Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – Which Susan?

1

Example answers

a   play a prepared piece of music, play some scales (eight notes going up, eight notes going down), do some sight- rea ding (being given a piece of music you don ‘t know and playing it straight away)

b   act a prepared speech, read an extract from a play

c   answer questions, wear decent clothes, ask questions

d   play some of a game, train with the team, take a fitness test

e   describe a picture, answer questions, talk to other students

2

The speaker is the nurse, Susan Bakewell.

SUSAN:   … because you wonder what – you know I wondered, ‘What on earth am I doing here?’ I thought. ‘I may as well go home now’ … umm … but I thought, ‘No, I’m here I may … you know, I’ve, I’ve got this far I may as well just see it through another 15 minutes and I can be out of here then, you know, if it goes all horribly wrong I never have to see these people again.’

3

a   A music audition.

b   Yes, she was successful.

c   She hated it.

4

a   usually a pianist who plays along with the solo player

b   when the notes sound right, rather than ugly, because they are not too high or too low

c   a quick rehearsal of a piece of music

d   a series of notes going up and down with fixed intervals between them

c   playing the music straight away, the first time you see it

5

a   In the audition she had to play a piece of music with an accompanist, sight-read a piece of music, and play a scale.

b   There were four people in the audition room (Susan, the accompanist and the two people auditioning).

c   Saturday.

d   Monday,

e   She spoke to her parents about it.

f   At the rehearsal on Monday.

SUSAN:   Umm … went into a room where you could practise and then the accompanist came in and had a quick run-through … umm … and so you’re waiting in a little room and you can hear other people auditioning who sound ren times better than you, which then makes you even more frightened because you wonder what – you know I wondered, ‘What on earth am I doing here?’ I thought, ‘I may as well go home now’ … umm … but I thought, ‘No, I’m here I may – you know, I’ve, I’ve got this far l may as well just see it through another 15 minutes and I can be out of here then, you know if it goes all horribly wrong I never have to see these people again.’ … umm … So then went into a room where there was two people who were auditioning you and the accompanist and you sat down with the music and played the accompanist accompanied piece … umm … and, er …

INTERVIEWER:   How did that go?

SUSAN:   Some mistakes. I was just …

INTERVIEWER:   Because I bet you ca n remember just about every minute of it.

SUSAN:   Oh, it was horrible. I hated it. Absolutely dreadful. I, I made mistakes. And I think because I was nervous I made mistakes … umm … and I wasn’t used to playing with an accompanist because I don’t have anybody to just practise with at home … umm … and any little mistake you make you think they’re gonna, they know that you’ve made a mistake, they’re very good musicians, they are going to be thinking ‘Oh, she’s dreadful, what on earth is she doing?’ and I sort of breathed a huge sigh of relief when I ground to a – the end and nearly nearly felt like crying – I don’t know, out of relief or just nerves that you’ve got to the end, yeah, just absolutely … er … it’s w – a horrible moment moment … erm … and then they gave a piece of sight-reading to do, which wasn’t too bad, actually it was better than I’d – had thought, and then a scale, I played a scale – I was so relieved when I played it in tune … which is always a bit of a bonus when playing a scale, and then, and then they said to me, they said, ‘Oh … umm … will you be at orchestra on Monday?’ because this was on a Saturday and I said. ‘Well, kind of depended on today really’, and they said, I said, ‘When will I get to know? ‘ and they said that the person who sorts out the auditions would phone me … umm …and so they said, ‘Oh come along on Monday’, so I thought, well, do I take that as a ‘yes’ or do I rake that as … umm …? You know, you just don’t know, so I went home and I was actually going out that evening and quickly phoned my parents and said, ‘Er; dreadful! Horrible! They’ll ring me’, and nobody phoned me for the rest of the weekend, Monday evening ca – time to go to orchestra, nobody had phoned me so I thought, well I’d better go because nobody’s told me not to go, and … umm … they – someone came up to me just before we started and – no, actually, I think it was in the interval – and said, ‘Oh I’m pleased you got in’, which after all that, ‘n’ you know to me it was such a big thing – you know. I’d been practising for a long time – when it’s something that you want to do and just suddenly … err … you’re in.