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IELTS Listening — Practice Test 27

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40:00

Section 1 A caller books a ferry crossing for a campervan · Booking clerk, 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: 0772 415 ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

3Destination port: ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

4Length of vehicle: ______ metres

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

5Departure time: ______

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

6Seating booked: two ______ (£6 each)

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

7Cost of vehicle and passengers: £ ______

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 long before the sailing must vehicles check in?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

9What must be turned off on the campervan before boarding?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

10How will the tickets be sent?

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 2 A guide welcomes visitors to a traditional cheese dairy · Guide

Questions 11-13

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

11What does the guide say about the dairy's recipe?

A It has been passed down in the village for centuries. B It was brought back from Switzerland by the founder. C It was developed by the current owners.

12What makes the dairy's cheese distinctive?

A Milk is bought from several local farms. B It uses unpasteurised milk from the farm's own herd. C The cows are milked only once a day.

13What are visitors asked to do before entering the production areas?

A take off watches and rings B leave cameras and phones outside C put on protective boots

Questions 14-17

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

Plan of Brindley Farm Dairy — you are in the entrance yard on the north side of the buildings; the main corridor runs south from the green door.

A = across the yard, directly opposite the entrance B = first room on the right along the corridor C = down the steps at the end of the corridor D = upstairs, above the press room E = in the old stable block, across the courtyard F = beside the green door

A across the yard, directly opposite the entrance
B first room on the right along the corridor
C down the steps at the end of the corridor
D upstairs, above the press room
E in the old stable block, across the courtyard
F beside the green door

14Milk reception

15Viewing gallery

16Maturing cellar

17Tasting room

Questions 18-20

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

18The usual tasting room is closed because it is being ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

19The tour lasts about ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

20Visitors who buy cheese are given free ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

Section 4 A lecture on the invention and reform of postal systems · Lecturer

Questions 31-40

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

31In the Persian relay system, fresh horses and ______ waited at each station.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

32The Roman service carried only ______ correspondence.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

33European states secretly opened and copied letters in an office called the ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

34In early nineteenth-century Britain, postage was paid by the ______ of a letter.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

35Hill showed that a letter's real cost lay in ______ rather than distance.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

36The 1840 flat-rate reform became known as the ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

37Advance payment was proved by an adhesive label — the world's first postage ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

38Ordinary people began writing regularly to distant ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

39A new industry produced cheap writing paper and mass-produced ______.

NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

40The penny rate only worked because the new ______ moved mail cheaply in bulk.

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 ferry crossing for a campervan

Booking clerk:Good morning, Northgate Ferries, this is Stephen. How can I help?

Caller:Hello. I'm driving up to the islands next month with my campervan, and I'd like to book a crossing.

Booking clerk:Of course. We run two routes from here: Westhaven to Sandwick — that's the short crossing, about two hours — and Westhaven across to Kylemore, which takes closer to four.

Caller:It's Sandwick I need; we're staying just outside it.

Booking clerk:Sandwick it is. Can I take your surname?

Caller:Naismith.

Booking clerk:Is that N-A-Y-S...?

Caller:No — there's no Y in it, although people always want to put one in. It's N-A-I-S-M-I-T-H.

Booking clerk:N-A-I-S-M-I-T-H, lovely. And a daytime number?

Caller:My mobile: oh-seven-seven-two, four-one-five, nine-oh-three... no, wait, sorry — I always do this — it ends nine-oh-eight, not nine-oh-three. Oh-seven-seven-two, four-one-five, nine-oh-eight.

Booking clerk:Zero seven seven two, four one five, nine zero eight. Got it. Now, the vehicle. Cars up to five metres long travel at the standard rate, but anything over that counts as an oversize vehicle.

Caller:Ah. The van is five point eight metres, I'm afraid.

Booking clerk:Five point eight — so that's the oversize rate, seventy-four pounds return rather than fifty-eight. And how many passengers?

Caller:Two of us — myself and my husband.

Booking clerk:Passengers are twelve pounds each return, so vehicle and passengers together come to ninety-eight pounds.

Caller:Ninety-eight, fine. Now, dates. We'd like the early sailing on Friday the eighteenth — I've got the old timetable in front of me, and it says eight fifteen.

Booking clerk:Ah, that timetable's out of date, I'm afraid. The pier at Sandwick is having repair work done this summer, so the morning departure has been moved — it now leaves at nine forty-five. The afternoon boat is unchanged.

Caller:Nine forty-five... well, that still gets us there in time for lunch. The morning one, then.

Booking clerk:Done. Would you like a cabin for the crossing? On the morning sailing it's twenty-eight pounds, and you'd have it from the moment you board.

Caller:For a two-hour crossing? No, I don't think so — it's really not worth it for that. Is there anything simpler?

Booking clerk:We do reserved reclining seats in the forward lounge, six pounds each.

Caller:Yes, two of those, please. That'll do us nicely.

Booking clerk:All booked. Now, a few practical things. Vehicles must check in no later than forty-five minutes before the sailing — if you arrive after that, your space can be resold.

Caller:Forty-five minutes, noted. We'll have the dog with us — is that all right?

Booking clerk:Dogs are fine, but during the crossing they stay either in your vehicle or in the pet area on deck five — not in the lounges. And since it's a campervan, one more thing: the gas cylinder must be turned off before you board. The crew do check.

Caller:Turn off the gas — I'll write that down. And how do we get our tickets?

Booking clerk:Nothing gets posted these days; everything is sent by email. Just show the boarding code at the ramp — on your phone is fine.

Caller:Wonderful. Thank you, Stephen, you've been very helpful.

Booking clerk:Thank you, Mrs Naismith. We'll see you on the eighteenth — nine forty-five sailing, check-in by nine o'clock.

Section 2 — A guide welcomes visitors to a traditional cheese dairy

Guide:Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Brindley Farm Dairy. My name's Ruth, and I'll be taking you round this morning.

Guide:First, a little background — because there's a story most visitors arrive with, which is that our cheese is made to some ancient village recipe handed down for centuries. I'm sorry to spoil it. The farm itself has been here a very long time, but cheese-making only began in 1931, when the founder, Edward Brindley, came home from working in Switzerland and set up the dairy using what he'd learned in the Alps. So the recipe is actually Swiss in origin — made, of course, with thoroughly local milk.

Guide:And the milk really is the heart of it. Everything we make comes from our own animals — a single herd of about ninety cows, milked twice a day here on the farm. We never buy milk in from elsewhere, and we don't pasteurise it either. That's what gives the cheese its depth, and it's why we can tell you the name of every cow that contributed to the wheel you'll taste later.

Guide:Before we go inside, the rules. Everyone must wear one of these hair coverings in the production areas — beards included, we have snoods for those. I'll also ask you to remove watches and rings, and to wash your hands at the trough by the door. Please keep to the yellow walkways, and don't touch any of the equipment. Photography, on the other hand, is absolutely fine everywhere — the staff are quite used to it.

Guide:Now let me explain the layout. We're standing in the entrance yard, on the north side of the buildings, and the main corridor runs south from that green door.

Guide:Through the door, the first room on your right is milk reception, where this morning's milk arrived at six o'clock — you'll be able to see the tanks through the glass.

Guide:Carry on down the corridor and take the stairs at the end, and you come out on the viewing gallery, which runs right above the press room. The best photographs are from up there, looking down onto the vats.

Guide:Back downstairs, at the very end of the corridor, a short flight of steps takes you down into the maturing cellar. It's kept cool, around eleven degrees, so you might want your jacket. Some of the wheels down there are three years old.

Guide:Now, the tasting. Normally we finish in the tasting room next to the shop — but that room is closed at the moment, it's being rewired, so tastings have moved across the courtyard to the old stable block. It's actually roomier, so nobody's complaining. Just follow the signs from the yard.

Guide:The whole tour lasts about fifty minutes, and we finish at the shop, which is directly opposite where you're standing now, across the yard. If you buy cheese today, we provide free cool bags — the drive home is always longer than you think, and cheese is less forgiving than you'd hope.

Guide:Any questions before we start? No? Then hair coverings on, please, and follow me through the green door.

Section 3 — Two students review bicycle-count data from a new bike lane with their tutor

Dr Hale:So — the Marsh Road bike lane. You've had the counter data for a week now. What are we looking at?

Ben:A puzzle, honestly. The automatic counter says the lane is quieter than the council claimed, but when I stood there on Tuesday morning it looked busy the whole time.

Sofia:And I think we know why. I went and watched the counter itself. It's an induction loop under the surface, and when two cyclists ride through side by side — which happens constantly in the peak — it registers them as a single bike. So it undercounts at exactly the busiest times.

Dr Hale:Good detective work. So the machine is fine off-peak and misleading in the rush. That flaw has to go in your report — plenty of published counts share it and nobody mentions it.

Ben:We did wonder about dropping the machine and counting manually ourselves, but only at weekends, when we're both free.

Dr Hale:I'd resist that. Think about who actually rides on a Saturday.

Ben:...Leisure riders, mostly. Families.

Dr Hale:Exactly. The lane was built for commuters, and weekend traffic tells you almost nothing about commuting. If your sample is weekends only, you're answering a different question from the one the council is asking. No — that shortcut would undermine the study.

Sofia:That's what I thought too. So: manual counts on weekdays, and we use those to correct the machine's figures.

Ben:Which brings us to the rain problem. Nearly half our counter fortnight was wet, and cycling drops when it rains. I say we simply throw the wet days out and report the dry ones.

Sofia:But then we overstate typical use — it rains here a third of the year! I'd rather keep every day and adjust instead. The met office publishes daily rainfall figures, so we can flag the wet days and report wet-day and dry-day rates separately.

Ben:Hmm. I thought discarding was cleaner... though you're right that it inflates the average. OK — keep them and adjust. Agreed.

Dr Hale:Agreed here as well — reviewers will respect you keeping the messy days in. Now, the numbers themselves. Ben, what was the peak figure?

Ben:The counter's best morning logged four hundred and twenty — sorry, no, I'm misreading my own table — four hundred and twelve bikes between seven and ten. Four-twenty is the council's figure — that's what confused me.

Dr Hale:Four hundred and twelve, then, and undercounted at that. Which is why your manual recount matters. When is it?

Sofia:We'd arranged it for this Tuesday, but the council emailed — the lane is being resurfaced at the start of the week, so we've pushed the recount back to Thursday. Same hours, seven till ten.

Dr Hale:Thursday is fine — better, actually; counting during the works would have been chaos. One presentational point: don't put raw totals in the report. Give bikes per hour, so that wet, dry, peak and off-peak can actually be compared side by side.

Sofia:Per-hour rates — yes, and that fixes our messy table too.

Dr Hale:And set your recount alongside the council's published counts for the same junction — politely. If their figures share the side-by-side error, that's a finding, not an accusation.

Ben:We can do that — it would explain the gap between their figure and ours.

Dr Hale:Quite. Right — I'm away at a conference all next week, so we'll meet a fortnight today, with the recount done and the per-hour table drafted.

Section 4 — A lecture on the invention and reform of postal systems

Lecturer:The postal service is so ordinary that we forget somebody had to invent it — and that for most of its history, it wasn't for us at all.

Lecturer:The earliest large-scale system we know in detail was Persian, some two and a half thousand years ago. Messages crossed the empire by relay: stations stood roughly a day's ride apart, and at each one fresh horses and fresh riders stood waiting, so the message never stopped even though every messenger did. The Romans copied the idea, with one telling restriction: their service carried only official correspondence — the state's letters, the army's letters. A private citizen simply could not use it.

Lecturer:Which brings me to a correction, because the popular story has this backwards. People tend to assume postal systems began as public services which governments later learned to spy on. In fact it was the other way around. The posts were created by states, for states — to command distant provinces — and when private letters were eventually admitted, one attraction was precisely that they could then be watched. Most European powers ran a so-called black chamber: a discreet office where letters were opened, copied, resealed and sent onwards. Privacy of correspondence is a modern invention, not the starting point.

Lecturer:Now to Britain in the early nineteenth century, where the modern post is born. The system then had a strange feature: postage was paid not by the sender but by the recipient. The letter arrived, and the person receiving it paid — a price based on distance and the number of sheets, and it was high. People refused expensive letters. Some families used codes: a mark on the outside meant 'all is well', and the letter could be refused unread, the news having travelled free.

Lecturer:The reformer Rowland Hill studied all this in the 1830s and produced a counterintuitive finding: the true cost of a letter lay almost entirely in handling — the clerks, the sorting, the accounting — and hardly at all in the miles travelled. His remedy, adopted in 1840, was a single flat rate — one penny for any ordinary letter, to anywhere in the country — the reform known ever after as the penny post. And payment moved to the sender, in advance, proved by a small adhesive label stuck to the envelope: the postage stamp, the first in the world.

Lecturer:The effects came startlingly fast. Letter numbers roughly doubled within a year and kept climbing. More interesting is how writing itself changed. The letter stopped being an occasional, formal event and became a habit: servants, soldiers and emigrants writing routinely to distant relatives, because for the first time an ordinary family could afford to stay in touch. A whole industry grew up around the change — mass-produced envelopes, cheap writing paper, the pillar box on the corner.

Lecturer:One caution, though — Hill was no lone genius. His penny only worked because of a technology he did not invent. The new railways could move mail in bulk at a fraction of what the old mail coaches charged; without them, the arithmetic of the flat rate collapses. Cheap communication, then as now, rides on cheap transport.

Lecturer:And his insight has outlived the paper letter. Every email you send is, in effect, a penny post letter: the cost sits in the system, not in the miles. Next week — the telegraph, which took that logic and made it instant.