IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-01-07

**Narrator:** Now turn to section one. You will hear a woman asking about membership of a society. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 4. Now the test will begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 4.
**Margaret:** Hi, I'd like some information about joining the International Arts Society.
**Staff:** That's no problem. What exactly can I help you with?
**Margaret:** First of all, I'd like to know about the membership fee.
**Staff:** Well, there are two types of membership.
**Margaret:** Can you tell me what they are?
**Staff:** First, there is lifetime membership, which means that you can have access to all the facilities at the society itself and all exhibitions. Plus, you can have discounts to various events and affiliated arts organizations here and abroad. And on top of that, you can use the lifetime members room.
**Margaret:** How much is that type of membership?
**Staff:** Well, the lifetime membership fee is £1,537.
**Margaret:** Okay. It's rather a lot to pay in one go. What about the other membership?
**Staff:** The ordinary membership? That's £193 per year.
**Margaret:** That sounds a bit more reasonable. Um, what does that entitle you to?
**Staff:** You can visit the society, including the exhibitions, the library, and follow the arts programs on weekdays during the opening times from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And at the weekend between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. On Saturday, if there's a special event like a lecture or restricted showing of an exhibition, then it opens until 9:00 p.m.
**Margaret:** So, what is the difference between this and the lifetime membership?
**Staff:** In the long run, you save money as you're making a one-off payment and you have exclusive use of the lifetime members room.
**Margaret:** Okay. Um, what arts programs do you run?
**Staff:** Well, the society has a very extensive program to cater for all tastes. There's a series of exhibition rooms for the permanent collection of paintings, watercolors, and sculpture. And then there's a new exhibition area which opened at the beginning of the year. And we run a series of courses and lectures to go with the exhibitions.
**Margaret:** Can I ask about the lectures? What is scheduled for this year?
**Staff:** The latest list is in this leaflet.
**Margaret:** Oh, yes. That looks very good. Are all the exhibitions etc. free if I join?
**Staff:** Yes, everything is free.
**Margaret:** That's fair enough. I think in that case I'll join.
**Narrator:** Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 5 to 10. Now listen and answer questions 5 to 10.
**Staff:** I just need to take your name, address, and telephone number. First, your name.
**Margaret:** Margaret Rochester. I take it that's R-O-C-H-E-S-T-E-R.
**Staff:** Yes, that's it. And the address?
**Margaret:** It's 55 Stone Avenue.
**Staff:** Okay. Avenue. And the postcode?
**Margaret:** Let's see. It's MA7 4PQ.
**Staff:** And a daytime telephone number.
**Margaret:** Can I give you my work number?
**Staff:** Yeah, that's fine.
**Margaret:** It's 0207895 and the extension is 6633. Can I pay by credit card?
**Staff:** Yes, of course. Do you want to pay for the full year at one time or by monthly installments? You pay £4 extra a month if you pay by installments.
**Margaret:** Okay, I think I'll pay by monthly installments.
**Staff:** Right. If you just complete this form, then we can set up the monthly payments. Okay. If you just put your PIN number in the machine, I can deduct the first month's payment. Right, that's gone through. Here's your card. I now just need to take your photograph over here and then I can put it on your membership card.
**Margaret:** Okay.
**Staff:** That's it. I'll just print out your membership card. Right, here you are.
**Margaret:** Oh, thank you. By the way, can I bring any friends to the society exhibitions and lectures?
**Staff:** With the ordinary membership, we can issue a day pass once a fortnight, which allows you to bring a friend in, but you have to accompany them.
**Margaret:** Thank you. Can I go in now?
**Staff:** Yes, you just swipe your card here.
**Narrator:** That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn to part two.
---

**Narrator:** Part two. You will hear a local radio program about cycling courses in London. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.
**Presenter:** There's been a great deal of interest lately in encouraging people to use bicycles instead of cars as a means of transport, but not everyone is confident about riding a bike at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a city like London. Jack Hayes is a professional trainer who works for a London-based company, City Cyclist, which provides cycle training for the public. What exactly does City Cyclist do, Jack?
**Jack:** Well, our basic purpose is to promote cycling as a sustainable form of transport. We believe the best way to promote cycling is to teach people to use their bikes safely and with confidence. In European countries, people all learned from their parents and they also learned in school. And when I tell them I teach people to ride bikes, they laugh. They think it's crazy. But here in London, it's completely different. You're approaching the point where a whole generation of people have grown up not being allowed by their parents to cycle because it was considered to be getting too dangerous and so in turn they can't teach their children.
We believe in realistic training. So if someone wants to use a bike regularly, say to get to work or school, we aim to train them by teaching them to ride on the actual roads they'll use so they can develop the basic skills they need and build up their confidence that way.
At City Cyclist, we believe cycling's for everyone, no matter what age or level of ability or mobility. We do complete beginners and also advanced courses. That's for urban cyclists who want to deal with things like riding in streets with complicated intersections and things like that.
We don't promote the use of personal protective equipment for cyclists and we endorse the policy of the European Cyclists Federation that parents should be allowed to make an informed choice as to whether or not their child wears a helmet. We believe the key to safe cycling is assertiveness, taking your place on the road. This has to be instilled right from the beginning. Assertive road positioning and behavior is the key to safe cycling in congested urban environments.
Some people are surprised that we don't promote the segregation of cyclists from motorized traffic, but we don't think that's practical in all urban environments. Instead, we teach people to use as much road space as they need to travel safely and effectively.
**Narrator:** You now have some time to look at questions 15 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20.
**Jack:** Now as well as courses for individuals, City Cyclist provides a number of services for organizations. For example, we can deliver fun safe cycle training activities at schools, arranging courses so that the disruption of curriculum time is kept to a minimum.
As well as this, in order to promote safe cycling, we have provided training courses for employees and staff of local councils. And we are also increasingly looking at developing training courses in companies in order to help employers work towards green transport plans by helping to increase the number of staff cycling to work.
Right. So that's a brief summary of what we do. If any listeners would like to find out more about the organization, you can have a look at our website. That's citycyclist.co.uk. And in order to book lessons, you can either phone us on 0207562428 or do it online. There's an application form on our website and you can just download that and send it in.
We charge £27.50 per hour for one-to-one lessons plus £6 for each extra person. So you're looking at just £39.50 for a family of three. Say, if you've never been on a bike in your life before, we reckon we can get you riding in 1 hour. And for most people, a course of road training usually takes 3 hours. But whether you're a parent or a child, an individual or an institution, we'll be happy to discuss your special needs and make a program just for you.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now turn to section three.
---

**Narrator:** Section three. In this section you will hear a discussion about a system of writing for the blind known as braille. First look at questions 21 to 23. Now listen to the first part of the discussion and answer questions 21 to 23.
**Host:** And we're very pleased to welcome to our special interest group today Dr. Linda Greycar who is from the City Institute for the Blind. Linda is going to talk to us about the system of writing for the blind known as Braille. Linda, welcome.
**Linda:** Thank you.
**Host:** Now, we'd like to keep this session pretty informal and I know Linda won't mind if members of the group want to ask questions as we go along. Well, let's start with an obvious one. What is Braille and where does it get its name from?
**Linda:** Well, as you said, braille is a system of writing used by and for people who cannot see. It gets its name from the man who invented it, the Frenchman Louis Braille, who lived in the early 19th century.
**Host:** Was Louis Braille actually blind himself?
**Linda:** Well, he wasn't born blind, but he lost his sight at the age of three as the result of an accident in his father's workshop. Louis Braille then went to Paris to the National Institute for Blind Children and that's where he invented his writing system at the age of only 15 in 1824 while he was at the institute.
**Host:** But he wasn't the first person to invent a system of touch reading for the blind, was he?
**Linda:** No. Another Frenchman had already come up with the idea of printing embossed letters that stood out from the paper. But this was very cumbersome and inefficient.
**Host:** Did Louis Braille base his system on the first one?
**Linda:** No, not really. When he first went to Paris, he heard about a military system of writing using 12 dots. This was a system invented by an enterprising French army officer and it was known as night writing. It wasn't meant for the blind, but rather for battle communications at night.
**Narrator:** That must have been fun. Look at questions 24 to 30. Listen carefully and answer questions 24 to 30.
**Linda:** Anyway, Braille took this system as a starting point, but instead of using the 12 dots which night writing used, he cut the number of dots in half and developed a six dot system.
**Host:** But can you give us a little more information about how it works?
**Linda:** Well, it's a system of touch reading which uses an arrangement of raised dots called a cell. Braille numbered the dot positions 1-2-3 downward on the left and 4-5-6 downward on the right. The letters of the alphabet are then formed by using different combinations of these dots.
**Host:** Uh yes. So, is the writing system based on the alphabet with each word being individually spelled out?
**Linda:** Well, it's not quite that simple, I'm afraid. For instance, the first 10 letters of the alphabet are formed using dots 1, 2, 4 and 5. But Braille also has its own short forms for common words. For example, B for the word but and H for have. There are many other contractions like this.
**Host:** So you spell out most words letter by letter, but you use short forms for common words.
**Linda:** Yes. Though I think that makes it sound a little easier than it actually is.
**Host:** And was it immediately accepted? I mean, did it catch on straight away?
**Linda:** Well, yes and no. It was immediately accepted and used by Braille's fellow students at the school. But the system was not officially adopted until 1854, 2 years after Braille's death. So official acceptance was slow in coming.
**Host:** I suppose it works for all languages which use the Roman alphabet.
**Linda:** Yes, it does with adaptations, of course.
**Host:** Can it be written by hand or do you need a machine to produce braille?
**Linda:** Well, you can write it by hand onto paper with a device called a slate and stylus. But the trick is that you have to write backwards from right to left. So that when you turn your sheet over, the dots face upwards and can be read like English from left to right.
**Host:** Oh, I see. But these days, you'd probably use a braille writing machine, which is a lot easier.
**Host:** And tell us, Linda, is braille used in other ways other than for reading text?
**Linda:** Yes, indeed. In addition to the literary braille code, as it's known, which of course includes English and French, there are other codes. For instance, in 1965, they created a form of Braille for mathematics. I can't imagine trying to do maths in Braille.
**Host:** Yes, that does sound difficult. I agree. And there's also a version for scientific notation. Oh, and yes, I almost forgot. There is now a version for music notation as well.
**Host:** Well, thanks, Linda. That was most interesting. Now, does anyone have any last questions?
**Participant:** Yes. Roughly, how long does it take to learn to read Braille?
**Narrator:** That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answer. Now turn to section four.
---

**Narrator:** Section four. You will hear a talk on research in the Indian Ocean. Now look at the questions 31 to 35. Now you have some time to look at questions 31 to 35.
In this the first lecture in our series on the changing face of the oceans of the world, we are going to look at the Indian Ocean into which the oceanography department at the institute here in Australia has been doing pioneering research over the past 5 years.
Let us start with some facts about the Indian Ocean to give you an idea of the scope and complexity of the enterprise we have undertaken.
As you can see from the diagrams here on the screen showing the relative size of the planet's five oceans, the Indian Ocean comes third after the Pacific and Atlantic oceans but is larger than the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
On this slide, you can see that the Indian Ocean is different from the two larger oceans in that it is landlocked to the north and does not extend into the cold regions of the North Pole.
Covering some 73,440,000 square kilometres, the ocean constitutes approximately 1/7th of the Earth's surface and about 20% of the world's total ocean area.
At the equator, it is around 6,400 km wide with the average depth being about 3,400 m and with the deepest point being the Java Trench at 7,450 m.
Flowing into the Indian Ocean, we have some of the world's greatest rivers. The Zambezi here, the Ganges here. The Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Tigris Euphrates just here.
The two largest islands in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar here off the coast of Africa and Sri Lanka here off the southern tip of India are structurally parts of the continents of Africa and Asia. While islands like the Seychelles are exposed tops of submerged ridges, the Maldives are low coral islands and Mauritius and Reunion are volcanic cones.
The surface waters of the ocean are warm except where the ocean touches the cold waters to the south. A network of scientists, mainly oceanographers and meteorologists from around the world, are monitoring changes in the ocean's temperature and acidity, especially where it meets the southern ocean in order to see how global warming is having an effect on the waters there.
An assessment is also being carried out on how this is impacting on low-lying habitats and peoples in the more populated coastal regions around the rim of the ocean. In the warmer north, islands are vulnerable to even the subtlest changes in sea levels and tides, so they are being closely watched. Moreover, a close eye is being kept on wind changes, especially alterations to the monsoon rains, typhoons, cyclones, and any other natural phenomena.
**Narrator:** Now you have some time to look at questions 36 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 36 to 40.
In addition to the information sent from the ship that we have stationed off Antarctica in the south of the Indian Ocean, data are being transmitted round the clock from buoys anchored at various points around the ocean.
Five of these buoys are observing ice packs and icebergs coming into the Indian Ocean from Antarctica. Besides the buoys, data on cloud cover and wind and temperature change are received by satellite.
Satellite images are also being used to record the size of the icebergs from the moment they break off from Antarctica. Their course is then mapped as they move out into the Southern Ocean.
Here at the institute, the raw data from the various sources are received and the information is then constantly processed by a bank of computers.
Once the data have been collected, the next step in the process is the analysis by experts here and at centers around the world looking for even the slightest shift in patterns of temperature, wind, and sea levels.
In the light of the fact that this is a global enterprise, the institute is staffed 24 hours a day with researchers working in shifts and we are in constant contact with centers all around the world. In total, 900 experts from around the globe are involved in the program.
The work at the institute is now into the fifth year of a 10-year data collection which began in 2003. The analysis of the 5 years to 2008 will be published early in 2009. However, changes in patterns are already being noticed since the data have been gathered.
**Narrator:** That is the end of section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers. That is the end of the listening test.