A guide welcoming visitors to Ravenscar Castle before a tour
IELTS Listening — IELTS Practice Originals, Listening Practice Test 10, Section 2
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{# Shown in full, as the review screen does after a sitting: it is the text a searcher is looking for, and hiding it would leave this page with nothing on it but a heading. #}Section 2. You will hear a guide welcoming visitors to Ravenscar Castle before a tour. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 15.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 15.
WOMAN: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Ravenscar Castle. Before we set off, let me give you a little history and the practical details for your visit. The castle you see today was begun in twelve forty, though there was an earlier wooden fort on this rock long before that. It was built not by a king, as many assume, but by a powerful local baron, to guard the river crossing below, whoever held this castle controlled the only bridge for miles, and so controlled the trade.
WOMAN: The castle was never taken by force in battle, which is remarkable, but it was nearly lost another way, in sixteen forty-eight it was besieged for six long months, and it was hunger, not the enemy's cannon, that finally forced the defenders to surrender. After that it fell into ruin, and much of what you'll see is a careful restoration carried out in the eighteen nineties by the family who still own it today.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 16 to 20.
WOMAN: Now, the layout and a few rules. We'll begin in the Great Hall, the heart of the castle, then climb the main tower, the keep, for the view. A warning about the keep, it's a hundred and forty steps up a narrow spiral stair, with no lift, so if stairs are difficult, do wait for us in the courtyard, there's no shame in it. Photography is fine everywhere outdoors and in the hall, but not in the chapel, where the medieval wall paintings are light-sensitive. And please keep behind the ropes in the old kitchens, the floors there are original and fragile.
WOMAN: A couple of things especially worth seeing. In the Great Hall, look up, the timber roof is the largest of its kind in the county and entirely original. And down in the dungeons, you'll find prisoners' names scratched into the stone, some over three hundred years old. Finally, our tearoom in the old stables serves lunch until three, and the gift shop by the gate stays open until we close at five. Right, if you'll gather by the archway, we'll make a start.
That is the end of Section 2. You now have some time to check your answers.