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IELTS Listening — Practice Test 22

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40:00

Section 1 A caller books a restaurant's private room for a birthday dinner · Coordinator, 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 553 ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

3Number of guests: ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

4Date of dinner: ______ March

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

5Food option chosen: ______ (£29 per head)

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

6Dietary note: two ______ meals

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

7Corkage charge per bottle: £ ______

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

9Which entrance should the party use on the night?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

10What must the caller email one week before the dinner?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 2 A coordinator briefs volunteers before a beach clean-up · Coordinator

Questions 11-13

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

11According to Dana, most of the litter on the beach comes from

A the fishing fleet. B people visiting the beach. C ships passing offshore.

12What should volunteers do if they find something sharp?

A pick it up carefully while wearing gloves B mark the spot and fetch a marshal C bury it deeper in the sand

13What change has been made to today's arrangements?

A The event will start later than advertised. B Registration has moved to a different building. C The clean-up has been shortened.

Questions 14-17

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

Plan of Saltmere Bay — you are at the surf club on the promenade; facing the sea, the river mouth is to your left (west) and the dunes are to your right (east).

A = beside the river mouth, at the western end B = on the sand, directly in front of the surf club C = by the old slipway, halfway along the beach D = at the eastern end, below the dunes E = behind the surf club, in the car park F = on the promenade, next to the beach café

A beside the river mouth, at the western end
B on the sand, directly in front of the surf club
C by the old slipway, halfway along the beach
D at the eastern end, below the dunes
E behind the surf club, in the car park
F on the promenade, next to the beach café

14sign-in desk

15first-aid point

16skips for full bags

17children's zone

Questions 18-20

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

18Volunteers must bring their own ______ because drinking water is no longer provided.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

19The total weight collected will appear on the club's ______ by Monday.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

20Everyone must leave the sand by ______ because of the tide.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 4 A lecture on the mathematics of voting systems · Lecturer

Questions 31-40

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

31A candidate with a majority has won more than ______ of the votes cast.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

32Under plurality rule, the winner only needs the largest ______ of the vote.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

33A minor candidate who changes the result without winning is called a ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

34Voters who abandon their favourite to block another candidate are engaging in ______ voting.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

35Ranked ballots ask voters to list candidates in order of ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

36Instant run-off repeatedly removes the candidate with the fewest ______ votes.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

37People wrongly assume a perfectly fair system has simply not been ______ yet.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

38Arrow proved that no ranked system can satisfy all his reasonable ______ at once.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

39Arrow's theorem does not apply to ______ voting, where voters tick all acceptable candidates.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

40Because no system protects every principle, choosing one is ultimately a question of ______.

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 restaurant's private room for a birthday dinner

Coordinator:Good afternoon, the Orchard House restaurant, Elena speaking. How can I help?

Caller:Oh, hello. I'd like to ask about hiring your private dining room. It's for my mother's sixtieth birthday.

Coordinator:Lovely — that would be the Garden Room, our private space at the back. Let me take a few details. Could I start with your name?

Caller:It's Ruth Carrigan.

Coordinator:Carrigan... is that K-A-R-R-I-G-A-N?

Caller:No, with a C, actually — C-A-R-R-I-G-A-N. Everyone assumes the K.

Coordinator:C-A-R-R-I-G-A-N, thank you. And a contact number?

Caller:My mobile. It's oh-seven-eight-one, five-five-three, five-seven-oh. Oh — hang on, sorry, I changed providers last month. It ends five-nine-oh now, not five-seven-oh. So oh-seven-eight-one, five-five-three, five-nine-oh.

Coordinator:Zero seven eight one, five five three, five nine zero. Got it. And roughly how many guests?

Caller:Eighteen at the moment. It could creep up to twenty if my cousins come, but plan for eighteen.

Coordinator:That's fine — the room seats up to twenty-four, so there's headroom. And which date did you have in mind?

Caller:Friday the fourteenth of March.

Coordinator:Ah. I'm sorry, the Garden Room is out of action that whole week — we're having it redecorated. The first Friday I can offer you is the twenty-first of March.

Caller:The twenty-first... let me think. Yes, all right, that still works for everyone who matters.

Coordinator:Good. Now, food. For private parties we do two options: a hot buffet at twenty-two pounds a head, or a three-course set menu at twenty-nine.

Caller:Hmm. The buffet's cheaper, obviously... but my mother would hate it — everybody hovering about with plates. No, let's do the set menu.

Coordinator:The set menu it is. Any dietary requirements I should note?

Caller:Two of the guests are vegan. Oh, and one can't have gluten, but she said she'd ring you herself nearer the time.

Coordinator:I'll record two vegan meals now, then. Anything on the drinks side?

Caller:Actually, we'd like to bring our own wine — my brother imports it. Your website says the corkage charge is five pounds a bottle?

Coordinator:I'm afraid that page is out of date — it went up in January. Corkage is eight pounds a bottle now.

Caller:Eight. Fine — it's still worth it for his wine.

Coordinator:Now, to hold the room I need a deposit of forty pounds. We used to accept cheques, but these days it has to be by card — I can take that over the phone in a moment.

Caller:Yes, let's do that before I forget.

Coordinator:Perfect. Two last things. On the night, don't come through the main restaurant — private parties use the garden entrance, down the little lane at the side. It's signposted.

Caller:The garden entrance. I'll warn everyone.

Coordinator:And could you email me the final numbers a week beforehand? If it does go up to twenty, the kitchen just needs notice.

Caller:Final numbers by email, a week before. Perfect.

Coordinator:Lovely. So that's the Garden Room, Friday the twenty-first of March, eighteen guests on the set menu. Now, if you have your card handy...

Section 2 — A coordinator briefs volunteers before a beach clean-up

Coordinator:Morning, everyone, and thank you for giving up your Saturday. I'm Dana, and I'm coordinating today's clean-up here at Saltmere Bay. Before we hand out equipment, let me run through the plan.

Coordinator:First, a word about what you'll actually be picking up. Most people assume the rubbish on this beach washes in from the fishing fleet — old nets, bits of rope. There is some of that near the river, but when we weighed last year's collection, almost two-thirds of it was food packaging left behind by beach visitors. Crisp packets, drink bottles, foil trays. That's what will fill your bags today, and it's worth knowing, because it means this problem starts on land, not at sea.

Coordinator:Safety next. Everyone gets gloves, and litter pickers are in the crates by the door. If you come across anything sharp — glass, fishing hooks, anything medical — do not pick it up, even with gloves on. Push one of the little yellow flags into the sand beside it and call over a marshal; they're the ones in orange vests, and they carry sealed containers for exactly that.

Coordinator:Now, one change from the email you were sent. Registration was supposed to happen in the beach car park, but the council started resurfacing it on Thursday, so everything has moved here to the surf club instead. Same time, same tide — just a different building, so do tell any friends who are joining late.

Coordinator:Right, the layout, and do check the plan on your sheet. You're at the surf club on the promenade. As you stand with your back to the club, looking out at the water, the river mouth is away to your left, and the dunes stretch off to your right. The sign-in desk is on the sand directly in front of this building — everyone must sign in there before starting, or our insurance doesn't cover you.

Coordinator:The first-aid point is not in here, please note. It's a little way along the promenade to your right, next to the beach café — look for the green awning.

Coordinator:Full bags are heavy, so don't carry them far. Take them to the skips by the old slipway, about halfway along the beach — the truck can back straight down the slipway there, which is why we chose it.

Coordinator:Families with young children, we've set aside a zone for you at the far right of the beach, at the eastern end just below the dunes. The sand's softest there and it's well away from the river current. Speaking of which — nobody works past the marker posts by the river mouth at the western end. The channels there are deep and they shift, so that whole corner is out of bounds.

Coordinator:Three housekeeping points. We provide gloves and pickers, but we don't hand out drinking water any more — too many plastic cups, ironically — so make sure you've got a full water bottle with you. Everything you collect gets weighed at the skips, and the total will be posted on the club's website by Monday. And finally, timing: the tide turns just after midday, so everyone off the sand by twelve thirty, please, whether your bag is full or not.

Coordinator:That's everything. Sign in, grab your gloves, and thank you again — let's see if we can beat last year's total.

Section 3 — Two students and their tutor plan a geology field report

Dr Fallon:Right, come in. So — the field report on the Ashford valley sites. Where have you got to?

Mina:The mapping's basically done for four of the five sites. The problem is Site Three, up at the quarry. The fog came in so fast that afternoon that we never took the dip and strike readings.

Dr Fallon:Was it an instrument problem, or...?

Mina:No, the compass was fine, and the quarry manager was perfectly happy to have us there. We just ran out of visibility. So there's a hole in the structural data.

Callum:Which is why I still think we should go back and drill a few shallow cores along the ridge. Then we'd have proper samples as well as the missing measurements.

Dr Fallon:I understand the appeal, but no. It isn't really the cost — the department has an auger. It's that coring needs the landowner's written consent, and that alone could take a month. Your deadline is in three weeks.

Callum:Ah. I hadn't thought about the paperwork.

Dr Fallon:Take channel samples from the exposed faces instead. You can do that under your existing access agreement, this weekend if you like. Just make sure each sample is at least two kilograms, or the lab won't run the full analysis.

Mina:Two kilograms each, fine. And actually the exposure is good — the sandstone at Site Four... sorry, Site Five, I mean, the one above the weir — that face is completely clean since the winter storms.

Callum:Okay, channel samples it is. Now, the figures. I want the photographs in the main body of the report — they're the evidence, after all.

Mina:I'd push back on that. Photos show what the rock looks like, but a field sketch shows what we think is going on — the interpretation. Every published paper we've read leads with drawn logs, not photos.

Callum:Hmm... actually, that's fair. When you put it that way — the sketches carry the argument. All right, sketches in the main text, photographs in the appendix.

Dr Fallon:Good decision, and it's the convention the markers expect. So, who's doing what?

Mina:I'll redraw the base map — the field version's a mess of pencil. I can have a clean digital one done by Friday.

Callum:And I'll take the cross-section, since I logged most of the valley floor. I'll build it straight off Mina's map once it's ready.

Dr Fallon:Sensible. And email me over the weekend — I'll send you the rainfall records from the department gauge. Weathering rates will make much more sense with those behind them.

Mina:That would be brilliant, thank you.

Dr Fallon:One administrative thing before you go. The submission window has changed. It was going to be the Thursday and Friday of week twelve, but the faculty has brought everything forward — the portal now opens on the Monday and closes at noon on the Wednesday. And it's upload only this year; nobody wants a printed copy.

Callum:Noon on Wednesday. That's two days earlier than we'd planned for.

Dr Fallon:Exactly why I'm telling you now. Get the samples this weekend, and you'll still have a clear week for writing.

Section 4 — A lecture on the mathematics of voting systems

Lecturer:Today we leave geometry behind and look at something that feels political but is, at its core, mathematical: how groups turn many individual preferences into one collective decision. In other words, voting systems.

Lecturer:Let's fix two terms straight away, because everyday speech blurs them. A candidate has a majority when they win more than half of all the votes cast — fifty per cent plus one, at minimum. Under plurality rule, though — the familiar first-past-the-post — the winner needs only the largest share of the vote, and with several candidates that share can be surprisingly small. A candidate can win a plurality election with thirty-four per cent while two-thirds of voters wanted someone else.

Lecturer:That arithmetic produces a famous pathology. Imagine two similar candidates splitting sixty per cent of the electorate between them, while a third, quite different candidate takes the remaining forty and wins. The minor candidate who cannot win but changes who does is called a spoiler, and spoiler effects have decided real national elections.

Lecturer:And spoilers reshape behaviour long before any votes are counted. Once voters sense that their favourite cannot win, many abandon that favourite to block the candidate they fear most. This is tactical voting, and notice what it does: the system stops recording what people actually want and starts recording their guesses about what everyone else will do.

Lecturer:Can we design our way out? The obvious repair is to collect more information. Ranked ballots ask each voter to list the candidates in order of preference — first choice, second, third — instead of marking a single X. With rankings in hand, we can run cleverer rules. The most widely used is instant run-off: count everyone's top choices, and if nobody has a majority, eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and transfer those ballots to their next preference, repeating until someone crosses fifty per cent.

Lecturer:Now to the myth I promised to correct. Because every rule we try has some visible flaw, people assume the perfectly fair system simply hasn't been invented yet. In nineteen fifty-one the economist Kenneth Arrow proved that this is false. Arrow wrote down a short list of requirements any reasonable ranked system should meet — things like: if every single voter prefers X to Y, the result should not rank Y above X. Then he showed that no ranked voting system can satisfy every one of these conditions at once. Whenever there are three or more candidates, something on the list must give. The flaws we observe are not engineering failures; they are load-bearing.

Lecturer:Two qualifiers, and they matter. First, Arrow's theorem constrains ranked ballots specifically. Systems that collect a different kind of information sit outside it — approval voting, for instance, where you simply tick every candidate you find acceptable, escapes Arrow's assumptions, though it faces impossibility results of its own. Second, impossibility does not mean equivalence. Some systems fail rarely and gracefully; plurality fails often and badly. The theorem closes the door on perfection, not on improvement.

Lecturer:So the mathematics ends by handing the question back to us. Since no system can protect every principle at once, choosing one means deciding which principles we are willing to sacrifice — and that makes the choice of a voting system, finally, a question of values. Next week: how districts are drawn, and the stranger mathematics of gerrymandering.