CAE (Advanced Exam) Listening Test 2
1 B  2 A  3 B  4 A  5 A  6 C

Extract One
You hear two students talking about shopping for clothes.
Now look at questions 1 and 2.

M: Recently, a whole pile of my clothes got chucked out after a flatmate mistook them for
rubbish. I was so upset!
F: Oh no!
M: Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that they held any particular significance for me or had any
great value. It was the prospect of shopping for new stuff I couldn’t face!
F: Tell me about it! Even if there’s, like, something I need to get, my trick is to put it off till the
last possible moment, so I’ll have less chance to waste time on such a pointless activity.
Maybe that’s why people think our clothes are rubbish!
M: Yeah. But what gets me is that I reckon for a lot of people the clothes aren’t the point. It’s
more about the act of shopping. It’s heavily linked to wanting to be the centre of attention, to
clothes giving them a strong personal identity or whatever. It’s basically a way of showing off.
Too much importance is placed on clothes and appearance, but it’s not, like, a political issue
for me. It’s just a game I’m not prepared to play.

Extract Two
You hear part of an interview with a musician called Max.
Now look at questions 3 and 4.

F: So was music in the blood, Max?
M: Do you mean did my mum play the piano? Hardly! But I was well into the charts as a boy. In
all honesty, I didn’t think that being number one was something completely unattainable. I
had a cockiness, but kept it hidden from my peers. I’d hear a hit record and think: ‘I could do
that.’ From the age of fourteen I fired off loads of demo discs I made in my bedroom. I had a
folder where I kept all the rejection letters I got from record labels. It might’ve helped to share
that with somebody – but I didn’t. I just sulked, then had another go.
F: Then when you did get a contract …
M: … I was vindicated. And it was a good deal in most respects too. Funny thing was though, if
after my first hit I thought I’d made it, I was soon disabused of that notion. If I was to add up
everything I’d done up till that point – school, working in a factory, learning the guitar, making
the demos – it doesn’t compare. I’ve had to put in a lot of effort to capitalise on that
breakthrough, I can tell you.

Extract Three
You hear part of a discussion programme in which two dancers are talking about their careers.
Now look at questions 5 and 6.

M: It’s really interesting because I didn’t dance when I was in Hong Kong. I didn’t pick up dance
till I went to high school in the US, and that was probably, like, when I was 16 years old.
Again, I didn’t do it consciously. It wasn’t, like, something that I was waiting to do. One time I
danced in a culture show, and the dance director at my school, she asked: ‘Are you
interested in really training? Like, you seem to have talent.’ And at that point, I was really not
interested. I was an athlete, a three-season athlete. I was more interested in, like, hanging
with the guys and doing what I was used to. But when I saw her perform, I was blown away
and decided it was for me, and at college I majored in it. I trained classically.
F: That’s so unlike my experience. I mean, I was dancing almost before I could walk and,
although I wouldn’t say I was pressurised into it, my parents were like behind me every step
of the way. So much so, that I was on the point of rebellion on more than one occasion –
though I’m happy to say that particular storm never actually broke!