Listening.pdf

LISTENING - PART 1







LISTENING - PART 2
PRACTICE 1


I've just come back from a short music course called Singing for Beginners. It was at
Brownstoke College, which is just to the north of London.
A woman called Lena Phipps runs these three-day courses for people with no

previous experience of singing. Lena used to be an opera singer, but no longer
(1)……………..
occasionally sings in jazz clubs, but spends
appears on the stage. Nowadays she (2)……………..
excellent
most of her time teaching. She was (3)……………..!
There were only nine of us on the course I attended, five men and four woman, and
Lena never takes more than ten students on a course. This means that everyone has lots

opportunity to sing.
of attention and plenty of (4)……………..
nervous
We were all very (5)……………..
at the beginning, but every class begins with some
exercises to help students relax. These are followed by warm-up exercises to improve

quality
the (6)……………..
of the voice.


During the three days, students learn around twenty songs in a variety of different
styles, depending on the interests of the class members. There are classical and modern

confident enough to
songs, including pop songs. By the last day, everyone was (7)……………..
perform their favourite song on their own!
I would really recommend this course. Brownstoke College is an old building

surrounded by a beautiful garden. Accommodation is very comfortable - the single
(8)……………..
and twin rooms are clean and warm, and three meals a day are included in the cost; a
cooked breakfast, lunch and an evening meal. The lunch is very good, and the salads
can be recommended.
Courses begin on the last Tuesday of the month, so the next one begins on the
th of September
24
(9)………………………. and continues until Thursday the 26th of September. I would
reserve
advise you to (10)……………..
a place early, because it's certain to be very popular!


LISTENING – PART 2
PRACTICE 2

Are you interested in history? Well. I'd like to tell you about some of the historic
places open to visitors in this part of the country.
oldest
Let's start with the (1)……………..
first. Black Rock Caves have been here for over
two million years. And, for half a million years, they were home to people and various
ancient
animals, particularly tigers. You can explore there (2)……………..
homes and
imagine what life was like for the people who lived there. The caves are open daily
from April to October. A special attraction on evenings in August is a walk by
candlelight Don't take this tour if you are afraid of the dark!
(3)……………...
Next I recommend a visit to Salter House. This was built by Sir Joshua Salter and
1765
dates back to (4)……………...
The Salter family are still living there today. The house
became
(5)……………..
famous in nineteen eighty-two when the television series Aunt
worth
Dorothy was filmed there. The furniture and paintings are well (6)……………..
seeing, but the attraction nobody wants to miss is the kitchen. This is where Aunt
enormous meals and gave advice to anyone who passed
Dorothy cooked her (7)……………..
through this part of the house.

And don't forget to visit The Old Port. You will need several hours to see everything

riverside
there, especially if you take a trip along the (8)……………..
in an old tram as far as
costume
the fishing village. The guides there all wear traditional (9)……………..
and you too
get the chance to try on clothes from a hundred years ago. You can buy gifts in the old

delicious
village stores and eat (10)……………..
snacks in the Tea Shop. If you visit the village
factory, you can see how sweets were made a hundred years ago, and taste them, too.
So, you see there's plenty of....


LISTENING – PART 2
PRACTICE 3


festival
completed
performances

basement
created


space-ship

excellent
Entrance
£3.25
limited


LISTENING – PART 2
PRACTICE 4


W: Frank, tell us about some of the ships you've discovered.

300
M: Well, there's nothing quite like finding your first old ship - it was (1)……………..
years old. It was just lying at the bottom of the sea, so it wasn't difficult to find. Most are
covered in sand and rocks - but this one wasn't.
I'm actually a teacher, not a full-time diver - I dive in my free time but I often get to

professional divers, because I have good up-to-date equipment.
them before the (2)……………..
fishermen who tell me about their local area.
Another thing that helps is talking to (3)……………..
experiences
I've even written a book about some of their (4)……………...
At the moment, I'm looking for the gold from a ship called The Seabird. It was an

enormous well-built ship and it was coming from Australia on a winter night in
(5)……………..
1859

(6)……………...
Everything was going fine until the ship reached the English coast,
when it crashed into some rocks in a very strong wind and sank to the bottom of the sea.
It was carrying gold from Australia, and most of it is still at the bottom of the sea.


My wedding ring is actually made from gold which I found on an eighteenthcentury sailing ship. A friend of mine, another diver, has already found

£88,000
(7)……………..
worth of gold from different ships. He's now decided to give up his
job and become a full-time diver.
My house is full of things like coins, bottles and old guns. My wife is always

complaining about the number of objects around the house - she says I should open
(8)……………..
antiques
an (9)……………..
shop - but I love all these old things. Anyway, in the end, I gave
museums
some things from my collection to (10)……………..,
because I didn't want to sell
them. But my wife still wasn't very pleased, I'm afraid.
As diving is a dangerous hobby, it's not a good idea to try to teach yourself. I'd
advise anyone interested to do what I did. There are some excellent diving clubs like
the one I joined, which run courses for beginners. It is best to do one of these before
you go on a diving holiday.


LISTENING – PART 2

PRACTICE 5


Thank you for calling the Central Museum information line.
Central Museum is open every day from 2nd January through 31st December and
is open daily from 10 am until 5 pm. The museum itself is a wonderful example of

architecture completed in the year 1889, and the gardens, still in their
local (1)………………..,
1921
original (2)……………..
design, surprise and delight visitors of all ages.
The museum contains an important 19th-century English furniture collection as

permanent Japanese art exhibition and admission is free to all visitors.
well as a (3)……………..
Admission includes a free pre-recorded audio guide and we are fully

equipped to welcome wheelchair users.
(4)……………..
Our museum shop sells a variety of books, cards, gifts. You’ll find all kinds of
interesting ideas for both adults and children. The museum also has a café, offering a

4.30
selection of hot and cold dishes throughout the day from 10 until (5)……………...


For visitors travelling by car, parking is available at the hotel next door. It’s just

public

metres away from the museum. There is also frequent local (6)……….……..
transport with buses to and from the town centre. There are also buses from the

railway station every ten minutes throughout the day.
(7)……………..
For further information about the museum, its history and its collection,

451858 for information about
please call 01202 451800. You can also call (8)……………..
hiring
group visits, or if you’re interested in (9)……………..
a room at the museum.
Teachers can look at our website or www.centralmuseum.uk where they find lots of

project
ideas for (10)……………..
work. Thank you for calling the Central Museum
information line.


LISTENING – PART 2
PRACTICE 6


Can I just say something about the training day next week. You should all receive

shortly We’ve had to make changes to rooms and even
your programme by email (1)………...
now some of the training sessions may have to be held in a different building. But we’ll
let you know if this happens.

Some of you have asked about changing to a different session than the one you

signed up for. We’ve tried to do this when it’s been possible but as some training
(2)……….
sessions are full, it will sometimes not be possible. We will let you know by email on

13
(3)……….
September the full list of names of people going to each session. The
materials they’ll be using during the sessions for you
trainers will email you the (4)……………..
to have a look at before the training day. There are some tasks for you to complete in

preparation for your session. Please make sure you print out these materials and
(5)……….……
completer the exercises before you attend.


questionnaire
At the end of the training day you will all be given a (6)…….…………..for
your
comments on each of the sessions you attended. Could you please make sure you
complete this and give it to the training manager? We are using a new company for this
event and are keen to see how well the day goes.
Because staff in the company restaurant will also be attending training sessions, the

cold
restaurant will not be open. We are arranging (7)…………
food, teas and coffee for
everyone. Could you email the restaurant manager before the end of this week and let him

dietary
know if you have any special (8)…………..requirements.
Finally, can I remind you to
134 for any last-minute changes. Yes, we’ll
check the noticeboard outside room (9)………
email you all important information but several of you have complained that you haven’t

messages so to be absolutely sure you’re up to date, check the
received our (10)…………..,
noticeboard.


LISTENING – PART 2
PRACTICE 7