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- Name In Lights – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS
- IELTS Cue Card Sample 66 – Topic: Describe an Old Friend
- IELTS Listening Practice Test 87
| Name In Lights – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS Posted: 31 Oct 2016 07:29 AM PDT Name In Lights – Idiom Of The Day For IELTS Speaking.Definition: being famous Example: “Portia Cole had always dreamt of having her name in lights.“ “She accepted the few badly-paid roles she was offered and continued to dream of having her name in lights.“ ” I want to see my name in lights for writing this book.” Exercise:
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| IELTS Cue Card Sample 66 – Topic: Describe an Old Friend Posted: 30 Oct 2016 11:31 PM PDT IELTS Cue Card Topic:Describe an old friend you enjoy talking with. Band 8.0+ Sample AnswerI have always been lucky enough to be surrounded by a large circle of friends who are incredibly supportive, compassionate and open-minded. And everybody knows how precious it is to have such a gift and I, of all people, know better than taking that for granted. That is why I always make effort to keep in touch with people I've become close with and one of whom is my ex-boss, aka my mentor – Eli. Admittedly, it's far from an ordinary relationship for most people, but to Eli and I, it came naturally. We first met during the training course we both attended for a luxurious soon-to-be-open restaurant in town roughly 2 years ago. Eli was our Filipino manager and I was about to be a hostess for the very first time. Every concept, every rule and every etiquette when working in hospitality industry just overwhelmed me and if it hadn't been for Eli, a patient teacher as well as a dedicated friend, I wouldn't have managed to complete my training and achieved high performance at our workplace. However, thanks to those hard times we've been through together, we became closer and our conversations would last endlessly ranging from family, career, happiness to setbacks in life. As a predecessor, Eli usually offers me valuable advice and emotional support whenever I confine in him. No lecturing. No "I told you so". Just pure compassion. He always tries to bring out the best in people instead of being Mr. Know-it-all and patronizing, which is one of million things I admire about him. Even though we are no longer working together and hanging out more often than we should, our strong bond has never got loose. We keep each other in the loop about everything significant happening around us and provide mutual support if needed. Once in a while, we would meet over coffee or dinner to catch up if our schedules allow and still, I truly, deeply treasure every moment together. Vocabulary & Useful expression
Ex: He has always taken her for granted, which is the main reason why they split up.
Ex: Her parents made effort to reconcile their relationship but it didn’t work out.
come naturally: to be naturally easy to someone Ex: Josh’s ability to play guitar came naturally when he was young.
achieve high performance: do an excellent job Ex: They spend hours practicing everyday to achieve high performance in a play-off round.
Ex: 2017 is going to be a hard time for real estate market.
(offer/ provide…) emotional support confide in someone: to trust someone with one’s secret or personal problem Ex: Jack always has difficulty confining in anyone but his twin.
Ex: Susan is a bad influence. She always brings out the worst in me.
Ex:We can’t get along with Steve, who plays Mr. Know-it-all every time someone raises a question as if we asked for his opinion.
Ex: Tom no longer smoked since his wife was pregnant. – keep someone in the loop: keep someone informed about something Ex:We keep you in the loop if we have any update about the contract.
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| IELTS Listening Practice Test 87 Posted: 30 Oct 2016 10:22 PM PDT SECTION 1Questions 1-3 Complete the form below. Write A NUMBER for each answer. REQUEST FORM Example: Answer Name: Lester Mackie Membership No.: 1 ________________ Mailing address: 17 Westmead Road, Annandale Fax No.: 2 ________________ Phone No.: 02 579 6363 Questions 4-6 Circle the correct answer for each question. 4. Why does the caller need the literature? A. For a student paper. 5. How long can the caller have the books after the date of posting? A. 3 weeks. 6. How will the caller pay the fees? A. Credit card. Questions 7-10 Look at the booklist below. Write in the boxes the appropriate letters (A, OL or R) as explained below. available in the library A out on loan OL request from other library R
SECTION 2Questions 17-16 What is Dr. Pendleton’s opinion of the following developments? Write A if he thinks they have been generally beneficial for workers Write B if he thinks they have been generally harmful for workers Write C if he has no strong opinions either way Example Answer 11. goal-oriented careers Questions 17-20 Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Generally in industry the 17__________________ of products is becoming shorter so companies require 18________________from the workforce. This means that there are fewer 19_____________________jobs. Another major change is that new technologies have enabled people to 20 __________________ Questions 21-27 Who gave these explanations for rises in intelligence? Write A if it was James Flynn Write B if it was John Rust Write C if it was Robert Howard 21. television and computers Questions 28-30 Circle the correct letters A-C. 28. Which graph best illustrates changes in intelligence in Western industrialized countries over the last 40 years? 29. Which graph best illustrates changes in intelligence in some East Asian countries over the last 40 years? 30. What explanation is given for improvements in British exam results? A Better Teaching SECTION 4Questions 31-32 Complete the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or A NUMBER for each answer. Questions 33-35 Complete the sentences below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or A NUMBER for each answer. 33. Taylor wrote his theory in the________________century. 34. Taylor's theory was that people only worked for______________________. 35. Later research concluded that some people preferred to work_____________________. Questions 36-37 Complete the diagram below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or A NUMBER for each answer. Questions 38-39 Complete the table below. Look at the table and notice that in this section you need to listen for percentages.
Questions 40 Choose the correct letters A-D. 40 What does the speaker say about workers in the UK? A They want to have a good lifestyle. Answer keys: Section 7, Questions 7-70
Section 2, Questions 11-20
Section 3, Questions 21-30
Section 4, Questions 31-40
BONUS EXERCISE: GAP-FILLING The texts below are transcript for your IELTS Listening Practice Test. To make the most out of this transcript, we removed some words from the texts and replaced with spaces. You have to fill each space with the missing word by listening to the audio for this IELTS listening practice test. SECTION 1 L = Librarian M = Mackie (Phone rings.) L: Good morning, City Central [………………………………]. May I help you? M: Yes. I want to order some books and copies of [………………………………]please. You can send them to me through the post or courier, can’t you? L: Yes, certainly. I’ll just get the form and take down some [………………………………]. First your name please, sir. M: Lester Mackie. That’s M-A-C-K-I-E. L: Mackie, Lester. And your [………………………………]number. . M: That’s M [………………………………]. L: M 930… M: [………………………………]. L: Thank you. Now your address please. That’s the address you want us to send the items to. M: It’s 17 Westmead Road, Annandale. L: And could I have your phone number and your [………………………………]please? M: Yes. The fax number is [………………………………]. L: 863 5923. M: That’s correct. The daytime phone number is [………………………………]and after 5:00 p.m. it’s [………………………………]. L: Now may I ask why you’ll be needing the books? I’m sorry about this, but we have to have this information whenever we send books out from a telephone [………………………………]. M: No problem. I’m preparing a short article for the [………………………………]watch section of the local newspaper. We’re quite [………………………………]about the prob¬lems we’re facing here now, [………………………………]since we’ve been getting so many tourists in the [………………………………]. L: Oh I know. I’m so glad someone is doing something about publicizing the problem. M: Now how long can I keep the books for? L: Well, as you know our normal loan period is three weeks with a two week [………………………………]over the phone. However, in cases where we send books out by post we allow a longer [………………………………]loan period to allow for the [………………………………]time. So you may have the books for six weeks from the date of [………………………………]. But I’m afraid the two-week [………………………………]won’t apply then. However, you would be able to renew them by bringing them in for [………………………………], provided no one else has a [………………………………]on them. M: I should think the normal period will be enough. Now how do you prefer the [………………………………]and [………………………………]fees to be paid? L: We accept both cash and [………………………………], but it will be such a small sum it might be more [………………………………]to send us a money order. M: Hm. Would it be alright if I left it until I come in next time and mat pay cash then? L: Of course. There’s no problem with that at all. M: Shall I tell you the articles I want copied first? L: Good. I’ve got all that down. Now [………………………………]we could go on to the books. You tell me the books you need and I’ll tell you whether we have them [………………………………]available or whether you’ll have to wait a bit for them, alright? The details I’ll need are the author, the [………………………………]date and the title of the book. Is that OK?[………………………………]M: Yes, no problem at all. Um, the first one is by [………………………………], published in 1978. It’s called Land and Water Resources of [………………………………]. L: Hm. Yes. We have that available on the shelves. M: Good. Now the next two are both [………………………………]publications. The first one is rather old, published in [………………………………]. That's Land Degradation in Aus¬tralia , but the second one is more recent. That’s Coastal Zone Inquiry Report from [………………………………]. L: I’m afraid we don’t have the first one. We’d have to get that from the government [………………………………]for you, but the second one, the later one, has hist, come in so I’ll put that aside for you. M: Wonderful. Now there are three more. Two rather old books, but they’re [………………………………]works so you probably have them. [………………………………]Law by Fisher, and Environmental Chemistry by Raiswell. They were both published in [………………………………]. L: Yes, we do have both those texts. Environmental Law should be on the shelf, but Environmental [………………………………]is out on loan at the moment. I’ll put that on reserve for you. M: Right. And the last one is The Environment [………………………………]of Travel and Tourism by M. Bums and Associates, [………………………………]. L: (slowly) Burns, Environment Impact… No I’m sorry we don’t have that, I’ll have to use the inter-library loan [………………………………]and get it in for you. M: Oh. How long is that likely to take? L: Well, it really depends where we can get it. If it’s available [………………………………]it shouldn’t take more than a few days, but if we have to send [………………………………]for it, it could be rather a while. We’ll do our best to hurry it up. SECTION 2 Hello. This afternoon I’m going to begin by [………………………………]some of the main changes that have [………………………………]in the labour market and in working practices over the last [………………………………]. One of the most significant changes has been the vast move, especially in [………………………………]countries, from [………………………………]to service industries. Although this has freed many people from heavy and [………………………………]work in factories, many people find their work in [………………………………]industries equally boring and just as [………………………………]. Another important change has been that people no longer expect to spend most of their working lives with the same company or [………………………………]. As a result people set themselves [………………………………]which they work towards, and they use the various jobs they do and the different companies they work for as steps towards these objectives. For [………………………………]workers I think this has helped them become more [………………………………]and given them more control over their lives. In most companies the [………………………………]team has become less [………………………………]. This is often called [………………………………]or delayering. In other words, there are fewer [………………………………]and fewer levels of management. As a result, there are not so many [………………………………]for promotion and people often feel frustrated because they find themselves at the same level for many years without the chance to rise in the company. Competition from new products and from different parts of the world means that [………………………………]companies have to adapt very fast to changing markets and this [………………………………]them to be very [………………………………]. Increasingly this means they don't employ workers directly, but employ other small [………………………………]companies or [………………………………]to do the job when they need them. This means they don’t have the expense of employing workers when they don’t need them. I believe that for workers who are [………………………………]there are various gains: they’re often better paid for the work they do, they work in smaller, more human organizations and they’re able to organize their working lives in ways which suit them, instead of having to fit into the [………………………………]of a large company. Of course, the biggest areas of change have come with the technological [………………………………]. Workers now have the chance to go job [………………………………]on the World Wide Web, so they have more [………………………………]to find better or more suitable jobs. Statistics show that generally people work much harder than in the past with much longer hours. New technologies are largely responsible for this, [………………………………]mobile phones and beepers or pagers, These things force [………………………………]to stay in contact with their offices even in their free time and at weekends. I think this is a pity as people need to be able to relax and have time for themselves. Another effect of [………………………………]change is that jobs evolve very [………………………………], and workers have to be continually going on training courses in order to remain employable. As a university teacher, I can hardly complain about this, but it can place [………………………………]strain on workers if they’re obliged to retrain for jobs well into their late 50s when they’re getting close to [………………………………], so I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. New technology and global [………………………………]have, between them, meant that the life cycle of products isn’t nearly as long as it used to be. This has had a [………………………………]effect on companies and on the way we work. In order to cope with sudden changes in the market, companies need much greater [………………………………]from their staff. As a result large numbers of tenured or [………………………………]iobs have disappeared. Apart from university lecturers like myself, few people can expect nowadays to have a job for life, and [………………………………]short-term employment has become the norm for many people. However, we have to be positive. One wonderful change which has come out of the technological [………………………………]is the opportunity for the office worker to [………………………………], that is. for them to work from home, with their computer and modem. This enables them to organize their working lives around their families and cut out the long [………………………………]to and from work which are the bane of most office workers’ lives. SECTION 3 Farouk: Hi, Martin. Hi, Maria. How are you getting on with your [………………………………]? You’ve got to give the [………………………………]on Friday, haven’t you? Maria: Hi, Farouk. We’re getting on fine. It’s just so interesting! Do you want to hear about it? Farouk: Well, I’ve got ten minutes before my next [………………………………], so why not? Let’s hear it? Maria: Great. And it’ll help us to sort out who said what, won’t it, Martin? Martin: That’s right. You know, what we’ve been looking at is [………………………………]done by a number of [………………………………]from different parts of the world on [………………………………]quotients-how they’ve been rising over the last 50 years. Farouk: Really? Maria: Yes! Some psychologists have [………………………………]increases in intelligence of up to [………………………………]in one generation. Farouk: Amazing. What’s causing us all to get [………………………………]? Martin: There’s a political scientist from New Zealand called James Flynn. Well, he’s a [………………………………]in this field, and he’s found that people perform the [………………………………]tasks in intelligence tests much better than they did 50 years ago. Partly he puts this down to people playing with their PCs and watching TV- things like that. Farouk: What about diet? Does that have anything to do with it? Maria: Perhaps. Robert Howard, a Sydney [………………………………], thinks that it does. Just as eating better has made children taller, their [………………………………]intelligence has also risen. He also says that parents are having fewer children, so they’re able to pav more [………………………………]to their children, which has a [………………………………]effect on kids! intelligence. Farouk: IQ tests have verbal and [………………………………]elements too. Have these also been improving? Martin: Yes, but only moderately. It’s the [………………………………]element which has made the big difference and Flvnn also [………………………………]that modern activities like driving may play.a part in this. Maria: There’s a British researcher, John Rust: who has made the [………………………………]point that modem life is much more complicated than it was fifty years ago. Our intelligence has had to develop in order to [………………………………]it all. Martin: Remember also that far more children have the [………………………………]to go to school nowadays. Howard thinks that must be a leading factor in improved IQ test [………………………………]. Farouk: Well, yes, that would seem fairly obvious. Maria: To come back to John Rust: he suggests that as science and [………………………………]develop, ideas become more complex. Well, the people who produce these ideas, the Einsteins and Hawkings are [………………………………]highly intelligent people, but, he says, ordinary people’s [………………………………]has also had to develop to cope with these sew [………………………………]. Farouk: Are there any limits to intelligence or will the human race just continue to get [………………………………]and cleverer? Martin: Er, actually, research in some Western [………………………………]countries such as Australia and some European countries [………………………………]that intelligence rose quite steeply for 2 to 3 [………………………………]and then levelled off a few years ago. Some [………………………………]think that quite soon we may see it beginning to dip-in some countries students seem to be less [………………………………]than before. In that sense there may well be a limit to intelligence. Maria: On the other hand, this rise in intelligence started to happen some years later in East Asian [………………………………]-the so-called Asian tigers-and it still hasn’t leveled off. Farouk: Is higher intelligence what has caused exam results to [………………………………]here in Britain, do you think? Maria: Well, that's rather a [………………………………]question, so it depends who you ask, but you must remember that [………………………………]ago only about 5% of school-leavers here went on to university. But there’s been a vast [………………………………]of the university system, and nowadays about [………………………………] of young people get a higher education. So I guess exams must have been getting easier for all those people to get in. SECTION 4 My lecture today is on [………………………………]at work. If [………………………………]are to improve the running of their organization, it’s important for them to understand what motivates the [………………………………]-to know how to satisfy both the high flyers and those who have lower [………………………………]or ability. First of all, let’s look at the model of how motivation works. You will see that every member of the workforce has needs or [………………………………], and these needs and expectations will [………………………………]each person’s behaviour- For example, they will work harder if they know that they will be [………………………………]– that is, if they can achieve their goals of higher pay or promotion. The achievement of these goals will, in turn, lead to iob [………………………………]. This then feeds back into the worker’s needs or expectations. Over the years the development of different [………………………………]of management and different approaches to organization has affected the way we view motivation. In the [………………………………]century, the writer Frederick Taylor put forward the [………………………………]that workers were only interested in making money. In contrast, in the early twentieth century, researchers found that people went to work to [………………………………]a range of different needs, and not simply for financial reward. One need, in particular, was [………………………………]the social need. An early study done on a [………………………………]company, for instance, showed that people generally were happier and worked more productively if they were able to work in teams. One important [………………………………]theoiy of motivation was put forward by Maslow in [………………………………]. Maslow identified five important needs which he placed in a [………………………………]: at the bottom of the triangle he put what he called "basic needs": good pay and pleasant working [………………………………]. Then, above the basic needs, he put “[………………………………]needs”-safe working conditions and job security. His third need he called “social”-the need to have friends at work and get on with the boss. Fourth werft ” status needs”-a job title and social [………………………………]. Finally, at the top of the [………………………………], Maslow [………………………………]the need for [………………………………]-to have a challenging job with opportunities for [………………………………]. His theory isn’t perfect, but it’s a convenient framework for viewing the different needs and [………………………………]of work that people have, and, what’s more, I believe it s still valid today. During an early twenty-first century survey of full-time [………………………………], when asked what gave them job [………………………………], 72% said having an inspirational leader. [………………………………]of those Questioned found satisfaction in the [………………………………]of their work. 50%-by being paid well, and 40% said [………………………………]working hnnro Consequently, we can see that this indicates that today, an employee’s opinion of the quality of the [………………………………]in their workplace is an important factor [………………………………]belief in the company as a good place to work. Motivation varies over a person’s working life and also [………………………………]to where they live. Studies show that people have different goals in different countries. For example, a good [………………………………]would appear to be more [………………………………]in Spain than it is in Sweden. Financial security is more important in the US than in the UK. Social [………………………………]at work is important to workers in both Germany and Australia, but not of top [………………………………]in Britain and Italy. As to high [………………………………]-this is more important in the USA than to Europeans. These results [………………………………]clear differences between countries, but I don’t think they should be taken too [………………………………]. There have been many theories which have [………………………………]to explain the nature of motivation. These theories are [………………………………]true, and by and large all help to explain the behaviour of certain people at certain times. However, none really [………………………………]all the answers. The best a company can do is to provide people with the right environment to be [………………………………]. If they are self-motivated, they will [………………………………]well. Practice every day to improve your IELTS listening skills. 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