Audioscripts IELTS Practice 4 Listening Test 02

Part 1

You will hear two friends, Emma and Liam, talking in a hotel lounge about their sightseeing plans.

First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.

(pause)

Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

Emma: Liam, finally! I was starting to think you were never going to show up.

Liam: I am so sorry, Emma. Have you been waiting long?

Emma: About forty minutes. But it's fine. I ordered some green tea and I've been looking through this city guide. You look completely exhausted.

Liam: I am. I went to the main train station to buy our weekly travel passes. I thought it would be really quick. I was worried the train was delayed, but actually, the main ticket machine was completely broken, so nobody could print their passes.

Emma: Oh no, so you had to wait for a technician?

Liam: Exactly. And while I was standing in line, I got chatting with another guy, and completely lost track of time. He's a tourist from Toronto. His name is Marcus Fawcett.

Emma: Fawcett? How do you spell his surname?

Liam: It's F-A-W-C-E-T-T. He's a professional photographer.

Emma: Oh, that sounds interesting. Is he here for a few days?

Liam: Actually, he's spending two weeks traveling along the coast.

Emma: That's a great trip. Just like the one we're doing.

Liam: Exactly. He recommended a few underground jazz clubs we should check out. And he actually gave me this spare discount card for the local transit system. He bought the wrong one by mistake and said he didn't need it.

Emma: Oh, that is incredibly helpful! Ah, the waiter is looking over. Should we get some proper food or just a drink?

Liam: Well, I just want some sparkling water for now. But I am getting quite hungry, and we have a massive day of walking ahead of us. Should we order a sandwich?

Emma: Let's just order a light snack alongside our drinks. We can have a proper hot meal later tonight.

Liam: Sounds like a perfect plan.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.

(pause)

Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.

Emma: Alright, let's figure out our sightseeing schedule for today. I think the best place to begin is the National Aquarium, and then the Science Museum. Do you know what time they open?

Liam: Let me check the guidebook. The aquarium is open from 8:30 in the morning. For the Science Museum... wait, it says it opens at 9 AM. No, my mistake, that is just the museum gift shop. The actual exhibition areas are open from 1 PM to 6 PM, so we absolutely cannot go there until after we have lunch.

Emma: Okay, good to know. What other places are on the list?

Liam: Well, I really want to visit the famous Street Fair near the harbor. But wait, as well as today and tomorrow, we still have Monday to explore. Do you think the fair will be open then?

Emma: Let me see... Oh, unfortunately not. They only operate on Wednesdays, so we have completely missed it for this week since today is Friday.

Liam: That's a pity. So, for the Science Museum, since tomorrow is Saturday, it will probably be packed with local families.

Emma: True. And we can't go the day after either. The guidebook says it isn't open on Sundays at all, so we definitely need to fit that in today or tomorrow.

Liam: Good point. What about the Observation Tower and the City Park? Are all of these attractions free, or do we need to buy tickets for them?

Emma: There is an entrance fee for all the indoor ones, like the aquarium and the tower. But the City Park and the Street Fair are completely free to walk around, naturally.

Liam: Okay, well, it looks like our schedule is taking shape. We will go see the fish at the Aquarium first, then we will grab some lunch, head over to the Science Museum after that, and finally the Observation Tower.

Emma: Perfect. The guidebook mentions the restaurant at the top of the tower is lovely. But what I really want to do is ride the glass elevator. The 360-degree view of the skyline is supposed to be absolutely breathtaking.

Liam: Okay! Then tomorrow, we can spend the morning in the City Park.

That is the end of Part 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Part 2

You will hear a representative from the University Career Hub speaking to a group of final-year students.

First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14.

(pause)

Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.

Speaker: Welcome, everyone. The career services we offer deal with any challenges arising from your transition to the workplace, or in your life outside the campus.

Let's take career planning. If you're confused about industry sectors or how to combine skills for a role, you might think the first step is to talk to your academic tutor. However, we can actually reach out to your department directly if you aren't getting proper references or feedback on how you are performing.

Besides help with professional problems, you may also need emotional mentoring. You'll have to start adjusting to networking methods that may be unfamiliar to you. Some students assume this transition is full of excitement, but in reality, losing your usual academic safety net frequently leads to anxiety. You have to cope with all this mounting pressure as the deadline for graduate applications creeps up on you.

Entering the job market can trigger a personal crisis. You may have left comfortable routines behind, or moved to a new city for an internship. While you might expect to just feel a bit tired, many find they are completely unmotivated when it comes to job hunting, feeling lonely and unable to concentrate.

Or there may be other things bothering you. We don't offer general counseling, but our resident legal advisor can look over your employment contracts before you sign anything. Or we can put you in touch with alumni groups that can provide you with industry contacts.

Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20.

(pause)

Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20.

Speaker: What about interview stress? It affects nearly everyone to some extent. There may be a huge amount of family pressure on you to secure a prestigious position. If you fail an interview or drop out of a recruitment process, you might think your career is over. It won't ruin your career, but it can certainly damage your confidence. But it's not the end of the world. I was rejected from my first corporate placement, so I can certainly offer you a sympathetic ear.

Anyway, constant rejection can lead to worrying changes in the way you normally behave. You may also have presentation problems. If the corporate dress code is an issue and upsets you, don't go buy a whole new wardrobe immediately. Speak to our image consultant, Sarah Jenkins, in the mentoring service, and we can put you onto her.

And we all have money problems, don't we? Remember, full-time students can get a low-interest loan to buy business attire. You might have heard the limit is $300, but it has recently been increased to $500 for interview-related expenses. That's right. And you can get double that amount, not for a new smartphone, but if you can't afford a high-quality laptop for remote work.

And it doesn't stop there. When you move into a new apartment for a job, the special grant through the Welfare Office won't cover your monthly rent, but it can be used to pay the initial deposit. See Mark Foster for exact details.

Can we help you? Well, last academic year, our initial goal was to assist 400 students. In spite of budget cuts, we successfully mentored 320 graduating students for a total of 3,100 hours of mentoring. And finally, we successfully negotiated all but just two of the 15 employment disputes that we launched on behalf of graduates. Not too bad for a relatively small service, don't you think?

That is the end of Part 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Part 3

You will hear three university students, Tom, Lisa, and Mark, discussing a marketing assignment they are going to work on together.

First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25.

(pause)

Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.

Tom: Sorry I'm a bit late, guys. I know I said I'd print the syllabus at home, but my printer ran out of ink. Then the main printer in the library was completely jammed, so I had to stand in a massive queue for the backup one.

Lisa: No worries, we only just sat down. We were just complaining about the heavy workload this semester.

Tom: Speaking of which, could you refresh my memory on the exact requirements for this marketing assignment?

Lisa: Sure. It's split into three distinct stages. First, we need to submit a literature review. You might think it's broadly about consumer behavior, but the exact focus is evaluating the primary techniques of consumer research.

Tom: Got it. And what is the word count for that? Was it 2,500 words?

Lisa: No, that is the limit for the final written analysis in stage three. The stage one review is strictly 2,000 words. Stage two is the pilot study where we collect original data from at least eight participants.

Tom: Did you guys already get as far as discussing which research method we should adopt for stage two? Are we thinking focus groups or online surveys?

Mark: I strongly suggest we go with an online survey. I know surveys can be tricky to design, but honestly, it will require significantly less time to organize than trying to schedule focus groups. We just email the link out and wait.

Tom: Quicker, yes. But didn't the lecturer warn us about the data quality of online surveys? He mentioned that if a survey takes longer than five minutes, the completion rate drops significantly.

Lisa: That's true, Tom, but since we only need eight people, we can just ask our classmates. For me, the bigger issue is that survey data doesn't reveal any unexpected insights. Participants are strictly limited to the options we set in advance, so they lack the opportunity to elaborate on their answers.

Mark: Come on, guys. This is just an undergraduate practice assignment. It is not meant to be groundbreaking academic research, is it? Let's just take the easiest route.

Tom: I wouldn't underestimate it, Mark. If you look at the syllabus, the grading standards are actually incredibly strict. We will be heavily penalized if our methodology is weak.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.

(pause)

Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.

Mark: Alright, point taken, Tom. Maybe I'd better go through the reading list again. What was the core textbook called?

Tom: It's called Digital Consumer Habits. Since it is the core text, it is absolutely required reading for all of us.

Mark: Right, I'll start with that today.

Lisa: The tutor also recommended a book called Market Metrics, published by Cambridge University.

Tom: Yes, but we don't need to read the whole thing. He said it is specifically useful for the statistical analysis part when we deal with our data later on.

Lisa: Good to know. By the way, if we do run into trouble with the online survey and decide we have to switch to focus groups, I found The Focus Group Guide in the library. We can just keep it as a backup plan.

Mark: Makes sense. I also found a really practical book called Survey Design for Beginners. Has anyone looked at it?

Tom: I did. It is fantastic. It has lots of ready-made questionnaire examples we can easily adapt for our own project. It will save us hours of typing.

Lisa: Perfect. What about the Journal of Consumer Psychology? Should we reference any articles from there?

Mark: I actually asked the tutor about it. He said the case studies published in that journal are mostly from the late 90s, so they are unfortunately too outdated for our digital marketing topic.

Lisa: Okay, we will skip that one then. Right, I have to go to a tutorial now. Let's meet up again on Thursday afternoon.

Tom: Sounds good. Before then, let's all download and read the grading rubric.

That is the end of Part 3. You now have one minute to check your answers.

Part 4

You will hear the beginning of a university lecture in a series about environmental law and ethics.

First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

(pause)

Now listen and answer questions 31 to 40.

Lecturer: So far in this lecture series, we have been looking at environmental regulations from a historical viewpoint. But over the past fifty years or so, as regulations have become stricter, there has been a massive increase in one specific type of illegal activity: environmental corporate crime.

This is a criminal activity connected with large business organizations. It includes illegal acts committed by executives or management groups. You might assume these actions are driven by individual greed, but critically, these acts are carried out in accordance with the primary goals of the company. They are committed specifically to maximize profit for the corporate organization itself. So crimes like an employee embezzling money from their employer are excluded from this definition.

Now, this is an area that much less is generally known about than traditional crime. It has been relatively ignored by the mass media, such as news broadcasts and films. Furthermore, you would think that universities would be highly interested in this, but it tends to be ignored in academic research as well. There is far more data available on conventional crime.

There are several reasons for this lack of interest. It is often very complex, and it usually lacks human interest. But possibly the most significant reason is that very often the victims are completely unaware. They might assume their sudden illness or local ecological degradation is simply a natural accident. They do not realize they have been victims of a crime.

So when we look at the effects, it is difficult to assess the costs. Let us look at the economic costs first. For example, if a large manufacturing company secretly pumps toxic wastewater into a local river to avoid treatment expenses, the factory itself doesn't pay for the damage. Instead, millions of taxpayers may eventually pay extra to fund the municipal cleanup. Avoiding these costs results in massive illegal savings for the company. However, all studies agree that the public is in fact deprived of far more money by such corporate crimes than they are by conventional criminals like bank robbers.

In addition to this, we have to consider the social costs. They are considerable because they can undermine the faith of ordinary people in the business world. And more importantly, the main group of people they affect are in fact not the wealthy sections of society, but the poor. Industrial facilities are rarely built in affluent areas, so companies are degrading the health of vulnerable populations.

I would like to illustrate this with a specific event: a massive chemical spill from a large storage facility that destroyed a local river ecosystem. A subsequent inquiry laid the blame not on the workers who had actually been on the factory floor at the time, but squarely on the owners of the facility. The primary cause was not a sudden mechanical failure, but a deliberate lack of maintenance on the main storage tanks. They decided not to spend money fixing them because the facility was due to be relocated.

This illustrates two points. First, environmental crime does not have to be intentional. The main crime here was indifference. Second, it can have severe, permanent consequences on innocent people. And yet, because companies say they didn't intend to harm anyone, they can avoid taking responsibility. This has been a very dangerous loophole in the law. Some politicians have promised reform, but...

That is the end of Part 4. You now have one minute to check your answers.