Oxford IELTS Practice Tests Academic Listening Test 4 (Online Test)

PRESENTER Today I have with me Sandy Richardson of the local Workforce Center, and she'll be talking about that critical step towards the goal of employment: the interview. Sandy, what is an interview for, and what's the best way to approach it?

SANDY A job interview is simply a meeting between you and a potential employer to discuss your qualifications and see if there is a 'fit'. The employer wants to verify what they know about you and talk about your qualifications. If you have been called for an interview, you can assume that the employer is interested in you. The employer has a need that you may be able to meet, so it's your goal to identify that need and convince the employer that you're the one for the job. As everyone knows, interviews can be stressful, but when you're well prepared there's no reason to panic. Preparation is the key to success in a job search, and you can begin by collecting together all the documents you may need for the interview, such as extra copies of your resumé, lists of references, and letters of recommendation. You could also take some work samples, selecting from what you have designed, drawn or written, for instance. And make sure you have a pen and pad of paper for taking notes. The next step is to find out about the post. The more you know about the job, the employer and the industry, the better prepared you will be to target your qualifications. Always request a job description from the employer, and research employer profiles at the Chamber of Commerce or local library. You could also try to network with people who work for the company, or with employees of companies associated with it. The next step is to match your qualifications to the requirements of the job. A good approach is to write out your qualifications along with the job requirements. Think about some standard interview questions and how you might respond. Most questions are designed to find out more about you, your qualifications or to test your reactions in a given situation. If you don't have any experience or skills in a required area, think about how you might compensate for those deficiencies.

During an interview it's important that you be yourself. Get a good night's sleep and plan your travel to be there in plenty of time, so that you're not arriving out of breath with 30 seconds to spare. Don't, though, present yourself for the interview too early: ten minutes at most. In the interview, listen carefully to each question asked. Take your time in responding and make sure your answers are positive. It's important to express a good attitude and show that you are willing to work, eager to learn and are flexible. If you are unsure of a question, don't be afraid to ask for clarification. In fact, it's sometimes a good strategy is to close a response with a question for the interviewer. In general, focus on your qualifications and look for opportunities to personalize the interview. Briefly answer questions with examples of how you responded in comparable situations, from either your life or previous job experiences. Something you should avoid are 'yes' or 'no' responses to questions, but don't dwell too long on non-job related topics. Use caution if you are questioned about your salary requirements. The best strategy is to avoid the question until you have been offered a job. Questions about salary asked before there is a job offer are usually screening questions that may eliminate you from consideration, so be warned. On the other hand, it isn't inappropriate to show your enthusiasm if your first impressions of the interview and of the employer are good ones, so, if the job sounds like what you are looking for - say so. Keep in mind that the interview is not over when you are asked if you have any questions. Come prepared to ask a couple of specific questions that again show your knowledge and interest in the job. Close the interview in the same friendly, positive manner in which you started. When the interview is over, leave promptly. Don't overstay your time. Think about the interview and learn from the experience. Evaluate the success and failures. The more you learn from the interview, the easier the next one will become. You'll become much more confident. To close, here are a few more tips. First, maintain good eye contact throughout the interview, and be aware of nonverbal body language. Second, dress a step above what you would wear on the job, go to the hairdresser's, have a shave, et cetera. Remember that your appearance is a key indicator of whether you have the right attitude, so it can pay to give some thought to how you look. And, finally, don't be a clock watcher!

TUTOR As you know, this week you choose your modules for the first year of study, so this introductory meeting is aimed at helping you make informed choices. I think the best way to do this is on a question-and-answer basis, so who'd like to start? Pat?

PAT Yes, there's something I've been wondering about: will my choice affect my career opportunities?

TUTOR Well, for most students the choice of Level One modules won't be crucial in terms of a later career. In fact, many graduate level jobs will accept graduates from a range of degree courses. Employers will often be at least as interested in how well a student has performed academically, and how the whole experience of university has developed the student as a person, as in the detail of the course options chosen. Selecting modules that will interest you and in which you think you will be particularly successful is therefore also likely to make good sense in career terms. On certain degree courses, though, module choice can be important. This applies mainly to vocational courses where the degree confers an accredited professional training as well as university education. Usually the modules students are required to take will include all those needed to meet those professional requirements. Your academic department, in this case Chemical and Process Engineering, and the university's Careers Service will be able to advise you, and will be pleased to help you sort out anything you're not certain about.

PAT Right.

RAJAV I'd like to ask a few things about the Applied Chemical Engineering module.

TUTOR Fine. What would you like to know?

RAJAV Well, apart from the work on practical engineering, what other topics are covered?

TUTOR Some that might surprise you. One that students always seem to like includes interviewing techniques, presentation skills and producing written reports.

RAJAV Hmm ... they sound interesting. How are they taught?

TUTOR Through lectures, practical classes and personal tutorials. Applied Chemical Engineering lasts all year of course, so there's plenty of time.

RAJAV And what about assessment?

TUTOR Through project work, usually, or dissertation. Not exams as such.

RAJAV Is that the same for the Information Technology part of the module?

TUTOR Yes, things like word processing and learning to create spreadsheets are tested in a similar way on this module.

SONIA That's not the case in some other modules, is it?

TUTOR No, it isn't. Are you thinking of any in particular?

SONIA Yes, I'm considering doing Fluid Mechanics. The work on flow analysis looks interesting and I like the look of some of the other topics, too. So how is that module tested?

TUTOR That's one of those which still uses written exams. The sit-down, formal type I'm afraid!

SONIA Oh that doesn't matter. I quite like that kind as it happens.

TUTOR Pat, you've got a question.

PAT Yes, I was wondering about Science 1 in Chemical Engineering. How is that organized? It's a bit different from other modules isn't it?

TUTOR Yes, it aims to give the necessary basis of physics and biology for those students who haven't studied the relevant subject at A level or equivalent. In practice it means that students who have already studied physics are excused the physics lectures, while those who've done biology are exempt from attending the biology lectures. In the second part of the module you're assessed on your project work in one of those subjects.

PAT And does the teaching approach differ, too?

TUTOR Yes, particularly in one respect: you are encouraged to learn by working out the solutions to problems for yourself.

PAT I like the sound of that.

TUTOR OK, anything else?

SONIA Yes, I believe it's possible to do a modern language as part of the course. Can you tell me a bit about the Spanish 1A module?

TUTOR Certainly. The main emphasis in 1A is on understanding and speaking, but students also learn to carry out some straightforward reading and writing tasks. Basic aspects of grammar are also introduced and practised. The module comprises thirty-six hours of class contact, mainly in tutorial groups of sixteen to twenty, and students are expected to do approximately sixty-four hours of private study.

SONIA It sounds interesting. I did some Spanish at the Cervantes Institute last year. Passed an exam, in fact.

TUTOR Ah, I'm afraid that means you can't do 1A. The regulations say 'this module may NOT be taken by students with a qualification in Spanish'. Though you could do 1B ...

LECTURER Lake Acraman in South Australia is Armageddon for the purist. No other meteorite impact on Earth has stamped the surrounding rocks with such an abiding, unequivocal geological record of collision, earthquake, wind, fire and tsunami - the giant waves formed by major earth movements. The story it tells is elemental, without dying dinosaurs or even Bruce Willis to complicate its simple message of destruction. First, the numbers: about 590 million years ago, a rocky meteorite more than 4 kilometres across and travelling at around 90 000 kilometres an hour slammed into an area of red volcanic rock about 430 kilometres northwest of Adelaide. Within seconds the meteorite vaporized in a ball of fire, carving out a crater about 4 kilometres deep and 40 kilometres in diameter and spawning earthquakes fierce enough to raise 100-metre-high tsunamis in a shallow sea 300 kilometres away. Ancient, stable and unglaciated, the bedrock of Australia preserves some of the most photogenic impact craters in the world. Acraman is not one of them. Half a billion years of erosion has taken its toll. A salt pan surrounded by low hills is all that remains to mark the site of the cataclysm. The true nature of the place dawned on geologist George Williams of Adelaide University in 1979. Gazing at a sheaf of newly acquired satellite images, he saw the small, circular shape of Lake Acraman surrounded by a ring of faults and low scarps 40 km across, and an outer ring twice this size. A year later he made it to the site. On islands near the centre of the lake, Williams found bedrock shattered in a conical pattern that experts consider a sure sign of a meteorite impact. Except for a crater, which had long since eroded, the area was a textbook example of an impact site. In 1985 further intriguing evidence turned up. Vic Gostin, another Adelaide geologist, had been studying a thin band of fragmented red volcanic rock in 600-million-year-old shale in the Flinders Ranges, more than 300 kilometres east of Acraman. To his bewilderment, the volcanic chunks turned out to be a billion years older than the shale. Where had they come from? Comparing samples, Gostin and Williams found that their rocks were identical: the red rock in the Flinders Ranges had been blasted there from Acraman. Later, the same material turned up at sites 500 km from Acraman.

Everywhere, the bands of fragments showed the same structure: coarse pebbles at the bottom, then a cocktail of silt and sand, then layers of increasingly fine sand distorted on top into a wavy, scalloped pattern. These layers also show, step by step, how the meteorite transformed the floor of an ancient sea hundreds of kilometres away, according to Malcolm Wallace of Melbourne University. First came the earthquake. Travelling at about 3 kilometres a second, shock waves arrived offshore within a minute or two of the collision, stirring up the water with clouds of silt as the seabed shook. Then shattered rock from the explosion arrived by air. Pebbles and boulders crashed into the water, reaching a depth of about 200 metres within a minute. One day they would become the lower band of the Flinders rock. Sand took up to an hour to come to rest, finally bedding down with the silt that was also now settling on the sea floor as the effects of the earthquake died away. This mixture would eventually form the next layer. About an hour after the meteorite's impact, huge waves rolled in, leaving the ripples on the surface that later hardened into rock. 'Clear as mud' is not an oxymoron. In Acraman, the arid timeless Australian Outback has preserved the closest thing the Earth can boast to a perfect pockmark - the pinnacle of imperfection.