gloves. It is essential that all workers wear the necessary safety equipment at all times. There have been countless stories of workers being saved by helmets, which are the hard hats that you can see on the shelf beside you. So visitors wearing helmets is mandatory in the mining area, although you are free to take them off when you are in the mining museum and picnic area. You won't need to pay any deposit though you should return them to the counter once you finish the visit. The helmets are offered in all sizes so choose a suitable one.

All right. Our mining Community is currently being refurbished for some of the main area. So please make a note of that and you'll know what to look out for. So, when you go in or out of the mine, please pay attention to the road for it has just been repaired because of the rough surface, and can be really slippery since it's still wet. The history and process of tin mining are complicated and involve a lot of special words, but here you will see how it was and still is done. After a short 5-10 minute walk, visitors can track round a numbered route with clear explanations. Most of the tour is in the open air, so nice weather helps. All areas are clearly posted with signs, but if you have problems travelling around or climbing up and down, you can turn to the staff here and we are happy to help. If you are interested, Blue Hills Tin Stream is a working water-powered tin streaming mill that gives visitors a very clear idea of how difficult it is to get tin out of rock. I hope you'll enjoy the informative indoor presentation and this self-guided tour. But you have to bear one thing in mind that smoking is forbidden throughout the whole community, though you can take phones and of course use them. You'll also be surprised that there will be more than just one place to go in the mine. The underground tunnel is now being refurbished and only relevant workers can access it. But it will soon be all finished and I believe it's a lovely place for you to explore around. Don't forget to wear protective clothing—it's mandatory.

Now, let's start by seeing where you can go. As you can see on our map in the brochure I've given you, we are here, at the reception block. We have a famous mill which is used for making and processing materials such as steel and coal. To visit it, just go straight ahead north along the path in front of you and you'll find it at the end of the path.

Now towards the east, go along the path from our starting point. Turn left at the corner and then turn right. There is a car park at the east end of the lane. To the west, there is a museum. Pass the shop around the crossroads, and it is just located at the west end of the road. And by the way, the shop is specialised in selling a variety of ore-related souvenirs, including keyrings, postcards, tin-made Lewis Chessmen, and even Roman Soldiers which are made from beautiful pyrite.

If you are interested in the laboratory where scientific experiments, analyses and research are carried out, it is situated at the southern part of the park, opposite of the shop. I bet you'll be happy to hear that this laboratory is also used for gold and crystal refinement. So don't miss this one for the sake of it.

I assume by this time you'll all need some rest and refreshments, so we have an excellent café which caters for delicious food and beverages at the other side of the road next to the shop. Of course if you want to spend some time in the fresh air, we have a perfect picnic area which is just right and northeast of the reception block. Further east there is a path leading to the northern part of the park, and at the end of it is the toilet.

Now most of the visitors would choose to use the mailbox and send the beautiful postcards to their friends. To reach it, just...

Karen: Hi Dave, as you know, I've asked you to come here today to discuss the assignment for our Biology class. We must decide what we should do about this very important research work.

Dave: The Whale Survey? Yeah, I was also hoping to share some ideas with you. So, let's start!

Karen: OK, I've dug into some journal articles to see what sort of questions we should consider. Most of them include watching time and strongly urge it to be the top concern. What do you say?

Dave: Yeah, the watching time should be carefully chosen since I've heard a lot of unnecessary failures concerning picking the wrong time when it all went stormy and murky and then nothing was seen during the whole field trip. I mean, they could have avoided that easily.

Karen: Right! Then we should also pay close attention to the sea's surface, because no one wants to encounter the failures you just mentioned.

Dave: I think we'd better hope for the best that it will be calm, with no choppy status.

Karen: What about the weather conditions?

Dave: That definitely should be taken into account as it correlates with all the former factors. Most important of all, as a sighting is made, position and environmental parameters are recorded on standardised sighting pro formats, including: time, visibility, position of the ship (using a global positioning system), wind speed, and wind direction.

Karen: Shouldn't there be a set limit for the visibility level, say 50 metres?

Dave: Cetaceans are really sensitive to sound. They are able to know that something's coming after them so they would hide in order to avoid possible danger. So, let's make it 100 metres, shall we?

Karen: Yeah, that might be better. Oh, in that case, we'd also need to pay attention to the appearance of the fishing boats, you know, for all the noise that they would make.

Dave: That's right. Although observations were regularly made, we know very little about whale vocalisation and how they use sound in their behavioural and social interactions. So, to understand marine mammal's social interactions, we'll need to use passive acoustic recordings to track and assess the individual behaviours of whales as well as to identify their appearance.

Karen: OK. Then what about scales?

Dave: Oh, for each sighting, the number of animals should be counted, the group size, I mean. Also, we need to identify the species, possible age and sex of the individuals.

Dave: Speaking of identifying species, we need to find out the unique physical features of each whale. Let's start with the sperm whale. The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale, yet it's only a quarter of that of the blue whale. Its unique body is unlikely to be confused with any other species and that distinctive shape comes from its very large, block-shaped head, which can be one-quarter to one-third of its length. The sperm whale's flukes are triangular and very thick. It has a series of little bumps on the back of its fluke instead of having a dorsal fin. The largest bump is called the 'hump' by whalers, and can be mistaken for a dorsal fin because of its shape and size.

Then there is the Northern right whale. Right whales have round bodies with arching rostrums, V-shaped blowholes and dark gray or black skin. The most distinguishing feature of a right whale is the rough patches of skin on its head which appear white due to parasitism by whale lice. It has no back fins at all.

The blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. It has a long tapering body that appears stretched in comparison to the stockier build of other whales. The head is flat, U-shaped and has a prominent ridge running from the blowhole to the top of its upper lip.

Lastly are the minke whales. They are the second smallest baleen whale. The minke whale is black, gray or purple in colour. Common minke whales are distinguished from other whales by a white band they have on each flipper. Their long back and tiny dorsal fin, two-thirds of the way down their back is quite distinctive.

Good morning, class. In the last few lectures, I've talked about the history of technology in the business area. But today I want to use Samuel Cunard as our case study, who was a shipping magnate that founded the Cunard Line.

Now, Cunard was born in Canada. When he first left home he was still a teenager. Then he came into a US company as a worker and learned how to sail there. During the War of 1812, Cunard volunteered for service in the 2nd Battalion of the Halifax Regiment militia and rose to the rank of captain. He held many public offices, such as volunteer fireman and lighthouse commissioner, and maintained a reputation as not only a shrewd businessman, but also an honest and generous citizen. When he went to England, his friends cooperated with him and together they coined a shipping company. The company had instant wealth and could deal with more than one cargo for its major business was in North America and the Atlantic. From then onwards, Cunard became a highly successful entrepreneur in British shipping and one of a group of twelve individuals who dominated the affairs of England.

In 1838, the British government, impressed by the advantages of steam sailing for making regular passages, invited tenders to carry the transatlantic mails by steamer. Back then mail contact through steamships brought more punctuality, while other types of ships were always delayed. The journey times were 'flexible', with a transatlantic crossing lasting for six weeks, and with no fixed times of departure or arrival. So it was never known when the mail would arrive or, since so many sailing ships foundered, whether it would arrive at all. What Cunard wanted, in line with the thrusting new technology of the Victorian age, was a maritime extension of the brand—new timetabled railways on land.

Cunard's experience in steamship operation, with observations of the growing railway network in England, encouraged him to explore the creation of a Transatlantic fleet of steamships, which would cross the ocean as regularly as trains crossed land, and that's why he went to the United Kingdom seeking investors in 1837. He set up a company with several other businessmen to bid for the rights to run a transatlantic mail service between the UK and North America for £55,000 annually for 10 years. The bid was successful. Almost at the same time, Cunard cooperated with an English businessman and established the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the ancestor of the Cunard Line.

In 1840 the company's first steamship, sailed from Liverpool to Boston, Massachusetts, with Cunard and 63 other passengers on board, marking the beginning of regular passenger and cargo service. Establishing a long unblemished reputation for speed and safety, Cunard's company made ocean liners a success, in the face of many potential rivals who lost ships and fortunes. Cunard's ships proved successful, and he then opened many branches but their high costs saddled Cunard with heavy debts by 1842, so some of them went bankrupt. But what Cunard needed then was a port. After a lot of consideration, he finally opted for Boston because he was very familiar with this city where he had once worked in.

Fortunately, by 1843, Cunard ships were earning enough to pay off his debts and begin issuing modest but growing dividends. But the city did more than give Cunard silverware. Winters can be tough here in Boston; for example, in the year of 1844, one ship sank because of the winter freeze. The ship hit ice bergs and caused a heavy loss to the company. Then the board recommended the company to move to New York, and it was a huge success and then became one of the biggest US shipping companies.

Cunard himself made safety his priority—and to this day Cunard has never been responsible for the loss of a single passenger or a single mailbag on the Atlantic run. Cunard's conservative nature enabled his company to see off rivals and to take a measured and steady approach when it came to the introduction of new technology like radio communication. In the early years of his career Cunard took a prominent part in community activities, and various charitable organisations as well as mercantile affairs which extended throughout the Atlantic provinces. Back then, there were hardly any entertainment facilities on board. In order to make sure that the passengers could have a comfortable journey, newspapers were printed on board.

Cunard was gratefully remembered for employing his capital in shipbuilding activities in the hard times of the 1830s because this enterprise had circulated money where there would otherwise be poverty and stagnation. His competitiveness and his obsession not to waste time were important characteristics of his personality. Prior to 1912, the shipping line had focused on speed and soon was renowned for its velocity and safety. Although early in life Cunard was imperious, he learned diplomacy and became a skillful and persuasive negotiator. His contemporaries admired him for the contribution to transatlantic communication by the line popularly called by his name. After that, for affluent transatlantic passengers, Cunard brought new levels of luxury to ocean travel—lavish suites, a swimming pool, gymnasium, ballroom, electricity and more, just like luxurious hotels.

OK. So does anyone have any...