Free IELTS Listening Practice Test

Kensington English. IELTS Practice Test One. Listening. This test has four parts, and you will hear each recording once only. Before each part, you will have time to read the questions, and at the end of each part you will have time to check your answers. Part One. You will hear a woman phoning a railway company's lost property office. First, you have some time to look at questions one to six. There is an example that has been done for you.

Now listen carefully and answer questions one to six.

Daniel: Good morning, Westlink Railways lost property. Daniel speaking. How can I help?

Joanna: Oh, hello. I'm ringing because I left a bag on one of your trains, and I'm really hoping someone's handed it in.

Daniel: I'm sorry to hear that. Let's see what we can do. I'll just take a few details first. When did you travel?

Joanna: Yesterday. Tuesday.

Daniel: Tuesday, OK. And can I have your name, please?

Joanna: Yes, it's Joanna Bramwell.

Daniel: Could you spell your surname for me?

Joanna: Sure. It's B, R, A, M, W, E, double L.

Daniel: Thanks. And where did you get on the train?

Joanna: At Oxford. I was on my way to Bath to see my sister. Well, that was the plan, anyway.

Daniel: Oh?

Joanna: There was a problem with the line, so the train stopped early and I had to get off at Bristol. My sister drove over and picked me up from there.

Daniel: Right, so you left the train at Bristol. Do you remember what time it left Oxford?

Joanna: I'd booked a seat on the ten fifteen, but that one was cancelled, so I got the next one, at ten forty-five.

Daniel: Ten forty-five. That's helpful, because I can see exactly which train that was. Now, can you describe the bag?

Joanna: It's a rucksack. Quite a big one, the kind you'd take walking.

Daniel: And what colour is it?

Joanna: Everyone thinks it's black when they see it, but it's actually dark green. It's got a black strap across the front, though, which probably doesn't help.

Daniel: Dark green with a black strap. Is there a name or a label on it anywhere?

Joanna: No. I kept meaning to put one on, but I never got round to it.

Daniel: Never mind. Can you tell me what was inside?

Joanna: Well, that's the worrying part. My laptop's in there, and my headphones, the expensive ones, unfortunately. And two library books that are already overdue.

Daniel: What about money? Was there a purse or a wallet?

Joanna: No, luckily my purse was in my coat pocket, so at least I've still got my cards.

Daniel: That's something. And do you remember where you were sitting?

Joanna: I got on at the back of the train, in carriage three, but it was absolutely packed, so I walked through until I found a seat. I ended up in carriage seven.

Daniel: And you think the bag was left there?

Joanna: Yes, I put it on the rack above my seat, and I completely forgot about it when we all had to get off. It was definitely carriage seven.

Daniel: OK, I've got all that down.

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

Now listen and answer questions seven to ten.

Daniel: Now, I can't see anything matching that description on our system yet, but things from that route usually take a day or two to reach us.

Joanna: So what happens if it does turn up?

Daniel: It'll be sent to our main lost property office in Bristol, and we'll contact you straight away.

Joanna: And how long will you keep it? I'm away for work next week.

Daniel: Don't worry about that. We used to keep items for thirty days, but that changed this year. We now hold everything for sixty days.

Joanna: Sixty days. That's a relief. Where exactly is the office? I don't know the station very well.

Daniel: It's on platform one. A lot of people go to the ticket office, because that's where it used to be, but it moved last year. It's now right next to the café.

Joanna: Next to the café. And is there a charge to collect things?

Daniel: There is, I'm afraid. For most items it's four pounds, but anything with electronics in it, like a laptop, is eight pounds fifty. That covers the extra security checks.

Joanna: Eight pounds fifty. That's fine. I'd pay a lot more than that to get my laptop back!

Daniel: And when you come, you'll need to bring some photo ID. A passport or a driving licence is fine.

Joanna: Do I need the receipt for the laptop as well? I'm not sure I've still got it.

Daniel: No, that isn't necessary. But please bring your train ticket if you have it, because that shows you were on that particular train.

Joanna: I think it's still in my coat pocket. I'll check.

Daniel: Lovely. I'll send you a text as soon as anything comes in.

Joanna: Thank you so much, Daniel. You've been really helpful.

Daniel: You're welcome. Fingers crossed it turns up. Goodbye.

That is the end of Part One. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers.

Part Two. You will hear a volunteer coordinator talking to a group of new volunteers at a city farm. First, you have some time to look at questions eleven to fifteen.

Now listen carefully and answer questions eleven to fifteen.

Tom: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hartley City Farm. My name's Tom Ashby, and I look after the volunteer programme here. Thank you all for giving up your Saturday morning to come along. I'll start with a bit of background. People often assume the farm was started to grow food for local schools. We do send vegetables to two primary schools nearby these days, but that was never the original idea. The farm was set up in nineteen eighty-two by a group of parents who were worried that children growing up in the city centre had never been close to a cow or a sheep. So the aim was simply to give city children the chance to spend time with animals, and that's still at the heart of everything we do. You'll probably hear a lot about our rare-breed sheep, which visitors love, but they only arrived about ten years ago. Now, a few practical points. Some organisations ask their volunteers to commit to a full day every week. We don't do that: you can come as often or as rarely as you like. What we do ask is that you book every shift through the volunteer website, so that we know who to expect and the staff can plan the jobs. Shifts are either mornings or afternoons. Everyone expects the mornings to be the popular ones, because that's when the animals are fed, but in fact the afternoon shifts tend to fill up first, so do book early. Next, feeding. Visitors often bring bread or vegetables from home and try to give them to the animals. Please stop them politely, because it can make the animals quite ill. We used to sell bags of animal food in the shop, but we stopped that last year. As volunteers, you'll only ever use the feed that the staff have measured out in the feed room, and please don't add anything to it, however much the goats complain! You might also see an old sign saying the animals are fed three times a day. That's out of date. It's twice a day now. What happens if the weather turns really bad? Please don't just go home, and don't try to move any animals yourselves; the staff will do that. Instead, come straight to the classroom barn and sign in there, and we'll find you some indoor jobs. Finally, last year we asked our volunteers what they enjoyed most about working here. Lots of them mentioned the practical skills they'd picked up, like mending fences and looking after animals, and many said they'd made good friends. But by far the most common answer was watching the children's faces when they hold a chick or a baby rabbit for the very first time. I hope you'll feel the same.

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

Now listen and answer questions sixteen to twenty.

Tom: Right, let me tell you about the different areas of the farm where you might be working. If you look at the plan in your welcome pack, you'll see them all marked. We'll begin with the goat pens. The pens themselves are some of the oldest buildings on the farm, and they're starting to show their age. But this is where every new volunteer starts. You'll spend your first two shifts here alongside an experienced volunteer, learning the basics of handling the animals safely. Next to the pens is the vegetable garden. A lot of people think the garden only needs help in the summer, but there's work to do all year round. And it's grown a great deal recently: last spring we took over the land next door, so it's now almost twice the size it used to be. Then there's the visitor shop, which is run entirely by volunteers. From Monday to Friday we manage perfectly well, but on Saturdays and Sundays we're really short of people. So if you enjoy chatting to the public, please think about putting your name down for a weekend shift there. After that you'll come to the pond. Families normally love it, but at the moment there's a fence around it, and the path is closed while we clear it out and repair the banks. It should be open again in the spring. And finally, the classroom barn. We're especially proud of this one, because it was put up entirely by volunteers: a team of retired builders spent two whole summers on it. Schools often ask if they can use it, but it's too small for a full class, so school visits take place in the main hall instead. OK, that's the tour on paper. Let's go and see it for real.

That is the end of Part Two. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers.

Part Three. You will hear two environmental science students, Isla and Marcus, discussing their research project on food waste in their university canteen. First, you have some time to look at questions twenty-one to twenty-five.

Now listen carefully and answer questions twenty-one to twenty-five.

Marcus: So, Isla, we really need to get this report finished before Dr Hughes's deadline. Have you got a few minutes to go through it?

Isla: Sure. Shall we start at the beginning? I was rereading the part where we explain why we chose the canteen, and I'm not sure we've got it right.

Marcus: What do you mean?

Isla: Well, we've written that it's because the canteen produces more waste than anywhere else on campus. But we don't actually know that. Everyone assumes it, but we never checked.

Marcus: True. And it wasn't Dr Hughes's idea either. She wanted us to look at the campus supermarket, remember?

Isla: Exactly. The real reason was that the catering manager agreed to give us all their waste figures. Nobody else would.

Marcus: OK, so we'll say that. Now, the questionnaire. I was quite pleased with the response, actually. We got over two hundred replies.

Isla: Far more than I expected. And people said it only took three or four minutes to fill in, so the length wasn't a problem.

Marcus: No, the problem was question four, the one about portion sizes. Half the students thought we meant the size of the plate, not the amount of food.

Isla: I know. We should have tried it out on a few people first. We'll have to admit that the wording wasn't clear.

Marcus: Agreed. Then there's the waste data. Did anything surprise you?

Isla: I was sure lunchtime would be the worst, because it's so much busier. But in fact lunch and dinner were almost exactly the same.

Marcus: And I'd have bet on Fridays being the worst day, but there wasn't much difference between the days at all.

Isla: No. What really surprised me was the salad bar. Nearly a third of all the food that was thrown away came from there.

Marcus: That was amazing. People pile their plates high and then leave half of it.

Isla: And then there's the trial with the smaller plates. Waste went down by about twelve per cent.

Marcus: Which is pretty much what that earlier study predicted, so I wasn't really surprised.

Isla: No. But the trial only lasted two weeks. People might just have been reacting to something new.

Marcus: That's what I think. If it's going to mean anything, it needs to run for a whole term. It'd be interesting to try it in the other canteen too, but we honestly haven't got time for that.

Isla: No. So, more time is the main thing. And how are we going to tell the canteen staff what we found? They won't read a forty-page report.

Marcus: I thought about making a short video, but the editing would take forever.

Isla: What about a poster? We could put it up in the staff room in the kitchen, so they'd see it every day.

Marcus: That's a good idea. Much better than trying to get everyone together for a talk. Let's do that.

Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions twenty-six to thirty.

Now listen and answer questions twenty-six to thirty.

Isla: OK, let's go through the report section by section and decide what still needs doing. The introduction first.

Marcus: I was going to suggest cutting it down a bit, but actually it's only about two hundred words.

Isla: And I think it's quite clear as it is. Let's not touch it.

Marcus: Fine by me. The literature review is a different story, though.

Isla: In what way?

Marcus: It's long enough, but nearly all our sources are more than ten years old. Food waste has had so much attention recently. We need studies from the last five years or so.

Isla: You're right. I'll look for some this week. What about the methodology?

Marcus: That's the part I'm worried about. We can't decide whether to include the pilot week, when we were still working out how to weigh the bins.

Isla: I don't know either. It might look as if we didn't know what we were doing.

Marcus: Let's not guess. I'll email Dr Hughes and ask what she thinks.

Isla: Good. Then the results. At the moment it's just paragraph after paragraph of numbers.

Marcus: It's really hard to follow. Should we turn it into a graph?

Isla: I think the weekly figures would be clearer set out in a table. Then readers can compare the weeks easily.

Marcus: OK, a table it is. And finally, the recommendations.

Isla: They're a bit of a mixture at the moment. Some of them the canteen could do tomorrow, like the smaller plates, and others would take years, like redesigning the kitchen.

Marcus: So why don't we separate them? One section on short-term changes, and another on long-term ones.

Isla: Yes, that makes sense. Shall we write those together?

Marcus: It'll be quicker if one of us drafts them and the other checks. I'll make a start tonight.

Isla: Great. Thanks, Marcus.

That is the end of Part Three. You now have thirty seconds to check your answers.

Part Four. You will hear a lecture about the history of ice houses and the ice trade. First, you have some time to look at questions thirty-one to forty.

Now listen carefully and answer questions thirty-one to forty.

Lecturer: Good afternoon. Today I want to look at something most of us never think about: how people kept things cold before the invention of the refrigerator. In particular, I'll be talking about ice houses, and the international trade in natural ice that grew up in the nineteenth century. Let's start with the ice houses themselves. These were buildings designed to store ice for months at a time, and in Britain they became fashionable on large country estates from the late seventeenth century onwards. If you visit one today, the first thing you'll notice is where it's been built. Ice houses were almost always placed on the north side of a hill, and usually among trees, because the trees provided shade, which kept the temperature down even in midsummer. Most of the structure was underground. The walls were made of brick, often two layers thick, and between the ice and the walls the owners packed a thick layer of straw. Straw is a surprisingly good insulator, and it was cheap and easy to replace. Inside, the storage chamber was usually shaped like an upside-down egg: wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. This shape meant that as the ice slowly melted, the water ran down to a drain at the base, rather than sitting around the remaining ice. So where did the ice come from? In winter, estate workers cut it from frozen lakes and ponds. Rivers were generally avoided, as moving water rarely froze thickly enough. The blocks were dragged to the ice house and packed tightly together, and a well-built ice house could keep ice for up to two years. And what was all this ice for? Mostly, it was a luxury. It was used to cool drinks and to make desserts such as ice cream for dinner parties. But it also had a medical use: doctors applied ice to reduce swelling after injuries. By the nineteenth century, though, ice was no longer only for the rich. This was largely thanks to a new international trade. The first ice to arrive in Britain in large quantities was shipped across the Atlantic from America, where businessmen had been cutting ice from frozen lakes. However, the journey was long and expensive, and before long Norway, which was much closer, became Britain's main supplier. Transporting ice by sea raised an obvious problem: how do you stop it from melting? The answer was sawdust. The blocks were packed in sawdust, which was a waste product of the timber industry and therefore very cheap. Some ice was still lost during the voyage, but most of the cargo arrived intact. Once in Britain, ice was delivered by cart to shops, hotels and, increasingly, to ordinary homes, where it was kept in a wooden cabinet called an ice box. These boxes were lined with zinc, a metal that doesn't rust easily, and the melting ice dripped into a tray at the bottom, which had to be emptied every day. One industry that was transformed by ice was fishing. Before ice was available, fish had to be eaten within a day or so of being caught, so fresh fish was only really available near the coast. Packed in ice and sent by train, fish could now be sold much further inland, in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester. So why did the trade come to an end? The main reason was the development of machines that could make ice artificially, all year round, close to where it was needed. But there was another factor. As cities grew, many of the lakes that supplied natural ice became dirty, and there was growing concern about pollution. People were increasingly unwilling to put natural ice in their drinks. By the early twentieth century, factory-made ice had largely replaced natural ice, and before long the electric refrigerator would replace the ice box altogether.

That is the end of Part Four, and the end of the listening test. You now have two minutes to check all your answers.