Two students, Ellie and Sam, discussing a project on students'

Section 3. You will hear two students, Ellie and Sam, discussing a project on students' reading habits with their tutor. First, you have some time to look at questions 21 to 24. Now listen carefully and answer questions 21 to 24. TUTOR: Ellie, Sam, your project looked at how much, and what, students read for pleasure, not for their courses. What made you choose it? ELLIE: We kept hearing that young people don't read any more, and we wanted to check whether that was actually true or just a comfortable myth. SAM: And it turned out to be far more complicated than the headlines suggest. TUTOR: How did you gather the data? SAM: We ran an online survey first, which got lots of responses, over four hundred, but the answers were shallow. ELLIE: So we followed it up with a set of longer interviews with a smaller group, and that's where the real insights came from, people explained why they read what they read. TUTOR: A sensible design. So, is it true that students read less? ELLIE: Not less, but differently. The total time spent reading was actually quite high, it's just that a lot of it is on screens, articles and so on, rather than physical books. Before you hear the rest of the discussion, you have some time to look at questions 25 to 30. TUTOR: Interesting. Now, you found some clear differences between the year groups, didn't you? Let's get these straight. What stood out about the first-years? SAM: The first-years read the most fiction for pleasure, novels especially, more than any other group. TUTOR: And the second-years? ELLIE: They'd dropped off the most, they reported the sharpest fall in reading once the course got demanding, they simply felt they had no time. TUTOR: And the final-years? SAM: The final-years had come back to it, but their reading was mostly non-fiction now, biographies, books linked to careers, that sort of thing. TUTOR: And the postgraduates? ELLIE: The postgraduates were the keenest users of audiobooks, they listened while commuting or doing other things. TUTOR: Those are nice, clean distinctions. Now, what did students say would encourage them to read more? SAM: Overwhelmingly, more time, but since we can't hand them that, the practical suggestions were a better-stocked fiction section in the library, and some kind of relaxed book club. TUTOR: Good. Any limitations? ELLIE: Yes, the survey relied on people honestly reporting their own habits, and people tend to overstate how much they read, it makes them look good. TUTOR: An important caveat. Right, let's look at the figures. That is the end of Section 3. You now have some time to check your answers.