Transcription
Now turn to section one. You'll hear two friends planning an event.
First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to X.
Now we shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to six.
Hello Joan. I'm glad you could come.
Hello, Peter. What's up?
Is something the matter?
No, no, everything's fine. It sounded urgent on the phone.
Did it? It's just that I've had this idea and I wanted to see how soon we could get it off the ground.
Well, don't keep me in suspense. You know, they're planning to close down the local clinic. It was in the newspaper yesterday, but most people have actually known for some time.
Well, I thought we should do something about it.
What did you have in mind?
I thought we could organize a charity event and donate the money to the clinic. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it will show the local council how we feel and that we mean business.
That'll take quite a lot of organizing. Why don't we just hold a protest outside the town hall?
A protest would take just as much organization as an event like this. Besides, I think fewer people would turn up. A village fair or something like that would attract more people and get money for the clinic. People are more generous when they're enjoying themselves.
Okay, then it sounds good to me. How do we start?
First, we put our heads together and come up with a list of people who'll be willing to help and people who can provide us with some of the things we need. For example, we might need a caterer to provide refreshments, a rock band for entertainment, tents, and so on. Then we do a lot of telephoneing around and try to get everybody together at the same time in the same place.
Sounds like a lot of work to me.
But that's only the beginning. First things first, though. Let's decide now on who to get to the initial meeting and where and when to hold it.
Fine. Well, the village hall would be the best place to have the meeting. It's not as big as the youth club, but it's warmer. There'll be no problem getting permission to use it, but I suppose it depends on how many people we invite. We don't want too many, otherwise the meeting will go on too long and nothing will get decided. But the village hall is a good idea. It's more official than having it in someone's living room.
How many?
Six or eight people to start with? 10 at the most.
Okay, now we have to decide on a suitable day and time. Suitable to everybody. I mean, a Saturday or Sunday would seem to be the best choice because people aren't at work on those days. But they may not like the idea of giving up a part of their weekend for a meeting. Unless we persuade them it's for a good cause or that it's to their advantage and that it'll all be a lot of fun. We'll provide refreshments, of course.
What if some don't want to give up their weekend?
Then we'll give them an alternative. Say one evening in the week after everybody's finished work. We'll see which is the most acceptable to them. Then book the hall. I can do the refreshments for the meeting. I'll get Darren and Maggie to help me. I'm sure they'll be more than willing.
Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 7 to Nat.
Now listen and answer questions 7 to 10.
So what's next on the agenda?
A list of who we want at the meeting.
Yes, of course. Obviously, we want someone from the clinic. I think Dr. Perkins would be best. He can tell us exactly what the financial situation is there. you know how much money it takes to keep the place running and how important it is for the community to have the clinic. The vicar too, he can rally lots of support. And Mr. Sims, our member of parliament, he is very busy, but I think I can persuade him to come or get his wife to persuade him to come. I see her quite a lot socially.
That's great. Two other people I have in mind are Freddy Smith, the journalist.
Yes. Well, he's the editor of the local paper now and might be useful. He might let us advertise for free and he'll know how to go about getting leaflets and posters printed.
That's another thing. We'll need volunteers to put leaflets through people's doors and stick up posters all over the place. We can decide that at the meeting.
What about the other person?
What other person? You said you had two people in mind. Freddy Smith and Oh, yes. Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates.
Do I know him?
You must do. He owns Great Fields Farm. We need a large area to hold the fate.
Right. So, how many have we got then? Seven or eight?
There's Dr. Perkins, Mr. Sims, that journalist. Freddy Smith, you mean? Yes, him. and the vicar and Mr. Gates the farmer. That's only five. There's you and me. That's seven. That will do for now. Let's start making phone calls.
That is the end of section one. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Part two. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.
Thank you very much for inviting me here today. I understand that you all own your own home and some of you may be interested in buying additional property here in the city. So, I hope you will find the information I am going to share with you useful and informative. I'm going to talk about the situation with property here in the city. The city center of any area is obviously going to have the highest prices and as more and more people are competing for houses in this area, both renting and buying are becoming increasingly difficult. It is most people's dream to one day own their own house. House ownership gives us a feeling of having achieved something and we can see clearly what we have worked so hard for all our lives. It can give us a sense of security for our old age and a knowledge that we will hopefully have something to pass on to our children. However, buying a house, particularly for firsttime buyers, is becoming more and more difficult. Not only due to increasing prices, but also because of the need for a substantial deposit. For younger people, buying their first home is very difficult and often impossible. Young couples who cannot get the deposit together need to rent for a long time and sometimes forever. While traditionally homes near the center of the city have been the most desirable, people are now looking further a field. This has happened for a number of reasons. The main one being that our style of work is changing along with that of other countries such as the USA. In certain professions, for example, sales and computing, it is no longer necessary for people to be based in an office full-time. More and more people are beginning to work from home, which means they can avoid the hustle and bustle of rush hour traffic jams into work and have more freedom to choose to live in a more rural and peaceful location. My company deals with finding property for both purchases and renters in the city area. One of my main roles within the company is to find investment properties for people who wish to plan ahead for their future.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.
Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.
An investment property is usually at the cheaper end of the market. People buy investment properties not to live in, but in addition to their own home in order to rent it out to other people. The advantage of putting your savings into property for the future is that you can be pretty certain that as a long-term investment, your money will safely increase in value in line with inflation. Many people are turning to property investment instead of pension schemes. as we hear the horror stories of countries such as the UK where people have invested all their lives into their pension schemes to find that now their money is relatively worthless. Houses automatically earn what is known as capital gains. That is for every year you own the property, it becomes more valuable and often gives a better rate of interest on your money than most banks do. However, that is not to say there are no risks. There are people who buy property when the market is high and prices are inflated beyond their true value only to find that when the housing market slows down, they are in a state of negative equity. Negative equity is a situation that arises when you owe more for the house than the house itself is worth. In short, the best advice is to be aware of the ups and downs of the housing market. Property investment, if handled correctly, can be enormously satisfying. I hope that this has given you an insight into the basics of the property market. Thank you for listening. Please raise your hand if you have any questions and I will try to be of assistance.
That is the end of part two. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Now it turns to part three.
Part three. Here two business studies students, Elyn and Mark, preparing for a seminar presentation.
Before you hear the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 5.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 25.
Well, I think the marketing of food would be a good topic. I read a very interesting article the other day about the Canadian food market.
H I suppose everybody's interested in food, even if it's trying not to eat. Why Canada? I know that's where you come from, but isn't it just all North America really?
No, that's why I thought this article was interesting. Although lots of US companies are well established in Canada and vice versa, there are still subtle differences between the two markets. It says here, "The Canadian market is definitely not a northern clone of the US." I like that. And it says that if you understand these differences, it can have a big impact on successful food marketing.
So, I know that Canada has a big French-speaking population in Quebec. Is this what they're referring to?
Not only French and English speakers, there are many different ethnic groups in Canada. It's really quite multicultural. For example, Toronto has large Asian and Italian populations, and Vancouver's got a large Asian population, too. And because Canada's population is small, these groups make quite an impact, introducing new styles of cooking, so you can see lots of unfamiliar vegetables and things in the markets, and new restaurants are opening every day. It's great if you love trying out new foods, as many people do.
Which kinds of food are becoming popular?
Well, some Asian food, I'd say, has been popular for quite a while, like Chinese, but now Southeast Asian restaurants are becoming very fashionable. Then there's Mediterranean, of course, such as Greek, Italian, and so on. But Caribbean and Mexican food is really taking off among young people these days.
So, are the supermarkets starting to stock the ingredients that are needed to prepare these foods at home? you know, all those unusual condiments and sauces.
Yes, that's right. It's quite interesting going to the supermarket, isn't it? And noticing how they're introducing sections for foods of different nationalities. You can buy quite exotic products locally these days. The article mentioned that 80% of the Canadian retail market is controlled by eight major national supermarket chains. So that when they introduce changes, they can happen quite rapidly.
Okay. Well, how are we going to organize this seminar?
Then I made some notes on the trends in the Canadian market about changing tastes and also patterns for where food is consumed. I thought maybe we could summarize it into a chart or table and maybe use the overhead projector to present it.
Good idea. Maybe I could have a look for similar trends and tastes in Australia and the UK for comparison. Let's have a look at what you found.
Before the conversation continues, you have some time to look at questions 26 to 30.
Now, as the conversation continues, answer questions 26 to 30.
The most significant trend, it seemed to me, was that Canadians are definitely interested in healthy food. For example, did you know that salads are the third most commonly eaten food in Canadian restaurants?
Really? What about organic food then? Is that becoming more popular?
Yes, it's definitely moving into the mainstream compared to a few years ago. And a recent survey showed that four out of five shoppers said that they check the fat and nutritional information on the packet when they're deciding what to buy.
What other trends did you find out?
There's one change I noticed straight away when I was home last year in the meat department. You know, here the meat packaging says rump steak or four quarter chops and so on. Well, they discovered that most consumers these days didn't know what to do with these roasts and rounds and ribs. So, the government approved a new naming system for cuts of meat which is related to the required cooking technique.
What a good idea. I've never really understood the difference between sirloin, rump, round, and all those names.
So, how many new categories are there? Eight. There are three kinds of steak for grilling, for marinating, and for simmering. And then there's what they call quick serve beef for stir fries, I suppose. And premium oven roast, oven roast, pot roast, and stewing beef. It's a great idea, isn't it? I hope it catches on here.
I agree. Any other trends that you thought were significant.
Well, what's really interesting is what the article called mobile meals. In other words, more and more Canadians are eating meals away from home, but not just eating more junk food. They're projecting a 40% increase in snack food sales over the next 3 years. And the growth is coming from healthy snacks, you know, the ones that have less cholesterol and fat such as musli bars, health food bars, and those types of products. Apparently, in the food marketing jargon, they're called nutritious portable foods, which means healthy snacks. The other major trend is that young people are doing more of the food shopping these days. So, marketing has to be aimed more at them as well as more conventionally at the mother.
Thanks, Evelyn. I think we'll have an interesting discussion about these trends and the comparisons with other English-speaking countries. I'll see if I can get some information about them to compare with yours and meet you on Friday to put it together.
See you then. Bye.
That is the end of part three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.
Part four. You will hear a lecturer in education talking about some experiments done in the USA to investigate the effects of reducing class sizes.
First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
All over the world there are passionate arguments going on about how educational systems can be improved. And of all the ideas for improving education, few are as simple or attractive as reducing the number of pupils per teacher. It seems like common sense. But do these ideas have any theoretical basis? Today I want to look at the situation in the USA and at some of the research that has been done here in America on the effects of reducing class sizes. In the last couple of decades or so, there has been considerable concern in the United States over educational standards here following revelations that the country's secondary school students perform poorly relative to many Asian and European students. In addition, statistics have shown that students in the nation's lower income schools in the urban areas have achievement levels far below those of middle class and upper middle class schools. So would reducing class sizes solve these problems? Well, we have to remember that it does have one obvious drawback. It's expensive. It requires more teachers and possibly more classrooms, equipment, and so on. On the other hand, if smaller classes really do work, the eventual economic benefits could be huge. Better education would mean that workers did their jobs more efficiently, saving the country millions of dollars. It would also mean that people were better informed about their health, bringing savings in things like medical costs and days off sick. So, what reliable information do we have about the effects of reducing class sizes? There's plenty of anecdotal evidence about the effect on students behavior, but what reliable evidence do we have for this? Let's have a look at three research projects that have been carried out in the USA in the last couple of decades or so. The first study I'm going to look at took place in the state of Tennessee in the late 1980s. It involved some 70 schools. In its first year, about 6,400 students were involved, and by the end of the study, four years later, the total number involved had grown to 12,000. What happened was that students entering kindergarten were randomly assigned to either small classes of 13 to 17 students or regularsized classes of 22 to 26. The students remained in whatever category they had been assigned to through the third grade. And then after that they joined a regular classroom. After the study ended in 1989, researchers conducted dozens of analyses of the data. Researchers agree that there was significant benefit for students in attending smaller classes and it also appears that the beneficial effect was stronger for minority students. However, there's no agreement on the implications of this. We still don't know the answer to questions like how long students have to be in smaller classes to get a benefit and how big that benefit is. For example, the second project was much larger and took place in California. Like the Tennessee study, it focused on students from kindergarten through to grade 3, but in this case, all schools throughout the state were involved. The experiment is still continuing, but results have been very inconclusive with very little improvement noted. And the project has in fact also had several negative aspects. It meant an increased demand for teachers in almost all California districts. So the better paying districts got a lot of the best teachers, including a fair number that moved over from the poorer districts. And there were a lot of other problems with the project. For example, there weren't any effective procedures for evaluation. All in all, this project stands as a model of what not to do in a major research project. A third initiative took place in the state of Wisconsin at around the same time as the California project began. And it's interesting to compare the two. The Wisconsin project was small. Class sizes were reduced in just 14 schools, but it was noteworthy because it targeted schools at which a significant proportion of the students were from poor families compared with California's one-sizefits-all approach. Analysts have found that the results are very similar to the Tennessee project with students making gains that are statistically significant and that are considerably larger than those calculated for the California initiative. Now, I'd like to apply some of these ideas to the latest.
That is the end of part four. You now have half a minute to check your answers.