INTERNATIONAL GCSE

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Listening Paper Transcript

Thursday 16 May 2024 07:00 GMT Time allowed: 45 minutes

(including 5 minutes’ reading time before the test)

FOR INVIGILATOR’S USE ONLY

The pauses are pre-recorded for this test.

Instructions
This is what you should do for each item.
• After the question number is announced, there will be a pause to allow you to read the instructions
and questions.
• Listen carefully to the recording and read the questions again.
• Listen to the recording again and then answer the questions.
• When the next question is about to start you will hear a bleep.
• You may write at any time during the test.
• Answer the questions in English.
• You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write on blank pages.
• If you need extra space for your answer(s), use the lined pages at the end of this book. Write the
question number against your answer(s).
• Write neatly and put down all the information you are asked to give.
• You must not ask questions or interrupt during the test.
• You now have 5 minutes to read through the question paper. You may make notes during this
time. You may open your answer book now.
• The test starts now.

Once the recording has started, the Invigilator must not pause it at
any time as all pauses, including the 5 minutes’ reading time, are
pre-recorded.

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Questions and answers in English.

Task 1

1 M1 I really enjoy travelling to different parts of the world. I went to Canada last year.
Next year, I’m going to Japan. At some point, I’d love to go back to Italy. My family is
from there. When I travel, I always go on my own. It’s much more exciting.

2 F1 My younger brother plays guitar, and my older brother plays the drums. I am learning
to play the piano. Last Saturday, we played together. It was great fun. I am getting
much better at the piano. I have music lessons on Mondays and Fridays. The
lessons have helped me.

3 M2 Thank you for listening to this week’s radio show about cricket. It will be repeated on
Saturday afternoon. Next Thursday evening, we have a new show about the history
of football. We will be making a show about basketball next year.

4 F2 I always tell my students to keep reading. Reading helps them with their spelling and
they learn new words. But the most important reason to read is because it’s a lot of
fun! My students like crime stories and fantasy stories most of all. Not many students
read adventure stories.

Task 2

5 F1 My name’s Liz. I’m going to talk about career choices. Kim and I went to the same
university. I studied English and Kim studied History. We went into different careers.
I am a writer. I write scripts for films. Kim loves helping others, so she decided to
become a teacher.

6 F2 I’m glad I became a teacher. One of the best things about teaching is working with
young people. I enjoy their humour. They usually make me laugh. The worst part of
teaching is marking students’ work. It takes me a long time to write comments on
their work.

7 F1 To anybody who is thinking about becoming a writer, especially for films, I’d say it’s a
great career choice. It is well paid, and you can work from home, which is really nice.
One of the best things about my job is that you sometimes meet film stars.

8 F2 It’s important to find out about careers. To do this, you could go to a careers fair.
There are lots of careers fairs happening in the next few months. There are also
plenty of careers websites offering free career advice. Your teachers are a great
source of help, too.

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Task 3

9 M2 Staying healthy as you get older is a challenge. Most of us know that it’s normal for
adults to become less active as they get older, but there are some adults who get very
little exercise. A recent survey revealed that 65% of older adults said they felt unfit.
25% said they never exercise.

10 M2 There are obvious benefits to exercising. Not only does exercise boost your chances
of living longer, it also makes you feel happier. I know that since I started going to a
local gym, my social life has also improved. During the past year I’ve met lots of new
friends at exercise classes. They are all in their 60s too.

11 M2 Exercising can be tough for older people. Buying sports clothes and trainers is easy.
The hardest part is the first day you start exercising again. I did not feel confident the
first day I walked into the gym. I thought people would laugh. They didn’t, of course.
In fact, I found a lot of the younger people there were very helpful. They showed me
how to use the machines and were very encouraging.

12 M2 Regular exercise is just one part of staying healthy. It’s also important to have a
sensible diet, including fresh fruit and vegetables. Over the years, people can
develop bad eating habits. I used to eat a lot of fast food, even though I knew it
wasn’t good for me. Recently, I’ve started to eat more healthily. I’ve now got much
more energy, which comes in handy when I’m at the gym.

Task 4

13 F2 I went to the football match last night. It was such a good game. I’ve been to watch
my team 12 times this season already. They’ve won 11 of those games, and at every
one, the atmosphere has been brilliant. I sit in a different seat each time and usually
I’m fortunate enough to have a great view of the pitch.

14 M1 I used to really enjoy going to watch football, especially when my team was winning!
I used to go most weeks. I’ve watched some really exciting games and seen some
incredible goals being scored. Watching football did take up a lot of time though, and
once my children were born, I didn’t have enough time to go to the match.

15 F2 Yes, organising things before a football match is very important too. Before I go to the
game, I arrange time off from work, then buy a ticket. I buy it online and print it out at
home. I live far away from the stadium, so I always book a taxi to get there and most
importantly, I have to arrange somebody to look after my daughter for the afternoon.

16 M1 That sounds like a lot of hard work to me. I prefer to watch football in my own home
these days because I always have a comfortable seat! I also get an excellent view of
the game on TV, so I can see all of the action. Also, eating at home when watching
the game is cheaper than buying food at stadiums.

Turn over ►

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Task 5

17 M1 Welcome to Modern Technology podcast. In recent episodes, we’ve explored how

mobile technology is changing the way we live our lives. In this episode, we’re looking
at how mobile phones and tablets can impact education and specifically, the lives of
young people. We started by asking lots of school students why they use phones.
Some explained that they use them for entertainment, such as playing games. A few
said they use their phones to organise their finances, but the most significant reason
students use phones is for social purposes, such as messaging friends.

18 M1 Parents who attended school thirty years ago weren’t in possession of mobile phones,
but there’s no doubt there’s been an explosion in technology since then. It’s normal
for young people to own digital technology, usually a phone or a tablet. They use
them in everyday life and what’s more, their teachers do too. And yet in a lot of
schools, students are not permitted to use phones to aid their education. There are
plenty of students who think this is unfair and unhelpful. They’d like to use their
phones in class.

19 M1 There are some teachers who view phones as a bad thing for education and for young
people generally. They argue that phones can affect concentration by distracting
students from their work. They argue that phones also have a negative personal
impact by causing increased anxiety. More generally, some teachers argue that
phone use has an effect on health too, as students are becoming less active when
they spend hours on their phone.

20 M1 However, one school in Spain is leading the pack when it comes to solving the
modern dilemma of phones in education. Rather than banning phones in class,
Lucena Technology College is encouraging their use. The headteacher told me that it
is ridiculous to stand in the way of progress and that finding ways to use digital
technology productively is a far better option. She told me that students at her school
use phones and tablets in class to access revision websites, take part in revision
quizzes and make study notes.

21 M1 There are many competing voices about the effect that modern technology has on
education. For every story of their misuse in schools, there’s also a positive story
about how phones and tablets help students. It’s clear there’s no easy answer but it
seems to me that when used appropriately, digital technology has some benefits to
education. Yet it’s also important to acknowledge the problems too. It’ll certainly be
interesting to see what happens in the next decade.

END OF SOURCES

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