Part 1. You will hear a conversation between a young woman and the organiser of an international social club she wants to join.

Hello, come in and take a seat. How can I help you? — Well, I'd quite like to join this international social club. — Yes, no problem. Let me just get the form up on my screen. The first thing we need is your name. — Jenny Foo. That's F-double-O (Example). — And how long have you been here in Australia? — I arrived just last month. — Where are you from originally? — I'm from Kuala Lumpur, that's where I was born and brought up. — 1So, you're Malaysian, are you? — That's right, though I lived in the United States for a couple of years when I was a teenager.

Can you tell me your current address, please? — Sure. Just at the moment, I'm lodging with a family at 213 Anglesea Road in Bondi... It's spelled A-N-G-L-E-S-E-A. — I guess you must have a cell phone number you can give me? — Yes, it's a new one, so I haven't learned the number yet. Ah, here it is: 3it's 040 4229160.

Can you tell me what you do — are you working or studying? — Well, at the moment I'm doing a temporary job with a company here in Sydney. 4I'm an economist, in fact. — Now, it would be good to know a bit about your free-time interests as well. — Well, I'm quite musical, and I really enjoy singing. Back home I sang with a band, just for fun. But for me, 5what I like best is dancing — you know, the modern sort.

So, how are you getting on here? Your level of English is better than most, and you've got a really nice American accent, so I don't suppose you have any communication problems in the office. 6Though you might find some of our Australian slang more difficult to understand (A — understanding local people). — Well, a bit.

Could you tell me a bit about the International Club? — Sure. 7We've got currently about 50 members (B), but people join all the time. Last year we had 30 members, and I reckon next year we'll have about 80 (30 va 80 — tuzoq). — And does the club hold regular meetings? — Yes, 8every second Thursday evening, in fact — so a couple of times a month (B — once every two weeks).

And what happens when the club meets? — 9The usual thing is for one of the members to give a little presentation about where they're from, their customs and so on (C — a talk). But from time to time they do other things — outings, meeting up to eat in a restaurant, or a concert. — And the members aren't just people from other countries? — No, not at all. 10The main point of the club is to give people like you the chance to mix in more with people from this country (C — meet Australians). You'll find us very friendly.

Part 2. You will hear the leader of a college camping club talking to members about a cycling holiday they are going to have together.

Right, let me bring you up to date with arrangements for our cycling tour next month. First of all, there's the question of tents. The original idea was that I'd arranged to borrow some tents that belong to the college, but it turns out the mountaineering club will be using them at the same time. 11So I'm afraid you'll have to bring your own (A — hamma a'zolar). So could you let me know whether you'll be using a single tent or sharing, please? 12I'll need to know how many tents there'll be for when I make the reservation at the various campsites (C — tashkilotchi).

Last time, some of you said you'd like to hire bikes and pick them up when we arrive. Well, I've inquired about bike hire in Westbury, and unfortunately there aren't any shops that hire them out. 13So I'm afraid it means taking your own (A). 14I'll book them on the train when I book the train tickets (C) — which reminds me, I'll need to know the final number of people going so I can get a group discount on the train fare.

Something else that'll need to be booked is tickets for the football match we discussed last time. I've inquired about availability and there are only a few seats left. 15So anyone who wants to go will need to get tickets very soon (B — xohlaganlar o'zi oladi), ideally today or tomorrow. 16At our next meeting, I'll be able to give you all individual packs with the final programme and something about the area we'll be cycling through (C) — I'm afraid I haven't had time to do that yet.

Now I'll tell you briefly about some of the attractions in the places we'll be staying at. We'll be taking the train to Westbury, which has one or two very good restaurants. 17One thing that's definitely worth visiting there is the site where the original town was constructed nearly 1,000 years ago. There's not much of the original buildings left... the site is being excavated (G — old ruins).

Our next overnight stop will be in the village of Cluny. 18There are several old barns here that have been converted into a museum showing the importance of sheep in the area over the centuries... plenty of photographs showing how agricultural workers used to live (C — farming museum).

From there we'll go on to Pennerley. Pennerley is famous for its museum of village life, but that's being refurbished at the moment. 19But there's an open-air farmers' market every day selling fruits, vegetables, cheese and meat, all grown or processed within a few miles of the town and sold by the farmers themselves (A — locally produced food).

20In Farlow, one of the oldest towns in the area, there's a museum that shows how horses used to be the most common way of travelling around, and how they were gradually replaced by steam trains and later, of course, diesel and electric trains, buses, cars and bicycles (E — transport museum).

Part 3. You will hear a conversation between a female student called Karen and her course tutor.

Karen, hi, come in. I wanted to talk to you about this assignment. There are several things I wanted to run over — pointers for next time. The first thing is your literature discussion was a bit thin, so I'd like to see your book reports with the next assignment. And I found some errors, just small ones, where you had quoted people but not recorded the information properly at the end. 21Don't forget to go through and make sure that your references are accurate — they just need tidying up. — Yes, I'll remember to check that. — Now, you make some good points, but 22it might be helpful if you could include a few extra examples just to really hammer the point home.

Can I talk to you about this presentation I've got to do? Am I doing it next term? — Well, the thing is, Marco couldn't do it, so 23you agreed to do it at the next seminar, didn't you? — What should I focus on? — You have very little time, really, so 24it's absolutely essential for you to explain the experiment. Of course you'll have a summary in the handouts, but you need to go through it carefully in the presentation. — And do I have to give you the abstract first? — Yes, I do need to see it first. The printouts need to be done by the 3rd of December, so 25I'll need to see it by the 26th of November.

Oh, and I need to talk to you about where it will be. We've had problems with the rooms, because we'll need something bigger than usual. In our faculty the only room free is the computer room, which is far from suitable, so 26we'll have to go across the road and do it in the chemistry lab — they've got all the proper overhead equipment in there as well. — And I get a grade for this, don't I? — Yes, your first one is graded by your tutor, but 27this one will be assessed by the professor.

Oh, and I've sorted out my modules for next year. It was really difficult to decide. I've already done the data collection one, so that wasn't really a choice (D emas). I couldn't make up my mind between language and society and communication skills. 28Anyway, I went for communication skills in the end, because I know the lecturer (C). Actually, social interaction seems to cover much the same ground, so I didn't bother with that either (E emas). 29I thought discourse analysis looked really interesting, and in fact they cover a little bit of research methodology in it, so I thought I'd do that (F) — kill two birds with one stone. 30And then I fancied something completely different, so I thought psycholinguistics would be interesting (A). Unless you think it'll be more worthwhile for me to do the phonology course? — No, I think you've made sensible choices.

Part 4. You will hear a talk given by a specialist at a zoo about the implications of the extinction of species.

Good afternoon. From my work as curator at the Brisbane Zoo, it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that the animal world is a highly endangered one, and a great deal of this is due to human activity. You may have read about the orange-bellied parrot colonies in South Australia, under threat from wind farms. A further example is provided by the expansion of our cities: 31here in Australia, many species of frog are losing their habitat as a direct result of this urban development. What's more, thanks to the increasing use of pesticides, fewer insects are surviving. Many species depend upon these as a food source — 32birds in particular, and so their numbers are declining as well. In fact, when our farmers choose to grow large amounts of one staple crop each year — 33corn is a perfect example — this often results in the greater need for chemicals and fertilisers, which has a devastating effect on local wildlife.

Clearly, something needs to be done about this. However, very little can be achieved without full public support, and our general attitude is not always a positive one. Of course, it is easy to get people interested in animals such as the panda: 34thanks to the attention it is given in the media, people are very aware of its plight and are willing to give a great deal of support. 35However, it is not so easy to attract sympathy for those essential smaller species such as insects — they may seem insignificant, but these tiny creatures have an enormous effect on our ecosystem.

There are certain animals that we would prefer to simply ignore, for various reasons. 36Firstly, we might do this because of fear — that is the normal reaction when people see a shark or a snake, for example. 37Another reason might be that we believe that certain animals are rivals when it comes to food — locusts and even mice could come into this category. Then there are animals that we view with disgust because of how they look or feel — the many different parasites, for example.

I would argue that there are several reasons to be concerned about the extinction of any species. Each species helps us to understand more about how our ecosystem works. 38We now know that the more complex the ecosystem is, the more stable it is. 39We've also begun to realise that the presence or absence of certain plants can alert us to changes in our environment — one type of plant might indicate rich mineral deposits, another might alert us to toxic water. Even seemingly insignificant species can be beneficial to us, especially in medicine. Not many people know that spiders are also being used in medicine: 40the cobwebs they make can be used to assist with certain blood disorders — it actually helps blood to clot. Perhaps in the end, it is our self-interest that will save the animals.