IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-01-19

**Narrator:** Now look at part one. Part one. You will hear a talk about a museum. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 4. Listen carefully and answer questions one to four.
**Sam Cooper:** Welcome to the Museum's UK audio series, a collection of downloadable audio files introducing the best of British museums. My name is Sam Cooper and in this file I'll be introducing the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford with its fabulous collections of Eastern and Western art, antiquities, casts, and coins. It's one of the oldest public museums in the world, and it's actually part of Oxford University, though it's free to go in whether you're a student or not. You'll find the main museum in Beaumont Street near the center of Oxford, close to both the railway station and the bus station. Opening hours for visitors are from 10:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the evening on Tuesdays to Saturdays, 12 to 5 on Sundays, and 10 to 7 on Thursdays in the summer months. It usually closes for 3 days over Christmas, a couple of days at New Year, and 3 days for the St. Charles Fair in early September. You can take photos in the galleries, but only with handheld cameras and not using flash or lights, which can do serious harm to exhibits. Also, as long as you follow all the copyright regulations and you get permission from the staff on duty, you can ask for antiquities documents of less than 100 years in age to be photocopied at a cost of 5p per A4 sheet.
**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 five to 10.
**Sam Cooper:** Perhaps not surprisingly, given its links with the university, the Ashmolean has an education service for schools and the general public. Activities include guided group visits, which for adults last 60 minutes and cost £4 each. This makes the minimum price per group £28, as group sizes vary from 7 to 15 people. Visits by groups of young people take the same amount of time as the adult tours, but cost just £2 for university students. So, with at least seven to a group, the lowest price is £14. Though, please note that there's an upper limit of 14 group members rather than the 15 for adults. For schools, there are visits to suit all age groups, and for the most popular ones, such as those to see the Greek and Egyptian collections, it's best to book a term in advance. Tours last 50 minutes, starting at 10:15, 11:30, and a quarter past 1 with a maximum of 13 children per group. Now, if you're free in the middle of the day, why not go along to one of the 45-minute lunchtime talks? There's a really wide range of topics. On the 19th, for example, the subject is Greek mythology. And on the 20th, there's celebration of India. Both begin at 1:15, the usual time for these talks, and they're held every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Another regular feature on Saturday mornings through to the afternoons are the workshops. If you're interested in developing your own illustrative and artistic skills, these are for you. They're aimed at artists of varying levels of experience and are always led by practicing artists. Running for 6 hours from 10:00, this is wonderful value at just £5, including basic materials and also a decent cup of coffee.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to section two. Section two. You will hear a man talking on the radio about dogs which help people with their work. First look at questions 11 and 12. As you listen to the first part of the talk, answer questions 11 and 12.
**Kevin Thornehill:** Welcome to this week's edition of Countrywide. And today we're taking a look at a number of different breeds of working dogs. And here to report on the dogs with jobs is Kevin Thornehill. Thanks, Joanne. Well, yes, dogs with jobs is the subject of today's program. Dogs have earned themselves a reputation over the centuries for being extremely loyal. And here's a little story which illustrates just how loyal they are. Just outside the country town of Gundagai in Australia is a statue built to commemorate a dog. A dog which sat waiting for his owner to return to the spot where he'd left him. Well, the story which was immortalized in a song has it that the poor dog died waiting for his master 5 miles from Gundagai which is where they built the statue. Now that's what I call loyalty.
**Narrator:** Now look at questions 13 to 20. Listen carefully and answer questions 13 to 20.
**Kevin Thornehill:** Well, because of their loyalty and also their ability to learn practical skills, dogs can be trained to do a number of very valuable jobs. Perhaps the most well-known of working dogs is the border collie sheep dog. Sheep dogs which work in unison with their masters need to be smart and obedient with a natural ability to herd sheep. Some farmers say that their dogs are so smart that they not only herd sheep, they can count them too. Another much loved working dog is the guide dog trained to work with the blind. Guide dogs, usually Labradors, need to be confident enough to lead their owner through traffic and crowds, but they must also be of a gentle nature. It costs a great deal of money to train a dog for this very valuable work. But the guide dog associations in the UK, America, and Australia receive no government assistance, so all the money comes from donations. Another common breed of work dog is the German Shepherd. German Shepherds make excellent guard dogs and are also very appropriate as search and rescue dogs working in disaster zones after earthquakes and avalanches. These dogs must be tough and courageous to cope with the arduous conditions of their work and so that they can be sent anywhere in the world to assist in disaster relief operations. Effective dogs and their trainers are now listed on an international database. When you arrive at an airport here, you may be greeted in the baggage hall by a detector dog wearing a little red coat bearing the words quarantine. These dogs are trained to sniff out fresh fruit as well as meat and even live animals hidden in people's bags. In order to be effective, a good detector dog must have an enormous food drive. In other words, they must really love their food. At Sydney airport, where there are 10 detector dogs working full-time, they stop about 80 people a month trying to bring illegal goods into the country. And according to their trainers, they very rarely get it wrong. Another famous working dog is the husky. Huskies, which originally came from Siberia, have been used for decades as a means of transport on snow, particularly in Antarctica, where they have played an important role. Huskies are well adapted to harsh conditions and they enjoy working in a team. But the huskies have all left Antarctica now because the international treaty prohibits their use in the territory as they are not native animals. Many people were sad to see the dogs leave Antarctica as they had been vital to the early expeditions and earned their place in history along with the explorers.
**Narrator:** That is the end of section two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to section three. Section three. In this section, you will hear a discussion between a tutor, Dr. Lester, and two students, Greg and Alexandra, at the end of a talk about music. In the first part of the discussion, they are talking about some of the students favorite instruments and favorite styles of music. Complete the table showing the students opinions. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26.
**Dr. Lester:** I think it's time we looked at the results of our survey. Uh, what did you find out, Alexandra?
**Alexandra:** We're a group with very diverse tastes, Dr. Lester.
**Dr. Lester:** I'm not surprised. What were the favorite instruments?
**Alexandra:** Well, Greg loves drums. He told me he played drums when he was at primary school, and now he plays drums with his friends at weekends. They have a band.
**Dr. Lester:** Good. Uh, what do you like to play, Alexandra?
**Alexandra:** My favorite is the guitar. However, I haven't played for years, so I keep hoping to start again. Will I go on with the others?
**Dr. Lester:** Yes, please.
**Alexandra:** Katya is like Greg. She loves to listen to drums. She says she's not a player, just a listener. Rachel, as you know, is a violinist. So, of course, it's natural that she should favor the violin.
**Dr. Lester:** So, we have two people who love the sound of the drum and two who like strings. The violin for Rachel and the guitar for Alex. What does Harry like?
**Alexandra:** Harry says the best instrument of them all is the piano. He claims it's more versatile than any other instrument. Amo plays the piano, but her favorite instrument is the flute.
**Dr. Lester:** The flute?
**Alexandra:** Yes. Amo plays the flute, too, of course.
**Dr. Lester:** Thank you, Alexandra. Greg, will you tell us the students favorite style of music?
**Greg:** We're really very conservative. My favorite is classical music, and that's Alexandra's choice, too. Katya claims to like rock. So that's a vote from Greg, Alexandra, and Katya.
**Dr. Lester:** Doesn't Rachel prefer classical music?
**Greg:** Rachel made a choice which surprised me. She plays the violin, so I expected classical or opera, but Rachel says that she prefers country music. How interesting. What's Harry's choice?
**Greg:** Harry likes to listen to opera and loves to go to see a performance. He says opera has everything. color and spectacle and theater and great music. And Amo, Amo says jazz is her favorite music. She goes to listen to jazz every Friday evening. She also likes opera, heavy metal, classical, but jazz is the best.
**Dr. Lester:** Thank you, Greg. I wanted to see what you all liked so I could understand your musical tastes more. And I want to move from this to a discussion of the physiological effects of music.
**Narrator:** In the second part of the discussion, Dr. Lester will talk about the way music affects our bodies. Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.
**Dr. Lester:** For the purposes of uh this discussion, I'm going to divide music roughly into two types. Music which stimulates us and music which calms us. It seems that music which stimulates us gives rise to actual changes in our bodies. We listen to exciting music and our hearts beat faster. Our blood pressure rises and our blood flows more quickly. In short, we're stimulated. Soothing music, however, has the opposite effect. We relax and let the world go by. Our heart beats more gently. Our blood pressure drops and we feel calm. Um Alexandra, can you think of things which help us to relax?
**Alexandra:** Um gentle rhythms.
**Dr. Lester:** Yes, in part the melodies which help us to relax are smooth flowing and often have repeated rhythms. And these rhythms are constant and dynamic, a little like the crash of the sea on the beach. Their very predictability is sedating, relaxing. By contrast, very loud, discordant music with unpredictable rhythms and structures excites and stimulates us. These two generalizations about the differences between music which stimulates and music which soothes are true as far as they go, but they are far from conclusive. We still have a lot of research to do to find out what uh for instance people of different cultures hear and feel when they listen to music. This department is taking part in a continuing study on the influence of culture on musical perception and we'll talk about that more next week.
**Narrator:** That is the end of section three. You will now have some time to check your answers.
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**Narrator:** Now turn to part four. Part four, you are going to hear a lecture on life at work which is being given as part of a series of lectures on productivity and work practices. First look at questions 31 to 35. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 35.
**Dr. Charles Butt:** Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Charles Butt and I shall be giving you a series of lectures on productivity and work practices over the coming weeks. There will be 10 lectures in the mornings as part of this course and in addition there will be three lectures in the evenings from 6 to 8 which will be given by outside speakers. I would like first to look at a recent report on life at work. The report shows that the average British worker takes less than half an hour for lunch, 27 minutes to be precise, and that sick leave is on the increase. The drop in the length of time spent on lunch was 9 minutes when compared to last year, down from 36 minutes. According to the report, this is the first time that the average lunch break has fallen below half an hour. As regards sick leave, you can see that the average figure is 10 days per year. That's up by one day in 2002 compared to 2001. While physical illness was given as the most common reason for absence in the case of non-manual workers, stress was the most common cause of long-term absence. It's worth noting here that nine out of 10 workers claim that stress is a problem in their organization and that eight out of 10 bosses are feeling more stressed than ever before. I would just like to say here that we will be looking at the stress in work and study at a later date and we'll be looking particularly at ways of dealing with it in studying particularly for exams. You can see from the calendar that professor Appleard will be giving a lecture on this topic the week after next. The report also says that just below 50% of workers claim that they were taking less time off for holidays than they were entitled to. I'm not sure that this will be believed by the employers. Previous surveys have suggested that about one-third of days that have been taken by workers as days off sick were regarded by bosses as not being the result of genuine illness. Some more hard data is required to corroborate both these claims.
**Narrator:** Before the speaker continues, look at questions 36 to 40. As you listen, answer questions 36 to 40.
**Dr. Charles Butt:** All this suggests that employers are driving their workers too hard. The effects of overwork mean that workers are now being stretched beyond their limits both physically and mentally. This is borne out by the increase in sick leave. However, looked at from the employer's point of view, the picture may not be the same. Employers say that workers protest too much. But bearing in mind the data about the number of bosses feeling much more stressed than before, we need to think about this carefully. It's interesting to note that productivity has gone up in many areas of industry. In 2001, the local car plant had one of the sharpest increases in average productivity with the number of vehicles per employee rising by over 30% a year. A new assembly line came into operation at the beginning of 2002 affecting productivity which increased to the 100 vehicles per worker mark by the end of the year. This is a stunning achievement for an industry which was not long ago considered to be collapsing. It would be interesting to do a survey of the work life at the plant. Those of you who have opted to do the project and reduce the number of essays you have to do may want to look into this. Please see me at the end of the lecture. Right now let us move on to something else which I think you...
**Narrator:** That is the end of part four. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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**END OF TEST**