SECTION 2

You will hear Inspector Jack Dunne talking about International Driver’s Licences at an information session for international travellers.

As you listen to the first part of the talk, answer Questions 11 to 16.

Before you listen, look at Questions 11 to 16.

[SHORT PAUSE]    

JACK DUNNE:

I’m sure that you have all heard about International Driving Licences. They've been around since 1949, when the United Nations gave approval for their use. This meant that travellers could drive freely in the 186 countries that recognise the International Driving Licence system - regardless of the language that the drivers spoke. The only conditions were that the driver had to already hold a driving licence in their home country and they had to be at least 18 years of age.

International Driver’s Licences are well-recognised - after all, they’ve been in use for over 50 years! To break the language barrier, the licence is printed in 11 different languages but the last page of the booklet is always in French. As I said, it is a booklet - about the size of a passport - um, 10.8 by 15.25 centimetres to be exact. So it is easy to carry with your travel documents. It’s not too thick or heavy either. Only seventeen pages. All of the pages are coloured white but the cover of the licence is gray. It is a useful form of identification when you travel because it includes a passport-sized photograph and the driver's signature.

The International Driver’s Licence can only be purchased from authorized travel associations in different countries but it can also be ordered on the Internet.

The cost of course varies from country to country and for the term or the duration of the licence - for example, a one year licence might cost approximately $40 whereas a three year licence costs double that. A five year licence will set you back about $100.

Before the final part of the talk, look at Questions 17 to 20.

[SHORT PAUSE]

Now you will hear the rest of the talk. Answer Questions 17 to 20.

Before I outline the four most important points to consider before rushing off to get your International Driver's Licence I should probably mention that yes, the International Driver’s Licence covers all types of vehicles from motorbikes to trucks - but just as in your own country, you have to be qualified to drive such vehicles. You might like the idea of driving around the Australian outback on a motorbike or chocking out the English countryside in a bus with all your mates, but you'll have to take the appropriate test before you set off!

OK - now the four main points - firstly, you cannot use an International License in the country in which it is issued - it is for international travel only. Some international students avoid this rule by ordering their licences on the Internet which will ask them to nominate a "country of your choice" for that very purpose.

Secondly, some countries won' t allow you to use an International Licence indefinitely. In Australia for example, you can only use the International Licence for a year - after that you must get an Australian Driving Licence. Other countries aren't as strict as that.

Drivers on International Licences must abide by the road rules in the country that they are visiting. If you are caught breaking those road rules, you will have to pay the penalty - usually a fine. And if you are the cause of an accident, expect to pay for any damages that you are responsible for. Holding an international Driver's Licence does not give you the right to be reckless.

And yes, if you have been suspended or banned from driving in your own country, the same rules apply with an International Driver’s Licence - you must have an existing Driver’s Licence to apply for an International Driver’s Licence. Some police will in fact, want to see both your International Licence and your own Driver's Licence - so carry both licences with you to save wasting valuable time.

Finally, you don’t have to take another driving test to get an International Driver's Licence - your own Driver’s Licence is proof that you know how to drive. However, it is your responsibility to learn the road rules of the country that you are visiting and to understand what the different road signs mean. Police are not always understanding to foreign drivers! If you break road rules either deliberately or out of ignorance, expect to pay the price. Police are ultimately the same everywhere.

That is the end of Section 2. You now have 1/2 minute to check your answers.

Now turn to Section 3 of your Listening Question Booklet.

SECTION 3

In this section you will hear two students discussing the idea of joining a learning circle.

First, look at Questions 21 to 30.

[SHORT PAUSE]

Now listen to the discussion and answer Questions 21 to 30.

Anita:    What’s the reason for the learning circle you’ve set up, Hamish?

Hamish:    Well, it wasn't my idea - the Economics tutor suggested it actually - he said that it’s a good way to make sure you put in the time needed for a particular subject. But for me, well, I thought that studying in a group like that would give me some incentive to study - I really need a reason to learn, you know, motivation, especially in economics!

Anita:    Hmm, I guess study groups can give you discipline and motivation. They’re both useful but my biggest problem is that I’m finding economics quite difficult. I think I need extra help just to understand the material. A learning circle could help - I was thinking of even getting a private tutor.

Hamish: Private tutors can be expensive - you’re welcome to join us and it won't cost you anything. Every week we’re going to begin the session with problems and questions from material that we've been given in the lecture. We want the learning circle to be practical and worth while, so that we all help each other to do well.

Anita:    Do you think the others in the group would mind if I joined as well?

Hamish: Of course not - there are only five of us and you know us all.

Anita:    I’ve been researching some past exam papers, so I’d be happy to contribute those to the circle if I join.

Hamish: One of the others suggested doing that too. He thought that we should try and identify any trends or common questions that were included in the past papers and that way we could prepare a little better for the final exam.

Anita:    Yeah, that's what I was thinking. In fact, I've already started looking at last year's exams.

Hamish: Great - we’re also going to hold mock tutorials, so we can practise our presentations on a smaller group before we have to do the real thing.

Anita:    I am so worried about that. I'm dreading that first presentation - I've never done any kind of public speaking before.

Hamish:    Well, you're not alone -I think we're all pretty nervous about it but we're hoping that the mocks will give us all a bit of confidence for the real tutorial. We don't want the group to be competitive - just collaborative - you know, working together and helping each other.

Anita:    It sounds like you’ve really thought the learning circle idea through - you seem well- planned.

Hamish:    It's just that when we all met last week to discuss the idea, we all had a list of objectives - you know, what we wanted to get out of a leanring circle. That made the planning quite easy. Look, why don't you come next week to our first circle and you can see if it’s what you’re looking for. If not, well, you won't have lost anything and you can always organize a tutor for yourself afterwards.

Anita:    Yeah, I think I will. When and where are you going to meet?

Hamish:    Our inaugural meeting of the circle is on Thursday evening - from 6 to 8 in Ryan Hall.

Anita:    OK-I'll be there.

Hamish:    We plan to talk about any material that we've had trouble with from the lecture first and then, we thought we’d talk about our individual learning styles. Even though we all know each other as friends, we thought that because it’ll be our first time together as a study group, it might be useful.

Anita: I’m not exactly sure what my learning style is I

Hamish: Give it some thought during the Week and try to notice how you study - some people summarise everything or re-write lecture notes every week - others like to highlight the important points or group similar bits of information together. People like me -well, I have to read material at least three times before I can really comprehend it.

Anita: Really? I’m a writer I guess -I have to write everything down or I forget it straight away! I use the computer a lot.

Hamish:    See - you do know how you learn - you just had to think about it.

Anita:    I’ll bring the exam papers and the research that I've started.

Hamish:    We probably won’t have time to look through them at our first meeting.

Anita:    I’ll bring them anyway - just in case. I think this learning circle idea is going to be a great success!

That is the end of Section 3. You now have 1/2 minute to check your answers.

Now turn to Section 4 of your Listening Question Booklet.

SECTION 4

You will hear a guest speaker at an Alternative Energy Seminar talking about wind-power.

First, look at Questions 31 to 40.

[SHORTPAUSE]

Now listen to the talk and answer Questions 31 to 40.

SPEAKER:

Good morning - thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at this year’s alternative energy seminar.

Right. Well - I know that the next speaker, John Dunkett, is going to talk about the mechanics of generating power using wind as an alternative source of energy, so I won’t be using any technical terms and I won’t be going into the technology of how wind generators actually work. I'll be concentrating on sharing my own experiences with you. For those of you who don't know, I live on a very windy farm some 3,000 kilometres from the nearest city. That means we are not connected to the State Electricity Commission’s grid and we have to produce our own electricity. When I first bought the farm in 1975, we got our electricity supply exclusively from diesel and petrol generators. The problems with this were two-fold: a lot of fuel was wasted because the generators usually didn't run to their full capacity and more importantly to my wife, the generators were extremely noisy - especially at night.

After we'd been on the farm for about six months, I heard about what they called a Hybrid System. This meant that we could keep the diesel generator but we also got a generator that was powered by wind. Because our place is so consistently windy - especially in summer - our hybrid system worked very well. In fact, we couldn’t believe how well it; worked!

We also had friends closer to the city who bought this hybrid system at the same time, and they were very pleased, with the efficiency of it as well. Their farm is considerably less windy than ours so even in moderately windy sites, the hybrid system appeared to work well.

Both of us agreed that we made substantial savings in fuel at the end of the first year and of course, our wives were happier - because it wasn't as noisy as often!

In 1984, we found that we were rarely using our diesel generator and decided to try our hand at becoming self-sufficient in wind-generated power. We were sure that we’d survive without the backup of the diesel generator, so we imported four wind generators from Denmark. America and Australia were dabbling in the technology, but we were too far behind the Europeans. The benefits of wind generators were much more obvious to the Danes and now as a result, they supply about 50% of wind turbines around the world.

Anyway, the Danish wind generators had a rated power output of 55 kilowatts per generator. They made quite an impact on our landscape and even though we could sometimes hear the mechanical noise  from the generator itself, they were very quiet. The rotor diameters were about 20 metres. We felt proud that we were only using energy from clear, moving air to generate our electricity - no diesel or petrol or fuel smells either! We knew that our resource was renewable - we are after all, not going to run out of wind, especially at our place. The wind turbine is used to charge-up batteries which store the energy.

Last year, we bought a 600-kilowatt machine - it is about 46 metres high with a rotor-diameter of 43.5 metres. We found that the cost of the turbine was recovered within about 8 months. It should produce over 1,000,000 kilowatt hours per year for us. It does look a bit strange against our flat terrain but we love it. Best of all, my wife says she can’t even hear the "windmill” as she calls it, from our house at night. Frankly, I think her hearing just isn’t what it used to be - but I must agree that it is very quiet. Additionally, we expect it to last for about 20 years with regular six-monthly maintenance.

Our farm is isolated and yet, you'd be amazed by the number of visitors we have each year to inspect our wind turbines and the effectiveness of the wind generators. Actually, we often joke that when we stop making money from the farm, we’ll charge tourists to come and visit our very own wind-farm. There is also the possibility of selling the electricity that we generate back to the Electricity Commission but I think that is all in the future. We've had a lot of people ask us why we chose wind-power generated energy rather than solar energy but as soon as they visit our windy farm, they know why. Even if our farm were not as windy as it is, we'd make that choice again. From all accounts, it is the least expensive form of renewable energy technology that we have. It can be used in a variety of applications from isolated farms such as ours, to supplying small sailboats without power.

Now, I'll hand you over to John Dunkett from the Danish company that sold us our original four wind turbines and he'll explain how this remarkable technology has developed over the last 20 or 30 years.

That is the end of Section 4 and the end of the Listening Test. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

[PAUSE}

You now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to your Answer Booklet.