Unit 1 Test
NARRATOR: 7. Listen and choose the correct answer in Tom's story.
Tom
(male teenager): The first time I played for the school football team was September 12th - I can't forget the date! I was 13 and I was wearing a new pair of football boots I got for my birthday. It was a home game and lots of people were watching, including my parents. I was playing in the mid-field position. My best friend John was the goalkeeper. I felt quite nervous at the start but I soon relaxed. The crowd were cheering and shouting. Ten minutes into the game, the other team scored a goal. John looked really unhappy. For the next thirty-five minutes, our team tried really hard to score a goal but we were unlucky. At half-time, our PE teacher, Mr Hunter, talked to us and told us to play even harder! We were really tired in the second half but then we scored a goal! It was a fantastic moment. The game ended in a draw. I didn't score a goal but that didn't matter. I was part of the football team now - that was the most important thing.Unit 2 Test
narrator: 6. Listen to this person talking about trying to see the Mona Lisa. Each bold word is wrong. Listen and write the correct word, as in the example. Use your own words if you want.
The Mona Lisa may be one of the most famous paintings in the whole world but going to see it can be very difficult. You need lots of patience and it's hard work. The painting is in Paris, in the Louvre Museum, which is one of the biggest art museums in the world. There are usually very long queues to get in, especially in the summer. If you want to see the Mona Lisa in peace and quiet, then the best way is to start queuing a few hours before the museum doors open at 9 o'clock. If you get in straight away and hurry through the long corridors and galleries you can reach the painting at about nine minutes past nine. You are able to look at her on your own for a few precious minutes.
But then it starts … at first just one or two people join you, but by twenty past nine at least 30 other people are fighting to look at the painting.
If you arrive any later, things are even worse. By half past nine 50 people are looking at the painting with you and with them all their noise…. the beeping mobile phones, the clicking cameras, the talking couples, the complaining children. And by half past ten it's hard to stand in front of the painting as people push past you.
It's a bit like trying to buy a ticket to see a film at the cinema when everyone else in your town has the same idea. And the funny thing is that you can't really get a good look at the painting anyway. It's small and covered by glass. It's also dark as the colours have disappeared over the centuries. But the worst thing is the crowds - there are simply too many people standing in front of you and trying to look at it.
You could try coming later in the day, in the evening. There aren't very many tourists at that time. If you stay till nearly closing time, then you might be lucky enough to look at her on your own again. But soon the night guards come in and politely tell you to leave, so they can close the museum for the night.
It is worth all the waiting and the noise though. The Mona Lisa is a very special painting and the way her eyes follow you round the room is very strange.
Unit 3 Test
NARRATOR: 7. Listen to Dan telling us about himself and his job. Complete 1-10 in the profile chart.
male voice
(american): Hi there! My name's Dan and I'm a park ranger at Governor Nelson State Park near Madison, Wisconsin in the United States. Being a park ranger means I look after the animals and plants in the park. The park is next to the beautiful Lake Mendota. It's a great place to work, here in the great outdoors.
I want to tell you just how I got interested in becoming a park ranger. When I was young, I spent my time hiking and playing in the fields and ponds at my grandparents' home in the country. Then biology became my favourite subject in high school. I decided to go to university and there I learned the names of plants, the types and habits of animals, and how to care for and manage the natural environment. My favourite subject was Ornithology, which is the study of birds. I graduated with two bachelor's degrees, one in Biology and the other in Wildlife Management.
At university I did lots of summer jobs. I was a builder, a factory worker, a boating safety patrol officer, and a park ranger. Before starting at Governor Nelson State Park in 1986, I then had several part-time jobs, including working as a conservation warden. All these experiences, and many years of studying helped to prepare me for my current job as a park ranger.
When I'm not working, some of my personal interests include hiking, photography, biking and cross-country skiing. Like my job, those interests always keep me where I love to be - outside, in the great outdoors! Why don't you go to my website and read some of my work diary? You'll see what types of things I do this time of year as a park ranger at Governor Nelson State Park. Bye for now.
Unit 4 Test
NARRATOR: 7. Listen to ten people saying what makes a good story. Match ideas A-J to the speakers by writing their numbers.
[speakers can be a mix of ages and male/female]
Speaker 1:
What makes a good story? Well, whether it's a story in a book, a story
in a film or a story a friend tells you, I think a good story is one that touches you personally. It makes you laugh or gives you something to think about.
Speaker 2:
For me a good story must have a direction and a purpose. It must hang together, so all the pieces fit into each another - like the bones in a body. They all join up and belong together and make a shape.
Speaker 3:
I think the best stories are ones which have great characters in them - people you can really believe in. They need to seem real, so that either you can recognise yourself in them or they're so different from you that you want to get to know them to understand them better.
Speaker 4:
Yes, I think the characters in a story are really important. Just think of Harry in Harry Potter! But that's not the most important thing for me. The character needs to get into some kind of trouble and have a real problem to solve, like in a detective story or a love story. The problem might even be part of his or her character. He or she has to solve this problem, and solving the problem is the story.
Speaker 5:
The best stories make us see things, hear things, taste things even. The best stories are full of imagination and they make our imaginations work too. Again, think of all the imagination there is in the Harry Potter books. They just take you to another world.
Speaker 6:
For me, stories must seem real, possible, believable and not too simple, because life is never simple.
Speaker 7:
A good story is one that changes to match its audience and keep them involved. For example, you might tell the same story to a group of adults and to a group of young children, but you probably wouldn't tell it in the same way.
Speaker 8:
It's simple. A good story is a story that someone wants to tell and loves telling. You need to feel how excited and involved they are. Imagine a bored story-teller! You wouldn't listen to them.
Speaker 9:
The stories I like best are exciting ones; ones that are always moving forward. I don't like stories that just stand still.
Speaker 10:
For me, a good story isn't just lots of actions and characters put together. A good story needs to make a point and show us things about life that make us think. The person who tells the story must have a point of view and communicate that to us.
Unit 5 Test
Narrator: 7. Listen to Tom talking about a nasty experience he had and choose True or False.
Teenage boy: When I was eleven years old, I had an accident. I get scared even now when I think about it. I went ice-skating near my house. There were a lot of people, and I saw some of them were falling over on the ice. It was the first time that I'd gone ice skating, so I was nervous and I wasn't sure how to skate.
I went with a friend who was very good at it, and he spent some time teaching me, but I didn't make much progress. I think he got fed up with me, so he left and went off skating by himself. As soon as he left, I fell over. I envied all the other people I could see - they all seemed to skate so well. In the end I got bored because I kept falling over, so I took off my skates and just walked around on the ice in my shoes. It was cold and my hands were frozen.
Suddenly, I stepped on something that wasn't hard. What was it? It was a weak place in the ice! When I stepped on it, the ice broke and I fell in - I sank under the ice. I thought that I was going to die and started to panic, but I did my best to grab the edge of the ice and tried to pull myself out, but it was very difficult for an eleven-year-old.
This seemed to go on for a very long time. I struggled and struggled but couldn't get out. I was getting very frightened. Then, fortunately, a man came to help me. He grabbed my arms and pulled me up out of the water onto the ice. So I'm still alive today, but even now, whenever I think about that time, I feel uncomfortable. And I don't want to go skating again.
Unit 6 Test
NARRATOR: 7. Listen to the radio programme about inventors and complete the chart.
[Radio show jingle]
Voice 1: Hello and welcome to `Fact or Fiction'. Do you think all inventors are crazy old men with long, white hair and beards? If you do, you're wrong. Just listen to these facts and figures.
Voice 2: First, let's take the adding machine or calculator. Well, this was invented by a French boy called Blaise Pascal, way back in the year 1642. He was only 19 at the time.
Voice 3: Yes, and how about this? Today Braille is the standard form of reading and writing used by blind people in virtually every language in the world. Louis Braille invented it in 1824. How old was he? He was 15.
Voice 1: Amazing. But he's not the only 15-year-old inventor. When he was 15 and working as a telegraph operator, Thomas Edison made his first important invention - a telegraphic repeating instrument. That was in 1862. He went on, of course, to invent the electric light bulb.
Voice 2: Not many people have heard of Philo Farnsworth. He was an American boy of only 14, who, in 1920, realized that an electron beam could scan a picture in horizontal lines and reproduce the image almost straightaway. He went on to develop this idea and some say that he was the person who invented television.
Voice 3: Let's finish with our youngest and most recent inventor, Taylor Hernandez. At the age of only 10, yes, 10, Taylor invented `Magic Sponge Blocks' in 2005. These are soft bricks. They're magic because you can build them up high, but if they fall, they can't hurt anyone, not even children, because they're soft. Isn't that brilliant?
Voice 1: Wow, all that inspiration out there! What will we hear of next?Inspiration Level 3, Unit 7
NARRATOR: 7. Listen to this rescue story and answer the questions.
female
narrator: My friend Steve works as a mountain rescuer. One night he was woken up to help in the search for an eight-year-old girl who had become separated from her parents that day during a walk in the mountains. Steve was told to meet a policeman at the girl's home nearby, so that they could get in and find items of dirty clothing worn by the girl for the dogs to track her. They also wanted to find photos of her for the searchers.
So Steve broke a window and climbed into the house, then quickly reappeared with some clothes and a photo. He showed the policeman the framed photograph of the lost girl, her arms around her trusting pet dog. A father himself, Steve could only imagine how terrified she must be, and he prayed for her safety. He put a flashing light on top of his car, so that he could legally speed, and raced into the night.
The search scene was chaotic, with a large group of people assembled to find the girl before sunrise at any cost. The temperature was already minus 40 degrees, and as she was only dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, everyone knew she was unlikely to survive a night in the open. Steve's photo was eagerly passed from hand to hand.
Finally the photo came to the girl's father. He stared at it for almost a minute, moving it this way and that to get a better view of it in the car lights. Finally Steve approached and directed his own car lights on the photo. The horrible truth finally hit the father, and he gasped, `This isn't my daughter! We don't even have a dog!'
Steve was horrified. He thought he and the policeman had broken into the wrong house! Why hadn't he double-checked the address, or the name on the letterbox? He felt more and more miserable as he thought how he had completely failed in his part of the rescue.
At that moment the girl's mother arrived, and soon the whole rescue team burst into laughter. She explained that she had just bought the photo frame the week before and they had not yet replaced the original advertising photo in it with one of their own. If Steve had looked carefully, he would have seen the price tag still on the glass! He and the policeman had broken into the right house after all.
The rescue had a happy ending, as the girl was found a few hours later, cold and frightened, but uninjured. Steve had never felt so glad.
Unit 8
NARRATOR: 7. Listen to three people talking about their favourite countries. Tick the ten things they mention.
Speaker 1 (male)
What's my favourite place? Well, that's a really difficult question! So many countries are fantastic in different ways. But I think my favourite country is Italy. It's got the most wonderful mountains, coast, beaches and lakes. Its towns are fabulous - everywhere has lots of history and, of course, there are delicious things to eat. The people are so lively and friendly, too. I love it. Unfortunately, though, some of the towns are very big with lots of factories, as Italy makes things like cars, shoes and canned food products. Those towns aren't much fun to visit.
Speaker 2 (female)
Hong Kong is my favourite country and it is a very interesting place - such a mixture! On one hand you have a huge, very modern, crowded, busy town, a beautiful harbour and rocky coast, then on the other, lots of green, mountainous countryside where very few people live. The weather is quite tropical, which means it can get very hot and sticky, and it really does rain a lot. It's quite polluted though, which is a problem.
Speaker 3 (male)
Visit Argentina if you get a chance. That's my favourite country and you'll just love it, too. Everyone says that Argentineans are really friendly, and it's true! Of course, there is fantastic music and dancing as well, especially the tango. The country itself is wonderful if you love the great outdoors - huge prairies, mountain ranges, waterfalls and in the south, glaciers. My favourite food was the beef. I've never eaten such good beef before. It's just so fresh and natural. It has a different taste to beef in other countries. You need to choose the right time of year to go, though, as it can get quite cold in some places and much too hot in others.
Review Test 1 (Units 1 - 4)
NARRATOR: 2. Listen and choose the correct answer, A, B or C.
Narrator 1
Boy: It's really useful. I didn't like wearing it at first because it's a bit hot and looks stupid. But you can go really fast with it on because it makes you feel safer.
Narrator 2
Girl: It's absolutely impossible. I refuse to do it. And if he talks to me like that again, there really will be trouble. Why can't he understand what I want?
Narrator 3
Man: She's really good with words. That helps a lot as she is really good at explaining how to do things. Then if you do something wrong, she is so patient and explains how to do it again. She's great.
Narrator 4
Man: I was on the edge of my seat all the time. I couldn't keep still. It was so exciting.
Woman: Yes, even the normal boring bits like the fights and the car scenes were different. I really wanted to know what would happen next. It was fantastic.
Narrator 5
Woman: No, don't listen to him. Take no notice. He'll go away.
Man: You mustn't look him in the eye. Keep looking down - that's what you need to do.
Narrator 6
Man 1: Oh, isn't it fantastic? I just love it.
Man 2: It could be a bit dangerous.
Man 1: No, not if you're careful. You just need to keep your eyes open to make sure there are no other boats near you. I've been doing this for ten years now, and never had an accident, touch wood! It's really exciting if you like the sea.
Narrator 7
Child 1: How do you eat this? It's really difficult. It keeps falling off my fork.
Child 2: Just put your fork in the middle and turn it, then put it all quickly in your mouth. Use your spoon if it's difficult. Whoops, no, not like that… (laughter).
Narrator 8
Woman: It started as soon as I opened it. I suddenly heard this noise and I knew something was wrong. Then the next second, the screen froze and I couldn't do anything. It was awful. Anyway, I've lost all my work now. I've got to start all over again.
Narrator 9
Man: Did you see what Elizabeth was wearing at the fancy dress party? I didn't recognise her! She was wearing a long curly wig. She looked fantastic.
Narrator 10
Woman 1: I really will miss you. You've been such a good friend.
Woman 2: And it's so far away. But I'll try to come back and see you every year.
Woman 1: Bye bye then, my dear, write me lots of emails and …
Review Test 2 (Units 1 - 8)
NARRATOR: 2. Listen and choose the correct answer, A, B or C.
Narrator 1
Teenage Boy: Yes, I much prefer it. You go faster and you can do fantastic jumps. It's easier to travel around with a board too, and to put it on and take it off. But you do have more control with skiing - that's true.
Narrator 2
Teenage Boy: Yeah, they had a war there, but it's over now. Everything's peaceful, and people are just living their lives. Things are going well, actually - the economy, I mean, and tourism is developing fast. I think it's one of the most interesting countries in southeast Asia.
Narrator 3
Teenage Girl: I am learning how to do it at school. It's really interesting. I want to be able to communicate with my cousin who's deaf. Watch - can you work out what I'm saying?
Narrator 4
Assistant: What size do you want?
Man: Medium, please. It's for me. I'd like a black one that's really warm. I want it to keep me warm on my boat. Actually, have you got any that are black and yellow? Something bright is good for getting attention if you have an accident or something.
Assistant: We've got these three here, sir. Would you like to try them on?
Narrator 5
Woman: Then it just stopped. I don't know why. I pressed a button and everything went quiet. Anyway, I was so pleased because the noise was driving everyone crazy. It was quite embarrassing really.
Narrator 6
Man: Oh, it was fantastic. It was just huge. I've never seen anything so big.
Woman: Yeah, but what I liked best was swimming and standing under it. The water was so strong, but lovely and fresh and cool.
Man: Yeah, a perfect thing to do on such a hot day.
Narrator 7
Teenage Girl: You can't really enjoy them. You must be mad!
Teenage Boy: No, I'm not. They're just so exciting and powerful.
Teenage Girl: But they're also really scary and they can destroy things. They're dangerous, you know.
Teenage Boy: You need to be careful, it's true. But you can actually see them growing bigger and bigger as you follow them in your car.
Teenage Girl: If one picks you up and throws you into a tree or a car or a house or
something one day, you might change your mind…
Narrator 8
Man: It's really painful. I've had it for a few days. I wasn't worried about it, but this morning I couldn't eat and now it's even difficult to speak. I've tried aspirin, but they don't work.
Narrator 9
Teenage Boy: I think it's OK. Yes, it's the right size. I'll just put it in. British designs for these things are a bit strange. Look, could you give me that other one over there, and I'll try that. There you go, yes, that's fine.
Narrator 10
Teenage Boy: What was she like?
Man: She was OK, I suppose. I mean she knew quite a lot about her subject but she really wasn't very good with people. She seemed unfriendly, and sometimes I'm afraid, she was a bit rude and upset people.
Tapescript Inspiration 3
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