Oxford IELTS Practice Tests Academic Listening Test 1 (Online Test)

PRESENTER You're listening to Expat News, a weekly broadcast for the English-speaking community in this great city. In today's programme we'll be hearing from Tom O'Hara, who's going to tell us about all those different associations you can join. Tom.

TOM Good evening. Yes, in a city with so many of its residents born outside the country, it's hardly surprising there's such a huge range of expatriate clubs and societies. And many of these, of course, are aimed at English speakers. So first, and perhaps most obviously, we have the sports clubs, which in some cases field teams in things like rugby and tennis that compete against clubs in other parts of the country, or even abroad. You don't have to play at this level to have fun, though: they can be just a great way to do some exercise, and of course to get to know other people, especially if you're new in town. The same can be said of the many hobby and interest clubs that have sprung up here: everything from landscape photography, such as the Viewfinders club in the harbour district, or Focus on the airport road, to old favourites like stamp collecting. Remember that this country has a long tradition of unusual and perhaps even eccentric societies, so there should be something for everyone: a place where you can meet people of different nationalities with the same social and/or cultural interests as you. For those who may be interested in rather more than just friendship, there's a wide range of lively social clubs. Several singles associations organize dancing of various kinds, while for people in a real hurry there's speed-dating, in which everyone talks to everyone else for just five minutes. Then, at the end, they decide which of them they would like to meet again by ticking their names on a list. In complete contrast to these are the many religious associations, reflecting the diversity of faith groups present in this multicultural city. Many of them, of course, have their own places of worship. Perhaps also of interest to those who've come here from other parts of the world are the international and cultural societies. These often provide a meeting place for people from a specific country, China for instance, and particular ethnic groups, such as Afro-Caribbeans. As in other major cities, we have here local branches of many charities with names familiar around the world. Meetings of human rights organizations like Amnesty International are held regularly in English, as are those of environmental groups such as Greenpeace. All funds raised, by the way, go to the same kinds of good cause as they do in other countries you may have lived in. Inevitably, perhaps, there are also the political clubs, often connected with a particular party and, indeed, a particular country. So we have, for example, a local association of Republicans linked to and campaigning for that party in the US, and Liberal Democrats here doing the same for their party in Britain. Finally, on a lighter note, there's plenty to choose from in the performing arts. Whether you enjoy taking part or just watching and listening, you can take your pick from a whole range of groups. To take just a couple of examples, there's light opera at the Memorial Hall in the city centre, or a very lively amateur theatre company in the Park district. In summer they give open-air performances of Shakespeare plays, free of charge.

TOM I should mention at this point that clearly some districts have a higher concentration of English-speaking clubs than others, and that certain parts of town tend to specialize in particular activities. An obvious example would be the number of water sports clubs down near the river. Whatever the number, though, they usually have one thing in common. With the exception of a few associations linked to particular countries and supported by their embassies here, in the vast majority of cases it is the individual members who fund them, so an entry fee, or a subscription, will be charged. You may be used to council-subsidized sports centres and the like in your home country, but I'm afraid that's not the case here. Assuming you can afford it, then, you can be fairly sure that somewhere out there you'll find a club that caters for your own particular fascination. If it's very important to you, and you intend to spend a lot of time on it, it might even determine which district of the city you decide to live in. In the unlikely event that you really can't find such a club, the solution is to try to persuade friends, and anyone else you meet, of the need for one. You could also use the local small ads on the Internet to suggest the idea: you'll be amazed at just how many people share even the strangest interest. Then you can start your own.

TUTOR Well, how are you both settling in?

CARLOS Fine.

KAREENA Yes, no problems - so far, anyway!

TUTOR Good. Remember that as your personal tutor I'm here to help you - if you do have any difficulties. Now as you know, lectures start on Monday. So I thought we'd look at a few ways of making the most of them, especially in terms of the notes you take. Let's begin by thinking about what you can do before you even go to the lecture. Any ideas?

KAREENA Make sure you're up to date with all the background reading, so you know plenty about the subject already?

TUTOR Yes, that's essential. The lecturer will assume you have that knowledge. Anything else, Carlos?

CARLOS Well, er, check what the topic's going to be. Of the lecture, that is.

TUTOR I'd go a bit further than that and consider what the content may be. Then you could ask yourself some questions that you want answering, and listen out for the relevant information during the lecture.

CARLOS OK.

TUTOR Now that brings us to the lecture itself, and the actual business of writing notes, but there's a lot to deal with there so we'll come back to that later. What I'd like to do for the moment is continue with the process of note taking, and move on to the next stage. Any suggestions for what that might be?

KAREENA When the lecture is over, you mean?

TUTOR Yes, once you're able to sit down somewhere quiet with your notes.

CARLOS Read them?

TUTOR More than that. You need to make sure they'll still make sense to you weeks, months later.

KAREENA Edit them?

TUTOR Yes, that's what's needed. It's well worth spending a few minutes on it. Any missing words, anything difficult to read, details you didn't have time to jot down: now is the time to do so, while everything's still fresh in your mind.

KAREENA Right. And after that, when's the best time to revise them?

TUTOR When do you think, Carlos?

CARLOS Um, I'd say just before the next lecture. In the same subject.

TUTOR Precisely. That's a vital time to look at them again, for obvious reasons. But it's definitely not the only time. When should you revise them again?

KAREENA A month later, maybe?

TUTOR Sooner, and much more often than that. I'd recommend you look at them again once a week. That's why it's so important they're complete and easy to follow.

TUTOR Right, let's go back to note-taking, and begin with the basics, before the lecture has even started. What should you do when you walk into the room?

CARLOS Get a good seat at the front, if you can. Where you can hear clearly and avoid distractions.

TUTOR Yes, though obviously others will have had the same idea, so it's as well to get there a bit early. So, when the lecture's under way and you're busy jotting things down, what should you try to ensure?

KAREENA That you're getting all the main points.

TUTOR And what if you don't catch something, something you know must be important?

KAREENA I'd leave a space, then I could check it later, perhaps by asking a question at the end, and fill it in afterwards.

TUTOR That's an excellent way to deal with it, yes. And there's something else I'd like to mention here, talking about going through notes afterwards: it's absolutely vital that what you write is legible, for one very good reason - it saves time. You'll waste many hours, during the course, if your revision is held up because you can't read what you've written. OK, what else can we do to make listening and note-taking more efficient?

KAREENA Well, I always listen out for signpost words.

CARLOS Sorry, what are they?

KAREENA They're the ones lecturers use to say where they're going. A bit like a signpost at a road junction, I suppose. Things like 'the first reason is ...', 'however ...', 'to sum up ...', and so on.

TUTOR Yes, they can tell you when something important is coming, and help you organize your notes, too.

TUTOR Is there anything else you can add, Carlos?

CARLOS Er ... there's something I think is very useful, but it's later: after the lecture has finished.

TUTOR That's fine. Go on.

CARLOS Well what I do is go through what I've written down, summing up the main points in a few words in the margin, on the left-hand side of the page. I try to use words that'll jog my memory, so that I can remember what everything's about when I look at them again.

TUTOR Yes, that can work very well. What some people do to review their notes is cover up their full notes from the lecture, maybe with a piece of paper or a card, and concentrate just on what they've put in the margin, trying to recall the details. Then they move the cover down a little and check whether they were right.

KAREENA Or you could put your main points on another piece of paper and clip them together. Instead of covering and uncovering, you just hold a page in each hand.

TUTOR Sure. It's down to personal preference, really. Everyone has their own learning style.

LECTURER Good afternoon. Today we're continuing this series of talks on the development of the Australian Outback with a look at Coober Pedy, the desert town of opal mines and underground living which lies 860 kilometres north of Adelaide and 690 south of Alice Springs. The harsh climate and almost total lack of water made it a highly unlikely place for human habitation, but that all started to change in 1915 with the discovery there of opals, the precious stones which seem to change colour according to their surroundings. Settlements were established following the First World War, when soldiers returning from the trenches of France brought with them the techniques of living below ground in 'dugouts'. The Depression of the 1920s and 30s led to many prospectors leaving, but the town boomed again in the late 1940s when shallow new opal fields were discovered, and immigrants from Europe arrived in large numbers after the Second World War. It must be remembered, though, just how hostile conditions were. Daytime summer temperatures reached well over 50 degrees Centigrade, winter nights were bitterly cold, and dense dust storms regularly blanketed the town. To cope with this, more and more people began living in disused mines and purpose-built subterranean houses, where the temperature remains at a comfortable 25 degrees all year round, so that eventually around 70% of the town's inhabitants had made their homes beneath the surface. This led to the construction of hotels and even churches below ground, as well as an entire underground shopping centre: the only one in the world.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this has now led to the emergence of a secondary industry: tourism. Increasing numbers of visitors come to see the tunnels and the caves with their ventilation shafts, the weird machines lying about in the town, and, just beyond it in the scorched red desert, the conical hills thrown up by the world's biggest opal mines. It's a logical stopping place for travellers, too. The nearest town to Coober Pedy is Woomera, in the prohibited area once used for launching space rockets, but even that is an enormous distance away. Within the town itself there are plenty of hotel rooms and a number of ethnic restaurants - remember that Coober Pedy is one of the most multicultural places in Australia, with an estimated 45 nationalities represented - and its very own opal museum. A short distance from town there's a section of the enormous barrier that runs thousands of kilometres across the country: the Dingo Fence, which is meant to keep these predatory wild dogs out of the sheep-farming areas. Another attraction just outside town are the sets of various films made there, including Mad Max 3, as well as The Red Planet and Until the End of the World - names that reflect the harshness of the terrain and temperatures there. The name Coober Pedy, incidentally, comes from an Aboriginal expression meaning 'white man's hole in the ground'. Next I'd like to go on to talk about Broken Hill, another mining town but one that ...