Matthews Island — Cambridge IELTS 15 Academic 2020 TEST 1 — IELTS Test

Cambridge IELTS 15 Academic 2020 TEST 1

Matthews Island

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(0:00) Part 2 You will hear a woman giving a (0:04) presentation about a holiday on an island in Britain that her company organises. (0:11) First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 14. (0:46) Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 14.

(0:53) Good morning, my name's Erica Matthews and I'm the owner of Matthews Island Holidays, (1:00) a company set up by my parents. Thank you for coming to this presentation (1:06) in which I hope to interest you in what we have to offer. (1:10) We're a small, family-run company and we believe in the importance of the personal touch, (1:17) so we don't aim to compete with other companies on the number of customers.

(1:22) What we do is build on our many years' experience, more than almost any other rail holiday company, (1:29) to ensure we provide perfect holidays in a small number of destinations, (1:35) which we've got to know extremely well. (1:38) I'll start with our six-day Isle of Man holiday. This is a fascinating island in the Irish Sea, (1:46) with Wales to the south, England to the east, Scotland to the north and Northern Ireland to (1:52) the west.

Our holiday starts in Heasham, where your tour manager will meet you, (1:58) then you'll travel by ferry to the Isle of Man. Some people prefer to fly from Luton instead (2:04) and another popular option is to go by train to Liverpool and take a ferry from there. (2:10) You have five nights in the hotel and the price covers five breakfasts and dinners (2:16) and lunch on the three days when there are organised trips.

(2:21) Day four is free and most people have lunch in a cafe or restaurant in Douglas. (2:27) The price of the holiday includes the ferry to the Isle of Man, all travel on the island, (2:33) the hotel and the meals I've mentioned. Incidentally, we try to make booking our (2:39) holidays as simple and fair as possible, so unlike with many companies, the price is the same (2:46) whether you book six months in advance or at the last minute and there's no supplement for (2:51) single rooms in hotels.

If you make a booking then need to change the start date, for example (2:58) because of illness, you're welcome to change to an alternative date or a different tour (3:03) for a small administrative fee. Before you hear the rest of the talk, (3:11) you have some time to look at questions 15 to 20. Now listen and answer questions 15 to 20.

(3:52) OK, so what does the holiday consist of? Well, on day one you'll arrive in time for a short (4:00) introduction by your tour manager followed by dinner in the hotel. The dining room looks out (4:06) at the river close to where it flows into the harbour and there's usually plenty of activity (4:11) going on. On day two you'll take the coach to the small town of Peel on the way calling in (4:19) at the Tynwald exhibition.

The Isle of Man isn't part of the United Kingdom and it has its own (4:26) parliament called Tynwald. It's claimed that this is the world's oldest parliament that's still (4:33) functioning and that it dates back to 979. However, the earliest surviving reference to it (4:41) is from 1422, so perhaps it isn't quite as old as it claims.

(4:48) Day three we have a trip to the mountain Snaefell. This begins with a leisurely ride along the (4:55) promenade in Douglas in a horse-drawn tram. Then you board an electric train which takes you to (5:03) the fishing village of Laxey.

From there it's an eight kilometre ride in the Snaefell Mountain (5:10) Railway to the top. Lunch will be in the cafe giving you spectacular views of the island. (5:18) Day four is free for you to explore using the pass which we'll give you, so you won't have to (5:25) pay for travel on local transport or for entrance to the island's heritage sites.

(5:31) Or you might just want to take it easy in Douglas and perhaps do a little light shopping. (5:36) The last full day, day five, is for some people the highlight of the holiday with a ride on the (5:44) steam railway from Douglas to Port Erin. After some time to explore, a coach will take you to (5:52) the headland that overlooks the Caff of Man, a small island just off the coast.

From there you (5:59) continue to Castletown, which used to be the capital of the Isle of Man and its mediaeval castle. (6:06) And on day six it's back to the ferry or the airport if you flew to the island and time to go (6:14) home. Now I'd like to tell you a bit more... That is the end of part two.

(6:24) You now have 30 seconds to check your answers to part two.

Part 2 of 4

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