Cambridge 8 Listening Test 4 - Answers With Explanation

1. Asked what kind of staff are needed, the woman says: "We're looking for waiters at the moment."

2. On days off she explains: "you get one day off and I think you can negotiate which one you want."

3. The pay is described as: "You get £5.50 an hour, and that includes a break."

4. Staff needn't go home to eat, since "you can get a meal in the hotel if you want to, and there's no charge for it."

5. Along with a plain white shirt, the uniform requires "dark trousers," not green or anything like that.

6. Asked about extra clothing, she says: "you have to wear a jacket, but the hotel lends you that."

7. The starting date, she says, is "around the end of June. Yes, the 28th."

8. The Service Manager is named as "Jane Urwin, that's U-R-W-I-N."

9. He's told to call before midday, since "she usually starts checking the rooms at midday."

10. She warns him "she will ask you for a reference," so he should think of someone to vouch for him.

11. Local residents' main worry is that "it is only a matter of time before there is an accident as a lot of the children walk to the school" — dangerous traffic near schools (A).

12. The council has arranged "to move the power lines underground," addressing complaints about the old overhead lines (B).

13. Reassuringly, "the power company have agreed to bear the cost of this themselves," so local rates won't need to rise (B).

14. New pine trees for shelter and shade will be planted "to the right of the supermarket in Days Road" (C).

15. To slow traffic, "the pavements on the corner of Carberry and Thomas Street will be widened" (D).

16. To mark the residential street clearly, "the roadway at the entry to Thomas Street from Days Road will be painted red" (G).

17. A 'keep clear' sign will be erected "at the junction of Evelyn Street and Hill Street" (B).

18. New traffic lights will be installed "half way down Hill Street where it crosses Days Road" (F).

19. A mural telling a local sports hero's story will appear "on the wall of a building on the other side of Hill Street from the supermarket" (A).

20. The new children's playground will be built "at the other end of Hill Street close to the intersection with Carberry Street" (E).

21–22. Dan explains the money finally came from two unexpected places: his old boss, who "said they'd make a contribution," and his parents, who eventually "took pity on me" (B, E).

23–24. To make time for rehearsals, Jeannie plans to drop two activities: the singing group, since "the conductor doesn't stretch us enough," and the debating society, saying "something has to go" (A, C).

25. Dan admits some self-doubt about the course: "I wonder if I'm clever enough to be doing this course."

26. Jeannie's tutor is helping her get ready for finals, as "she's helping me plan my revision for the end-of-year exams."

27. Jeannie's first tip is to sort out revision "priorities," based on what's most likely to come up in the exam.

28. She also recommends drawing up a "timetable," to see how everything fits into the time available.

29. Breaking work into "small tasks" and allocating them to specific days stops big topics being put off.

30. Writing a "single paragraph" on each topic while revising helps fix it in the mind, she explains.

31. The Modern style is known as 'x-ray' because "it actually makes a feature of the internal skeleton" as well as the organs (C).

32. "The Yam style of painting got its name from the fact that it featured much curvier figures," resembling the vegetable (B).

33. Modern paintings depict the era of first contact with Europeans, sometimes painting them "without any hands" to show their pockets (C).

34. While recent images tend to be life size or larger, "the Dynamic figures are painted in miniature" (A).

35. Fish and other marine life "didn't start to appear in paintings until the Yam period" (B).

36. During the Yam period, Aborigines "moved away from animals as their main food source and began including vegetables" (B).

37. Researchers hoped to identify "the animal that the very first painters based their image on" for the Rainbow Serpent, settling on a sea horse-like fish.

38. The end of the last ice age brought "the sea levels rising" and creeping steadily inland.

39. This environmental upheaval disrupted traditional patterns of life, "hunting in particular."

40. Today Aborigines see the Rainbow Serpent as a symbol of "creation," reflecting the burst of new life once the ice age ended.