The head gardener talking to visitors about the history and
IELTS Listening — IELTS Practice Originals, Listening Practice Test 5, 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 the head gardener talking to visitors about the history and conservation work of Riverside Botanic Garden. First, you have some time to look at questions 11 to 16.
Now listen carefully and answer questions 11 to 16.
WOMAN: Welcome, everyone, to Riverside Botanic Garden. Before you wander off, I'd like to tell you not just what's here, but why the garden exists at all, because we're a great deal more than a pretty park. Let me begin with the land itself. This entire site was, believe it or not, a derelict, weed-choked railway yard until the council handed it over to our trust. Clearing it was a colossal job, and the ground was in such poor condition that our very first task, before we could plant a single seed, was to spend two whole years improving the soil.
WOMAN: But our real purpose here is conservation, not simply display. At the very heart of the garden is our seed bank, where we store and protect the seeds of endangered wild plants against the day they might be needed, we now safeguard seeds from over eight hundred different species, many of them genuinely rare in the wild. And working alongside it, our nursery raises delicate young plants from seed and cutting, not to sell to visitors, but to return them to the countryside, only last spring we reintroduced a wildflower that had all but vanished from this region.
WOMAN: Education matters to us every bit as much. We run a busy schools programme, and I'm proud to say we were visited by ninety different schools just last year. The children come mostly to discover where their food comes from, so a firm favourite is our kitchen garden, where everything we grow is later cooked up and served in the café.
Before you hear the rest of the talk, you have some time to look at questions 17 to 20.
WOMAN: We've worked hard for wildlife too. A few years ago we dug a large new wetland down at the bottom of the garden. It was designed above all to attract birds, and it's been a triumph, the bird list grows every month. And every autumn our volunteers plant trees, last year alone they got two hundred young trees into the ground.
WOMAN: Now, a good many of you have asked how you might get involved yourselves. There are all sorts of ways, but the two teams that are truly crying out for extra hands are our composting group, who turn every scrap of the garden's green waste into rich compost, and our seed-collecting team, who gather ripe seed right across the grounds each autumn. We'd dearly love new volunteers for either of those. We do also run guided walks and a botanical painting club, but I'm afraid both of those already have long waiting lists. Right, do go and explore, and enjoy your day.
That is the end of Section 2. You now have some time to check your answers.