LISTENING 1

Full sentences

Set 1

1. Frank ate at least three fifths of the cake before everyone arrived.

2. There were 1962 people competing in the marathon

3. Their profit this year was $56,317.

4. The stock market index increased by 78.36 points today.

5. The distance between the two towns is 192.4 km as the crow flies.

6. The driving distance is 221.8 km.

7. The company made a loss of £1,575,494.

8. The car cost €39,999.

9. $4781.37 is the exact amount that he currently has in his account.

10. The tiny apartment is exactly 107.64 square feet.

Set 2

1. George has calculated that his hopping speed has improved by 23.8%.

2. 154,380 people visited the monument last year.

3. The video has already received 68,818 views.

4. Her total income last year was $41,216.

5. Ethel ate three eighths of the pie and tried to blame it on Frank.

6. In the end, George did five ninths of the work.

7. That mansion is worth $13.19 million.

8. The city has a population of 4,692,515.

9. The company has increased the price by 268.52%.

10. 72.25% of statistics are incorrect.

LISTENING 2

… and the next part of this talk is on the Panama Canal. It's amazing how this one small section of a
small country can be so important to the world. Let's learn a little bit about the canal itself, before
we look at how it connects to everything else.

The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway in the Central American country of Panama that
connects the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. It is only 82 kilometres long. If you go around South
America by ship then you need to travel another 15,000 kilometres. So the canal saves a lot of travel
time. It takes around 8 to 10 hours to cross the canal.

The French started building the canal in 1881, but they couldn't finish it. The project was started
again in 1904 by the United States and the canal was finally finished in 1914. Many people died
while they were building the canal, some say up to 25,000. For the rest of the 20th century, the
United States controlled the canal, but gave control back to Panama in 2000.

Every year, around 40,000 ships come through the canal. These are mostly commercial ships. They
transport goods for trade between Asia and America, or Europe. In 2016 the government of Panama
made the canal bigger, so that now 99 per cent of ships can pass through it.

Let's now turn to the role of the Panama Canal in the global economy …