Part 1

You will hear a number of different recordings, and you will have to answer questions on what you hear. There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions, and you will have a chance to check your work. All the recordings will be played once only.

The test is in four parts. Write all your answers in the listening question booklet. At the end of the test, you will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet.

Now turn to part one on page two of your question booklet. Part one. You will hear a conversation between an assistant in a post office and a customer who needs to send a package overseas.

First you have some time to look at questions one to eight. Now listen carefully and answer questions one to eight. Hello, can I help you? Yes, I'd like to send this package to the USA urgently, but I'm not sure what the best way of sending it is.

Well, first of all, when does it need to get there? Well, it's Tuesday today. It's absolutely got to be there by Friday. Ideally I'd like it to be there by Thursday, but I realise that might be difficult.

OK, well, there's courier post, but that takes four working days, so that would be next Monday. Or a slightly more expensive service called International Express, which will get there in three working days. OK, I'll use that then.

It's really got to be there as quickly as possible. OK, can I just take some details from you for the form? First of all, what's your name? Peter White. And your address? 14 Mountain Road.

And where's that? That's in Lakeview. OK, now who are you sending the package to? Anna Hillman. That's H-I-double-L-M-A-N.

And what's the address? Apartment 228, North Building. OK. Upper Park Avenue.

And what city is that in? New York. Now, I need a description of the contents of the package, just so Customs know what's being sent. I'm sending books.

How many are you sending? I need to give the number. There are six in total. Right.

And is there anything else in the package? Yes, some photographs. OK. Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions nine and ten.

Now listen and answer questions nine and ten. Now, would you like to ensure the contents? It might be a good idea. All right.

Now, can we just weigh the package and I'll tell you how much it's going to cost? Here you are. That's heavy. It's just over four kilos, so let's see.

That's going to be $98 all together. Will I be able to get a receipt with that? Yes, of course. Now, if the package gets lost, you should contact us as soon as possible.

It's very unusual for anything to go missing, but just in case, your receipt has an ID code on it, which we will need to be able to trace the package. Right. So will I also need to bring in the receipt and the delivery form to you if it does get lost? No, you can just give us a call with the ID code.

OK? Now, is there anything else I can help you with? No, that's all. Thanks for your help. That is the end of part one.

You now have one minute to check your answers to part one.

Part 2

Part two. You will hear a man called Rob Schaefer, who is the general manager of a new hotel, talking about the hotel to members of the public on the opening day.

First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15. Well, let's get started.

I want to thank you all for coming along to the opening of the Montana Resort Hotel. My name's Rob Schaefer and I'm the general manager here. We're very glad so many of you have come along to see the beautiful facilities we have here at the hotel.

We feel we're exceptionally located, convenient for the city, but far enough from the flight path to and from the airport, so that guests won't be disturbed and will be able to recharge their batteries in these uniquely peaceful surroundings. Firstly, the guest rooms. What we call the standard rooms are about 80 square feet.

Very spacious. These come with one king size bed or with two double beds and a refrigerator. And as far as price goes, they go up to $210 per room.

But at the lower end of the range, you can get one for just $145. So these are very suitable for our more price conscious guests. Then there are deluxe suites.

These have a separate living room, as well as the bedroom. The bedrooms are slightly larger than the standard rooms, with huge windows, and each one has a balcony where you can sit out and enjoy the views, either of the golf course or the mountains, depending which way the room is facing. We welcome families at the hotel.

Extra beds for your room can be provided for young children at no extra cost. And that's true even in the summer. Also, we have some rooms that adjoin one another with a door connecting them.

We expect that these will attract parents who want to be able to check that their children are safe easily. All our guests can benefit from the fine dining opportunities in the hotel. In the grill room, guests can watch the flames fly as food is sizzled by the restaurant's master chefs, while the Pantheon restaurant has facilities for intimate dining or large dinners and a live jazz band that spices up the evenings from Thursday to Saturday.

Finally, the Montana Café is open 24-7 for anything from a coffee or a sandwich to a more substantial meal. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.

Now let's have a look at our outdoor facilities. So here at the main entrance to the hotel, we're looking north, straight down Peak Road. You'll see a few horses in the nearby field, and the first building on our right is the barn where the horses are kept.

We have 12 of them, and they've all been trained here so they know the terrain. Beyond that, you can just see the lake. The road bends around past that, and just on that corner between the road and the lakeside, there are a couple of tennis courts.

It's a beautiful setting for a game, I'm sure you'll agree. Then looking on the left side of Peak Road, there's a road that leads off it that's called Valley Avenue, and on this side of Valley Avenue, just past that patch of trees, there's a building with a flat roof, and that's our Olympic-size swimming pool. This has 12 lanes, and there's also a baby pool for children.

The Montana Golf Course is the jewel of our outdoor facilities, though. You can see part of it on the far side of Valley Avenue, and it spreads off west for a pretty long way. It's an 18-hole course with beautiful landscaping.

We expect lots of golfers to stay, and one of our aims is to host a professional golf tournament. The last building I want to point out is the office of the Outdoor Facilities Manager. It's in its own building, just opposite where Valley Avenue turns off on Peak Road.

Okay, so if you'd like to follow me... That is the end of Part 2. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to Part 2.

Part 3

Part 3 You will hear a discussion between a student called Mike and his tutor about Mike's proposed project on oral history. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 25. Now, listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.

Thanks, Mike, for dropping by. I've read the proposal for your project, which is an oral history of the local football team, particularly the time around 1983 when they won the league championship. But first, how do you define oral history? Well, in fact, I used the definition you gave us last year in our research methodology class.

I found the handout in my file. The definition says that oral histories are planned interviews or conversations about some aspect of the past which is considered historically or socially important. The interviews are with people who took part in whatever it's about, so there'll be a record which historians can use later for all those academic articles they write.

And although history textbooks are mostly about famous people and important events, oral history can be about ordinary people doing ordinary things. Oral history really seems to have started in the States. You're right.

In fact, the first modern oral history interviews were done by a historian in New York. By that time, audio technology had improved so much that it was fairly easy to record those interviews. I was also interested in how the internet has contributed to oral history studies.

Yes, it means that lots of people can access the material, and that's great. Also, the interactive nature of the better websites means that more students get interested in oral history. But from what I've read, the real contribution of the internet is that the recording of the interviews will be preserved forever.

In the old days, the tapes would just wear out, and after some years you couldn't really use them, but not now. You're right, of course. Anyhow, let's move on to the subject of your project.

Why did you decide to study a sports team? Well, actually, I don't even like football very much, and some of my friends think I'm crazy to go for that subject, but my dad is a huge fan and he might be able to help me. And how did you find out background about the team? You talked to the team manager, I assume? Yes, I did manage to track him down. And I looked at all the old news stories about the team in the town newspaper office.

That was where I got the most helpful information. I had high hopes that the local library would have lots of stuff, but they don't keep many records for more than 10 years. I know that you managed to locate 10 of the original 18 members of the team using an old-fashioned method, didn't you? Not a website or anything, just the telephone directory.

Yes, I didn't even need to use the local team's records. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 26 to 30.

OK, now I've read your proposal carefully. Overall, your plans seem excellent, but I want to discuss how you might improve them. Great.

I've read through the list of questions you've drafted. I felt most of them are rather complex to be processed as oral questions. You don't have too many, which is good, but you should try to do something about that problem.

Right. I'll work on them. And the time you've allotted for each interview.

Actually, I think you may have scheduled too much time for each. You want them to be tight, not going on and on. That makes for better results.

I can change the schedule. One thing I'm nervous about is the recording equipment I use. I've got an old recorder.

It runs without making too much noise and it isn't complicated, but it sometimes just doesn't seem to work. It stopped during an interview I tried out with my dad. Well, the important thing is just be ready if anything happens.

Take some spare batteries or even an extra recorder. Now, I'm a little concerned with the subjects you've chosen to cover. The topics seem quite general, not very specific.

For example, why did they like playing for this team? You need to talk about more exact things and feelings. That way your results will be more valuable. I'll try to refine them.

And, you know, the plan for my report seems to be just to report back more or less what the players say, what happened, when, what they each did and so on. But I'm not sure about that. Yes.

Although your outline seems long enough, change it to indicate that you plan to include your own evaluation of the data you get from your interviewees. Anyhow, best of luck on your project. I look forward to seeing the results.

Thanks for your help. And that is the end of part three. You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to part three.

Part 4

Part four. You will hear a lecturer talking to a group of biology students about recent plant studies. First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40. Good morning, everyone. In the last few weeks, we looked at ways in which different types of animals use their senses.

And today, I'm going to introduce the topic of plant behaviour. And we'll look at the reasons why ideas about plants have been changing in the last few years. So, up until fairly recently, plants' lack of eyes or ears or noses or mouths made them less interesting to many members of the public compared to animal species.

And even by scientists, they were generally regarded as organisms which were essentially passive. However, in the last 20 years or so, evidence has started to emerge that plants can sense their surroundings in quite sophisticated ways. But because scientific attitudes towards plants and their capabilities had been fixed for such a long time, this evidence has been met with some disbelief.

So, let's look at some of these recent findings that are starting to change the way some scientists view plant life. It all began with a Canadian study that looked at a species of plant known as the Great Lakes Sea Rocket. This is a wild plant which grows on beaches.

In appearance, it's perfectly ordinary, with little purple flowers and a long stalk. But actually, the plant is far from ordinary. Normally, when the Sea Rocket detects other plants growing nearby, it quickly grows additional roots.

This is so it can compete with these other plants for the available nutrients in the soil, by soaking up as many of them as possible. But scientists found that the Sea Rocket doesn't do that when the surrounding plants are related to it. And as even animals sometimes find this type of recognition difficult, such a finding was very unexpected.

It was an ability that was previously unheard of in any other plant. Since then, it's been suggested that two other plants may have a similar ability. These are sagebrush and thorn apple.

It's been claimed that these plants can recognise the characteristics of their neighbours by sensing properties of the light that is reflected from them. The reason they are able to do this is that all plant species are slightly different to each other in this respect. So, each plant species has what you could call its own signature.

Sagebrush and thorn apple are able to recognise these. But scientists point out that this behaviour is very different to the way that animals sense things. Another type of plant which can sense things in its surroundings is the dodder plant.

This plant is different to most other species because it doesn't have the ability to make sugar by converting nutrients from the soil. This means that as soon as the dodder has sprouted from a seed, it needs to find another plant in order to survive. In other words, it's a parasite.

Dodders infest a variety of food crops around the world, as they wrap themselves like string around their target plants and the effect can be devastating for farmers. It's particularly damaging to alfalfa, as well as to potatoes and different varieties of citrus. At first, scientists were puzzled as to how the dodder knows which plants to prey on.

But now they've found that the plant can identify a suitable host by sensing the chemicals that other plants release into the soil and air. What really surprised researchers was how extremely quickly and accurately the dodder identifies a possible host. They used time-lapse videos to study the mechanism and saw from these that when the dodder is trying to check out its environment, it rotates in a circle and then, without touching any other plants, it heads directly towards its selected host.

It could sense reliably which type of plant it would grow best on. Scientists who were working on the project reported that the dodder sprout resembled a worm as it moved towards the other plant. Well, those are some examples of the new discoveries about plant characteristics.

So, which direction is plant science likely to go in next? Many of the phenomena related to plant behavior that I've just described are now quite easy to observe using up-to-date equipment. So, gradually, scientists are accepting the fact that plants are more capable than we used to believe. But although such plant behavior is often obvious, to some scientists... you