TESTS AUDIO SCRIPT

UNIT TESTS
Unit 6

Track 7: Unit Test six, Dictation, Exercise one

Unit 1 The first scheduled rail journey / trundled between
Liverpool and Manchester / on the fifteenth of September
Track 2: Unit Test one, Dictation, Exercise one
1830. / This historic train venture was the first / to chug
The tradition of blood brothers / dates back to Viking
along solely on steam power / as well as / to transfer mail
times. / Being companions since boyhood, / two men would
between cities. / It heralded the arrival / of a new age / in
form an unbreakable bond / based on honour and respect
the social and commercial world.
for the other’s strength. / Spilling blood over the point of
a spear, / they swore never to fight each other / and to Unit 7
avenge the other’s death.
Track 8: Unit Test seven, Dictation, Exercise one
Unit 2 Banksy is an anonymous avant-garde artist / responsible
for compelling works of graffiti / which pop up in public
Track 3: Unit Test two, Dictation, Exercise one
spaces around the globe. / Should you wish to purchase
A Bachelor’s degree / is an academic undergraduate
one of his works, / be prepared to face certain obstacles, /
award / earned upon completing a college or university
as removing street art from walls / is strictly a matter for the
course / typically spanning three to seven years. / It is
buyer to contend with.
believed that the term bachelor / may have originally been
used / to denote a twelfth-century knight / who was too Unit 8
young or underprivileged / to obtain his own subordinates.
Track 9: Unit Test eight, Dictation, Exercise one
Unit 3 Smartphone thumb is thumb pain / resulting from
strenuous texting or gaming / on a smartphone or similar
Track 4: Unit Test three, Dictation, Exercise one
mobile device. / It is recommended, therefore, / to keep
Vegetarianism is the practice / of the non-consumption of
text messages short / and to limit game play. / Using
animals / which can be traced back / as far as ancient India
the forefinger to type / is another way to minimise / the
and ancient Greece. / This choice of diet in both instances /
potential impact of excessive texting taking its toll.
was the direct result / of the policy of non-violence towards
animals. / This concept was highly regarded / by early Unit 9
philosophers and religious doctrines.
Track 10: Unit Test nine, Dictation, Exercise one
Unit 4 Not only are sales of drones flourishing / but the first
inevitable occurrence / of a collision between a drone and a
Track 5: Unit Test four, Dictation, Exercise one
commercial airplane / has been reported close to London. /
To patent a new invention / you must apply to have your
Little do people realise / UK laws stipulate / unmanned
brainchild recognised. / The Intellectual Property Office /
aircraft can only be controlled / more than fifty metres away /
searches for similar patents / to make sure your innovation
from people, vehicles or other physical structures.
is original. / Owning a patent gives you the legitimacy / to
take action against anyone / who attempts to capitalise on
your ingenuity / without first obtaining your permission.

Unit 5

Track 6: Unit Test five, Dictation, Exercise one

Victorian Bakers is a TV show / in which professional bakers
strive to bake bread / under the gruelling conditions of
the nineteenth century. / Slaving away in an unwelcoming
environment, / the curious volunteers soon acknowledge /
that working for a pittance / under such unfavourable terms /
is a far cry / from bakers’ lives of today.

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Women, on the other hand, have a much larger

REVIEW TESTS
Review Test 1-3
Track 11: Review Test one, Exercise one
Man: ‘Friends for life’ is an expression we’re all fully
aware of and we may even have found ourselves
using from time to time. But how many friends
do we actually have and how do we go about
maintaining or discarding these friendships
throughout our lives?
It’s believed that the average person has about
150 people in their social circle – and that figure
includes members of family. Out of those, only
an average of two are considered to be ‘close’.
You may think this number sounds depressingly
small but if you have at least that many consider
yourself somewhat lucky – 4.7 million people in the
UK admit to having no best friend at all. And this
is decidedly not a good thing – for by all accounts
lonely people are twice as likely to die of heart
disease as those who are socially active.
repertoire of responses. This is just as well as they
typically have a greater number of confidants than
men and are happier to seek the company of other
women in order to share their intimacies and vent
their frustrations. When complaining about a male
partner, for example.
To sum up then, a man’s more laid-back approach
towards those that he has allowed into his inner
circle, is greatly opposed to a woman’s higher
stake involvement in which she will demand an
amount of conviction equal to that which she
herself commits to a friendship. It is perhaps
no surprise, therefore, that men have more
people they consider friends and that male-male
relationships tend to last a lot longer than female-
female relationships. And what about ‘platonic’
male-female and female-male friendships? Well,
that’s a can of worms that would best be opened
another place and time …
Review Test 1-6

Tellingly, there is a big difference between the Track 12: Review Test two, Exercise one
sexes when it comes to making and keeping
A
friends. Men, for example, typically have a larger
Woman 1: I must admit I didn’t know what to expect. And
circle of friends than women – with an average
I’m not a great fan of the TV series either but my
of 26 to 12 respectively. Why is this? Research
husband was really keen and had wanted to go for
suggests a number of common theories.
ages. Plus he convinced me that if nothing else I
For starters, men are said to be more choosy when can bask in the sun and top up my tan so I thought
it comes to who they hang out with. Whilst this fair enough – why not. The weirdest thing of course
may at first seem somewhat contradictory given was the fact that all the staff were dressed up as
the numbers just quoted, it means that those aliens. That took some getting used to let me tell
friends that we do choose have been carefully you! A lot of the passengers came in all shapes,
handpicked. Men, it would seem, are also more sizes and colours too but I’m pleased to say
tolerant to being let down – that is, we don’t take looking like a Martian or Vulcan wasn’t compulsory.
it too hard or too personally when a gathering is
The ship was huge with the usual kinds of
cancelled, we’re not invited or someone refuses
entertainment – pool, squash, shops and bars
to help out in times of need. This tolerance also
and whatnot. In the evening there were charity
seems to extend to retaining flatmates. Studies
events with stars from the TV show. I didn’t have
carried out on American campuses showed that
a clue who they were and they were mostly B-list
men are much happier to continue sharing with
celebrities anyway I was informed. Still, that didn’t
someone of the same sex than women – who tend
bother me. The one thing that did slightly was that
to flit between female flatmates until they find
we only actually spent two days out of the six at
someone who is a much better fit.
sea. And although we docked at some wonderful
It has been argued that this greater level of locations I didn’t get to lie on the deck and soak
tolerance in men is due to the fact that we actually up the views as much as I’d hoped.
invest less in a relationship. Men are much more
likely to brood, for example when in a bad mood,
preferring not to share our innermost feelings but
rather suffer in silence.

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B Review Test 1-9

Man: My word! What an experience! I’d never seen
Track 13, Review Test three, Exercise one
such a mix of people in one place before and the
Presenter: The robots are coming! Since the dystopian visions
energy and enthusiasm throughout the whole
of sci-fi's earliest writers to the darkly prophetic
tour was something to behold. There were bright
visions of today's big screen, the rebellion of
colours everywhere you looked and people were
intelligent machines has long been one of
wearing the most bizarre things at times. Still, there
mankind’s most harboured fears. But is that brave
was a great spirit of acceptance and although it
new world of science-fiction about to become
took a day or two I started to feel quite relaxed
reality? I’m here in the studio with sociologist
and uninhibited.
Amanda Davies and futurologist Matthew Smith
The on-board entertainment was an array of to discuss. Firstly, Amanda – there’s been a lot of
spiritual workshops, yoga practice, chanting concern recently about future generations being
and live concerts and we stopped off on a few put out of work due to an unprecedented rise in
occasions to go for festivals in the woods. None robots doing our work. Is there anything in this or
of which I was that keen on to begin with but is it just common scaremongering?
there were a number of educational lectures by
Amanda: I’d say there’s definitely something in it and
highlyrespected academics – although I’d never
in fact it’s happening all around us now – just
heard of any of them – on topics such as Native
on a relatively moderate scale for now so that
American religion which I found engrossing.
it’s not that obvious to many of us. More and
Interestingly though there were plenty of shops
more supermarkets, for example, are utilising
selling new age products which seemed to me a
selfcheckout machines which has already replaced
little too commercial and somewhat contrary to the
a lot of staff. Most high street banks offer online
whole concept I felt. And the noise! At times with
banking services, which has reduced the need for
the whole ship chanting and singing and banging
many people to do the work they once did. Whilst
on tablas you could barely hear yourself think let
companies favour these technologies in order to
alone meditate.
reduce costs, and we are choosing these services
C because of the convenience and speed, it’s all too
Woman 2: I’d always wanted to take dancing classes so the easy to forget about the knock-on effects they
idea of combining that with a cruise holiday was a are having on the labour market – and if the trend
bit like killing two birds with one stone – get away continues as it looks like it will, then we could be
from it all and do something I’d wanted to do for heading into a very gloomy world of excessive
ages. My partner was a little reluctant at first and unemployment.
of course the event was quite formal at times, Presenter: Isn’t that an exaggeration, though? Supermarket
which required formal dress and shoes, but there checkouts and online banking are hardly the
was a hire place on board so we didn’t need to bedrock of a healthy labour market.
take that much with us. There were classes during
Amanda: Well I fear that it’s just the start. With Google’s
the daytime and competitions in the evenings
£400 million recent acquisition of British artificial
with some of the same judges as on the TV
intelligence firm DeepMind, things could well get
panel. Leaving from Southampton was also quite
a lot worse a lot quicker. As things stand, some
convenient for us and we stopped off in Spain and
forecast unemployment will be as high as 50
Portugal for a break and to put on our land-legs
percent within the next 30 years. And we’re not just
again for a night. The weather wasn’t the best
talking menial jobs here with occupations such as
unfortunately, well not until we left UK waters, but
train drivers, taxi drivers and pilots in the transport
getting a tan wasn’t the top priority – not for me
sector to accountants and insurers in the service
at least – so although it put a slight dampener on
sector all expected to become obsolete. Over the
things at the off, it certainly wasn’t a deal breaker.
last ten years alone, for example, one half of all
Somewhere more tropical might be a nice idea
secretarial jobs in the UK have disappeared but it’s
but overall I’d recommend it and we both certainly
not just a concern for the working class.
picked up some new moves which we’ll be able to
impress friends with at future events.

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Presenter: And your views Matthew?

Matthew: I’ll accept that it could be a concern for the future

but I can’t help believing that it won’t happen on
such a scale as the doom merchants are predicting.
Have you ever seen the self-service checkouts?
They’re mostly empty as people still have either a
natural distrust of them or simply prefer the smile
and chit-chat with the person operating the till.
And as for Google’s acquisition I think we need to
put things in perspective. They have, for example,
set up an ethics board to monitor the situation
and to keep things in check. They’re not simply
charging ahead and drastically changing society
without an awareness of the bigger picture. And
surely in the long-term this will be a benefit to
everyone. People will no longer have to do menial
tasks and dangerous jobs that I’m sure they’d
rather not do anyway. But the onus will be very
much on the government to provide training for a
whole range of new services and jobs in IT.

Presenter: Fine. But will that in itself be enough to cope with

the greater number of possible redundancies?

Matthew: Certainly there will be a shift in society as a whole

with more and more people out of work. But
once again, governments are aware of this and
some countries are already proposing a basic
guaranteed income in return for people willing
to re-train or for carrying out community services.
Ultimately people will have more leisure time
and some of the luckier ones will find themselves
free to pursue whatever interests they’ve never
previously been able to attend to – which will of
course result in a booming health and recreation
industry …

Amanda: I’m sorry, I need to cut in there. The desire to

work is one of man’s fundamental needs and
for many provides a real meaning in life. Mass
unemployment and sponsored community work
are not the answer and we need to confront this
question before we find ourselves with too much
time on our hands.

Presenter: It’s certainly a pretty complex issue with huge

bearings on the lives of future generations. We’ll
have to leave it there I’m afraid [fade out] but you
can read more on this topic on our website where
Amanda and Matthew …

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 TESTS AUDIO SCRIPT
END-OF-YEAR TEST
Track 14, End-of-Year Test, Listening, Exercise one
ONE
Like most things in life there was a certain amount of
providence involved: my friend’s sister had just come back
from teaching English in Singapore and she reckoned it was
a good way to earn money and see the world. I’d always
wanted to do the latter, so I did a course and four weeks
later I was living and working in Germany. It’s very hard
to progress, but I’m planning to get into teacher training.
Rather than living in any one place for a year or more, I’ll
get to venture further afield more often and stay in new
places just for a month or two – long enough to acclimatise
and say you’ve lived there but not too long to get tied
down. One thing’s for sure, after living overseas for so long,
going back to the UK isn’t top of the agenda.
TWO
When I first got into film, I wanted to direct. There’s a lot
of nepotism in the industry though, so unless you know
someone who knows someone, you can forget it! So I made
a conscious decision to pursue other avenues and when
the plans to use one location for filming fell through, and
I just happened to know of a place that I thought would
be equally effective, I took some snaps of it and presented
them. They were impressed by my vision and sent me out
scouting on other occasions – next thing I know I’ve been
doing it for years! The sights I see are truly inspiring and
for now, being a location manager is just fine – sooner or
later I’ll return to my initial Hollywood dream again – and
eventually settle down in LA itself and get my big break!
THREE
A lot of people are envious when I tell them what I do.
It’s not all it’s cut out to be though. For a start, I can boast
about having been to over thirty different countries in the
last five years but I couldn’t actually tell you much about
them. As a musician in an orchestra, though, I do count
myself lucky – after all, music is my passion – and there’s
no plan to do anything different any time soon! But the
travelling side of things really isn’t that glamorous and
there’s often little time in any one place before you move
on again. I do get long holidays when I’m not touring but
there’s always plenty of rehearsing to do in preparation
for the next place – Turkey actually – so, no peace for the
wicked as they say.
FOUR
Typically I get up early in the morning and do the rounds.
This is by far the worst part of the day as you’re basically
dealing with people’s gripes, helping them out with broken
TVs, no hot water and whatnot.
© Pearson 2017    FOCUS 5    PHOTOCOPIABLE
We’re also involved in animation programmes – which for
most is the main attraction in being a holiday rep – and I’m
no different. Meeting people, generally having fun in all
manner of manic ways. It’s definitely a job with a short life
span though – and burnout is not uncommon if you don’t
have a proper break. Then it’ll be time to find a ‘proper job’
– which almost definitely means going back to the UK and
starting from scratch on the bottom rung of the ladder again.
FIVE
You’d think with most organisations only taking on
volunteers or paying very low salaries there’d be difficulty
finding people. In fact, the opposite is true – more and
more NGOs prefer applicants with degrees in social work or
some other related field – which, fortunately, I’ve got – so
I’m a relatively solid candidate and I get to put the three
years I spent at college to good use! Striving to make a
difference is key for me, impacting people’s lives for the
better – although the opportunity to do that and travel
is the main incentive for many people. Next I’m thinking
of heading out to Nepal for a year – although if I get the
chance to move up into management I’ll probably stay
somewhere longer term.
Track 15, End-of-Year Test, Listening, Exercise two
ONE
Man: Did you hear about that tennis player, that
whatshername, being banned from playing? For 10
years she’d been taking this banned substance and
won something like, what, 5 or 6 grand slams in
that time. Disgraceful …
Woman: Well, yeah, but by all accounts the substance
she was taking was only banned in January this
year. So you can’t take anything away from her
achievements. And if anything, it should be
her doctors or advisers or whoever that should
shoulder the blame if you ask me. And wasn’t she
using it for health reasons or something? Irregular
heartbeat or diabetes or something, wasn’t it? You
can’t condone the use of illegal drugs but I do feel
for her. And having to publicly apologise and all …
that’s just wrong!
Man: No, no, no. I don’t accept that. As a professional
sportsperson it’s your job to know the laws and
regulations. After all, they’re there to ensure
everyone is on a level playing field so to speak.
Full credit to her for coming out and admitting it
before the press got a hold of the story – which I
think she had to do – but even that was probably
just a case of trying to save face.
Woman: Well, yes – it did take a certain amount of guts. But
I beg to differ in many ways.
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TWO
Woman: So, I got the chance to visit China last year and I
had no idea how important food is over there. In
fact, the usual everyday greeting actually translates
as ‘Have you eaten?’ – weird, eh?
Man: Yeah, yeah. So, how was it?
Woman: What got me most though was how loud
everything is. In the restaurants, for example, it’s
almost deafening. You can hardly hear yourself
think. Everybody’s talking animatedly and laughing
and stuff – very different to the more restrained
type of things we get in restaurants over here.
You won’t be shocked to hear that a good rule of
thumb is: the louder the restaurant, the better the
food.
Man: Wow. Imagine that. But how will they get access?
I mean, is there an infrastructure in place? Don’t
you need cables and whatnot? And I’m not being
funny but illiteracy in Kenya is sky high and they
speak something like over 60 different languages.
So, even for those that can read, you can’t imagine
there’ll be anything in their own tongue.
Woman: Yeah, there has to be some money involved
somewhere, eh? Not that I’m a complete sceptic or
anything.

Man: Ha, ha.

Woman: And you have to eat slowly, and pay a lot of

attention to what you’re doing. You can’t just
gobble up your meal or have a half-hearted
conversation – it’s actually a pretty intense
experience. You feel like you can’t let your hair
down at all so it’s hard to relax.

Man: And what about the food?

Woman: Rice, noodles, tofu are the staples. So being

a veggie is certainly not impossible. For meat
though there’s a famous saying: ‘The Chinese
eat everything with four legs, except tables, and
everything that flies, except airplanes’.

THREE
Man: So I saw a weird photo in the paper today. It
was this Maasai man, from Africa right, holding
a mobile phone but he was all dressed up in
colourful traditional robes and stuff. Quite a
striking image but I couldn’t get over how bizarre it
all was.

Woman: Yeah, well I read there’ll be over 700 million

smartphones in Africa by 2020 so I guess it’ll
become quite a common sight. And it’s big
business so people are bound to start cashing
in. Take that Facebook guy. He wants to provide
free Internet to the whole of Africa – is that pure
altruism or is there something in it for him, eh? I’d
like to think his motives are genuine but you can’t
help but wonder, can you?

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