IELTS Listening Practice Test 33

If you’re taking the listening test, you should be aware of concepts such as signposting and techniques such as distraction. Take one of our IELTS listening practice tests and learn how to follow the audio using these techniques.

So, try practising them on a daily basis for a good score in your IELTS exam. Check out IELTS Listening Practice Test 33 given below.

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Section 1 

Questions 1-10

Questions 1-5

MEGEQUIP CUSTOMER DETAILS

Questions 6-10

MEGEQUIP CUSTOMER ORDER

Section 2

Questions 11-20

Questions 11 and 12

A the guides

B the events

C the animals

D the buildings

E the objects

Questions 13 and 14

A buy home-made bread

B ride a horse

C ride on a tram

D buy copies of original posters

E go down a coal mine

Questions 15-20

15 The exhibition centre

16 The High Street Building

17 The farmhouse

18 The coal mine

19 The Manor House

20 The Railway Station

Section 3

Questions 21-30

Questions 21-26

Attitudes

A amused

B critical

C forgetful

D impatient

E polite

F retaxed

G sympathetic

H unrealistic

People

21 Cressida’s fellow students

22 Cressida

23 Ainsley Webb

24 Dr Erskine

25 Professor Jenkins

26 TV news centre staff

Questions 27-30

27 What was Cressida asked to do at the beginning of her placement?

A go out to buy things for the production team

B run errands to other parts of the TV news centre

C meet visitors and escort them to the studio

28 What was fortunate for Cressida?

A She was familiar with a piece of equipment.

B She spent a lot of time in the editing suite.

C She was given a chance to interview someone.

29 What does Cressida feel she needs to improve?

A her understanding of business

B her organisational skills

C her ability to work in a team

30 What has given her an idea for her final assignment?

A a meeting with a public relations professional

B seeing a politician speaking to an audience

C disagreement with one of the TV presenters

Also check :

• IELTS Listening
• IELTS Listening Answer Sheet
• IELTS listening recent actual test
• IELTS Listening preparation tips
• IELTS Listening words
• How to Improve IELTS Listening Section 3 and 4?
• What is Signposting?

Section 4

Questions 31-40

Questions 31-40

THE HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC GUITAR

ANSWER

1. Oskar
2. 52C
3. Avenue
4. cash
5. city
6. Living
7. collect
8. green
9. lock
10. 3rd October / 3 October / October 3

11/12 A/D (in any order)

13/14 C/E (in any order)

15. E
16. A
17. C
18. H
19. F       
20. B
21. A
22. H
23. B
24. G
25. D
26. E
27. B
28. A
29. B
30. C
31. violin
32. blues
33. steel / metal
34. Frying Pan / frying pan
35. magnets
36. plastic
37. solid
38. mass production
39. Precision / precision
40. gold

LISTENING SECTION 4

Lecturer During today’s lecture in this series about the history of popular music. I’m going to look at the different stages the electric guitar went through before we ended up with the instrument we know so well today.

The driving force behind the invention of the electric guitar was simply the search for a louder sound. In the late 1890s Orville Gibson, founder of the Gibson Mandolm-Guitar Manufacturing Company, designed a guitar with an arched or. curved lop, as is found on a violin. This made it both stronger and louder than earlier designs but it was still hard to hear amongst other louder instruments.

During the 1920s with the beginnings of big–band music, commercial radio and the rise of the recording industry, the need to increase the volume of the guitar became even more important. Around 1925 John Dopyera came up with a solution. He designed a guitar, known as The National Guitar, with a metal body which had metal resonating cones built into the top It produced a brash was unsuitable for many other types of music.

Another way of Increasing the volume was thought of in the 1930s. The C. F. Martin Company became known for its ‘Dreadnought‘, a large flat-top acoustic guitar that used steel strings instead of the traditional gut ones. It was widely imitated by other makers.

These mechanical fixes helped, but only up to a point. So guitarists began to look at the possibilities offered by the new field of electronic amplification. What guitar players needed was a way to separate the guitar’s sound and boost it in isolation from the rest of a band or the surroundings.

Guitar makers and players began experimenting with electrical pickups which are the main means of amplification used today. The first successful one was invented in 1931 by George Beauchamp. He introduced to the market a guitar known as The Frying Pan’ because the playing area consisted of a small round disk. The guitar was hollow and was made of aluminium and steel. He amplified the sound by using a pair of horseshoe–shaped, it was the first commercially successful electric guitar.

So by the mid-1930s, an entirely new kind of sound was born. Yet along with its benefits, the new technology brought problems. The traditional hollow body of a guitar caused distortion and feedback when combined with electromagnetic pickups. Musicians and manufacturers realised that a new kind of guitar should be designed from scratch with amplification in mind.

In 1935 Adolph Rickenbacker produced a guitar which took his name – ‘The Rickenbacker Electro Spanish’. It was the first guitar produced in plastic, which, because of its weight, vibrated less readily than wood. It eliminated the problems of earlier versions which were plagued by acoustic feedback. ‘The Electro Spanish’ had its own problems, however, because it was very heavy, smaller than other guitars of the period, and was quite awkward to play. Developments continued and in 1941 Les Paul made a guitar which he called ‘The Log’, and true to its name, it was totally solid. All previous guitars had been hollow or partly hollow. It looked slightly strange but the next step had been made towards the modem electric guitar.

The first guitar successfully produced in large numbers was made in 1950 by Leo Fender. His Spanish-style electric guitar, known as a ‘Fender Broadcaster’, had a bolt-on neck, and was initially criticised by competitors as being very simple and lacking in craftsmanship. Yet it was immediately successful and was particularly suited to mass production, spurring other guitar companies to follow Fender’s lead.

In 1951 Leo Fender revolutionised the music world yet again when he produced an electric bass guitar. This was the first commercially successful bass model to be played like a guitar. It was easier for players to hit an exact note: that’s why it was called The Precision’. Although there had already been electric standup basses, this was much more portable. It is now standard in the line-up of any rock band and some historians suggest that entire genres of music, such as reggae and funk, could not exist without it.

In 1952 the Gibson company became Fender’s first major competitor when Ted McCarty created The Gibson Les Paul’ guitar. It was distinctive because it was coloured gold. The reason for this was to disguise the fact that it was made from two different kinds of wood. In 1954 Leo Fender responded to this successful instrument by introducing The Fender Stratocaster’. It is easily identified by its double-cutaway design and three pickups. This model may be the most influential electric guitar ever produced. The modern guitar as we know it was here to stay.