Cambridge IELTS 12 Listening Test 3 answers for all forty questions are set out on this page, with the official key, playable audio for all four sections, an explanation for every question and complete transcripts. The paper opens with Paul phoning Susie about the improvements at the re-opened town library, moves to a BC Travel training session on specialised activity holidays, continues with Natalie and Dave preparing a case study on the Horton Castle site, and closes with a lecture on mercury pollution in birds.

Every explanation quotes the line from the recording that proves the answer, so you can see why each word or letter scores and why the distractors fail. Read the Section 1 strategy before the opening phone call, the Section 3 strategy for the two-speaker discussion, and the Section 4 strategy for the closing lecture, then sit the whole paper in one sitting without pausing and mark it honestly against the key.

Section Walkthroughs

• Library Improvements Call (Questions 1–10) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• BC Travel Specialised Holidays Training (Questions 11–20) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Case Study Preparation Discussion (Questions 21–30) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section
• Mercury Pollution in Birds (Questions 31–40) — audio, answers and a full transcript for this section

Section 1 — Library Improvements Call

Questions 1–10

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

Section 1 Answer Explanations

1. travel — Paul plans the family trip to Greece, and Susie answers, “we’ve got a much larger section of the library devoted to travel books now”. The note’s expanded section for books is completed by travel, because much larger paraphrases expanded. Magazines fail because they belong to the seating area already printed in the notes.

2. history — Carol’s school project on the town a century ago cues the answer: “we’ve now got a new section with materials on the history of the town”. Local in the note means the town and surrounding region, so history fills the gap. Reference books fail because those now sit “in the main part of the library”.

3. study — the community room has two uses, and Susie gives the second: “at other times people can use it to study”. Meetings are already printed in the note, so the verb gap after possible to takes study, while hire fails because hiring covers only the meeting use.

4. teenagers — Susie describes “a special section of fiction written specially for teenagers”. The note’s a new section of books for is completed by teenagers, and Paul’s own children fail as the answer because they are “a bit young for that”.

5. kitchen — the Science Club plan is “experiments with stuff that everyone has in the kitchen”. The note’s using things from your paraphrases stuff that everyone has in the, so kitchen completes the line. Sugar and flour are only the examples found inside the kitchen, not the place itself.

6. crime — the author talk gives the evidence: “she based the story on a crime that actually took place here years ago”. The note’s a novel based on a real is completed by crime, because took place here years ago means real. The novel title ‘Catch the Mouse’ is a distractor and breaks the ONE WORD limit anyway.

7. appointment — IT support runs on Tuesday mornings, and the key line is “they don’t need to make an appointment or anything, they just turn up”. The note’s no … is necessary takes appointment, because turning up without booking means no appointment is needed. Tuesday is the day already printed beside the gap.

8. sugar — the check-up description runs “measure the level of sugar in your blood, and they check cholesterol levels at the same time”. Cholesterol is already printed in the note, so the blood gap takes sugar. The over-60s rule is the condition printed after the gap, not the answer.

9. stamps — the shop stock list is “things like wallcharts and greetings cards, and also stamps”. Wallcharts and cards already appear in the note, leaving stamps for the gap, and “so you can post the cards straightaway” explains why the library sells them.

10. parking — Paul asks the closing question directly: “is there parking available?”. Susie confirms with “it’s free in the evening and at weekends”, matching the note’s evenings and weekends line, so the free gap is completed by parking. Car and weekend are words already given in the note.

Section 2 — BC Travel Specialised Holidays Training

Questions 11–12

Choose TWO letters, A-E .

11–12. Which TWO age groups are taking increasing numbers of holidays with BC Travel? 16-30 years 31-42 years 43-54 years 55-64 years over 65 years

• A — 16-30 years
• B — 31-42 years
• C — 43-54 years
• D — 55-64 years
• E — over 65 years

Questions 13–14

Choose TWO letters, A-E .

13–14. Which TWO are the main reasons given for the popularity of activity holidays? Clients make new friends. Clients learn a useful skill. Clients learn about a different culture. Clients are excited by the risk involved. Clients find them good value for money.

• A — Clients make new friends.
• B — Clients learn a useful skill.
• C — Clients learn about a different culture.
• D — Clients are excited by the risk involved.
• E — Clients find them good value for money.

Questions 15–17

Choose the correct letter, A , B or C .

15. How does BC Travel plan to expand the painting holidays? by adding to the number of locations by increasing the range of levels by employing more teachers

• A — by adding to the number of locations
• B — by increasing the range of levels
• C — by employing more teachers

16. Why are BC Travel’s cooking holidays unusual? They only use organic foods. They have an international focus. They mainly involve vegetarian dishes.

• A — They only use organic foods.
• B — They have an international focus.
• C — They mainly involve vegetarian dishes.

17. What does the speaker say about the photography holidays? Clients receive individual tuition. The tutors are also trained guides. Advice is given on selling photographs.

• A — Clients receive individual tuition.
• B — The tutors are also trained guides.
• C — Advice is given on selling photographs.

Questions 18–20

Complete the table below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

Section 2 Answer Explanations

11. D (55-64 years) — the speaker tracks each age band, and this one rises: “there’s a noticeable growth in the number of holidays taken by the 55 to 64-year-olds”. Growth means an increasing number of holidays, which is exactly what the question asks for.

12. E (over 65 years) — the second growing market is introduced at the start: “the over-65s are an important market, and one that’s increasing steadily year on year”. Increasing steadily confirms rising numbers. The 16-30s fail because “this group’s also seen the biggest drop over the last few years”, the 31-42s fail because “The fewest holidays are taken by the 31 to 42-year-olds”, and the 43-54s fail because “bookings there are steady, but I have to say we haven’t seen the increase we expected”.

13. A (Clients make new friends.) — the main draw is stated plainly: “it’s the chance to create lasting relationships with other like-minded people that’s the main draw”. Creating lasting relationships paraphrases making new friends, so A is one of the two answers.

14. C (Clients learn about a different culture.) — activity holidays sit outside the main tourist centres, “which gives an opportunity for clients to find out more about the local people and customs”. Finding out about local people and customs is learning about a different culture. B fails because the new skill is downgraded with “clients often say that more than this”, D fails because “I’m not talking here about adventure holidays”, and E fails because “They’re not necessarily cheaper than ordinary holidays, often the opposite, in fact”.

15. C (by employing more teachers) — the expansion plan is staffing: “five additional ones will be joining us this year so that we can offer a greater number of classes in each centre”. The additional ones are the artists who lead the classes, so more teachers is the change. A fails because the holidays still “take place in four different centres in France and Italy”, and B fails because all abilities are already served, as they are “very popular with clients of all abilities from beginners onwards”.

16. B (They have an international focus.) — other agents’ clients “cook recipes related to one particular country, usually the one they’re staying in, but we focus on dishes from a great many different ones”. Dishes from many countries is an international focus. A fails because organic produce is “the usual emphasis on good quality, organic ingredients”, and C fails because there are only “generally some meat-free recipes included”, not mainly vegetarian dishes.

17. A (Clients receive individual tuition.) — the group size guarantees personal teaching: “Groups are small, no more than eight, so clients can have one-on-one tuition”. One-on-one paraphrases individual. B fails because “excursions are arranged with fully-trained guides”, who run the trips while tutors teach, and C fails because the closing exhibition lets clients “receive valuable feedback from the tutor”, with nothing said about selling photographs.

18. stress — the Ireland and Italy row is general fitness, and its extra benefit is that clients end up “losing much of the stress they’ve built up in their daily lives”. Losing paraphrases the table’s reduces, so stress completes the personally designed programme line. The consultation with a trainer only opens the course.

19. weight — the Greece holiday is “a two-week holiday for clients who want to do something about their weight”, so the table’s main focus is weight control. The diet programme and “the exercise classes are all held on the beach” are features printed or paraphrased elsewhere in the row, not the missing word.

20. families — the Morocco mountain biking row is completed by “We offer one which is tailored to the needs of families”. Tailored to the needs of paraphrases specially designed for, so families fills the gap. The variety of levels comes from “different routes according to people’s ability”, which is already printed in the row.

Section 3 — Case Study Preparation Discussion

Questions 21–26

Complete the flow-chart below

Choose SIX answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-H , next to Questions.

↓

• A. patterns
• B. names
• C. sources
• D. questions
• E. employees
• F. solutions
• G. headings
• H. officials

Questions 27–30

Choose the correct letter, A , B or C .

• The Horton Castle site

27. Natalie and Dave agree one reason why so few people visit Horton Castle is that the publicity is poor. it is difficult to get to. there is little there of interest.

• A — the publicity is poor.
• B — it is difficult to get to.
• C — there is little there of interest.

28. Natalie and Dave agree that the greatest problem with a visitor centre could be covering the investment costs. finding a big enough space for it. dealing with planning restrictions.

• A — covering the investment costs.
• B — finding a big enough space for it.
• C — dealing with planning restrictions.

29. What does Dave say about conditions in the town of Horton? There is a lot of unemployment. There are few people of working age. There are opportunities for skilled workers.

• A — There is a lot of unemployment.
• B — There are few people of working age.
• C — There are opportunities for skilled workers.

30. According to Natalie, one way to prevent damage to the castle site would be to insist visitors have a guide. make visitors keep to the paths. limit visitor numbers.

• A — insist visitors have a guide.
• B — make visitors keep to the paths.
• C — limit visitor numbers.

Section 3 Answer Explanations

21. C (sources) — Natalie has “found some articles and made notes of the main points”, and Dave’s check question is the key: “keep a record of where you got the information from”. Where the information came from means its sources, the matching word from the box. Questions fails because the interview stage comes later in the chart.

22. E (employees) — the first interview group is Natalie’s own suggestion: “The people who work there?”. Dave confirms “both those groups”, the staff and the tourists, so the people who work there means the site employees. Officials fail here because Dave places that group away from the site.

23. H (officials) — Dave widens the interview list beyond the site: “contact some people here in the city, like administrators involved in overseeing tourism”. Administrators who oversee tourism are officials, which is the box word the chart’s example points to. Employees fail because that group is interviewed at the castle itself.

24. B (names) — Dr Baker’s requirement is “whether we can identify them in our case study, or whether they want to be anonymous”. Identify them means print their names, and anonymous is the opposite choice printed beside the gap, so names completes the line. Numerical data and photographs are separate requests that fail the identification gap.

25. A (patterns) — the analysis stage is defined by Dave: “analyse that carefully to find out if we can identify any trends or regularities there”. Trends and regularities both paraphrase patterns, the word from the box. Headings fail because they belong to the writing stage, and details fail because Dave rejects “concentrating on details or lots of facts”.

26. F (solutions) — the ending is the surprise Dave flags: “in a normal report we’d end with some suggestions to deal with the problem or need we identified, but in a case study we end up with a question or a series of questions to our readers”. Suggestions that deal with the problem are solutions, so the chart’s do NOT end with takes solutions, because readers decide instead.

27. A (the publicity is poor.) — the access theory is rejected first: “that report was actually written ten years ago” and the road “that’s been improved now”. Dave then settles the agreed reason: “you’d never realise it from the castle website – maybe that’s the problem”, and Natalie agrees that “it’s really dry and boring”. C fails because Dave insists “there’s plenty of fascinating stuff there for a really good day out”.

28. C (dealing with planning restrictions.) — Natalie names the hardest obstacle: “it’d need to get special planning permission, I expect. That might be hard”, and Dave adds that “the only possible place for it would be at the entrance”. A fails because the cost is answered by “it could be a really good investment”, and B fails because no space shortage is ever discussed.

29. B (There are few people of working age.) — Dave describes Horton as “a bit of a ghost town”: “the young people all get out as fast as they can to get jobs in the city, and the only people left are children and those who’ve retired”. With only children and retired people left, few residents are of working age. A fails because unemployment is never mentioned, and C fails because the skilled workers are exactly the people who leave.

30. B (make visitors keep to the paths.) — Natalie’s protection measure is explicit: “there might have to be some restrictions, like sticking to marked ways”. Sticking to marked ways means keeping to the paths. A fails because “guides and wardens around to make sure these were enforced” police the rule rather than accompany every visitor, and C fails because “if numbers increase, there might have to be some restrictions” sets the condition, not the measure itself.

Section 4 — Mercury Pollution in Birds

Questions 31–40

Complete the notes below.

Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

• The effects of environmental change on birds
• Mercury (Hg)
• Highly toxic
• Released into the atmosphere from coal
• In water it may be consumed by fish
• It has also recently been found to affect birds which feed on 31 …………
• Research on effects of mercury on birds
• Claire Varian-Ramos is investigating
• – the effects on birds’ 32 ………… or mental processes, e.g. memory
• – the effects on bird song (usually learned from a bird’s 33 ………… )
• Findings:
• – songs learned by birds exposed to mercury are less 34 …………
• – this may have a negative effect on birds’ 35 …………
• Lab-based studies
• – allow more 36 ………… for the experimenter
• Implications for humans
• Migrating birds such as 37 ………… containing mercury may be eaten by humans
• Mercury also causes problems in learning 38 …………
• Mercury in a mother’s body from 39 ………… may affect the unborn child
• New regulations for mercury emissions will affect everyone’s energy 40 …………

Section 4 Answer Explanations

31. insects — the new finding is the point of the sentence: “what wasn’t known until quite recently is that those that eat insects can also be affected”. Fish fails because it has long been known that “birds which eat fish may be affected”, and the note asks for the recent addition, so insects fills the gap.

32. behaviour — Varian-Ramos studies sub-effects, not deaths: “rather than looking at how many birds are actually killed by mercury poisoning, she’s looking for more subtle sub-effects”. The note pairs the gap with brain function, and the lecture gives “these may be to do with the behaviour of the birds”, so behaviour completes the pair.

33. father — song learning has one teacher: “a young bird seems to acquire this skill by listening to the songs produced by its father, rather than by any other bird”. The phrase rather than by any other bird rules out any wider answer, so the young bird learns from its father.

34. complex — the research finding is comparative: “then the songs they produce aren’t as complex as those produced by other birds”. The note’s less needs the adjective the recording negates, and not as complex turns into less complex, so complex fills the gap after less.

35. reproduction — the damage runs through mate choice: exposed males are “less attractive to female birds, and so it can affect their chances of reproduction”. Attractiveness is the mechanism printed in the note, while the outcome word the gap needs is reproduction.

36. control — the laboratory advantage is spelled out: “you don’t get all the variables you would in a natural setting, so the experimenter has a much higher level of control”. Fewer variables produce higher control, and the note’s greater gap takes control, not variables.

37. ducks — migration carries mercury away from its source: “it’s been found that ducks who’d been feeding at a contaminated site were later shot by hunters over a thousand kilometres away”. The note’s migrating birds such as points to the named species, ducks. Hunters and the distance are details of the story, not the bird.

38. language — the human parallel to bird song is direct: “in humans, mercury causes developmental delays in the acquisition of language”. Delays in acquisition match the note’s development, so language is the missing word, and the shared brain regions and genes confirm the comparison.

39. food — the risk before birth is dietary: “an unborn child can be affected if the food eaten by its mother contains high levels of mercury”. The note’s gap after the mother’s takes food, because the mother’s eating is the route of contamination.

40. costs — the closing trade-off is financial: “new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants” will “need billions of dollars to implement, and increase costs for everyone”. The note’s energy gap takes costs, the word the recording attaches to everyone. Billions of dollars and wildlife are surrounding arguments, not the missing noun.

Cambridge IELTS 12 Listening Test 3 Answers

Questions and Answers

Listening Transcripts

Section 1 Transcript

SUSIE: Hello?

PAUL: Hi, Susie, it’s Paul here. How are you? Enjoying your new job? You’re working at the library, aren’t you?

SUSIE: Yes. I started when the library re-opened a month ago. It’s great.

PAUL: Actually Carol and I have been meaning to join for a while.

SUSIE: Oh, you should. It doesn’t cost anything, and the new library has all sorts of facilities. It’s not just a place where you borrow books. For instance, there’s an area with comfortable seats where you can sit and read the magazines they have there. Some people spend the whole morning there.

PAUL: Mmm. Wish I had that amount of time to spend!

SUSIE: Yes, you must be pretty busy at present, with the children and everything?

PAUL: We are, yes. But we’re hoping to get away this summer. We’re thinking of going to Greece.

SUSIE: Well, we’ve got a much larger section of the library devoted to travel books now, so you should come and have a look. I can’t remember if there’s anything specifically on Greece, but I should think so.

PAUL: OK. Now Carol’s organising a project for the history class she teaches at school – it’s about life in the town a hundred years ago. Do you have anything that might be useful?

SUSIE: Yes, actually we’ve now got a new section with materials on the history of the town and surrounding region.

PAUL: Right. I’ll tell her. You can’t always find that sort of thing on the internet. Now in the old library there used to be a separate room with reference books. It was a really nice quiet room.

SUSIE: Yes. We’ve put those books in the main part of the library now, but we do have a room called the community room. It can be hired out for meetings, but at other times people can use it to study.

PAUL: I might use that. It’s hard to find anywhere quiet at home sometimes.

SUSIE: I can’t remember how old your son and daughter are … we’ve introduced a special section of fiction written specially for teenagers, but they might be a bit young for that?

PAUL: Yes, they would be.

—————

SUSIE: Well, we do have lots of activities for younger children.

PAUL: Yes?

SUSIE: For example we have a Science Club. At the next meeting, they’re going to be doing experiments with stuff that everyone has in the kitchen – sugar and flour and so on.

PAUL: They might be interested, yes.

SUSIE: And we have a competition for children called Reading Challenge. That doesn’t begin until after the end of term. They have to read six books, and they get a certificate if they manage it.

PAUL: So that gives them something to do while they’re on holiday, instead of getting bored.

SUSIE: That’s the idea. And there’s special activities for adults too. On Friday we have a local author called Tanya Streep who’s going to be talking about her new novel. It’s called ‘Catch the Mouse’ and she based the story on a crime that actually took place here years ago.

PAUL: Right. We’re not free on Friday, but I’ll took out for the book.

SUSIE: Now this probably isn’t for you, but we do have IT support available for members. We get quite a few older people coming along who are wanting to get up to speed with computer technology. It’s on Tuesday mornings – they don’t need to make an appointment or anything, they just turn up.

PAUL: Well, my mother might be interested, I’ll let her know.

SUSIE: OK. And there’s another service which you wouldn’t expect from a library, which is a free medical check-up. The hospital arranges for someone to come along and measure the level of sugar in your blood, and they check cholesterol levels at the same time.

PAUL: Really?

SUSIE: Yes, but that’s only for the over-60s, so you wouldn’t qualify.

PAUL: OK. Well, I’ll tell my mother, she might be interested.

SUSIE: What other information … well, we do have a little shop with things like wallcharts and greetings cards, and also stamps so you can post the cards straightaway, which is really useful.

PAUL: Yeah. Well, I’ll bring the children round at the weekend and we’ll join. Oh, one more thing – I’ll be bringing the car, is there parking available?

SUSIE: Yes, and it’s free in the evening and at weekends.

PAUL: Perfect. Well, thanks, Susie see you …

Section 2 Transcript

In this session in your training day we’re going to look at home of the more specialised holidays we offer at BC Travel. Now, the travel business is very competitive and it’s important to be aware of how the market’s changing and developing. In terms of age groups, the over-65s are an important market, and one that’s increasing steadily year on year. The fewest holidays are taken by the 31 to 42-year-olds, and that figure shows no sign of rising. The biggest market at present is still the youngest group, the 16 to 30s, but this group’s also seen the biggest drop over the last few years, whereas there’s a noticeable growth in the number of holidays taken by the 55 to 64-year-olds. As far as the 43 to 54-year-olds are concerned, bookings there are steady, but I have to say we haven’t seen the increase we expected.

One trend we’re noticing with nearly all age groups is the growing popularity of holidays in which clients do some kind of specialised activity. I’m not talking here about adventure holidays, where clients take part in high-risk activities like white water rafting just for the thrill of it. Activity holidays usually involve rather less high-risk sports, or things like art and music. They’re not necessarily cheaper than ordinary holidays, often the opposite, in fact. But they do often take place outside the main tourist centres, which gives an opportunity for clients to find out more about the local people and customs, and many say this is one of the most positive features of these holidays. Of course, they offer the chance to develop a new skill or talent, but clients often say that more than this, it’s the chance to create lasting relationships with other like-minded people that’s the main draw.

Let me give you some examples of BC Travel activity holidays. Our painting holidays take place in four different centres in France and Italy and they’re very popular with clients of all abilities from beginners onwards. We’ve got an excellent team of artists to lead the classes – some of them have been with us from the start, and five additional ones will be joining us this year so that we can offer a greater number of classes in each centre.

As far as cooking holidays are concerned, I know a lot of agents offer holidays where clients cook recipes related to one particular country, usually the one they’re staying in, but we focus on dishes from a great many different ones. Apart from that you’ll find the usual emphasis on good quality, organic ingredients – that’s more or less a given nowadays – and there are generally some meat-free recipes included.

Our photography holidays take place in a wide range of countries from Iceland to Vietnam, and clients have the opportunity to see some stunning scenery. Groups are small, no more than eight, so clients can have one-on-one tuition during the holiday, and excursions are arranged with fully-trained guides. At the end of each holiday an exhibition is held of the photographs taken so that clients can see one another’s work and receive valuable feedback from the tutor.

——————

Finally, let me tell you about our fitness holidays. In Ireland and Italy we run one-week general fitness classes for all ages and levels of fitness. Clients start the course with a consultation with a trainer, and together they draw up an individual programme. As well as improving general fitness, clients find that they end up losing much of the stress they’ve built up in their daily lives.

In Greece, we have a two-week holiday for clients who want to do something about their weight. This has all the features you’d expect, like a personalised diet programme, but one of its most popular features is that the exercise classes are all held on the beach. People say it’s far preferable to being in a gym.

Finally, we offer several holidays in Morocco. One very popular one is the mountain biking holiday. Bikes are provided and there are different routes according to people’s ability. We offer one which is tailored to the needs of families, which is particularly popular.

OK, so that’s about all the time I have today, so thank you very much …

Section 3 Transcript

NATALIE: Dave, I’m worried about our case study. I’ve done a bit of reading, but I’m not sure what’s involved in actually writing a case study – I missed the lecture where Dr Baker talked us through it.

DAVE: OK, well it’s quite straightforward. We’ve got our focus – that’s tourism at the Horton Castle site. And you said you’d done some reading about it.

NATALIE: Yes, I found some articles and made notes of the main points.

DAVE: Did you remember to keep a record of where you got the information from?

NATALIE: Sure. I know what a pain it is when you forget that.

DAVE: OK, so we can compare what we’ve read. Then we have to decide on a particular problem or need at our site. And then think about who we’re going to interview to get more information.

NATALIE: OK. So who’d that be? The people who work there? And presumable some of the tourists too?

DAVE: Yes, both those groups. So we’ll have to go to the site to do that, I suppose. But we might also do some of our interviewing away from the site – we could even contact some people here in the city, like administrators involved in overseeing tourism.

NATALIE: OK. So we’ll need to think about our interview questions and fix times and places for the meetings. It’s all going to take a lot of time.

DAVE: Mmm. And if we can, we should ask our interviewees if they can bring along some numerical data that we can add to support our findings.

NATALIE: And photographs?

DAVE: I think we have plenty of those already. But Dr Baker also said we have to establish with our interviewees whether we can identify them in our case study, or whether they want to be anonymous.

NATALIE: Oh, I wouldn’t have thought of that. OK, once we’ve got all this information, I suppose we have to analyse it.

DAVE: Yes, put it all together and choose what’s relevant to the problem we’re focusing on, and analyse that carefully to find out if we can identify any trends or regularities there. That’s the main thing at this stage, rather can concentrating on details or lots of facts.

NATALIE: OK. And then once we’ve analysed that, what next?

DAVE: Well, then we need to think about what we do with the data we’ve selected to make it as clear as possible to our readers. Things like graphs, or tables, or charts.

NATALIE: Right.

DAVE: Then the case study itself is mostly quite standard; we begin by presenting the problem, and giving some background, then go through the main sections, but the thing that surprised me is that in a normal report we’d end with some suggestions to deal with the problem or need we identified, but in a case study we end up with a question or a series of questions to our readers, and they decide what ought to be done.

NATALIE: Oh, I hadn’t realised that.

————————

NATALIE: So basically, the problem we’re addressing in our case study of the Horton Castle site is why so few tourists are visiting it. And we’ll find out more from our interviews, but I did find one report on the internet that suggested that one reason might be because as far as transport goes, access is difficult.

DAVE: I read that too, but that report was actually written ten years ago, when the road there was really bad, but that’s been improved now. And I think there’s plenty of fascinating stuff there for a really good day out, but you’d never realise it from the castle website – maybe that’s the problem.

NATALIE: Yes, it’s really dry and boring.

DAVE: I read somewhere a suggestion that what the castle needs is a visitor centre. So we could have a look for some information about that on the internet. What would we need to know?

NATALIE: Well, who’d use it for a start. It’s be good to know what categories the visitors fell into too, like school parties or retired people, but I think we’d have to talk to staff to get that information.

DAVE: OK. And as we’re thinking of suggesting a visitor centre we’d also have to look at potential problems. I mean, obviously it wouldn’t be cheap to set up.

NATALIE: No, but it could be a really good investment. And as it’s on a historical site it’d need to get special planning permission, I expect. That might be hard.

DAVE: Right, especially as the only possible place for it would be at the entrance, and that’s right in front of the castle.

NATALIE: Mmm.

DAVE: But it could be a good thing for the town of Horton. At present it’s a bit of a ghost town. Once they’ve left school and got any skills or qualifications, the young people all get out as fast as they can to get jobs in the city, and the only people left are children and those who’ve retired.

NATALIE: Right. Something else we could investigate would be the potential damage that tourists might cause to the castle site, I mean their environmental impact. At present the tourists can just wander round wherever they want, but if numbers increase, there might have to be some restrictions, like sticking to marked ways. And there’d need to be guides and wardens around to make sure these were enforced.

DAVE: Yes, we could look at that too. OK, well …

Section 4 Transcript

OK, so we’ve been looking at how man-made changes in our environment can affect wildlife. Now I’ll discuss a particular example. Let’s take a look at mercury. Mercury’s one of the 120 or so elements that make up all matter, and it has the symbol Hg. It’s a shiny, silvery substance. You may have seen it in old-fashioned thermometers, but it’s not used much for domestic purposes now because it’s highly toxic.

But the problem is that the amount of mercury in the environment’s increasing. The main reason for this is the power plants used to produce electricity. The main source of energy that most of them use is still coal, and when it’s burned it releases mercury into the atmosphere. Some of this gets deposited into lakes and rivers, and if it’s ingested by a fish it’s not excreted, it stays in the fish’s body and it enters the food chain. So it’s been known for some time that birds which eat fish may be affected, but what wasn’t known until quite recently is that those that eat insects can also be affected.

So a woman called Claire Varian-Ramos is doing some research on how this is affecting birds.

And rather than looking at how many birds are actually killed by mercury poisoning, she’s looking for more subtle sub-effects. And these may be to do with the behaviour of the birds, or with the effect of mercury on the way their brain works, so whether it leads to problems with memory, for example. And she’s particularly focusing on the effects of mercury on bird song. Now, the process of song learning happens at a particular stage in the birds’ development, and what you may not know is that a young bird seems to acquire this skill by listening to the songs produced by its father, rather than by any other bird.

And Varian-Ramos has already found in her research that if young male birds are exposed to mercury, if they eat food contaminated with mercury, then the songs they produce aren’t as complex as those produced by other birds. So quite low-level exposure to mercury is likely to have an impact on male birds in a natural situation, because it can mean that they’re less attractive to female birds, and so it can affect their chances of reproduction.

Now the way she’s carrying out this research is worth thinking about. She’s using a mixture of studies using birds kept in laboratories, and studies carried out outdoors in the wild. The lab-based studies have the advantage that you don’t get all the variables you would in a natural setting, so the experimenter has a much higher level of control, and that means they can be more confident about their results in some ways. And of course they don’t have to worry about going out and finding the birds in order to observe them.

So what are the implications here for humans? Well, because many birds are migratory, they may be transporting mercury far from contaminated sites. For example, it’s been found that ducks who’d been feeding at a contaminated site were later shot by hunters over a thousand kilometres away, and presumably eaten. But these birds likely had mercury levels high enough to warrant concern for human consumption.

In addition, going back to song learning by birds, we saw that this may be affected by mercury contamination. Well, we also know that in humans, mercury causes developmental delays in the acquisition of language, and in fact this process is very similar in the brain regions it involves and even the genes that are involved. But mercury contamination has other important implication for humans as well. It’s now known that an unborn child can be affected if the food eaten by its mother contains high levels of mercury, and these effects can be quite substantial.

In the end, it comes down to whether more value is placed on human economic wellbeing or environmental wellbeing. It’s true there are new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants, but these will need billions of dollars to implement, and increase costs for everyone. Some argue that’s too much to pay to protect wildlife. But as we’ve seen, the issues go beyond that, and I think it’s an issue we need to consider very carefully.

Listening Band Score Conversion

Your raw score out of 40 converts to an IELTS band score using the official listening conversion table below.

Key Vocabulary and Spelling

Study Tips

Word limits and answer formats change section by section in this paper, so read every instruction as it appears. Sections 1 and 4 demand ONE WORD ONLY notes, Section 2 mixes letter answers with a ONE WORD table, and Section 3 takes letters from a box for its flow-chart. Question 1 scores travel, not travel books, and Question 34 scores complex, not less complex, so check each answer against its limit in the transfer time. The note completion strategy covers this discipline.

Sections 2 and 4 are monologues with no second speaker to repeat information, so direction words carry the marks. The travel trainer separates her age bands with growth, drop, steady and increase, which is why the two rising groups answer Questions 11–12 while the biggest market fails. The mercury lecturer moves block by block from environment to research to humans, and her signposts realign you with the notes whenever you drift. The Section 4 strategy breaks down this single-play tracking.

Section 3 is decided by attribution and rejection. An internet report claims access to the castle is difficult, but Dave dismisses it as ten years out of date; the cost of a visitor centre is raised and immediately reframed as a good investment; guides are mentioned as enforcers of the marked paths, not as the protection itself. The first idea named is regularly the trap, so wait for the second speaker’s response before you choose a letter.

Mark the paper strictly, then use it. Convert your raw score out of 40 with the band table above, reread the transcript line behind every miss, and name the skill that failed — printed-word anchors in Section 1, direction words in Section 2, attribution in Section 3, paraphrase in Section 4 — before you start the next paper. Rerun the two monologue sections a day later with the transcripts beside you to connect each paraphrase you missed with the words that voiced it.

Practice More Listening Tests

Mark the whole paper honestly, then keep the momentum going with the free IELTS listening practice course from Simply IELTS, which drills every task type in this test: note completion, multiple choice, choose-two items, a flow-chart and a table. When you want another full paper under timed conditions, try this interactive listening test: labyrinths first. Compare your raw score with the key above, reread the explanation for every question you missed, and continue the series with the Cambridge IELTS 10 Listening Test 1 answers page when word limits, paraphrase and attribution stop costing you marks.