A Telephone Conversation Between an Overseas Student and a Group of People - IELTS Listening Sample Answer

The IELTS Listening section comprises four sections with a total of 40 questions. The candidates need to properly listen to the IELTS Listening audio then proceed with the 10 questions. These audio recordings will be in the form of monologues or conversations between two or more people. This topic is section One of IELTS listening and contains the following question type:

• Complete the notes

Audio Transcript

H = Helstone; O = Operator; A = Assistant; D = Professor Dorfman

O: New South Wales University. Good morning.

H: Oh, good morning. Can you put me through to the School of Computing technology, please?

O: Certainly.

A: School of Computing Technology. Professor Dorfman’s office.

H: Oh! Good morning. I was wondering if you could give me some information about the forthcoming Computing Technology 25th conference? Dates, enrollment procedures, cost … that sort of thing?

A: Certainly.

H: When exactly is the conference?

A: Well, the conference runs for four days from the 15th to the 18th of September.

H: 15th to 18th September … Oh, good. I’ll still be here then and er…, where exactly is it being held? Is it at the university as in previous years?

A: No, it’s actually being held at the Pacific Hotel – we’ve rather outgrown the university conference facilities so we’ve opted for this new venue.

H: Right, Paradise Hotel.

A: No. Pacific Hotel.

H: Oh, right. And presumably we can get accommodation at the hotel?

A: Yes, but you’ll need to contact them directly to arrange that. I’ll give you the number for hotel reservations. Have you got a pen ready?

H: Yeah, go ahead.

A: It’s area code 07 and then 9 444 12 33.

H: 079 444 12 33. And what’s the registration fee?

A: Individual fees are $360 for the 4 days, or $100 a day if you only wanted to attend for one day.

H: Are there any student concessions?

A: Oh. sure. There’s a 50% concession for students, and that’s $180 for the four days, or $50 a day.

H: And am I too late to offer to give a talk?

A: Oh, I’m pretty sure you’ve missed the deadline for that.

H: Oh, really? But I’ve only just arrived here in Australia – is there any way I could have a paper accepted?

A: Well, you’d need to talk to Professor Dorfman. He’s the person organizing the conference this year. I can put you through if you’d like.

H: Oh, yes please. That'd be great. Oh, and can I just check the spelling of his name? Is that D-O-R-F-M-A-N?

A: Yes, that’s correct.

D: Professor Dorfman's speaking.

H: Oh, hello. My name’s John Helstone. I’m a computing technology student at London University. I’m here in Australia for 3 months, looking at educational application of computing and information technology.

D: Right.

H: I’m interested in giving a talk on my research at the conference but I believe I may have missed the deadline.

D: Well, strictly speaking you have. The closing date was last Friday.

H: Oh, no!

D: But we may be able to include your paper if it fits into our programme, but you’ll have to be quick.

H: OK. What do I need to do?

D: Send me an outline of your talk. And make sure you include an interesting title for the talk. Something to attract the delegates’ attention.

H: OK. Interesting title. Right.

D: The outline should be no more than 300 words, though.

H: Right. I should be able to keep it down to 300 words but would 400 be OK?

D: No, not really because we have to print it in the proceedings and we just don’t have the space.

H: Sure! I understand.

D: And also, can you send me a short CV – the usual stuff, name, age, qualifications. That sort of thing.

H: Right. Include a brief CV.

D: Actually, you can email it to me. That’d be quicker.

H: Sure. What’s your e-mail address?

D: Well the best thing would be to send it to the conference administrative officer. The address is admin – in lower case. You know, in small letters.

H: Right.

D: So that’s admin@annuconf.edu.au.

H: Right. I’ll do that straight away. Thank you very much. You’ve been very helpful.

Questions 1-10

Complete the notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer

COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY 25th CONFERENCE

Question 1.

Answer: 15 September/ 15th September

Explanation: As stated by the speaker “the conference runs for four days from the 15th to the 18th of September.” Therefore the starting date of the conference is 15th September.

Also, check:

Question 2.

Answer: (the) Pacific Hotel

Explanation: Following the conversation, we hear Helstone asked “where exactly is it being held?”, then the assistant responded, “No. Pacific Hotel”. So, the correct answer should be Pacific Hotel.

Question 3.

Answer: 07 9444 1233

Explanation: The assistant provides the number for hotel reservations which is “0794441233”.

Question 4.

Answer: 50 dollars a day/50 a day

Explanation: As mentioned by the speaker “There’s a 50% concession for students, and that’s $180 for the four days, or $50 a day.” Hence the answer is $50 a day.

Question 5.

Answer: (Professor) Dorfman

Explanation: The assistant said that Professor Dorfman is the one Helstone needs to call, the correct answer is Professor Dorfman.

Question 6.

Answer: London

Explanation: The student introduced her name to the professor and she said “ My name’s John Helstone. I’m a computing technology student at London University.” Therefore the correct answer is London.

Question 7.

Answer: last Friday

Explanation: Professor Dorfman mentioned that “The closing date was last Friday.” The answer is last Friday.

Question 8.

Answer: (an) interesting title

Explanation: As stated by the professor “Send me an outline of your talk. And make sure you include an interesting title for the talk.” So we need to choose something interesting as the correct answer.

Question 9.

Answer: (a) short/brief CV

Explanation: Following the conversation, we hear the professor say: “And also, can you send me a short CV”, this means that the student should send him both the outline and a short CV. So, the correct answer is a short CV.

Question 10.

Answer: admin

Explanation: We can easily spot the answer for this question as the speaker has stated directly the email id which is “admin@annuconf.edu.au”.