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This course recording uses AI-generated voices. Each part is a separate file and includes official-style reading time.
Part 1
Questions 1–10
Narrator
PART 1
Receptionist
Good morning, Northfield Community Arts Centre. How can I help?
Maya
Hello. I’m calling about the short weekend courses. My sister and I would like to book something together.
Receptionist
Certainly. This month we have pottery, printmaking and an introduction to wood carving. The printmaking class is on Friday evening, but the others are at the weekend.
Maya
Friday is difficult. We both work late, so Saturday would be better.
Receptionist
Then pottery may suit you. Wood carving is on Sunday, and the next pottery taster is this Saturday.
Maya
Pottery sounds good. We tried painting recently, so we wanted something different.
Receptionist
The
morning group begins at 10
30. There was an afternoon group at two, but that one is already full.
Maya
Ten thirty is fine. How much is it?
Receptionist
The fee is 35 pounds per person. That includes clay, use of the tools and firing one small item. People sometimes assume they need to buy materials, but everything essential is included.
Maya
Do we need to bring anything?
Receptionist
Wear old clothes and bring an apron if you have one. We can lend you gloves, although most people find they reduce control of the clay.
Maya
All right. We’ll come by train. Is the centre far from the station?
Receptionist
No. Leave the station by the main exit, cross the square and take the second street on the left. The centre is opposite a pharmacy.
Maya
We may stay for lunch. Does the café have vegetarian food?
Receptionist
Yes, every day. It also has vegan soup, but the sandwiches are mainly vegetarian.
Maya
Great. Could you put the booking under Maya Patel? Patel is P-A-T-E-L.
Receptionist
Thank you. We send the booking confirmation by email. I can take a telephone number as a backup, but email is what you should check for last-minute changes.
Maya
That’s fine.
Receptionist
One
final thing
the pottery room is upstairs. The lift is being serviced, so anyone who cannot use the stairs should enter through the balcony door from the rear car park. Will that be a problem?
Maya
No, but it’s useful to know. PART 2
Coordinator
Welcome to the River Alder volunteer morning. Before we divide into teams, I’ll explain today’s work and a few safety points. Some of you have joined previous litter collections, but this project is broader. We are recording the condition of the riverbank as well as removing waste. You may have seen a meeting time of eight o’clock on the first poster. That was for team leaders. General volunteers were first told to arrive at nine, but because the equipment van was delayed, registration will remain open until nine fifteen. If you have just arrived, you are not late. The most important item we provide is a high-visibility vest. We also have work gloves and litter pickers. Several volunteers asked whether they should bring waterproof boots. Those are helpful, but we will not enter the water, so ordinary strong shoes are acceptable. Please do not use your own kitchen gloves; they tear too easily. If you find ordinary cans, paper or food packaging, place them in the clear collection sacks. Broken glass goes into the rigid yellow containers. We may also find objects that look chemical or medical. Do not touch those. Mark the position with one of the red flags and tell a team leader. Our purpose is not simply to make the path look tidy. The council already has a cleaning crew for that. We want to identify where waste enters the river system, so the location recorded on each sack is more important than its weight. This evidence will help the council decide where bins and barriers are needed. There are four work areas. At the old bridge, Team A will record large objects trapped against the supports. The bridge is narrow, so that team will not collect anything today. The meadow team will remove light litter before it blows into the water. Around the boat club, volunteers will count and photograph damaged bins. Finally, the mill path team will look for places where rain carries street waste down the bank. We will stop at twelve for refreshments beside the visitor centre. Tea and fruit are free. The café sells lunch, but it is small, so anyone staying after one may prefer to bring food. At the end, return every tool even if it appears broken; the equipment officer needs to record replacements. PART 3
Nina
We need to settle the focus of our campus food-waste project before meeting Doctor Vien tomorrow.
Omar
I still like the idea of measuring everything thrown away by the main dining hall. It would give us a clear number.
Nina
A clear number, yes, but not necessarily a useful explanation. The staff already weigh the waste. We would just repeat their records.
Omar
Then perhaps we should interview students about why they leave food.
Nina
Interviews are useful, although people may give the answer they think sounds responsible. I’d prefer to combine short interviews with direct observation.
Omar
Watching what people leave on their plates could seem intrusive.
Nina
Not if we record categories rather than individuals. We could note whether the waste is vegetables, rice, meat or unopened packaged food. No names and no photographs of diners.
Omar
That solves the privacy issue. I was worried the ethics form would delay us. What about comparing the dining hall with the small café in the science building?
Nina
The comparison sounds interesting, but the café sells food by item while the dining hall charges a fixed price. We wouldn’t know whether differences came from the serving system or the customers.
Omar
Isn’t that exactly what we could investigate?
Nina
It would be, with a larger study. In six weeks, two sites and two systems would give us too many variables.
Omar
Fair point. Let’s stay with the dining hall. We should choose lunch rather than dinner because more students use it.
Nina
I checked the figures. Lunch is busier on weekdays, but dinner produces more waste per customer. The kitchen manager thinks people take larger portions in the evening.
Omar
Then dinner gives us the stronger pattern.
Nina
Maybe, but we should observe both once before deciding. I don’t want the manager’s opinion to become our conclusion.
Omar
Agreed. For background research, I found a university report from five years ago.
Nina
I read it. The methods are explained clearly, but the campus introduced reusable containers afterwards, so the quantities are outdated.
Omar
The city council also published guidance for restaurants.
Nina
That is practical, especially the section on portion sizes, though it does not discuss student behaviour.
Omar
I found a journal article comparing waste in twelve universities. The statistics are impressive.
Nina
Yes, but all the universities are in one country. We should be careful about applying its cultural conclusions here.
Omar
And the student environmental group has an online survey.
Nina
Useful for seeing which concerns students mention, but the respondents chose to participate, so it cannot represent the whole campus.
Omar
The kitchen manager offered us access to purchase records.
Nina
Excellent. Those records can show whether waste rises when unfamiliar dishes are served. We must remove any staff names before saving the files.
Omar
So tomorrow we propose observations, brief interviews and purchase records. We’ll pilot lunch and dinner before choosing a main period.
Nina
Exactly. And our main question should be about the causes of plate waste, not merely its total weight. PART 4
Lecturer
Today
we will examine urban bats
not as mysterious night visitors, but as animals whose survival depends on the structure of a city. Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. In many cities they provide a valuable ecological service by eating large numbers of insects, including species that damage gardens or disturb people. Urban environments can offer surprising benefits. Buildings create warm cavities, and some bat species use gaps beneath roof tiles in much the same way that they once used cracks in cliffs. Bridges can also provide stable shelter. Their concrete chambers maintain a relatively even temperature, which is particularly valuable during spring, when sudden cold can threaten young bats. However, a city is not one continuous habitat. A bat leaving a roost must travel between feeding areas without spending too much energy or exposing itself to predators. Lines of trees, riverbanks and connected gardens act as corridors. A single park may contain abundant food, but it is less useful if the surrounding streets form a wide, brightly lit barrier. Light deserves special attention. It is tempting to assume that all bats avoid it, but species respond differently. Fast-flying bats sometimes feed near lamps because insects gather there. Slower woodland species are more cautious. For them, intense white light can delay emergence from a roost and reduce the time available for feeding. The colour, direction and timing of light matter as much as brightness. Shielding a lamp so that it illuminates a path but not a tree line can make a substantial difference. Studying bats is difficult because they are active when human vision is least effective. Researchers therefore use ultrasonic microphones. These devices turn high-frequency calls into recordings that can be analysed. Calls help identify a species,
but identification is not always certain
closely related bats may sound similar, and wind or insects can produce confusing signals. A microphone survey is strongest when combined with visual counts and inspections of likely roosts. Roost protection presents a practical challenge. People may seal a roof gap during renovation without realising that bats use it. In many countries, active roosts have legal protection even when the building owner dislikes their presence. The best approach is not to stop all repair. Instead, work can be scheduled outside sensitive seasons, and purpose-built access points can be retained. Food supply is another concern. Heavy use of pesticides reduces the insects on which bats depend. This effect may extend far beyond the garden where a chemical is applied because bats feed across a wide area. Urban ponds and native flowering plants can increase insect diversity, but poorly designed ponds with steep artificial sides may create hazards for other wildlife. Professional surveys cover only a small portion of a city, so researchers increasingly work with volunteers. Residents can count bats emerging from known sites or carry simple detectors along fixed routes. Volunteer records vary in quality, yet repeated observations from the same route are valuable for detecting long-term change. Training must emphasise that observers should never enter a roost or handle an injured bat. What does this mean for planning? Bat conservation cannot depend on isolated boxes attached to new buildings. Boxes sometimes help, but they do not replace feeding habitat or safe movement.
Effective planning protects networks
roosts, dark routes, water and insect-rich vegetation considered together. When these features are included early in a development, the cost is usually modest. Retrofitting them after roads, lighting and buildings are complete is much harder. Urban bats therefore reveal a broader principle in conservation. A city can support wildlife, but only when planners recognise connections that are almost invisible during the day. The goal is not to remove people from urban nature. It is to design ordinary places so that human activity and nocturnal life can continue alongside one another.