Cambridge IELTS 13 · Listening · Test 2 · Part 2

Listening Test 2, Part 2: answers explained

Information on company volunteering projects

The recording and its 10 questions (11–20). Every answer is explained with the words that give it away.

Take the whole test, timed Show the answers

Part 2 recording

Play it once, as in the exam, and answer the questions below as you listen.

Questions 11–20

Multiple choice
11 How much time for volunteering does the company allow per employee?
12 In feedback almost all employees said that volunteering improved their
13 Last year some staff helped unemployed people with their
14 This year the company will start a new volunteering project with a local
15 Where will the Digital Inclusion Day be held?
16 What should staff do if they want to take part in the Digital Inclusion Day?
Multiple choice (several answers)
17 What TWO things are mentioned about the participants on the last Digital Inclusion Day?
18 What TWO things are mentioned about the participants on the last Digital Inclusion Day?
19 What TWO activities on the last Digital Inclusion Day did participants describe as useful?
20 What TWO activities on the last Digital Inclusion Day did participants describe as useful?

Answers explained

Answer the questions first: finding the evidence yourself teaches more than reading it. The answers stay folded until you ask.

Question 11

C

What you hear

The company will pay for eight hours of your time

Why

The company pays for eight hours of each person’s time, so C is right even though ‘per year’ is never spelled out: the hours can be used in a day or two or spread over months. A is the trap, because only some keen staff give a couple of their own hours every week. B is never said.
Question 12

B

What you hear

volunteering made them feel more motivated at work

Why

Nearly everyone agreed volunteering made them feel more motivated at work, which is job satisfaction, B. Only one or two people mentioned CVs, so A is not what almost all said. The relationships they enjoyed were with people in the local community, not colleagues, which is why C fails.
Question 13

C

What you hear

improve their telephone skills

Why

Staff improved unemployed people’s telephone skills, such as taking messages and speaking confidently to customers, and ‘communication skills’ in C is the wider label. Writing down messages is part of that phone work, so it does not make this a literacy matter (A), and nothing is said about help with job applications (B).
Question 14

B

What you hear

conservation project in Redfern Park

Why

‘This year’ points to the new project, a conservation job in Redfern Park where you are outside getting your hands dirty: B. Schools and charities are the existing education and charity work the speaker says will continue, so A and C are old news, not what is starting.
Question 15

B

What you hear

we’re using the ICT suite at Hill College

Why

The event moves to the ICT suite at Hill College instead of the company’s own training facility, because the college holds far more people: B. The facility was the usual venue, so A is the trap. The community centre is only where the invited guests come from, not the venue.
Question 16

A

What you hear

complete the relevant form

Why

To sign up, staff go to the volunteering section of the website and complete the form: A. No training is provided, only pairing with an experienced volunteer, so B is out. Telling a manager comes up ‘by the way’, as a reminder after the sign-up instructions rather than the way to take part, so C is not the answer.
Question 17

C

What you hear

these tended to be outdated model

Why

Outdated computers and phones are what the speaker reports, which matches ‘old-fashioned’ in C. Option A is too absolute: the majority were in their seventies, but some were younger and a few were in their nineties. D fails because the participants already knew how to send texts.
Question 18

E

What you hear

most were quite dismissive at first

Why

Most participants were dismissive at first and couldn’t see the point of updating their skills, which is E, little initial interest. B is not said anywhere; the talk says only that quite a few owned a computer. A few were keen, so it is the majority’s reaction that counts, hence ‘initially’.
Question 19

B

What you hear

using social media to keep in touch with their grandchildren

Why

Participants said they felt much more confident about social media for keeping in touch with grandchildren, so communicating with family is B. Email, E, is the near miss, because the grandchildren prefer social media to emails. Tablets were only something they asked about, not something they praised as useful.
Question 20

D

What you hear

playing online games would help them make new friends

Why

A lot of participants said online games would help them make friends and keep their brains active, so D is the second useful activity. Online grocery shopping got a cooler welcome: they liked going to the shops and saw it as handy only when ill or in bad weather, so C is not praised as useful.

Part 2 audioscript

Part 2 · audioscript

Thanks for coming everyone. OK, so this meeting is for new staff and staff who haven’t been involved with our volunteering projects yet. So basically, the idea is that we allow staff to give up some of their work time to help on various charity projects to benefit the local community. We’ve been doing this for the last five years and it’s been very successful.

Participating doesn’t necessarily involve a huge time commitment. The company will pay for eight hours of your time. That can be used over one or two days all at once, or spread over several months throughout the year. There are some staff who enjoy volunteering so much they also give up their own free time for a couple of hours every week. It’s completely up to you. Obviously, many people will have family commitments and aren’t as available as other members of staff.

Feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Because they felt they were doing something really useful, nearly everyone agreed that volunteering made them feel more motivated at work. They also liked building relationships with the people in the local community and felt valued by them. One or two people also said it was a good thing to have on their CVs.

One particularly successful project last year was the Get Working Project. This was aimed at helping unemployed people in the area get back to work. Our staff were able to help them improve their telephone skills, such as writing down messages and speaking with confidence to potential customers, which they had found quite difficult. This is something many employers look for in job applicants - and something we all do without even thinking about, every day at work.

We’ve got an exciting new project starting this year. Up until now, we’re mainly focused on projects to do with education and training. And we’ll continue with out reading project in schools and our work with local charities. But we’re also agreed to help out on a conservation project in Redfern Park. So if any of you fancy being outside and getting your hands dirty, this is the project for you.

I also want to mention the annual Digital Inclusion Day, which is coming up next month. The aim of this is to help older people keep up with technology. And this year, instead of hosting the event in our own training facility, we’re using the ICT suite at Hill College, as it can hold far more people.

We’ve invited over 60 people from the Silver Age Community Centre to take part, so we’ll need a lot of volunteers to help with this event.

If you’re interested in taking part, please go to the volunteering section of our website and complete the relevant form. We won’t be providing any training for this but you’ll be paired with an experienced volunteer if you’ve never done it before. By the way, don’t forget to tell your manager about any volunteering activities you decide to do.

The participants on the Digital Inclusion Day really benefited. The majority were in their seventies, though some where younger and a few were even in their nineties! Quite a few owned both a computer and a mobile phone, but these tended to be outdated model. They generally knew how to do simple things, like send texts, but weren’t aware of recent developments in mobile phone technology. A few were keen to learn but most were quite dismissive at first - they couldn’t see the point of updating their skills. But that soon changed.

The feedback was very positive. The really encouraging thing was that participants all said they felt much more confident about using social media to keep in touch with their grandchildren, who prefer this form of communication to phoning or sending emails. A lot of them also said playing online games would help them make new friends and keep their brains active. They weren’t that impressed with being able to order their groceries online, as they liked going out to the shops, but some said it would come in handy if they were ill or the weather was really bad. One thing they asked about was using tablets for things like reading newspapers - some people had been given tablets as presents but had never used them, so that’s something we’ll make sure we include this time …

Part 2 recording

Questions 11–20

Answers explained

Question 11

Question 12

Question 13

Question 14

Question 15

Question 16

Question 17

Question 18

Question 19

Question 20

Part 2 audioscript