TYPE 1: PICK FROM A LIST

PRACTICE 1 OFFICIAL IELTS PRACTICE MATERIALS 2

SECTION 3, p.5

21-23: B/D/F

PRACTICE 2 IELTS PLUS 3 , TEST 1, p.11

17/ 18 : B/E

19/20 : A/D

PRACTICE 3 IELTS PLUS 3 , TEST 5, p.99 – 100

27/28 : B/E

29/30 : A/C

PRACTICE 4 IELTS PLUS 3 , TEST 6, p.115

15/16: B/D

17/18: A/C

19/20: B/E

PRACTICE 5 IELTS PLUS 3 , TEST 7, p.136

21/22: A/D

23/24: B/Êmw

25/26: B/C

PRACTICE 6 IELTS TRAINER TEST 2 SECTION 2, p.63

11 D/E

12 B/C

PRACTICE 7 IELTS TRAINER TEST 4 SECTION 2, p.117

11/12 A/D

13/14 C/E
PRACTICE 8 IELTS TRAINER TEST 5 SECTION 3, p.138

21/22 B/D

23/24 A/E

SCRIPT

PRACTICE 1

PRACTICE 2
So ... simple but effective. The other method you’re going to practise this week is the bamboo
oven. Now the steam pit is ideal in certain conditions because the heat is below ground level, for
example, if there’s a strong wind and you’re afraid a fire might spread. But when it’s safe to have
an open fire you can use the bamboo oven method. You get a length of bamboo, which as you
probably know is hollow, and consists of a number of individual sections with a wall in-between.
You use a sharp stick to make a hole in each of the dividing walls apart from the end one. Then
you lean the bamboo over a fire, with the top propped up by a forked stick and the bottom sitting
on the ground. You pour enough water in the top to fill the bottom section, and then light a fire
underneath that section to heat the water. Then you put your food inside the top section, and
the steam coming up the bamboo through the holes you made cooks it.
I’m going to move on now, to food itself, and talk about some of the wild plants you might cook.
I’m going to begin with fungi - that’s mushrooms and toadstools. I’m sure you’ll be aware that
some of these are edible, and they’re delicious, but some of them are highly poisonous. Now
whether they’re poisonous or not, all fungi that you find in the wild should be cooked before
eating, because that helps to destroy any compounds in them that might be mildly toxic. But be
aware that any amount of cooking won’t make poisonous varieties any safer to eat. Unless you
can definitely identify a fungusyou should never eat it. It’s not worth the risk. And you need to
be really sure, because some fungi that are poisonous are very similar in appearance to certain
edible varieties. They can easily be mistaken for each other. So ... having said all that, fungi are
delicious when they’re freshly picked, and although they are only moderately nutritious, they do
contain minerals which the body needs.
I’ll move on now to leafy plants, which are generally ...
PRACTICE 3
Sam:           I’m not very happy about the way our group assignment is working. There are
some problems .
Tutor:          Oh dear. Are people just not getting on with each other? That’s the worst thing ...
Sam:           Actually we’re all friends, it’s not that, but when we’re having a discussion
about the assignment one or two people end up doing all the talking, and the rest don’t say
anything. It’s a bit frustrating, because we need plenty of debate ...
Tutor:          Well that’s a common observation. You’re studying in a group with people from all
over the world, and you all have your own ways of participating. In some places students are
more used to listening than talking, and vice versa.
Sam:           Mmm. I suppose you’re right ... I’ll try to remember that ...
Tutor:          Does everyone pull their weight as far as sharing the workload is concerned?
Sam:           I’d say they do, yes. And our group elected a leader. She’s very good at making sure
no one’s overloaded ... But personally I feel that there are just too many of us in the group.
Whenever we try to arrange a meeting there’s always at least one person who can’t make it. It’s
not anyone’s fault. It’s just that we’ve all got slightly different timetables.
Tutor:          Well I’m glad you’ve talked to me about it. Feedback is always useful. Is there
anything else you’re concerned about?
Sam:           There are a couple of problems with lecturers that all the students are talking about ...
Tutor:          Last semester we had negative feedback about the way lectures were organised.
There were several occasions when the wrong room had been booked, or the same room had
been booked twice ... that sort of thing. Is that still a problem?
Sam:           That hasn’t happened at all as far as I know ...
Tutor:          Oh good, it’s sorted out then.
Sam:           But ... I don’t know the reason, but some of the staff often turn up late, so we miss
ten or fifteen minutes of our lecture time ... It might be because they’ve been copying handouts
for students, I think there’s a queue for the machine sometimes ...
Tutor:          Well I’ll look into that. Thank you for telling me. Anything else?
Sam:           The other thing is that it can be very difficult to get to see a lecturer individually.
They’re all very supportive and friendly when you do manage to find them, but often they’re not
in their office, even at times when they’re meant to be available for consultation.
Tutor:  OK ... That’s helpful ... Now before you leave, let me...
PRACTICE 4
Speaker:     Another way of avoiding paint wastage is to check you're completely happy with
your colour choice before starting to paint. For example, you can get a small sample of the
colour you’re thinking of using, then paint a board and move it around the room, so you can see
how it looks against your furnishings, and in different lights. Also, it’s always better to buy high
quality paints, because you get what you pay for. If you buy cheap paint you might need to apply
two or three coats to achieve the same coverage that you’d get from one coat of a good-quality
paint. You could also spend a week on a job that could have been done in a day or two. And
consider the environment. Most paint manufacturers now sell water-based paints that don’t
contain harmful chemicals or give off harmful odours, so get one of these. You can also buy
paint that’s packaged in recyclable containers. There’s a lot more choice than there used to be.
You can only do a good job, which will last, if you prepare the surfaces thoroughly before
painting. In fact, in many ways if you want to do a professional-looking job, this is more
important than the painting itself. If there are any cracks or patches of loose plaster, painting over
them won’t solve the problem. Take the plaster out and fill the holes, allowing enough time for
the new plaster to dry. And you won’t get a smooth finish if the walls are dusty or greasy, so
washing with water isn’t enough. Use a solution of decorator’s soap and rinse well with warm
water afterwards.
When you're ready to paint, we suggest you use a medium-pile roller for walls and ceilings. A lot
of people tend to use short-pile rollers, but these give a patchy finish, and that wastes paint and
time. Similarly, long-pile rollers can create a thick, textured effect, which looks messy. The same
goes for brushes. The stronger the bristles, the easier they are to wash and reuse. And as you’ve
chosen a water-based paint, clean your brushes with cold water, because it’s more energy-
efficient that way. As you're decorating, keep transferring small amounts of paint into a tray and
keep topping it up when you need to. This reduces the chance of it being contaminated by dust
and pieces of dirt ... And finally, water-based paint doesn’t have a lingering smell, so that's not
an issue any more, but it’s air flow rather than heat that helps the paint dry quicker, so to help
finish the job in the quickest time leave your doors and windows open. The faster the paint is dry
and the job finished, the quicker you can start enjoying your room!
In tomorrow’s programme I’ll be giving some advice ...
PRACTICE 5
ou will hear two business studies students discussing a presentation they’ll do on an article on
working effectively in groups.
So, Brad, what did you think of the article on group work?
Oh hi, Helen ... yeah it was pretty good ... with helpful pieces of advice on how to make group
work effective.
I think we were lucky to be given such a straightforward text to present at the management skills
seminar.
Yeah ... actually shall we discuss it now ... have you got time?
Sure ... it’s only a ten-minute presentation, so we just need to explain and then give our views on
the main points raised in the article.
I’ll jot down some notes ... Right.
So, there are three main sections. I suggest we start with listening.
Yeah ... effective listening in groups ... because it’s not something that’s frequently covered on
courses in our field ...
No ... and we should say that in the presentation.
Yeah ... And also effective listening’s pretty simple, you know, I don’t think it’s hard to learn.
Well ... people think it’s easy, but in my experience most of us tend to be very lazy listeners. OK
- I wouldn’t argue with that.
Something I do think we should emphasise is the power of the listener’s posture, gestures, etc. in
making speakers feel respected.
... not that you’re just waiting for them to finish.before jumping in with your own ideas ...
Ah ha. 
Right ... the next section is on goal setting - let’s make sure we’re clear what the article says on
this.
Yeah - well, firstly it says that all group members must be given time to explain their own goals.
... that’s it, yeah.
... and then did it say that the whole group should agree on common goals?
That’s a bit too strong. It’s more that everyone’s agendas should be equally acceptable ... but it
does say that goals have to be realistic, you know ...... achievable within a particular time?
You’ve got it. That’s really what the article’s saying. There isn’t really any point in having
‘ideals’ if group members know they won’t come to anything within a reasonable period ...
So ... I think a summary covering those points will be enough for that part of the presentation,
don’t you?
Yep ... Now the last section is about conflict resolution.
Actually, I thought it was the worst part of the article.
Me too .
I don’t think it went into sufficient detail on the issue.
Actually I thought it devoted too much space to it but that it was all rather boring, you know.
It didn’t mention some of the more radical theories ... absolutely .I found that really irritating.
Right ... and also I think it could have said more about conflict sometimes being healthy in
groups ...
PRACTICE 6
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very pleased to be able to welcome you to the cityscope, our lovely
morden sports and leisure facility. I’ve brought you up to the roof top cafe on top of this stadium,
so that you can enjoy the view while I explain briefly what we have here and point out to you the
major features of the site. Then, we’ll go round and have a look at ground level. We’re extremely
pround of this new facility. You’ll see when the project was first discussed, we expected that a
multinational company would give us half our funding and the central government would make
up most of the rest. With a smaller contribution from the local business. Well, we’ve got quite far
to the planning stage, when the multinational pulled out, and both central and local government
decided they couldn’t afford anything. So we ended up with the beautiful project, a small amount
of sponsorship promised by local organizations and nothing else. We thought we never built it,
but at the last moment, we had an amazing donation of several million pounds from a national
transport company. And that’s got us going again. And we managed to get all the rest from local
fund raising. There’s hardly a street in this city that hasn’t made its contribution one way or
another, so there’s a true sense of local ownership here. So this is what we got. We wanted a new
stadium because the 1950s football stadium is on the other side of town, and is shortly due to be
pulled down and built over. This site was the old airport with some playing fields on the one side
of it. And a few buildings from the 1930s when the air fill first opened. So we were able to plan a
new stadium with plenty of rooms for all the things people wanted. The playing fields have been
upgraded and refenced so there’s now a set of top quality outdoor pitches for amateur football,
hockeys and so on. We have both sports and other entertainment here. We want to encourage all
kinds of people onto the site and hope some of them may come to visit the cinema or the cafe
and end up trying the fitness centre. These are all grouped together. The cafe is in the original
1930 passenger hall, and the architects have managed to retain some of the elegant style of the
building. The other buildings like the control tower which would’ve made a great feature and the
aircraft hangars which we have hoped my house the fitness center were unfortunately not
structurally sound enough to preserve. So everything else is newly built opened in 2010
PRACTICE 7
PRACTICE 8
Tutor: So, let’s hear what you’re doing for your next project.

Student: I’ve decided to design a roof garden for a supermarket.

Tutor: OK. So you’ve done a bit of reading already? What benefits would there be for
the client? Why do you think a supermarket chain would be willing to meet ttie expense
of construction? You do realise that would be the first thing they raise.

Student: Yes, I know. But I’d explain that In spite of the initially high expense, they would save
that much in approximately five years. Well. I’d have to do sums. I mean calculate specifically
…

Tutor Yes. how would the saving come about?

Student: Mainly through lower heating and aircon Mis. The extra insulation offered by having a

Tutor:  OK But they might feel the expense of maintenance would be an issue. After all,
supermarkets don’t normally employ gardeners.

Student: What I thought was, if they made it a community garden, rather than a simple low–
maintenance green roof…

Tutor: So there’d be public access?

Student: Oh, yes! Then there’d be a sense of ownership in the local community and people could
take responsibility for it, instead of the supermarket paying a commercial company, and it’d
really boost their public relations.

Tutor That’s a good point. And have you been looking into how roof gardens are built
nowadays?

Student: I’m still exploring that, but if I take advantage of the latest technologies for roof
gardens. It shouldn’t be too difficult. But in any case, you have to use lightweight materials.

Tutor But that’s a matter of making the right choices. You can even use quite traditional ones
such as wood for the planting areas.

Student: Yes. that’s what I thought. It’ll look good and it isn’t too heavy.
Tutor But for the basic construction, the issue you have to address first is the material used
between the building and the garden.

Student: You mean the barrier fabric, which ensures there’s no chance of rainwater leaking
down into the building?

Tutor: Yes, nowadays that is very good, and Quite easily sourced.

Student: Then on the other hand, there’s the business of water within the roof garden itself.

Tutor: You mean drainage? That’s an important feature of the construction in any roof design.

Student: Yes. but I think most drainage issues have been well understood lor quite a long time.

Tutor: Ok, but another thing is with plants in an exposed situation, you usually need to find ways
to optimise rainfall.

Student: Yes, because rainwater is best for the garden, if you can store it for when it’s needed.
What I’ve been looking at are some buildings which use fairtv conventional storage tanks the
Kind Eiat have been in use for decades, but have them linkeo to modem automatic watering
systems.

Tutor. Sounds complicated!

Student: It’s less so In practice than it sounds, I think. I’ve been researching them and actually
the Safest ones definitely, work very well and they can be electronically regulated to suit the
local microclimate.

Tutor: Mmm, that sounds interesting. You seem to have been doing some thorough research!
Make sure you reference all your sources when you write it up.

Student: Yes, sure. Um, there’s one more aspect I’d just like to run past you, if there’s time? I
want to include a light feature in the design.

Tutor: Of course.

Student: I’ve got a sketch here.