IELTS Listening Practice Test | 2026-02-04

**Narrator:** Now turn to section one. You'll hear a woman calling Lavverton Arts Center for some information. First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to six. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to six.
**Man:** Laveton Art Center. How can I help you?
**Woman:** Hello. I've been to the art center a few times recently and I understand you have this scheme for regular visitors.
**Man:** The friends of Lavon Art Center. Yes, that's right.
**Woman:** I wonder if you could tell me a little about it. I mean, how much it costs and what benefits it offers, things like that.
**Man:** Certainly. Well, first of all, the good news is that we've recently changed the scheme. It used to cost £15 a year, but now it's free. All you have to do is fill in an application form. You can either come to the art center and do that here, or you can go to our website and apply online.
**Woman:** And so, what are the benefits of joining?
**Man:** There are actually quite a few. As a friend of Labatan Art Center, you'll receive a newsletter every 3 months with information on all the forthcoming events.
**Woman:** That sounds useful.
**Man:** You also get priority booking for shows and concerts in the main theater.
**Woman:** Can you explain how that works exactly?
**Man:** Yes. What that means is that when tickets go on sale, for the first 2 days, they're only available to Friends of the Art Center. So, as long as you book early, you can make sure you get seats.
**Woman:** Great. Do you ever offer discounts to friends of the center?
**Man:** Under the old system, when you had to pay to be a member, we did. Under the new system, there won't be any discounts for shows in the main theater or films at the art cinema. Having said that, we will be offering some discounts to members for performances in the small theater. There'll be information about this in each issue of the newsletter.
**Woman:** I suppose I can find that information online as well. Can I?
**Man:** Absolutely. Actually, we're redoing our website at the moment. Right now, there actually isn't a special section for Friends of the Art Center on the website. Once the site's been redesigned, there will be. You'll be able to put in your username and password and enter a special section just for you.
**Woman:** It sounds excellent. Are there any requirements though? I mean, as a member, do I have to do anything?
**Man:** Yes, sorry, I forgot to mention that. There are no formal requirements at all. Though, obviously, we have this scheme to encourage people to attend events here regularly. So, we ask that you attend at least four events a year, whatever they are, if you possibly can. Nobody's going to count, though, and it's totally up to you.
**Woman:** That sounds fair enough.
**Narrator:** Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to 10. Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10.
**Man:** While you're here, we're actually conducting a short survey of people who phone up the art center. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions? It'll only take a couple of minutes.
**Woman:** Sure, no problem.
**Man:** Thanks a lot. So, how many times have you visited Lavaton Art Center in the last 6 months?
**Woman:** Well, I've only lived in the area for the last 4 months, so not that many times. Um, three, I suppose. Yes, that's right.
**Man:** Fine. And how did you first find out about the art center?
**Woman:** Let me think. Oh, yes. A friend invited me to a concert and I came with her.
**Man:** Have you ever seen a film at the Arts Cinema here?
**Woman:** No, I haven't to be honest. In fact, until you mentioned it earlier, I didn't realize you even had a cinema.
**Man:** One more question. If we offered a free tour of the art center, including things such as going backstage to look at the dressing rooms, would you be interested in going on it?
**Woman:** Oh, yes, definitely. I think a tour like that would be very interesting. I'd even pay for it.
**Man:** That's great. Thank you very much for your time.
**Woman:** Thank you.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part one. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now it turns to part two.

**Narrator:** Part two. First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16. Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
**Kamal:** Hi Joanna, what's the matter? You look a bit depressed.
**Joanna:** Hi Kamal, I've just been reading this article in the newspaper about how difficult it is for sociology students to get a job after they graduate. They always want people with work experience. How do you get work experience if they won't give you a job? It's an impossible situation.
**Kamal:** Yes, I know. It's a real problem.
**Joanna:** And the article says that some people spend a year or more living at home doing unpaid voluntary work just to get something to put on their CVs. Really boring stuff like photocopying and addressing envelopes. I don't want to do anything like that. I want a real job.
**Kamal:** It's the elections for the students union committee posts next month here at the university. All the positions are up for election. Academic officer, sports officer.
**Joanna:** What's your point?
**Kamal:** And the position of equal opportunities officer is coming up for election.
**Joanna:** I'm still not sure what you're getting at.
**Kamal:** Why don't you stand for it? The post starts in June. You're well known at the university and I think you would be good at it.
**Joanna:** Equal opportunities officer. That sounds great. Isn't that the students union officer who promotes equality within the university?
**Kamal:** Yes, that's right. They raise awareness of equal opportunities for everyone in the university and promote the issue around campus.
**Joanna:** I'd love to do something for women on campus, but what about my studies?
**Kamal:** It's a paid sabbatical post.
**Joanna:** Sabbatical?
**Kamal:** Yes. That means you take a year off and then start your studies again. Meanwhile, you get really good work experience and you can earn money at the same time.
**Joanna:** That sounds really interesting. But how do I get elected?
**Kamal:** You go to the students union, fill in an application form and just give it to the union. Then I guess you need to put together a manifesto and try to get people to support you. I'll help you with your campaign and I'll help you with publicity materials like posters for the notice boards and leaflets to hand out to everyone.
**Joanna:** It sounds really exciting. What exactly does the equal opportunities officer do?
**Kamal:** I'm not really sure. Let's have a look at the students union website. There it is. The equal opportunities officer is responsible for anything which concerns women and equal rights and is responsible to the students union executive committee for making sure that any racism or sexism is dealt with. Students union officers have to be available for students to talk about any problems they have and try to help them.
**Joanna:** I would love that part of the job giving help and advice to students. The whole reason I want to work in social services is to help people.
**Kamal:** That would be very good experience. It's a big responsibility too. It also says that you're in charge of a budget and you would be responsible for managing a team of people. It's good experience for a management position in the future.
**Joanna:** Now I'm getting really excited. What about the day-to-day responsibilities?
**Kamal:** It says here that the equal opportunities officer acts on any health and safety issues. The equal opportunities officer represents all the students on university committees like the safety committee and the equal opportunities committee. Lots of meetings then.
**Joanna:** I don't think I would enjoy all those meetings quite so much. My first aid certificate might be useful for safety issues.
**Kamal:** Very useful. And you would supervise the running of the crash, make sure that students with young children have access to child care, that sort of thing. Oh, look. The equal opportunities officer also has responsibility for the university bus service.
**Joanna:** Perhaps I could even get it to run on time.
**Kamal:** No, don't be too ambitious. We have to get you elected first. Let's take a walk to the union office. Maybe we can meet the equal opportunities officer and talk to her about the job.
**Joanna:** Great. Let's go.
**Narrator:** Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 17 to 20.
**Lecturer:** That's about all I want to say about the course and coursework. As you heard, it's very intensive and there's a lot of work to do. So how to deal with all the work? It's really important to make sure you have good study skills. It makes the difference between failing, just passing or doing well on any course. There are workshops given by student service counselors on study skills. But I just want to put you in the picture with a quick overview of useful study skills. There are five points I want to make here. The main thing is to get organized. The first thing you need to do as soon as you get your timetable and reading list is to draw up a plan of study. Time management is what all students are bad at. Unfortunately, it's what they need to be very good at. Make up a timetable and put in all the things like lab work, lectures, seminars, and tutorials that you will attend. Make a note of exactly what work you will do for each of your courses.
**Student:** Where do we get that from?
**Lecturer:** Your lecturer will tell you exactly how you will be assessed at the end of the course. Make sure that you add in time for reading, preparing seminars, and so on. Put deadlines into your study plan and put these deadlines into your computer to remind you when they are. With deadlines, you need to be realistic and know yourself. Are you the kind of person who leaves things to the last minute? If you are, make sure you remind yourself about deadlines well in advance. Don't leave things to the last minute.
**Student:** That sounds like me.
**Lecturer:** Aim to have a balanced life of academic work, a paid job if you need one, and social activities. As a rough guide, you should be doing 40 hours of academic work per week and 5 to 15 hours for a part-time job, no more. The second point is don't be late or miss lectures. Remember, the person giving the lecture is probably the same person who sets your exams. In lectures, you hear information from the person who will be testing you on it. You will take much longer to gather it from other sources. Classes offer an opportunity to ask questions about difficult material and you won't miss extra information. Thirdly, make sure that you regularly reread your notes from lectures, books, and handouts. This will help you remember what you have done. Finally, two more important points. We expect you to work long hours on your own. The information we give you in tutorials and lectures is just a starting point, often comprising the main points of themes of the subject. After this, it's up to you to go into detail about the topic and be familiar enough on certain points to give a seminar on it if asked. The next and last point is this. You need to think about what you read and any information you get on a topic. We're looking for students who can evaluate material critically. students who can think critically. Students who simply read and remember information do not make as good progress as students who think about the subject and form their own opinions on it based on looking at the subject from all points of view.
**Student:** So we are not just learning facts and figures.
**Lecturer:** Facts and figures are an important part of learning but not the most important thing. It's what you do with them that is critical.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now it turns to part three.

**Narrator:** Part three. You will hear two geography students, Jack and Katie, talking about a field trip to Kenya in Africa. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.
**Katie:** Jack, hi. Thanks for inviting me around.
**Jack:** Oh, thanks for coming. I know you're up to your neck in finals revision, but I've got to make up my mind about next year's geography field trip, and I'd really like your advice. We've got to choose between an African trip and one in Europe. They've told us a bit about both trips in the lecture, but I really can't make up my mind. And I know you did the African one last year.
**Katie:** That's right.
**Jack:** So, where exactly did you go? I mean, I know it was in Kenya, in East Africa.
**Katie:** Yes. Well, we were right up in the northwest of the country. It was beautiful. We stayed in a place called the Marriage Pass Field Studies Center,
**Jack:** right? Dr. Rose said the accommodation was traditional Africanstyle cottages. Uh, he had a special name for them.
**Katie:** Bandas. Yes, they're fine. You have to share two or three people together. They're pretty basic, but you have a mosquito net. They don't provide spray though, so remember to take plenty with you. You'll need it. And there's no electricity in the field center. You'll have hurricane lamps instead. They give a good light. It's no problem.
**Jack:** What about places to study? Dr. Rose said there was a library.
**Katie:** Yes, but it's quite small. There's a lecture room as well, but most of us worked out in the open air. There are plenty of places outside, and it's so beautiful. You're right in the middle of the forest clearing.
**Jack:** I gather it's a relatively unmodernized area.
**Katie:** Definitely. They actually set up the center there because it's on the boundaries of two distinct ecological zones. The mountains where the people are mainly agriculturalists and the semiarid plains lower down where they're semi-nomatic pastoralists.
**Narrator:** Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30. Now listen and answer questions 25 to 30.
**Jack:** So how much chance did you get to meet the local people there? Did you get the chance to do interviews?
**Katie:** Yes, though we had to use local interpreters but that was okay. Then we did field observation of course looking at environmental and cultural conditions and morphological mapping.
**Jack:** What's that?
**Katie:** Oh, looking at the surface forms of the landscape, the slope elements and so on.
**Jack:** What about specific projects?
**Katie:** Yes. After the first 2 or 3 days, we spent most of our time on those. We could pretty well do what we wanted, although they all had to relate to issues concerned with development in some way. People did various things. Some were based on social and cultural topics like the effect of education on the aspirations of young people and some did more physical process-based studies looking at things like soil erosion. My group actually looked at issues relating to water things like sources such as rivers and wells and quality and so on. It was a good project to work on but a bit frustrating. We felt we needed a lot more time really.
**Jack:** Right. Dr. Ro did say something about limiting project scope.
**Katie:** Yes, he told us that too at the beginning and I can see why now. What else? Well, we had some good trips out as part of the course. We went to a market town, a place called Sigore. That was to study distribution. And to look at agricultural production, we went to the Weiwayi Valley. That's an important agricultural region.
**Jack:** And what about animals? Did you have a chance to go to a national park?
**Katie:** Sure, we did a trip on the last day on the way back to the airport at Nairobi. But actually, there was lots of wildlife at the field center. Vervet monkeys and baboons and lizards.
**Jack:** M. It does sound good.
**Katie:** It was excellent, I'd say. In terms of logistics, it was very wellrun, but it was more than that. I mean, it's not the sort of place I'd ever have got to on my own. And it was a real eye opener. It got me really interested in development issues and the way other people live. I did find it frustrating at the time that we couldn't get as far as we wanted on the project, but actually I'm going to follow it up in my dissertation. So, it's given me some ideas and data for that as well.
**Jack:** So, you'd say it was worth the extra money.
**Katie:** Definitely.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part three. You now have half a minute to check your answers. Now you're on to part four.

**Narrator:** Part four. Listen to the following talk between two friends. First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
**Jane:** Do you know what, Tom? It won't be long before we'll all be traveling to space in a cable car.
**Tom:** A cable car? What do you mean? A sort of sky lift?
**Jane:** Well, yes, I suppose. So,
**Tom:** you must be joking. Where on earth did you get that idea from?
**Jane:** Oh, I've just been reading it in a book called Apes to Astronauts by Adrien Bry. He's the science correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, so he should know what he's talking about. He says, "Wait a minute. I've got it here. Page 28. A cable car to the heavens.
**Tom:** Oh, honestly, Jane, you surely don't believe all that stuff you read in those sci-fi books.
**Jane:** It's not science fiction. It's a fact. Hang on, I'll read you what he says. The space writer Arthur C. Clark, to whose inspiration we owe the communication satellite, recently outlined a proposal for a new means of space travel, which he admitted is so outrageous that many of you may consider it not even science fiction, but pure fantasy. Shall I go on?
**Tom:** No, just tell me how he thinks it could be done.
**Jane:** Well, it sounds quite simple, really. One end of a cable 23,000 mi long.
**Tom:** How long?
**Jane:** 23,000 mi. Do listen. One end of a cable 23,000 mi long would be attached to a point on the Earth's equator and the other to a satellite in geostationary orbit. So
**Tom:** the cable would be absolutely tight between the two points and the elevator would travel up and down carrying people and freight. According to Arthur Clark, it's the only way to travel in space without using rocket engines, which would make it much more economical. I wonder if it would be more comfortable. It sounds pretty uncomfortable to me. And heaven knows what speed it would be traveling at. What would happen if the cable broke?
**Jane:** Oh, he explains all that. Apparently, the most likely place for it to break would be at or near the ground. And if that happened, it wouldn't fall down. It would fall upwards.
**Tom:** Upwards? H. Yes, I suppose it would. Yes. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Something falling upwards. Anyway, it wouldn't matter too much either if the cable broke away from the high end. It would remain rigid until it could be reattached to the satellite. I don't quite see why.
**Jane:** Well, it would be the pull of gravity from above. Anyway, who'd want to be stuck in an elevator attached to a rigid cable thousands of miles up in space? I suppose he doesn't say what would happen if it broke in the middle.
**Tom:** Actually, he does. He says it would be dangerous if the break occurred at any altitude up to 15,000 miles because the bit attached to the Earth would, what does he say? Oh, yes. Collapse and wrap itself around the equator like a whiplash.
**Jane:** Whiplash?
**Tom:** You know, the long bit of cord or leather on a whip. Anyway, even that would only be really catastrophic if the cable was made of steel or some other metal. Metals are much too heavy. The cable would have to be made of some material capable of suspension without snapping.
**Jane:** But I thought you said the cable would be 23,000 mi long.
**Tom:** I did, but the 3,000mi breaking length is because of gravity. Well, all I can say is you'll never catch me going to space in a cable car. I'd rather keep my feet on the ground. Thank you very much.
**Narrator:** That is the end of part four. You now have half a minute to check your answers.