Cambridge IELTS 17 Listening Test 1 Audio Transcript

Cambridge IELTS 17 Listening Test 1 Audio Transcript

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Practice Cambridge IELTS 17 Listening Test 1 with Answers

Part 1 – Buckworth Conservation Group Listening Transcript

PETER:    Hello?

JAN:         Oh hello. My name’s Jan. Are you the right person to talk to about the Buckworth Conservation Group?

PETER:    Yes, I’m Peter. I’m the secretary.

JAN:         Good. I’ve just moved to this area, and I’m interested in getting involved. I was in a similar group where I used to live. Could you tell me something about your activities, please?

PETER:    Of course. Well, we have a mixture of regular activities and special events. One of the regular ones is trying to keep the beach free of litter (Q1). A few of us spend a couple of hours a month on it, and it’s awful how much there is so clear. I wish people would be more responsible and take it home with them.

JAN:         I totally agree. I’d be happy to help with that. Is it OK to take dogs (Q2)?

PETER:    I’m afraid not, as they’re banned from the beach itself. You can take them along the cliffs, though. And children are welcome.

JAN:         Right.

PETER:    We also manage a nature reserve, and there’s a lot to do there all year round. For example, because it’s a popular place to visit, we spend a lot of time looking after the paths and making sure they’re in good condition for walking.

JAN:         I could certainly help with that.

PETER:    Good. And we have a programme of creating new habitats there. We’re just finished making and installing nesting boxes for birds to use, and next we’re going to work on encouraging insects (Q3) – they’re important for the biodiversity of the reserve.

JAN:         They certainly are.

PETER:    Oh, and we’re also running a project to identify the different species of butterflies (Q4) that visit the reserve. You might be interested in taking part in that.

JAN:         Sure. I was involved in something similar where I used to live, counting all the species of months. I’d enjoy that.

PETER:    Another job we’re doing at the reserve is replacing the wall (Q5) on the southern side, between the parking area and our woodshed. It was badly damaged in a storm last month.

JAN:         OK.

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PETER:    Then as I said, we have a programme of events as well, both at the weekend, and during the week.

JAN:         Right. I presume you have guided walks? I’d like to get to know the local countryside, as I’m new to the area.

PETER:    Yes, we do. The next walk is to Ruston Island, a week on Saturday. We’ll be meeting in the car park at Dunsmore Beach at low tide – that’s when the sands are dry enough for us to walk to the island (Q6) without getting wet.

JAN:         Sounds good.

PETER:    The island’s a great place to explore. It’s quite small, and it’s got a range of habitats. It’s also an ideal location for seeing seals just off the coast, or even on the beach.

JAN:         OK. And is there anything we should bring, like a picnic, for instance?

PETER:    Yes, do bring one, as it’s a full-day walk. And of course it’ll be wet walking across and back, so make sure your boots (Q7) are waterproof.

JAN:         I must buy a new pair – there’s a hole in one of my current ones! Well, I’d definitely like to come on the walk.

PETER:    Great. Then later this month we’re having a one-day woodwork session in Hopton Wood.

JAN:         I’ve never tried that before. Is it OK for beginners (Q8) to take part?

PETER:    Definitely. There’ll be a couple of experts leading the session, and we keep the number of participants down, so you’ll get as much help as you need.

JAN:         Excellent! I’d love to be able to make chairs.

PETER:    That’s probably too ambitious for one day! You’ll be starting with wooden spoons (Q9), and of course learning how to use the tools. And anything you make is yours to take home with you.

JAN:         That sounds like fun. When is it?

PETER:    It’s on the 17th, from 10 a.m. until 3. There’s a charge of £35 (Q10), including lunch, or £40 if you want to camp in the wood.

JAN:         I should think I’ll come home the same day. Well, I’d certainly like to join the group.

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Part 2 –Boat trip round Tasmania Listening Transcript

So, hello everyone. My name’s Lou Miller and I’m going to be your tour guide today as we take this fantastic boat trip around the Tasmanian coast. Before we set off, I just want to tell you a few things about our journey.

Our boats aren’t huge as you can see. We already have three staff members on board and on top of that, we can transport a further fifteen people – that’s you – around the coastline. But please note if there are more than nine people on either side of the boat, we’ll move some of you over (Q11), otherwise all eighteen of us will end up in the sea!

We’ve recently upgraded all our boats. They used to be jet black, but our new ones now have these comfortable dark red seats and a light-green exterior (Q12) in order to stand out from others and help promote our company. This gives our boats a rather unique appearance, don’t you think?

We offer you a free lunchbox during the trip and we have three types. Lunchbox 1 contains ham and tomato sandwiches. Lunchbox 2 contains a cheddar cheese roll (Q13) and Lunchbox 3 is salad-based and also contains eggs and tuna. All three lunchboxes also have a packet of crisps and chocolate bar inside. Please let staff know which lunchbox you prefer.

I’m sure I don’t have to ask you not to throw anything into the sea. We don’t have any bins to put litter in, but Jess, myself or Ray, our other guide, will collect it from you (Q14) after lunch and put it all in a large plastic sack.

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The engine on the boat makes quite a lot of noise so before we head off, let me tell you a few things about what you’re going to see.

This area is famous for its ancient lighthouse, which you’ll see from the boat as we turn past the first little island. It was built in 1838 to protect sailors as a number of shipwrecks had led to significant loss of life (Q15/16). The construction itself was complicated as some of the original drawings kept by the local council show. It sits right on top of the cliffs in a very isolated spot. In the nineteenth century there were many jobs there, such as polishing the brass lamps, chopping firewood and cleaning windows, that kept lighthouse keepers busy. These workers were mainly prison convicts until the middle of that century when ordinary families willing to live in such circumstances took over. (Q15/16)

Some of you have asked me what creatures we can expect to see. I know everyone loves the penguins, but they’re very shy and, unfortunately, tend to hide from passing boats, but you might see birds in the distance, such as sea eagles, flying around the cliff edges where they nest. When we get to the rocky area inhabited by fur seals, we’ll stop and watch them swimming around the coast. They’re inquisitive creatures so don’t be surprised if one pops up right in front of you (Q17/18). Their predators, orca whales, hunt along the coastline too, but spotting one of these is rare. Dolphins, on the other hand, can sometimes approach on their own or in groups as they ride the waves beside us. (Q17/18)

Lastly, I want to mention the caves. Tasmania is famous for its caves and the ones we’ll pass by are so amazing that people are lost for words when they see them. They can only be approached by sea (Q19/20), but if you feel that you want to see more than we’re able to show you, then you can take a kayak into the area on another day and one of our staff will give you more information on that. What we’ll do is to go through a narrow channel, past some incredible rock formations and from there we’ll be able to see the openings to the caves, and at that point we’ll talk to you about what lies beyond. (Q19/20)

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Part 3 – Work experience for veterinary science students Listening Transcript

DIANA:    So, Tim, we have to do a short summary of our work experience on a farm.

TIM:         Right. My farm was great, but arranging the work experience was hard (Q21). One problem was it was miles away and I don’t drive. And also, I’d really wanted a placement for a month, but I could only get one for two weeks.

DIANA:    I was lucky, the farmer let me stay on the farm so I didn’t have to travel. But finding the right sort of farm to apply to wasn’t easy.

TIM:         No, they don’t seem to have websites, do they. I found mine through a friend of my mother’s, but it wasn’t easy.

DIANA:    No.

TIM:         My farm was mostly livestock, especially sheep. I really enjoyed helping out with them. I was up most of one night helping a sheep deliver a lamb … (Q22)

DIANA:    On your own?

TIM:         No, the farmer was there, and he told me what to do. It wasn’t a straightforward birth, but I managed. It was a great feeling to see the lamb stagger to its feet and start feeding almost straightaway, and to know that it was OK.

DIANA:    Mm.

TIM:         Then another time a lamb had broken its leg, and they got the vet in to set it, and he talked me through what he was doing. That was really useful.

DIANA:    Yes, my farm had sheep too. The farm was in a valley and they had a lowland breed called Suffolks, although the farmer said they’d had other breeds in the past.

TIM:         So were they bred for their meat? (Q23)

DIANA:    Mostly, yes. They’re quite big and solid.

TIM:         My farm was up in the hills and they had a different breed of sheep, they were Cheviots.

DIANA:    Oh, I heard their wool’s really sought after.

TIM:         Yes. It’s very hardwearing and they use it for carpets.

DIANA:    Right.

TIM:         I was interested in the amount of supplements they add to animals’ feed nowadays. Like, even the chickens got extra vitamins and electrolytes in their feed.

DIANA:    Yes, I found that too. And they’re not cheap. But my farmer said some are overpriced for what they are. And he didn’t give them as a matter of routine, just at times when the chickens seemed to particularly require them. (Q24)

TIM:         Yes, mine said the same. He said certain breeds of chickens might need more supplements than the others, but the cheap and expensive ones are all basically the same.

DIANA:    Mm.

TIM:         So did your farm have any other livestock, Diana?

DIANA:    Yes, dairy cows. I made a really embarrassing mistake when I was working in the milk shed. Some cows had been treated with antibiotics, so their milk wasn’t suitable for human consumption, and it had to be put in a separate container. But I got mixed up, and I poured some milk from the wrong cow in with the milk for humans, so the whole lot had to be thrown away (Q25). The farmer wasn’t too happy with me.

TIM:         I asked my farmer how much he depended on the vet to deal with health problems. I’d read reports that the livestock’s health is being affected as farmers are under pressure to increase production. Well, he didn’t agree with that, but he said that actually some of the stuff the vets do, like minor operations, he’d be quite capable of doing himself. (Q26)

DIANA:    Yeah. My farmer said the same. But he reckons vets’ skills are still needed.

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DIANA:    Now we’ve got to give a bit of feedback about last term’s modules – just short comments, apparently. Shall we do that now?

TIM:         OK. So medical terminology.

DIANA:    Well, my heart sank when I saw that, especially right at the beginning of the course. And I did struggle with it.

TIM:         I’d thought it’d be hard, but actually I found it all quite straightforward (Q27). What did you think about diet and nutrition?

DIANA:    OK, I suppose.

TIM:         Do you remember what they told us about pet food and the fact that there’s such limited checking into whether or not it’s contaminated? I mean in comparison with the checks on food for humans – I thought that was terrible. (Q28)

DIANA:    Mm. I think the module that really impressed me was the animal disease one, when we looked at domesticated animals in different parts of the world, like camels and water buffalo and alpaca. The economies of so many countries depend on these, but scientists don’t know much about the diseases that affect them. (Q29)

TIM:         Yes, I thought they’d know a lot about ways of controlling and eradicating those diseases, but that’s not the case at all.

                 I loved the wildlife medication unit. Things like helping birds that have been caught in oil spills. That’s something I hadn’t thought about before.

DIANA:    Yeah, I thought I might write my dissertation on something connected with that. (Q30)

TIM:         Right. So …

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Part 4 – Labyrinths Listening Transcript

One of the most famous cases of extinction is that of a bird known as the dodo. In fact there’s even a saying in English, ‘as dead as the dodo’, used to refer to something which no longer exists. But for many centuries the dodo was alive and well, although it could only be found in one place, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It was a very large bird, about one metre tall, and over the centuries it had lost the ability to fly, but it survived happily under the trees that covered the island.

Then in the year 1507 the first Portuguese ships stopped at the island. The sailors were carrying spices (Q31) back to Europe, and found the island a convenient stopping place where they could stock up with food and water for the rest of the voyage, but they didn’t settle on Mauritius. However, in 1683 the Dutch arrived and set up a colony (Q32) there. These first human inhabitants of the island found the dodo birds a convenient source of meat, although not everyone liked the taste.

It’s hard to get an accurate description of what the dodo actually looked like. We do have some written records from sailors, and a few pictures, but we don’t know how reliable these are. The best-known picture is a Dutch painting in which the bird appears to be extremely fat (Q33), but this may not be accurate – an Indian painting done at the same time shows a much thinner bird.

Although attempts were made to preserve the bodies of some of the birds, no complete specimen survives. In the early 17th century four dried parts of a bird were known to exist – of these, three have disappeared, so only one example of soft tissue from the dodo survives, a dodo head (Q34). Bones have also found, but there’s only one complete skeleton in existence.

This single dodo skeleton has recently been the subject of scientific research which suggests that many of the earlier beliefs about dodos may have been incorrect. For example, early accounts of the birds mention how slow and clumsy it was, but scientists now believe the bird’s strong knee joints would have made it capable of movement (Q35) which was not slow, but actually quite fast. In fact, one 17th century sailor wrote that he found the birds hard to catch. It’s true that the dodo’s small wings wouldn’t have allowed it to leave the ground, but the scientists suggest that these were probably employed for balance (Q36) while going over uneven ground. Another group of scientists carried out analysis of the dodo’s skull. They found that the reports of the lack of intelligence of the dodo were not borne out by their research, which suggested the bird’s brain (Q37) was not small, but average in size. In fact, in relation to its body size, it was similar to that of the pigeon, which is known to be a highly intelligent bird. The researchers also found that the structure of the bird’s skull suggested that one sense which was particularly well-developed was that of smell (Q38). So the dodo may also have been particularly good at locating ripe fruit and other food in the island’s thick vegetation.

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So it looks as if the dodo was better able to survive and defend itself than was originally believed. Yet less than 200 years after Europeans first arrived on the island, they had become extinct. So what was the reason for this? For a long time, it was believed that the dodos were hunted to extinction, but scientists now believe the situation was more complicated than this. Another factor may have been the new species brought to the island by the sailors. These included dogs, which would have been a threat to the dodos, and also monkeys, which ate the fruit that was the main part of the dodos’ diet. These were brought to the island deliberately, but the ships also brought another type of creature – rats (Q39), which came to land from the ships and rapidly overran the island. These upset the ecology of the island, not just the dodos but other species too. However, they were a particular danger to the dodos because they consumed their eggs, and since each dodo only laid one at a time, this probably had a devastating effect on populations.

However, we now think that probably the main cause of the birds’ extinction was not the introduction of non-native species, but the introduction of agriculture. This meant that the forest (Q40) that has once covered all the island, and that had provided a perfect home for the dodo, was cut down so that crops such as sugar could be grown. So although the dodo had survived for thousands of years, suddenly it was gone.

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Also Check: Cambridge IELTS 17 Listening Test 2 with Answers