FCE Listening Test 3 Part 1

Test 3 Part 1
1. A
2. B  
3. A  
4. C  
5. A  
6. A  
7. C  
8. B  

1 We all knew that in the end Sam, the hero, would win back the love of his girlfriend, Clare. I don't think there was much doubt about that, after all, series like this don't go in for unhappy endings, if they did, they wouldn't attract such large audiences. After weeks of drama and tears, we all wanted to leave the characters on a high note, and that's fair enough. But you'd have thought the scriptwriters would've produced a compelling last episode, to do justice to what was, up to that point, a good series. But because most of the plot lines had resolved themselves the week before, it really wasn't worth watching. 
2 People normally request the big names from the DJ, but I've got a huge collection, so there isn't much I can't offer. Sometimes somebody comes up to me and requests a song that makes me say, 'Yeah! That's an awesome track, I'll put that on right now!' Sometimes it's something I don't particularly like, but it doesn't bother me because it's all part of the job, and I don't even mind playing old stuff, because that adds variety. But what I can't stand is when someone requests a track and you have to tell them you've just played it - that does get to me, even if it's a band I really like. 
3 This is a collection of paintings from all over the world. There are four large rooms, with paintings from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. I wish they'd devoted one room to each century instead of grouping the paintings according to topic. I'd have found it more interesting. They were all landscapes by famous painters - and if you were interested, there was something about the artist and the actual place where they painted. I find that reading things about a painting distracts my attention, but I did buy a book about the exhibition on my way out. There were about one hundred paintings, which is impressive for a small gallery. 
4 We've got a vacancy in our sales department and we'd like a young person, ideally somebody just out of college. This job involves face-to-face contact with customers, and there'll be problems to solve for them. We're offering a full training in customer care, and the rest is learnt on the job. All you need is lots of enthusiasm. But, of course, we do need somebody who can produce a report in clear English, and we don't give any training in that. And just in case you're thinking perhaps you need to be good at maths, we have an accounts department that takes care of all that, so it's not an issue.
5  Restaurant Owner: I opened the restaurant two weeks ago, and most days it's quite full. I was interviewed the other day for an article in Good Eating magazine, and that'll probably attract even more people! 
Interviewer: Well, it may be that your very good website is making people want to come and give you a try. I don't know if you designed it, but it's very attractive indeed. 
Restaurant Owner: Actually, it was professionally done, though I'm sure you're right. My wife wasn't very keen on spending the money on it, she reckons satisfied customers tell their friends, and that's enough. 
Interviewer: Mmm, she may have a point, of course you'll have to wait and see. 
6 This was partly a holiday and partly a study trip, to see the places we'd studied in our geography lessons. went with three friends from school, which was great because we organised the whole trip together and got on so well. I'd always travelled with my family, and this experience has been so important in making me realise I can actually do things on my own. I speak good Spanish so I was doing all the talking because neither of my friends know a word of it. But by the end of the trip they'd learnt the basics, and could more or less manage to make themselves understood. 
7  There's a lot of talk nowadays about how children should be doing more sport and spending less time in front of the television or computer. Nobody doubts the fact that sport is good for your health, so I didn't feel it was necessary to deal with this in my article. My intention was to raise awareness of a key problem we need to address. We can't just say, 'go out and play a sport' without first investing more on sports venues. We need to look at how other countries deal with this problem, and also at what we can learn from the past. 
8 Camping is the best kind of holiday for me. I spend a lot of time planning each trip, so I can definitely give you some good advice. I believe in making sure I'll be warm and comfortable, so I take what some of my friends think is a completely unnecessary amount of clothing, in case it gets cold or wet. Well, it's always worked for me, and I think they're crazy when I see the amount of food they take, which I wouldn't advise you to do, because it's always possible to find things locally. Wherever you're camping - there's always a village not too far away.