Raw score
0/40
Estimated band
–
By section
–
Estimated with the standard Listening conversion. Every question below now shows the correct answer and what confirmed it — and the full transcript is open at the bottom so you can trace anything you missed.
Your browser has no English speech voices available, so the audio cannot play. Try Chrome or Edge on desktop, or check your system's text-to-speech settings.
Section 1
A student phones a university housing office about a room · Housing officer, Student
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: 0746 899 ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
3Type of room chosen: ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
4Weekly rent: £ ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
5Length of contract: ______ weeks
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
6Day of viewing: ______
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
7Refundable deposit: £ ______
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.
8What must the student bring to the viewing?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
9Which optional extra does the student turn down?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
10How will the booking confirmation be sent?
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 2
A duty manager gives an orientation talk at an outdoor adventure centre · Duty manager
Questions 11-13
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
11What is the situation with the high ropes course?
12Why has the kayaking session been moved to 3.30?
13What does Karl say about valuables?
Questions 14-17
Where are the following activities? Choose the correct letter, A–F, from the plan description below.
Plan of Ridgeway Outdoor Centre — you enter by the main gate at the south; the lodge is straight ahead, with the lake beyond it to the north. Facing the lodge, the open field is on your left (west) and the pine wood on your right (east).
A = beside the car park, left of the main gate B = on the lake shore, directly behind the lodge C = in the pine wood, east of the lodge D = on the open field, west of the lodge E = on the far, northern shore of the lake F = in the converted barn, just inside the gate
- A beside the car park, left of the main gate
- B on the lake shore, directly behind the lodge
- C in the pine wood, east of the lodge
- D on the open field, west of the lodge
- E on the far, northern shore of the lake
- F in the converted barn, just inside the gate
14climbing wall
15zip line
16kayak pontoon
17archery range
Questions 18-20
Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
18Visitors must be at least ______ years old to use the zip line.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
19To use a locker, visitors need to bring their own ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
20In wet weather, the campfire is replaced by a ______ in the lodge.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 3
Two students prepare a seminar presentation on the painter J. M. W. Turner · Freya, Daniel
Questions 21-24
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.
21Why do the students reject a chronological structure?
22Why do they choose Rain, Steam and Speed as their main painting?
23What do the students finally agree about the slides?
24Why has the run-through been moved from Friday?
Questions 25-27
Who will do each task? Choose A, B or C. NB You may use any letter more than once.
- A Freya
- B Daniel
- C both students together
25email the private collection's agent
26prepare the timeline handout
27write the introduction
Questions 28-30
Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
28Written permission for the sketch can take up to ten ______ days.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
29The run-through will now take place on ______ at 4 pm.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
30Each student will speak for ______ minutes.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Section 4
A lecture on how ancient Rome fed a population of a million · Lecturer
Questions 31-40
Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.
31By the first century AD, Rome's population was about a ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
32After Egypt, most grain came from North ______, near Carthage.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
33The state supply system was known as the ______ and had its own prefect.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
34The grain dole was restricted to registered male ______ living in Rome.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
35The grain fleets did not sail during the ______ because of storms.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
36Large ships could not dock at Ostia because the river mouth kept filling with ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
37Grain travelled up the Tiber in ______ pulled by teams of oxen.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
38In the city, grain was stored in huge warehouses called ______.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
39A late fleet or failed harvest quickly led to ______ in the city.
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
40Rome kept the fleets sailing by granting privileges to private ______.
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 student phones a university housing office about a room
Housing officer:Hartfield Student Housing, Dawn speaking. How can I help?
Student:Hi, yes — I've just accepted a place for September, and I'd like to sort out a room in halls before they all go.
Housing officer:Sensible. Let me open a file for you. Your full name, please?
Student:Milo Behrens.
Housing officer:Behrens... shall I put B-E-R-R-E-N-S?
Student:Not quite — it's B-E-H-R-E-N-S. There's an H after the first E. It's German, originally.
Housing officer:B-E-H-R-E-N-S, lovely. And a mobile number?
Student:It's oh-seven-four-six, eight-double-nine, four-one-seven.
Housing officer:Let me read that back: oh-seven-four-six, eight-nine-nine, four-seven-one.
Student:Almost — the last bit is four-one-seven, not four-seven-one. People flip it all the time.
Housing officer:Four-one-seven, corrected. Right, rooms. In Juniper House we've three types left. A standard room, sharing a kitchen and bathroom, is a hundred and eighteen pounds a week. An en-suite — your own shower room, shared kitchen — is a hundred and thirty-nine. And a studio, completely self-contained with its own kitchen, is a hundred and eighty-two.
Student:The studio sounds wonderful, but honestly, that's more than I can manage. I do want my own bathroom, though, so let's say the en-suite.
Housing officer:En-suite at a hundred and thirty-nine, noted. Now, contract length. Most students take the fifty-one-week contract, but Juniper also offers a forty-four-week one that ends in June.
Student:I'll be home all summer, so the forty-four weeks suits me much better. No point paying for an empty room.
Housing officer:Forty-four weeks it is. Would you like to view the room first? I'd recommend it.
Student:Definitely. Your website says viewings run on Wednesday afternoons?
Housing officer:Normally, yes — but this week the Wednesday slot is cancelled, I'm afraid, because the whole building is being used for the university open day. We're running viewings on the Thursday instead, two till four.
Student:Thursday's actually easier for me — I don't have anything on that afternoon. Put me down for that, please.
Housing officer:Done. Now, if you go ahead after the viewing, there's a deposit to pay — it's three hundred pounds, fully refundable at the end of the contract, assuming no damage.
Student:Three hundred. Okay. Do I need to bring anything on Thursday? My passport?
Housing officer:No need for your passport at this stage — that's only for the contract signing. Just bring your student card so we can sign you in at the desk.
Student:Student card. Easy — that lives in my wallet anyway.
Housing officer:One more thing I have to offer everyone: we partner with an insurer, and you can add contents insurance to your rent for five pounds a month. It covers laptops, bikes, that sort of thing.
Student:Ah — actually no, thanks. I checked, and my parents' home policy already covers my things while I'm at university.
Housing officer:Fair enough, I'll mark that as declined. So: en-suite, forty-four weeks, viewing Thursday. You'll get a confirmation by email within the hour — we stopped posting letters years ago — and just reply to that if anything changes.
Student:Brilliant. Thanks so much, Dawn.
Section 2 — A duty manager gives an orientation talk at an outdoor adventure centre
Duty manager:Good morning, all of you, and welcome to Ridgeway Outdoor Centre. I'm Karl, the duty manager, and before your instructors take over I'll walk you through the site, the day's changes, and a few rules that keep everyone in one piece.
Duty manager:Changes first, because there are two. The high ropes course is closed today — nothing sinister, it's simply due its annual safety inspection, and the engineers are up there now. It reopens tomorrow morning, so groups booked onto it today will do the climbing wall instead. And second, kayaking: it was scheduled for two o'clock, but the forecast shows strong gusts through the early afternoon, so we've pushed it back to half past three, when the wind should have dropped. Same instructor, same group lists — just a later start.
Duty manager:Right, your bearings. You came in through the main gate at the south of the site, and the lodge — the big timber building — is straight ahead of you. Beyond the lodge, to the north, is the lake. So, facing the lodge from where you stand, the open field is on your left, to the west, and the pine wood rises on your right, to the east.
Duty manager:The climbing wall is the easiest to find: it's inside the converted barn, just inside the gate, next to where you collect equipment. That means it runs whatever the weather, which is lucky for today's high-ropes groups.
Duty manager:The zip line starts from the tower in the pine wood, east of the lodge — you climb among the trees and ride out over the slope. You must be at least eleven to ride it, no exceptions, because of the harness sizes.
Duty manager:Kayakers, when your session finally happens, head straight through the lodge and out the back: the pontoon is on the lake shore directly behind the building. Buoyancy aids are compulsory and they're handed out right there on the pontoon.
Duty manager:Archery happens on the open field west of the lodge, behind the safety netting. Don't cut across that field at any time — walk round the marked path, even if it looks quiet. And while we're on out-of-bounds: the far, northern shore of the lake is a nature area, no visitors at all — you'll see the fence line.
Duty manager:A few practical points. Closed shoes for every single activity — sandals mean sitting out, I'm afraid. Valuables: don't carry phones on the activities. There are lockers in the lodge corridor, but bring your own padlock, because we don't hire them out any more. Lunch is twelve thirty in the lodge, and your group leaders have the allergy lists.
Duty manager:Finally, this evening. If the weather holds we'll have the campfire down by the lake at eight. If it rains — and this is the bit people miss — the campfire is replaced by a quiz in the lodge, same time, teams of six. Either way, hot chocolate is included, so nobody loses out entirely.
Duty manager:That's everything from me. Instructors are waiting at the equipment barn — helmets on, and have a brilliant day.
Section 3 — Two students prepare a seminar presentation on the painter J. M. W. Turner
Freya:Right, Daniel — the Turner presentation. We've got twenty minutes in the seminar, and at the moment we've got about two hours of material.
Daniel:I know, I know. Part of the problem is the structure. I'd sketched out a chronological run — early watercolours, the Royal Academy years, late period.
Freya:Honestly? I think we should drop that. Every group does the life-and-works walk-through, and Dr Marsh has sat through a dozen of them. It's not wrong, it's just... predictable.
Daniel:Fair. So what's the alternative — organise it around a question?
Freya:Exactly. My suggestion is the theme of industry: how Turner painted machines and steam at a time when most artists were still ignoring them. That gives us an argument, not just a tour.
Daniel:All right, I'm persuaded. Then the centrepiece more or less picks itself — I originally wanted The Fighting Temeraire, because everyone recognises it...
Freya:It is more famous, but Rain, Steam and Speed fits the industry theme far better — the train's the actual subject, not a background detail. Painted in eighteen forty... no, sorry, eighteen forty-four, I always do that. We should get the date right on the slide, of all things.
Daniel:Agreed — Rain, Steam and Speed as the anchor, Temeraire gets thirty seconds as a comparison. Now, images. How many slides was your draft?
Freya:Yours was thirty; that's what worries me. Twenty minutes, thirty slides — the paintings flash past and nobody actually looks at them.
Daniel:Mm, I did wonder. But won't fifteen feel thin?
Freya:Not if we hold each painting on screen while we talk. The whole point is giving people time to see.
Daniel:You know what — you're right. Fifteen slides, longer on each. Fine. What about getting the images themselves?
Freya:Mostly easy. The National Gallery lets you download high-resolution files free for education, so the big oils are covered. The snag is that one of the railway sketches we want is in a private collection, and for that we need written permission from the owner's agent.
Daniel:How long does that take?
Freya:The agent's office says up to ten working days. Which is cutting it fine — so the email needs to go today. Can you take that? You wrote the last formal one.
Daniel:I'll send it this afternoon and attach the module details. And you were going to do the handout, weren't you — the timeline with the key dates?
Freya:Yes, the handout's mine; I'll have a draft by Monday. The introduction, though — I think we should write that together, out loud. It has to set up the argument, and it'll sound odd if it's in one person's voice and the other presents it.
Daniel:Together it is — Monday afternoon, after your draft. Oh, one more thing. The run-through. We'd booked the seminar room for Friday, but I checked the timetable this morning and it's been double-booked — there's a departmental meeting in there.
Freya:Ugh. What's free?
Daniel:The same room on Tuesday at four. I've pencilled us in. It's actually better — it leaves time to fix whatever goes wrong.
Freya:Tuesday at four, then. And each of us speaks for nine minutes, yes? That leaves two for questions.
Daniel:Nine each, two for questions. Let's write that at the top of everything so we actually stick to it.
Section 4 — A lecture on how ancient Rome fed a population of a million
Lecturer:By the first century AD, the city of Rome had grown to around a million people. Today I want to ask a deliberately unglamorous question: how do you feed a city like that, with no engines, no refrigeration and no telegraph?
Lecturer:Start with the scale. A million people needed something like two hundred thousand tonnes of grain a year, and the farmland around the city could not come close. So Rome imported. Roughly a third of the supply sailed from Egypt; most of the rest came from North Africa — the province around Carthage — with Sicily topping up the balance. Wheat, overwhelmingly: in this world, bread was the diet.
Lecturer:Moving it required organisation on a scale that deserves to be called a system. The Romans themselves had a name for it: the whole apparatus of procurement, shipping and distribution was known as the annona, and it had its own prefect, answerable directly to the emperor. Grain was collected as tax in the provinces, carried in privately owned merchant ships, and handled under state supervision.
Lecturer:Here I need to correct the phrase everyone knows — bread and circuses, Juvenal's sneer about a population bought off with food and entertainment. The phrase has convinced generations that Rome simply handed out free food to everyone who was poor. It did not. The grain dole went only to registered male citizens resident in the city — a fixed list, capped at roughly two hundred thousand names. Women, children, slaves and migrants all bought their grain on the open market. The dole was a political privilege, not a welfare system.
Lecturer:Now consider the logistics, because every stage had a bottleneck. Sailing was seasonal: the grain fleets stayed in port through the winter, when storms made the crossing lethal, so a year's food had to move in roughly eight months. Then came the harbour problem. Rome's port at Ostia sat on a river mouth that constantly choked with silt, so the biggest freighters could not dock at all — cargo had to be transferred offshore into smaller boats. The emperor Claudius finally drove through a solution: an enormous artificial harbour, Portus, cut into the coast just north of Ostia.
Lecturer:From Portus, the grain still had to travel the last thirty kilometres to the city, and here the Tiber's current ran against you. The sacks went upstream in barges, hauled by teams of oxen — a journey of about three days. In the city itself the grain went into horrea, vast state warehouses. Raised floors kept the grain dry and discouraged rats, because the enemy was not only theft but damp — one wet season in storage could rot a whole cargo.
Lecturer:What happened when the system stumbled? A delayed fleet or a failed harvest meant riots — Claudius himself was once mobbed and pelted with stale crusts when reserves ran low. Emperors understood that their security rested on full warehouses, which is why the state never nationalised the fleets but instead kept private owners sailing with privileges — citizenship, legal immunities, insurance against shipwreck — for the shippers who signed long-term grain contracts.
Lecturer:So the picture is not a single imperial machine, but a lattice of incentives holding thousands of private actors to one public purpose. Next week we'll watch the lattice fail: what happened to Rome's food supply when the empire in the West came apart.