Field Trips – B2 English Listening Exercise

9 survival skills 10 sett 11 insects 12 fox tracks

13 steep banks 14 body fat 15 beetles

16 smooth newt 17 local volunteers 18 listening survey

Arthur: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the reserve. My name is Arthur, and I’ll be your resident guide for today’s woodland trek. Usually, we get a lot of school groups coming here to study plant life and tree identification. But today, rather than botany, you’ve asked me to talk about the fauna, so our main focus will be on the survival skills of our local wildlife. It’s a fascinating subject, and there’s plenty to see if you know where to look.

Let’s stop right here for a moment. If you look over by the roots of that large oak tree, you’ll see a series of large holes in the dirt. At first glance, you might think those are rabbit warrens, as there are plenty of them around. Actually, they are a network of underground tunnels belonging to a family of badgers. We call this type of habitat a sett, and this particular one has been used by generations of the same family for decades.

Now, if everyone could just stand still and listen to that rhythmic tapping sound up in the canopy. Can you hear it? Many people assume woodpeckers make that noise because they are trying to hollow out a space for a nest. However, they are usually searching for insects hiding beneath the bark. It’s a clever way of foraging, really, using their beak as a drill.

Moving along the path, let’s examine the mud near this puddle. You can clearly see some fresh prints here. While they look a bit like a domestic dog’s at first glance, the narrow shape and the specific claw marks tell us these are actually fox tracks left behind this morning. Foxes use these established trails to patrol their territory during the twilight hours.

Let’s approach the riverbank now, but please do it quietly. We are looking for signs of water voles. Decades ago, they used to be incredibly common in marshes across the region. But nowadays, due to changes in the environment, they prefer to build their burrows in the steep banks beside slow-moving rivers just like this one. If we’re lucky, we might hear the ‘plop’ sound of one diving into the water.

As autumn approaches, the fauna here must adapt to the changing seasons. You’d expect them to be busily gathering seeds and nuts to store away. But for many small mammals, their priority is actually building up a layer of body fat to survive the freezing winter months when food is scarce. It’s absolutely vital for their hibernation process.

If you look to your left, you’ll see a massive fallen log. In the past, park rangers used to clear these away to keep the woods looking tidy and managed. Instead, we now leave them exactly where they fall because decaying timber is a crucial environment for various species of beetles, which in turn feed the woodland birds. It’s a complete micro-ecosystem.

We are now approaching the woodland pond. Frogs are extremely common here in the spring when they come to spawn, but at this time of year, it’s actually the smooth newt that you’re most likely to spot hiding among the water plants. They are quite well camouflaged, so keep your eyes peeled.

Maintaining all these distinct habitats requires a massive amount of effort. We do receive a small bit of funding from the government, which helps with equipment, but the real heroes are the local volunteers who come out every weekend to clear invasive plants and repair fences. Without them, this trek wouldn’t be possible.

Right, before we head back to the visitor centre for a warm cup of tea, I want you to do a quick exercise. I originally planned a drawing task for you to sketch the pond, but the weather is turning a bit damp. So, instead, I’d like you all to complete a listening survey for the next ten minutes. Just spread out, close your eyes, and record every distinct bird call or rustle you hear. It’s a brilliant way to truly connect with the woodland environment.

9 pine forest 10 insects 11 water quality 12 agriculture

13 interviews 14 micro-climate 15 weather station

16 data analysis 17 photographs 18 action plan

Marcus: Hi everyone, thanks for meeting up today. As you know, we really need to nail down our research topics for the upcoming residential week. I’ve just had a quick chat with Dr. Adams, and she’s given us some updates on the logistics. I know we initially considered doing our fieldwork along the coastal path, which would have been great, but the tutors have confirmed our primary study area will actually be the pine forest just behind the accommodation block. It’s supposed to be an incredibly rich ecosystem.

So, we have a few options for our research focus. For our first potential topic, we could look at the local wildlife. Sarah previously suggested we look at bird populations. While that’s undoubtedly interesting, they are notoriously difficult to track in dense woods, so we’d probably get more reliable data if we focused on insects instead. There’s an abundance of them this time of year, and they’re much easier to sample.

Another option is investigating the river system that runs through the valley. We could measure the speed of the current at various points, though Dr. Adams highly recommended we investigate the water quality instead. The department has just invested in a brand new digital testing kit, and she’s keen for us to try it out.

If we’d prefer to take a human geography approach, we can look at local industries. Tourism is the obvious choice for that region, given the number of visitors they get. However, looking into agriculture might give us more unique data for our final paper, especially considering the recent changes in farming subsidies. I think it would definitely make our project stand out.

To gather data for any study on human impact, we shouldn’t just rely on observation or secondary data from the library. We’ll actually need to conduct some interviews with the local residents. People are usually quite friendly, provided we approach them politely and explain what our university project is about.

Alternatively, we have the option of studying the physical environment. We could do a complex soil analysis across different elevations. But to be honest, analysing the micro-climate would tie in better with our previous module on atmospheric changes. It’s highly relevant to what we’ve been studying all semester.

If we do end up choosing that physical geography topic, we’ll need to make sure we have the right gear. We can forget about bringing the heavy soil probes; but we absolutely must remember to book the portable weather station from the lab. There’s only one available, so we’ll need to put our names down for it by tomorrow at the latest.

We also need to think about how we’ll manage our time. During the evenings at the residential centre, we won’t have time for playing board games or watching movies, unfortunately. We’ll be dedicating our nights to data analysis so we don’t fall behind. It sounds like a lot of hard work, but getting it done there means less stress when we get back to campus.

Also, keep in mind what we need for our final presentation at the end of the term. We’ll need solid visual aids. Doing some sketches of the landscape is okay, but taking high-quality photographs will really make our findings stand out to the examiners. So, if anyone has a decent camera, please bring it along.

Anyway, before we leave this meeting, it’s not enough to just have a general idea of what we want to do. We need to agree on a strict action plan to show the tutors tomorrow morning. So, let’s go through these options one by one and take a vote.