Solution for: CBT Listening Test 18: Membership Level Banefits

NARRATOR: You will hear a number of different recordings and you will have to answer questions on what you hear. There will be time for you to read the instructions and questions and you will have a chance to check your work. All the recordings will be played once only. The test is in four sections. At the end of the test, you will be given ten minutes to transfer your answers to an answer sheet. Now turn to Section 1. Section 1. You will hear a conversation between a representative whose name is Dawn and a prospective member of an automobile club. First, you have some time to look at Questions 1 to 6.

[Pause to read Questions 1-6.]

NARRATOR: You will see that there is an example that has been done for you. On this occasion only, the conversation relating to this will be played first.

DAWN: Good morning, my name is Dawn Buffet; how can I help you?

GAVIN: Good morning, Dawn. I'd like to join the club.
DAWN: Wonderful. Now, have you ever been a member before?

GAVIN: Yes, I joined after I left college and I was a member for seven years before I let my membership lapse when I went abroad.

NARRATOR: Gavin was a member for seven years, so seven has to be written in the space. Now we shall begin. You should answer the questions as you listen because you will not hear the recording a second time. Listen carefully and answer Questions 1 to 6.

DAWN: Good morning, my name is Dawn Buffet; how can I help you?

GAVIN: Good morning, Dawn. I'd like to join the club.
DAWN: Wonderful. Now, have you ever been a member before?

GAVIN: Yes, I joined after I left college and I was a member for seven years before I let my membership lapse when I went abroad.

DAWN: Do you have your old membership card?

GAVIN: No, sorry. I threw it out when I moved.

DAWN: Have you got any other form of identification on you?

GAVIN: I've got my driver's licence and my passport and a couple of bankcards.

DAWN: The licence will be perfect.

GAVIN: Here you are.
DAWN: Thank you. Oh, the photo is not a very good likeness, is it?

GAVIN: No, I've shaved off the beard and cut my hair since that was taken.

DAWN: I'm going to have to make a note of some of these details and I'd like you to correct me if any of them have changed. Obviously, the number here will be the same: AY916310.

GAVIN: Look, you've copied it down wrongly—it's AY196310.

DAWN: Thank you. I'm glad you picked that up; now....Family name...Black; and other names...Gavin Raymond.

GAVIN: Yes.
DAWN: And you were born on the 22nd of January 1973.

GAVIN: That's correct.

DAWN: Can I just remind you that you'll need to renew your licence by the 19th of May 2012—you wouldn't believe the number of people who get caught out with an expired licence.

GAVIN: Thank you. I must admit, although I carry it around in my wallet, I wasn't really aware of that.
DAWN: Not many people are. I've been caught out myself. Now, I can see that you're one of those who has opted out of having an address printed on the card...and I can understand that. Personally, I think it's better security not to have it—in case your wallet gets stolen, for example.

GAVIN: I agree.

DAWN: Can you give me your current address for our records?

GAVIN: Yes, of course. I live at 29 Sunset Street, Meadowbank.
DAWN: Thanks. Actually, my uncle lives in the same street. It's a very nice area, isn't it?

GAVIN: Yes, pretty good.

DAWN: Now, you've got three classes of licence: motorcar, motorbike and heavy vehicle. Do you want to be covered for all three?

GAVIN: Oh, not any more. I had a motorbike when I was a student and then, before I went abroad, I worked as a truck driver for a while but I never want to do that again. These days you'll only find me behind the wheel of a car.
DAWN: Well, that's all done—now for one final question?

GAVIN: What's that?

DAWN: I need to ask you whether you've ever had any driving or other convictions or endorsements on your licence.

GAVIN: Well, I've had a few parking tickets.

DAWN: We don't count those.

GAVIN: And...I haven't had any endorsements...but I do have a dangerous driving conviction from back in 1993. I was young and inexperienced and going too fast in wet weather and I slid off the road and hit a power pole.
DAWN: Well, I have to make a note of that but you're lucky—because it's over 15 years ago, it won't be held against you.

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at Questions 7 to 10.

[Pause to read Questions 7-10.]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer Questions 7 to 10.

DAWN: We've changed quite a lot here at the Royal Car Club since you were last a member.

GAVIN: Oh?

DAWN: We now have four different levels of membership starting at Blue, then moving through Bronze to Gold.

GAVIN: What does that mean exactly?
DAWN: Well, you get a different level of service and different benefits depending on what you choose. Of course that is reflected in the annual fee—the more benefits, the higher the fee.

GAVIN: I see.

DAWN: The Standard Club Care comes with a 5% discount at Bronze level and a 7.5% discount at Silver level.

GAVIN: And Gold?

DAWN: If you own more than one car, I'd recommend the Gold level because you only pay half the fee on your first vehicle.

GAVIN: I'm not sure I need that.
DAWN: Well, Bronze and Silver have 10 and 20 dollars off the Insurance fee but with the Gold membership... say you had an accident and your car was badly damaged or off the road for any length of time...you'd be eligible for car hire at no extra cost.

GAVIN: Mmm, that's good.
DAWN: There's one more thing. If you need to borrow money to purchase a new car, we offer personal loans at a reduction off the general applicable rate. These start at point two five percent, go up to half a percent Bronze level and increase to point seven five percent at the next level. Gold has a whopping 1.25 percent reduction on the applicable rate.

GAVIN: Well, that is something I should consider perhaps. Thanks for your help, I'll think it over and let you know.

NARRATOR: That is the end of Section 1. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[Pause to check answers.]

NARRATOR: Now turn to Section 2. Section 2. You will hear a guide at the Summerland Tourist Attraction talking to a group of visitors. First, you have some time to look at Questions 11 to 16.

[Pause to read Questions 11-16.]

NARRATOR: Listen carefully and answer Questions 11 to 16.

GUIDE: Welcome to Summerland; I'm your guide, Jacquie, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about what we do and have here before I take you on a tour of the facilities.

GUIDE: In our air-conditioned restaurant we can cater for anyone from the individual diner to families and tour groups but we also do functions such as weddings, conferences, birthday parties and so on. We have a delicious modern menu on offer in the restaurant—or perhaps you'd prefer to sit outside in the courtyard overlooking the lush, tropical gardens—and, for those booking a function, we devise an interesting set menu according to the type of celebration and the client's budget.

GUIDE: If formal dining isn't what you're after, we operate a take-away food bar which has a range of light snacks and refreshments—just the thing if you're supervising children in the playground. The playground and picnic area makes a great alternative to the beach—if you've remembered to bring your bathing suit and a towel, you can cool off in the water spray park. Parents can sit back, relax and enjoy a coffee while the kids have fun in our fully-fenced, shady playground and picnic area.

GUIDE: What a way to make the most of the warmth and sunshine we have here in abundance!

GUIDE: The older children will love to visit the Historic Cottage with their parents. This was the original homestead on the property and is now preserved as a museum with an educational DVD and cinema room. You'll find the information centre here also and you'll be able to pick up some glossy brochures to take home with you and show your friends.

GUIDE: Don't worry—we have more than enough leaflets for you to take home. Visit the Gift Shop and you'll find an enormous variety of local products, fine foods and handicrafts on sale. Some say that this is the best displayed and priced shop in the region. There is more to be admired (and purchased) in the Garden Nursery which has an extensive range of flower pots, indoor and outdoor plants, statues and all kinds of other garden accessories to adorn any home or garden.

GUIDE: While we're on the topic of gifts and such, I must mention the Wood Crafting Shed and urge you to take a look at the amazing products that the wood crafting team produces there. You'll be able to watch them at work and buy anything they've made. The toys they produce are not only original but some of the finest craftwork you'll ever see. Take your little ones by the hand and keep an eye on them because they'll want to play with these but they can't be played with unless they're paid for.

GUIDE: Last but not least are the orchards. The Summerland Tourist Attraction is actually a working farm with over 40 hectares of macadamia and avocado trees. The macadamia nuts are picked by machine from April through to September. The avocados are grown, hand harvested, packed and marketed on site.

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at Questions 17 to 20.

[Pause to read Questions 17-20.]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer Questions 17 to 20.

GUIDE: Now, are you all set for the tour? We'll leave the car park and walk in an easterly direction towards the administration building with the parking spaces outside. We won't go into the admin building because there's nothing much to see there; instead, we'll walk in a north-easterly direction towards the museum but before we get to it we're going to turn right, walk past it, and go into that enormous building to watch how the avocados are graded and packed.

GUIDE: Well, what did you think of that? Those packers have to work very fast as you can see. Now as we come out of this building we'll go to our left and around the back towards the cool room. Of course this is where all the fruit is stored after packing—there are a lot of boxes of fruit in there—nothing very interesting to look at, but we will stop at the other building to see how they make the cardboard cartons.

GUIDE: See how everything is mechanized so there is very little labour involved? I'm intrigued by how those machines operate just like clockwork.

GUIDE: It does get very hot in there, though, doesn't it, which makes the thought of a peek inside the cool room quite attractive. But, no, we'll skip that and make towards the building in the far north-eastern corner of the facility where they take the husks off the macadamia nuts. It's quite noisy but absolutely fascinating.

GUIDE: Now, we'll take a shortcut heading west through the orchard to the woodcrafters' workroom and shop and I'll give you a few minutes to browse. Take note of where this is because I'm sure you'll want to come back here later this afternoon in your free time....

GUIDE: Is everyone still with us? Right, let's go south now and take a leisurely walk through the picnic and playground area with the water feature but we want to end up over at the garden shop at the northern end of the car park. We'll have to walk through the little gift shop first to gain access to the garden shop and I'm sure you won't be able to resist getting some nice little presents for the folks at home.

GUIDE: Are you ready for lunch now? I know it's been a whirlwind tour but the restaurant has us booked in for 12.30 and after that you're free to take your time wandering around until the bus leaves at 3 p.m.

NARRATOR: That is the end of Section 2. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[Pause to check answers.]

NARRATOR: Now turn to Section 3. Section 3. You will hear a conversation between a lecturer and two horticulture students who are preparing a display for a science fair. First, you have some time to look at Questions 21 to 25.

[Pause to read Questions 21-25.]

NARRATOR: Listen carefully and answer Questions 21 to 25.

LECTURER: Good morning Annie, Tony. How are you?

ANNIE: Fine, thanks.

LECTURER: Well, tell me what you have here.

ANNIE: We thought we'd look at different methods of hydroculture.

LECTURER: Uh huh.
TONY: In the true hydroponics method the roots are bathed with water and nutrient solution while support for the plant must be provided above the container.

LECTURER: And...alternatively?

ANNIE: Alternatively, the plants can grow with their roots in a substratum such as sand, vermiculite or LECA granules.

TONY: LECA stands for Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate and vermiculite is...
LECTURER: Thank you Tony, I know what vermiculite is...but you should be prepared to give details about all these things to the visitors. Can you explain what the advantage of LECA is over traditional soil?

TONY: It's a natural product...manufactured from clay...it's colourful, lightweight and...perfect for allergy sufferers.

LECTURER: That's right. Now tell me why.

ANNIE: Because it's clean and hygienic, bacteria and soil diseases don't get a chance.
LECTURER: Well, you could say that on this chart here... "Ideal for household plants".

ANNIE: And we'll point out that the growing medium itself makes no contribution to feeding, which is provided in solution with the water.

LECTURER: Good, now tell me what you've got here.
ANNIE: This is a simple version of the first method, using a wide-necked jar which we've filled with water and nutrients, leaving space at the top. As the roots need to be in darkness we'll cover the sides of the glass with brown paper later.

LECTURER: How did you get the plant through the cork?

TONY: We made a hole through the centre and cut the cork in half so we could fit it around the plant stem and we padded the hole with cotton wool.
LECTURER: That's a good demonstration of the principle involved, and ideal for a house plant but many people will want to see a wider application—what about more plants?

ANNIE: We haven't quite finished the preparation yet, but over here you can see a bigger container—in fact, any wide container can be used—with the nutrient solution in the bottom, air space above...and then we've made a rigid lid and we've covered that with a layer of litter.

LECTURER: What have you used for litter?
ANNIE: We've used wood shavings...

LECTURER: Untreated?

ANNIE: Definitely. That's most important—you can use a variety of materials for litter but obviously nothing toxic and treated timber contains some nasty chemicals so, if you're using sawdust or wood shavings, they have to be from natural timber.

LECTURER: A good point...

TONY: Yes, we'll make a note of that when we list possible ingredients for litter.
LECTURER: Be sure to explain the purpose of the rigid lid—it's wire mesh, isn't it?—and why the litter layer is important too.

ANNIE: Well, the mesh is just a platform to keep the litter out of the water and the primary function of the litter is to exclude light from the root space...

NARRATOR: Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at Questions 26 to 30.

[Pause to read Questions 26-30.]

NARRATOR: Now listen and answer Questions 26 to 30.

LECTURER: Mmm. What you have so far is ideal for the home or office but what about commercial applications?
TONY: Well, we're going to demonstrate the nutrient film technique which is popular with some commercial growers, particularly for the cultivation of crops such as runner beans and tomatoes. Producers would really like to see some innovation in the cultivation of potatoes and yams too but obviously this technique is only suitable for those crops which grow above ground.

LECTURER: What about peas?
TONY: Well, we found peas were awfully tricky to grow using this method although we're still unsure as to the reason.

LECTURER: Where's the exhibit? I don't see it anywhere.

ANNIE: Well, that's because we haven't finished it yet because we're going to have to procure some mature plants first. We didn't think far enough ahead to have started them off earlier. And when we do get them, we'll have to handle them carefully.
TONY: Yes, because when our model is finished, you'll see how the plants are held in position by a plastic tube which almost encloses them completely and is quite loosely fastened around the stems.

LECTURER: Ye..es, and the feeding or watering system?

ANNIE: Well, it's a bit different—on a large scale like this, you need to have the food solution trickle down through the tubes...

TONY: Yes, but the solution must also be rich in oxygen...

LECTURER: And what—it just bathes the roots?
TONY: That's one way of doing it.

LECTURER: What's the other way?

TONY: You can have the solution moistening a substratum of rock wool at the bottom of the container.

LECTURER: Rock wool?

TONY: It's the same as mineral wool—you know a lightweight, fibrous material—the kind of thing used for insulation. Or, you can use a layer of paper fibre.

LECTURER: Oh, yes...something that has the capacity to absorb the solution, right?
ANNIE: Well, you do need to experiment a little. For example, we tried coconut fibre...

TONY: But it just didn't have the properties we were looking for...

LECTURER: I see.

TONY: In our display you'll only see the basics—the kind of thing that can be done at home in the back yard, but commercial enterprises do need a lot more equipment and the media used in substrata are constantly changing as new developments are made. The cost of upgrading is ongoing.
ANNIE: And there's always the potential of outright failure when changing systems from one you know and understand to an innovative one.

LECTURER: Of course. There's no room for guesswork in business—you have to try to get everything right first time.

NARRATOR: That is the end of Section 3. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[Pause to check answers.]

NARRATOR: Now turn to Section 4. Section 4. You will hear a talk given by a guest lecturer in the Continuing Education Department. First, you have some time to look at Questions 31 to 40.

[Pause to read Questions 31-40.]

NARRATOR: Listen carefully and answer Questions 31 to 40.

LECTURER: Good evening. I'd like to thank the Continuing Education Department for hosting this series of lectures on "People behind the names you thought were fiction". Welcome to this talk on "The Grand Old Duke of York".

LECTURER: I'm sure you're all familiar with the old nursery rhyme: The Grand Old Duke of York. He had ten thousand men. He marched them up to the top of the hill. And he marched them down again, and so on.

LECTURER: But did you know that the Duke of York immortalized in this popular song was actually Frederick Augustus, second son of King George the Third of England and Queen Charlotte? He achieved fame in this way because of the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the French during the Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 18th century.

LECTURER: Frederick was born on the 16th of August 1763 and from the age of seventeen he had been trained as a soldier. When war broke out between England and France in 1793, his father, the king, insisted that he should command the British contingent that was being dispatched to Flanders to co-operate with the Austrians and the Dutch.

LECTURER: The Duke was a brave soldier, but, remember, he was only thirty at the time; not only was he young but he was also inexperienced in battle and was unable to cope with the enthusiastic French Revolutionary Army. He was let down by his allies too, and in spite of the arrival of ten thousand fresh troops from England, his campaigns were a disaster.

LECTURER: He was driven out of Dunkirk in September 1793, Flanders in May 1794, and Belgium in July 1794. Finally, during the winter of 1794 to 1795, his army retreated to the border of Hanover. And...with his unsuccessful campaigns over, the Duke returned to England. It was after this military fiasco that the Duke of York came to be(rather unkindly) satirized in song.

LECTURER: Would you believe, despite all this, King George the Third arranged his son's promotion to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the army in 1798? And, in the following year, he was appointed to command an army sent to invade Holland. Again he was unsuccessful and this confirmed the general opinion that he was not capable of commanding an army in the field.

LECTURER: Nevertheless, the rhyme is a bit cruel and harsh because it doesn't take into account the nature of the soldiers who served with Frederick. All the blame for lack of success should not have been attached to the Duke alone because the army he had under his command was made up from what is commonly described as "the scum of the earth"—this is a somewhat offensive term used to refer to a group of people regarded as despicable and worthless.

LECTURER: Who were they—these ordinary soldiers? Well, they were mostly vicious, brutal ex-convicts or raw recruits and elderly men. The officers who commanded them were all untrained as military men. In fact, they were anybody who could afford to buy a commission.

LECTURER: Um, but here's the really great thing that, unfortunately, the Duke of York is not remembered for: he realized that this was a hopeless kind of army and he set about improving conditions in order to recruit higher quality soldiers.

LECTURER: He introduced padres—are you familiar with the term? No? Well, let me explain...you see, members of the British Armed Forces are generally Christians of one denomination or another, and a padre is a Christian cleric or chaplain who ministers to the soldiers and attends to their spiritual needs without belonging to any particular grouping within the Christian faith.

LECTURER: Now, where was I? Yes, Frederick introduced padres, doctors and veterinary surgeons to the battlefield. Why vets? To attend to the horses, of course! Remember we're talking about late 18th century battlefields.

LECTURER: He was also the founder of the Royal Military College for the training of officers at Sandhurst—yes, the very same one where the princes and other members of the royal family receive their military training today! Frederick also founded the Duke of York's School in London for sons of soldiers killed in battle. His name is perhaps better commemorated by this school in Chelsea than by the column that stands at the top of Waterloo Steps in St. James's Park.

LECTURER: In 1807, the Duke was involved in a scandal with a woman and as a result resigned as Commander-in-Chief but he was reinstated in 1811 by his elder brother, the Prince Regent, who later became George the Fourth of England. He continued in this post until his death in 1827.

NARRATOR: That is the end of Section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[Pause to check answers.]

NARRATOR: That is the end of the listening test. You now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to the listening answer sheet.