Foundation IELTS Masterclass: Unit 7 Audioscript
but it makes the sky look colourful. It’s amazing
 1.62, 1.63  page 68 exercises 3 and 4
1 The weather in my part of the world is quite
varied. It’s humid and wet by the sea but as
you move away from the coast it becomes
very dry and chilly in the winter. It also
changes a lot during the year. In the summer
months it’s really wet but then it won’t rain
again for the rest of the year.
2 Where I’m from, the weather is less extreme
than in many parts of the world. Winters are
not very cold, quite mild in fact, and summers
can be relatively cool. The weather can be
changeable, too – overcast and cloudy one
day, with sunshine the next. It’s best to be
prepared. Carry an umbrella in the summer
and watch out for icy roads in the winter!
3 Generally speaking, the weather where I’m
from is pleasant and it’s sunny all year round.
There’s a rainy season, but rainfall varies
depending which side of the island you’re on.
The most dangerous time is the hurricane
season when it gets stormy and extremely
windy in some areas.
 1.64  page 68 Exam tip
In Speaking Part 2, you’ll be asked to describe
something, for example a place, for 2 minutes.
When you’re feeling nervous or under pressure,
it can be difficult to think of details to talk about.
Use the preparation time to try to remember
things that could extend your talk. One way
you could do this is to use ‘The four Ss’: sights,
sounds, smells, and sensations. These four
categories should help you to think of some
interesting details.
 1.65, 1.66  page 69 exercises 11 and
12
I’m going to tell you about Mount Etna in Sicily
near my home town of Caltagirone. A lot of
tourists go there in the summer so it can be a
little chaotic then. There are always a lot of noisy
tour buses taking visitors to and from the main
attractions and families with children shouting,
but it’s a really peaceful place at other times of
the year. The easiest place for tourists to travel
from is one of the popular towns on the coast
such as Taormina, which is an absolutely lovely
resort with lots of scenic beaches and rocky
bays. It takes about an hour to get to Etna from
there. Anyway, when you get to the volcano,
you can go right to the top if you have a guide.
I recommend taking warm clothing even in the
summer because it’s often fairly chilly and cloudy
near the top. In fact, it can be a bit disappointing
if you can’t see the views because of the mist, so
it’s worth taking a lot of photos as you walk up.
You can take a cable car when you’re near the
top, which children love, although you see a few
worried faces when the passengers go over some
old, burnt cars. The volcano is still active and
there can be a disgusting smell of sulphur but
it’s still worth going up. It sometimes erupts, too.
You obviously can’t climb it when that happens,
Foundation IELTS Masterclass: Unit 7 Audioscript
to see, especially at night, and even at a distance
it makes you feel quite scared at the power of
nature.
 2.1  page 70 exercise 3
Part 1
Good morning. Good morning and welcome
to this lecture on applied biology. Ever since
the industrial revolution, people have turned
away from nature in an effort to make progress.
We have learnt how to burn and destroy things
in nature to create energy or to engineer new
materials like concrete, asphalt, and glass, with
which we’ve covered the natural landscape.
But with this violence towards nature, have we
perhaps overlooked the benefits of working with
nature to solve our problems? Today we’ll be
looking at ways in which humans are increasingly
turning towards nature for a range of solutions to
our everyday problems …
 2.2, 2.4  pages 70 and 71 exercises 6
and 9
Part 2
OK, so I want to start by showing a good
example of how we can use natural processes to
replace processes that we once used chemicals
for. The slide shows a diagram of a natural pool.
In the centre, you can see the main swimming
area. To the left of this, we have the filter zone,
which is separated from the swimming area by
a dividing wall. In the filter zone, the water is
naturally cleaned and impurities are removed. It
consists of silver or copper beads and rocks, with
water plants above them on the surface. A pump,
seen on the right of the diagram, draws water in
a circular motion around the pool. It first flows
to the left, then downwards through the filter
zone, and then back to the right below the pool
bottom. It is then pumped into a UV filter, seen
in the top right corner of the diagram, which
kills harmful bacteria. The water then flows out
over a waterfall, which adds oxygen to it, and
into the swimming area once again. Meanwhile,
surface leaves and debris are removed by a
machine called a skimmer, which is on the
left of the diagram. This basically clears the
unwanted material by sucking it out. And there
you have it – the natural swimming pool. I’m
sure you’ll agree, it sounds a lot more pleasant
than swimming pools you’re used to. Of course,
the idea of using nature to purify and clean is
nothing new, but natural pools are only now
becoming popular …
 2.3  page 71 exercise 8
hillside  cliff edge  ice storm  
windbreak  pothole   sea eagle
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 2.5  page 71 Exam tip
In Listening Section 4, you have to label diagrams
and you’ll hear a lot of technical words. Quite
often you’ll hear words that you haven’t heard
before. If this happens, don’t panic! Many of
the words will be compound nouns – words
made from two (or more) other words. Even
if you don’t understand the meaning of a
particular compound noun, you should know the
individual words that make it up. Listen carefully
to the whole word and try to recognise smaller,
individual words, using the context to help you
to guess. The words in less common compound
nouns are usually written separately.
 2.6  page 71 exercise 10
Part 3
Something new and exciting is now happening
in biotechnology – and this is the idea of taking
ideas from nature and copying them, a process
called biomimicry. So, why copy nature? Surely
we’ve advanced beyond what nature can do?
Well, let’s consider this for a moment. Nature
has existed for millions and millions of years, and
over this time it’s evolved and adapted to survive
and be successful in extreme environments. In
short, we have around us millions of solutions
to survival problems. One good example is the
termite mound.
  You can see a diagram on this slide here.
Termites – these tiny creatures – have learnt
to create a comfortable home in some of
the world’s toughest climates. Outside, in the
African savannah the temperatures vary from
forty degrees in the day to one degree at night.
Yet, inside the mound, the temperature stays
constant. How? Well, let’s have a closer look.
To the left of the diagram, the arrows represent
wind pressure that forces air into the mound
and makes currents of air flow around the radial
channel. Meanwhile at various points of the
mound there are small vents through which
water evaporates, cooling the structure.
  Let’s look at the middle section now, and
we’ll see a large space, which is the nest. Inside,
at the top of this area, the termites look after
their fungus gardens, which are their main food
source. Below the nest area, and connected to
the radial channels, is the cellar. Interestingly, the
termites carry nothing out of their nest so they
have found a way of recycling or removing all
the waste that must be produced here. Above
the nest is a long structure, a central chimney
through which warm air currents rise up and
leave the nest.
  Throughout the whole mound you can see a
network of lateral tunnels that give the mound
a strong structure and also channel air. The
termites constantly work to open and close off
these tunnels and modify the airflow and keep
the temperature of the nest constant. Already
architects have tried to copy the structures
identified in the mound to create tall buildings
that require no additional energy to heat or cool.
Perhaps one day all buildings will have a similar
structure …
1
 Foundation IELTS Masterclass: Unit 7 Audioscript

 2.7  page 71 exercise 11

Part 4
But of course there are millions of other species
that we could learn from, too. Water will be one
of the biggest challenges in the future. There are
organisms that pull water out of the air such as
the Namibian beetle, which manages to extract
water from fog. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we
could create artificial beetles with the same
properties? Research is currently under way to
do just that. While we’re on the subject, another
fascinating insect is the locust. There can be 80
million of them in a single square kilometre,
but they don’t crash into each other. We have a
similar number of cars in the whole world yet we
have 3.6 million car collisions a year! Scientists
are trying to copy the neurons that help the
locusts to navigate. Copying shapes is interesting,
too. Scientists have noticed that whales have
small bumps on their fins. By putting similar
bumps on the wings of airplanes, they’ve been
able to increase efficiency by about 32%, which
saves a lot of fuel. There are also bumps on the
underside of lotus leaves that help keep them
clean. Paint manufacturers have already invented
a paint that uses this design to help keep walls
clean every time it rains. The list is endless and
there’s almost limitless potential. I hope you’re
beginning to appreciate what an exciting area
applied biology can be …

 2.8  page 73 Exam tip

Make sure your paragraphs are well structured.
What this means is that the sentences are all
connected logically. A main idea is given first in
the topic sentence, and then other sentences
in the paragraph support the idea of the topic
sentence, providing explanation or examples.
Your examples might include causes and
effects, depending on the essay question. Make
sure everything is directly related to the topic
sentence and doesn’t go too far from the main
point of the paragraph.

 2.9  page 74 Exam tip

In True / False / Not Given questions, you have
to compare several statements with information
in the reading passage. The Not Given option
can make this type of question confusing. This
is because Not Given doesn’t mean Not True
– instead, it means that a statement could be
True or False. Also, Not Given doesn’t always
mean that the information is not mentioned.
Information related to Not Given options may
sometimes be in the passage but it won’t be
similar enough to decide if the answer is True or
False.

Foundation IELTS Masterclass: Unit 7 Audioscript Photocopiable  © Oxford University Press 2