IELTS A - FINAL TEST

LISTENING

PART 1

Questions 1-5

1 pets
2 fridge
3 shelves
4 lamp
5 gas

Questions 6-10

6 Connaught
7 interglobe
8 E 738 2991 TP
9 7/7th April
10 450

Audio script

You will hear a man who is looking for a new apartment to rent, talking to a landlady who is
showing him round an apartment.

Listen carefully and answer questions 1 to 5.

Mary: Hello, Andrew, isn’t it?

Andrew: Hi, yes that’s right. And you must be Mrs. Jones.

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 1

Mary: Yes I am, but please call me Mary. Come in and I’ll show you the apartment.

Andrew: Great, thanks. I’ll just make a few notes as we go around, if you don’t mind?

Mary: That’s fine. So first, a few general points, Andrew. You probably saw in the advert that
the apartment is partly furnished.

Andrew: That’s OK – I’ve got a bit of furniture myself.

Mary: And also, please, pets are not permitted in the apartment.

Andrew: No problem – I don’t have any.

Mary: Well, shall we start in the kitchen, it’s through here.

Andrew: Oh, it’s nice and big, isn’t it?

Mary: Yes, a good size for a one-bedroom apartment. It’s got everything you’ll need. The
dishwasher is quite old now but it’s very reliable. And I’ve just replaced the fridge, so that’s
never been used.

Andrew: Great. It all looks really good.

Mary: Well, follow me through into the lounge, Andrew. Here we are.

Andrew: I like the wooden floorboards. But I might want to put down a rug on the floor as well,
if that’s OK.

Mary: Oh yes, of course.

Andrew: I’ve also got lots of books.

Mary: Well, as a matter of fact, I’ve just arranged for a builder to come and put up a set of
shelves on that wall there. So that’ll be convenient for your books.

Andrew: That’ll be great. Then, is that the bedroom through there?

Mary: Yes, that’s right. Come through.

Andrew: There’s a nice big wardrobe, and a chest of drawers.

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 2

Mary: Yes, plenty of storage.

Andrew: But if I wanted a lamp beside my bed, I guess I’d need to provide that myself?

Mary: Yes, you would.

Andrew: That’s no problem, I’ve got one that’d do.

Mary: And then this is the bathroom. It’s only a small space, so there’s no bath, just a shower.

Andrew: And the water heating, that looks like it’s gas, right?

Mary: Yes, electricity is more expensive in my view.

Andrew: You’re probably right.

Now listen and answer questions 6 to 10.

Andrew: Well, I really like the apartment, Mary, and I’d like to take it if that’s OK with you?

Mary: Yes, absolutely Andrew, I’d be delighted. So why don’t we have a look at the tenancy
form. We’re supposed to fill that in together.

Andrew: Yeah, sure.

Mary: Now, I’ve got a form here. So first of all, I need some of your details.

What’s your full name Andrew?

Andrew: It’s Andrew Connaught. That’s spelt: C-O-N-N-A-U-G-H-T.

Mary: Great, got that. And what’s the best way to contact you Andrew?

Andrew: Well, you’ve got my mobile number.

Mary: Yes, I know. But an email address would be good as well, in case I need to send you
documents.

Andrew: Oh right, I see. Well my email is andrew171 at interglobe.com – spelt: I-N-T-E-R-G-L-O-

B-E Mary: Great, OK thanks. Then, I really need an identification number of some sort.

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 3

Andrew: Oh, dear. I haven’t got my passport with me.

Mary: A driver’s licence number will do Andrew: Oh right, I’ve got that, hang on. It’s: E 738 2991
TP Mary: Right, good. So, now just a few tenancy details. When would you like to move in?

Andrew: Well, as soon as possible, really.

Mary: Right, well like I mentioned, there’s a builder coming, that’s on the 4th of April. So, really,
any time after that’s fine.

Andrew: The 4th is a Friday, isn’t it? And that weekend I’m going away. So how about the 7th of
April?

Mary: Yes, that works well. Now, you’ll have seen from the advertisement that the rent is $315
per week.

Andrew: Yes, that’s OK.

Mary: And there’s also a bond to pay before you move it. It’s like a deposit – and you’ll get it
back at the end of your tenancy.

Andrew: How much is that?

Mary: Well, I try to be reasonable. A typical bond for a 1-bedroom in this part of the city is
$500. But I only ask for $450.

Andrew: OK, that should be fine.

Mary: Now what I’ll do Andrew is email you my bank account details and you can…

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 4

PART 2

Questions 11-15

11 C
12 B
13 B
14 A
15 A

Questions 16-20

16 C
17 A
18 B
19 B
20 C

Audio script

You will hear a radio announcer talking about entertainment events that are taking place this
weekend.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.

Melanie: OK so, next up on this morning’s show – Dan Johnson’s going to tell us what’s on in
the city this weekend. Dan.

Dan: Well thanks Melanie and there’s certainly a great program of entertainment this weekend
– something for everyone. So first, it’s the Writers’ Festival again, and just like last year the
Festival has attracted more than 250 writers from around the world. The writers will be talking
about their latest books and there’s always an opportunity for audience members to ask the

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 5

writers about their work. In the past the Festival has been based at the Victoria Theatre, which
wasn’t really big enough.

So this year they’re going to be using a number of other venues as well.

More information and tickets are available from the website.

Now something I’m really looking forward to is Wearable Art on Saturday evening. This fashion
show’s always been held in the capital, so it’s very exciting that it’s coming to our city for the
first time and I’ve already got my ticket. And they’ve just announced a 20% discount on all
tickets, to encourage a good turnout. Tickets can be bought online, or at the door.

Something slightly different is Ocean Times – that’s on Sunday morning at Bright’s Beach. Now
you might be thinking it’s the wrong time of year to go to the beach for a swim or build
sandcastles with the kids, and you’d be right. But what’s happening is, there’s going to be a
number of large tents put up on the beach, for workshops, displays and presentations. It’s a
chance for the whole family to learn about the science of the ocean and marine eco-systems
and how to protect them.

Sounds like a good way to spend your Sunday.

Now, you may already have seen the advertising for the Artscape Exhibition. This is an outdoor
exhibition of sculptures and installation art that officially opens this evening and you can go
along whenever suits you over the weekend. It’s being held up at the Sanctuary Reserve and
the idea is, you wander wherever you want around the Reserve, enjoying the artworks in a
natural environment. I’d recommend you take a warm coat, though, because it can get quite
windy up there.

Now, the Civil Theatre is open for tours this weekend, too. This is a great chance to go
backstage at the city’s largest theatre and see all its secrets.

This event is only held once a year so these opportunities to tour the Civil aren’t too frequent. I
went last time and can tell you it’s well worth it.

Now listen and answer questions 16 to 20.

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 6

Dan: OK, so what I’ll do now is just run through a few more events that are on over the
weekend. So every Friday night, of course, is the Night Market – a great place to eat delicious
street food from around the world.

If you haven’t been before, it’s in the old Smith Street warehouse, just a short walk from
Central Station. This is often really popular so get there in good time to be sure you beat the
rush.

There’s also the local Buskers’ Festival, on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. This is a chance for
buskers and street performers from across the city to perform at an organised event. If you’re
interested in going along please note – it was going to be in King’s Square, but actually it’s now
going to be held down on the waterfront, where there’ll be plenty of space for everyone.

Now later this afternoon it’s Stand Up For Kids. This is a stand-up comedy show aimed
particularly at children aged from 5 to 10. This is being held in the hall at Swanson College at 4
p.m. today. Just bear in mind that the roads around the college can get pretty congested at that
time on a Friday, so allow plenty of time to get there. But it’s bound to be a great show and the
hall at Swanson is huge so you shouldn’t find it hard to get a seat.

Then it’s Sunday Unplugged on Sunday afternoon, with a number of local bands playing at the
old post office building in Morningside. There’s a great range of acts this week – check online
for details. Though it’s the usual issue with the old post office venue – no parking at all in that
part of the central city. And the train service is suspended on Sunday for repairs, so if you’re
taking the bus, leave early.

And on Saturday evening it’s the Ignite Dance Finals. This is the final of the inter-school dance
competition so I know there’ll be a huge turnout.

If you haven’t already got your ticket I’d do so without delay to avoid disappointment. It’s being
held in the Ridgeway Theatre, same as last year, so there’ll be a great atmosphere.

Now one other…

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 7

PART 3

Questions 21-26

21/22 B and E (in any order)

23/24 B and C (in any order)
25/26 A and D (in any order)

Questions 27-30

27 C
28 F
29 A
30 E

Audio script

You will hear two early education students called Maia and Daniel talking about research into
how babies and children learn.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 26.

Maia: So, Daniel, shall we compare a few ideas for our assignment on how babies and children
learn?

Daniel: Good idea, I’ve started the reading. One thing I read about was these ‘learning videos’.

Maia: Oh yeah, I read about learning videos. The baby watches a short film with some basic
vocabulary, maths and science, and they learn as they watch – that’s the idea. Certainly, babies
will pay attention to videos for long periods of time.

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 8

Daniel: Yeah, but there’s been research to show that babies don’t learn effectively from
screens. Actually, they learn by interacting with their parents and other caregivers – that’s the
best approach.

Maia: Mmm, it’s interesting. Another issue with learning videos is that babies ought to have
play time.

Daniel: You mean in a group?

Maia: Not necessarily, it can be alone, actually. But what’s important is that they investigate
their own environment. They should examine the objects around them and experiment. So they
discover information for themselves. And they don’t get that sitting in front of a film.

Daniel: That’s a good point. Then, I also thought I’d write about the ‘present research’ in my
assignment.

Maia: Oh yeah, I read a bit about the present research. And it’s true, isn’t it? When you give a
baby a present or gift, some of them are more interested in the wrapping paper than the
present itself.

Daniel: But it’s not some of them. The research shows that pretty much every baby prefers the
paper to the present, whether male or female – it’s just a human characteristic.

Maia: Really? I’d thought there’d be more exceptions.

Daniel: Apparently not. It seems that playing with the paper, or ribbons, or box, stimulates the
baby’s senses. They touch everything, climb into the box, put the ribbon into their mouths. And
brain scans have shown that sight, sound, touch, smell and taste are all stimulated in this way.

Maia: It’s amazing the research has produced so much specific information, just from studying
presents! I hadn’t expected that. The results cover so many different aspects of baby behaviour.

Daniel: Yeah, exactly. But it shows us that babies learn by playing.

Maia: So we shouldn’t stop wrapping up babies’ presents.

Daniel: No, definitely not!

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 9

Maia: Then I also read about babies and second languages. There was a really interesting
bilingual experiment in Spain. They tried teaching English to a group of 280 Spanish children in
different preschools.

Daniel: So the research subjects were in different schools?

Maia: Yes, but the researchers deliberately selected teachers who all had the same education.
They’d been trained to use a style that focused on play and social interaction. So because of
that, the experiment was standardised across all the schools, that’s really important.

Daniel: Yeah, I agree, that was a great idea.

Maia: The subjects were aged between 7 months and 3 years old. And the children were given a
one-hour English lesson for 18 weeks.

Daniel: Did they seem to enjoy the lessons?

Maia: I don’t have any information on that. But at the end of the experiment, each child could
produce an average of 74 English words or phrases.

Daniel: But did they remember them?

Maia: Well, follow up testing showed that the classes had a long-term benefit, yes.

Daniel: Wow, that’s remarkable, especially considering some of the children were so young.

Maia: I think so too. It really shows how babies and small children can learn through playing.

Daniel: Yeah, I wonder if other schools will try the same thing in future.

Maia: It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Now listen and answer questions 27 to 30.

Daniel: So, Maia, let’s discuss some more ideas about how babies learn. What other research
have you read about?

Maia: Well, I read about Dr Pritchard’s study. In her experiment, babies were given toys to play
with. And their caregivers sometimes repeated the same movements as the baby, and
sometimes did something different. And Dr Pritchard monitored the baby’s electrical brain

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 10

activity. The results showed that babies were happiest when parents or caregivers imitated
their behaviour.

Daniel: Maybe that could be used as a teaching tool?

Maia: Yeah, absolutely.

Daniel: Then I read about a study of 3-year-olds. This was interesting.

The researchers experimented by doing things like dropping a pen or knocking something off a
desk.

Maia: And did the children do the same thing?

Daniel: No, what they often did though, was pick up the pen. They wanted to give someone
assistance if they could, if they thought someone else had a problem. So I think that shows how
babies are more likely to learn by working with caregivers and teachers, rather than in isolation.

Maia: Then have you heard of Professor Michelson?

Daniel: Is he a linguist?

Maia: You’re thinking of someone else. Professor Michelson did a study where babies had to
push buttons. Some buttons switched on a light and some didn’t. And after a little
experimentation, the babies nearly always pushed a button that switched on a light.

Daniel: You mean, they knew the light would come on?

Maia: Professor Michelson thinks so. He believes they recognised that a certain thing would
happen, as a result of a certain action. So maybe that has implications for learning.

Daniel: Interesting. I also looked at a study in the United States. This showed that babies as
young as 16 months have some knowledge of how language is structured. In a simple sense,
they seemed to know the function of nouns and verbs. And the researchers believe this is
linked to the way they learn the meaning of new words.

Maia: Oh, really? Amazing they start so young. I’d like to read about that…

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 11

PART 4

Questions 31-40

31 academic
32 doctors
33 floods
34 models
35 investor
36 ships
37 erosion
38 breakfast
39 gym
40 graduated

Audio script

You will hear an engineering student giving a presentation about a female engineer called Sarah
Guppy.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

Student: Well, hi everyone. In my presentation today I’m going to be talking about Sarah
Guppy, a female engineer in Britain in the 19th century.

So, first some background. Um, so in Britain at that time, there weren’t many women
engineers. But the 19th century was a time of great change in Britain and women were
becoming increasingly active in many aspects of society. So one example would be Jane
Harrison, who was a linguist and an expert on ancient civilisations. Jane Harrison is credited
with being the first woman to be employed as an academic at a British university. And slowly
women were being employed in more fields during this period. Let me just give you a few

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 12

statistics to illustrate. Um, so, by the end of the 19th century, there were thousands of female
musicians and actors and more than half in each group were women. When it came to the
professions, the numbers were much lower. So dentists – there were 140 women, and there
were 212 women who were employed as doctors at the end of the century.

OK, so moving onto Sarah Guppy herself. Sarah was born in 1770 in the city of Birmingham into
a family of merchants. Aged 25 she married Samuel Guppy and moved to the city of Bristol.
Then in 1811, she patented her first invention. This was a method of building bridges that were
so strong they could withstand even severe floods, which might otherwise have destroyed the
bridge. Her idea was used by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel when he built the famous
Clifton Suspension bridge. Sarah was not directly involved in this project as an engineer.

However, she is known to have constructed models representing the entire structure, and
these were of great assistance to Brunel when he built the Clifton Suspension bridge. What’s
more, Sarah was involved in the project to build the Clifton Suspension bridge in another way,
too. Together with her husband, Sarah was an important investor in the project, and did well
out of it financially.

Now listen and answer questions 36 to 40.

Student: However, Sarah’s talents as an engineer and designer went beyond bridges. One of
her inventions was the so-called ‘barnacle buster’. This was a device that increased the speed at
which ships could sail, by preventing tiny creatures like barnacles growing on them. Sarah also
had an interest in railways. Now, the 19th century was a time when a huge number of railway
lines were being built across Britain. Frequently, this involved digging ‘cuttings’, where the
railway line was cut into a hill.

And Sarah encouraged trees and vegetation to be planted in cuttings to reduce the problem of
erosion – a technique that is still commonly used today.

I’d also like to mention that some of Sarah Guppy’s machines are quite amusing when we look
back at them today. One that stood out for me was a machine that made tea, kept toast warm
and boiled an egg all at the same time, so you could sit down for a typical British breakfast

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 13

without waiting for anything. It’s quite strange to look at but I guess it might have been
convenient! Then there was one area where Sarah was really ahead of her time because she
designed an early type of equipment that’s very common today. This was a sort of gym machine
that you could keep at home. And in the last 150 years or so that’s an industry that has really
taken off.

OK, so in conclusion, what can we say about the career of Sarah Guppy? She certainly wasn’t
the only woman engineer in 19th century Britain. I mean, for example there was Ada Lovelace,
who is sometimes described as the first computer programmer and Hertha Marks Ayrton, a
mathematician and electrical engineer. But still, Sarah’s contribution was highly unusual. Just by
way of illustration, it’s worth noting that it wasn’t until 1906 – 54 years after Sarah’s death –
that a woman studied engineering at university and graduated as an engineer for the first time.

Now one other thing…

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 14

 READING

READING PASSAGE 1

Questions 1-6

1 TRUE
2 NOT GIVEN
3 NOT GIVEN
4 FALSE
5 TRUE
6 FALSE

Questions 7-13

7 feathers 11 water
8 hood 12 iron
9 shoulder 13 spear tips
10 insulation

READING PASSAGE 2

Questions 14-18

14 E
15 B
16 E
17 A
18 B

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 15

Questions 19-22

19 blood pressure
20 obesity crisis
21 flu vaccine
22 aggressive behaviour

Questions 23-24

D/E (in any order)

Questions 25-26

A/E (in any order)

READING PASSAGE 3

Questions 27-31

27 E
28 F
29 H
30 A
31 C

Questions 32-35

32 A
33 C
34 D

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 16

35 B

Questions 36-40

36 YES
37 NOT GIVEN
38 NO
39 NO
40 YES

IELTS A – FINAL TEST 17