New Insight into IELTS Listening: Seeing beyond the surface learning

TRACK 24:

A

Student A: Oh hi. I thought I might find you two here in the library! How are you going with this assignment on road transport?

Student B: Not well! I just don’t seem to be able to get hold of any of the textbooks that the lecturer put on the reading list.

Student C: No. Neither can we. They’re either out of print or out of the library.

B

Woman: Dr Manfredi, welcome to Rubio Affnirs.

Dr Manfredi: Thank you for having me on the programme, Julia.

Woman: Now, there’s been a lot of discussion in the media recently about the new tunnel which has been built to carry traffic under the city of Sydney. It’s been open for 18 months but practically nobody, it seems, is using it. Is that because it’s too expensive?

Dr Manfredi: Well … it’s a very complex issue …

C

Speaker A: Oh hi, Murray. Hello, Jan. How’s it going? Not too good by the look on your faces.

Speaker B: Yeah! Well …

Speaker A: What’s the problem?

Speaker B: Well … we’re having a lot of trouble getting more funding for our research centre for next year.

Speaker C: Basically, if the government doesn’t come through with the five hundred thousand they’d initially promised us, we re going to have to close down the centre and lay off our two PhD students.

Speaker A: hmm, I see.

D

Speaker A: OK … so let ‘s have a look at the final marks for this group. Sandra, have you got the marks for the end of term exam?

Speaker B: Well … there is a bit ot a problem because several of the students were away for the exam, and so they’ve had to sit a supplementary, and we’re still waiting for Mary to get back to us.

Speaker A: But overall the standard was well above average for this group and I think we shouId feel quite happy with their performance.

TRACK 25:

Journalist: Can you tell us, minister, what your government plans to do if they are returned to office after the next election? Particularly in the areas of health, research and education.

Politician: We certainly plan to raise the level of funding for public hospitals, including providing funds to create more hospital beds.

Journalist: So that means building more hospitals?

Politician: Yes. That is definitely on our agenda.

Journalist: And would your health package include an increase to the subsidy on prescription drugs? Many essential medicines are terribly expensive and some people can’t afford them at all.

Politician: We already have a very high level of subsidy for prescription medicines, and negotiations are currently taking place with the major drug companies to try to get them to improve efficiency and Iower their prices. We see this as a more useful approach, which should result in less government money being spent on this.

Journalist: Oh. Ok. Education is another very important area. Do you anticipate allocating more money to build schools, in particular primary schools, some of which are now very old?

Politician: Yes, we do of course see education as important, but we feel that the current level of funding is appropriate and we hope that by closing some schools in areas where the population has dropped, that we’ll be able ro find the money to subsidise schools that are in need.

Journalist: And what about R and D, research and development? Compared to many other countries, the amount of money provided for scientific research in this country is extremely low. So much so that many of our best scientists are forced to go overseas.

Politician: This is an area of serious concern, and we are planning to allocate over 3 billion dollars in university research grants over the next five years. We accept that this is an area that has been under-funded.

Journalist: Finally, minister, let’s look at our road transport system. The current trend seems to be for the government to seek private funding for the construction of major roads … which the drivers then pay to use. Do you see this as fair?

Politician: Basically, it makes sense. If a road or tunnel is built by a private compare, then that company must be entitled to charge motorists to use it. This allows us to have a safe, modern road system at no additional cost to the state, which in turn means that we, as a government, don’t have to see any additional funds aside for public works of this nature.

Journalist: I think there are many drivers who would disagree with you there, minister, but i we’ll have to leave it there for this evening, I’m afraid. Thank you for coming into the studio.

Politician: Thank you.

TRACK 26:

Tutor:OK. come on in … hi Ben, hello Mark, Sally.Let’s get going shall we, because we’ve goa lot of ground to cover this afternoon. It’sBen’s turn to give his tutorial paper today but, remember, we do encourage questions from the rest of you, so do try to join in and ask questions.

Ben: OK.

Tutor: Now, I believe Ben’s going to talk to us today about the exploration of the Red Planet.

Ben: That’s right. I’m going to be looking at the recent landing by the Americans of a spacecraft on the planet Mars and in particular focusing on the small rover robot.

Mark: Is that the little robot that functions as a geologist?

Ben: Yes, that’s right. It’s called a rover, like a land rover I suppose, and it can detect the geological composition of the ground it’s standing on so, yes, it’s a sort of geologist. It’s actually quite amazing.

Tutor: I heard it described as being like a microwave oven on wheels.

Ben: Yeah, well, front an appearance point of view, that’s a fair description. I’ve photocopied a picture of it for you so you can keep this for reference and make some notes and I’ll just hand that out now.

Class: Thank you.

Mark: Wow, you’d actually expect it to look more space age than this, wouldn’t you? Like, more sophisticated.

Ben: OK, well as you can see it’s quite small. It actually only weighs 16 and a half kilos.

Tutor: Right, and what kind of speed is it capable of. Ben?

Ben: Um, well I suppose that depends on the terrain, but I understand that it has a top speed of 2.4 kilometres, which isn’t very fast, really.

Tutor: And can you tell us how it works … explain some of these things we can see here?

Ben: Well … first of all on the top it’s fitted with solar panels. It runs on solar energy, of course.

Sally: Does that mean it can’t work at night?

Ben: Yes, indeed it does. I guess it sleeps at night! So you have the solar panels on the top and underneath this is the part known as the ‘warm box’.

Mark: What’s the purpose of that?

Ben: Well, at night the temperatures on Mars can go below 100 degrees, so the warm box is designed to protect the electronics from the extreme cold. It is also fitted with two cameras on the front.

Tutor: OK. And what about its wheels?

Ben: It’s got aluminium wheels, each 13 centimetres in diameter. Each one has its own motor, so it’s individually powered, which allows the vehicle to turn on the spot if necessary. And as you know, aluminium is very light.

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Mark: And how do they steer it?

Ben: Good question! It’s steered using virtual reality goggles worn by someone back on Earth, believe it or not.

Sally: What do you mean exactly?

Ben: Well, you see, it takes 11 minutes for a radio signal to travel from command and headquarters in California to Mars and the same amount of time for the answer to come back.

Sally: Oh of course … So there’s a time delay.

Ben: Yes, exactly. And it’s impossible to steer the rover in real time because of this. So they photograph the area around the rover and the scientists will decide where they want the rover to go.

Tutor: In other words, they plot a course for the rover.

Ben: Exactly.

Tutor: OK, Ben, that’s very interesting. Now can you tell us anything about this space mission itself? Why Mars?

Ben: Well, people have been fascinated by Mars for a long time and it’s generally believed that Mars is the only other planet in the solar system to have lots of water.

Tutor: Is it possible that people might one day be able to live on Mars?

Ben: Well, of course, there’s a lot of work to be done yet but, theoretically, I can’t see why not.

Tutor: Thanks Ben, that was very interesting.