C1 Advanced End-of-course Test Audioscript
there’s one thing I’d have done differently, it
AUDIOSCRIPT
Part 1
(W = Woman, M = Man)
Extract One
W: Hi, Mark – how are things? Have you
managed to sort out your problems with
your neighbour?
M: Oh, him … Well, things are still fairly rocky to
be honest. I’m just waiting for the day when
he does something else which upsets me. I
mean, first it was painting his fence and
managing to get paint splattered all over my
car window. Then it was continuing to blast
out music from his garage even after I’d told
him that it was too loud. He just seems
oblivious to the idea that he’s ever doing
anything wrong. But at least he doesn’t turn
his back on me when I’m walking past, like
he used to.
W: Mm … Sounds like he’s the problem, not you.
I can see why you’d want to avoid
confronting him angrily, though. He probably
wouldn’t understand what you’re talking
about. You could just try keeping to yourself,
like I do with my neighbours. But then again,
I’ve never really had any reason to deal with
them.
M: Yeah. I’d like to do that, but it’s hard if I have
to put up with loud noise, or things like paint
on my car. It’s not something that I can just
ignore.
Extract Two
W: How did your job interview go?
M: Well, I haven’t heard anything from them yet,
so now I’m just thinking back on what I said,
and hoping I didn’t make any massive
mistakes. I know it’s not possible to do
everything perfectly in a job interview, but I’d
like to think I represented myself quite well. If
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would be to rehearse things a bit less. It
turned out at one point that I was answering
a question I’d prepared for, rather than the
one I was actually asked.
W: I hope you get some kind of answer soon.
But at least it seems like it went well, unlike
my last job interview. They asked me lots of
really tough questions, like, ‘Describe a time
when you got into trouble and you had to
use your ingenuity to get out of it’. I couldn’t
think of anything on the spot, so I had to
make something up. The interviewer saw
through it straight away. I guess they have
their reasons for asking questions like that,
but I don’t know what they are.
Extract Three
M: One of the most interesting things about
Budapest for me is how the river Danube
forms a centrepiece to it all. Unlike other
cities, like Paris or Berlin, which are beautiful
in their own ways, but perhaps lack a single
definable centre, the river is always
something you can head to, and use to get a
sense of where you are. And also, of course,
there are hills right next to the river offering
a superb vantage point, overlooking it all. It’s
hard to think of a city with better views. So,
although there is a lot in terms of the city’s
architecture which closely resembles styles in
places like Paris or Vienna, Budapest still
manages to have its own unique feel.
W: It sounds like just the sort of place I’d like to
visit one day. And it is interesting, isn’t it,
how Paris – since you mention it – has served
as a kind of a model for what cities ought to
look like. There are so many places, from
Budapest, through Bucharest to Istanbul and
Hanoi, which are called the ‘Paris of the East’.
I don’t think you’d ever hear of places being
called the ‘London of the East’ or the
‘Budapest of the West’, despite those places
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having their own charms. I have to wonder
why that’s the case.
Part 2
Hello, everyone! My name’s Jack Brody. I’m
going to talk a bit about some research I’ve
been doing as part of my course, and the focus
is on robots.
OK, I should explain at this point that I’m not a
robotics student, and my specialist subject is
certainly not engineering or computer science.
But this part of my course is focusing on
society’s attitudes to what – as I will go on to
explain later – is likely to affect a growing
number of people. As robots become more a
part of our everyday lives, how people react
towards them will become increasingly relevant.
Another important distinction that I need to
clear up is that when I talk about robots, I’m
not referring to the ones you see in sci-fi films.
I’m talking about real-life robots that we’ve
been developing and making use of since the
1950s. They’ve been there for a long time,
especially in factories, doing the mundane work
that’s either too dangerous for humans to do
or too cost-ineffective to give to humans. There
has rarely been any need for these robots to
look like people – more often than not, they’ve
looked like massive metal claws or arms – and
they’ve tended to be placed on automated
production lines well away from actual human
workers.
But all this is changing, thanks to developments
in artificial intelligence and computer
interconnectivity which mean that robots can
do a lot more than apply brute force in
manufacturing industries. Robots are becoming
able to perform social tasks in workplaces
alongside humans. For example, there are
robots helping medical staff in hospitals, doing
jobs which are often quite menial – like
disposing of waste or disinfecting floors – or
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more personal, like taking patients’
temperatures, helping move patients from beds
into wheelchairs or generally helping doctors
and nurses with consultations. Robots are even
starting to be used to provide companionship
to people in care homes, whose family
members may not live nearby or have enough
time to visit them regularly. The advantage of
using robots for this kind of task is clear – it
aids in freeing up people’s time so they can
focus on what might seem to be more urgent
duties. But the question of what these robots
look like is an important one.
Clearly, few people would welcome scary metal
monsters working alongside them, or with the
elderly or the sick. So what should this new
generation of robots look like? One thought is
that they should look exactly like people. But
this presents its own problems, not least those
of cost or technology. Back in the 1970s, a
roboticist called Masahiro Mori hypothesised
that the more human-like robots appeared the
less people would accept them. He coined a
term – the ‘uncanny valley’ – to describe this.
Essentially, we humans don’t seem to mind
being around robots if they clearly look like
machines. Equally, Mori theorised that we
wouldn’t mind being around robots if they
looked completely identical to humans. But
somewhere in between is the uncanny valley. If
a robot looks like a realistic human, but not
quite real enough – perhaps because the eyes
look too cold or the skin too much like plastic
– then we start to find them creepy and wrong
and deeply uncomfortable to be around.
Despite what you might see in movies or TV
shows, we are a very long way from developing
a robot that could completely fool people into
thinking it was a real person. It is for this
reason that the robots we are currently seeing
developed as our workplace colleagues and
assistants are designed to look more like
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cartoon characters. They still look very much
like machines but tend to have cute, almost
childlike bodies and faces with big friendly
eyes. One Japanese company has completely
turned away from the idea of making human-
like robots to help in care homes and has
instead created a robot that looks like a funny
teddy bear.
So, the way we design a robot’s appearance is
important. But what about their voice, and the
kind of language they use? Well, …
Part 3
(I = Interviewer E = Erica Green P = Peter
I:
Bowling)
I: Today, we’re continuing on the topic of
E:
motivation, and this time, we’re focusing on
education. We have two teachers in the
studio to talk about how they motivate
students. Erica, you’ve recently written an
article about this, haven’t you?
E: Yes, that’s right. In my article, I wrote about
two teachers who taught me when I was
younger and I was studying French. Both had
two quite distinct approaches and I
appreciated them for it. My favourite of the
two teachers would spend a lot of time
explaining – in English, as it happens – why it
was useful to study French, where we could
use it, what kinds of films and books we
I:
could enjoy if we learnt it, and so on. I don’t
know whether he did it deliberately in order
to inspire us or because he was genuinely
passionate about the subject. But it worked.
French became my favourite subject and I P:
always felt a sense of excitement about what
I was going to learn next in his lessons.
I: What about the other teacher? You say there
were two different approaches.
E: Very different, but she was also effective in
her own way. The other teacher was much
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more interested in what would happen if we
didn’t study hard enough. She frequently
mentioned the exams we would have at the
end of the course, and that it would be great
to get good marks in them. And because of
that, she wouldn’t allow us to speak much
English in class – and she would hardly ever
use it, either. In all honesty, I probably got
better at speaking and listening to French in
her classes. She really did seem committed to
making sure we studied everything on the
curriculum properly, did our assignments on
time, and in the end, it worked. I got really
good grades.
So which teacher do you think actually did
most to help you achieve that?
It would be fascinating to do an experiment
with two different versions of me, both with
only one of the teachers, but that isn’t
possible. I’ve actually come to the conclusion
that both were effective, but the reason I
went on to study French at university wasn’t
because of the exams I had passed, but
because of the lifelong interest that the first
teacher instilled in me. Whereas one teacher
pushed me to do my best in class, the other
– who may not actually have been the one
who helped me pass those exams – was the
one who made me think, ‘Yes! This is what I
want to do!’
I just want to bring in Peter here. You’ve also
written articles about different types of
motivation. Do you recognise anything in
what Erica’s just said?
Absolutely, yes. There are two types of
motivation, as Erica’s just exemplified:
intrinsic motivation, which comes from inside
you – you do something because you want
to do it, whatever that reason may be. And
extrinsic motivation, which is when you do
something because of outside influences, like
the need to pass an exam or follow what the
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rest of society is doing, or to make someone
else happy. And at first, it might sound as if
being intrinsically motivated is somehow
‘better’. Indeed, research suggests that, when
it comes to language learning at least,
studying a language only in order to pass an
exam or get a promotion at work, doesn’t
necessarily lead to success.
I: Erica, do you think there’s any truth in that?
E: Probably. If someone told me that if I passed
an exam in ancient Latin – which, sorry, isn’t
really something I’m interested in – I’d get a
big salary bonus … well, I might try to study
it, but I’m not sure I’d get very far. So yes, it’s
likely true that you can’t really learn
something if you really don’t want to. But
there are plenty of people who’ve passed
exams in things they don’t love with all their
heart. I passed all my exams at school,
including chemistry, which I remember really
not liking at the time. But when it came to
studying French, I had a mixture of both
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which I
think was really valuable.
P: … and this is the case with a lot of people.
It’s a bit extreme to suggest that we’re only
motivated internally or externally. If I think
about the subjects that I did well at in school,
it was a combination of both. And now, when
I’m trying to get better at things I like, it’s
helpful if I can imagine some kind of goal or
reward for myself so that I can keep going.
But what’s clear is that students do need
some kind of motivation, whether it’s
intrinsic, extrinsic, or both. Unlike Erica, I
didn’t pass all my exams at school. There was
one subject I actually failed – I neither liked it
and nor did I care whether I got good grades
for it.
I: Well, that’s the worst of both worlds, isn’t it?
Thank you both … Next time, we’ll be
discussing …
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Part 4
Speaker 1
My friend David is lucky enough to travel as part
of his job. He’s a professional photographer, but
he doesn’t take pictures of people or weddings or
celebrities, or anything like that. He’s a travel
photographer, and a fair number of his photos of
cities and landscapes have appeared in
magazines. His biggest problem is that he can’t
drive, so he invited me to spend about a week
with him driving around the French countryside to
various sites. The accommodation was free thanks
to David’s company, and he paid for the rental car
and the petrol, so I jumped at the chance. The
part of France we went to would make for a
wonderful holiday, I guess. But it was exhausting
to spend so much time in a car, and I would
never do it again, even if he paid me for my time.
Speaker 2
My friends keep telling me to visit Spain because
it’s so amazing. I always reply that I have actually
been there. But it was only for two days, to a
small town just outside Madrid. I’d just been
promoted and was asked to attend a team
building weekend with the Spanish office. It was
in the middle of winter and most of my time was
spent in a big conference room in the hotel. The
one thing I do remember is having a huge meal
with everyone on the last day It was one of the
best experiences I’ve ever had, and I certainly
learnt a lot about what they eat in that area.
Sadly, I haven’t been asked to go back yet, and
I’ve been too busy lately to even think about
having a holiday.
Speaker 3
I ran my first ever half marathon last month, in
the city of Cardiff. That’s 21 kilometres, by the
way, which for me, is an extremely long distance. I
don’t live in Cardiff, but it’s a good place to do a
half-marathon because it doesn’t really have any
hills and there are lots of friendly people there to
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cheer you on while you’re running. A friend of
mine did it a few years ago and hasn’t stopped
boasting about it, often implying that someone
like me could never run so far. I think part of the
reason I decided to give it a go was to show him
that I could. Anyway, I can’t say that I saw much
of Cardiff while I was there. But I’ll always
remember the great feeling of getting my medal
at the finish line near the City Hall.
lifetime opportunity to visit New Zealand and get
the most out of it. But then, an elderly member of
Sam’s future family got in touch to say that I
could spend as much time as I wanted, for free,
on her spare sofa. So that was that. Thankfully, I
could – just about – afford to go there for two
weeks.

Speaker 4

I hadn’t been back to my old hometown for a

very long time. I had no reason to since none of
my relatives or friends live there anymore. But I
decided to take a kind of nostalgic day trip. It’s
funny because I often dream about the places I
used to visit and play in when I was a kid, and I
was looking forward to seeing them in real life
again. I’m not sure I picked the best day for it,
since it was raining and miserable. But even so, it
was surprising to see so many shops had closed
down and how the playgrounds looked so tired or
abandoned. It made me sad because I couldn’t
understand how the town had ended up like that.
There was one good thing, though. My favourite
ice cream shop, run by an old Italian gentleman,
was still there, exactly the same as it had always
been. It was lovely to see him again and have a
chat.

Speaker 5

Sam was my best man at my wedding. And part

of the ‘deal’ – if you want to call it that – was that
I’d be best man at his. It was absolutely fine, since
he’s been my best friend since we were kids. Little
did I know that he’d end up falling in love with
someone from New Zealand and I’d have to travel
all the way there. I nearly fainted at the cost of
the plane tickets! After working out my budget, I
realised that I couldn’t really afford to fly to New
Zealand and also spend a lot of time in hotels
there. So, I planned to only go there briefly to
attend the wedding, which really annoyed me,
because ideally, it would have been a once-in-a-

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