LISTENING A

Part 1
1 Listen to three people talking about bad experiences they have had whilst travelling.
Match two statements from a–i to each speaker. There are three statements you do not
need to use.
Speaker 1 ___ , c___
Speaker 2 ___ , c___
Speaker 3 ___ , c___

a found a local practice unsettling

b got travelsick on a bus
c was hiking with a friend
d was working abroad
e got food poisoning
f was laughed at by a group of kids
g had been on a river cruise
h got really scared
i got lost in the mountains for hours

2 Listen again. Are the statements below true (T),

false (F), or not stated (NS)?
1 Speaker 1 said that the driver was continually asked to stop. ___
2 Speaker 1 loved visiting the pyramids. ___
3 Speaker 2 only went to the market on Saturdays. ___
4 Speaker 2 became a vegetarian because of the
experience. ___
5 Speaker 3 got annoyed by the schoolchildren. ___
6 Speaker 3 didn’t try to get past the animals. ___

Part 2
3 Listen to two people describing a bad experience. Read the question and circle the
correct answer. Which speaker felt ashamed of what they did?
a Neither Speaker 1 nor Speaker 2
b Only Speaker 1
c Only Speaker 2
d Both Speaker 1 and Speaker 2
4 Listen again. Circle the correct answer.
1 Emil gave up meat …
a when he started university.
b because he didn’t like how it tasted.
c because it wasn’t ethical.
2 Emil was finding it hard to sleep because …
a of the pressure he was under.
b he was homesick.
c all he could think about was eating chicken.
3 When Sarah’s son told her that he was getting
headaches, Sarah initially …
a contacted her doctor.
b went online to do further research.
c wasn’t worried and did nothing.
4 Sarah was …
a told not to worry by her doctor.
b advised to get rid of the phones by her doctor.
c shown all the research by her doctor.
5 Sarah and her husband …
a suffer from migraines.
b agreed to get rid of the phones.
c were concerned about their son.

5 Read the text. Match sentences A–F with gaps 1–5. There is one sentence that you do
not need.

The man who predicts the future

In 1973, broadcaster and science historian James Burke was
asked by a British magazine to write his thoughts about the
future. This was a time before the Internet or mobile phones,
and when an average computer would fill an entire room.
1___ He suggested that people would be less reluctant to

provide information about themselves. He went on to

propose that there would be large databases full of
information that people would share in a more open and
honest society. He was also convinced that schoolchildren
would use computers to help them learn. Over 40 years later,
and much, but not everything that Burke wrote about has
come true. 2___ The actual number was nearer 146 million.
So, what does James Burke think is going to happen in the
next 40 years? Well, he believes that at the moment the
biggest advances in science are being made in
nanotechnology, which is technology using molecules and
atoms, the smallest things in the world. He predicts that in 40
years’ time, most people will have what he calls a
nanofabricator. This is a machine that uses atoms to build
molecules, and molecules to build things. 3___ All that we will
need to make them is air, water and some dirt from the
garden. 4___ Because of this, there would be no need for
governments to organise people in society. He says that
there will be no pollution, and no need to cut down forests.
5___

It sounds unbelievable. But so did having a powerful

computer that could fit in your pocket 40 years ago.

A Our nanofabricators will be able to recycle everything we make with them into
something else.
B He did predict that by the year 2000, there would be 300,000 computer systems
in the world.
C Molecules are the things that build everything in the world.
D But amazingly, Burke not only predicted the rise of the computer, but also of
social media.
E He believes people will use these to make whatever they want, from a bicycle to
a bottle of milk.
F He explained that this would mean that people could live anywhere they wanted
and have everything they needed.