Listening Practice Test 6

SECTION 1 Woman: Hello? Man: Hi, is that Hannah? I'm calling about the room you've advertised on the flatshare website. Woman: Yes, that's me. Great, thanks for calling. Can I take your name first? Man: Yes, it's Ethan Price. Woman: Thanks, Ethan. So the room's on the second floor of the house, it's the double room at the back, overlooking the garden. Man: Sounds nice. Could you tell me a bit more about the rent? Woman: Sure, it's six hundred and twenty pounds a month, and that includes all the bills — gas, electricity, water and the internet. Man: Oh, that's helpful, saves working it all out separately. And is there a deposit? Woman: Yes, we ask for a deposit of one month's rent, so that would be six hundred and twenty pounds as well, held in a deposit protection scheme. Man: That's fine. When would the room be available from? Woman: The current tenant's moving out at the end of the month, so it would be free from the first of November. Man: That works well for me actually, I'm hoping to move around then anyway. Woman: Great. Now, we do ask anyone interested to come and view the room first, obviously. Would you be free this Thursday at six in the evening? Man: Thursday at six should be fine, yes. Woman: Lovely, I'll pencil that in. When you come, could you bring some form of photo ID, just so we know who we're letting into the house? Man: No problem, I'll bring my passport. Woman: Perfect. And one more thing — if you do decide to go ahead after the viewing, we'll need a reference from your employer confirming your income, just as part of the standard checks. Man: That's fine, I can get that from HR. Woman: Great, well I look forward to meeting you on Thursday then. Man: Thanks very much, see you then. SECTION 2 Woman: Welcome everyone to Meridian Tech, and congratulations on joining us. My name's Naomi and I'm going to give you a quick tour of the building before you head to your desks. So, starting on the ground floor, that's where reception is, along with the visitor waiting area, and just beside reception is the staff canteen, which is open to everyone from seven in the morning. Heading up to the first floor, that's where the IT support desk is based, so if you ever have a laptop or login problem, that's where you go, and next to IT is the print and stationery room. On the second floor, you'll find most of the open-plan desks for the marketing and sales teams, and tucked in the corner of that floor is a quiet room, which is meant for focused work or private calls, so please keep noise to a minimum if you use it. And finally, the third floor is where the meeting rooms are, along with a small rooftop terrace that staff can use during breaks, weather permitting. Now, a few practical points to cover. Standard working hours here are nine to five thirty, Monday to Friday, though we do offer some flexibility around start times if you clear it with your manager first. Every new starter goes through a probation period of three months, at the end of which you'll have a formal review with your line manager. In terms of IT, you'll be issued with a laptop on your first day, but you'll need to set up your company email account yourself using the instructions in your welcome pack. For lunch, the canteen offers a discounted staff menu, but you're also welcome to bring your own food and eat it in the canteen or the rooftop terrace. Regarding dress code, we operate what's called smart casual on most days, though on Fridays it's a little more relaxed, and jeans are fine. If you're driving in, staff parking is available, but only on a first come, first served basis, so it's not guaranteed. Finally, if you ever need to book a meeting room on the third floor, that has to be done through the online booking system rather than just turning up, since rooms do get busy. SECTION 3 Tutor: Come in. So, tell me how the fast-food survey project is shaping up. Leo: Good, I think. We've decided to focus on the frequency of fast-food consumption and the reasons behind it, rather than just cataloguing nutritional content. Tutor: That's a good angle, it'll let you say more about behaviour. Just a reminder, the report has to be exactly two thousand five hundred words, and that's a strict limit even for the results section. Grace: Understood. Actually, I wanted to suggest we run a couple of focus groups alongside the survey, rather than relying purely on the questionnaire responses. Tutor: Why do you think that's worth the extra time? Grace: It would give us richer, more detailed reasons behind the numbers, rather than just percentages. Tutor: Fair point, that would definitely strengthen the discussion section if you can organise it. Amara: I can help arrange the focus groups this week, I know a couple of local sixth-form teachers who might let us in. Leo: Great. For my part, I've been reading around the existing research on fast-food advertising aimed at teenagers, and that's honestly the part I find most interesting. Tutor: Good, that fits with what you're planning to write. How are you splitting the sections? Amara: I'll take the literature review, since I've already read most of the key studies. Leo: And I'll cover the advertising and marketing angle, as I said. Grace: I'll handle the survey design and data collection, including the focus groups. Tutor: And the final recommendations? Amara: We thought all three of us should write that together, since it needs to draw on everyone's findings. Tutor: That makes sense. When's the draft due? Grace: Two weeks on Monday, so we've got a bit more time than usual. Tutor: Good, that should be enough. One more thing — for the background statistics, I'd strongly recommend using the national public health survey data as your main source, rather than social media polls, since it will be far more representative. Leo: We'll make sure to include that, thanks, that's really helpful. Tutor: No problem, good luck with it, I'll see you all in two weeks. SECTION 4 Lecturer: Today I want to look at how children acquire language, and in particular, what happens when they're raised with more than one language from birth. For decades, there was a common assumption that learning two languages simultaneously would confuse children and delay their overall language development. However, more recent research has largely overturned this view. Studies now show that bilingual children typically reach major language milestones, such as producing their first words, at broadly the same age as monolingual children, though their vocabulary in each individual language may initially appear smaller when measured separately. Researchers use the term code-switching to describe the practice of moving between two languages within a single conversation, or even within a single sentence, and this is now understood as a normal and often sophisticated feature of bilingual communication, rather than a sign of confusion. One particularly influential concept in this field is the critical period hypothesis, which proposes that there is a limited window, roughly up to puberty, during which language acquisition happens most naturally and effortlessly. After this window closes, learning a new language to native-like fluency becomes considerably more difficult, though by no means impossible. A study led by Professor Elena Vasquez followed a group of bilingual children over a period of eight years, tracking their cognitive development alongside their language skills. Her team found that bilingual children performed notably better on tasks requiring what's called executive function — the mental skills involved in switching attention between tasks and ignoring irrelevant information. This is thought to result from the constant practice bilingual speakers get in managing two language systems and suppressing one while using the other. Interestingly, this cognitive advantage appears to persist into old age, with some research suggesting that lifelong bilingualism may delay the onset of certain forms of dementia by several years. Looking forward, researchers are now increasingly interested in children raised with three or more languages, since almost all existing research to date has focused specifically on bilingual rather than multilingual development.