Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS General Training Listening Test 1

Thank you for calling the phoneline for the Pacton-on-Sea bus tour. This is a recorded message lasting approximately four minutes and it provides general information on the town bus tour.
Pacton-on-Sea is a beautiful west coast town and has attracted tourists for many years. One of the best ways of getting to know the town is to take the bus tour, which provides a wonderful viewing experience from one of our open-top buses. The tour is a round-trip of the town and there are a total of 4 stops where passengers can get on and off the bus. A lot of people start at the first stop which is at the train station as this is where many tourists arrive in the town. The next stop after the station is the aquarium which is famous for its dolphin show and which has recently expanded to include sharks. This is well worth a visit and is very reasonably priced. Leaving the aquarium, the bus tour goes along the coast road and after a few kilometres comes to the Old Fishing Village where you can get off to stroll along the waterfront. There are some original buildings here but most of the area has been modernised and is now used as a harbour for all kinds of sea craft including yachts and some amazing power boats. The tour then heads off to the last stop and this is where most of the shops are. So for those of you keen to do a bit of shopping this is the place for you. Our advice is to go to this part of the town in the morning when it is relatively quiet. It does get very busy in the afternoons, especially at the height of the season. This area of the town includes an ancient water fountain where many people like to have their photograph taken - so do look out for this.
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Now some details of the costs and timings. A family ticket, which includes two adults and up to three children, costs £30. An adult ticket costs £15, children under the age of fifteen are £5 and student tickets are £10 as long as you have a student card. All tickets are valid for 24 hours, which means that you can get on and off the bus as many times as you like within a 24-hour period. So you could, for example, start the tour in the afternoon and complete it the following morning. The first bus of the day leaves the station at 10 am and the last one of the day leaves at 6 pm. Buses leave every thirty minutes and each tour takes a total of fifty minutes. There are many attractions at each of the stops, so wherever you get off the bus there will be plenty to do. The bus tour tickets do not include entrance to any of these attractions apart from the museum which is located near the aquarium. Some buses have local guides, who will point out places of interest and will provide information on the town. However, we cannot guarantee that every bus will have a guide and so we also have an audio commentary that has been specially recorded for the bus tour by the tourist office. Headphones are available on the bus and these are easy to operate. There is no extra charge for these - just plug in, select the required language and adjust the volume.
Due to the winter months being rather cold and wet in Pacton-on-Sea, the bus tours only operate from March to September. The weather is usually warm and sunny during these months so remember to bring some sun protection, especially on hot days. And of course, it does occasionally rain here in the summer so if the weather looks bad, remember to bring some rainwear. The bus tours are available no matter what the weather.
At the height of the summer the tours can get very busy so you are advised to book. You can book tickets online, over the phone and also at the station and at any of the other tour stops. When booking over the phone you can collect your tickets at any of the stops at the start of your tour. When you do it online you can print your e-ticket which you must remember to bring with you.
Thank you for calling the Pacton-on-Sea phoneline and we look forward to seeing you soon on one of our tour buses.

Randhir: Hello - I'm Randhir Ghotra from the technologies department.
Dave: Ah yes. Good. I'm Dave Hadley. Thanks for coming to see me.
Randhir: That's OK. I believe you want us to do some work for you?
Dave: Yes that's right. Um, I'm responsible for student admissions to the college and I use a computer system to help process student enrolments and to do the timetabling. But it really doesn't suit the way we work these days. It's over ten years old and although it was fine when it was first introduced, it is just not good enough now.
Randhir: OK - what problems are you experiencing?
Dave: Well, 20 years ago, the college was quite small and we didn't have the numbers of students or tutors that we have now.
Randhir: So the system can't handle the increasing volumes ...
Dave: Well, there's a lot more data now and it sometimes seems the system has crashed but, in fact, it just takes ages to go from one screen to the next.
Randhir: Right. Is that the only problem?
Dave: Well that's the main one, but there are others. In the past, doing the timetabling was quite simple but now we have a lot more courses and what's made it complicated is that many of them have options.
Randhir: Right - but the system should allow you to include those.
Dave: Well no, it doesn't. It was supposed to - and a few years ago we did ask someone from the technologies department to fix it, but they never seemed to have the time.
Randhir: Hmm - are there any other issues with the system?
Dave: Well - I've been given extra responsibilities and so I have even less time to do the timetabling. If there was anything you could do, Randhir, to make the process more efficient, that would be really helpful.
Randhir: Well it sounds like you could do with an assistant but that's obviously not possible, so what about having an online system that students can use to do their scheduling?
Dave: How would that work?
Randhir: Well - it may mean less choice for students but we could create a fixed schedule of all the courses and options and they could then view what was available ...
Dave: ... and work it out for themselves - that sounds great.
Randhir: OK, so ... um ... we'll need to decide whether or not to improve the existing system or to build a completely new system.
Dave: Well I'd much prefer to have a new system. Quite frankly, I've had enough of the old one.
Randhir: OK - that'll probably take longer although it may save you money in the long run. When were you hoping to have this in place?
Dave: Well it's January now and the new intake of students will be in September. We need to start processing admissions - in the next few weeks really.
Randhir: Well it will take more than a few weeks, I'm afraid. As an initial estimate I think we'll be looking at April or May to improve the existing system but for a new system it would take at least nine months. That would be October at the earliest.
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Dave: What are the next steps if we are to have a new system?
Randhir: Well, the first question is - do you have support from your senior management?
Dave: Yes, I've already discussed it with them and they're also keen to get this work done.
Randhir: OK, because I was going to say, that's the first thing you need to do and without that we can't go ahead.
Dave: Yes, I've done that.
Randhir: That's good.
Dave: Actually, they mentioned that there's probably a form I need to complete to formally start the project.
Randhir: Yes – that's the next thing you need to do. I'll send you an email with a link so you can fill it in online. It's called a 'project request form'.
Dave: OK, great. And then what happens?
Randhir: Well, I have a list of things but I think the third thing you should do is see Samir. He's our analyst who will look at the system and identify what needs to be done.
Dave: OK - can you send me his contact details and I'll set up a meeting with him.
Randhir: OK that's good, so we should soon be able to get a team together to start the work. Some members of our team work in different locations so it's not easy to have face-to-face meetings.
Dave: That's OK - I'm used to having conference calls providing they are not late at night.
Randhir: Right - so I'll send you details of the team and if you could set up a call that would be great.
Dave: OK, I'll do that.
Randhir: Thanks.

Hi everyone - today I'm going to be talking about the origins of ceramics. So, first of all, let's start off with - what is a ceramic? Well, generally speaking, ceramics are what you get when you apply heat to certain inorganic, non-metallic solids and then allow them to cool. And examples of ceramics are everyday things like earthenware pots, crockery, glassware and even concrete.
So how did it all begin? Well it all started around 29,000 years ago when humans discovered that if you dig up some soft clay from the ground, mould it into a shape and then heat it up to a very high temperature, when it cools the clay has been transformed into something hard and rigid. And so - what did those first humans do with their discovery? Well - they created figurines which were small statues and which depicted animals or gods or any shape that the clay could be moulded into. And all this activity was centred around southern Europe where there is also evidence of ceramics that were created much later.
The early humans also found a practical use for their discovery, such as storing things like grain - although there were drawbacks. The pots were porous so that, although they could carry water in them, it wasn't possible to store it over a long period. And also, they were quite brittle and shattered very easily if they were dropped.
But despite these problems, it was many thousands of years before there were any improvements. In China at around 200 BC, they discovered that by adding minerals to the clay they could improve both the appearance and the strength of the ceramics. But it took nearly a thousand years before they perfected the process to produce high-quality ceramics known as porcelain. And once they had perfected the process, they kept it a secret - for another thousand years! Compared to the first ceramics, porcelain was lighter, finer, harder and whiter and became an important commodity in China's trading with the rest of the world for hundreds of years. In fact, it became so valuable that it was known as white gold and spies were sent to China to discover what they did to the clay to produce such high-quality merchandise.
It wasn't until the eighteenth century that the secret began to unravel. A German alchemist called Johann Friedrich Bottger was asked by the king to make gold out of lead. Unfortunately, Bottger failed to achieve this and soon gave up, but in order to please the king he attempted to make high-quality porcelain. And after many years of experimentation, he discovered that by adding quartz and a material called china stone to very high-quality clay he managed to get the same results that the Chinese had been achieving for the last 1,000 years.
We'll now look at another ceramic which is made from mixing sand with minerals and heating to over 600 degrees Celsius. When this mixture cools the result is of course glass. The main difference between ceramics made from clay and glass is that clay is made up of crystalline plates which become locked together in the cooling process whereas glass cools too quickly for crystals to form. Apart from that, the process of heating up naturally occurring materials to transform them is the same.
The origins of glass date back to 3500 BC but it wasn't until the Roman Empire, 2,000 years ago, that the art of glass-blowing and the practical uses of glass became more widespread. One of the more innovative uses was to use it in windows as, up until then, they had just been holes in walls. It must have been very draughty in those days!
The Romans were also responsible for inventing concrete. And although the origins are uncertain, experts think that this is largely due to the high level of volcanic activity in the area. The Romans observed that, when volcanic ash mixes with water and then cools, it gets extremely hard and almost impossible to break up. The chemical reaction that follows is very complex and continues for many years, and the concrete just keeps getting harder. Evidence of this is the numerous Roman remains that are still standing, many of which are almost completely intact.
One of the most important facts about concrete for the Romans was that it can be created underwater. As the Roman Empire grew, the Romans needed to take control of the seas and for this they needed to build harbours capable of holding a fleet of ships. Pouring concrete mixture into the sea immediately started the hardening process and rather than just dissolving in the mass of water, the substance was tough and long-lasting. This strange characteristic of concrete made a significant contribution to the success of the Roman Empire.