LANGUAGECERT IESOL

Expert Level – C1
Practice Paper 5HU

NB Read out the text which is not in italics. Read at normal speed making it sound as much like
spoken English (rather than English which is read aloud) as possible.

Part one, part one.

You will hear six short unfinished conversations. Choose the best reply to continue the conversation.
Put a circle round the letter of the best reply. First, look at the example (15 seconds). You will hear the
conversations twice.

Number one. Number one. (6 seconds)

F: [very politely, talking to a superior/boss] Would you like me to carry on or…?

M: [also politely] Well, time is marching on. What are the conclusions?
F: [slightly apologetically] The thing is I’m only half way through…
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

Number two. Number two. (6 seconds)

F: [with surprise] Oh, you’ve got Anna’s birthday present sorted out. [with amazement]
Plastic jewellery???
M: [defensively] Well, I spent over twenty quid on it.
F: [sarcastically] I bet she’s gonna love it!
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

Number three. Number three. (6 seconds)

M: [in a tired voice, on the phone] Listen, I really don’t fancy going tonight.
F: [mixing annoyance with disappointment] What? It’s the third time you’ve pulled out
this week.
M: [impatiently and angrily] All right…, I’ll go if it’s that important…
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

Number four. Number four. (6 seconds)

F: [professor to a student, in a serious voice] I’m afraid your last assignment doesn’t
meet the required standards.
M: [apologetically] I’m really sorry, Professor...
F: [interrupting] There are many omissions and quite a few inaccuracies.
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

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 Practice Paper 5HU
Number five. Number five. (6 seconds)

M: [enthusiastically] That article about nanotechnology in last week’s Times was brilliant.
F: [with hesitation, pronouncing the word carefully] Nanotechnology?
M: Nano – very small, tiny, a thousand millionth. Does it ring a bell?
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

Number six. Number six. (6 seconds)

F: [a bit annoyed] Mark, where’s the letter from the bank gone?
M: [sharp] How would I know?
F: You haven’t thrown it away with some junk mail by any chance?
(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)
(10 seconds)

That is the end of Part One.

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 Practice Paper 5HU
Part two, part two.
You will hear three conversations. Listen to the conversations and answer the questions below. Put a
circle round the letter of the correct answer. You will hear each conversation twice. Look at the
questions for Conversation One. (10 seconds.)

Conversation One

M1: [with relief] Phew! We’ve made it. Thought we’d missed dinner again.

M2: At least it’s quiet for a change. Everyone seems to have gone off swimming in the lake.
Do they have any food left though? I could eat a horse!

F: I’m afraid we’ll have to wait. Here, Tom, have a piece of bread.

M2: Is that it? One piece of bread, Barb? [jokingly] I was hoping for something a bit more
sophisticated than that. [both laughing]

M1: Hang on, guys! You can’t grumble – at least they give us something filling here every
day.

M2: [sarcastically] Oh yeah, Jake …beef, chicken and fish and chips. Just better than a
greasy burger on a plastic tray and powdered coffee from a machine in the college
canteen admittedly.

F: Well, if we’d splashed out on a five-star holiday, we’d have champagne and caviar every
day. Don’t you think, Jake?

M1: You’ve hit the nail on the head there, Barb.

M2: Oh, stop going on about it. [moaning] I could do with something to eat… Now!

(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)

(10 seconds.)

Now, look at the questions for Conversation Two. (10 seconds.)

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 Practice Paper 5HU

Conversation Two

M1: And you know what? I just couldn’t get the hang of it. And honestly it was
so…embarrassing…, Sue.

F: Well, from what you’re saying, I can see that it wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, was it?
[attempting to be reassuring] Just don’t let it get you down, Pete.

M1: Easier said than done! But I suppose… Oh, hang on, hang on… [with disbelief] Is that
Robert?
Robert?

M2: [in a loud voice, excited] Peter? Peter Johnson? I don’t believe it!

M1: [very excited] So good to see you, Robert! How have you been? By the way, this is
Sue. Sue… Robert. We were at school together.

F: [laughing] Must have been ages ago!

M2: Gosh! [with disbelief] What, thirty years ago?

M1: Oh, my goodness me! Yeah and we used to live next door to each other too.

M2: That’s right. And you always used to get to the bus stop late.

F: [jokingly] Sounds very much like him.

M2: And he’d always crib off me with homework. Every single day!

F: [in great surprise ] No, you didn’t, Pete! Tell me more, Robert... [all laughing]

(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)

(10 seconds.)

Now, look at the questions for Conversation Three. (10 seconds.)

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 Practice Paper 5HU
Conversation Three

F: [very politely] Good evening, Mr Brown. You wanted to see us about Tom.

M1: Oh, good evening. I’m glad you could make it.

M2: Mr Brown, [sharp] I can’t see the point of going through this again. We’ve done our
homework.
We tried to talk sense into the boy and he’s obviously pulled his socks up since then.
What more is there to discuss? I…

F: [interrupting her husband, a bit sheepishly] Tom’s attendance has improved recently,
hasn’t it?

M1: Mmm. [firm] Tom’s poor attendance is only the tip of the iceberg, Mrs Chambers.
There’ve been incidents of bullying, smoking on the school grounds…

M2: [interrupting the teacher] It’s nothing out of the ordinary in a boys’ school with 600
teenagers, don’t you think? I bet Tom’s not the only one and making him a scapegoat…

M1: [losing his cool] Mr Chambers, I’m here to help resolve this problem. And playing it
down won’t get us anywhere. [firm] Believe me, I’m the last person who would want
Tom expelled.

F: So, what do you suggest we do?

(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)

(10 seconds.)

That is the end of Part Two.

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 Practice Paper 5HU
Part three, part three.
You will hear a radio broadcast in which a radio presenter talks about Esperanto. Listen to the radio
broadcast and complete the notes below. Write short answers (1 to 5 words). An example is done for
you. At the end of the radio broadcast you will have two minutes to read through and check your
answers. You will hear the radio broadcast twice.

You have one minute to look at the notes below. (1 minute.)

[beep]

Good morning to you all, listeners, and especially to all Esperantists. Happy Esperanto Day! Yes, it’s the
fifteenth of December today and some of us, quite a big group I must say, are celebrating Esperanto Day.
For those who don’t quite know what I’m talking about – a few words about Esperanto and its creator.

What is Esperanto then? A constructed language, invented in the late eighteen hundreds, Esperanto is
referred to as an ‘international auxiliary language,’ intended to facilitate communication between people
of different native languages. The name ‘Esperanto’ comes from the name that its creator, Ludovic
Zamenhof, used for himself when he wrote the first book about the new language. It was published in
eighteen eighty-seven under the pseudonym ‘Doktoro Esperanto’, the last word meaning ‘one who
hopes’. Interestingly, the original official name of the language was The International Language but
speakers of the language soon started using the shorter name, ‘Esperanto’.

You might wonder why this new language was created in the first place. Esperanto was not intended to
replace any other languages but to supplement them: it would be used as a neutral language when
speaking with someone who doesn’t know your own language. There is one more important aspect that
is quite often overlooked. The use of Esperanto would also protect minority languages, which would
have a better chance of survival than they would in a world dominated by just a few powerful languages.

Your next question will probably be, is Esperanto easy to learn? The answer is a definite yes! Esperanto’s
grammar makes it exceptionally easy to learn. This is because the rules have been simplified as much as
possible; for example, there is only one verb conjugation and all plurals are formed in the same way. As
a result, after perhaps thirty minutes’ study, you can conjugate any verb in any tense. Sounds good,
doesn’t it? What’s more, Esperanto is very easy to read and write due to uncomplicated orthography
with a very simple principle of one-sound one-symbol. Do you still need convincing? Here goes.
Esperanto is phonetic: every word is pronounced exactly as it is spelled. There are no silent letters or
exceptions. Once you learn the alphabet, which takes only a few minutes, you can read and pronounce
correctly even words you’ve never seen or heard before. Well, are you worried about vocabulary? Don’t
be. About seventy per cent of Esperanto words come from Latin and Romance languages, about twenty
per cent from Germanic languages and the rest comes mainly from Slavic languages and Greek. In this
way, anyone who speaks a European language already has a large amount of vocabulary in Esperanto.

You’re probably curious why we celebrate Esperanto Day today, on the fifteenth of December? It’s the
birthday of its creator who, as an amateur linguist, spent his life constructing and promoting the
language. And did it so successfully that there are an estimated two million Esperanto speakers
worldwide. The language itself enjoys a significant presence on the Internet today, with many pages,
sites, organisations and radio programmes from around the world.

(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)

(10 seconds.)

You will now have two minutes to read through and check your answers.
(2 minutes.)
[beep]

That is the end of Part Three.

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 Practice Paper 5HU
Part Four, Part Four.
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions. Put a circle round the letter of the correct answer.
An example is done for you. You will hear the conversation twice.

You have two minutes to read through the questions below. (2 minutes.)

[beep]

F: [excitedly] Hi, Nick! Funny bumping into you again today. Looking for somewhere to eat, are
you?

M: Hi there, Clare. Mm, I could do with a snack or something.

F: There’s a really good Chinese restaurant just round the corner. Fancy going there?

M: No, not really. I’m only a bit peckish. I’ve just been to see Dave’s new flat and we had a
takeaway.

F: Oh, I see. So, what did you think of it, Nick?

M: Dave’s flat, you mean? Oh, well, it’s not far from the town centre, close to the park and quite
handy for public transport and the shops too.

F: Sure. You’re absolutely right there. Hardly what you’d call a nice part of town, though, is it?

M: Well, I’ve seen and lived in much worse, to be honest.

F: Yes, I suppose you have, Nick. But what about the interior? Dave will certainly have to pull out all
the stops to make something of it.

M: There’s no question about that. Doing it up will take him weeks, if not longer. Well, obviously,
he’s not planning to do it all by himself, is he?

F: I wouldn’t have thought so. Dave doesn’t quite strike me as being a dab hand with a
paintbrush…

M: Actually Clare, to be fair, he did give me a hand with redecorating my flat last year. Getting
somebody in to do it would have cost me a fortune, you know.

F: Yours was a doddle, though. It just needed some painting. Imagine him having to get rid of that
old sink to have other stuff plumbed in! Dave must be mad to buy a place without room for a
washing-machine.

M: Oh, come off it, Clare. I’m not saying it would be my first choice but I guess Dave went for it
because of the price.

F: Yeah, seemed quite reasonable for a two-bedroom flat, I must say.

M: Still can’t see how he’s going to make ends meet, to be honest…

F: Apparently they’ve given him a fifty pound pay rise.

M: [sarcastically] Wow! That’s really gonna go a long way!

F: …and to help him with the rent, he’s getting a lodger, or actually two.

M: Where’s he going to find them?

(continued)

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 Practice Paper 5HU

F: Actually, he’s found them already, on the Internet. Quite a nice couple, he reckons.

M: He hasn’t met them yet, then? Sounds like the sort of thing Dave would do. Remember his last
tenant? A student. A very nice chap, quote, unquote…

F: The one that had that crazy parrot and left him with a £300 telephone bill?

M: And minus a DVD player! When is he going to grow up?

F: Anyway, Nick, for some reason Dave seems happy with the tenant idea again.

M: I bet he is now. But there’s bound to be clashes further down the line – the queues for the
bathroom in the morning, the chores, the telephone bills…you name it. It all sounds really
stressful if you ask me. Just the thought of all the things that could go wrong would be enough to
put me off. I’m not sure it’s a winning formula if you want both to make money and keep your
sanity.

F: That’s just you. I expect Dave wants a break from his normal scene. He’s been living on his own
for too long… you know, coming back from work to the same four walls day in day out, not
even a cat to stroke, that sort of thing… Must be tough for such a gregarious chap like him…

M: Yeah, I think you’ve got a point there. But a little bird told me he’s started seeing someone.

F: [sounding very curious] Really, what’s her name?

M: Clare, you sound like you still have a soft spot for him.

F: Me? You must be joking! That’s all water under the bridge.

M: Actually, I’m not sure Dave would want me to blab about it. It’s very early days, you know.

F: Maybe next time then…

M: Yeah… Must be going now or I’ll miss my appointment. Bye!

(Wait 10 seconds before repeating.)

(10 seconds.)

That is the end of Part Four.

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