Shadowing Practice: IELTS LISTENING PRACTICE TEST 2026 WITH ANSWERS | 23.08.2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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284 sentences
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Part 1 Now turns to part 1.
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Part 1.
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You will hear a male student talking to a union representative about placing an advertisement to sell a laptop.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 1 to 5.
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Now the test will begin.
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You should answer the questions as you listen, because you will not hear the recording a second time.
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Listen carefully and answer questions one to five.
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Hi, I'm Debbie.
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How can I help?
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Hi, my name's David.
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I'm just looking to place an advertisement on the main union notice board to sell a laptop
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and a few accessories if that's possible.
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Sure, that's not a problem.
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I take it you are a member of the students' union?
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Yes, I am.
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Right then.
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I'll just get a form up, and as there is no one around, and it looks as if it's going to be quiet for a while, I'll just type the details straight into the computer for you.
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Thanks very much.
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No problem.
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Shall we just title it, Laptop for Sale?
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Yeah, okay.
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Can you describe it generally?
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Well, it's in very good condition.
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In fact, it's hardly been used.
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Why are you selling it, if I may ask?
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Well, I've got another one which is much lighter and I don't really need two.
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I see.
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What weight is the one you're selling?
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It's 3.5 kilograms.
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That is heavy these days.
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Can you give more details about the one you want to sell?
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Right.
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Well, it's an Allegro and it's got all the latest programs.
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Okay.
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What about the memory?
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The memory is only 0.5 gigabytes.
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And what about the screen size and the other features?
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Well, the screen is, let's see,
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it's 37.5 centimeters with a standard size keyboard and a touchpad.
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But I've got a cordless mouse that I can put in with it if necessary.
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Some people don't like using a touchpad.
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What about ports or holes for attaching things to the laptop?
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It's got two ports.
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Hmm, more modern laptops have more than two ports for all the extra attachments.
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They do.
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Let's see, what else is important?
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Oh yeah, the battery lasts for two and a half hours, which is okay, but not enough for long train journeys.
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But one thing is that it's not wireless.
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Right, okay, not wireless.
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Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions 6 to 10.
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Thank you.
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Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.
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Anything else I can put on the advertisement?
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There's a webcam built at the top of the screen, and I can throw in a printer, a scanner, and headphones, which I got with it in a special deal.
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It also comes with its own case for carrying it around.
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Actually, the case is quite smart.
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I'm hoping these things will help it sell.
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They should do.
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Right, I think I've got all that.
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How much do you want for it?
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That I'm not sure about.
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It's worth about £900 to £1,000 new.
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Yeah, but you won't get that much if it's used, and even if it's in good condition.
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What about £500?
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I doubt if you'd get as much as that.
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More like £200 or £300.
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If you look at the notice board, there is one on there which is comparable to yours, and it's not more than about 250 pounds, I think.
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As little as that.
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I'm afraid so.
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Shall we say 300 pounds?
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OK, put that.
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Can I take some contact details for the advert?
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The name's David Bristow.
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B-R-I-S-T-O-W.
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Yes, that's it.
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And mobile or email?
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Both, if you want.
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It's D-I-B underscore 7791 at hotmail.com.
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OK, and the mobile?
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That's 09875 423387.
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That's it.
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If you send the picture, I'll add it and print it out and stick it up for you.
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OK, I can get that to you today.
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Right, I'll type in here, advert placed the 22nd of October.
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Fine, and good luck with the sale.
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Thanks.
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That is the end of section one.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now turns to part two.
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Cut to.
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You will hear a speech given by the head of a company to some new employees.
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You have 30 seconds to look at questions 11 to 16.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
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First of all, a warm welcome to Barker's Country Safaris.
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We're delighted to have you all on board for this season.
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I know you've all been told a bit about the company when you had your job interview, but I thought it would be worth telling you a bit more about ourselves.
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Barker's was set up 10 years ago by myself, John, and my then girlfriend and now wife, Nancy.
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We started it initially just as a hobby.
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We felt
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that there was a good opportunity to share our love of
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the countryside in this part of the world with the many visitors who come here.
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As you know, most people come for the beaches in the summer, but there is so much more to the region, and this is what we wanted to exploit.
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Nancy and I were born near here, and as teenagers, we went climbing,
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kayaking, whitewater rafting, potholing and just straightforward walking.
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This district is in our blood and we love it.
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While we were still at university, we started taking small groups of visitors out into the national park in Nancy's brother's old Land Rover.
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We'd drive them around the back lanes and into the forest.
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We'd also organise rock climbing tours for friends of friends.
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Then each year, without us having to advertise, people came back to us to ask for more excursions and trips.
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So, five years ago we gave up our other jobs to focus full-time on Barker's Country Safaris.
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Two years after that, we set up the activity tour part of the business,
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and one year ago we expanded into organising activities for school groups during term time.
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Obviously, this was a massive challenge with all the health and safety requirements, but it's proving a great success.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 17 to 20.
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Anyway, we'll certainly not be dealing with school parties during the summer holidays.
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Our clients for the next three months are mostly family parties
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or groups of friends and I'd like to talk a bit now about the tours we offer
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and what your responsibilities will be.
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Our most popular excursion is the Woodland Tour and Trail.
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Often this is sold out and we have all of our 10 jeeps and convoy with 8 people in each jeep.
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It's a lot of fun.
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These tours really offer a taster of what we can provide.
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So as both driver and guide, it is important that you do a good job here so they come back for the bigger tours.
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I will talk about the commission package later.
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As the summer days are so long, we have three tours each day, but you will not be expected to work on more than two of them.
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Morning tours start at 8am and go to midday
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Afternoon tours are from 2pm to 6pm And then evening ones 7pm to 11pm
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All the tours follow the same route
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And you should have made yourselves familiar with all the key
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information This was provided to you in the information pack you were sent when you accepted the job offer This is important,
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so if you haven't had time yet please do so now.
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Our second most popular tour is the family exclusive.
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This tour is for the whole day and for only one group.
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Usually it is just one jeep but sometimes there are two if the party is large.
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These tours go from 10am till 5pm and include lunch at the Brown Bear in Lower Middleton.
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We have a number of different routes for these tours as
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we don't want our premium clients being made to feel that they are part of a large package deal.
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You will be told which route to take with your weekly schedule.
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Now, I'd like to move on to these specialty tour packages.
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These are the ones that we are keen to book people on once they've done the woodland tour and trail trip.
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That is the end of part two.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now turns to part three.
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Part three.
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You will hear three students discussing a program of activities for new students at a college.
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First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 26.
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Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26.
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So you were both on last year's orientation course then.
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How did it go?
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I loved it.
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The activities were well organised and I met people from all over the world.
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Yes, it was useful.
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And you think I should sign up for this year's course?
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Yes, definitely.
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Apart from being fun, it really does prepare you for all the things you have to do in your first couple of weeks.
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In fact, one of the most useful things was chatting to people who'd already been there for a year, so-called senior students.
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They'd been on the orientation course the year before last and recommended it to us.
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Oh, and there was a great atmosphere at the formal dinner too.
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It was so colourful with people in their traditional dress from Asia, Africa, South America.
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It was one of the high points of the whole week.
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That was right at the end, of course.
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The first thing they did on the Monday was take us on a guided tour of the Students' Union.
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And after that they took us round the city centre, showing us things like the bus station, the main shop...
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And the best pubs.
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Right, so it was very worthwhile.
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Yes, though maybe they could have taken us to a better nightclub.
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The music at the place we went to was lousy.
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That's a matter of taste, surely?
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Well, anyway, the next day they showed us round everything on the campus.
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And believe me, it was everything.
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You must have walked miles.
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I could have done with less information on every building in sight, given that I'll probably never need to go into half of them,
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and a bit more on places everyone's likely to use at some time or other, like the sports block, the health centre, the bicycle and car parks.
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Which reminds me, there was an afternoon session on how to drive in this country, which seemed to me a bit weird, you know, for a university course.
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I suppose it's because there have been accidents involving students who aren't used to people driving on the left.
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I was there, actually.
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How was it?
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Well, I must say I was a bit disappointed.
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There were some useful driving tips, but it might have been more helpful if it had included stuff for pedestrians.
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How to avoid getting run over, for example.
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You didn't go to the session on safety then?
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No. Well, apparently that dealt with road safety for pedestrians, along with lots of other aspects of course.
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I wasn't there myself, but that might be something worth going to, Julia.
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Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 27 to 30.
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Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.
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I like the sound of the whole thing.
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Tell me, what's the accommodation like?
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Do you have a room to yourself or do you have to share?
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What do you have to take with you?
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For the orientation course, you'll have an individual room in one of the halls of residence.
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That'll be a different hall from the one you're booked into for the year.
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But they're both on the campus, so you won't have far to go.
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And you won't have to take much with you.
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The room will have chairs, table, wardrobe, bed, mattress, blankets, sheets and so on.
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Take a warm coat or jacket, though.
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It may well rain, and it's unlikely to reach even 20 degrees in late September.
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But it shouldn't drop below about 10, at least during the day, which is something, I suppose.
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Right.
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Now, I know they can't do much about the weather, but did you have the feeling that they were looking after you on the course?
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Yes, we did.
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There were some little touches that showed they'd thought about what it was like to be starting a course of study abroad.
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Such as?
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Well, it's just a small example, but they gave us free email access to contact people at home.
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30 minutes, if I remember correctly.
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Actually, I think it was 20.
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Yes, you're right.
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I was on for over half an hour and paid for an extra 10 or 15 minutes.
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Not that it was much.
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Emails don't take long to write anyway.
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No, they don't.
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So, just one more thing.
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The timetable.
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When does the course actually start and finish?
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Well, a lot of people get there on the Sunday, though you'd have to find a room for an extra night, as the course accommodation is only booked from the Monday, when things get going.
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Then they'll keep you busy all week until the dinner on the Friday.
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And that's it, is it?
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Yes.
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There's nothing after that.
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Though most people stay over till Saturday, partly to recover from the party, but also because they can then move straight into their permanent rooms.
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I think I'll do that.
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Well, thanks a lot for all your advice.
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I'm sure I'll enjoy the course.
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I wish I could go on this year's too.
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That is the end of Section 3.
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You now have half a minute to check your answers.
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Now turns to part 4.
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Part 4.
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You will hear a biology lecture about tubularia.
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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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I'm glad so many people have shown up here today to hear about these fascinating little creatures called the Turbilaria.
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My name is Dr. Baker, and I've spent 20 years researching thousands of different species of platyhelminths,
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what are commonly known as flatworms, both free-living and parasitic.
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So there are a lot of things I could tell you about these extremely interesting invertebrate, but I will try to keep it short.
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Turbularia are unique amongst flatworms in three ways.
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The first one is that, unlike 80% of all platyhelminths, Turbularia do not need to secure nourishment from a living source source.
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This means that they do not generally parasitize a host, but are instead found living freely in the environment.
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So no need to worry about any of these little samples I've got here escaping and causing havoc.
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The second way in which they're different is that they are, well, they're incredibly simple.
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And by simple I don't mean in terms of structure, as their structure is indeed quite complex and I'll get to that later.
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By simple I mean that they're not the brightest bulbs in the box.
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Flatworms in general are not known for their cognitive abilities, especially when compared with other invertebrates such as cuttlefish or octopuses or even insects.
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But amongst flatworms, turbularia are by far the most primitive of the bunch.
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Finally, and this is a direct result of the first thing I mentioned, turbularia tend to have a much more complicated sensory system in their head region.
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This includes a set of eyes with receptors
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that can detect light as well as chemical sensory organs that assist turbularia in locating food.
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Obviously, as other flatworms receive nutrition directly from their host, they have no need for this.
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Despite these three differences, however, turbularia are quite similar to other flatworms in all sorts of other ways.
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First of all, as their name suggests, they're incredibly flat, which allows them to hide under stones.
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They're symmetrical on both sides and they don't have a body cavity.
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They also don't have any specialized respiratory, skeletal, and circulatory systems.
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What they do have however, and this is what I meant when I referenced their structure before, is three layers known as the endoderm,
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the mesoderm, and the ectoderm, as well as a head region where their brain and sense organs are located,
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and a spongy connective tissue that fills all the space between their organs.
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Finally, like most species of flatworms, they're hermaphrodites.
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This means that a single flatworm has a set of each gender.
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But don't take this to mean they reproduce alone.
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Their preferred method of reproduction is called cross-fertilization, which means that each flatworm fertilizes the other.
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I mentioned before that most flatworms need a host, but Turbillaria feed from the environment.
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So what do they feed on?
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Most Turbillaria can be found either in fresh or salt water, and they feed on small insects, microscopic matter, and crustaceans.
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They will pretty much eat anything they find.
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They have no preference on whether their food is living or dead.
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Also, and this is the most remarkable part about their eating habits,
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if they ever find themselves in a situation where food is scarce, they might also feed on themselves.
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That's right, they'll start eating their own body, starting with the least essential muscles and organs and working their way up.
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They will shrink in size until they're able to find food again, at which point they'll begin to regenerate everything they've lost.
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One final thing about food, and apologies in advance if I discussed you, Turbularia don't possess an anus, which means that their mouth,
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which is a muscular opening on the underside of their body has to serve as one.
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Before I finish this presentation, one more thing you've probably heard before but weren't sure if it was a myth or not.
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I mentioned already that Turbularia can reproduce on their own, but there's a second method they can use, which is known as fission.
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Now, as a child, you were probably told that if you cut a worm in half, it will grow into two new worms.
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That's not entirely true, but flatworms are not worms exactly, and they do have the ability to regenerate by splitting into two,
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perhaps even more smaller parts, at which point each part regrows the missing organs and becomes a brand new Turbularian.
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Now this is extremely important for us, and this is how I'd like to close this presentation, because their ability to regenerate endlessly makes them virtually immortal,
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and it might open pathways to regeneration in human cells or slowing the human aging process, which is why scientists like myself have been studying these unique
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creatures hoping to get some answers thank you for listening
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and please come along to see me and my samples
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if you have any further questions
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that is the end of part four you now have half a minute to check your answers
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The End
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I'm going to get my hands on me
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I love
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you, too, too I love you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 284 sentences and 3159 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:04. The speaker talks at a steady 117 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% 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
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- laptop /ˈlæp.tɑp/ (noun) — A laptop computer.
- organ /ˈɔːɡən/ (noun) — The larger part of an organism, composed of tissues that perform similar functions.
- carefully /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ (adverb) — With care; attentively, circumspectly.
- package /ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/ (noun) — Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope.
- orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — The determination of the relative position of something or someone.
- advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/ (noun) — A commercial solicitation designed to sell some commodity, service or similar.
- worm /wɝm/ (noun) — A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
- trail /tɹeɪl/ (noun) — The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the…
- incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ (adverb) — In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
- amongst /əˈmʌŋst/ — Denotes a mingling or intermixing with distinct or separable objects. See usage note at amidst.
- presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/ (noun) — The act of presenting, or something presented.
- climb /ˈklaɪ̯m/ (verb) — To traverse a slope or contour, either upwards (ascending) or downwards (descending).
- wireless /ˈwaɪ(jə)ɹ.ləs/ (adjective) — Not having any wires.
- accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — Lodging in a dwelling or similar living quarters afforded to travellers in hotels or on cruise ships, or students, etc.
- visitor /ˈvɪzɪtɚ/ (noun) — Someone who visits someone else; someone staying as a guest.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- set up /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ (verb) — To make ready for use.
- take with (verb) — To take something and bring it along
- ask for (verb) — To request; to order.
- bear in (verb) — To move quickly and sharply in an inward direction during a race; to veer in.
- book into (verb) — Synonym of book in.
- build in /bɪldˈɪn/ (verb) — to add components to a larger entity without interfering with the purpose or functionality of the larger entity
- come for (verb) — To search for someone with the intent to apprehend or cause harm.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 73 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'll, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: myth /mɪθ/, pathway /ˈpæθˌweɪ/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, sheet /ʃit/, tissue /ˈtɪʃ.(j)u/
- Long words — get the stress right: orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, accommodation /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/
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 laptop, organ, carefully.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If you send the picture, I'll add |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | been told · was set · were born |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | one which is · hours, which is · there which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't had · they've done · have been |
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.