FCE Listening Practice Test 13

Answer Keys

Tapescript

The part of the text containing the answer is underlined with the question number given in square brackets []. If you still struggle with FCE Listening, please refer to Listening tips.

Part 1

1.
Hello, Hammerstones, can I help you? Yes, we can take an order. Is it a recent publication?… Okay then, do you know the name of the author?… Uhm, and the title?… ‘Getting the Most out of Your Guitar’. [1] Yes, I am familiar with that title. It is actually available in paperback now… Okay then… If you’d like to leave your name and telephone number,…

2.
Well Giles, what is currently happening in the Cumberland dry-dock dispute is nothing new. There has been a long history of industrial problems in British shipbuilding and this makes what the minister said wrong on a number of counts. In fact, this statement could be going to cause serious difficulties for the government. Rodwyn Lewis has managed to get a number of backs up in the union, which is not going to help his government solve the dispute. [2]

3.
Well, I’m not in the slightest bit bothered about the cold weather this year. Not since Geoff got round to fitting the new windows. [3] I mean the old ones were letting in the rain. Last winter it got so cold that I ended up having to wear a coat in our front living room and what with Samantha being only two-and-a-half well, we just had to do something about them. Anyway, Geoff’s marvellous when it comes to jobs round the house. I mean he had them up and finished in a week – good thing it wasn’t snowing then. [3]

4.
Good evening, everybody. Er, this won’t be very long. Er, I’d just like to say thank you to all of you for managing to turn up at such short notice. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I’m sure by now all of you must have heard about Anne’s staggering breakthrough in the field of micro-neurosurgery. [4] And, I can tell you, as a personal friend of hers, that Anne started her career right here. So it’s very fitting that I should be introducing – right now – Anne Suiter.

5.
Nowadays our TV’s seem to be showing soaps every day for most of the day. Soaps from America, Australia or the continent. The characters tend to be stereotypes and the plot is often repetitive and predictable. So why then do we rush back to our homes after work to see what has happened to the characters that we love to hate? Maybe because we actually enjoy the lack of challenge that they offer, and although we may protest that we aren’t really interested, they become a habit and we suffer from withdrawal symptoms if we don’t get our daily dose of bad acting. [5] No one believes they are real characters of course – or do they? Many characters actually receive fan mail and if one dies, some fans are unhappy for weeks

6.
Hello, Seven Oaks 9818… oh, oh, yes, hello Steven. No, I’m afraid Audrey’s not in right now. Can I give her a message?… No, she’s not doing anything tomorrow night…. Oh, yes. I’m sure she’d love that. He’s one of her favourite actors. It’s just come out, hasn’t it?… [6] Look, I’ll tell her when she gets in to give you a ring, okay?… All right! Bye.

7. Well, I didn’t so much see the blast as hear it. [6] I was on duty at the time and walking along Tarrant Street when it happened. Of course, I went to investigate and found the remains of a light vehicle scattered over a wide area. There was also some damage to nearby buildings. [6] I immediately radioed the station and requested assistance and then proceeded to cordon off the street. Fortunately, there was no evidence that anybody had been in the vehicle at the time.

8.
Commuter: Um, excuse me. Did I just hear that the Preston/Lancaster service has been cancelled again?
Porter: Well, sir, it won’t be running today.
Commuter: Would that be because of the snow in the Tring Gap? You’ve had three days to get that line clear.
Porter: Well, actually sir, the snow melted earlier today and that part of the line’s a foot under water now and if we did run any trains along there we’d be having an accident and I’m sure that you wouldn’t want that [8]

Part 2

Interviewer: Why do perfectly sane, normal people pay up to a thousand pounds a week to make themselves sick? Jane Seaworthy has been finding out.
Jane: Well, actually, the people attending the Thorndale clinic, situated on the outskirts of Bristol [9], all have a problem and it’s a problem that has become increasingly common in the last two decades – that of addiction. There are over fifty ‘addiction clinics’ operating in the United Kingdom but what makes Thorndale so special is a new kind of treatment that they have been applying with remarkable success. The new system being used here is called ‘Aversion Therapy’, although the idea itself is not new. And of all the clinics treating addicts of various kinds worldwide, the Thorndale clinic has the highest success rate in treating abusers of alcohol and tobacco [10,11]. Addicts attending a 10-day course of treatment [12] live, eat and sleep in the same building and, unlike other systems, are encouraged to indulge in their addiction instead of treating subjects with drugs that reduce their dependence, this course sets out to induce in its patients a strong feeling of disgust directed towards the object of their addiction. For example, a one-hour treatment session for smokers involves smoking rapidly without stopping well beyond the point where they want no more. [13]

In fact, they are not allowed to stop smoking until they have been physically sick. [14] As you can imagine, this is not a pleasant process. It has to be repeated three times a day for the entire ten day period in order that the subjects develop a strong enough hatred for their earlier addiction. Unfortunately, many people find the course too painful to complete, and those who do give up early are not considered cured [15], as they will most likely return to their former habit. On the other hand, smokers who keep going to the end of the course are most unlikely to want a cigarette again. [16] The treatment for alcoholism has to be somewhat different, mainly because alcohol abuse involves loss of memory. This problem is overcome in a simple way. A group of ‘patients’ are encouraged to drink excessively in the setting of a bar. During this stage they are carefully monitored by trained personnel. [17] Their behaviour is also recorded on video cassette and the following day they are shown their ‘drunken performance’ from the night before. Nearly all subjects feel great embarrassment when faced with these forgotten scenes of uncontrolled drunkenness. [18] Usually, a ten-day course of treatment is all that is required to shift a patient’s emotional attitude to drinking.

Part 3

Speaker 1
Well, the last time I went to the hospital was because I needed a medical certificate. I’d just been offered the job in Kuwait and they needed an official piece of paper from any qualified doctor saying that I had healthy lungs, heart, liver and good eyesight. [19] And well, I couldn’t go to my regular doctor because I had already given his name as a reference. And well, I was a bit nervous because if the doctor didn’t declare that I was perfectly healthy, I wouldn’t get the job.

Speaker 2
I’d always thought they’d give me something to put me to sleep and when I came round everything would be over and all I would see would be a few stitches. But these days it’s all done with a local anaesthetic so you stay awake through the whole thing and you can see everything they’re doing. [20] Of course, they tell you that you don’t have to look but you can’t really look anywhere else, can you? Of course, you don’t feel anything, but it’s a bit scary.

Speaker 3
I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, when somebody has such a big operation nothing really prepares you for… what happens afterwards. It’s not a bit like it is on telly. When at last I managed to find the right room I almost didn’t recognise her. It really was a bit of a shock but the staff all seemed really pleased with her progress and were even talking about… er… going home in just a few days. [21] I don’t know about these things and I believed what they said. If I’d known what was going to happen, I’d have stayed there all night just to be with her, right up to the end.

Speaker 4
Well, the call on my answerphone said there was this leaking roof in one of the wards. ‘A drip’ they called it. Well, it hadn’t been raining much so I suppose it didn’t seem too bad to them. But when I got up there, the whole roof was in a shocking state. [22] It’s a good thing I looked at it when I did because one heavy rainstorm and all that lot was going to collapse, and with all the patients in their beds underneath. I mean, I know the ‘National Health’ hasn’t got much cash these days but they should have had the whole roof fixed. So, in the end, I told them to get someone else to do it. And I’ll tell you another thing – I’m going private from now on.

Speaker 5
The address on the package says room 4J. Anyway, I’ve been to the hospital loads of times to visit my gran. So I know the layout pretty well. Anyway, I find room 4H in no time – it says ‘check-ups’ on the door so it can’t be the room I want but then there’s no room 4I or 4J and room 4K is the maintenance office and they certainly don’t want a box of surgical knives. So, after I’ve been looking for a good ten minutes, I ask someone and they tell me, as though everyone knows, ‘it’s on the next floor, of course’. How was I to know? Anyway, I take it up there and then there’s nobody there to sign the documents to say they’ve received it. [23] So, I have to come all the way back to…

Part 4

Wendy: What a load of old rubbish. You hated it too, didn’t you, Mum?
Mrs Turner: Well, I have seen better films. I mean it wasn’t as good as ‘Aliens’ or that ‘Werewolf’ film, you know the one. [24]
Adrian: Oh, come on, some bits were brilliant. What about the scene where the accountant is…
Wendy: Well, you always like these mindless special-effects movies; I mean, where was the acting?
Mrs Turner: The dinosaurs were good. The last film I saw with dinosaurs – you could see they were made of rubber but these ones looked real. It’s amazing.
Adrian: It’s all done with computer graphics. [25] I will say they looked much better on the big screen than they did on my mate’s pirate video – but at least I could smoke at my mate’s house. [26]
Wendy: Well, if everyone was smoking in the cinema you wouldn’t be able to see the picture, would you? Anyway, that’s one movie I won’t be bothering to take out on video.
Adrian: You just didn’t like it because you were frightened.
Wendy: No, I wasn’t! What are you talking about? [27]
Adrian: I saw you covering your eyes!
Wendy: I wasn’t covering my eyes, I was laughing. [27]
Mrs Turner: Well, I couldn’t look sometimes. I mean, it was only a P.G. film but some of the scenes were… well… pretty… [27]
Wendy: You mean hilarious. Well, at least it wasn’t too long. [28] Look, it’s only quarter past ten.
Mrs Turner: Ooh, yes. Ten minutes till last orders. Why don’t we go for a quick one at the King’s Head? [29]
Wendy: Adrian can’t. Don’t you remember? He’s driving. [29]
Mrs Turner: Don’t worry. I’ll have a fruit juice and I can drive us home.
Adrian: That’s very kind of you, Mrs Turner, but I’m afraid you’re not insured to drive my car and if the police stopped us we’d both be in trouble. [30]