Page 4 - b2 guide

Trinity ISE II - Level B2 Speaking & Listening
LISTENING
Part 1
Exercise 2 - Audio Track 1
Listen carefully to the speaker and answer the questions
below.
The results of a survey into the best places to live in the UK
came out yesterday. The city of Inverness was a surprising se-
cond place. But are these results meaningless or could Inverness
really be one of the best places to live in the UK?
Well, I have to ask myself, if Inverness is so fantastic, then why
isn’t everyone moving up there? There are a lot of very practical
reasons why they’re not. The city is in the Scottish highlands –
it’s quite isolated and cut off from the rest of the country. This
has a lot of implications. Take communications: internet and
mobile services are less fast and reliable – in rural areas, they
can be almost non-existent. And what about transport? There’s
no denying that transport links are poorer here than in other major
cities, so people are much more reliant on cars. Well and good,
but what if you don’t have a car – what if you can’t drive? And
then there’s the weather. Winters are harsh here, and the extreme
weather is hardly best suited to the elderly. At times, heavy
snow can cut off the A9 road – the only route south. This is far
from ideal. And finally there’s the jobs issue. The local jobs
market is quite specialised. There are lots of jobs in areas like
tourism, forestry and agriculture, but job opportunities are very
limited when compared with bigger cities like London, and pay
is less.
That said, Inverness has the youngest population and is the
fastest-growing UK city. It’s very safe and has a relatively low
cost of living. For example, owning your own home is a realistic
goal for most, whereas in London it’s impossible for a great
many people. The location promotes a healthy way of life – the
pace is slower and more relaxed, and many people do outdoors
activities in the Highland countryside in their time off. Inverness
also has a stronger sense of community than big cities – neigh-
bours actually know and say hello to one another! And let’s not
forget Inverness IS a city, so it has all the important facilities and fewer jobs have been created than have disappeared – by around
amenities you could need and excellent rail links to the rest of
the country, as well as an international airport.
I think it’s clear we shouldn’t pay too much attention to these
surveys, though. Somewhere like Inverness is only a great place
to live if you can earn a living there – and that means finding a
job. Also, what’s the good of moving somewhere remote and
being far away from your family? Perhaps Inverness is a great
place to live – but mainly, I think, for locals, who already have
lives and jobs there.
Practise at home - Audio Track 2
A. Listen to the recording and answer the questions. Com-
plete each sentence with a word, phrase or number you hear
(maximum 3 words). Play the recording as many times as
necessary for you to complete all the answers.
The housing crisis in the UK’s capital is out of control. Young
Londoners today face an impossible situation. A few days ago it
was reported that out of the thousands of homes for sale in Lon-
don this week, only 43 of them were affordable for first-time buy-
ers. Indeed, the situation has got so bad that the average age at
which people in the capital city buy their first home is soon ex-
pected to rise to 52. And even for those who can afford to pur-
chase, this is typically only possible thanks to the help of
mummy and daddy. It is estimated that 60% of all first-time
buyers already use their parents’ money for some or all of their
house deposit.
But surely if Londoners can’t buy, they can rent, right? What’s
so bad about that? If only. Since 2011, rent has risen by 20%. In
15
AUDIOSCRIPTS
fact, it is now more expensive to pay rent in many cases than to
have a mortgage. And the trouble is landlords can increase the
rent by as much as they want after the first year – there are no rent
controls. The demand for rented accommodation keeps increasing
because people can’t afford to buy their homes. So long as demand
goes up, so will prices. Londoners are in an awful situation.
The situation is so bad, in fact, that we must do something about
it, but what? Should we just build more houses? Surely that will
solve the problem. Unfortunately, London homes are being bought
by wealthy foreign and UK investors. Ordinary Londoners can’t
compete with them, so, if we build more homes, they will just
be sold to rich landlords who can make more money by renting
them out. How about rent control then? This would certainly
help. There is no way landlords should be allowed to increase
rents by as much as they want after the first year. This can de-
stroy people’s lives. If you’re a family and you can’t afford your
rent, you have to move out – and then what? You have to find a
new home, new schools for your children – it’s a nightmare. So
rent control will certainly help, but it won’t solve the problem.
What we really need is for politicians to make the brave decision
to build lots of new homes for sale ONLY to first-time buyers. If
first-time buyers don’t have to compete with the rich, the prices
will be more affordable. But will the government do this? Well,
if more people could afford their own home, rents would go
down and eventually so would house prices generally. Rich peo-
ple might stop investing in property and this could mean less
money for London.
Audio Track 3
B. Listen to the recording and answer the questions. Com-
plete each sentence with a word, phrase or number you hear
(maximum 3 words). Play the recording as many times as
necessary for you to complete all the answers.
Average salaries in London and the south-east are now up to
£10-15 thousand more than in Northern England. In London,
since 2004, there has been a 20% increase in the number of jobs.
In the north, again, the story is very different. For example,
Blackpool has actually had negative job growth. In other words,
11%. Is it any wonder then that unemployment is so high in
Northern England if jobs aren’t being created? To give you an
example of how bad the situation is, unemployment in north-
east England is nearly 10%. Compare that to only 7.5% in Lon-
don and just over 5% in the south-east. These are clearly very
difficult times for people living in northern counties. Many of
them, particularly the young, have already left home to find jobs
down south. This only makes the situation worse, however, by
creating a brain drain. If all the talented young people move to
London, for example, there is nothing to attract new companies
to the north, is there?
But what can be done to help northerners – how do we bridge
this north-south divide? Well, first of all, there need to be infra-
structure improvements. The government has spent a huge
amount of money on the London Underground and on the im-
provement of London's transport system. In contrast, only a
fraction of the amount has been spent on the north of England,
where old, outdated trains, trams and buses, and overcrowding
are a huge problem. There is talk of building a high-speed rail
network linking London to the north. This will certainly help.
But money must be spent on local improvements too. And,
what’s more, other infrastructural spending is necessary. Take
communications. London and the south-east have great 4G mo-
bile phone network coverage. In the north, the same cannot be
said. Businesses will only want to set up in the north if it offers
the same services as the south.
However, infrastructure alone will not solve the problem. There
is a real problem with the way government is set up. London
and its neighbouring areas seem to get all the attention and
spending. The only way this can change is if local government
in the north is given more power and independence. If it can
make its own rules and have increased investment, then the
north can become attractive for business. This is the only way to