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    IELTS Listening · Practice test

    Aldergrove: IELTS Listening practice test

    A lost rucksack, a museum volunteers' induction, a history dissertation and a lecture on the placebo effect.

    • 4 parts
    • 40 questions
    • About 35 minutes
    • Challenging
    Sit this test with the recording

    Part 1 · Questions 1–10

    Reporting lost property

    You will hear a conversation between a man and a railway lost property clerk.

    Questions 1–6

    Complete the form below.

    Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

    Lost Property Report

    Name
    Daniel 1
    Item lost
    a 2
    Travelling from 3 to Aldergrove
    Date
    4 April
    Train departed at 5
    Estimated value
    £6

    Questions 7–10

    Answer the questions below.

    Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

    1. 7What colour is the bag?
    2. 8What is in the front pocket?
    3. 9On what day will the office telephone him?
    4. 10How much does it cost to have the bag posted?

    Part 2 · Questions 11–20

    A museum volunteers' induction

    You will hear a curator giving an induction talk to a group of new museum volunteers.

    Questions 11–15

    Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

    1. 11New volunteers are asked to commit to
      • Aone session every two weeks.
      • Bthree sessions a week.
      • Cas much time as they can offer.
    2. 12The training in handling objects is
      • Aoptional.
      • Brequired before working with the public.
      • Cgiven over six evenings.
    3. 13Volunteers can claim back the cost of
      • Atravel.
      • Blunch.
      • Cthe optional course.
    4. 14What does the speaker say about documentation work?
      • AIt suits people who enjoy working alone.
      • BIt will be finished within a year.
      • CIt requires a qualification.
    5. 15Volunteers must never tell a visitor
      • Awhere an object came from.
      • Bhow much an object is worth.
      • Cwhen an exhibition will change.

    Questions 16–20

    Complete the flow chart below.

    Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

    When an object is offered to the museum

    1. The object is taken to the 16 desk, by the window
    2. It is photographed and given a temporary 17 on a tied label
    3. The 18 committee decides whether to accept it
    4. If it is accepted, the donor signs a 19 form
    5. The object spends two weeks in the 20 to kill insects

    Part 3 · Questions 21–30

    A history dissertation

    You will hear a history student called Ruben discussing his dissertation with his supervisor.

    Questions 21–25

    Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

    1. 21Why has Ruben chosen the ropeworks as his subject?
      • AIts records are unusually complete.
      • BNobody has written about it before.
      • CIt is close to the university.
    2. 22What does the supervisor say about Ruben's original question?
      • AThe answer is already known.
      • BThe period is too short to answer it.
      • CIt cannot be answered from wage records.
    3. 23Why does the supervisor want him to visit the archive immediately?
      • Ato finish before the reading list changes
      • Bto discover practical problems in good time
      • Cbecause it closes in the spring
    4. 24What does he advise Ruben to do while he is there?
      • Acopy figures out by hand
      • Bphotograph the pages
      • Cask the archivist for a summary
    5. 25How should Ruben sample the wage books?
      • Aevery year of the period
      • Bone year in five
      • Conly the years around a strike

    Question 26

    Answer the question below.

    Write ONE WORD ONLY.

    1. 26Which part of the dissertation does the supervisor say should be written last?

    Questions 27–30

    What does the supervisor say about each of the following sources? Choose the correct letter, A–F, next to questions 27–30.

    Comments

    • AEverything else should be built around it.
    • BIt shows what its authors wanted people to believe.
    • CIt is useful for detail but not for dates.
    • DRead the work that challenges it first.
    • EIt is too specialised for this dissertation.
    • FIt is not available outside the archive.
    1. 27the wage books
    2. 28the company's printed history
    3. 29the oral history recordings
    4. 30Whitmore's regional study

    Part 4 · Questions 31–40

    The placebo effect

    You will hear part of a lecture about the placebo effect.

    Questions 31–40

    Complete the summary below.

    Write ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

    The placebo effect

    A placebo is an 31 treatment with no direct pharmacological action. Not all of the improvement that follows one is caused by it: some conditions simply improve on their own, an effect known as 32 to the mean. Separating the two requires a trial with 33 groups rather than two.

    The effect is strongest for symptoms the patient 34, such as pain and nausea, and weak or absent for anything an instrument measures directly.

    Two mechanisms are recognised. The first is expectation: the brain releases its own 35, and the response largely disappears if the patient is given 36. The second is 37, in which the body has learned to anticipate a familiar pill.

    The form of the treatment matters even though the chemistry does not: an injection beats a capsule, and a 38 operation produces the largest effect of all. Warning patients about side effects makes those side effects more common, which is called the 39 effect.

    Since about 2010, trials of 40 placebos have shown that patients improve even when they are told the pills contain no medicine.

    Question types in this test

    Next step

    Hear the recording once, on the clock, and get every mark explained

    Sit this Listening test