TEST 8

Listening section 1
Cathy: Hello, Hilary Lodge retirement home, Cathy speaking.
John: Hello, my name's John Shepherd. Could I ask if you're the manager of the home?
Cathy: That's right.
John: Oh, good. Hello, Cathy. A friend of mine is a volunteer at Hilary Lodge, and I'd like to help
out, too, if you need more people. I work part-time, so I have quite a lot of free time.
Cathy: We're always glad of more help, John. Shall I tell you about some of the activities that
volunteers get involved in?
John: Please.
Cathy: Well, on Monday evenings we organise computer training. We've got six laptops, and five
or six residents come to the sessions regularly. They're all now fine at writing and sending emails,
but our trainer has just moved away, and we need two or three volunteers who can help the
. Just simple things, really.
John: I'd certainly be interested in doing that.
Cathy: Great. Then on Tuesday afternoons we have an informal singing class, which most of the
residents attend. , and someone
who plays, but if you'd like to join in the singing, you'd be very welcome.
John: I work on Tuesdays at the moment, though that might change. I'll have to give it a miss for
now, I'm afraid.
Cathy: OK. Then on Thursday mornings we generally have a session in our garden. Several of our
residents enjoy , where
they grow best, how to look after them, and so on. Is that something you're keen on?
John: I'm no expert, but I enjoy gardening, so yes, I'd like to get involved.
?
Cathy: .
John: I could bring some in with me when I come.
Cathy: Thank you very much. One very important thing for volunteers is that we hold a monthly
meeting where they all get together with the staff. It's a chance to make sure we're working well
together, and that everyone knows how the residents are, and what's going on in the home.
John: Uhuh.
[pause]
Cathy: Now obviously we'd need to get to know you before you become one of our volunteers.
John: Of course.
Cathy: Could you come in for an informal interview - later this week, maybe?
John: I'm busy the next couple of days, but would be possible?
Cathy: Certainly.
. I won't be working then, so you'll see my assistant, Mairead.
John: Sorry, how do you spell that?
Cathy: It's . Mairead.
John: OK, got that. It's not a name I'm familiar with.
Cathy: It's an Irish name. She comes from Dublin.
John: Right. And the road that Hilary Lodge is in is called , isn't it?
Cathy: That's right. Number 73.
John: Fine.
Cathy: Oh, one other thing you might be interested in - we're holding a couple of 'open house'
days, and still need a few volunteers, if you're available.
John: What are the dates?
Cathy: There's one on April 9th, and another on 14th May. They're both Saturdays, and all-day
events.
John: I can certainly manage . I've got another commitment on April 9th, though.
Cathy: That would be a great help. We're having several guest entertainers -singers, a brass band,
and so on - and we're expecting a lot of visitors. So one possibility is to help look after the
entertainers, or you could spend an hour or so organising people as they arrive, and then just be
part of the team making sure everything's going smoothly.
John: Well, ?
Cathy: Lovely. Thank you. One reason for holding the open house days is to get publicity for
Hilary Lodge locally. So you may find you
. They'll want
to find out from two or three people why they volunteer to help at the home. We're trying to get a
TV station to come, too, but they don't seem very interested.
John: I don't mind being interviewed.
Cathy: Good. Well, if you come in for a chat, as we arranged, we'll take it from there. Thank you
very much for calling.
John: My pleasure. Goodbye.
Cathy: Bye.
Listening section 2
Hello. As some of you know, I'm Elaine Marriott, the head of the college's Learning Resource
Centre. We've invited all of you taking evening classes and leisure activities to come and see the
changes we've made to the Centre in the last month.
One major change we've made here on the ground floor is to the layout - as you can see from
looking around you. I'm sure you'll recognise the desk - that's still in the same place, as it has to
be just inside the door. But you'll see that there are now periodicals on the shelves in the corner
behind the desk. We've brought them nearer the entrance because so many people like to come in
just to read magazines. We now stock a far wider range of periodicals than we used to, so we've
decided to separate them from newspapers.

. Now, another thing is that we've brought the computers downstairs - people used
to complain about having to go upstairs to use them. So,

. We've now got an extra photocopier, so as well as the one

upstairs, there's one down here.
.
The biggest change, though, and one I'm sure many of you will welcome, is that we now have a
café at last - we've been asking for one for years.

. It became possible to have a café because the building has been extended,
and we've now got a new office and storeroom area.
What else should I tell you about before we walk round? Oh yes, we've had so many requests for
books on sport that we've bought a lot more, and

[pause]
OK, that's enough on the new layout. We'll walk round in a moment, but before we do, something
about the people who are here to help you. Of course, all the staff will do their best to answer your
questions, but now we're each going to specialise in certain areas. So, if you ask a staff member
about something, and they don't think they can help you enough, they'll direct you to our specialist.
Jenny Reed is the person to see , you'd like us
to stock, as she's taken over responsibility for purchasing those. I'd better warn you that our budget
is limited, so I'm afraid we can't promise to buy everything you ask for!
Phil Penshurst can help you to improve your writing if you need to
. You can book a half - hour session with Phil to start with,
then if you want more help, he'll arrange follow-up sessions with you.
I must mention Tom Salisbury. Many people are interested

- the people, occupations, changes over the years, and so on. Tom is a specialist in this
particular field, so if you want any help, he can point you in the right direction - we've got a large
collection of relevant documents, from old maps to studies of the wildlife.
We have a new member of staff, Saeed Aktar. I'm sure you'll meet him soon, and will find him
very helpful.

, Saeed is the person to talk to.

He's also written a very useful book on the subject, which of course we've got on our shelves!
Many of you will know Shilpa Desai, who's been working here for about five years. Shilpa now
has the additional responsibility of
, such as finding out
what's available, or whether you're eligible for financial help.
Right, well that's quite enough from me, so let's walk round the library.
Listening section 3
Tutor: Right Stewart, well I've read your draft report on your work placement at the Central
Museum Association. Sounds as if you had an interesting time. So you ended up making a film for
them?
Stewart: Yeah. It was a film to train the employees in different museums in the techniques they
should use for labelling ancient objects without damaging them. Some of them are really fragile.
Tutor: OK. So in your report you go through the main stages in making the film. Let's discuss that
in a little more detail. You had to find a location - somewhere to shoot the film.
Stewart: That took quite a few days, because I had to look at different museums all over the
country, but I'd allowed time for it. And even though it was the middle of winter, there

Tutor: Right. Did you have to decide what equipment you'd need for the filming?
Stewart: Yes. I think they were quite surprised at how well I managed that. It was just the luck of
the draw actually, I'd
Tutor: Oh, on recording technology? So you knew a bit about it from that, right.
Stewart: Yeah. What I found really hard was actually writing the script.

Tutor: Would it have helped if you'd had some training there?

Stewart: I think you're right, I probably needed that, yeah.
Tutor: Right. Now from your draft report it sounds as if you had one or two problems deciding
who was going to actually appear in the video.
Stewart: The casting? Yeah. I'd expected that the people who worked for the Association would
be really keen on taking part ...
Tutor: But they weren't?
Stewart: The thing was, they were all so busy. And it did mean some of them had to travel.

. She arranged
for people to have time off and for their work to be covered. So that was a big help for me.
Tutor: Right. And it sounds like the filming itself went well.

Stewart: Yeah. It was really informative, and very user- friendly. I learned a lot from it.
Tutor: And then the editing?
Stewart: For that, the Association put me in touch with

and sat with him in front of his computer for a day,

learning how to cut and paste, and deal with the soundtrack and so on.
Tutor: So was that all?
Stewart: No, I didn't include this in my draft report but I had to design the cover for the DVD as
well ... the lettering and everything.
Tutor: Have you done any of that sort of design work before?
Stewart: No, but I did a rough draft and then
and they gave me some more ideas, and when I'd
finished it, I showed it to the people who worked at the Association and they really liked it.
Tutor: Excellent.
[pause]
Tutor: Now as well as your own draft report, I've also received some written evaluation from the
Association on the work you did during your placement, and how it was of benefit to them. I
noticed that you haven't included anything on that in your report yet.
Stewart: How my project benefited the Association, you mean? So do I have to include that?
Tutor: Yes.
Stewart: Well, let's think ... I suppose if I hadn't made the film for them, they'd have had to get an
outside company to do it. But because I was actually working for the Association,

. Things like their responsibility for the conservation of the exhibits. I don't
think an outside company would have had that understanding, they'd have been more detached.
Tutor: Right. And the Association also said that because of your background, you had a good idea
of where to go to get the best deal for the equipment you needed. They said the saving in expense
made it worthwhile even though sourcing it took quite a bit of time.
Stewart: Yes, that's true.
Tutor:
.
Stewart: Oh. I hadn't heard that. That's good. And certainly, people weren't afraid to tell me what
they thought about it as I was making it,

. That was useful for me but it also meant the final product worked better for them.
Tutor: Can you think of any other benefits?
Stewart: Well, I don't think they'd really thought out what they'd do with the film once it was
made. I made quite a few suggestions for the distribution - other people we could send it to as well
as museum staff.
Tutor: Yes, they mentioned that. OK, good, well it sounds like they certainly...
Listening section 4
I'm going to talk today about research into a particular species of bird, the New Caledonian crow,
whose natural habitat is small islands in the Pacific Ocean. And it seems that these crows are
exceptionally resourceful.
Using sticks or other tools to find food isn't unknown among birds and animals. Some
chimpanzees, for example, are known to bang nuts on stones, in order to break the shell and get at
the edible kernel inside. One New Caledonian crow, called Betty,
and used it to lift a small bucket of
her favourite food from a vertical pipe. This experiment was the first time she'd been presented
with wire, which makes it very impressive. Another crow, called Barney, has demonstrated his
skill at using sticks to forage for food.
In one research project, scientists from New Zealand and Oxford set captive New Caledonian
crows a three-stage problem: if they wanted to extract food from a hole, the crows
, then use that
short stick to remove a long stick from a toolbox, and finally use the long stick to reach the food.
Amazingly, they worked out how to do this successfully.
Further experiments carried out at Oxford suggest that crows can also use sticks as tools to inspect
all sorts of objects,
. The idea for the experiment came from observing the birds
using tools to pick at random objects, such as a picture of a spider that was printed on some cloth.
In this research, five pairs of crows-including Barney - underwent tests to see how they would
react to a variety of objects, which were carefully chosen so the birds wouldn't be tempted to view
them as a possible source of food. As a further precaution, all the crows had been fed beforehand.
On eight occasions, a bird's first contact was by using a tool. In all three trials, Barney began by
using a stick for inspection.
. First he approached it, but didn't touch it, then retreated to pick up a stick. He then
prodded it with the stick. After some more investigation, he discarded the stick and carried on
pecking at the snake more confidently- apparently convinced that it wouldn't move.
In other experiments, two different birds, called Pierre and Corbeau, also made a first approach
with tools on three separate occasions. Pierre used a short piece of woodchip
, and Corbeau was seen prodding a metal toad with a stick.
Significantly, the crows tended to use the sticks only to make their first contact with the object.
Subsequently, they either ignored the object or dropped the tool and pecked at the object -which
is very different from using the tool to get access to food.
[pause]
So what conclusions can be drawn from the research? Evidence is building up from experiments
such as these that the birds are able to plan their actions in advance, which is very interesting for
understanding their cognition. They don't seem to be responding in a pre-programmed sort of way:
it may even be possible that they're able to view a problem and work out what the answer is.
However,
. To some extent, this
is related to the ecological circumstances in which the animal is found.
So scientists want to find out much more about how the crows behave in their native habitat, and
a team from Exeter and Oxford universities is carrying out research in New Caledonia. They're
looking into whether the birds' way of searching for food gives them any possible evolutionary
advantage. The birds are hard to observe, as they live in a region of mountainous forest, so

, as one method of investigating their behaviour.

The birds are masters at using sticks to find their food, in particular beetle larvae from the trees.
It's possible
that they only need to eat a few each day. This would mean
that they wouldn't have to spend most of their waking time searching for food, as most animals do.
The beetle larvae have a , which
can be traced through the feathers and blood of birds that eat them. Scientists have collected
samples from crows in order to estimate the proportion of larvae
. They should then be able to gauge the extent to which individual birds
depend on using sticks to feed themselves. We've learnt a great deal about the ability of New
Caledonian crows to use tools, and some very interesting research is being carried out into them.