IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-01-09

**Travel Agent:** Hello, welcome to the travel depot. How can I help you?
**Customer:** Well, I'm looking for a reasonably priced holiday. I went to South Africa for a month last year and I'd like to see North America this time, maybe Canada, but I'm also interested in Europe if the prices to Canada are too expensive. I'm on quite a tight budget, you see.
**Travel Agent:** Well, you could go to Europe, but I'll get some prices for Canada first. I've been to Vancouver. It's lovely at this time of year. And we have some special offers on at the moment.
**Customer:** Okay. Well, I have some relatives over in Vancouver, so that would be good. I can always travel around Europe next year. Besides, it may be a bit too hot for me at this time.
**Travel Agent:** Right. Let's have a look at some prices, then. When would you like to go?
**Customer:** Sometime at the end of next month if possible, but I'm quite flexible anytime between the 24th and the 31st. I'd like to go for 3 weeks.
**Travel Agent:** Well, there's lots of availability for those dates. Now, if you're concerned about the cost, it's cheaper if you don't mind not flying direct.
**Customer:** Sorry, what do you mean?
**Travel Agent:** Well, if you don't mind changing planes, then it's cheaper.
**Customer:** Oh, well, I don't mind changing planes.
**Travel Agent:** In that case, the cheapest flight I have leaves on the 25th and changes in New York. It's only a short stop. You'll be in the airport for 2 and 1/2 hours. How does that sound?
**Customer:** Sounds good. But what's the price?
**Travel Agent:** That's £412 for a return flight, but that doesn't include airport tax. Would you like to arrange any accommodation?
**Customer:** No, I have a cousin I can stay with. All I need is a flight, so I think I'll take that one.
**Travel Agent:** Right. I'll just check availability for your return. 3 weeks, did you say?
**Customer:** Yes, that's right.
**Travel Agent:** Okay. Well, there are seats available on the 14th or the 15th. Which one would you prefer?
**Customer:** The 14th sounds good. Yes, from the 25th to the 14th sounds fine.
**Travel Agent:** I'll reserve that for you then. Can you tell me your name, please?
**Customer:** Jim Jackson.
**Travel Agent:** Is that J-A-C-K-S-O-N?
**Customer:** That's right.
**Travel Agent:** And can I take an address and contact number?
**Customer:** Yes, it's 10 Allen Road, Aldom. Do you want a home number or my mobile? Either is fine. Well, my home number is 015143398.
**Travel Agent:** Okay. So, you're booked on flight number VN217 to Vancouver leaving London Heathrow at 11:35 in the morning on the 25th and returning on the 14th. So, that's 20 nights. Now, one more thing. Do you have any travel insurance? We recommend all our clients take out some kind of cover. Even though most people don't end up needing it, most people have it just for peace of mind. Well, what type of cover do you have?
**Travel Agent:** There are two choices, the gold star and the silver star. Our most comprehensive cover is the gold star, which will cost £21 for the period you are away. It's a good policy because it covers almost all eventualities, even extreme sports such as snowboarding and skydiving.
**Customer:** What about the Silver Star?
**Travel Agent:** That's £18, but it doesn't cover you for any dangerous sports.
**Customer:** Well, for £3, I think I'll take the first one. The gold cover, please.
**Travel Agent:** Right. And is there anything else I can help you with?
**Customer:** Well, do you have any information about what to do in Vancouver?
**Travel Agent:** Yes. I'm sure there's something on the computer that can help. Uh, yes. There's a Shakespeare play at the theater, but at $54, it's quite expensive. That starts at 8:00 p.m. The City Museum is really popular, too, if you like that kind of thing. They have a special exhibition of Japanese armor next month. Entrance is free and the museum is open from 9 to 4:30 Monday to Saturday. Would you be interested in either of those?
**Customer:** Oh, well, uh, maybe.
**Travel Agent:** Well, I'm sure you can arrange that when you get there anyway. So, it's the flight and the gold star insurance. That's £433 in total.
**Customer:** Can I pay by visa?
**Travel Agent:** Yes, of course.

**Joe Steini:** Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please? Please find your seats. Snacks will be available all day long. Thank you. Allow me to first introduce myself. I am Joe Steini, director of the leadership council. On behalf of the organizing committee for the 8th annual leadership conference, I welcome you all to San Diego, California for a special session on postmodern solutions. We have people attending from as far away as Toronto, New York, and even the Bahamas. Frankly, I wish we had gone to you there, but we're very glad you're all here. Let me say further that this will be our largest conference yet. Registrations have far surpassed our expectations. For the first three days, we will be hosting more than 325 participants for lectures and workshops. Another 100 will be joining us for our final two days and culminating session on Friday evening. We also have a larger selection of seminars than ever, a total of 32. Because we know that you all will want to attend a few special sessions, we will repeat key seminars each day. So there will actually be 38 sessions. I'm sure you will all be pleased with the content and the quality of speakers.
Now for those who have opted not to take part in our bag lunches, there are a number of places nearby that we can recommend. We are located here in the convention center just across the street from the Hartford shopping mall and the place we most recommend is Vital's which is just west across Queen Street on the opposite corner. Please be careful crossing both streets, however, as we don't want to lose any participants. If you're not up to Vitals, you can also get some Italian food at the Olive Garden, which is further down Queen Street and east on Danning Avenue, across from the police station. They have a great minestrone soup and excellent bread sticks, all you can eat. On the other hand, if you want some good old American food, you can head to Fuddruckers for some big hamburgers or to the cattle company for some fat juicy steak. Fuddruckers is next to the Olive Garden, but the cattle company is back closer to us in the opposite direction of Vital's. Just go east out of the convention center across King Street. It's on the same side as the convention center, so you just have one street to cross. Enjoy, but also please make sure you are back for the afternoon sessions. These will always start at 1:30 p.m. That will give you an hour and a half for lunch each day. Sessions will be over each day at 5:30.
Now, regarding the schedules we've printed out, there have been a couple of last minute changes. The session titled New Leadership Strategies will no longer be held in seminar room 1, but in the main ballroom. This session has garnered much praise and is highly recommended to all, hence the change to a larger room. Another session has been cancelled. That session was titled Leading by Serving, and it was scheduled for Daniel's room. The speaker for that session, Dr. Mark Green had to return home for some urgent health situation. We wish the best to Dr. Green and that all is fine with his family. Finally, the session titled Using the Arts and Media has been changed to the second lounge room, lounge 2. Please show up promptly for sessions and sit towards the front of each room so that all seats can be utilized. Also, turn off all pagers, beepers, and cell phones. Drinks and snacks will be provided outside each room, but please be careful at your tables. Enjoy the conference.

**Lecturer:** Good morning everyone. Today I'll talk about unusual ocean spills that have occurred in the world's oceans. In November of 1992, people at beaches in Canada and Alaska noticed something strange. Blue turtles, red beavers, green frogs, and yellow ducks came bobbing toward them. They soon found out where the strange creatures were coming from. A ship from Hong Kong was on its way to Tacoma, Washington, when it was hit by a severe storm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. During the storm, huge waves washed 12 containers overboard. Inside the containers were 29,000 plastic bath toys. One of the containers opened and thousands of plastic bath toys spilled out and began to float across the Pacific Ocean. 10 months later, the first yellow ducks arrived on the North American shore. Beach combers along the shore began to find the toys and reported them to local newspapers. But the people who were most excited by the plastic toys were the oceanographers. It gave them an opportunity to study ocean currents and winds.
Oceanographers drop bottles into the ocean to study these things, but it would be too expensive to drop 29,000 bottles into the ocean at once. Imagine the value of studying the plastic ducks and frogs. This gave some interesting information to the oceanographers. The first toys were picked up in Sitka, Alaska, 10 months after they were washed off the ship. Some headed back into the North Pacific, while others drifted around the Arctic Ocean and headed for the North Atlantic. Many of the toys were swept northeast by the wind and were frozen in the ice of the Bering Sea. They're expected to cross the North Pole and float on down to the British Isles.
This reminds me of another unusual ocean spill. In 1990, a ship traveling to the west coast of the United States from Korea was caught in a severe storm. The waves swept 21 containers of Nike shoes into the water. Scientists estimate that about 80,000 running, jogging, and hiking shoes, 40,000 pairs of shoes to you and me, hit the water at once. The shoes were for men, women, and children. About 6 months later, people at beaches from Oregon to British Columbia began to find running shoes washed ashore. By the end of the year, Washington newspapers reported people finding hundreds of shoes. In Seattle, thousands of shoes floated to shore. Since the shoes were not attached, they arrived one at a time. The shoes were dirty, but after they were washed, they were still in good condition. People set up exchanges to find matches for their shoes. Oceanographers studied the information to learn more about the ocean. Some Nike shoes reached Hawaii. Others went to the Philippines and Japan. According to the scientists, some of the shoes are on a trip around the world and should end up back in Washington and Oregon. Can you believe it? Many pairs of running shoes, as well as plastic ducks and frogs, are still on their ocean journey. So, if you go to a beach anywhere in the world, don't be surprised if you see a green plastic frog or a woman's size seven jogging shoe bobbing toward you. So, keep your eyes out so you may find free bath toys and even a new pair of shoes. Thank you for attending my lecture.

**Lecturer:** Good afternoon. Welcome to the first class of V 100 Art and History. The objectives of the course, as you will have seen if you've taken a look at the syllabus, include familiarizing yourselves with the vocabulary and language of art, learning about the basic elements of art and design, and finally discussing historical periods as they pertain to art. The course will also give you the opportunity to visit some of the many galleries and museums that Britain has to offer. So, having said that, I'd like to spend the rest of today's class talking about four of the more important galleries that we will be visiting in the coming year. As most of you already know, or at least I hope most of you know, there are four Tate galleries in all. To begin, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the Tate Modern. Tate Modern is located in a very busy part of London called the South Bank. It's close to two world-renowned tourist attractions, St. Paul's Cathedral and Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Now, interestingly enough, Tate Modern is housed in what was a power station, built in several stages between and 1963. It was closed down in 1981 and reopened as a gallery in the year 2000. Tate Modern consists of five levels, with the Tate collection being shown on the third and fifth levels. On level two, the works of contemporary artists are exhibited, while level four is used for holding large temporary exhibitions. Since this museum opened, it has become a popular spot for both Londoners and tourists alike. And believe it or not, it doesn't cost anything to get in to see the collection displays.
Now the second gallery I'd like to talk about is Tate St. Ives which is in Cornwall. It was built on the site of a gas works and it overlooks Porthmeor Beach. Tate St. Ives is housed in a three-story building that was designed by the architects Evans and Shaliff. It was established in 1993, 7 years before Tate Modern was opened and the gallery exhibits the works of modern British artists, including members of the St. Ives School, a group of artists living and working in the area from the 30s onwards. In later lectures, we'll be looking at the work of some of the artists who belong to that group and the ways in which they influenced each other.
Next, I want to talk about Tate Britain, which is a gorgeous gallery situated right in the heart of Westminster. Tate Britain was the first of the four Tate Galleries to open, and it was established in 1897. It was built on the site of an old prison, and when it first opened its doors, it was called the National Gallery of British Art. Later it became known as the Tate Gallery after the man who founded it, Sir Henry Tate. During its lifetime, Tate Britain has been damaged twice. Once by floodwaters from the River Thames and once by bombings during World War II. This gallery has an interesting range of exhibitions of historic and modern art from 1500 up to the present day.
Now, the last gallery I'd like to tell you about is called Tate Liverpool. It's not hard to figure out where this gallery is located, is it? It was opened in 1988 to exhibit displays from the Tate Collection, and it also has a program of temporary exhibitions. Tate Liverpool is housed in what was once a warehouse and for some years it was one of the biggest galleries of modern and contemporary art in the UK. Well, that's a brief overview of just a few of the galleries we'll be visiting. I'd like now to look in a little more detail at what you can expect to see in each of these galleries. Starting with Tate Britain.