Shadowing Practice: Cambridge IELTS 16 | Listening Test 1 | With Answers | HD - Learn English Speaking with Video
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295 sentences
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You will hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer questions on what you hear.
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There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions and you will have a chance to check your work.
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All the recordings will be played once only.
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The test is in four parts.
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At the end of the test, you will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
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Now turn to part one.
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Part one.
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You will hear a man phoning to find out about some children's engineering workshops.
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First, you have some time to look at questions one to three.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 3.
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Hello, children's engineering workshops.
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Oh, hello.
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I wanted some information about the workshops in the school holidays.
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Sure.
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I have two daughters who are interested.
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The younger one's Lydia.
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She's four.
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Do you take children as young as that?
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Yes.
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Our tiny engineer's workshop is for four to five-year-olds.
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What sorts of activities do they do?
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All sorts.
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For example, they work together to design a special cover that goes round an egg, so that when it's inside,
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they can drop it from a height and it doesn't break.
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Well, sometimes it does break, but that's part of the fun.
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Right.
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And Lydia loves building things.
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Is there any opportunity for her to do that?
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Well, they have a competition to see who can make the highest tower.
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You'd be amazed how high they can go.
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Right.
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But they're learning all the time as well as having fun.
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For example, one thing they do is to design and build a car that's attached to a balloon
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and the force of the air in that actually powers the car and makes it move along.
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They go really fast too.
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OK, well, all this sounds perfect.
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Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 4 to 10.
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Now listen and answer questions four to ten.
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Now Carly, that's my older daughter, has just had her seventh birthday, so presumably she'd be in a different group.
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Yes, she'd be in the junior engineers.
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That's for children from six to eight.
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And do they do the same sorts of activities?
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Some are the same, but a bit more advanced.
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So they work out how to build model vehicles, things like cars and trucks,
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but also how to construct animals using the same sorts of material and technique.
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and then they learn how they can program them and make them move.
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So they learn a bit of coding?
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They do.
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They pick it up really quickly.
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We're there to help if they need it, but they learn from one another too.
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Right.
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And do they have competitions too?
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Yes.
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With the junior engineers, it's to use recycled materials like card and wood to build a bridge.
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And the longest one gets a prize.
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That sounds fun.
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I wouldn't mind doing that myself.
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Then they have something a bit different,
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which is to think up an idea for a five-minute movie and then film it using special animation software.
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You'd be amazed what they come up with.
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And of course, that's something they can put on their phone and take home to show all their friends.
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Exactly.
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And then they also build a robot in the shape of a human, and they decorate it and program it so that it can move its arms and legs.
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Perfect.
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So is it the same price as the Tiny Engineers?
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It's just a bit more.
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Fifty pounds for the five weeks.
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And are the classes on a Monday too?
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There used to be, but we found it didn't give our staff enough time to clear up after the first workshop, so we moved them to Wednesdays.
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The classes are held in the morning from 10 to 11.
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OK.
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That's better for me, actually.
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And what about the location?
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Where exactly are the workshops held?
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They're in Building 10A.
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There's a big sign on the door.
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You can't miss it.
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And that's in Fradston Industrial Estate.
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Sorry?
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Fradston.
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That's F-R-A-D-S-T-O-N-E.
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And that's in Grassford, isn't it?
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Yes, up past the station.
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And will I have any parking problems there?
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No, there's always plenty available.
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So, would you like to enrol Lydia and Carly now?
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OK.
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So, can I have your full name and...
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That is the end of part one.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers to part one.
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Part 2.
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You will hear the managing director of a company called Stephenson's welcoming a group of work experience students.
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First you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14.
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Thank you.
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carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.
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Good morning everyone and welcome to Stephenson's, one of the country's major manufacturers of metal goods.
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Thank you for choosing us for your two weeks of work experience.
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My name is Julia Simmons and since the beginning of this year I've been the managing director.
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Stevenson's is quite an old company.
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Like me, the founder, Ronald Stevenson, went into the steel industry when he left school.
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That was in 1923.
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He set up this company when he finished his apprenticeship in 1926,
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although he actually started making plans two years earlier in 1924.
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He was a very determined young man.
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Stevenson's long-term plan was to manufacture components for the machine tools industry, although in fact that never came about,
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and for the automotive industry, that is cars and lorries.
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However, there was a delay of five years before that happened, because shortly before the company went into production,
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Stevenson was given the opportunity to make goods for hospitals and other players in the healthcare industry.
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So that's what we did for the first five years.
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Over the years we've expanded the premises considerably.
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We were lucky that the site is big enough so moving to a new location has never been necessary.
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However the layout is far from ideal for modern machinery
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and production methods so we intend to carry out major refurbishment of this site over the next five years.
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I'd better give you some idea of what you'll be doing during your two weeks with us
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so you know what to expect.
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Most mornings you'll have a presentation from one of the managers to learn about their department,
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starting this morning with research and development.
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And you'll all spend some time in each department observing what's going on and talking to people.
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as long as you don't stop them from doing their work altogether. In the past, a teacher from your school has come in at the end
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of each week to find out how the group were getting on, but your school isn't able to arrange that this year.
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Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20.
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Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20.
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OK, now I'll briefly help you to orientate yourselves around the site.
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As you can see, we're in the reception area, which we try to make attractive and welcoming to visitors.
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There's a corridor running left from here, and if you go along that, the door facing you at the end is the entrance to the coffee room.
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This looks out onto the main road on one side and some trees on the other, and that'll be where you meet each morning.
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The factory is the very big room on the far side of the site.
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Next to it is the warehouse, which can be accessed by lorries going up the road to the turning area at the end.
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You can get to the warehouse by crossing to the far side of the courtyard
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and then the door is on your right.
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Somewhere you'll be keen to find is the staff canteen.
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This is right next to reception.
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I can confidently say that the food's very good, but the view isn't.
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The windows on one side look onto a corridor and courtyard, which aren't very attractive at all,
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and on the other onto the access road, which isn't much better.
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You'll be using the meeting room quite often
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and you'll find it by walking along the corridor to the left of the courtyard and continuing along it to the end.
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The meeting room is the last one on the right and I'm afraid there's no natural daylight in the room.
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Then you'll need to know where some of the offices are.
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The Human Resources Department is at the front of this building,
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so you head to the left along the corridor from reception and it's the second room you come to.
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It looks out onto the main road.
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And finally the boardroom where you'll be meeting sometimes.
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That has quite a pleasant view as it looks out onto the trees.
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Go along the corridor past the courtyard right to the end.
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The boardroom is on the left next to the factory.
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Okay now are there any questions before we move That is the end of part two.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers to part two.
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Part 3.
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You will hear two students called Jess and Tom discussing their art projects.
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First you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24.
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How are you getting on with your art project, Tom?
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OK.
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Like, they gave us the theme of birds to base our project on, and I'm not really all that interested in wildlife,
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but I'm starting to get into it.
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I've pretty well finished the introductory stage.
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So have I.
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When they gave us all those handouts with details of books and websites to look at, I was really put off.
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But the more I read, the more interested I got.
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Mmm, me too.
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I found I could research so many different aspects of birds in art.
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The colour, movement, texture.
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So I was looking forward to the bird park visit.
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What a letdown.
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It poured with rain and we hardly saw a single bird.
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Much less use than the trip to the Natural History Museum.
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Yeah.
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I liked all the stuff about evolution there.
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The workshop sessions with Dr Fletcher were good too, especially the brainstorming sessions.
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Ah, I missed those because I was ill.
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I wish we could have seen the projects last year's students did.
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Hmm, I suppose they want us to do our own thing, not copy.
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Have you drafted your proposal yet?
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Yes, but I haven't handed it in.
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I need to amend some parts.
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I've realised the notes from my research are almost all just descriptions.
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I haven't actually evaluated anything, so I'll have to fix that.
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Oh, I didn't know we had to do that.
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I'll have to look at that too.
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Did you do a timeline for the project?
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Yes, and a mind map.
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Yeah, so did I.
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I quite enjoyed that, but it was hard having to explain the basis for my decisions in my action plan.
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What?
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You know, give a rationale.
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I didn't realise we had to do that.
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OK, I can add it now.
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And I've done the video diary presentation and worked out what I want my outcome to be in the project.
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Someone told me it's best not to be too precise about your actual outcome at this stage, so you have more scope to explore your ideas later on.
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So I'm going to go back to my proposal to make it a bit more vague.
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Really?
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OK, I'll change that too then.
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Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30.
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Now listen and answer questions 25 to 30.
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One part of the project I'm unsure about is where we choose some paintings of birds
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and say what they mean to us.
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Like, I chose a painting of a falcon by Landseer.
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I like it because the bird's standing there with his head turned to one side, but he seems to be staring straight at you.
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But I can't just say it's a bit scary, can I?
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Hmm.
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You could talk about the possible danger suggested by the bird's look.
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Oh, OK.
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There's a picture of a fish hawk by Audubon I like.
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It's swooping over the water with a fish in its talons, and with great black wings which take up most of the picture.
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So you could discuss it in relation to predators and food chains?
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Well, actually, I think I'll concentrate on the impression of rapid motion it gives.
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Right.
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Do you know that picture of a kingfisher by Van Gogh?
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It's perching on a reed growing near a stream.
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Yes, it's got these beautiful blue and red and black shades.
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Mm-hm.
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I've actually chosen it because I saw a real kingfisher once when I was little.
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I was out walking with my grandfather and I've never forgotten it.
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Oh, so we can use a personal link?
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Sure.
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OK.
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There's a portrait called William Wells.
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I can't remember the artist, but it's a middle-aged man who's just shot a bird.
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And his expression and the way he's holding the bird in his hand suggests he's not sure about what he's done.
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To me, it's about how ambiguous people are in the way they exploit the natural world.
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Interesting.
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There's Gogan's picture, Vira Mati.
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He did it in Tahiti.
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It's a woman with a white bird behind her that is eating a lizard.
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And what I'm interested in is what idea this bird refers to.
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Apparently it's a reference to the never-ending cycle of existence.
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Wow.
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I chose a portrait of a little boy, Giovanni de' Medici.
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He's holding a tiny bird in one fist.
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I like the way he's holding it carefully so he doesn't hurt it.
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Ah, right.
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That is the end of part three.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers to part three.
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Part 4 You will hear a professor of philosophy giving a talk on the ancient philosophy of Stoicism.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.
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Thank you.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
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Ancient philosophy is not just about talking or lecturing, or even reading long, dense books.
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In fact, it is something people have used throughout history to solve their problems and to achieve their greatest triumphs.
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Specifically, I am referring to Stoicism,
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which in my opinion is the most practical of all philosophies and therefore the most appealing.
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Stoicism was founded in ancient Greece by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC,
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but was practiced by the likes of Epictetus, Cato, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.
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Amazingly, we still have access to these ideas, despite the fact that the most famous Stoics never wrote anything down for publication.
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Cato definitely didn't.
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Marcus Aurelius never intended his meditations to be anything but personal.
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Seneca's letters were, well, letters, and Epictetus's thoughts come to us by way of a note-taking students.
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Stoic principles were based on the idea that its followers could have an unshakable happiness in this life,
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and the key to achieving this was virtue.
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The road to virtue, in turn,
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lay in understanding that destructive emotions like anger and jealousy are under our conscious control.
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They don't have to control us, because we can learn to control them.
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In the words of Epictetus, external events I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control.
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The modern-day philosopher
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and writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a Stoic as someone who has a different perspective on experiences
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which most of us would see as wholly negative.
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A Stoic transforms fear into caution,
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pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
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Using this definition as a model, we can see that throughout the centuries,
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Stoicism has been practiced in more recent history by kings, presidents, artists, writers, and entrepreneurs.
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The founding fathers of the United States were inspired by the philosophy.
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George Washington was introduced to Stoicism by his neighbours at age 17,
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and later put on a play based on the life of Cato to inspire his men.
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Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of Seneca beside his bed.
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and artists have also been inspired by the Stoics.
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Eugene Delacroix, the renowned French Romantic artist known best for his painting Liberty Leading the People,
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was an ardent Stoic, referring to it as his consoling religion.
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The economist Adam Smith's theories on capitalism were significantly influenced by the Stoicism
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that he studied as a schoolboy under a teacher who had translated Marcus Aurelius's works.
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Today's political leaders are no different, with many finding their inspiration from the ancient texts.
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Former US President Bill Clinton re-reads Marcus Aurelius every single year,
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and many have compared former President Obama's calm leadership style to that of Cato.
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Wen Jiabao, the former Prime Minister of China, claims that Meditations is one of two books he travels with,
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and that he has read it more than one hundred times over the course of his life.
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Stoicism had a profound influence on Albert Ellis, who invented cognitive behaviour therapy,
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which is used to help people manage their problems by changing the way that they think and behave.
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It's most commonly used to treat depression.
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The idea is that we can take control of our lives by challenging the irrational beliefs that create our faulty thinking,
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symptoms and behaviours by using logic instead.
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Stoicism has also become popular in the world of business.
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Stoic principles can build the resilience and state of mind required to overcome setbacks because Stoics teach turning obstacles into opportunity,
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a lesson every business entrepreneur needs to learn.
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I would argue that studying Stoicism is as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago,
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thanks to its brilliant insights into how to lead a good life.
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At the very root of the thinking, there is a very simple way of living.
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what you can and accept what you can't.
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This is not as easy as it sounds and will require considerable practice.
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It can take a lifetime to master.
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The Stoics also believed the most important foundation for a good and happy life is not money,
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fame, power or pleasure, but having a disciplined and principled character.
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which seems to resonate with many people today.
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That is the end of part four.
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You now have one minute to check your answers to part four.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Cambridge IELTS 16”. This video has 295 sentences and 3095 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:56. The speaker talks at a steady 111 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| workshop noun | /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/ | A room, especially one which is not particularly large, used for manufacturing or other light industrial work. |
| corridor noun | /ˈkɒɹɪdɔː/ | A narrow hall or passage with rooms leading off it, as in a building or in a railway carriage. |
| courtyard noun | /ˈkɔɹt.jɑɹd/ | An area, open to the sky, partially or wholly surrounded by walls or buildings. |
| amaze verb | /əˈmeɪz/ | To fill (someone) with surprise and wonder; to astonish, to astound, to surprise. |
| boardroom noun | /ˈbɔɹdˌɹuːm/ | The room where a group of people (especially the board of a company or organization) conducts its meetings |
| kingfisher noun | /ˈkɪŋˌfɪʃə/ | Any of various birds of the suborder Alcedines (or the family Alcedinidae sensu lato), having a large head, short tail and brilliant colouration; they feed… |
| lorry noun | /ˈlɔɹi/ | A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck |
| virtue noun | /ˈvɝt͡ʃu/ | The idea of all that is good or excellent (in every sense of those terms) in a human being, collectively instantiated by a varying number of human traits known… |
| meditation noun | /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/ | A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation. |
| entrepreneur noun | /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/ | A person who sets up a business; generally, a person who owns and manages a business and assumes its financial risks. |
| warehouse noun | /ˈwɛə(ɹ)haʊs/ | A facility for storing large amounts of merchandise or products. |
| apprenticeship noun | /əˈpɹɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp/ | The condition of, or the time served by, an apprentice. |
| ardent adjective | /ˈɑɹdənt/ | Full of ardor; expressing passion, spirit, or enthusiasm. |
| brainstorming noun | A method of problem solving in which members of a group contribute ideas spontaneously. | |
| canteen noun | /kænˈtin/ | A water bottle, flask, or other vessel, typically used by a soldier or camper as a bottle for carrying water or liquor for drink. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go along verb | To participate, cooperate, or conform. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| clear up verb | /klɪəˈɹʌp/ | To clarify, to correct a misconception. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get on with verb | To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Do you take children as young as that?
- You'd be amazed how high they can go.
- I wouldn't mind doing that myself.
- Have you drafted your proposal yet?
- Did you do a timeline for the project?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has just had · I've been · we've expanded |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | will be played · will be given · be amazed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | warehouse, which can · someone who has · teacher who had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 56 contractions and reduced forms, such as you'll, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/, kingfisher /ˈkɪŋˌfɪʃə/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, apprenticeship /əˈpɹɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp/, initiation /ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: entrepreneur /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ/, apprenticeship /əˈpɹɛn.tɪs.ʃɪp/, confidently /ˈkɑnfɪdəntli/, introductory /ˌɪntɹəˈdʌktəɹi/, initiation /ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like workshop, corridor, courtyard.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.