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IELTS Listening — Practice Test 20

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40:00

Section 1 A caller books a pitch at a riverside campsite · Receptionist, Caller

Questions 1-7

Complete the form below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

1Surname: ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

2Mobile number: 0781 466 ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

3Type of pitch: ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

4Extra facility (£4 per night): electric ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

5Arrival date: ______ July

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

6Charge for the dog: £ ______ per night

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

7Total cost: £ ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Questions 8-10

Answer the questions below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

8How must the deposit be paid?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

9What must campers display on their windscreen?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

10Where should late arrivals collect the barrier code?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 2 A volunteer coordinator welcomes visitors to a wildlife rescue hospital open day · Coordinator

Questions 11-13

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

11What does Sarah say about the hospital?

A It is funded entirely by donations. B It is run by a chain of veterinary practices. C It receives money from the local council.

12Which animals make up most of the hospital's patients?

A foxes and badgers B birds C hedgehogs

13What has happened to the feeding demonstration?

A It has been cancelled for today. B It will start later than advertised. C It has been moved to a different part of the site.

Questions 14-17

Where are the following places? Choose the correct letter, A–F, from the plan description below.

Plan of Fernhill Wildlife Hospital — you enter through the south gate; the main path runs north, past the pond.

A = first building on the right after the entrance B = on the left of the main path, opposite the pond C = at the far northern end of the main path D = behind the treatment block E = the converted barn on the east side F = next to the car park

A first building on the right after the entrance
B on the left of the main path, opposite the pond
C at the far northern end of the main path
D behind the treatment block
E the converted barn on the east side
F next to the car park

14Intensive care unit

15Orphan nursery

16Education centre

17Café (today)

Questions 18-20

Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

18The aviary is expected to open again in the ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

19Visitors are asked to donate old ______ for the recovery pens.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

20Visitors wanting a guided tour should add their name to the list at the ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 4 A lecture on dyslexia and how the brain learns to read · Lecturer

Questions 31-40

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

31Unlike speech, reading has no dedicated brain region at ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

32The smallest units of speech sound are called ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

33In most cases, dyslexia is a difficulty with ______ processing.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

34Contrary to the popular image, dyslexic readers' ______ is usually normal.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

35Dyslexia is found at every level of ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

36Brain scans show an under-active reading network in the ______ hemisphere.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

37The word-recognition area is nicknamed the brain's ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

38The widening gap between weak and strong readers is called the ______ effect.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

39Early trials show lasting gains from intensive, structured ______ teaching.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

40Even after successful intervention, ______ usually stays difficult.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

Audio script / transcript

Trace every answer back to the exact words. Distractors — changes of mind, corrections, rejected options — are part of the recording, so read the whole exchange, not just one line.

Section 1 — A caller books a pitch at a riverside campsite

Receptionist:Good afternoon, Brookfield Riverside Campsite, Angela speaking. How can I help?

Caller:Oh, hello. I'd like to book a pitch for July — a tent, two adults, and we'd be bringing our dog, if that's allowed.

Receptionist:Dogs are fine as long as they're kept on a lead at all times. Let me take your details. Can I have your name?

Caller:Stephen Haworth.

Receptionist:Is that H-O-W-A-R-T-H?

Caller:No — people always do that. It's H-A-W-O-R-T-H. A after the H, then W, then O-R-T-H.

Receptionist:H-A-W-O-R-T-H. Got it. And a mobile number?

Caller:It's oh-seven-eight-one, four-six-six, three-six-two... no, hang on, sorry — that's my old one, I changed it last month. Same start, but it ends three-five-two. So oh-seven-eight-one, four-six-six, three-five-two.

Receptionist:Zero seven eight one, four six six, three five two. Lovely. Now, pitches. We've got two kinds: hardstanding, which is gravel and really designed for caravans and motorhomes, and grass. With a tent you'll want grass — pegs won't go into the gravel.

Caller:Grass it is, then.

Receptionist:A grass pitch is sixteen pounds a night, and that covers two adults. Will you want an electric hook-up? That's four pounds a night on top.

Caller:Yes, please — we run a cool box off the mains. Do you provide the cable?

Receptionist:No, you must bring your own cable, I'm afraid — an outdoor-rated one, at least twenty-five metres long. We do sell them in the shop, but they're cheaper elsewhere, to be honest.

Caller:Fair enough, we'll bring one. Now, dates. We were hoping to arrive on Friday the eighteenth of July and stay four nights.

Receptionist:Ah. There's a slight problem with the eighteenth. The riverside field is booked for a triathlon that day, so we can't take new arrivals until it's all been cleared away. Could you come on Saturday the nineteenth instead?

Caller:Saturday the nineteenth... yes, that works. Four nights still, so we'd leave on the twenty-third.

Receptionist:Perfect. And the dog — that's three pounds a night... oh, wait, no, ignore that. The dog rate came down this season and my screen hadn't updated. It's two pounds a night now.

Caller:Even better. So what does that come to altogether?

Receptionist:Sixteen for the pitch, four for the electricity, two for the dog — twenty-two pounds a night, times four nights. Eighty-eight pounds in total. We ask for a thirty-pound deposit when you book, and that has to be paid by card over the phone — we stopped taking cheques a long while ago, and we don't do bank transfers for deposits.

Caller:That's fine, I've got my card here. Anything we should know before we arrive?

Receptionist:Two things. We post you a parking sticker with your confirmation — put it on your windscreen, or the warden will be knocking on your car window. And the entrance barrier is locked at eleven every night. If you think you'll arrive after that, you need to collect the entry code from the warden's office — that's the green cabin just inside the gate. Not reception, because reception closes at six.

Caller:Sticker on the windscreen, and the code from the warden's office if we're late. Great.

Receptionist:That's everything. Right — card details when you're ready, Mr Haworth, and we'll see you on the nineteenth.

Section 2 — A volunteer coordinator welcomes visitors to a wildlife rescue hospital open day

Coordinator:Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming to our open day here at Fernhill Wildlife Hospital. I'm Sarah, the volunteer coordinator, and before you wander off around the site I'll give you a bit of background and point out where everything is.

Coordinator:First, a common misunderstanding. Visitors often assume we're part of a veterinary chain, or that the council funds us. Neither is true. The hospital began in our founder's garden shed back in the nineteen-nineties, and it has been an independent charity ever since — everything you see today was paid for by donations, and almost everyone you'll meet is a volunteer.

Coordinator:Now, our patients. When people picture a wildlife hospital they imagine foxes, badgers and hedgehogs, and yes, we treat all of those. But they're a minority. Roughly three-quarters of the animals brought in to us are birds — everything from swans down to wrens.

Coordinator:And what brings them here? Everyone blames cats, and cats do account for some admissions. Road traffic takes its share too. But the biggest single cause, year after year, is hazards in ordinary gardens — netting, uncovered ponds, strimmers and mowers. And unlike traffic, garden accidents are almost entirely preventable.

Coordinator:Right, let me point things out on the site plan you were given at the gate. You came in through the south gate, and the main path runs north from there, past the pond. The first building on your right, just after the entrance, is the intensive care unit. You're welcome to watch through the glass, but please keep noise right down.

Coordinator:Directly behind the treatment block — that's the low brick building — is the orphan nursery, where this year's ducklings and leverets are being hand-reared. It's open today, but we only allow four visitors in at a time.

Coordinator:The education centre is the converted barn over on the east side of the site. That's where the children's activities are running all day, and there's a display in there about making garden ponds safe.

Coordinator:The one place you can't visit today is the aviary, at the far northern end of the main path. It lost most of its roof in the February storms, and although rebuilding has started, the scaffolding makes it unsafe, so it's completely off-limits — please don't go past the barriers. We expect it to reopen in the spring.

Coordinator:Refreshments. Normally the café is inside the main building, but that room is being rewired this week, so instead you'll find the café in the marquee next to the car park. Same cakes, different roof.

Coordinator:A couple of timing changes to today's programme. The feeding demonstration was advertised for two o'clock. Unfortunately our vet was called out to a road casualty first thing this morning, so we've pushed the demonstration back to three fifteen. It'll still be in the same place, beside the swan pool.

Coordinator:If you'd like a guided tour, they leave every hour, but numbers are capped, so put your name on the list at the front desk. And one small request before I let you go: we always need old towels for the recovery pens — if you have any at home, we will gratefully take every single one. Newspapers too. Enjoy your day, and thank you for supporting us.

Section 3 — A student and his business mentor review a draft business plan

Carol (mentor):Come in, Ryan. I've read the draft business plan you sent over — the mobile bike-repair service. There's a lot to like. Shall we go through it?

Ryan (student):Please. I know the numbers section is thin.

Carol (mentor):We'll get to the numbers. My biggest concern is right at the start: your target market. You've written 'cyclists across the city'. That's tens of thousands of people with completely different needs — commuters, families, club riders. A one-person business can't speak to all of them at once.

Ryan (student):My thinking was that a wider market meant more customers.

Carol (mentor):In practice it means a vaguer message. Who do you actually understand best?

Ryan (student):Students, honestly. Half the bikes on campus have something wrong with them, and the nearest repair shop is a bus ride away.

Carol (mentor):Then make that your market. 'Students on the university campus' is a group you can reach, price for, and describe in one sentence. Now — pricing. You've proposed a monthly subscription: five pounds a month for unlimited minor repairs.

Ryan (student):I thought it would give me a predictable income.

Carol (mentor):It would, if anyone signed up. But look at it from the customer's side: why would they commit to paying every month before they've ever seen your work? Subscriptions suit services people already trust. Drop it — a simple menu of fixed prices per repair is far easier to sell. You can revisit subscriptions in year two.

Ryan (student):Okay, that's fair. Fixed prices per job, then.

Carol (mentor):Now the finances. You've given me one figure for the year's costs and one for revenue. The judges at the enterprise competition will want a cash-flow table, month by month, for the first twelve months. September will look nothing like July on a campus.

Ryan (student):Right — most of my customers just vanish over the summer. I'll build the table this week. On start-up costs, I estimated two thousand pounds for the trailer and tools... actually, no, sorry — two and a half thousand. I forgot the insurance and the card reader when I wrote that section. Two thousand five hundred.

Carol (mentor):Put the corrected figure in, and show exactly what it's made of. Now, promotion. You've budgeted eighty pounds for printed flyers.

Ryan (student):Students get bombarded with adverts online — I thought paper would stand out for once.

Carol (mentor):Hmm. My experience is the opposite: flyers go straight in the bin, but the campus buy-and-sell groups on social media are where students actually look for services. And posting there costs nothing at all.

Ryan (student):I suppose... the bike I sold last term went within an hour on one of those groups. All right, you've convinced me — the social media groups first, and I'll keep a small batch of flyers just for freshers' week.

Carol (mentor):A sensible compromise. Two more suggestions. First, do something special for your very earliest customers —

Ryan (student):I'd already thought about that — I want to give the first twenty customers ten per cent off.

Carol (mentor):Good. And second, put a photograph of the actual trailer into the plan. Judges remember pictures. Finally — the pitch practice. It was booked for Friday, but the enterprise office double-booked the room, so it's been moved to Tuesday. Does that still work for you?

Ryan (student):Tuesday's actually better — it leaves more time after our meeting to fix the plan.

Carol (mentor):Then let's meet on Monday to rehearse.

Section 4 — A lecture on dyslexia and how the brain learns to read

Lecturer:This week we turn to dyslexia — probably the most common, and certainly the most misunderstood, of the specific learning difficulties. We'll look at what it is, what brain research shows, and why early help matters.

Lecturer:Speech is ancient; the human brain comes equipped for it. Reading is different — writing systems are only about five thousand years old, which is nothing in evolutionary terms. So there is no dedicated reading region in the brain at birth. Every child who learns to read has to assemble a reading circuit from scratch, by recycling areas that evolved for other jobs — recognising objects, processing sounds.

Lecturer:The building material for that circuit is sound. To read an alphabetic language, a child must grasp that spoken words break down into smaller units — the p, a and t of 'pat' — and that letters stand for those units. Those smallest units of speech sound are called phonemes, and the ability to notice and manipulate them is what we call phonological processing. Research now converges on one conclusion: in the great majority of cases, dyslexia is at root a difficulty with phonological processing. The letters are fine; the sound system they map onto is what is hard to access.

Lecturer:Notice what that rules out. The popular image of dyslexia is of a visual problem — children 'seeing letters backwards', b for d, was for saw. It is persistent, and it is wrong. Letter reversals are common in all beginning readers and fade with experience, and careful studies find that in dyslexic readers, vision is typically completely normal. The difficulty lies with sound, not with sight.

Lecturer:A second myth needs correcting even more firmly: the idea that dyslexia reflects low ability. It does not. Dyslexia occurs at every level of intelligence. The difficulty is specific — children who reason beautifully in discussion, yet struggle with a simple page of text.

Lecturer:What does brain imaging add? Scans of skilled readers show a network in the left hemisphere linking visual, sound and language areas. In readers with dyslexia, parts of this left-hemisphere network are under-active during reading tasks. One region deserves special mention: an area near the base of the brain that skilled readers use to recognise whole written words at a glance — it has been nicknamed the brain's letterbox. In dyslexia it responds only weakly, which is why reading rarely becomes automatic and remains so tiring.

Lecturer:There is a consequence worth dwelling on. A child who finds reading exhausting reads less. A child who reads less meets fewer words. The gap between weak and strong readers therefore widens year after year — a cause-and-effect spiral that researchers call the Matthew effect, from the verse about those who have being given more. It is the strongest argument for acting early.

Lecturer:And early action works. Intervention trials in the first two or three school years show that intensive, structured phonics teaching — explicit, systematic work on linking letters to sounds — produces lasting gains for most, though not all, dyslexic children. Strikingly, after such teaching, scans show the under-active left-hemisphere network beginning to engage. The brain is not fixed; it responds to the right instruction.

Lecturer:A final, honest qualification. Even after successful intervention, spelling usually remains difficult long after reading itself has improved, so support should not stop the moment a child can decode. Next week: dyscalculia.